Elements of Style

My budding fashionista.

Ellie Is Boss

I can't even remember what I said. Probably something along the lines of, "I'm the mom and that means I'm the boss." In any case, Ellie wasn't pleased with the implications. She stormed off, only to return a minute later to post this sign on the fridge.




(Translation: "Ellie is boss of the whole family, right now and forever!")

ami's birthday

We had a nice quiet b-day for Ami last week. We're planning to go out sans kids for the wild and crazy portion, but this first half was still pretty fun, I thought.

By request, I made small chocolate souffles for the birthday cake. They are really tasty little devils, and surprisingly easy to put together.




















Unfortunately I forgot about the cardinal rule of birthday cakes: avoid powdered sugar. The white cloud after we blew out our individual candles was a good reminder.















The Harts sent an intriguing game called Killer Bunnies. We haven't tried it yet, but it looks promising. Ellie insisted on the party hats.
















I wonder how often measuring spoons generate a smile like that... yes, we were in dire need.
















Happy 32, Ami!

Belated Posts: The Ward Christmas Party

I know it isn't the Christmas season anymore, but as I'm going through pictures, I find funny ones and just have to share.


We have a great ward and every year we have a great Christmas party. This year the primary did the nativity -- you can see Ellie as a beautiful angel just to the left of the star. (If you click on the picture you can probably see her a lot better).





My favorite moment of the evening, however, was the nursery's production of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." Each child had a tone bell with a color coordinated smock so they could remember what their color was. The teachers made cards they would point to so the kids would know when to ring their bell. The kids practiced for weeks, but when it came down to their moment, they all simply rang their bells the whole time. All except Nico. He had no bell. He had a glowing light saber, which his teacher gave to him because he refused to go on stage with a bell.

The "Piece of Cheese Boat"

Kids are funny, and they think up funny things. Last week, while pretending the carpet was water, Nico and Ellie came up with flipping our little trampoline over to make a boat. Nico - very, VERY imaginatively - decided the capsized trampoline looked like a piece of cheese. (Black cheese? Yum.)

Somehow, several books, crayons and lots of paper made it aboard and they spent several happy hours sailing the carpet on their "Piece of Cheese Boat."

Christmas 08!

We had a great time. First we cut down the tree (at a managed tree farm of course).





















Gingerbread houses were made (passive voice is allowed in our house during the holidays).




















Ellie's class had a rockin' holiday party.
















Santa made his annual appearance through our neighborhood...
















...and he (or his representatives) stopped by later that evening with the goods.










The next morning:































































We finished it all off that night with a delightful Christmas dinner (check out that stripey Jello!). Ami's sister Becki and fam arrived later that night for a visit... but that'll have to be another post.

The family photo shoot.

We love our friend Minna. She is an amazingly talented person, and lucky for us, one of her many talents is photography. A couple weeks ago she did a photo shoot for us and you can see how it turned out here.

Here are a couple teasers....













If you are interested, you could hire her to do your family too!!