Between a visit to the emergency room, a child with croup, preparing for the holidays, cleaning house and trying to come up with creative "low cost" presents for christmas I've been swamped!!! Today DH and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary. We went and saw "The Holiday" which I absolutely loved and then had to go to 3 different restaurants before we found one that wasn't absolutely jam packed. (office parties.... didn't think we would really have a problem getting in on a tuesday night!) It was a nice night, it seems like forever since it's been just DH and I. We had a b-day party for my sil on Sunday, and now I have to get ready for DS's 2nd b-day tomorrow! (who we just figured out is now 3'4"!!!) THEN I can think about christmas! Wow. Way too much to do! We're having a bowl party/b-day party tomorrow, an extended family party on Saturday, I'm singing at my Mother's church on sunday and then we're split between two families for the next two days. I just can't believe how crazy this time of year is!!! It's wild. I'm making calendars for my mom and mother-in-law with pics of the whole family for christmas which I have yet to START on! I know I'm crazy, wish me luck!

Gasp! Just coming up for air! This has been a crazy week, I guess that's to be expected this time of the year. I just finished putting on a christmas program for my Mom. She was in charge of a christmas party for all of the other missionaries that she and my Dad work with so she asked me to put together a musical program. So Dh, my sister-in-law and I sang a program with scriptural narration inbetween the pieces. It went decently well, it always helps to put me more in the spirit of the season. There were some technical difficulties with the slide show I had put together, but the important thing is that it's over and I can move onto other things! Tomorrow I'm planning on helping my sister in law move and then I think that DH and I just need to relax! (who needs to do christmas cards and shopping???)

2 seconds too late..... DS saw an oppprtunity and took it! At least he aimed for the diaper package.... all I have to say is that I love the carpet cleaner we have! Wasn't too bad, just a little frustrating. Sometimes you just feel like it's a battle and you are slowly losing it. (both the battle and your mind!) The other day I ran to the bathroom and came back to a quiet front room and missing child..... this is what I found. Yes, that is permanent marker on our kitchen floor and oven with cereal, utensils and books sprinkled in. Yeah, so I freaked out, I guess Daniel figured he'd done something bad because he kept giving me kisses while I was scrubbing forever on the floor.

Amen to Mr. Clean's Magic Erasers!!!! It completely came off of the floor, but we're still trying for the oven. Good thing my father-in-law is my landlord, huh? I still can't figure out how he got the pen though, I swear he does acrobatics behind my back! I just have to keep reminding myself that he's cute and I do love him!

Today was a pretty mundane day for the most part. We got up late, cleaned house and then went over and helped my sister-in-law pack for her move this next week. Daniel was very excited to go for a "walkie" and when we got there he ran over and gave the baby a kiss. It was pretty cute. Lara's baby reminds me so much of Daniel at his age, it really makes me miss him as a baby! They growup sooooo fast! We came home and the lesson I was to teach got rescheduled, so I fell asleep with Daniel when I put him down for his nap, we slept for 3 hours! I think we might be coming down with something. Then Bryan brought home panda express for dinner which was delish! We tried a new kind of chicken and it was to die for! Then I went over to my in-laws house and practiced some duets for the cd, came home, did a digital "prelayout" and watched "Heroes" DH and I LOVE this show! Some parts we wish we could fix, but the general concept of the show we love. We're saving Studio 60 for tomorrow, but we were also hoping to go and see the new James Bond movie tomorrow.... we'll see. My in-laws saw the Nativity Story and loved it, so that goes on my endless "to see" list. DS is finally asleep, time for me to do the same!

It's December!!! I can't believe how fast this year has gone by! Now to find gifts for everybody.... I've got my DS's birthday, our anniversary and all of the Christmas gifts to get, fun, huh? Now, if I had unlimited funds I think it would be a blast, but I'm having to be a bit creative this year. (at least my son's still too young to know if a gift is lame yet!) Today was a wonderful sunday, we went to my sister-in-law's ward today as they were blessing their cute little guy. New babies are just the best! It was the same building and even the same ward that DH was blessed in, it was pretty fun to see. Then we went to my in-laws house for a delicious lunch and to sing and do a little bit of recording for the cd. We practiced some pieces and it just made me all the more excited to get the cd done. Then we took a family picture for my in-laws Christmas card, I was kind of in charge of it which made me nervous, but I think it turned out allright. The later in the afternoon we headed to my parents house for dinner and a birthday party for my Dad. It's hard to believe that my dad is 66, he just can't be that old! It was fun to see all of the family and for Daniel to play with his cousins. He just loves to follow Jared around, it makes life much easier for us too! Then we came home and I worked on some scrapbooking stuff and am just now getting the baby to go to sleep! (Late nap) This week will be a wild one, I have to put together a musical program for my Mom, help my sister in law pack to move, come up with christmas gifts, etc. Finally truly confront the laundry, teach voice lessons, finish the cd and send out christmas cards! Whew, makes me want to go to sleep just reading it all..... I think I will!

Well, this blog has ended up just like my life.... sporadic. I've been working on a mini-album that turns out to be a little more involved than I thought it would be, I have to have it done by Friday, so at least there will be an end to my madness. I'm also working on a Christmas cd to send to friends and family and it's impossible to get everyone together with enough babysitters to get it done. My Mother-in-law (pianist extrodinare) layed tracks for about 6 of the pieces and it got me kind of excited to finish it all, even just the piano sounded gorgeous. I just love Christmas music, I wish that all music could be as good as Christmas music! Daniel is keeping me busier than ever, I swear he's going to be a giant by the time he finishes growing up! He can reach anything on the kitchen table or kitchen counters, it's impossible to keep things out of his reach! I dropped Bryan off at work today and met his coworkers and boss, they are all so nice! It's hard to believe that that many nice people all ended up in the same office. His boss felt bad that they had a really bad drive the other day (he's a phlebotimist sp?)(they were understaffed)
so she went and got him a gift card to the movies! woohoo! finally a date night and it's free!

Your Power Color Is Teal

At Your Highest: You feel accomplished and optimistic about the future. At Your Lowest: You feel in a slump and lack creativity. In Love: You tend to be many people's ideal partner. How You're Attractive: You make people feel confident and accepted. Your Eternal Question: "What Impression Am I Giving?"

What's" Your Power Color?

Italy day 5: We had reservations at the Uffizi in the morning, so we headed straight over there. It was absolutely incredible. It was so busy though! I wish that I could've just sat in there all day and looked at all of the art. We saw The Birth of Venus and all the other Botticelli's in the gallery, I think my favorite Boticelli was the Innunciation. I also loved the Madonna and Child by Lippi. The Holy Family by Michelangelo was also a high point. Everything we saw was just incredible. We spent 4 or 5 hours in the gallery. Then it was time to search for something to eat. We finally found a place that looked okay and had some pizza. Italian pizza is soooo good!!! Then we headed to go see Michelangelo's David. WOW! It is just so incredible to see in person. What talent. Unfortunately were weren't allowed to take any photos here or at the Uffizi. After the David we went to Vivoli's and had some incredible Gellato. Then we went and sat in the piazza at Santa Croce while I fixed my shoes (bandaids!). Then we walked across the river Arno and walked up Michelangelo's Hill. It was a nice walk, beautiful all the way up. I kept stopping to take pictures and Bryan kept saying, it just gets better, why stop to take pictures now? He was right too. It was so beautiful! We were there just as the sun was setting and it was breathtaking! The moon was also visible just behind the bronze reproduction of the David. Just gorgeous. Then we walked a bit farther up the hill to a church that Bryan used to go to on Sundays to read and the view was even better and there was hardly anyone else up there. It was nice to finally feel like we weren't in the middle of a crowd. By the time we started to head home we were exhausted and I had definitely worn the wrong shoes ( sandals!) so we caught a bus and hit the hay at our hotel.

Italy Day 4: Woke up way too late! We had bought tickets for the 8 am train but our hotel never gave us our wakeup call!!! Grrrrr. We were not happy. We had to wait until 11am for the next train so we had breakfast at the hotel and organized our bags, then we went to a little supermarket to get some food for the day. That was an interesting experience, I was in the produce section and this little old lady kept glaring at me and I couldn't figure out why, then I noticed that she had a little plastic glove on the hand she was using to pickup her fruit, oops! I guess that's "polite" over there. I felt bad for spreading my cooties all over their fruit. Live and learn. Bryan found a nice lady to ask some questions about some of the cheese and we bought some provolone picante cheese, which with cheese in Italy picante means strong, not hot. It was sooo good. We had it with some prociutto and bread from the bakery. We also bought 3 huge bottles of water. Water was so hard to find sometimes! Then we had to lug it all back to the hotel and then with our bags to the train station. The train ride to Florence was nice, we couldn't see a ton, but what we saw was gorgeous. I was always suprised at how much more mediterranian the surrounding were, I don't know why, but I always figured it was more desert-like in Italy. Well, it's not! We got to Florence and walked to our hotel. After we signed for the room the owner said, "Oh, by the way, you can't bring any food into the hotel, we have a problem with rodents." Nice. The hotel was actually okay and the breakfast in the morning was good, their hot chocholate was to die for! Anyways, after we checked in we took a walk around the city. It was fun to see a bit of the night-life. Florence definitely felt more like what I had imagined Italy to be like. It had much more of an old-world feel. (although it also was very modern and hip) We looked at the markets which were just a couple of blocks from our hotel. Can I just say heaven? I loved almost everything I saw and I'm pretty picky. The leather goods were just beautiful. I got myself a pair of gloves and drooled at everything else we passed. Sigh. It was great.

Italy Day 3:
We woke up in Como and hopped a train to Venice. (by way of Milan) The view on the way was beautiful, particularly around Verona. We stopped in Venizia Mestre, just outside of Venice, to drop off our luggge at our hotel. When we went back to the station they had stopped selling tickets to Venice!!! (less than 10 mins. away) I think it was some problem with their computers, or just that it was soooo busy. We finally found an atm machine and grabbed a taxi. It was refreshing to be in a car and not surrounded by sweating people. In Venice we got another nice suprise, since it was the day of the Historical Regatta none of the Canal "taxis'" were running. So we did the whole thing on foot. What a day! We walked for a while and then had lunch/dinner at an outdoor restaurant on the canal so that we could see the boat races. It was fun to see all of the Gondoliers in period costume. I was amazed at their dexterity in the water. One question I have is why do they row standing up? We saw all of the parade, but decided to go before the races. (we would have had to wait 2.5 hours between the two.) It was fun seeing all of the back alleyways with the little piazzas and small canals everywhere. I saw lots of places that I could have spent forever in just looking. We were absolutely exhausted and majorly dehydrated as they don't have drinking fountains over there. We spent sooo much time trying to find water everyday. Don't know what their deal is. Went and saw the exterior of St. Mark's (it was closed) and the bridge of sighs, so sad. On our way back through Venice we stopped on the Rialto Bridge and bought some Murano Glass. (obviously the store's cheapest items, okay almost) I couldn't believe how much they charged for it all! But I do have to say some of it was just gorgeous. It was a beautiful day in Venice. On our way back to the hotel we stopped for a little to eat at.... you guessed it... McDonald's. I just so badly wanted a drink with ice in it and I finally got one!!! It was such a happy moment. (so sad but true) Back at the hotel we asked for a wakeup call (since none of the hotels have clocks, didn't know that until we were over there) and called our little boy. It made me so homesick to hear his little voice on the other end!! What a cutie.

Italy Day 2: Woke up, had a fabulous breakfast at the hotel (Best Western, it was nice to have some semblance of the US in the midst of Italy) And headed to the Duomo. We had seen the facade (what wasn't covered for restoration work) and the interior on the day before. Beautiful. The art inside was gorgeous and the pillars were huge, reminded me of when I went to the Redwood Forest in Cali. We then started up to the roof of the Duomo. It was this tight, narrow staircase that just kept going! We were very glad that we hadn't attempted it the night before while we were so tired! The roof is incredible! It is so intricate, I think it has almost 2000 statues on the roof/facade. It was amazing to me that someone had designed and created each one of those by hand and none of them were the same. The view was beautiful, and there was a violinist playing beautifully below, the sounds echoed off the church and just made the experience perfect. Then we stopped and got another Panza Rotti (so good) and hopped on the metro, picked up our bags and took the metro to the train. The train station was really cool. It was built by Mussolini, so as you can imagine it was grandiose. There were huge Dolce and Gabana advertisments all over the place. (like billboard sized inside the building) and most of the people were half naked. So then we hopped on the train to go up to Lago di Como, only to find after it was going that we had gotten onto the wrong train! I'm pretty sure they had it mislabled, but my husband is convinced it was his fault. So we had to stay on it until the first stop which Bryan kept a look out for and once stuck his head out the window and lost his favorite Yankees hat. All we could do was laugh about it. So went hopped a train back to Milan Central Station and waited for the next train to Como. We arrived in Como and took the long route to our hotel (not on purpose, but at least it was pretty) Checked in and went to find a boat to Bellagio. Gor-ge-ous!!!

The ride was breathtaking, a pristine lake surrounded by little classic italian villages on it's banks. Bellagio was a wonderful little town, we went and found a cheap and great pizzarea called "The Grotto", excellent pizza and they even gave me some ice when I asked for it. (yeah!!!) Then we walked around the town for a while and looked at all the little shops and I had my first Gelato.(heavenly!) As we waited for the boat to return we sat and watched a band set up right infront of the water. This little city was full of oldtime charm. We caught our boat after dark and rode home with all the lights dancing on the water and a nice cool breeze for the first time on our trip. On our walk home from the lake (about 3 blocks) we saw all sorts of parties underway. It seemed like such a romantic place to spend time with your spouse. I think we definitely need to go back there!

Italy Day 1: What a long day! I had everything packed and ready to go so we got up and left at 7 am. As we were leaving I thought, (and asked others) do you think I'll need my marriage license since my passport is in my maiden name? We all said no since my sister-in-law had just traveled to Ukraine on her maiden name passport. So we get to the airport an hour away and think that it will just be a nice relaxing wait for the plane, wrong. The lady at the desk totally berates me for not having changed the name on my passport and absolutely refused to let me fly unless I had a notarized copy of my marriage license! (yes, I know it's all my fault for not having researched it more thoroughly) We have an hour and a half until the flight leaves.... So my dear mother-in-law and sister-in-law pull a miracle and get the marriage license to us 20 minutes before the plane leaves, talk about stress. The flights were pretty uneventful, except that the Air France employees were sooooo rude! (okay just one of them, the rest were actually really nice) We watched the sunrise in the Paris airport and then landed in Milan around 9 am. (after around 18 hours of traveling) Italy is awesome! We took the train to the metro and the metro to our hotel. (we still had to walk about 6 blocks with all of our luggage.) We were sooo tired, but were determined to stay up as long as we could to lessen the effects of jetlag for the rest of the trip. We tried to go and see Michelangelo's Last Supper, but it was sold out (I guess it always is now that Davinci Code is so popular) But it was a beautiful walk from the metro with lots of beautiful buildings and a fun bookshop right next to the church that Last Supper is in. (it's not the Catholic bookshop, which I'm sure is great, but another one right there. The owner makes all the stationary/blank books by himself) Then we headed to the Sforza Castle and looked around. There was this awesome old guy wearing only boxer shorts and shoes with his head shaved who was sunbathing in the fountain out front. I just wish I had been brave enough to take a picture of him! This was the first place that I saw the street performers. The street performers in Italy for the most part dressup as statues and move when you toss a coin in their hat. They must get soooo hot! They stand still right in the sun all day. (and are usually dressed in plastic that looks metallic.) We were so tired and were just dragging but decided to try and get in as much as possible that first day, so we went and looked at the Duomo (incredible, more on that the second day) and the Galleria (Mall) .
It was awesome, they had all sorts of fun stores with men's ties, women's ties, expensive purses, etc. and then there was a McDonald's. (They were everywhere.) We got DH a shirt and two ties for his medical school interviews. On our way back to the hotel we stopped and got a treat that he used to get while he was on his mission there. It was Panza Rotti ( I think!) It was fried bread stuffed with tomatoes and cheese.... so good! Then we hobbled back to the hotel and slept from 5 pm until 9 am, yeah so we were tired.

Count down to Italy!!! I am soooo excited I can hardly contain myself! I still have a ton to do before we leave in 3 days! Lots of laundry, lots of packing and cleaning. I think the end result will help me stay motivated though! Daniel is growing by leaps and bounds. He is now almost out of most of his 2T clothing ( he's only 1 1/2) and he's constantly on the path of destruction. His vocabulary is constantly amazing to me, and his comprehension is incredible. (I guess I need to be careful about how I talk to other drivers in my car! :? It's also amazing what keeps his interest these days, boxes, hair ties, swivel chairs. Forget about the toys, he wants big people stuff!
We got together with my family for dinner last night to celebrate Bryan, Megan and Carlyn's b-days. It was fun to chat with everyone. There we 17 of us in all, it's amazing how fast our family has grown, and that's just half of us. (there are 31 of us so far!) I think it's safe to say that Bryan had a very good birthday this year. My parents start their second official church mission this next month and they'll continue working at the BYU genelogical library. They've really caught the bug. Well, I'm off to my marathon of cleaning, packing and cleaning some more! Italy here I come!

How fun! Yesterday Dh, Lara, Adam, Tim and I went to the Salt Lake Real Soccer game at rice eccles stadium, it was so much fun! I can't wait to get DS into soccer when he's old enough. It's such a great game. There were some fantastic plays last night and they won! Too bad we missed Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes by a week. (they were here for the Madrid game) Andy Williams (#7) had a just incredible run with the ball, it was awesome. Before that we took DS to the pool with some of his uncle and aunts. It was fun, but he always falls asleep in the water! What a nut! At least this time we didn't get burnt. I bought this sunblock that is seriously intense. It's spf 60 and it takes forever to work into your skin because it's soooo thick. Better safe than sorry, eh? Today we went to church and Bryan taught one of the lessons. (He was asked about 1/2 hour before church! He's so brave!) And we're going over to Bryan's parents house for a birthday/graduation dinner with all of the family. ( I swear we celebrate birthdays like four times between both of our families! Okay, we really don't mind that much!) I've been downloading free fonts from www.dafont.com , they've got some really fun new ones. I use them for my digital scrapbooking projects. (and as a template for my paper scrapping) I've just finished some layouts that are really fun. I get all of my paper scrapping supplies at www.scrapgal.com, they are super fast and have great prices.

So I think yesterday was one of the best days in my husband's life. (he says it was just behind our wedding and the birth of our son) He had a birthday, graduated from college with a double major, had a steak for dinner and the Yankees won TWO games against the Red Sox. I think that day will be hard to beat in the future! It was a great day. I attended his graduation with his parents, my parents and his paternal grandparents. A bunch of my friends graduated on the same day and it was fun to see them. Then we went to Magleby's for breakfast and they had the most incredible pancakes with bananas and raspberries cooked into them. Some of his siblings came over for dinner and brownies with ice cream and then we watched an episode of The Office and Monk. All in all is was a great day. The day before wasn't so great. It was one of those really long day where you feel like you're going to be a mommy FOREVER! I put the baby in the highchair to have some yogurt and went into the other room for a second, came back in and he had "washed" his hair with the yogurt! So I let him finish lunch and then took him into the bathroom to give him a bath. As soon as his diaper was off he proceeded to pee all over the bathroom. Then later that evening while I was making dinner he made off with a full pitcher of apple juice and purposefully dumped the whole thing out onto the floor and mommy legs.... let's just say that I've mopped 6 times and it's still sticky. I know he doesn't really know what he's doing, but it gets a bit frustrating at times. I just keep thinking, "it's a good thing he's cute or I'd give him to the circus!" Being a Mom is just as challenging as college ever was.

a pic of the little boys during our roomies weekend.
So DH got two more requests for secondaries today! yay! Were are pretty encouraged by all of the responses we've gotten from medical schools. He also found out that he may be able to get some results published from his research in the lab. He just has to finish three finals and he joins the world of college graduates! I finally finished book 8 of the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, I've been very suprised at how much I like these books. My DH read them in High School and re-read them recently so I thought I'd give them try and they're great, very interesting. So I started book 9 today and just don't ever want to put them down. For dinner tonight I made us some authentic Italian food that was just soooo yummy. (It's bell pepper pasta, sooo good) DH used to make it for me all the time when we were dating, he's such a good cook. DS has been..... fun today. He's at that stage where he just can't communicate well enough for his liking, so everything is frustrating for him. (and me!) But he did sit down and play with his food while we ate, so I guess I have to look at that as improvement!

My old roomates came for a visit this weekend and we went to our old college campus to have a look around and it had changed soooo much in just a few years. It was great to see them again, and Christy's kids were so cute! It was funny to see just how much life had changed in such a short time. I was totally ready for bed at 11 pm the second night, I guess that's what kids will do to you! We took the kids to a park up in the mountains on the first day and they loved playing in the FREEZING cold stream. Daniel actually charged into the stream fully clothed before we could catch him! (scary!) Anyways, they all left today and the house seems oddly quiet and Daniel is restless with no one to play with. Now we just have to plan for DH's birthday and college graduation on friday, what a day!

Back on the web! It's been a long day. sigh. Good but long. We slept in until 10:30, and actually had to wake up the baby! It was the nicest thing he's done for us in a long time! My old roomates are coming into town tomorrow for our yearly visit. So excited! I've got lots of food to prepare and a party to plan. I meant to have time to scrap today, oh well, maybe tomorrow? Yeah right. I got to spend some time today with my old roomate Chell, I forgot how fun it is to chat with my college friends. I felt younger giggling with her. I will be sure to take lots of photos this weekend.

So. I too have finally joined the world of blogging. I'm thinking that maybe I should have picked a better day to start it up. Last night my 1 1/2 yr. old decided that he didn't want to sleep at all, so I was up with him until 7 am. Fun stuff. He woke up at 2:30, and I had just finally made it to bed at 1:30, so my husband brought him into bed with us. DH went and made him a bottle but was so tired that he forgot to put the lid on it! So, baby and I ended up drenched with cold cold milk. We were both wide awake, so my baby got to see the sun rise for the first time and I got an excuse for a really long nap later in the day!

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