Pulling into Procrastination Station!

We fly out tomorrow at noon. (yay!) But I've not packed a thing. That's less then 24 hours from now. I do have all the girls laundry done though- and am almost done with mine. I seem to always procrastinate packing. So in the spirit of procrastination here is the 'four things' meme that my family has been passing around.

Four Jobs I Have Had in My Life:
1. Soccer Referree
2. Personal assistant to president of medical device company
3. Computer lab monitor
4. Cake decorator- (currently running my own business)

Four Movies I Would Watch Over and Over:
1. Return to Me
2. I can't think of any others
3. No really
4. I do listen to a lot of cartoons over and over- does that count?

Four Places I Have Lived:
1. Las Vegas, NV
2. Orem, UT
3. Dayton, OH
4. San Diego, CA

Four TV Shows I Love to Watch:
1. Daybreak
2. Heroes
3. Scrubs
4. Grey's Anatomy

Four Places I Have Been on Vacation:
1. Hawaii
2. San Diego, CA
3. Lake Tahoe
4. Arches

Four Websites I Visit Daily: (only four??!! You're talking to an addict!)
1. Gmail/ My google homepage
2. My blog tabs (opens about 30 blogs I glance at to see if there is anything new)
3. My Boards tab (opens 5 boards I read daily- ward board, friend board, caking board, parenting board and family board)
4. cnn.com

Four of my favorite foods:
1. chocolate in all it's forms
2. mexican food (enchiladas, taco salad, fajjitas)
3. Italian food- anything from carrabas
4. Anything with sugar in it..

Four places I'd rather be right now:
1. sitting in my perfectly clean house with everything packed and ready to go tomorrow morning (hopefully that'll all happen before I go to bed tonight)
2. Already in Hawaii having had a successful plane ride with my four angel children (HA HA HA)
3. Sitting on the beach
4. snorkeling

(I'm pretty excited to be going where I'm going shortly)

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!