T-Mac and the Boogers

Well, it seems pretty appropriate that I spent all of January catching up on life and catching up on my blog!  I had 2 decent sized projects to complete in January.  The first was for Young Womens.  I wanted to do this program I had seen on the blog 71 Toes.  I love her blog.  When I read about this Daughter of God week I knew that I needed to do it for my girls.  Then I saw that the first lesson in the manual for the year was “I am a Daughter of God” I was done.  Thank goodness I have counselors who go with my crazy ideas!!!!  Basically for a week we tried to teach our YW about their divine nature and their heavenly heritage.  I made some changes to the original week to fit the needs (and schedule) of our ward.  We started on a fast Sunday- we invited the Bishopric, stake YW and the parents to all fast for the girls to have a good experience.  I explained that we knew if the girls could recognize and understand their divine nature it would be easier for them to make proper decisions, set a good example and come closer to their Heavenly Father.

Our lesson on Sunday was all about being a daughter of God- there were a lot of quotes and a lot of crying (why I am such a crier is beyond me).  I taught all the girls in one class that day.  Then they were sent home with a packet of envelopes.  There was one envelope to open everyday.  Thank goodness Daisy was here, she was a great big help getting everything together and helped me carry through my vision of “cute!”  She also drove to all the Stake YW homes and delivered packets to them!

The first day was a mini lesson on “Forget Me Nots” and each family had been given a Family Home Evening lesson (if they wanted).  Tuesday the girls opened a letter from the 2nd counselor (about using the scriptures to learn who we are and receive help).  Wednesday was a CD of up-lifting songs.  Thursday was a personalized letter from the 1st counselor (about how we can become closer to Heavenly Father through prayer).  Friday was a little story about a pencil maker.  Saturday was a letter from me (about how trials and tribulations can make us stronger and that we aren’t alone even in the hardest of times).  After ever letter the girls were asked to journal about what they had read/heard, there were journal prompts for each of the days.  On Sunday we invited the girls to each bear their testimony or share a thought or favorite moment from the week.  I was so touched by some of the things that were shared.  The 2 stake leaders who came also bore their testimonies and it was so sweet what they shared, and there was a lot of love in that room- I hope the girls remember it for a long time.  At the end I presented each of the girls with a “Be-you-tiful” sign (inspiration found here).

Thanks to Daisy for folding 18 origami hearts, helping me emboss all those envelopes and dealing with my crazy of the week!  Thanks to Tara for donating her time and Silhouette to cut the words… and thanks to my counselors for sharing such amazing and touching thoughts in their letters (and supporting me in this project- it was a good amount of work!).

Another project that I finished this month was moving Violet to her big girl bed.  I had been wanting to make a headboard out of shutters… and we found some on Craigslist.  They looked like wood, but ended up being plastic (or vinyl).  In the end I bought them anyways… and it turned out to be a good plan.  No sanding involved- only washing, priming and painting.  We put together her bed and she was pretty excited about being in her big girl bed (she picked out her sheets and bedding… carrying it around the store saying, “Mine.”).  I like how the bed turned out…  I have a couple other ideas for her room- but it will take some time!  At least she is out of the crib… and sleeping better.

The before and after shots.  Big girl in her new bed!

Filed under: Violet on February 3rd, 2012 | No Comments »

We were excited when Beauty and the Beast came to the theaters (well, I was, I think Jeff learned of it through Sophie).  I was bummed we hadn’t gone to see Lion King in the theater- so I was happy when Jeff suggested we go on Saturday to catch Belle in all her glory.  He also was nice enough to suggest to Sophie that her best friend Sarah might want to join us.

The day of the movie I packed up popcorn and gummy worms (and put them in 3 separate bags so there were no fights) and we headed to the theater.  The girls all dressed in princess dresses and my girls had princess dolls (Sarah had a tiara and purse).  We were ready to roll!  There was a lot of, “Oh, I love this part” “Did you see that” and giggles from the girls.  It was pretty adorable.  They all sat great through the movie and we had a ball.  I had to get some pictures of the girls in their dresses!

The girls were adorable- I thought there would be at least a couple of other little girls dressed up- but they were the only ones.  So there were a lot of exclamations over the princesses (which was helped by the girls enjoying twirling in the front lobby as we entered).  Little girls can be so much fun!

Filed under: Odds N' Ends, Sophie, Violet on February 3rd, 2012 | 1 Comment »

After New Years we had visitors for a couple weeks.  Daisy and Jordan stayed with us while Andy went about flying to residency interviews.  The girls LOVED having Jordan here to play with and I loved having Daisy around.  It was a great excuse to continue my anti social run of hanging out at home a lot!  One of the days while Andy was out and about somewhere cold and Jeff was working we headed to the zoo.

Sophie brought her preschool friend Geraldine the Giraffe.  Sophie was so excited to have Geraldine meet her fellow giraffe friends.

The girls played on the slide while Jordan had a snack.  For some reason the slide wasn’t slippery at all (though it has been in the past) so they pretended it was a tightrope and walked down it several hundred times!  We had a great time and hope that Daisy and Jordan (and Andy too!) come back to visit again… we miss you!

Filed under: Uncategorized on January 31st, 2012 | No Comments »

As I sit here watching The Travesty 2: Return of the Gaels on ESPNU I thought I would take a moment to write about a fun thing we did on New Year’s Eve.  Growing up, Jeff Judkins was in my home ward.  At the time he coached for the red team that will not be named… but now he is head coach for the women’s basketball team at BYU.  When the Lady Cougars came to town to face Saint Mary’s Jeff got our group tickets to see the game.  It was a lot of fun.  We sat right behind the bench and cheered our little hearts out.  It was a great game until the last few minutes (where we were robbed, and our group made A LOT of noise… we are really good at that).  The girls seemed to enjoy themselves, and really enjoyed the concessions stand treats!

It was a fun start to our New Year’s celebrations… we are the party animals.  We ate red beans and rice, a delicious orange cream tart, lots of treats and watched 2 basketball games and the first Indiana Jones movie.  My SIL, Daisy, had never seen the movies… so we started a marathon- and made it through the 3 movies (I don’t count number 4) rather quickly.  I think she might have even LIKED the movies!  It was a fun night, low key, and relaxed.

Filed under: My crazy life, Sophie, Violet on January 28th, 2012 | No Comments »

Thursday after Christmas we headed up to Sacramento for a day of fun.  We started at the Train Museum.  It was great for the kids, lots of places to run and places to climb.  It was also fascinating for the adults.  There were some interesting things to learn.

That picture of Jordan in the bucket might be one of my favorites from the day… he did NOT want to get out and held on to that rope for dear life!

After the museum we walked around Old Sacramento for a little while and hit up the candy store (all in the name of validating parking… of course, the salt water taffy had nothing to do with it!).

Next we headed to the Squeeze Inn (Jeff and I had eaten there for our anniversary earlier in the year… after seeing it on an episode of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives).  This time there wasn’t a long line and we got seats relatively easy… and the burger was just as good as I remember- a heart attack waiting to happen- that cheese skirt- divine!

Our last stop of the night was the Sacramento Kings game… we wanted to see Jimmer in his new element.  We all wore our BYU gear and Jimmer shirts… and we weren’t the only ones.  In fact, we weren’t the folks who started the “Jimmer” chant in our section- we just happily joined in.  It was great.  There was even a section in the fan store dedicated specifically to Jimmer (no other player had an entire section- with a sign!).  Jeff had told me before Christmas time that the team had hired people specifically to sew Freddette and the number 7 onto blank jerseys to keep up with the Jimmer need- we love the love that is happening!

There are no pictures of us as I didn’t take my camera in and Meggie was at the other end of the row from me- but trust that we had a great time, and I love that my girls do so well at sporting events.  They really do so well- all those A’s games have been good practice!

We were exhausted by the time we got home, but that didn’t stop us from staying up to watch the disaster that was the BYU-SMC basketball game.  Whew- vacation can be tiring!

Filed under: My crazy life, Sophie, The Mayor, Violet on January 26th, 2012 | No Comments »

For Christmas Jeff only asked for a couple things… he really just wanted the new Call of Duty video game… I got him that and couple things on his list… but I wanted to surprise him with something so that it wasn’t a totally boring Christmas morning.  My SIL Daisy frequents a soda shop down in LA so I wrangled her into my master plan.  We picked 8 different root beers and a variety of grape soda (Jeff’s favorite… I don’t know why… but it is!) for Jeff’s present.  He didn’t want to share any of his grape soda but he pulled out his root beers (along with some other sodas that my parents brought) for a tasting night.  When Jeff was growing up he collected shot glasses on his vacations- so we put those shot glasses to good use and held a little party for the family in town.

The hands down favorite drink of the night was a Butterscotch Cream Soda… close to butterbeer (from Harry Potter world) and just super tasty… we destroyed that bottle quickly!  The worst drink of the night?  The Mint Julep soda… it was like drinking a shot of mouthwash… ick!  We tried a bunch of root beers… the “Dang, that’s good! Butterscotch Root Beer” was pretty tasty, and Virgil’s micro brewed root beer tasted like homemade- but fancier.  The one named “Rat Bastard Root Beer” was not all that good… around the board we were not happy with it.

We also tried a Pepper drink… it tasted like Dr. Pepper at first and then had a long burn afterwards… interesting for sure.  Later in the week we also tried a Key Lime drink, Orange Cream Soda, a cucumber soda, a lemon grass soda… we had way too much fun drinking all the different flavors…   It was a lot of fun- and Sophie even tried a couple different ones- I was impressed.  Violet just really liked the little cups!  If you ever need an interesting night- soda tasting is definitely a fun option.

Filed under: Odds N' Ends, The Mayor on January 25th, 2012 | 3 Comments »

We opened present 2 more times after Christmas.  1 time when my parents came into town and then again when Andy, Daisy and Jordan showed up.  I only have pictures from the first bunch as I was trying to get out of the house to see a patient the second day… but the girls had a great time being showered with gifts again.  I was totally spoiled and got a whole ton of new clothes… it was fabulous!

Violet got that cute doll… it came with navy polka dotted ballet flats…. I need those shoes people… so keep an eye out for real people sized navy polka dotted shoes… adorable!  My girls have way too much fun when family is in town… and then put all the family in our house?!?  Fun overload… I am just not that exciting!

Filed under: Odds N' Ends, Sophie, Violet on January 25th, 2012 | 1 Comment »

On the Monday after Christmas we headed to Sausalito for the Children’s Discovery Museum.  Lucky us it was a free day for Kwanzaa!  Otherwise we would have had to pay for 11 people… and only 3 of them would have been playing in the park.  The kids had a great time in the toddler area.  There were these big water bed “ponds” and tunnels to crawl through.  The kids had a lot of fun.  My favorite part was these pieces of re-bar with washers on them.  You would lift up the washers and then they would fall and spin and make a lot of noise.  I took a ton of pictures there, and spared you by only posting one of them!  Most of the other stuff was for much bigger kids.  Sophie did pretty well with everything, she climbed to the top of the crow’s nest.  Violet decided to follow her- it was kinda scary, but she made it.  No picture- I was making sure she didn’t do something crazy up there.

I love Violet’s “cheese” smile.  I also love the girls laying down on the pond looking at fish.  I love when my girls are friends.  They can get along oh so well- and it is fabulous.  They also can be so mean sometimes… but let’s focus on the loving best friend portion of their relationship!  It was a great day, and it ended with ice cream at Fenton’s!  What could be better?!?

Filed under: My crazy life, Sophie, Violet on January 23rd, 2012 | 1 Comment »

Christmas Day started out with the 4 of us at home.  I didn’t get a very good picture of the girls seeing their dollhouse for the first time… they ran straight to it and started looking.  I couldn’t get a good angle- serious photo fail.  We didn’t have a whole lot to open- but the girls were excited and happy to open anything they could get their hands on!  We finally wrangled them into their armchairs.

Do you see how enormous that house is?  It is giant, and now is housed in the corner of my living room!

After we opened presents we headed over to Grammy and Gramps’ house.  We ate breakfast and then got ready for church.  I really enjoyed having church on Christmas.  It was nice to have a break from the Christmas crazy and listen to testimonies and good music.  After church we got some fun pictures of the cutey cousins dressed up in their Christmas fancy clothes.  Why won’t Violet smile when I want her too?

We opened more presents and I totally had another photo fail moment- I was having so much fun watching everyone open presents that I didn’t take that many pictures… I do have this great one of Sophie raving over her fairy collection- they are currently living in her dollhouse.

We at our (now) traditional fondue dinner and then played with cousins and visited.  Why is it that if the food is available all day long and it is only a “small bite” that I feel it is OK to continually sample just one more bite?  After about a million small bites I had to roll myself to the car… ugh I was so full.  The cousins have so much fun together.  I love that my girls mother those little boys!  I wonder how Queen Sophie and Princess Vi will take it when the little boys start revolting and wanting to play their own games?  What a harsh reality that will be!

Filed under: My crazy life, Sophie, The Mayor, Violet on January 23rd, 2012 | No Comments »

“Are you ready for a whole lot of catching up?!?! Our new computer showed up today, which means, I have a laptop that 1. doesn’t have a giant crack down the middle of the screen and 2. actually has WiFi and keeps a charge for longer than 2 seconds. Yippee!!!”  That is what I wrote a week and half ago… because I was super excited for my new computer… and then realized that my blog refused to save any new changes to my post… wouldn’t load pictures and really, was being stupid as all get out… but now, thanks to Jeff and webmaster Jim, my blog appears to be updated, backed-up and WORKING!!!!

So, for the ending of 2011… so many fun things happened!

Christmas Eve started with the bowling tournament! Jeff was the winner of the year… how nice for him. I played ok, but lost steam when I really needed it. What can you do?!? (The answer is: lose!).  The girls both bowled with the assistance of the ramp.  Violet was so adorably self assured in her bowling- she would dust off her hands, watch the ball roll to the pins and then clap as she cheered for herself!  Sophie had a good time as well, but really was just thrilled that Auntie Meggie was willing to hang out with her- my girls love their aunts!

Our Christmas Eve celebration was held at Grandad and GG’s home, as usual. It was nice, there were a ton of us, 5 kids, and a lot of food and fun.  I made cheese zombies to feed everyone… it was quite impressive (and thank you Rachel for helping!).  Kelly had organized the kids to do a little Nativity moment- baby Zach played baby Jesus… he slept in the moses basket the entire time… good boy!  The little Joseph (Dean) struggled with his headpiece the entire time, our sheep (JD) was adorably mobile and Mary (Violet) sat proudly on the donkey and had to be reminded to not wake the baby.  Sophie was our angel and gave the whole shpiel by memory- it was a great moment!  I was so proud, even though it was just family, she still has moments where she doesn’t want to do anything in front of crowds.

I know it looks like Sophie is reading, but that is an ABC quiet book and she is just looking at a picture of “A is for Angels.”  I think it made her feel more comfortable- I honestly am not sure why she decided that was necessary!

After gift opening, cousin gift exchange (the theme was books this year… ) and the t-shirt white elephant game we headed over to Grammy and Gramps house.  We opened 1 gift (pj’s) and then had hot chocolate, read the Christmas story and a Christmas book and visited.

We went home, spread around some reindeer food and put out cookies and milk for Santa and sent the girls to bed.  Santa’s elves stuffed stockings and set up the big gift- though it wasn’t from Santa… Jeff and I (with help from a lot of people) had built a dollhouse for the girls… and as Sophie knew we were working on a secret project we couldn’t say it was from Santa… that would have been very suspicious… but it was one of the only gifts Jeff and I gave this year (don’t worry other people picked up the slack nicely!).

As we didn’t buy the furniture it was pretty bare… but after Christmas it filled up nicely!  We are pretty proud of our creation.  We used the blueprints here.  We made some serious construction modifications… but it turned out close to the original plan!

It was a busy Christmas Eve… which seems to be a theme for the rest of the holiday season… we didn’t stop at all- but I love having traditions for our girls, and they seem to have so much fun!

Filed under: My crazy life, Sophie, The Mayor, Violet on January 23rd, 2012 | 1 Comment »