The tree

In honor of Caleb's 5th birthday and what would have been his entry into Kindergarten, the tree this year was labeled "Kindergarten Christmas." Alison envisioned a wonderful tribute and it came true. After much painting over the past week and few days. The painting of some ornaments, beads, a village, boxes, and boards took some time but they turned out well. After days of work, Alison and I put the combined ornaments on the tree with wire. Grandma Roberts spent several hours stringing the garlands. Here is the entire tree:

I couldn't get far away enough to include the manger/star on top. Here are some of my favorite letters and what goes with them:

K is for Kris Kringle. Alison found this cute Kris for the tree.

S is for Sled. We stained this one and then I stenciled "Believe" and some snowflakes on it.

T is for Toy. Isn't the rocking horse cute?
There is a desk and chalkboard that goes along with it thanks to Aunt Nancy and Alison's Dad. It was a lot of work but also very rewarding. Here are the letters and the items on the tree that they stood for:
A is for Angel
B is for Bow
C is for Candy Cane
D is for Dove
E is for Evergreen
F is for Family (of Snowmen)
G is for Gift (painted purple)
H is for Holly
I is for Icicle
J is for Jingle Bells
K is for Kris Kringle
L is for Lights
M is for Manger
N is for Nutcracker
O is for Ornament
P is for Poinsettia
Q is for Quartet (the four small figures where hard to wire on)
R is for Reindeer
S is for Sled
T is for Toy
U is for unwrap
V is for Village
W is for Wise Men
X is for X-Mas
Y is for Yule Log
Z is for zzz (as in someone who is really tired after along weekend)

Lauren's little sister

The newest, littlest member of our family was born today at app. 9:15am. The yet to be named little girl was 7lb 12oz and 21.5 inches long despite being two weeks early. Other than being tired, she, her mother, and her father are doing well. I left work a few minutes early to drive up to the hospital to see her. I overstayed my welcome so I could hold her and explain to her how wonderful and cute she is. She is a darling baby and I can already tell that she is above average (as all my nieces and nephews are.)

A 3-year-old's perspective

My sister-in-law Alison has been doing a post a day for the past week. It has been interesting to read about her perspective when dealing with a three and a half year old and an almost two year old. They are darling boys and they have a different perspective from we adults. All my nieces and nephews do. In their eyes life is good when they have their blankets, some food, and have family surrounding them. Pain can be quickly overcome after falling down and they don't stay down. Each one has learned to hop back up after falling. When does that change? I have noticed that I don't hop back up after a hurt (and I'm not talking physically.) A hurt feeling lasts a few minutes with a small child but can be nursed for hours, days, weeks, or even years by an adult. For some reason the older we get the more we seems to remember the pains that are inflicted on us, either by ourselves or by someone else. Why is that?

To go along with the theme of perspective, I give you several pictures that were taken by a three and a half year old:

I babysat Lauren last Thursday while her parents went to a play. She and I colored in our coloring books, sang, danced, took pictures, read, and then sang some more. I had a great time and I think she did as well. My camera is really simple. It has a very large viewer on the back so that you aren't required to put your eye up to a hole in order to see what you are shooting. After teaching her that she shouldn't put her fingers in front of the lens and that she had to hold the button down until the light flashed, she did pretty good. She ended up with about 40 shots but I thought these were some of the better ones. The last one I took (obviously.)

Photo scavenger hunt

Tonight my ward participated in a photo scavenger hunt for FHE. The list was as follows:

1. One member of the group doing a handstand.
2. One member of the group with a boat.
3. Two members of the group on their cell phones.
4. Three members of the group by a Yield sign.
5. Two members going down a slide.
6. Three or more members forming a letter of the alphabet with their bodies.
7. Three members of the team with someone in uniform.
8. One team member next to a California license plate.
9. All four members of the team with blue tongues.
10. Two members of the team on a diving board.
11. All four members of the team with a sign that says "Orem" on it.
12. Three members of the team in a public laundromat.
13. Three members of the team with a member of the FHE committee.
14. Two or more members of the team under a bed.
15. Two or more team members wearing sombreros.
16. Three team members playing with light sabers in the toy aisle of a store.
17. Three team members having a picture taken with a bald man with a goatee.
18. One team member with a live farm animal.
19. One team member checking out a book from the library.
20. One team member ordering something from the Wendy's drive through.

They had one hour to get as many done as they could and the winning team of four people won gift certificates to a local movie theater. One team got all twenty (I know since I checked the pictures to verify.) I actually did not participate, hence the lack of pictures. I kicked the event off by handing out the lists and then I was on my laptop for an hour doing some work. Due to HP's visit to our office today I am really behind in my work. Instead of doing my usual stuff I took 23 typed pages of notes. There are many a meeting invite that I haven't responded to and I haven't even started the agenda for tomorrow's Executive Committee meeting. Despite this I am ready for bed and don't think I will stay up to work anymore.

Eggnog and The West Wing

It is now past 1am on Sunday morning and I'm wide awake. I have just watched my third consecutive episode of The West Wing, a political drama from the 1990's. I love the witty banter between the characters and feel like I somehow am gaining more knowledge about how my government works when I watch it. I also just finished my third glass of eggnog for the day. I love eggnog. I am generally a fan of dairy as a whole (with the exception of nasty cottage cheese with its weird texture.) I wish grocery stores sold eggnog year round instead of waiting until November to start and then pulling it off the shelves in February. I suppose I could just make my own but I don't think it tastes quite as good as the store bought versions. I just noticed that my brother has a recipe for eggnog ice cream on his website. I will probably have to try it soon.
This past week has been a busy one. Work has been crazy as we have been preparing for a big meeting with HP at our office. My bosses son still is only sleeping in three hour increments so he's pretty tired. We are preparing for 20 employees to go to a conference in a week and a half. I have arranged for all the flights and am currently managing several conference calendars for the company. The meeting requests alone take up anywhere from 1-2 hours each day. All in all, I still absolutely love my job.
I also ordered a book and two cds from amazon.com and they finally arrived today. I am now the proud owner of Michael Buble's newest cd as well as the soundtrack to Glee, a new tv show on the Fox Network. The book is a graphic novel (my first) of, surprise surprise, Pride and Prejudice. I read about it in a magazine, which gave it a good review, and realized that I had to own it. (For those of you interested, the authors name is Nancy Butler.) I figured since I own all other version of the book I should own this one. All three purchases are great. I think I will close at this point and try to get some sleep.

Halloween Weekend

What a weekend it's been. On Friday morning I awoke with a start at 9:15am, realizing that I had forgotten to set my alarm. I immediately called work to let them know what had happened and that I would be in to work no later than 10am. I got dressed and then realized that it was the day before Halloween (meaning that we could wear costumes to work.) I then redressed in my angel outfit. I put on my wings when I arrived at work since driving with wings is a giant pain. I worked at my desk until lunch. A bunch of us went to Wingers for lunch in costume. At 3:15 I started to put candy on desks in preparation for trick or treating by the children of our employees. We had some pretty cute kids come around and we all ended up in the large conference room for sandwiches, chips and drinks. All in all, an excellent day at work. I came home, reapplied some make-up and hung out with Roommate R, her brother, and a mutual friend, A. They were preparing for our Halloween party
We started watching The Corpse Bride while we waited for the party to start. Friend A dressed as Mary Poppins, Roommate R was Little Red Riding Hood, and her brother was Bam-Bam from The Flintstones. People started showing up at 8:30pm. We had lots of fun eating, playing Mafia, and dancing. The party finally broke up around 2am but Roommate R and I stayed up talking. I finally went to bed around 3:30am.
I woke up to 6 text messages and a missed phone call from work. With people traveling from Portugal and to New York from Salt Lake I had to iron out a few hiccups. After making the world a more organized place I got up and had some breakfast while listening to Roommate H cough up a lung downstairs. Her room is right below mine and it sounds like she has walking pneumonia. I am going to do everything I can do stay away from her germs. I cleaned up after the party and ran some errands. I came home and passed out candy, watched a movie, and caught up on a little overdue reading. (How's that for exciting?)
On Sunday morning there was some prep for a large gathering at our house. It was decided last month that we would host Break the Fast at our house this month. For those of you not in the singles ward know, Break the Fast is when everyone gets together to break their fasting from food and water (hence the name.) Roommate R and friend A had prepared two turkeys (luckily we have an oven upstairs and downstairs) and were deciding how to set up the tables for the 40+ people who would show up at 4:30pm. I went to church, including Sacrament Meeting, Sunday School, and Relief Society, then submitted a reimbursement for last weeks Corn Maze activity, and then had a Visiting Teaching interview. I came home to find the house set up for Break the Fast. About 50 people showed up. We had two full turkeys and members of the ward brought mashed potatoes, corn, rolls, and desserts. People stayed until around 6pm. Roommate R, her brother, friend A and I cleaned up and now I am ready for bed.
While I loved being so social I feel like I didn't get a weekend. I do not feel prepared for work this week but I will do my best. I hope everyone had a great Halloween (and if anyone has a good picture of me in my costume, please send it along.)

Halloween with the Family

Last weekend I got to go up to my parents house and celebrate Halloween with my kids (nieces/nephews.) Most of them were there although two stayed home due to illness. We took some pictures, had a great meal, painted pumpkins, and played games. All in all we had a great time.