Girls Day Out

The girls and I got tickets to the nutcracker.  We went to Salt Lake for a day of fun.  Now that my girls are older it is really fun to take them without the boys to do girlie things.  We ate at the Olive Garden.  I gave them all the cutest charm necklaces as a early Christmas present.  Aunt Lynne made them for me to give to them.  They all have cute charms that represent them.  Then off the watch the nutcracker at the capitol theater.  It is so worth paying for this treat,  since I live in a household of dancers who really appreciate the art of ballet.  We all loved it! This may have to become yet another tradition.  Maybe we can add the other girl cousins in a few years.

More Snow Pics

Let it Snow

Any other time of the year I hate the snow! At Christmas time I love it. We have had mountains of it. Conner, Scott and Austin built the best snow fort ever and even added Christmas lights and a Santa on top.  We went sledding on Christmas eve.  It was a perfect few hours of fresh snow with no new snow and wasn't even cold.  We had a blast with the whole Stalker family.  The kids also took advantage of the four wheelers and pulled each other and Dad on sleds throughout our neighborhood.  Somehow they got four kids on the sled at once and Scott pulled them all.  It can snow for one more week in the valley, then I want it to be over!

WE ARE IN A DEPRESSION ?

DO WE REALLY NEED THE NEWS TO TELL US, EVERY MINUTE, OF EVERY DAY, THAT TIMES ARE TOUGH?  I'M SO SICK OF IT!!!  I'm pretty sure every family that is going through hard times, knows it.  Please try and at least balance the bad and the good.  I wish a channel would take over the good news and report on all the great things that go on in this world everyday!  We need to stay positive and help each other through these rough times.  I'm not saying sweep it under a rug and not report on things but the dwelling on the negative has got to STOP!!

Austin 16? Could it be?

Austin thinks it is great to be 16

#1 - he gets to date

#2 - he gets to drive

3#- he can get a job

Mom doesn't think it is so great

#1 he gets to date

#2 he gets to drive

#3 he needs a job to pay the 179.00 a month insurance bill for him to drive.  OUCH!!

I couldn't ask for a better 16 year old son. He has never given me an ounce of trouble and he is a blast to have around.  Love you Ozzy!

Ski Season is Here

Scott and I went skiing for the first time a few days ago.  It was a beautiful day up at Brighton.  Last year I took ski lessons and it helped me so much. I love to ski now.  I can almost keep up with Scotty now.  It makes it so fun to go together.  All our kids have passes to Sundance so I'm sure we will be going a lot.  I am also planning to do Lady's Day again at Sundance as soon as I convince some of my friends to come.  My great friends Lisa Wilkey and Cheryl Davis are actually ski instructors this year.  Now we just need lots of snow.  Only in the mountains...I hate driving in snow!!

Our Weekend in Salt Lake.

This weekend Sidney had her Nuevo Dance Competition at the Salt Palace.  The girls and I went up and stayed for the weekend.  We had a blast. Nikki and I spent all of Friday night together.  We went to gateway, ate at Rumbi Island Grill and went to see Four Christmases.  It was fun to spend the whole night with just Nikki.  It's funny the things you learn about your kids when you are alone with them.  Saturday we watched Sid compete with her Teen team.  All their dances are so fun to watch.  Jessi even got to fill in for a girl in the hip hop dance, so I got to see her on stage again.  After the competition we went with Jess to the Festival of Trees.  Her studio Front and Center dance performed there.  She choreographed four dances for them.  It was really fun to see Jessi in action as a teacher now.  I could tell how much those girls love her. 

 The boys stayed at home, completing Austin's Eagle project.  YAY!! The blankets are done! We will be delivering them to the United Way very soon.   They drove up to stay the night Saturday.  We saw the lights and ate at Macoroni Grill.  WOW is it expensive to take 7 there.  Luckily I had some penny pinching gift cards but not quite enough for our 127.00 bill.  OUCH!

We stayed for the weekend in the Reber apartment right behind the LDS conference center.  It is on the top floor and has a spectacular view.  I love weekends like this....I have my kids all to myself with no distractions!

Twilight

Ok, since I can't sleep I'm going to have to blog about twilight!  These books were a life saver to my Sidney! She picked up Twilight and hasn't quit reading since.  She used to hate to read.  She got Jess to read all the books and then I followed right behind.  We all loved the books.  We were not too sure about our visions of Edward, Jake and Bella being ruined by a movie.  Sid swore she would not go.  Well she went...to the midnight opening.  All my girls thought it was cheesy and didn't really like it.  I went the next day with my girl friends.  I loved it!  It was over the top cheesy, silly, bad effects, overacting, everything that could go wrong with a movie, but still it won me over.  I laughed and laughed when the fan catches Bella's scent and didn't stop laughing through the entire flick.  I even went a second time with Scott, Steph and  Nate.  Scott had to see what all our lusting was about. The funniest thing to me was all the Mom's at the 10 in the morning twilight show.  I guess we all just want to stay young and keep our hearts alive.

Too Much Fun!

We had the greatest Thanksgiving Break ever.  We spent tons of time together as a family and actually enjoyed each other for 5 days.  We saw the Jazz play on Wed. night.  Thursday we made, ate and loved Thanksgiving Dinner at our home.  We had a small get together this year.  Ron, Linda, Camie and us.  We played the ABC thankful game.  Watched Dallas win.  Played flag football and Dominos.  Friday morning we went Black Friday Shopping. This needs to be a blog within itself.  I'll write about that later. We decorated our home and picked out our tree.  Friday night we went on a date with Steph and Nate to see Twilight again.  The boys loved it!  Saturday I cleaned all day and then that night Scotty and I got to go to another Jazz game! Sunday we took extended Snowden family pictures and then Cary and Lynne made us a yummy dinner.  I couldn't of asked for a better break! Thd kids were very sad this morning to go back to school