"And now," cried Max "let the wild rumpus start!"

Another Christmas has come and gone. Here are a few of the high and low lights....

We woke up to no power and about a foot of snow on the ground, which throughout the course of the day turned into at least 2 feet.

Marti had been asking for a princess kitchen for about 2 months, we set it up on Christmas Eve expecting a big response from Marti on Christmas morning. Marti came down the stairs and wouldn't even look at her kitchen, so typical Marti, she is so wary of new things (and places and people). Emersyn got half way down the stairs threw her hands up in the air and yelled "oh yeah!", she just about fell down the rest of the stairs she was so excited. Marti was excited too, it just takes longer to get it out of her.

Marti and Emersyn got recorders in their stockings, I just happened to see them in Pier One a few days before Christmas and thought they would be fun. Marti loves it, she calls it her flute. She is so serious about having her fingers on the holes before she blows in it.

We went to Kemps for Christmas brunch, biscuits and gravy and ableskivers. Emersyn ate more food than just about anyone else.

Marti and Emy loved running around and laughing with their Kemp and Cobbley cousins, and of course opening presents.

After a ham and turkey dinner at the Cobbleys we got in our snow gear and went sledding down their backyard. Emersyn went down the hill all by herself, what a daredevil.

There was one injury on Christmas, of course it happened to Emy, she is about as coordinated as her mom (that's not much). She was getting pulled in the wagon and she fell out and bit right through her lip, luckily she didn't need any stitches. She is so tough she just cried for a few minutes and then headed back down to play.

Here is a slide show of our Christmas morning....

Christmas Questions

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? paper, I love to wrap presents, although you can make gift bags look nice too.
2. Artificial or real tree? artificial, the only good thing about a real tree is the smell, and you can fake that with a candle (not quite the same, but almost)
3. When do you put up a tree? the weekend before Thanksgiving
4. When do you take it down? the weekend after new years
5. Do you like eggnog? I don't know if I have ever had it, but I am sure I probably wouldn't like it.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? garth brooks concert tickets
7. Hardest person to buy for? my dad, isn't that the hardest person for everyone?
8. Easiest person to buy for? Marti, she loves princesses
9. Do you have a nativity scene? yes
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? mail
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? gosh, I don't know
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? How the Grinch Stole Christmas
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? usually I start in the summer, but this year I was late and didn't start until well into December
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I plead the 5th
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas time? cinnamon rolls
16. Lights on the tree? white
17. Favorite Christmas song? Carol of the Bells
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? stay home, at some point we will have a warm Christmas maybe go to Hawaii or New Zealand
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? ummmm, yes I think so
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? neither, this year there is a Utah Jazz santa hat
21. Open presents on Christmas Eve or morning? one on Christmas Eve
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? that it has to end
23. Favorite Ornament theme or color? last year I did a really fun green, blue and gold kind of Moroccan tree, it was so beautiful
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? ham, I love ham
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? more joy

Tis the season

It's so neat that the girls are interested in doing Christmasy things this year. Lynn had all the kids over to her house to decorate gingerbread houses, of course they had to wait for the super glue to dry first (ha ha Lynn). This year the kids even mostly decorated instead of just eating the candy, except Emersyn, she is her mother's daughter.

They helped trim our Utah Jazz tree, of course I had to follow after them so that not all the ornaments were at the bottom.

We made snowflakes to hang around the house and a Christmas chain so we know how many more days until Christmas. Marti tells everyone she sees that as soon as all the rings are off the chain Santa will come to our house to bring her princess kitchen.

Marti and I helped decorate my mom's enormous tree, my favorite part was when we got done I asked Marti if she liked it and she said, with her best southern accent, "yes, I sure do".

COLDPLAY!!!!

Kory and I went to the Coldplay concert on Saturday night, for those of you who don't know who Coldplay are SHAME ON YOU (I'm talking to you Mom and Trystal). It was the 2nd best concert I have ever been to, Garth Brooks is still the 1st but it was a close call. I had heard they were coming a few months ago but I decided that I didn't want to spend that much on tickets. Then Lynn called me last Monday and said that Aaron could get tickets for a suite, obviously I couldn't say no to that (Kory could have). About 1/2 way through the concert they set up a little stage right in the audience in front of our suite and did a few songs from there. It was so fun, seriously, if they are coming to your town get tickets and go. Here are a few pics I took....

Emy's First (Intentional) Haircut

Emy got her first haircut last week, she looks like a little lady (which I hate because I still want her to be my baby). She was ok with the cutting but she didn't enjoy having her hair blow dried. Surprisingly there were no tears or tantrums, I'm glad she behaved better for a stranger than she does when I try to do her hair.

Halloween

Happy Belated Halloween! Marti was Cinderella, of course, and Emersyn was Mulan. I was really glad that they both were old enough to understand Halloween this year. Our new neighborhood is filled with kids, we almost ran out of candy (and I buy a lot).

Nevada

A couple months ago when Steph and Jason were in town we went to Steph's hometown in Nevada for Tyler's baptism. I just barely got around to downloading the pictures on to the computer and as I was looking at them I remembered how fun it was, so I am putting the pictures on now (better late than never)...

Oktoberfest

We took a day to go to Oktoberfest this year. Kory and Emersyn had a lot of fun going down the Alpine Slide, Emersyn wanted to go faster. Marti loved having her face painted, after we washed it off she asked me everyday if we could do it again. We took the tram to the top of the mountain and Kory and Aaron took the girls back down on the chair lift (Marti called it the swings). We got some bratwurst for lunch, it still amazes me to watch Marti and Emy eat, they finished their food in about 10 seconds and then asked for more. Here's some pics...

Starburst Wrappers

Marti and Emersyn love Starbursts, they would eat them all day if I let them. They have always come to me and had me unwrap the Starbursts for them but yesterday they both decided they could do it themselves. I was kind of skeptical, but I let them try it. After sitting there watching for a few minutes I asked Marti if she needed my help, "no, I can do it myself". She finally did it herself and then she reached over and helped Emersyn open hers. It was the smallest, silliest thing, but I was so proud.

Freckles

This was a conversation I had with Marti a few weeks ago...

Marti (pointing): What's on your face?
Me: Those are freckles
Marti: Oh
Marti (now touching my face with her finger): You have a f!@kle there and a f@*kle there and a f*$kle there

That's right my 3 year old said the f word, multiple times. She probably would have kept pointing out all my f*$kles but I scared her when I burst out laughing.

Picture Time

We went and got some pictures taken of the girls today. Usually it is Emersyn that has a hard time with pictures, but today Emersyn was awesome and Marti needed a little persuasion (persuasion = candy).

All work and no play makes Marti & Emy grumpy kids

It's a good thing that the 24th of July is a holiday in Utah because my kids needed a break from packing. We went to the parade downtown and I found out a few things about my kids. Marti really doesn't like clowns, she would see one coming and would run to hide behind the chairs. She also doesn't like the motorcycle cops, but she loves the horses and princesses. Emersyn will dance to any sort of music, marching bands, church choirs, bagpipes, she just can't help herself.

After the parade we went swimming, it was really hot so we all stayed in long enough to turn into prunes.

I hate moving!

Ok, so I know that it has been 2 weeks since my last blog, but things have been pretty crazy around here. We got an offer on our house while we were in Delaware and after some negotiating we accepted it. Silly me I thought the hard part was over once our house was sold, house hunting sounded so fun. Well, it isn't fun. It is a terrible terrible experience filled with disappointment and frustration. I would go out with our agent in the morning looking at houses, not easy when you are dragging around two little girls who like to get into other peoples stuff, and then if I liked something we would go out after Kory got home to look at it again.

After putting in about 4 offers on houses we didn't get I was about ready to throw in the towel when we found out that the sell fell through on the 1st house we put an offer in for. So we hurried and put in another offer before anyone else could snatch it up and thank heavens it was accepted.

I am now working on packing my house up so that we can move at the end of the month, needless to say you probably won't be hearing a lot from me for at least the next few weeks.

Washington DC Pictures

Washington DC

Everything you want to see back east is about 2 hours from Jon and Michelle's house, I'm not kidding everything, so we decided we would go to Washington DC for 1 night. We stayed at the JW Marriott right downtown (fancy), our room was on the 2nd floor so Marti and Emersyn thougth it was fun to sit by the window and watch all the action on the street.

We went to the Air and Space Museum (really cool) and then walked past the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial. I was kind of disappointed with the state of The National Mall, it needs some serious fertilizer and maintenance. I thought the coolest thing was the Lincoln Memorial.... until we got kicked out because there was a bomb threat (yikes). We tried to walk past the White House, which is not as easy as you would think to find, and when we finally got there they shut the sidewalk down for security reasons so we couldn't get very close. It was still cool to see, even from a distance.

Kory's favorite part was going to the Museum of Natural History, he liked the dead animals and I liked the diamond and precious stone gallery.

There is so much to see there we will have to go back, hopefully when the kids are old enough that we can go to the adult attractions, i.e. Arlington and the Holocaust Museum etc.

Delaware Pictures

Delaware Fun

We got back from our trip to Delaware on Saturday and Marti was ready to go back on Sunday. We had a really good time seeing Jon and Michelle and the kids. Marti and Brinley got along especially well, except when it came to sharing the boys. They spent a lot of their time playing dress up. Emersyn really loved Kayla (who is totally adorable and sweet) and liked to smother her with hugs and kisses. Dallin and Josh were so sweet and patient with the girls, Dallin spent a lot of his time reading them books.

We went to the Baltimore Aquarium and watched the dolphin show and then ate dinner right by the ocean (or at least I think it was the ocean?).

We went to the beach and spent a day enjoying the sand and water, we even saw dolphins swimming nearby. I think Marti and Emersyn still might have sand stuck to her scalps from that trip.

We all went to see Kung Fu Panda, which is really good, and then we left the kids with a babysitter, except Kayla, and the adults went to dinner.

Kory locked the keys in our rental car, with the car running, and then we had to wait 2 and 1/2 hours until a locksmith came to unlock it. We wasted a lot of gas. I think that Kory and I are now even for the Bear Lake ditch incident.

I got to test my driving skills as we were driving to Philadelphia in rain that can best be described as a waterfall. We made it, but it was definitely white knuckle driving.

We had pretty good weather while we were there, they have afternoon thunderstorms that pop up a lot, but that didn't stop the kids from running through the sprinklers, until the lightning started.

So long....for now

This will be my last blog for a while because we are going to Delaware tomorrow to visit Kory's brother and family. (I hope they are ready for a little 2 year old attitude.)

"Swimming"

We had planned on going to my Mom & Dad's new house so that the girls could swim in their community pool. We got to the pool and saw a sign that said that pool was closed because there were "feces" in it. So, we decided to make our own pool in my parents bathtub. We put some bubble bath in it turned on the jets and made a big bubbly tub. They had an awesome time making bubble hats and "swimming" in the bathtub.

Lagoon

We went on our first trip to Lagoon last week. Marti's favorite ride was the merry go round, she's a real wild one. I thought Emersyn would be afraid of the little roller coaster we went on, but it ended up that Marti was a big chicken and Emersyn was saying "weeeeeeee". Marti and her cousin Joey were attached at the hip the whole day, they went on every ride they could together. The first ride they did was the little swings, before the ride started Joey got scared and started to cry. Marti didn't miss a beat she just put her arm around him and told him it would be ok, that was how they spent the rest of the ride. We had some little cupcakes for my birthday and Nathan, Joey and Daniel picked out a cool Transformers birthday hat for me (thanks guys).

Haircut

Marti got her first professional haircut today. She was really good about holding still, she thought getting her hair blow dried was the best part, that and the treat she got after. She looks like such a big girl.

Baby Powder

We had an incident with the baby powder. Marti knew there was going to be trouble so when she heard me coming up the stairs she took off. Emersyn was just sitting there in the pile with a big grin on her face, she wasn't so smiley when she got a timeout.

Noodle Salad Memories

I thought I should explain our blog name, to those of you who don't already know where it comes from. It is from a movie called As Good as It Gets, here is the complete line:

"Some people have great stories, pretty stories that take place at lakes with boats and friends and noodle salad. Just no one in this car. But, a lot of people, that's their story. Good times, noodle salad."

Kory and I use this line a lot when we talk about good memories we have from our childhoods. Hopefully by using this blog as a kind of family journal I will remember to fill my kids lives with noodle salad memories so that when they look back to their childhoods they can feel that they have great and pretty stories.