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.