Dickens Festival

Ellie's school choir sang at the Dickens Festival on Friday. They were great and when I get a chance
I will try and figure out how to download video onto
this site. Ellie was great despite feeling really sick-she has Bronchitis and Strep throat and is a sick little girl. She ended up in tears in the middle of the performance because she felt so lousy. She sat out for a couple of songs and then was able to sing with the choir for the remainder-brave little kiddo.

Jubilee of Trees

We had so much fun at the Jubilee of Trees. It's an event organized every year to raise money for different programs at the hospital. This year they were raising money for breast cancer. Businesses and (wealthy) individuals donate the trees which are designed and put together by people with more creativity in their little fingers than I have in my whole body. Then they auction off the trees (to more wealthy people) and make a LOT of money. The girls LOVED the trees. Ellie took about 182 photos with my camera. Only featured a few here-thanks Ellie!
Ellie was thrilled to see Santa. Mia was a little confused about the normal protocol. I think she was just excited to get the candy cane at the end... Figures...

Need I say more?...







We LOVED the "Joshua Tree". It was so original-I heard it fetched $9000 at the auction.











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A Coca-Cola tree!!!! Could have picked it up and put it right in the middle of my living room :) Check out the Santa coming down the chimney to grab a bottle. Man after my own heart :)

Mia's Birthday Party!

We FINALLY had a birthday party for Mia about a month late (yeah, it was kind of a crazy month-what's new?). She wanted to go to Jumpin' Jacks and jump around with all her buddies. She had a lot of fun and loved her fairy ice cream cake and all her presents. Her Mom and Dad loved the fact that the kids were not running around their house and creating a huge amount of mess and chaos :)

Yummy ice cream cake...

Liah looking a little freaked out...

The Birthday Girl

Curly Wurly

Ellie got a perm!! On Monday at 3:30 we went to Charlie's who took 4 hours (poor lady) to curl, etc Ellie's long, thick hair. Ellie was a trooper and endured the process without too much complaint, although she mentioned that her bum had fallen asleep after about the second hour :) We're still trying to figure out how to work with the curly wurlies but so far we're loving it!

Happy Halloween!

We had a blast on Halloween! Mia was a witch, Ellie was a
ladybug, Rod was a big
giant, pink whoopie
cushion (laughed until I almost peed myself) and I was a "serial killer". Get it? Hey, it was easy, o.k? We went with Troy and Janae and the girls to Santa Clara. Rod talked Mia into going into the Haunted House which she of course) came out of screaming. But now, a week later, she's talking about it like it was the coolest thing ever. Go figure. Ellie didn't set a foot near the place (since she got scared out of her mind after Rod talked her into doing it 2 years ago...) We stayed outside and ate food that a wonderful group of people put on every year. The girls got a tonne of candy and loved hanging out with their cousins. I have since eaten all the good stuff from their Halloween stash and am eagerly anticipating next year!

T-shirts

Mia being her usual naughty self...

Happy Halloween!!

We kicked off Halloween week with a fun Monday night. We tie-dyed t-shirts and the girls drew on pumpkin faces (got the cool idea from Kaysha who makes these every year). Mia is excited to wear hers to preschool tomorrow where they are going to pick pumpkins. She thinks pumpkins have candy inside them. She's going to have a
rude awakening tomorrow :(

Happy Birthday Mia!!!

Mia had a great Birthday. Hard to believe she is already 4. We decorated her room and woke her up early so she could open presents before she left the house. So, she was pretty tired while opening presents, but struggled through :) She had a lot of fun presents-a dress and candy (all gone) from Auntie Karren, crafts (already assembled :) and an outfit (wore to church last week-very proud of herself) from Grandpa Duane and Grandma Sharen, money from Grandma and Grandpa which she used to buy Beauty and the Beast DVD (already watched 3 times and loving it), and money from Dadcu (used to buy an Ariel doll which she is currently pushing around in a baby stroller and calling Sweetheart). Jo, her babysitter got her princess dressups which she loves and we got her a Littlest Pet Shop house and little Pet shops thingamees. Ellie is thrilled that she has her own Pet Shops so she can "quit messing with my stuff!!" The girls had donuts for breakfast which got the day started just right!

Fall In St. George

YAY!!!! It is FINALLY cooling down. I used to think I would grow to love St. George summers. Maybe when I get my very own swimming pool in the backyard, this will happen. Until then I double hate, triple hate, quadruple hate the summers here. It is just TOOOOO HOT!!!!
But joy of joys, it is only 75 today. Oh joy. The sunflowers are blooming behind our house and it looks soooo pretty. Mia and I went walking and picked some for the house. I pledge to be happy with the weather (until May).

Best Friends

Mia still loves her Minnie Mouse. She's always there-for movies, for breakfast, lunch and dinner, dentist and doctor visits, for church and most definitely for sleep (but not, amazingly, to preschool). We left Minnie at Jo's house last week and she had to wait a little while before we got it back. She was sooooo sad. She told Rod she wanted to suck her thumb. Rod pointed out that her thumb was still attached to her body. She looked at him like he was dumb and screamed "I need my Minnie to suck my thumb!!" We bought a "back-up" Minnie at Disneyland. Mia is not impressed with her.
Hmmmm. This is going to be a hard habit to break. I bought some "Thumbsters" online last week (not here yet) that are supposed to help break the habit. Wish us luck!!

Laboring on Labor Day

We had a busy Labor Day. The girls wanted to do some crafts so we went to Michael's and picked up some things to do. Mia painted scary masks and Ellie made some "cootie catchers", you know, pick and number, then pick another number, then the paper thing opens up and you get a "fortune". They had fun.
Rod started work on my window seat. It is going to be GREAT! I have always wanted a window seat. The cats seem to think it belongs to them, but I shall set them straight :)

We don't need no education (actually, we do Ellie)

First day of 4th grade. Ellie was so excited she just kept skipping around and couldn't focus on a dang thing (like getting dressed and eating breakfast). But we made it to school in one piece, met her new ("It's a MAN mom") teacher and made it through the first day-"It was AWESOME!" Gone is the deer in the headlights look. She is currently reading her Ichabod Crane book and has her uniform laid out for tomorrow (blue shirt, tan skirt and a sweater because although it's an inhumane 103 outside is apparently FREEZING inside). We be gettin' us a good edumacation 'cause as Daddy says "girls go to college to get more knowledge, boys become plumbers to get more dumber"... Happy School Year!!!

The new LOVE of my life... :)

I have the best husband in the world because he gave me a NOOK! It is my all time favorite thing (family, friends, chocolate, Diet Coke and Cafe Rio aside...I think) and my most favorite birthday present EVER!!! It's an electronic device that I can download books onto at the click of a button that says "buy me". So far have downloaded "Confessions of a Shopaholic" (only 89 cents-bargain to have some Brithumor in my life), "Hunger Games" and "Catching Fire" which have led me to have no sleep because I have wanted to stay awake and read for the past week. The instant gratification is awesome, at least until my bank statement comes and I remember that pressing the "buy me" button actually costs money. Ho hum... Still, totally loving the NOOK!!!

We just got back from 5 wonderful days in San Diego. It was so good to get away from the craziness that is our life. The first day we went to Coronado Island. The weather was beautiful, the
sand was golden and the ocean was...well, it was freezing but the kids didn't care. Mia LOVED the sea. She giggled the whole time. Ellie got right in there and got thrown around by the waves and loved every minute of it. She also thought it was fun to chase her Mom around with nasty seaweed. Me, not so much.

On Sunday we visited the Old Town area of San Diego and went to the Mormon Battalion site. It was awesome-very high tech. Mia was the only kid who volunteered to dress like a soldier (she was the littlest one too). The host put a water bottle, a satchel and two other things on her. He stopped at the musket which was probably a good thing because I think she would have fallen over. As you can see, she is less than impressed at her outfit (not enough pink in it).

Look Dad! Cardiff by the Sea! We had so much fun there and it was really beautiful. The
homes are super
expensive and for some reason they do not offer a discount to Welsh people. Rude... We spent our last few hours in Cali by taking the girls to the beach. It was overcast and windy but they didn't care. Rod was brave enough to go swimming with them (good Daddy). I, of course, had more sense and put on a sweater, sat on the beach and read. Mia loved the sand and got covered in it (hair, bum, everywhere.)

We went to Sea World for the day on Monday. It was a last minute decision and the girls were soooo excited (we were less than excited when we found out how pricey it was to
get in...) But, it was a lot of fun. The Shamu show was amazing. We sat in the "soak zone" but actually didn't get wet (much to Mia's dismay :) The people in the first few rows got completely soaked. We also went to an acrobatic show which we loved. We went back to the campground EXHAUSTED...please, no more walking!!

Bingo Rocks!

While we were in Panguitch we went to the Social Hall to play Bingo. We hung out with all the grannies and we rocked! I won two games and the girls picked out the prizes. Then, at the risk of the town turning against the outsiders with the winning streak, we left...