Santa Claus is coming to town...

While out and about on this long holiday weekend we saw the big man himself! Brooke isn't such a fan of babysitters and we were pretty sure she'd scream and freak out, but she did OK and even attempted to talk to Santa. Eryn was excited to go and tell Santa that she wants a Princess Microphone. (Thankfully the ONLY thing that she's really looking forward to for Christmas is pretty inexpensive! That's probably never going to happen again!)

Surprise...

The vacuum cleaner died! Surprise, guess what we ended up buying on Black Friday? A new vacuum. Wow, such fun and what an amazing Christmas present... Sigh. I hate carpet.

Super short post today, but I'm so tired and just haven't been feeling like myself lately. The furnace coming on and drying out my nose and making my skin itch and super dried out is just making me miserable. Cranky? Yes, I know.

The best news this weekend though was that we lost Brooke's little blanket at Wal-Mart and after loading up all of our purchases in the car and nearly crying we went back into the store only to hear the speaker announcing, "Would the owner of a pink and yellow blanket please return to the fitting room." Never thought we'd see it again.

Carpet Cleaning

You know you've seen those unbelievable ads with the piles of dirt and debris for the vacuums to clean up and you just laugh because no one lets their house get THAT dirty. I always thought that they were ridiculous until today.

Thanks to the girls I gave our vacuum a serious test drive. The potted palm tree like plant in our bedroom was turned over and the girls had taken little hand fulls of soil and located them very neatly all over the room!

I was going to take a picture, but I was so mad that I didn't!!!!!!! Just imagine little mounds of dirt all over and how happy that moment made me. Sigh. Our vacuum did suck it up, but I'm sure that it just ground in a good portion of it into the carpet forever.

Rivalry Week Is Here!

Chuck Norris does not usually root for any team, but when he does...sorry Utes!

Thanksgiving Time

Thanksgiving time has never been my favorite time of the year. It means that college football is almost over, turkey is coming to the table for dinner, and that Christmas is right around the corner and I'm no where near ready for it!!!!!!!

Although I dislike the lovely fat bird and have never really enjoyed the big traditional feast that goes along with celebrating the Pilgrims, I really do look forward to Thanksgiving. I like hearing what people are thankful for. Our lives are truly blessed in so many different ways and hearing (or reading) about the things that we are given by our Lord and Savior help me to know that prayers are answered and serves a a good reminder that everyday we have something to be thankful for.

John Adams

This is the Gilbert Stuart portrait thought to have been painted in Philadelphia in 1798 and is considered to be the finest portraits of him.

This semester for my history class instead of doing a typical research paper, we were asked to do a book report on a historical book from the time period of the beginning of our country to 1877. Although I love "The Killer Angles" an have read it several times, I opted for a book that I haven't read before in hopes to expand my historical knowledge. It worked!

Before reading this I knew that John Adams was the second President of the United States and not much more. Now, I know much more about him and his life. I am pleased to say that although he was not the most favored man of his time, he truly walked among giants of men. Not only did he walk with them, but he was able to help them to be better and set a shinning example for future generations. His love of his wife and his family were strong even though his work was demanding and often took him away from them for months or years at a time. John Adams was and is in my mind the unsung hero of the founding fathers. Thanks to David McCullough, my history teacher, and my Father-In-Law I know have much more respect for him and his great work towards making our country what is it today.

No More Piano

Elvis has left the building!

Mike officially bid farewell to playing the piano for the Primary at church after a little more than 3 years. He is now the 1st counselor in the Elder Quorum Presidency. The kids made him a bunch of cards and this poster to let him know how much he meant to them and to thank him.

Major Award!

I WON this major award from Mike's work a little while ago. They had a chili cook off contest and of the about dozen different entries, I won! I can now officially claim that I have, "Award Winning Chili!"

Voting Day

When Mike and I went to vote we went together and that meant having to take the girls. The line wasn't as long as I had feared and it moved along pretty well. Standing in one place and waiting is difficult enough for most adults, but for Eryn and Brooke it was total torture!

Brooke would run away and be with Eryn and then scream and come back for us to hold her. Then, squirm to get down and start the routine all over. That really wasn't too hard to handle.

Eryn thought it was fun to run as far as she could and then come back. She did manage to draw a ton of attention to herself and make a bunch of people laugh when she asked, "Is this the gift shop?" When she realized that she got a laugh kept asking things like, "Can we go to the gift shop?" and "Where's the gift shop?"

It was funny and totally random like Eryn. Perhaps a good indicator that we go to a lot of national parks, museums, and other places like that where gift shops can be found. It might be time to go on a mini vacation to a place with a gift shop!