David Bowie

As much as I am enjoying this short, fun, flirty look...

Bowie-esque

I feel as though I have lost my femininity!  I miss my long hair...tears steam down my face in regret :(

Fiji Eruptions

Yesterday, we made a volcano, Fiji (water) style.  Payton said it was the coolest thing she had ever made in her life!  I would have to agree.  Super simple if you want to try.  Just get an empty water bottle, pile dirt around it (for an almost "real" volcano effect), pour baking soda in the bottle, add food coloring to vinegar (again, effect),  and pour vinegar quickly into the water bottle and watch it explode!  We also did another "eggspiriment"...we got an empty juice bottle and put some lit matches in the bottom.  We then placed a hard-boiled egg on top to see it be sucked into the bottle.

Beginning of the volcano...

...middle...(don't mind the scary devil-looking eyes)

Eruption!!!  

On another note, Shawn and I had another Sundance movie, this time at the Rose Wagner Theater.  We didn't have to wait out in the unsettling bitter fog of Salt Lake City.  We saw a documentary called, Valentine Road.  It was about a shooting that happened in 2008 at a school in Oxnard, CA.  A 14 year old boy shot another classmate in the back of the head for being gay.  I thought the director did an amazing job, and I'm pretty sure I went through like 6+ tissues.  She did interviews of each of their families and friends.  They both grew up abused and neglected.  I don't want to get into too much detail.  The director was there for a q&a and there were many, many questions.  It will be on HBO sometime this year if you would like to watch this tragedy.

At Sundance :)

Payton drew this at church yesterday.  It is our family.  She first wanted to draw Ginger because she said that Ginger should be a part of our family (true).  She then decided to add all the other cats I have owned, as well as her fish and lizard she has at Libby's who ironically are both named Melissa.  

Delicious Snowman cookies that we made with Love <3

  

Freezing Rain

Is what they said on the news this morning.  I don't think I have personally ever experienced freezing rain until the drive this morning.  I didn't think much of it until it was hitting my windshield and making pure ice!  And then while I was taking Lucas to the door of the sitter I almost fell on my keyster!  Oh weather. Gotta love it!


Last week I spent my time mostly in bed.  I was so sick.  Flu.  I catch anything and everything someone in my house has.  Shawn says it's because I am too small.  I say it's because I have a poor immune system.  Which makes no sense because I am a total health nut!


Aside from the sickness and the bitter cold, we have made ourselves rather comfortable.  Payton and I have been taking on some new science experiments. She got this really cool scientific book for Christmas and she is a total nerd and LOVES it!  We made a fizzy beverage, cleaned some super dirty pennies, figured out why animals are able to camouflage themselves and learned that ice automatically stops boiling water.  Our next project is a volcano!  She is most excited about that one!  I will admit it, I am a total nerd too :)

We also got artistic and did some painting.  Payton did some yoga with me.  She made it 10 minutes and then gave up.  She actually did pretty good.  She said, "it looks so easy, but it is hard!"  I smiled and said, "the more you do it, the easier it becomes."  But then again, yoga is kind of  hard if you have never done it.  (And, if you're 7.)  You have to have major core strength (thank you pilates) and flexibility. 

Payton's Art

Best Yoga Buddy

I love my little Lucas!

Lucas thought he should eat the marker...

Raspberry and Peach is the BEST flavor combination EVER!

Lucas and Moxy.  Moxy is an Ugly Doll who lives in Ugly Town which is in the Uglyverse.  We love Ugly Dolls at our house!

Shawn and I got to go out to Sundance last night.  Not in Park City, we just stayed local.  We went and saw a movie called The Spectacular Now.  It was a little heartbreaking, but charming.  The director was there and did a Q&A at the end.  I love the film festival!  We haven't been for a couple of years and I have totally missed it, but we do have another movie Saturday during the day, local again, but I'm excited!  You never know what you're going to get, of course, and sometimes they are total bombs, but I'm pretty sure we picked out another goodie. 

Sundancing it up!

Stitched with Love

Payton turned 7 on Friday.  They cancelled school (snow day) and her mom told her that it was cancelled just because it was her b-day!  I guess she said, "Really!?" and made a face like, mom, I'm not stupid...hahaha...she figured out that it was not true.  She is super smart!

Shawn went and picked Payton up around 3 and brought her back in the crazy snow storm.  We got ready for the super fun party we were about to have with Sadie and Savannah.  They got to our house around 6 and we started off the night by making our own yummy cheese pizza's, because of course, that's all kids ever like.  Then we moved on to decorating cupcakes and opening presents!  The best part!

There were makeovers and mani-pedi's.  Lucky girls got to rest their feet in a bubbly foot bath!  They then got to decorate their own princess crowns, and the party still was not over!  All the girls bundled up in their jammies and blankets and watched Brave while eating mint chocolate chip ice cream (payton's favorite(we have the same tastes :))) and apparently "the best popcorn they had ever had in their entire lives!"  Hahaha....girls just want to have fun!

The next morning they were like, we were up until 12:18!  I just laughed and told them I was surprised they didn't turn into Zombies!  Then there were waffles and eggs, coloring, and lots of lalaloopsy playing.  The girls did not want to be separated, but alas, Abby came to get them.  Lucky for them, they get to do it all over again and Abby's new house next weekend!

Pre-Party

Happy 7th!!!

Plethora of presents

Making crowns.  Savannah and Payton

Pretty Pretty Princesses.  L-R: Savannah, Payton, Sadie.

I made these (3 day) Confetti Cake Pops for Payton's Party with Shawn's family.   

As for us parents, our weekend turned out to be more frightening than anything else.  Last week Lucas was getting over like a triple threat.  Conjunctivitis, ear infection in the right ear, and a sinus infection.  It happened overnight!  I felt like such a bad parent not being able to tell the signs.  But he seemed like he was just fine.  Anyway, I thought he was over everything. He was being himself again, and then Thursday morning he pointed to his ear and said hurt.  And I thought, well, he is still taking the medicine, it should kill everything.  Later that day he developed a nasty cough.  We looked it up and thought it sounded like croup.  Online it says, there is not much to do about croup except running a humidifier and cracking a window.  So we tried that, but still, did not sleep much.  Every 2 hours we were up with Lucas.  He was just coughing and crying.

Friday morning he was so sad and tried so hard to sleep.  Poor kid!  He cried the entire day and then Saturday morning, after another sleepless night, we took his temp.  It was 104.8.  I was like, ahhhhhh!!!  What is happening!  So we called the doc and went in.  She told us he had another ear infection in his left ear and the flu.  She gave him some stronger meds and just said, try to get him to drink as much as you can.  He hadn't eaten anything or really had anything to drink for a couple of days, so we tried.  Finally, Saturday night, he slept.  All night long.  Woke up happy, and then about 2 hours later was really sad, and really warm once again.  Fevers are a mood killer, and rather scary!

Friday night I just kept thinking, this was not part of the party plan!  But, I have a really sweet husband who told me not to worry and took really good care of the boy.

In all the madness, I was able to sneak away for a couple of hours to spend some time with Lauren and do this...

When will this identity crisis end!?

 

Just a Fool

Lately I have been listening to Christina Aguilera's latest album, Lotus.  It is her best, at least for me, since Stripped.  I feel that Christina and I relate.  I love her talent, and she seems like such a genuine person.  She embraces her voluptuous curves, which are hot!  However, when she wears a Mickey Mouse t-shirt and fishnet stockings, I am rather appalled.

There is a song on Lotus called, "Just a Fool".  It's a duet with Blake Shelton.  It speaks volumes to me.

Sample Lyrics...V II

I said that I don't care
I'd walk away whatever
And I tell myself we were bad together 

But that's just me trying to move on without you

But who am I kidding?
I know what I'm missing

I, I had my heart set on you
But nothing else hurts like you do
Who knew that love was so cruel (yeah, yeah, yeah)
And I waited and waited so long
For someone who'll never come home
It's my fault to think you'll be true (yeah, yeah)
I'm just a fool

Dear Mariah (Carey),

For the last 10 years I have been rather disappointed in you.  I was a huge fan of yours in the 90's and early 2000's, but then you decided to change your image.  You thought your ballads were no longer selling, which may be true.  I realize mainstream artists change their image most of the time.  I guess I just feel like you totally sold out.  I know that Mr. Ryan Adams is a fan of yours too, which makes me like him even more than I already do, but this hip-hop thing you have been doing is just not working for me.  I still love to hear about you and can't wait to watch you on "American Idol", but I'm afraid that in my heart, I can only cherish your old music.

Recently, OPI has endorsed you to put out some colors.  This excited me, and then I got a good look at them at CosmoProf last week, and once again, I was disappointed in you.  I feel like the same colors came out in the Germany Collection, except your polish colors have a lot of glitter in them.  And then I noticed something.  "A Butterfly Moment".  It made me so happy!  This blush wine color has been on my top 5 color list for a couple of months now.  It is the perfect winter color!  Thanks for having something soft (sans glitter), like a ballad, once again :)

I know the nail color looks a little more gold than pink, but blame the instagram filter!  I also know that I probably should have held the nail polish bottle in my hands like the rest of the world, but I decided against it.

SwanSong

I have needed some major inspiration from the Blog Gods for the last couple of weeks!  I have logged on to create a post, but was lost in time.  There was so much going on!  Everyone was home and I couldn't help but be distracted by our new shiny toys!  But here I am, back in the groove....

As most of you know I went blond...and as most of you know, it was a mistake.  For some reason, I just couldn't be talked out of it.  It was a persistent thought in my head.  I was having a mid-life hair crisis!  And as most bad decisions go, it didn't last long....

Before...blond (gag).

After...Auburn.

My life is so much more complete when I look like myself.  I have learned from this experience.  I had to cut off like 4 inches because 2 inches had already broken off...it was so damaged!  But I feel like it's a nice fresh start.  I know, I say I want to go shorter, like pixie short, but my husband put it best when he said, "you are too attached to your hair to go super short."  He's right, I love it too much!  I just need to keep giving it the TLC it needs, there is still a long way to go until it's totally repaired.  Coconut Oil as a deep conditioner, and Argan Oil before and after you air/blow dry!  Try them both, they are magical!

Aside from the final dilemma of  my hair, it was a fabulous Holiday.  We blessed Lucas finally!  I know, it took us forever, but it was amazing!  We gave him a sucker to keep him from yapping during the blessing, and he did pretty good.  Shawn said Lucas tried to feed the sucker to him while he was giving the blessing.  Hahaha!!!  Crazy kid!

Happy Parents!

Our Christmas was once again successful!  Payton asked for more Lalaloopsy's, so this year, Santa hid them in the tree...That sneaky man!  She also asked for Lego Friends, and lots of art supplies.  I'm pretty sure she goes through a drawing pad in like 2 weeks!  She loves to draw and is really good.  I should really start putting more of her art on here :)

Lucas didn't know what was going on, he just knew that new toys kept coming to him.  We got him a couple things of Lego Duplo, which right now he just likes to throw them back into the box they came in.  He also got some cars and trains, and of course, a Ninja Turtle!

Our cool gift tags this year.  We did something like this for every single present under the tree and then some!

Gingerbread men/women shaped Sugar Cookies.  Shawn and I made these into the wee hours of  Christmas Eve.  I must say, this night was Epic, just like these cookies!

 

We told Payton that Santa wouldn't come until she was sleeping, so she pretended to sleep by the tree.  She wanted to take a peek!

I'm pretty sure this is the coolest thing ever!  I described to Shawn this necklace holder that I had seen on Pinterest.  Little did I know it would be one of my Christmas gifts.  He's so crafty and this is so awesome!

Another way Shawn is the best?  He got me this really cool elephant charm bracelet.  (And of course you have to add more arm candy!)

For New Years eve, we were total homebodies.  We played with the kids, watched movies, and had a Wii Jeopardy marathon.  At midnight we raised our glasses and did a toast to us!  We stayed up even later watching more movies and I think Payton finally fell asleep around 1:30.  I was in awe that she lasted so long! 

Love these kiddo's!

Shawn reading one of my favorite books!  Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.

Super hot dad with super cute kids.  Who could ask for anything more?

 
It has been such a glorious month.  The world didn't end like they said it would.  In fact, we went to Temple Square on the 21st to see the lights and someone said, "Well, if the world ends, at least we are by the temple."  After, we were done seeing the lights, we headed to City Creek and some 16 year old was screaming, "the world is going to end!"  And Payton was like, what?  Really?  The world is ending?  Anyway, we are still here, so once again, all you fools thought wrong!

Temple Square...it was freezing and we had no mittens for this boy, so Shawn put his gloves on Lou...haha..pretty sure he hated us the rest of the night!

Just a boy and his dad :)

I thought I should post a hair pic.  There was a French Braid on each side, as well as the top and underneath the messy bun.

"Pitter-Pay."  When you ask Lucas who's cute, his response is PAY...

...When you ask Lucas who's crazy, he raises both hands!  Stylin' boy

Family Photo.

Cheers to 2013!!!

Please excuse the absence of my being.