Thanksgiving Week

Long time no blog!  Ok it's only been a week, but that feels like ages when you're super busy.

I finally got a calling. I am on the Relief Society Activities Committee.  So now I'm wishing I'd gone to a single Enrichment activity (ok I know that's not what it's called anymore) so I knew what I was in charge of.  The committee is more like a partnership, because there's only 2 of us.  We'll see how that goes.

Yesterday Barbara wanted some alone time with Ruby, which we definitely took her up on.  We left her with Ruby for about, oh, 11 hours!  Kyle and Katy and I spent most of the day with Alan and Nieman, which included 2 meals out, braving the crowds at Fashion Place, and 2 Star Trek episodes that have haunted us since childhood.  It was fun to do everything without a kid--everything is so much easier!  But we did miss her by the time we got back.

So last Saturday Kyle and I left Ruby with the Broadbents, drove 6 hours to Colorado, picked up Katy in Telluride, ate lunch, and drove 6 hours back.  It was surprisingly not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.  Here we are at a pizza place in Telluride.  It was taken right before I got hot sauce in my eye.  IT WAS HORRIBLE.

This was the most relaxing Thanksgiving ever.  We decided to forego many of the things we usually do--making a full turkey, making a ton of side dishes, using our fancy dishes, etc.  It was just Kyle/Katy/me, so we just made a turkey breast and simplified the menu down to the basics. It was so much better!  We spent a lot more time enjoying ourselves, and a lot less time doing dishes.  When we have more people we'll go back to being fancy.  As per usual, we watched Poltergeist so it still felt like Thanksgiving.  We also watched a ton of Voyager, which was most fun.

It's been fun having Barbara and Ken in town this week.  Ruby loves them!  Christmas is going to be so fun this year.  Ruby decided that Ken is her favorite toy, and made him hang out in her room while the rest of us were talking on the couch.  She would literally stand in the doorway and push him back inside anytime he tried to join us. We also go out to eat with them everyday--and Ruby ate her first onion ring.  She loved it.

The big ward Christmas party is on Friday.  Wish me some serious freaking luck.  A couple days ago the number of people to plan for doubled, which really complicated matters.

Purple

It's hard to take pictures of yourself without getting all Myspacey in a bathroom mirror.  I did the best I could.

The color is different from what I expected, but I like it.  It is slightly different in real life than what it looks like in these pictures, but it is really dark, as you can see.  In the sunlight, it looks like a really pretty deep violet.  It's better than crazy bright purple.  I also think that it will fade to lighter purple.

Kyle likes it.  He's relieved I don't look like an 80s punk rocker wannabe.

I used to see people with interesting colors in their hair and wonder about them--it made them hoodlums, but also kind of mysterious and cool.  Now I am a hoodlum and I'm loving it.

The strongest proof that I feel good about it is that I forget about it when I'm out and about.  I'm not at all self-conscious about it, which is out of character.

Ruby the Big Girl

I can't believe how big Ruby is.  It's really only hit me in the last week or so.  Taking care of Sophia every day is really making me realize that Ruby is NOT a baby.  Ruby is actually a helper!  She loves entertaining Sophia. She also brings a binky anytime she thinks Sophia might need one.  They have a really sweet friendship--Sophia lights up when Ruby talks to her.  I take Sophia into Ruby's room when it's time for Ruby to get up from her nap, and Ruby is always so excited to see her!

Ruby is also eating more like a big girl.  Sometimes, when she's going to have a bath immediately after, we let her practice feeding herself.  It's messy but she does a pretty good job.

And she LOVES drinking from a cup.  It doesn't faze her at all when there is juice or water running down her tummy.

Of course she still loves the bath!  I'm so happy.  She is such a sweet kid.

Dream Dinners

Once upon a time, Ashley and I ran a 5k for a charity her grad school was supporting.  We were pathetic and slow (it was the day after I got my wisdom tooth out!  But I would have been slow anyways) but it was fun and for a good cause.  AND in the raffle afterwards, we BOTH won prizes!  I won 2 free milkshakes at Sammy's, which we used that night.  Ashley won $150 gift certificate at Dream Dinners.  Whatever the heck that is.

OH WAIT, DREAM DINNERS IS AWESOME.  We finally used the gift certificate last night and it was soooo coooool.  There is an incredible menu.  You pick 12 meals (of 3 servings each) (or fewer meals of 6 servings) (or 8 million meals if you feel like it), go in, and make them in IN AN HOUR.  Everything is all together for you to just combine ingredients and put in ziploc bags and take home and put in your freezer.  Ashley and I had so much fun!  And we walked out of there with a box full of meals. I am so excited to try them.  I am pretty sure they'll be good because they gave us a sample of two things from next months menu, and they were DELICIOUS.  Kyle is excited because we will finally have some real and fancy meals around here.  I go through phases with cooking, and right now is a fend-for-yourself kind of phase.  So now, we get to look forward to chicken yakitori, monte cristo chicken, baked potato chicken, baked chicken tetrazzini, sage crusted pork chops, chateau chicken with almond butter sauce, and other things that I don't even remember.  I know Ashley got some mango glazed salmon and greek shrimp pasta something or other.

ANYWAYS.  It was fun.  I am excited to have these meals in my freezer to bust out.  I wish it was cheaper so I could do it every month--maybe after Kyle tastes the food, we'll decide that it's worth paying money to do it all the time.  I hope so, because it was fun and easy and for some reason, really exciting!

biznez

3 more books until I am finished with the Goodreads 2011 Reading Challenge!  Katy totally schooled me, she beat me ages ago.  This was great because it made me actually keep track of my books on Goodreads, and it was occasionally motivation to read instead of mess around on the computer.

Yesterday I was put in charge (along with another girl) of decorations for our ward Christmas party.  Which is in 2 weeks.  OH SNAP.

Starting tomorrow, I am babysitting an adorable 6-month-old every weekday while her normal sitter (Kelsie) is out of town for 2 weeks.  I am excited because Sophia is so cute--but sad that this means Kelsie will be gone.  Honestly, going to her house every afternoon is such a habit, I don't know what I'll do without it. Especially with another baby to take care of!

On Saturday we're driving 7 hours to Telluride, picking up Katy, playing around for an hour or two, and then driving 7 hours back to Springville. Probably in the snow.  Worth it to get to hang out with Katy for a week!

We're in the process of getting Ruby off the binky.  She's gone 2 days without it--night time is fine, but naps are hard.  We probably shouldn't have done this while she's teething.  I just didn't even think about it.  Moron!  I think she's getting her molars, which basically just means she is drooly and has a runny nose.  Runny nose=death for me.  I hate it.  She's a bit needier than normal, but is generally still happy.  She already loves Sophia, so we'll see how Ruby deals with me taking care of another baby instead of Kelsie doing it.

I think Thanksgiving is going to be completely overshadowed by Christmas this year, just because I'm going to be spending the next 2 weeks frantically preparing for the ward party.  But we'll still have a nice meal, and Katy will be here, hallelujah!  And we'll still watch Poltergeist.  It just isn't Thanksgiving without that.

Also, Mitt Romney is fabulous.

That's all.

Busy Morning

Normally after breakfast I make Ruby sit with me and read books.  Yesterday, I let her run wild and followed her around with the camera.  We both had a blast.

But she ended up reading a book anyways.

Her first exposure to Han Solo!!

Thanks for the Star Wars book, my awesome sister Christy!

YW in Excellence

After spending the day setting up the Primary room for the YW activity, Kelsie convinced me that I should go to the activity.  I'm not in any way affiliated with the Young Women, but I'm really glad I went!  It was such a sweet meeting.  The parents got up with their girls and spoke about how their daughters depend on the Savior (that was the theme...D.O.T.S) and gave them a little gift as a reminder.  I basically cried the whole time.  Everyone said such sweet things and it was so tender to see the relationship between these girls and their parents.  You could tell everyone was so proud of their girls.  I think most people in the room cried, so I didn't feel silly.  Wasn't that a great idea though?  The spirit in the room was amazing.

Afterwards everyone looked at the projects that the girls had displayed in the room that Kelsie and I decorated.  It looked so cool!  The girls loved it.  One Laurel told me that she walked in and knew that that was how she wanted her wedding to look :)  I don't know about that, but it was certainly festive!  And fun to do.  Kelsie and I spent the day together setting everything up, it was a good bonding experience!

It looked cuter with food on the table and projects on those little tables

Letters for every value--some people didn't get it though!

Kelsie! See, she's real.

The leaders of the YW are really cool.  They were nice to me even though I was an interloper :)

The girls are super sweet!