Jolly Old St. Patrick

We've been much more active this month, although you wouldn't know it because I forget to tell you all about it. I'll try to make restitution for that now.

We've had a couple fun field trips this month. First, we went to a Rapunzel play. It was cute, but Sophie must have enjoyed it immensely. When we came out she said, "This is the best day I've ever had. Well, I'll have to see how the rest of the day goes." It was before noon when the play ended! Then we went over to Park City to the art museum there. They had a Nathan Sawaya exhibit -- he builds things out of Lego. Just the bricks, no fancy parts. It's really amazing what he does. We got a nice tour to go along with it, and then the kids got to build some projects with Legos to bring home. We now are the proud owners of Legos. Can you believe you can raise children without such a toy?

Sophie participated in a contest sponsored by our library. They gave all the participants a piece of cardboard and a bunch of junk (really). They had to create something out of their stash, and it had to fit on the piece of cardboard. Of the prizes they awarded, she ended up getting the one she wanted most, 3 free movie rentals and some popcorn. There were some really good prizes, but that's the one she wanted, so lucky her!

Our stake was split a few weeks ago, and we got moved into a new ward. It's really not that big of a change. We got our same callings we had before (primary), and I am even teaching the same kids I had last year. Poor souls. Of course, there are a few new ones for me to torment. We do meet in a different building, at a different time.

Chloe has a birthday coming up and everyone seems to know it. It's become a joke, everywhere we go someone comes up to her, "You're having a birthday soon, aren't you!" or "You're going to be 12 soon!" I told her her birthday is the biggest event in town. I still have no clue how to celebrate it, though. She's already been to one Young Women meeting. They had a planning meeting, so asked her to come help. She was really excited.

The weather has turned pretty nice. Still cold, but we've been able to get several walks in. Brandon's back isn't healed 100% yet, so they've been a little shorter but at least we're moving around. He needs that.

We just finished a full week of no gluten. Brandon suggested we give it a try, just to see if it affected us at all. I don't think we discovered any gluten intolerance. We're going to take a short break, and then try a dairy free week. I'm excited about that. Chloe's pretty sure she won't be able to make it, but I think we'll surprise her.

Sunshiny Days

Whoa, look at that! Did you know Blogger will now let me upload more than 5 pictures at a time? This could be dangerous.

So, a week ago last Friday, Brandon called me up from work and said he wanted to take us on a trip for my Valentine's Day present. I didn't argue with him. He told me I could pick where, which was the hardest part. We went back and forth with several ideas. I needed somewhere warm. Even though February arrived it's still too cold and smoggy to be outside, and I could feel the vitamin D being drained right out of me. I needed sun! So, we settled on St. George. The only problem with that was their hotels were booked the entire weekend. I could get a room the first two nights, but not the following 3. So then I decided we should stay in St. George those first two, then head over to Las Vegas (where it was even warmer!) for the rest. I decided to cut it short and only make it a 5 day trip, even though we had Monday off as well, but that would give us a day to relax after getting home. So, Tuesday night we were busy getting everything ready and decided to open the gifts the girls had gotten for us and each other. Wednesday morning we sat down to breakfast and Brandon's back went out. He has done so well for several years now that I was starting to take it for granted. So, while he sat and suffered we tried to figure out what we should do. It was too late to cancel our reservations for that night, but should I just go to St. George, and then come home? Did the girls want to stay home and take care of Brandon while I got away for some alone time? Did Chloe want to come with me, and make it our own little weekend? Well, we finally decided it would be a girls weekend. The three of us went. We gave ourselves a day to decided if we were going to go to Vegas or not, but I needed that sun so bad, and like I told Brandon, in the 14 years he's been having back problems I've never been much help to him. Which meant we enjoyed the whole long weekend.
It was really nice to get away. I just felt a little guilty leaving my hurt husband home alone. He did good, and was feeling better when we got back. He even shaved and went to work today.

We went on a hike up Snow Canyon. Saw lots of "The Biggest Loser" vans.


Played around downtown, too bad the carousel was closed.


Toured the St. George Tabernacle


This tree was made for Sophie (my stuffed bear addict).


Making faces at her mom


We were a little bored while we waited for our lunch.


Sophie loved her bear sandwich. The strawberry lemonade was delicious!


Yes, swimming, outside, in February!


Basking in the sun, sharing headphones.

*quick little story: We stopped for lunch in Fillmore on our way down. While sitting there eating, Chloe looked out the window and exclaimed, "Look how blue the sky is!" Yes, Chloe, that's why I needed this trip.

The next day we toured Brigham Young's winter home. That was a smart man. I think I'm going to get me one of those.


Sophie got a new shirt! She's not so grown up yet that she can't wear adorable little turtles.


Hanging out at the temple


I think Chloe took this shot


Our last day in St. George we went to Jacob Hamblin's home.


Then we made it to "Fabulous Las Vegas!"


Took a little tour of Ethel M chocolate factory


Hanging out in the cactus garden. Notice Sophie's new gift (her sister bought it for her).


More cacti


I wanted my picture with the agave plant, but Chloe thought this shot was better.


Chloe with the fire cactus


And when the sun went down we did a lot of R&R in the hotel room.

Getting Out

February arrived, which meant we needed to leave the house. I took the girls up to the Capitol on the 1st to show our support for school choice. We had a good lesson about our legislative process. It was a good opportunity to take them and see how everything works. The lieutenant governor came and spoke to us for a bit.

Then a few days later we made a trip to Centerville. It was time for dentist appointments, so we planned to take care of some errands and scheduled a play date in as well. The first thing we did was get the girls hair cut. Sophie, especially, really needed it, but she refused to let me take her anywhere other than our old salon. They were pretty disappointed when their favorite stylist wasn't there, but then she walked in during their cuts. I told them next time we just need to schedule it, and we can request her.

No Bears Are Out Tonight

It's January. You know the drill by now, we go into hibernating. This is the month I take off. Well, we still do a lot of stuff, I just don't want to leave my house. It got so cold a few weeks ago that you didn't dare open the door, and of course our furnace had to go out on one of those freezing cold nights. The just as you thought it might start to warm up the inversion moved in. And someone who cares about their health would not go out and breath our nasty air. It's really gross. But FYI (all you politicians who read my blog): banning wood burning stoves is not the solution! Yes, the legislative session is upon us, so I may have some work coming up. It would really just be easier to climb back into my hole and ignore the whole mess up there at the Capitol, but I feel a duty to be involved and let my puny voice be heard.

So, back to whatever I was saying. We did venture out one day to go on a field trip. I found it ironic that as homeschoolers (who normally hide inside) we went out on the very day that other districts canceled school because it was too dangerous to go out. Oh well, I guess that's me being a rebel again. Did I really just use the word "rebel" to describe myself? Oh, you probably want to know where we went (or not), but I'll tell you. We finally made it to The Leonardo! I'd heard a lot of disappointing reviews of the place, so maybe I wasn't expecting much, but I thought it was pretty nice. Certainly not worth a full price admission, though! Go with a school group. They had a Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit that was neat. Chloe acted completely uninterested, but the next day I overheard her telling her friend about it, and then saw she had opened up a couple tabs on the browser doing some research on Da Vinci. That's how I inspire :)

I even managed to break my camera out and take a few pictures lately. Nothing special, just playing around. This one was taken a week ago, just of my pretty girl.

Then I had a lot of fun on MLK Day. We were all just hanging out at home so I took pictures of everyone vegging. The girls use most of their free time to play on the computer.

Even on holidays he looks like this!

Friends come over almost every day, but they played a lot this day, with no school.

My beautiful husband:

My beautiful, zealous daughter:

My beautiful, bright daughter:

The next day I came downstairs and found Sophie making breakfast and Chloe doing the dishes. And a nice big green smoothie on the counter. This is how everyday should be. It made me so happy I had to take a photo to etch it in my mind forever.

We must have been having a lazy day, coming back from a 4 day weekend. The girls are doing their work in their pjs.

I have to throw one more of Sophie in, because she doesn't let me take her picture very often, but yesterday she was (sort of) willing. She always has to act a little silly.

Christmas Week

It started snowing on Christmas Eve. Chloe was ecstatic. She took the picture below. I took the girls sledding. It felt like it snowed all week -- maybe that was intensified by the fact that we have moved to a location that resembles Laramie much more than Utah. The plows don't do a very good job around here either. So, Brandon was home pretty much all week. He only went in for 1/2 a day on Wednesday. That really made it feel like we were on vacation.

I had made cinnamon rolls on Christmas eve, before going to bed. I thought that would help in the morning. Brandon got up at 6:30 to get them out of the fridge for me, but they took so long to raise that they weren't ready until 10:30! I could have just made them that morning and had them ready before then. Oh well. It gave us something to look forward to.

There were some questions about whether we should get up and get dressed before opening gifts. I kind of like that idea, but Sophie was so in love with the pajamas that I made her she didn't want to take them off. So, we didn't get dressed or have breakfast before opening presents.

This year our "weird" thing was that we would only give homemade gifts. Just for the record: we are not doing that again! This is the first Christmas I have ever been stressed out. The girls have figured out the pajama tradition -- they each get a pair to open on Christmas Eve. I thought it wouldn't be too hard to make them a pair of pajama pants, but sewing is always harder than I think it will be. I really don't mind the sewing part, it's the pattern I hate. I didn't have a pattern for pajamas, so I made one up. That's a very dangerous thing to do. I even broke down and bought me a mat, ruler and rotary cutter thinking that would make my projects easier. Yes, they were easier, but still not so easy.

I made Chloe the cute little apron you can see her wearing above. That wasn't too bad. It just turned out very large for her. She still looks cute in it, and now she's happy to help wash dishes!

Sophie's gift wasn't too stressful either. We made it back in June when they were at my parents for a week. Plus I had Brandon's help. We made her a doll bed that turned out really cute. So... if only I had all my gifts started in June I think I would have been OK.

See these two hooligans? They are so much alike that it's scary.

I have a friend who just moved to Hungary. She was explaining how in Hungary they celebrate St. Niklas day on December 6th (the day he died), and then Christmas is actually a holiday to celebrate the birth of Christ. I so wish I had heard that when my kids were younger. I've always felt pulled between the two, but I think that would have been great to celebrate them as two different holidays, giving each their own focus for the good they did (and not confusing my poor children!)

On Christmas day we went over to Tooele to hang out with some family. Dallas and Jessica decided to make a last minute trip out to Utah to surprise her family, so they came over as well as Ross & Melanie. When Ross had called to invite me I mentioned my plans to make cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning. He got a little excited about that, so I asked him if I needed to make a double batch to take to the family gathering. After I made it clear that I only bake with whole wheat, and always 1/2 the sugar he might not have been quite as excited, but I still took them. I noted the irony that Dallas brought a huge vegetable tray, and I brought the cinnamon rolls.

On Friday evening we were invited to a movie night at the Stephens, in Centerville. The girls chose to watch a separate movie from the adults, but I'm not sure how much watching they did. I think they mostly played -- which is fine by me :) The adults watched "Somewhere in Time." I've had Mackinac Island on my brain lately, as we had just decided that would be our next family vacation. In doing the research for it, though, I'm thinking we may want to try something else for this year -- but we'll see. Anyway, it was fun to finally see the movie and reminisce about the last time Brandon and I visited the island.

Saturday was our 14th wedding anniversary. We thought we were going to be babysitting my grandma that night, so we didn't make any plans, but when we found out she wasn't going to be here we decided we should do something. We tried to go out to dinner at Pizzeria 712. Ever since I saw this video about Colton Soelberg I've wanted to try one of his restaurants. We thought an anniversary was special enough. But when we got there we were told it was over an hour wait. We passed, and just drove around looking for something else. We just happened to pass Mountain West Burrito (one of his other restaurants), so we checked it out. It was quite a little dive, but like most places like that the food always seems to make up for the atmosphere. It was really good -- but pass on the hot sauce! It was deadly. We brought our leftovers home, and now Chloe is begging Brandon to take her there for their next date.

Christmas Card

Well, as hard as I try, I failed once again to get Christmas cards out this year. And from the number of cards I've received that either means that 1) I no longer have any friends, or 2) I'm not the only one slacking this year. I'm going to hope it's #2 (at least that's what I'll tell myself).

So, you know in the fall when everyone starts thinking about their Christmas cards and making appointments to get their family pictures taken? That wasn't us. We were too busy enjoying life. We waited until December, in the middle of a snow storm. And then it was too late to get cards ordered, so we're skipping the USPS this year. I know all of my loyal blog readers are well versed on what we've been up to this year, so I can skip the obligatory "year in review" letter as well. Anyway, the point is that in spite of my lack of effort and tardiness, we still love all of our friends and family and want to wish you all a Merry Christmas.

Thanksgiving - Ft Lauderdale

See, I told you things would start to slow down. November was a pretty quiet month around here. We only went on one field trip, to the BYU planetarium. I'm not even signing up for any in December. The biggest excitement around here was the opening of the new Adobe building in our neighborhood, followed by the outlet malls the following week. Oh yes, we did have a "field trip" to the outlets on opening day. The girls had been saving up their clothing money for a while, waiting for them to open.

We made a trip to Afton for Thanksgiving. On Friday we went over to Idaho Falls because their museum was having a King Tut exhibit that we wanted to go see. I knew a lady who was organizing a trip. She was going to get a charter bus to drive up, but that didn't pan out. Sophie was completely bummed about not getting to go on a bus. That kind of ruined the whole trip for her, but we still went. I thought it was pretty exciting that we could see so many of King Tut's personal artifacts.

Saturday everyone woke up sick. Isn't that a part of spending the holidays with family? I'm beginning to believe so. Sophie was the only one in my family puking. Chloe got really sick later, but she never threw up. Just had a fever and sore throat. We still managed to squeeze in a birthday party for Elsie. The bug didn't seem to last too long, and everyone (other than Chloe) was feeling well enough to go to the parade of lights. Brandon and I stayed home with Chloe. She got a LOT of sleep, and was feeling pretty much normal the next morning.

Sunday we went to sacrament meeting with my parents, but then Brandon and I left to head home. We left the girls behind to play for a week. Brandon and I went to Ft. Lauderdale on Tuesday. He was in conferences all day and evening, so I just hung out by myself. Very nice and relaxing. Just what the doctor ordered (I'm my own doctor!) We came back on Saturday, and my parents brought the girls back on Sunday. My body sure liked that eastern time zone. It still wants to go to bed at 8:00 mountain time. I don't mind. I prefer early to bed, early to rise. But I don't know what Chloe's excuse is - she was SO tired yesterday. She fell asleep on the floor during our lunch time. I finally went and woke her up around 4:00 so she would be able to fall asleep that night. I guess my mother worked her to death.