Books of 2008

-Specials by Scott Westerfield
-Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer
-The Host by Stephanie Meyer
-Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
-Pretties by Scott Westerfield
-Uglies by Scott Westerfield
-Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
-The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan
-Redwall by Brian Jaques
-The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
-The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
-Romeo and Julie by Jeanne Ray
-Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen
-Enchantment by Orson Scott Card
-The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
-A Train to Potevka by Mike Ramsdell
-She's come undone by Wally Lamb
-A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
-The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
-East of the Mountains by David Guterson
-The Giver by Lois Lowry
-Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns

Winter Wonderland

This is her reaction to the mean mom, who told her it was time to come inside

Caught in the act!

I love this one with the tree's reflection in it, she was outside yelling to hear her echo and I think someone in the neighborhood replied because then she started a yelling conversation

Making Tracks

So that's where all the toys go

Since informing me yesterday that her favorite Christmas song is "Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland", she has asked me to sing her to her many times, and I did ok I think. Got the "sleigh bells ring" verse, the "gone away is the blue bird", "in the meadow", "dream by the fire", just couldn't remember where the "frolic and play the eskimo way" fit in. Anyway since we've been blessed ? with lots of the white, cold stuff the past couple of days Lily has had so much playing in it. Running outside in the front lawn making tracks, eating it on the back deck incognito becasue I told her not to, and bringing it inside to color it with food coloring. I need to start coming up with new stuff for her to do with it. Any ideas?

Christmas Dance Recital

At home after the performance

Serious Face

Lily has been taking dance again this Fall and loves to have me turn on the music at least once a day so she can show me her dance moves. Her favorites include: (sorry for the spelling) pleas, arabesques, shasees, tip toe walks, pirouettes, leaps, shaking hips, skips and freestyle (a modern looking movement which includes lots of dramatic faces and pretty arm movements and rolling on the floor). This is the 2nd recital Lily has danced in. The first one was with the Mom & Me class we did last fall, and she hammed it up on stage then. This time she did great, but right before the girls (age 2) were surprised by a visit from Santa Claus. Well, 2 of the girls freaked out, one of them crying and then refused to dance at all. So needless to say Lily, who has always been very empathetic by nature, was a bit worried/distracted by her little friend who was so upset. We enjoyed some yummy treats after she was done and Dad got her a little jingle bell that Santa was giving the kids. Anyway it was so fun to see her learning more, and she absolutelty adores her teacher Miss Tiffany.

Santa Letters

We had a really fun time writing/decorating our letter to Santa this year with some friends and then going to the big red mailbox in Macy's to mail it to the North Pole. This year's letter included a request for: A pink princess puppy, a prince puppy, a pretty dress, new doll and a cookie (since then she has added ballet shoes). After that we attempted to sit on Santa's lap, but Lily wasn't having it this year, she was satisfied with sending the letter and was confident that Santa would know what she wanted from that. She hasn't done it yet, except for 2 years ago when Chad was Santa at the ward party and she bawled the whole time, so maybe next year? After Santa the kids played in the new Dinosaur/Treehouse play area. Thanks friends!

Save Your Blog

Hey everyone, the husband of one of my really good friends just started this new company that is really cool. Not only do they offer to back up your blog, but also make blogs into hard copy books, and other neat things. I use my blog as a scrapbook because I don't have the time anymore to do a hard copy, and would be beyond sad if anything happened to my blog, so this new backup seems invaluable to me. They are launching their website on Monday, so to help spread the word I thought I would share this great find. Enjoy! (The next part is from their site):

On March 27, 2006 the most Internet savvy users on the planet accidentally deleted their Blogger blog! Are you kidding me!

Not only did Google accidentally delete their own official blog, but they regularly delete Blogger blogs, which violates their Terms Of Service. So, between the risks of accidental blog deletion and deliberate blog termination, your blog stands a real chance of one day literally disappearing forever.

So what can you do to prevent the death of your blog? Simple. Be a hero. Save a blog. Get backed up with Bloggled.

Starting this Monday, we are offering to back up your Blogger blog for free! And it is easy to do. Just set up an account, enter in your blog URL, click backup, and in minutes your blog will be saved. It saves everything, including comments, and it does it automatically every week.

We are also offering multiple prizes to those who participate in their “Be a Hero, Save a Blog Contest” that is running through the day on Monday, December 15, 2008. Winners can choose from either a 16GB iPod Touch, or a Cricut Personal Electronic Cutter Machine and it’s quite simple to enter. To join the contest simply perform one or more of the following actions.

1. Join Bloggled. Register and sign up for a Bloggled account (http://www.bloggled.com).
2. Friend or follow Bloggled on one of the following social network profiles:

• Twitter: http://twitter.com/bloggled
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/people/Brent-Ramey/1002883214

3. Subscribe to Bloggled’s RSS Feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/bloggled.
4. Blog about the Blogger Contest on another blog then notify Bloggled about the new blog post by commenting on their blog.

Good luck and congratulations on your decision to become a hero by saving a blog.

M

Mer

Merry Christmas!!

Happy Thanksgiving (Belated)

I know this is a week or so late, but we had a great Thanksgiving in St. George with my family. We decided to meet half way in between our houses so it wasn't so much driving and it was a blast. There was lots of swimming rain or shine in the warm super heated pool, fun walks, shopping, movie watching, game playing and of course eating! Chad and I even went on a date (it had been a while, we won't say how long) to go see the movie Australia. Chad served his mission there and it was filmed in the NW, he served on the West coast. The movie was WONDERFUL, seriously one of the best movies I've ever seen, go see it, really! After it was over (3 hours long, but so worth it), we wanted to hit up some frozen yogurt but it had closed 15 minutes earlier, so Chad taught me to say some aboriginal expressions and then we just went home but it was still so much fun to just be with each other and have no interruptions from kiddies.

My 16 yr. old brother Jordan showing off the beard he cultivated during his self-proclaimed "No Shave November"

The whole family

Little brother Zack, fun uncle and loves to hold babies and give neck rubs, so my new best friend

Papa and Lils

Ella booked some pool time this trip and really loved this giant bath tub.

Lily pretty much lived in the pool, going in at least twice a day, luckily her Dad is a fish too, so she always had a swimming partner. They even swam in the rain on Thanksgiving.

My Turkey Carvin' honey

Mom making the famous sweet potato casserole