Wednesday, December 29, 2010

This year I read 48 books. Out of all those books, here are my top 3.

Hunger Games - I know who hasn't read this book. It seems like it was a long time ago when I read this but it was just January. I also loved the 2nd book - Catching Fire. Strongly disliked Mockingjay.Sarah's Key - Loved this book. It's one of those books that stays with you for the weeks after. Such a good book.

This year we received 125 DVDs in the mail. Wow! I didn't think the number was that high. Going over the list we saw a lot of duds. Well out of those here are my favorites (keep in mind I've become an Anglophile so most are BBC films).


Okay so I've shared some of my favorites of 2010 let me know what you read/watched this year that you loved. Especially books because lately I'm in a book funk.

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Twas the Trip Before Christmas

The week before Christmas we finally went on vacation. We went to Legoland, Carlsbad Beach and Disneyland. The weather was absolutely perfect while we were there and I was glad it cooled down because it was very hot that first day.




Logan loved Legoland. He had to wear Dad's aviator glasses while flying the plane (Addy please notice Tad's glasses they no longer look like girl glasses).





Logan loved seeing the 'real' Bob. When we got to Disneyland and saw Buzz Lightyear he said, "It's the real Buzz like the real Bob!"



He got to see Aladdin. His favorite ride was Peter Pan and he loved the roller coaster at Legoland because Tad told him it was the Dinosaur Train.










We missed Woody every time but Logan loved shooting Jessie with his Buzz blaster



We went with Tad's sister's family and we got into Disney for free because of them. It was the best present and we had so much fun with them.
Here is Logan with Santa at The Grand Californian. Tad had to prop him on the chair because Santa didn't really have room on his lap.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Ski Day


During Thanksgiving two of the cutest guys went skiing - Logan and Miles. I love that everyone makes sure they match each other. I'm sure that's so they could pick up more ski bunnies.
Lo with his new goggles. He might be even worse than his daddy in thinking he needs new skis each season. When mommy was getting her new boots and skis a little boy was having an absolute fit because he wasn't getting anything but goggles.
Then the tantrum extended because we didn't go skiing that day but it was the beginning of October. Like father, like son.







Miles shredding the pow pow.
Remember these two because in 15 years they'll be the stars of the World Cup.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

I'll Be Back Again Someday

I know everyone is busy so can’t use that excuse. I guess blogging has dropped on my priorities. Tad’s been doing his internship with Jr. Jazz so he’s been gone a couple nights each week and then on the weekends he’s off skiing (working). If you wondering, no I don’t really see him but ski season ends in April. I've really enjoyed all the Logan time I've had though.

I’ve got tons to post for Christmas ideas but it will just have to wait. Work is calming down for a little bit (I may have just jinxed myself). I volunteered to do the Ward Christmas decorations again this year and have to have those done by Thursday. Tonight after Logan goes to bed I’ll be having a spray painting party. I’ve got a bunch to do before another deadline of Saturday. Primary fliers to create and deliver. Also where have all the weekends gone? I was kind of in a melancholy funk this weekend so that really ate up my motivation. Don’t worry nothing personal or to worry about just something that had me down.

Since I need a photo and something a little uplifting to this post, I did make it to the American Craft Warehouse Sale. I love their products and love this sale. I REALLY love their binders. So you should check it out, it’s worth the drive down to The UC (Utah County).

Also Heartland Paper is going out of business. I know kind of sad (depending on if you are Sabrina or Tad) but all their stuff is marked down 20%.

December POTM
Someone asked me whatever happened to these. Well I’ve kind of done them but also really failed miserably. I do have a December POTM but I’m letting my deadline be January 4th because I’ll need at least a full day to work on it so may have to use that Monday off as one. Also I know this will sound lame but I can’t tell you what it is. I’m weird and want to surprise Tad with it. I’ll probably be the only one in the family or elsewhere that thinks it’s cool.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Sunday, November 21, 2010

End of Season


This Summer was the first Summer I'd ever done a vegetable garden. I wasn't expecting anything because we've done tomatoes for years and never had success. I all ready can't wait for next Spring to do another garden. I loved it. Even though a lot of my plants (peppers) didn't give us anything I'll let you see that we still had plenty of produce.


Yes I know I'm a nerd that I kept track of every single thing that was harvested. Also all these numbers are low because there are some days I forgot and 2 weeks that veggies were picked but I was out of town.
Yellow Squash (1 plant) = 38
Hot Peppers (1 plant) = 74
Tomatillos (1 plant) = 111
Regular Tomatoes = 191
Grape Tomatoes = 610
Sun Sugar Tomatoes (small yellow cherry tomatoes) = 924
No wonder I’m sick of tomatoes and why in the end of September I cut up my sun sugar plant.

Again I can’t wait for next Spring and trying some new plants and eliminating a few I tried this year.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Thanksgiving Decor

I printed these off of Craftily Ever After. They have a couple different printouts so if you want to download one just scroll down through her blog to find one you want. I changed the bottom one because I wasn't in love with the one she posted. This was super simple and so easy to do.

Then I had this small frame above my sink that I needed to put something in it. There are two different designs at Second Sister and they are actually candy wrappers but it worked for my frame too.





Then I had to include a couple other shots around the front room. I'm pretty proud of those little pumpkins. They are all from my garden (I had 13 total). They were grown from seed and if you remember that was a resolution of mine last year.



Then I had to do one of Martha's monogrammed pumpkins. I also painted another pumpkin with a black square of chalkboard paint so I could write on it. The photo didn't durn out though.


Friday, November 12, 2010

Noice Family



A couple weeks ago I took the photos of the Noice family. After I took these photos I noticed I take their pictures every other fall. I joked with Brek that I don't have to do this again till 2012. hee! I'm totally kidding, I love taking their photos and love this family. I'm glad their our friends.

So do you have your Christmas photos done? I don't and so don't want to go out in the cold to do them either. Hmm I guess I shouldn't have procrastinated.

Are you sending out homemade cards this year? My goal is to have my done by the end of November because December is going to be crazy. Anyone want to have a craft night? We'd just bring stuff we need to work on for the holidays (like our Christmas cards)? Let me know and maybe next weekend or something.









Monday, November 8, 2010

Feed Me

Okay so I’ve signed up for the Bountiful Baskets here and there. It’s a great deal and you get TONS of veggies and fruit but I hate that you never know what you are getting. I didn’t think I was picky but I’ve found when it comes to veggies/fruit I’m VERY picky. This week was the worst week for me. I only sign up every other week because it’s just a lot of produce for our family. Here is where I need your help, this week I’m really struggling with finding something to make with what I have. If you have a recipe you love or heck even looks good and you want to try please send it to me. Below are the items I’m working with.
  • Persimmon (yeah never heard/seen these things before)
  • Swiss Chard
  • Brussels Sprouts
  • Cauliflower
  • Pears
  • Asian Pears

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Happy Halloweenie!

We had a halloweenie roast in our backyard. I wasn't the one who sent out the email but the person that did made costumes a requirement. We had 3 dragons and a princess. I couldn't believe all the dragons.
Halloween is my friend Brandi's birthday. She throws a fit if we don't make a big deal out of it. ;) Well years ago Erin made a pinata of her head that we used, so a pinata has kind of become a Halloween tradition. She said we couldn't make a pinata of her head so I found this pinata and since this is her unofficial title in the dance community it worked.
Luckily Erin was there to break open the pinata with her flailing. I think we all about lost it when she whacked herself with the bat.




Joe even showed up to the occasion. If you are in need of a dentist call him, he's a great dentist - Willowcreek Dental.


Thursday, October 28, 2010

Logan's Pirate Party

This month we had Logan’s 3rd birthday party. It was a pirate party which if you have an October birthday I recommend because it’s easy to find lots of pirate décor.

For his party I was going for simple. I guess this year I’ve kind of gone over the top on some parties and just wanted something pretty simple. I made the garland with patterns I found online or Paper Crave or the blue stripes and red polka dot, I just created in PowerPoint. Easy. Then I had my mom sew them together since I was busy and she’s nice.

We mostly just had a lot of skeletons because lots of the pirate décor is very cheesy. Most of the stuff came from Dollar Tree.

Even some of the guests dressed up for the party and Logan loved it.

Is it just me or do 3 year olds have too much stuff? I had no idea what to get him. I felt pressured that we had to get him something huge but honestly I can’t think of anything out there that he’d love or need. He loves everything he got and was so excited he wouldn’t nap and got up at 5:30 the next morning because he just wanted to play but I’m glad I also went simple on his gifts. Now I need to rack my brains for Christmas because he seriously doesn’t need anything.

I got a Diego digital camera off eBay. He loves it and uses it all the time. I’m just glad he’s not using my camera. It was brand new but I got a sweet deal so I won’t feel bad if it doesn’t work in a month or that it takes crappy pictures. He loves it. We also got a bunch of books (his all time favorite things) and Paint with Water books. He loves to paint and Nan has run out of pages for him to paint from our books when we were kids. I got them on Amazon but it’s crazy how expensive some of them are.

Then we had a piñata filled with more candy and prizes and the kids loved that.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

PaperCrave/Domestifluff

While preparing a post about Logan's birthday and looking for a link I was checking out Paper Crave again. Paper Crave has some of the cutest downloads and crafty ideas. Like seriously isn't this 13 Day Advent calendar the cutest. Actually the nest would look great for an upcoming baby shower and those book paper trees - so cute (might have to rethink the church Christmas party).

Domestifluff is the craftier/recipe side of her graphic design site. She has tons of yummy looking recipes and a lot of them are gluten free. Usually gluten free stuff doesn't look worth it but her recipes looked awesome.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Halloween Advent - Crafting Chicks


I had this idea last year to do a Halloween advent. I’m sure it wasn’t my idea but honestly can’t remember who inspired this. Well like most projects I didn’t finish it in time for last year. So this summer I finished it up so I could use it this year.

In case you want some more Halloween ideas check out the two following blogs.

Crafting Chicks

Eighteen25

Both blogs have been posting a Halloween craft almost every day since the beginning of September. Also both these blogs have tons of fun kid projects and crafts throughout the rest of the year that I’ve used. Enjoy.



Saturday, October 16, 2010

Summer 16 List

I really should have change the tag to Summer 16 because it wasn’t all around Utah. This was seriously the best idea I had this year. I loved how we had all these places we wanted to go so it kept us from just staying home and working in the yard or doing nothing. We got out and did something. Okay so here is our list (two things we didn’t get to but they are on the top of our list for next year).
Bear Lake
Yellowstone
Jackson
Cecret Lake
Zoo
This Is the Place

Eat a frozen treat at Pace’s Dairy Ann
PCMR/El Chubasco
Legacy Parkway
Castle Park
Ogden Dinosaur Park
Eat China Platter in the park (my new favorite place to eat Chinese food)
Snowbird
Silver Lake
Ensign Peak

Salt Lake County Fair

The two places we didn’t get to that we’ll do next year are Red Butte Gardens and bike the Park City Rail Trails. Although our list changed a little bit from when I first wrote it for the most part we did everything I wanted to do.

I picked up Brandon Grigg, Utah Curiosities, at the library last month that if you wanted to come up with your own list, this book would totally help. This book is great and Tad even read the whole thing. It doesn’t have your typical places in Utah that you’ve all been to but odd places you’ve probably never heard of. I’ll probably check this book out again to come up with my list for next year. I know Gilgal Gardens is on our list (it just sounds too weird not to check out).

I loved this idea and loving the mini book I’ve been making so much I’ve jumped on the December Daily album that Ali Edward’s has done for the last few years. I always watch and think it’s a great idea but this year will be the year I participate. Even though I’ve got a trial and vacation planned during that time I’m still going to do this.

I’d love to hear places out and about that I should check out for next year’s summer activities.
Gotta go I've got a pirate party to attend to.

Friday, October 15, 2010

Snowbird - Octoberfest Edition

This was the last of our Utah 16 Summer activities. So we didn’t make it there till September but I’m counting it. We made our annual trip to Snowbird. We usually go with Teisha’s family but she was too busy her last trip to Utah so we went with my parents.

Oktoberfest was going on up at Snowbird so there were a lot of people up there but surprisingly they were only in the tents/eating area.







Yes, that would be my parents on the zip rider. Logan was so sad he couldn’t do that but it just gave him more time on the alpine slide.


















We went to the top and while up there they had alpine horn players. I like this photo even though it’s out of focus. It kind of makes it more like they are straight off the Swiss Alps rather than college kids in lederhosen (one of the guys reminded me of my neighbor Chase, I’d totally see him doing this).

We’ll totally be back to the bird next year. I’ll post a list of all our Summer 16 activities tomorrow.