Why I married Wayne.....in case you were wondering!!

Merry Christmas

Enjoying the snow in Flagstaff!!
More of the snow!!
The girls in their Christmas Eve pjs.
Even Bailey got in on all the fun!!

Well I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and were able to spend it with the ones you love! It was a great day out here. Have a Happy New Year too!! Cheers.

Glasses!

The sides are so cute, little dark pink hearts! I don't know what is up with that first one, but in real life it is pink too! She picked them out herself.


I don't know what it is about kids in glasses but I love them!! My youngest daughter just got some and she is so darling. Isn't she??? I can't get enough!! I posted the pics so you can also share in her cuteness!!! Of course I also posted a picture of her sister because she is just as cute!!

Vegas baby!!

All the sister-in "Venice".

One of my favorite places in Vegas: The Belaggio!!
We ate at Toby Keith's restaurant. Wasn't he kind to pose with us??? :)
Our view from the 14th floor.
Umm, did I take a wrong turn somewhere???


Okay I am back from Vegas. It was a GREAT time. We walked. And drank. And then walked. And ate and drank. And then walked....you get the picture. It was great seeing all of my sisters!! We had a fabulous room and fabulous fun. Hope you enjoy the pictures. Now back to reality. UGH!

8 Things....

Dr. Write tagged me, again, so here are my lists:

8 shows I watch:
Numb3rs
Without A Trace
Medium
CSI(the real one)
Samantha Who?
Project Runway
So You Think You Can Dance?
Barefoot Contessa

8 restaurants I love:
PF Chang's
Pei Wei
The Barrio
Durante's
Macayo's
Caffe Boa
Ra
Kid friendly ones that also serve great food!!

8 things I did yesterday:
Eat
Shop
Grade notebooks
Blog
Go on Facebook
Talk on the phone
Take dog for a walk
Snuggle with the girls

8 things I am looking forward to:
Finishing this semester
Christmas
Vacation
Vegas in December
Finishing my PhD
Watching my daughters grow up
Growing old with my husband
Bush's last day in office

8 things I wish for:
Many more years with my husband
Health and happiness for me and my family
WalMart to go out of business :)
Cool weather for awhile
My girls to able to fulfill their dreams
Spend a couple of months in Europe
That bad people get what they deserve
That good people get what they deserve

8 things I love, in no particular order:
My wonderful husband
My fantastic daughters
My whole family
My dog Bailey
Cocktails
Mexican food
Holidays
Vacations

8 things I can't stand, in no particular order:
Rude people (especially at Christmas time)
All the hype over a poorly written vampire book
Anything to do with vampires
Poor service at restaurants or stores
WalMart
Arrogant people who don't know or care that they are arrogant
People who drive toooooo slow
When my children are hurt or sad

Well that was a bit harder than I thought but I did it. What's next???

Coldplay: A Review, Turkey Day Trauma and Polar Bearing!!

Some cool special effect lighting.
The back drop for some of the songs!
Here they are singing right in the middle of a row of seats located in the back of the arena. Chris is on the far right. It was really cool.

First: a review of the concert. It was fabulous!! I was already tired when I got there so the fact that they had not ONE but TWO opening acts was a bit tedious but when they came out, they were great. Near the end of the concert, they ran down towards the seats in the back and did an acoustic song from there. The people sitting there were losing their minds!!! Chris was quite charming throughout the whole concert and it was an excellent show!!

Second: Our Thanksgiving Trauma was that our oldest daughter was hopping on the pogo stick when it went into a puddle, she lost traction, fell backwards and hit her head on our sport court-yes, concrete. Ouch! She blacked out and then said she was nauseated and wanted to sleep. Uh oh. So the husband took her to Urgent Care who quickly sent him to an ER. She got x-rays and a CAT-scan and everything is fine except for the bump on her head and raging headache. We know how to have fun!!

Lastly, was our witnessing of "Polar Bearing". See video for all the explanation you need. FYI: the temperature of the pool is 55 degrees!!

Fall Recital 2008

The girls played in their 5th piano recital last night. They have been playing for 3 years and are really blossoming into great musicians!! They played their songs flawlessly and were very focused, even when a small boy started screaming and crying during my oldest daughters piece. Yikes!! They like getting all dressed up and playing for people. Bravo girls!! Bravo!!

Diva in the making

The other day my youngest daughter asked me:

"Mom. What is the difference between a shoulder bag, a hand bag and a clutch??"
A girl needs to know these things!!

My new obsessions!!

During the campaigning I got sick of seeing him and McCain. But I must say now that he is president, I think I have a bit of a crush on him!!
These are truly sublime!! They are crispy and salty and healthier than you average chip or cracker. They are great with hummus. I can't get enough!!
Okay a pretzel, smothered in peanut butter, drizzled with caramel, then covered with chocolate? Oh and throw in a few peanuts for good measure. I mean what is not to like??
I am normally neutral when it comes to cleaning products but I just got this vacuum and I must say, it really SUCKS!!! I love it. How did I live without it???

Movies I've seen: A list

Okay so I have been tagged by Dr. Write to create an alphabetical list of my favorite movies or movies I have seen. As it turns out, most of these are my favorite. Here they are:

August Rush
Big Chill
Casablanca
Dirty Dancing
Ella Enchanted
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Good Will Hunting
High Fidelity
Ironman
Jumanji
Knocked Up
Legally Blonde
Memento
Nim's Island
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Pride and Prejudice
Quantum Leap
Ratatouille
Say Anything
Truman Show
Uptown Girls
Vanilla Sky
When Harry Met Sally
X-Files (the first one)
You've Got Mail
Zoolander

Whew!!! I did it.

Veteran's Day

The flag my youngest daughter colored.

The girls and I trying to take our own Veteran's Day picture. Notice the flag??
And again....we tried about 4 times. It is harder than it looks people.

Our family would like to say a big THANK YOU to all the past, present and future veterans. We hope that everyday, not just Veteran's Day, you feel loved and appreciated.

Cheers to you!!!

Geologist humor!

My husband, a geologist, thinks is one of the funniest things ever. I thought I would share it with you. Notice what the geologist is wearing and how he looks a lot like my stepdad(also a geologist)...

Oxford is annoyed and you should be too.

Below is the list of Oxford's top ten most annoying phrases.

1 - At the end of the day
2 - Fairly unique
3 - I personally
4 - At this moment in time
5 - With all due respect
6 - Absolutely
7 - It's a nightmare
8 - Shouldn't of
9 - 24/7
10 - It's not rocket science

I know I have some but I can't think of them right now. What sayings/phrases annoy you??

Butterscotch Bear and a letter.

This week was my youngest daughter's turn to be Student of the Week. What does that mean? you might ask. Well the most important thing it means is that she got to bring home the class bear: Butterscotch. It was very exciting because he got to go trick-or-treating with us and everything. She took him everywhere. He is really quite tired now. After school today she gave her sister a letter she wrote. This is what it said:

Dear Sissy,
You are the best sister in the Holl intiyer WORLD!!!! (this is just how she spelled and punctuated everything).

How cute is that??

Geez Mom!

Today while I was helping my youngest daughter complete a class project, my oldest daughter came in. She saw a picture of something we were working on and said:
"Geez, what is up with that?"
To which I was beginning to respond:"Well dear-" she quickly interrupted me and said:
"Mom. That was a rhetorical question. I didn't actually expect an answer."

Oh, my bad!!

Happy Halloween!

The girls with gma and gpa(aka The Mad Scientist). Don't you love the severed hand?

A house divided. Go SunDevils.(She went as a cheerleader!) Go Wildcats. (She went as her dad!)
The friends. See Madonna on the end?? She looked so much like her, it was scary!! Sorry about the darkness. I was having issues with my camera. I'm sure it was my fault!
My youngest daughter's pumpkin.

My oldest daughter's pumpkin. Her classroom theme is "The Island" so she carved waves and a palm tree. Cute!!


As you can see, Halloween was a success. By success I mean they kids got candy and the parents got to hang out and drink together. Yea!! The weather was perfect. There was a nice breeze so it wasn't too hot or too cold. I am glad it is over. Now there is Thanksgiving to think about, and finals, and then Christmas. I guess it is always something. I hope you all had lots of fun!!!

Tinker Bell and Pumpkins

The release of the movie Tinker Bell has been a heavily anticipated event in my house. So to celebrate its release yesterday, I hosted a premiere today. In case you don't know, fairies like to eat "Pigs in a Blanket", fresh pineapple, chocolate chip cookies, candy corn and popcorn!! The movie was lots of fun. After that, we had to carve Pumpkins for the annual Pumpkin Walk tomorrow at school. I think they turned out pretty cute. I probably have carpel tunnel but hey, the kids are happy. I can't believe Halloween is in two days. What??? Well Happy Halloween.

Big Words and Knitting-but not necessarily in that order.

My mother is teaching my daughters to knit. Yes! Knit!! Here is a picture of the dish cloth my oldest just finished for me. Isn't it great? I think so! After giving it to me she said: "Mom. I feel so exhilarated giving you that dish cloth." (She recently received a free dictionary from school and has been reading it every night!) Some other new and exciting words she has been saying lately:

"Mom. Dinosaur bones are archaic." Then: "Mom. You are ludicrous!" And finally, to her sister: "Hey. You are a lunatic."

I wonder what audacious sentiments she will be enunciating next. :)

HSM3

Well I took the girls to see High School Musical 3 tonight. Yes on opening night. I was expecting a massive throng of tweens and teens crowding into the theater, fighting for the best seat. But alas, to my great relief, the theater was not crowded, there were plenty of seats and I did not have to sit next to some prepubescent teen who shrieked every time Zac Efron came on the screen. It was very cute and sweet and I will probably be singing those songs the rest of the weekend. It was good- but it was no Grease. Of that, you can be sure!!

A recent conversation

The other day I had to take my youngest to the doctor. We were sitting in the exam room and this was our conversation:

Daughter: "Mom. I want to be a doctor. But not a boob doctor."
Me: "Did you just say boob doctor?"
Daughter: "Yea. You know. A doctor that delivers babies. I just want to look in noses and mouths with that stuff."

Ahh. Hilarious!

Amazing Jakes!!

To top off the great fall break we have had, the girls and I went to Amazing Jake's.(check it out, it is pretty cool!) I took some cute pictures but not with my camera- with my phone and well, I did not get my phone because of its ability to take pictures so they aren't that great. But trust me, we had a blast!! The best thing about it is that everything is inside. So the girls rode rides, played mini-golf, went bowling, ate, rode more rides, ate some more....you get the idea. All and all it has been a great break. I can't believe it has been a week already!!! Hope you are all having an enjoyable fall so far. It is only supposed to be in the 70's tomorrow. Yes! I think fall might actually, finally be here.

Create your own Obama quote

Generate a Barack Obama Quote!

"You know, there's a lot of talk in this country about cloudiness. Well I think Americans are tired of the same old homelessness. Ordinary Americans believe in education, they want less
meth addicts, they just aren't sure if their leaders believe in sunshine."
Generate your Barack Obama quote at Buttafly.com

Brr!!???

My oldest daughter's friend had a birthday party at the ice skating rink. Oh what fun!! Since I have only been ice skating oh, twice in my whole life, I was expecting disaster. But it was easier than I thought. I didn't even fall down. For us, it was all about clothes. We actually got to wear boots and hats and jackets at the same time!!! It was a nice break from the sun and heat and we all had loads of fun!!!

Watch this please!!

My baby is 7!!

The birthday princess with her crown and wand. All bow to the princess!!
This is their "But mom we HAVE to do a funny face picture!" picture.
Miss E said "Mom, I want to use that layered plate thing. It's fancy." Here is the royal feast.

All the princesses are in attendance.

Bling from Grandma. Notice that the necklace is the Eiffel Tower. She is obsessed with all things French and blingy. Grandma is all too happy to oblige.

Yes it is hard to believe but Miss E turned 7 today!! It has been a big, busy, birthday weekend. Her party was a success. She is fantastic, wonderful, intelligent, lovely, beautiful, etc. We are so glad she fought so hard when she was born to stay in this world because I know it is a brighter place with her in it. We love her. Kisses and hugs to our big girl.

Happy 40th!!

Wayne: The Chris Farley years!!!!

My mom and me: Peace!!
The birthday boy. Doesn't look a day over 29.

The whole family.

Yesterday was Wayne's 40th birthday. We had a "choose your decade" costume party. Many people released their inner hippy. My look was inspired by Cher. Not the chap wearing, body revealing Cher of the 80's but rather the fully clothed bell bottom wearing Cher of the 60's.(Everyone was thankful for that!!) We all had lots of fun and the husband said it was his best birthday party ever. Of course, I think it was actually the only real birthday party he has ever had (I can give you that sob story at another time) but still, it was pretty fun. Happy Birthday dear. I love you!!