No News is Good News?

So I haven't posted because I have misplaced our camera and who likes a post without a cute picture? Sydney, Natalie and I did a quick trip to L.A. last week to meet some friends and go see "Wicked". It is a great show, the girls loved it and I forgot to bring my camera. I did pick up a disposable camera so we'll see how long it takes me to develop those pictures! We got to L.A. late Tuesday evening and left our hotel at 4:45 a.m. to catch our flight and get back in time for school to start on Thursday morning. We are all still trying to catch up on our sleep especially since we didn't get back to our hotel after the show until 1:30 a.m.!!!


This weekend Natalie had her Christmas dance recital. It still amazes me everytime I see her on stage what a good little dancer she is. She is so naturally graceful when she dances ballet and she can tap up a storm!

Our kitchen should be done by Thursday, hopefully sooner! I'm anxious to start getting all my stuff put away and get ready for our Christmas company! I'll post pictures as soon as I round up that camera!!

In the meantime, here's a picture of my cuties. A preview to our Christmas Card, which you should receive around January or February!

In other news...

Sydney has been at Camp Campbell Science Camp all week with the rest of the 5th graders at her school. She was so excited about it & we were somewhat nervous since she's a regular sleepwalker! Well, no news is good news I guess and we can't wait to see her tomorrow when she gets home.

New Cabinets

Let the picture speak for itself (although it's really not that great of a picture since I took it at night with just my camera flash). I'll post pictures of our fireplace area later.

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving with Steve's family down in San Diego. Every 2 years we (and by we I mean Steve's mom and dad - Thanks mom & dad!!) rent a beach house somewhere for Thanksgiving week. It's a blast! The cousins have a great time and we come home we tons of sand and shells! This year while Syd and her cousin Dallin were out Boogie bording and seal surfaced right next to them. They said they could have reached out and touched it. I'm glad they didn't. We saw a lot of dolphins this year too, which we kept thinking (cue Jaws music) were sharks!! I know they weren't because the lifeguards were patroling frequently and I'm sure they would have said something, but... they didn't look at all like the dophins we've seen in the past. Kinda spooky!

Here are some of the cousins waiting patiently for a grown up so they can go catch some waves!

Steve & Lala...what a cute couple!

Surfer Steve!! Rock on, dude!

I'll post some kitchen pics tomorrow. It is looking good. The walls were all painted when I got home from Thanksgiving and things are moving along pretty good this week.

Kitchen Update & More

We have a ceiling now. Since I took these pictures they have also finished texturing the walls and ceiling. The painters are supposed to come today to paint, but I haven't seen them yet. Next week we'll get our cabinets in.

I can't quite get over how small this new window looks. The window is the only thing I'm not sure about with the remodel. I'll be glad to have a little more cabinet space and plugs, but I think I'm really going to miss the big window.

In other news, Sydney had her soccer playoffs this weekend. Natalie is fun to watch, but it is really fun to watch the older girls. They are on a full size field and their abilities/teamwork make it so much fun to watch. Sydney in the middle looking down. She's a lot smaller than most of her teammates (the coaches give them their number by size and she's #2), but she's a firecracker! She played most of the first game which they won 2-0 and the coach asked if it was okay if she could play the entire 2nd game without subbing out. Keep in mind they play on a full sized field and she's a midfielder which means she runs almost the entire length of the field (as opposed to staying on the offensive or defensive side). That girl is tireless!! She kept her energy up the entire 2nd game and had some great assists and steals. They won again 2-0. They ended up taking second place after losing in the first place playoff on Sunday. Sydney doesn't play Sunday games so she felt bad not being there to support her team, but we're proud that she is so determined to keep the Sabbath. Here's Olivia's new little friends. She calls them her babies and we have plenty in our front yard to keep her entertained. She also likes the big snails, but she's not happy with them right now because she says they're not playing with her (in fact she was in tears over it).

Happy Birthday Dear Lala!!

Olivia age 1 week...
Olivia age 1 ... Olivia age 2 (with her favorite guy and her binky, which is lost) ...
Olivia age 3 and proud of it ...
What a fun little girl we have. We ran out of diapers this morning wink, wink. So she is officially a big girl with undies. She spent about a half hour arranging all her new underwear last night for the big day. We've already been through 4. Some on purpose and some on accident. Happy Birthday Lala!!!

Halloween and Diwali Pics

For anyone who doesn't know what the girls are dressed as, here's the rundown... Natalie is Lucy (from Chronicles of Narnia), she's been wanting this costume since the movie came out and we finally found one on clearance at Disney; Sydney is a Munchkin (from Wizard of Oz), she loves to make her costumes and she recycled this one from when she was in the play a couple years ago; Olivia is a cute witch.

Here are the girls and our friends dressed up for the Diwali Party. They loved dressing up in the Indian dresses that our neighbors were so kind to lend us. No, this is not some type of traditional Indian hand clapping. Some good old "lemonade clap, clap, clap; country ice clap, clap, clap; etc..." . Very popular with the girls around here and I'm sure everywhere else.

Aaagh!

Today I refuse to go anywhere. I'm saving all my energy for tomorrow. We have 3 soccer games, 1 soccer party, 1 basketball tryout, 1 Pampered Chef party & 1 Diwali party... all before 4:00. At least our games don't start until 9:00. Oh wait, we also have snacks for the 9:00 game, I guess I have to leave the house after all. We are really looking forward to going to our neighbors house for Diwali. There will be lots of yummy Indian food, and the girls are all borrowing Indian dresses to wear. Syd & Sonoli are painting henna tattoos on their hands in the back yard right now. That will be a nice end to a busy day.

Most importantly, we now have a ceiling in the kitchen. The electrical wiring & plumbing is done. My new kitchen window looks so tiny compared to the old 10 foot window that didn't allow for any electrical outlets. The sound system people came in to get us "wired for sound" and of course had to take out the already installed lighting because it interferred with premium sound. So the electricians had to come out again yesterday and redo the lights. They were very nice about it. Steve is very excited about his new TV and surround sound system. I'm not sure why... I've never seen him sit down for more than a few minutes to watch TV. Maybe that's because Dora's on 24/7. Well, not really, we also watch Hanna Montana & The Suite Life.

Just a thought...Can you really tell a 2 year old "don't spill" and then hand her a cup of apple juice?

Excuse me while I go clean up a puddle of apple juice.

Playing Catch Up

• 10-30 After eating dinner at the Hartung's home we had our first earthquake. Sydney held onto Sister Hartung for dear life and the rest of us sat in shock. Fortunately, everything was fine. Unfortunately, the girls were pretty upset and we had a few extra bodies in our room for a couple of nights.
• 10-31 Happy Halloween! Olivia discovered the true meaning of Halloween...FREE CANDY!...ALL YOU CAN EAT CANDY!!...BIG HANDFULLS OF CANDY! She really likes candy. I took her trick-or-treating during the day with our friends in hopes that would save Steve from having to take her in the evening. But no, that just whet her appetite. She was the last one in that night.
• 11-1 I left for my fun weekend away with my best friends in Utah. We have been going to Park City for 9 years now. We have a great time doing and talking about "top secret stuff". Let's just keep them guessing girls!!

I'll try and catch up with pictures and whatnot later. We are off to a very delicious dinner at Wendy's!

Before & After

The kitchen deconstruction has officially begun. We're taking bets to see if it is completed before Christmas when the whole fam damily arrives. Here are pictures before the demo after we had taken out all of furniture...

And here is after the cupboards and bookcases have been taken down...

And here is after the ceiling has been taken down...

The previous owners just loved the canned lighting. There was so much (25 in all) they had to just tear down the ceiling and start over.

Mmmm Chocolate

What's not to like about a chocolate fountain?

Glass Factory

One of the things the girls looked forward to this summer was a visit to the glass factory on the Oregon Coast (http://www.lcglasscenter.com/index.html). We had visited on past summer trips but we had never had time to participate. This year we put it on the schedule and made time for it. Nat made a glass paperweight and Syd made a glass float.

Here are the girls. They chose the glass colors they wanted and then rolled some melted glass in the colors and then returned it to the glass kiln to melt it all together.

Once the glass is melted together they take it our and cool it with a rounded wooded cup that is soaking in the water. The girls then got to pinch the glass to swirl all the colors together. They repeated the process of heating and cooling several times.




At this point Sydney blew through the tube to hollow her glass out into a float.

We left the float and paperweight at the studio overnight to cool. They cool it in a special oven that very gradually lowers the temperature so the glass doesn't shatter.


We spent the night in Yachats, OR looking for our own beach glass. We do this every year and have never found any, but we still have a lot of fun. The beaches here are so much different than California. They are so much more rugged. We always so a lot of ocean life which is very exciting for the girls.

Getting Started

Life just went into high gear now that school has started. Sydney is in 5th grade and loving it. She ran for Student Body President and won. Natalie is in 2nd grade and loving it, well everything but the homework. She is making sure NO ONE is loving that. Olivia would like to be in preschool, but we're still working on the potty training. This is just payback for the older girls being so easy to train.
Our days are filled with soccer, gymnastics, soccer, dance, soccer...did I say soccer? Soccer season is very busy, but fun. The girls love their teams this year. Natalie is finally on a team with some girls from her school, which is very important to her. Sydney is on a team that is mainly from other schools, but has former coaches that she loves.
I'm teaching p.e. with another parent in Natalie's class and continuing with Art Vistas in both 2nd and 5th. As soon as our church primary program is over in a couple weeks I'll be feeling great!
Steve is working hard as usual. He took some time off this last weekend to take Sydney to her friends house in SoCal while he and Natalie spent a couple days in LegoLand.
Busy but good.

(p.s. I'm not sure where that caption came from on the picture. I think the girls were making a get well card for someone)