1 Pint Size Fun

The Tree House Children's Museum in Ogden is simply fabulous! I TOTALLY recommend it! My sister Abby introduced us last year (Kylie was barley crawling), so this was our 2nd visit. They have all kinds of interactive displays and hands on activities. The kids were ALL over the place and with 5 little girls under the age of 5, that kept us 3 mommies running. I think you can tell from the (lack of) quality of these photos. This time spent the bulk of our time @...

• The Baby Place: a doll hospital nursery and doctor's office
• Grandma Sophie's Kitchen and Garden Market
• Days of the Knights, with princess dress-up area
• Pick up a Stick and Play Music Room
• One World Village: traveled world round
  
• The Art Garden: Christmas countdown craft
  

Visit their webpage: CLICK HERE

1 Salt Lake Temple Square Lights

Last weekend we made our annual trek to see the lights on Temple square with our neighbors the Sorensens. Of course it was cold, but not nearly as cold as it usually is. This year Troy, Heidi, & Alia to join us. The girls were all eyes as we strolled around the grounds in a large hoard. They were very good at staying close. I only got a few pictures before the batteries in my camera died. They last so long (I thinkI've been on this set since July) I forget about them. I'll probably post more pics when I get them from Hanne & Troy.


After the lights, we had dinner at Sizzler & walked around Toys-R-Us. It was a late night by the time we got around to putting the girls to bed at Uncle Troy's house. I was worried how Kylie would go down since it was the first time she's slept outside a crib/pack-n-play. The stinker tried to walk out of the room a few times, but fell right asleep when I laid down by them on the floor. Since it was 2+ hours past bedtime and they were completely exhausted, it only took 2 minutes! The next morning Troy said he was woke up to the sound of Allie calling him from the bathroom. What a great uncle to help her out in her hour of need. When I came upstairs a while later (to see if the girls were awake) Troy had them settled in his office chair watching a cartoon on his laptop. Yep, he just might be their favorite uncle.

*update: Kylie climbed out of her crib this morning (first time ever) so I guess we'll be thinking about moving her to a 'big girl bed' sooner rather than later. Drat! I was hoping to keep her locked up for a bit longer.

5 Now that is some good music.

We spent last weekend in Layton/SLC valley. I'll try to type up some more details on the weekend and post some pictures, but I just had to get this video clip up right away.

FRIDAY:

• Lights on Temple Square with the Sorensens, & Troy/Heidi/Alia
• Dinner @ Sizzer with all of the above
• Browse 'Toys-R-Us' with Sorensens
• Sleep over at Uncle Troy's house (Kylie's first night not in a crib/playpen)

SATURDAY:

• Morning at Ogden's Tree House museum with Abby, Heidi, and all our girls
• Play at our Beattie cousins' house
• Abby & I slipped out during nap time for Jamba Juices -yum!
  
• Attend Abby's mini-music concert in conjunction with a neighbor piano teacher
  

My sister Abby plays and teaches violin (she is AMAZING!!!) and her neighbor teachers piano. Saturday they had a few of their students play at a mini-recital, but the highlight was when the two teachers play a duet together and then a solo each. I was concerned how my girls would behave, and rightly so. Kylie was a mess most of the time & I ended up holding her most of the time, so it was a good thing it was a short recital. Allie's eyes were glued on the instruments, until I asked her to move to the back of the room. See, she just couldn't keep her body from dancing and she was sitting on the front row. Soon the other little girls were joining in. At one point there were 7 pre-schoolers dancing in the back of the room. I grabbed my camera and filmed a bit. I was holding Kylie during the first half, so please excuse the wiggles. Notice how Allie was more than ready to applause when she thinks the piece is over. So cute. Mom, I was going to just post the kids, but the music was so beautiful I knew you would appreciate hearing the rest of the piece.

2 Thanksgiving Weekend

This year we celebrated Turkey Day with Nate's side of the family. As usual we ate more than was prudent; too much yummy food all around. The adults enjoyed some high energy games of cards (Canfield), a slow game of Rummycube, & the annual Scrabble match. The cousins ran like crazy in the background and crashed as soon as their bodies stopped moving.

Here I am at home earlier in the day using a stool to get enough leverage to mash all the potatoes. Kylie has a major soft spot for men, especially her Grandpa's and uncles. I think I'm safe in saying the feelings are mutual (shot below is with Uncle Troy).

We were glad to get to visit with Nate's Aunt Rosie. She lives down south and we don't get to see her very often. Given my 2nd grand speeling proficiency I tend to come in last in Scrable, so this year I didn't sign up. Towards the end of the game I did team up with Nate & Rosie to help them squeak off a win in the traditional Scrable game. You'd think that Aunt Maho would be the one needing help, what with Japanese being her native tongue, but she is the one that usually beats us all royally.

Grandpa Eldon was a great sport monitoring the kids during the pre-meal movie.

* * *
The day after the feast, Grandma & Grandpa Schwartz invited all the cousins for a "slumber" party and Allie got her first invite. She was so excited and packed her backpack, pillow, and doll (all Strawberry Shortcake). I wondered how she was going to do and gave her a 50% chance of staying the night. However, we never got a late night call to come get her. The next day Grandma told us the whole story. Allie didn't settle down when all the other cousins were falling asleep. Instead she crawled into bed with Grandma and performed her nightly monologue. She must have worn herself out chatting because she fell asleep in Gma's bed, where she stayed all night. Sweet Grandma JoAnne!



* * *

We've put up the decorations and trimmed the tree. This year both the girls were actually very helpful. Allie commented on most of the ornaments, exclaiming "I remember this one". Kylie likes to touch the tree decorations, but usually leaves them on the tree.


After decorating the tree the girls colored coloring contest pictures for the Plumbing store. Thanks Uncle Layne.

* * *
Heidi (Troy's girlfriend) & I came up with the idea to see a ballet during one of many USU's football games with the boys. I haven't seen the Nutcracker performed since I danced in it myself, so this was a real treat. Ladies' night actually started earlier in the day when my sister-in-law Micki treated us to Indian food when she heard I'd never had it. She made sure I got to try it all and it was all good.

1 Over the river and through the woods

Credit: I copy-pasted this post from my sister Ellen's blog and only slightly changed the journaling. Thanks Elle.

The Sisters Retreat

Before Thanksgiving, I drove to West Yellowstone to join my 3 sisters and my mom for our 3rd Annual Sisters Retreat. We like to get together, leave the kiddos with the husbands, and get away to scenic and remote condo to scrapbook.

We've stayed at Bear Lake the past 2 years and this year we went to West Yellowstone.

This year we all switched to digital scrapbooking, so no lugging paper and photos.

...lots of cords thoughHere's us all working/playing away at our various computers
Abby, Ellen
Sarah, Maren
and Our Mom

No Boys Allowed!

Except Baby Ryan

Browsing through gift shops

We had dinner at the Oregon Shortline Restaurant.
Inside the restaurant there is a 1903 executive train car, that has been restored (mostly with original furniture, etc) that you can tour freely. It was really cool to look through.

The view from our condo, Sunday morning the snow finally fell. Just a little though.
There was a cross country skiing conference in town that was quite disappointed.
It was quite funny to see skiers jogging down the road with ski poles. We were glad they got some fluff on the ground at least.

After we checked out we stayed in the lounge to play a game. We had lunch and played Phase 10 Twist for two extra hours. They can make us give back the keys, but they can't make us leave!

This is a list Abby and I compiled about this years sister's trip:
The same:
*Wonderful company, my sisters and mom
*Lots of good low prep food
*Plenty of junkfood and chocolate
*pepsi, pepsi, pepsi
*A few technical difficulties. My computer & I overcame our differences.
*Good movies: Becoming Jane and Princess Bride
*One really dumb movie: 'Lars and the Real Girl'. Mom officially cannot pick out anymore movies
*Josh Groban and Michael Buble

Different:
*Location: West was fun, and the internet was better
*Paperless Digital Scrapping
*More time playing together and laughing
*Mom brought the home videos of us growing up
*Hot Tubbing every night
*Actually using the exercise room a few times
*Baby Ryan: our first male guest. Perhaps the last
*More music
*All of us were married women!
*We were all mostly healthy
*We spent an afternoon browsing through the few little shops open
*A great dinner at the train museum, complete with restored early 1900s train car

Highlights:
*Definitely the train museum dinner, it was so neat
*Having Ryan to cuddle and pass around, he's such a good baby it was nice to have him there
*Our Home Videos: Who doesn't love to watch all of their old ballet, piano and violin recitals.
*Checking out of the hotel but staying in the lounge with the fireplace and playing games.
*Coming home to happy families after a great break.

2 Thoughts on Twilight

I keep getting asked to post on my thoughts of the Twilight movie, so even though its after midnight and I'm sick of my computer, here goes. Oh, in no way is this complete and I reserve the right to make adjustments after a second viewing or a good night's rest. And since I'm going out on a limb to proclaim my thoughts here, please comment and leave me yours.

Grade: B
About what I expected in most ways. Doesn't come even close to the books, but hey -how could it? I completely understand the limitations of movies in general, so this was to be expected. Still I liked it and want to see it again! I was a bit distracted the first time through since I was paying attention to all the ways it was different that the book.

Pros:

• As someone explained this to me (sorry can't remember who); there is a real transition in the film. At first Edward was weird, then he was intriguing, and finally I was liking him. I had watched ALL the video clips and trailers online many times for the past few months, since I was not sold on the actor playing Edward. Actually at first I was a bit ticked off. But then I saw bits of film where he was in character. SO MUCH BETTER than when he isn't in character (interviews, photo shoots, anything off camera). It so weird he was able to play Edward so well (although not perfect).
  
• They showed lots of Bella & Edward talking and laughing with their voices blocked by soundtrack, but it portrayed their relationship well I thought. Nate must not have caught this because he felt like one minute they didn't know each other/hated each other & then the next minute they were madly in love. I can't tell if it is a male/female thing or just a short fall of the movie cutting so much of the book out.
• The location was amazing! I love the scenery. Very true to the book.
• Soundtrack fit well.
  

Cons:

• The sparkling rainbow/diamond vamp skin was lame - not even close to my imagination.
• The meadow scene was hardly there and I missed it.
• The running UP trees was silly.
• Bella's acting was a bit uptight too much of the time.
  
• If the other 'bad' vamps were in the area killing towns folk, don't you think the Cullen's would have been more on top of it? And wouldn't have James picked up the Cullen's scent days or weeks before the baseball game?
  

Nate's take on it: "yeah, its okay," which translates to good.

SO, if anyone wants to go this weekend, let me know. I'm all for it. I'd prefer a 4pm showing so its cheaper, but really I just want to go again.

3 Basement is back

Since carpet is on hold for a while (I'm thinking at least a year), I moved back into our basement. I swept, vacuumed, & mopped the cement floor before moving all the toys and my 'office' back downstairs. Don't let the appearance fool you, we've got quite a ways to go before its all finished. BUT I'm just glad to have a bit more space for now. My dinning & living rooms feel double the size with all this stuff moved out. And best of all, I was got my Christmas tree set up last night (thanks Dirk for helping Nate get it moved). Hopefully tonight we can decorate as a family.

Don't you just love the wonderful shelves Nate built in my closets. They need to be caulked and have some paint touched up, but I was just itching to fill them up will all kinds of 'stuff'. Somehow during all the moving yesterday I tweaked something in my lower back. But tomorrow I start back on the treadmill. Yes, I'm starting my New Years resolution on Thanksgiving. silly me.

2 a 3 'T' week:Twilight, Tree, and Turkey

I guess I'm in a posting slump. It seemed like nothing happened for a stretch of time (days, weeks, months -who knows) and now that I actually have stuff to blog, I'm up to my elbows trying to catch up from doing all those blog-worthy things. So, here's a summary to remind myself of what I want to post more about later:

• Nate finished all the closet shelves and trim work in the basement
• Last Wed was my 31st Birthday
  
• Last Thur-Sun was our annual "Sister Retreat" (West Yellowstone this year)
  
• I've taken the plunge & am now converted to digital scrapbooking (thanks sisters)
• I completed a 4-month major project for work today, what a relief
  
• Tonight I saw 'Twilight' for the first time & Nate came too!
  
• Tomorrow I'm moving my 'office' and all the toys to the basement (again) so that...
• Tomorrow I will put up my fabulous Christmas Tree
• This is my 2nd 3-day work week in a row thanks to Turkey Day
• Saturday I'm going to see the Cache Valley Ballet's Nutcracker
• Next week I'll be substituting for a stat 1040 USU class (I've missed teaching)
  

I really want to go into more detail on all of those things...especially the movie (I just got home from it less than an hour ago and its all I'm thinking about now), but I've got to get 3 more hours of work done before I can go to bed.

2 Tagged: 4th picture in my 4th folder

Thanks Ellen for this fun tag.

I store my pictures chronologically (months within years) and last week I removed all my pre-2008 files from my computer after backing them up to disks for the billionth time. Even thought I've printed and scrapbook'ed them, it still made me feel like throwing up. But I needed the hard drive space.

Anyway, here is the 4th folder's 4th picture: Allie frosting Spring cookies with me last March. She looks so little!

2 Milestone

Today Kylie went to nursery during church for the first time without me. Sigh - she is growing up. Allie reported that nobody was mean to her sister and that she didn't cry at all. I think her smooth transition was facilitated by big sister being there. I'm so glad they will be in nursery together for a few weeks before Allie moves on to Sunbeams. Double sigh - both of my babies are growing up.

4 Warning - potty humor

Yesterday Allie called me into the bathroom for a little help. I will spare you all of the details, but here's the hilarious ending to her blow-by-blow post game commentary.

"Mom, I went pees, but then I was just tooting & tooting. And then I pooped.
Ya know mom, toots is just poops talking!"

0 Scraping backlog

Before we had kids I didn't take many pictures. It might have had more to do with expensive film than lack of cute subjects. Regardless, I took up scrapbooking after we got a digital camera and Allie was born, in an effort to deal with the hundreds of photos that suddenly started stacking up.

For a few years now I've been going to my friend Brandi's ward scrap night once a month (2nd Friday, 6pm-midnight) and getting together with my sisters a few times a year (visits and 2 now annual sister retreats) to work on our albums. Last winter I finally set up a scrap area set up in the basement and was able to work on it in small chunks of time here and there. Finally, I was almost "up to date."

But that only lasted 6 weeks before I increased my work load, Kylie became mobile, and the basement once again became a construction zone. So now that 2008 is nearly over, I'm just wrapping up our 2007 albums (yes that is plural). I also realized that when I got my laptop, I didn't print off the previous 5 months of pictures since they were downloaded on the old desktop that has just been gathering dust. Ugh, there just doesn't seem to be enough space and time to scrapbook. And now I'm realizing I want to have multiple copies of each book to give to my girls. Something has to give.

Drum roll please...after much debate, I have decided to give digital scrapbooking a whirl. (oh wait I think I've already made that decloration here, months ago) I love blogging (even if I am streaky) and a friend turned me on to BLURB. So I have purposely held off printing any pictures from 2008 so that I can try it out. When you ask? In two weeks during our 3rd annual sister retreat I will be attempting to scrapbook an entire year! Most of the pages will probably be direct duplicates of my blog posts here, but I will also try to include digital LOs made in Photoshop. I'm so excited about this new option. It should be cleaner and cheaper, plus I can order a separate book for each of my girls! That is probably the #1 reason I'm going the computerized route.

Digital is the future, but paper is the past.
Here are a few LOs I've been working on the past few weeks. They are those long forgotten late 2005/early 2006 photos stuck on the old computer. I finally printed them.
No, that's not Kylie but ALLIE as a baby!
(click on any photo to get a closer look)

0 Cheese for the Camera

Kylie is such a little pleaser.
"Smiley Kylie"
She is always getting things for us and trying to make everyone happy.
On Halloween she started saying "cheese" when ever I got the camera out.
So Cute!

Allie might have to make us work to see her smile, but she is a big helper.
Big Business helps me clean up.
She can pick up and put away ALL the toys faster than me.
Her 'chore' lately has been vacuuming all the crumbs under the bar, especially Kylie's stool.


Here are a few cute pics of the girls enjoying a mid-morning snack with their buddy Ray.
Nothing like chocolate milk, bananas, crackers, cheese, & bologna squares!