417 Number of photos I took in Cancun.
3+ Number of days I fear it will take me to edit and post them.
2.5 Number of hours ago I should have hit the sack.
6.5 Precious hours of sleep I'll have to get by on before starting this madness all over again.
More later.
I've been neglecting my blog. Shamefully, until today, my blog header still said January. It isn't because life hasn't been exciting. It has just been busy. (Big surprise.)
February has a way of making me dream for the sun. I thrive on that vitamin D. My February blog header is an ode to those dreams. I didn't post it to make you jealous. That would just be mean. But of course, it does have relevance because we will find ourselves on that beach in just a few days.
That leads me to another story. We booked our trip to Cancun several months ago to attend the wedding of our friends, Christian and Kelly. Unfortunately, a few days ago we found out Christian was in a serious motorcycle accident. Fortunately he is okay, but he is recovering in the hospital and will be unable to travel for the wedding. It was too late to change travel plans, so we will be going anyway. (Darn!) We will surely enjoy our vacation, but we will miss you, Christian and Kelly, and we wish you all the best.
My parents, the ones who "never" go anywhere, have completely surprised me and decided to go with us! Dad has never flown on a commercial flight. We are going to have a blast, and I will return with more blog content. I promise. Because I know you have nothing better to do than read my blog.
Speaking of reading my blog, I am glad a few of you do. (By the way, thanks to all of you who leave us comments. It makes it rewarding to post up here when you know it isn't just lost in cyberspace.) And speaking of comments, those of you who won my blog tag, congratulations! YOU ARE THE BIG WINNERS! Amy, Sierra, Wrena, Brenda, and Jean, please note the disclaimer that clearly read it will happen "sometime this year". (I do plan to make good on this, but I'm pretty sure it won't be quick because I'm quite good at procrastinating, you know. I will try to make it happen before the elation you feel from winning this great prize wears completely off.)
In other news, Abby and her friend Bethany decided a couple of weeks ago that they wanted to audition for the Herriman City talent show. They learned "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better" from Annie Get Your Gun. We should find out this week if they get in. Either way, I'm just really proud of Abby for getting out of her comfort zone a little bit. It takes guts to sing in front of a panel of judges :) The cutest part is that Sarah has learned all the words just from hearing them practice. She can sing a pretty mean rendetion herself.
Speaking of comfort zones, we have decided to get out of ours and make a change with our daycare. Our daycare has been great, but it has gotten so big that it seems like such a business. I have thought for awhile that they would benefit from a smaller, more personal situation. We found a sweet family right in our neighborhood. They have 3 kids, 2 of which are girls, age 4 and 6. It should be a perfect fit for us right now. To top it off, it is right next to the school, and it will save me from running Abby to Kindergarten every day over my lunch hour. Change can be good and I hope this will be!
Well, that is enough of this wordy post. We'll be thinking of you from the sunny riviera! (I really didn't say that to make you jealous.)
...sort of. I left a comment on my fabulous friend Paula's blog, very happy that I was the first one to post and have something handmade by her. And then I read the part that said I had to post this on my blog too :) Oh well, I've been saying that I need to get back to doing crafty things again. Here's my chance! Read the following post and join in!
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Lucky you! The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you. This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It'll be done this year. (might be a little while)
4- You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a story. It may be poetry or an article on properly cleaning your face before a masque. I may draw or paint something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog.
The first 5 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!
Tonight Abby wanted to play school. "Let's pretend all the boys were being rowdy and had to be sent to the principles office." "Let's pretend that my friend Eliza and I are the smartest kids in the class." "Mrs. Clark, let's pretend...." After the 40th "let's pretend" I decided I'm not cut out for this anymore. I'm not sure when pretending ceased to be fun, but I think its sad that we have to loose our imaginations when we grow up. Instead we have to worry about getting the dishes done.
I did learn a few tricks about how to use this to my advantage:
"Let's pretend this homework is the work we have to do in school today. Abby, will you read this book to the class?"
"Let's pretend that today is pajama day. Class, go put on the pajamas you brought to school with you today."
"Class, we have a visitor today. The dentist! Isn't that great? He is going to demonstrate how to brush your teeth!"
Uh-oh, Sarah has taken to calling me Mrs. Clark.
We had a great visit from 'Amma this weekend. The girls were very sad that she had to go back home. They know how to milk 'Amma for everything, of course. It will take me all week to un-spoil them again. :)
She played with Sarah's favorite toy, Polly Pockets. And she played with Abby's favorite toy, her pearl beads.
Grandmas are so great.
Here is Abby, showing off one of her latest creations, a Lego parade float. What an imagination.
Yesterday we made Amy's pizza, to a chorus of fire alarms. Apparently our super-sensitive alarms don't like my oven to be turned on that hot. Our ears hurt, but the pizza was good!
Then we sat down to watch the Super Bowl. A day ago you'd have asked me who I was rooting for and I would have said I couldn't care less about football. But alas, today I say I'm a Cardinals fan. It was a pretty great game.
An online search unearthed these alternatives. I like them also and they are much more affordable, but is it worth the compromise? What do you think?
The DKNY dress above would be for Sarah, from Macy's.
This one would be for Abby, from Dillards. Actually, if I could get by with a 6X for Abby, I could get them both the same dress, but I'm not sure I want to do the match-y match-y thing. Bloggers are such great advice-givers... keep it coming! :)
As our friend Emily pointed out, they would be good for many more things (Easter, family pics, convention...) so if you divide by the number of wears then they aren't quite so pricey. :)
Another option: Today we found out Mom will be coming for a visit next weekend, and she said she would help me try to sew dresses like the ones from Chasing Fireflies (I spelled it right this time) in the previous post. Now I just need to decide how much our time is worth. It might be a pretty big project for a weekend!
I've been thinking about buying the girls new dresses for the beach wedding we are attending in February. I really admire these dreamy dresses over at Chasing Fireflys.
The catch (there is always a catch) is that they cost way more than any reasonable person should spend on clothing that will only be worn, at best, one season before it's wearer shoots up another 3 inches. But, no ever accused me of being reasonable . . .
Crazy or brave, I'm not sure which, but we decided to take the girls skiing this weekend for the first time. One major piece of motivation was to get out of the ugly inversion that has the smog of the city locked in to smother us. We just knew that above the smog was a beautiful sunny day, and true enough, it was beautiful on the mountain.
Now I had visions in my head of watching them snowplow down the hill, but I totally forgot that you had to teach them to do that. I just thought they could do it naturally or something. :/ So, the first run down, when Abby was clinging to me and running over my skis, and Sarah was screaming, I was pretty sure we were nuts and just wasted our money. But, we survived the adventure, and we have sore muscles to prove it.
Abby did awesome. She is pretty sure she is a pro now. She does do a pretty mean snowplow.
Sarah, well, she might be a bit young for this still. She wore the smallest size of skis and boots and looked pretty cute, but... well, next year she'll be old enough to do ski school. We'll let them teach her. I think that is a pretty good gig, actually. Mom and Dad can get a couple of good hours of skiing in, and then we pick up the kids and they are new and improved!
Sarah spent the time skiing between our legs, like this. No wonder she wasn't thrilled. She couldn't see! Actually, as long as we were moving at a good pace down the hill, she was happy. But when we stopped, she commenced her crying. She would say, "Mommy, Daddy, you're in my way!"
Notice in the photo above how Tom is only wearing one glove and Sarah has one giant hand? Well, Sarah dropped a mitten off the lift, and by the time we got back down to retrieve it, it was gone. We kept checking, but nobody turned it in. Who do they think they are, walking off with a mitten like that? Oh well, it was so warm we could have almost gone without coats.
Here is the brave daddy. If it weren't for him, I'm pretty sure I never would have braved this adventure.
This photo was before we got started. Sarah was pretty worried and kept saying "I don't want to go sledding!" After wards we asked her if she had fun, and she nodded an adamant "yes". This was after a little catnap as she sat with Mommy in the snow while Abby took her last few runs.
When we were at the cabin over New Years I snapped this picture of Tom and Justin playing Guitar Hero. Don't you love the expression on their faces?
Fast forward to this weekend. Lee and Tawnya stayed with us last night, and we pulled out the Guitar Hero again. It was Uncle Lee's first time to try the drums (he plays in real life) and he did a respectable job. Of course, we haven't graduated from the easy level yet. So, we were playing some Steve Miller Band and Lee said "I wonder what it would be like if you actually played the whole song". So, he flips it up to EXPERT like he's a pro or something and I'm like "yeah right, whatever" and stuff. And he plays right through it. I didn't think Guitar could ever be anything like the real thing, but LEE, YOU MADE ME A BELIEVER!
I've decided to buy another new lens for shooting photos indoors without a flash. I find myself shooting in these situations a lot, and you need a fast lens. I borrowed one from work tonight to try out. So, I give you this Abby and Sarah silliness. My ISO was set too high so these are a bit grainy, but oh well. Better luck next time!
This is Abby playing the Wii.
And this is Sarah eating her dinner.
. . . a link to my pictures from the cabin, as promised. (Sorry it took me so long, Tawnya!) You can find them here and order prints, if you so desire.
Here is a family pic from Tim's camera. My photos were over exposed. Oops. But here were a few photos of the "couples" that I thought turned out okay for flash photography. I wish I had one of Tom and I.
And last but not least, here is Abby on the snowmobile. Just wait. She'll be keeping up with the guys in no time.
We are in West Yellowstone enjoying a weekend of snowmobiling with the Clarks. The cabin is very cozy and sleeps all 18 of us very comfortably. And that is a challenge!
This pictures are in no particular order. If Blogger would make it easier to add/reorder pictures I might make an effort to put these in order, but I am just not in the mood to figure that out at the moment.
This is the sweet and adorable Elijas. He had loads of fun diving into the wrapping paper when we were all done with our Christmas. While he was doing this, we were all sitting around talking about the things that were our greatest blessings and lessons in 2008. It was the best part of the night.
Gorgeous Tiffany
And her fabulous husband Justin, reading to us from "1001 movies to see before you die."
The lovely and beautiful Petra, bringing another grandbaby to the family in 2 more months.
Sweet Maddy, the youngest grandbaby at the moment. I bought this hat for her on Etsy and was happy when she didn't want to take it off all night. :)
I snuck a picture of this moment between Tim and Petra across the room.
Although they thought the only pictures they could get of themselves were the ones they would take of themselves. You see, they are quite used to this after living on an island for so long.
Dawson, shirtless and sweet.
Tawnya and Lee always make our family parties lively and fun. Love them.
I'm not the only one documenting the event. It's a good thing. I'm not so great at taking indoor photography.
I love the joy of these kids when they open their toys.
Tristin, the oldest and most wise of the grandkids. He is the one to set the others straight when they fall out of line.
Sarah bear.
This was our attempt to take a photo of all 8 grandkids. As this was taken, we were asking them what they thought #9 should be. I'm pretty sure "boy" won out.
If it weren't for Claude and Cheri, we wouldn't all be here, enjoying each other.
Girl cousins are so great. Hannah, Ilona, and Abby.
And, I'll leave you with Ilona's beautiful brown eyes.
We spent our New Year's Eve time with my family at Brad and Amy's house.
A game of Settlers of Catan. Try it if you never have.
Brad and Mom make homemade pizza. Soooo good.
My patient husband.
Grandpa is always good for a read.
A snowgirl named "just Sue."
Sledding down our own personal hill.
My blog has been very neglected lately as I've been busy getting ready for Christmas. (So have the inside of my eyelids). But then, I can sleep when I retire, right? Except, it occurs to me that I don't know any old people who ever sleep in. Bummer. Just when I have time to sleep in . . .
Why was Christmas preparation so stressful, you ask? I got an early start on shopping. But then came the Christmas cards, all 70 hand-cut wonders.
Then there are the Christmas treats. Which are fun until you make 150.
I even got Tom in on the act this year.
And then there is the wrapping, the parties, etc. etc., and pretty soon I am REALLY ready for a Christmas break. So, it has come just in time and we are really enjoying our lazy days at home. (Except, I wouldn't call all that shoveling lazy.) In any case, I finally have time to catch up on my blogging and I've given you some serious reading material. I hadn't posted since December 3rd, so anything since then is new. Happy reading! Hope you are all having happy holidays.
We got dumped on Christmas day in this western corner of the valley. Everyone prays for a white Christmas until you have to go out and shovel. And shovel. And shovel. It was beautiful, but today we still haven't caught up with it all. It keeps snowing faster than we can shovel. Our neighbors are gone, so we are trying to keep their driveway clear too.
This (below) is after a couple of hours of shoveling today, and see? There is already more snow to shovel. And it's been snowing for 3 or more hours since I took this. Not that I'm complaining. I mean, the more shoveling, the more holiday treats I can eat guilt-free, right? My muscles are sore and weary. (Wimp). That is my subconscious talking.
Do you like how I got down real low when I took this to make the snow pile look like its as tall as the rooftops? In real life its close. I'm serious. The girls are going to have a sledding hill right in our front yard. I should have gotten down real low for this next picture too, but that would have meant getting my tooties cold and disturbing the pristine snow on my back porch.
The thing about Christmas is that everyone wakes right up out of bed and runs to open their gifts. Which means, they are looking pretty roughed up for pictures. And then their is that dark living room lighting. That is why you won't see any pictures of me here.
The day was a little bittersweet, being our very first Christmas morning with just the four of us, but we still had a wonderful morning.
Here is Abby enjoying one of her new gifts, and wearing a crown Aunt Amy made. Thanks Amy! Amy has the handmade Christmas thing down to a science, and we always love what she makes.
Mike and Diane Buhler (brother-in-law Justin's parents) were so nice to invite us to Christmas dinner at their house. Here is Justin with his dad:
The girls had a great time playing with their cousins. We are looking forward to more time with them next weekend in West Yellowstone!
Hope you all had a Merry Christmas too.
This is a picture of Sarah. Notice anything odd?
Let me help you. I zoomed up and added some contrast (oh yeah, and a subtle arrow):
Yes, that is a flower/butterfly something or other in her stomach. She came to us complaining that her chest hurt and informed us that she had swallowed a Barbie shoe. I'm not sure that is what it is, but it definitely should not be in her stomach. We were relieved a week later to get another x-ray and find it gone. We weren't very good at sifting to find it as it came out the other end . . . even though that is what the doctor recommended. Guess we missed it.