Happy Birthday to Me

Well, it is happening. I am still getting older. I didn't think I would care about it but as I get closer to 40, it's kind of depressing. But I'm not 40 yet so I partied like a teen.
This past weekend was our Stake Conference. Translation: I could travel. Scott had many things to take care of at home and was going to be practically MIA the entire weekend, so I took the kids out of school on Thursday and Friday and we went to Utah to see my family. It was a quick trip but so nice to be home for a couple of days.
On the night of my Birthday, we went out to Benihana for onion choo-choo trains and then went to Cosmic where Marty graciously set up everything for us to engage in such sophisticating activities like Michael Jackson experience & Just Dance on the BIG SCREEN. Look at all that dancing room! It was awesome!

Another reason to go up this weekend was to join my family in seeing Brian Regan live in SLC. He's hilarious so it was dandy-ho.

The kids had a great time playing with cousins and I loved spending time with everyone. Except Richard who was traveling for work (boohiss). It was a great way to ring in my old age, so thanks to all my awesome family for the great time!
Another fun thing I've been playing with are these. Peek in Academe for more if you're interested.
Happy January!

Palm Springs 2012

Usually right after the holiday break, Scott and I try to getaway and catch up on some R&R. It's a great way to start the New Year and we usually try to go somewhere warmer than where we are.
This year we went to Palm Springs. Palm Springs is an interesting place. If you don't golf then it's a great place to serve our purpose. The pace is mellow, there's not a lot going on or much to do other than relax, eat and shop. Sign me up!
We took a fast way down thanks to the tips from some friends and these back roads were a blast to drive on. Lots of rolling hills and driving those at fast speeds can feel like a roller coaster.
The scenery was cool, too.

The next day we soaked up the sun. Just nap dreaming in a bathing suit was divine.

We went to the museum and saw some great stuff. I was drawn in the most by the Wyeth exhibit (more about that on Academe). Oh, and family, while in the gift shop I acquired our puzzle for this years Powell trip. Another winner! (teeheehaahaa)

The consignment shopping was dandy. Cool stuff everywhere, though most vendors know it and it isn't cheap. This is probably the coolest string art I have seen yet but they were asking around $250 for it! Poppycock! I'll make it myself for that.

Played a lot with my photo apps... :)

We went on a new hike this time. It was quite a workout but worth it for the view. Beautiful weather for it!

Here is what Palm Springs looks like as a teeny model! (sorry, more app play)

We cruised the neighborhoods so I could take some photos of the cool mid-cent houses. This was so enjoyable. It should be noted here that the irony of this was not overlooked. We both had parents drive around on Sunday afternoons to do this very thing, and here we were, doing it whilst on vacation no less...we had a good laugh over that. But for reals- look at that rad house. I got some great images for some artwork ideas in my brain. I am so excited.

We also spent a couple of our evenings watching all of Downton Abbey Season 1, just in time for season 2 to begin. I had heard about it long enough so we used this trip to finally get lost in the show. I felt especially pleased that Scott not only watched it with me but enjoyed it! Hooray because I needed someone the rest of the weekend to gossip to about Mary's scandal, evil Thomas and all the drama! What a man. :)

What Do You Do When...

You are at a doctors office with your kids and have waiting time to kill?
Thumb Wars.
And what takes it to the next level?
A pen.


WARNING: This may create some pretty hard giggling. We had the staff peering into the room because my kids are not quiet gigglers. It may have been bad judgement on my part. :)
(PS- It was a check up for Luke's arm; all is well!)

Christmas Season 2011

Oh. My. Goodness. Happy New Year everyone! I can't believe we are already here. December was a blur and I admit I don't have many photos to show for it because we were running from place to place. But here are a few bits to give you an idea of what we did. The first weeks of the month (while the kids were in school) consisted of school parties, finishing the Christmas shopping, making the Christmas cards as well as attending the Nativity, Ward Christmas Party, youth events and other celebrations. And THEN when the kids were out of school, they had quite a list of activities they wanted to do. Ok fine, and I wanted to do with them. :) They did make gingerbread houses at school so I counted that as done to save on my baking demand.
We made some popsicle stick snowflakes with the leftovers from doing this with my Young Women. This was in order to satisfy the kids constant request for more decorations in their room. They turned out cute and my kids are getting savvy with glue guns!



We went to Michaels one day and picked out plastic-only items to make snow globes. I didn't have any good jars on hand except for these canning jars but they worked fine. We just hot glued (again!) the arrangements to the lid, added some fake snow and they were done. It was a fun craft to do with them. They are so creative! And go figure, mine was the only globe that did NOT work. All my candy fell apart, I still can't figure out why.

We went down to the strip with some friends for Family night to see the holiday display at the Venetian which ended up being pretty lame (a bubble tree?). But afterward we headed over to Max Brennars for the best chocolate desserts EVER. So that made up for it fer sher.

On Christmas Eve I found this Lego note from Sadie by my lamp. Loved it.

I made two huge batches of gingerbread cookies and we took them around to neighbors and friends. A job I enjoy every year.

I found these Star Wars snowflake tutorials online and showed Luke, so naturally, we had to make some...

And an item I will not miss from this holiday season was our most ghetto Christmas tree EVER. We are currently "inbetwee" (Like that? My combo word of inbetween-trees). Our old tree was on it's last leg last year so I bought an inexpensive white tree during holiday sales and forgot about it until I started decorating this year. Perfect! Except I put it up to realize it's under 6' tall and I have to add lights. Hmm... worth the extra effort? Nah. I stood it up stop an urn (this could have looked all Martha if I planted it within but I was too lazy and didn't care), draped a tree skirt around the bottom (so ghetto!) and stuck my few rummaged color light strands around it. GREEN light strands. So they totally stick out. To top it off, I told the kids to put the ornaments on and that was it. Ha! Not a thing of beauty but none of us cared. Here's to hoping next year I have more motivation. That 10 months should be enough for me to commit to what kind of tree I want, right?

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day was nice. We spent time with Scott's family but most of the day on our own. I filmed the events so I don't have many pictures to share, but we kept it small this year and it was nice to focus more on the value of our family and what we already have. I am so grateful for this wonderful and fun year we had, for the fun and festive end, and so thankful for the endless blessings and joy we experienced. I've reflected lately on all the people in my life that inspire me and that I love so much. I'm grateful for wonderful family and friends.
Looking forward to 2012!

Early December

Some of the things we did in December were:
Hikes with the kids. So nice to be outside in the sunshine!

Amid all the crazy school parties and events, Luke still managed to bring home another funny assignment. He still talks about this. I guess it was to encourage creative thinking, so they had to mix up some animal parts and write about it. So funny.

One of the December events was the Birthday party of Elliet's good friend. It was a spa theme so I helped Kristina (my dear friend and host of said party) fill up foot baths, administer pedicures and foot massages while she did manicures and facials. Here is Elliet with her face mask on. This part got the most giggles from the girls in the room. Good times.