Here She is...

Miss America. I was so excited to learn that one of my former students is going to be a contestant in January's Miss America pageant. Her name is Hilary Griffith. I am so excited to watch it now! Tune in and cheer her on! If you happen to get the magazine Arrowhead Life, there is an article about her in there, too (she is on the cover).

I am so tired tonight. This morning I woke up before the birds and helped my friend Natalie on a wedding photo shoot. I want to be her apprentice! I figure if I can watch her in action, then maybe I'll learn a thing or two and get better.

Let's see...what else:
--Trunk or Treat is tomorrow night at the church...Eliza and Libby are getting excited. Libby said she needed a prince so she could dance. She asked Brian to be her prince. Too bad we don't have a costume for him.
--I am so out of it...I had NO idea that the World Series is going on. Brian had a baseball game on the other night and I asked, "What's so big about this game?" (he doesn't usually watch too much baseball). And, well, it was game three of the World Series. Hello!
--It is getting so nippy outside in the mornings and at night. I definitely need a sweatshirt.
--Got to go to the temple tonight with Brian. Ate at Cafe Rio after.

OK--I need to go to bed!

Expensive Holiday

Halloween is an expensive holiday. I didn't spend too much on the girls' costumes, but it's the Halloween candy that got me! I bought some to hand out at Trunk or Treat on Friday and then more to hand out Tuesday night on Halloween. It was probably over $20! I guess the benefit will be going through the girls' bags and getting some yummy treats! Shhh! Don't tell--but I know you do it, too!!!

I am still on a search to find an outfit for a wedding of a high school friend that Brian and I are going to in November. I can't find anything (unless I want to spend a boat-load of money). I can find a shirt but no skirt or vice versa. I would really like a dress though. So if you have any suggestions of places I can look, I would love it!

And while we are on the topic of money, we had to get new tires on the van today. For a while, the steering wheel would shake a little bit, which was quite annoying. We tried a couple of things, but it came down to new tires. Luckily, Brian has a friend who works at Discount and he got a smokin' deal. Yeah-hoo! At least we'll have new tires for the trip!

Finally!

For the past few months, Ellie would eat small bits of food, but only if we put it in her mouth. She wouldn't grab it and put it in her own mouth. She would grab it, but drop it on the floor or in her seat, etc. But today at lunch I put some morsels of bread on her tray and she reached down and put it right in her mouth. Hallelujah! It was so nice to have her gain that little bit of independence.

I mentioned that I got Becky's new book...well, I finished reading it today. (Mom--now you can borrow it for a little bit). It is very good. It is full of great ideas for preserving family history from organizing to gathering to presenting, etc. It has me motivated!! I am totally excited to get back into it.

I'm excited it's almost Friday. Yay! I have a doctor's appointment in the morning, then Eliza has preschool. Brian gets to pick her up from school and I get to go for a pedicure with a couple of friends. Then I am taking pictures for my friend Leslie and her family. They are such a cute family, so I will have to post a couple if she gives me the okay! :) Then Brian and I will head out on our date. I am thinking he would love to go to Cabela's and look around for a while. And they have a restaurant there, so it might be fun to eat there, too.

Getting in the Christmas Mood

I am in the Christmas mood! I just got some new candles from Gold Canyon and they make me and my house so cheerful! I got a Cozy Christmas, Days of Christmas, Pumpkin Pie, Cranberry Orange and my all-time favorite, I think, which is Strudel and Spice. I absolutely LOVE that one. I also went into Bath and Body Works yesterday and they have their holiday scents out. Yum, yum. If you go there, be sure to check out the Cinnamon Bun, Vanilla Bean Noel and Very Festive pomegranate. They also had small-ish bottles of Three-in-One, which is body wash, bubble bath and shampoo all in one. The girls and I decided on Spice Gingerbread and it is amazing. It smells so good and we love it.

Let's see...what else has been going on? The weather is really cooling off at night. I will be needing a sweater soon. Did I mention that I am going to freeze in Utah? I will be able to handle it for a week though!

Last night Becky and I did our scrapbook night for the people who won it at the service action a couple of months ago. It was Becky and me and seven others. We first talked about "why we scrapbook", and I showed a journal/scrapbook of sorts that my great-grandma started and kept when she was over 80 years old. It just shows how important it is to get things written down and how much we treasure it now. Becky showed a little movie that she does in some of her classes and it was equally as touching and motivating. Then we talked the rest of the night about organization, chronological vs. big picture system, what pages/albums to do for each child, etc. It was very informative and fun. Becky also surprised us each with a copy of her newest book that isn't even out yet: Family History Scrapbooking. I was so excited to get an idea book that I hadn't worked on and seen too much of already! What a treat--thanks, Becky!!

Today has already been full of aerobics, taking Eliza to preschool, and soon we will be off to pick her up. Then I am going to watch four of my young women run in a cross-country meet. I have never been to a cross-country race before, so it will be interesting...I am not sure the proper etiquette, so I'll have to pay close attention! Then it's off to mutual. Whoosh!

I also have the completed spreads for the Look Book that I need to proof, so that will keep me busy. That book is close to going to the printer!

Bye for now.

Yummy Stuff

I went to Costco yesterday and picked up a couple of yummy things. They were giving out samples of some beef enchiladas, so we picked up some of those for dinner. They were good and the girls loved them, too. They were also selling those delicious caramel apples, so we had to buy a set of three. I don't think I've ever bought them there--only salivated or gotten one from my parents if they bought some. The girls picked out one with M&Ms, one plain caramel and one with mini white and dark chocolate chips. Let's just say that 1 and a 1/2 are gone. Yum!

Eliza and Libby are going to my parents tonight for a grandkids' sleepover. They should have fun! I hope Libby sleeps though. She always gives them trouble going to sleep. We got a sitter for Ellie and will be going out to dinner with some friends. Excited!

Note to Self

Remind me not to go back to aerobics for the first time in a few months AND play football at mutual in the same day. I was sooooo sore last night and today. I am doing better tonight, but wow! That was too much for me. We ended up playing football in the cultural hall last night instead of basketball and I guess the little bit of running I did combined with the aerobics in the morning added up to soreness and pain.

Tonight Eliza and I went to the Sunrise Mountain volleyball game and I also got to see one of my young women in her choir concert. I lucked out that they were on the same night! Eliza enjoyed the music and recognized quite a few songs, so that was fun.

Good Stuff

Here is my "good stuff" list for the day:
--clean floors
--clean bathrooms
--LOVING everything I am learning from here
--Friends like Jessi who help me with all my photography questions
--a new modem which means the Internet hasn't timed out ALL day. It is heaven! About 10 times in 5 minutes, it would time out and we'd have to wait.
--For Brian, we got cable yesterday. We have never had cable the whole time we've been married, but we got it today. Mainly, we (Brian) got it for the Suns' season. The only benefit I see is that last year, he would want to watch the games, so he would go over to someone's house who had cable and watch it. Now he can be home. And I guess HGTV and a clear channel 3 and a few other channels are a benefit, too. And we have caller ID now, which is so strange. I don't know if I like it.
--I have mutual tonight--looks like we will be playing basketball with the priests (16-18 year old boys) and having ice cream sundaes after.

Talk soon!
Erin

Winter Trip

Brian and I just decided last night that we are going to take a trip up to Utah. Neither of us have been up there lately and the girls have never been. The Trimble family in West Jordan is going to have a reunion on Nov. 25th, so we finally made up our minds that we would go. We are going to stay in our time share in Park City and probably freeze our buns off. I am not looking forward to the drive up, but I think it will be a really fun time. We are planning to take the girls to see all of Temple Square (the Christmas lights will be on), we want to go to several temples, Gardner's Mill (for me!), other shopping and more. If you have any suggestions for fun things to do in the winter with kids, let me know!! We saw some sleigh rides they offer in Park City, so that would be fun, but we need suggestions! We plan to stay a week; we'll see how long the girls last (and Brian and I)! Off to look for some thermals and jackets and blankets and gloves and scarves, etc!!! I am totally not a cold-weather girl!

First Camping Trip

Eliza went on her first camping trip. Brian took Eliza up to Cherry on Friday afternoon and they came home on Saturday afternoon. On Friday, they set up camp, ate beef stew for dinner (Brian said Eliza ate a ton!), roasted marshmallows and watched the new Barbie movie in the tent. Brian said he was cold during the night, but Eliza wasn't and slept like a log all night. In the morning, they made a fire, had donuts, ate S'Mores, hiked up to see some Indian ruins, then drove through several smaller towns on Old Senator Highway and came home. She said she had a fun time but she didn't like having to go to the bathroom out in the open.

So on Friday night, Libby, Ellie and I went to Target and Old Navy and drove around looking at Halloween decorations. On Saturday morning we went to Becky's house to make cards for the young women birthdays for the year. Brian and I went on our date in the afternoon, then later, I went to Becky's again for a scrapbook night. I didn't do any work--just talked--and it was a great time.

Eliza doesn't have preschool on Monday or Wednesday, so that is a bummer. Hopefully we can find some fun things to do to pass the time. She said she wants to go to Campbell's and get a treat. I told her I was thinking more along the lines of something "free." We'll see what we find to do.

Happy Columbus Day.

Lately

Let's see...
On Wednesday night for mutual we went to the temple visitor's center to watch the Joseph Smith movie, which was amazing! It was very powerful and intense.

I went in the playroom yesterday and saw Eliza's Halloween costume all laid out perfectly. She loves it and takes great care of it.

The other picture is the result of what happens when Libby finds the package of Bubble Tape in the diaper bag and finishes it off. Look at that wad!

I ended up getting the soundtrack to High School Musical from iTunes. I have wanted it for a while, so I finally splurged and got it. We love it!

We broke out Elf and watched it a couple of nights ago and laughed our heads off. That movie is a classic and so hilarious. Watch it if you haven't seen it!

That's all! Have a great Friday.

One More Down!

Yesterday I had a huge deadline with having to get all the projects written up for an upcoming book so I could mail them off to be photographed. I had been so busy with other stuff I hadn't hardly had any time to get to them before last night. But I got them done and even though I was in bed after my early-bird friend, Kristi, probably had been asleep for 6 hours, I still got some sleep! So I am feeling pretty relieved today after the Fed Ex man came and picked up all eight boxes.

Other than that I have been feeling well. I was kind of sick at the beginning--more than I've been with any other pregnancy. I thought at first it might be a boy since I felt so different. But, alas, we get another sweet girl. And after how Eliza and Libby have been lately, I'll take another girl. They have been great and sweethearts.

I got Eliza's Halloween costume yesterday. She is going to be a cowgirl and a very cute one at that. Today she got some darling cowgirl boots that will just be the finishing touch. Libby is excited to be Cinderella. We have the dress, so I think we just need to get some "glass" slippers. And Ellie will either be a basketball player or a cheerleader.

Tonight we went to Sonic for dinner and if you haven't had their new Philly Cheesesteak sandwich you have GOT to try it. It is so, so good. I loved it. And it definitely is big enough to fill you up. Brian and I both loved it.

Happy rest of the week.

Lots of Pink!

We thought it was about time to share our big news since I can't hide it much longer. We are expecting ANOTHER girl. Yep. That is right. I am pregnant and due on March 5th. I am 18 weeks along, and we found out last week it is a girl. I was a bit disappointed at first but am excited now and it will be fine that we will have 4 girls. Brian was excited from the beginning. We told Eliza and Libby today and Eliza is sad that it isn't a boy. She said, "I love boys when they are little." She is excited though, and Libby couldn't really care less one way or the other. We just hope this baby is as great as Ellie. If she is, then I think I will survive!

In other news, my board "meeting"/party went well tonight. The food was great, the meeting part went well (although the husbands slacked in their duty of cleaning up dinner) and the games were a hoot and a lot of fun. I am just thrilled it is over. Now I can breathe a little easier.

Finally, Eliza and Libby love the show Big Comfy Couch that is on channel 8. They really love that show and have started acting out the show. For the past couple of days, they have had me tape them on our couch doing the show. Wow--they have a lot of that show memorized. It is very cute. I've attached pictures of them on the "couch."

One to Go

I forgot to mention the "One to Go". Someone commented that she wanted to see what I'm doing for the board meeting, so I took some pictures. Hopefully no one who is going to be there reads my blog so I don't ruin the surprises. Heck, I think only about five people read my blog, so we are okay!

My theme is "Back to School" and the invitations were done on a library card in a library pocket decorated very simply. Tomorrow night we are going to start with a dinner that is "school-ish." We are having sloppy joes (very homemade, thanks to my sister-in-law!), on homemade buns, with french fries, vegetable, capri suns, all in tray-like plates. At the end we are having dessert which will be little ice cream cups and brownies. After we eat dinner, the husbands are going to clean up and the leaders (wives) will have the "meeting" part of the night. For that I made little pocket portfolios with handouts/notes in them. I used Carol Wingert's concept from the Creative Escape class (thanks Carol!) and folded those cheap pocket folders from Target and wallpapered them with paper. I printed off the notes, folded them in half lengthwise and stuck them in. We are going to talk about four different "subjects": math (lost sheep--one and 99; budget, etc), English (reading scriptures, handbook, nouns: us, Young women, etc), science (experiment upon the word) and social studies (working the crowd at mutual and at church, not letting any girl feel alone or left out, etc). After our meeting we are going to play some getting-to-know you games with the spouses and we'll have dessert. As a favor, I covered the fronts of composition books to give to each leader.

Over the top? Probably. Fun to do and think about? For the most part. (Thanks Mom or the ideas) No, it was fun, but I will be glad when tomorrow night is over! I might be able to think a little straighter. ...Except that I have a huge writing deadline for Autumn Leaves for another book. I have to send all the projects back on Tuesday, so I will be writing furiously in every spare moment!

One Down, One to Go!

Young Women in Excellence was last night and it went pretty well. I hope the parents thought it did. The room looked great and so did the red carpet the girls walked in on. Everything went smoothly though and it was just a fun night for the girls to share what projects they had been working on. I included a picture of the room and one of the red carpet (with Kayleen--my awesome Laurel president--striking a pose!).

Artists in Residence

I had this post all typed out and was uploading it, when something happened and, whoosh--it was gone. So here is the Reader's Digest version.

--After much begging, Libby and Eliza got to make a little project using my stickers, paper and rubbings that I used on the stuff I am doing for my "meeting" for the young women leaders. For the past couple of days, they used their stickers and paper, but, of course, they wanted to use what I was using. So they got their wish and had a blast as you can tell from the pictures. Libby LOVES to use the brayer. She helps me out with that anytime I need to glue something down. She is there with the brayer going right over the top of it!

--Today was a whirlwind day:
-went visiting teaching
-bug man came and sprayed (hope we have less crickets!)
-picked up a new set of mailbox keys (lost ours)
-went to a school book fair where my mom was volunteering and the girls each picked out a book
-went to Sunrise Mountain and watched my cousin Katelin and our babysitter Sarah play in their volleyball games. They both won!
-trying to psyche myself up for another whirlwind day tomorrow!

Turning A Corner?

For the past several days, Eliza has been such a great, sweet girl. I am hoping we are turning a corner. Not that she was "bad" before, but she would definitely have her moments of slight defiance and also being mean to Libby. But lately, she has been so accommodating and helpful to me and very kind and helpful with Libby. It has been great. Who knows how long it will last, but I am going to enjoy it while it lasts. And when Eliza acts like that, Libby is so much easier and better behaved as well. It has been great.

Yesterday was the Primary program at church. Eliza did her part perfectly! I was nervous that she would get nervous and not do it, but she went up with her class and said her line. Her cousin, Abby, said her line, too, then as she was getting off the stand, she did a "hee hee hee" laugh. It was so funny. Today Eliza even said it was fun doing that. Tonight we are going out for ice cream to celebrate her bravery (really it was a bribe).

A couple times last week, I have enjoyed a nice cup of hot chocolate. I love that the weather is finally cooling down and fall decorations are in the stores. It puts me in the hot cocoa mood! ...not to mention that the girls have had me put on kids' Christmas songs. I love it!

This is a big/busy week. On Wednesday, we are having our Young Women in Excellence for the girls. And on Friday is the YW board meeting I have been planning and working on for the past month. I hope the ladies enjoy it as much as I have enjoyed doing it.

Happy Monday. And I had to include a cute picture of Ellie. On Saturday, she donned her first ponytail!

Sappiness

Do you ever look at your kids and wonder what they will be like when they are teenagers? Or spend part of your date night talking about what they will be like when they are older? Well, we do. We just wonder what their personalities will be like and what they will do for extracurricular activities, what trials they will give us, what happiness they will bring, etc. We think Libby will be a natural at anything she tries and also not afraid to try anything. She is just happy-go-lucky about everything and good at everything she tries. We think Eliza will also be good at what she does, but she will have to work at it a little more since she is quite the perfectionist. I think she will make a great nurse because she is so empathetic and helpful to people who are hurt or sick. And Ellie...well, it's hard to tell. I think she'll just cheer everyone on and be happy for everyone in whatever they do. Sappy, I know, but sometimes when I look at my girls that is what crosses my mind. I hope I am doing a good job so they are nice young women and do the right thing.

Today we booked our tickets for the Polar Express. They were all booked for overnight packages on the weekends, so we are doing a weekday, but it still will be a ton of fun. Although I am a little nervous about taking Libby. I mentioned something about it tonight and she cried and said she didn't want to ride a train or be cold. Here is Disneyworld all over again. I hope she can get some courage before December!

Family Haircut Night

Last night we went to Lindsay, my hair girl, and I got a hair cut and so did Eliza and Libby. This was Libby's first haircut ever! I posted a before (white shirt) and after picture. We kept it long, but she just evened it up a bit. And Eliza just got a trim. I even had to talk her into that. She was afraid if she got it cut she couldn't have long hair. But she was excited to get the "dead part" trimmed off. And I got some way-blonder highlights than I was expecting. I knew she was going to do some blonde since we both thought it looked good, but it is very blonde! I got home last night and Brian said, "Hi blondie." He likes it, but you can definitely see a difference.

Sorry for the quick post, but we are off on our date night.

Catching Up

I've been slacking on my posts here, so here I'll attempt to catch up on what has been going on.

Eliza started preschool last week and is enjoying it. She loves to make new friends and tells me every time I pick her up who she made a friend with. On her first day, she said she was just a little nervous and then said, "I think my heart is doing jump rope in there." I think we have another writer on our hands! I also think she will be a budding photographer. Yesterday she got the camera and said she wanted to take a picture of Libby. So as I was going to rescue the camera, I saw that Eliza had set up a backdrop in front of the window...it was her little studio. (I took a picture that I included here).

Libby has been well...Libby. Active, all over Ellie, cute, sweet, etc. She is just fun to have around. As much as Libby is all over Ellie, Ellie really loves to play with her and get chased by Libby.

Ellie is still crawling around everywhere and pulling herself up. She hasn't attempted any steps yet, so we'll just wait and see. She did get a fat lip yesterday (notice the picture). I was gone doing some young women stuff, so a babysitter was here, but apparently she was crawling and must have gotten ahead of herself and bonked her face, putting her teeth into her lip. So sad! I feels sorry just looking at her!

Brian is busy with work and working out. He has been going faithfully every weekday morning to either swim laps or to the gym at the resort across the street. I am proud of him for keeping at it!

And I am trying to keep my head above water! ha ha. A couple of books that I've worked on finally came out and I got my copies. My favorite though is Quote, Unquote Vol. 4. It's the one full of lines from movies. The other book is Designing With Color. There are three other books in the works now, so that is keeping me writing away. Other than that, I have been busy with Young Women stuff, such as invitations for Young Women in Excellence and for the YW Board Meeting we are having at the end of the month. I am excited about that one. It is going to be a back-to-school theme, and I have a lot of fun stuff milling around in my head. I hope I can do it all or at least most of it!

Let's see...what else. Oh yes...Creative Escape. We had a great time at this event. There were lots of special little things that we got like bubble bath and pink popcorn in our rooms at the end of the day, specially decorated room key, CE flip flops, lots and lots of free stuff and some great projects. I loved hearing Allison's photo class again and being reminded of what I need to do when taking pictures. She got me excited to do more with photography. The best part of the whole weekend though was just hanging out with friends. We had a group of about 8 of us who were in the same group and ate our meals together, etc. It was great and just a fun time to be away and relaxing. (I actually did get to relax during the meals!).

And I am so excited that it is finally cooling down in the evening. Last night we went out front with the girls while they rode bikes and played with the other girls in the neighborhood. I think Libby and Eliza liked riding in those little Jeeps that kids can drive. Eliza took a turn at driving and let's just say I'm glad we have a few years before she will drive a real car. But it nice to be outside, enjoying the weather and seeing the kids play.

That's all for now!

No Life and a Tuesday Funny

An update from the weekend: we went to game night, but I didn't take Life. Eliza decided to--right before we left--get out the game and strew the pieces all over the playroom, so I wasn't about to clean it up and take it. It worked out okay, because we stayed busy playing Apples to Apples, Spoons and Scattergories.

Today at Wal-Mart, Eliza pointed up high and said, "Look! It's a two-headed bike." I looked up and saw a tandem bike. I guess her name was appropriate--and funny!

One day and counting until Creative Escape! I am looking forward to it, although I'm not sure how much relaxing I will do. Eliza drew me a picture today, gave it to me and said, "I don't want you to forget me while you are gone on your trip." Sad.

This morning I watched High School Musical for the first time. Yes, it's a teeny-bopper type flick, but I loved it. I have been singing the songs all day. I think I will watch it again soon. (That is great for me considering how much I love movies!)
Off to bed..it's been a long day!