MOAB

Steve and I got up early on Saturday to begin our trip to Moab. It was quite chilly here in Ferron. 13 DEGREES...brrrrrr. We loaded into the van and headed to I-70. As usual we had interesting conversations, but the best part was the scenery. This part of he country is absolutely beautiful.



Once we got to Moab, Steve dropped me off at a little used bookstore that had a little coffe shop attached to it. He was going to go and do a 4 mile hike and I opted to hang out in the warm bookstore browsing. After looking around for about an hour. I made a fw selections, purchased and headed for the coffee shop. I got a mug of hot cocoa and a blueberry scone and made myself comfortable for my people watching. It was fun to watch the different charactes, and they were characters, come in to the shop. Once the hot cocoa was done I walked the streets of Moab peking into the gift shops that were open. Unfortunately half of them were closed for the season.




About 3 hours after dropping me off, Steve completed his hike and we met up at Pizza place across the street from the bookstore. This was a yummy place. They had a buffet bar: salad, soup, and pizza. Steve told me about his hike. He said he could have spent much more time there than he had< just poking around Once we loaded up on yummy food and diet coke we headed to Canyonlands. Mostly to do a scenic tour of the park. Our time was limited. Steve purcahsed a National Parks year pass, that I know he is looking forward to using in 2007. I did get a little carsick on the winding roads that lead to te park itself. We stopped at a few view points. The most breathtaking for me was the Grand View. It was INCREDIBLE. Definitely this is a place we will come back to and explore a little more thoroughly.



Then we started our long trip to my parents house and home made Chimichungas...YUMMERS!!!

Santa was good to ME!!!!

WHOO HOO!!!! I GOT MY LAPTOP!!!!

I had been a little nervous that I was not going to get a laptop for Christmas. I made hints all year long about wanting one. Steve got one last Christmas and I was envious of how he could use it ANYWHERE!!!

He got up early in the morning on BLACK FRIDAY and went to Circuit City to cash in on a deal. I went out with my friends Stacey and Dayna. As we shopped I got a call from Steve telling me, "I am never going to do that again...I didn't get it...They only had 8 of them and you needed a voucher." He sounded so sad. For the next 4 weeks he very diligently looked through the Sunday ads in search for a get deal. And every Sunday he seemed disappointed. I was beginning to feel a little bad and stopped hinting about the laptop. I even told him a few weeks ago to not worry about it. I would love whatever I got.

Then Christmas morning he handed me my first gift from under the tree. It was a large box (much too big to contain a laptop). I opened the box to find a Compaq Presario box. I was ecstatic. My adorable husband had tricked me.

So I have to say I had a pretty AWESOME Christmas. Hope this entry finds you all happy and still on a high from Christmas.

Saturday was Belle's first dance recital since she made it onto the dance team. There was a recital 2 weeks ago, but she had ALPS testing that same day and had to miss it. This is always one of our least favorite things to do. We LOVE watching the girls dance, but it always seems as though the recital is on the other side of the valley and the recital last about 1 hour and you have to sit through all the other dancers to get to see your child.



We made it to Eisenhower Junior High School at 12:15 and found the dressing room for Belle to wait in. Steve and the other kids and I found some seats and got comfortable. At 12;45 the recital began and much to our surprise Belle's team was the first to perform.

YIPPEE!!!!

I was amazed at how good she was. She has improved so much since the last time she danced (1 1/2 years ago.) She doesn't look as though she is concentrating. She smiled and winked her way through the dance and her moves were pretty sharp. I was so proud of her.

CAUTION: Construction Zone!!

Monday night we had a fun time constructing Gingerbread/Graham cracker houses. For the last few years we have bought one of those kits you see in the stores and Steve has had all the children gather around and they have decorated the one house.



I bought a house at Costco, but decided I would let the children make their own houses using graham crackers. It was a little difficult to get the "structure" to stand and not collapse, but once that was accomplished I think everyone had a good time.


Katie discovered that it is more fun to lick you fingers that to actually put the frosting on the house. Her building had a few problems because of this. She had put so little frosting on the house that there was nothing to stick. She began putting her candy on and it collapsed. Lucky for her daddy was there to help make the needed repairs. Hers began to look more like the temple than a house.



Becky's construction was pretty sturdy. She was very focused on making her house. It was quite cute. She came up with inventive ways to use the candy canes. I sometimes watch Becky and see a lot of me. That is pretty neat.



Belle was also focused. We discovered that she has the same "tongue" tendency that I do. As she worked that tongue would slide out of her mouth. The more focused she was the further the tongue came out. She did have a little construction problems. We aren't sure if it was too much icing or too much candy, but the structure did collapse just as she was finishing up. She cried a little, but daddy once again was there to save the day. It did not look as pristine as it did prior to the fall, but it looked quite cute.



Zack's also had a hard time getting the structure to initially stand up, but once that was mastered he had a pretty easy time getting everything on his house without any problems.



I worked on the large Gingerbread House. Steve walked around and took pictures of us as we worked. My house turned out pretty well. It was the first time I got to do a house all on my own. PRETTY FUN!!! Once we were done and I uploaded the pictures to my computer I realized two things:

• Just how often I stick my tongue out (it was out in almost every picture)
• The best part of making Gingerbread houses is licking your fingers.

O Christmas Tree!!!

"IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR!!!"

I love this time of the year. I have to admit I was one of those freakish people that was listening to KOSY 106.5 on Halloween because they were playing Christmas tunes. Throughout the month on November I encountered "Thanksgiving Devotees" that would bash the playing of Christmas songs before we have eaten the turkey and done the dishes. I would just sit quietly and hum a carol as they went on their tirade.



Well, it is official. All the turkey leftovers have been eaten and I can come out of the closet and listen to my Christmas songs without being ashamed. Last week, in Sunday School, the music leader asked the Primary children, "Do you know who loves Christmas music more than anyone else?" (referring to herself). All the primary children began saying, "you" and pointing at her. My 3 girls said loud and very proudly, "MY MOM!!!" I was quite proud.



Well, the Christmas tree is up, it actually went up the day before Thanksgiving, but we actually waited until Saturday to decorate it. This year Steve and I sat back and let the children put up the majority of the ornaments. This meant that only about 2/3 of the tree was decorated. Steve handed out the ornaments and made sure each had a hanger attached. I did my favorite job of taking pictures to scrapbook. Then Steve and I gave eachother our ornaments for the year.



It has become a tradition for the 2 of us to give eachother and ornament. I got him one that was a bear (this represented our trip to Yellowstone and the Grizzly we encountered) and I also gave him one that had 2 Teddy bears popping out of a tent and it said, "Happy Campers" (to remind us of the camping trips we had been on this year). Steve presented me with a crystal snowman that had tennis rackets on his feet (I am a lover of tennis) and then one that looks like a Christmas storybook (It was the Night Before Christmas). Mom also gave us a new family ornament. We also hung up the ornaments from past years that we had given eachother. The tree looks beautiful. I know our tree is not the mostly fashionable tree in the neighborhood. And maybe someday I will have one of those "fancy" trees, but I really love our tree. Every ornament tells a story of the 13 Christmases that Steve and I have spent together. And that to me is what makes my tree truly BEAUTIFUL!!!

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble

This year we had Thanksgiving at our house. The whole weekend was kicked off with "Pie Night" at the Horton's house. My friend Wendy spends days makes tons of pies (Razzleberry, S'more, Reese's, Dutch Apple, Banana Cream, and more!!!). Unfortunately Steve had to work, which is too bad because pie is his favorite dessert, but Mom and Belle came with me over to visit. We left with a couple of extra slices to enjoy later in the evening.



The next morning I got up and prepped the bird. I had pulled Martha Stewart's Thanksgiving dinner recipes off the internet. So this year we were having a Maple Glazed Turkey. Mom and I worked on side dishes, snacked, made rolls, snacked, watched the Macy's parade, and yes we snacked some more.



We had a bunch of pumpkins left over so Steve allowed the kids to carve them up. We spread newspapers on the floor and set out the carving tools and let them goto town. There designs were interesting, but the best part is it kept them busy. Steve took all the seeds and cooked them in the frying pan. They were quite tasty.

The menu for our Thanksgiving:

• Maple Glazed Turkey
• Chestnut & Apple Dressing
• Candied Sweet Potatoe Casserole
• Corn Souffle
• Italian Green Beans
• Fresh Cranberry Sauce
• Turkey Tail Rolls
• Pecan Pie
• Apple Pie

Once the meal was eaten and the dish done, which my wonderful husband cleaned by hand. He's a keeper. I sat done with the massive stack of ads and began to come up with a game plan for my "Black Friday" shopping spree. I went out again with my friends Stacy and Dayna, but this year my dad came along. We got some good deals and had a great time.

Hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving with your families.

Early Halloween

Our church had their Halloween Party last night. This year we decided to do Halloween a little frugally. The kids went through the box of old costumes and the dress up box and chose costumes. Every year Steve asks what I am going to dress up as. So this year I pulled out a witch costumes from a few years back and decided I would get into the act. I think Steve was pretty pleased to be getting dressed up and wore a scarecrow costume I made for him a few years back.

• Steve- the Scarecrow
• Nikki- a Witch
• Zack- Harry Potter
• Belle- Dorothy
• Katie- Charmander
• Becky- a Groovy Witch

Katie has been so excited to be going as a Pokemon. I made Belle ruby slipper from a pair of shoes I bought at DI. It was a little frustrating because the glitter wasn't sticking, but I eventually got it to work. Then I worked on Becky's cotumes. All I can say is she looks way too grown up. Everyone looked great.

There was a huge turn out at the church. All the kids looked fabulous. Not many adults dressed up so Steve and I really stood out in a crowd. My freind Annette said my costumes was quite appropriate for me, too funny. We had a light supper of soups and rolls and then we all participated in the parade. After the parade was over the kids went and played games. One of the funest ones to watch was the kids eatting the donut off of the string. Too funny. While the games were finishing up the parents headed out to the cars to get all set for the trunk-o-treating. We have some of the coolest kids. Lots of thank yous and not a ton of puching and grabbing. Luckily Tuesday ahd been the warmest day we had had in almost 2 weeks and it made the evening pretty comfortable for the event. Good thing it was yesterday, today the temperature is suppose to drop 3o degrees and even snow, YIKES!!!!!

We still have a school trunk-o-treating to participate in, school parties and trick-o-treating on Halloween night. I never realized that Halloween was such a huge holiday. I remember when you only got dressed up once and that was it. Now it is a HUGE production.

It has been one whole month since I have updated my blog. Life has been crazy!! So, I want to get you all caught up with what has been happening in the Weber household.

I wanted to share a picture of the kids enjoying the last HOT day of 2006. Our neighbor Wendy invited to her inlaw's house to swim. All the kids had a great time. And it was fun to take advantage of the last day of summer.

I have joined a bowling league (sorry, no photos yet) I am on a team with my friends Dayna and Lucy. They are both pretty good bowlers. My game is not quite threatening. BUT it has been a blast. All the women that are in the league seem so friendly and nice. It is a fun thing to do on a Monday morning. It also gives us a chance to visit with some of the other women from our neighborhood that we don't see very often.

Katie and Becky finished up their soccer season last week. They had a great time. Katie is a little less enthusiastic about playing, but Becky...HOLY HANNAH. She is aggressive. Steve and I were both impressed at how she caught on to the game. Next they want to try basketball in the next couple of months, along with Zachary. Belle is still involved in her dance team. She has class for an hour and a half every week and the practices in her rooms as much as possible.

The girlie girls (Katie and Becky) celebrated their 7th birthday on the same day as the church primary program, which they thought was a huge honor. I cannot believe that my babies are already 7 years old. But they are still very much little girls. Steve and I talked about when Belle turned 7 and she received all her Bratz stuff and she just acted so much older. Katie and Becky were pleased as punch to get a Doodle Bear, plastic ice cream cones and books about horses. Papa and Gramma Sansevero bought them an outfit they makes them look so grown up!! YIKES!!!!

Papa and Grandma Weber sent them gift cards (the girls call them credit cards) to Target to shop. Katie picked out a pretend vet kit and a My Little Pet Shop animal. Becky chose a stuff animal and a Cabbage Patch premmie baby. Too cute. Becky had her little birth certificate filled out as soon as we got home and spent the evening answering the questions in the little baby book that came along with the doll.

Things have been busy at both of the kid's schools. I have started doing "Junior Great Books" with Belle's class once a week. The children read a story on Tuesday in class, then read it again Tuesday night as homework and also come up with 3 question about the story. Then Wednesday 3 volunteers and I come and split the class up into smaller groups and kids of have a book club discussion. It is very cool. I have also taught art to Zack's class. I spoke to them about Edgar Degas and then had them do an art project use a technique of his. It was a lot of fun. I only have to do this once a month really think it is going to be fun. I have also been busy with PTA and Katie and Becky's school. We are halfway through the fundraiser chaos. We have placed orders and collected most of the money. Next will be the delivery of the stuff that will have to be distributed to the children. We also had Red Ribbon Week this past week. Every day had a theme. Katie and Becky's favorite them was the CRAZY HAIR DAY!!!

Bend It Like Becky (and Katie)

Today was Katie and Becky's first day of Soccer. They decided this year to skip dancing and give athletics a try. They have been so excited about soccer. We had a meeting and a short practice on Saturday. That is when they first got their uniforms. Then we bought some shin guards (essential when there are 9 other 7 year olds trying to kick 1 soccer ball) and their cleats.

Their coach is our neighbor Kirk and his daughter, who they already are friends, with is on the team. They also have a girl from their 1st grade class on the team.

It is so much fun to watch my children learn new skills and have fun.

Basic Grey Anatomy

One of the SILLY, but fun parts of CKU is the dorm contests. Not everyone participates, but Sarah and I are die hards. I think we have managed to bring Kim over to the dark side too. This year we chose "BASIC GREY ANATOMY" as our them and name. For the non scrapbookers out there, Basic Grey is a paper company and so we played with the whole medical theme from Grey's Anatomy. Members of our dorm were (from left to right):

• Suzanne
• Kim
• Deb
• Me
• Catherine
• Teri

With Suzanne's husband being a doctor, my husband a pharmacist and other relatives are nurses; we were able to acquire some fun goodies to decorate our tables. We filled the syringes with eyelets and buttons, Steve brought home prescription bottles that I decorated and filled with candies, we had a "layout in distress" as the centerpiece of our table and and IV hooked up to it. It sounds a bit corny now in the real world, but it was quite cute. We all dressed up in hospital scrubs and wore pink Crocs (this freaked Steve out, he finds them extremely unattractive).

Catherine sewed the Basic Grey paper to make masks and Suzanne decorated stethoscope that we wore as our name tags. Deb had decorated band aid tins with the Basic Grey paper and had bubble gum bandaids in side.

We actually won one of the contests for our costumes. The prize was a little bit of a let down, but there was much satisfaction in FINALLY winning on of these silly contests.

Freedom Trail

Sunday I returned from my trip to Boston, Massachusetts. My main reason to go back to the east coast was to attend CKU and get together with Kim and Sarah (aka my Maine Buddies) . But since I was there my travel buddy Suzanne and I decided to take in some of the sites on the one "free" day we had. We took the shuttle from our hotel to the beginning of the Freedom Trail. Some of the sites that we saw as we followed the red brick trail were:

• BOSTON COMMON
• PARK STREET CHURCH
• GRANARY BURYING GROUND
• KING'S CHAPEL
• OLD SOUTH MEETING HOUSE
• FANEUIL HALL
• PAUL REVERE HOUSE
• COPP'S BURY GROUND
• OLD NORTH CHURCH
• USS CONSTITUTION

It is kind weird walking along and seeing modern buildings and then in the middle will be church or meeting house that is 300 years old wedge in. The Granary Burying Ground was probably one of my favorite spots. The headstones have such interesting images; skulls with wings, flowers neat inscriptions. We saw where Paul Revere was buried and the monument to mark where John Hancock was laid to rest and as we let the burial ground we caught a glimpse of Samuel Adam's resting place.

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We also walked around Faneuil Hall and returned later in the day to do shopping there. That area has so much energy. There was a man propped up next to a building playing plastic buckets and metal pans, a clown making balloon animals for the children and some young men with boom boxes dancing-kind of.

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We walked through a neighborhood that was a "Little Italy". This was probably my favorite spot. The streets were lined with pastry shops, Italian restaurants, and Gelato shops. Can you say, "MMMmmmmmmm". We went to a pastry shop that had been recommended by our neighbors (thanks Lindsi!!!) named Mike's Pastry. I bought a canoli, some pizzelles and Suzanne bought a whoopie pie and some chocolate dipped strawberries. We came back to that Little Italy area and had dinner that night. We ate at a restaurant named La Dolce Vida. The food in this restaurant was to die for, I had some gnoochi in a pink sauce. H-E-A-V-E-N!!!!

We also walked to the USS Constitution. Initially I was not too excited to see a ship. I am just not into the whole "nautical" thing, but it was actually kind of neat to stand on its deck. My first impression was that I was so surprised at how small the ship was. After watching Pirates of the Caribbean I thought those ships were gigantic.

I enjoyed my day of walking around the city. Suzanne was an awesome traveling buddy, but I hope to go back sometime with Steve and the kids and do the whole thing with them.