Super Powers

Secretly, I think we all wish that we were born with some sort of super power to make life a little easier or if anything, make us stand out a little. Well, Eva was born with super powers. Not only can she do that belly rolling thing, that girl can stretch. Makes warm ups during parent observation day in ballet class a little more interesting. In the photo where they are holding the flowers, they are doing a "shadow dance."

Still to blog, but afraid to take on:

Sun Valley trip

Places to eat in UT county (yep, you heard me)

Gumma's Christmas party

Christmas day

Samuel's Christmas program

Eva's Christmas program

Sure wish I had super powers that would somehow get these done in a timely, worthwhile manner. I went to one Mac class and learned a couple of things. But I think I forgot them already. Boy, super powers sure would come in handy...

I'm Back

I finally finished. This is what kept me away from blogging:

I make calendars every year. This is the only time I get the scrapbooking bug out of me. Yes, Christmas is over and I just barely finished my mom's. Good thing she understands. Note to self: start earlier next year. Another note to self: stop ignoring the resolutions to start earlier the next year. Abbi, I posted a picture of your little one's pages so you can see them.

My favorite part of the project was how the flower tabs turned out.

Back to blogging and back to posting my everyday adventures:

Like my new gloves?

I guess Samuel does, too:

At 4 a.m. he wakes up and goes into the bathroom. He then comes to me and is mad because his hair is sticking up. I had to spray it and comb it. He kept pointing out parts that were sticking up so I had to comb it some more. Yep, at 4 a.m.. Then he goes right back to sleep.

Incentive...

Cell phone came in the mail today. So so grateful.

The to do list is a mile long. Why do I do this to myself every year?
Must use all my creative juices to make Christmas presents.

To motivate myself... I am banning myself from blogging until I am done. Oh man, I am already missing it. I want to read so many posts. I have so much to post. I can physically feel the void.

Merry Christmas!

Do You Think Calgon Will Take Me Away?

Today:

1. Husband didn't do something he said he was going to.
2. Got on the scale, although I wasn't surprised, I wasn't pleased. At all.
3. Realized I lost my cell phone somewhere. Was pretty sure it was in Logan but still spent half the day looking and relooking for it.  
4. None of the cordless phones were on the chargers while we were on vacation so I had to wait for one of them to charge long enough to dial out.
5. Had to have husband call Logan because I couldn't call long distance, well, without my cell phone.
6. The parking lot at Costco was insane and after patiently waiting for a parking space, with my turning signal clearly on, a clueless couple swiped it from me.
7. Was getting a giant bottle of Odwalla Blueberry B Monster and dropped it. The bottle busted open and splashed all over me and the yogurt display. I felt bad and I could smell it all the way home. Yuck.
8. The kids have colds which means stuffy noses, which means a long night.

9.  Eva asked if she could stop riding the bus home from school.  Come to find out her used-to-be-friend in second grade won't let Eva sit by her anymore.  Mean.  To Eva.  Mean to my five year old Eva.  What am I supposed to do?  I seriously don't think that Eva even realizes that kids are mean.  I think she thinks that is only for moms and bad guys on TV.  

and because I know that Calgon will not take me away, I will try to look on the positive side...

1. Just got back from vacation (will post about it as soon as I get my phone with my photos on it) and Husband drove the whole way so he must have been tired.
2. I ate a ton of super mega delicious food while on vacation.
3. Brother in law found my phone. On his driveway. No one ran over it. No one stole it. Lucky, huh?
4. Nice sample lady at Costco kindly let me use her paper towels and disinfectant spray to clean my hands, coat, and face.
5. A cold? Could be worse, right?

6.  Even though all these yucky things happened, I do realize that these things are fairly small.  Except for the mean girl.  I still don't know what to do about her.

Fairytale

Tu-tus, fairy wings, wands, cupcakes, dancing...

just perfect for Eva.

It was so cute to see all these little girls run around in their fairy gear.

"Come to our sale!" These girls were so into their little food stand. It cracked me up to see the picture of the girl at the cash register because her mom is seriously the biggest entrepenuer I have ever met.

Thanks for having us! We had so much fun.

Eva... Wow, kind of

Eva made a horse and entered it in the 3-D art division in the Reflections contest. The theme was wow and I asked her why a horse is wow (really, I said it like that) and she said, "Because they are different colors and they wear neat shoes." She used Crayola Model Magic (was introduced to the stuff at the Childrens Museum and we love it... You can color the stuff with markers so you only have to buy white and it doesn't get all crumbly like Play Doh), markers and toothpicks (she did it herself!).

Okay, see how happy she is at the beginning of the assembly. Look at her when she gets her trophy. Yes, I said trophy, not a gift certificate for a root canal or something. Still, so serious.

"One of these kids is not like the other..." Like most people holding trophies, the others kids seem pretty excited. Here, Karl is explaining how great this is. Finally, we convince her to smile.

Out takes

It was time for the annual we-need-to-hurry-and-get-a-decent-picture-for-our-Christmas-card or everyone-knock-it-off!-and-smile-at-the-camera-so-we-can-show-everyone-how-happy-we-are time. Turns out, the ones that aren't acceptable for a Christmas card are the ones that make me smile and, well, represent our family the best...

Sweet ones.

Do you think Samuel will ever believe what a punk he was as a kid? Just in case he doesn't, I will try to take lots of pictures of his punk moments. Here is one of them.

Here is me telling them not to say cheese (too late) because it makes their faces all cheesy when they do. Not shown: flicking, spitting, choking and we are all glad that we didn't get a record of all the things we yelled at the kids to get them to hold still.

And as a bonus...

Along with the Rudolph song, Samuel has been belting out his favorites:

"All around the library bush, the monkey chased the weasel..."

"...what fun it is to ride and sing a happy Halloween!"

"Casper the snowman..."

"Up on the housetop reindeer Clause (or does he mean claws?)"

Then One Froggy Christmas Eve...

I guess they sing this in preschool. He stopped saying, "froggy" instead of, "foggy" because Eva made him. Karl and I tried to tell him that saying, "froggy" is awesome but Eva (and the rest of the world) won. Sad. Samuel is starting to say his l's and I am pretty sure is because of this song. Sometimes he pauses for a second before he shouts out, "glee!" Like he is consciously trying not to say, "gwee!" Kind of funny how you wait for them to grow out of things and then you are sad when they do.

Entertained

To be a movie junkie, you don't just watch a movie. When you are a movie junkie, the movie is a total experience... you have to have popcorn, m&m's, and a ton of soda. When the movie is on, you have to zone out of the rest of the world and the less you move, the better. A movie junkie can't be like me and clean or make stuff while the movie is on. I am not a movie junkie but I married a movie junkie and apparently the movie junkie trait can be passed on. Look at these guys. We went and saw Bolt in 3D and to my surprise, I really liked it and laughed quite a bit. It was funny and not the kind of funny where one character's body makes a funny noise or says something that you hope your kid didn't hear. We all liked it. Samuel, who went from being Speed Racer all the time to Rudolph, has now added Bolt to his list. By the way, I actually don't believe that anyone should drink this much soda. Even a 6 foot 1 adult.

The next night we went to Zoo Lights. The kids were the perfect age for such a thing so it was so much fun to experience it with them. They had these hologram glasses that we didn't get at first but then wondered what everyone was ooing and awing about and went and bought a couple of pairs. They made all the lights into snowmen and were kind of fun. We had only been there for about 5 minutes when we were ready for hot chocolate. We got a deep fried s'more. It was just a hot, gooey square of chocolate. What's not to like? Probably only need to eat that once in your life, though. We spent a lot of time looking at the small animals and it was pretty interesting. It is tradition to take a picture sitting on the elephant statue thing every time we go to the zoo. Eva is all grouchy because she wanted "one of those sugar things," aka a Churro.

We had a great time and you can see by the sugar on Samuel's mouth that Eva's pouting worked and they got the "sugar thing."

Unrelated:

My computer has been on the brink of death for a long, long, time and so I have been trying to decide what to do about it. Each day, crossing my fingers that it doesn't die before I get all my stuff off of it. Today, my new computer arrived. Mac. I feel like I am joining a new religion or something. I don't know anything about them except that Mac owners are in love with their computers. Any tips? Wish me luck. My room is too messy to open the box and therefore is not worthy. I feel like I need to clean it for a proper welcome.

Funny

Sometimes there are things that I think are so funny that it makes me giggle, long after the moment is over. I know that I think that this is funnier than it really is but... I got home from running errands and cousin Katie ran up and said, "Look at my balloon! It's Hannah Montana!" The thing looks nothing like her but they were SO excited about it. Apparently Karl doesn't know what Hannah Montana looks like, which isn't a bad thing. I love how the kids don't care. They played with that thing like it was really Hannah Montana.

Here is a picture just to record Eva's love for all things creamy. I got the sour cream and the bowls out and was getting the tortilla soup ready. I look over, and it looks like she didn't need any soup for her meal. She has always loved sour cream. When she was little she called it "ahs cream" and, of course, it made us giggle. To add the list of ways that Eva and Samuel are different, Samuel does not like sour cream, whipped cream, and prefers his hot fudge without the icecream.

Pie Fest

Not to be forgotten... Kristi hosted a Pie Fest for us at her home a few weeks ago. Crazy to think that we started out as just a few girls in high school and now look at us. Life sure has changed and I never would have thought back those days of giggling in class and driving around just for fun that I would someday need these girls. Yes, they are so much fun, but even more important to me is how much they are each woven into my life. I am so grateful for these great friends. Hooray for friends that you can join up with after not seeing them for who knows how long and you can pick up on your friendship right where you left off.

Oh, yeah, and the Pie Fest was awesome. I tried every single one and they were all fantastic. Yet another reason why I love these guys, they can all bring a great pie.