The Universal Language

Our flight to Baltimore was a red-eye. When we were getting off the plane there was a girl about 4 or 5 who was whining- in Chinese. Sounded exactly the same as whining in English. We've been laughing about that all weekend.

where am I now?

This is a game we're going to be playing for the next couple of weeks. Christmas is over and after Christmas eve at our house, then Christmas morning present overload at home we went to brunch at my mom's and then dinner at Steve's parent's. Then yesterday we headed to Parker Arizonia (halfway between our house and my sister's house in Mesa) to see them and their new baby. She is very cute btw. I have two days to hang out with my sisters, and pack for Baltimore. Thursday night I'm flying out with my mom and my sister Hannah to go visit my brother and his wife in Balitmore and witness their sealing in the Washington DC temple. Then I fly back on Jan 1 and leave again on the 5th to go visit Steve's sister in Hawaii. Yup- HAWAII. Woot! We're taking the kids to see their cousins (so not a romantic getaway) and to hang out there for 10 days. I'm excited. So life is a whirlwind for the next several weeks and I'll not be blogging in the meantime most likely. So Merry Christmas- Happy New Year and I'll see you in a couple weeks!

Family Pictures!

So my sister Becca is a pretty talented photographer. I decided to take advantage of that while she's visiting for Christmas break from college.

Saturday we went up to the mountains to try and get some family pictures. Rebecca's camera's batteries had died (boo!) so she took some pictures with my new digital camera. Seems like it takes pretty good pictures so far! We didn't get any whole family shots since of course not everyone felt like participating. (annika) But Becca got some good shots of us in pairs and individuals though. Here are some of my favorites. We took some group shots today- but those were with becca's camera- which is film. So we'll not get those for a few days with christmas and all.

I think Megan may win the award for most photogenic child.
I had a hard time with any pictures of steve and I in color. Mostly because the redness of his beard totally washes out all color in my face.
Annika wasn't happy to be taking pictures. She wanted to be held the entire time we were up there. So mostly sad or serious shots of her. Also- her face is pretty scratched up since Megan's newest evil trick is scratching when she gets mad- and Annika is the most abused. If you've got ideas for stopping that I'd appreciate it.

love this one of Steve and Cori

Notice all the missing teeth? Guess who gets to visit the orthodontist after the beginning of the year??
cute baby.

Love this one. Too bad Annika didn't want to participate. Ashley is smiling semi normally- yay!
About the only shot of annika smiling.
Love this profile.
Notice the tear?
Love this one too.
See all the freckles?? Guess where she gets those? (Steve). Cute huh? I can't believe she's almost 8!

Merry Christmas from us!

Babysitting swaps

My friend Lacey was talking about setting up a babysitting swap on her blog. I commented for an hour about all the swaps I have going on and figured I'd share my comments with you guys.

I love babysitting swapping. I've got a couple friends that I did this with who's children were the same age as mine. They were the sort of kids that came over and because they played so well with mine that it was less work to have them here. We swap a lot and don't really keep track just because we're good friends.

Then we have a formal 'co-op' where there are nine (and we're looking for a tenth) women who have 3-5 kids and we swap kids. Everyone has a day of the week and a time period (either 9-12 or 12-3) and you're committed to watching kids that slot during the week. But the rest of the week you can take your kids so someone else's house if you need to. I've used it to have time to clean my house with no 'helpers' or to work on a project, run errands, go to appointments etc.

Then I have a different group that is for weekend date nights. There are three families and we rotate watching kids. We watch all the kids the first weekend, then the next two weekends the other two families take a turn (there are 9 kids in all) and then the fourth weekend we all pay a babysitter and go out together. It's really nice because we have 2 date nights a month that are 'free'. It also makes us go out- which if we have to set up a babysitter every week just doesn't happen cause we're lazy.

Then of course we also have my mom and sister. I do usually pay Angela when she babysits- but my Mom frequently watches the kids while I run around or volunteer at the school.

Wow- that was a long comment. I think I'm going to copy/paste that into a post. But having 'swaps' is a fabulous idea. Mom's need breaks. NEED. Plus it's just hard to go places with kids- at least with more then one.

Wrapping made easy

Gift wrapping is not my favorite activity. I'm also not very good at it. Steve is much better. But somehow I end up wrapping all the gifts year after year. This year I have some new 'tools' that I recommend for everyone. Seriously loving the scotch paper cutter and the pop up tape dispenser. Thank you 3M and Scotch for making my Christmas season a little easier. The paper cutter is SO.MUCH.NICER then scissors. The tape dispenser is so nice too- especially since I'm known to get to the point to need tape and not be able to find it- which means I have to let go of the place that needs taping to lift everything up to find it again.

Happy Birthday to Annika!

Happy Birthday Annika! I can't believe that you're three! You seem more and more grown up every day- but insist on a daily basis that 'I little' if I even think to suggest that you're getting bigger. You have a killer smile- and have from day one.




You're also a little bit compulsive. Even tonight while opening presents you took one present off the table, opened it and then put it back on the table before opening another .

You are a charmer. Everyone who meets you thinks so. You also put on a good act. You are my little miss stubborn.
We love your cheeks. The dimples on top and the dimples on bottom. You've got a butt that just won't quit. You're going to hate it when you're older, but for now it's so darn cute!

Happy Birthday Annika! Love you girly!

Why is December so busy?

Tonight was Annika's third birthday party. (Happy birthday to her). The party went well. The food was good (Italian themed since she wanted 'mini pizzas') the cake was delicious and adorable. My kitchen needs to be recleaned and my kids need to be put to bed. Fun was had by all. Pictures to follow in the near future.

Tomorrow is the progressive dinner for the women at church- that I'm in charge of. None of it is at my house- but I'm bringing lots of food because I'm compulsive like that. I'm in need of a good soup recipe that can simmer in the crockpot all day. I'm thinking baked potato soup? But really I'm up for anything.

Friday is Steve's office party. At club tequila. Which is in a casino. So I need to find something slutty to wear (ha ha, just kidding). I'm making two full sheet cakes with the company logos on them though. So that's my project for Friday.

Saturday morning is a funeral for a friend of mine's 17 year old son. I'm terribly saddened by this and am helping out with the funeral luncheon after the family goes to the gravesite. I just can't fathom the pain of suddenly and tragically loosing a child.

Saturday night we're going out with some friends for dinner and then to 'The Forgotten Carols' which is a Christmas production that's pretty cheesy- but fun.

Then Sunday I collapse- except for the whole church thing. Woot!

Also- we bought tickets to Hawaii. We leave in less then a month. For 10 days. I'm freaking excited!! We're all going. Wahoo!

Um, I think I shot myself in the foot...

So I have finished, stuffed, addressed, stamped and sealed Christmas cards. They will be mailed as soon as I get to a big mailbox. I didn't make enough cards. I knew I didn't. But I thought there would be like 10 or 15 people that wouldn't get one. Turns out there were 30. Guess I shouldn't have joked about 'top tier' cards. Can I retract that? The hardest part? Trying to guess who might read my blog and want a homemade card and who wouldn't know the difference. Am I WAY overthinking this? Possibly. But don't be offended when your card arrives- either way.

So...

I've been busy working on Christmas projects and house projects and baking projects and church projects- and basically not being on the computer much. I've gotten some help installing wordpress on soggycheerios.com- but I've not completed the set up completely. I've been busy working on www.amberliciouscakes.com as well- not completely done yet- but if you want to have a look and/or give suggestions feel free. I'm officially done with all my niece (and one nephew) gifts, all my family gifts for extended family (with the exception of Steve's brothers- which I'm clueless on... thinking gift certificates to restraunts or something??) I've gotten stuff for the daycare ladies at the gym, Ashley's teacher and I'm almost done with Steve and the girls. I think that's all that's left actually. I'm also making Christmas cards... well- 40 of them. The 40 people I love most get 'top tier' cards and the rest get photo cards... just kidding, I'm sending the 'homemade' cards to people who'll appreciate it most.. I'm almost done with those as well. My goal is to completely finish those and have them ready to go in the mail Monday morning. I've also rearranged the office crap to make more room for my cake stuff in that closet.


So I've been busy. Really. But my house doesn't look like it. Right now I'm sitting down to wait for the dining room floor to dry and rest my feet. So I'm tiding you over with some picures... My friend Barbara was venting her frustrations over Christmas picture taking today over the phone and so I'm sharing some of the many that we took to end up with our final pictures, and I'm not even counting the mess-ups of Steve and I.

Hmmm..

So apparently I can post at Soggy Cheerios but no one can comment? That doesn't work for me. I'm working on it. Until then answer me this:

What kind of digital camera do you have? Do you love it? Ours is 1 1/2 years old and isn't working (grrr). I've not been overly impressed (Kodak easyshare) and was looking online last night (is window shopping online evil on the sabbath?) and was shocked at the cameras that are in the same pricerange as our dead/dying one is but how many more mpegs they have! So tell me why or why not to get a camera like yours.

I've Moved!

Check me out at SoggyCheerios.com

Yay for Adam!!

I volunteer at Ashley's school every Friday morning. I work with kids in her class who are struggling with reading. There is a little boy named Adam who was by far the one who needed the most help. They have sight words that they're working on and pink is the lowest level. The pink sight words are ones that Ashley learned in Kindergarten- to give you an idea of the level. Anyway, Adam has a range of issues, he doesn't keep his hands to himself, follow directions etc... He get's pulled out for lots of different help during the day- but hadn't qualified for the reading specialist yet. So we've been out of school for a month and I was fully expecting him to go from knowing 25% of the words to knowing 10%. But he came out (we work in the hall) and was chomping at the bit to get to the flashcards (usually he wants to chat about everything under the sun first). He knew all but 5 of the 50!! WOW!! Then we worked on those 5 and he remembered them well enough to get 100% YAY!! I don't know what happened- he said that he had a new teacher that was working on flashcards with him (previously he'd told me that his parents wouldn't do the cards with him because they were too busy) and that he was smarter now. I praised him and gushed over his good work over and over and told him how awesome he was. I talked to the teacher about it and she said he's not seeing the reading specialist until next week. So I don't know if his parent's got a tutor for him or what- but it's certainly helping. So YAY for Adam!