Christmas with cousins...

Pretty much there isn't anything better than running around all day with your cousins! Every morning and after every nap Ellee jumps up and asks for her cousins... even now after they've been gone for 3 weeks! So here are a few of our Christmas Eve/cousin time shots for your viewing pleasure!

Ellee was a perpetual blur the whole vacation! So this picture isn't too crazy... it is actually right on.

Christmas Jammie! Complete with homemade freezer paper stenciled shirts!

Lots more to come sometime...

Tummy Time!

Ellee thought tummy time looked kinda fun, so decided she needed some tummy time next to her brother! Will thought it was pretty cool too!

Not so jolly after all...

Now this isn't the first time that Ellee has met Santa. In fact, she has met him more than 4 times in her short life. However, this is the first time she's met him since she has been 2... and that pretty much says it all. Santa himself was great and not too in your face friendly, but just the perfect amount of Jolly. Ellee was very excited to go see him and sit on his lap and say Ho Ho Ho with him and maybe even get some candy. That is until we were walking toward him. She was a little nervous, and then she got super freaked out when he waved to her. She refused to get even within 15 feet of him and even then was clinging on to me for dear life! This is her hiding from this scary guy!


Will pretty much was expressionless during the whole thing... I couldn't even get him to smile! Too much to take in I guess.


Donna and I laughed so hard at Ellee's reaction (though not unexpected) and Donna suggested through her laughter that we make sure we get a picture of Ellee screaming next to Santa! So Donna swooped her up and took her literally kicking and screaming while I snapped some shots!


Maybe we'll try again another time... and maybe she'll be more curious... if she isn't scarred from this first time!

Halloween Festivities 2008

I know. I suck at blogging. But my kids are cute!
I love taking pictures.
I love looking at them.
I love editing them to see what kind of masterpiece I can turn them into (as if the subject isn't enough...).
I love everyone else to see my pictures...

but...
I hate deciding which ones to post.
I hate cropping them.
I hate uploading them.
I hate explaining them.
I hate how I spend hours upon hours doing all of the above, causing me to sometime maybe possibly neglecting other responsibilties (e.i. laundry, dinner, diaper changes...).

I get so wrapped up in what I am doing that I forget about life around me. So, in my resolve to finish the never ending chores that are laundry, dinner and diaper changes, I have decided to cut back on my daily allocated computer time. For me that means getting more done elsewhere, but for you, and I apologize, that means less posts (not that you expect much from me anyway). So since I have already wasted 10 minutes of my dinner prep time explaining how I suck at blogging... here are some pictures of my family at the pumpkin patch this lovely autumn season.

Notice how my 2 best men match, but in reverse of each other!!!

Devn has always had a flair for fashion!

These are the spooky Halloween cupcakes that we made for ayummy treat... they even have an orange colored creme filling!

My 2 cuties on Halloween, can you tell Ellee loves her brother!
She has a fascination with his hands...


Our fairy butterfly princess...

Can you tell that Ellee was loving second in this costume and spent every minute absolutely loving life!!!
Will is a ghost floating through the night sky (which is me, can you see the stars on my head? I was also covered with sparkles which were all the other distant stars that just twinkle at night).

Even the dogs got to join the door to door fun... as jack-o-lanterns!

And since Devn was the designated dog walker, he had to match.
And you can't miss Jeff as PeeWee Herman... it was pretty sweet, we'd get up to the doors and while people were trying to figure out who he was dressed as, we'd start singing the "Tequila" song while Jeff would do the PeeWee dance... then they'd get who he was!

Girls Trip: NYC Style

So 2 weeks ago, I was able to attend a friends wedding in Manhattan with my best friends from our high school days. We did so much and had so many pictures that posting them has overwhelmed me... thus I am bloglifting the following post from my dear friend Leslie's blog. She has done an excellent job explaining and describing so if you'd like to read about the trip... read on. If you'd prefer a quicker recap, scroll down and glance at the pictures and you'll get a good idea about how the wedding and trip went! Thanks again Leslie!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From the words of Leslie:

WARNING: Extremely long post!!!!

I grew up in Wisconsin where the LDS population was slim. I was the only active LDS person in my first high school of 2,000 kids. The only LDS kids I hung out with were the friends I made at church. Therefore I had my "school" friends and my "church" friends. There were three girls in particular that I really hit it off with at church. It didn't take long before we were nicknamed the "Fearsome Foursome." We had thousands of sleepovers, went on group dates together, went to each other's high school dances, cried on each other's shoulders, went to each other for advice, shared tents at girl's camp, got yelled at and punished at girl's camp together ("bad choices girls!"), laughed, danced, and did incredibly silly if not stupid things together. Through the years we've transformed. Two of us are stay-at-home moms, one is a New York City career woman who just added "wife" to her description, and one of us is an incredibly bright and promising BYU graduate seeking the perfect job. We've all changed through the years, but when we get together it's as though nothing has really changed at all. We're able to transform right back into the four silly girls we once were. The Fearsome Foursome (Abby, Lauren, Mim, and yours truly) had the opportunity to get together again in New York City to celebrate Mim's wedding. It was a so much fun! I'm so grateful Jim was willing to take time off work to become Mr. Mom for a few days while I went gallivanting around New York with some of my best friends. I really appreciate it because I had a great time! We took so many pictures and did so much (we were TOTAL tourists) that I'm afraid this will be a rather long post. Abby and I flew out of SLC together, Lauren flew out alone. When we arrived at JFK Abby and I were ready to tackle the subway system. We were pretty naive about it. Abby read that from JFK to the Manhattan area it should only take around 65 minutes using the subway. So, on we hopped and soon realized the subway system is a bit more complex than we first thought. We also realized that we had no map. I called the hotel and asked what we should do and they replied, "Get on the A train and transfer to the R train." "GREAT! Sounds easy enough." Thought I as I hung up. Two seconds later I thought, "Okay, what?" Abby and I navigated the subway system sans map or help for about 3.5 hours before we made it to our designated exit. It was quite the adventure, and between transferring at least a half dozen times we're pretty sure we saw ALL of New York from underground. However, we were pretty proud of ourselves when we made it. Also, we learned some valuable lessons, and didn't really have any troubles with the subway the rest of our trip. We felt like experts towards the end. Poor Lauren was waiting for us at our hotel's lobby for who knows how long. However, the Crowne Plaza Times Square just renovated and they had a pretty nice lobby, so she didn't mind too much. Here are the first few pictures of our trip. They include Abby and our first subway train of the trip, us modeling our hotel room, and a view from our hotel window (41st floor!!). This was the cross street our hotel was on. Lauren, Abby, and I all wanted to taste some real New York pizza, the kind that your have to fold to eat. So, night one we found this GREAT pizzeria! John's Pizzeria was the way to go. Then we walked around Times Square and took some touristy pictures. When we got back to our hotel we called Mim who was ready for some serious pre-wedding girl talk. The four of us caught up on our lives, giggled, and talked until it was way too late. It was so nice. It was also our only chance to hog Mim all to ourselves before her big day. The next morning we woke up later than planned, took some pictures from our hotel room, and Lauren became a Crowne Plaza model as she emerged from the bathroom wearing the hotel's robe. We had a little photo shoot with Lauren before we left to explore the city.I took this pictures just for my NBA-loving husband. Does it scream "tourist" or what?The first place we stopped on Thursday was the New York Stock Exchange. There were news crews EVERYWHERE! It was pretty great to see such a historical place. We took some pictures by the George Washington statue as well. Lauren and I did our best to pretend to be those crazy stock people who wave their fingers around. After the New York Stock Exchange we wandered towards the pier and gazed at Lady Liberty. Pretty sweet. The picture in the middle below is Abby looking at a subway map. She was our navigator for most of the trip. I really appreciated that! Okay, I need to explain this next picture. As I mentioned before we were TOTAL tourists! I'm sure if Mim came along with us she would have been embarrassed. Anyway, we wanted a picture of this guy acting like the Statue of Liberty, but we didn't want to pay any money, so our plan was to have Abby walk towards him and shake his hand while we snapped a pic. This guy one-upped us and grabbed Abby, pulled her up on a stand while placing a crown on her head, a torch in her hand, and draping an American flag around her shoulders. Then he whispered in her ear, "three dollars, okay?" So, she paid three bucks for this silly picture. It makes me laugh every time I look at it and realize how naive we are!! We walked around the perimeter of Ground Zero. We also went into a church that had a memorial museum set up. It was very touching. We ate at a GREAT deli for lunch, and then took the subway to Brooklyn so we could walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. It was pretty cool, but I was tired afterwards.We were all tired after our long day, so we headed back to the Crowne Plaza and relaxed while watching Cash Cab for about an hour before heading back out again. Thursday night we walked to the Rockefeller Center, did a little shopping, and took some pictures. It was neat to see Radio City Music Hall, see where SNL is filmed, where the Today show is shot, and the NBC headquarters. Below are a few shots of the food we noshed on. The deli's were fantastic. They served REAL meat, not the overly pasteurized stuff you get at the grocery store. The turkey tasted like turkey shaved right off of the Thanksgiving bird! I also tried a ruben, because they just don't make 'em in Idaho the way I remember having them in WI. I wasn't disappointed by my ruben sandwich in NYC! We had an interesting dining experience on Thursday night. I'm not going to get too into it. But lets just say the three of us were suckered in! We paid way too much for food that wasn't that good, and service that was less than enjoyable. But, it makes for an interesting story! Just ask me sometime and I'll tell you all about it! Friday we woke up, got ready, and walked towards Central Park and the Manhattan Temple. I love this picture Abby took of Lauren and I walking through Central Park. Don't know why, but I think it's cool. Here are some of Mim's wedding shots. Mim and Martin were sealed in the Manhattan temple. It was a lovely ceremony. Afterwards everyone met in a cultural center and Martin's Dad read a beautiful poem he had learned for his own wedding, and then played the same beautiful song on the piano for Mim and Martin that he had played at his own wedding. It was very moving. After that everyone walked to central park for pictures. Here are a few shots of the happy couple. Mim's reception was at a cool little restaurant called I Tre Marie (not sure if I spelled that right). We had a great time toasting to the happy couple, visiting with old friends, and eating all the yummy food. On our way back to the hotel we got this shot of us riding the subway. We were so NY savvy at this point (not really). Saturday, our last day, we visited St. Patrick's Cathedral. I was amazed! It was beautiful. We also did a little shopping. Lauren loved these glasses! Actually, I made her put them on for a picture. This was the worst picture we took in front of F.A.O. Schwarz, but I thought it was the funniest. So, that's the one you get to look at! Our last stop of the trip was The Met. We had so much fun looking at the Art we've only ever studied in books! It was thrilling for me. I don't think I had very good Museum decorum as I pointed and yelled things like, "LOOK! That's MADAM X!!" or grabbed Lauren's arm and shouted (in a museum sort of way) "MONET! MONET!!" We had fun, and I wish we could have had all day at the museum, but I still had fun with the few hours we did have before leaving for the airport. I love Lichtenstein's pop art, and thought this piece kind of resembled me. Blond hair, larger chest, and big pregnant belly (oh yeah, I'm pregnant, I'll post about it later). This is Lauren's three dollar Gatorade. Yeah, we're all in disbelief at the price. We also can't believe Lauren got suckered into paying that much. In her defense we had JUST walked across all of the Brooklyn Bridge and she was in need of some electrolytes. However, she only took a few sips that day, and couldn't bring herself to throw the rest away since it was so expensive!! And lastly, here's another cool picture Abby took while we were wandering around the city. Cool building, huh? I'm sure there are things I've left out or forgot about. Oh well. This trip was so much fun!!! We're so happy for Mim and Martin, and that they got married in New York so we could make a Girl's Trip out of it. Now, we just need Lauren to get married in a place like Hawaii in a few years for our next Girl's trip! :) Actually, no matter where Lauren gets married we'll be there. That's just how the Fearsome Foursome rolls.