April

Did you know that other than Chloe's birthday I didn't take a single picture in April with my camera? Sad, I know. But I do have a few photos from my iPod. This was actually back tracking into the end of March, but here are the girls at a "Wild West Extravaganza" put on by the library. We got to go as a family and we all had a good time, but it was pretty obvious that we were on the older end of the attendees. I guess I didn't even think about the fact that we might outgrow these kind of events some day -- and luckily, so far my girls didn't either. I don't even think they noticed there weren't a lot of participants over the age of 5. We just had fun.


We also got an update on Sophie's expander. It is doing great, but she has to leave it on for 6 more months. That was a bit of a disappointment for her. She was really hoping to get it off soon and the doctor had been so positive about her results that I thought she might as well. Oh well, at least we don't have to go visit him for quite a while.

For one of our field trips in April we got to go to Ballet West's production of "Peter and the Wolf." That was the first ballet I've taken the girls to. I was grateful for the opportunity to expose them to something new.

I gained a new nephew this month, Archer. I got to go take his newborn pictures -- oh, so I guess I did take some more pictures! But I didn't count those because they were for someone else. I guess I better post one of those.


This month I attended a class on clay. A lady from the Redmond Clay company came to do the demonstration. I've used their salt for a long time now, and I have a facial mask that uses their clay, but I was blown away by all the other things she taught us we could do with it. I still haven't taken the plunge to start drinking it (like they recommend), but one of these days I will. It was really interesting.

I also had to go in for a little checkup -- my 2 year checkup with my oral surgeon who did my implant. I got great news, I don't ever have to go back to him! He's turning me over to my regular dentist to keep an eye on it.

For Easter this year I braved it and took the girls to the city egg hunt. It wasn't nearly so bad as I remember it. Chloe chose not to participate, but Sophie enjoyed every minute of it (I got another iPod photo of her). She had gotten a ton of coupons for free meals to Applebee's and Sizzler. Since we don't eat there she had a ball choosing who she wanted to give them to, and then running them around the neighborhood. The girls dyed eggs. They even tried to make their own natural dyes (their idea, not mine) but it didn't work too well. Chloe planned our menu for Easter dinner, which I liked. Since the girls now know about the Easter bunny they thought it would be fun to hide the eggs, so they did an egg hunt for Brandon and I on Saturday. We still hid the eggs that night, but they were just empty plastic eggs. I didn't fill them -- and they didn't care! I guess the fun is just in the finding. I did splurge and get the personalized eggs from Mrs. Cavanaugh's as a fun treat, and that was plenty.

One Year Older

Chloe celebrated another birthday this April, her tenth one.



She loves hotels. Not so much traveling, but just staying in hotels. The pool, staying up late watching TV, sleeping in the same room with mom and dad. In fact she has a "favorite" hotel, not more than a few miles from our home. It's the hotel we stayed in when we came for Jason & Shalee's wedding shortly before we moved to Utah. Who knew back then that we'd be living so close to it one day? So, the fact that we drive by it so frequently I'm sure is one reason she is so attached to it. Since we're not buying gifts this year I tried to think of a way to make her day special for her. I thought of staying in this hotel for a night, but when I checked the rates they had skyrocketed over what we paid 5 years ago. Then last minute, late Sunday night I got on Priceline and put in a low bid and actually got it! For less than I paid 5 years ago.

Now the trick was deciding how to tell her we were going. I grabbed swimming suits and pajamas and threw them in a bag (but like Brandon said, if we forgot anything we could just drive home and get it!) After Brandon got home from work I threw everything in his trunk, then asked him to back his car out of the garage so I could get the recycling bin taken out to the curb. This is pretty routine, so she had no clue anything was going on. And of course the girls like to go for a ride in the car, all the way out into the driveway, so that wasn't hard to get them in the car. So while I was dragging the bin out to the curb Brandon rolls down the window and asks if I want to go for a drive. That got the girls really excited! There's just something about driving around with no destination (if only it didn't waste gas and ruin the environment!) Chloe commented on how she loves to go for drives, only she wished it was dark. Sorry, I didn't make that part come true. So, we head down to the hotel. You have to cross this pretty busy street (4 lanes) to get to it -- unless you take the interstate. As we were trying to cross the street a car going way too fast came out of nowhere and almost hit us. It was pretty scary, but we made it across the street and now pulling into the hotel parking lot didn't seem so strange. It was just the quickest place to go to get out of the traffic. We were a little shaken up, and one of us asked, "Where should we go now?" Of course, Chloe didn't let us down -- "The hotel!" So we said, "ok" and parked the car. Well, that freaked both girls out. I don't think they actually expected us to go in. As we were walking in Sophie's telling me, "You better pay for this. It's not my fault!" I guess she was worried we would charge them for their suggestion. It was fun watching them, not sure if they should take us seriously. And then Chloe heard me tell the guy at the desk that I had reservations and she figured it all out. Now she knew it was planned.

We had a great time at the hotel. We enjoyed the pool. And the hot tub. Had warm showers before bed. The girls fell asleep watching TV. In the morning we ate breakfast at the hotel, then went swimming again. Then we headed home and it didn't take us forever to unpack, nor did I feel exhausted from a long vacation. It was a perfect get-away!

Brandon had taken Tuesday off work for Chloe's birthday, so he was able to hang out with us all day. We spent the afternoon making Chloe's cake (double layer carrot cake). She really wanted it to look like one in a book she has, but it came nowhere close. We had a lot of issues with it, but she had a cake! For dinner she chose to go to California Pizza Kitchen...



Where she ordered mac and cheese!



Then after dinner we went bowling. That had been her request for her birthday, before she knew anything about the hotel. We were fortunate that her birthday fell on $2 Tuesday!



After bowling we came home and had cake and root beer floats. All that sugar made us all sick! I don't drink root beer floats (never liked them), and the cake was so sweet I only had about 2 bites. It was nice to hear Chloe say she could feel how it doesn't make her feel good. Now if we could just remember that!

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.