Stay Young.

Stay Young.

I haven't posted yet this month and am headed out of town to turn 30 in style (more about that later), so here are a couple photos from the last month. Did you see last week's "How I Met Your Mother"? I so felt like Barney after raving it up all night here at the MC Hammer/Vanilla Ice Concert/80s Dance Party. But I hope I keep doing these things anyway no matter how old I get.

Get Outside.

Get Outside.

I haven't been updating my blog lately and my mom blames my facebook addiction. She may be right. But the reason I give is I feel like all I have done the first two months of this year is what you see in my previous post--look outside at the cold cold snow and wish it was warm again.

Of course that's not completely true. We've done a few fun things despite the bitter cold. I have a hard time believing it, but here is some picture proof (and excuse the raw photos. One thing that was definitely not fun was losing all my favorite programs on my computer to a facebook virus):

Dinosaur Museum=Fun. (Minus the tantrums, of course)

Goofing off at home=Fun.

Making Valentines for class friends=Fun

Chase setting the microwave on fire by cooking his magic potion for 30 minutes in a plastic cup=Fun.

Oh wait, no. That wasn't fun at all.

Living Planet Aquarium=Fun.

(Scary stingrays= still fun.)

Watching Taylor's uncanny ability to communicate with fish=fun.

Finally taking our yearly family snapshot=er, well, kinda fun.

Going to the Children's Theater=Fun.

We also took our fun neighbors to the Draper Temple Open House and then flew down to Gila Valley for the temple groundbreaking there and those, fine, were fun.

Still, not as fun as summer. Isn't it time yet? Darn you groundhog, coming out on the only sunny day of the season!

Appreciate Utah Winter.

Appreciate Utah Winter.

I don't like cold. And I miss the south often. But mornings I look out my window and see this are something to appreciate too:

(Granted I took this picture from inside my window because there was no way I was walking out in that if I didn't have to)

Keep Traditions.

Keep Traditions.

My family was in town for Christmas this year and I absolutely loved it. We started a lot of new traditions and re-started some old ones. Here are some of them:

Christmas Books.

We don't put our gifts under the tree until Christmas Eve so it looks a little bare all season. This year we started putting all of our Christmas books under the tree and every night the kids could each pick one for me to read to them. Chase's favorite book was a "Search and Find" (like I-Spy) book my mom gave him last year. After picking it two nights in a row and delaying bedtime almost an hour each time, I had to tell him it wasn't really a book, but more of a toy and he needed to pick another one. After he'd run his con on me, he turned to any fresh face he could find:

Chase and Great-Grandpa with the Search and Find book

Chase and Pops with the Search and Find book

Chase and Uncle Andrew and Taylor with the Search and Find book


Chase and Uncle Todd with the Search and Find book

Before most of the family arrived on Christmas Eve, we put on the Christmas music and turned the living room into a dance floor. I like this as a tradition:

Taylor and Pops

Taylor and Great Grandpa

Taylor and Chase were the main entertainment pretty much the entire night. They starred as Mary and Joseph and also signed "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". Chase had learned this at his Preschool program and taught it to Taylor. He was a total ham. I have no idea where he gets that. Here is a picture of him at his preschool program:

A tradition we re-started this year is a sugar-cookie making contest on Christmas Eve. As a kid, I remember some wild sugar cookie concoctions. This year was a little more tame but I was impressed with the creativity all the same:

Andrew and Todd

When I told my brothers to pose with their cookies, they simultaneously did this. I also have a picture of the end-product of Andrew's cookie but it is inappropriate for the web.

My Dad skipped out during the sugar-cookie making but returned later to throw together the token 3-D cookie pictured here. It's no 2-foot cookie tower, but respectable nontheless. When he was gone was also when a surprise visitor showed up at our door---Santa! I have some super-cute video of this but I can't find the cord to hook the camcorder up to the computer. Santa was also nice enough to accompany me to my neighbors' houses that night to deliver some Christmas goodies.

Another new tradition I am fond of is the making of the Gingerbread House. While Jake and I went to his work party, my mom made these with the kids. She even provided gingerbread house-making outfits:

Nana and the Kids

(Taylor still does not like having her picture taken)

The kids were allowed to eat it the day after Christmas. (Matcing PJs also compliments of Nana)

Some traditions from the holiday I don't want to keep:

*Jake puking his guts out all Christmas Eve and not leaving his bed.

*Jake pulling his back out on Christmas and not leaving his bed.

*So much snow Christmas morning we couldn't make it to the family photo, which was the kids' present to our parents.

*Taking impromptu family photos when I just got out of the shower:

(Out of like ten photos this is the only one where one of my brothers isn't intentionally sabotaging the photo by grotesquely rubbing his belly or chest hair)

Merry Christmas to all! (Late and also because I didn't get any Christmas cards sent this year).

Finish Basement.

Finish Basement.

Jake and I are staying home and finally completing the two-year basement finishing project this Thanksgiving weekend. More than double the house--what are we going to do with all that space?

I went out a lot this past month and I've been thinking about it and maybe it's because once the house is finished, we may just never leave the house again.

Here are some of the new rooms:

Game Geek Room

A room completely dedicated to multiple computers and gaming systems.

Here Jake is at the exact moment he reached the esteemed Level 80 on World of Warcraft last week. I may never see my husband again once this room is complete.

Jake was out of town on business all week last week (which makes his Level 80 only nine days after the expansion release all the more impressive) and got back just in time for me to go see Twilight with some of my girlfriends. Not only did he make it home on time, he brought me back a Twilight t-shirt to wear to the show. How cute is that?

Saturday I was back at the theater with Jake and the kids to see Bolt. Super-funny, by the way. I highly recommend it for all ages. I had to soak it up though because beginning next month, I introduce:

The Theater Room

For $1 at Redbox the family and all our friends can see the latest DVD release in the comfort of our own home. Why ever go to the theater again?

After Bolt on Saturday and tucking the kids snugly in bed, I took off with my friend Sue to see Coldplay in concert:

(I was sans camera and this horrible phone picture only proves we were there.)

I stole this pic from a friend who was also there. It felt more like this. The whole thing was so surreal.

The best part? Thanks to an awesome well-connected neighbor, the tickets were free! Jake was torn between my begging him to be my date and reaching Level 80 before the weekend was over. You can see from the top photo which he chose. So he will be glad when we complete:

The Home Automation Room

This room's only purpose is to house all the equipment for Jake's dream: Every song, movie, light, alarm, sprinkler and thermostat in the house at his control with the touch of a screen. Who needs to go to a concert when you can pump their music through your house with the touch of a finger?

Which may be a good thing because after amazing performances by New Kids on the Block and Coldplay, the concert addict in me has resurfaced and it could get really expensive, really fast. Secondhand Serenade at Saltair this weekend? Gary Allen in Wendover next month? Two more loves of mine--I want to see them all!

On paper my life has seemed like the life of a single gal but in reality, 90% of my day is spent with my super-cute kids or helping out at their school.

This month Taylor worked on an art project for more than 20 hours and entered it the school "Reflections" arts contest this year again. We were a little nervous she would be upset if she didn't win after winning last year at both the school level and the next level and then having her work displayed at a local museum. She didn't win this year, but was thankfully content to have the distinction of "Honorable Mention". Here she is with her super cute art piece:

Think of all the great creations she will make for next year with the completion of the:

Arts and Crafts Room

One of the bests parts about finishing the basement though I think is the kids can finally walk out a door right into our backyard to play. This should give Chase a chance to work on his soccer skills. Not that his skills this year weren't top-notch:

As seen in the middle, Chase mastered the skill of not using his hands. (I also love the little girl on the left-hand side)

This was Chase's signature move. He would lift his shirt and distract the other team with his blinding white belly. Brilliant and very effective. He used it a LOT.

But we all know sports aren't just about mastering skills and signature moves. They're also about learning the value of teamwork. Here Chase is, displaying his grasp of the concept, enthusiastically raising his hand in response to the coach asking, "Who wants to sit out of the game first?"

Here is the team photo after the last game of the season. Chase posed again with his signature move. (You can also see another teammate unsuccessfully trying to mimic the "belly flash".)

While obviously highly skilled, there were times when Chase ran around in circles outside the ball huddle. It was almost like he had two left feet. I have to take responsibility here though as this might have something to do with me accidentally bringing to the game one of his shoes... and one of Taylor's:

Chase--literally--had two left feet.

All in all though, you can see we took the season very seriously:

Meet a New Kid.

Meet a New Kid.

I love these guys.



Don't know who this is? Maybe you know them better like this:



or this:



That's right. NKOTB 4EVA!

Seriously. The Block 2008: Best concert EVER. Not even as a joke. I truly, truly, LOVE these guys.

And Jordan, my love. I hope you noticed me in my vintage 1989 t-shirt, denim skirt, hot pink leggings, and big hair. Even though they confiscated our signs:



And security kept us from storming the stage. But I hope you still saw the five of us in all of our dedicatory dayglo glory rockin' out and singing along to every word for three hours straight.

You:



Me:



I'll be loving you forever,
Michelle

Celebrate Fall.

Celebrate Fall.

I love fall. And it goes by much, much too fast. October, I love you! It's now November which, though technically is still fall, is the month where I compromise that it can snow and though I will be mad, I won't yell at it.

Here's how we spent my most favorite month of the year:

The "World Famous" David Archuleta corn maze at Cornbellys. The kids love this place. Like last year, I forgot my camera. Actually, in true Michelle form, when we arrived I realized I forgot my camera AND my wallet, so we had to drive all the way back home for them. While I did remember my wallet, I forgot the camera again the second time out the door (I admittedly have brain damage) so all we got was a cell phone pic:

I bought this cell phone off craigslist when my old phone was stolen (and probably sold right back to me). When I went to send the pic to Jake off my phone, I found some leftover goodies in the photos section from the camera's previous owner:

We also made it down to Hee Haw Farms where the kids did basically the same things as they did at Cornbellys with the addition of petting farm animals and picking their own pumpkins:

And, the best part about October (besides the 5-pound candy weight gain), tons and tons of baking and crafts. These spiders were my favorite. The kids made forts one day and to my surprise, even wanted to keep their "pet spiders" in their forts:

To end the month, we also had our annual costume party with a small group of awesome neighbor friends. Jake and I were Shaggy and Velma. (Though Jake had trouble remembering the correct names and often referred to us as "Scabby and Wilma"):

Fun. But the real stars of Halloween:

Daphne and Scooby Dooby Doo! Love these guys. It wouldn't be Halloween with out them (and their easy-to-steal candy loot).