Unbelievable

This was incredible. It made me tired just watching it.

I never knew jumping rope had come so much farther than "Cinderella, dressed in yellow, went upstairs to kiss a fellow".

You can't help but smile watching it.

It's Halloween Time!

Once again, my favorite holiday of the year is on it's way! Love the colors, the candy and all the fun of the season.

Check out these must haves for your little girls. I'm putting my order in today!Go to Katie's website to check out her other halloween hairbows. Click here for her website.

How do your eyelashes grow?

Last night on the news there was a story about how to get your eyelashes to be longer and thicker. I was amazed! I'm dying to try this, but I think I'll wait until a generic comes out for it. It's a little pricey for me right now. Make sure you watch both parts of the story.

Part 1 - click here

Part 2 - click here

Wickedly Good!

Last Tuesday I had the opportunity to attend "Wicked"! Loved it, loved it, LOVED IT!

My friend Challene was the source of the tickets. Her sister camped out all night, before Christmas, IN UTAH, without a tent! She bought tickets for Challene and her husband to attend, and thankfully, her husband really wasn't interested in going. I was more than willing to pay for the ticket and attend.

The cast was phenomenal, the costumes, amazing, and the storyline was fascinating. I highly recommend it. I laughed, cried, and loved every second of it. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time.

Sofia!

This sassy little thing says the funniest things to me all day long. From saying words like "arshmellow" to referring a little girl as a "girl kid". The other day Reed was eating a granola bar and took a drink from Sofie's cup. When she got the cup back it was filled with granola backwash. She took one look at it and hollered at Reed very sternly "you gotta brush your teeth Reed!"

She just started swimming lessons. Or as Sofie calls them "swimming blessings". It's too cute to watch her sit on the little step and wait her turn! She was shocked to find out that her preschool teacher was not her swimming teacher. She adapted well to the change of instructors though.

She doesn't look very happy here, but I assure you she loves her lessons!

Britain's Got Talent

Katie sent this to us in an email. To me, this is what reality TV is all about. Jeff and I have watched this so many times, and love it!

Click here to view video

Talented Women

I absolutely LOVE collaborating with other women. I have had many an opportunity to work with other women, and always love partaking of their many talents.

Some groups I have done:

Family home evening groups - where we each pick a topic and make a lesson for each member of the group. I have many, many great lessons for my family from doing this.

Dinner group - 4 of us each pick a night of the week. My night is Wednesday. Each week I make dinner for my family, and the other 3. It is delivered typically in early afternoon with instructions to finish the meal (by baking, grilling, sauteing, etc.)

And my latest is a Sacrament meeting group. We had a group of 20 women, and each of us contributed 20 of the same item. It had to be something to keep kids quiet during Sacrament meeting. We had items for different ages, but most were for younger children (it seems their attention span is a bit shorter!). I am making 3 different bags out of the items I received. That way I can rotate them, and it will better keep their attention.This a list of what I received:

(4) file folder games

(1) Sacrament Bingo (mark off words you hear, leave it my kids to be the ones to scream BINGO in the middle of it all)
(1) Mini chalkboard & eraser
(2) Paper dolls with outfits
(1) Flipchart on latter-day prophets
(1) Articles of Faith keychain (Bella will love this, she's been working on memorizing them)
(1) Gospel coloring book
(1) Puzzle
(1) "Learn about time" reusable workbook
(1) Shapes - use them to make pictures
(1) Reusable gospel game/puzzle book for kids that can read
(4) Lacing cards
(1) "I Spy" bag

(1) Gospel ABC's flipchart
(1) Book to read during the Sacrament
(1) Sticker/notepad booklet
(1) Crayon roll up with notepad

If any of you want any information on how to start any of these groups on your own, let me know, I'd be happy to forward what information I have to you!
Speaking of creativity, my sister forwarded this to me, and I love how they portrayed this short bit from President Uchtdorf's talk.

Happy Spring!

Today was the kind of spring day we Utahns dream about! (Did I really just call myself a UTAHN?) Oh dear, I must have brain freeze!

It was 70 degrees and fabulous!Jane, my adorable sister-in-law, is now accepting photography clients! Yeah! She's an absolute STEAL, and you must make your appointment before her prices quadruple (because they will before too long, she's THAT good!). She is only charging $35 for a 1 hour photo session, editing of the photos, and a CD with all the photos on it. Click here to visit her blog, and see more fabulous photos.

She took the kids photos today in their Easter outfits, and they turned out darling! I LOVE them! I'm so excited to have good photos of each of them, and all three of them together. Now THAT is a feat! Reed was being an absolute stinker, and for much of the photo session, he absolutely REFUSED to cooperate, or be anywhere near the camera. Amazingly enough, she got great photos of him. I'm telling you, she's great!

Judge for yourself:

makeup brushes

So I saw this on the morning show last month and decided that was what I wanted for my birthday. New makeup brushes. Mom & Dad sent me a little cash for my b-day next week, and I'm going to Target to pick out some brushes.

Click on this link to read about the must haves for brushes. Maybe you too will decide you need some new ones.

Cute

I just found this blog called "a print a day" and she has free downloads. Check out this super cute sheet of little girls dresses gift tags.

December - part 1

This is a recap of many things we did this month. We had so much fun, and were so busy. I would hate to not have the photos in my journal.The month started out with a trip to the Ballet (or as Sofie calls it, "the Bella - way"). The girls were completely enthralled and mesmerized. It was put on my a dance company that Janelle (a little girl we carpool with) dances with. They do it every year. This was the first year that she was eligible to perform in it. You have to be at least 8 years old I believe. So I took the girls with Jessie (another carpooler) & Samantha, her little sister. Lolly (Janelle's little sister) was there with her family as well.It was called "Molly Mouse's Sugar Plum Debut". It was the music from "The Nutcracker" and it was darling. The costumes were excellent, and the dancers did such a great job. We can't wait to go again next year. Both girls are still talking about how much they want to do Ballet now.Here they are with "our little star of the show". Janelle is next to Bella, holding the flowers.


Next up was a holiday concert with the West Valley Symphony. They had a choir join them for the performance and it was awesome. If anything got me in the holiday spirit, it was this concert. I was all excited about Christmas after the concert. My friend Chantelle plays the cello, she's in the last photo, upper right hand corner.Where else can you see the Grinch and Santa together? They played "You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch", and the soloist sounded just like the one on the movie. It was cute and both of them handed out candy canes to all the kids. The do concerts a few times a year, I can't wait to catch another one!

Sofia had her preschool program. She did a great job with all the little actions to the songs, and singing so well.
It was based on the story "Twas the night before Christmas". She had a line to say, which was "As I drew in my head and was turning around, down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound."
She always has fun with her little friend Samantha, and they love going to school together.Her teacher Ms. Beckie is fabulous as well. We love all the hard work she puts into running a successful preschool.

We had a playgroup and a surprise guest showed up - SANTA! And he had the first gift of Christmas for each 0f the children.Needless to say, mine were a bit reluctant to sit on his lap. Like most children, they like him from afar. Unfortunately the only one I got of Reed is blurry. It's okay, it's not like he's smiling or anything! And in most of these photos, Sofie has a funky smile. Oh, it's such a great age for smiling.

Must Have

It is not very often that I buy my kids Happy Meals. Pretty much only if we are on vacation. If we happen to go to McDonald's at another time, they just get the food, not the fancy box/toy.

Unless of course, it's Madame Alexander time. Click here to see the characters. March 2007 is when they did the first run of Wizard of Oz characters. We collected most of those, and now are working on the new ones - the many munchkins, and the Wizard. My absolute favorites this time? The flying monkey and the guard, which we now have.

I like Dorothy's basket this time, but liked her better last time. For the record, I do NOT like the lion this time!

Maybe it's because I'm a Kansas girl, but then how do you explain that I do this EVERY year, because they come out with a new series every year?

Free Photo Book

If you make any size order (can be any number of prints you send to Grandparents out of town, or to yourself) with Shutterfly, and order an 8"x8" photo book by September 26th, you can get the 20 page photo book for free! Use coupon code 64AUTUMN.* Also, if you are new to Shutterfly, you can get 50 free prints and a free collage poster just for signing up!

I am not so good with scrapbooking, I own lots and lots of supplies, but can't do pages that are up to my standards. So I order photo books. That way the photos and memories are in print, hard-bound, and done. I am much more comfortable cropping photos and picking backgrounds with a computer, that doing it with real photos and paper. I like that I can try it out and see how it looks before I decide if what I want. No trips to the scrapbook store buying things I like, but don't need. It's great!

I typically only buy them when they are free or on sale. I got a free one a few months ago, and used it for Bella, age 1 to age 2. I picked out the cover with one of her birthday photos, and gave it to her for her birthday last week. She loved it! I figure if I keep doing it a year at a time, eventually I'll get caught up.

I'm going to do my free one this week of 2008 birthdays, and have all 3 of their birthdays in it. I can always order extra copies later, because shutterfly saves it.

* Free 20–page 8x8 Photo Book with Any Purchase. A qualifying order of any value does not include prepaid and membership plans, gift certificates, film mailer bundles, or orders placed for in–store pickup. Licensed premium photo books are not included in this offer.

Fun around town

I'm in charge of planning activities for my playgroup in October. We meet once a week. So I am using one of my favorite websites to do it with. If you haven't heard of Go City Kids, click here to check it out. You select your major city, and the dates you're interested in. It will give you activities all over town in all price ranges, including free, that kids can attend.

So the next time you and the kids are looking for something fun to do, check it out.

Mmmmmm . . .

One of my favorite gifts my sister Dianne gives me are gift certificates to See's candy.

I have been holding on to one until just the right moment. I redeemed it yesterday, and as you can see, in exactly 24 hours, with only me consuming it, it's half gone.

There's nothing like hand picked See's candy. It's delicious!

Cheap Eats

Monday night at Sonic features 99 cent kids meals. This includes a hamburger, corn dog, chicken strips, or grilled cheese; fries, tots or string cheese; soda, milk, or slush; and a prize. When Jeff was out of town I drove through, picked up the kids dinners, and then went to my favorite drive through for myself. I do love their happy hour every day from 2-4 p.m.

Chick-fil-a has often has great deals. They have cow appreciation day in July. If you dress like a cow, you get a free combo meal. During the month of September there are free breakfast Fridays at Chick-fil-a. All Wednesday nights are free kids nights. With each adult combo meal purchased, you get a free kids meal. I am quite happy that they are putting in a new location less than 10 minutes from home. Yea!

Post a comment about your favorite dining deals!

Love it!

I submitted Bella's birthday party, and my cakes and was featured on 'Tip Junkie'. If you haven't heard of it, they have tutorials and ideas for anything from blogs to organization. For the last two weeks she's done birthday parties. There are tons of ideas - click here to check it out.