0 C is for Cookie

Gotta love chocolate! Allie loves to help me bake and Kylie is all about eating.

7 Hairbow storage

Bow storage has been in the back of my mind for months. Kylie can open the top drawers now and she totes them all over the house. When we are getting ready in a hurry I can never find the ones I want. Tonight I decided to act.

I grabbed this great old frame out of the trash pile when we cleaned out my Grandpa Jemmett's house (thanks for letting me have it Maren). You are actually seeing the back side of the frame. The front was an ugly solid brown, but the back shows a few coats of paint: cream, green, and brown. I love the textured shabby-chic look. I just took a piece of solid brown ribbon, wrapped it around the frame & secured each end with a thumb tack behind. There was even a hole in the frame for the nail to hang it on the wall. Now I can SEE what hair bows we have and Kylie can't carry them off! Sweet!!!

0 Tagged

2 names you go by:

• Sar-Bear (I love it when Nate calls me this)
• Lizzard Breath (BUT only my sisters are aloud, so don't you even try it)
  

2 things you're wearing right now:

• Nike tennis shoes, my left foot has hurt for a week :(
  
• burgundy "hoodie-with-a-bow" ModBe sweater (see here) LOVE IT!!! and you need one too, so order one from my sister Maren, no really you do need one!
  

2 things you want very badly at the moment:

• my basement finished to a live-able status, awhy does everything cost so much?
  
• 'Twilight' the movie to be playing at the only theater in West Yellowstone when we are there for our sister retreat on opening weekend, Nov 20th
  

2 favorite pets you've had:

• Tiger, a huge orange striped cat, who really had 7 lives when I was growing up
• Marble, the black-&-white cow-cat, who has lived with us for 7 years (you don't own a cat, they just allow you to live in their space)
  

2 things you did last night:

• SLURPED my blog & started my 2008 album with BLURB (see here)
• suffered a sinus-pressure headache for 24-hours, but I sent the rest of my family to my BIL Paul's surprise 40th Bday party so I could have some quiet time

2 things you ate today:

• Chocolate gram Pepperidge Farm fish crackers YUM! (I love going to the factory outlet here)
  
• Ham/Cheese on wheat sandwich, yeah its boring
  

2 people you talked to last:

• Abby, my sister
• Maren, my sister (if IM counts, if not - Teresa & Hanne are a tie)

2 things you plan to do today:

• work 8 hours on the computer, gotta earn $
  
• read books with my girls, wish we could go to the park
  

2 longest trips you've taken in the last 5 years:

• Vegas Baby, a few time actually
  
• Royal Caribbean Mexican Riviera Cruise with my lover, ah
  

2 favorite holidays:

• Christmas
• Thanksgiving

2 favorite beverages:

• Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi
• Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi

Now I tag: Maren, Abby, & Ellen!

0 Duty Calls

Here is Nate (in the light grey sweater) helping our neighbor, Dirk dig out and fix his main water line that broke and was leaking. Nate's brother Layne {a.k.a. Lenny-the-plumber} is the other guy laying on his tummy. Its hard to tell, but this was in the middle of the snowstorm.

Thanks to Hanne for the picture I stole from her blog.

1 I'm dreaming of a white Christmas

This is what we woke up to this morning. Allie came in my room this morning and exclaimed "its a foggy day mommy.' So cute! She really wants to make a snowman. I hated to break it to her that there just isn't enough snow yet.

2 A debate regarding an event still 40 days from now

The event in 40 days:
the long awaited release of movie 'TWILIGHT'
(here is the brand spanking new trailer, but remember to breath while watching)



The debate:
On Nov 20th (the release) I will be on our sister retreat in West Yellowstone...quite a ways from any theater that will be playing said show. Our retreat is only an extended weekend and it would take nearly an entire day out of it to drive to a town showing this movie. Maren and I are hard cores and probably willing to do so, but Abby and my Mom aren't so crazy. I hate to say it, but I probably won't be seeing Twilight for 45 days. So Sad

0 Merry Christmas?

This is what I saw out my front door this morning.
And it is COLD!!!

1 Allie's big Fun Friday

Last night we took the kids bowling with our neighbors, the Sorensens and theKnights. We got pizza and let them drink as much soda as the wanted. Afterward, Allie invited Lexi & Rayden back to our house to watch the new Barbie movie (the Diamond Caste) with popcorn and chocolate milk. Talk about living it up!

We really like a feature they've added since the last time we bowled: the computer system pops up the bumper rods for the kids and puts them back down for the adults. Nate is a very aggressive bowler and hates it when his ball skims the bumpers. I, however, wouldn't have minded either way, as over half my balls didn't hit a single pin. I guess I just wasn't feeling it. Dirk on the other hand scored his high ever, I think.

Sometimes Allie used the ball-roller-thingy, but sometimes she rolled her ball granny style. Somehow she knocked over enough pins that I needed to get an unrealistic 12 on my last frame to tie her. With that pressure I walked up and rolled 3 strikes in a row - a turkey!!! I think Nate just about fell over. I guess I was just getting warmed up.


The pizza wasn't that good, but we didn't had too high of expectations. Kylie loved the greasy stuff and out ate all the other kids.

1 Preschool skills: color & cut

Allie is all about art projects. I find her sitting at the table busy coloring with markers, crayons, or colored pencils nearly every hour of the day.

Last week she brought home a cup of soil in which she had planted seeds. They sprang up quickly under her care and today she got to give her plant-man a little hair cut.

And here's a little shap-shot of Kylie.

1 Pumpkin picking with our Stafford cousins

The farm is still very wet from the last rain storm (and another is coming in soon), but this morning we braved the mud to gathered a few pumpkins for ourselves and the cousins to take home.

Aunt Maren & the Stafford cousins - Allie, Kylie, & Mommy


Bailey - Katie


Emma


Allie Ruby


As I'm putting together this post, I just realized I didn't get one sige shot of my Mom, alone or with my kids. What a tragety! I can't believe I missed that changes -so sad.

3 Hogle Zoo 2008

Together, my sisters Abby & Maren and I have established an annual fall tradition including a cousin day at Hogle Zoo and a trip out to pick pumpkins at our patch. This year Grandma was able to come, too! Here are all EIGHT cousins all together for the first time. I'm having to retrain myself to refer to the cousins are 'kids' instead of 'girls' since Ryan joined our family a few weeks ago. Funny how in this picture Allie is almost smiling, but it is Kylie that has a 'buisness' look. usually it is the other way around.

Here are our traditional photo shots. Each year it gets harder to get an ever growing number of little faces to smile and tune in for the pictures. I am a bit disappointed at how these turned out this year.

Even though we stayed longer that any past year (nearly 5 hours) we somehow missed several animals. Oh, well. We spent time at the exhibits we did see. Highlights this year were the ever popular elephants and giraffes, pacing big cats, and the mother/baby pair of Orangutans.




After having the girls choose between riding the little train or the carousel, we ending up buying tickets for both since they had a combo ticket that only cost $0.50 more each. I've tried to get Allie to tell me which she like more, but she is adamant they were BOTH the best. She had to compete with Emma, but won the privilege of riding the zebra on the carousel. Kylie loved the candy bracelets Aunt Maren handed out, too bad she made a terrible mess.

This last picture is off poor Eden, who was devastated when the ride ended.