Breakfast with Santa

Christmas is all abut the little kids. Since Ken and i don't have any of our own, we enjoy it through our nieces and nephews. This year, we invited Nate, Katie, and their three girls up to spend the weekend with us. We were able to find a place that does Breakfast with Santa. We got up early Saturday morning and headed over.

As we walked in the door, they asked if the girls wanted reindeer antlers or Santa hats. They both wanted antlers. Later, they got to get their faces painted. Ellie decided to stay with the reindeer theme and became Rudolph. Sophie wanted to get a Christmas tree on her cheek.

We also got to sing Christmas carols with Santa and had balloon animals!! Both of the girls got unicorns. They just love unicorns.

Little Ivy just chilled out most of the time. She was content sitting with Daddy in her bear outfit.

Shortly before Santa arrived, Katie asked Sophie if she was ready to see him. Sophie looked at her with her big brown eyes and said "I thought you were Santa." Poor girl has it all figured out at the age of 3

After Santa got their we wrote him a letter. Santa would even mail it back to us if we wrote our address at the bottom. Amazingly, Santa knew where Tremonton was. He was impressed that they would come this far to see him.

Thanks Nate and Katie for letting us share this moment with you guys. We are thankful you would come up and spend the weekend with us. Oh yeah, you ROCK!!

super graphics

Ken's Parents have been doing a remodel at their home. It was a pretty big undertaking for them. It took most of October and November to complete but it looks great. new windows, new carpet, new paint, new lighting, new tile. It looks Great!! Way to go Chris and Kirb!

Kirby is an architect and an artist. He has done some really interesting stuff over the years. I just love to point out his buildings and say "my Father in law designed that". His artistry carries into their home. Their artwork is awesome and each one has a story behind it. They also do super graphics on their walls. What is a super graphic?? It is an accent paint color that is a stripe or an oval or...the possibilities are endless. Theirs goes across the ceiling and a down a wall or two.

Before the remodel, they had one super graphic in the front room. It was light grey. It started in one corner of the room, went up the wall, across the ceiling the the diagonal corner and down that wall. it was pretty cool.

The new super graphic is much more detailed. They chose three different colors, Red (their favorite color), medium grey, and light grey. here they are intersecting in the middle of the ceiling.

You can see that they don't actually tough each other. They stop just inches away from the other stripe. Each super graphic highlights a painting or piece of art they have on the way. here they all are.

There are three more in the entry way. these are smaller but they continue the colors and tie it all together.

This last one has been dubbed the mike and ike. It is roughly 4 fee tall with a giant can opener inside in it. It is right over the stairs so it took some serious balancing to get just right.

I think it all looks great! Way to go Chris and Kirby!!

Christmas tree tradition - part two

This year we decided to build again. WOO HOO!! We decided we were going to get corrugated steel roofing panels, fold them into triangles then place them one on top of each other with lights cascading down them.

The Friday after Thanksgiving we headed to Home Depot. We purchased all the necessary items including three corrugated roofing panels. Hint, measure your car before you go. Take tie downs if yo need to place items on your roof rack or borrow a truck. We got the panels to the FJ only to realize they would not fit. Idea! let's just fold them now and then they will fit for sure. WRONG!! Corrugated panels are designed NOT to bend. OOPS. So, we returned two and kept the "dented" one.

Saturday we were in Tremonton with my Brother and Sister in law. We plotted the way there and back on a new tree. We decided to get three 2 x 4's and make a triangle. Then we covered them with metal roofing panels on a roll that are 14" wide. We didn't want the lights to show so we taped them to the back of the metal. All you can see is metal and light bulbs. It is pretty cool if you ask me. Here it is with all the lights off.

Here is the tree with all the lights in the room off and only the lights from the tree on.

Here it is with the lights in the room on and the lights on the tree.

There is one main item that is the same with all our trees. They are all made of stainless/aluminum products or made to look like it. Maybe we will go out of our norm next time. Who knows what 2011 will bring!

Christmas tree tradition - part one

Every family has their own traditions during the holiday season. My side of the Family gets together every Christmas Eve to eat chili and play bump (our version of the white elephant game). It has been this way ever since I can remember. Dad and Bet make Chili and oyster stew. Dad is the only one that eats the oyster stew but it is tradition. We have to make a batch or it isn't Christmas Eve.

Ken's family would have a traditional Christmas tree one year, the following year they would build a tree. It is a sculpture and somewhat resembles a tree but isn't necessarily a tree. When ken and I got married, i fell in love with the idea. Ken and I have continued the tradition. Below is Chris and Kirby's tree in 2003. It is kind of hard to see. Basically it is a bunch of styrophone spears covered in tinfoil. They then wrapped the center with purple tinsle and placed purple glowing orbs at the bottom.

Our first tree in 2002 was...OK. We tried our best but it is was not our favorite. I think my sister Daphne was the only one that saw it and I am OK with that. I don't even think we have pictures of it. We did a lot better in 2004. We had just moved into our home in West Jordan earlier that year. We had 30 foot ceilings in the front room and used it to our advantage. What do you think?? Kenny is standing about 6 fee way from it. He isn't too happy about being in the picture.

2007 Was our next tree adventure. We had just moved back from Maryland and were living in a small town house. We didn't have a lot of room so we made a small one that would fit on a table. This one doesn't look like a tree at all but that is OK. We had fun putting it together.

To some, this may seem silly but to me it is yet another fun tradition that sets us apart. We wrap gifts in tinfoil too. It is a kirkman thing. man, I am glad I married into a quirky family. It sure makes the holiday's fun!

One Bad Nipple!

Get your mind out of the gutter!!

The hot water in our house has been a bit weak as of late. It seemed no matter what we did to fix the pressure, it would get worse. We finally decided that we should consult a professional and/or get a new water heater.

I called Lowes and Home depot and was told we needed a new one (of course they would install it for us for a small fortune). Ken researched on line and found that we may have clogged pipes. For a tie breaker, I called a company called Only Water Heaters. Surely, they would know. After all, it is their specialty.

Sure enough within a minute he tells me "you have a clogged nipple". Now he hasn't seen me so I know he isn't talking about MY nipples. Do water heaters have nipples too?? Apparently so. We decided to have him come out and fix it for us instead of spending our entire Saturday looking for the right nipple to unclog.

Ken met him at home at 2pm on a Friday. By 2:15 the bad nipple was removed and a new one in place. When you hold it up to the light, you can see only a pin hole worth of water was going through. No wonder we had no pressure.

Now we have more water pressure than we have EVER had in this house. When I shower, I feel like the water is yelling at me and I have to hurry. It is a good thing to have to get used to.

You are a well disguised nerd!!!

I love that Kenny likes school and wants to go back. He loves to be challenged physically and mentally. I am proud of him.

Last night, we were catching up with a couple that subs for us at Bowling. I am proud of my sweetie so I told her Ken was doing all the necessary steps to start school in the Spring. She asked if it was for his bachelors. I said no, " He already has an MBA (Masters in Business Administration) but he wants to get either his Masters in Accounting or just a CPA". Her response was priceless.

"You are a WELL disguised NERD". She meant it as a compliment but it didn't come out that way. Poor Kenny. he was teased all night about being a nerd. Well, he gets teased often about being smart. He has been called a dork, a nerd, graph man...the list is endless

Sweetie, i don't think you are a nerd or a dork. You are always looking out for our little family and doing what you believe is best to keep us progressing. Thank you Kirby and Chris for teaching him the value of an education.

I love my "nerd".

We said "yes" - Yoga said no

A few weeks ago a posted about our yes list (which is growing by the day! We just added welding). The first thing on our list was Yoga. What an adventure!!

We did a quick search on Google to find a Yoga studio in our area. We were able to find one rather close that offers fundamental classes every Saturday morning at 8am. That is perfect, we thought. We will be able to do a few classes to decide if we like it. If we do like it, we will buy a pass.

I emailed the Studio and confirmed pricing, dates, times etc. I even made sure our name was on the list for the 8am class on the 10th. Saturday morning came around, we got up, showered and got ready - skipped breakfast as they say not to eat 3 hours prior - and headed out. Skipping breakfast is never good for Ken or I. We both get a little...testy. Class started at 8am so we got there at 7:50 to make sure we were all set and didn't hold up the class.

No one was there. The lights were completely off and we could not see any movement inside the building. We sat in the car and waited.

At 8:05, I got out of the car and tested the door. It was locked. We decided to wait until 8:10. If they did not open by then we would call it quits and head for the hills. Sure enough, we ended up going home. We salvaged the morning with a little Top Gear viewing while we ate breakfast and had our coffee.

So, the question is, What do you do when you say YES and the world says NO? Try, try again I suppose. We will find another place and shoot for another attempt on the 17th. Let's hope second time is the charm! Tee Hee!

Doors and hardware

My sweet husband had one task he wanted to accomplish this weekend. He wanted to paint the railing out front of our house. It was Black and needed to be taken care of as the paint was chipping. Friday, he went to Home Depot on his lunch break and got the stain and wire brushes. Ken then walked around to look for ideas for our Christmas tree build.

Later that afternoon he called me at work. Doors were on sale at Home Depot! We wanted to replace the doors in our house as they are...worn. We also wanted to replace all the brass hinges, strike plates and knobs with stainless. So, off to Home Depot we went.

Did you know that Doors come in standard sizes but the jams are not standard?? we bought three doors and had to cut down all three of them. This was no easy task as we do not have a table saw. Ken measured, cut, and sanded the edges. Then he used the router to cut in the hinge plates. He did a great job! I helped a little bit, but it was mainly him.

By 3pm on Saturday, we were ready to put the first coat of paint on all the doors. There were 3 new doors and 5 old doors (not counting the front door and the garage doors). We finished hanging the doors around 7pm on Sunday and were finished with the hardware around 9pm. Not too bad for our first time - and it only took 5 trips to Home Depot! The upstairs looks great!!!

Thanks for doing so much for our house sweetie. I am sure you would rather spend our time and money on new tires or a lift for the cars. I appreciate all you do for our little family.

Oh, did we get the railing painted?? YES! I got the first coat on while he was making a trip to Home Depot (I think it was the third trip). Later that day, we were in a spot where he could do one task and I would do another. I told him I would finish the railing. He said "But that was my one project this weekend and I haven't had a chance to do any of it." What a cutie! He actually WANTED to paint the railing. Sweetie, you chose a great color and did a wonderful job on the second coat. Man, I am one lucky woman!

Just Say Yes

Katie Marble, you have inspired me! Most of my life, I say NO before I say Yes. Betty pointed that out to me when I was 16 and many times after that. I don't really know why but I don't say YES as often as I probably should. I have come a long way since I was 16 but there is still more room to grow. Katie, you are always open to new ideas and trying new things. I want to be more like you.

Last week I was talking to Katie. For the third time that week I found myself saying "No, I haven't done that. I am interested in it and can see the benefit but I haven't done it." That got me thinking. Why do I have a desire to say No. After some serious searching, I realized that I don't do a lot of things because I think "I am not going to be good at it so why try?". This has to STOP!!!

So, I talked to Ken. We have decided to start a "yes" list. Items that we are interested in and want to try but just haven't. Of course, there are restrictions (money, bodily harm, legality, etc) but we are open to many different ideas. Some of them will be more enjoyable with Teachers. If you have any ideas or want to share your talents with us we are open to new ideas. The main thing, we both have to be able to do it.

YES LIST:
Yoga (we have found a place and we are going to a fundamentals class next Saturday)
Pickle Ball (Come on Nate!! Teach me how to be beat by a 75 year old man!)
Mountain Biking (Ken does this, I don't but I have a bike so I will)
Snow boarding (again, Ken already does it,I will this winter)
Social events (i.e. Mannheim Steam Roller, Bill Engvall)
Volunteering
Meditation
Pilate's
Building stuff - I want to learn how to build shelves, tables etc from just wood (no kit involved)
School (Angela - this is my biggest hurdle. I have to get over my...anxiety)

Things we have already said yes to (in no particular order):
More sporting events (thanks Dad and Bet!)
Cooking Club
Health and Fitness
More School (for Ken)
Family - both maintaining and building our own
Oil Class
Building a deck (hopefully next summer)
Basic Cake decorating Skills

What do you think guys? Will you help us with our quest to say yes?!?!?!

Gas bet - who won?!?!?!

In a previous post, i told you of a bet between Ken and I on the price of Gas. The bet was how high it was going to get. I know you are all dying to hear who won.

NEITHER OF US DID! We both guessed too high. Ken guessed lower than I did and had a bigger window. He missed the window by 9 cents.

Since this was a monetary bet and no one won, the house gets the money.

I guess it is true what they say: the house always wins.

Gotta get more ink

Ken and I started taking pictures of family events shortly after we returned from DC. We have photo albums at home that we update from time to time. One has all family and friends. One has our adventures and trips. One is blank - who knows what we will decide to put it in! Well, We ran out of colored ink in our printer about a year ago. As ink is 35.00, I have not purchased any more. I keep thinking, I will get it next week.

Yesterday I got a "bee in my bonnet" and decided I had waited long enough. I was getting ink so I would print out pictures and update our albums. We went to wal-mart and found the same ink for 25.00! WOO HOO!

It is already gone. We ran out of paper so I had to go to office max and get more. There are over 100 pictures that I printed. Only 4 photo's are sitting in my que. Maybe Ken isn't the only Oatmeal in our family - good: printed over 100 pics today, bad: still have more to print, gotta get more ink.

FRANCIS PEAK

Today, Ken and I went up Framington Canyon with his parents. The picture above is one of the off shoots we always take. There is a fun "bump" at the end. You can really see the articulation of the Jeep a.k.a. Kirbicon. What a good looking machine!

I love the views from up there. You can see Morgan county on one side and Ogden on the other.

We love off roading with Kirby and Chris. Here are our machines facing off.

If there is a "trail" we want to go on but aren't sure if it is safe, we send out a search party. They walk the trail and see if there is a place to turn around or if it is too treacherous. Kenny and Kirby were our search party today. Aren't they cute!

Happy Bday Kirby!

Happy Birthday Kirby!!
Kirby doesn't turn 60 until the 26th but Sunday we all gathered at Chris and Kirby's to wish him a happy birthday. I cannot begin to tell you how proud I am to have him as my FIL (Father in law). I find myself getting all puffed up when I talk about him, especially when I exclaim that he is an Architect (hey!). I love his buildings and get all excited when I tell people they are his. Here he is with his kids. They all love him Very much. Chris and Kirby did a great job raising them. They all have dozens of stories of their road trips, dad's pasta surprise, and learning how to appreciate cars. Kirby doesn't smile in pictures much. This is the biggest smile you get when the camera comes out. This is odd because as I mentioned before, he is SILLY. The whole family sits and laughs together. Their favorite thing is go on a pun round. One person starts a pun and they keep it going with similar puns until it is all "punned out". I believe Kirby was the one that informed me that puns are the highest form of humor. Of course I believe him!

In an earlier post, i mentioned that Kirby and Chris has a poodle with a Mo Hawk. here is a better shot of it. I wasn't kidding!

I could go on for hours about Kirby and his accomplishments (he has even tried out for Jeopardy) but I won't. He is awesome and I am glad I have him for my FIL.

HAPPY 60th Kirby M - guy with a beard.

Yummy Food!!!

Ken and I LOVE food. I am sure I have said this many times through out my blogging. we just cannot help it, we love it. Maybe that is how we got to be 100 lbs over weight (each) a few years back. We have several friends that are "foodies" as well. That is one of the reasons we started our cook off in May (see May's posts)

John and Steve are foodies to the extreme. They know how to cook EVERYTHING and they do. They pack their lunches every day but it is a not your typical lunch. It is usually a three course meal with a salad, entree and dessert. How they stay so skinny I will never know.

In January, they approached us about being in a cooking club. Of course we said yes! This is how it works. There are 4 couples involved. Each couple hosts once a year so we get together every 3 months. Everyone that attends is to bring one dish (assigned ahead of time) in a specific theme.

Our first club was Mardi Gras theme. We were assigned an appetiser and a sorbet. We brought Cajun meatballs and a chunky shrimp spread. The sorbets were lemon and mango. Others brought Gumbo, voodoo chicken, crab cakes, bean and tomato salad, and bread pudding. It was our first event, everyone overate and we had to roll ourselves home.

The second event was Spanish themed. We were assigned a tapa and a salad. That evening, we had crab croquettes, pork tenderloin bruschette, meatballs, salmon salad w/ orange vinaigrette, paella and flan. YUMMY!

Saturday was our third club. This was a bbq theme (everything had to be made on the grill). Who knew you could make a salad on the bbq? I sure didn't but man, I am glad we got to try it! ken and I were assigned an appetiser and a vegetable. We made Apple Gouda Quesadillas with home made tortillas!! They were awesome if I do say so myself. We also had bacon rapped scallops, corn on the cob, grilled zucchini, steak fries on the grill, salmon and grill pineapple for dessert. I will stop teasing you, here is the recipe for the quesadillas. Try them and let me know how you like them!

APPLE GOUDA QUESADILLAS

8 (8 inch) flour tortillas
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons honey Dijon mustard
2 green ions, chopped
2 red apples, cored and thinly sliced
2 cups shredded Gouda cheese
½ package bacon, cooked and crumbled


Preheat a grill to high heat.
Brush oil onto one side of tortilla and place on a plate oil side down. Spread about ½ tablespoon of mustard on the topside, and top with green onion, apple slices, bacon and ½ cup of shredded cheese. Place second tortilla on top, and brush the top with olive oil. Repeat with remaining ingredients until you have a total of 4 quesadillas.

Brush the grilling surface with oil and place the quesadillas carefully on the grill. Grill for about 3 minutes or until the bottom is crisp. Flip and grill on the other side until crisp. Remove from the grill to serving plates and cut into quarters. Serve warm.

I love this club! It challenges me and helps me try different recipes that I normally would shy away from. Thanks John and Steve for inviting us! We love it!!!

Oh, I forgot to mention, we trade recipes after the club. You walk away from every meal with 6 new recipes for your own cook book. How cool is that!?!?!?

The last one is in November. Ken and I are hosting it. The theme...French! Oh La La!

Road trip - oregon

Kenny and I just celebrated our 7 year wedding anniversary. We decided it was time for us to go on a trip. What better way to celebrate than on a road trip! Florence Oregon was to be our destination. It would be a 14 hour drive there (which we drove in one day). Above is the view from our balcony in the hotel. This is a draw bridge over the Siuslaw River.

Day two (day one being the driving day) we woke up early for a full day of site seeing. Our first stop was a "one hour tour" of the sand dunes. They had a thrill ride, a scenic ride or a one hour ride that was a bit of each. Man, our driver Brad knew every dip, every hill, all the sweet spots. I almost peed my pants when he took a few of the drops.

The dunes butt right up to the ocean. On one side, you see the trees and the dunes, the other you see ocean. What a beautiful place to be. Brad even stopped and found shells for each of the ladies. What a nice guy!

After a quick pit stop, we headed to the Heceta head light house.

They do tours that explain all the buildings, the lenses, attire, etc. Our guide was Harry. He did a great job. They even take you to the top so you can see the lenses.
Here it is! It is so intricate. They said you can see the light from this light house for 20 miles.

This is the view from the base of the light house.

Next, we headed over to the sea lion caves. They are the largest known oceanic caves. The sea lions come and rest on the rocks.

In order to get to the caves, you go down in an elevator 200 feet. I couldn't watch the needle, it made me a little nervous. The trip was worth it though. What an awesome sight.Day three we headed to Newport. It is about an hour's drive North on HWY 101. Here we went to the undersea gardens and the Oregon Aquarium. They were fun, but I think Sea World is more our style of aquarium. Sorry, no pics of these. We left the camera in the hotel (oops).

Day four we headed to Le grand, Oregon with a stop in Portland. You see, Ken's watch needed to have another link taken out and we thought we would do a little shopping while we were there. I love Tiffany's!! We both walked out with our own little boxes. Thanks sweetie!!!

Le grande, Oregon was to be our stop for the evening. We had planned on going to the drive in theatre that night and hitting the golf course in the Morning. The movies at the Drive in were all for kids so we decided to go to the indoor theatre. We have been spoiled with stadium seating. This theatre was state of the art ... in the 1970's. It reminds me of the one in Wheatland, Wyo. There were 3 total theatres, each holding about 100 people. The seats slopped down so if you were in the back of the theatre and dropped a smarty, it would roll to the front and hit the screen. The seat backs were low so the guys could do the old yawn and stretch and put their arms around their girl. What an adventure. I had forgotten how far movie theatres had come. We saw District 9.

Day five was our last 7 hours of driving and home. What a wonderful treat home is. We love our house and our critters. Phoenix was the only one home and she was LONELY! Chris and Kirby watched our house and Phoenix while we were gone. They even left some beautiful flowers on our table for us to come home to. Thanks again Chris and Kirby! you are the best Mil and Dil! Chris said she knew Phoenix was lonely when she would play with Chris and not bite her. yes, our cat is a little psycho, but we love her!

Gin came home the next night. She was glad to be out of boarding. She came in and played chase and jumped all around. She is so cute!!

Thanks again for the trip sweetie pie. What a rare treat to have you all to myself for 5 days. I love spending time with you. I love how silly you get. I love that you freak out when someone else pumps the gas because they might scratch the paint. I love that you are comfortable with who you are. Thank you for being you. thank you for all that you do for our little family. And Thank you for helping me get on and keeping me on the Roller Coaster.

Say hello to Bella and Jemma

Eric and Sara had their twins last week. What beautiful little girls! Sara was on couch and bed rest for the last 12 weeks of her pregnancy but this allowed her to carry the twins until they were 36 weeks.

This is Bella. She came out first and is almost a full pound bigger than her "younger" sister.

Here is Jemma. She was born 9 minutes after Bella. Jemma was breach at first. The doc was trying to turn her around when she spring boarded off his feet, did a summersault and came out head first. She might be a little gymnist!

Eric has been in marketing for quite some time. They have done something simlar to these "twins" bars for the births of all his girls. He does a great job. There was a twix inside the wrapping and everything. It is hard to read the back but it has all of the info about the girls including the doc that delivered them.

It is hard to tell if they are identical or not. The doctors are doing the dna tests to find out but they won't know for a while. Dad and Bet are looking at them to see if they can tell. Other than bella being heavier, there isn't much difference yet.

Audrey is still getting used to being a big sister instead of the baby. She will get there. Bella started crying while we were ther (she was hungry). Audrey promptly informed Grandpa Randy that "Bella needs Mommy".

Eric and sara are a great team. While having twins is no doubt a rough thing to handle, twins with three other little girls running around will bring it's own special challenges. They are surrounded by people who love them and are willing to help at any time (some of us are just a little farther away).