Monday, December 10, 2012

Visitors!

Ready for the blog with 100 pictures? This year I have had some really fun visitors. I usually blog about such important events, but my blogging skills were seriously lacking this year. I did blog about Barb and Jessie's visit, but that was it. So here's the rest...

Marie, Adelyn, & Avery came in October for a few days and we had such a great time! 

 After a long flight the girls were pretty excited to go to a park. They looked so funny in those swings. 
Everyone teased us for going to the beach in October, but guess what?! It was warm and pretty empty. Also, the girls loved it. 
Not Pictured: The Lifeguard these girls were staring at. 
Love their little suits. 
Eating was interesting. Strangely I don't have 2 highchairs floating around my house so we pulled out a sheet that served as our picnic blanket for every meal. 
There was some of this. 
...and some of this. We had a fancy picnic of Mac 'N Cheese at the park. 
Smiles on both girls. Sort of. 
 Most of the time we just hung out and played with these angels. 



 Visiting my work. Yes, Marie was holding food in front of the camera so the girls would smile. 
 While the girls were asleep we watched Music Man & Oklahoma, had a fun little spa night (Thanks to Uncle Dennis for babysitting), and just talked. 
 Morning babies are the cutest. Every morning I tried to get a fun picture of them with their sleepy eyes and cute pajamas. This is one of the better ones...
 My car has never looked so good!
 It was so fun to take them to church and play Show N Tell. 
 This was the last picture we took Sunday. The poor girls were so worn out. Thanks Marie for coming with your girls and thanks Tia for letting me borrow your family!

 My mom came a couple of times over the year and we did some fun things: 
 We went to The Tonight Show. 

 My cousin who works at NBC got us tickets and my Mom had so much fun saying, "Hi, we're on the VIP list." It was pretty awesome. 
 We went to a Hollywood Bowl Concert with John Williams. I love soundtracks and I was in paradise. He was the cutest old man and it was such a good show. We did some other fun things, but I didn't take pictures. Thanks Mom for all the fun visits. Craig came this last time, but it appears my picture taking skills ran off with my blogging skills. 

Rewinding quite a bit to July - The Roach brothers (friends from high school) came to visit me and they brought Jessie. 
 We went to the Conan Show. 
 Then we wandered around LA. 




While they were here we went to a YSA Conference. It was awesome. 
 Late night pictures. By the way - let the record show Jess and I beat them in a Chicken Fight. 
 Nate and Andrew left, but Jessie stayed for a few weeks! It was so much fun. She came to work with me and everything. One highlight was going to So You Think You Can Dance. We've been watching that show for years and it was so fun to be there. 
 While we were in line for 5 hours we talked, made friends, and Jessie did my hair. 
 We may have just showed up to the taping without tickets. Then Jessie made new best friends, like she always does, and these boys gave us their extra tickets. (The one on the right was Waldo on Little Rascals &  Derek Boyd on Full House) They also gave us a paper with all the rules on it. You're not allowed to wear flip flops, backpacks or jeans. We had all 3. After a trip to Goodwill we were ready to go into the taping. 
 We also went to a Dodger game. They played horribly but it was still fun to go. We also watched fun movies, had frisbee nights, talked until late at night, and played many rounds of Gin Runny. After all those rounds I think I'm the reigning champion. Right Jess? 

It is so fun living close to Sara. I've loved going to her house and they're always so nice to host me. Last month Sara drove all the way with her 3 kids for a night and it was so fun. 
 They met me at work and then we came home. We had dinner, read a few stories, played a few games, and visited with Kings. 
They liked the pots in my house. 

Thanks to all the fun visitors this year and thanks to all those who made it to the end of this post. Here's to better blogging next year! 

Friday, November 16, 2012

The Thankful Post.

Congratulations to me! I've created my own Thanksgiving tradition. Welcome to the 2012 edition of the RANDOM thankful list. I'll try not to do repeats. (2010 Thankful List. 2011 Thankful List.)

  1. Daylight Savings. I love waking up when it's light outside. It's also great when I think it's midnight and realize it's only 4:30 PM.
  2. It's soup season. I love soup. My new favorite is Trader Joe's Tomato and Roasted Red Pepper Soup.  Just add some Tortillini, Parmesan Cheese, and Spinach, and VOILA! I had this for the first time last winter at Kings and I'm still kind of obsessed with it.
  3. Suri's Burn Book. This blog makes fun of celebrities. Winner.
  4. My roommate. I can talk to Alison about anything whether it's TV shows, how ugly Elle Fanning's shoes are, advice on my calling, or just the day to day events. It's awesome.
  5. Visitors. Seriously I've been lucky to have lots of visitors. Unfortunately my blogging skills have been lacking and I haven't talked about most of them yet, but my next post will be a huge post about visitors.
  6. Family e-mails. I love all the planning and talking logistics e-mails. They usually mean an exciting event is coming up.
  7. Downton Abbey marathons with Kings. I think we'll finish both seasons in a little over a week. What an accomplishment.
  8. No commute. I have a 10 minute drive to work and I don't start until 8:30. Sometimes I sleep in until 8. Yep, I'm that lazy. It is marvelous.
  9. I get 2 monitors at work. Love that. Except sometimes when I'm home I'll drag something to the side of my screen and be surprised when it doesn't show up on my non-existant second monitor. 
  10. California is finally cooling off. I've even worn a scarf a time or two. I think it's Fall and we all know California Winters are pretend so bring on the long Fall Season!!  
  11. I have a map on my phone. I don't know who's more thankful for this - my family or me. No more calls to family, "Hey do you have a second...Are you by a computer?...I thought I knew where I was going..."
  12. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir channel on YouTube. I found this the other day and now I'm subscribed to it. I don't know what that means, but I think it entails more righteous free music for me.
  13. I have a laptop that works. May my old laptop rest in pieces, or under the bed where it currently resides. I'm thankful to my brother, David, who helped me find a new one. Oh, he also helped me pick out my last one. I guess you could say I'm a bit indecisive, so I go to him all the time for advice with such things.
  14. I'm an aunt. I know I'm cheating and putting this on the list again, but seriously there is nothing better than hearing, "Aunt Becky" or "Aunt Bicky" in some cases.
  15. The Les Mis movie comes out next month. I can't remember the last time I was this excited for a movie. Wait, yes I can...I was pretty excited about Hunger Games and rightly so. It was kind of awesome.
  16. My car. I seriously love my car. Driving a 1990 Mercury Marquis through high school and then not having a car for 4 years was bound to make any car I bought look good. But I really like my car.
  17. Having my own bathroom. This is a first and it is so wonderful. When I'd clean the bathroom in college I'd always sweep up a rainbow of hairs. It was gross. Now there are only brown hairs and they are all mine. It's still disgusting, but it's a lot better.
  18. Barbara blogged for me yesterday when I asked her to. I'm so happy about that.
  19. I get a voicemail from Jessie, my little sister, about every day. Every single one is the same, "Girl! Call me back!" Or there's the occasional, "Um..I have a really funny story to tell you. Call me back!"
  20. Lastly, I'm thankful for Thanksgiving! It is my favorite holiday and I can't wait to spend it with my whole family in less than a week. I don't know what all is going to happen, but it may include some of this:
Spending time with cute nieces and nephews!
 Coloring contest. Look how I'm in 2nd place. That' important.
Eating.
Intense Grown Up Games.
 Massage Contests.
 Spending time with these lovely people.
 Long photo shoots that the boys love.
 Runs. Or run. As long as I can wear Ma's sweats again I won't complain. :)
 Maybe playing in the snow if there is snow.
 Wearing cool coats even if there is no snow.
 Talent show where Benjy will dominate.
 More eating. But we'll have pie instead of Ice Cream.
 Boys having their adventures.
Christmas movie watching once Thanksgiving is over. 
Also, there will be a dance party, but I figured I shouldn't put up Ribbon Dancing pictures from previous years. Okay I'm so ready for next week now!!