The Little Match Girl

Nicole and Ellie's dance studio put on their winter production of "The Little Match Girl" in December. Wow! Lot's of extra practices and rehearsals to get them to, and they weren't even any of the principal dancers. I thought they did a great job, and really appreciated all the hard work of the director, Wendi, and all her teachers and other studio help. So much extra stuff for them, and right before Christmas. I wondered how the story would be portrayed, since it really is a sad story, but I thought it was done beautifully.

Nicole was a village girl, right at the beginning, and then was a part of the candle dance at the end of the show, after the little match girl has died and gone to heaven. The dance was lovely, as all the girls came in holding little battery powered candles with the stage and auditorium unlit, and that's all you could see, were the candles moving in unison. Then the lights came up and all the dancers were in white and the little match girl was there dancing with her mother that she'd been dreaming of. Ellie was a dove in an earlier dream scene.

I had to laugh. Nicole is very easily distracted, and even though she knows her dance, if something catches her eye, she keep sort-of doing what she's supposed to be, but you can tell she's distracted! She's done this same thing at both piano recitals she's been involved in...I guess we need to work on her focusing skills! Ellie got out there and was a bit overwhelmed by being on stage, so she did a couple plies(sp?) and a turn and other than that, pretty much stood there with a deer in the headlights look, and seemed to forget that her arms could, and were supposed to, move! But as you can see in the picture below, she wasn't the only one feeling overwhelmed!

Here are some pictures I managed to get of them....they sort-of worked despite the fact that my ISO was maxed, no flash, and I was sitting in the back!


*Nicole is front standing girl*



*Nicole is in there: in the back, just to the left of the girl in the black leotard!*

Next up early this summer: "The Lion King"!

Nicole's Baptism Day

Okay, be prepared for picture overload.....I narrowed my favs down to a few, but there are still alot! We found Nicole's dress the week of her baptism, and I planned to take her out thinking it was going to be a bit warmer that day....then the weather changed and we had an arctic blast blow in! Think 20's with wind....and here's my poor girl in a short sleeved dress. :( We tried to do some pictures around the temple, but she was so cold she couldn't smile and her nose turned pink immediately! So we headed into the American Fork amphitheater which created a nice wind break and were able to get some good pictures there, thank goodness!









Her baptism day dawned cold, cold, and a tiny bit snowy. It was a beautiful day with family surrounding us to congratulate Nicole on her decision. I cried through my talk, Ron baptized and confirmed Nicole, and we headed home for a nice lunch with family. I am so blessed to be the mother of these children, and to be entrusted with their care and teaching upon this earth. I am also so thankful for my good husband, and that he is worthy to use the priesthood that he has been blessed with. It was a good day. A very good day. :)

Merry Christmas

Eight is GREAT!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, eight is a big deal, and that is because that is the age the children are baptized and become members of our Church. I took Nicole out for a little photo shoot, first, so we could catch her at 8, and second, so I could send out some invites to Grandparents and Aunts and Uncles for the baptism! I, of course, procrastinated until the last possible day, so I was just praying I got some I could use. Nicole is funny....her fake smile is obviously fake and forced, but if you get her laugh for a genuine smile, she either throws her head back and laughs as well, opens her mouth up too big, or squints her eyes down to almost nonexistent....makes for fun pictures! But here are some of the good results:







We used the one above for her invitation. Not the typical baptism look, since she wasn't in a white dress, but the door was perfect to put words on with photoshop, so I was thrilled!

Since the other kids were there that afternoon, I caught some quick ones of them:







Riley hates having her picture taken and is highly uncooperative when we try.....Ron had to grab her and hold her arms down to her side in order to get this.....someday, she'll be sad she was such a stinker about it since she'll have hardly any pictures of these years. :)

Spike the Incredi-Hamster

How lame am I? I took no pictures on Thanksgiving....I must head over to my hubby's blog to steal some.....here I go.


And here you go.....a shot of the lovely dutch oven stuffing.....something must be cooked in the dutch oven in honor of my dad, "Burn it again Kenn", the dutch oven master. (Really, he was excellent!) It also helps free up the single oven in our home, which helps immensely. :)


To go along with the photo...a little twitvid:


So, what do we use our oven for if not the stuffing? The turkey you ask?

Absotively not.

My hubby taught himself the fine art of Deep-frying the Thanksgiving Bird before we met. Our 1st Thanksgiving together, he shared this delicacy with us, and we've kept him busy since! (Okay, I did roast the turkey the last couple of years, but missed our deep fried wonder too much, so this year, Ron got put back to work!) For any of you that are wondering, yes, it is easy, no, it isn't at all greasy, and the added bonus is your turkey is cooked in an hour!

Another twitvid:


Now, I'm sure you are all asking, what the heck does this post have to do with a hamster?


After our tasty meal, shared with my mom, Aunt Carol, niece Cali, her hubby Danny, and his brother Eric (say that 12 times fast....) we headed out to spend some holiday time with Ron's family at his sister Shirlene's home. We played Bingo (for PRIZES!), Apples to Apples Jr., and the kids played Twister. We also met Shirlene's (or should I say the kids) hamster. She is a fairly new hamster to their family. Got her at the pet store just a few weeks ago. Imagine their surprise when two weeks after they brought the little jewel home that she dropped a load of 6 baby hamsters into her cage! Lucky us that the hamsters were the cutest little furballs the night that we met them and Shirlene announced that they were ready to go to their new homes.....we tried to arrange a trade for the dog, but they wouldn't go for that. Too bad I'm a sucker, and we happened to have an empty aquarium at home, so a couple days later, after purchasing a mesh top, wheel, water bottle, food and bedding, we brought home our new pet. Ellie kept calling it a raccoon, so we were thinking of "Bandit" for a name. One of the kids suggested Kevin, and Jared asked, "What about Carl?".....we aren't sure where that came from! In the end we went with "Spike".....a tough name for our little fuzzball.

Without further adieu, meet "Spike", hamster extraordinaire:



He's already a lot bigger, as he wasn't quite 4 weeks old when we brought him home. The kids think he's fun. Jared doesn't like to hold him. The first time he did, J had something on his hand that apparently smelled quite tasty so Spike tried to eat it....gave J a pretty hard nibble/chomp to the palm, so J likes to watch him best in his hamster ball. I swear the thing is more than nocturnal though, he sleeps all. the. time.

Birthday fun....

Unbelievably, my oldest baby girl (that I birthed, giant noggin and all) turned EIGHT in November. Told you it was unbelievable! Since 8 is a somewhat big deal around these parts, we had to have a little shin-dig with friends. I took the easy way out and took them all to Jump-on-It, the best party activity place ever. A thousand times better that Chuck E. Cheese. Just a giant room with trampolines all strapped together, padded and netted up for safety.....pay for an hour of jumping and you've got some happy kids.




Come home to some lunch, presents, and cake (the infamous cupcake cake...turned out okay) and you have some even happier kids and birthday girl!

At our house AGAIN?!

Could not resist sharing this.

Yes, I am aware of the serious lack of attention my poor lonely blog has been receiving. Way too much life taking up time. Stay tuned though, I have lots to share. Birthday, baptism, new pet.....hopefully this week. :)

Is this guy in my house?!

I love the comic strip Baby Blues....almost as much as Calvin & Hobbes. I find so many of these strips that, I swear, I think I have a hidden camera in my house that this guy is getting his material from. This one is especially fitting since we've just visited our dentist, and since then, Jared has become a tad bit obsessive about flossing.

Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives

Ron and I enjoy watching this Food Network show. Most of the places Guy Fieri visits are too far away for us, but it is fun to see some of the really odd food sometimes shown!

We have been excited to see him visit the SLC area a couple of times, and have had to go to a couple of the places after hearing about their menus. The first place was Lone Star Taqueria, found in the Fort Union area. Very good, very worth it, awesome yummy authentic Mexican food. Tamales and fish tacos.....that's all you need to know.

We took our second adventure out to Ruth's Diner. The famous Diner in Emigration Canyon that's been around since the 30's. It started out located in an old train dining car, which is still there, but has had quite a bit of square footage added to it. We were lucky enough to be seated in the old train car. This place has the BEST biscuits I have ever eaten...ever. Ron got an order of the biscuits and gravy for us to share...I could've died happy right then. We went after Ron's first post-op eye appointment, so almost lunch time. I got soup and a half sandwich, both were good....I'm always a sucker for a turkey sandwich that has cranberry sauce on it! Ron got a fabulous omelet with crab, avocado, and smothered in hollandaise sauce. My, oh my....not a thing to complain about with that! I'd recommend this place anytime. I might have to get a season pass to the Zoo so I have a reason to visit Ruth's a few more times. ;)

A little shot Ron took with his phone of Ellie and I in our dining car booth.


**Since I mentioned Ron's eye, I figured I should give a little update....that last appointment went well, everything is looking good. After reviewing his ultrasound again and taking another look at his eye, they are thinking that what they thought was a macular hemorrhage is actually an old solar burn. At some point Ron looked too long at the sun and burned the back of his eye. Another reason to always listen to your mother. When she tells you not to stare at the sun because you'll go blind, she isn't kidding! But no, Ron isn't going blind....the doctor was quite pleased with how everything is healing. :)**

Now go eat!

Halloween fun?!

Nicole's wig sort-of worked(?!), and Jared decided he needed some make-up too, in the form of scars....so I guess that means he switched over to a not very good ninja for his costume! :)

I have to admit...I've decided that Halloween on Saturday is not my favorite. Because it means two days of Halloween, which means two+ days of cranky, overtired, and sugar-wired kids. Between school in costumes, class parties, parades, a family party last night, and the joy of trick-or-treating tonight....yeesh! I'd had it today, and I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be dicey as well before we have a full recovery. :)

But on the bright side of today, we got the pumpkins thawed, gutted, and carved with plenty of time to even get to Costco this afternoon - because no Saturday is complete without a trip to Costco. The weather warmed up nicely, and more than we expected, so the kids just had a warm layer on underneath their costumes and didn't have to wear coats like I thought would happen. We trick or treated ourselves silly, and ended the evening at the "Haunted Creek".

We have some neighbors that back up to a creek that runs through our neighborhood, and for years they have spookified-up their backyards and the creek-bed that is dry this time of year. They place candles around to light the path, and build a few campfires for warmth. The big trees and fallen leaves add to the ambiance and they include some of the older kids and teens in the neighborhood to help out. Ron had been with Riley a few years ago, but I had never gone. This year, we asked the younger kids if they were interested in checking it out and they were feeling enthusiastic about it. As soon as we got there Ellie was freaked by the strobe lights and spooky music at the entrance, so Ron took her home. Jared got nervous once we got in the backyard, but stuck it out. They even freaked me out a bit with the box that was buried in the creek-bed....with someone in it frantically screaming through a plexiglass window to let them out....ugh! You had to walk right over it on top of them! I was feeling some serious sympathy claustrophobia with that one. The very end of the experience ends with walking through the tunnel under the road that the creek normally flows through. They have it boarded up and say it's an abandoned mine. Then you are asked if you want it to be really scary, a little scary, or not at all....Jared was ready for not at all, so we just walked through the dark passage with a strobe flashing and found a guy at the end with a "Jason" mask and a motorcycle. I found out that if you want it really scary, the guy actually starts up and rides his motorcycle right at you in the tunnel! Nice....glad my kid was with me and he chose not scary! :)

Here's a couple of little video clips Ron took of our night....one is of the kids as we were leaving, and the other is our hilarious and fun-loving neighbor really getting into Halloween....he challenged Ellie to a "dance-off" since they were both ballerinas and this is what we got:




(He only let Ron video this after we told him we wouldn't put it on facebook....we didn't agree to anything about twitter or blogs! BWA-HA-HA-AH-HA!!!!)

Costumes, Round 1a

As I mentioned, Ellie decided this morning that she was done being a flower princess, which is what she wore to her dance lesson and her Joyschool parade. She went back to her original ballerina costume. This costume was actually Nicole's dance performance costume from last year, and ever since Nicole was done with "Little Mermaid" this past June, Ellie has deemed it hers and loves to play dress-up in it. So my plan for Halloween was to get some sparkly shoes for her to wear with it and call it good....until she changed her mind the 1st time and found the flower princess costume. Needless to say, and because she is spoiled, I was a bit stressed out when she announced the last minute 2nd change of plans. I was happy to find out her thick white tights still fit from last winter (it's going to be a cold Halloween this year!) and even happier when I ran to Target and found the very last pair of silver sparkly shoes in her size were on sale for $9! We did a little face paint and glittering, and viola, Ellie the Ballerina:





I should probably put her hair up in a bun for the real ballerina effect...maybe tomorrow. Not sure what the deal with the tongue is....too much excitement? And yes, she is still going to freeze tomorrow night. Not many people will know what she is all bundled up in a hat, coat, mittens, and most likely her snow pants!

Oh, and while at Target I found a kid size geisha wig on sale for $5....I got it for Nicole to make her look a bit more complete with the black poofy geisha bun look...it is hilarious!

Costumes, Round 1

The kids were able to wear their costumes to school today...poor teachers! I honestly think they should get hazard pay for dealing with a room full of over-excited kids all day, and then the sugar rush of the afternoon halloween parties?!

I scurried around yesterday getting the rest of the "stuff" for the kids costumes. Had to get make-up for Nicole the Geisha(and wish I'd gotten it earlier to practice it before this morning, but she was excited about how it turned out, so I'm not going to worry about it.) I even had to make a quick run to Panda Express for chopsticks for her bun. I realized as I was resizing the pictures and posting them on facebook that we completely forgot about a fan. I couldn't find one at the store, so I was going to see if she wanted to make one....oops! I don't think she even thought about it though. I had to get both of them some warmer clothes to wear under their costumes as it might get into the 40's today....as the high. Jared was not happy about having to wear sweats under his costume since he now looked like a "puffy" ninja! Better than freezing though!

Ellie has announced that she is no longer going to wear her flower princess costume as she is pictured in the posts below. She now wants to be a ballerina, which was the original costume she was going to wear....sigh. Oh well, it just isn't right if they don't change their mind the day before, is it?!

Here they are before I schlepped them off to school....I'll post the new Ellie costume later!

I'm a Mean Old Witch With a Hat....

Hey, I'm not talking about myself! Sheesh....what are you people thinking?!

Well, at least most of the time I'm not wearing a hat.... ;)

But I digress:

Today was Ellie's Joyschool Halloween parade and program. It was short and sweet, and the kids thought it was great!

Dancing Princess

Ellie is taking a dance class this year at DanceMakers Studios. She loves it! It will be fun to see what she can do later this year in her performances....watching 3 year olds dance is always good for some entertainment!

This past week the dancers were allowed to wear their Halloween costumes to class. My friend was there and took some cute pictures of the girls that I need to share! (**Thanks Christiana!**)

Cap'n Ron the Pirate, Part deux

Back in July, I blogged here about Ron having a vitrectomy. I mentioned there that his left eye had the same problem that he would most likely have fixed. So last Tuesday, that's what we did. Since there were some small retinal tears that required some laser repair in the first one, it took a bit longer before he experienced a full recovery and a return to good eyesight, and we wanted to wait until that eye was seeing well before the other one went out of commission for a while!

So last Tuesday came with excitement on his part to not have anymore visual impairments in either of his eyes. Surgery went well, no retinal tears were found in this eye, so it was just a straight forward vitrectomy. Cap'n Ron came back from surgery, recovered quickly, and we were off to pick up the kids from school!



The next day took us back to the doctor for his patch removal and a check out of the eye, which went well. Ron was happy to have the floaters gone and now just waiting for a return to full vision and, for anyone who has seen him up close, waiting for the white of his eye to clear up as well....it isn't white after surgery, it's all red and traumatized. It freaks people out, as well it should, it isn't pretty!

Unfortunately, we hit a little glitch Sunday when he noticed that he could see a "floater" in there again....which should be gone! So Monday he called and spoke with the nurse who kind-of freaked him out a little. She didn't come out and tell him he should be seen, but when he mentioned he was going to CA the next day, she told him if he saw any changes in his vision while there, he needed to get on a plane and come home to be seen....so when he told me that, I asked why he didn't get an appointment for the next day BEFORE he went to CA? So he called the nurse back, and she was happy and relieved to get him an appointment that morning. (I'm still not sure why she didn't just do that to begin with!)

So yesterday, Ron saw an associate of the Dr. that did his surgery, and sure enough, there is a floater in there again...They aren't sure if it got left behind from the surgery and then moved into his line of vision or developed after. But a little more concerning is the macular hemmorhage that the Dr. found. It is small, but not a good thing. They took some pictures of it, and even did an ultrasound of his eye...didn't even know that was something they ever did! They are just waiting right now to see if it resolves on it's own, which is what we are hoping for. He has another appointment Monday with the Dr. that did the surgery, so we'll get more answers then hopefully. I'll keep you updated!

And so it begins......

**9:30 PM update: The lawn is no longer green with flecks of snow. It's covered with a good inch and more falling.**

The view out the front & back of our house a couple of hours ago. Sigh. I haven't even cleaned out the flower beds. Not that I didn't know this was coming, I just haven't felt the need desire to do yard work recently this year. Perhaps we should have carved those pumpkins last night. They are going to be frozen now! Yes, I see that the hummingbird feeder is still hanging up. I can safely say that there will be no more hummingbirds this year. Not that they didn't figure out a long time ago that I was done filling the feeder.... ;) Ron is about to catch a plane for San Diego/Los Angeles. I'm serious. He comes back Friday, when it will finally warm back up into the 50's. How convenient. ;) I made sure the furnace worked this morning though before I let him leave us here in the frozen tundra.

I told the kids they should be Eskimos for Halloween. They'll find out on Saturday that they should always listen to their mother.

Fall Soccer 2009

Jared has been playing soccer again this Fall. This morning was the last game until Spring Season in April begins. We were blessed with amazingly good weather this year, just a couple of cooler morning, but so much better than previous years.

Jared did well again. He still remains aggressive, but is getting a bit better about passing off to his team-mates....occasionally! We'll continue to work on that! Really, it depended upon the game and how he was feeling about playing hard or not as to the end result. If we could just make the goals about two feet wider, he'd have had a lot more goals to his stats. This year, he'd take the ball down really well, but then right as he'd kick it in the goal, it would go out to one side or the other....DOH!

My only mishap was this morning. My fantastic little 3 year old early riser had me up at 7:30. Jared's game was scheduled for 9, and as I thought about things, I realized his uniform hadn't gotten washed after last weeks game! So my washing machine and more importantly, dryer, got it's first real test at efficiency this morning as I needed the stuff washed and dried in an hour! Thankfully, it passed the test and he had a clean, sweet-smelling uniform on for the game! :)





These pictures weren't from this morning....it was cooler today so Jared had to wear sweats under his uniform and gloves as well.....I didn't have my camera today, but these from earlier in the season. :)

Odds and Ends.....

Since I mentioned in the last post that Ellie and I are participating in a co-op preschool, I suppose I should post her 1st day of school pictures from, oh, more than a month ago! Thank you to the sweet friends in my ward that invited us to do this. I wasn't sure I'd do it again after I did it with Nicole, but when I realized that: 1. I wouldn't be doing it with a toddler and newborn at home, and 2. It is my last opportunity to do this with a preschooler, I jumped at the chance. And Ellie loves it!

School Pictures

Got the school pictures back, and we're much happier with them this year! They are centered, the kids hair isn't doing anything weird, and their smiles aren't as forced looking as last year's photos. Without further adieu:


Mommy's little buddy....age 3, attending 2 day a week neighborhood co-op preschool! So excited that it's at our house for the next two weeks. :)


Mr. 1st Grade....age 6, loves school, reading ability is exploding, loves math. Told us the other night how long the Euphrates River is. I can't remember the actual number, but it was long! (Although the picture looks like he is wearing a dirty shirt, he isn't. I am not loving our scanner.)


Second grade wonder. Her teacher is holding her back in reading...not because she's failing, but because she can read anything. We are slowing her down a bit so her comprehension can catch up, and just so she doesn't miss the fun books meant for her age. Also just "gets" math. She couldn't be my child. She must've been switched in the hospital! She turns 8 in a month and can't wait to be baptized.


Our High School-er.....I wonder when I'll get used to saying that?! Taking Honors English, Spanish, Chemistry, and Algebra among her classes.....maintaining good grades, and will get credit in them once she makes up her tardies in "attendance school"...Oops! She turns 16 in January and although she doesn't think it's true, the boys are lining up to ask her out. We are afraid. Ron is stocking up on ammunition and building a moat.

Round-up Part 3, or, Celebrating our 10th

As noted in an earlier post, Ron and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary in August. We'd been talking for a while about going away somewhere to mark the occasion....places like Hawaii, Cancun, Bahamas, and even Peru were mentioned. Alas, because we have the responsibility of young children that need to be cared for, those locales will be saved for a later time. :) So instead, we decided to take a quick weekend trip to California. We made our final destination San Diego when we found out that one of the touring companies of "Wicked" was playing there. I have been wanting to see "Wicked" for years, but it just hadn't happened, and when it was in SLC earlier this year, there were no tickets to be had.

We flew in Friday morning, picked up our car, and made our way to San Diego(we flew into Long Beach). We went to the Newport Beach Temple and walked around the grounds as it was closed for maintenance. We had a hotel in Old Town San Diego, so that evening we strolled around there. Went to where the new and improved remodeled Mormon Batallion visitors center is....now I need to plan another trip back down in January to check it out when it reopens! That night we saw Harry Potter 6......yeah, it takes us a while to see movies! The next day was our "Wicked" matinee. It was better than I ever could've dreamed! So well acted and sung by all the players. I never expected it to be so funny, and yet I (of course) cried at the end. I could have sat through another performance right then. :) Too bad they kicked us out! That night we enjoyed fabulous Old Town mexican food, and then walked along Mission Beach at sunset. Sunday was spent driving back up the coast as we had an early flight out on Monday morning. We stopped off at a couple of beaches and enjoyed the tide pools and waves. That evening was dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company...I've never eaten so many shrimp in one sitting! The weekend was fabulous, so relaxing, and a wonderful way to reconnect with each other....we haven't spent that many days with just each other since our honeymoon, and it was so refreshing to just be able to talk to each other without the constant interruption of our (wonderful) kids.

Mission Beach



Aliso Beach

Round-up, Part 2.....

We ended July and began August with the dreaded 20th High School Reunion. But any fears I had were quickly erased with all the fun I experienced that weekend. What a fun time to see and reconnect with old friends, some of which I hadn't seen since graduation. Lots of laughter, and it felt like we all just picked up where we left off 20 years ago. It was amazing to get the 30+ of us that went to the same elementary school all the way through HS together at the reunion for a picture. Lot's of laughter, and just a very good feeling of friendship. These are all the people that we went through the ugliest, zittiest, most immature, and some of the BEST years of growing up with - of course we are still friends!



We also got a visit from Riley's Grandma Judi in August. It had been a few years since we had seen Judi, so the kids were very excited to meet her again, and it was fun for Riley to reconnect with her Grandmother again. During her time here we visited the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point, went up to Park City, and got a lot of school clothes shopping done. Riley and Judi took off one day and got most of Riley's done then. On the way home from Park City, we went to Cascade Springs. I tried to get some pictures of the two of them together.....apparently, when you get two people together that don't like their pictures taken, it's hard to get some winners, but I managed to get a couple!



You can definitely tell they are related, can't you?! I was surprised at how much I thought Riley has started to look like her grandmother.

The rest of us were there too:



**If any of you are wondering what is up with the collages....I playing around with the wonder that is Picasa3....I now need to try and figure out how to print some of these out!**