Prepped for painting:
Lauren did about 50% of the painting. She did a great job and worked hard.
After:
We haven't hung the curtains or finished putting up her "decor," but the main stuff is in there. I think it turned out cute and she loves it.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Painting Lauren's Room
Lauren has been bugging us for months to paint her room. Finally I told her that if she could keep her room cleaned up for a month, we'd paint over Christmas break. Unfortunately, she did a good job, so we painted today. The color choice was a battle between Dad and Lauren, but finally they both gave a little and compromised on "early green tomato." Believe it or not, Lauren wanted it even brighter/darker. We didn't paint the ceiling or trim, so it isn't completely overwhelming. Here are the results: (notice the cute peace sign bedding she got for Christmas.)Before: Prepped for painting:Lauren did about 50% of the painting. She did a great job and worked hard.After:We haven't hung the curtains or finished putting up her "decor," but the main stuff is in there. I think it turned out cute and she loves it.
Prepped for painting:Lauren did about 50% of the painting. She did a great job and worked hard.After:We haven't hung the curtains or finished putting up her "decor," but the main stuff is in there. I think it turned out cute and she loves it.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Post Christmas Fashion Show
Today we went to the big city to spend the girls' giftcards and money they got for Christmas from family. We went to Claires first, where they each bought a purse.
Then we went to JC Penney, where Lauren bought 2 pairs of skinny jeans and 4 new shirts. Don't forget to notice her super-expensive, super-ugly "skater shoes," which she LOVES. 
When we're in Las Vegas we always have a post-Christmas fashion show, so I put these pictures up for our family in Las Vegas to enjoy. We sure missed shopping with Nana, but hopefully she enjoys seeing the results of our efforts. (Thanks to Lorina, Christina, Grammy, Nana and Uncle Alex for financing this year's shopping trip!)
Then we went to JC Penney, where Lauren bought 2 pairs of skinny jeans and 4 new shirts. Don't forget to notice her super-expensive, super-ugly "skater shoes," which she LOVES. Emma bought 3 shirts, a jacket-type thing and a pair of skinny jeans at JC Penney. Then she bought a skirt and dress at Walmart. Turns out the dress is too big, so we're going to exchange it, but notice the long, black boots. She got those for Christmas and LOVES them. They're the reason she opened her mind to trying on skinny jeans (so she can wear her boots to school over her jeans), and it turns out she looks super-cute in them and she actually likes them! Yay for Emma.
When we're in Las Vegas we always have a post-Christmas fashion show, so I put these pictures up for our family in Las Vegas to enjoy. We sure missed shopping with Nana, but hopefully she enjoys seeing the results of our efforts. (Thanks to Lorina, Christina, Grammy, Nana and Uncle Alex for financing this year's shopping trip!)
Christmas 2011
It was a change to go to church on Christmas morning before opening our presents, but in the end, I was happy about it. It really forced us to think about the real reason for celebrating and certainly brought in the spirit. Before church, we ate our yummy french toast casserole...you eat it with syrup on it. We're keeping that recipe.
Just before we left for church, we figured out how to make the camera take automatic pictures of us. My mom had requested a current family picture, and we hadn't sent one, so we attempted to take some. Here's what we came up with:
After church, we came home, got back into our pajamas and opened presents! Everyone seemed happy with their gifts. Emma's favorite gift was her Ipod Nano, Lauren's favorite gift was her peace sign bedding and real DC skater shoes, Landon's was his size 14 slippers, and mine was my Adele CD. We all received so much from family and friends and we have so much to be grateful for. We received several restaurant gift cards from various family members, so we'll be eating out a lot in the next few weeks!
The girls playing Family Game Night (Wii game) and Just Dance 3:
Emma got an Aeropostale, heavy-duty lined hoodie sweatshirt as one of her bigger gifts. She loves it. 
We bought a game called "Sorry Spin," which we played together:
Dinner was on Uncle Alex. He sent us money, which we used to buy a delicious prime rib roast for dinner. Landon cooked it perfectly, and we ate baked potatoes, a big salad, and garlic french bread. I made buttermilk pie with strawberry sauce for dessert. I liked this meal better than Thanksgiving. It was amazing!
Fun fact: Lauren is put off by fatty meat, so she had mac and cheese instead of prime rib. Crazy kid.
It was a great Christmas and the girls were sad it was over last night at bedtime. Landon and I really enjoyed the close family time and relaxed pace of the whole day.
Christmas Eve
We went to the Bates' house for a fun Christmas Eve appetizer party/dinner. They had their grandma visiting, and also invited a young couple who they knew when they lived in Louisiana. Jenny went all out on the appetizers...we had shrimp, brie cheese wrapped in puff pastry with a caramel/pecan sauce, hot crab dip, cheese and crackers, veggies and dip, etc. She's been baking for weeks and had an assortment of delicious cookies and bars for dessert. We brought meatballs, horseradish dip, and this cheese ball (Heidi's mother-in-law's recipe in our cookbook): 
Their friends from Louisiana read the funniest book (we're going to buy a copy for ourselves) called "Cajun Night Before Christmas." It was hilarious.
Their friends from Louisiana read the funniest book (we're going to buy a copy for ourselves) called "Cajun Night Before Christmas." It was hilarious. When we came home, we read our traditional Twas The Night Before Christmas and the Bible story of Christ's birth, then the girls went to bed. 
Landon and I made a french toast casserole to "marinate" overnight (we got the recipe from the Family Fun magazine. It has brown sugar, cinnamon, nuts, eggs, milk and vanilla poured over cubed french bread.) This is the cooked version that we ate Christmas morning:
We did our Santa Claus duty and went to bed. The older the girls get, the smaller the haul looks under the tree (especially with such a pathetic-looking tree).
Landon and I made a french toast casserole to "marinate" overnight (we got the recipe from the Family Fun magazine. It has brown sugar, cinnamon, nuts, eggs, milk and vanilla poured over cubed french bread.) This is the cooked version that we ate Christmas morning:We did our Santa Claus duty and went to bed. The older the girls get, the smaller the haul looks under the tree (especially with such a pathetic-looking tree).Thursday, December 22, 2011
Christmas Party
We let the girls have a combined Christmas party last week! Six girls came over, so with Emma and Lauren there were eight girls partying it up at our house. First, they made 3-D snowflakes:
Then they felt each other up playing a game where you try to guess who the person is by feeling them with wooden spoons. I think I enjoyed that game the most. It was funny.
Then they did a White Elephant/Mean Santa gift exchange game with a $1-limit or homemade gift they each brought.
Then we buddied up and created homemade pizzas:
While the pizzas cooked one by one, the girls made ornaments with beads and pipecleaners, snacked on popcorn and candy and giggled.
These are Emma's good friends--Katrina Kimpel and Cammie Garner. Emma and Lauren "share" Caroline Bates, because they both like her a lot and she's right in the middle of them, age-wise. Lauren invited Zoe Sloop, then 2 friends from her class, Tianna, and Jenny. Every time Jenny opened her mouth, Landon and I had to fight not to laugh because she has a tiny baby voice. I wanted to pick her up and carry her around the house.
After the pizzas were eaten, we played a charades-type game that we played at my birthday party. The girls liked that so much they played it twice. We drove all the girls home around 9. It was a fun party and hopefully we can use this as ammunition when the girls tell us how mean we are, because we really went above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to being good parents on this one. (We can't help it...our girls have us wrapped around their fingers. They're such good kids.)
Then they felt each other up playing a game where you try to guess who the person is by feeling them with wooden spoons. I think I enjoyed that game the most. It was funny.Then they did a White Elephant/Mean Santa gift exchange game with a $1-limit or homemade gift they each brought.Then we buddied up and created homemade pizzas:While the pizzas cooked one by one, the girls made ornaments with beads and pipecleaners, snacked on popcorn and candy and giggled.These are Emma's good friends--Katrina Kimpel and Cammie Garner. Emma and Lauren "share" Caroline Bates, because they both like her a lot and she's right in the middle of them, age-wise. Lauren invited Zoe Sloop, then 2 friends from her class, Tianna, and Jenny. Every time Jenny opened her mouth, Landon and I had to fight not to laugh because she has a tiny baby voice. I wanted to pick her up and carry her around the house.After the pizzas were eaten, we played a charades-type game that we played at my birthday party. The girls liked that so much they played it twice. We drove all the girls home around 9. It was a fun party and hopefully we can use this as ammunition when the girls tell us how mean we are, because we really went above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to being good parents on this one. (We can't help it...our girls have us wrapped around their fingers. They're such good kids.)
Monday, December 12, 2011
Band Concert, Dance Competition
Friday, Landon and Mr. Jeppesen had to provide lunch for all the teachers/staff at Kennedy. (In December people sign up for different days so you only provide lunch once, but you get to eat every day.) So Thursday, I came home from subbing and made 7 dozen rolls and 2 kinds of soups. (Then we went to Lauren's band concert and I did 5 loads of laundry.) Anyway, while the dough was rising, Lauren and I made the observation that the roll dough resembled a giant bum-chums (as we call them).
Last week Lauren had her first band concert! She was adorable blowing and concentrating on her clarinet playing. The concert lasted about 5 minutes.
I used this picture because her friend Hannah looks scary. Here is a video of four of the five songs they performed.
Lining up with her partner:
Dancing!
Waiting for the awards:
Here's a video of Emma and her partner, Sam, doing the Cha Cha (twice) and then the Paso Doble (twice)...I was shocked that they came in 3rd on this one because neither one of them looked like they knew what they were doing. Emma even mentioned that they weren't taught much on this dance. Oh well! She's got a 3rd place ribbon for something!
Last week Lauren had her first band concert! She was adorable blowing and concentrating on her clarinet playing. The concert lasted about 5 minutes.I used this picture because her friend Hannah looks scary. Here is a video of four of the five songs they performed. Emma had her first dance competition of the year on Saturday. She competed in the Waltz, Swing, Cha Cha, and Paso Doble. She came in 5th in the Cha Cha and 3rd in the Paso Doble! She was really happy with herself and I loved watching her. Here she is before the competition:
Lining up with her partner:Dancing!Waiting for the awards:Here's a video of Emma and her partner, Sam, doing the Cha Cha (twice) and then the Paso Doble (twice)...I was shocked that they came in 3rd on this one because neither one of them looked like they knew what they were doing. Emma even mentioned that they weren't taught much on this dance. Oh well! She's got a 3rd place ribbon for something!Saturday, December 3, 2011
A Centerpiece and Gingerbread Houses
One of Emma's YW leaders is a horticulture teacher at BYU-Idaho, so last Tuesday night the girls got to go to her classroom and make these really cute Christmas centerpieces: 
Last night we went to Erin and Steve Stewart's house to make gingerbread houses with the Bates and the Stewarts. Erin was in Salt Lake for Thanksgiving so she stopped at IKEA and bought gingerbread house kits for $4 that we used to decorate. I was happy to go for social reasons, but a little hesistant to enjoy decorating a gingerbread house. It turned out so fun, though! Landon and I had low expectations because of our combined limited creativity, but this is how ours turned out:
I had Erin buy us an extra house for the girls to decorate, and here is their handiwork:
Last night we went to Erin and Steve Stewart's house to make gingerbread houses with the Bates and the Stewarts. Erin was in Salt Lake for Thanksgiving so she stopped at IKEA and bought gingerbread house kits for $4 that we used to decorate. I was happy to go for social reasons, but a little hesistant to enjoy decorating a gingerbread house. It turned out so fun, though! Landon and I had low expectations because of our combined limited creativity, but this is how ours turned out:I had Erin buy us an extra house for the girls to decorate, and here is their handiwork:
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