AI reactions

Hey all, I just watched American Idol tonight and I have to post. The girls really bombed! I liked the girl with the pink hair, but that's it. Tatiana is driving me crazy. I can't stand her. Drama Queen! Simon hit it on the head. I actually am trying to vote tonight to help make sure she doesn't get through. A first for me since I watch American Idol but I don't vote. The guys were alright too, not up to what I was expecting from this group. I like Danny (is that his name? The last guy who's wife died), and the musician guy with the crazy hair. I guess I should learn their names. Tough competition, the odds are really against everyone since only 3 people get through. I personally think it will be one girl and two guys. We'll see.

Happy Valentine's Day

In my husband's family, holidays are a big deal. Jay's mom always made holidays special by having a nice breakfast and nice holiday decorations. This includes birthdays, where the whole family gets up to make the birthday person breakfast before work/school. On Valentine's Day, this tradition also included some small present for each of the kids. Jay always talks about these memories and so I thought it would be fun to carry them on in our family. Gabby is now at the age where she can start to understand and care about holidays and presents, so I thought I'd start this year to make these events special occastions for her. Here is our Valentine's Day breakfast that we had this morning. In case you can't see: scrambled eggs with cheese on top, bacon, pancakes, milk or chocolate milk (as preference demanded), cantalope, and yummy Costco cinnamon rolls. Each of the girls got a present and Gabby made her Daddy a homemade Valentine card. Jay gave me some flowers a couple days ago, which you can kind of see in the picture. They are very beautiful. I got some paper plates and cups decorated with red and pink hearts, and red napkins for us to use with our meals today.

This is my one Valentine decoration, besides our dinnerware. So here we are as a family, with our Happy Valentine's Day presents. Gabby got a figurine of Belle and Ariel, and a Jasmine book. Sasha got a stuffed animal and a book about shapes. They were happy with their presents. They also got Valentine's Day cards from grandparents and Ggpa. Thanks for the great cards! We love them, and love you too! Thanks for thinking of us.

I'm glad I have this day to celebrate how much I love my family. My children are a joy to me and I feel so blessed that they are such sweethearts. Jay is the love of my life and my best friend. I am so so blessed and lucky to have found him and I love him so much. I hope you all have as much love and joy in your lives as I have in mine.

Gingerbread House mania

Better late than never, huh? When we were in Utah for Christmas, my mom bought a gingerbread house kit for us to do with Gabby while we were staying at her house. But there was so much going on that we never did it. So she told us to take it home. We finally got around to putting it together on Friday (Jan 16th).

I did the icing and Jay and Gabby put on the candy and helped put the house and tree together. We had a good time. By the end Gabby was more interested in eating the candy than putting it on the house. Of course. :) It turned out cute, but I think we should have made the time to do it with my mom. She is a lot better at things like this and has a more steady hand and a craftier eye than I do, I'm sure it would have turned out looking professional with her help. Oh well. Maybe next year we can make sure to have time for it, now that we know how much fun it can be.

Front View

Back View

The creators, and our cheerleader Sasha! :O)

A Christmas picture for you

Thanks for the tips on where to find that David Cook version of "Billie Jean". AWESOME! I got chills watching it and I think my jaw was open the whole time. I hope my husband didn't see me drooling! :) ha ha...

We got family pictures taken the day after Christmas, so I am excited to see them. I should be getting the disk this week, hopefully there is something good to post. Sasha was being such a cheeseball, so I am hoping that there are at least one or two good ones of her. Gabby....well hopefully she is just looking at the camera. We tried to take a family Christmas pic at the LA temple, but we didn't get one that was great of all 4 of us. Gabby was pulling her look-to-the-side face. But by the time we got this pic (see below), we had already tried about 10 other times and I was just tired of it. Plus it was 9:00 p.m. and I had a stomach ache. Who wants to walk around with a pain in her side? Not me. On a more positive note, how awesome is it to be walking around with only a fleece jacket on at 9:00 at night on December 5th? Beautiful weather. I don't miss the snow, I have to say. And the lights at the temple were very beautiful. There is always such a peaceful feeling at the temple and on the grounds. I love being there.

And just never mind about how aweful my hair looks. Wow, I can't believe I was walking around looking this bad for so long. I guess it just goes to show how easy it is to fool yourself. Because when I looked in the mirror, I didn't look like this. Thumbs down. :( Glad Jay still keeps me around. :) (My hair looks much better now...will get pics up soon). P.S. Thanks, Aunt Cami, for the cute hat and socks! Sasha looks adorable and is so warm and comfy! :)

Idol's Back, Baby!

So I guess I have to admit now that I am an American Idol watcher. Slightly embarrassing since my husband thinks it is totally stupid/staged. Yeah, the tryout footage probably is staged and it is a bit silly, but I suppose it's the silly in me that drags me to the T.V. I don't usually watch the tryout parts, but I heard there were tryouts in Salt Lake this time, so I have to watch. Oh well. We'll see how it turns out.

And BTW, David Cook's CD is great. If there is anyone out there wondering if it is worth the listen, don't. Just know that it is. My personal fav is "Bar-ba-sol", but there are many more to pleasure the ears. I wish I knew how to link it up to this message. I guess I'll just have to install one of those music list things on the blog. Anyway, hope this year can produce as well as last year did.

Also, does anyone have a copy of his (David Cook) rendition of Billy Jean that he sang on Idol last season? I have heard so much good, but I missed it. Would love to take a listen if anyone can share or point me in the right direction. XO

Photo Tag

Ok, this is kind of fun. Cami tagged me to do this game, so I'll play along. Here's how it works: Go to your photos, pick the 6th folder and the 6th picture in the folder, and then explain the story behind it.

Here's my 6th of 6th. A picture of Gabby at around 6 months. We were living in Minnesota and we made a trip to Utah in April of 2006. This picture was taken right before we went on that trip. Gabby had learned how to roll and she was always getting caught up in this blanket. It was so cute and always made me laugh, so I took this picture. Looking back I have several pictures of this nature. Thanks for the laughs Gabby. :)

I tag: Mel, Miranda, Janus, Janee, Cortnie, and Anne.

Halloween '08

So here are some pics of my cuties on Halloween. Jay found this cute onesie for Sasha at KMart (our only choice for shopping up here. Yeah for us). So she wore that during the day and then we put her in a fuzzy pajama that looks like a Piglet costume for the ward Halloween party. It was a fun evening, although I was dreading going. It just didn't sound fun. It was raining all day, the first day of cold that we had this fall so far. We had 70 degree weather all week before that, so I was kind of bummed that it got cold on Halloween. But it made the holiday feel more like Halloween, so that was good. And the ward thing was good too, turned out fun. That seems to be how things always go for me...something I'm unexcited about turns out to be fun and exciting. And Gabby was so excited to wear her costume and be Cinderella, since she thinks she is a princess anyway.

Hillbilly Mommy and Piglet Sasha on Halloween. I forgot to take a picture of Daddy, who was a nerd for Halloween. His costume turned out awesome too. I was bummed when I realized that I didn't take one. Especially since he doesn't dress up for Halloween very often. I have to capture those rare moments. Oh well. Next time.

Pretty Princess Gabby. So funny story about this dress. On Tuesday after Halloween, election day I guess, Gabby's friend Lauren was over playing. They were watching a Disney Princess sing-along DVD that we have. The last song on the DVD shows all the princesses dancing to a song. I was in Sasha's room and I was listening to Gabby and Lauren talk about the princesses. Lauren was telling Gabby that she was Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella, and that Gabby was Belle and Snow White. "Gabby, I'm the princesses with yellow hair because I have yellow hair and you're the princesses with black hair because you have black hair." Gabby was getting so upset that she couldn't be Cinderella. I heard her tell Lauren that she was Cinderella and they were going back and forth on this. Then Gabby was getting upset and she said "No Lauren, I'm Cinderella. Come on, I'm gonna show ya." Then she started walking back to Sasha's room where I was. I knew what she was up to. She wanted to show Lauren her Cinderella dress costume because she had been Cinderella for Halloween. That would prove that she is Cinderella. Lauren didn't come with her though. She was pretty upset by the whole thing. But I thought it was cute that she is so connected to that Cinderella dress. And that she said "I'm gonna show ya." She says that to me all the time. It's cuter if you can hear her say it, but you get the idea.

Those two are cute playmates, love to spend time together. They have found all kinds of things to do together, including drawing. They like to draw with markers. However, I have had to limit this activity because Lauren has taught Gabby how much fun it is to draw on yourself with the markers. The ones I have are not washable, so it takes a day or so to get it all off. Here's a sample of some of thier artwork:

That's what I get for not supervising the art project. Oh well. Lauren's mom Lisa told me that Lauren still had some blue on her face the next day when she went to preschool. Luckily it's not permanent. It's hard not to laugh at this, we were all laughing at them. (This was taken on Nov 2nd, we were having a get together at our house with some friends when the artists got to work). There was one other little girl, Payton, who had done the same thing, but she was not interested in being in the picture. Well, next time. :)