Little Update

I haven't had a chance to write very much this week. We had a very nice quiet Christmas. I have some pictures to post, but they are in Las Vegas on my computer and I am in Spanish Fork, so I can't post them right now. We drove up to Utah, yesterday. Happily it was a very quiet uneventful trip. It is kind of disconcerting to watch the temperature drop as shown on our car thermostat. When we left Vegas it was 47 degrees. At some point past Cedar City it was -12. Marion kept saying "Are you sure you want to go where it is going to be so much colder." The answer is "No", but sometimes we make sacrifices for family we love. Here is Spanish Fork it is about 20 during the day and it was 5 when we pulled into town last night. We will be here for several days so that Marion can help my brother with some electrical work in his basement.
Last Sunday, Diana threw up for about the second time in her life. I heard her running to bathroom and went to check on her. Bad news, good news--she didn't make it to the toilet, but the boys had left all their towels on the floor after showering, so clean up was a breeze. As I was helping Diana back to bed, she said me "Boy I sure am lucky I live right next to the bathroom," She didn't feel well for the rest of the day, but then she woke up on Monday and informed me that she felt better and wasn't sick any more. Knock on wood, none of the rest of us have gotten sick, yet anyways. I am sure now that we are on a trip, it will start. Isn't that the way it always works.
On another topic, I was noticing that I have 37 posts this month. Go me!! So this will be 38, maybe I can post twice more and make it to 40. That would be very exciting.

Diana's Christmas Concert

Last Wednesday was Diana's Christmas Program at school. They did a play based on the Nutcracker Ballet music. She has been learning this music for several months and was very excited to finally be able to perform. The choir director sent home a note stating that all the singers needed to be in concert black. Diana did not have a black dress or even shirt and pants. Thank goodness as I was running through Target buying last minute presents, I found this adorable dress. It was even on clearance. You gotta love that. So here is her pose before she went to school. Somehow we were actually awake early enough that morning for me to fix Diana's hair. Here is a shot of it

from the back. I was very happy with the way it turned out. Hooray, for lots of hairspray. Here is a picture of Diana with her choir teacher Miss Friend. Aren't they both just a picture of cuteness. All the parents think Miss Friend looks like she might be 12 if you stretch her age. Actually she is closer to 30. Her personality matches her name and all the kids just love her. The kids performed the show once at 10:00 for the lower grades. Then again at 2:00 for the upper grades. And then finally at 6:00 that night for all the parents. I went to the 2:00 and 6:00 show. I took some video at both. Because I was not quite happy with how the earlier video turned out, I tried again at the night show. Diana decided that she wanted to take her hair down for the night show. At the first show, I accidentally hit some button that turned my video black and white, so I couldn't use that. Also I held the camera sideways and that can not be changed when you edit it. What a relief that I had two chances to get good footage. I have edited them both together so you will see her hair will change. Once again I have tried to make it as short as possible. Sadly it is still 5 minutes long. Perhaps no one but the grandmas will be glad to see so much of it. I loved some of the faces she made. All in all it was a huge success.

Lamentations of Laundry

Today I am going through the normal day after Christmas stuff. Trying to dig myself out from my house that is trying to eat me alive. I wasn't very good yesterday at taking trash out so there is quite a lot of garbage trying to take over my house. Think "Sylvia Stout" a la Shel Silverstien, you know that girl who wouldn't take the garbage out. So after getting some of that out of the way, I am working on the laundry. We are supposed to be driving to Utah tomorrow and so it might be nice to have clean clothes to pack in our suitcases. Normally I am very competent at doing laundry, but something seems to be amiss in my brain today. First I went to change the loads, and realized that I had not turned the dryer on, because I was talking on the phone. Apparently I cannot talk and turn on the dryer at the same time. Rats. So I turned the dryer on and went to do something else. Later I returned to find that the task was completed. So I put the clean clothes in a basket and put the wet clothes in the dryer. Then I reloaded the washer. It was at this point that I looked for my nice dry, clean clothes so that I could fold them. They were nowhere to be found. I accused Jared of trying to bug me by moving them. He claimed his innocence. After a few minutes of thinking that I was going crazy, I realized that I had put the clean clothes back into the washer. Aye Ca rumba! So maybe we will not be taking any clean clothes with us after all. Or maybe the second time will be the charm. Wish me luck. Why didn't Santa bring me a new brain for Christmas?

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas...

life's blessings gave to me a TWELVE PIECE NATIVITY SET for REMEMBERING. Of course the twelfth day has to be about the best reason for the season, the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. There are many nativities around my house, but I chose this one for today. It is special to me because Marion and I painted it back when we were at BYU and ceramics was one of our hobbies. I love the sweet faces on these figurines. If you look closely you will see some cracks in Mary. One year she was a fatality in a Christmas morning nerf gun fight. Marion was able to glue her back together pretty well. At first I was very upset about this, but really, what is more important a thing or the fact that the boys were having fun together. Isn't that what Christmas should be about anyway? I remember another year when Jared was about 4. Every time he would go by the nativity, he would rearrange everything so that everything was in a circle around baby Jesus. Every time I went past, I would put them back in the "proper" way so that it would look nice and everyone could see the front of the figurines. After doing this for about the hundredth time, I realized that perhaps Jared's childlike perspective was better than mine. Surely it was most important to have the Savior in the center of everything, and not just have it arranged the way it looked the best to the world. How grateful I am to know that my Saviour was born on this earth, that he died for me and that he knows and loves me. I hope all of you have the very Merriest Christmas.

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas...

life’s blessings gave to me ELEVEN GAMES A WINNING. WHOO HOO!!! GO COUGARS!!!!!!! Ok, when I first planned this whole 12 days of Christmas thing, I said to myself that of course number eleven would be the BYU football team. There seemed to be no question that my Cougars would win their bowl game and have eleven wins at the end of the season. Well, any of you who watched the game last night, know that I came so close to being foiled in my plans. BYU barely won the game when UCLA’s last second field goal was blocked. A friend called me to say that I must be living right, and I have to say that it is probably the whole BYU team that is living right. After the game I felt as if I could use some oxygen or a sedative. Not since the Utah game have my nerves been so stressed out. I did not attend the game in person. If I had really wanted to go, I could have driven down to the stadium and found some tickets at the gate. The cold is one big reason I chose not to go, but I was also very tired and enjoyed just watching at home in my PJ's.

However, I did attend the fireside on Friday night. And again it was one of the best things I have ever been too. The fireside was awesome, Brian Kiehl, Jeff Allen, Holly Mendenhall, and then the Coach spoke. The spirit was very strong and I loved being there. Then the best part was after the fireside. I had put all my pictures from October in a scrapbook. With my scrapbook and pen in hand, I managed to run around and get almost everyone whose picture I had taken, to sign my book. On the right is the picture of "Me and the Guys". On the left are those seven players signatures. I am sure that I have my "crazy, fanatical, fan" award all wrapped up. As I went up to each of the guys that stood with me in that picture, I asked if they might remember me. It was pretty humorous to me, that each one did remember me. I guess that there are not that many psycho stalker ladies going around asking for pictures with the guys. Then I had pictures of many of the players giving high fives at the end of the game. I got those autographed as well. On the right is Manase Tonga and Brian Kiehl. So even though I didn't get to go to the games, the fireside was just as good if not better than the game to me. Thanks Cougs, for the early Christmas present. I don't need anything else.

On the Tenth Day of Christmas....

life's blessings brought to me a TEN PIECE SNOWMAN TEA SET. I chose this because well frankly, I am running out of ideas. And I do absolutely love this little tea set. One year I bought it at JoAnn's in the after Christmas deal. It seems like such a hard time of year to shop. There are such great deals that I am dying to take advantage of, but I am always out of money by the time the day after Christmas comes around. So I remember deliberating over this purchase, but in the end I gave in to the fact that I just loved it too much to pass it up. I especially love the two little spoons that go in the cups. Something about their faces reminds me of cats. :) Then there is the cute little

tea pot. There must be a part of me that still has not grown up and wants to play tea party. Some of you may be wondering how this is ten pieces. There is one platter, one creamer, two cups, two spoons, one teapot with lid, and one sugar bowl with lid. Every year when I get this out it brings a smile to my face. I think it is one of my favorite decorations. Diana also has a fascination with it. In past years I have worried when she has actually used it for her tea parties. Selfishly I haven't wanted to share. But it has always survived unharmed, and I should really let her enjoy it. That way she will always have fond memories of it as well as me.

On the Ninth Day of Christmas.....

life's blessing gave to me NINE DELICIOUS DELICACIES. Today I decided to pay tribute to my favorite holiday goodies. These are things that I love to eat during the Holidays. Each one brings a special memory and you always know that it is Christmas when one of these treats are being served. So here they are in no special order. I don't have time to post the recipes right now, but if anyone wants one, I would gladly share. Just let me know.
1. Divinity- This is a yummy sugar confection that tastes like fluffy heaven. I have even managed to become proficient at making the stuff. Usually if I do not go home, I try to ship some to Seattle. Not this year, sorry guys.
2. Peanut Brittle - I pretty much adore the peanut in any form. Toffee is also one of my favorites, hence peanut brittle is an awesome mix of two of my favorite things. This is another candy I enjoy making. Another great toffee thing is almond roca. I am lucky to have a sister who makes this every year and shares.
3. Artichoke Dip - Artichoke hearts, cheese, and garlic...need I say more. This is a mouthwatering recipe that I found in the Desseret News and it is scrumptious. One great thing about this is nobody else in my family likes it. This means I get to eat it all by myself. I love this stuff so much I can eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and never be tired of it.
4. Reese's Peanut butter cup Cookies- These are the most addictive, moreish kind of cookie, I think I have ever had. I got this recipe from a cookie exchange when I first moved to Vegas. As long as you like peanut butter, you will love this cookie baked in a mini muffin tin with a peanut butter cup pressed down in it once it is done cooking.
5. Brie cheese & French bread - My parents lived in France before I was born and learned to love bread and cheese. This was always part of our Christmas day smorgasbord. I love this and eat it all through the year, not just at Christmas. The luscious, soft cheese spread on the crusty bread, yummy!
6. Sugar Cookies - Of course no Christmas season would be complete without sugar cookies. Sometimes I run out of energy for this project, but I remember always doing it as a child. My recipe has lemon extract in it and I find that to be quite enjoyable.
7. Spinach Dip - I first tasted this recipe at a New Year's eve party in Riverside. Years later, I am so glad that I asked for this recipe. I would have to say that I make this more often than about anything. It is so good and great for baby showers. It is so simple, I will put this one on here: 1 box frozen spinach thawed and drained, 1 can water chestnuts chopped, 1 box Knorr leek soup mix, 1 cup sour cream, 1 cup mayonnaise. Mix all together and serve on sourdough bread cubes or crackers.
8. Honey Candy - This is something my Grandma Nelson would always make for us when I was growing up. The other day Diana was looking through my recipe box and pulled this one out. I do not remember ever making it. Just thinking of it, brought back fond memories of pulling the candy once it was cooked. My Grandma Tanner would always send these special shaped suckers to us in her package. I have good memories of those as well.
9. Cinnamon Rolls - This recipe is from my Aunt Shauna. They are known as her famous cinnamon rolls because they are so delightful. It is interesting because they have mashed potatoes in the dough. How exquisite to have tempting sweets to eat on Christmas morning.

On the Eighth Day of Christmas...

Life's blessings brought to me EIGHT PLACE SETTINGS for DINING. One of the sure ways to know that Christmas is coming is to look in my china cabinet and see my Christmas china staring back at you. For several years I had looked longingly at Christmas china sets, but never felt justified in buying one. In our ward in Upland, they had a tradition of having a formal Christmas dinner/dance. People were asked to host a table and bring their nice dishes from home. It was quite a big production. The first few years we just went and sat at someone else's table. Eventually we were asked to host a table and hence the need for Christmas china. I have to admit to being secretly thrilled that it was necessary to make this purchase. At the time, we thought we would be doing this for years and years. As one of life's ironies, we were living in Las Vegas by the next Christmastime. This does not stop me from enjoying my the china with my own family. Perhaps it will be a memory for them when they grow up. Sometimes we use it more than just for Christmas, but some years it only gets used once. I do like the way it looks just sitting in the china cabinet.

Oh, Boy, Another Christmas Concert

Last night was Jared's Orchestra concert. It went really well, although I was hoping it would be a bit shorter so I could get to young women's. What is it with these music teachers that go on and on. I think she talked longer than the kids played. You know blah, blah, blah, the kids all worked so hard, blah, blah, blah, thanks to everyone who made this possible. Of interest to some would be the fact that the kid sitting on Jared's left is also named Jared. He is in our ward. You will see him in the video. Is it merely a coincidence that two kids named Jared both picked to play the cello? I wonder. Jared makes quite a few of his famous, unique faces during the video. Before the concert, I tried several times to get a still shot of him. Shockingly, he refused to cooperate, so I have about 10 shots of his blurry head. Finally he gave me this delightful pose. Thanks, Jared for not making this face during the family photo shoot. In the video, Jared does a great time of showing his nervous face before he has to start playing. I found this funny so I left it in the movie. Hope you enjoy. All kidding aside, good job, Jared. You are really sounding good. He is even going to play with some other kids in our ward in sacrament meeting on Sunday. Keep up the good work.

On the Seventh Day of Christmas...

life's blessings gave to me SEVEN SEATS OF FRIENDSHIPPING. My patio furniture is one of my favorite things. One morning a week, my patio is open to anyone in the ward who wants to come over and play and visit. Mostly people with toddlers come. The kids love the swings and the trampoline. The grown ups enjoy a chance to friendship each other and relax in my comfy chairs. When I had small children, I benefited from such kindness shown me by older sisters in my ward. Now I figure it is my turn to give back what I once received. And truly, I benefit as much if not more from these kind, fun sisters who visit my home each week.
I love how attractive this furniture looks when I look out of my kitchen window. It had been a dream of mine for years to have a covered patio where such furniture could live. The patio is one of the things I loved about this house when we first looked at it. The patio sat empty until one day I followed a prompting to stop in at Goodwill. When I walked into the store they were just putting all this furniture out on their floor to sell. It was brand new, the cushions were still in the plastic. I happily bought all of it, paying about 25% of what I would have paid at Target. You gotta love tithing blessings. Surely I am truly blessed to have such a place for friendships to be strengthened.

On the Sixth Day of Christmas...

life's blessings gave to me SIX ORNAMENTS WITH MEANING. For today, I have chosen some of my favorite Christmas ornaments that hang on my tree each year. First, I chose one of my oldest ornaments, one that we got when we got married. I like this one because of its cameo nature. On the back it says "Each moment spent together is a special celebration."

Second is this cute gingerbread ornament. This was made by a dear friend of mine from when we were in graduate school. Every year when I put this on the tree, I remember the great times and friends we had during that time in our life. There are days when I miss those simpler times.

Third is this precious ornament from Trent's kindergarten teacher. The picture on this ornament is one of my all time favorites of Trent. He is smiling and is just too cute. Is there anything cuter than a little kindergartner? I want to just eat him up! It is fun to remember how cute teenagers used to be and this can be a useful coping tool at times. :)

Fourth is an ornament with Jared's picture. This was made at the mommy and me preschool that we attended. Again I love this delightful picture of such a sweet brown eyed boy. Each week we spent 12 hours at this preschool and made lots of new friends.

Fifth is this adorable ornament with Diana's picture that she made in nursery. What can I say! There really are not words to express how much I adore this child. She is such a joy to me even though she tries my patience at times. What a blessing to have such a daughter!

Lastly, I chose this ornament I bought two years ago. It is a Mary Englebreit ornament. I love anything she does and bought it just because it had her name on it. I love her pictures and the cute sayings she puts together with them. Every year I always hope that one of her calendars will be under the tree for me. Each year, I love seeing these ornaments who feel like old, treasured, friends.

On the Fifth Day of Christmas...

life's blessings brought to me FIVE FINE FACES. By now most of you should have received my Christmas card. Hence I will go ahead and post a copy of it here.
I think that Trent at least looks pleasant, which is the best I can hope for at this point. Jared did smile because he was bribed with Krispy Kreme doughnuts. I have been receiving cards from many friends and their cards are so cute with matching clothes and exotic scenery in the background. Of course most of those are from people with small children who still wear what you ask them to wear. I am very grateful for each of these faces and the love and joy they bring to my life.

On the Fourth Day of Christmas...

life's blessings gave to me FOUR DRIVING WHEELS. I am especially grateful for the wheels on my car. How wonderful to have a car to get you where you need to go. And a added bonus is that it is an automatic instead of a standard. Another four wheels I am grateful for are the ones on Trent's car. It has really lightened my load of driving, with him being able to take himself where he needs to be. How glorious to have less things on my list of places to go. And finally, I am appreciative of the four wheels on the school bus, Jared takes to school. Even though I only had to drive once every five weeks last year, never having to drive is less isn't it. So I celebrate the fact that all of these wheels have made my life better and easier.

Sticky Surprise

Last night I was cleaning under the couch in my family room. I realized that this does not happen as often as it should. When I pushed the couch back I found a gooey, sticky surprise. Not a good sticky surprise like carmel popcorn or crispex mix, no this was a bad sticky surprise called a melted, hardened Popsicle. Since I highly doubt that the Popsicle walked out of my freezer and went under my couch to melt into a syrupy blob, my guess would be that someone put it there. My money is on Diana. She is always saving food to eat later. I don't know why? Perhaps she'll die. Who knew laminate flooring would turn out to be a lifesaving device. But tonight it did just that. Hurray for being able to mop up the sticky mess.

On the Third Day of Christmas....

life's blessings/cursings brought to me THREE FRENCH CATS A VISITING. Ok well they might not be french, but yesterday I wished that I had said two turtle gloves so I am making up for it today. Oh well. The three cats seemed to have taken up residence in my back yard due to the fact that I don't have a dog. No I don't think I will get a dog just to get rid of the cats, that seems silly to me. Here is a picture of two of the cats playing with Diana's jump rope. I happened to look out in my back yard and notice that each one had a hold of one end of the rope. They were pulling it back and forth. The picture does not really depict how funny this looked. Last night there was a terrible howling noise in my back yard. When I checked it out, I scared two cats away. Some of my friends were talking about scheduling a cat catching activity for Young Women's. Sounds like a good idea to me.

On the Second Day of Christmas...

life's blessings brought to me TWO GLOVES. Notice a "warm" theme happening here? These gloves are also precious to me because they live in the pockets of my wonderful coat. That means that they are always there when I go to get them. Also I love that they have fur cuffs like my coat. (Very fashionable, although they are fake fur and no animal had to give its life for my vanity.) Nothing cheers you up like warm hands on a cold day. Another great thing about them is that they can be shared. Sometimes at church I am sitting next to someone who also is cold like me. Unlike me, they have not come prepared for such coldness. So this is where I can say, "Here wear my gloves just for this class". I can give them my gloves that are already warmed up by me. It never fails that the person will say to me when they give the gloves back ,that they are surprised how much warm hands helped to warm the rest of their person. I love this ability to share warmth. And who knows maybe I have made a "warmth" convert who will bring their own gloves next week. Sometimes I say to people "Follow me, and I will teach you to walk in my ways of warmth".

Hit and Run

Yesterday morning when I took Diana to school, this is what I saw as I backed out of my driveway. This is shocking because the night before there was a perfectly good wall where there now is this mess. I do not even know how this happened. Who hits a wall and then just drives away? It is not anyone of the cars in my family, because none of our cars are crunched in the way a meeting with this wall would make happen. One possibility is the garbage truck, because it was garbage day. Would they just leave and not do anything about it? Perhaps. Another possibility is my neighbor, but his car seems unscathed as well. Then of course maybe it was some random maniac driving through the streets. It seems unlikely because we live on a cul-De-sac not a through street. So now we are left with a bit of a hole in our wall. Bummer.

Christmas Orchestra Concert

Trent had his concert last night. He looked especially handsome in his Tux that I did manage to take to the cleaners. Yay me. He is in three different orchestras this year. The chamber orchestra is smaller, only about 15 kids. Next, is the advanced orchestra which has about 30 or 40 kids in it and is the highest level of orchestra. This year for the first time, his high school is having a symphony, which is strings, percussion, and wind instruments. Trent is in that as well. He really loves it.

I was excited because for the first time since he has been in High School, I managed to get some video of his concert with my new digital camera. It is not quite as good as a video camera would be, but it is better than nothing and you can get the idea. Also I am using my new skills as a movie producer. This is a very new exciting thing I have discovered on my computer called Windows Movie Maker. I hope this video is not too long. I tried to cut it down, but it was hard. I attended the concert for an hour and a half, so three and half minutes is very condensed. Also I don't have much video of the Symphony because I was out of memory and the last shot I took the focus was having a problem. I left it in the movie, because you can still hear the sound. I hope you enjoy it.

On the First Day of Christmas

Ok, I came up with this great idea to do the twelve days of Christmas on my blog. If my math is right, I should have started yesterday. I did post some stuff, but my turn on the computer ran out before I could get to this. So today I will just do two days to catch up. These posts will just be random stuff in my life that I can manage to squeeze into the number categories of the song. Cut me a little bit of slack as I try to make this work, OK.

So on the first day of Christmas life's blessings gave to me.... ONE DOWN JACKET. Those of you who live around here know that I pretty much worship this coat. Last year I was at Savers one day and saw this coat for $10. It was not in my budget that day, but I could not pass up a deal like that. And boy it is the best $10 I have ever spent. From the fur lined hat and sleeves to the warmness of the down filling, I adore this coat. And believe me that if I am cold enough, I wear that hat, regardless of destruction to my darling doo even in church. It gets lots of use at soccer games, church, and even just out shopping. So hurray for feathered friends who sacrificed their well being for me. I don't even care that I am allergic to feathers. The warmth is worth it.

Jared Sings a Christmas Carol

This video was taken in November at our ward camp out. I was unknowingly visiting with a friend in her tent trailer . Because my kids are so old, I wasn't really supervising them. Perhaps I should have. Jared is sitting in the car playing on his PSP with the car light on. This could not have been good for the battery. Two of the girls in the ward are encouraging Jared to sing for them. They used my camera to record this beautiful rendition of "Sleigh ride". Jared was watching the movie ELF on his PSP on the way up and I guess that put this song in his head. In fact he is reading the words to the song off of his PSP while he sings. I wondered how he knew all the words. Now you can all experience a little taste of what we all were treated too, during the camp out. Jared sang this song pretty much non stop. Also I did receive his permission to publish this video. Thanks Jared for spreading the joy.