SNOW!!!

Ryan wanted to take the girls to the snow for his birthday, so that's exactly what we did!  We invited my cousin, Sami to spend the night Friday night (which was lots of fun!) and come with us on Saturday.  We also invited a couple of friends to come along.  We had a full car and a ton of fun!

We took a couple of pics right when we got there:





And then we began the fun!  We went sledding, had snowball fights, made snow angels, and just had fun!  Poor Sami had shoulder surgery a couple of months ago and is still recovering, so she couldn't go down the hill, but she was our cheerleader and had fun laughing at all of our wipeouts.  And she was able to participate in everything else we did.  I took lots of pics, here are a couple of collages and then a slideshow.







(Cadi took her coat off because she was too hot, I swear I didn't let her go to the snow in just a sweatshirt. lol  It really was pretty warm, especially when you were playing hard!)  :)

We headed back home in the afternoon and got ready for some friends and family to come over for Ryan's birthday.  We had fun eating pizza, munchies, and ice cream cake, and watching the videos and pics that we took at the snow, and of course playing games.  It was a really great day! 

Before I forget...

We had such a fun day and I have a ton of stuff to share, but it is late and I'm going to bed! But before I go to bed, I need to post two super cute things that Aurora said today...


1.As I was getting her dressed, we were putting a turtle neck shirt on over her head but it hadn't been pulled down all of the way yet. (So her head was covered.) She said, "Look, I'm the Holy Ghost!"

2.We had some family and friends over tonight to celebrate Ryan's birthday and during our get together, Rori walked up to my cousin and asked if she would play "Hide and Don't Find Me".

lol Those two things still have me giggling. :)

Happy Birthday Ryan!

Today my man turns 36. Man, he's old! ;) He's celebrating it by... going to work. lol Isn't that life? I'm celebrating it by making him whatever he wants for dinner. His request? Drumroll.... goulash. Wha??? Goulash? Yep, goulash. He loves that stuff! So, that's what we're having! ;)

Ryan is a pretty amazing guy. He is who he is, he doesn't try to fit any molds and he doesn't change for anyone but himself and his God. Our neighbor will often come over and catch Ryan watching a chick flick with me and he jokes that Ryan must have misplaced his "man card". I love that Ryan likes what he likes and does what he does, and doesn't worry if anyone else likes or does it. It's for that reason that he is able to easily do what he thinks is right and stand up for what is right, even when it's not the popular thing. He's not afraid to speak his mind and share his thoughts.

I feel blessed to be the one he chose to share his life with. As with most marriages, no one knows him like I know him, and so no one knows just how much he strives to do what is right. He has so much integrity! When you live what you believe and are true to yourself, people do see and recognize it, so the rest of the world does have a glimpse of what a good man he is. Sometimes I wish they could see all of it, but that's not the kind of person Ryan is. He is humble and private about that, besides, he doesn't even realize just how good he is. lol

Ryan makes me laugh, he makes me feel safe, he makes me feel loved, and he makes me feel happy. I'm so lucky to have him!

Happy Birthday, Babe! You deserve it! :)

Birthdays, Birthdays, Everywhere!

This is the month of birthdays, it seems.  I have a couple of friends whose birthdays are this month, one of which is letting me take her to lunch today.  Yay, lunch dates are so fun!  My most awesome hubby's birthday is tomorrow... Yay!  Lots of fun planned for that this weekend! :)  And my aunt and cousin also had a birthday this week; we're going to have a family b-day dinner this Sunday.  Last weekend, we met up at a grill for my cousin, Chad's birthday.  It was a lot of fun and the food was great!  Here are lots of pics...

Rori fell asleep on the way over and was quite cranky when we first arrived.  But after a few minutes with Daddy, she was behaving much better. :)







All night, Rori wanted to play "with the balls", finally after dinner, we let her go over and watch.  Chad took her under his wing and helped her play.  He is awesome with kids, so patient and fun!  He let her play every other time it was his turn.  Later, Cadi and Ryan headed over to play too.  :)

A Pacific Northwest Sunset

I took this picture back on January 13th.  It had been raining, but the sky had cleared, and then came sunset.  This view is not uncommon, we often get these beautiful, wet sunsets, and I just LOVE them!  Plus, that tree right behind our house is super cool and makes a great picture. lol

Dance Recital Finale

And the final dance...

Dance Recital Part Two

I hope you enjoyed the intermission. ;)  Here is Part Two:

Dance Recital

But first, go over to my good friend, Millie's blog and wish her a very Happy Birthday!   While you're there, remind her that 40 is FABULOUS, not old! ;)

Okay, so back to the recitals... I've tried to upload the dance recital video, but it is too big, so I've had to break it down into 3 smaller videos.  Here is the first one, it shows the first two songs they performed.  The first one is kind of funny because she wasn't really doing the dance, she was too distracted by being up infront of everyone. lol  But later she gets more into it.

 

(I feel sorry for the girl next to her in the first song, I think Rori started to TRY to hit the other girl's club each time!  But, even though it looks like it, she did NOT actually hit the girl.  Thankfully! lol)

Now please enjoy a short intermission while I upload the next video... :)

Piano Recital

It took most of the morning just to get this uploaded, I'll have to wait to do the dance recital later.  For now, here is Acadia playing in her recital:



Good job, Cadi!

Recitals

We had two recitals today!  Aurora had her first dance recital and Acadia had a piano recital.  They both did GREAT!  It will take awhile to get the video uploaded and I'm not sure I'll get to it tonight, but for now I have some pictures to share...

Rori's dance class is very informal but it's perfect for her!  They performed 5 songs.  For the first song, she was down at the end of the line of dancers and she just stood there grinning from ear to ear, looking back and forth from me with the camera and Ryan with the camcorder. lol  I kept motioning for her to look at her teacher but she was just shell-shocked, I think.  All these people were staring at her (or so it seemed to her) and she was LOVING IT!!!  She hardly did any of the dance though. lol  After that, she was in the middle of the line and had her teacher right infront of her and she did great from then on out. 



One of her favorite songs to perform was I Wanna Be a Dog.  It was really cute!



At the end of the recital, the teacher gave all of the dancers a certificate and a goodie bag.  Then, as is tradition in our family, Ryan had a special gift for her first recital...



Just for fun, I dug out the pic of Ryan giving Acadia flowers after her very first dance recital:



And I have to share these, they are my favorite pictures of the day:



We went straight from Rori's dance recital to Acadia's piano recital.  She really did fantastic!  She played two songs and one was one that she struggled with since the day she was assigned it.  But she worked really hard and did a very good job!  Here are the pics for now, I will post video later.



I am so proud of both of the girls!  :)

16 years ago...

Ryan and I went on our first date.

You know that feeling when you date someone and you really, really like them and you find yourself thinking that you never want that relationship to end? I remember feeling that way about Ryan. And sitting here today, thinking of that and knowing that it never will end, makes me feel so happy. :)

Consistency

I know I can't be the only one who struggles with this.  I just have a really hard time being consistent in getting exercise!  And I don't really know what my excuse is, which is just as well because that's exactly what it would be - an excuse!

I want to be healthy, I like being at the gym, my daughter BEGS me every-stinkin-day to go to the gym... so why do I get there only once or twice a month?!?!?  (That's really embarrassing to admit, btw.)  I used to be very consistent and was at the gym every morning!  Why can't I do that now?  What would get my butt there more often?  Maybe I need a workout buddy?  Who lives near me with a 24-hour gym membership?  Wanna work out every morning together?  Around 9:30 or so?

So, I'm looking for advice.  What do you do?  Do you have something that works for you?  Please share!  And if you're like me, let me know I'm not the only one.  I really do want to get back in the habit.  Maybe we can motivate each other.  I'm feeling desperate here!  Help!!!

Helping Haiti

We all know their need, though I doubt any of us can imagine just how much they need it right now. I want to plug a couple of different ways to help contribute to the relief efforts underway in Haiti.

There are a lot of fundraisers going on right now and many organizations that want to help. Personally, the one and only organization that I trust to use 100% of my donation to go where I mean it, is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. No monies go to pay salaries or overhead costs; every penny will go to the relief efforts, so I encourage anyone who wants to make sure that their dollar goes entirely to helping the people in Haiti, to donate through the church. You can make donations on tithing slips at church (under Humanitarian) or anytime on-line. The church immediately sent out trucks with hygiene kits along with other humanitarian aid from their locations in the Dominican Republic. They then sent two planes (one from Denver, the other from Miami), each carried over 80,000 pounds of food and emergency resources such as blankets, tents, tarps, water filtration bottles and medical supplies. The church also sent out a team of doctors with more medical supplies who will set up a medical treatment center in one of the church buildings that was mostly undamaged by the earthquake. Because the quake destroyed hospitals and now medical supplies are scarce, this will help tremendously. Other chapels are being used as temporary shelters and the church is continuing to send out more shipments of humanitarian supplies.

The second plug I want to give is for my little sister who has an etsy store, Once Upon a Tuesday, selling jewelry, photography, and gifts. For the rest of this month, she will be sending 50% of her jewelry sales to UNICEF for the relief efforts in Haiti. It is a great way to donate while also acquiring beautiful jewelry that I promise you will love!

However you choose to help, I know every little bit makes a difference. And even if you can't send anything at this time, definitely keep the people in Haiti in your prayers. On 9-11, people all over the world prayed for us, they were all Americans that day. Now we can do the same for Haiti, our hearts hurt for them; right now we are all Haitians.

To comment or not to comment? That is the question.

I've had a blog for years... 6 years, to be exact. (Though the first year or so was on another domain.) I started it because I wanted to have an easy way to keep in touch with family and an easy way to journal all at the same time. And that is still why I blog. I've never really blogged to get comments, but of course, who doesn't like comments? I love comments! It tells me that someone is actually reading and even likes what they read. But I've never been comment obsessed.

I've read blogs where the blogger lamented because they didn't get 20 or 30 comments on a recent blog post. Um... I've posted over 1500 blog posts and average less than 2 comments per post. And that statistic is going down. lol But that's okay because I'm not exactly posting for comments.

This past weekend, however, two of my friends mentioned that they would comment on my blog more if it wasn't so hard. I was curious, so I asked in what way was it hard to comment on my blog? Well, to start, I don't have my blog on Blogger like the rest of the known free world. I would, but I've had my blog here for years and I don't want to move all my archives. That would be a long and probably never completed project. My friends also told me that they found it hard to leave a comment because of the spam control, a math problem. Yes, in order to leave a comment, I require you to do school work. lol Actually, I don't require it, blog-city requires it. :S I've gone into my settings and can't find where I can turn that off though. I don't think I can. Bummer.

To be fair, since that conversation, one of those friends has posted two comments on my blog. (Thanks, Heffalump! lol)

But it got me thinking. I even searched "how to get more comments on blog posts" on-line. They said things like: invite comments, ask questions, interact with commenters, have contests, etc. I think I've done those things in the past, with little change. Maybe I don't really have that many readers. Except each post does average between 20-30 reads, so someone, somewhere is reading. ;)

However, nothing has really changed. I do like comments, I always have. It's fun to get feedback, it makes my blog more like a conversation, which I enjoy. But I'm not going to stress over it. I hope you feel comfortable leaving a comment, but also no pressure to leave one either. I hope that if you do want to leave a comment, my comment box isn't discouraging that. I hope you can do 1st grade level math. lol (Or in my mom's case, I hope your computer isn't ancient and will let you comment on blogs and facebook. lol) And if you're a lurker, I hope you know that I'd like to hear from you.

But if not, that's okay too. :)

Not quite what I meant, but it will do.

Rori has an odd habit of wanting to lay on the kitchen floor when I'm in there trying to cook. It's frustrating. She's in the way and I worry that she could get hurt. I wouldn't mind her being in there, I just don't like her laying on the floor. So, today when she did it AGAIN, I told her, "Rori, get up off the floor and get out of the kitchen, it's not safe!" So she got up, took one step out of the kitchen and laid back down on the dining room floor. lol

Seriously So Blessed

*warning* Sweet and mushy post to follow. *warning*

There is a joke blog that is called "Seriously So Blessed" and kind of makes fun of the upbeat, ever positive, super mushy and happy blogs. It's targeted at Mormon SAHMs. It's hilarious, I admit. Though, I don't have time to read it often.
But at the risk of sounding cliche, I really do feel "seriously so blessed".

I am ever reminded at how lucky I am to have such a good man to share my life with. Ryan is more than just my husband, he is my very best friend. He is the one I want to spend time with, he is the one I want to talk to, he is the one I want to share everything with. When we watch The Princess Bride and Prince Humperdinck tells Wesley that not one couple in a century has a chance at true love, I just wonder if it really is uncommon for people to be as happy as we are. (Not that I believe that "statistic" is correct. lol) Its something I hope for everyone, and thankfully, I do believe that many of my friends/family do have relationships that are just as perfect for them as ours is for us. Neither one of us is perfect and we do have our moments, but those moments are few and far between. It's hard to imagine being any happier. :)

Don't Be the Truck

We had some great talks/lessons in church today. But the one quote that stands out, is "Don't be the truck."

One of the members of our stake presidency spoke to us during the 3rd hour. He told a story from a year ago when we had a lot of snow on the ground. He and his wife (and their "good dog") were walking in their neighborhood when they came across a car stuck in the snow/ice. The man who belonged to this car was trying to dig himself out and put chains on, but not having much luck, so they offered to help. Soon after, a car stopped to see if they could use a shovel. After that, another car stopped to help, too. Pretty soon there were all these cars stopped, helping to dig out the stuck car. Sure enough, the car was freed and chains put on and it went on it's way. As they were walking home, President Nord held his wife's hand and said, "Wasn't that wond..." Just as he was saying "wonderful", a big truck came driving by, splashing a puddle, and totally drenching him in dirty, cold water. For the rest of the walk home, all he could think about was that truck and how it had gotten him so wet and dirty.

Don't be the truck.

The reason why the stake was speaking to us was because our stake is having another Dance Festival for the youth. They are working so hard to make this an amazing experience for the youth and are doing all they can to plan, prepare, and present it to them in a way to get them excited and to make them want to be a part of it. Don't be the truck! Inevitably, (they are youth, afterall) they will have a complaint at some point. Don't feed into it; instead encourage them and be positive. Don't be the truck!

It applies to many things. I like it. I need to remember it. I don't want to be the truck. :)

Mi Amigas

Last night my friends and I had a Girls Night Out. I love these girls! (And a couple others who couldn't make it - we missed you!!!) I have had many good friends in my life, for which I feel so blessed. And everytime, they have been just what I need for that time in my life. I feel so selfish. I hope that they feel the same way to some extent. But at least on my end, I know I have benefitted so much from the friendships I have had throughout my life.

Now is no different. These ladies are JUST what I need! They make me LAUGH! I feel so accepted and valued by them and I also feel so uplifted and inspired and strengthened because of them. They are my sisters here. I've always liked the saying, "Friends are the family you choose." We don't live close to any of our immediate family and even though I do miss them and wish we could be closer, I feel so grateful that the needs (wow, I'm using that word a lot, I sound like a really needy friend now! lol) that I have which would probably have been met by my siblings and family if I were closer to them, are currently met by other special people in my life.

We had a fun party last night, to celebrate my dear friend Millie's 40th birthday. I was so mean to her!!! lol I made her wear a pin that said she was "old old old" because she was "Oh no, the big Four Oh!" Then I made her answer questions that I had already asked her hubby to see how well they matched up. She had a few gag gifts and there were countless wise cracks about how OLD she is now. We played a fun game and had SO many laughs!!! We stayed up WAY late watching a funny movie. We ate our weight in chocolate, I'm sure. And it was probably one of the best GNOs we've had. Our stomachs hurt from laughing so much (which we absolutely consider an ab workout and we're sure it will cancel out the big piece of chocolate cake, at least... maybe the fudge, too!).

To all who came, THANK YOU! I love you ladies!!! Thank you for being my friends! :)

Ryan's New Toy

A.k.a.: The reason why he was up until 1am and also the reason why he was 2 hours late for work today.

Behold, the new receiver.  Guess which one is the new one and which is the old one, lol...



When he looks at all of the connections on the back, he starts drooling and speaking incoherently.  lol

Unfortunately, one of the cables the sales guy sold him was the wrong size, a problem I'm sure Ryan will rectify today.  By tomorrow, the new receiver should be up and running... and then our lives will be complete. ;)

Portland Temple

I spent my morning in the Portland Temple today.  I love it there.  :)

When I came out, it was overcast and starting to sprinkle, but I didn't care.  I love this place.  I love the Northwest.  I love that it rains.  I love the green.  I took some pics. 

This is where I belong.

16th Day of Christmas?

I think this was a record for me, we only JUST got our Christmas decorations put away today. Usually, I take them down around the first of the year. I don't remember why, but for whatever reason, Ryan wasn't able to bring the tubs and boxes down from the shed, so it waited... until today.

The funny thing was, I really didn't mind too much. Okay, the last day or two were starting to feel like we were pushing it. ;) But usually, I start to feel antsy if the decorations are up after the first of the year.

I really love Christmas and I love having the whole house decorated, celebrating the season and our Savior's birth. But it is also nice to have our house back to normal. Not that we're back to normal quite yet, we're still working on getting things put back in place, but we will be back to normal soon. ;)

Apparently, not so "resolute".

And this is why I don't like "New Year's Resolutions". It's better just to have goals and then try to reach them. When you add "New Year's", it implies it's something that you are supposed to do religiously for the entire year and can't miss a single day.

Well, OOPS.

Cause I missed yesterday. On TWO of my resolutions.

The first one, I don't mind because realistically, you need to cut yourself some slack sometimes. And it's good to have a "cheat day" once in awhile, to keep your sanity, if for no other reason. Well, it started off like a good day, but at some point, I was derailed. I blame Ryan. First, he called me to meet him for lunch. We went to Mongolian Grill, which could be fairly healthy, depending on what you put in your stirfry. But come on, I like the pasta, I like the chili oil... it wasn't veggies only in olive oil for me. ;) Then, dinner was less than outstanding, for which I also blame Ryan, in a round-about way. Two days ago, he asked if I would help wash some clothes for his friend. I said yes. 15 loads later... no joke. Yeah, so I did laundry ALL THE LIVE LONG DAY yesterday (minus our lunch date) and was tired and not in the mood to be fabulous in the kitchen by the time dinner rolled around. It was an okay meal, just not thought out and not super healthy. The kicker though... last night Ryan asked if we had any munchies (do we see a pattern, it's ALL RYAN'S FAULT! How's that for being accountable for my own choices? lol) and instead of saying, "We don't want munchies, have a carrot," I said, "I think we have tater tots and egg rolls in the freezer." So, yeah.

The second one, truthfully is ALL MY FAULT. When Ryan asked if he could use my camera at work, I told him no because at some point during the day, I needed to take a picture. I even had it planned out. I would take a picture of Cadi helping with the laundry. (She had expressed interest in helping the night before.) Of course, I failed to recognize that she expressed that interest at BEDTIME. Hello, she didn't want to help with laundry - she just wanted to stay up later. Of course, when she got home from school and I asked if she still wanted to help she said, "Uh, no," then ran off to play at a friend's house. No laundry helping pics and no Cadi around to take any other cute Cadi pics.

We're barely a week in and yesterday was a big, fat, FAIL. Now I need to pick myself back up and go on. I think it's the only way I can attempt to recover from it. For the first, well I'm just going to have to be very good with my eating through the weekend. And for the second, do you suppose taking two today will be okay?

Stinkin' New Year's resolutions... :S

*** Correction***

I just noticed a picture on my camera that I DID take yesterday, of Rori playing with the toy dog. I totally forgot about that. *whew* Okay, so yesterday wasn't as big of a failure as I first thought. ;)

Scripture Scouts

A tidbit about Cadi and then a couple of thoughts I've had during my scripture study this week:

•We have a cd that has kids singing songs about the gospel in their lives. (Our cd is the one about families.) Acadia really likes it. On Sunday, the primary chorister asked the kids to write down their favorite church song on a piece of paper and put in in a pile. I think they were drawing from it to select what song they would sing next. Acadia put a song from Scripture Scouts on it. Goof. I told her not to do that again; she knows better. But I'm glad she likes the cd. ;)

•In reading my scriptures a couple of days ago, I came across 1 Nephi 18:3 "And I, Nephi, did go into the mount oft, and I did pray oft unto the Lord; wherefore the Lord showed unto me great things." It made me think about all the things we need help with from the Lord. Nephi was receiving instruction on building a ship, but we seek instruction on building our family, or career, or calling, etc. Don't we all seek His instruction in our lives? Nephi went to the mount OFT and in doing so, the Lord showed him "great things". Oh, how I could benefit from that! I am blessed to live 40 minutes from my own "mount", a beautiful temple where I can go into and pray oft. I go, but I don't know if I go "oft" enough. I'm adding that to my goals this year. If I desire the Lord to show me "great things", I need to be in His temple "oft", praying to Him and seeking His instruction.

•Today I was reading in 2 Nephi 1 where Lehi is speaking to his older sons who haven't been obedient and he's concerned for them. He cautions that the Lord has said those who are not obedient will be cut off from His presence and then Lehi pleads with his sons to keep the commandments so they will not be brought into captivity. Again it made me think of the temple. When we are disobedient, we are not worthy to enter the temple, and that is where the Lord's presence is. Also, when we are not keeping the commandments, we are often giving into temptations that bring us down into captivity to them; addictions and behaviors that bind us and keep us from where we want to be. Lehi tells his sons, "Awake, my sons, put on the armor of righteousness. Shake off the chains with which ye are bound... rebel no more." I can just see a concerned father trying so hard to encourage his children to make the right choices. It just impressed upon me the importance of doing what is right, even when we're feeling tired or bored or alone, even when it seems like it's not a very important matter, even when it would be so much easier to just let "this one thing" slide a little. No, no, Awake! Put on the armor of righteousness and shake off the chains which bind you! Stay on the path the Savior has outlined, stay close to Him, don't stray! Then we will always be worthy to be in His presence, to enter His holy temple, to receive His instruction and feel of His love.

Umbrellas

 

We live in the Pacific Northwest where, guess what, it rains.  A lot!  But the funny thing is, most people who live here don't own an umbrella.  Really.  They say only tourists use umbrellas.  lol  I was surprised at first, but within a few months, I got it.  We have umbrellas but never use them, and usually we just lose them. 
It's rain.  Who cares.  If we used an umbrella everytime it rained, we might as well have them permanently attached to our bodies.  Besides, it's silly to use an umbrella just to get from the door to your car.  So, we just don't use them. 

But then, a month or so ago, I saw this really cute Princess umbrella and decided to get it for Rori.  Why?  I have no clue, except that I knew she'd love it.  So then I had to get one for Cadi, too.  And while picking one out for Cadi, I saw this HUGE umbrella that I decided would be good to have around for the family.  I still don't know when we'll use it because Ryan doesn't see the point in using an umbrella either, but if we ever feel the need - we have one.  And this time, I'm going to try really hard not to let it get lost because it's so big and cool. 

However, because my girls are kids, when they saw the rain today as we were leaving to take Cadi to school, they both got very excited to use their new umbrellas.  How silly they looked walking to the car with them, but they were happy.  So, I was too.  My little tourists...  :)

Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam

Today is Aurora's first day in Primary!  She is a Sunbeam today!!! She is very excited and we're very excited for her.  I hope she has a good time, and I really hope she is good for her teacher.  I think I should apologize to them in advance; she is a busy girl! ;)



Recently, one of her favorite books is Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam; it is pretty much just the words to the primary song.

Jesus wants me for a sunbeam
To shine for him each day.
In every way try to please him
At home, at school, at play.
A sunbeam, a sunbeam,
Jesus wants me for a sunbeam.
A sunbeam, a sunbeam,
I'll be a sunbeam for him.

Jesus wants me to be loving
And kind to all I see.
Showing how pleasant and happy
His little one can be.
A sunbeam, a sunbeam,
Jesus wants me for a sunbeam.
A sunbeam, a sunbeam,
I'll be a sunbeam for him.

A picture a day.

My friend had a goal this past year to take at least one picture a day.  She completed the project and really liked doing it, she's doing it again this year.  And I've decided to do it too.  I won't be posting them all, but I thought today's was worthy of mentioning.

Today, Ryan and I put a huge bookcase in on his side of the bed.  Before we moved the bookcases into the bedroom, Rori had fun putting herself on display in them.  The bookcases are about 80 inches tall and she can almost stand up straight in the lower section.



I spent the day arranging and beautifying his new bookcase.  We both love it!  Here's what it looks like now.

New Year's Eve Party

Last night was so much fun!  We made our traditional Lentil Soup and took it over to my aunt's house for dinner.  They provided pizza and homemade bread to go along with it.  It was all very good!  Mmmm. :)
After dinner we played some games and inbetween games, Ryan exercised his engineering skills:



Rori was jumping around and "broke" her ankle, so Ryan had to exercise his daddy skills to "amputate" it:



My aunt, uncle, and cousins have a tradition of making a music video on New Year's Eve.  This year, they wanted to make a video for their friend who is very sick.  We had to start by getting into make up and costumes:



Aren't we just beautiful???  Yeah, you can tell this will be a very SERIOUS video. ;)

When we started filming, I started taking pictures but then we realized the flash was bugging the video.  Oops!  But here's a classic pic of Matthew's solo:



If you haven't seen the video yet, here it is again:



Props to my cousin, Sami for her brilliant directing and editing:



(Pic is of her and her friend, Eden while doing the editing.)

And finally, it was time to watch the ball drop and wish each other a Happy New Year!!!

Say a Little Prayer

We had a BLAST at my aunt and uncle's house for New Year's Eve and the highlight of the night was making this video:



The backstory is this:

Making a video is a recent annual tradition for my aunt, uncle, and cousins.  This year, they planned to make a video to a different song but recently learned that a good friend of theirs is having serious health problems.  He's been fighting stage 4 lung cancer for a year and had been doing well but suddenly took a turn for the worse.  Their ward is fasting for him this week and in addition to that, and as a tribute to their friend, they chose to make this year's annual video to Say a Little Prayer.  They'll be sending him a copy tomorrow.  We hope he feels the friendship and love that went into it, we sure had fun making it!

I have lots of pics from tonight but they will have to wait because it's almost 2am and I think I'm about ready to crash. ;)