Reading Bug!

This may seem weird to some people, but I am so proud of myself because I have read 4 books in the past 6 weeks!! This is an amazing thing for me! I am not really a reader. In the past few years I have read all of the Harry Potter books when they have come out. But besides that, nothing! But a few months ago our ward book club was reading "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer.

I had heard so much about it, so I gave it a try! And loved it enough to read "New Moon" and "Eclipse" (they are all in the same series) It is a fun read.

For our club we read, "Gilead" by Marilynne Robinson (but I didn't finish it)

Then "Rebecca" by Daphne Du Maurier. (That one took me a few weeks to read)

After our discussion, we had a few weeks before we were going to get the next book. So that is when I read "Eclipse". Then the inner geek hiding inside of me came out and I read "Death in Winter" by Michael Jan Friedman.

Yes I am a Star Trek Fan! I love The Next Generation! It has been a long time since I have read a Star Trek book. Pat found this one for me and said that I needed to buy it because it was about Picard and Crusher! I really liked the book, because they are together at the end :) I am happy to say that I finished it in about 8 days! (That is way fast for me) We then got our new book on Sunday.

"The Goose Girl" by Shannon Hale

I just finished this book yesterday! And loved every page of it! I can't believe that I read it in 5 days! Shannon Hale has written two other books that have the same characters from "Goose" so I am totally going to get those too :) Now since I have about 2 1/2 weeks until our group meets I have started to read another Star Trek book.

"A Time to be Born" by John Vornholt.

This book is the first in a series of 8 or 9 books. So I think that I will be reading these in between book group books.

Thanks for reading my reading list! LOL I am just so excited! I have caught the reading bug :)

Pre-School Christmas Program

Today was Xanders Pre-School Christmas Program! We have been practicing his parts for a few weeks now, and he was really excited to finally have his program. They sang songs and recited

'Twas the Night Before Christmas.

Xander's line was "When what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer"

He says it so well!! I love it! Here are a few pictures of the program, I used my camcorder to record the whole thing, so we didn't get much video on the camera :(



"You better watch out"

- Santa Clause is Comin' to Town

"Reindeer" - Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

This is Miss Brittani, she is Xander's buddy for the year. He likes her alot and talks about her all the time. At MVHS it is nice, because they all have a student that is their buddy, so I know that Xander is getting one on one time and they can help him and make sure that he is learning :)

This is Daxton. He and Xander are friends at Pre-School! Xander talks about him all the time too!

It's Finally Open!!! :)

After much anticipation,

The Disney Store is finally open!!!

The store opened at 8 am this morning! (Don't worry, I was not there until after 9 am) All of the other stores in the mall were still closed! I took some pictures of the inside of the store. My favorite thing is that the floor in the front half of the store is red and sparkly :) You can kind of see it in the last picture.

Today they are giving away free mickey ears with the store logo on them with any purchase. So of course I bought some things. They had really good prices on their little trinkets. I was able to get some fun stocking stuffers for the kids for way cheap! I even got Mara a shirt with the all the princesses on it and Xander one with Lightning McQueen! (they were only 5 bucks each!!) I did see some stuff that I couldn't decided on, so I will probably go back tomorrow while Xander is at Pre-School :)

I love that the store is finally open, and I can tell that I will be spending ALOT of money there in the future! LOL

I DID IT!!!!

This is for Lisa and JD!

Now you can stop bugging me!

As every little girl grows, so does her hair. Just not in the spots that you want it to. Mara has been sporting a mullet for a while. I have tried to forget about it by doing her hair in pig tails in the back. Then that hair style got old, so I started to do pony tails on the top since she has alot of hair up there. So that left the back open to criticism!! My loving family (Lisa and JD) have been making fun of her hair alot lately, especially last night. And the person that I am became really defensive, because I love that I have a girl and I want her hair to be long, and that little bit would curl so cute! I didn't want to cut it off because I was worried that the curl wouldn't come back.



After much thinking, when I was doing her hair this morning, I found the scissors and cut it! I haven't even told Pat that I did it yet! So honey, if you are reading this, I cut Mara's hair! ( I am such a nice wife! )



So there you go! That is the story of my morning :) And Lisa you were right, it does look better!!

Highlights of the weekend

We had this big box lying around and Mara decided that it was her play thing. She was constantly getting in and out all day long. The only drawback was that it was a little too tall for her to do it by herself, so I had to get her in and out :)

Here are a few pictures of Peek-A-Boo!

Last weekend when we had our first REAL snowstorm, my mom was leaving the house and was kind enough to get some snow boots for Xander and Mara. Mara has really developed a love for hers. Whenever we leave the house and I tell her to get her shoes, she comes back with her boots!

She know how to say boots now!

I love when she learns new words :)






We had a "Level 4" storm this weekend. Whatever that means! So we got alot of snow :) Saturday night my sister Karri was over, she and Xander decided to go outside and play in the snow. So they got all bundled up and went to play! I thought that they were going to build a snowman, but when I went out to take a picture, they had just been throwing snowballs at each other, LOL

Here is Xander on his way inside!

Christmas Tag

One of my good friends sent this to me. I like this because it talks about Christmas.

So here we go!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Mostly wrapping paper, it depends on the size, but I do use gift bags too.
2. Real or Artificial tree? Fake tree all the way!! So much easier to deal with :)
3. When do you put up the tree? We usually try the Saturday after Thanksgiving. It was a little later this year (But I still got it up before Dec 1st)
4. When do you take the tree down? Usually after New Years
5. Do you like egg nog? Oh, yes!! I even blogged about it :)
6. Favorite gift received as a child? Probably a Barbie or a Cabbage Patch
7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes! My mom collects them, so I have started my own collection too. (it is quite small, but there is always time to get more)
8. Hardest person to buy for? My Father-in-law
9. Easiest person to buy for? My husband (he buys his own gifts, LOL)
10. Mail of email Christmas cards? Mail (I like getting the real thing!)
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I remember when I was a kid that I got a Hula Hoop, and I was mad, because I didn't ask for it and I really didn't want it either.
12. Favorite Christmas movie? It is a tie between White Christmas and Christmas Eve on Sesame Street
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Usually right after Xander's birthday, so in October (and I am done!!!!)
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas gift? No way
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Our family Christmas Eve cookies (peanut butter cookies with Hershey's Kisses on them!) and Fudge (it is my Grandma Jean's recipe, and I love it!)
16. Clear or colored lights on the tree? Definitely clear!
17. Favorite Christmas song? There are so many to pick from! Gosh! I love Bring a Torch Jenette Isabella and Away in a Manger because it reminds me of Chamber and A Cappella Choirs my senior year of high school. I love Nat King Cole's The Christmas Song because it reminds me of my dad. Definitely True Blue Miracle from Christmas Eve on Sesame Street (it makes me cry I love it so much) All of the Carpenters Christmas songs! Shall I go on.... I love Christmas music!!
18. Travel or stay home at Christmas? We travel to see family, but the farthest we go is Provo!! So I wouldn't really consider it traveling.
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Yes, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen and Rudolph!! :)
20. Angel or Star on the top of the tree? Angel
21. Open presents Christmas Eve or Morning? One on Christmas Eve (pajamas) and the rest in the morning
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Stupid people on the roads! Never shop on the weekends in December!!!!
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? My little tree was purple and silver, but all of my ornaments are Hallmark, so it is kind of an "Anything goes"
24. Favorite Christmas dinner? Sizzler on Christmas Eve!!! :)
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? I have a hard time deciding what I want every year, but I am getting a few Disney Precious Moments figures :) I am way excited!

I'm not going to tag anyone, but if you want to do it, go for it!!

Merry Christmas!!

OH, SANTA!!!

We went and saw Santa today!!

I have wanted to go for a week so we finally went! The Santa at the Provo Towne Center Mall is the best! He looks great! Xander was really excited and anxious to see him. We decided to have lunch first, so by the time we got there he was on a break! So we walked around the mall for 15 minutes. When we got back there was a line! But we didn't have to wait too long. Mara didn't really care about Santa, she just liked the train that went around! When it was her turn she freaked out, like any kid her age.

Here are the pics!

Update on Disney Store

Here is the latest picture of the store. I had heard rumors that it would be open by now, but it's not! I did find someone that worked there and asked when the store would be opening and she said

December 13th!!

Next Thursday!

I am so excited!! I will probably be there first thing when the store opens :)

Blue's Clues

This morning Xander and Mara were watching one of our DVDs of Blue's Clues. Mara starting singing along with the show, so I was a good mom and started the song over and got out the camera. The last part is my favorite :)

I Consider this...

THE FIRST SNOWFALL OF THE WINTER!

As Karen Carpenter would say :) We awoke this morning to snow :) I held Xander up to look through the kitchen window to see it and the first thing he said was "Can I go play in it?" Now I am thinking that I should have purchased snow boots and snow pants for him a few weeks ago when I started noticing them. If I were to go today, I don't know if I would be able to find his size!!! (I probably will, I just don't like to drive in the snow, so I am going to try to stay home if I can)

Here are a few pictures of the view from our porch: