MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Bedtime visit from Santa

Tonight Santa came to visit. It was a surprise to us all! He went into Lucy and Carmen's room (after they had laid down for bed), jingling bells and laughing the famous "ho ho ho." This was a great thing for Matt and I. Lucy asks me daily if Santa is real. I tell her that the story of Santa is real, and it is up to her if she wants to believe. Of course she does, but the literal thinker in her doesn't. The girls were in awe, and very willing to tell Santa what they wanted. Luckily, "Santa" will be bringing them exactly what they asked for. Lucy wants "sports stuff" and Carmen "a ballerina tutu." Easy enough. What a great ending to a long day (medical tests and snowy snowy cold streets.)

Snow Princess

First real snow

Yesterday was chilly, but sunny. It was supposed to have snowed several times so far, but only left a thin layer of frosty ice a few weeks ago. Matt and I were woken up this morning by the screams of "SNOW!!!! It SNOWED!!!!" Unfortunately so was Eden. But, we are so excited that winter, or winter weather is finally upon us. We had a great Thanksgiving with our friends from BYU, the Workmans. Yesterday Matt organized the garage (it took 7 hours.) Now we can fit my car in there! This morning we decorated the Christmas tree and now we are about to have hot chocolate...what a great weekend!
p.s. Lucy didn't swallow her tooth after all. The other day she came in and told me she had found it on the stairs while playing outside. I think it's amazing that she actually found it. She did too..she got 2 visits from the tooth fairy :)

The other tooth....lost.

Yesterday the girls and I were out in the backyard raking leaves. While raking I was listing to Lucy play a wooden Peruvian flute when all of a sudden she tossed it on the ground and began to scream. I ran over and looked into her mouth, which she was gaping open at me. At first all I saw was a dab of blood on her tongue. I told her to calm down, she had only bitten her tongue. While keeping her mouth wide open she attempted to say.."I swallowed it, I swallowed it!!!!" All the while there was fear in her eyes. Still not understanding I took a closer look into her mouth only to realize that she had knocked out her other top front tooth with the flute, and swallowed it. Two for two with the good front tooth stories Lucy!

Ugly, Awesome, or both

pigeon lamp..what do you think?

Here are a few pictures of the inside of our house. It is finally starting to come together, although there are many many many more boxes to unpack. Mostly artwork and things for my unfinished studio, or books for the bookshelves we have yet to paint. I wanted feed back on this lamp we have. What do you think? It is in Eden's room. Let me know!

Several people have expressed interest in seeing my newly painted/carpeted basement. So, to give you some idea...it used to be a dingy yellow with a tan ceiling and old old brown carpet. It looks much brighter and welcoming now. Thanks to my Mom and Grandma (Sweetie) who helped me paint and chose the carpet. It was fun to do something new to a space I care about :) Sometime soon we will get some more storage for all those girly toys.

We had a wonderful break from unpacking...going to Disneyland with Matt's parents. Kathy made the girls some amazing witch dresses. It was a blast! Now I'm having a really hard time getting back into the unpacking...a REAL hard time!

I thought I would put up a pic of our house. We are wrapping up the painting and things so that we will be ready to move in next week. I am SOOOOO excited to have this house. I can't wait to have wood under my kitchen table instead of carpet. And a fenced back yard? AWESOME!!!!! I also thought this picture of Eden was funny. I was in my room talking with Matt and this is what I found when I came out. At least I know if anything happened to me, she would be able to feed herself :)

The Environment

"On August 19th 2007, an oil tanker off the coast of Australia split in two, dumping 20,000 tons of crude oil.Senator Collins, a member of the Australian Parliament, appeared on a TV news program to reassure the Australian public." So this is what they say. I'm positive it's not real. But I thought it was hilarious anyway.

Visit from MayMay and Poppa

This weekend was great. Matt's parents came to visit and we had so much fun. We went to the fall festival in Boulder and toured our new house (almost ours). Matt and I also went on a date for the first time in several months and it was the most fun I've had in a while. We went to this funky little modern restaurant down town. While we were there, the lady at the table next to us was talking about a play she was going to. I really wanted to do something different, so I butted in and asked her what she was talking about. It turned out that her husband was doing a one man show, with a very renowned band about 28 different failing musicians called bubs. So, we ended up going to the show which was in a small black box theater. It was very entertaining. We ended up meeting a lot of theater people from denver and making some good conections for future theater info. It was a great night!!! Thanks for babysitting MayMay and Poppa!

Fun and stress free in the E.R.

So on Wednesday night I was scrambling to make dinner for the missionaries. Matt wasn't going to be home in time to have them over, so I was bringing it to their home. They needed to eat at 5pm. This is definitely not a good time of day for me...with the kids :) I basically had to banish them to their room so that I could cook. The whole time I was thinking.."I'm happy to do this for the missionaries, and I'm sure I'll be blessed for it." Let's just say I was totally blessed. Right as we were getting ready to leave to take them dinner, Lucy stood on a kids chair that suddenly flipped over and she whacked her chin on the counter. Speaking from past experience, things like this don't go so well for me. Usually I feel very nervous and completely stressed out. But, amazingly enough, I was calm, collected, organized...even happy! So, we dropped of the dinner on the way to the E.R. The hospital was empty, so we got into a room right away. Of course as all hospital visits go, this still took about 3 1/2 hours even though it was not busy. It was actually very hard and tiring to entertain the kids in that tiny room for such a long time, but I didn't mind!. Matt was taking the train to meet me, but fell asleep and missed his exit...ha ha ha. Usually I think that would make me flip my lid...but again...no stress. The whole experience was quite remarkable. Lucy was very brave, she didn't even flinch or wince or anything! I'm very grateful that I was so blessed that day!!!

Fun in Colorado

Lucy and my cousin John at the Air Force Academy
Lucy and Carmen in Louisville ready for Lucy's birthday party
The food was good!
Lucy's party
Eden at Carmen's preschool, funny I didn't get a picture of Carmen, she was too busy having fun to pose for meWe love living here in Colorado. We have been having a great time going to the mountains, to Boulder, the children's museum, Down town by way of light rail, to parks, and just being outside in the perfect weather. We just made an offer on a house and it was accepted so we are in the process of buying our first home. The prospect of not having boxes in my living room, and having a garage is very exciting, but buying a house is.....um scary. However, we love Louisville and can't wait to move there!

Well, Lucy got $2 from the tooth fairy and $5 from us, so she was totally happy about the whole thing. Lucy started school on Monday and that is going really well. She had a few crazy afternoons of screaming, but I think it was due to exhaustion. She woke up at 4am the morning of school with a bad dream related to watching the execution of Aslan in the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. She was just too excited for school that day, so she didn't go back to sleep...he he. By the way...we were visiting some friends when she happened upon some big kids watching that movie. Anyways, Eden and Carmen and I are enjoying the mornings, just chilling at home. It's nice when they are still very entertained with their toys. Eden has also got the hang of entertainment and when nothing is going on she will bring me the remote and point to the tv.....oops!

We bribed Lucy to let us tie her tooth to the door. It was loose for several months and was starting to turn brown. I'm amazed that she did it! Also, we have officially moved to Colorado. It is beautiful and we are really enjoying the weather. Matt started his new job yesterday and was very happy about it. We are so happy to have made it here!

UTAH

I just returned home from UT to a very unorganized house. Of course, I'm the one who has not organized, ever in my life, so this is a little stressful for moving. Our trip was great, we saw lots of family and friends, it was especially great to see the Bostonians, the Andersons, Crawfords and Barbers. I attached a picture of Eden doing her thing. I think this pretty much sums up her personality. She is a grungy little kid. But oh so cute!

Caller ID

Today I was checking my caller ID to see who I'd missed while I was gone. To my shocking surprise Marie Osmond had called! Too bad I wasn't here to chat. Maybe I'll catch her at church next week ;)

SAN FRANCISCO!!!

What a soft Q!
Ronna sculpting Eve by Rodin, or doing the conga?
Lucy and the MUMMY AHHHH!
Banalance
Katie and David by Hansen
Lucy thought the hair on his arms was grotesque and facinating
Eden reeking havock at the SFMOMA, I'm not kidding
Carmen contemplating Kline, Lucy actually said, "hey, that's kid painting" ha ha little does she know!
Carmen matching Rothko!
Lucy and Rauchenburg
Lucy thinking hard about the Gates of Hell, and about running away and not taking anymore silly pictures
Okay, this trip was amazing! We had such a great time with the Edwards. Since I took so many pictures, I thought I would categorize them. So, the first category will be the art that we saw while we were there. On thurs. Ronna stayed home with her kids to rest. I took the 3 girls on the train to downtown to go to the SFMOMA. We tried to see the Frida Kahlo exhibit but really only glanced at it because there were soooo many people, and the double stroller didn't quite manage. But, the kids were happy to see a few of her bleeding on a hospital bed. Carmen was really intrigued and carried the book we got with her all over. She kept saying things like, "why does Frida have a tree on her neck, does that hurt?" I tried to explain the difference between paintings and photos, but hers do look pretty real. On Sat. we randomly went to the Stanford museum of art. I actually liked this one better because they had a fantastic collection without the crowds. The kids really loved the balancing banana by Oldenburg, Carmen aptly renamed it the "banalance." My favorite for pictures sake, and maybe because Eden kept trying to chat with it was the sculpture by Duane Hanson, David the mechanic. And of course the mummy was a hit. But, what kid doesn't love to see a 2000 year old dead woman?