Random Pictures

Here are a couple of random pictures I found on the camera from last week...

Landon was warming up his car before he left for work and wanted to take a picture of the truck radio antenna. Lauren wanted to show me how she likes to keep her little eraser friends warm.

Snowfest 2010

Saturday we went to our 6th Snowfest in Rexburg. We got there in time to see the Christmas tree bonfire and let the girls do some sledding. We felt like we had to go since we've been every year since we've lived here, but to be honest, Landon and I weren't as excited to go as we've been in past years. I couldn't get Landon to turn around and pose in front of the fire, so I got a back of the head shot.

The girls posed, then I had to make Lauren take a picture of me or I'd never be in any pictures.

Emma's Holes Party

Friday night Emma had a party with 6 girlfriends (Lauren got to invite 1 friend) from her class. They had just finished reading the book, Holes, in class and Emma invited her friends over to watch the Holes movie, eat pizza, and visit some neighbors who raise a variety of reptiles in their home. The girls had a blast. We got all of them home by 10:00pm! Emma's friends are Katrina, Cami, Jessica, Maddie, Emily and Olivia. Two of the girls had Mr. LeFevre for 3rd grade at Kennedy, while Emma was at Lincoln. They just happened to become friends when they got to the middle school. Lauren's friend is Samantha...a really cute girl with a personality as silly as Lauren's.They girls loved watching the movie and talking about the things that were the same and what was different in the book.

In the book and movie, the yellow-spotted lizard was a deadly threat to the boys. That lizard is fictional, but they used the bearded dragon as a model for it, then painted spots on it and digitally added a collar thing around the lizard's neck. Our neighbors have about 6 bearded dragons that the girls were able to hold and learn about. They're actually really cool...soft, tame, friendly. The girls also got to pet and hold an iguana, and look at different types of geckos, chameleons, turtles, and other stuff I don't know the names of.

Doyle, Found

A while ago I made a post of random pictures. One of the pictures was of Lauren holding her little eraser friend, named Doyle. She had lost it for many months, but found it yesterday in her backpack. She wanted me to make a video of her showing off her little eraser friends who evidently bring her much joy.

Nana's Visit, Lauren's Teeth Pulled

Thursday night Nana flew up to visit us for the weekend. It was a short visit, but we were able to do some good eating, a bit of shopping, help at a Primary activity and see Emma's dance performance. We were really happy that Nana could come. Last Tuesday Lauren had 4 baby teeth pulled at the dentist's office. I had taken her to Emma's orthodontist for a consultation to find out when we'll be getting braces. He recommended having her 4 canine teeth pulled (2 on top, 2 on bottom) to make room for her other teeth to come down. She'll probably get braces right around the time Emma's are removed, in about a year and a half.
The dentist's office was a terrible experience. The 8-10 shots they gave her to numb her mouth wasn't real easy in the first place and then he started yanking out her teeth before everything was 100% numb. She had laughing gas, but it didn't appear to have any effect on her. She tried to be brave, but she cried off and on throughout the experience. I just rubbed her legs and tried not to pass out or throw up. She's fine now and the tooth fairy left $10 and took her to Walmart to buy a new outfit.
This is the before shot:
The after picture turned out too blurry, so you'll just have to notice her mouth in future pictures.

Ballroom Dance Concert

Emma's been participating in a 5th-6th grade ballroom dance class sponsored by the City of Rexburg Parks and Recreation. She meets once a week after school for an hour. She had the opportunity to perform at the East Idaho Ballroom Dance Concert, which is a concert for youth ballroom dance teams from around the region. It was held in Idaho Falls at the Civic Auditorium. There were teams from serious dance schools and who practice way more than Emma's team, but Emma's group held their own and did a great job.

Emma's team had a short practice on the stage before the show.

After the stage practice, she got on her "costume" and makeup and we all went to The Gangplank for dinner before the show began.

This video is the actual performance. Quality isn't great, but you can get an idea of how it all went. Emma is in the front quite a bit of the time.

PG-13 Rated Post

Last month we wanted to know what the girls knew about male/female anatomy using the correct terminology. We had had a discussion at lunch with the other teachers about this subject. One of the teachers is teaching his 2 year old the correct words for everything and Landon said that we had done that when we taught our kids. I disagreed, remembering that we used slang for everything, so one night we asked the girls what the name of the boy part was.
Lauren: "balls?"
Us: "No, the real words!"
Lauren: "nuts?"
Us: "No!"
Lauren: "sack?"
Us: "No, the other part of the boy's potty."
Lauren: "There's another part?"
Us: "Yeah, the tail part. What's that called?"
Lauren: "Oh! The wiener?"
Us: "No, it starts with a p."
Emma: "I know! Pee-wee!"
Us: "Haven't you ever heard the word penis before?"
Girls: "Oh yeah!"
When we asked about the girl parts, they were both very confident with the word "vagina." The funny part of the conversation was that they were sincere and not even trying to be funny about it. Emma was embarrassed and just let Lauren talk until she thought she knew what the P-word was. I think it clearly proved that I remember our teaching method better than Landon.
Last night the girls were doing a Mad-Lib and Emma was doing the writing. She told Lauren to think of a funny word. Lauren didn't hesitate to say, "testicle." She uses that word regularly because I always giggle when she says it. We have the Sponge-Bob Squarepants version of Monopoly, so one of the properties is called "Tentacle Acres." We always call it "Testicle Acres." Every once in a while Lauren will just say, "Mom, remember testicle acres?" And I laugh every time.

Long Weekend

No pictures, but here's an update.
We've had a 4-day weekend, but we've just been hanging out at home. We did some serious house cleaning yesterday and planned to go to Big Jud's for lunch as a reward. We got to Big Jud's and saw that it was packed, so we went to Rigby and tried out a place called Pickett's Bambinos. It's a chain restaurant that will be opening in Rexburg where the Backyard once stood. They sell little deep-fried dough pockets filled with different fillings. When we were there we all seemed to enjoy them, but later Landon and I felt really gross. Emma called the bambinos, "little pockets of joy." I'm not so sure. After buying a new plunger, shower curtain and shower rings, we stopped at a new frozen yogurt place in Rexburg called Twizel and Berry. It's self-serve yogurt/toppings for $.39 per ounce. It was kind of fun.
Landon's scarf is about 2 feet long now, we rearranged Lauren's bedroom, I bought and cut out fabric for 3 different projects, and Emma and Lauren have been playing Legos (brought home from Landon's classroom). We watched a couple of movies and played SkipBo a couple times.
That's been our exciting weekend.

New Hobbies

This month I have gone from having no hobbies to having several. I am taking a free guitar class from Scott Bowman (the teacher I work with), I'm in a book group and have been reading a lot lately, and my sewing projects seem to be multiplying. With my new calling, my job and my family responsibilities, I feel like I'm going from one project to the next. So far it's not overwhelming, but it is a full schedule.

My boyfriend has found himself with extra time on his hands in the evenings. He is putting in lots of hours for his internship, but he's still home by about 5:00pm every night. With no classes to attend, it's a new experience for all of us to have Dad home. He's decided to make himself a wool scarf to keep him warm when he has crossing guard duty in the mornings and afternoons. (Which counts toward his internship hours.) Emma told him that knitting isn't a very masculine hobby. As long as he keeps his Cabela's hat on, he feels OK about it.

Landon made zeli the other day for a school lunch potluck. We fully expected all the Idaho palates to reject it, but we were inundated with requests for the recipe.

When we went out the other night, the girls stayed home and Emma taught Lauren how to make giant 3-D snowflakes. They turned out pretty cool.

We have a 4-day weekend this weekend. Landon has inservice on Tuesday, so I'm taking Lauren to get 4 baby teeth pulled at the dentist's office. I took her to the orthodontist's office for a consultation. Her x-ray showed about 10 million teeth crowded up in there. Hopefully pulling 4 baby teeth will make room for some permanent teeth to come on down. We'll be looking at braces in 2 years.

Goulash, New Skirts, New Calling

When we were in Las Vegas, I bought Emma some new school clothes, including some fabric for 2 new skirts. I made one yesterday, but it was too small. So now, Lauren and Emma each have matching skirts. We made the Czech Goulash today. It was tasty, but really strong. Normally, Czech food is kind of on the bland side, so we were a little overwelmed and a lot gassy after we ate. Next time we make this recipe, we'll dilute it or something. The flavor was really concentrated. (The girls loved it though!)
One more thing...today I got a new calling...counselor in the Primary Presidency. What the hell...right? I need to find something new to be grateful for, because up until today whenever something bad happened, I always told myself, "well, at least I don't have to work in the Primary."

Great Link

Kris sent me this link to a Czech food cart in Portland. I can't wait to go there! We printed a recipe for goulash and dumplings from this website, which we'll be making tomorrow. I'll post a picture if all goes well.
If you look at the menu, you'll notice a lot of familiar meals Landon and I ate regularly as missionaries in the Czech Republic. Yummy yummy!

czech it out:
http://www.schnitzelwich.com/index.html

New Year's Day Sledding

Today it snowed from morning till night. We shoveled for about an hour and got real hot and sweaty, then took the girls sledding. I captured it on video for your viewing pleasure:

Won't everyone be so sad when I have to go back to work and I won't have as much time to update my blog?