Go to Children's Museum.

Go to Children's Museum.

Within the time frame of one week each month, I am assigned 10-12 news stories and required to have them written and submitted, with pictures to my editor. The interviewing process usually takes six of those days and on the seventh day, I write. A lot.

During that time, every month, I become increasingly stressed, provide my children with increasingly less attention, and grow increasingly guilty about the whole process.

This past week extended into about 10 days and the entire family is ready to unwind from it all. One of my favorite ways to reconnect with my kids is to visit the Children's Museum.

I have found it is a deceivingly difficult place to get photos, which is fine, because I can just focus on having fun with the kids. Who doesn't enjoy building things and playing make-believe?

Write retaliation blog post.

My husband thinks he is so funny. Let me tell you a little story. It goes a little something like this:

Boys wants gun
Wife says no way
Boys begs for gun
Wife says no way
Boy buys gun anyway
Wife buys safe and locks gun in safe
Boy asks for combination
Wife says no way (who's laughing now?)

Jake insisted my desire to keep lethal weapons away from a home filled with curious children was because I was afraid of guns. To prove I was not, I let him drag me along shooting. When our friends began taking pictures of me shooting I knew I was in trouble and it wouldn't be long before Jake updated his 8-month hiatus blog. I was right. Read his latest masterpeice here.

Take kids sledding.

Take kids sledding.

Last week for family night we took the kids to a sledding bowl in the neighborhood. The kids of course had a blast. Jake was in charge of pushing them down the hill. He was also in charge of pulling them up the hill. That looked like a lot of work. I put myself in charge of the all-important task of taking pictures of it all.

Clean up Christmas.

Clean Up Christmas.

Instead of spending the first three days of the new year cleaning up Christmas, I spent them caving into societal pressure and reading the first three books of the Harry Potter series. And starting the fourth. Oh, and uh, taking care of the kids and stuff. Darn that Harry Potter.

Now, I am left with the task of dismantling our Christmas tree before it becomes too embarassing to let people into the house and reveal our "WT" status. I may even take down the Christmas --er, "party lights" we left up all of 2007 off our deck. But only because it turned out half of them didn't work when we turned them on after Thanksgiving. Otherwise I would leave them up because our friends all totally bought into the whole "party light" theory.

I usually count on Jake documenting Christmas with the video camera but this year it only recorded about 5 minutes before the tape ran out. And the first minute is recorded with the lens cap on. I was upset but not as upset as the time he recorded over the first two weeks of the life of our first child with his friend's water-skiing (love you, hun!). But, since a Christmas post is not complete without Christmas morning pictures, here are a few I took:

Mail Christmas Cards.

Mail Christmas Cards.

I finally, finally got most of these mailed today. If you don't get yours, so you know, this post totally counts.

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and beyond!

Wrap presents.

Wrap presents.

Remember how I ordered all my Christmas gifts online? Well, Amazon, for some reason, finds it necessary to box each item individually in a box ten times the size of the item being shipped. No lie, ten times. So pictured is the mound that arrived on my doorstep this week. Embarassing.

I have so far convinced my kids the boxes are "stuff for church" and they've totally bought it. I'm waiting for a friend of theirs to point out the obvious and foil my cover though so it's time I get these gifts wrapped.

Because there must needs be opposition in all things, I also had to unwrap the gift that arrived in a box for me! Pictured below is the Christmas gift from my parents. Being the dork that I am, I have been SO excited to get it and can't wait to hang it up, YEAH!

Attend awards ceremony.

Attend awards ceremony.

Cute little Taylor's picture was one of five winning pictures for her school Reflections contest (out of 260 entries in her category grades K-6!).

She was so tiny, when she went up to accept her medal, the vice-principal, who was handing them out, was looking around for her for several minutes before she realized she was standing right in front of her at her feet.

Taylor keeps saying, "I can't believe I won a medal! It's my first one!"

Order School Pictures.

Order School Pictures.

Hooooooow cute are these?

Before she left for school that day she actually showed me her "poses" she planned on for the photographer. She told me when it came time to take the photo though she was too scared to do any of them.

Here is one of her before-school practice poses:

I think she may have seen me watch a few too many episodes of America's Next Top Model (but how else was I to make it through the 60 episodes TiVo recorded for me??)

Christmas shop for kids.

Christmas shop for kids.

I am completely done shopping for my kids for Christmas and I did it all in less than an hour, sitting on my bed all toasty warm with the swirling blizzard outside my window, while my kids played in the next room with friends. I love the internet. Totally worth the total $20 shipping.

Download "Wicked" Soundtrack.

Download "Wicked" Soundtrack.

I am incredibly lucky to have been adopted by Jake's sisters and be included in an incredible (expense-paid for all of us! thank you again Jenni!) girls weekend last week.

The three sisters, Jake's mom, myself and another lucky sister-in-law high-tailed it to L.A. last weekend for a three-day getaway. Jake stayed behind with the kids and didn't have one complaint about the ordeal. I know, how lucky am I?

We opened the trip with amazing up-close and personal tickets to "Wicked: The Musical". I was nervous as I sat between the two soundtrack-obsessed sisters and made only one rule: no singing along. They obliged. It was amazing. Seriously amazing. (The performance, not the fact they obliged).

(The six of us at Pantages Theatre for Wicked)

To top the night off, we apparentally sat only rows in front of a real-life celebrity as we followed movie and television star Felicity Huffman out of the theater and through the streets of L.A. back to our car. Sarah moved in and got an border-line-invading-personal-space look and creeped the star out enough to make her turn around, away from her, but looking right at us. Sweet! There's nothing like a star-spotting on Hollywood Boulevard to make a Hollywood trip.

The next day we went to Universal Studios and I was able to convince only two of our party to go on the good rides. The other sister-in-law I am sure barely survived a heart attack and Jenni peed her pants (well, she claims one of the dinosaurs just "happened" to spray right between her legs, but I am doubtful as to the legitimacy of the claim). I laughed maniacly the entire time. I do love my amusement park rides. We also got to see "Wisteria Lane" from Desperate Housewives. Unfortunately, they were filming (the reason Huffman was in town?) and we only got to look down it and not drive down it. Still....awesome.

(I got this original photo booth idea from America's Next Top Model. I knew I was learning valuable information from that show)

We finished the trip with a visit to where we think, but are not sure, was the fashion district and came home with some discount goodies for all. Good times, good times.

I finally got around to downloading the soundtrack last night. This also required finally setting up my itunes account, 7 months after purchasing my shuffle. That's two to-do items checked off my list in one night! I will now spend the next 7 months uploading our 500+ cds (and reminiscing about our super time!).

Have a Halloween Party.

Have a Halloween Party.

When Jake suggested we have over a couple of friends we haven't seen in a while, I took that as an invitation to not only invite them over, but to make it a party...and then also give the night a theme. And I still get to call it his idea. Awesome.

So we had the "Wig Party" last weekend. It was a simple game night with one requirement: all party-goers must wear a wig.

Everyone looked great. In fact, I looked the lamest of all. But I rocked at Guitar Hero so that makes up for it in my book. Here are some photos from the evening:

Trailer park Cody was creepy even to his wife:

Sue's wig is made of feathers. For real.

We decided bangs looked good on Amy and tried to convince her to cut her hair. And perhaps die it purple.

Jake and I were the least convincing of all. But rocked at guitar hero, just remember that.

Carve Pumpkins.

Carve Pumpkins.

The family carved a pumpkin last week for a family activity. Well-- I carved the pumpkin while Jake played computer games and the kids watched me do the carving-- that was, until they eventually got bored, went to their room, sat in front of the TV and called to me, "tell us when you're done."


But they were giddy with excitement again when we took the pumpkin outside and lit it's smiling face in the night for the first time. I love Halloween, but it's so interesting to me that a holiday centered around monsters and demons is so family-friendly. Look at the wild light spewing from the pumpkin's mouth unbeknownst to us while we take a smiling photo--eerie.

Run a 5K.

Run a 5K.

Running a 5K? Yeah, waaaaay harder than running IN a 5K.

Inexplicably, I have had the desire for a while now to put together and direct my own 5K from scratch. When the responsiblity of the school fundraiser fell in my hands? I couldn't help myself.

It was fun to see the entire event come to fruition but I have decided I can check it off my list for good. Race sponsors, race t-shirts, course approval, registration, timing, prizes, goody bags...absolutely no need to put myself through those four months of all-consuming stress again.

Pull out winter clothing.

The kids making their first snowman of the year, Sept 29, 2007.

Pull out winter clothing.

September snow. Sigh.

Man up, Autumn! Can't you hold off winter at least a month or so? You fight for what, less than two weeks, and you give in, just like that?

I do love the smell of the furnace the first times it fires up for the season. And the excitement of the kids with their noses pressed against the window asking when they can go outside and make snowballs in the season's first snow. I could, however, have waited another 6 weeks for those moments.

Make Veil for Wedding.

Make Veil for Wedding.

It only took eight years, but one of my brothers got married last week, making me no longer the black sheep in the family. Yay!

Taylor and Chase were both flower girls, er, children. They were both, of course, adorable.

Chase and Nana

Taylor

My sister-in-law put way too much faith in me to make the flowergirl headbands, baskets, and yup, the veil.

I only accepted because my own veil was made by (family secret now being revealed) my father. If Big Al could pull it off, I figured, so could I.

It went off without a hitch! Unless you count the headband being too big for the other flower girl and her refusing to wear it and the bride's homemade veil flying off in the wind and rain in the middle of the ceremony.

Oops. I tried.

(Photo of the beautiful bride only moments before her veil took flight)

Other then that, it was a beautiful and delightful ceremony. Congrats to my bro and new sister-in-law!

(Joining of families representation with flower bouquets)

Post more items on blog.

Wow! I hadn't checked my mail since Thursday and what a mistake! I opened it today to find, along with--I counted--nine clothing catalogs, no other than the incredible Baker's Edge brownie pan in my last post! Anonymous gifter, reveal yourself!

What a great surprise, thank you!

I also wanted to now blog about this awesome car, that if it was priced $170 instead of $1.7 million, I would totally buy it...

Bake brownies.

Bake brownies.

If this pan was $15 instead of $35 I would buy it in a heartbeat. I am so glad to know I am not the only one who loves the edge pieces of brownies.

I think it would be awesome for lasagna too.

Get hair cut.

Get hair cut.

It seems no matter how many times I get my hair cut, it always grows back...

Break in new running shoes.

Break in new running shoes.

A new pair of my favorite running shoes arrived yesterday and I can't wait to break them in today. Stepping into brand spankin' new running shoes (especially these super cushy ones) is one of the best feelings in the world.




I will also have to try out the neon orange reflective material at night. They are supposed to increase visibility but they are so orange and so reflective I'm convinced they may provide night vision as well.

Watch HSM2.

Watch HSM2.

That's "High School Musical 2" for those of you not in the know. It premiered last Friday on the Disney Channel--with record breaking audiences, I might add. Did I record it? Of course I did. Am I the biggest 20-something dork ever? Of course I am.

Can't wait to watch it!