Here Goes Nothin'...

Ok. I have been thinking about this post for a while, and it makes me nervous, which makes me ramble. So as I am about to ramble, prepare yourself: In in the past eight or nine years in an effort to decorate my house, I have discovered that I LOVE a good project. Especially if it involves paint and a blank wall, or paint and a really ugly piece of old furniture. I've fixed up many DI finds, garage sale treasures and hand-me-downs. I've painted/refinished numerous sets of kitchen and bathroom cabinets. Some things have turned out beautifully, others not so much. I think my husband has come to the conclusion that I am a crazy person more than once. But I really do love to do it. I get a sense of accomplishment from it. Plus, as a mom it doesn't involve children or dinner or dirty toilets. Anyway, I'll try to get to the point. I've always thought that if I could do this for a living it would be a dream job. I'm aware that something like this will not support my family. I'm not that much of a crazy person. But lately I've seen a few shops and sites where other people are doing exactly what I want to do, so I decided why not give it a try. I'm starting out very small and I don't know if it anything will ever really come from it, but at least its an excuse to feed my habit! I created another blog- thefinehouse.blogspot.com -on which to post my projects and get some feedback, which is the nervous part because normally I'm perfectly happy to not know what people really think. (Not that my house is the fine house, but isn't it a cute name? Plus I love that song and the very fine house was already taken in the land of bloggers.) So to finish my long-winded explanation, please take a look at my new blog and if you feel so inclined, let me know what you think.

Happy Valentines!

Jelous of my Valentine's Day, aren't you?

I Heart Kyle Korver

I guess if Tyler can have a man crush on Deron Williams (or D Will-that's right, look at me, I know the lingo), then its ok for me to have a little crush of my own. My reasons for crushing on Kyle Korver are twofold: 1) um, he's pretty cute. Have you seen him? 2) For a few months now, random, unrelated people haved said things to us like, "we watched the Jazz last night and we think Asher looks like a mini Korver." Seriously, a lot of people have made this comment-at least more than two :) I got to see firsthand last night just how cute Korver/Big Ash is because Crae was super-duper nice and sent Tyler five tickets to the Lakers game that he wasn't going to be able to use himself. Thank You!!! We took Dax and Hayes and Grandma Jo and it was FABULOUS! Tyler so wants the boys to love sports, and I think last night might have sealed the deal. They cheered and boo-ed and jumped around and I am telling you-Hayes danced and clapped and bopped his head until I thought it would fall off. I don't think he can help it-he just feels the beat:) It was an awesome game to see, close scoring all night and in the end the Jazz won 113-109. Thank you again Crae, we loved it.

Dax in his free Jazz hat cheesing it up

Super Bowl XLIII

While I'm sure that Tyler, Broc and Callan would disagree, I have to say that I think the two 30-second commercials in 3D were the most anticipated and appreciated part of Super Bowl night. They were extremely effective commercials as well: it is now imperative that we see Monsters VS Aliens in 3D as soon as possible:)

And because Camille is such a neglectful mother and I am such a shameful aunt/hostess, one of the twins-Oakley, specifically- snuck away and highly enjoyed this large dish of tasty, horse-meat based dog food as her Super Bowl after dinner snack. Mmmmmm. Ok, so I'm not totally sure that it's made from horse meat. Pretty sure it's not, as a matter of fact. And yes, it is a very large, yicky bowl. But then, I have a very large, sometimes yicky dog. But still. Yummy.

Grandpa Crandall

Last week my Grandpa Crandall passed away. An event like that always brings memories and emotions to the surface. At the viewing and the funeral I had the chance to visit with family and cousins I grew up with and reminisce about being little. Like many of my cousins, one of my favorite memories of Grandpa is riding on the back of his motorcycle to the mine to find Fool's Gold. And riding horses. And watching Grandpa change the water. And the witch house at Keetley and the squeaky bed in the kitchen there. And the big rock in their front yard at home. And for some reason, my sister and I both talked about the smell of Grandma's pantry-so good:) Remembering Grandpa of course brought up memories of Grandma and talk about my dad, both of whom we all miss and I'm sure Grandpa was overjoyed to see, among so many others. I'm always telling my kids how blessed we are to be an Eternal Family. Times like this truly bring that blessing into perspective. To be together forever! Yay. I am so thankful for the sure knowledge of the gospel. And for my heritage. We love you and will miss you Grandpa.

Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of...

On Sunday afternoon, I took out a bottle of sparkling cider that we forgot to open on New Years Eve. Now, being the super-crazy partiers that we are, the boys instantly recognized the bottle. Hayes: Hey, what's that? Is that a PIRATE drink? Dax! Mom has a PIRATE DRINK!!! Dax came running and was extremely worried when he saw the bottle. Dax: Mom, pirates drink wino. Why do you have wino? I calmly explained that it was just apple juice in a fancy bottle and it was ok for us to drink it. Dax: Oh, Ok. Well wait just a minute. He disapeared and returned wearing his Disneyland pirate hat. Dax: (very seriously) I thought if I was going to drink a pirate drink, I better wear my pirate hat. Well duh! Why didn't I think of that?! And not to be outdone, Asher had to have a hat to drink his as well, so he got the magician hat. Why not? Magicians can be winos too, i guess:)

Christmas 2008

The boys left Santa some green dinousar cookies and 9 carrots for the 9 reindeer. This year Dax wanted to be extra nice and leave Santa a note with the treats-I mean, it was Christmas Eve, after all, and going the extra mile couldn't hurt, right? He composed it entirely himself-which I'm sure that you figured out when you read "we lick you". We did not actually lick Santa, but we do LIKE him:)