Bloooper Reel

Have I mentioned how nice it is to have a twin brother nearby? I get to see him more often than I have in probably 10 years and we always have a blast when we get together. You may pick up on that by watching the clip below. I interviewed Cris as my "industry expert" for a class project (he basically regurgitated everything Greg Sorenson told me). He stayed for two hours after dinner so we could tape it, and in the end we had plenty of bloopers to laugh at.

Enjoy the highlights!!

Christmas Dinner

Yesterday we had a lovely Christmas dinner with all the folks around here. Actually, nothing was different about it from any other Sunday dinner we have except that we decorated the table more than usual. We still had the traditional Sunday beans & franks, of course, but it was fun to pull out and use all the Christmas dining decor. Our ward did this cool thing for their Christmas party and they asked people to sign up to "dress" a table - provide the place settings, center piece and any other cutesy things. I thought it sounded like fun so I signed up to do a table. And it was actually great fun!! And fun to see everyone else's "dressed" tables, too. I am just kicking myself for not taking any pics of it. Blarg. Anyway, so I did the same thing to our dining table last night that I did at the ward Christmas party. And again - I forgot to take pics. But it was pretty good lookin' if I do say so myself!! Someone remembered to take pics in the middle of dinner, so here are a couple that we got. I think Cris has some on his camera, too - is that right, Cris?? Do you have any better ones that these? Would love to see them!

ps - we missed you, Betsy!!

A kind-of sideways pics of the table and all our half-eaten dinners...

Katy showing off one of the chargers I made - "oh, they're super easy! i'll get you the recipe!" (who can tell me what movie that is from??)

My sweet baby (who went to nursery for the first time yesterday!!!) and me!

Daddy Daughter Date

I keep looking at everyone else's blogs hoping for an update, but I suppose I should just get out there and post my own! These pics are from last weekend when Bryce was getting the Sunday beans ready. Sophie was dying to help, so he pulled up a chair and away they went! Sophie got to help with the seasoning and she's pictured here adding pepper to the pot. I know I'm biased, but really, these are the two most darling people in the WORLD!!!




These pics are from yesterday afternoon. Sophie LOVES to play in the cupboard that houses our blender, bread pans, and other assorted kitchen items. She has decided that the blender makes a good home for her baby dolls, and I finally got it on film yesterday.
Posing with her poor entrapped baby

Here Baby, baby, baby....

I am so incredibly hilarious!

And one more baby doll gets added to the mix - tada!


ps - is anyone else having issues with blogger??? It has stopped giving me all the editing options when I post - like being able to center text, etc. It's getting tres annoying. Anyone else having this problem?

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow...

Well, it's pretty much snowed non-stop all day long here and we decided to make use of the white stuff by making a snowman! Correction: the New Englanders and Micah made the snowman. Sophie and I watched and oooo'ed and ahhhh'ed at appropriate intervals. I think he's a pretty happenin' dude if I do say so myself!! Here we are with this evening's work of art!!

Christmas Lights

You've got to give them credit - they know how to do Christmas lights here in Utah.

Two nights ago as we were driving home from school (it's too cold to bike these days), Lisa and I were trying to show Sophie some of the lights on the houses and trees.

Sophie immediately caught on and started saying Woweee! She continued until the lights were long out of sight and we pulled into the driveway - cute little girl!

How do you dry a toddler?

Lisa and I have found that Sophie really needs to have a few minutes after a bath to dry out. However, she needs to be entertained otherwise she lives up to her nickname "puddles."

Here's our current favorite game!

Family Pictures

Well, we gathered the whole crew together for Thanksgiving and since it will be a couple years before we're all together again, of course we had to take a family picture. :) Here are a few that were snapped on Marci's camera just before leaving for the picture taking session and just after the picture taking session.

ps - you have to appreciate the bow in Sophie's hair. First of all, it is about the size of her head. Amazing. :) Secondly, it makes it look like she has more hair than she really does. Love that! And thirdly, SHE IS WEARING IT IN ALL THE PICTURES. Nothing short of a miracle. Enjoy the pics...

So Much to Say...

... so little time to say it in.

So we are leaving for CA in a couple hours - where we will spend the rest of the week with my fam and a bunch of pies. Let the good times roll! We have been seriously delinquent with posts recently, and, as a result, I have about a million pics to post and let's face it - there's just not enough time right now!!

I have to blame some of my blogging delinquency on Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series. I know I'm a little late on these, but Renee let me borrow her books and I had to see what all the fuss was about. Before I knew it I was sucked in after about... oh, I'd guess 3 1/2 pages. My poor fam. It was so hard to drag myself out of Forks, WA to even go to the bathroom, let alone make dinner, change diapers or clean the house. Luckily, I finished the books and am free of the addiction till her next book comes out. But at least then I'll only have one book to read - not three!

Anyway, funny little story that happened while I was in the middle of the series... Some of you have already heard this - apologies in advance for that. So, how do you know that you are seriously, majorly obsessed with events in Bella Cullen's life? This is how I knew:

My brother-in-law Cris was over visiting back when I was in the middle of the books and during a wrestling match with my other brother-in-law, Jamie, he cut his lip. And it bled very minorly. And I had this SERIOUS thought go through my mind:

"Hmm, well, it's a good thing there are no vampires around today."

That's all folks. Happy Thanksgiving - see you all in a week or so!

There's an Apache in the back yard

So, what did you do this morning?

I went to go see the Apache helicopter that landed in our backyard...

In my pajamas...

And my crocheted slippers...

With Sophie...

While Lisa was in the shower.

So have you ever seen the Arlo & Janis cartoons - where the adults turn into little kids when they are excited/happy? I think that's what happened to me, I became a 6 year-old that looks like an adult. Sophie I were playing in the living room and I heard a helicopter fly over pretty low. I didn't think much of it until it flew by again and sounded even lower, and then didn't fly away. I ran out to our porch and watched it drop below the tree line no more than 2 blocks west of us. Thinking like a 6 year-old, I grabbed a camera to run over and take some pictures, thinking like an adult, I decided to bring my phone and Sophie too.

I drove the two blocks and found the helicopter just powering down in the front yard of an elementary school. I grabbed Sophie and quickly drover over and started taking pictures. Here's a few of them.

When the gunner and the pilot stepped out, they invited everyone who had gathered to get a closer look. Apparently they were flying in as part of some Boy Scout activity that was going on. Because most of the people were still standing behind a chain link fence when I took the above pictures, there was a 6 year-old boy first in line with Sophie as his excuse. We got some great photos.

Check out those slippers!!

Happy Halloween!!

Sophie was Minnie Mouse for Halloween and I must say that she was the MOST ADORABLE Minnie I have ever beheld. See for yourselves...







Since we didn't have mouse ears for her, we substituted pigtails instead. I couldn't believe how old she looked with her hair up like that! Where is my baby?? She has also just learned to smile (kindof) when you ask her to smile for you -- some of these are her "smile." Sooo cute!

Go Tall Girls!

Just have a couple cute pics to post (ie. show off). We went to the doctor today and found that Sophie is in the 93 percentile for height - go tall girls! I was a complete goober mom and left my wallet at home, so when we got there not only did I not have our insurance cards, but I also didn't have a way of paying for our co-pay. It was one of those I-feel-totally-100%-idiotic-and-there-is-no-way-of-making-this-situation-look-less-
bad-than-it-is-can-someone-please-take-pity-on-me? moments. Thankfully, the staff DID take pity on me and they were really nice about it. Sophie was still seen by the doc and I called with our insurance info when we got home. Hooray!

So there's our story for the day.

Now on to the pics!!

Sophie's new favorite place to hang out is the bottom shelf of the bookshelf. I found her here with my cell phone just chatting away with probably someone in China or Indonesia.




I totally SCORED on some new winter clothes for Sophie at a Children's Place outlet last weekend. It was so wonderfully awesome. The total opposite of my moment in the doctor's office today. :) One of the things we came home with is this leopard onesie. It cracks me up - I love it!! Sophie looked so cute wearing it that I even let her get into the CDs in the secretary while I tried to get some pics. How cute is this????






And that's all folks. Till next time, when I post Sophie's Halloween pics (speaking of cute!...)!

Welcome Home, Melissa!!!

Melissa came home from her mission in Italy last week and we decided that we just couldn't NOT be there for the big homecoming! Esp since we live so close now! So we cruised on south to Cali, braved the fires and stormed the house, taking everyone by surprise. We had a good time surprising each family member as they arrived home from school, work, etc. :)

My mom had the brilliant idea of having us all wear chef hats to the airport to welcome Melissa - no way she could miss us with those on, eh? :) So we put on our best Italian chef faces, took plenty of posters and waited anxiously at the bottom of the escalator till Melissa arrived! It was a very happy reunion - SOOO great to see her again!! Welcome home, Meliss!!

Waiting at the airport for Melissa to arrive...!! ps - how AWESOME is my poster?? I was SO proud of this masterpiece. :)

Melissa comes off the escalator and sees us - what's a girl to do when your family is all wearing chef hats??

Mom and Dad rush the return missionary - they got to her before the rest of us did. :)
Mom, Dad and Mel

Sibs - minus Nath -- where was he when we took this??

Melissa and B-to-the-ryce, as she calls him :)

Happy Family! We missed you, Marse!

And, of course, the painting wall! We have one wall in our house that gets painted for big occasions - or for no occasion at all, whenever someone feels like painting. Jake and Linds, I believe, were mostly responsible for this work of art:


We're so glad to have Melissa back and that we were able to see her get off the plane - Welcome Home, Mel! See you tomorrow!!

ps - I can't not mention the fires in this post since they were such a part of our trip. It was absolutely CRAZY driving home and seeing so much smoke and burnt land - much of it still smoking. Thankfully, things got better while we were there and my fam is in a safe spot, but we could still see blazes over the hills at night and lots of ash falling pretty much all day long. You held your breath and ran for it when going from car to house - good times. I was feeling very sorry for the toll road employees who had to sit right there in the middle of it all, with just a little dust mask for protection! The good part of the fires is that school was canceled two of the days we were there, so it was family party all day long! My mom sent me this pic - it was taken last Tuesday at a lake a few miles from our house. Yikes!!

Male Bonding

My twin brother Cris and I returned from our two year missions to find our younger brother Jamie, who had just spent two years in a house with 5 sisters, craving some good old fashioned male bonding (AKA wrestling). It just so happens that I left a kid brother and returned to find a young man, with the muscles to prove it. A combination of his new found strength and my mission "halo" left me feeling quite certain I didn't want to regress into big-brother vs. little-brother wrestling matches. I think I managed to hold out for a week.

Fast forward 8 years and I find myself in the same situation. I've only sporadically seen Jamie over the last 4 years, partly due to his mission and mostly due to his going to school at BYU. You may recall that I am now earning my MBA at BYU, so we find ourselves in close proximity once again.

I'm fairly convinced that Jamie spent the last 8 years physically preparing for this reunion, while I've just been resting on my laurels (i.e. any intimidation that may remain from the good old days). As a result, the most frequent comment I get is - "Did you lose more weight?"

Enough background. Conference weekend, Jamie's girlfriend came out to visit from Boston. Seizing on the moment to demonstrate how his 8 years of working out had paid off, Jamie insisted on a wrestling match. Lisa quickly joined in and pushed me off the couch into the fray - and then sat there taking pictures.

I got crushed.

We love Jamie

Conference Weekend

Conference weekend is always so much fun - especially this year because we got together with our good friends Josh and Allison and their daughter Kate, who is one month older than Sophie.

Seeing that we've moved to "Zion," we also had a chance to actually go to Conference - a first for both Lisa and I. The LDS church has what we call General Conference every 6 months where the leaders of the church spend 10 hours over two days speaking to the worldwide membership. I have only ever seen it on tv via satellite (it's broadcast live). But we had great seats for the last session on Sunday - only about 100 feet from the rostrum.


One of the perks of our new location is that Conference is broadcast on local tv and radio stations. Since we have neither, we spent some time at home listening over the internet. So many options! Sophie surprised us by taking a 3 1/2 hour nap on Saturday afternoon, this picture below is right after she woke up and joined us listening to the last talk.

Happy Birthday, Marci!!!!

aRGH. Blogger is being ridiculous right now and I can't set this up right... BUT, Happy Birthday, Marse!! Here's to great sisters! I REALLY wish that I had a scanner right now b/c the ghetto camera style that I'm trying to use to get some of these pics online just isn't working. Just imagine some of our other good times along with these gems. Happy B-Day!! We are super-dee-duper excited for your construction project, too! Whoopeeee!!

birthday cake and sprinkles - and a killer round of skeeball,
us







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