Our Christmas 08

We had a lovely and quiet Christmas this year. On Christmas eve we had a dinner of soup and rolls (we did the big dinner on Christmas) and got the kids all dressed in their matching jammies. Then we read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and the Christmas story from Luke and Wise Men story from Matthew. As I read from the scriptures Adrian and the kids put the flannel nativity scene together at the bottom of our advent calendar. Then the kids got to open up their Christmas eve presents which is usually jammies, but this year was slippers. Then we read more stories upstairs and off the bed the kiddos went. Adrian did some daddy stuff (i.e. assembling) and I finished baking and cooking a few things that I could do early for Christmas dinner. Then together we watched the "Winter" episode of Vicar of Dibley - I love that show so much!

On Christmas morning the kids woke up bright and early (I really don't know exactly when, I'm unresponsive for a good while in the mornings) and we finally went downstairs around 7am... The kids had pushed all the buttons on the alarm clock in our room hoping to make the alarm go off and wake Adrian and I up properly, but as a result they reset the time and we have no idea when we actually dragged ourselves out of bed. If it was before 7 I'm glad I don't know.

The kids spied their loot from the stairway and were in a kind of shocked silence - it was eerie.:) Then the mass unwrapping began and the oohs and ahhs started. Nina loved the big wooden doll house she got and Ben was totally excited about all the Star Wars toys. Sophie mostly got games for her DS and that made her very happy. All the gifts from our extended family were awesome as well - thanks everyone!! After all the unwrapping we moved to the family room where the stockings were and the kids were very excited about all the little toys and candy inside them. Then began the candy munching... It was a very fun morning and so neat to see the joy on the kids faces. I love Christmas!

After the present opening Adrian made everyone a yummy breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon and I headed upstairs for a long Christmas morning nap while the kids played with their toys... Like I said, I love Christmas!! For lunch we had our traditional picnic by the Christmas tree of cheese, crackers, summer sausage, and oranges (I love this tradition so much!) and after that we all got ready and headed to a matinee of Bolt. It was great for a kids movie - I was totally expecting to be a little bored, but the characters were actually really funny and I laughed through the whole thing. We have gotten to a point in our family were everyone is so happy at the movies - we used to have to chase Nina all over the place, but now she sits and watches the whole thing as long as you have a nice supply of popcorn for her. It was great!

After the movie the kids and Adrian did more playing and I made our Christmas dinner. I think this is the first time I went all out for just our little family. I made shepherds pie, Adrian's favorite pasta salad, my sister Julie's jello salad, carrots, rolls and a chocolate pie like dessert. There was a ton of food, but I enjoyed cooking it (lot of alone time listening to my ipod:)) and all the leftovers are great actually - I haven't had to really cook since.:) Everyone had their favorites - Ben and Nina love the jello salad, Adrian and Sophie love the pasta salad and I absolutely love this recipe for carrots - I could eat the whole serving bowl of carrots by myself. We were all stuffed, but it's Christmas right?? The rest of the night was spent playing with toys and then after the kids went to bed Adrian and I stayed up and watched The Office Christmas Special (the BBC one) and it was SO funny.

So our Christmas was quiet and relaxy, but it was also great fun and full of fond memories.

Cookie and Nativity Fun

Last night was our annual Finnish ribbon cookie making. I'm half Finnish and this is a fun way to celebrate that heritage every Christmas. These cookies are scrumptious, but honestly how can a cookie made with 2 sticks of butter be bad??! You have to roll the cookies into long ropes and press a groove down the center before they're baked so all the tactile stuff is really fun for the kids. If you're interested I've posted the recipe here on my recipe blog.


After the cookie making which actually went quite well this year (not too much whining and screaming - just a little:)) we acted out the Christmas story with the kids for FHE. This was the first year that we attempted this by ourselves - last year we did the nativity play with the Turpins and Whipples and it was so much fun. Since there's only 5 of us everyone had to do double duties as far as the roles. I was the narrator and Herod (Adrian suggested that I be the evil king...hmm...). Adrian was a donkey (my suggestion as payback), a shepherd, and a sheep. Sophie was a wise man and an angel. Ben was Joseph and a wise man. Nina was Mary (she loved carrying the doll that was baby Jesus). We dressed everyone up with scarves and it was really very fun and absolutely memorable. I definitely think it will be a yearly tradition just like the cookies.


Is she not the cutest little Mary??!

The wise men presenting Jesus with gifts (a couple from under the tree and a cell phone :)).

Meet Lloyd

It was absolutely impossible for me to wait until Christmas to open my present this year. When that FedEx truck stopped in front of my house I was completely giddy. When I signed the weird electronic thing for the package I had a huge grin on my face and the FedEx guy must have thought I was a bit loopy... But here's my present:

Meet Lloyd Dobler my new i-Pod!! Yay!! My old i-pod, Mr. Bingley, (a red Nano) couldn't hold all my music and audio-books anymore and so Adrian got me an i-Pod Classic and even had it engraved, just like he did my last one. My Nano has "You Rock My World XOXOXOX" on it and this one has a inside joke engraved on the back (that I will not disclose). I've given it the name Lloyd Dobler of course for one of my favorite romantic movie characters and also because Lloyd has pretty amazing taste in music in Say Anything so I thought it was fitting. Who can erase this image from their mind after seeing that movie??


Oh "In Your Eyes" is such a great song... It's going on the "Music I like" playlist. Definitely.

And having 2 i-Pods in the family now is great because Adrian can take my old one to work with him. He has renamed it Samwise Gamgee refusing to leave it as Mr. Bingley. It was pretty funny when Adrian took it into work for the first time. Adrian works in a very secured environment shall we say and all electronic devices brought into his building have to be checked out by a security specialist and they put a sticker on the device to show that it has been cleared. The security specialist asked Adrian if he minded where the sticker was placed "because some people have these things engraved and don't want to cover it up..." Then he turned it over and read the "You Rock My World XOXOXO" and started laughing. Adrian quickly said that he had given it to his wife a couple of years ago for Valentines day. The security guy then said, "Well I guess it's okay as long as you rock your wife's world too."!!! Adrian was very embarrassed and the security guy had a good laugh about it.

I've been having all sorts of fun adding new playlists to my i-pod and have been listening to it pretty much non-stop since it arrived. I found in a memory box from my backpaking trip to Europe 13 years ago the lists of songs from the mixed tapes I took. It has made me so happy to put together my "Europe" playlist and remember all the amazing adventures I had while listening to those songs! I-Pods are cool!! Big thanks to my sweetheart for giving me the best Christmas present. You do rock my world Adrian!!:)

I Am a Cold One

Hee hee. No, Edward didn't tract me down in the night and turn me into a vampire (dang it), but man oh freaking man am I cold... Well, not now because I'm inside and have once again probably broken our budget by bumping up the heat insanely, but when I was just out running some errands the cold nearly took my breath away and my eyes started tearing up like I was crying. The people in Target must have thought I was very depressed because it really did look like I was crying and when I saw myself in the glass of the windows before going inside the store I had the distinct look of pain on my face. Yes, I am a complete and total wimp. Freezing temperatures are very difficult for me and I think my years away from the Rockies have turned me into a marshmallow. Ben and Nina were all bundled up and loved it. I have weird children. Nina kept pointing to all the snow and ice smiling and saying " Snow!! Snow!!" I am glad she has the right attitude for Colorado weather. And Ben keeps begging me to go out and build a snow man with him. Nope, not today... I am a bad mommy. I am voluntarily sequestering myself inside for the rest of the day and making cookies to give to our neighbors for Christmas. And yes, I am wearing my poofy stuck-inside sweater just to remind me how very necessary it is for me to stay out of public view and thereby keep myself out of the freezing freaking cold. (I say "freak" a lot during cold spells. Sorry.)

Oh, and just to tell you a little bit more about how cold it's been (-15 last night and probably -20 tonight) because negative temperatures don't seem so bad in your warm house right? Nope they're still bad, the pipes in our bathroom froze over night. Froze. We have a warantee and everything and our builder's plumber came out this morning and fixed it. And of course we are now in the process of getting the insulation and framing of that wall looked at to keep this from happening again... But. Wow. That's serious below zero cold. On our way to church yesterday when our car's thermometer said it was 1 degree outside Adrian said the cold and the non-thawing snow over the streets reminded him of Siberia. (His mission.) Siberia! Crazy, eh?! The streets are better today, but it's suppose to stay cold all week. Eventually I will get used to the cold and toughen up, but right now I am planning on a lot of time indoors and an expensive heating bill.

Our Night in Bethlehem

On Friday night we went to the neatest ward Christmas party. It was a "Night in Bethlehem" themed party and we all dressed in Bethlehemish garb. Most people wore bath robes and towels/scarves on their heads (like us), but there were also a large number of Romans in togas. It was awesome. Nina refused to wear anything on her head so we decided she would be an angel and we got her to wear a white dress. Before going into the "market place" (i.e. cultural hall where the a Bethlehem market was staged) we were taxed or donated 5 cans of food for our family to a local food bank and given a bag of "gold" or gold spray painted rocks. Then with the gold you went around the market place and bought dinner from different vendors. It was so neat and the food was delicious! I can't believe all the preparation that must have gone into this party - wow! We brought a blanket to sit on in the middle of the cultural hall and the kids loved the picnic aspect of the dinner. After dinner there were also cute crafts for the kids to make. The evening ended with a lovely nativity program. It was a fun night. At this ward party we felt like we knew more people and it's great to feel like we are finding our place in the ward... We realize it's still going to take a while to get to know everyone - man our ward is huge!!

Random Thoughts on a Wintery Day

Today I feel like I'm sitting in a little house in the middle of a snow-globe; it's been snowing fluffy flakes all day. I really love looking out on the snow, its beautiful and I feel very cozy staying indoors with the heater turned up. I might even make some cookies or something just to complete the comfy snowy day feeling. I took some pictures as a sort of random thoughts photo montage:
This is my snowy-day-stuck-inside sweater. I believe I've had this sweater since 9th or 10th grade and it makes me feel so cozy whenever I wear it, but its got that big and poofy early 90's sweater style so I don't wear it in public very often (so not flattering:)).

Ben and Nina have been playing together so nicely today, thankfully. When Sophie gets home from school I might bundle them all up and send them out to the backyard for some snowy fun.

Tinker Bell is on every day in our house lately and today is no exception. It's kind of cute, but over and over... Not so cute. Honestly, I really have no ground to stand on when I get annoyed with my kids watching the same show over and over. I used to torture my family with persistent Charlie and the Chocolate Factory viewing and I'm still that way with a certain movie now.... I guess it might be genetic or karma.:)

This is the horrible stocking situation. We used to not have a fireplace so the stockings were under the tree where you really don't notice them... But now the sad one-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-other stocking on the right is very visible. Poor Nina... This is why I tried to find her a new stocking during our Utah trip. I'm probably going to have to make her one myself. We'll see if my sewing abilities are up to the task.

Art History Pic for December

I haven't done an art history pic in a while, so inspired by the Christmas season I thought I would choose a religious painting by my favorite Southern Baroque painter, Caravaggio.

Conversion on the Way to Damascus, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (nice name!!), c.1601

Caravaggio himself was quite an interesting figure. His works were full of faith and many focused on salvation through Jesus Christ, but his personal life was... well a mess. A notice published about him during his time in Rome read, "after a fortnight's work he will swagger about for a month or two with a sword at his side and a servant following him, from one ball-court to the next, ever ready to engage in a fight or an argument, so that it is most awkward to get along with him." But really that wasn't the half of it, he reportedly beat a man to death during a fight after a tennis match. Whoa, hu?! It so interesting to me that a man so obviously full of rage could paint works so touching and sensitive. Honestly, maybe that's why I find Caravaggio so intriguing much like I find Norman Rockwell intriguing. Rockwell himself had a very sad personal life, but his paintings are full of joy and warmth. Dichotomies like that are very interesting to me. But in getting back to this painting, I first saw it in my Southern Baroque art history class at BYU (taught by my favorite art history professor, Dr. Bule) and was completely struck by it. It displays with incredible drama and emotion the moment of Paul's conversion - his hands are flung up and he is having a personal and life changing moment that no one else in the painting is aware of. I love Caravaggio's amazing use of light and shadow and though this was a staple of Baroque painting, in my opinion no other artist pulled it off like this masterful painter. Hope it strikes you too.

Turkey Days

We spent Thanksgiving with our families in Utah and had a lovely time. We also celebrated a lot of birthdays on Jenni's side of the family so the week and weekend was full of fun times. This was the first Thanksgiving in 6 years that we've been able to share with extended family. It is so nice to live closer to everyone! I thought I'd just jot down some favorite things from our trip:

• The drive to Utah was fantastic - the kids were great, the roads were clear, and Adrian and I got to listen to my i-Pod (head phone splitters are the best) the whole way whilst the kids played Nintendo and watched kid movies.
  

• I got to see Twilight twice on the trip - once with all the girls on my side of the family to celebrate Kaitlyn's birthday and the other time dragging Adrian again (thanks Babe!) while my folks watched our kids. Yes, my obsession continues...
  

• The Thanksgiving feast at my folks was super delicious and so so fun to spend time chatting with my family. I couldn't stop eating the deviled eggs and man all the desserts were fantastic!!

• My sister in law Dore's COOKIES!! (I need not say more.)
  

• Lunch at Francine's (Adrian's sister) on Friday was great! We got to eat yummy sandwiches, catch up on everyone's happenings, and the kids even got to do crafts that Francine, with amazing foresight, provided to keep the kids happy. She also has a great swing on her tree that kept all the little cousins very content.

• Sophie and Ben's sleep over with their cousin Jon - Sophie and Jon are really close in age and have always gotten along so well. It really is a tragedy that they don't get to see each other more. But it was so adorable to see them all talking and playing Wii into the wee hours and having a blast. Cousins are so fun.
  

• Shopping at Quilted Bear with my mom, grandma, and sisters. I didn't find the stocking for Nina that I was hoping for, but I got a great freezer meal cookbook and had such fun with the gals.

• Staying with Lori and Dave and getting to know my cute nephew Zach better. They were oh so generous to let us stay with them and we LOVE the Alta room!! (My sister's guest room is devoted to Alta ski resort and decked out with very cute ski decor!)

• Bowling with my whole family to celebrate Ben's birthday early. It was awesome to bowl with everyone and especially to watch how excited all the kids were. And hey I got a Turkey (3 strikes in a row for the bowling illiterate like me)! Of course that was with the gutter guards up.:)

• Ben opening the huge nerf gun that my sister Julie and her family gave him. He seriously was in spasms of joy exclaiming "I've ALWAYS wanted a GUN!!"
  

• Okay so the drive home was not fantastic (drifting snow and ice in Wyoming) but we made it home safe and sound so I'd say that is just cause for it being a favorite thing too. Nice driving Adrian!

More Playlists

While I'm on the subject of playlists I think I'll share a couple more playlists (for posterity's sake:)).

First, I've gone ahead and made myself an alternate Twilight soundtrack... I really like the movie's soundtrack a lot, but I've also had songs that I've connected with the book series for a while. So I made a Twilightish playlist with a combination of real soundtrack songs, songs I've been liking lately, and songs I connect with the Twilight books. Here goes:

Twilightish Soundtrack

• Let Me Sign - Cedric Diggory (I know, I know, what is a British boy sounding all bluesy and folky for?? But when I gave the songs on the soundtrack by Robert Pattinson a chance I actually started really liking them... a lot. Quirky and very sensitive.)
• The Garden - Mirah (LOVE this song lately - MAAARRRRKKKK!!!!)
• Bella's Lullaby - Carter Burwell
• Colorblind - Counting Crows
• Eyes on Fire - Blue Foundation
• The Dance - Charlotte Martin (from Mia Michael's bizare and Burtonesque SYTYCD group dance)
• Falling Away With You - Muse
• Clair de Lune - Debussy
• Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want - The Smiths
• Flightless Bird American Mouth - Iron and Wine (from the prom scene and I really like it)
• The Very Thought of You - Billy Holiday (beautiful)
• Full Moon - Black Ghosts
• The Teardrop Collector - Love and Rockets (this is more of a New Moon song to me)
• Hamburg Song - Keane (and this one is a Eclipse song for me)
• Infra-Red - Placebo (my James song)
• Let Me Love You - Peter Murphy (what would a playlist be without Peter??)
• Never Think - Cedric Diggory
• Ode to Boy - Yaz
• Supermassive Black Hole - Muse
• One More Time - The Cure (yep, there must also be a Cure tune on every Jenni playlist)
• Time is Running Out - Muse

And the playlist I'm finally changing out now with Christmas music is my Halloween '08 playlist. I love Halloween music, much like I love Halloween. So here's the playlist I subjected my whole family to for the last 3 months.:)

Halloween '08

• This is Halloween - Nightmare Before Christmas Soundtrack
• Funeral March of the Marionette - Mannheim Steamroller
• Double Trouble - Harry Potter 3 Soundtrack
• Anything Can Happen on Halloween - Tim Curry from Worst Witch
• Vampire Song - Concrete Blonde
• What Falls in the Fall - Laurie Berkner
• Defying Gravity - Wicked Soundtrack
• Narnia Lullaby - Narnia Soundtrack (Mr. Tumnus!!)
• I'm Going Home - Tim Curry RHPS soundtrack
• Ramalama Bang Bang - Roisin Murphy
• Love Cats - The Cure
• Harvest Dance - Mannheim Steamroller
• The Garden - Mirah
• Monster Mash - from some Halloween party mix CD
• Science Fiction Double Feature - RHPS soundtrack
• Night of the Dancing Flame - Roisin Murphy
• Thriller - Michael Jackson
• Time Warp - RHPS again
• Peek a Boo - Siouxsie and the Banshees
• Hunters Prelude - Bram Stoker's Dracula Soundtrack
  

It's Beginning to Sound a Lot Like Christmas

For the last couple of years we have been making Christmas CD's with our favorite songs. Some songs are givens - it wouldn't be Christmas without Sting's "Gabriel's Message" or Elvis' "Blue Christmas", but this year I bought a couple new songs off itunes that sounded especially nice. So here's the Christmas '08 Playlist:

• Away in a Manger (Celtic Woman)
• Blue Christmas (Elvis)
• Carol of the Bells (Celtic Woman - I love their Christmas CD)
• Caroling Caroling (Nat King Cole - lovely classic)
  
• Childrens Winter (Barra MacNeils)
• It's Christmas/Baby Please Come Home (U2)
• Christmas in Kilarney (Barra MacNeils)
• Christmas Pipes (Celtic Woman)
• The Coventry Carol (Allison Moyet - I LOVE this song)
• Ding Dong Merrily on High (Celtic Woman, again, this one reminds me of Little Women)
• Do You Hear What I Hear (Bing - classic and wonderful)
• Elf's Lament (BNL - so funny)
• Gabriel's Message (Sting at his finest)
• God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (BNL and Sarah McLachlan)
• I Believe in Father Christmas (Vertical Horizon)
• I Saw Three Ships (Sting)
• Little Road to Bethlehem (Shawn Colvin)
• A Long December (Counting Crows - this song totally reminds me and Adrian of when we started dating Christmas of '96, it was all over the radio and we spent a lot of time in the car... That sounded bad didn't it. I just meant going to and from dates... Geeze get your head out of the gutter! Though admittedly we did do our fair share of making out too!! Hee hee.;))
• O Holy Night (Michael Crawford - fantastic version)
• Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy (Bing and Bowie - awesome)
• Silent Night (Sarah McLachlan)
• The Wexford Carol (Celtic Woman)
• What Child is This (Kristin Chenoweth)
• Winter Wonderland (Eurythmics - another one I can not do without at Christmas)
  

In the Twilight Zone

Yesterday was my day of TWILIGHT starting with the fun filled 12:01am showing with Jenny and Ashlee and ending with a second viewing with my supportive hubby. It was a GREAT day!!:)

Before the midnight showing Jenny, Ashlee, and I went out to dinner at fabulous Claim Jumper and then to a Twilight party hosted by Superfan Tracy (that really should be her title) in Jenny's ward. We got fun fake apples with "Twilight 11-21-08" written on them as party favors. Isn't that awesome??!!! The actual waiting for the movie was tons-o-fun too!! I love love chatting with Jenny and Ashlee and Jenny took fun pics to commemorate the event:

After getting as much sleep as I could after the midnight show and taking a 1/2 hour nap in the afternoon I was more than ready to go again with Adrian. We had a total Twilight date and went to an Italian restaurant just like Edward and Bella. We had ravioli, but sadly Adrian refused to not eat and give me his Coke... Oh well what can I expect, it was merely a suggestion and I guess he's not really a vampire. :) While we ate we perused the "Complete Illustrated Movie Companion" which I of course had to buy for myself. Our waiter (a thirty-something man) saw the movie book and struck up a Twilight conversation with us - he seriously knew all about the movie soundtrack (which I also now own:))! So funny. So since we got to know our waiter a little we asked him to take a picture of us on our Twilight date:

I'm so thankful for my hubby who kindly goes along with my obsessive personality and even admitted to a fun time doing it. He liked the movie!! Now I told him he has to finish the book.

About the movie - I love it! So at first I was a little put off by Edward not sounding at all like the Edward from my mind, but cute Cedric Diggory won me over (I think Cedric Diggory is so much easier to say then Robert Pattinson!). I just let all my expectations go and went along for the ride and absolutely loved it - even more the second time!! Oh and Jasper totally won the show for me - the look on his face in every single shot of him was priceless!! Ashlee commented that he looked like Edward Scissor-hands with that look on his face all the time and it was so true!!! Ha!! "The kiss" was awesome and I really liked Kristen Stewart as Bella. She was less whiny and more nervy than my book version Bella and that made the character better to me for some reason. So hey, it was GREAT and I totally look forward to that day when I can hold the DVD in my hands and have it all to myself - forever!!!:) Till then I'll have drag people to go with me multiple times - any one who wants to go again seriously give me a call!!

Flashback Friday

This morning I woke up to REAL SNOW - the stick on the roads kind of snow! If we were back in MD I know school would have been cancelled.:) It stayed cold all day, but the snow melted on the roads quite quickly so it actually ended up being a lovely day and made me feel all Christmasy - I even did some Christmas shopping with Ben and Nina this morning. Anywho, I think the snow insprired me to remember this picture of Sophie for flashback Friday:

Lest anyone think Ben has been our only hilarious 4 year I have to tell you about this! Sophie made this toddler-crafted nativity scene with a bunch of random toys the Christmas of 2003 right before Ben was born. I remember her working on something on the table, not knowing quite what it was until she had me come see. It made me laugh so hard!! I think the Monsters Inc. guys standing in as Mary and Joseph are the best part!! I had to take a picture! Notice there really are 3 wise men too! So I guess 4 is just a funny funny age. I can't wait to see what Nina has in store for us in the next couple of years!

Another Ben Funny

I don't know if it's Ben's age or personality, but he cracks me up so often lately and this morning was no exception. For this to make sense I must let you know that the kids watch Sleeping Beauty pretty much nonstop in the car. Nina loves that movie and Ben and Sophie happily tolerate it. Okay, so this morning I had some errands to run after dropping Sophie off at school and as we were driving along and of course Sleeping Beauty was playing. So Ben, obviously inspired by the "Once Upon a Dream Song" said, "Nina I'm going to sing you a love song because I love you." And then off he went into his own made-up love song which went something like this (I'm paraphrasing):

"Nina I love you because you love POP TARTS* and I sing you a love song in the car. We're going to King Sooper and I LOVE YOU SO MUCH because you are my sister and you like Star Wars and we are happy in the car. You are so sweet and I LOVE YOU SO MUCH."

*Note: Every time there's caps just imagine that in falsetto.:)

Oh. My. Goodness. I was cracking up, but trying to hold it in because I knew he would stop singing if I laughed too hard. It was so great and I seriously had tears. After he was done singing he reprized the song a couple more times, but they were all pretty similar sometimes mentioning Star Wars and sometimes mentioning Polly Pockets. Then he asked Nina if she liked his song, but she was ignoring him and completely absorbed in the movie, so I told him I loved his love song and was so happy he was singing to Nina. Man, I love that kid!!

My Fabulous Four Day Weekend!!

Last Friday I left my children in my husband's capable hands and flew to Maryland to see my wonderful friends out there who I have missed dearly and of course to also go to the So You Think You Can Dance concert in Baltimore with many of them. It was seriously the funnest weekend I've ever had! Thank you thank you to everyone who made it so special for me - all the talking, game playing, yummy food eating, fabulous concert watching, screaming guts out at said concert, hilarious show watching, shopping fun, everything!! It was a BLAST and I have so many fond memories now! I'll post some pictures on here as soon as I nab them off other people's posts, but I just had to do a quick post now to say what an awesome weekend it was! Woohoo!!

Here's the pics I nabbed:

"MAAAARRRRRKKKKK!!!!!"(I love that wack-a-doodle dancer!) This picture was taken by my fellow Mark enthusiast friend, Tracy, at the concert - isn't it awesome!! Seeing the briefcase dance in person was uber cool!!! Oh, and also his Bohemian Rhapsody solo - he's a rock star!

Halloween Festivities

I can't even believe how quickly October went by! We had a fun filled Halloween. Here the list of our festivities:

- Ben and Nina had a playgroup Halloween party with a bunch of kids from the neighborhood. It's nice that our neighborhood has this organized playgroup so I get to know the ladies around here better and the kids get to know the other kids too.

- We went to the ward trunk or treat which is always fun, but we certainly realized just how huge our ward is and how few people we know - it's going to take some time to get to know everyone.

- Last Monday we were invited over by the very kind Miner family to have FHE with them and carve pumpkins. We all had a great time!

- Sophie had her school party, which by her account was very fun.

- Sophie had a daddy daughter activity days Halloween party were they carved pumpkins and had yummy treats.

- Ben had his preschool party which was attended by Nina and me too. Thank goodness for kind preschool teachers who let Nina completely destroy their very organized building block storage system. (They seriously have a picture of the type of block in front of every place on the shelves and Nina pulled all those blocks down unbeknownst to me while I was helping Ben do a mask project. I tried to clean them up, but they told me not to worry... Very sweet teachers!)

- On Halloween we did all our traditional things - chili and hot dog dinner, trick-or-treating, and serious candy munching while watching a pumpkin carving contest on the Food Network. Our kids love the "Challenges" on Food Network! After the kids went to bed Adrian and I continued munching and watched spooky shows on TV.

I love Halloween! The only disappointing thing this year was that we did not get one trick-or-treater at our house due to the fact our lame builder tore up and re-laid cement on our sidewalk and the house next to us the day before Halloween. The caution tapes all around our sidewalk kept all the cute little trick-or-treaters away. Big bummer for me because that is my absolute favorite part of Halloween - passing out candy. Oh well, hopefully next year we'll have a bunch of trick-or-treaters. However, since I didn't need to stick around our house to pass out candy we all got to go trick-or-treating as a family and hearing Nina's sweet little voice say, "Twi a Tweet" was priceless! Ben and Nina went home with Adrian after about a block and I stayed out to canvass more of the neighborhood with Sophie who was all into the quantity of candy she got this year!

Oh my goodness, I completely forgot to even say what the kids dressed up as - Sophie was a witch, Ben was Anakin Skywalker, and Nina was Cinderella. Everyone was very adamant about their costume choices this year and I could not sway them towards any kind of family themed costumes. So at the trunk or treat Adrian wore his Cat in the Hat hat and I wore my cropped bright blue wig. It probably did not help out my getting to know people in the ward wearing blue hair to the trunk-or-treat, I don't think anyone recognized me except the sweet sister I team teach with in primary. Oh well, as the years go by I'm sure the ward will recognize me as the Halloween freak I am.:)

Here's some pics from our Halloween:

A Political Message from Ben

I had to record this hilarious conversation I had with Ben this morning. I had the Today Show on in the background while I was doing all my morning stuff and a Barack Obama commercial came on. Ben came up to me and this was our conversation:

Ben: "Hey that's the guy who approves!"

Me: "What? That's Barack Obama. Do you know who he is?"

Ben: "Yeah, he approves commercials."

Me: At this point I started laughing and said, "Yes, he does approve of a lot of commercials we've been watching lately, hu?! But his name is Barack Obama and he's running for president. Next Tuesday we get to see if he or the other guy who approves commercials, John McCain, is going to be the next president."

Ben: "I like that guy who approves!"

Well, I guess Ben has thrown his hat in for Obama. Hee hee!:)

Recipe Blog

A new blogging hobby of mine is surfing recipe blogs. I love them. Just this week I made some really great wheat dinner rolls and lentil soup from recipes that I've found over the blogs. So in true recipe crazedness I have started my own recipe blog called "A Bear in the Kitchen". Check it out!:)

Fall Break

This week has been fall break around here, meaning Sophie and Ben have been home from school and preschool all week. We're all surviving and at good moments having fun. But. Nina has decided this week to really let her voice be heard and very loudly yells/shrieks "STOP IT!!!" almost all day long. I guess that's what you get when your 9 and 4 year olds (who are probably a bit deaf by now with all the ear piercing Nina screams) constantly take toys from the 2 year old. Adrian says this is all about growing up and teasing and all that, but I say why willing inflict the constant "STOP IT"s on all of us, just leave Nina alone!! Yes, that is what I say pretty much all day.

But it hasn't been all bad. Sophie had a fun playdate yesterday, we all got our flu shots (well that wasn't exactly good, but there was much less crying than I thought there would be), we went and walked around the mall one day, we had Sonic's 1/2 price "happy hour" cherry-lime aids 3 days in a row, and I took the kids to vote early with me. Colorado has lovely early voting places and since I was the only one voting at the time with probably 10 volunteers starved for something to do my kids were very well taken care of while I voted. The volunteers brought them stickers and crayons and coloring pages and talked to them about what they are going to be for Halloween. It was really a very enjoyable experience and I even had a nice "why we vote" conversation with the kids on the ride home. Yay for America and our democratic process!! Then tomorrow hopefully we will have another playdate.(Here's a pic of the kids with the pictures they colored while I voted.)

So aside from all the "stop it"s fall break has been nice. I even found time to finish my book club book for the month, Rebecca, which I enjoyed immensely and is a great Halloween time sort of read! I highly recommend it! I also have Hitchcock's Rebecca and I'm going to watch it really soon - I've heard great things about the movie. But off I go now to watch my favorite Thursday night shows.

Water Goes With Everything

Adrian and I got a babysitter on Friday night and went to dinner and a movie - it was lovely! We went to Ghost Town which I thought was really funny, though it was just us and 4 other people in the theater so obviously it hasn't been the most successful movie. I think Ricky Gervais is hilarious - I love his particular dry and uncomfortable brand of humor.

But the funniest part actually happened at dinner at fabulous PF Chang's. We had a most memorable waiter - he had great spiky hair and started off by saying, "I'm going to bring you guys out some ice water first. I think ice water is so refreshing and is the perfect pallet cleanser. It tends to go with pretty much any dish - spicy, sweet, or savory. How does that sound?" We told him ice waters would be great and then waited until he was gone to have a chuckle. Yes, isn't it strange how water goes with everything??!!:) Oh, it was great and honestly you probably had to have heard him to get the full effect - it was as if he was the first one to think of ice water as an accompaniment to food! And as a side note later in the evening sadly our waiter dumped my very refreshing ice water all over the table. I actually felt really bad for him because he was so embarrassed. It must be hard to be a waiter in that situation. But dinner was not a bust at all, we had the most wonderful Mongolian beef and Sichuan asparagus!! SO good! And it was wonderful to get out. We are so happy to have found a really nice babysitter who lives only 4 doors down, so we don't even have to pick her up or take her home. Nice!

Couch Potato Thursday Nights

Just as an update we did enjoy Eleventh Hour last night. I must admit it wasn't the best pilot I've ever seen, but I think as a series it could be nice. I guess future episodes will tell. I always enjoyed the weekly weird hunts of X-Files and that's what this show seems to be. I was a little miffed that Rufus wasn't using his natural accent, which is awesome, but instead seemed to be pulling an American or country of unknown origin accent. But his voice is still cool no matter what so I'm okay.

Another show we watched last night on our Thursday night of complete couch-potatoness was Life on Mars. I had seen the British version of this show on BBC America once and was intrigued by the concept, but never really watched it again. Well last night's American pilot of the series was really really good. Thank goodness for our DVR because we were able to record both The Eleventh Hour and Life on Mars since they play at the same time. The funniest thing though was seeing Lisa Bonet!! When she came on the screen I kept saying look it's Lisa Bonet! I hadn't seen her since the Cosby Show!

So it seems like Thursday is now our favorite TV night! We have 3 shows - The Office (Meredith!! Oh last night was horribly awesome!!), The Eleventh Hour and Life on Mars - fun for us. What did you guys think of the shows last night??

I hope this show is good!!

So my favorite actor since Tim Curry, Rufus Sewell, is going to be in a new TV series called The Eleventh Hour and it starts tomorrow. (I say "since Tim Curry" not because Tim isn't around anymore, but he's kind of turned his focus to voice work. Which is totally great cause I get to hear him as the librarian in Higgley Town Heroes while watching with the kids. I still love you Tim Curry!!) Anyway, I so hope Eleventh Hour is good. It is suppose to be something between X-Files and CSI... Hmm, might be promising. I just hope it's not gory. I think I need a new show, because House is getting a bit depressing and other than that and The Office it seems like all I watch are reality and cooking shows... Okay, really I don't "need" a new show, but having a show to look forward to, especially one that Adrian can get into as well, is fun to me. I remember how Adrian and I used to look forward to X-Files every week and it was nice to snuggle with my hubby while we both watched something we enjoyed rather than one of us enduring the others favorites. (Hence, my loathing of SciFi Fridays and Adrian's loathing of John and Kate Plus 8 Mondays.:)) Well wish us luck, maybe it will be like recapturing those X-Files nights of yore.

On a side note, Rufus Sewell has been growing on me ever since I saw ShakespeaRe-Told: Taming of the Shrew - have you seen that?? I loved it and laughed through the whole thing. Rufus plays Petruchio and Moaning Myrtle plays Katherina! It really is awesome and hopefully I'm going to be getting it for Christmas (hint hint Adrian). I'm sure even if you haven't seen Taming of the Shrew you know Rufus. He was Seth in Cold Comfort Farm, the bad guy in A Knight's Tale (*sad sigh* Heath Ledger was so cute in that) and lots of parts in British made series and movies like BBC/A&E's Troy and Charles II. He's also been in lots of big movies lately like The Illusionist and Tristan and Isolde. He's usually the bad guy actually, but man he has a cool voice and crazy wide eyes. I like my actors quirky!:)

Tristan and Isolde BTW just happens to be Adrian and my perfect actor-match-movie because it has of course Rufus in it, but also Adrian's favorite actress Sophia Myles. I did not realize Adrian really liked this actress until about 6 months ago when I was going through TV shows and movies that Adrian had saved on our DVR and seriously 4 or 5 of them starred this actress. So funny and I deservedly teased him a lot. (I only had one or two movies at most starring Collin Firth so I had every right to tease him!:)) Sophia Myles was even on Dr. Who so really she is the perfect actress crush for Adrian! We both laughed about it the other night when we watched Tristan and Isolde together and there they both were. As a note, I am completely fine with Adrian liking this chick, to me she is better than Angelina Jolie who used to be his favorite!

Wow, well this post all about Eleventh Hour got all tangenty didn't it??! Funny how far a train of thought can go. Now you all know a little more about me and Adrian than you probably wanted to! Oh well, if not that, what are blogs for??

Donny's Biggest Little Fan

Last year when Nina was just a wee little thing I posted this. Well it turns out our Nina is still a huge Donny Osmond fan!! Tonight, while Adrian's at the Priesthood session of conference, I was watching the Pioneer Day Celebration that was rebroadcast on BYU-TV and Nina spent almost the whole show glued to the TV. She seriously does not usually have this kind of attention span and I am convinced it is because Donny Osmond and the Osmond family hosted the event. Whenever Donny was on the screen she stood right next to the TV and swayed to the music. It was hilarious and I just had to post about it! I don't know if she is the future Osmond fan club director or if I will someday be able to use this post as blackmail.. Either way it is definitely worth remembering!:)

Crafty Measures

I've been trying to decorate the kids rooms with minimal budget effects, so I've turned to crafting... And here's what I made for their rooms:

I made the kids each a Martha Stewart style bulletin board to match their bedrooms. Sophie's is the lavendar one, Ben's room is Star Wars themed (of course :)) so he has the planets one and Nina's room is still Tinker Bell themed so hers is the pink and yellow butterfly one in the middle. It was actually super easy and I learned how to do it at a mother-daughter activity day. The green canvas with flowers is something I painted for Sophie to match her bed spread. I'm not sure I was ready for just how many coats of each color it was going to take to paint it, but after a few days of work on it it was finally done. The green "S" which is kind of camouflaged in front of the bulletin boards was the fastest project and probably only took me 45 minutes to paint.

Anywho, I guess the urge to decorate has driven me to take crafty measures. I am happy to say though that the kids have been pleased with my efforts and Ben is thankful for his Star Wars room every night in his bed-time prayers and that makes me feel happy.:)

Getting Settled

Okay, I have major guilt that I haven't been commenting on everyones' blogs, (so sorry) but I have been reading all the posts and I've been wanting to comment... Soon I'm going to have a real schedule, things are getting much more settled around here and with Sophie and Ben in school and preschool now I know life is going to start getting back to normal. But here's what I've been up to in the mean time:

House stuff:

We got our blinds up finally!! Oh, I can't even say how much of an improvement this has made! And slowly but surely we are unpacking all the rooms. We now just have our room to unpack. Yay for progress.

And here's some house pics:


This loft area upstairs is one of our favorite spaces in the house - it's pretty much a replica of our family room in Maryland, so it feels very comfy and homey to us.

School stuff:

Sophie has been back in school for over a week now and is doing well. Ben started preschool, but promptly got sick so wasn't able to go the rest of the week. The one day that he did go was a good day. His teachers said he had a small break down during snack time, but quickly recovered and honestly I call the first day with only one break down a success. Ben usually had a harder time adjusting to new situations. He couldn't stop talking about preschool and so wanted to go even when he was sick.

My bday:

I am now 31. How did this happen? As if it wasn't annoying enough to turn 30!;) I had a good birthday. Adrian got a babysitter and we found a lovely Japanese steakhouse (my favorite type of restaurant) like a Bennihana. It was SO yummy!! Tepanyaki is still #1 in my book, but this place was a close second. After dinner we went to a movie, House Bunny, which I wouldn't recommend, but had some very funny moments. Earlier in the day I went to the mall and got myself a couple sweater hoodies - happy birthday to me.:) I plan on stretching my birthday out a little though and I'll probably get myself more presents this week. Birthdays last at least a week right?!

Fun night out with Jenny:

Last night it was so fun to have a girls night with Jenny. We went to the Claim Jumper and had some seriously awesome food! I had to laugh and laugh when my dessert, a brownie sundae, came out and it was bigger than my head!!! It was yummy, but I barely made a dent in this beast of a dessert before I was completely stuffed. It was so fun to chat and laugh with Jenny and I can't tell you how grateful I am to have such a great friend here in Colorado!

You can't see Jenny's dessert very well in this picture, but it was also ginormous. The sheer size of our treats made us get out our cel phones to take pictures!:)

Boxes Boxes Everywhere

Wow, I've been missing in action for a while now! It's been a crazy busy time with unpacking and school and preschool starting so blogging has sort of taken a back-seat. It has been hectic, but finally we are starting to uncover our floor at home and in fact the whole main level is unpacked! Yay! We still have lots of unpacking of clothes and books etc. and we haven't even started to think about all the boxes in the basement. Unpacking is so not fun, but hopefully if we keep on plugging away it will be done soon.

Sophie started 4th grade yesterday. She had a good first day and said she made friends and likes her teacher. I got to meet her teacher earlier this week she seems like a wonderful energetic teacher.

Ben went to his preschool get-to-know-you open house yesterday and will start on Monday. He'll be going to preschool at the elementary school that Sophie goes to and he was overjoyed to get a school T-shirt that looks just like Sophie's. There are a couple boys from our ward in the same preschool so that's very happy too.

Nina has been running around like a crazy child going up and down our stairs constantly. My first project was to unpack and fix up the playroom and she loves spending time in there with her play kitchen and all the Barbies or "princesses". She's been much happier since we moved into the house - the extended stay place we were in before did not have a lot of room to play. I think she, Ben, and Sophie will be excited when they put our grass in. That is suppose to happen sometime in the next week or so. I can't wait for the landscaping to get done either actually, it will be so nice to look out and see grass instead of dirt.

I hope to take some pictures of the house soon and put them on here. I know my Mom really wanted to see how the porch and kitchen turned out so stay tuned for an update.:)

This is not what you want to see 2 days after you buy your house!

Holy cow, yes that is a TORNADO!! It touched down literally about 1/2 to 1 mile from our house!!! Can you believe it?? Where did we move to?? I'm a little worried right now, but here's the story...

I was outside with Nina walking around our house, because she loves being outside. Well the sky started to get really black to the East of us and I looked up and saw the clouds swirling together with a needle shaped coming down from the center. I stared at it for probably 10 seconds dumbfounded and then ran to tell Adrian to come and see it. At that point we couldn't see it touching down. Well I went into the house and looked out the back windows and saw it touching down in a big open field in the distance, just stirring up dust. Within minutes though the plum of dust at it's base turned black and it seemed to be getting bigger so I told Adrian we needed to get all the kids in the car and go.... Fast.


During all this we also grabbed the camera because it was just so unbelievable! When Sophie and Ben looked out our back window as the twister started getting closer to us they both got really scared and Ben was saying he didn't like Colorado anymore - poor guy. I tried to reassure him that everything was going to be okay, but both and he and Sophie were pretty shaken. Who am I kidding - we were all pretty shaken. Although Sophie gave us a little comic relief in the car and asked if I was going to blog about it!!:) Once we drove to a safe distance we pulled over like everybody else on the rode and watched it. It had started breaking up by that point and we were just hoping our house would be safe.


And our house is safe. The only damage reported in our area was a fallen tree so everything is completely fine. It's just so crazy isn't it?? Definitely not the kind of thing you want to see out your back window 2 days after you buy your house, but we have found out that damaging twisters are not very common in our area and thankfully that was the case with this one. The tornado that touched down near us was 1 of 3 that touched down as part of a crazy weather front that blew through within about 30 minutes. So we are all safe and sound and grateful that no one was hurt. What a nutty thing!

I See What You Mean

I haven't done an art history pic in a while so I thought today would be a great day to do a piece of art from Colorado.

I See What You Mean, by Lawrence Argent

This huge blue bear peeks in on the Colorado Convention Center in Dever. The artist who created him had this to say about his art,

“My public artworks are part of a larger whole. I am an artist that utilizes assorted mediums and venues to engage the viewer in questioning the assumed and provide a vehicle by which stimulus opens a plethora of responses that defy verbal articulation.”

Nice! I love this bear!! I think it's so visually stunning and fun! I really don't know anything deep about the work at all, but think it is one of the cutest works of installation art I've ever seen. It's not often that you can call of huge work of art "cute", but I think its okay for this one!:) Hope it brings you a smile!

Happy Music

When confronted with a difficult situation in my formative years I would always turn to melancholy music to comfort myself. This included a wide sampling of tunes from Janis Joplin and Patsy Cline to Love and Rockets and of course my ever consistent fave The Cure. I can mark all the hard times in my life with a specific album that I listened to ad nauseum. When I moved in high school it was REM Dead Letter Office ("Pale Blue Eyes" being my very favorite and most likely to be heard on repeat) and The Smiths Best Of Part I. During this time I also made a cheerful (of course not really) mix tape which I named "Still Falls the Rain". I still have this tape and really like it, but it is admittedly a downer. Months later when I had made very few friends at my new school and was a complete loner it was Peter Murphy Deep and other more sinisterly sad music that I turned to. When I broke up with a boyfriend in the first weeks of my sophomore year at BYU I turned to The Cure Wild Mood Swings (mostly the song "Jupiter Crash" listened to a mind-numbing volume which of course drove my long-suffering and country music enthusiast roommates crazy). Okay, enough of that. I'm sure you get the picture... Rough times. Sad music.

Well that was the past... I have turned over a new leaf and I've been listening to happy music!! And what would you know, but it's been really helpful!! Why didn't I think of this before??!! :) I've been focusing on happy music through out our move, even though everyone has been so completely warm and friendly here in Colorado. I guess it's just that new kid on the block feeling that's hard and I know it will pass soon enough. But in the mean time here's a couple of groups that have been helping me with the happy!!

Abba - (We have Abba Gold.) Can you listen to Abba and not be happy?? Especially if you are picturing and almost hearing Pierce Brosnan singing to "SOS"?!! Oh, Abba is awesome! Pierce Brosnan singing Abba is painfully awesome!!:) I still really need to buy the Mama Mia movie soundtrack. I must admit though that I've gotten into trouble with Adrian over Abba lately because I always used to make fun of his love of the Swedish discoers... That was before I went to see Mama Mia. But now I freely admit I'm hooked!! Adrian I am sorry for abusing you when you sang along to "Fernando" those many years ago! I now understand the positive power of Abba and will never make fun of you again!!:) We can both sing along to "Fernando" with gusto!!


Adam and the Ants/ Adam Ant - Seriously another bunch of hilarious smile inducing songs!! Just this morning in the car I was listening to "Stand and Deliver" (click on this link for the 80's-tacular music video). I was singing along like a crazy person - the kids got a kick out of it. "Apollo 9" is great too and another completely 80's video! If you are unfamiliar, Adam used to dress up in full on pirate-ish costume and make-up during their hay-day in the 80's. "Stand and Deliver" is about a flashy highway-man who goes around trying to steal peoples' stuff, but is upset by how badly all his victims are dressed and the horrible music they are listening to... It's pretty funny if you listen to the words. And I honestly wonder if Johnny Depp took some inspiration for Jack Sparrow from Adam Ant's highway-man. My brother introduced me to Adam Ant in the 80's and I remember he had a poster or an Adam Ant album cover on his bedroom wall. Fun memories...What happy stuff do you like to listen to?? This is a new thing for me so I'd love to hear any joyful recommendations you have!:)