Rad!

My sis-in-law, Heidi, turned me on to this cool music website called Pandora where you can enter an artist or song and the site will find music similar to that style. It is so awesome-- I've been listening to really great music all morning. The best word I can think to describe Pandora: RAD!

This is what I get...

Lest any of you are suffering from the delusion that my children are always well behaved (and, let's not kid ourselves, there shouldn't be many of you!), I thought I'd share a bit of reality from this afternoon. I was on the phone downstairs and came up afterward to this sight in the kitchen:


Both boys were seated on the counter, guilty looks on their little faces, while a bunch of our plastic cups and all of the straws were emptied on the kitchen floor. At least Gordon humored me with an "uh oh."

Before I could get them off the counter, they started fighting over the little plastic golf club. They were pretty mad-- both at each other and because I was mean enough to laugh and take pictures!

Cosmic decorating

If you've read regular entries on this blog, you know that our 5-year-old Thomas is an avid lover of all things celestial. So, while visiting Jon and Emily in Ft. Collins a few weeks ago, Grammuh and Grampuh picked up a cool model kit of the planets for Thomas and Chris to put together. Although it was mostly Chris who did the putting together, Thomas could not be more thrilled about his new little galaxy in his room. I put them up last night and Thomas was very helpful in their placement in relation to the "sun" (the light fixture). Thomas knows all of the planets in order, including that Pluto is only a "dwarf planet", which I think is just genius for a kindergartener. His favorite planet, Saturn, is hanging above his bed.

We ♥ Grammuh's House!

There is a reason why the very mention of going to Salt Lake and "the Brown House" will put a beaming smile on Thomas's face. When we're there, the boys are treated like little princes by none other than their doting Gramm and Gramp.

During this fun visit, the boys enjoyed a toy-filled tub, followed by Grammuh's assistance in a fun game of chase. Thomas runs around and around, while Gramm carries Gordon to find him. As you can imagine, a lot of gleeful screaming ensues! Poor Grammuh was probably worn out long before she stopped playing with them, but they all seemed to have such a great time. When Thomas asked when we were going back, he put it, "How many minutes?"

A fun weekend in SLC

We spent a great weekend in Salt Lake City! We drove down on Saturday morning and I left the boys and met Amy Harrington and Laurie Hamer, girlfriends from BYU, for lunch. We had a very tasty lunch at Pei Wei, followed later by yummy Maggie Moo's, and just spent the afternoon catching up. It was so great to see these girls! I love them!!!

Meanwhile, the boys visited the Planetarium for the umpteenth time (thank you Grammuh and Grampuh!) and had a yummy lunch at McGrath's. See Marilyn's coverage of the boys, including a hilarious video of Chris and Gordon.

Later that night, we put the boys to bed and watched some fun back episodes of Monk and hung out at my in-laws. Gary is a great photographer and took this picture of Chris and me in our jammies. Aw!


Speaking of Gary the photographer, he downloaded a bunch of his digital pictures taken over the last year and gave me a CD of some of me. There were some that I hadn't seen before, so it was great to see! It's also fun to get some pictures of myself, since most of the time I'm on the other side of the camera. Anyway, I love this one of my sweet Gordon and me, so I thought I'd share. Thanks again, Gary!

Reading Lolita in Tehran

Last week, my book club reviewed Reading Lolita in Tehran, by Azar Nafisi. What an incredible perspective on the lives of women in post-revolutionary Iran! This book is can be quite heavy in parts, but is well worth the more difficult chapters. As a group, the club agreed that reading this memoir definitely helped us understand some of the things that go on in that part of the world. A great read-- I highly recommend it!

Wait... no pictures???

I know, I know... how boring is this post?!? Even though it makes for very mundane blogging, it has been extremely nice to spend the last couple of weekends hanging out at home. We've been able to relax and hang out with the boys, and we've watched a couple of fun movies. If you're in the mood for a quirky, funny flick, check out Scoop.

Our weekdays have been pretty low-key as well, therefore, I haven't had much of an opportunity to break out the camera. I also think I overwhelmed myself with my bazillions of 2006 pictures; maybe my subconscious is telling me to hold back. Well, we do have a fun weekend planned, so I'm sure I'll be back in the photography saddle soon enough.

A funny tidbit: While driving Thomas to school this morning, I heard him mumble something in the back seat. "What?" I asked.

"When I do marry," he said, "I want it to be for love."

Okay, someone has been watching Aladin a little too much lately. He has also referred to our kitty, Schroeder, as "Jafar".

Adventures of Carricklee

Late last year, I put together a blog for my grandparents, Carol "Nonny" and Bob, to post their newsletters and pictures from their travels. In addition to the newsletter posts, they recently sent me a disc with pictures from their recent passage from Ecuador to Panamá. The pictures are incredible and I can't help but feel a bit jealous. Here are two of my favorites:

Carricklee, their sailboat, looks so beautiful anchored in the Darién of Panamá. How could you not want to be there right now?!?

Here, Bob and friend Frank reel in an awesome looking Dorado.

For more envy-inducing images from South America, Click Here to view the slide show.

After reading the great adventures from their newsletter and seeing these fantastic pictures, I've decided that Chris and I must get down to Panama before Nonny and Bob decide to sail somewhere else. Maybe Spring Break '08?

Bye bye, Baby

Well, after a long while of no hair cuts, I finally gave into the fact that my boys were looking more scruffy than sleek with their long hair. What I didn't realize was that by cutting Gordon's hair, he seems to have lost his "baby" look! I took the boys to Great Clips and the stylist cut off about two inches from each of their heads. They were very good-- Gordon had to be bribed with a blue sucker (hence the blue mouth on the "after" picture) and when we were done, I walked out with two very grown-up looking boys. I kind of miss that long hair, but they do look great!

Drink up!

I got this from Kristine's blog and I have to say, WHAT?!?

If Elise were a drink they would be: 1 parts cocky 4 parts extreme 1 parts ambitious Get Your RECIPE Here!

At least it's good for a laugh. You're laughing, not agreeing, right?!?

Our lazy kitty

Here's a little video of our lazy little kitty.

A much needed upgrade

Before

The light fixture in our family room was awful! It's hard to believe that a house built in 2001 had a light fixture from 1964. So, this weekend, we went to The Home Depot and bought the first of many home improvements: a new light fixture. Much better!

After!

Schroeder

It's a boy! Yep, we have a new family member-- a little male kitten that we adopted on Thursday. Thomas picked him out from all of the other kittens at the Cache Humane Society and named him "Schroeder", in honor of his favorite Peanuts character. Schroeder is a very friendly little guy and loves attention. He has not shown any agressive tendancies (even around Gordon!) so we're grateful for that. He's been fun to have around.

Schroeder has a mostly black body with a white patch on his face, a white belly, and white paws. His paws are all white except for his front left which has a black pinky toe. He's a cute little kitty!

A Conversation with Gordon, other goings on

Hello Blogging world! For some reason, I've been a little slow on updates lately. I think it's the post-holiday downer that I sometimes feel this time of year. You know, gray skies, gray mood.

Anyway, I did want to post a cute video of Gordon and all of his new words. He is a funny little lad! This one is short, so enjoy!



On Sunday, we went to our new ward for the first time. We really enjoyed it-- it is nice to be in a regular family ward again! Thomas especially enjoyed his primary class (CTR 6!!!) where he learned about choosing the right. The kids made CTR pictures and were also given little cards to hang in their rooms to help them remember.

Thomas was very excited to hang his card and picture up on Monday. Later that night, Tom and Gord were playing in the room and apparently got into a little tiff over something. Thomas ran out to me crying, "Mom! Gordon's not choosing the right!"

The Best of 2006

This week, I've been working on a slideshow of my family in 2006. It's been really fun to see all of our pictures (and I take a lot of pictures!) and see the changes through the year. I'm having the slideshow made into a DVD so that we can look back on 2006 for many years to come. Since the program also lets you post to your blog, I thought I might as well share.

So, here it is-- our year in review. Before you click Play, I have to warn that this slideshow is about 20 Minutes long! (Frankly, I don't know if I could watch a slideshow of anyone else's family for that long!) If you choose to spend the time, Enjoy! :)

Photo and video editing at onetruemedia.com

Cheers to 2007!

We had great fun toasting in the New Year at midnight! The only child to make it that late was Brynn, but she is still on a baby's sleep schedule. Thomas tried really hard, but ended up crashing at about 10:30.

The adults were playing Hand and Foot (a very fun new game!) until about 11:50, then we hurried and filled our plastic champagne glasses with Martinelli's and ran downstairs to watch the ball drop. Cheers!

 
 
  

Our second Christmas

Almost a week after Christmas, we had the pleasure of hosting my sisters Kristie and Ann-Michelle and their families for a second Christmas/New Years party weekend here in Logan. We had such a fun time with all of the fun people at our house! We didn't really have any regular meals, just two days of constant cooking, eating, playing games, more eating, watching random Simpsons episodes and Youtube videos, and of course, more eating. Actually, Ann-Michelle got a little sick by Monday morning (sorry AM!)

Our first activity was opening all of the presents from each other-- a task Thomas could hardly wait to accomplish. It was kind of a frenzy of unwrapping, but everyone had a great time! I think we all got pretty great stuff!
  From the top Left: Thomas anticipates the first of many gifts; Ann-Michelle and Brynnie; Dallis got a cute new pillow; The kids and their gifts; Thomas and his new sweater-- I got all the kids striped Rugby sweaters from The Children's Place, but I never managed to get a picture with all of them together-- bummer; Dallis and Hadley; Gordon and his cute new shirt; Chris with new ornaments; and Brynn's new sweater! Whew!

I think we must have played about 20+ hours of games over the weekend. We learned a few new faves (Blokus rocks!) and played some old classics as well. Kristie and Todd got Thomas a cute new game, which Kristie kindly played with him. He loves it now and we've played almost every day!
 

Here is Ann-Michelle's little girl, Brynn, who is the happiest, most docile child I have ever met. You don't even have to try to get her to smile, she just does it. Consequently, I took more pictures of her than I did of my own kids. :)
 

Kristie and Todd show off one of our many treats-- Piroette cookies posing as New Year's cigars!
  

A Merry Meltdown

 

Grammuh Marilyn got the absolute cutest outfits for her grandkids this year! We dressed the boys up for church on Christmas Eve and if I don't say so myself, they were by far the three cutest little boys in attendance. After church, we tried to take some pictures. Gordon, as you can see, was not feeling cooperative (we later subdued him with a candy cane) and I think this picture is hilarious. Gordon is sprawling on the floor, throwing a classic tantrum, and it looks as though Thomas is commenting to Tyler, "Embarrassing, isn't it?" 

Go BSU!

So, earlier this year, you may recall my miserable post of the whipping the Boise State Bronco football team gave the Utes. This episode aside, we actually like watching BSU football and were thrilled over last night's incredible Fiesta Bowl victory over powerhouse Oklahoma. BSU's running back, Ian Johnson, scored the winning 2 pt conversion in overtime to seal the victory, then after the game proposed to his girlfriend, one of the Bronco cheerleaders. She said yes, of course. Aw! Click Here for the story.

Christmas Memories

It's been a long time since I've posted, and if you're a regular visitor to this site, you know that's unlike me! But, I have a few good excuses: we moved, Christmas, New Year, and where in the world did I pack the USB cable for our camera?!?

So, I'm back, and after uploading almost 200 photos from the past couple of weeks, I'm ready to share our fun memories!

We spent a great Christmas weekend at Chris's parents' house in Salt Lake City, along with Andy (Chris's brother), Amanda, and their 2 1/2 year old son, Tyler. Andy and Amanda are currently living in Milwaukee while Andy goes to Medical school, so it is always a treat to see them. Our little boys have so much fun together!

Since I had so many pictures to share, I pulled out the best and made a quick Christmas collage. You'll notice that we took every opportunity to dress the boys the same and try to get a good shot-- some attempts were more successful than others!

Make photo slide shows at onetruemedia.com

Most of our time in Salt Lake was spent watching movies, eating tasty foods, and just hanging out with family. We really had a wonderful Holiday and we are especially grateful to Gary and Marilyn, my in-laws, for being such excellent Christmas hosts!