Saturday, November 22, 2008

Go Utes! Go Hougars!

just keeping up a little friendly rivalry in the tradition of jim's family...

Sunday, November 2, 2008

November beginning

I took a memorial drive up to Alta today with my brother, David, and found snow! it's coming...
Later, we had some lovely family time (missed you Jane and BenD) - little Lainey took this photo. very convenient.
also, some lovely fondue and white grape juice and memories of Mom (the batteries in my camera were dead by then, otherwise I would have taken a pic for you, Jane.) I don't know how it happened, but it feels like my years start and end in November now, and I'm feeling hopeful looking toward the next one coming.
and here's something my dad (who does happen to be clever and creative, unlike me) surprised me with this week. and I, now that the surprise has worn off, am crazy about it. (turns out I'm not good at being surprised. Jim knows this about me, but I'm still learning.) my dad put my mom's jewelry on charm bracelets for me and my sisters. not traditional. very eclectic. just like my mom.

October ending

for jane especially:
this was probably the only happy moment Lainey had on the class field trip to the pumpkin patch. that was a rough morning. I need to go on hiatus from field trips for a while I think. Romney had more fun - he ran through the hay maze and was having a ball until he saw the [disgusting] port-a-potty and needed to go. he burst into tears on the spot (so of course Laine did too - I mean, hey, why not?), and then wet his pants. not a great moment.

Halloween highlights:
Lainey wore my old witch costume that my mom had made for me oh so many years ago, which was really fun for both of us. She practiced her witch laugh all month long (seriously) and stayed in character all night! this child needs a better drama outlet than once-yearly Halloween. ask her to demonstrate sometime, but don't stand too close. it's piercing. Romney wore my little brother's old cowboy vest and the sweetest snakeskin boots you've ever seen. cute little cowboy!
Lainey went trick-or-treating with friends and was just as happy as a girl can get. love those simple joys. (if you can really count the mass frenzy of halloween a simple joy...but I do.)
this was from our Halloween breakfast. I woke up thinking that I would be that fun, creative, and clever mom I aspire to be on this day, and made a delectable breakfast of green monkey brains and monster fingers, with skeleton juice and...orange wedges. anyway, the kids thought it was SO fun until it came time to eat, at which point Laine rudely pointed out that we weren't actually eating monkey brains. They were just scrambled eggs with spinach (I was going for healthy too, obviously. this may have been my downfall. maybe next year I'll just try food coloring.) Scrambled eggs with spinach puree were DISGUSTING, and not fun and cool like monkey brains. Luckily(?), Romney will eat sausage by any name, so the monster fingers got eaten a little bit...and the skeleton juice was a rare enough treat (chocolate milk) that it only required minimal coaxing. being clever is so much less fun when the kids are SO not impressed. boring.