How Old?

The year 2009 proves to be a year that will really age me. My oldest daughter turned 12 two weeks ago and started attending Young Women's. Yikes! Samantha received some grown-up items for her birthday, including make-up and a bra (which made Elliot scream). I remember turning 12 and getting make-up and a bra for my birthday(not that I needed a bra - my mom said it was more appropriate and modest for a girl my age to have her chest covered). And so it is for my daughter! She sure is turning into a nice young lady. She's been helping me cook dinner and I've enjoyed her company in the kitchen, having more grown-up conversations. In fact, she got a Rachel Ray cookbook for Christmas and has making entire meals for the family - things like shrimp scampi, pesto pasta and vegetable chili. Yum! Samantha's also very responsible and does all of her homework and school projects on her own. I've been letting her stay up a little later at night. We watch TV shows together that we enjoy, like Jon & Kate Plus 8, while Nathan stays downstairs and watches dumb stuff like tennis and extreme fighting. Sometimes she plays with my hair - you know, girl time. On the flip side, she also is showing signs of becoming a true teenager, being dramatic and argumentative. Oh well - girls aren't perfect!

Also in 2009, Elliot is going to turn 8, be baptized and start the Cub Scout program. He's looking forward to doing the Pinewood Derby. AND, Henry is going to start Kindergarten and leave me all alone!

See? I'm getting old!

Christmas Vacation

I guess I better catch up. Not much to report on Christmas Day. Everyone in the Salt Lake Valley was snowed in, due to a yucky blizzard. It didn't bother us none, because we weren't planning on going anywhere anyway. We slept in until 7 am this year since we didn't have to open our presents at lighting speed and get over to my parents house by 9:00. That was a nice change. Everyone got what they wanted for Christmas, so the day was spent actually playing with toys. We relaxed, made Christmas dinner and packed for our trip home to Arizona the next day.

Our two week vacation in AZ consisted all of the following:

-Driving 14 hours (9 of those hours on icy roads)
-Opening presents
-Handing out presents
-Attending two Christmas parties
-Relaxing
-Thawing out in the 60+ degree days
-Guitar Hero
-A marshmallow gun war (guns provided by Nathan)
-Mexican Food
-Cousins
-A day trip to Miami/Globe, AZ to see Nathan's grandmother (and more Mexican food)
-Taking a ride on The Metro, Phoenix's brand new Light Rail, which opened while we were there.

-The Cheesecake Factory on New Year's Eve
-Ringing in 2009
-More Guitar Hero
-More Relaxing
-The Fiesta Bowl Parade
-Being introduced to my little sister's big belly
-Sending Nathan off on a plane back home to Utah
-A candy craving, resulting in a run to a gourmet candy store
-Macadamia Nut Chicken at The Kona Grill (first time - yum!)
-A dozen bottles of soda at Pop! The Soda Shop
-Discovering that eating a grapefruit w/sugar will take the edge off a migraine headache
-Dinners with the fam
-More Guitar Hero (sheesh, I need to buy it!)
-Watching Jay Leno with my parents (haven't seen him since we got cable 5 years ago - haven't missed much)
-An emergency haircut at the WalMart salon.

-NOT going to Bahama Bucks for shaved ice like I wanted to. Maybe next time.
-Driving home just me and the kids - skies were sunny, kids behaved, roads were dry and total trip time was 11 hours. No problem - except for the migraine. Eating a grapefruit.

Addicted to Technology

Finally! Our 4-year old computer became terminally ill and died right around Christmas. Fortunately we had recently bought a second hard drive and transferred all of the important stuff - so no big deal. Except living without the internet was much harder than I thought it would be! I don't even know how to look up an address or phone number without it (what? what's a phone book?) Nathan went ahead and bought all of the parts and built a new computer himself (I was very impressed). So, 2 days ago, I finally got my internet back - yeah! Now I've got to catch up on my blogging, which won't be too hard because I haven't taken a single picture since we went sledding in December. Bad girl!