Sports!

Today Ella had Gymnastics (and she has Karate this evening) and I will be in Hampton Cove again this afternoon doing Karate pictures. So today is a sports day. I spent all morning editing and prepairing my pictures from last night, and getting ready for today. I also took Ella to Gymnastics. It was a nice break from the computer. Wes has been so behaved at Gymnastics ever since our friend gave him this set of trains. He LOVES his trains.

poor sad blog

Sorry that the blog has been kind of sparse lately. I have been busy! Today was no exception. I spent the morning doing chores and working and all afternoon/evening in Hampton Cove doing pictures for a martial arts studio. I will be doing pictures every night this week except for thursday when I will be seeing Disney on Ice with Ella. I hope that I get get some better stuff for the blog even with being busy. But for now, you get my second self portrait of the desperate kind.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

It is!

busy fun, tiring day!

Today we got a lot done since it was our third "Saturday" in a row we thought we should accomplish something! We spent the morning doing some deep cleaning. I helped the kids clean up their room and now the upstairs looks fantastic. At around 10 when we finished we decided to go check out the new YMCA. It was awesome! They let us have a one time free pass to check out the place and see what it was like. We dropped the kids off at their daycare play area and toured the place. The facility is really neat. After we looked around we picked up the kids and took them to the pool area. It has a pool with a water slide (not running today) and a kids splash area with tons of neat places for the kids to play. Ella LOVED it so much! After we were all tired out we left and grabbed some pizza for lunch. Jon and I are going to see if we can swing a membership. It looks like a good deal, and maybe I can work out some more since they have free childcare while you work out. If we can swing the payments we may try it out for a month. After lunch we took the kids home and they both just went right to sleep. I think we tired them out! During naptime I went out to get some supplies for weather proofing out house. Then home to install the stuff and wrap presents. I discovered that two of the items I bought used from a lady in my mommies group are not working, even with new batteries! I hope to hear back from her soon so I can either get them working or get my money back. If they don't end up working, I will have to figure out something else for Wes and Jonas. Anyway, this year has been good to us! lookit all the presents!

Ginger bread

Today we had a nice long relaxing day at home. I had a photo shoot this morning but since it was just in down town Madison it wasn't a long trip out. We had a nice brunch together right before the shoot, and afterwords Ella and I went to visit friends. We made a ginger bread house together. The kids had a ton of fun!

Thanksgiving.

Today I am very thankful. I am thankful for my family and for all the temporal blessings we have here. I am thankful that we have the resources to go out to eat on Thanksgiving and not have to cook or clean. I am thankful for the people who worked today so that we could enjoy a great Chinese buffet and Movie together as a family. (Tangled was cute!) I am thankful for a helpful husband who kept the kids away from me this morning so that I could make an adorable puppy quilt for Wesley today. Wes found this fabric at Hancocks yesterday and fell in love. He carried it all over the store talking about the puppies. He showed anyone who would look the "buppies!" so I bought it for him and made a quit. I think it came out nicely!

I ain't never had too much fun!

Judging from the state of my living room this evening, I would guess that even if the kids didn't have too much fun, they had quite enough. Now to get them to help me pick it up before bed!

Monkey See

Monkey Do
Wesley wants very much to do all of the things that Ella does. He had a hard time at Karate today because he wanted to be out on the floor yelling "Key-yah" with her. Ella let him wear her helmet in the car, he was most pleased with that.

Sparring

Today was Ella's very first time sparring in her Karate class. She has been looking forward to this since her very first lesson. She had a blast "fighting" the other kids and teachers. It was all very exciting for her. I think I need to do something about her mouthpiece though, it was way too big for her mouth! It was super cute to see her try and use her new moves against the other kids.

chugga-chugga- choo-choo!

When I was a little girl mom and dad got us a metal winnabego RV toy. It was too big for our doll house and too small for our barbies so it didn't get much play time. For some strange reason Mom has kept it around for all these years and recently Wesley has discovered it. It makes a wonderfully loud sound when pushed around and is the perfect size for him to stand and push around. He LOVES this thing and is constantly pushing it around when he is over at Nana and Grandpa's. Wesley thinks that everything with wheels is a "choo-choo" and so he chants "chugga-chugga choo-choo" as he drives it around. He likes it so much that Nana and Grandpa got him his very own large metal trucks for Christmas. I hope he likes them as much as he likes the old camper.

Biiiiiiiii-cycle!

I like to ride my bicycle, I like to ride my bike.
The other day I found an awesome deal on Craigs list. I found a "weeride" trail-a-bike on there in almost new condition for $30. That is $70 off retail! I snapped that baby right up. I have wanted one of these for Ella for about a year now. I couldn't' justify the full price, so I have been keeping an eye out for a used one. I got really lucky with this one. It looks like it is in perfect condition. Ella loves it and really enjoyed riding with her daddy this afternoon. Jon also gave Wes a little ride because he was dying to try it out.

Photoshoots, visiting teaching, tutoring and HARRY POTTER!!!!!!

Today was super-de-duper busy. 9am, photoshoot. 1:30, visiting teaching appointment #1. 11:30 Visiting teaching appointment #2. 12:30 naptime/editing photoshoot time. 3pm, tutoring German. 4:30 clean house and get ready to get baby sitter (order dinner). 5pm pick up sitter and dinner. 5:30 GO SEE HARRY POTTER w/Jon. 8:30, finish HARRY POTTER (go to bathroom to fix mascara after crying over Dobby). 9, go to Chinese restaurant with husband. 10, take babysitter home. 10:30 write blog.... 11, fall in to bed exhausted and get ready for another busy day tomorrow!!! HARRY POTTER WAS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!! They did a great job adapting and compressing a LOT of story in to this movie. They stayed pretty true to the book, changing a thing here and there but nothing too major. I was very pleased overall and totally cried when Dobby died. I CANT WAIT until the final movie, it will be one non-stop action sequence. WHY MUST I WAIT SO LONG!
Here are some cute pictures of Ella, since I didn't take any on our date.

She is the one called Sailor Moon!

Jon and Ella have been watching Sailor Moon on youtube the past month or so. I think it is mind numbingly stupid, but they like it and they are enjoying watching it together before Ella goes to bed each night. It is cute seeing them having fun together.

playdate

Today we hosted a craft playdate for my mommies group. I got foam magnets to put together. I had said that 6 moms could come. When I said that, I didn't think that they would all bring 2-3 kids!! There were 12 little boys between the ages of 18 months and 4.5 years and 2 little girls under one. Plus my kids. The house was loud chaotic and crazy. The kids all had fun making the magnets, but I think next time I will invite less people. I didn't get any pictures of the crazy-ness because it was, well, crazy!

My boys

I love my boys, even when they are annoying me.

Rainy days and Mondays

Today was a rainy Monday, so as to not get "down" we invited our friends to play with us at the mall. We enjoyed playing and lunch and then home for nice naps. For the second day in a row Ella fell asleep on the couch watching "the spiderwick chronicles". i got so much done while she was asleep! I had forgotten how nice it was to have her nap at the same time as Wes! After naps I took Ella to Karate. Wes tagged along since Daddy wasn't home yet. Ella had fun and was a very good listener. As soon as we got back from Karate I got ready to go to my friend Maggie's "Holiday Banquet" at her church. I had a lovely time with her there. It was great to spend the evening with her.

Armageddon Chef!

Welcome to Kitchen Stadium!



In tonight's battle we have the 3 Madison Wards competing for the title of Armageddon Chef! For the 1st ward we have Martin Roggio and 3 other people!

For Madison 2 ward we have two nice looking ladies, and for Madison 3rd ward we have Shannon Carlson and 3 other people!

It is truely a head-to-head battle between Father and Daughter. Has the student surpassed the Master? Will the Master keep his title? The answer will be known in just 45 short minutes. After introductions are made we find out that the secret ingredient is.....
SPAM!


Each team must make at least 2 dishes, one of which needs to include the spam. The teams have 10 min to decide on their plan of action.

And then the cooking begins!



The audience is excited to watch the dishes come together




Due to technical difficulties with their appliances the 3rd ward team moves to the kitchen to finish cooking.


TIME IS UP!!
The dishes are presented to the judges:

First ward

Second Ward

Third Ward!


After tasting the food

the judges make their decision....

For TASTE! drum roll please....... MADISON 1ST WARD!!!
For creativity in the use of the secret ingredient! MADISON 3RD WARD!
for plating! MADISON 2ND WARD!!
So in the end, the Master and student must declare a draw... till the next time they battle it out in Armageddon Chef!