Long Time No Updates

It has been a long time with no updates on the blog.

For those of you who know very little about me I tend to overschedule myself. I relate with Mr. Incredible at the beginning of the movie a little too much (yeah I got time). So when making my schedule for the beginning of the year, I added a little to much. I'm still trying to get our schedule set so that everything gets down and nothing gets left out. Last week I wrote my February calendar out so that I could schedule doctors appointments. Excluding Sunday's I have 4 days with nothing. Yep out of the whole month. Here's a little taste of my craziness.

1. All 4 kids + Mom to the dentist.
2. All 4 kids to the doctor - the insurance FINALLY paid Chloe's 2007 wellness visit and now we are behind on well visits.
3. Liz activites - Kickboxing, Pilates, Scripture group, quiliting group, writing group, recipe group
4. Chloe dance & preschool
5. Zac homework, Chloe reading program - daily
6. ChaCha & Pampered Chef for money to pay the bills
7. Don't forget to get dressed, brush teeth, do the dishes, clean the house, shovel the walk, meet with friends, keep up on facebook, read your email, pay the bills, do the taxes, visit with family, dinner to a sick neighbor, and update the blog.

Hopefully now you get a little bit of our chaos and understand why the blog hasn't been updated since December. I wish that I could say that February was abnormal for us, but we just keep getting busier. I have lots of updates (Chloe & Zac's Christmas programs, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Fondue, and many more.) The blog is the only diary/scrapbooking/etc thing I do right now, and I'd like to have a record, so wait for updates. Hopefully in the near future.

Chloe's Dance Recital

Chloe has enjoyed taking a ballet/tap class this year, thanks to 'T' who pays for the lessons. Now they can speak their own language. Chloe has learned all 5 positions, to leap, plie, and many more things that I can't pronounce. Taking completely after her dad, she loved to be in the spotlight. She kept tellling him to "Take a picture of me, Dad." The class is only 45 minutes once a week, 30 minutes of ballet, and 10-15 of tap. We are moving Chloe to a different class as of the first of the year because she is almost 2 years older than a lot of girls in her class. She was helping the other girls in the class with the dance. It was so cute. Chloe loves her teacher Misty and can't wait for classes to start back up next week.

Nathan and Katie Turn 3

My babies turned 3 on December 13th. It is so much fun to think back and remember how much more fun now is then it was to have newborn twins. We are so very blessed and lucky that everyone survived that first year. Nathan loved his "Geotrax all aboard" and his Cars blanket. Katie got a Tinkerbell blanket and all of the baby doll accessories. She enjoys playing "mommies" with Chloe. The baby puppy, monkey, baby crying gets a little on Mom's nervous, but it is worth it to see the 2 girls playing so nicely together. Both got puzzles from T. Katie has already managed to eat 1 or 2 pieces.

As an added bonus Katie is now potty trained during the day! That was a great birthday present for mom. Both kids are enjoying their new "big kid" status. They've been going to sharing time this month to get them ready to enter Sunbeams next year. They won't let me call them babies anymore.

Alaina's Birthday

There comes a certain point in everyone's life when they have to allow the ravages of time to finally take what is left of your soul, your dignity and your mind; that day was here for Alaina on the 28th of November. She once again has turned that ripe old age of 29 (don't worry Sis - I won't tell them that you really are 37 - that wouldn't be proper) and we took the family to get her a birthday present; a family photo. After about an hour I was ready for a nap (do you REALLY know how many times a 3 year old can run in a circle without getting tired?) We will post the pics one we choose the ones that we want.

We then were given the wonderful treat of Mom and Dad springing for Alaina's b-day dinner...


I am thankful at this time of year... for all of the little shrimp and clams and lobsters and wild french fries that gave up their lives for me... (tear)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BAIN!!!!!!

:)

This crazy holiday season

Wow! What a crazy, hectic and fun few days our family has had! Thanksgiving was really fun this year and didn't include the normal frantic stress out that it has in past years. We invited my folks and my sister, Alaina to our house this year which meant that we were on turkey duty and WOW!!!!! I LOVE TURKEY!!!!! We used a cooking bag this year - I will never go back to the rack again. Liz took time out of her busy schedule to make some home made rolls (which were devine) and I took my hand at actually making a pie OTHER than an apple. I personally think that my chocolate cream and lemon sour cream pies were excellent (though Liz would just say that I was biased to them so my opinion really doesn't count).

After stuffing our faces with a ton of food that we really didn't need (Mom made enough stuffing to feed the whole of Camp Williams) we turned our attention to the real matter of the day - the Wii. Can I begin to explain how FRUSTRATING (and proud) I can get when my 7 year old tromps my rear on every game that he plays? Between my total inability to do anything simply and Pa's attempt at trying to remove his skin one scrape at a time, Zac was unstoppable.

We are both grateful for all that we have at this time of year and wish the same to all of you.

Obsession

Okay I admit it, I'm fully obsessed. I love a good story. It is the best form of escape. I can travel to far away places and meet interesting people and have adventures . . . do things that I would never never dare to do. I love all types of stories, sci fi, fantasy, legal, historical, romance, mystery. I get immersed in the story and the characters become real people to me. It doesn't matter the medium: written, spoken, or seen. If the story is good enough I can devour it again and again and again. Each time I do, I catch different pieces that make a more complete picture of the story.

Last night Scott and I were talking about movies. Lately almost all of the movies I have fallen in love with (read obsessed about) have been based off of some of my favorite books. Narnia, Harry Potter, Twilight . . . Yes, I hang my head in shame to admit, I became obsessed with Twilight. I hate "jumping on the latest bandwagon" but I love the story. I dislike the characters at times (most of the time) and even at one point I through Eclipse across the room in frustration and then ran to pick it up because I had to know what happens next.

Alaina, I hope you can forgive me. A bunch of ladies from the ward went to the Twilight movie. It was like 9th grade and even though I KNEW the movie was going to be horrible, I was giddy to have been invited. Someone drove their 15 passenger van and the grown women were a little like screaming fan girls. We did manage to not scream at the movie screen when Edward was introduced though. The movie was low budget and VERY VERY cheesy but I (another head hung in shame) really enjoyed it. Part of that was the frenzy of energy in the theatre but the other part was the story underneath.

Okay back to topic, Scott and I were talking about movies and the one thing I wish that Hollywood would learn from the success of Twilight (and Mamma Mia!, and Harry Potter, and Narnia, Enchanted, etc) is that you can make money with a good story. It doesn't have to be overly sexual, or violent, or have bad language. It just needs to have a good story. The action movies have a place. The epic Oscar seeking movies have a place. A couple of times of year it would be nice to have a movie with a good story to go to. Before Twilight, the last 4 movies I went to in the theatre were all Harry Potter movies. After they are finished, what am I going to see for my yearly outing?

Hollywood, please. There are still moral people who just want to escape into a good story. Someone needs to step up to fulfil this need without making a "dumbed down" kid movie. The teenage girl/grown women audience has money to spend. We don't want to always go to the guy movie because it's the only one available. Look at the $70 million opening of Twilight and hear our plea!!!!!!

Chloe turns 5

Chloe, our princess, turned 5 this week. Preschool had a field trip scheduled on the day. Lucky Chloe got to visit the grocery store with 26 of her closest preschool friends. At the bakery, Chloe got to talk about being 5 and then she received an extra cookie with "5" in frosting on top.

Chloe has been the princess since she was born. She is very happy, but demands the attention she deserves. She is a very good big sister. She loves to "help" little kids with toys, and learning words, and feeling welcome. She wants to make sure that everyone is included.

She teaches her mom a lot about being a girl. She hates wearing pants, and only does so when forced. She loves playing dress up and having her nails painted. She loves to dance. Her aunt is paying for dance lessons this year and it is Chloe's favorite part of the week. She already knows many of the terms and can show you the individual poses and steps if you ask.

We are so glad that Chloe joined our family!!!!!