Girl Scout Cookies!

Today was the day that Contessa was able to start taking orders for Girl Scout cookies. After getting her order forms this morning we went around and she asked a few of our friends. We also headed to the hospital to see Devin and were able to sell quite a few to the nurses there. So in just 3 hours she sold more than 40 boxes!

I am going to take pictures of her in her new vest so everyone can see how cute she is in it. She is really excited and had set a goal to sell 65 boxes, but I think she will be able to sell even more than that if she keeps it up.

If anyone wants some, just let us know and we can order them before Jan 27th. They are delivered the end of February and that is when the money is due. I can mail them to you or can save them until we see you again.

Being the Cookie Manager will have me busy for the next 2 months. I just hope my house can handle the number of boxes that it will be holding until all the parents come pick up the orders for their girls. I guess I have some rearranging to do!

Scott and Miss' Wedding!

Sorry, it's late and I've got to work in the morning, so I'm not writing much, but the wedding is hands down the best event I've been to so far in 2009! OK, enough smart assing. Here are the pics for those interested and those unable to attend. If anyone wants the originals, let me know and I'll rar them together and put it on rapidshare or something.

Here's the pics

PS-I know alot of them are of my kids, but I tried to get a little of everyone, but there are alot I missed. It doesn't mean I dont like you/your kids if I didn't get many pics of them. Besides, Autumn was the official photo person, mine are just very amature snapshots and it shows.

PPS-I just realized not all of them have uploaded. This should be rectified by the time most of you look at this.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends. We hope you are able to enjoy the time with loved ones on this beautiful day. We miss you all.

Much better day!

Today was a much better day for me. I signed up for 2 classes through a community college (clovis.edu) because I could get 6 credits for the same price as 3 and they offer a digital photogaphy class online! So I start 2 classes January 12th. I am pretty excited about them. Hopefully they will have my transcripts before the next semester so I can take more general ed classes like English/math without having to redo the ones I've already done.

I also attended the Girl Scout Cookie Coordinator training. That was a waste of time, but I am almost ready to get the girls started selling. They can start selling January 10th (preorders) so I just have a few more weeks to get completely organized and set up.

And another great thing for me today is the shoe blog I was writing for (haven't in many months while they revamped everything) contacted me again and set me up to blog twice a month so I start that the 29th. I really enjoyed that one.

So far it has been a good day. Tonight we are going to Contessa's Christmas concert. Each grade is singing 2 songs and then they sing a group one as well. She is excited about that concert. Hopefully the boys will be good and sit still during it. It is after their bed time so we just have to hope Cameron won't be too grumpy!

Complaints!

I am in a complaining mood. It hasn't been a good day. I admit that part of it is because I am cranky, but not everything! So my complaints for the day:

• Screaming kids
• fighting
• kids not listening
• broken lamps - seriously, can't I find a floor lamp that won't break within 6 months?
• dirty dishes - yes, I know it is my fault because I didn't wash them. However, do 3 kids REALLY need to use 10 different cups a day? 2 of them aren't even home all day!
• junk mail
• too many toys everywhere
• crumbs
• no naps - why Cameron thinks he can skip a nap is beyond me. Thus the reason for many of these complaints!

Okay, I admit getting them out there has lessened my stress a bit. So maybe I should make a list of things I am grateful for. Then I can feel even better:

• family
• friends
• cuddles
• clean diapers
• nice fitting jeans (don't have too many of those right now!)
• massages - I should really spend the money on a professional one some day. I think I would enjoy it! But, the homemade ones are nice too.
• clean cars
• clean house
• smell of fresh baked breads, cookies, etc.
• bubble baths
• books
• good music
• computers - I can keep up-to-date with some of my favorite people

I really do feel much better now. Thanks for listening. I guess I need to stop letting these dumb hormones take over!

And so my Christmas season begins, kinda...

I make no secret of it. I am not a Christmas person. Personally, I have allways hated the commercialism of it. I really don't mind giving gifts, but I will not accept them for myself. Same with birthday gifts, but that's another day. I also don't really like the decorating, so Amy does it all herself. One thing I do look forward to each year, though, is a concert. We've kinda made it a family tradition each year (except for 2006 right after Cameron was born) to attend Peter Breinholt's Christmas concert. I first heard Peter's first Album, Songs About the Great Divide, as a missionary (don't give me that crap that I shouldn't have been listening because it wasn't hymns). He's a wonderful folk musicial from Salt Lake. Last year and this year, they added a couple of acts to the lineup. Peter was joined by Ryan Shupe and the Rubber Band and Sam Payne. You may have heard some of RSATRB, they had a small hit a year or so ago call "Dream Big" that was used by NBC as the theme to some reality-type show that only lasted a couple of episodes. They play a wonderful mix of everything from folk to bluegrass to celtic and even calypso on a couple of songs with Ryan on the fiddle and an incredible group of musicians on acoustic and electric guitars, mandolin and another bigger mandolin looking thingy, bass and double bass, and percussion. Sam Payne is rapidly becoming a favorite of mine. He's a folk singer with an amazing gift for storytelling. He's also an accompished jazz musician. This year, the concert, called "The Gift", was the Christmas in the Canyons concert at Tuacahn Ampitheater in St. George, UT. The scenery was beautiful, the night brisk, but not too cold, and as allways, we had good seats, 3rd row right. Not as good as last year when we had front row center, but good none the less. Once again, all the guys put on an amazing show, from the Celtic inspired opening number done by everyone, I Saw Three Ships, Sam scatting on a number of songs (he's awesome at it), to the allways uplifting Dream Big, Sam's song All the Christmas they need (allways my favorite song of the night, brings me to tears), and they allways finish it off with Silent Night with the audience helping out (I've got a video of it I'll post, though I didnt have my phone ready and missed the first bit of it). I would love to post some pictures, but I couldn't bring the DSLR in because they had no video or photo posted outside the auditorium. We did bring in the little Canon, and I did get a few pics off without the flash, but I don't know how they turned out as I havent looked at them yet, but I'll post some if they turned out ok. Do yourself a favor and pick up their Christmas albums. I know they are avalible at Deseret Book and also from Amazon's MP3 store, or directly from the artits at their websites (If you pick they up, pick them up directly from the artists so they actually see the money from them). I may be reordering Sam Payne's Christmas album as I cant seem to find my copy and I didn't seem to rip it. Each of them also tours quite a bit and look for them to come to your areas. If anything, they are again doing next year's show in St. George again. Its not too bad of a drive (from Phoenix, easiest thing is go to Vegas, hop on I-15, and it's about 100 miles north). The scenery is beautiful (check out Snow Canyon just north of town, I've got some pics on Flickr I took there about a month ago) and hotel rooms are plentiful and usually pretty cheap.




Here's the video of Silent Night. Excuse the lousy quailty as I took it on my phone.

Here's a youtube video of Sam Payne singing All the Christmas They Need.



Peter Breinholt singing an original song, Christmas Eve Song, also from youtube



and Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband video for Dream Big

Shopping

I am proud to say that I am mostly done with Christmas shopping! I HATE waiting until after Thansgiving because it is nearly impossible to find what I want and then I stress over whether it will arrive on time if I ordered it online. I can't stand long lines and crazy crowds trying to buy the same items and being grumpy, so I just avoid it. Heck, if I could avoid food shopping from a week before Thanksgiving to a week after Christmas I would!

So I am pleased with myself this year. I bought all the kids presents & most stocking stuffers. Parents are taken care of as well. I even have everything except one item for our communities Christmas Elves program for needy families. I will buy that tomorrow to get that done too.

I even have gifts for Collin's birthday so we are doing great. Of course, I spent way too much in one month to get everything but that is to be expected. I always overspend! Thankfully Devin works a ton of overtime in the winter to cover it all. I sure love that man.

So how are you doing with preparing for the holiday?

I'm getting old

Devin and I were enjoying a relaxing afternoon together yesterday with Cameron taking a nap and Contessa and Collin at school. All of a sudden Devin tells me not to move and pulls out a piece of my hair. WHAT was he thinking?! Anyway, so it turns out that particular piece of hair was not any shade of brown or red like most of the others. No this one was white. Then he proceeds to pull out 7 more! I am officially getting old. I'm not even 30! Heck, I'm not even 29 so why am I going gray already?

I guess that's just the way things are. At least I'm not alone, Devin had much more gray than I do! HAHA!

For the love of shoes!

Cameron needed a new pair of shoes. Seriously, when don't kids need new shoes! So we took him to took for some. We eventually found a pair of Yo Gabba Gabba shoes in his size. He loved them. He loved them so much that he took them with him to bed last night! He set them on the edge of the bed and pulled the blanket over them. I'm assuming he wanted to keep them warm! It was really cute. He was so excited to have his new shoes. He's been wearing them since he woke up. Oh, for the love...of shoes.

(Of course, I "needed" new shoes too and ended up with 2 pairs of boots! I have never spent so much on shoes for me before. But I love them.)

It's a BOY!

So we didn't mean to find out what we were having, but we know now that we are having another boy. His due date is March 24 and so far everything looks great. He moves around alot and is constantly enjoying the bouncy-ness (is that a word?!) of my bladder. We will have to do some rearranging of rooms in the future, but we are excited to welcome him into the world in less than 19 weeks. YEA! Over 1/2 way through.