Merry Christmas!

Things have finally settled down here thank goodness. You look forward to Christmas all year long and the closer it actually gets, the sooner you wish it was over... At least that is how I feel. I love Christmas but this year especially was crazy busy. I was still up on Christmas Eve trying to finish Christmas presents and that is so not like me! Anyway, things have finally begun to settle down and for that I am grateful.

We went to Salt Lake last Sunday to meet up with Rex's brother Jared and his family. We were a little worried about the weather but our drive down to Salt Lake was just fine. Coming home on Monday was a different story. Salt Lake to Ogden was snowy. Ogden to Pocatello was just fine (including Malad and the pass). But Pocatello to I.F. was awful and especially Shelley to I.F (that's where all the cars were off of the road.) Anyway, we made it without incident and I was really glad to be home. We had a great time on Temple Square. It is so beautiful there. Ashtyn and Tayla got along really well with Brooklyn who is just a month or 2 younger than them.

Ashtyn and Tayla on Temple Square

Tayla, Brooklyn and Ashtyn

I thought these pictures of Temple Square itself were beautiful.

We had a really nice Christmas. I got a new Cricut cartridge that I am really excited to try out. I can't wait to get scrapbooking! We went on Christmas Eve to my Mom and Dad's house and had dinner and reenacted the nativity. Here are some of my favorite pictures:
Kylie as a Sheep------------Rex (wiseman) & Nana (sheep)

Ashtyn and Tayla as Mary and Joseph

On Christmas day we got up early and opened presents and then went to Rex's mom's and opened some there. My parents were snowed in and so we couldn't go out there. We went back to Rex's Mom's that night for a really good dinner. On Friday, my parents finally got plowed out and so we went out there and had Christmas all over again. We had a great time.

I have to tell everyone 2 funny things that Tayla told us this week: On Christmas Day, she would open an present and look at it and then say to us, "That is not what I ordered." Then she would set it aside and go onto the next one.... Then, just a couple of hours ago, she asked me to make her a new sticker chart. I told her I would do that for her after she went to bed and her reply to me was. "You can just email it." I had to laugh!

I had a hard time coming up with a list to include in this weeks post. I decided to list my favorite TV shows, even though I haven't watched TV in months. Maybe these shows are no longer airing, I don't really know...

• Lost- I am a season behind but I still like this show
  
• Dancing With The Stars- I only watched the first season but I did really enjoy it.
  
• Prison Break- This is a great series- one Rex and I like to watch together
  
• Amazing Race- As a family rule, Rex and I don't watch TV on Sundays but I desperately want to break the rule on this one. I love this show!
  
• Survivor- I don't really like this show anymore. But I used to love it.

Well, there you have it. Until next time......

Still Crazy Here....

Merry Christmas everyone! I still don't have time to detail out everything that has happened the last 3 weeks but I am going to take the time to highlight some of the big events.

• Dental Appointments- About 6 months ago, I took the girls to the dentist for the first time and it was a terrible experience for them. They ended up with 7-8 cavities EACH and a "baby root canal" the dentist called it. It was a horrible experience for all of us to go through. Anyway, they had their 6 month check up a couple of weeks ago and I was not looking forward to the dentists' verdict. But we only had 1-2 cavities each and no root canals! Yippee! And the girls weren't scared to be there. They did really well at having their teeth cleaned and the cavities filled. Ashtyn did bite a HUGE hole in her lip when she was still numb. Seriously, it was the biggest canker sore I have ever seen- it was the size of my thumb from the first knuckle to the end. It was huge. But she only complained about it a few times.
• Ashtyn's rough week- Not only did Ashtyn have cavities filled and bite a huge hole in her lip, but she also was sick one morning and cracked her head open. She was spinning around making herself dizzy and fell against the kitchen counter. She didn't need stitches but you all know how much a head wound bleeds....
• Teton Chamber Orchestra- Back in February, I received a phone call from my high school orchestra conductor who wanted to know if my sister Kylie and I would be interested in playing with the Teton Chamber Orchestra. We jumped at the chance and played with Jim Brickman in February, Sara Hickman in October and this past week we have had 3 concerts with Kurt Bestor. Kurt Bestor is amazing. The songs were so fun to play. He had Jenny Oaks Baker as a guest performer. She can play the violin like no one else! It was spectacular. For those of you who have seen a Kurt Bestor concert you will maybe agree that he puts on a great concert and his reading of "Twas The Night Before Christmas" was a highlight of the evening.
  
• Shanda's Party- We went to my sister Shanda's Christmas party last night. Luckily the roads to Rexburg were drivable. We had a great time. If you ever want to have an original game made up to play at a party, contact my brother-in-law Jade. He makes up these games that we play at their parties and he does a great job.

Well, those are the big events that are happening around here. With a trip to Salt Lake tonight and Christmas right around the corner, I will hopefully have more to write about later. Until then, I leave you with my Favorites list.... Favorite Things to do in my Spare Time:

• Read- I love to read. I could waste days at a time reading a good book. I am currently reading the Shadow Children series by Margaret Haddix. Good series!
  
• Scrapbook- I love to scrapbook. I am fairly caught up on all of our scrapbooks. As soon as Christmas is over, I will have more to do though and I am looking forward to that.
  
• Balance my checkbook- I know that sounds really strange. It must be the Accountant in me. I really enjoy doing the books for our company ADvantageous Design and I consider a great mail day if the bank statement comes in the mail so that I can reconcile it.
  
• Visit with family- I love to spend time with my family. We have a great time together. Even though we all live fairly close together, it is still nice to be in the same room with everyone.
  
• Watch movies- Although I hardly ever feel like I have time for movies, I still really enjoy it and find it a great way to relax. Yes, Twilight is still probably my favorite movie.
  

Until next time..... Merry Christmas!

Too busy, too tired.....

I was chastised by my sister for not updating my blog more frequently. It has just been one of those months, you know? I have a humongous list of things to get done before Christmas but I don't even know where to start and so I haven't done anything at all. Ever been in that position? All I want to do is sleep. I am exhausted. Kylie and I played in Pocatello at a Kurt Bestor concert (more details on that when I have more time....) last night. When the concert ended at 10:15 PM, I said to Kylie "great- I have to get up in 7 hours and I'm not even home yet....." That is pretty typical of how much sleep I have gotten lately. And for the first time in 3 1/2 years- it isnt' the twins fault!

Thanksgiving Week

Hello again everyone! What a great couple of weeks our family has enjoyed. Except that we all have had a miserable cold. But we seem to be on the healing end of that and so things are looking up.

These last 2 weeks have been all about Thanksgiving. Our ward had a Thanksgiving Dinner about 10 days ago. It was really good. I really love our ward. I love the people in our ward, I love my calling, I just love it. I really enjoyed the ward activity- good people, good food.

Then of course we had the real Thanksgiving dinner at Aunt Larue and Uncle John's in Mackay. There were 16 of us there and it was delicious. I made a delicious cheesecake, pumpkin pie and a jell0 salad. When we were done eating, we played games. It was so much fun. We played Apples To Apples, Trivial Pursuit and Bunko and almost everyone except myself (and Rex who fell asleep on the couch) played on the Wii. We also had Thanksgiving dinner at Rex's Mom's yesterday. It was also delicious. After we got home from Mackay on Thursday, we did what I had been waiting all day for........ the battle plan.....

That's right, we are die hard "Black Friday" shoppers. So on Thanksgiving night, we spread out all the ads (see below) and made a plan. This year was pretty uneventful in the fact that none of us got hurt. Rex and I went to Walmart at 3:30 (yes, that is AM) and Kylie and William and my Mom and Shanda went to ShopKo at the same time. We went to about 5 other stores after that and were done shopping by about 8:30. I think we got everything that we went for except for at Hastings. For those of you who have never tried shopping on Black Friday, you are missing out on the funniest experience. As you are standing in line to get ready to rush the store, you become best friends with the people standing around you. It is so much fun. I seriously look forward to this all year long. We had wanted to go to Best Buy too but Rex and I drove by there on Thursday night and there was already a line forming and people had their tents set up and everything. Thank you Sheryl Stoneking for teaching me about Black Friday.......











Besides all of the Thanksgiving dinners, I went and saw Twilight. I loved, loved, loved it! That leads me to this weeks "favorites" list...... Movies

• Twilight- I can't say anything more about this movie except that I dreamt about it for the next 3 nights in a row. I loved it. I will definitely have to own it, in fact, I'll probably have to pay full price for it.
  
• Sweet Home Alabama- I think this is my favorite "chick flick." I bawl so many time throughout this movie. I like to watch it again and again....
• Dead Poets Society- I know that this is an older movie. But I have never forgotten it. I think it is so powerful in the end when they all stand on their desks as he is leaving. Carpe Diem!
• Fiddler on the Roof- an oldie but a goodie. The songs stick with me forever after I have watched it. This is a classic.
  
• A Knights Tale- I'm not sure why I like this movie so much, I just do.... It's one of my all time favorites....

Well, I guess that about sums up the last few weeks. Please leave us a comment, we would love to hear from you.

This week in review...

So, here I am again. I am hesitant to write again so early because I don't really want to bore someone. I think I really have got the "blogging bug" because I couldn't sleep last night because I was thinking about things I wanted to put in my blog... Silly huh? Or maybe some of you fellow bloggers out there will understand. I thought to make it less boring, I would include a "My Favorites" list at least once a week. Then those of you who I don't get to talk to very much, will see what we are really about....

My favorites this week are... Books

• The Great and the Terrible Series by Chris Stewart- I was told by the lady in my ward who gave me book one of this series that it would make me want to get my food storage done. Boy did it ever! I'll have to post pictures of my food storage room sometime.
• Joseph and Mary by Robert Marcum- I love historical fiction, especially LDS historical fiction. For me, even though I am aware that the things that go on in the books are not doctrine, they help me connect with the subject they are writing about. This was one of my favorite historical fiction books.
  
• Twilight series by Stephanie Meyers- I am not embarrassed to admit that I am a Jacob fan. The movie comes out in less than a week. I can't wait to see it (except I thought Johnny Depp or Christian Bale would've made a much better Edward.)
• Inkheart series by Cornelia Funke- Wouldn't that be cool to be read into a book or to read a character out of it? Awesome!
  
• Mitford series by Jan Karon- Speaking of reading a character out of a book. I would love to interact with Father Tim in these books. These books make me so happy when I read them. Thank you Kaye that I used to work with for introducing them to me.
  

I bought the girls new Sunday dresses and have taken their pictures in them for the last 2 weeks so I guess that is what I will post this week.

(My Mom put Ashtyn's hair in curlers after her bath and then she slept in the curlers all night long- hence the really curly, really poofy hair.)

Ashtyn's favorite saying this week is "what in the whole world...." (Instead of just "what in the world...." ) I think it is so funny what they pick up on.

Well, this is how my week went: I ran all of my errands on Monday and somewhere in that day, I bought a new bedspread. We desperately needed one. Our old one was... well, old. And torn. And dirty (all thanks to the dog.... For those of you who have never met my dog, I will tell you about her sometime. I have video of what she does when someone drives by, when we try to leave the house, etc.....) Anyway, the bedspread is a plain brown reversible Target special. My bedroom walls are sage green and so I thought the brown went good with it and being the domestic diva that I am, I will make accent pillows... (Okay, I may not be a domestic diva- I may have to ask my sister or my Mom to make the pillows.) Also, on Monday, I went to a scrapbook show that rolled into town. I go every time they come to I.F. and I usually like to go through it twice. Well, this time, after I had been through it once, Tayla started to throw a fit about having to go to the bathroom. So I paid for my stuff and left to find her the closest bathroom. Lo and behold, she doesn't' really have to go... I was so mad!

On Thursdays, I take the girls to storytime at the Library. They are so well behaved there. I don't know if I am just partial to my own kids but my girls just sit there and listen and don't run around like crazy like the other kids do. They learned about corn that day and made a really cute craft. Also, they learned how to count in Spanish (corn=tortillas=Spanish numbers) and my girls could count most of the numbers already. Amazing huh? Or just too much Dora the Explorer maybe... I went over to Mom and Dad's on Thursday to visit with Grandpa Lambert and had Mom do some mending for me on the girls clothes. (Thanks Mom! Have you picked up yet how much I HATE, HATE, HATE to sew?)

On Friday night I went grocery shopping with Tayla. She was a good helper as always, except she kept putting extra things in the cart when I wasn't looking. Sounds like someone I know... Except we used to put wine and beer in Mom's cart when we went shopping with her. And I was a lot older than 3 years old...

On Saturday, we went to Olive Garden with Grandma and Grandpa Danielson and Aunt Chris. I love Italian food. I had their Spinach Gnocchi soup and their chicken Alfredo. Both so good..... Makes me crave it again just thinking about it. We had an appointment at 5:00 to clean the church house and we were the only ones there. So, it took us 2 hours. The girls ran back and forth in the gym with a basketball and helped me clean the doors in the foyers. I think it feels good to clean the church. Rex and I are very thorough.

Our Sunday was pretty good too. Church was nice except Primary was almost a disaster. The Primary President and other counselor were gone today (which I knew about) so that left me and the secretary which meant I had to conduct and do sharing time. During sacrament meeting, the Primary choristers daughter came up to me and told me that her Mom had "gone home really sick so here is the songbook and the game she was planning to do." Crap! That means I had to do the music too. So I get to the Primary room to set it up and the secretary is late getting there, as well as the 2 teachers for the 2 rowdiest classes. So I am scrambling and a little bit overwhelmed. I finally found someone to teach the music for me. So, that was a load off of my shoulders. Then when the secretary finally got there, I sent her to find Rex so that he could be one of the teachers for one of the rowdy classes (I can ask him to do that now that he doesn't have to be in EQ.) Just as Rex gets prepared, the teachers show up. All that for nothing. Anyway, everything turned out okay but I was super stressed. My sharing time went really well, I thought, except the kids were so dang rowdy!

Well, there you go, my week in review... Is it bad taste to post such a long blog? I don't know the proper etiquette for blogging yet. I guess if you get tired of reading what I have written, you will just stop reading right?

Halloween

Here are a few pictures of the girls from Halloween. They were so cute!

I'm blogging!

Ok, so I am brand new at this...... My sister Kylie says that blogging is addicting so I will see if she is right. I thought it was a good idea to start our own blog because I can't email everyone a picture of our twins without it clogging up our email so hopefully this solves the problem.... Well, let's post this and see how it goes...