Merry Christmas

For some reason, I can't sleep in this holiday break so I'm going to do something productive while my family are all sleeping -- blog about Christmas!

We had a great Christmas Eve. Like I mentioned earlier, Brandon worked from home that day. After Nicki left the girls came with me to run some errands. Isn't shopping on Christmas Eve the best? The crowds weren't that bad, everyone seemed to be in cheery moods, and there was only one spot of traffic that was a little difficult to maneuver. We stopped at Deseret Book to check out their Christmas sales. I got a cute little nativity to add to my collection (sorry, I didn't take a picture; maybe I'll add one later). Chloe picked out a book she wanted, and I bought "The Forgotten Carols" DVD since I'm not sure that I'll ever get to go see it.

We tried to stick with the Subway sandwiches on Christmas Eve tradition, but mixed it up a little this year and made our own. I splurged and got chips and soda (pomegranate 7-Up). Yes, buying my kids chips and soda will create fond memories of Christmas. Slaving over some fancy turkey dinner would create unhappiness -- I think for all 4 of us. After chores Brandon lit a fire that we enjoyed while reading the book Chloe picked out, "A Candle in the Window," drank egg nog, and then we watched "The Forgotten Carols." Sophie was a little worried about starting the fire, afraid that Santa would burn his butt when he came down the chimney, but Brandon assured her that we would get it all put out before going to bed. He did a good job.

Christmas morning we ate breakfast while Brandon read the Christmas story out of Luke. Then we opened our gifts -- a great big THANK YOU to everyone who sent stuff. Brandon made an apple pie that we snacked on. The afternoon was spent watching movies and playing games. Jason, Shalee and Eli stopped by. Then Brandon completed the demo work on the ceiling in the guest room. That's our next big project, and decided we'd use the few days Brandon has off of work to get it done (or at least started).

Yesterday we worked on our new puzzle and made a big trip to Lowe's. We got MOST of what we need for the room, but we had to break it up into two trips to use different coupons. We got all the plumbing stuff and different mouldings. We still need the drywall and painting supplies. Oh, and this was all after the big shoveling party. Brandon was so depressed that we weren't getting the big snow storm promised on Christmas, but it did start to snow that evening. We woke up yesterday morning to LOTS of snow. I got to wear my new coat outside, which kept me SO warm!

Visit From the Cousins

Yesterday we got a surprise phone call. My brother (from California) called to tell me he was out at my brother's in Tooele (45 miles from my house). He's on his way to Afghanistan, but got a couple weeks off his training for Christmas. I thought it would be worth the trip out to Tooele to see them. I loaded the girls up and made the spontaneous trip. They had too much fun playing with their cousin, Nicki. I knew it would be a little difficult to pull them away, but when it was time to go they came up with a great plan: what if Nicki came to OUR house, and spent the night?!!!! (insert lots of little girl shrieks). I was fine with it, but it took her mom a while to realize that they'd be driving right past our house the next morning on their way up to my parents. So, it all made sense and we followed through. Nicki fell asleep on the way home, which was not a good thing because she had a hard time falling asleep that night, but we all survived. The girls had a great time, and I'm sure they'll have fond memories of their sleepover with their cousin.


Chloe was going to go to work with Brandon today, but with Nicki here she opted to hang out with her instead. So, Brandon opted to hang out with us as well. He worked from home today. That was fun, but he had a guy at work who was also going to bring his 7 year old daughter to work for the day. I'm kind of sad he had to bail out, but seeing Nicki doesn't happen all that often. I'm sure we made a good choice.

Welcome Home

Welcome Home, Uncle Ross! We got to go to the airport last Sunday to pick him up. He returned from his mission in New York. I don't know about him, but I sure think the two years went awfully fast. I got a picture of him with Sophie, but that wiggle wart made the picture too blurry (or maybe it had something to do with the photographer), but here's a pose of him with Eli. I think Eli was a little shocked at this stranger holding him, but he's pretty easy going. Ross still has one niece and one nephew to meet. I'm sure they'll be back for a visit someday. And the best news is that's he's coming to Salt Lake to go to school. His school is even located in the same building where Brandon works (for a few more months), so they might get to do lunch.

My parents and Lark got to go pick him up. Lark came back sporting a new I "heart" NY shirt. Then Grandma had a surprise for Chloe and Sophie -- matching shirts! Sophie ran upstairs to put her's on, but came back looking "exactly" like Aunt Lark. She had to get the long sleeve white shirt to wear under it, denim jeans, and white socks. Then Chloe ran off to copy. See the three amigos:

We've Got That Christmasy Feelin' Again

Look! My first picture of a child with Santa! I almost didn't believe her when Chloe came home from school and told me they had a visit from Santa -- AND that she got her picture with him. Good thing she brought the proof, a few days later. My kids have always been so scared of Santa. I've seen plenty of crying kids sitting on Santa's lap, but I've never felt like torturing my kids (in that way). I've always been grateful they aren't so comfortable sitting on some strangers lap. But look at that Chloe, I think she even has a smile on her face!

On Thursday I got to go help with Sophie's class Christmas party. Her teacher kept things pretty low key, which is nice. They just decorated "gingerbread" (aka milk carton) houses. Her teacher is so organized, and just calls one parent to help at each table. It keeps it simple and not overly crowded. And she's even so careful to make sure that the parents help at the table their child sits at. Sophie was so excited to get her picture taken with her house, but it was too dark by the time we had a chance Thursday night. I told her I would take one the next day. I got this one, but was hoping to get a shot with her in it after she came home from school, but no such luck. Always so much to do!

All I Want For Christmas...

Things have been kind of slow around here lately. That's a good thing. Brandon finished shutter #2, so our family room now has a matching set. We installed them last night, along with moving some furniture around so that we could set our Christmas tree up. Yeah, December 12th! Don't you think it's about time we get ready for Christmas? But honestly, I just wasn't in the mood to rearrange our house AGAIN, just to make room for a tree. So, when the thought popped into my head to just put it down in the basement everything fell into place. The girls were even really excited because their best friends have their tree in their basement (or so they say). Now we're more in the Christmas spirit.

Chloe is becoming familiar with the "All I Want For Chistmas is My Two Front Teeth" song. She's had this loose tooth FOREVER. But she thought she could wait until Christmas for it to fall out -- she wanted to put it under her pillow on Christmas. Hmmm... Santa and the Tooth Fairy in one night? Is that what she was trying to arrange? We were so sure it was coming out on Thanksgiving, but she kept it hanging in there. It was rather disturbing to look at, but we honored her wishes and left it alone. Finally, last week she was playing around with Brandon and they were making some plan to trick me into believing it had fell out. Brandon tells me she just reached into her mouth and plucked it out. He thinks even she was surprised at how easily it came out, but their plan to trick me was now foiled. Oh well. She now has a big gap to show off. This is her first real "gap." Her other two teeth had teeth pushing up to come through before they fell out. This one has no sign of a new tooth yet. She talks kind of funny now. Can't say her S's too well. We'll see if she gets a new tooth for Christmas.

Thanksgiving in Review

To tell you the truth, we didn't have a very "thankful" Thanksgiving. Chloe had been sick the whole night before. She was still throwing up Thursday morning, so we had to postpone our trip to Grandma's house. We didn't get there until late that afternoon, after everyone had already eaten, so we had our Thanksgiving dinner together as a family. The "left overs" were still pretty good.

My favorite part of the trip was coming across gas at $1.49 in Evanston. It was 6 cents cheaper on our way home, but that was late and we were all too tired to take a picture then but I got this one. And now that it's been well over a week, gas is even cheaper than that here in Centerville. Yeah for cheap gas, but Brandon wasn't too impressed with the price of Maverik's donuts -- I had to explain there was a decimal missing.



Friday was a much better day. Chloe was much improved. We all just hung out. Grandma treated all the grandkids to gingerbread houses. See how much my girls loved having their picture taken? I don't know where that came from.



Tyson took Chloe and Sophie on several 4-wheeling trips. They'd go out and ride around in the back yard for a while, come in (probably to warm up), but want to head right back out again. This lasted all day. Tyson was so good with them. You should have seen how careful he was driving with them on. Thanks, Ty.



And then the funniest thing was when Uncle Pete showed up. He was a day late for Thanksgiving dinner. He hung out for a bit, but then suddenly decided he had to get going. He came all the way from Nevada and was taking my grandma back with him. Grandma wasn't exactly prepared for this spontaneous move, so it was quite amusing seeing this 91 year old lady pack her life up to be gone for 4-5 months, all in about 10 minutes. I did manage to snag her and get a photo with the great-grandkids before she took off.



Saturday I threw a baby shower for my sister. She wanted to do it while we were all there for Thanksgiving, so that was nice to squeeze in.



But after the shower was over, the sickness returned. This time Sophie got it. She was sick all evening, and by morning Brandon had it. We were supposed to leave Sunday morning, but again got delayed. We left much later that afternoon. I was very hopeful that I could avoid it, but by Monday afternoon I too had succumbed to the evil bug. Brandon stayed home from work that day, so as I was getting sick he was feeling better and was able to get the kids from school. I recovered the quickest, but just to be on the safe side I spent Tuesday in bed as well. Thank goodness for raiding my mom's video library. During my two days in bed I was able to watch 4 movies. And I thought I was being a little crazy taking so many (that's about 1/2 of what I took). I'm slowly getting through the rest of them.

Loads of Fun

What a fun weekend we had. A little tiring, but fun. So last Friday night we got home from Disney on Ice and the girls had all decided they were going to have a slumber party. I thought it sounded like a lot of fun, but the moms talked and we decided a little planning would make the slumber party even more fun. I'm not sure where my week went, but somehow slumber party plans didn't make it into it. Then Friday evening I got a phone call from Kiera asking if they could have the sleep over. We decided to let them sleep over at their house, since I wasn't exactly ready. This was their first "friend" sleepover -- not with an aunt or grandma. How fun! But since I wasn't there, you have to sneak on over to the Stephen's blog to read about it -- and see pictures.

Brandon and I got to squeeze in a little impromptu date with the girls being gone. We just rented a movie and enjoyed eating dinner ALONE. Very weird. Brandon had planned to clean out the garage (his car is getting very cold outside), but my date idea kind of postponed that. We started it Saturday morning. But he realized he needed to finish the shutters if he was going to clean the garage out, so that was first priority. We got them put together and brought inside, but when he went to screw a board into the window frame he realized he had lost his bit (and this thing that had broken off his drill). So, then we had to REALLY clean out the garage looking for that. We never found it, but the garage is coming along.

Our afternoon project revolved around cleaning up the yard. Brandon had promised anyone who helped ice cream sundaes. He mowed the front yard, Chloe got the good leaf rake, Sophie got the rake nobody likes, and I got the leaf blower.

Then we had our tithing settlement, and went to the grocery store. We strategically planned to go at 4:00 --the time the big BYU vs. Utah football game started. We figured the store would be pretty empty at that time, but it didn't work. It was as busy as ever, and not only that but they kept announcing the score over the loud speakers. So much for avoiding the hoopla. We got home in time to eat a quick dinner (Sophie made us pancakes -- the girls always fight over who gets to do it, and it was Sophie's turn), then we went to a children's theatre production of "Annie." I've wanted the girls to see that for a while now, but haven't found a theatre putting it on. Then the other day I saw an ad for this little one they were doing in Farmington, and tickets were only $5 so I took the family out. Brandon leaned over to me during the show and confessed he'd never seen it. Well, it was about time.

warning: this post may bore you

My kids had a whole week of early out (meaning the get out of school at 1:25 instead of 3:25) last week, and that just seemed to throw my schedule out of whack. I don't think I did a whole lot that whole week, but the point of the early outs was so the teachers would have time to do SEP conferences. These aren't like the old parent/teacher conferences my parents used to go to, where they'd sit around and talk about the kid. The kids are invited to these (therefore, the STUDENT, EDUCATOR, PARENT conference). And don't even get me started on how they separate parent and educator, like parents don't educate their children! In any event, we had good conferences. We had to do Sophie's the week before, because her teacher had to be out of town that week. And Sophie had the "meanest substitute ever!" I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt, but when I was at the school and saw her I actually had to agree. OK, maybe not the meanest EVER, but she didn't seem very nice.

So, back to the conferences, they have to set goals. Sophie's teacher pretty much left it up to us a family to work on. Chloe's teacher had already set some goals for Chloe, but then we added one of our own -- to work on piano lessons. So, yesterday I worked on getting some material together for it. I'm going to give Jon Schmidt's approach a try. He has this "67 Fun Songs" book that is supposed to teach 2 years of note reading in 10 weeks. So, I sat down a made a CD for Chloe of the 67 fun songs. He doesn't recommend starting them before age 8, so that's why I put it off, but she seems very ready and isn't that far off.

Oh, which brings me to her 8th birthday. I think we've been talking about her trip for 3-4 years now, but for those who may be out of the loop we're taking her to Nauvoo (and Liberty, Independence, Far West, Adam-Ondi-Ahman, Carthage, Hannibal and St. Louis). I've had every detail of the trip worked out since her last birthday, but have been waiting to get plane tickets. You wanted to hear the long version of this, right? So, the airlines only sell tickets like 330 days in advance, so once I reached that day I started watching them. I soon realized I could get a way better deal on Frontier than I could any other airline, but they don't live by the 330 day rule. They don't seem to have a rule, as far as I can tell. But one day they FINALLY put their tickets on sale -- for the day we wanted to LEAVE. Unfortunately, the weren't ready to sell tickets for our return flight. I didn't want to buy the one ticket, and then be left without a return ticket, so I waited. I watched almost daily for 2 months as flights just seemed to be getting more and more expensive (not the direction I wanted them to go in). Then one day, just as I was thinking me may have to give up and drive, something magical happened. Frontier put our return flight on sale -- and lowered the other flight over $50 a ticket! I was so ecstatic, I purchased them right away (with some slight consultation from Brandon while he cleaned the carpets). And that put us $500 under budget. I guess our trip was meant to happen after all.

Brandon hurt his back again a couple weeks ago. That's another reason that whole week was kind of messed up. I took him to the doctor Monday morning (and learned some interesting things about that guy), but he just gave Brandon MORE medicine. I don't think that's what Brandon wanted to hear. He'd really like to do something to get it taken care of, but nobody seems to think surgery is a good idea for him. The doctor sent another guy over to our house to deliver a "shocking machine" that he's been using every night. He doesn't like it much, but he is improving. Last week he made it to work one day (and another day he drove all the way down there, only to discover he couldn't walk from his car to the office so he turned around and drove home). This week he's gone in every day!

I had those tickets to "Disney On Ice" for last Friday, but the way Brandon was feeling there was no way he could sit through it, so he offered his ticket to one of Sophie's friends. We took Kiera along with us. It was so fun. The girls were really cute, and well behaved! Kiera was a little hesitant to leave her mom, but once we got in the car they were having a good time. Chloe had been at a birthday party, but I had to pick her up early to leave. She brought a big 'ol bag of candy home from that they shared in the car. That may have added to the excitement. So, about 5 minutes into the show the girls are just mesmerized. I looked over and Kiera was giving me a thumbs up. I said, "You like it, huh?" And she just goes, "Better than I expected!" I even have a picture to go along:

I haven't been very good at getting my camera out lately. My "daily pictures" project is going down the drain. I did have a photo shoot last Saturday, and another one today, but I didn't get any of Brandon lying in bed. He'll probably forgive me. If you've read this far, "CONGRATULATIONS!" This is what you get when I don't blog for awhile. I'll try to be better at updating more often.

I Am Like a Star

I think Chloe wants to learn how to play the piano. I have been a big slacker when it comes to teaching her -- I keep putting it off for various reasons. She doesn't really want to LEARN how to play, she just wants to be able to sit down and play some songs. I can understand that. One day she came and asked me to teach her a song, so I did. That's now the only thing we hear coming out of the piano. I'd REALLY like to teach her another song, but I still want her to have LESSONS so she can play anything she wants, not just what I can teach her.

Soph 'n Syd

Friends are THE most important thing in my children's lives. Sophie was pretty bummed when she learned her best friend, Kiera, was not going to be in her class this year. But guess what? It is possible to make NEW friends! Meet Sydney. These two became very quick friends. We still love Kiera very much, but I'm glad Sophie has learned she can make friends wherever she goes. And her friends are learning that if they come to our house they will get their picture taken!

We had raked leaves a few days earlier, but my leaf vacuum kept getting clogged so I had some piles left out in the yard. They were perfect for this impromptu photo shoot.

Happy Halloween Birthday

I've seen several Halloween posts today, so I guess I'm not that far behind. Sophie's class did a little program on Thursday morning. That was fun to go watch. She asked me that morning to take my video camera, but when I went to get it the battery was dead. She told me I could just take my "regular" camera instead, so I did, but when I got there I saw another mom pull out her cell phone. I always forget I have that option, so better than nothing I took a video with my phone.

Brandon really wanted to go, but he was scheduled to give a presentation at work that morning. He's been doing a lot of those lately. I told him they must have forgotten why people become programmers, or think he must need a lot of practice speaking in front of people.

After school the girls got to go to a primary trick-or-treating for food. Then all the food they collect gets donated to a family in our ward. It's an annual tradition, and the donuts and apple juice are as much a part of the tradition.

The kids had Friday off of school. They thought Brandon should have taken the day off as well, but he had too much to do. He's decided at this stage in our kids lives that we need to celebrate his birthday the day before or after Halloween. This year it was the day after. I knew he would be excited to get his presents, so even though it was our day to sleep in, we still got up bright and early to eat breakfast with him and give him his gifts.

The kids got their costumes on and headed out for trick-or-treating that evening. It was such a gorgeous night! I've never seen a Halloween so warm. It's not like the ones I remember as a kid, being driven around by my parents because it's too cold to walk. We'd have to jump in the van with the heater blasting in between each house to try to warm up. There was a slight drizzle most of the evening, which turned to a harder rain by the end, but even it was nice. I was getting a little hot with my pull-over on, so the rain was welcomed.

Saturday was Brandon's birthday celebration. Happy Birthday, B! For his birthday he wanted to go on a hike, which turned into an opportunity for me to get some family pictures. I still didn't get anything worthy of hanging on the wall, but it will do for Christmas cards. You have to wait till then to see. We took a little picnic along and ate after our hike. But in honor of Brandon, I will post one picture: Then we came home to take pictures of my nephew. He needed his 18 month photo shoot done. I don't like shooting in my yard, but I do what I have to. And then we finally got to go out to dinner. At first he picked a pizza place, but after Chloe's protests he changed to Cafe Rio. I don't think she liked that any better, but you can't please everyone. We hope you had a good birthday, Brandon.

Pumpkin Patch

I know it's been a long time. I was just getting the hang of things when "fall recess" appeared. The girls had two whole days off of school last week, and it's been hard to get back on track ever since. Plus, we've been spending a lot of time on our kitchen floor. It's coming along rather nicely, and I should have pictures to post any day now! But for now you get to see lots of photos of our trip out to the pumpkin patch. This has been on my list of things to get done for a while now, but things just keep popping up. One week till Halloween -- I figured it was about time. I took the girls right after school. There were a few activities for us to do, but we mostly just picked out our pumpkins. After we got home the girls made a grand mess of the bathroom "washing" their pumpkins. They even used really nice smelling soap on them. Bet you wanna come smell our pumpkins!

Happy Birthday To Me

So I had a birthday last Friday. Brandon got up early and made cinnamon rolls (from a can) for breakfast, and made sure we had enough time to open presents before he had to leave for work. I got a lot of photography stuff, which I hope to put to good use. Thank you to everyone for the cards, gifts, phone calls and emails! We went out to dinner (which is pretty much a given anymore), but the girls don't like my tradition of The Olive Garden, so I picked Buca di Beppo. They were excited about that -- only because they knew that meant they'd be getting some yummy cheesecake!

I bought myself a little present. It wasn't exactly a birthday present; it just happened to arrive on my birthday. Brandon and I have been working hard on getting our food storage in order. My laundry room was being overtaken by cases of food that I had no room for, and we also decided we're ready to try to figure out this wheat thing so I've been cleaning like mad trying to clear the clutter and organize our food storage. I've been eyeing these food rotation shelves for quite a while now, and I just stumbled across a really good deal. I bought one of their "scratch and dent" units marked way down, plus I had a coupon for $100 off AND free shipping. I spent my whole birthday trying to find a place to put it. We finally decided on a corner in the basement. It's not the most attractive piece of furniture, but I'm so happy to have a place for my food -- and it's ORGANIZED!



Chloe and Sophie were most excited about the box it came in. They were doing all kinds of crazy things with it. I overheard them talking about sleeping in it, but I did't think it would actually happen. Sure enough, Sophie spent the whole night IN the box. She put it on Chloe's bed, and Chloe ended up just sleeping at the bottom of the bed.



And then I got another fun "present" yesterday. I've always had a bit of luck. I use to win stuff all the time. When we lived in Sheridan sometimes it felt like I was the only person who'd call in to the radio to win stuff. Salt Lake has a bit more competition so I don't try that often. Well, yesterday I was running errands. I had just pulled in to Target's parking lot when I heard them announce they were giving away tickets to Disney on Ice, so I thought, "What the heck, I'll give it a try." So, I sat in my car for a while and I actually won! 4 tickets even, so I can take the whole family. Then I had to sit in my car for a few more minutes, just so I could listen to me on the air. I usually sound pretty stupid, but I have to say I didn't think it was too bad.

Lessons Learned

We love Chloe. She is a sweet girl -- with a very strong will. But I am learning a lot from raising her. Take for example, the second day of school. She tried to put on the same outfit she had worn the first day. I told her you can't wear the same thing two days in a row. Ok, it was more like "YOU CAN'T WEAR THE SAME THING TWO DAYS IN A ROW!!!" I'm sure there's some kind of law regarding it, but the mom in me arose and realized that my daughters need for independence far outweighs any fashion laws that may exist. So, I let her wear whatever she wants. Which has turned out to be one particular dress. There are actually about 3 dresses she will wear, but most often it's just this one. She's had some kids at school who make fun of her for wearing dresses, but she's a strong little girl and doesn't care too much about what others think of her.


But there is one issue that goes beyond playground teasing... P.E. Along with her dress she has to wear flip flops. She can't stand the feel of socks or shoes on her feet. Her P.E. teacher doesn't really care what her feet feel like, she just wants Chloe to wear sneakers. She keeps giving her reminders, but Chloe ignores her. Her P.E. teacher is in our ward, so she stopped me after church one day to "inform" me of what's going on. I tried to tell her that I was well aware of the issue, but she was trying so hard to be polite that I don't think she was listening to me. She kept saying that she was sure Chloe just "forgot." Yeah right, that sweet little girls knows exactly what she's doing.

So, Thursday comes around (P.E. day). I talked Chloe into just putting her sneakers in her backpack and then she could change when it was time to go to P.E. Great idea, but it only works if Chloe remembers to put them on! Next Wednesday rolls around, and her teacher stops us on the school yard to tell Chloe that the next day was a "special day." She made the same suggestion I had, so when I told her we had already tried that she said she would remind Chloe and have her put her sneakers under her chair right when she got to school. It worked!! She wore her sneakers, not only to P.E., but for the rest of the day.

Two days later (Saturday), she was spending some time in her room. When she finally emerged, she came out in PANTS, a SHIRT, and SNEAKERS! Plus her hair all done up. She was a totally different Chloe. She was so cute, but I'm not sure why pants made her any cuter than her dress. It was just so weird. The best part was overhearing her say, "I'm so glad Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Renie made me wear sneakers."

Lesson #2: One day last week I walked Chloe to school, and I hung out with her in line like I always do. I noticed another girl in her class wearing a DRESS. I leaned down and whispered to Chloe, "Look, there's another girl wearing a dress! She must have thought you were so cool for wearing a dress that she wanted to be just like you. Now whenever those kids tease you about wearing a dress you can tell them someone else does too, and you won't feel alone." Chloe rolls her eyes at me, and through gritted teeth she says, "Mom, that's the girl that teases me." Hmmm... can you see the lesson that Chloe was able to learn from that? I hope so, and I hope that Chloe will always remember it.

The Saga Continues...

Yes, there is another hole in our ceiling. I know everyone thinks our home is jinxed. It is. That's one reason why I'm not so sad about having to sell it. It was Thursday night when Brandon heard the "drip, drip, dripping" noise. We ran down and saw the big bubble of water in the ceiling. Chloe had somehow snuck down there and fallen asleep in the guest bed, so I'm thinking she would have told us if she had seen it when she went in, so I don't think it had been leaking for too long. That was good to catch it early. And we're getting to be quite the pros at this, so it wasn't too big of a deal. We just turned off the water, popped the bubble, and then went to bed. The next morning Brandon cut the hole in ceiling to find where the leak was. Unfortunately, it wasn't right where the bubble was, which is why the hole is so big.

After taking the kids to school we decided to head down to Salt Lake to buy some flooring from our last water problem. Yes, the timing is bizarre, but that's what we did. Since we're hoping to sell the house, we decided to just replace the kitchen floor and not do the whole area (dining and living room) like we wanted. Brandon found a store that had a great deal on some solid oak, so we went down to get it and they were all out. So, we ended up getting some red elm that was even cheaper. We now have the wood! Progress. And once it's done acclimating in our dining room we may even install it. I'll keep you posted on that one.

Now back to the ceiling. Once we were content with the flooring purchase, and had rested a bit, we made our journey to The Home Depot. Abe no longer works there, but Ken was around to help us out. He told us to just hang tight while he finished helping another customer. He doesn't know my husband. He came back to find Brandon looking through the bins for the parts we needed. Luckily, Brandon hadn't found exactly what we needed, so Ken was able to help us out. Turns out somebody stole Home Depot's crimper, so we weren't able to rent it. Buying one may be a good option for someone who owns my home (and does this same repair often enough), but we opted for a new option. I had actually gone over and talked to my neighbors who have this same piping (and the same problems) earlier in the morning, and they showed me these new "shark bite" things you can use. Much quicker and they avoid the need for a crimper. Ken hooked us up, but was trying to make sure we had everything just right. He told us he didn't want to see us back in an hour. I said, "Oh, that's ok, we're here often enough as it is." His reply: "I know, I've seen you." So, what does that mean when The Home Depot employees think you're there too much?



So, the leak has been repaired. Water was turned back on with minor discomfort to our family. The hole will be around for awhile. We have to let it dry out for a bit before we patch it up, but I'm so proud of the job Brandon did last time that I have complete faith it will look just as good this time.

Conference Weekend

We just completed another 8 hours of General Conference. Despite having 2 little girls in the same room, I think I did catch a thing or two. My favorite part was President Monson's advice to have pictures taken TWICE a year. That should be good for business :)

Yesterday, in between sessions, we ran over to our neighbors to finish up some work Brandon was doing for them on their computer. Their mom just discovered the Madame Alexander dolls at McDonald's and thought her daughter needs a few, so they treated us to lunch. Sophie got the "Lullaby Munchkin" and Chloe got "The Wizard" -- they're doing the Wizard of Oz series again. That was fun, but the two hour break went awfully fast.

After the second session Brandon decided it was time to make some more grape juice. It went great with breakfast this morning. I had this idea brewing in my head for a couple days to make these apple cinnamon waffles. I have to say, they turned out pretty good, but I was more surprised at the grape juice. This was the best batch yet -- by far. We think it may have something to do with the time of year, and that the grapes were just more ripe. Anyhow, it was yummy.

Weekend with Eli

Last week I had the privilege of watching Eli for 3 whole days. His parents got to go away for their anniversary (lucky them!) and I got to be the babysitter (lucky me!) We had a good time together. He's such a good kid. My kids like to smother him a little too much. You could tell he wasn't too fond of them at times, but he was a pretty good sport. My girls think all babies are like dolls -- you must hold them and feed them at ALL times.

Thursday night we had to treat Eli to some Cold Stone. They were giving out free ice cream for a Make-A-Wish promotion. We couldn't pass that up, so even though it was tough to squish it in between dinner and getting me to book club we made it work. I left Brandon in charge so I could go to book club. I love my book club to death, and couldn't miss out, plus I was in charge of the discussion this month. We read Randy Pausch's "The Last Lecture." Love it, Love it, Love it!

Saturday we spent the morning in the car. We had to go down to Salt Lake to a hardware store to get more wood -- to start the next set of shutters! Then we drove out to West Valley City to drop off a bag of clothes to a mom who had posted an ad online needing clothes for her kids (I had 3 other bags I dropped off at DI the day before, and this is just the beginning!). And then we drove all the way over to Cottonwood Heights to look at some flooring for our kitchen. It didn't work out, so we're still looking for something there.

I'll also make a note here that Brandon got his birthday present a little early. I knew this was going to happen when I bought it so far in advance, but after all the driving around Saturday I couldn't hold it in any longer. I gave it to him a day late -- but we now have a portable GPS car navigation system. It should come in handy with some trips were planning to take, and all our day trips "down south."



This is Eli on a little walk we took together Thursday.

Homework

Coming from a homeschool perspective, I don't believe in homework. I'm not going to use this post as a soapbox, but just some background to let you know where I'm coming from. I found a wonderful book by Alfie Kohn called "Unconditional Parenting" -- I'd recommend to any parent. Alfie suddenly became one of my favorite authors, and when I saw he had also written a book called "The Homework Myth" I knew I'd have to read it. This book basically has the research to back up what my heart already knew. I thought I'd have to read this book to arm myself with data to use in conversations with teachers that tried to give my children homework I feel is inappropriate; however, that has not been the case. We got 2 wonderful teachers this year, both of whom made clear that they don't believe in unnecessary homework so it hasn't even been an issue for me. YEAH!

Well, lately, Chloe has been receiving the message from outsiders that she needs homework (this makes me squirm!) She keeps asking me why she isn't getting any. I explain my position, as well as her teachers. But this morning I was putting her lunch in her backpack and I found this note inside it:



I thought it was TOO funny! She's forging notes to her teacher to BEG for homework. Do you think she pulled my signature off? And don't you love the instruction to "take to Chloe" -- yeah, just bypass mom, she doesn't need to know about any of this!

And the Verdict Is...

I know some of you have been waiting to hear about what our future holds. We finally got the offical word yesterday that the deal is sealed, and they are moving Brandon's department to Riverton (about 40 miles SW of where we are). It looks like the move won't happen until April or so -- much later than we were expecting, but with all the delays that's probably a good thing. We still have some things to talk over, but it looks like chances are we will move too. Of course, there are some apprehensions that go along with it, but I feel up to the challenge! Some people like to put roots down, I like to have wings to fly. Let's see where the wind blows us.

Shutters!

It's been a long time in the making, but last night "we" (and I use that term loosely) FINALLY completed one window. This was about 99% Brandon's work, 0.5% Chloe, and 0.5% me -- so that's how I get to include myself. I'm not going to cover all the details; that's for Brandon's blog. He actually decided not to post instructions on the first one, and just use it as a practice. He'll start the next window sometime soon, and he'll document that one (for those of you just dying to learn how to make shutters). Since he already took pictures of it for his blog, I'll just "borrow" his pictures. BTW: you're only supposed to be looking at the shutters, not the messy scrapbooking center -- that doesn't even get used.

Friday Night With the Morris Family

I got to do a photo shoot of this cute little family yesterday. Their oldest daughter, Gloria, is one of Sophie's friends. It was really easy because the mom asked me to do it on Tuesday, so there wasn't much time to fret. We just did it in their backyard -- which makes things pretty simple, and I don't have to pick the location :) Plus, they're such photogenic people, which always helps.



After I got home, I noticed Brandon was over at our neighbors. They are building a shed and I had offered to help them. They told us they might need us on Saturday, but I guess they got ahead of schedule. I went right over there and I think I was just in time to help. We put the walls up, and I told Brandon it felt like we were doing an Amish barn raising.

* Latest Projects *

Can you guess what I've been up to lately? I know I'm pretty new to the blogging world, but I've felt like my blog was seriously outdated for a long time! It really frustrated me that the frames were so tiny. Now it is large enough for me to blow my pictures way up! I'll put more thought into my header sometime, but I just threw something together so I could get it up. I want to thank Brandon for all his technical help! He gets pretty excited when I ask him for help. It's very cute. Way cuter than watching him try to staple the tilt bar onto the shutters.

I spent all weekend working on my "real" website. I had put it together over the summer, but left a lot of things hanging. Wendy got married on Saturday, and since she was going to be handing out my business cards with my website address on it, I figured I better have something worthy of showing people. Of course, I waited till the very last minute and finished it Saturday evening. If you check out the galleries, you might recognize a face or two! So, those are the two big projects I've been working on. Now I guess I should return to scanning pictures -- I'll get them crossed off my list one of these days.

The Conclusion of Our Weekend

As if that primary parade wasn't enough excitement for one day, we also had a ward activity that same night. It was a swimming party at the rec center, including a light dinner. We had a good turnout. Brandon, the party pooper, stayed home because he had things to "worry" about. The kids just played in the pool and I got to visit. I complain a lot about the lack of activities our ward has. This will let them off the hook for awhile -- but not too long.


That is Chloe peeking through the sprays of water.

Now to be fair to Brandon, I'll explain why he was SOOO stressed out. His car was leaking antifreeze (more than normal), and it looked like it was leaking into the oil. He was pretty sure this was the death of his car. I'm not sure how staying home from a party helped the situation, but he's a strange one (which goes without saying). He also stayed home from work today to try to bring his stress level down, and to take his car into the shop. We got it there just fine, and they called to say they couldn't find anything wrong with it. I see this as a blessing. Brandon sees it as an incompetent mechanic who's just not finding the problem. We'll see how it works out, but I don't think we'll be buying a new car soon. I hope!

Primary Parade

On Saturday our stake had a primary parade. I was anticipating a simple little caravan of kids marching down the street, but these people went all out. They started at the stake center and walked a few blocks through the neighborhood to another church -- just about the right length for a bunch of kids. They had the whole route lined with flags, like they put out on all the holidays. The parents and other non-participants lined the street to watch the parade, and they even through candy! I made out pretty good.

It started with a police car:


followed by a marching band:


Then the grand marshalls (our stake presidency):

This is the color guard:

Each ward represented a country. Our ward was Italy. The kids were all dressed up as chefs, carrying pizza boxes or even pizza dough:

Here's Chloe marching in the parade. She was one of the lucky ones who got dough:

Sophie in her chef hat:

Chloe showing off her dough:

And at the end we all gathered at the park. They sang "Holding Hands Around the World" and then let off all these balloons, and served popsicles for refreshments.