30 minute thoughts

I've been thinking about my new years resolutions this week and seriously considering adding giving up sugar to the list. I believe it's the cause of my headaches and it definitely slows me down in the afternoon. I guess I just need to see if it makes a difference when it's absent from my diet. I'm not going to rule it out completely, I'm fine with dessert or foods with some sugar in it, I'm mainly thinking of candy and all the sugary snacks that have been around lately. Have you ever tried to give up a food? I'm scared.

I'm celebrating the fact that I'm done making/buying Christmas gifts. Ok, I do actually have one more to get, but then all that's left is the wrapping...that is if I can find all the gifts. I put them in so many random places I forget where and just when I think I've wrapped them all I'll remember another. I need a better system.

I'm feeling peaceful. After my anxious week last week it's such a welcome gift.



I'm reading when I shouldn't be. Despite our busy schedule these days we've managed to fit in visits to the library. I've been on such a reading kick these days, such a bad time to start that too, all because of Hunger Games. I had it on hold at the Library and it finally came in so even though it's December and I have a list a mile long of things I need to do I'm finding as much time as I can to read. I guess that's what the wee hours of the night are for. I really love being in that place where you have a good book going and then another and then another and then another. It's crazy, I haven't turned on my TV the entire month.

I'm rescheduling my CT scan to find out what this lump is on my neck. It was suppose to be today, but after registering with the hospital yesterday and finding out it was going to be $800 I canceled it. I considered not doing it at all ($800, that sucks), but I have to find out what this is. So, after all was said and done, I figured if I'm going to use my deductible I should use it in January and not December. At least then if I have to get something else done the insurance can take care of it.

I'm looking forward to crafting my way into the new decade. I received, Martha Stewart Encyclopieda of Crafts last night at our annual bookclub book exchange (Ann brought it). It's crazy what a project funk I was in this year, I don't know what happened. I really want to push myself this next year to do more in my studio. I've missed it.

I'm listening to the quiet and gearing up for it to start getting noisy.

between now and then

dec 15 - Christmas violin concert



dec 16 - RS Christmas party & bookclub
dec 17 - bishopric party
dec 18 - begin celebrating anniversary (couples massage)
dec 19 - anniversary/nephew bday party
dec 20 - my family Christmas party
dec 21 - having missionaries over for fhe
dec 22 - my extended family Christmas party
dec 23 -
dec 24 - Christmas eve party
dec 25 - Christmas

Between now and Christmas I have an evening. Yes, one evening without a prior commitment. I feel strange mentioning it as if the universe will send something to fill it up. It's crazy, I don't remember my Christmas seasons of the past being so full.

My only question is what am i going to do on the one evening off?

so far...

We've been baking,


and they've been helping.


We've enjoy Christmas lights galore.


We've given Santa our Christmas list,


and been an angel in the nativity.


We've partied hard at classic skating [adam took this]


and spent good times with cousins wearing the pjs Nana made.


We've learned how quickly you can make reindeer antlers with panty hose and balloons (Adam's extended family Christmas party),


and squishing each other off the one remaining chair being the best way to win at musical chairs.


I've found subliminal messages from Megan on her board,


and a really cool arrangement of crayons thanks to Tess.


We've enjoyed making and counting down with our advent,


and the changing weather, or not. Man it's been bitter cold.


We've brought home classroom projects,


and a classroom pet...but you already knew that.

...it's been a good month.

christmas tradition | temple lights

The temple lights in something we do every year or have tried to do since we've had children. When I was a little girl my mom and dad had a picture of the temple lite up with Christmas lights and I would look at it all year long so excited for the chance to go and see it in person. I'm not sure if we went every year and certainly once we got older we didn't, but it's something I hope to do each Christmas with my children...there's just something so magical about walking around in that setting surrounded by lights. You can't help, but feel in the Christmas mood after the visit.

This year, like last year, we made the trip with our friends, the Jacksons. It was a perfect evening...the weather was cool, not crazy bitter cold where you can't stand to be outside (like it's been lately), and it wasn't that crowded. Of course the traffic was insane, I guess we should have done our research ahead of time. Unfortunately for us there was a Conference Center concert which made the downtown traffic crazy. What should have taken 15-20 mins on the road, took us 1hr 10mins instead. After a long day that started with our annual family Christmas breakfast I thought maybe the kids would come undone with such a long drive, but we all made it and welcomed the long, but enjoyable walk to Temple Square.

P.S. today is the 12th

[November 12, 2009]

I can't believe it's already the end of the year. I must say I'm so grateful I stuck with this goal to take pictures every month on the 12th because I've really enjoy looking over the year and getting a glimpse into our everyday life.

I found throughout the year I always looked forward to the 12th and was always looking for opportunities to find the little things that differentiated that day for all the others. Some months were easier than others, but really, I didn't mind documenting that some days are very similar. After all that is the way my life is.

I'm definitely going to do it again next year and hope if you were thinking about doing it this year, but forgot that maybe you will play along with me in 2010.

Have a great weekend!

five for friday

1. I actually considered not sending out Christmas card this year...I know, a shock. I love to send and receive them each year, but for some reason I wasn't feeling it. Lack of inspiration and time I guess...I'm going with the latter. I've felt so incredibly busy this season I just don't understand how everyone else seems to be doing it. It's not so much that I'm frazzled as much as I can see the time quickly passing and I'm not even close to being done. Anyway, yesterday I decided Christmas cards are a must since they're one of my favorite traditions, I just won't let it become a stressful part. Twenty minutes on the computer and I was done. Almost. I still need to pick them up and mail them out.


2. We brought home another friend today. Scratch that. We brought home two friends today from school to take care of over the weekend. Toffee and Speckles, Megan's classroom guinea pigs. It's made our Friday early out day quiet for me as the girls have been otherwise engaged. The poor creatures, I hope they don't mind being loved so much.


3. Can you even believe this photo? Leave it to Megan to hide her candy trail behind her dresser. I guess it shouldn't have taken me so long to figure it out, but apparently her bag was never in the pantry like the other girls. I imagine she had a lot of good times in her room with her candy bag. I wonder how many time she sat in her room smiling as she ate candy after candy while she was suppose to be in time out?


4. Last Sunday he left the house at 7:30am and got home at 4:45pm, but he still managed to find time for this. I admire the way he is able to fit it all in.

5. Dare I say I dropped my camera on the ground? Sigh. It wasn't my fault, expect it was. My camera bag was sitting on my jacket, but I didn't realize it and when I pulled my jacket away to put it on I turned at the same time and didn't see my camera come away and fall to the ground until I heard the hit. It was loud, but it was in the bag so I had hopes that all was fine. Well, a hit to the ground is a hit to the ground. I went to our ward Christmas party that night and when I took it out to use it the UV filter on my lens was completely shattered. My heart sank. As far as I can tell nothing else happened, but the filter is so messed up I'm unable to get it off. I keep taking pictures with the lens to make sure it's not ruined and so far so good, but I need to take it in to get the bits of glass cleaned off (I don't dare do it myself) and the filter removed. I feel very lucky it wasn't worse...it couldn't have been very bad.

her point of view

I had forgotten until I actually saw it this afternoon while sorting through some photos that I capture this photo of Bella.



It's one of my favorite shots from our trip to Zion National Park for obvious reasons. I just loved so much that she had her camera with her the whole time and was delighted to see her stop, really look at the scene, and then compose her shot.

She said, "Mom, I'm having a lot of fun taking pictures. It's so beautiful here I'm hardly getting a bad one. I like having a camera."

here are some shots she took:






[i loved that she saw the beauty in the rock and took a close up of it.]




[i think this was the picture she was taking when I took the one of her above.]



I boosted the contrast just a bit because her photos were very flat (not her fault, it's the camera), but other than that the photos are just as I found them....all her. I love seeing the hike from her point of view. She actually took photos of several things I didn't see. I was also quite impressed with her composition...particularly in the first one where she included the curve of the river bank with the water and the 2nd one where the subjects are down in the corner. Very cool.

I really hope she keeps it up. I'd love to share this with her.

it's been one of these days today...

kid craft: sockman

In October the girls and I put together these snowman (aka sockman) thanks to a friend of mine who gave me the instructions. It's actually really easy. All you need is a sock, something to fill the sock with like rice or wheat (i used wheat because I had it on hand), yarn or string, black beads, buttons, orange palmer clay or playdoh, small piece of fabric, and a glue gun or some other adhesive.

here's how you do it.

1) fill up bottom of sock using about 1 1/4 cup of wheat. Take a 3 in piece of yarn and tie a really tight knot around the sock close to where you filled it.

2) repeat step 1 twice for the middle and head. Instead change the cup amount to 3/4 (middle) and then 1/2 (head). note: these measurements may be different depending on the size of the sock you use. Best thing is just to try it out and see what works best.

3) clip the yarn close to the tie so it will get lost in the snowman fold.

4) decorate snowman with whatever you want. We used black beads for eyes to look like coal and buttons on the middle section. We made the carrot nose from rolling palmer clay into a cone and added a few small lines. If you don't have any be create, you could use playdoh or even make home made playdoh with water, salt, and flour.

5) Lastly we cut a strip of a fabric an tied it around head to give the snowman a scarf.

I'm sure there are lots of other things you could do to decorate, but we just made it quick and easy with stuff we had on hand.

.

My girls had a really great time with this project mainly because they could do so much of it and they were making a "new friend" (their words). The hardest thing for them was to tie the yarn tight. The other thing I helped them with was the glue gun...they were a little intimidated by the heat. My kids were very proud of their creations and spend a good amount of time playing with them the following weeks. Now they are part of the decorations.

Enjoy!

PS after doing this project I realized I need to be much better about finding projects we can do together like this. We had such a great time. If you have any ideas or know of a good website please share. Thanks. Have a great Monday.

four for friday

We are Christmasy around here and have been since Sunday evening. We pulled out all the decorations from the attic, fixed some lights that I knew had died on the tree last year, and search one by one through the boxes for Christmas treasures. It's always so enjoyable discovering what it is we have and seeing which decoration the kids are draw to and have memories about from the previous year. Always make for good story telling during the decorating.



Last night I went with Hannah, Shelley, and Jenica to the Beehive Bazaar. I have never been before and unless Hannah encouraged me to go out last night I probably still wouldn't. It was a lot like a boutique, everything hand crafted, but on a larger scale. I was hoping there would be a lot more variety, but it seemed like there were tons of hair accessories. Of course there were companies like Isabell's Umbrella whose simplicity and cleanness I couldn't help be drawn to. I was also really fond of candacejean.com art, particularly this one. I also was fond of these.


[ps meg took this]

I started the crochet hat pattern I bought last night and finished it up this morning. After knitting for so many years I'm always amazed at how much faster crocheting is for me. Of course it doesn't hurt that I was using a size K hook and a worsted weight yarn. Anyway, i think the pattern is cute and easy to follow, but the size 3-8 years old, which I made, as you can see fits me not Megan. It was way too big, but I knew it would be after the 5th round. I'm going to try the smaller size to see if I have any more luck with it.

If you can tell from the photo above of me that I've been battling cold sores since last Saturday. I woke up with about 5 or 6 on both my top and bottom lip and after a few days it went inside my mouth. It was pretty bad and since I wasn't home, out of town for thanksgiving, I didn't have my medication so I had a dentist friend call some in and it cost me $130 for ointment and pills. I was bummed, but you know when you're in a lot of pain and you don't really care you just want the relief...that's how I was feeling. I cried a few days after that thinking of all the gifts I could have bought with that money.

one thing leads to another

It really is such a delight to finally have a day at home. Although, I have a lot on my plate and more to accomplish then I actually have time for, I am happy to be doing it here in my cozy home. I've got my hot chocolate ready, good scents filling the house, the sounds of holiday music, Christmas light glowing, and a play date for Megan.

It gearing up to be a fantastic day.

.....................................................................................................................................

That was at 9am this morning. I should have known when I sat down to blog my time would be directed elsewhere. How in the world does the day get away from me? I can't believe it's 12:20pm, Megan and her friend are finally off to school, and I haven't got much to show for my morning.

The internet can be a dangerous place. One minute I'm working on gift tags, then I get a great idea for a gift and begin to research it before I forget, which takes me to goodreads. The next thing I know I'm reading friend reviews and updating my book list. I then go to my local library site to find those book to place on hold, then my laundry peeps and I put wet clothes in the dryer. When I come back I check my email which takes me to facebook and I'm making plans for the evening and checking updates. My mom calls to give me her update on the zhu zhu pets so then I'm off to look at different websites including overstock.com to see if I can find anything online. While I'm doing this Robyn texts me and says she may have found me one (what a gem) so I stop looking and return back to my email. My email again leads me to etsy and I begin to look for patterns for crochet hats. I'm in the mood to make something with yarn. I find this pattern and buy it (thought meg the hat lover would enjoy it). At this point the plumber comes, thank goodness, to interrupt this crazy cycle and puts me back on track. Phew! Apparently with the internet one thing leads to another and suddenly several hours have passed and I'm left wondering, what have I spent my time doing.

I'm definitely disappointed in my morning (I don't like to just get lost), and it started out so promising too. Oh well, what's done is done. Right now I'm off to save my day by getting something else done.

PS at least I figured out the gift and put in a load of laundry...that's something right.

zions: a photo essay

I can't remember the last time I went to Zions National Park so the whole experience felt completely new to me. It was an amazing day to hike and be outside, I think it was around 65 degrees. Simply beautiful.


entrance


it was actually quite busy so we waited at least 20 minutes in the car to get into the park.


waiting for the bus to take us up


these two trying to decided which hike to go on.


amy&simone on the bus ride


the hike




occasional stop for a photo op. Adam's taking the photo for Bella.


Estee kept doing these funny poses.












there was a portion of the hike where we had to make our way through the mud. Thank goodness for a railing.


I would have loved to see this view at the height of fall, but I still thought it was amazing.


one of the coolest things was how the leaves embedding into the road as the cars have driven over them.




the kids were all mesmerized by the deer who walked not 10 feet away from them.