Friday, December 25, 2009

Out of Town

Hello from snowy Utah!
I know I said I would post pictures of Chloe's birthday, but I don't have them with me and I should post these before it gets to be Easter. :-) Today is Christmas and we've had a wonderful morning with Craig's brother and his family as well as his wife's family, who came to stay as well. However, Christmas pictures will have to wait a few more days. We are spending the rest of this week into next here as well for Craig's brother's wedding (who is getting married to this beautiful lady here next week)- marking our first trip together as a family to Utah.
Our vacation has been pretty packed full, mostly with shopping, but we were also able to make a trip to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights in Salt Lake City. It was beautiful! We were only able to stay for about 40 minutes or so, but the kids were great (thanks Karen for letting us borrow your double stroller!), and even though they were so bundled up that they looked like scarecrows shoved into a stroller, they enjoyed seeing the lights. Linus loves pointing out Christmas lights, and so he was constantly awed and kept saying "Wuh...wiiiiiiiiights! Wuh...wiiiiiiights!" Chloe recognized the temple, which I promised her we would see, and she liked looking at the lights as well.

As you can see, it took a few minutes to get them all bundled and buckled in in the car lot. Linus didn't like waiting.


It was so peaceful on the square, even though there were a bazillion people. Somehow it still seemed reverent rather than a spectacle.


A nice passing lady took this picture for us.



After we left temple square, we went to see one of Craig's old mission companions for hot chocolate at his house in Salt Lake City. I asked Craig if he wanted me to take pictures while we were there, but he didn't want me to. But I did get this nasty shot of all the SMOG in the city on the drive out there. We were hopefully speculating that the clouds were just hanging really low, but upon asking his siblings when we got back, they informed us about the smog/weather patterns in Utah Valley that cause the smog to get really thick and nasty. They said it wasn't even that bad when we went out there, sometimes it gets so bad they don't even let kids out for recess. Reason number #99999999999 that we will not live in Utah EVER.



The next morning Craig and I went back to Temple Square to go through a session at the Salt Lake Temple because our soon to be sister-in-law was receiving her endowment. I didn't bring my camera with me that time, but I'm kinda glad that I did because it was so peaceful and nice to be able to just enjoy being there. Craig and I were early so we were able to spend some time at the Christus at the North Visitor's Center before we went though the session. Since it was early, we were the first ones up there. It really is beautiful and it was nice just to be able to sit there for a few minutes before we went into the temple. The session was just as amazing and we're glad we came out to Utah early so we could go. When we got out of the temple it was snowing enough to start accumulating on the roads. We were planning originally on seeing the Joseph Smith movie at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, but we were already late for the one we wanted to see, and we thought it would be better to hit the roads before they started to get too slick.
That evening Brent and Karen made marshmallow men with frosting and marshmallows, so Chloe joined them. Linus ate a couple of marshmallows, but he wasn't too interested in making any snowmen.



I have some pictures from Christmas morning, but I should probably start socializing and playing games instead of posting more pictures, so I'll save them for a couple of more days. :-)
Hope all of your Christmases were warm and merry!

Sunday, December 6, 2009

MUSICA



For any interested, some of the best Christmas songs I know can be found on the CD entitled "Maybe This Christmas". They sell "Maybe This Christmas Tree" and "Maybe this Christmas Too", which are other good ones (but not as good) on iTunes, but so far I haven't been able to find "Maybe This Christmas" anywhere on it. You can get it on Amazon, though, for a decent price. If you come across it in your lifetimes, BUY IT! Some of the songs on it are featured directly to the right of this post on the cute little iPod I put on my blog. You can even push buttons on it and everything. The last song on the list of these songs is especially special, it's not featured on the above mentioned CD (nor is the Owl City one, sorry). For those of you who have heard "The worst Oh Holy Night ever" than you know what I mean by "special". For those of you who haven't, listen to it. The first time I heard it I about peed my pants laughing. Serious.
Thought I'd share some Christmas gems! Just got all the decorations put up today (thanks for the help, hub!), so I'm just all Christmas-eed out. :-) Still got Chloe's birthday pictures to put up before a month passes, coming soon! I promise.
Happy Holidays.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Silly Goose

Mommy (after a hug and a kiss from Chloe): Aw, Chloe, you're such a sweetie.
Chloe: No, I not Mommy.
Mommy: Oh, you're not?
Chloe: Nope
Mommy: Are you a princess?
Chloe: Nope
Mommy: Not even a fairy princess?
Chloe: Nope
Mommy: Well what are you then?
Chloe (with a shrug and spoken in a very drab voice): *sigh* Mommy, I just super girl...