Saturday, December 18, 2010

The Third Annual Hope Family Christmas Video

You've all been anticipating it, so we won't make you wait any longer. Here it is, the third annual Hope family Christmas music video.




Frankly, we had no idea so many people liked our budding tradition. We assumed everyone just tolerated it. We actually considered not doing the music video this year (due to a tight schedule) and met with resounding cries of despair. Literally, some people actually screamed "Nooo!" when we told them we weren't making it. So we just wanted to thank you all for the support. It's nice to know people laugh with you instead of at you (well, we know you're laughing AT Dan, but he's okay with it).

Merry Christmas to all!

And for those who are new or need a refresher course, here are the previous Christmas music videos:
Christmas 2009
Christmas 2008

Monday, December 13, 2010

it's comin comin....

it's comin comin! our christmas music video that is! hopefully by the end of the week we will have it all edited and finished and posted!
in other news:
nova is really into "princess gloves" right now.....and i don't have any fancy gloves, so we use mittens...that don't match, but she doesn't even care. what a girl!
nova headed to 'the store' and 'don't miss me ok? i be right back ok? i am so pretty ok?'
ok nova.
dan makes homemade tortillas every sunday.....so yum-a-licious. and nova loves to help.
nova has her very own christmas tree in her room and totally loves it! (and yes, in all of these pics of nova she is wearing her princess nightgown. the thing is with her at all times. she insists on wearing it ALL THE TIME. i can convince her to change her clothes to go out, but the moment we get home, and i am talking the MOMENT we get home, the thing is in her hands and she is asking to wear her nightgown.......sigh......and the pic of her in the coat, she is wearing her back-up, too short princess nightgown because we were washing her beloved pink one.)
and a picture from thanksgiving! the dance off champs---amanda and colton!!! woot woot! (and the champion thief.....carter, wearing amanda's shirt.)
and the dan hope fam before the turkey trot....yep, we are that cool....and no, i don't know why there is a random strand of hair in the middle of my forehead.
and i have no clue if what we are doing with our hands is a gang sign.....i hope not, we were just trying to be 'cool'

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

From the Book of Luke

(Nova pretending to read from the scriptures)

"And da Lord say to da droids, get outta here!"

I guess C-3PO has some repenting to do.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

happaween!

we have had a busy week. dan had some business to attend to in rexburg and so nova and i tagged along. while in rigby, we had a grandkid halloween party. highlights included,
bobbing for candy in packing peanuts,

and eating donuts off a string---in nova's case, a rice krispie treat,and of course, 3 little witches
and we can't go to rexburg without seeing the "J's"! janalee and jenni! we had fun at the park and climbing the stairs to their 'big house'
and so we returned home and carved some punkins, ate with 'glow in the dark cutlery'
(sidenote: glow in the dark utensils are the best invention ever! and for a dollar! *gasp*nova thought eating in the dark with a glow in the dark fork was the best thing that has happened to her since she was introduced to cinderella. i also got a kick out of it.....and as usual, dan was a good sport....and if you want to get technical, a glow in the dark fork is a 'glark' or 'glork' in case you were wondering.) anyway, moving on.

here are some pics of yesterday's festivities
nova with her plastic pumkin and plastic spoon....yeah, that lasted like 1 minute before she realized that she was getting ripped off. and so of course she had to get in on it......'and i think after we took this pic, she said, 'i don't like guts!'and the final product....carrot nose and all
and the little 'nice witch' herself!
and as nova says........happaween everyone!
or to translate: happy halloween!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

bliggity blog blog

i am the grinch of blogging. i have my excuses, but i would rather not elaborate. BUT, i feel like i am not drowning as bad anymore and hopefully this blog thing can possibly be more consistent. so here are some pics.
sidewalk chalk!
princess picnic
completed dining room table! woohoo!
"please take my picture while i eat ok mom?" ok nova.
having too much fun at the restaurant

Monday, September 27, 2010

A Lament for the Job I Love ... and Hate

WARNING: The following is a rant about conditions in an industry in which you most likely don't work (We don't know any science news writers, do we?). For those of you who would rather get the gist of the rant without all the details, then skip to the last paragraph and enjoy the YouTube video that illustrates the idea.

Once in a while, you come across something that so perfectly describes your negative feelings about a subject that it seems your soul sings in response. Then there are other times when you find a bit of satire so elegantly written that it exposes the same problems with only a wink and a tongue planted firmly in-cheek. Not only does your soul sing, but your very bones ache at the bittersweet truthiness. It's satire that makes you want to laugh and weep at the same time.

So you can only imagine my astonishment at reading the following article (hit the link below) from a prominent newspaper in the U.K. If I had some kind of recording device at the time, I'd have a lovely playlist of arias sung by my soul, accompanied by the syncopated cracking of my bones.

Take a moment to read it.

The Super Amazing Link of Awesomeness

Stop. Seriously, go back and read it.

The reason this article affected me so is that it's a stinging reminder of everything I hate about the industry I work in, specifically scientific and technical news reporting in a Web-based format. Don't get me wrong, there are so many things I love about it. I love being privy to the latest information in science and technology. It's one of the things I enjoy most. But I hate how we (the entire industry) go about doing the job we do.

Mostly, it boils down to a hate of journalism. I hope not to offend any journalists in the crowd. I once loved the field, relished in tracking down a story. But journalism as a whole is prone to sloppy writing. In fact, sloppy and uninteresting writing is encouraged for the sake of tradition; "It's been done this way for over a century!" It's overly formulaic, and for all the emphasis put on facts and specificity, it ends up being awfully vague and uninformative too often.

As a small tangent, the biggest problem is the establishment's fear of embracing the changes demanded by a connected world, where there are no arbitrary restrictions on word length (the Internet is not running out of space!), and no one really cares if you put the 6 Ws (who, what, when, where, why, and how) in the second paragraph as long as the lede is entertaining.

Those in the field might even notice I've been using the serial comma in blatant disregard of journalistic style. Stick that in your Associated Press pipe and smoke it, dear journalism! Sweet revenge.

But I'm straying from the point. The satire brilliantly written by Martin Robbins shows everything that's wrong (instead of complaining about it, like I just did). And that's what I love about writing done well. He absolutely nails every last grievance I have with the job and manages to be hilarious at the same time.

He even satirizes the "Related Links" at the bottom. In fact, I encourage you to click on the third link because it is unbelievable. That's right, Mr. Robbins just RickRolled you and a respected news publication. That's not traditional journalism, friends. But it is unmitigated genius. Even the comments section is a beautiful parody of the institution.

In short, it's the best thing I've ever seen on the Internet; and yes, we're talking about the same Internet that has given us such classics as the Numa Numa guy, LOL Cats, and Double Rainbow.

THE LAST PARAGRAPH: Welcome to those who just want the Cliff's Notes version (and I can't blame you, though you have to wonder what you missed...). Here's the summary: I found an article that effectively satirizes my job so well that it nearly made me cry tears of joy and sorrow. Simultaneously. It pretends to be serious while simply stating the obvious formula behind the very thing it purports to be. It's amazing. In order to illustrate the point to those who don't care about the formula behind writing science news, simply listen carefully to the lyrics of the song below. It satirizes love songs in exactly the same way. Oh, and in case you're wondering why I'm posting this diatribe on a blog previously dealing only in cute videos and images of a particular little girl, it's simple: I'm reasonably sure that none of my managers know about this blog. Sorry for the interruption.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

caution:

i can't find my camera. but here is a seriously hilarious video that was taken about a month ago in the end of potty training.......
caution: this video contains human waste.



the second video is what i listen to everyday. nova is constantly talking. it makes me SO happy. this is something i caught while i was washing breakfast dishes. she was outside playing with sticks and a bowl of water. the sound isn't too great, but its so funny to me. i wonder what goes through her head. the girl loves sticks. what can i say?

Thursday, August 19, 2010

some people might say

after 5 years, all i have to say is that,








we really are THAT cool.....

some said it 5 years ago,

and most are still saying it now....

happy anniversary to us!

(and since no one really wants pics of us--here are a few of nova.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

2nd year pics

look at this kid.

she's got the crazy faces,


the personality,the attitude,

and some crazy poses,
how did she get so big?
and so fun?
what can i say, we grow 'em good around here!

Monday, July 12, 2010

Nova's Second Birthday

Today was Nova's second birthday, even though she's been into the Terrible Twos well before today. We had a little party for her and she received a boatload of gifts. It seems we need to coordinate a little better with extended families concerning gifts because this birthday haul was even more present-packed than Christmas.

She got some baby accessories, including a porta-crib, bouncy chair, high chair, backpack and car seat for her dolls. We're already tripping over them. But her favorite gifts were, without a doubt, the following:

A new princess nightgown which includes her latest favorite, Tiana (which is our least favorite! I swear, if we hear "I'm almost there" one more time...), an enormous headband and (the coup de grace) orange high-heel shoes.

She's rolling her ankles every other step, but she refuses to take them off. After a little practice she's already prancing like a runway model. Thanks Mama Be.

Also from Mama Be, we have a new ballerina outfit that she both loves and mistrusts at the same time. We have yet to figure out how that happened or what it means.

Note that the orange heels never left her pudgy feet.

And that brings us to the castle cake that Suzanne toiled over all afternoon long. As you can see, it turned out pretty well for a novice cake maker. And Nova loved it. Absolutely adored it.

Unfortunately, by the time we got around to the celebration and candle lighting, the infrastructure of the cake had weakened and the towers started to sag. As you can see below, the towers look a little worse for wear, and Nova doesn't seem to care a bit.



Happy Birthday Nova!

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

A Lesson in Self-Affirmation

We all get down on ourselves every once in a while. We're human, after all. So I thought it important to share this little lesson in self-affirmation, adorably provided in video form by a little girl.



Not wanting to offer this up without ensuring its efficacy, I decided to test it for myself. See the results below.



As you can see, it works like a charm. Just remember the proper technique.

Step 1: Look at yourself in the mirror.
Step 2: Throw your arms wide.
Step 2: In your best sing-song voice, say "I can do anything good!" (remember: enthusiasm!)
Step 3: Turn around and do the "Running Man" dance.*
Step 4: (optional) Improv with other things you love, as shown (i.e. I love my haircut, dad, aunts, Allisons, whole house, other). Swaying side to side and doing fist pumps helps give you the proper rhythm and sense of style.
Step 5: Enjoy your new, positive outlook on life and sense of self-worth.

*Dancing on the counter top is optional.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

i pick.....

so there are a million things i could blog about: disney on ice, dr. suess's birthday, dan's birthday, a bashed eye and a sliced open head, st. patricks day, easter, snow storms, family visits, get-a-ways, the fact that i found a dead mouse TODAY and nearly had a heart attack.....but i choose to blog about one of my 3 favorite things EVER:


this is how she insisted going out to get the mail today. to bad i didn't look that cool. i gotta love that kid, and i really love being her mom.

Friday, February 26, 2010

a few tricks

so this video doesn't do any of this justice, the camera is too distracting. BUT, we tried. this video shows some scripture stories that we have been working on with nova as well as some songs that she likes. and yes, she is wearing a princess nightgown....can't get the thing off her.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

happy v-day!

happy valentines day!


there is no easy way to say something like this, but i suppose it is more awkward to avoid it. this past week has been eventful to say the least. after a trip to the ER on thursday we ended up miscarrying after 13 weeks. the little face above gives us comfort and fills our home and hearts with so much love. we know that our loving Father in Heaven has a plan for us and that we will be stronger because of this trial.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

i'm just sayin

so pictured above is nova's first snowman. she loved it.
here is dan and nova doing......i have no idea. but its a funny pic!
nova her first day of nursery
and these 2 are pics i took at christmas time that i am pretty proud of.

i'm just sayin....my kid is adorable.

and to get this off my chest: perhaps one day when i have the chance to hopefully create a world, i think i will do winters a little differently. all the snow that normally falls within the months of dec-feb (or october-april if you live in idaho/utah) will drop in the month of december. then you have buckets upon buckets, you shovel, stay indoors for a while and then it melts and its done. i hate this, here a little, there a little, oh wait, lets dump a butt-load, now it melts a little....and on and on and on.
like i said,

i'm just sayin.

but beyond the snow, and since i have neglected my blog like i neglect cleaning the toilet, i will mention that christmas was fantastic. (i. loved. being. santa.) family was great, i ate WAY TOO much food and am a little relieved that the holidays are over.

we started the new year out being absolutely ill....ALL of us. i am hoping its not an omen of what 2010 will be like. and now january is almost over. only 3 more months of cold.....BLAH!!