Summer Day 2

The view from my "office" today.


Overcast weather, friends over to play, hot dogs on the grill, afternoon swimming, piano lessons, Rock Band. I remembered today just how much work it is to be swimming twice a day. So.Many.Towels.And.Swimsuits. Oh, the laundry ....

Summer Day 1

Playing catch up, friends over for playdates, noodle fights, and lots of trampoline time ... with the hose.

Help a Girl Out

My dearest blogging friends, blog followers, and commenters,

I love you all. I would love to respond to all of your comments. I would love to keep track of all of your personal blogging. The problem is, I also like to streamline my process. I {as many of you} have my blog set up to e-mail me when someone leaves a comment. The easy thing to do would be to hit REPLY from that e-mail so I could reply directly to you about your comment rather than leaving a comment on my blog in reply to your comment, realizing you will likely not come back to the comments to read my reply. Have I lost you? My smarty pants friend Brenda (also known as the Techie Geek Mom) tipped me off to how to fix this {since she couldn't reply to my comments via e-mail} and it has been a joy for her (and me) ever since! Run on over and read this post, follow the directions to enable your profile, and I will love you even more. Forever and ever. And I will reply to your comments when you choose to make them.

Now, for those of you who have private blogs, there is one downfall to your privacy ... no feed to Google Reader. I have found that the easiest way to keep track of the blogs that I read is to keep them all in my Google Reader. I do have an easy solution to this problem {you wanting your privacy and me wanting to know when you post without having to go looking for updates} ... add me to your BlogSend e-mail list in Blogger. I did this with my mom (who never checks my blog) so now she gets an e-mail every time I update - she loves it!! You can do this for up to 10 people within Blogger so if you have other friends or family that are too lazy to check your private blog {I have 3 different Google profiles and one non-Google address and can only log into your blogs from whichever one I was invited through ... I often can't remember}, you can add them, too - and they will thank you for it! Here's how you do it:
Log into your blog dashboard, click on the Settings tab, select E-mail and Mobile, and enter my e-mail address in that very top box. I'm attaching a screen shot so you can see exactly what it should look like {right down to my e-mail address} ... you're welcome ;) Click picture to enlarge and read the details clearly.

WOW ... now I feel like a demanding diva! Guess that's what happens when you go back to bootcamp after 2 weeks off and every muscle in your body hurts - you want other people to make your life easier. Oh, who am I kidding? It has nothing to do with my aching muscles. I'm just a diva.

Christmas 2010

So, today was Christmas. How did that happen? I know I blame a lot of my current *ACK* state to my kitchen disaster {turned blessing}, but losing out on almost 6 weeks right before Christmas really has a way of wreaking havoc on one's perception of time!

We have a standing rule in our house that we do not begin Christmas festivities before 8 AM. Period. The children are up well before that, but we keep them sequestered in the playroom until we can get our wits about us, get the cameras ready, and get them lined up and ready to go downstairs to where the *magic* has happened ;)

Santa did not disappoint this year. Our Christmas seemed "smaller" because our kids already have every gadget that kids their ages could want {iPod, camera, DS, etc}. It felt strange to not have more "big ticket" items, but it was so nice to get back to the "basics" of clothes, games, and the more simple things ... they have been WAY too spoiled the past few years! Funny thing is they were smiling, laughing, and enjoying themselves just as much if not more. Rather than being connected to their new "devices" they were playing games together. BLISS for a mama to see!

Steve surprised me with the Silhouette Craft Cutter I'd been wanting and I got him an iPad ... not really a surprise because I can NEVER surprise him, but he plays along very well ;)

Just a few more pics of the unwrapping frenzy ... gotta love that it takes hours (for Steve) to wrap everything and about 15 minutes for everything to be torn apart!!

We spent time in the morning playing games and eating our traditional breakfast Strata casserole ... YUM!

We laid low for a while, ate snacks and treats, watched Despicable Me, and decided it was time to open my birthday gifts!! I am a lucky girl to celebrate my birthday on Christmas. Most people think it would be awful, but I've never known any different and everyone has always done a great job to differentiate between the two celebrations! I received lots of wonderful things, money, and some gift cards - can't wait to shop some more!!

I just have to show off a bit of Steve's creative side while I'm at it ... he knew I wanted to get a new pair of jeans from the Buckle but also knew that buying jeans is not an easy task - certainly one he didn't want to take on by himself ;) So he gave me cash to buy them and made this fancy "buckle" out of cardstock to hold the money!! Isn't he the best?!?

Next it was time to take Aunt Kris to the airport so she could head home. We are so glad she was able to be with us this year to help us celebrate the season!!

Since we chose to eat our "holiday feast" a few days early this year, I decided that making one of my fave dinners was in order for my birthday ... homemade pizza, of course! The kids made their own and I decked one out for Steve and myself. Yum-O!!

After dinner we had the Wilsons over to share in some birthday cake and ice cream - what better way to start winding down a fabulous day?!? Texas Sheet Cake and Peppermint Ice Cream were the perfect way to celebrate!

A few more minutes for games and light saber fights before calling it a night ... what a fun and fabulous day!

Did I mention that it was my birthday? I turned 39 today. I'm not living in denial of it. I'm not even dreading the idea that I'm turning 40 a year from today. Life at 39 is pretty darn good. I look forward to seeing what the next year holds in store!!

On the Fourth Day of Christmas ...

It rained.

We started the day early by making a batch of Addiction for Brinley to take to her math class. They could make a recipe for extra credit showing the calculations to double or triple the amounts and then share it with her class ... aren't they lucky? I haven't done hardly any baking yet this year due to the kitchen disaster of 2010. Good news on the horizon, though - countertops go in tomorrow, plumbing will be done Saturday {dishwasher, sink, disposal, RUNNING WATER} just in time for company to arrive on Sunday, and they will be here to finish up and clean the tile (and grout *WOOT*) on Monday!!! Don't worry ... pictures will follow ;)

I headed into Ashton's class to help with some Christmas crafts today. She is a lucky girl to have such cute and sweet friends! I had so many kids come up that were excited to see me ... I love that! I also got to stay and enjoy the holiday feast with her {although I didn't eat - I had a lunch date with my guys right after and Chipotle sounded way better than the ham and tamales they were serving}!

As I was frantically preparing food for my Bunco hosting duties tonight, a sweet girl from my ward stopped by to drop off some goodies, a Christmas card, and a darling thank you gift. I didn't feel I had done anything "worthy" of a thank you, but as I read her note I was humbled by her overwhelming thoughtfulness and gratitude toward me. It reminded me that I need to take more time to express my own gratitude for others and the impact they have on me ... not just for the big things that we might normally show our thanks for. It was just what I needed and I will definitely go back to her note when I need a pick me up!!

Then it was off to Bunco! I was invited to be part of a Bunco group several months ago and it is such fun - I had never played before that!! I chose to host in December because it is the one month out of the year that I feel like my house has any style. This was, of course, before things fell apart in the kitchen! Lucky for me, my dear friend Beth came to the rescue and offered for me to use her house ... even nicer since she's not even in the Bunco group!! I convinced her to sub for another girl who couldn't make it this month. We made Cafe Rio salads and fruit salsa along with lots of peppermint goodies and some amazing peppermint oreo brownies that Beth made.

I made a little gift for the girls, too. I had been wanting to make a little something and I knew I also had teacher gifts, office gifts, and friend/neighbor gifts to make, so I worked and created my very first subway art {inspired by so many designs that I had seen online}!! I love the way that they turned out and I can't wait to give them out to everyone else ... hope they like them!!

I asked if everyone would be okay with bringing donations this month rather than bringing gifts to hand out after play. Everyone was on board and I talked with the nurse at one of the local high schools (after being tipped off that there were some specific needs there) about what could be used. We decided to collect lots of hygiene products - pads, tampons, shampoo, lotions, soap, deodorant, combs, brushes, etc. These will go to help students in our area who are homeless, displaced, or without some of these everyday basics. It felt so good to gather everything up in my car tonight and I can't wait to deliver them to the school tomorrow!

While I was at Bunco, Steve attended Brinley's "regular" band concert. She has been playing the french horn for months now and is improving as she practices! She really seems to enjoy it and I'm sure she did a great job!

Dance Recital Followed by Coldstone

These girls danced their hearts out ... I love to watch them!! Miss Denise is the best dance teacher around and they love her! The Wilsons invited us to ice cream after which was, of course, a no brainer considering the company and the treats. I got cheesecake ice cream with raspberries and oreos. I want to go back tomorrow for more.