My Favorite Things from 2010

For the second year in a row I've gone to a My Favorite Things Party. I love them, at the beginning of each year we get together have dinner and share our favorite things from the past year. Its basically a grown up show and tell. Here is what made my list for 2010:

Favorite Products

Product: Garnier Fructis- Instant Melting Conditioner

Why I love it: This has been like magic for my girls tangles and mine! Once I put this in our hair I’m able to brush and comb hair out so easily with no tears. It also goes on sale a lot and is only around $3.00 all the time.

Product: Gamma Seal Lids
Why I love it: These lids are awesome! The lid will fit any 12 inch bucket. Once on to open all you do is spin the top. No other tools are needed to open your bucket. They make it so much easier to access food storage items that are kept in large buckets.

Product: Wood Burning Tool
Why I love it: I really got into making bows and hair things out of ribbon this year. The wood burning tool lets me cut and seal the ribbon edges so they don’t fray in one step. You only need a very basic set and can find them at any craft store.

Product: Finish Jet Dry
Why I love it: It really works. When my dishes are done they look sparkling clean without water marks. I can tell when the dish washer is starting to run out because my dishes start having streaks.

Product: Salon Care 100ct box of hair clips
Why I love it: When you make lots of hair things you need LOTS of clips. Sally’s Beauty supply sells these boxes of clips for around $5.

Product: Famous and Fun Piano Books
Why I love it: I am always on the lookout for piano books that are easy with fun well known melodies (this is harder than you’d think it is to find!) The Famous and Fun series are just what their title calls them, famous and fun, and they come in levels 1-5.

Product: Netflix
Why I love it: Its cheap, lots of choices, we were able to cancel cable and monitor what us and our girls are watching on the TV.

Product: Barnes and Noble’s Nook
Why I love it: I love to read but don’t like to buy books at full price. With the nook I can get books for free or cheap and I can even borrow them from the library for free! There is no back light so it doesn’t hurt my eyes and I don’t have to find a home for all my new books.

Favorite Finds

Toys R Us Clearance: I found that Toys R Us has the BEST infant and toddler clothes and shoes clearance prices. I’ve been able to buy tons of REALLY cute outfits AND shoes for $1.00-$2.50

Hobby Lobby: Love the new Hobby Lobby store off Sunset and Stephanie. Its fun just to walk around in to window shop and be inspired. They also have great sale prices.

Kohls $10 off $20 Coupon: These coupons come sporadically during the year on the paper. I love them because you can use them on ANYTHING in the store including clearance items (Kohls has great clearance prices!). You can also combine them with other percentage off coupons as well making for some amazing deals!

Hulu: We don’t have a DVR and Hulu lets me watch shows whenever I like with very few commercials (love that!) Netflix combined with hulu makes me feel like I can watch whatever I’d like on my own schedule.

Buffalo Wild Wings: I can’t believe I didn’t try this place sooner! So yummy! Wednesday kids meals are $.99 and Tuesday/Thursday are wing deal nights.

Cafe Rio: Again I can’t believe I didn’t eat here sooner. I love their pork. Its sweet and tastes good in any of their products. I also really enjoy the tres leches dessert is marvelous (I like to add some extra fruit on top if we bring it home) Get a card at the register and have it stamped each time you go to earn a free meal.

Favorite Books

The Help by Kathryn Stockett: A MUST read! Its beautifully written and has the feel of a book that will one day be a classic that has to be read in school. LOVE this book.

The Book Theif by Markus Zusak: Very different approach to a fictional story about a little girl in Germany during WWII.

Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley: Very enlightening. This is a non-fiction account of the men from the famous flag raising photo on Iowa Jima during WWII. I learned things in this book I never learned in my history classes during high school and college.

The Goose Girl and Enna Burning by Shannon Hale: Fun easy reads especially if you like princess stories and fantasy with a twist.

Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling: I re-read all the Harry Potters this year. I love them.

The Cobra by Frederick Forsyth: A book I’m surprised I enjoyed so much. Its a well thought out and researched look into the cocaine cartel and a fictional campaign to try and overthrow it.

Percy Jackson and The Heros Of Olympus by Rick Riordan: I really enjoyed escaping into Rick Riordans world he has developed in these series of books. Yes they are children's books but I liked them.

December 2010

December has been a very busy month over at our house. I love Christmas time and really wish that we could have fit even more into this month. Here are some pictures of a few of our "events":

December 4: We had our first garage sale. It was a lot of work and we had been hoping to do it two weeks sooner but because of the weather we moved it back. I am glad we did because the weather was great and it went really well. We earned just over $600 and I was able to replace my old green couch with the one I am sitting on. I've never held such a fat wad of cash in my hand so I made Justin take a picture of me with it sitting one my new couch. December 4: Ridding the Boulder City Santa Train with Daddy. The girls loved ridding the train and seeing Santa but it seems they were the most excited to see Mrs. Claus (and getting candy canes)

December 7: Buying and Decoration the Christmas Tree. I almost got a fake tree this year but just couldn't find one I loved and that's the only way I'll move to a fake tree. We did go a little smaller this year than my traditional gigantic tree which is sad for me but since we aren't going to be home for actual Christmas day this year we decided to save a little extra money and only get a 6 1/2 foot tree instead of a 9 foot one this year. I miss having a big tree but ours still looks pretty. They girls had a wonderful decoration it. I didn't even have to readjust a whole lot because they are getting big enough to understand spreading out the ornaments : )

December 9: Getting my new fireplace entertainment center. I love it!

December 11: Henderson Winter Fest

I started taking clogging again in September with Brenda Larsen and LOVE it! Both Brenda's Dancers and Miss Lori's dancer preformed at the winter fest this day so we all got to be on stage. : )

We rode lots of the free rides at winter fest but the ride the girls wanted most they called the bubble ride. It was literally this giant bubbles you are in. My only way to describe it is its like being in a hamster ball but playing bumper cars. We had to wait for 2 hours to ride this but the girls LOVED it!

December 13: Dance Recital @ the Whitney Ranch Rec Center. We always have to pose in front of this tree : ) Alexis and Rylee have been taking dance together since they were 3! We were a little sad that Savannah wasn't here this night too. We sure miss Savannah, having her live in Alabama is hard for Alexis.


December 18: Piano Recital @ the Church. I don't really like this picture of me but oh well. I was really proud of Alexis this month and how far her piano playing has come. This is us playing Away in a Manger as a duet. I was really proud of all my piano students this day. They all did a fantastic job!


Events with no picture : (

December 5: Going to see the First Presidency Christmas devotional at the stake center. The girls were so excited to see the prophet and listen to Christmas music. When we got to the stake center Ariana fell asleep in 10 minutes but Alexis stayed awake and was very aware of everything and had tons of questions and comments. Sorry anyone who sat by us but I was very impressed with her listening skills this night and her desire to hear and understand the prophet.

December 8: Miss Melissa's Jazz Recital- Alexis had a total melt down because she didn't know what to do during the free dance portion of her dance. I felt so bad for her. She does REALLY well with structure but take it away and add in an audience and she gets very unsure of herself.

December 18: Preschool Christmas Party. Once again a fun crazy messy party with lots of singing, gift exchange, and cookie decorating. I think this year was actually a little less messy than past years. Justin also was absolutely wonderful and made the downstairs sparkle both before and after the party. Thank you so much sweetie it looked beautiful.

Alexis is keeping a running total of how many candy canes she has been given this month I think we are up to 10 and its only December 20.

More to Come... : )

Bossy

I had to run a lot of errands tonight. While we were out I kept calling to Ariana and Alexis "come on, this way." Ariana apparently had enough of this by the time we made it to Wal-Mart and yelled at me in the middle of the store, "You are SOO BOSSY! You are ALWAYS bossy!" To continue on that idea in the car she told me she was tired of me always getting to be the boss and she wanted to be the boss now. I informed her that when she was a mom she could be the boss but for now I am. (I guess some lines really do get to be used generation after generation)

Update

It's been forever since I've posted. I'm not sure where Justin has been downloading all our pictures to so sorry for the lack of them. Things are really good here. Justin just barely got "access" (a government word for permission) to start working on some of his new companies top secret projects in CA. Don't ask I have no idea what it is and he can't tell me. But since its taken since July to get this "access" he's been home 24/7. Its been fun having Daddy home all the this time and I already miss him since until his NV access comes he has to work in Palmdale, CA. While he's been home we've gotten a few trees planted in the back yard, new planter beds, crown molding, chair rail and paint downstairs. Plus its been so much easier to deal with my crazy schedule with him here to help. He helps me set up and clean up preschool, keep an eye on the girls during piano lessons, pick Alexis up from school, go on family outings and just be here. Its been wonderful.

Crazy Hair

I've really gotten into making flowers and bows for the girls hair lately which means that I

have been MUCH better at actually doing their hair each day. One of the funny side effects is what their hair looks like at bedtime when they want all the pontail holders out. This night happened a couple weeks ago and Ariana and Alexis thought it was very silly to have this crazy hair. You can tell they had a lot of fun with their puffy locks.

1'st Day of 1'st Grade

(Eating her favorite oatmeal breakfast)

I was very torn about this new school year. I've seriously considered homeschooling and the debate went back and forth. Justin and I both decided we should let Alexis start again at Smalley and see how it goes. Alexis was REALLY excited for school. She was a little sad that we didn't let her get a new back pack but getting a lunch box made up for that.

The Saturday before school started my Mom, Catrina and I took the girls out to buy back to school out fits. We had lots of fun. Alexis found two outfits that were so cute that we let her buy both. The night before her first day Grandpa Frederick gave Alexis a blessing. Ariana not to be passed by immediately jumped up after Alexis and wanted her own. This was so sweet for me and two night later when Alexis said her prayers she thanked Heavenly Father for her back to school blessing from Grandpa I was overwhelmed with gratitude.

This year Alexis has Mrs. Mecham for her teacher. I love her. Mrs. Mecham is an

answer to prayer and I am glad that her good friend Hunter is in class with Alexis. Letting Alexis go to first grade has been really hard for me. I don't like that my little girl is gone all day. It is a constant reminder of how fast time is flying and I just want her with me. I was allowed to walk Alexis to her room for the first week and after the first day Alexis was ready to walk by herself but I just couldn't. I made her endure me walking her to the door every day the first week of school : )

(Ariana and Daddy waiting outside on the first day of school.

Ariana can't wait for her turn next year!)

Late Night

I love having my brother, sister-in-law, and little nephew live here. We've been doing family dinner on Sunday's. Its lots of fun. Last night we stayed up really late and Ariana tried to stay up late but this is how she ended up around 10:30pm.