Sisters

These two have started to become friends. Of course they're still sisters and disagree about certain toys, but they've started playing together. Tonight they rocked on the rocking chair, played dollies on Laura's bed for a full 15 minutes before the fighting started, and are dressed up in princess dresses and making suspicious noises downstairs. I can't quite tell if they're having a watery tea party or getting in the cupboards. Uh oh, Eden's crying, I better go see what's going on. and Laura just called her a 'stinker'. Despite the little negatives, they're really quite good friens. A mother can hope, right?

Decorating our first tree

A new tradition, decorating the tree the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Laura and Eden loved trimming the tree. Their favorite ornaments: the red jiggle bells

The Second Christmas Tree, and it's not even December yet

I love the christmas tree ornament tradition that my family had. Every year we'd get a new ornament for the tree and when it was time to trim the tree we'd get to put on our own personal collection. Of course Ellen and I were a blatantly jealous of Sarah and Maren who always had more than we did. So of course, Brent and I have continued this with our girls. But this year we ran into a problem. A week after we decorated our little tree with our special collection of ornaments, including the girl's first ornaments, 3 of them were in several pieces. I know they're just decorations on a fake tree, but they're special to me. So I made a decision, keep them on the tree and get frustrated and a little unreasonable whenever the girls act just like a 3 year old and an 18 month old should, or I could take them all off, save them for a few years, and redecorate. I chose the second option. So thanks to Tai Pan Trading, yes the store is like a little piece of decorating heaven, we have our second tree of the season. All the ornaments are shatter proof and still beautiful! I love the way it turned out, and am grateful that we'll have a few more ornaments safe. At least until next year.

Ok, so here is another little Blog-tag thingymajig. But I'm here in Idaho, Brent's still in Utah, my kids are asleep so I have lots of free time to post about my sweetie:

What is your husband's name? Brent Ryan Beattie
2. How long have you been together? We've been married for 4 1/2 years, and have known each and dated off and on for 10 years! Holy cow. That's a long time.
3. How long did you date? You know that is really an odd question, I bet if we added it up not counting 'undating''time it would probaly be about 4 years. After Brent came home from his mission we were engaged a month and a half later though, fast, but it seemed slow!
4. How old is he? 26, a great age.
5. Who eats more? Definitely Brent, and he stays skinny as ever!
6. Who said I love you first? I really have no idea for sure. But I think it was Brent. Yea, definitely brent.
7. Who is taller? Brent, but it's not hard to beat 5'2''. His 5'9'' seems really tall to me.
8. Who sings better? hmmm, we sound good together.
9. Who is smarter? At math and testing and cars and math and financial stuff Brent, hands down.
10. Whose temper is worse? Me. Me. Me. But I too am working on it!
11. Who does the laundry? Me, because I'm home, but Brent's really good about reminding me to switch it when I've left a load in the washing machine for a few days.
12. Who does the dishes? Days, me. After work, Brent is great at cleaning up after dinner.
13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Define right. I happen to think we both sleep on the right side of the bed!
14. Who pays the bills? Brent. I get to shop:)
15. Who mows the lawn? Our HOA! They take care of our front lawn and Brent takes 10 minutes once in a while and fires up our little lawn mower for the back lawn.
16. Who cooks dinner? I do, but Brent is also a great Sunday roast man
17. Who drives when you are together? Brent. I hand toys and treats into the back seat.
18. Who is more stubborn? When we were in High School and Brent would be mad at me about something he wouldn't stew about it for about 3 weeks until I finally noticed that something was wrong, and by that time the whole problem had usually resolved itself. But now he's really good about resolving issues, and I'm the one who has a hard time giving up my point of view!
19. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Hmm, that's a toss up. We're both working on that one.
20. Whose parents do you see the most? Both of our parents live exactly 3 hours away in Rexburg, so when we go up to visit we see both. Plus we both have sisters who live in Utah that we visit reguarly. It's great having everyone close.
21. Who proposed? The unofficial conversation went something like this: 'Abby, what are you thinking about?' 'Oh, I was just wondering about getting married in June or July?' 'July, definitely july.' Officialy, it was definitely Brent presenting the sparkly ring!
22. Who is more sensitive? Hmmm...again it's a toss up!
23. Who has more friends? Me. But I need them a lot more!
24. Who has more siblings? We both have 3 sisters apiece.
25. Who wears the pants in the family? I wear pants. Brent wears pants. Laura and Eden wear pants. But we all wear our own pants!
26. Where did you meet? In Jr. High orchestra. Yes, Brent plays the violin too!
27. What was the first thing you said to your husband? We actually remember this. I invited him to come to an after graduation party with a bunch of friends, and he did!
28. Where was your first date? Our first date, which was my first date too, was climbing the R mountain in Rexburg. He and Ryan had climbed to the top earlier in the day and gotten everything ready for a fire and dinner. Then we sat on top and watched all the stars. Unfortunately the flashlights they had thoughtfully broughten along ran out of batteries and we had to climb down in the dark. Crazy boy!
29. Where was your first kiss? Christmas Eve when I was 16 and Brent was 17 on my parent's front porch. Our first kiss after his mission? Christmas Eve. Talk about romantic.
30. Where did you get engaged? The unofficial....in his '79 Dodge pickup. The official...on the railroad tracks on top of the dry farms.
31. Where were you married? The Idaho Falls Temple
32. Where was the honeymoon? A wonderful cabin south of Park City, UT
33. If you could have changed anything about it what would it have been? Absolutely nothing!

Ok, tag time...I'll start with my usuals-Maren, Sarah, Ellen, and I'll add Devony because she's here in Idaho with me for Thanksgiving break! Thanks Alli for tagging me specifically, it's always fun to talk about Brent!

Bear Lake Summary

Driving home from our wonderful Bear Lake Retreat Sarah and I realized we'd better jot down some notes to remind us about all the highlights of the weekend. Because I happened to have the notebook and was in the passenger seat I have the detailed, if a bit unreadable, notes. Here is a pretty good picture of our weekend:

The quote: "HEY!!! HELP MEEE!!!!"

Highlights:

• Dollar scrapbook 'Happy Bear-lake' Gift exchange


• The only men allowed: Josh and Michael B


• Perfect weather, all sunshine and crisp fall air


• Scrapbook construction zone, watch out for stray scissors


• The amazingly blue color of the lake, seen from rocks on the shore


• 2 momma and 2 curious yearling deer right outside our car window.


• 24 cans of soda, 4 spray butters, 2 vidalia salad dressing bottles, at least 24 packs of cider mix, hot chocolate, cookies, popcorn, and half of our children's halloween candy.


• Pasta, Pasta, Pasta!


• Going to the convenience store because there obviously wasn't enough food.


• Downloading Josh Groban's 'Noel' CD, thanks Sarah!


• Abby is apparently the only one who can skip rocks


• the absolute stupidest movie ever made, and yet we still quote it. and no, it was not Napoleon Dynamite


• Pill-popping (Ibuprofren) due to Mom's sciatic nerve pain, Maren's headache, Sarah's feet, and Abby's dratted head cold


• The never ending Phase 10 game of all time


• We were so 'coo' in the 'poo' (interpretation: so cool in the pool)


• The sprinkler splash, abby's backflop, Mom canonballs, and of course the dolphin dive


• 'Kick your trash'


• $2.50 to die for deserts at the Motor Cafe


• "Chirp-Chirp" cricket swarm!


• 3, 259,451 tiny bits of paper all over the floor


• 'Hey, it's daylight savings time, that means it's really only 2 in morning!'


• 20 extra pounds to bring home to the treadmills


• 4 anxious husbands, 7 wild girls, and 4 messy houses waiting


• And of course: 59 layouts and a mini book completed in one weekend!

Ins of this year:

• Joshie Poo and Buble' baby


• scallops, scallops, scallops


• funky photo corners


• big fuzzy jammies


• blog excerpts and lots more journaling


• 30 sharpie markers

Out from last year:

• Snow, no blizzard this year


• Ellen we missed you!


• Sarah working


• Complicated meals, hello frozen lasagna


• Olive garden on the way, we had quite enough pasta


• Titles on every page


• Babies, everyone was weaned this year

Improvements for next year:

• All photos in hand at least 1 week before the trip to avoid last minute developing disasters!


• A photo/layout swap


• Playing tennis at the local courts


• Walk the Nature Trail


• Everyone healthy, watch out Sarah, next year's your year to be sick.


• More CD variety


• Yellowstone?!

Oh bear lake, shall I see thee again? A year is so long, maybe we should do it again over christmas break!

Rainy Sunday

I love the weather today, it's rainy and grey and quiet. Both of the girls are asleep and Brent is at a meeting, so it's become a rare and peaceful hour. I was just thinking how up and down one week can be. This past one has been filled with not only spilled juice, colds, scrambling to get to preschool, tantrums, frozen pizza dinners, and all of us feeling overwhelmed because mommy is gone 3 nights to orchestra rehearsal and meetings combined with Daddy's study time, but also great moments like christmas shopping, nap times without crying, story time with blanets, date night with old movies, a hike to kaysville creek, cat tails, great hair days, and new friends. So many good things happened, including my sweetie surprising me with roses for no reason other than it had been one of the not so good days, and then the next day coming home an hour early to go hiking. Sometimes life starts out with a cold and ends with roses. So this turned out to be a rather philosophical blog, I guess I'll blame it on the weather.

Preschool Halloween Party

For the last two weeks it has been our turn to host Laura’s cooperative joy school. For 2 ½ hours on Tuesday and Thursday morning 6 little preschoolers sit on carpet squares and listen to stories, learn action songs, and talk about our feelings. We have snack time and rest time, and of course free play. It has been great having the backyard to run around in. Also we carved a mini pumpkin, made witch faces, and cut out sugar cookies (even though the box dough flopped and I had to make another impromptu batch from scratch) in preparation for the Halloween party.

On the 30^th at 11:30 the parents and siblings arrived and waited in the living room while the girls put on their costumes upstairs. Then the big moment finally arrived and one by one they came down the stairs. They looked so cute, almost like a mini Miss America pageant. Cassie was a Renaissance lady, Laura was a fairy princess and held her dress up to her knees to keep from tripping, Mary Alice was a mermaid complete with shells, and Karissa was a little witch. Once they were all downstairs they lined up (with a little help) and sang the two Halloween songs we’ve been working on: ‘First you take a Pumpkin’ and ‘I’m a Mean Old Witch with a Hat’. They did very well singing about how to carve a pumpkin, and their voices were very ‘witchy’ during the witch song, except for Laura. She wouldn’t put her mask up or sing, just stood there looking very regal. When coaxed to do like the other little witches her reply was,

“But Mommy I’m not a Mean Old Witch, I’m a

Fairy Princess!"