Snowshoeing

Last Sunday I went snowshoeing with my Pi Phi friends, Ashlee and Niki. It was my 1st time snowshoeing and I loved it! We snowshoed up to Donut Falls in Big Cottonwood Canyon. We couldn't have picked a more perfect day. It was a beautiful, sunny day and it wasn't too cold. The scenery was gorgeous. I should mention that Ashlee took all of these pictures. It was a nice little workout and I can't wait to go again. What a great outdoor winter activity.

Christmas 2010

This Christmas was so wonderful! My family was all together here in Utah and we had such a great time. Then, me and the kids returned to California with my parents for 5 days and flew back to Utah just in time to spend New Years Eve with Tony. These were some of my favorite pictures from this past week. Arabella has finally learned how to pose for the camera and smile. She is in such a cute stage... full of laughter and smiles.

This morning we woke up to lots of new snow. So we suited up, drove to a nearby hill and went sledding! This was Arabella's first time. I want to say that she loved it. However, when asked if she likes playing in the snow, she replied "no". She takes after her mama. Gavin, on the other hand, loved it. He takes after his daddy. He kept asking if he could go down another time. We finally had to cut him off. It was a great little family outing. And I can't help feeling that "it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas".

The Elf on the Shelf

Have you heard of this! My sister-in-law told me about it and I ran out and got one the very next day (at B & N for $29.95). It's genius! You can buy/adopt your very own elf. He comes with a book that tells all about this special family tradition. Basically, your elf watches over the kids and flies back to Santa every night to tell him if they've been naughty or nice. The next morning he shows up in a different place. It's a lot of fun for Gavin to find him each morning when he wakes up. There are a few rules. One is that kids can not touch him or it takes away some of his magic. However, kids are encouraged to talk to him and tell him what they want for Christmas. Another cool thing you can do with your elf is give him a name. Gavin named ours Ethan (which I love). You can go online and register your elf and print up an official adoption paper. You can also print out a personalized letter from Santa to your family. This is one tradition we will be doing every year.

My Little Dancer

This little girl LOVES to dance! She doesn't even need any music. She often shuffles around the house like she's tap dancing or something. I was lucky enough to capture one of her spontaneous dancing episodes on camera. Usually when I try to take a picture of her dancing it ends up blurry. I wish I used my video camera. I swear... it doesn't get much cuter than an 18 month old baby. It's possibly the cutest stage there is!

Antigravity Yoga

Last night a friend and I tried an antigravity yoga class (shout out to Ashlee). It was so cool! I just had to blog about it. I've taken many yoga classes before at various places and I've always liked it, but found it to be a little boring (flash back to falling asleep during the meditation time at a prenatal yoga class while preggars with Gavin). Antigravity yoga is anything but boring. It is so much fun; like yoga with the volume turned up. What is antigravity yoga, you ask? Well, the pics above give you an idea. Basically, you are in a hammock contraption doing various yoga poses as well as swinging, hanging upside down suspended in the air, doing summersaults, etc. I will definitely be doing it again and I would recommend it to all my friends. My class was at The Imagination Place and it is the only place that offers classes in SLC.

Fire Dept. Awards Banquet

We had a great time at the Salt Lake City Fire Department Awards Banquet at the downtown Marriott. Tony put on his class A uniform and I sported a nice dress and we got to chat it up with friends and have a nice dinner. It was a good time. I just really wished that I had gotten a full body shot of the two of us, especially Tony. We don't get dressed up like that too often.

The Anasazi Trail

A few weeks ago we spent a long weekend at the Pyne house in St. George. We invited some friends and had a great time (as always). We made the most out of the warm fall weather and spent a lot of time outdoors. One of the highlights was hiking the Anasazi Trail in Santa Clara. The coolest part of the hike was discovering all of the petroglyphs (in the 1st two pictures). I'm talkin' actual Native American drawings!

Halloween

Celebrating Halloween at the in-laws with the Allred cousins

Halloween Parties

Skeleton Boy

My Little Bumblebee

Here are a couple of pictures of the kids all dressed up for their school Halloween parties.

Halloween Menu

I'm not ashamed to admit that I love to cook and bake. I also like to get into the holiday spirit and make it as fun as possible for my kids. So I'm always on the lookout for cute recipes. Here's a couple of super simple desserts that I made this week...

1) Graveyard Pudding: I kinda just made this up. I saw a similar recipe with a cake. It consists of chocolate pudding topped with crushed chocolate cookies and/or sprinkles. Throw some gummy worms in there and place a Pepperidge Farm Milano cookie (with R.I.P. written on it with black decorating gel) in the pudding for the grave and... Voila!

2) Snack-O-Lantern Fruit Cups: I found this idea here. Simply hollow out an orange and carve it (the way you would a jack-o-lantern). Serve it with fruit salad inside.

Prop 1

Apparently, we are supporting and promoting the support of proposition 1. Prop 1 is a bond measure that would provide the money necessary to finish our new Utah Museum of Natural History. This bond will cost the average Utah household $2.40 per year (for the next 15 yrs.). I guess it's worth it. We visit the old museum (located at the University of Utah) quite a bit because Gavin is fascinated by dinosaurs and learning as much as he can about them. And I'm sure we will enjoy visiting the new even more. But honestly, the real reason we posted the sign in our yard is because Gavin saw them around and wanted one and he especially wanted to color it.

Layla Grayce & InStyle Magazine!

I am so proud of my big sis, Tiffany. Her company, Layla Grayce, was named one of the "Best Online Shopping" sites in InStyle magazine (November issue)! Layla Grayce has been in many magazines, but InStyle is HUGE! It IS my favorite magazine (and Tiffany's), so this is a big deal.