American Idol in SL

HEY, THERE'S CHRIS!!

Most of you who follow American Idol have probably seen this pink bunny teaser for the Salt Lake auditions tonight. I paused this frame at the end of the show last night and took a picture--why, you might ask? Well, when you look at this you probably think to yourself, 'Hey, there's a giant pink bunny running to hug Simon!' Which the bunny does, rather tightly, I might add. I look at this picture and think, 'Hey, there's Chris!'

My cute nephew Chris is on the right side of the screen wearing the black tee. He's a great artist, and that's Simon's picture he drew on the front. Chris and his pink bunny friend Greg got some camera time backstage and in front of the judges. Our family is hoping to see him tonight during the SL auditions. Chris' charimsa, engaging personality and multi-talents should warrant a piece of the fifteen minute fame pie. So look closely at tonight's auditions for nephew Chris and his Energizer friend. Woot, woot, Chris!

Delicious

This is my new favorite salad dressing, Lighthouse Spinach Salad dressing. It's so good, I plan to eat a spinach salad every day until I get sick of the dressing--or the spinach. I never plan to make homemade dressing for spinach salad ever again. It would also be great as a dipping sauce for chicken nuggets. Thought I'd share the love.

Some people's mothers

THAT'S SO ASHLEY!


(This is the look Ashley wants for her room-except in aqua accents, not pink)
Ashley's chandelier

Last week we went to Ikea and started redoing Ashley's room. We pulled everything out and got her a new bed. We also bought her the beginnings of some new bedding and a chandelier she really wanted. When we got home I discovered the chandelier was going to be much too big for her room.

Most decor-conscious mothers, I'm sure would pack up the chandelier and try again. We, however, put it on up. It's directly over her bed, so nobody can bump into it until unless they try.

It's just so Ashley to have an oversized chandelier focal point in her room, and I must admit, it's growing on me. She wants to do a black, white and aqua room.Her new bedding is black and white. We're going to paint the room a super light aqua, do one wall of damask black and white wallpaper behind her bed and then do bright aqua accents. Once we get it done it will be really cute, and maybe the chandelier won't look quite so ginormous.

Aquarium

The aquarium's always fun. We went today with cousins. Petting the stingrays, watching the little sharks zoom around their tank and getting creeped out by the octopus are generally the highlights.

Grace's favorite are the jellyfish because they glow pink and purple (I didn't tell her it was actually the background lights changing color, not the jellies).

WARNING: Graphic ... and ugly

BRING ON THE UGLY!! My injured finger is healing fine but is now uglier than ever. The nail's been black since day one, and I accidentally discovered this weekend that the black part is soft and can peel off. There's a new nail underneath, but now I'm left with a thick, injured nail on top and a soft new nail underneath. I'm afraid to paint it and prematurely injure the new nail. So I am left with no other choice than to fly my ugly bird finger as best I can. Sad. Any suggestions?

The Little Naughty Sunbeam

"Jesus wants me for a sunbeam"--?--I hope that still applies to Grace. She just turned three in September, and today was her first day in Sunbeams. She was pretty good--I lead the music in sharing time so I was there as a witness. She chatted loudly to everyone, gave big answers and sang I Love to See the Temple with zest--informing everyone that is her favorite song. So far, still cute.

She did not want to go with her teacher. Susan Burton goes above and beyond her teacher callings. I know she prepared for at least a week in advance. She had crowns, googly-eyed paper dolls with real lace bows that the kids made for themselves, personalized pictures of Jesus. I was in Young Women's with Susan, and she was frustrated if we ever changed the lesson schedule around because she already had her hand-outs done a month in advance. And she's a sweet grandma. Susan told me she came over twice yesterday to visit Grace, but we were gone both times.

She tried very hard with Grace--Grace wanted to have nothing to do with her--wild little pest! She actually made it through 2/3 of the class though, and then she was returned by a member of the primary presidency. Susan brought Grace her bag of adorable handouts and treasures after class. A minute later Kevin caught Grace throwing them on the floor and stomping on them.
:( So naughty--please don't tell Susan. I would be mortified. SO, we're gonna give it another run next week. Heaven help sweet Sister Burton and the sunbeams.

Highlights

Some Holiday highlights include:

• *Gingerbread houses
• *Christmas cookies at Kenny and Amber's
• *Santa

*Ashley's Nutcracker performance

*Kourtney's saxaphone concert

*Guitar Hero World Tour, Ipod Nano and Princess kitchen

*Rob and Jolene's wedding open house

Merry Christmas/Happy New Year

I didn't realize I had zero posts for the entire month of December. I'm surprised I remembered my password. Anyhoo, I'm probably back. I ate my weight in chocolate and all things creamy. We had a fabulous Christmas--Kev's parents were in town. It's fun to celebrate with imported family in their own home--they bought a house here a couple of years ago. As for the rest of the holiday highlights:

• Dec. 27--Kevin and I celebrated our 14th anniversary.
• Dec. 30--Kevin's birthday.
• Dec. 31--Year's Eve party/family b-day party for Kev.
• Jan. 1--The girls and I went to Idaho on New Year's day for my nephew Rob's wedding and the Burtenshaw family Christmas party--all within 10 days.

So NOW we're home, and the HOLIDAYS ARE OFFICIALLY OVER, and I'm not even sure I knew at what point they'd begun. They were a good, family-filled blurr.

Of course there were a couple of horrific moments, such as Kevin had to speak on Christmas day(actually Kevin's was pretty nice), and I had to speak the next Sunday--just the stake presidency and me. Kevin and Grace were home w/a stomache virus. Best to block that one back out and move on.