Viva Las Vegas!

Last week's girls trip to Vegas was great! Thanks to Cynthia for wanting to get out of town before she has her baby and to Sunny for putting the whole thing in motion. 13 of us went and it felt like the entire weekend flew by. It was great to see Dianne, who flew up from California to meet us. Phantom was amazing--although it felt like it played in fast-forward because they shortened it and played around with the plot a little.

The weather was perfect, as was the 45 min. or so I spent out by the pool taking a little nap :) Shopping was fun. I dragged everyone to Sephora twice and ended up buying nothing--sorry, girls. The outlets, however yielded two cute shirts, a pair of shorts, a new little wallet and a cute pair of ballet flats!

The crepes, pastries and $3 bottles of Diet Coke were totally worth it; the Bellagio water shows at 11:30 at night were so much fun, especially because Cynthia loves them. I got some great shots of the water and some cute ones of the girls all staring at it. It felt very Oceans 11.
I also learned a few things on this trip:

• Allow sleeping Connies their own space.
• You can never out-last two pregnant sisters in Vegas no matter how hard you try.
• Make sure the makeup lady who watched you smudge the lipgloss and the eyeshadow has actually left for the day before you walk back into Sephora again.
• Cheesecake Factory salads are a whopping bowl of lettuce--enough for at least four people.
• Never wear your comfy heels for a two mile stroll down the strip; you'll end up buying flip-flops.
• Next time, make it a four-day trip so you can vege by the pool with all your girlfriends for a relaxing day.
  

Signs of the leprechaun

Ah, the leprechaun came this year, leaving gold coins and a goblet full of pennies for the girls. Ashley failed to trap him again with her latest contraption. Grace kicked off the morning with her Lucky Charms breakfast and then made a glitter shamrock at preschool. Ashley wore her green Pinch Me shirt, but she said nobody at school appreciated the shirt's ironic humor as much as I do. (Actually she said I'm still the only one who thinks that shirt is funny on St. Patrick's day) That's a shame. We finished up the day with green spaghetti noodles.

Kourtney--Lucky number 13!

Well, it's official. My little girl is a teenager--choke! As if the calendar weren't evidence enough, Kourtney and I are mysteriously now the same height, she asked for a cell phone and clothes for her birthday and she wanted to make sure we didn't get her some sort of a character cake. Wow~that's a little much.

Kourt had a great birthday. She did in fact get her cell phone--after much begging, writing an official persusasive essay and agreeing to pay for all her minutes. Kev and I feel pretty good about this because it gives Kourtney the cell phone she wants (not needs), makes her responsible and accountable for it and keeps Ashley at bay. We'll let you know how this little experiment in parenting goes. Wish us luck.

Kourt and I went shopping for new clothes at Aeropostale on her birthday. She got some great books from her grandmas, gift certificates and money from her aunts and yummy cookies from Kylene. Her young women leaders also posted a really cute birthday sign on the front lawn.

We love ya, Kourtney!

What the @#(bleepsie) kinda TURKEY is that?

Hooray! I finally figured out I could bake my giant squash in the oven. The shell turned nice and soft and then just peeled away.

This is what a whole baked hubbard squash looks like after it's been baked, peeled and sliced. I just scooped out the inside and bagged the rest.

Here's the empty shell and about 11 bags of squash. Fascinating, huh? Thanks to the enormous "Facebook" trend, I feel free to ramble on about hubbard squash with little fear of borring too many of my friends and family :)

What does one do with 11 bags of squash? So far, I've found two great recipes: one for bread--which I made. My girls love it. And one for soup, which looks really good too.

http://www.starchefs.com/thanksgiving/2001/html/recipe_14.shtml --for soup

http://www.seasonalrecipes.com/rec/recipe196.butternutsquashbread.html -- for bread

And now for the latest squash news. Here's a little update about how my five friends reacted to finding a hubbard on their doorstep: So far I've had two threats of retalliation, one wonderful bottle of pearsauce left on my doorstep (favorite reaction), several rumors of regifting the squash around the neighborhood, a couple of questions about recipes and one friend who was afraid of the squash and suspected teenage hooligans--oops (I set her straight, and then everything was fine). Aah, who would have thought a few big squash could bring so much joy?! I am a little afraid for April Fools' Day though--I'm not gonna lie.

So not worth it

My friend Julie gave me a couple of her leftover squash plants last spring and I tossed them in the ground. They resulted in one or two nice zucchini plants and two scraggly-looking hubbard squash plants that looked like they weren't going to produce anything.

By mid-August, however, the hubbard plant exploded all over the garden. The vines were thigh-high and creeping out the fence. We had Little Shop of Horrors in our back yard; I would go out and hack the vines back occasionally. The squash they produced looked like giant alien pods--and I do mean giant. I could barely heft them out of the garden and down to the storage room.

My dad told me hubbards are a great winter squash because they have a super-hard shell. The internet said they have a really mild, sweet taste--perfect for soups, pies and breads. Sounded delicious. Last night I figured I should probably start eating them and pulled one out to cook for dinner. After using two big, sturdy knives, a hammer and a screwdriver I had made a two inch hack line. I gave up. I decided I really didn't want to put this much effort into the remaining five squash down in my food storage so I put nice big bows on them so they'd look festive, taped on little anonymous notes, and Kourtney and I hauled them into the car. We dropped them off on the doorsteps of five neighbors around 9:00 pm. I chose friends who I thought could appreciate giant squash humor and who might have access to better tools. We didn't even ring the doorbell; I was taking no chances of rejection. Here they are in all their odd glory.

DT-R.I.P.

I haven't been near BYU for a long time. Kev told me Deseret Towers, my old freshman dorms, were torn down about a year ago. Yesterday I saw it for myself. Sure enough, driving past the old DT field, I could look out and see--nothing. No high-rising, old brown dorms blocking my view. I could see straight across the street to Heritage Halls and the bell tower. It was so surreal; I had to have pictures. This was my old hall-U right behind these trees. It looks like some sort of a little memorial on the peaceful, grassy knoll--an homage to the 5th floor and all my favorite girls. No more cramped little cubicles with two roomates inside, no more floor-shared bathrooms. Just memories of Emily, my adorable roomate, cartwheeling down the hall while the boys were allowed to visit and having not only her shirt but also her bra fly up. Also of Emily freaking out because I hadn't come home yet at 3 am our second week of school and notifying our floor monitor Lori-who was waiting for me with the campus police. Emily always left me little cute notes and made me a "quillow" for Christmas, which I still have. Lori introduced us to Abba. Liza and Amy loved NKOTB and kept black bananas in their room, hoping to get the ambition to make banana bread. My girls Katie, Andrea, Eliza and Amy all roomed together after that until we got married, went on missions, etc.

We always invented our own food in the cafeteria because the entrees were often kinda yucky--carrot sticks and A-1 were not a bad combination. We always got ice cream at the Cougar Cove at nights--mint chocolate chip and cookie dough were my faves.

Now I kinda know how Kevin felt when we went to Disneyland and a big part of his mission area had been leveled to create the California Adventureland parking lot. Very surreal.

Ashley and Utah

These pictures are so horrible, I almost hate posting them. The lighting is all wrong, I'm not a photographer and I have a pretty basic camera. It also didn't help at the time that Gracie was pulling on my arm and jumping around. They ended up looking like pictures I used to take of my friends with the little camera I earned out of a catalogue selling greeting cards and wrapping paper when I was in elementary school.

All excuses aside, however, Ashley's 4th grade class gave a cute little Utah program. They recited Utah history, named the counties, played songs on the recorder and square danced. Very cute!