Crazy Crazy

This last weekend was nuts. We were so crazy busy. Ian had Friday off, but we spent the whole day out and about. We started off in Saratoga Springs where we had lunch with our friends, the Miller's, and got to visit. It was really quite fun. Next we drove to Provo. First we stopped at Wilson's Diamonds to get my ring cleaned, re-sized, rhodiumed (?), and soldered together. Then we went down to the BYU baseball stadium and dropped in on my cousin Blake during his physical therapy session to give him some chocolate bread and say hi. Next stop was the Williamson's house. My cousin Karren had generously volunteered to watch the boys while Ian and I went car shopping.

We had a pretty fun time car shopping. It was nice to feel comfortable and in control. We didn't HAVE to buy a car. We knew what we wanted. We knew how much it should cost. We test drove and narrowed it down to a 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan SXT and a 2008 Toyota Sienna LE. We decided to go home and do a little more research before we decided. We were kind of torn because we liked some of the storage features on the Caravan better than on the Sienna, but we knew the Toyota was a better, more reliable car. The Caravan was a little cheaper, but not much. We called around to other dealerships to see if they could match or beat the prices on either of the cars. It took up pretty much the whole weekend, but it was kind of exciting to do all the research and figure out if we were getting a good deal or not. Anyway, back to Friday night. After our shopping we went back to get the kids. It was nice to visit with my Aunt Pam too.

Saturday we worked on car research and got the house ready for the Bishopric Christmas party. Ian decided to drive back down to Provo so that he could test drive the Sienna on the freeway and let the dealer drive the Altima and decide how much he would give us for the trade-in. The dealer wasn't too jazzed about our 107k mile Altima, but he did offer us a little more than we owed on it. Ian asked if he could try to sell it privately for more and the dealer said sure.

The party that night was a big success. We just had such a nice time visiting, eating yummy soup, bread, and treats, and singing Christmas songs. I'm really glad we decided to put it together. That night Ian listed the Altima on KSL classifieds and Craigslist. We got a call but the guy didn't show up to test drive it. Oh well.

Sunday was a busy, snowy day. I got released from my Young Women's calling. It was a little sad, but mostly just time. I was called to be the Primary pianist. I'm really excited about that. I'm hoping it will make me practice more. :) After church was my setting apart, last YW presidency meeting (we are still putting on the Christmas/planning dinner tomorrow night), and choir practice. Whew. Ian had another call on the Altima, the guy came, and by the time the kids went to bed the Altima was gone and we had cash to pay off our loan and add to our down payment! I baked another batch of chocolate bread before bed and we figured out how to make the next couple of one-car days work.

This morning we all dropped Weston off at school, Ian off at work, then Davin and I went down to Provo again to pay off the Altima loan and pick up the title. We made it back just in time to pick Weston up. Next on my list is getting new insurance for the Sienna, shopping for the YW/YM party, and finalizing the new auto loan. Things have been crazy, but hopefully this time tomorrow I will be picking up my minivan! I can't wait! Keep your fingers crossed for me that everything goes through and on schedule.

Cousin Visit!

Yesterday we got a visit from the kids' newest cousin, baby Ivy, and her mom, Emilee. They flew in yesterday around lunchtime and got to spend the whole afternoon with us. It was so fun to visit and snuggle baby Ivy and those mondo baby cheeks! It almost made me want one. ;)

Ian took a half day off work so he could have some Ivy time too. Weston totally made Ivy laugh with his jumping-on-the-couch antics, but Davin wasn't so interested in the baby who was getting all the attention. I love his face in our picture though. It's pretty typical of my silly boy.


Today I braved the cold (high of 22 today!), bundled up the kids and ran all over town buying cheap groceries. I don't usually do that, but I had some really great deal coupons. I think it was worth it. I spent $37.49 and saved $21.16. I got 6 pounds of cheese, soup, tuna, peanut butter, canned veggies, pop tarts, Cheezits, Cheetos, lettuce, apples, bananas, grapes, cookies, and sausage. Ok, you probably don't need to know all that. I just get excited about good deals, you know?

Tonight we have the Primary dinner to attend with free babysitting no less! I'm pretty excited about that. Tomorrow Ian is taking the day off again. He worked so many hours this year that most of the vacations we took didn't require as much PTO as we had planned for, so now he has a whole extra day to use before Christmas! Sometimes I wish it would roll over to the next year, but I'm not really complaining. We have a fun day planned. Stay tuned . . .

Christmas Fun!

Last night for FHE we made our posterboard fireplace while we watched "Stalking Santa." It's a kind of mockumentary with all these Santologists and it follows their search for proof of Santa. Pretty cute. Mostly over the kids' heads, but Ian and I thought it was funny. Older kids would probably love it. Plus, I just found out it's made by NieNie's brother, so there's your connection. I am happy with how our fireplace looks this year too. Weston keeps pretending to burn himself on the fire.
This morning we did our annual Elf Yourself video. The kids thought it was hilarious. Weston picked the country dance.

The Holiday Party

This weekend I had two fun holiday parties! It was the best. Friday night was a girls only "favorite things" party hosted by the lovely Sheena. We got together for some delicious food, good girl talk, and to share some of our favorite things with each other. I brought my two winter favorites to share: my favorite Bath and Body Works hand cream, and, of course, fuzzy socks! I came home with lots of other goodies too including lip gloss, body lotion, more fuzzy socks (apparently I'm not the only one with good taste), cute handmade hair clips, and a bag of dark chocolate truffles!

Saturday night was the Verite Christmas party. We always joke that it's the nicest date we go on all year because it's always at a nice restaurant, we always get dressed up, and we don't have to pay! :) This year was no exception. The party was held at Trio. I had never been there. The food was good. I especially loved the appetizers. I also tried polenta for the first time. I didn't buy a new outfit for this year, but I did debut my new knee high black boots that I bought on Black Friday. They looked awesome. I feel terrible that we forgot to take a full length picture. I guess I will just have to wear the outfit again sometime. I also had fun curling my hair, wearing my above-mentioned new hairclips, and playing an impromptu game of Settler's with friends after the dinner.

Saturday also qualified as a special day because I officially completed my Christmas shopping!!! I got the last thing for Davin, so the kids are completely done, including stockings. Yes, you can be jealous. ;)

It was so nice to be home all day Sunday! I didn't have to rush dinner and then run out the door to a rehearsal. We are having snowy weather right now, which I guess is ok since it's Christmastime. Speaking of which, last night I helped Weston wrap his presents for his brother and for dad. He was mostly just interested in putting the bows on and making a treasure map out of the scraps of wrapping paper.

Finally, I know I mentioned Sheena earlier in this post, but she is not only a great friend who hosts fun parties, but she is also a very talented photographer. She has prints for sale in her etsy shop, and at the moment there is a giveaway! Check it out!

PS-We saw Santa at Sam's Club on Friday. He was kind of lame, and even though Weston noticed (he said "Mom, that Santa's voice was different.") he was still really excited to sit on his lap and tell him what he wanted for Christmas (a Buzz and Woody and a Little Einstein's rocket). Davin, not so much.

I'm Lovin' It!

This has been such a great week. I have loved getting Christmas up and starting all our advents. We have so many fun ones this year! I am especially loving my new refrigerator magnet countdown (it's a cookie sheet and cookie magnets! How cute is that?!?) courtesy of Gram and Papa Squire.
And my Story of Christmas advent. I love the ornament storybooks with information all about the Holy Land and Jesus' birth that we read each day then hang on the tree.
We also love our Christmas book advent. We have 24 Christmas books. The kids take turns opening one to read each night until Christmas. They love it and so do I. This year the book advent even got it's own special basket!
This week my cousin Tasha was in town with her 3 boys. We got to spend all day Thursday together! We went to the dino playground at the mall, took the kids out to lunch, and then had some nice down time to visit at my house while the boys played together. It was so fun to catch up and be more than blogging buddies. :)

This weekend is going to be one big holiday party! Tonight I am going to my friend, Sheena's, "Favorite Things" party. I'll report on how that goes later, but let's just say I can't wait. I mean who doesn't love girl time+dinner party?

Tomorrow night is Verite's Christmas party, which means today Ian got his bonus. Hooray! We weren't sure if he would get one this year, but I guess since they didn't do any raises this year and business has picked back up they managed to do them.

In other family news. Weston is such a funny little guy. I love him to death! The other night he got on the computer, opened Photobooth, and announced he was taking pictures of himself. He is too smart for his own good. I am a little distressed that we are going to have to put parental controls on the computer for our 3 year old, but apparently he's just his father's son. Here are some of Weston's self-portraits.
In addition to figuring out all kinds of new things on the computer, Weston also seems a little anxious to grow up. He's obsessed with his upcoming 4th birthday. The other night when I tucked him in he said with a sigh, "Mom, every day I wake up and wish it was January 29th." Then yesterday in the car he said "On my birthday I'll be 4, then on my next birthday I'll be 5, then 6, then 7, then 8, then 9, then 10, then 11, then 12! And then can I get a wife?" Um, no. Sorry son. You can get a wife when you get home from going on a mission, but then I explained the fun things about turning 12. Getting the priesthood, becoming a Deacon, getting to go to the temple with the youth, and going into Young Men's. It's not quite as good as getting a wife, but it will have to do.

Lastly, I wasn't able to post the video of Davin entertaining us all after our Thanksgiving dinner, but today I got it to post. He's such a cute, funny little man right now. I just can't get mad at him about anything because he's so darn adorable!

Vérité Christmas Game

At work we have been working on a game. Its kind of for fun, and kind of to show our clients the type of work we could do for them. Its a fun little game and surprisingly addicting (make sure you check out the how to play page). I actually didn't work too much on this. Most of my contributions have come during "meetings" around the pool table as well as some "beta testing" (somebody's gotta try it out). Hope everyone is having a good Christmas Season.

Thanksgiving '09

We had an absolutely wonderful long Thanksgiving weekend. My parents flew in Thanksgiving morning while I baked my second pie of all time. It didn't turn out quite as pretty as my first pie, but tasted yummy. I also brought a green bean casserole to the big dinner. We went up to my Aunt Barbara and Uncle Terry's house in Ogden for Thanksgiving dinner. It was such a delicious dinner. The kids were well behaved and I hardly saw Weston the whole time because he was playing with cousins (love it!). I got to see some of my cousins from out of state and we just had a great time visiting and playing games. Davin provided some good post-turkey entertainment by just being himself. We stayed as long as Davin lasted and really enjoyed our Thanksgiving Day.

I did some early Black Friday shopping by myself. It was pretty successful. I got almost all the stuff I wanted. After my first 2 early stops I went and had breakfast with Mom at the hotel and then she went with me to the other stores. Later in the morning we packed up the kids and we all went to Thanksgiving Point to visit the Dinosaur Museum. The kids love it and Dad had never been. He really enjoyed it, even though we rushed him through with the 3 year old attention span. After the museum we all had lunch at the Thanksgiving Point Deli. Mmm. That's all I have to say about that.
The kids were supposed to come home and nap, but alas, they had other plans. Instead we headed over to my parent's hotel to swim. The hotel they stayed in had a little water park inside complete with kids play structure and adult water slide. It was really fun. It took a little while for us to coax Weston onto the kids slide, but once he did it he was hooked. We were all pretty tired, so after our swim we got dry and warm and went out for pizza.

Saturday was my big concert at the Tabernacle. It was also the big game (BYU v. Utah). I had to be at the Tabernacle by 2pm for rehearsal followed by 5:30pm and 7:30pm performances. We kept tabs on the game from our cell phones though and I was bummed that I missed it. It may have been worse for Ian though, who got to see most of it, but missed the big overtime finish. He must really love me. In case you hadn't heard BYU won! Go Cougars!
My concerts went very well. It was really cool to sing in the Tabernacle. I was so glad that so much of my family were able to come hear me sing too. I really appreciated the support and I hope they all had a good time.

After the last concert we looked at some of the Christmas lights on Temple Square. We ran into my Aunt Amy and her family from Las Vegas! They were in town for Thanksgiving too. It was fun to see them.

Sunday Mom and I were supposed to sing a duet in Sacrament Meeting, but I woke up without any voice at all. I drank mint tea with lots of honey and sucked on cough drops all through the first 2 hours of church. Right before Sacrament we snuck off to see if I could sing at all. It was rough. We switched our parts around a little so I didn't have to sing alone as much and decided to go ahead and sing it. I am actually still slightly embarrassed that anyone thinks that's really how I normally sound. Mom sounded beautiful though.

Sunday was such a nice day! We seriously did nothing. We relaxed. I took a nap. We watched "The Prince of Egypt." We had a nice dinner together and played some games. I loved it. Hooray for being home Sunday nights again!

Monday Ian had to go back to work. Boo. We missed him. I worked on getting the house decorated for Christmas. It was fun. Mom helped me. I did a garland with a big fun bow on it on top of the desk. It really helps make the den feel more festive. Usually it's the least decorated room. Ian decided to come home early to take my parents to the airport. Since this week is going to be pretty busy we decided to go get our Christmas tree last night too. It really worked out good since we were able to leave a little earlier and not be up all night decorating the tree.

Davin was so cute running around all bundled up looking at the trees. We found a good one and got it home and lit while the kids watched Frosty. Davin thinks the lights are the coolest thing ever. He's just so adorable right now. Weston got to stay up a little later and help put on some ornaments, but this year I got to do the tree with fewer ornaments and with the colors I wanted. I did mostly red, gold, and silver. I made the pretty bows too. I love how it turned out. It officially looks and smells like Christmas in my house now.
This morning Weston said "Mom, I'm kind of sad that Grandma and Grandpa aren't here anymore." Me too. We had such a nice time with them and both the boys just loved having Grandma and Grandpa to play with and to read to them.
I am looking forward to all the fun things planned for December and for the weeks ahead to celebrate Christmas.