Awesome days start with Costco hotdogs for breakfast

What. A. Day.The man and I tackled grocery shopping first thing this morning.  We were very litterally out of food.  As in, the kids squeeked by with pb&j and applesauce for breakfast and I... had a Costco hotdog (complete with mustard, relish, and onions).  Don't worry, after Costco we dropped off eggs and milk so the kids coud have some scrambled eggs while we headed out to the regular grocery store for the rest of our list.
And I had to finish up some errands for the man's birthday tomorrow.  (I did that sans man though).
We got back in time to crack the chore whip before Tay and I headed out to watch my niece dance in her Christmas dance recital.

I'm glad that I was able to go and support my brother and his family.  Family is everything. Speaking of family... from there we joined up with Grandpa Brent and Grandma Julie for their Christmas present to the circus.  They've decided that instead of gifts of toys, they want to give the gift of time. And we're way okay with that.  Last year they took the circus to the local aquarium, this year it was to the movie theater to see Dolphin Tale

and then to Rock Creek Pizza Co. for some awesome pizza buffet.  Because where else are you going to go when you have half a dozen starving kids?

Oh yeah, the movie was 3-D which meant popping the lenses out for Bieber glasses.  When will this fad end?
And if that weren't a full enough Saturday, we had one more trip on our agenda.  I've been doing a Christmas countdown for both the circus and for the man.  Each day they get a card.  Sometimes it says something nice about them, sometimes there's an activity for the day.  Today's card was an activity.  Go find some lights!  I'd heard from my cousin about the Christmas house near us so we drove by to check it out.  If you're in the Salt Lake area you should check it out.  His website is here, it has the address.  And according to the website, this is the last year that they're going to do it.  I highly recommend it. The lights changed and danced with the music and the trees had lit up faces with talking parts. The website also tells you which radio station to tun in to, but if you odn't want to wait in the LONG line of cars, you can simply park at the bottom of the street at the church and walk up, the show is also playing aloud from the yard.

How many kids can you cram into the back window of a car? :) On tomorrow's to do list... clean face and hand prints of said car window.

Needless to say the circus was pretty excited about what we saw, and that made me the coolest mom ever. 
And to think, this day all started with a hotdog for breakfast. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.

Pirates!

Loved it. Even if "someone" accidentally pre-ordered the 3-D tickets (which we're actually not a huge fan of...and prefer not to see)...Seriously, were we expecting me to say anything less about it? Except that I'm glad Kiera Knightly wasn't in it. I think Penelope Cruz's character was a lot easier to swallow.

Start date night out with a smothered burrito from La Frontera and end it with the new Pirates movie and I'm one happy girl... it doesn't take much :).

Girls night with Grandma Julie; Special previewing of "Secretariat"

My friend and co-worker got tickets to the pre-viewing of Secretariat but wasn't able to make it so she gave the tickets to me. Since we had six tickets, and didn't have West's kids, and West didn't want to go (simple subtraction of the family, 8-2-1=5) we had an extra ticket. And since horses are right up her alley, we called and invited Grandma Julie. We grabbed fancied up hotdogs for dinner at the theater, and since it's a Disney movie, radio Disney was in charge of the festivities. The played a few games before the movie started. Cas and Brynn tied in the hula-hooping contest (scoring Radio Disney t-shirts) and Tayler and Cali won the limbo contest (it only makes sense that the shortest kids can go lower on the limbo stick, also scoring them Radio Disney t-shirts). John Malkovich made this movie. He had the best lines.

My first time.

I have a confession to make. I have never eaten sushi. I'm hit and miss with liking sea food. Mostly it's the texture. Some of it is the taste. But being as everyone raves about sushi it had been eating at me for a while that it was something I needed to try at least once. It was a kidless night for us, and hence date night :). I had gift certificates for Applebee's and a movie from work but when I mentioned that to West he said that could be our back up plan. Back up plan? Where are we going? I was going to have to wait and see. It turns out for once that West actually listened to me and my passing remarks of wanting to try sushi. He took me to a Japanese restaurant by our house where we also tried a new a soup with tofu (another first, I'm not a fan). I ordered a mango topped California roll (thinking I could stomach that with crab being cooked and all): And West ordered a deep fried spicy tuna: My first conclusion of sushi is that it's so pretty. My second is that I really like the crunch of the deep fried roll. And thirdly, I wasn't really a fan of the seaweed, which ended up in both rolls, even though we were both trying to avoid that very thing, but I think it's something that can grow on me because even though I didn't exactly like it, it didn't repulse me. I still think next time I'll specifically ask for no seaweed, but if it shows up, I'll eat it anyway. It's a taste that I think will grow on me. I loved this night simply because I know West had me in mind when he chose the place. It's all in the little things.
After dinner we saw "Inception" which I LOVED. Holy moly. I would recommend it.

Peaceful Christmas's aren't all that

West and I were thinking we were something special this year for Christmas. We got to have our "Christmas" morning filled with excited kids, chaos, fun and the ever traditional Swedish pancakes, and then we got to have the real Christmas morning, laid back and relaxed. How spoiled were we to get the best of both worlds? Tell you what... it was great up until about, oh 10:00 in the morning and we had NOTHING to do. And no kids to entertain or need us. Nothing was open, and we found ourselves mindlessly twiddling our thumbs as we flipped through channels on the TV and tortured the dogs with Sean's new remote control helicopter (it reminds us of a giant dragonfly).
Though I did find this: A stinkin' cute Sony HD flip video camera. LOVE IT! And look how cute West was with tying it with the bow just for me on the tree :).
And I finally finally finally got to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie.
Loved it. Needless to say I'm on a Sherlock Holmes kick and am on a mission to read them again. We think the next time we don't have the kids for Christmas we're going to take a trip. Some place warm. With a beach.

"One on One" with Jayme and Sean

The girls were with their dad, and West was on a guys outing, four wheeling in the sand dunes. That left me with Jayme and Sean for some "one on one" bonding time. The original plan for the day was to help Jessica paint her kitchen, and let the kids play playstation and wii with Brenna and Sam, but when I was actually talking to Jessica on the phone, she mentioned the zoo (Sam's favorite animal is.... a PENGUIN! He's so smart), I talked her into ditching the painting and going to the zoo with us. Penguins and baby elephants were sounding fun on an unusually warm November Saturday. We grabbed lunch at Burger King and headed over to see some animals, but the zoo was PACKED. Which shouldn't have surprised me, of course I wouldn't be the only one to spend a lingering warm day at the zoo. Jes and I decided to hit the movies and get some ice cream instead. We bought tickets for "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" and whiled away the time at Cold Stone and a small arcade while we waited for our show time.
Brenna Lou let me sign her new cast:
Sean was in heaven at the arcade, games are his "meaning" in life right now.
By the end of the day, when I was chillin' on the couch with Jayme and Sean, just watching cartoons and being content with the day, Sean leaned in and hugged me, "I love you, Stephanie." " I love you too, Sean." It's been a challenge with Sean, we're invading his space and his time and making him share his dad... but everything's going to be OK, because we do love him. And I'll keep showing him that. Thanks to West for letting me have the day with them.

Post-Rocky Horror Picture Show

I met West and Sam at the Tower theater at 11:00 Halloween night. The show was sold out and the line long. And I'm pretty sure at least 50% of the men were wearing nylons and fishnets in all sorts of variety. We, never having seen the movie in theater before, were marked with lipstick "V"s on our cheeks for being theater virgins. This proved to be a way to sort us out from others to use in the preshow games. We didn't make it into any of the "games", and we'll just say that we were extremely glad to have not. I tried to take a picture of Sam and West with the row of scantily, fishnetted clad men in the background. I was laughing my head off at the atmosphere. It was quite the experience.

I've been trying to decide what to say about this experience since I did it, but all I can come up with is really, if it interests you, it's just something you have to see with your own eyes to believe. But let the theater's warning ring loud and true to you: It has sensitive adult conduct and is not suited for children, or sensitive adults. "Use your judgement people!"

Pre-Rocky Horror Picture Show

I've had quite the extensive list of adventures this year. Tonight I'm going to add one more. "The Rocky Horror Picture Show". What? That's a real thing? I remember vaguely hearing the name... and that's about it. Tonight West, Sam, and I are spending our Halloween watching it at a theater. West tells me it's audience interactive, and we need umbrellas. Umbrellas? What for? People will be throwing things. Alrighty then... I read about the movie on wikipedia and (after following several links around wikipedia) I have to tell you, this is definitely outside of my box, but I'm excited to be a part of it. I couldn't talk West into wearing costumes but I still think I'm going to pull out some crazy fake eyelashes for the night. I can't wait to post pictures of the girls in their costumes, they all picked such great things this year, and I'll let you know how the movie went. :) I LOVE Halloween! It's my favorite holiday for sure.

Movies... outside in

Last night was the first night of a two week stretch of fun filled action. The girls and I spread out our blankets and bean bag chairs on the cool lawn of the local park, ate our popcorn, laffy taffy, and Pepsi and chit chatted with neighbors who were also there. "Over the Hedge" is funnier than I remembered it being, and it was the perfect night. I can't say enough about how much I love doing movie in the park with the circus. And it's free! Tonight we're doing our traditional movie and pizza night at home (invented to keep my head on straight and focused where it needed to be: on my girls, while finding my footing in the frenzy of dating again). Friday nights, it's us and our pizza and movie. Though tonight we decided to add cookie dough. With spoons, not as cookies. Life is glorious and the two packed weeks that I've been waiting for has finally begun! My new favorite quote for my life by Elder Wirthlin: "Come what may... and love it."

Free movie, popcorn, and no mosquitos... nice.

One of the things that I like about where I live (and there are many) is that I receive mailings on community events. It's such a small thing, but I appreciate that community involvement shows up in my mailbox. Throughout the summer one of the parks is playing movies outside. The first one was Thursday. They start late, 9:30, and I hesitated taking the circus, as we have to get up so early for me to go to work, but I figured they don't have school, and if they wanted to go, I'd take them and let them be a little groggy at daycare. Our first movie was "Journey to the Center of the Earth", in 3-D. They passed out glasses, and we camped out on the lawn with our bean bag chairs and blankets. It was the most perfect night, not too hot, not too cold, we brought popcorn and there wasn't a mosquito in sight. I think we'll go again.

the weekend of nothing, that meant everything to me

This weekend was one I have to post about, not because of what we did, but just because I feel like it was completely filled, every moment with those I love most in my life. Friday is movie and pizza night for the girls and me. Every once in awhile something comes up and we don't do it, but most of the time, that's what you're going to find us doing on Friday night. This Friday we decided to take our night to the theater and see Monsters Vs Aliens on its opening night. We then also decided we would make this a date night, which meant doing our hair, putting on cute outfits (except mom who was feeling the jeans and hoodie that night), and pulling out the lip gloss and body spray. And thanks to Gateway selling Pizza Hut we got to have our pizza!I can't even say how much I love being with my girls! Saturday my ex came into town, so later in the afternoon I dropped the circus off at their grandma's to spend the night with him. Then I grabbed West, stopped at Spencer's for a very inappropriate birthday gift for Brother Bill, and headed over to Bill's for brownies and ice cream... and a nice butt whooping on Mario Cart Wii. I got my butt kicked by everyone, except my three year old niece, whom I actually stood a chance against! After Bill's West and I joined his mom and others of his extended fam at the Jordan Landing theater and saw Knowing.

Sunday West came up and hung out. We hit Blockbuster and I finally broke down and rented Twilight. There just wasn't anything else that was catching our attention. The girls got home just in time to watch it with us. Cas has started reading Twilight and has been begging to see the movie. So we all camped out in the TV room with chips and salsa and homemade peanut butter-chocolate shakes. I can officially say now that I've read all three books and seen the movie, that I am NOT a part of the Twilight craze. Casidee, on the other hand, is. After the movie, we played Monopoly. The girls obviously didn't understand rent and mortgages or even payday, but it was good to watch them figure out the money and do the basic math. I love that West will play board games! Cali, Tayler, and Brynn ended up in my room watching Ever After, but Cas hung in there until the bitter end when she went bankrupt just in time for bed. Two rounds later I landed on West's hotel and he took all I had.

Like I said, this weekend was just full of the people I love. Doing "nothing", but it meant everything to me. Sometimes I think life needs "nothing" to keep us all together, so we don't get overwhelmed and bogged down by all the "something".

Our little run away (or in other words, a quick kidless trip to St. George)

West and I went to St. George to pick up a dog (which didn't end up happening. Don't get me started on THAT story. Some people! White trash America... grumble grumble... it's not that we didn't get that dog, it's just how the dumb lady went about it. Whatever, not the issue of this blog). We actually had a great time running away just the two of us for a night. We hiked Johnson's something or other with my parents, and went to dinner with them. Then we watched "Australia" (can I just say that Hugh Jackman is an incredibly SEXY man?!).

The next morning we hit the St. George outlets and headed home. We're going again with our kids in two weeks. But for now it was just great to get out on our own. We decided we need to make sure we run away more often. Many thanks to my mom and dad for their hospitality. On our hike Pop, me, West, Johnson's... dang it. I wish I could remember the full name of the trail! Johnson's bend or something like that.

Caught West mid sentence in this picture.
And in the blinding sunlight with no sunglasses in this one LOL. West threatening to dump me into some disgusting pond (though it was actually pretty cool looking surrounded by the tall canyon walls like it was)... seriously that water was gross! I want to remember my dad this way. He's always taking nature shots.