Skiing in Utah

This is kind of a late post. A week ago Steve took Zack and Belle skiing up at Brighton. This is Zack's second year on skiing. He really seems to like it. He has been excited to get to go. Last year it was free for students to ski up there. The only expense for us was the rental of the equipment. Unfortunately, the same deal was not offered this year, so Steve only brought Zack up there a couple of times this year.



Belle had been waiting all winter to finally get her chance to learn. According to Steve, both of them have caught on to how to do it pretty well. Belle was eager to go on some of the more difficult runs as the day went on. When the all got home, they all wore a huge smile of their face along with a little sunburn on their brows.

Piano Recitals

I am so proud of Zack and Belle. When I was young I never had the opportunity to learn an instrument. They have both been taking piano lessons for a few years now. Today was their piano recital at Riverton music. There were 31 students that performed for 1 1/2 hours. It took quite a while, but I seriously sat there in awe of the talent in the room. Zack played the theme song from ET and Belle performed Music Box Dancer. I hope they both will continue perfecting this talent. I am hoping to get Becky and Katie on the waiting list to start taking lessons from Sister Coates. She is an awesome teacher.

We came home in time to have a casual dinner and then enjoy another spring afternoon. I initially sat outside thinking I would tackle a little more of East of Eden, but instead I decided to join in on a volleyball game (minus a net) with Steve and the kids. It was actually quite fun to just be hanging out together.

It appears that much of our time was spent chasing after crazy balls. I decided it would be a great time to snap off a few photos. It was until after the ball had been put away and I uploaded the pictures to my computer did I realize the funny faces that the kids make as they are hitting the ball.

The countdown is on until the kids go back to school:

36 hours and 12 minutes!!!!

Spring is in the Air

I feel safe in saying, "Spring has come to South Jordan!!"

I have woken up everyday for the last week in anticipation of seeing my daffodils finally opened up. We planted the bulbs for the tulips and daffodils around the front of the house in the fall. These are some of my most favorite flowers. They remind me so much of Maine. I love this time of the year. I have spent the afternoons in my front yard reading my book for bookclub, watching the kids play and seeing daily what change has happened in out yard. The trees have developed their blooms and are right on the edge of getting their flowers. The grass seems to get a little greener everyday.

The children have been off track for the last 2 1/2 weeks. Thank heavens for the great weather. This is some of the stuff that has happened:

• Kids go camping with Steve to Snow Canyon and collect petrified wood and explore lava tubes.


• Mom has an all night crop while the family is away.


• Kids go bowling with their friends


• Katie and Becky see "Happy Feet" with their friend Noah


• Zack goes skiing with Steve up in Brighton


• Making salt clay sculptures


• Katie and Becky scrapbooking with Mommy for the 1st time


• Belle's 1st ski trip with Daddy and Zack


• Zack goes to the Planetarium with his friend Jake.

The twins FINALLY had their scrapbooking experience. My friend Sandra planned an 8x8 album entitled, "All About...". I signed the girls up and went last Friday night. It was so much fun. I cut all the pieces to their correct size and they put the pages together by following the color copies that Sandra had made. They did a good job. Katie took it kind of like a race and did her versions of "slap and scrap". Becky on the other hand was a little more meticulous. Tried to get the pieces into the same exact spot as in the picture. Gee, I wonder where she gets that from? They are so proud of their pages. I can not wait to find some cute albums to slide the pages into. We also need to fill in the pictures spots and do a little journaling. What a cute album for them to have as they get older.

Very Weber Valentine

This Valentines Day I woke up early and made a breakfast for all my sweethearts. I made heart shaped pancakes, fried eggs, sausage links an a couple of strawberries for a splash of color. The children one by one came down the stairs to find their breakfast and a Valentine/stuffed animal at the place on the table. They were so excited for their new stuffed animals they all ran back upstairs and brought down the Valentine stuff animals I had given them the year before. It made me feel so go knowing that they remembered what we had given them last year and still had them. I gave Steve the last of his "14 Days of Valentines" gift. It was the cover for the tag book. And I received the last piece for my picture puzzle that he had made for me. It was the center piece which is a silhouetted picture of the two of us kissing.

Everyone left for school and work. And for the first time ever I was excited for Steve to leave for work. And here's why...about 45 minutes after he left the phone rang. I answered and he said,
"when did you do this?...It is so neat...you are sneaky..."

He had walked into his pharmacy to find a dozen roses, a balloon, dark chocolate hearts, and garland around his computer. I had sneaked off after the PTA meeting on Tuesday and drove to Murray and set up the stuff in his pharmacy. He said that later in the day one of the customers asked the female tech, "are those roses for you?" She said, "no, they are for Steve the pharmacist." The customer replied, "It's about time men get flowers for Valentines Day."

Well I spent the day dipping strawberries and prepping for a romantic dessert evening. I carried a small table from the basement up to our bedroom and covered it with a tablecloth and spread rose petals on the table. I set the table and spread candles through out the room. The I made chocolate bundles for our dessert. The kids thought it was neat that Steve and I were having a date at home. They peeked into the bedroom and saw the room all decked out. Steve finally made it home about 9:30. We spent the evening talking and eating our dessert.

Steve opened his card and read through the book that I had made. It chronicled the beginning of our relationship. It covered when we met, first impressions, first kiss, wedding, honeymoon and lots of other stuff. You can see the inside of the book at:

http://twopeasinabucket.kaboose.com/pg.asp?cmd=display&layout_id=1088692

He really seemed to love the book. I had asked him a moth ago to answer certain questions so I could add his perspective to the book. Then Steve gave me the card he had picked for me. The card was nice but the words he wrote inside were absolutely beautiful. The opened my gift and found a cute pink purse an matching wallet. We had been up to Park City a few weeks ago and when we were in the Liz Claiborne store I had fallen in love with 2 purses one was practical and brown. The other was pink and pho-alligator. I opted that day to buy the practical one. Steve drove up there on Tuesday and bought me the pink one. I was so excited.
What an awesome husband I have.


It was a great Valentine Day.

I was afraid that because Steve had to work maybe it wouldn't be very special, but the whole day seemed pretty close to perfect.

This Week...

We have survived our first Science Fair. Zack had worked very hard all of January trying to get his project done. He and Steve became pros at making petri dishes, he studied the importance of bacteria and has become fluent in science speak. Thursday he turned in the project and report and on Friday was the official Science Fair. Parents were invited to come and walk around and see the projects. The children would explain what their hypothesis was and what procedures they performed. It was actually quite neat. Of course I am his mom, but I thought Zack had one of the best projects. He was even proud of his project. Unfortunately he did not win to move on the the next level, but he did do a great job.

>

Katie decided this week that she wanted to make a scarf using the knitting looms that they received for Christmas this year. She is so cute. She is like a little monkey. She uses her little feet to hold the loom as she wraps the yarn around the loom. It is going to be a cute little scarf. I think the coolest thing is that she has made it herself.

We had our 3rd Annual Superbowl Party. The 1st was celebrated at our house 2 years ago, last year our friend's the Nigh's hosted and this year the Duve's threw the big bash. Steve and I were not pulling strongly for any team. The Chargers had not made it to the big game and that had disappointed us. So I decided to spend the night cheering for the Colts (I love the goofiness of Peyton Manning). This worked out well because Ryan Duve was rooting for the Bears and I love it when we are on different sides of the fence. The game was great! The company even better!! We actually had a little pool going. We all got to put our names in 5 different squares on the chart, including the kids. It was fun to see who might be winning the big prize. So, even though Ryan's Bear lost the game he did get the "booby prize". It was one of those handheld football games that were around back in the '80s. Probably the funniest part of the evening was the halftime show. Prince was the artist performing. As soon as he began playing his first song all three of us, Dayna, Stacy and I said how it brought back memories of high school. We sat in our seats and bopped and sang along to the music while the "younger" generation sat in awe of how strange he was. Belle topped it off by sang, "Well, that was interesting" Too Funny!!

Belle's Wax Museum

For the last two months Belle has been reading and working on her report on Laura Ingalls Wilder. The final part of the report happened today. The children dressed up as the person the read about. Belle's friend Maddy had a pioneer dress that we could borrow. And Grandma Sansevero had a bonnet she lent to us. I showed up at the school after lunch and helped Belle into her costume.



Then we pushed a desk and a chair into the gym and set up her props. She had made a sign to go along with her report and she propped it in front of the desk. She had a sitting pose, pretending to write, and a standing pose, stirring a bowl with a wooden spoon. Once all the children had been primped by the moms, we were asked to leave the room while the wax figures got into the positions. Then the museum was opened. The cute little 3rd graders sat or stood in those positions for 20 minutes and then would take a break.

Walking through the aisle I passed by so many famous people:



Helen Keller, Samuel Morse, Betsy Ross, Muhammad Ali, Florence Nightengale, Vincent Van Gogh, Princess Diana, William Shakespeare, Muhatma Ghandi, Cleopatra, George Washington. Then there was Judy Blume, Lance Armstrong, Troy Aikman, Amelia Earhart, Orville and Wilbur Wright, Pocahontas, Annie Oakley, and Abraham Lincoln.

The children peformed in the wax museum for 2 hours. Belle said that other grades walked through and looked at them. She was excited when one grade got to her and became so excited because they are currently reading a book by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

All You Need is Friends

We are back to full spend with the school work this week. Steve has been busy assisting Zack with a Science experiment for the Science fair. Zack is trying to find out how much better antibacterial soap is that regular soap for cleaning your hands. They have made petri dishes to for growing the bacteria. I think they have had a good time working together.

Belle so far is doing pretty well in school. Everything seems to come easily to her, it is just a matter of her taking her time and really applying herself. She has been kept busy this week writing a book report for the Wax Museum. She reads a biography about someone, she chose Laura Ingalls Wilder, writes a report and and then dresses up as her character and all the parents come and walk around and look at all the characters. It is really cute.

After spending the week help Zack on his science fair project and Belle with her book report on Laura Ingalls Wilder, we needed a night out. The Duve's invited us to go to a Grizzlies (hockey) game. We accepted the invitation. I had never been to a hockey game and never had any interest in watching hockey. We went out to dinner with them and headed over to the E Center for the game. I have to admit it was fun. Steve explained to me all he knows about hockey, which helped.



Last night we got together with our neighbors the Hortons and played Settlers of Catan. I have to admit, I went over there a little bit cocky. I had won 2 games against Steve during the day and thought my luck would follow me over to their house. So we played 3 games and Ken won the 1st two and Wendy the last one. Obviously I had left my luck at home. Even though we did not win, we still had a great time. I walked away from this weekend just extremely grateful for the friends we have in our life. After a week of projects, homework, clothes lying on bedroom floors; it is nice to have a low key evening with some friends and unwind.

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.