Bragging Rights

I hope I don't shock anybody too severely with another post so soon, but I have stuff to write about! I don't need to brag about my husband. Everyone already knows what a great man he is. But he said I could share this with you, so I am. Yesterday he had his annual review at work. Well, they used to be more often than that, but I guess now they're only going to do them once a year. Anyway... one of the guys who did his peer review wrote this poem about him. I thought it was pretty cute -- and very accurate.

There once was a man named Brandon.
His QA work he did abandon.
to work on the Dev team which makes him a Dev dream.
His work is that of a craftsman.
His bug fixes are solid as can be.
His mind works like an emcee.
Mixing dev work and test work makes his code flat out work.
And he tests it before sending to me.
When a bug is reported
his attention cannot be thwarted.
Using his technical knowledge he could teach college.
So we're lucky he has not been deported.

Also, my dad sent me a cool thing today. If you subscribe to the Ensign magazine, go to page 62 (or click here). There's a lady named Leah Christensen who talks about her 8th grade teacher who gave her a loan so she could go to college. That teacher is my grandma. So, I have two people to brag about today!

January, February ... and now March!

I know very well how sad this blog looks. Let's just face it -- it's not my highest priority right now, but I'll just get to the point and update you on what we have been doing:

• Chloe went to the Ivy Girl Academy. She spent the day hanging out with Jessie Clark Funk and learned some confidence and leadership training.
• Spent the bulk of a week being completely annoyed by realtors. They're on my list of least admired professions. I believe any lawyer jokes could also be applied to real estate agents (most of them -- just like there are a few good lawyers).
• We cleaned the church (a duty we perform on schedule every three months).
• I was given a little vacation. Chloe and Sophie went to my parents for a long weekend. My mom bought a store and they got to work at the grand opening. Oh how they long to be able to get a job!
• I went to a garden planning class. I learned some useful things, but I'll still let Brandon be in charge of it. I have enough to do (right?)
• Sophie found a book at the library called "How to Beat Your Dad at Chess." She worked really hard on it for quite awhile, but I don't think she's ever beat him.
• I went to the temple, and did visiting teaching and my visiting teachers even came.
• I went to a raw foods class. Learned how to make pudding with avocados. I tried it out on my family and they are none the wiser (except that I told Brandon).
• We went bowling for our Valentine's party. Oh how much more fun that was then the sugar filled school parties!
• We went to a play about Abe Lincoln. It was nice because they focused on his childhood and how he was raised to become the man he did.
• The following day we went to another play (Seussical Jr.), to support Chloe and Sophie's friends who were in a school play.
• Chloe and Sophie LOVE going to Activity Day. I really wish they would do some more worthwhile activities, but I think their goal is to just make the children have "fun" -- and they are very good at that.
• I had to teach a class on eating a whole foods, plant-based diet. The presentation didn't go as smoothly as I'd hoped, but those who were really interested came and spoke to me afterward.
• I went to a "See Jane Become" event. Not quite sure how to explain that, except it's a group of women who get together to motivate and inspire each other in all aspects of our lives.
• Brandon finished physical therapy!
• We visited the aquarium on another field trip. Chloe even touched a sting ray! The penguins were the funnest to watch, and they had a special event where we got to watch them be fed and learn much more about them.
• We babysat Eli and Elsie. It's really nice having two of them so they don't get fought over. Won't it be great when #3 comes along and we can each have one!
• I went to another class to learn a whole wheat pizza crust recipe. I think I like my older one better, though, but Sophie got really excited. She's going to make us a dessert pizza for FHE tomorrow. They always give away door prizes at these classes, and Sophie won this time (she picked a cutting mat and absolutely cherishes the thing).
• A conversation I overheard one day: The girls were in the kitchen cooking something together and I heard Chloe say to Sophie "I wish I could fire you, but unfortunately sometimes I need you." I think many bosses have had that same thought.
• For anyone familiar with "Headgates," Keri Tibbets came down this weekend for the TJEd conference and I got to go to her in-laws house for a special presentation.
• The girls got their roller blades out and have been getting a lot of use out of them.
• Today we had stake conference, and last night Brandon and I went to the adult session.


Here's a video of Chloe touching the sting ray. Sorry it's a little dark. I guess animals don't like light, cause that place was not well lit. At the end she says, "my sleeve is soaking wet."

This is one of the balloons that came home with the girls from the grand opening. It was still floating around a month later! That's some helium.

Number Twelve

We celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary on December 29th. We usually go out to dinner or something, but don't make too big of a deal about it. But this year Brandon wanted to do something nice. He planned the whole thing -- and even arranged the babysitting (thanks Jason & Shalee!) But the morning we were supposed to leave he started having some anxiety. It was snowing and he does not like to drive in snow. I knew that, but I didn't realize how severe it was. We were just heading over to Midway, but chains were required on the road so we had to go buy chains first. We came home and made sure we knew how to put them on, then took the girls over to Tooele. Then we got to leave for our adventure. The chains did their job and we made it ok. In fact we got there with plenty of time to spare, so we drove into Heber and grabbed some dinner that we could take back with us. The snow plow hadn't made it to the Johnson Mill by the time we got there, but some guy came out to tell us where to park. We moved the car, but knew we would be stuck once we did. We didn't worry about that until the morning. We enjoyed the peace and quiet. No kids. It was a definitely needed break! They made us a most scrumptious breakfast. Then we (meaning Brandon) had to go dig our car out. They got 26 inches of snow in Heber that day.

Christmas 2010

The biggest news story to come out of this Christmas is that Santa's cover got blown. Anyone who knows me knows how hard it was for me to play along with the whole Santa game (it really irritates me to lie to my children!). And while I understand most people think it's ok to lie under certain circumstances (magic, for fun, whatever you want to call it), it just never sat well with me. On top of which he takes the focus off of Christ, and places it on receiving gifts. But I've played along for these 9 years, and it wasn't so sad to have to give it up.

Sophie had found out a couple weeks prior to Christmas. She was really cute about it, and it became her special secret. Chloe found out on Christmas Eve. She didn't take it quite so well. It was very sad.

I made cinnamon rolls Christmas morning for breakfast (Chloe's request), then we all showered and dressed, and opened presents around 9:30. It was so nice to be able to take it slow, and enjoy the whole day. I was excited to get to shoot pictures of opening presents with light! Jason and family stopped by to claim some gifts Chloe and Sophie had gotten/made for Eli and Elsie. Then we went for a walk, and went to a movie, "Secretariat." I wanted to see "Tangled," but Sophie thought it looked too scary. I think we made a good call to change it. She was pretty cute during the movie, crossing her fingers every time Secretariat had a race. She really wanted him to win!

Chloe got her camera this year. It's all she's talked about for several months. She was able to get enough gift certificates from family (thank you!) to purchase it. She actually came up $19 short, so she and Sophie gathered up their soap and some bookmarks they had made and set up a table on the corner to sell them one evening. I had actually ordered the camera the day before, so it could be here in time for Christmas and surprise her with it. I was not very optimistic that she'd be able to come up with the last $19 needed. But the soap did it! One lady came by and felt so bad for them standing out in the cold that she told them she'd buy everything they had left! And she did. So, then I had to ruin my surprise and tell Chloe I had already ordered the camera. She didn't mind, and she got it in time to take pictures on Christmas morning.

Sophie in her Christmas pajama's, opening gifts.

Showing off their calendar I made for them. Notice the red nose? Playing Rudolph again!

Chloe enjoying her peanut brittle and wearing her cute headband from Jessica.

Sophie wearing a shirt she got from Chloe. Chloe bought Sophie the same shirt. A little plan they worked out together -- silly girls!

A Couple Random Things

See this nice pot holder set. A friend of mine gave them to me for Christmas. Then she pointed out how after she bought them, she saw the warning on the tag.


We have yet to figure out what they are supposed to be used for, so in the meantime we are using them as hot pads -- and they seem to work just fine. How sad it is that companies have to cover their butts in such a way!

On to a new topic: My girls. They are quite silly at times. A long time ago our Relief Society had an activity to teach how to crochet. Not my thing, but the girls wanted to go, so I took them. Amazingly enough, they are still working at it. We haven't come a long way, but at least the interest is still there, and they get their needle and yarn out occasionally. Well, recently they started designing and crocheting clothes for their stuffed animals! When they started this project I had no clue what the finished product would look like, but after I saw it on the animal I was pretty impressed.

Thanksgiving Snow

I have to go all the way back to Thanksgiving. We just enjoyed a nice, quiet break at home. Except that our heater went out. It got a little cold. We got it working again on Thanksgiving day, but when we woke up the next day to a very cold house we decided we better call someone. We have a brand new furnace, so I was a little frustrated with that, but it turned out it was a problem with the wires in the thermostat.

The highlight of our vacation was that we had a little snow! The week was a little exciting with news of a huge "blizzard" coming in. Schools all over the state were closing early and activities were canceled. Brandon got sent home from work early on Monday. We sat around waiting for the blizzard, but we either missed it or aren't used to Utah's blizzards. The following Sunday we did get dumped on, though, and that made my little (big) girl happy. Well, here are some photos from our Thanksgiving day of sledding.

With that coat she almost blends into the snow.

Trust me, Soph, this is going to be fun!

This little turkey smacked me with a snowball while I was trying to take her picture. I thought holding a camera made me off limits.

I don't have a hat, so I grabbed Chloe's on the way out the door. Nobody bothered to tell me what a doofus I looked like.

Merry Christmas, From the Nicholls

I haven't been around much. Maybe you've noticed. Maybe not. I'm never quite sure how much I write is for myself or for some mystical audience. Well, I really hope to change that. Not for your sake, but for mine. And my children.

In an effort to be more eco-friendly (along with all the other changes I'm making), I've opted for this electronic version of a Christmas card. I figure anyone looking at this version probably reads my blog regularly; therefore, we can just skip the whole "what our family did this past year" section. If you missed it, there are archives. But maybe you'd like to know what we've been doing this past month. You'll have to stay tuned for that. Brandon says it's better when I break it up into smaller posts, rather than one L O N G, tiring one. So I'll get to work on that. I promise. I'm on Christmas vacation, so it could happen. But then again, my computer has been acting up and some days it prefers not to operate. If I run into those, then I may have to delay my promise.

Merry Christmas to all!