Strong Family

Yay for no snow!

2012-02-07T15:16:00.000-08:00

This is what my back yard looked like a year ago in January...

And here is this year in January. Does anyone miss the snow? Really?!!!

Not me!!! And it better stay away, you hear me? AWAY!!! Man I live in the wrong city. This post better not come back and bite me in the butt with 3 feet of snow!

New colours for my girls room

2012-02-03T18:34:00.000-08:00

Hello ladies. I don't think there are any men reading my blog so, hello ladies. I have been busy changing some things in Taylor and Hannah's room. Yes, they are in the same room now, well they have been since the summer. So now I have a guest room, so come visit me anytime!

Here is the blog post of what her room looked like before. The beginning is Taylor's old room (the new guest room). The second half is Hannah's room, there isn't really that much of a difference so don't get too excited.

Here is the fabric I saw on Fabric.com that inspired me.

So I bought a whole bunch of fabric to make quilts for their beds, to make pillow cases, and to put on the back of the bookcases.

I changed one of her bookcases into a dress up closet. I got the idea from Pinterest. She loves to dress up so this was perfect for her. The baskets have hair bows and headbands, necklaces, bracelets, shoes and any other dress up accessories. The picture on the shelf is of Hannah wearing a Snow White dress meeting the real Snow White in Disneyland, it is an adorable picture. I used some extra fabric to put over a bulletin board. And she loves the mirror to check out how she looks. This dress up closet does not usually look like this, it's usually super messy, believe me.

I spray painted these gold frames with white glossy Krylon. They turned out really nice.

I put some fabric in the back of the shelf and the dress up closet. I love this look. It is super easy to do too. The frame with the happy face is a frame for the girls artwork. Hannah did the happy face, and she is very proud of it.

Joe and I stained this corner shelf in the summer. It looks way better than it did before!

Then I started working on the quilts with the help of Andrea Barnes. Thanks so much Andy for helping me! She explained step by step how to make this. She even came over one night for a few hours, brought me a slurpee, ironed, and helped put it together. This is what one of them looked like once it was all sewn together.

After many hours of sewing, this is the finished product.

I didn't get a picture of the back side, but it is super soft grey minky.

The girls love their new quilts.

I still have some more work to do, and some more accessories I need to find. But this is the update for now!

Favourite Christmas Holiday Pictures

2012-01-01T22:51:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. I have enjoyed sleeping in everyday, and eating whatever I want. I wanted to share some of my favourite pictures and moments from the last week.

This first one was taken right after I surprised Joe and took him to the IIHF World Junior Canada vs. Sweeden Hockey game. I think I was just as excited to surprise him as he was to go to the game. We had great seats and had a great time!

While Joe and I were at the game, my mom and dad were babysitting. When we walked in the door, this is what we saw...

We didn't have a tree, so they got one for us and set it up with the girls while we were at the game. Thanks mumzy and daddykins!

On Christmas eve day, the girls wanted to go tobogganing, but we didn't have any sleds or crazy carpets. We went white trash style and made our own with a black garbage bag and cardboard!

My mom and dad came over Christmas eve. We ate some good food, sang some Christmas songs and read from the scriptures. It was a fun night.

Before I went to bed, I ended up watching the last half of one of my favourite movies, "The Sound of Music." Christoper Plumber is a very handsome young man!

Christmas day was so fun. I loved watching the girls open their stockings and gifts.

Hannah got some ballet dress up clothes and tried them on for me. These are the poses she showed me.

A couple days later we were in Waterton. It was like a ghost town there. It was windy and cold, and you had to drive to the fire hall if you needed to go to the bathroom, but the girls still had fun. We went tobogganing down this pretty steep hill. This picture of Hannah and her cousin Brynna was taken a little while before Hannah was crying from going down the hill with me. In her own words, "Mommy, why did you land on me and bonk my head? Waaaa!" We wiped out pretty good.

I love this one of Hannah on the swings in Grandma Julie and Pop pops backyard. She was on this swing everyday, multiple times a day. And she was always say, "Mommy, mommy, look at me, look how high I can go!"

The girls also loved to get out the painting stuff. They would sit and paint for a long time!

This last one is my favourite. Hannah found this rifle and was walking around asking everyone to put their hands up. Haha!

I am so happy that I have one more week to sleep in!

The Spooktacular at Fort Edmonton Park

2011-11-03T14:49:00.000-07:00

We went to the spooktacular at Fort Edmonton park last weekend. I was really looking forward to this, and ready to be scared! I found out that it was going to be the theme of creepy clowns and freak shows. I am not usually scared about those things so I wasn't too worried. And I was dressed for the weather. I was wearing 2 shirts, a hoodie, my winter coat, capris leggings, sweatpants, my toque, a scarf, and mittens.

On our way to the "scary street" the UofA dance team was doing the Michael Jackson thriller dance. And then when they were done they just walked around like zombies. It kinda freaked me out, and I screamed, and they noticed. They started following me and staring at me. It was pretty creepy.

When we got to the scary street, there were clowns and freaky circus people all over. This clown was Joe's favourite, he laughed like Krusty the clown and would fall down all the time.

This clown was the creepiest looking one. It would come up behind you quietly and then honk it's horn.

Some of the haunted houses were pretty scary. This fortune teller one was creepy. She handed out a card at the end that said "look behind you," I didn't look behind me cause I was too scared, and then something started crawling out from under her table.

There was another haunted house where we were brought into this room and then all of the sudden, these girls were behind us.

On the way out there was a place with snakes, scorpions and tarantulas. Snakes, don't scare me, well, the non-poisonous kind. But scorpions do, and especially big spiders, like tarantulas.

Everyone was being brave and holding the tarantulas. At the last second I decided to hold it, and then not, and then hold it, and then not. I kept opening and closing my hand. And then I decided to just do it. I did it. I held a tarantula in my hand! And it was a huge one! Once it was on my hand, I could barley feel it. But it still grossed me out. That spider was not crawling fast enough across my hand. And it's body even rested on my hand, EW! Yes, this is my hand in this picture.

I can't believe I did that. And I won't be doing it again.

I have to admit. I wish the spooktacular was scarier. Next year, the corn maze at Halloween!

Goodbye Rover

2011-10-24T14:30:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, my car (Rover, as Taylor would call it) was stolen a couple weeks ago. The police found it 4 days later. The car seemed to be fine, except for a broken window and garbage all over the inside, and was at the autobody shop. I thought we would be getting our car back in about a week. After they inspected our car, we got a message from our insurance adjuster last Wednesday that our car will be a write-off and that we won't be getting it back. I started to cry. I know it's silly, but I love my car. It has been so good to us. Here is a picture of me with Rover right after we bought it in 2002.

We have had our car for almost 10 years and have had many fun memories with it.

Look what those "bad guys," as Hannah would call them, did to my license plate!

I went to visit Rover on Friday at the autobody shop to grab some things from the trunk. And to say goodbye.

Good bye Rover, we will miss you.

Hello new car.

We bought a Hyundai Sonata Limited Turbo. It. Is. Awesome. I never expected to ever drive anything but a Honda, cause I love them, but as soon as I saw this car and took it for a drive, I fell in love. Yes, I already love my new car.

Snaggle tooth

2011-10-18T21:58:00.000-07:00

Taylor has lost 4 teeth in the last 2 weeks. 2 of them being her top two front teeth. The last one finally fell out today and it has been hanging by a thread for the last couple days. My mom even offered Taylor $4 if she would let my mom pull it out. Taylor said no. I took these pictures today after school.

Check out this snaggle tooth!

Then we had dinner and Taylor noticed her tooth fell out...only we couldn't find it. We think she ate it. Pretty gross if you ask me.

I am so happy this nasty tooth finally fell out. I think Taylor looks so cute with her 2 front teeth missing. She has a little lisp now and sounds cute too.

I am going to do a photo shoot of her sometime this week, before her awkward ginormous sized front teeth start growing in...before she looks like THIS!...

I love Jimmy Fallon...part 4

2011-10-11T14:31:00.000-07:00

It's about that time again. It's been a while, and I know you have all been waiting for more Jimmy Fallon.

Just so you all know, when I watch Jimmy, I find something on every show that is worthy of my blog posts. So it is extremely difficult to narrow down my favourite parts. And since it's been a while since my last Jimmy post, 7 months to be exact, this is going to be a good one! I promise you will have a good laugh!

One of the main reasons I love late night with Jimmy Fallon is because of the games he plays with his guests.

Here is a game called bow and arrow stand-off he played with Jason Sudeikis.

Who here likes Hugh Jackman? What about Hugh Jackman wet? Well, in this game, you get both. Check it out here.

I don't know how many of you have seen this already, but this is the best thing I have seen in a long time. It involves Jimmy's BFFSM, Stephen Colbert.

This is another one I have shown a lot of people, but for those who haven't, check out this video with Justin Beiber.

I know all of you have seen this one. "Let us play with your look." I can't wait for the next one he does. Don't watch it unless you want that song stuck in your head all day.

This next clip is about a fight that is going to happen on late night with Jimmy Fallon between Jonah Hill and Matthew Morrison.

This is a funny skit he did with Emma Stone. This idea all started when he heard someone in the audience say "ew!" really loud. And he occasionally says "ew" randomly on his show.

This next one is a video he did with his writers. It's about old tapes he found from the 80's about a video dating service called Cupid's Arrow. My favourite characters are Jose and Chiz Dippler, both played by Jimmy!

And then of course Jose had to make an appearance on late night with Jimmy Fallon in the audience. I would have loved to be at this show! Hiii-ya!

I love the amazing guests Jimmy has on his show...like Justin Timberlake. As you all remember from my first part of I love Jimmy Fallon blog post, I showed you all the History of Rap he did with Justin Timberlake. Well, Justin was on again this summer, and if you want to find out if they did another rap, check out this clip!

If you didn't think I was a crazy Jimmy fan, you will after reading this paragraph. I was googling pictures of Jimmy for this blog post and I typed in "Jimmy Fallon monologue." I scrolled down a little, and this is what I saw:

ME. That's right. Me. I was like, "uhhh...that's me." It is a picture from my blog post about my trip to New York. I am holding up the monologue rehearsal ticket and the stand-by ticket we had for his show. Crazy.

Here is another one. If you google "I love Jimmy Fallon" this is what shows up:

My blog is second. I promise I am not a crazy psycho stalker. I just really love Jimmy Fallon, and his show. Don't worry, my husband knows about this obsession.

There are so many more clips I want to add, but it is getting too long already. If you don't already watch late night with Jimmy Fallon, you should. It makes me happy and laugh every night! And I need that!

Edmonton Corn Maze 2011

2011-09-27T17:20:00.000-07:00

The last hot day of the year was on Saturday. I thought we should spend it outside, so we decided to go to the Edmonton Corn Maze. Adults cost $10 each, kids 6-12 are $8, and kids 5 and under are free. And if you "like" the Edmonton Corn Maze on facebook, you can get $2 off coupons. So it only cost us $22 to go. And it was definitely worth the money.

They usually have sunflowers outlining the maze, and by the time we got there this year, they were a little dead. Except for one. Go little buddy!

They have many things to do besides the maze. They have some farm animals you can feed and pet. My girls loved petting and looking at the animals.

They also have a huge pile of hay you can climb and jump on.

This year, they also had this huge jumping pillow. It was the highlight of the place for the girls. I went and jumped up too. It was really fun. Can you find Hannah in this first picture?

They also have a little dirt track that you can ride bikes on. The girls loved it.

They also have this little train thing called the Corn Cob express, but we didn't go on it. I just made Hannah pose for this picture.

Now it was time for the maze.

And this is what it looked like from above this year.

The girls had fun trying to figure out which way to go in the maze.

And Hannah kept picking up corn off the ground and peeling it.

When we were halfway through the maze, there is an option to exit or go on to the second half. Hannah and I decided to stop and go back to the jumping pillow. And Joe and Taylor ran on to finish the maze.

And she let me take some pictures of her!

When Joe and Taylor got back the girls got some strawberry ice cream.

We got there at about noon and left a little after 3pm. When we got there, there was no line up to pay, and when we left, there was about 50 people waiting to pay! It was a busy day there. So if you do decide to go on a Saturday, go earlier than later! I am planning on going back before the weather gets too cold.

Jurassic Forest

2011-09-07T19:50:00.000-07:00

Last week I tagged along during a Gibb get together as we all went to Jurassic Forest. Calee and all her kids, Diane and her twins, and Sis Gibb were there too. It is out in Gibbons, so I car pooled with Barb. We only had Jarom in her van on the way out there, mine and Barb's girls squeezed in Diane's van.

It felt like I was walking in the gates to Jurassic Park in the movie when we got there. Taylor was a little scared at first. But that was probably because she wanted to watch the movie Jurassic Park the day before. We don't have it so I was showing her clips of the movie on youtube. Yes I did show her this scene from the movie. We didn't finish it, she told me she was too scared and to turn it off. I love that movie, saw it 5 times in the theatre!

When you get inside, there are 2 pathways you can take. And along each pathway there are dinosaurs that move!

Hannah wasn't scared at all. In fact she was having major 4 year old pms that day. I am so scared of this girl when she is a teenager.

Scarlett wasn't scared either, we just told her to make that face cause it's super cute.

This next picture was taken right when Barb said there was a pterodactyl in the sky. Haha!

And Jarom was being such a good boy. Of course!

There were those yellow and black caterpillars everywhere and the girls each found one. They both kept telling me to take care of them, I was like, I am not touching that thing, am I right Barb?!!

They had a big open sand area with fake fossils and brushes and other cool dinosaur play structures. The girls loved it!

The girls had so much fun that day. I would definitely take them back. It might have to be a once a year thing though, it cost $30 for me and my 2 girls! But I do think it was worth it.

Finally done!

2011-07-03T17:50:00.000-07:00

Remember when I made this ruffle skirt for Ellie.

Well, it was time to make one for each of my girls too. It took me forever to finish them. I think I am not cut out for sewing anymore, I have lost all patience for it. I think I will take a break from it for a while. Anyways, here are some of the pieces I cut out for it. I had to keep them in order or I would be lost!

And here they are finished! I love them! I worked so hard on them, and it took me so long I almost hate them. It think it took me about 20ish hours to make both of them.

And of course I had to take some pictures of the girls wearing them.

The girls love them. They were really excited to try them on. And I am never making this skirt again! I have the pattern if anyone wants to borrow it!

Hot Mama's!

2011-06-18T22:16:00.000-07:00

Last weekend a bunch of us got together to say good bye to Amelia and Natasha. Miss you guys! During the day on Saturday we played dress up and then took some pictures. It was so much fun! And it was so easy to take pictures of these beautiful ladies.

I have posted one favourite of each of these lovely ladies. If you want to see more, go to my photography blog here.

Thanks for such a fun day ladies!

For Ellie

2011-06-01T11:56:00.000-07:00

Well, it's actually for Maren. For Maren's Birthday (which was back in February!) I know, I'm such a good sister! I promised her I would make a skirt for Ellie. Maren came over one night before her birthday and picked out material from the material I had for Ellie's skirt. The pattern I was going to use was called the Nie Nie Ruffle skirt.

I cut out all the pieces a while ago, but they sat by my sewing machine for months. I was waiting for a night that I could do it all at once, and I knew it would take me a long time. Last night I finally started at 8pm. And 4.5 hours later...I still wasn't finished. So many ruffles! But I finished today! And it only took me 1 more hour. It would have taken me longer today but there are only 4 ruffle layers on Ellie's skirt instead of 6 like in the pattern. Check out all those ruffles!

It was fun to make because it was the first real time I used my serger. It's not the best serger but it works for me! It was so easy to finish all the edges. I can't wait to see it on Ellie. I hope you like it Maren! Happy super-late Birthday!

Speaking of ruffles, the other day, I found Hannah wearing 4 of her most fluffy tutus. They were sticking out so far. It looked hilarious.

Silly girl. So photogenic.

My Girls

2011-05-25T11:03:00.000-07:00

I have been neglecting my camera lately. So I decided to do a little photo shoot of the girls. They love posing for the camera so it was pretty easy. And by the time it was done, they had given me a large bouquet of dandelions! Lucky me! Here they are, I love this first one of Hannah, and no, I did not tell her to pose like that.

I think they're pretty cute...when they're sleeping.

Hannah's preschool field trip

2011-05-13T20:04:00.000-07:00

Remember a couple days ago when it was crazy windy? Well, there were a couple of those days. Anyways, Hannah had a field trip that day to a farm called Prairie gardens. And I got to go cause I was duty mom that day. It all started with an hour bus ride (one way) with 50 or so preschoolers.

And then she said, "hey mama, take a picture of this funny face."

When we got there, the kids got to go on a train ride around the farm. Hannah was so excited.

Then, they went on a walk on a nature trail to find signs of spring.

Then they looked as some geese that were super loud and scared a couple kids, including Hannah.

Next, they planted some seeds in a little pot. Hannah wasn't very interested in this part. She handed me the pot when she was done and said, "Here mama, you can have this to put in your room." Then ran off.

There was a playground by most of the activities we were doing so all the kids were a little distracted. All they wanted to do the whole time was play at the playground.

Then, they sat around and learned about potatoes. I don't think any of the kids were listening to a word. It looks like Hannah was listening in this picture, but she's not. She is probably thinking, "I like that girls hair."

Next was the petting zoo. They had goats on one side and bunnies on the other.

When it was Hannah's turn to hold the bunny, one of the claws scratched her leg and she dropped the poor bunny on the ground. She didn't feel bad either.

Then, they got to eat snacks and watch a puppet show. Hannah said this was her favourite part.

And of course I had to snap a picture of her chewin' on some hay, sittin' on some hay!

And finally, it was playground time! All the kids went crazy at the playground.

And then the dreaded hour drive ride home. It was a pretty fun trip. It would have been a lot better if that crazy wind wasn't around. And I heard it is better in the summer when it is warmer. Of course. Anything is better in the summer when it is warmer.

My end table...done!

2011-04-25T15:35:00.000-07:00

I finally did it. Now that the snow has melted and it is 10 degrees above zero! I refinished that end table that was in my living room. I started at 10am this morning and finished it about 3pm. I almost forgot to take a before picture! I took off the hardware before I took the picture.

We got this end table on kijiji for $20 back before Christmas. It was missing a handle and was in need of refinishing. I had to refill the holes from the missing handle before I started priming.

Here it is after I primed and spray painted it. I painted it an ivory gloss. And there was a big fat spider crawling around me the whole time...eek!

Then it was time to glaze. That is what took me the most time. When I was done that, I sprayed it with satin lacquer, 2 coats. I spray painted the hardware a black matt finish, put the hardware back on and...

It took a lot of work and I am so glad it is finally done. I really like it, but don't look too close, it is definitely not perfect. I wish I could have taken a picture of my hands after I glazed it. They were nasty! And I am still picking black from under my finger nails.

If you are interested in doing a project like this, check out AllThingsThrifty blog.

Our Trip to NYC!!!

2011-04-17T20:30:00.000-07:00

Joe and I went to New York City for our 10th anniversary. We left on April 7th and just got back on April 15th. It was so much fun and I can't believe it's already over :(

My first New York experience happened on the subway on our way to our hotel from the airport. We saw our first crazy-talking-to-himself-without-actually-making-noise-guy. He kept pointing at nobody too. I was trying to ignore him and almost started laughing. I thought, "Great! We will be dealing with this kind of thing every time we take the subway." But it only happened a few times.

When we walked out of the subway, I was so excited! And this is what we saw...

This was our hotel room. Our hotel was a few blocks south of Central Park in Manhattan.

After we dropped off our bags, we walked a few blocks to Times Square.

It was so crazy busy!

The next morning we got up very early to line up for standby tickets for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. The one thing I wanted to do the most while we were in NY. We got there at 6am, which is more like 4am Edmonton time.

We were the 3rd and 4th people there. We waited the 3 hours until 9am for them to give us our standby tickets. And we saw Al Roker walk by while we waited in line. He does the NBC news on the Today show. This lady was another fan who was also Canadian!

I was so excited when we got our standby tickets, since we were 3rd and 4th, I thought we would make it into the show for sure!

After we got our tickets, we walked around Rockefeller Plaza.

And we went to Top of the Rock, the very top of Rockefeller Plaza.

It had an amazing view. Some have told me they like it better than the Empire State building view.

Then we went and got tickets to Jimmy Fallon's monologue rehearsal.

They only let 60 people in, and he goes over his monologue jokes. And since it was Friday, he went through his Thank You notes too. I was so excited!!! When I walked in he was sitting as his desk with some of the writers and I screamed "Yeah! Jimmy!" And then he looked up and said "Oh, hi." We couldn't take pictures or video. I wish we could cause it was so much fun. He was really funny and totally interacted with us. The monologue rehearsal was my favourite part of the whole trip. After, we had to line back up to see if we got into the show with our standby tickets. And we did!

I loved the show! I was grinning from ear to ear the whole time! And of course at the end of the show I got a high 5 from Jimmy!!! This day so far had been amazing! After the show, we waited in the lobby for a little while to see if Jimmy would come down. We did run into some other cool people. Quest Love, leader of the band that plays on Late Night, The Roots.

We also saw one of the writers that is on the show sometimes. He is hilarious and never cracks a smile while he is on.

We never did see Jimmy after. But that's okay, he did say hi to ME and give ME a high 5!!!

When we walked out of the building there were people already lined up to get standby tickets for SNL.

We decided not to line up for SNL, since it is impossible to get into with standby tickets.

After, we were starving, so we each got a hot dog with everything on it! It was really good. Actually the food was good everywhere we went to eat. Our favourite was a greek place called Dafni.

After we ate we were walking around and noticed at Radio City Music Hall, Charlie Sheen was do a show that night. That guy is messed up.

Then we decided to go to Madame Tussauds wax museum.

I can't believe how real these figures looked.

Jenny, this one is for you...

Oh, Edward...

All the single ladies...

This is Al Roker, we saw him in real life earlier that day.

This was Madame Tussaud, she was the creepiest thing there.

Stop right now thank you very much...

We then spent the rest of the night walking around Times Square. What a long day. Our feet were so sore, but it was worth it!

Over the next couple days, we went shopping, and walked around.

One day, we packed a huge amount of sight seeing in. We went to 4 museums, walked through Central Park, went on a boat tour around Manhattan, and then went to the Empire State building. We didn't get home until 1am.

The first museum we went to was the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It was so amazing. We could have spent all day there, but we had other things to do!

I loved this vase, I want it.

Oh, these next three pictures are other areas of our hotel room.

Haha! I wish. They were rooms at the museum obviously. Aren't they gorgeous!

Next we walked to the Guggenheim Museum. I personally think to shape of the museum building was more interesting than the art that was in it.

Next we walked across Central Park to get to the next museum. It was a nice day and the park was pretty.

The only grass we saw our whole trip.

Next was the American Museum of Natural History. The one in "Night at the Museum." This one was super fun and really cool. Our feet hurt so bad by this point, and it was only 1pm.

The next museum was the Intrepid Air and Sea Museum. We got to look at really old war planes on an aircraft carrier and go inside an old submarine.

Now it was off to the boat tour around Manhattan. I thought it might be boring but it was actually pretty fun and amazing to see so many skyscrapers!

The Brooklyn Bridge.

The Statue of Liberty.

Then we walked to the Empire State building.

We wanted to make sure we did a night viewing of the city when we went. The view was amazing! I got a great view of the prettiest building in Manhattan, the Chrysler building.

The next day, we took a train to Hoboken, NJ, to go to Carlo's Bakery.

This is the bakery from the show Cake Boss on TLC. We were hoping to see Buddy there, but he was in Florida. We did see Grace, his sister, who has the most piercing New Jersey accent I have ever heard. We got cannoli's, lobster tails and cream puffs. I was so full after, I didn't eat until dinner time.

Next, we went to one of my favourite places to shop, MACY'S!!!

We were there for a long time. I think Joe liked shopping more than I did.

Then we decided to go down to Canal Street to Chinatown and Little Italy. It was crazy there. A Bzillion people trying to sell fake Prada or Coach bags. I bought a few cute scarves and some perfume for butt cheap!

Then we went to an amazing italian restaurant. So delicious!

We finished the night by going back to Times Square to see a movie. When we got there, there were dozens of police cars lined up down the street. We were like, oh crap, what is going on! We found out it was a practice thing.

We went to Battle : Los Angeles. It was really good. We were the only ones in the theatre until a few minutes before the movie started, then only 4 more people showed up.

The next day was the day we were going to see WICKED!!! I was so excited! We started the day off by going and doing a session at the Manhattan Temple.

After, across the street we walked around by Julliard school and the Metropolitan Opera House.

Jenny, I just wanted you to see who was singing at the Met that night...

We couldn't go cause we were already going to Wicked.

Next, we went and checked out St. Patrick's Cathedral. It was so beautiful inside. Check it out.

Now it was time for Wicked!!!

The show was amazing! I am so happy I get to see it again in July here in Edmonton! This might sound silly to some of you, but I was teary eyed through half the show. Great acting, amazing singing! I can't wait to see it again.

The next day was our second last day. We went on the NBC Studio Tour. It was really cool. No camera's were allowed though...boo! We got to see the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon studio (been there, done that), and the SNL set.

Then we got a picture with the page that was our tour guide. I was telling him how much I love Jimmy Fallon, then he says, oh, I just talked to him yesterday, he was doing some taping for a skit for his show called the Jersey Floor. Then he said Jimmy's really nice, I already knew that! I was a little jealous!

Then we went to the SOHO area of Manhattan to go shopping! Yessss, more shopping. We spent a lot of our trip shopping. My husband was so good about it. Let me buy whatever I wanted. Although he did spend more money than I did on shopping! This was a really cool building in SOHO.

Then we went to a New York Yankee's baseball game. I wasn't too excited about this because baseball is the most boring sport to watch. But it was pretty fun. And Joe loved it.

We were sitting in the bleachers area where all the poor/crazy fans sit. It was more entertaining to watch the fans than the game.

It was a little chilly too that night. But after I got some cheesy fries and a hot chocolate, it was all good.

The next day was the worst day, cause it was the last day. We didn't have too much planned. We did a tour of Radio City Music Hall.

I have to admit it was a little boring but the theatre was amazing. And I got a picture with one of the Rockettes!

All week we kept seeing police guys with huge guns walking around. Should I be scared or feel safe?

And here is a taste of what it looks like when you walk down to go take the subway.

We did a little more shopping and walked around some more. We ended up in Times Square for our last night. We figured out that we were in Times Square every night except for one night our whole trip.

This was such an amazing trip! It was very tiring but very fun! And I would do it all again right now!

Thanks so much to Joe's parents for watching our girls while we partied!!! And thanks to everyone who helped us find cool things to do while we were there!

Hairy Beast

2011-04-03T16:00:00.000-07:00

What?! You say. Hairy beast? Who? Me. I was watching General Conference this afternoon, listening, minding my own business, playing with my toe hairs. Toe hairs? Who grows hair on their toes? Especially ones long enough to play with? Me. I looked at my big toe and noticed a hair that looked too long, too long to be attached to my toe. I pulled on it, yep, it was attached. I'm a hairy beast! Check out how long this toe hair is.

Who? Who dares to check their own toes to see if they have toe hair as long as this! I challenge you all to examine your toes for hair to see if you have one longer. Better yet, check your husbands toes too. No one will have toe hair longer than me! I decided to fluff up the rest of my toe hairs for this next picture.

Now you all know my hairy secret. Thank goodness for razors!

I glazed something!

2011-03-28T10:48:00.000-07:00

I have been waiting for this weather to warm up so I can start working on painting projects. As you all know, the weather blows and I couldn't take it anymore! So I did a small paint project in my basement and let it stink in my house for a few days.

I decided to paint and glaze a mirror we bought on Kijiji for $10. Here is the before picture. I almost forgot to take it, Joe reminded me. So that's why there is paper on the mirror.

Next, I primed it. Exciting right?!!!

Then I spray painted it ivory gloss. 3 coats. It looked pretty good just like that I thought. But I knew I wanted to glaze this one.

Then I did the glazing. I wasn't really sure what I was doing but it all worked out. What do you think?

Next, I want to glaze the end table in my living room. But I will need to wait for the weather for that one.

I Love Jimmy Fallon....part 3

2011-03-20T17:47:00.000-07:00

Many of you know this by now since this is all I talk about, but I have been calling the NBC ticket line multiple times a day for the last few weeks to get tickets. They haven't released any Late Night with Jimmy Fallon tickets for the week that we are there. And they are not going to...

That's right. The show is not taping while I am there. I have great timing! It's only the one thing I want to do the MOST while I am there. I am not totally lost though, they are taping on April 8, the day after we get there, but the tickets are sold out for that day. The ticketing people said I could call back frequently and ask if anyone has canceled for that date. And there is also standby. They will hand out standby tickets the morning of the 8th, and if people don't show up for their reserved tickets, we might get in. I already talked to Joe and he said we can line up at 5am to make sure we are first for standby! If we don't get in, I am waiting outside 30 Rock until Jimmy comes out! I will just have to figure out which door he would come out of. Also, I just found this out, on any day he has a show, during the afternoon, all the late night with Jimmy Fallon interns hand out 60 monologue rehearsal tickets. What's that?...you say. Well, at 3pm Jimmy goes over his monologue and a few other parts of his show, and they let in 60 people to come in and watch. Sounds like that would be awesome! I found this out from a girls' blog. And she got to meet him after his monologue rehearsal. That's what I want! Now I just have to stress about this day for the next couple weeks until it actually happens. April 8th, you are my only hope of seeing Jimmy! Hopefully it all works out. Wish me luck!

Well, since this is a I Love Jimmy Fallon post, I have to add some of my favourite moments of Jimmy Fallon.

This first moment happened a few weeks ago during one of Jimmy's monologues. You can watch the whole thing but my favourite part is 1:20 in. Watch it! I promise you will love it! HERE it is!

This moment happened a few days ago. Jimmy had Ted Danson on as a guest, and they had a blackout interview where they turned all the lights off and only had flashlights for the interview. When they turned the lights back on there was a special guest there. Haha! Check it out HERE.

Next, I have never seen a real show of "The Real Housewives of wherever." But Jimmy does one on his show called The Real Housewives of Late Night. It is hilarious. They have done quite a few episodes already but HERE is the latest one.

Haha! I am already laughing in advance with this next one. I happened about a year ago. They did a show called "Late" their own version of Lost. This one is episode 3. Jenny this one is for you. HERE it is.

This one is when Jimmy and Higgins (one of the writers) went to a calf scramble at the Houston Rodeo. It is so funny! HERE it is!

This next one is an audience game called "Doll Posin" where contestants look at a doll, and then they must recreate the pose to win. HERE is part 1. HERE is part 2. I love the games on his show. So funny!

Another favourite moment is when he had the URDB World Records people on to set records on his show. Some of the records they come up with are hilarious! HERE is part 1. HERE is part 2.

I know this is getting long but I have to share this one with you. I was just minding my own business watching Late Night with Jimmy Fallon when THIS musical guest came on. Check it out!

And this last moment doesn't have a video. I wish it did. When I went to find it, they cut out the part I wanted to share. This is it anyway. Topher Grace was a guest on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. After Jimmy introduced him, Topher said some really nice things about Jimmy. He said, "You know how sometimes celebrities look like they are really nice people, but you don't know if they are in real life? Well, Jimmy is one of those guys. He is such a great guy." I loved hearing that!

I love you Jimmy! See you in a few weeks! Hopefully! Eeeeeek!

We just booked plane tickets to....

2011-02-05T16:52:00.000-08:00

NEW YORK CITY!!!

That's right. Joe and I are celebrating our 10th year anniversary this spring and we want to make it big. So April 7-15, we are going to be in New York, right in downtown Manhattan. Here are some things we plan to do...

Firstly and most importantly, we are want to see Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. I can't confirm tickets until a month before. The only way we wouldn't go is if he is not filming at all while we are there, but chances are, he is. And we would love to be a part of his show! Hopefully he is doing an audience game the night we are there, and we can be crazy enough to be noticed, and play what ever game he has going on that night.

We also want to go to a taping of Saturday Night Live. This will be pretty tricky. You can't buy tickets. The morning of the taping, you have to wait for stand-by tickets, and this doesn't even guarantee you getting you in. Then later that day, with the stand-by ticket you got earlier that morning, you line up to get into the show. Let's hope the are taping that Saturday we are there...and we get in.

Broadway shows! We are going to see Wicked for sure. We are not sure about others yet, we'll have to see how much money we have left!

Have you guys seen Cake Boss on TLC? Well, we are going to go to Carlos' Bakery in Hoboken, NJ. It is a short subway ride from where we are staying. I hope I can meet and get a picture with Buddy, or one of his family members.

Who watches 30 Rock? Well, you know how they show people getting tours by the pages? That's real. We are going to take a tour of Rockefeller Center.

And go backstage of NBC studios! Maybe I will see someone famous?!!! I would love to meet Tina Fey.

Times Square. We will be staying a few blocks away, and I am so going to look like a tourist with my camera and map! I can't wait!

Central Park, at night.

JK. We will go during the day, in a safe area, I think.

Empire State building? Maybe, I think it is pretty expensive so we will see if we will make it to the top.

Hot dog stand. Yes, I want a juicy hot dog from a corner stand. With everything on it!!!

We also want to go to Madame Tussauds. It's a that wax museum of all those famous people. So I can get pictures with them and you wouldn't know which famous people I met for real! I could meet Zac Efron!

We also might go to the American Museum of Natural History. It's the museum in the movie "Night at the Museum" with Ben Stiller.

And of course there is SHOPPING! We will be close to 5th avenue, where all the shopping is!!!

Do you guys have any other ideas of what we should do? I am so excited!!!

I love Jimmy Fallon...Part 2

2011-01-27T09:37:00.000-08:00

The more I watch Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, the more I fall in love with him. His show is perfect. I love it. This post is dedicated to some of my favourite moments on Jimmy Fallon.

One of the things I love about Jimmy's show is that he plays games with his guests. This first video happened last week. Ashton Kutcher was on the show and after his interview they played "water wars." It is playing the card game "war" but with water involved. It is too funny, check it out here.

This next clip is Jimmy and his guest playing "Elevator Dodgeball" against Seth Meyers and his brother. Haha! I love it! Here it is! The picture below is of when we played elevator dodgeball with John Hamm.

Not a lot of you know this, but I love Pee-Wee Herman. I especially love the movie, "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure." Well, Jimmy had Pee-Wee as a guest on his show. This is a part of his interview with him. One of the funniest things I have seen on his show. But it will only be funny if you have seen Pee-Wee's movie.

I also love that he plays games with his audience members. There is one game in particular that I love. It's called "Models and Buckets." In this game, contestants pick buckets that are filled with various messy substances such as, melted cheese, baked beans, maple syrup, brown gravy, melted ice cream, and much more, in search of the grand prize, $100! When they pick the bucket, the model holding the bucket, pours whatever is in their bucket over the contestants head. It gets pretty messy, but it is hilarious. Check out part of the game here.

I love it when he randomly breaks into song, like he did at the end of that last video. He does it all the time! Haha!

Another game he does on his show that I love is called "Put it in reverse." Where audience members do a skit in reverse and then they show it backwards, which is really forwards, I hope that made sense. Check it out here.

My most favourite thing he does on his show is when he tells at joke or a story and then he acts it out. He does a lot of this during his monologues at the beginning of his show. Here is a monologue from last week that I loved! You don't have to watch the whole thing, just go to 2:15 minutes in.

This next monologue is so funny! All last year, Jimmy would randomly fist pump during his show. He was making fun of some guy off the Jersey Shore. Anyways, the show before, he had made a New Years resolution to not fist pump anymore. Watch and see what happens. Also in this monologue, listen when he talks about the wedding between Kate Middleton and Prince William. Haha, I love his impression of a English person. Check it out here!

And then there are his "thank you notes" he does every Friday night. Here is a clip of his thanks you notes a couple Fridays ago.

He does these videos called "Head Swap." They are hilarious, but he only does them every couple months. Here is the latest one.

He also does this thing called "Reflections, with Justin Bieber." Where he dresses up as Justin Bieber. This one is so funny!

I love Jimmy Fallon! Coming soon... "I love Jimmy Fallon...part 3!"

Cadbury

2011-01-24T13:38:00.000-08:00

I love Cadbury chocolate. One of the reasons I love Cadbury is because it is a British based company, so that makes it awesome. Also, the chocolate is amazing!!!

So, I was in Safeway last week doing some grocery shopping, (yippie, my favourite thing to do) and I come across this in the Valentines seasonal isle...

Mini eggs! I was so excited. I only bought one bag, at first. Well, that one bag has come and gone, and I am halfway done my second. I bought a third on Saturday as a backup in case I ran out of my second bag on Sunday. I also bought these...

They are mini cream eggs, caramilk eggs, and milk chocolate eggs in one bag! Yessss, I am so glad this Easter candy came out with the Valentines candy!

How many bags of mini eggs do you think I will go through before Easter? And I mean the big bags that I bought, I want your guesses! I LOVE my mini eggs!

P.S. I have never looked at the nutritional information for mini eggs...and I never will.

My Christmas 2010

2011-01-06T08:35:00.000-08:00

We had so much fun this Christmas. We spent the Christmas weekend at the Strongs down in Claresholm. On Christmas eve the weather was so gorgeous so we went outside in their backyard and played around in the snow.

I took this opportunity to take some cute pictures of the girls. Hannah didn't mind when I was taking pictures of her, but Taylor was completely ignoring me, I was lucky to get any of her.

These next two are my favorite of the whole weekend.

Then Joe and the kids started making a snow fort. Since Joe was involved, you know it was going to be good.

Then Pop pop drove over to give the kids a ride behind the quad. They all loved it!

Then Joe took some pictures of me and kept working on the fort.

When we got back in the house, this is what we saw...

Taylor wiped out off the sled and got a scrape on her face. I didn't see it happen, but let's just say she rode on the quad instead of riding behind it the rest of the weekend.

On Christmas eve night, we all went on a hay ride and went caroling around the Strong's neighborhood.

We had a Christmas program and recreated the nativity where the kids dressed up.

Then we got out all the food and ate like crazy! Such good food, wings, mini quiches, potato skins, shrimp...and the list goes on.

The girls were very excited for Christmas morning!

On Christmas morning, the girls had fun opening all their gifts.

And of course, kitty was there...

Taylor's favourite gift was her DSi. She played it almost all day.

Hannah's favourite gift was a new tutu. At first she didn't want to try it on, but after tricking her to try it on she hasn't taken it off for very long.

Later on Christmas day, we all went back outside again to play!

And we had a snowball fight! I was holding the camera so luckily I wasn't involved.

Then Joe got back to work on the snow fort.

When the snow fort was done, they put a tarp over the top to complete it!

Hannah also got her face painted by Auntie Niki. She loved it! She didn't want want me to wipe it off but we had church the next day.

I took some pictures of the girls before church the next day. They looked so adorable in their Christmas dresses.

Hannah made this face when I told her to pose for a picture.

It was her last day in nursery. She had her first day of sunbeams last Sunday and it went really well. Her teacher told me she was the only one sitting still and listening during sharing time and that she was so good that she deserved a treat!

That night was our last night and the girls wanted to sleep in the snow fort with Daddy.

I was a little nervous that it might be too cold but they had so much fun and they weren't too cold. During the night, Joe woke up and saw Hannah completely out of the sleeping bags, and Taylor had fallen out of the sleeping bags and was sleeping against the snow wall. I am guessing they didn't get a lot of sleep because they both fell asleep for most of the 4 hour ride home the next day.

It was a short but fun holiday. It went by way too fast. But enough of winter, bring on summer! I might have to wait a while.

Oil Kings game

2010-12-27T19:30:00.000-08:00

Joe wanted to go to the Oil Kings game last Friday. He told me he wanted to get some friends together to go to the game. The day before, he said he just wanted to take Taylor. Then, the day of the game he said we should all go. Okay! I wasn't sure if the girls would even like it. But we thought they should try, since they will be forced to watch hockey games the rest of their lives when ever we watch games.

The tickets were only $10 and it was their annual Teddy Bear Toss. What is that you say? Well, when you come to the game, you bring a new or gently used stuffed animal to throw on the ice when the Oil Kings score their first goal! We brought 4 stuffies, one for each of us! The girls were excited to give away some of their stuffies, and the throw them on the ice!

The game was pretty fun! Not as good as pro hockey, but pretty good. Actually, there was a fight at the beginning of the game that was one of the worst fights I have ever seen. This one guy kept getting punched right in the face, and he finally fell to the ice. It was so gross, I felt sick after.

The girls had fun yelling and screaming with everyone. Hannah kept saying "go Oilers!" it was so cute, I didn't want to correct her. Or she would say "go blue team!"

Taylor could not wait to throw her stuffy onto the ice. We thought they would score right away because they were playing so well. They actually never scored and they more than doubled the shots the other team had. Oil Kings: 42 Chilliwack: 19. So we got to throw the stuffies on the ice at the end of the game. We weren't close enough to the ice so we just threw them at the people that were close. Haha! It was pretty fun hitting people in the head!

We got on the jumbotron! Or whatever that ginormous TV is called. The screen said "Oil Kings loudest fans!" and they played loud music, so we all started dancing, and screaming, and they put the camera on us dancing. The girls were so excited.

Santa was also at the game! And we got to take a picture with him! the girls loved it!

Also, during both intermissions, there was a band playing, Radio for Help. And I figured out that was a friend of mines band. I worked with him when I worked at Millenium Place. I really did like working there. He was the singer in the band, and they sounded pretty good. We went and talked to him after the game and he gave the girls some free posters! They didn't really want them, and luckily they said that after we left!

I asked Hannah what her favourite part of the night was and she said "running to the car after the game." We were racing to the car, I was with Taylor, Joe was with Hannah. I think it was a tie, but Joe thinks they won. Whatever.

It was a pretty fun night. I would go to an Oil Kings game again for sure!

Disneyland

2010-12-01T19:00:00.000-08:00

This is what it looked like the day before we left for California...

And this is what we just left behind...sniff...sniff...

We just got back from Disneyland on Sunday, and I think my buns just stopped hurting from strolling around that park all week. We spent almost 15 hours there on our last day, Saturday! It was sad to leave, but let me tell you all about it!

Warning...this post is going to be very long, so don't feel bad if you don't read the whole thing!

We decided to make going to Disneyland a surprise for the girls and told them that they got to go on a work trip with Daddy. We tried to avoid telling them where this work trip was, but finally told them that we were going to California. They were so excited just about that because that meant they were going to the beach!

Taylor told all her friends at school where she was going and that she would bring back a seashell for them, even her teacher. She also told her friends that she would miss them and that she would never forget them. So cute.

Since they were so excited just to be able to see the beach, we could not wait to tell them what we were actually doing.

About a week before, Taylor found out that Disneyland was in California, but knew we weren't going there. And the morning we were going to leave, she was up early and came into my room while I was sleeping. She had made a card for Princess Aurora. She said "Mom, I was just wondering if maybe we could just go into Disneyland, we don't have to go on any rides, but can we just find Princess Aurora and give her this card I made her, and then we can leave?" I can't remember exactly what I said, but it was something like "I don't think so." I know that sounds so mean, but I didn't want to give her any hope that we were going there. I thought that was so cute, it made me even more excited to tell them our surprise!

Another surprise we had was when Hannah threw up the night before we were leaving. It turned out okay, she did throw up the next morning and when we were standing at the front of the airport check in line! She was fine after that...thank goodness!

This is them the night before we were going to tell them...clueless, watching a movie on Joe's laptop.

The next morning after we arrived in Anaheim, we got the girls ready, and Joe pretended that he was getting ready to go do work stuff. Then we told them that we had a surprise for them and that they had to sit on the bed. Check out the "We are going to Disneyland" reveal.

I think that was one of the best moments of this trip! I loved their reaction. All week, I just stared at their faces as they smiled and laughed at all the fun and exciting things they were doing.

I took this picture right after we arrived in Disneyland. Taylor looks a bit more excited than Hannah.

Our first day there was crazy and exciting. It was pretty busy there, but it was worth it! It really is the happiest place on earth.

Their first ride was the Merry-go-round in the Fantasyland area.

We went on most of the rides in that area that day. Their favourite was the Dumbo ride. We went on in about 4 or 5 times that week!

I mentioned earlier that it was very busy...

When we booked our tickets to go, we didn't realize it was the same week as Thanksgiving weekend, which is one of their busiest weeks...opps! It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It was still SO worth it!

Another ride we went on was the Haunted Mansion, and it was "Nightmare Before Christmas" style!

I love that movie. And so does Hannah, she had been watching it everyday for the last month! So she wasn't afraid to go on the ride. She actually went on it twice. Taylor, however did not want to go on the ride.

We told her she had to try it once, and if she didn't like it she didn't have to go again...

Are we the meanest parent's ever? I don't think so, but maybe pretty close. It really wasn't that scary, but then again I am a little older than Taylor. But then again, Hannah is younger than Taylor.

This is after the ride...Taylor was crying. Hannah was...Hannah.

We had to cheer her up so we went to the Christmas Fantasy Parade. She loved that parade. She asked to go to it everyday, but we only went twice. She would get so excited when any of the characters would wave at her.

Hannah loved it too...

I had to get one picture of me on this trip!

And of course we had to go on Splash Mountain, it was one of my favourite rides! It was one of those rides that neither of our girls wanted to go on, but they had to try once!

As you can see from the look on Taylor's face, she did not like it. And Hannah's face you can't see, but she didn't like it either. In fact, the rest of the week, she kept telling us that she didn't want to go on the "hill splash ride" and made sure that we didn't.

We got to meet Tigger, Pooh, and Eeyore that first day. The girls were so excited! We bought them autograph books that we carried around all week for the characters to sign, and next to their autograph is a spot for their picture.

The next day we spent most of the day at the Princess Fantasy Faire.

First the girls got makeovers at the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique.

Yes. I let Taylor chose her own hairstyle makeover. I wasn't paying attention when they were choosing their hairstyles and they were already half done Taylor's hair when I noticed it. I didn't want to be that "controlling" mom that made her change her hairstyle, even though I wanted to be, and regretted the rest of the day not making her change her hairstyle. Maybe it was just me, but it looked like people were staring at her and how weird her hair looked. I kept asking her if she wanted me to take her hair out, and she would say "no, it's not bothering me." But I swear I saw some people laughing at her hair. It did look like 80's princess rocker hair.

Anyways, we got to meet almost all the Princesses that day. We met Belle, Ariel, Jasmine, Snow White, Aurora, Tinkerbell, Rapunzel.

I love this one of Hannah and Snow White. When Snow White came out, Hannah just ran up to her and gave her a great big hug and wouldn't let go. It was adorable.

And most of you know how much Taylor loves Aurora. She could not wait to see her.

And I love Cinderella, so I had to get a picture with her too!

The girls were so sweet when they were meeting the princesses. We even got to meet Mickey and Minnie. Here is one of the girls in Minnie's house, waiting to meet Minnie.

Princess Hannah on the merry-go-round.

What is happening in this picture you ask? All week, Joe would do coin magic tricks for all the kids waiting in line. Haha! The girls got bored of it after a while, but the parents of the other kids loved it because someone else was entertaining their kid!

Taylor finally said she wanted me to take out her hair! And then I made Joe try it on.

I think she looks much cuter with her own hair!

We went to the Christmas Fantasy Parade again, but at this time at night when all the floats were lit up. Taylor liked it better at night, so did I. And Hannah was pooped!

This is main street all lit up at night before the parade. So gorgeous!

Santa was at the parade! The girls were so excited to see him!

And here is Sleeping Beauty's Castle at night. I love it! So magical!

Later that night we went to the Fantasmic show. It was amazing. One of my favourite things to see at Disneyland.

The next day, we decided to hop over to California adventure and check out the rides there.

The first one we went on was the Grizzly River run.

It ended up being one of Taylor's favourite rides. She went on it 4 times. Hannah was 2 inches too short!

Another cool ride was Soarin over California. We sit in these seats that go high up infront of a huge screen to make it seem like we are flying over California.

We also liked this ride...

We also went to a live show of Playhouse Disney characters. Hannah especially loved the Little Einsteins part of the show.

We also got to see a live performance of Aladdin.

It was so amazing, another favourite!

The genie was hilarious. Check out this video of some of the genie's funny moments.

We also went to an interactive show called...

You get to talk to Crush from Finding Nemo. And after going to the show 3 times, he finally singled out Taylor. He called her Tubular Taylor. Here is the video of him talking to her. She was so excited!

There was also a place called...

There were 3 different rooms. In the first room, you could draw a series of pictures and then put your drawing in a sinning thing and watch your drawings move.

The next room looked like the library at the beast's castle. You could answer a bunch of questions and find out what Disney character you were most like. Taylor was most like...

I was most like...

Joe was most like Hopper from Bugs life, and Hannah was most like the evil queen from Snow White. Haha! The last question was: Do you like to have nice people over for lunch? or Do you like to eat nice people for lunch? Guess which one she chose.

We then went over to the Bugs Life area.

They had lots of fun rides, my kids loved them. They had spinning ladybugs, kind of like the teacups.

They had bumper cars...

They had a Heimlich train...

And they had a 3D movie called, "It's tough to be a bug"

Then we lined up forever for World of Color.

It was pretty amazing. But it would have been more fun to see in the summer I think. It was pretty cold that night, and the show didn't start until 10:30! The girls were pretty tired.

The next day we came back to California adventure and went right on the California screamin' rollercoaster.

It was pretty fun. Taylor even wanted to go on it by the end of the week. But she was about 3 inches too short! So Joe and I just took turns going on it.

We took the girls on some rides that were near the rollercoaster. Like another merry-go-round, a jellyfish ride, and this one...

This was Hannah's favourite ride. Taylor really liked it too. Me, not so much. We went on it 3 times in a row and I started to get queasy.

Then we went to a place called...

It was really cool. You sit in an auditorium, and they give you paper and a pencil. And a Disney artist shows you how to draw a Disney character. We went 3 times that week.

We learned how to draw Piglet, Donald Duck, and Minnie Mouse.

Hannah did a lot of this...

She started to get a really bad cough from staying out too late at Disneyland in the cold! opps!

That evening, we went to visit my Brother Dave, Karen, and their kids, Josh, Nathan, Kaitlyn and Emily.

This is me trying to be taller than Josh. I started to to on my tip-toes, but so was Josh, so it didn't work out! I can't believe how tall he is!

They invited us for Thanksgiving dinner! Yesssss! I love turkey dinner. And it was so good!

Then after dinner, we played this card game called 99, to see who had to help clean up in the kitchen. And Josh showed me and Hannah some magic card tricks.

Then everyone started showing off their cool tricks. Dave had this chair one and the girls wanted to show how flexible they were.

As we were leaving Taylor said "I wish we could live here." And I said, "Do you mean in California?" And she said, "No, I mean in this house." She really liked playing with her cousins!

The next day, we took a break from Dinseyland. It was Black Friday!!! I was kind of scared to go shopping anywhere because I didn't know what it would be like. And I went by myself! I went to an outdoor mall that my sis-in-law Karen recommended called Irvine Spectrum Center. And it was only 15 min away from our hotel. When I got there, I immediately went here and got almost all my Christmas shopping done...

It wasn't that busy either. Well, not as bad as I thought it would be. About as busy as a Saturday at West Edmonton Mall. Here are just a couple of the other stores I went to...

When I got back to the hotel, we decided to check out the beach. So we drove to Newport Beach, about 25 min away.

The girls loved the beach.

They pretty much ran around and picked seashells the whole time.

The next day, Saturday, was our last day. Waaaa! We got up early, 6:15am, to be at Disneyland by 7am. We had an early bird pass that we could use to get into Disneyland 1 hour before it opened.

When we got in, we went straight to Space Mountain to get on before it got too busy.

Taylor actually came on the ride with me. For some reason, on this day, our last day, Taylor became brave. She was willing to try almost any ride we went on, if she was big enough to go.

We also ran and got fast passes to...

And...

Taylor loved this ride! She went on it 4 or 5 times. I think this ride was her favourite.

We also went on...

I kind of remember going on this ride when I went to Disneyland when I was 12. I didn't remember it much, but I wish I had, because it was so long and boring! And the girls were both scared of it.

There was a lot of playing around this day waiting in line. The girls kept trying to pick each other up. At least they were both happy!

While waiting in lines, Joe did a lot of this...

And I saw a lot of this...

Hannah always wanted to be carried while we were waiting in line. She would ask if I could carry her, and then give me this face...

This also happened while we would wait in line.

Since it was so close to Christmas, Santa was there!

The girls got to meet Mrs. Clause

And Santa

He asked them what they wanted for Christmas. Taylor said "A DSi" and Hannah said "A new tutu." Check, and check...thank you Target on Black Friday!

We said goodbye to Disneyland and hopped over to California Adventure to go on more rides. There was one ride we had to wait a really long time for, about an hour.

While we were waiting in line we saw this...

He was singing and dancing. We got his attention and he singled out Joe. He said "You sir, in the green shirt, let me guess your weight." He paused for a moment as he looked at Joe, and then said "I would say about 45 minutes to an hour." Haha! He was right! Hannah had a little nap in line.

The ride was worth the wait. It was a really fun shooting 3D game.

I was with Taylor and I got 98,500 points with 71% accuracy. I thought that was pretty good, until after when Joe told me his score, 248,000, but his accuracy was only 30.%. We are not competitive at all!

This next part was one of the best parts of the whole trip...eating the turkey leg.

It was so good, the best turkey I have EVER had. The girls loved it too.

Then we went on the Ferris Wheel.

But we decided to go on a swinging one.

I did not like it at all! The girls were a little scared, but I think I was the most afraid on that ride.

Later, we watched the Pixar Parade. It had all the characters from the Pixar movies. And bubbles! The girls had fun popping all the bubbles.

After that, Taylor said she wanted to go on the Tower of Terror.

I was surprised she wanted to go on it. But since she was being brave that day, we said, okay, let's do it! Hannah, of course, wasn't scared to go on it. And she was barely big enough to go. Joe and I had already been on the ride once. And it is pretty scary, so we warned them, and they still wanted to go. The ride is like an elevator that goes up and down really fast. It's pretty fun. This picture below is taken when we are at the very top!

After, both girls were a little scared by the ride so before going back to the hotel, we decided to take them to the Bug's Life area again, so we would leave on a happy note. Well, while we were there, riding the bumper cars, it started pouring rain. Luckily this ride was under a canopy. So we went on the ride like 10 times in a row, waiting for the rain to stop. It eventually turned into a sprinkle and we strolled back to the hotel.

It was such an amazing trip, crazy busy and tiring, but so worth it. I know the girls had so much fun and will remember this week forever...

Hannah is in Playschool

2010-11-15T09:59:00.000-08:00

I decided to put Hannah in playschool. And I was pretty lucky to get into the one I wanted. Her teacher is Rene Hardy at Erminskin community centre. Rene is the coolest lady ever. She was my Laurels advisor when I was in YW. I love her. We used to call her "party Hardy"...and I still do, when I see her. I called Rene last week to ask about when playschool registration was for next year, and she told me there was a spot that just opened in her 3 year old class for this year. I thought to myself...hmmm, 2.5 hours, 2 times a week with no kids...all by myself!!! Done. So now she is in playschool, and she loves it. She has only been once, but she asks if she has school everyday. Here are some pics of her right before her first class.

Halloween!

2010-10-31T23:01:00.000-07:00

Yes, after looking at everyone's amazing Halloween pictures, it's time to post mine! I got the girls ready a couple hours early so I could take some pictures outside while it was still light and still warm. They were dressed up as...

Cats! These were their costumes from last year. Yessss...didn't have to get anything new this year! And it only took me 15 minutes to get them ready.

I actually wasn't sure what Hannah was going to be until a few hours before we went trunk-or-treating. She kept telling me over the past month that she wanted to be a ballerina, or a witch, or a princess, or a cat. I told her she should be all 4...a ballerina princess witch cat! She finally decided to be a cat, probably because Taylor was. She pretty much likes to copy everything Taylor does and says.

I told Hannah to act like a cat, and this is what she did...

Next was Taylor's turn, and this is how she posed. I promise I didn't ask her to pose this way, she did it on her own...so sassy!

We then went to the church parking lot and scored on a ton of candy!!! I had to empty the girls buckets 3 times into another bag! Let's be honest, Joe and I will be eating most of their candy...okay, let's be even more honest, I will be eating way more of that candy than Joe. What can I say...I love sugar!!!

Here are the girls with Hannah's future husband, Ethan Johnson. They are so cute together in Nursery!

Halfway through trunk or treating, Taylor said, "This is awesome! This is way better than trick or treating!" And I agree, the cars are 2 feet apart, we got a buttload of candy, and we were done in less than an hour! I propose trunk or treat every year! Who's in?

Superheros?

2010-10-25T18:37:00.000-07:00

Last week, Maren came over with her kids and Barb came over with Scarlett. They were downstairs playing in the dress up clothes, and this is what they looked like when they came back upstairs...

Hannah is...Super leopard lady

Scarlett is...Flower power girl (okay, she's not really wearing any dress-up clothes)

And last but not least, Jackson is...Ballerina super babe

Looks like Jackson has his outfit for Halloween all picked out!

I love Jimmy Fallon

2010-10-12T13:38:00.000-07:00

I watch Jimmy every night. He makes me laugh. He makes me cry...with laughter. I love him. Not as much as I love my husband though. I want to dedicate this blog post to Jimmy...to show my favourite moments, quotes, and videos...enjoy!

Just a couple weeks ago, he had Justin Timberlake on his show and the did this rap medley. It was awesome! It looked like they had practiced for hours to perfect it. You can check it out here.

He also, just recently hosted the Emmy Awards. If you haven't seen the opening for it, you need to, and you can check it out here.

Next, is one of my all time favourite skits from snl. And my fav thing to watch that Jimmy has done. Justin Timberlake was the host on snl and Jimmy came on as a guest. They did this skit that is called the Barry Gibb talk show. They have done it 3 different times, 2003, 2006 and 2008. I love the latest one. Since you can't watch videos from Canada on nbc, I have been looking for this 2008 skit on other websites for hours! And I couldn't find it! I'm so sad I can't find it! Just a picture. Jenny, because you live in the states, feel free to watch the 2008 skit here . The rest of us Canadians can watch the 2006 skit I finally found here. The quality is not the best, but I still love it.

Oh yes, I have more. Last year, Jimmy did a video from Late Night with Jimmy Fallon called "Head Swap," it is so funny. I kept it on my pvr for months so I could watch it over and over. Check it out here.

Next. Every Friday, on Late night, Jimmy does his "Thank You notes." They are hilarious! Here is last Friday's Thank you notes.

I'm not finished yet. Oh, you don't have an hour to watch all this hilariousness you say? Too bad, this next one shows how super talented he is. He did some impressions as a guest on an episode of America's got Talent (NO! I do not watch that show!) So impressive! Check it out here.

On Late night, he did this video where he is Justin Bieber. It is pretty funny. Check it out here.

I guess that is all I will give you for now. There is so much more! Be prepared for a I love Jimmy Fallon part 2 post in a few months! You can check him out every night on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon...you know I do.

Now it's Taylor's turn

2010-10-12T13:09:00.000-07:00

As promised last week, I said I would do a photoshoot of Taylor this weekend. And I did. Here are some of my more narrowed down favourites. Check out the rest (there's like a bazillion) on my photography blog!

A Photo Shoot for Hannah

2010-10-06T21:13:00.000-07:00

I took Hannah out for some pictures last week. Here are a few of them. Check out my photography blog for more! Way more!

The Burnhams

2010-09-27T11:57:00.001-07:00

I took pictures for Maren and her family on Saturday down by Whyte Ave. If you want to see more of my favourites, check out my photography blog!

End of the roll....

2010-09-23T17:20:00.001-07:00

This "All Purpose Packaging Film" is 9.5 years old! Yes, it is as old as how many years Joe and I have been married. I know this because we bought it right after we got married. For the last forever, I have been expecting it to run out, but it must have been magical saran wrap! And it would never run out...until...I just went to use it and it was the end of the roll! Thanks Costco, for all your over sized everything!

Hannah...she says the funniest things!

2010-09-20T12:13:00.000-07:00

I really need to have a video camera on that girl 24/7. So I can go back to listen and watch the most hilarious things she does and says. Earlier today she was trying to open a candy wrapper and she said "Mommy, this wrapper has child locks!" Haha! Too funny! She has also been trying to speak french...just like Taylor. And I hear her trying to sing songs in french, it is so cute! And a few days ago, she was playing with all her stuffies, and then it got really quiet...yep, she fell asleep in them....

She eventually woke up when I took some pics of her. I love that girl!

She's Coming....

2010-09-16T16:27:00.000-07:00

No I am not talking about Jenny coming...I wish. But this does have to do with Jenny, Maren and I! It all started today when I got my mail....

It was from Jenny....

My first reaction was fear! Then, it was laughter....hahaha! Jenny you are too funny! So, for those of you who don't know...well, let me start at the beginning....

A few Christmas' ago, Jenny and I were shopping at Micheal's, and we saw these super creepy porcelain doll head ornaments. We loved them so much, we bought one for Maren! This is what it looked like...

After she opened it, we hung it on her tree without her noticing...it only took her a few minutes to notice it! And that is where this all started. For the past few years, we have been hiding the doll head in each other's homes! Some of my favourite places the doll head was hidden are...hanging from Maren's front entrance chandelier, in a ziploc bag in soup and in a slurpee, hanging outside Jenny's patio window (bumping into the window when the wind blew), taped to the inside of Jenny's toilet seat, stuffed in one of Noah's sleepers that had a hood and placed in his crib...etc. There were moments when we didn't see the doll head for months, but the last place I saw it, Maren put it in Jenny's purse right before she left for Cleveland. She eventually found it...and now she has mailed me a lock of her hair with a warning note...She's Coming! The doll head has gone through a lot in the last few years, and looks a little different now. I don't have a picture of what she looks like now but she has stitches and a black eye!

I am a little scared of how and when I will find her...

Future Gamer Geek

2010-09-04T15:41:00.000-07:00

I have no idea where she gets if from...

The best was that she had no idea I was taking this picture!

Summer!!! Where have you gone...

2010-09-01T19:52:00.000-07:00

It feels like not that long ago I was in my swimsuit everyday at Echo Lake or at my Mom and Dad's pool in the hot sun! Summer is really not technically over until September 21 so I am going to keep wearing my swimsuit everyday until then, and the weather better cooperate! I thought I needed to post all my favourite pictures from my trip to Montana in August to remind myself that summer is not over...even though the forecast says so...

These first pictures are ones I took of the girls after we fed some ducks at the duck pond. It is in a sketchy area of Kalispell. There were some hooligans causing a scene and swearing like crazy, really loud, and talking about selling and using drugs, right where we were. We called the police...and they stopped by, but didn't really do anything. The hooligans stayed and kept swearing....don't know if we will go there again! I have named it sketchy drug duck pond.

Cop...

Hooligans...

These next one's are of my favourite place in the whole world...the dock! I love relaxing and reading there. It can also be a crazy place of mayhem, depending on who is at the dock...cough...my husband and his brothers, or any kids! One day when we were down at the dock, my kids were acting super crazy and I told them to chill out! Hannah was like "what's that?" So I told her that when she is acting crazy and she needs to stop, I will tell her to chill out. 20 minutes later, they are acting crazy again, I lost my temper and got upset at them. Then Hannah said, "Remember mom, you just need to chill out!" Yep. That's Hannah for you...ask anyone.

I love my girls and their matching swimsuits! I am so surprised they cooperated for these pictures! Oh, yeah, I am pretty sure I promised treats.

One night, we put mud masks on the girls. Taylor loved it! It was so cute!

Later when we went to bed, we saw Taylor and Hannah snuggling in their bed, but they weren't actually snuggling...Taylor was using Hannah's butt as a pillow!

Another favourite place in the whole world is the pool at my parents condo. I love to chillax there.

My super sassy pose...

The girls had so much fun on the boat out on the lake. They also loved tubing and going EZ skiing! What is THAT you say? Well, it's the cutest thing ever! It is a floaty thingy that looks like a seadoo that get's pulled behind a boat. We borrowed the Gibbs EZ ski and the girls had a blast! It was their favourite thing to do while we were there. They were constantly saying "can we go on the EZ ski? PLEASE!" We borrowed it 3 or 4 times! (thanks Barb!) We are definitely going to have to get one of those for next year!

What a fun summer...but remember, it's not over!

Jenny...this post is for you!

2010-08-23T18:26:00.000-07:00

I will meet you under the willow tree on Shady Lane....

Sad....

2010-08-03T18:25:00.001-07:00

Jenny's gone....

We were taking some pictures the last night we spent together before she left. They started out nice...

And then they just got ugly...

uglier...

disgusting....

And then Jenny and I noticed that Maren's "ugly faces" weren't up to par...

So we had to teach her how to do it...

This is what she came up with after our lesson...

Very disappointing Maren...
We miss you so much already Jenny!!!

Hannah at the Webster family reunion

2010-07-21T13:26:00.000-07:00

We were at a family reunion this last weekend and spent a day in Waterton. It was a beautiful day...no wind! We got some ice cream and walked to the playground. When we got there, this is what Hannah looked like...

We also got to ride horses! They had straw hats, vests and hanker chiefs for everyone, so we could look like really cowboys...or cowgirls!

These last one's I could only get from bribing Hannah with candy. They were taken outside the cabin we were staying in, Payne Lake Lodge.

This post has to be all about Hannah because Taylor was running around with her cousins all weekend and I barely saw her!

Getting Crafty...and Thrifty

2010-06-29T19:24:00.000-07:00

I have been looking at these blogs called allthingsthrifty.com and House of Smiths that shows how to make super cute crafty things and how to decorate inexpensively. So I tried a few things out myself....I literally did them all myself. A lot of these blogs show their husbands helping them with things, mine didn't...not because he didn't want to, but I wanted to do it all myself!

This first project in Taylor's room started when I bought this white shelf in the as is section of ikea. I saw on the all things thrifty website that she had put material in the back of one of her projects and I loved it, so I wanted to try it myself! The backing of the shelf was broken, so I went to ikea and bought some new backing from the as is section. It wasn't the right size so I measured the shelf and cut the backing to the right size with a skill saw. Then I measured out the material (from fabricland) to go around the backing. I hot glued the material to the backing, placed it back on the shelf and nailed it back in. This is how it looked...

I bought the brown baskets from Zellers, the watering can from Value Village, the fake flowers are from Michaels, and the frame is from Winners (the picture in the frame was taken by Caylee Secretan.

This second project in Taylor's room is an end table. I bought it at Value Village (sorry, I forgot to take a before picture!) for $5.99! First I primed the table with spray primer, then I bought some paint to match the teal color in the floral fabric from the shelf. Then I sanded the edges and then applied some brown stain, and wiped it off, to make it look old and vintage. And I got the mirror at a garage sale for only $1!

I bought the vase from Value Village, the flowers from Michaels, the flower pot was free (that I spray painted ivory color), and the balls are from Rafters and Bed Bath and Beyond.

I modge podged the inside of the drawers with a brown with white polkadot material. The drawer knobs are from Anthropologie (my new favourite store...one knob was 2 times what I paid for the end table...you do the math! And don't tell my husband!) I was really happy with how it all turned out, it was a lot of work, but it was really fun, and I am proud of it cause I did it myself!

I pretty much did the same thing in Hannah's room, but a different color. Her end table I got at Good Will for $10. Same knobs, and same material inside the drawers.

I got these picture frames at Winners for $5 each. I love them!

I also did the same material backing thing in Hannah's room, just different material I ordered online (way cheaper!). I made the quilt hanging off the bed before Hannah was born. I bought and spray painted the vase. The flowers in the vase are wooden and I painted them. The frame on the bookshelf was an old frame I painted and distressed.

I also bought this bookshelf in the as is section of ikea. I like to check it out every once in a while. I spray painted then distressed the frame. I bought the shelf on the wall at Michaels, painted it brown and distressed the edges.

I have done other projects around the house, but these one's were the cutest! I had a lot of fun doing these projects. I am now on the lookout for a coffee table for my living room that I can fix up!

Vintage Photoshoot

2010-05-23T18:06:00.000-07:00

I got together with Alysha, Heidi, Jenny, Jordana, Kamry and Natasha. They all got dressed up in vintage clothes and we met over at the Rutherford house on University campus. This is what I captured...

This first style of photo editing was so much fun, it works perfect for these shots!

That was just a sneak peak!! If you want to see more, go to my photography blog!
The link is at the top of the page...

Beauty and the Beast

2010-05-20T17:28:00.000-07:00

Taylor and I went to Beauty and the Beast with Janine and Cole on Tuesday. We took the LRT and Taylor loved it! Cole just put his arm around Taylor on his own for this picture...

Taylor loved the show...I think I was more excited than she was about it! She was really scared at the beginning of the show but warmed up after about 10 minutes. My favorite part of the show was watching Taylor watch. During the "Be Our Guest" song, Taylor had an excited look on her face and said "WOW!"

And then she got to meet "Belle" after the show...thanks to Janine's connections! Taylor was so excited to meet Belle. When she got home, she couldn't wait to tell everyone that she got to meet Belle!

This last one has nothing to do with Beauty and the Beast. It's just a cute shot of Taylor in her dance recital outfit. I told her to pose, and this is what she did!

Well...at least I met the other 2 band members....

2010-04-12T17:35:00.000-07:00

My obsession started back in 2006 when I first heard the song "Butterflies and Hurricanes". From there, MUSE would be my favourite band EVER! I know every single one of their songs, even the b-sides. Having over 100 songs, it's pretty much all I listen to. Back in September 2007, my 2 sisters (Jenny and Maren), and I drove down to Orem, Utah just to see them for their Black Holes and Revelations tour. After that day I have checked their website everyday just to find out about album releases, news and tour dates so I could see them LIVE again!

Back in December, they finally announced that they were doing a show in Salt Lake City on April 5, 2010. I bought tickets as soon as they were available, Jenny and Maren got tickets too, of course. About a week later, they annouced that they were doing some Canadian shows and Edmonton was one of them, a week before the SLC show, March 29! The first thing I thought was "YES!!! I get to see them 2 times!" After this, I thought, "okay...I have to meet them...well, actually, I just want to meet Matt Bellamy (he's the lead singer/songwriter/genius of the band/awesome entertainer/professional concert pianist/beautiful amazing voice/can you tell that I am obsessed with this guy?) Thus started "My quest to meet MUSE"

So I thought of some options to try to meet them. Maren's old manager used to work at Sonic 102.9 and we tried to use him to see if we could get anything from Sonic, they said no. And then my husband told me about a contest they were having on Sonic 102.9, it was called "Supermassive Meet and Greet." Here's what you win: The Garner Andrews show picks you up in a Limo, you go out to dinner with them, they drive you to the concert, you get tickets to the show, you meet the opening band (Silversun Pickups) before the show, and then you meet MUSE after the show! Since I already had tickets, all I care about was meeting them (Matt) after the show. At first I didn't believe Joe, I thought he was making this up because he knows how bad I want to meet them. So I called Garner and it was true! This is how to win though...starting March 22 at 7:40am, you have to me one of 3 callers on the line. Then they will play you a snipet of a song from the radio and you have to guess the name and artist. AND...all 3 callers have to get it right or no one wins that round and you can call in again later that day at 4:40. I DO NOT listen to the radio! I listen to MUSE! So I thought "great, I am never gonna win this, but I have to try." So I studied the radio for a couple weeks, I even made an excel spreadsheet of the songs they play. I was starting to feel pretty confident about winning...I just had to be one of the callers. Well, March 22 came and all I got was a busy signal when I tried to call...I didn't win the contest :( I was super bummed. I had spent the amount of a full time job the last couple weeks trying to learn radio songs and I didn't even get a chance to use my excel spreadsheet. I couldn't help it...I started crying. I know, it's silly. But I barely slept the night before and I was really tired! 5 minutes later I heard Joe on the phone with Garner, offering $1000 to any of the winners for their passes to meet MUSE, and explaining that I was their biggest fan. He gave Joe the number of the guy in charge of promotions at Sonic. I think his name was Brent, anyways, Brent told Joe that I should write an email about why I am their biggest fan and he would sent it to the MUSE guys, and maybe they would get me another pass. Long story short, too late, they still said NO! I thought "what do I have to do to meet these guys?!!" So my quest continued!

I wasn't giving up! I had to be one of those crazy staker fans that waits at their hotel...and that is exactly what I did. The evening before their concert, I went looking downtown for tour buses parked outside hotels. Claire Johnson helped me find the tour buses, she is a pro! We saw some buses parked outside the Westin downtown. So I sat in the lobby and waited, and waited...and waited. I finally saw some crew members walking around. But there was no sign of the band. Finally at about 10:30pm, Maren had the guts to talk to some of the crew members. They knew right away that we were looking for the band. They didn't tell us anything though. One of the crew members, Freddie, got Maren VIP tickets cause she didn't have tickets to the Edmonton show, only the SLC one. These passes got you access to the VIP room after the show, which the band sometimes shows up after. They told us they usually don't if they have a show the next night...which they did, in stupid Cowtown! Anyways, I had no luck that night trying to stalk them down. I thought I maybe could after the show the next night.

Day of the show. I was all ready and lined up at Rexall Place by 12:30pm, because we had floor tickets and it was a general admission show, and I wanted to be at the very front, right infront of Matt! When I got there, there were only 2 other girls there, and their names were also Sarah! Too funny. So we waited for about 6 more hours. Here is a pic of us waiting in line...

When the doors finally opened, I ran like a crazy person to the floor. I was so fast...I was the FIRST person running out onto the floor, so I pretty much got to stand where ever I wanted! Here is a pic of me and Jenny sitting right at the front waiting for the opening band...

This is Mark...he is the camera guy on the left side of the stage, right infront of us. We met him at the Westin the night before and he remembered us and got us on the big screen a lot. I had people asking me on facebook the next day if I was at the front at the concert...yes I was...

It was such an awesome show! Here are some of my favourite pics from the show taken from where Maren and Tarilyn were sitting...

He is such a genius at the piano...

And the best singer...

Did I mention how attractive he is yet?...it's okay, my husband knows...

Here are a few pics taken from one of the other "Sarah's" camera, she was standing right beside me...what a view...

I know this might sound crazy, but this is my favourite face he makes when he is singing...

Right when the show ended, Mark (the camera guy mentioned before) gave me the setlist!!! And here it is...

So, after the show, Jenny and I met up with Tarilyn and Maren to go to this VIP room...I was really excited to possibly meet them, but not hopeful...I had been dissapointed in trying to meet them so many times already that I was ready for more dissapointment. Well, they didn't show up in the VIP room, I was a little sad but still so pumped from the best show ever! Here is a pic of us in the VIP room...

This is us acting dissapointed that they didn't show...

After being dissapointed at not meeting him again I thought "it's okay, I still have next weeks show in SLC!!"

My quest continued in SLC...moving forward to the next week...I was so happy that I was going to be able to see them again! We were later lining up at the SLC show. We started lining up around 3pm and there were about 50 lined up already. I thought "doh! we won't be at the front this time I guess." The doors finally opened and for reasons I don't need to go into detail for, we made it to the front...AGAIN!!! Wee! I was so pumped! Here is one of us waiting outside for the doors to open...

Even though it was the same band I saw a week before, this show was a bzillion times better than the one in Edmonton. We had more interaction with Matt. There was a "moment" we had with him. In this video, when he is down on his knees, right when the drums come in, he turns his head, at this moment, he looked right at us and we freaked out!! It was the "moment" of the show we will not forget, or stop talking about.

I don't have any pictures from the show, we couldn't really bring our SLR cameras in there! So I just relive the time being there by looking up other peoples videos on youtube.

So after the show, the quest was back on. We thought we could maybe use the VIP passes we had in Edmonton, but they were playing in Denver the next day and the same thing might happen to us, and so we thought we might have a better chance of meeting them by stalking down their buses. We walked/ran (because it was snowing like crazy and it was really cold!) around the back of the building and squeezed through the gate to get to their buses. So we stood right by their tour buses and there were security guards walking by us and didn't say anything...I thought "this is it! I am finally going to meet him!" 10 minutes went by and then this mean British guy saw us and asked us if we had passes...we said "no, but..." and he was like "no, you need to leave" and then escorted us out to where there were some other fans waiting.

Plan B was on...the VIP passes we got in Edmonton. Since we only had 2 it was only Maren and I that could try this next plan. We went back in the venue and asked where the VIP room was and showed them our passes. They escorted us down to the doors of the room. The security guard outside the room said we had the wrong passes and we made the saddest eyes ever and said "if you let us talk to Freddie (the guys who gave us the Edmonton ones), he will let us in!" The other security guard that was there let us find Freddie and we made it into the VIP room!!! Muse wasn't there...yet. The opening band was in there, but we didn't talk to them, not really interested. We were in there for about 15 minutes when Dom (the drummer of Muse) walked in. I thought "YES!! I am for reals going to meet Matt...finally!" We talked to him for a couple minutes and got pictures with him...

He was really nice...and british...Maren asked him if Matt was coming and he said that he had already left. I instantly didn't believe him...I was in denial. Then Chris (the bassist) walked in and we eventually got pics with him too...

He was really nice too. Maren asked Chris if Matt was coming and he said he didn't know...that gave me hope. But I knew deep down, Matt wasn't coming. So I got really sad...

Okay, that was totally posed, but I was really sad, and trying not to be because I had just seen the best live show ever and met some of my favourite band! So after a while we decided it was time to go...

This one was posed too, it was hard because Chris and Dom were standing like 2 meters from me and I didn't want them to see me looking sad...even though I really was.

Okay, this is the worst part of the story...So we get outside the VIP room and the security guards are like "so, did you get all the pictures you wanted?" We were like "kinda, we really wanted to meet the singer, Matt." They were like "what? He was in there! But that was a while ago, we saw him walk in and out of the room but I think it was about 5 minutes before you guys got here. He was really nice!" I had the hugest pit in my stomache! I missed Matt by 5 MINUTES!!! I know it might sound lame but I still get sick thinking about it. I have wanted to meet this guy for the last 4 years! I tried and am still trying to not let that get to me...only time can heal my pain!!! So my quest to meet MUSE is now my quest to meet MATT (I guess it always was anyways) and it continues...oh and if Matt is reading this, I am not crazy, I just think you are super talented and a genius and I love your music...and my number is...

Going to Park City the next day to go SHOPPING helped a lot...super deals over there! This last one is of us with our cousin Britt, we stayed at her house in Alpine, she was so awesome, the best hostess ever!

Sorry this was so long...I just had to get it all out. I don't blame any of you for not reading the whole thing...I wouldn't!

Fun Photoshoot

2010-03-18T19:48:00.000-07:00

We (Alysha, Jordana, Barb, Maren, Jenny and Amelia) did a fun photoshoot by Whyte Ave. These are some of the one's that Alysha took of me.

Taylor came along, and here are the ones of us!

Christmas 2009

2010-03-18T19:43:00.000-07:00

This picture was taken Christmas eve at Maren's house. They are obviously very excited! The next morning, my family came over for Christmas breakfast. Then we spent the next week at the Strongs. It was a good holiday!

Taylor's dance recital at the Festival of Trees Christmas 2009

2010-03-18T19:40:00.001-07:00

This is what happens when Hannah goes to bed...

2010-03-18T19:36:00.000-07:00

When Hannah started sleeping in a "big girl" bed, she would take all the clothes out of her drawer...and this is how I found her one night!

Taylor's first day of School

2010-03-18T19:34:00.000-07:00

Fun at the Edmonton Corn Maze Fall 2009

2010-03-18T19:21:00.000-07:00

Echo Lake 2009

2010-03-18T19:14:00.000-07:00

Hannah is 2!

2009-06-26T20:30:00.000-07:00

So my baby Hannah is now 2! I can't believe it! And boy is she CRAZY! I took these pictures on her Birthday and I was amazed at how much she cooperated.

She love twirling her dress around!

She got tired of me telling her what to do, I love these last pics of her!

2009-02-10T19:46:00.000-08:00

These are quick snaps I took one morning. I love the first one because they are making the exact same face! You think they're sisters?

They are making the same face here too!

2009-01-19T13:58:00.000-08:00

We took the girls out in our backyard to play in the snow. Hannah kept saying "snow" and Taylor kept trying to throw snow at me. It was pretty cold out so it only lasted a little while!

I

2009-01-07T22:45:00.000-08:00

I know I haven't posted in a while so I have a bunch of pics to show!!! The following pictures explain what has been going on for the last 4 months!!!

This first set of pictures is from the Cabin at Echo Lake...my favourite place in the world!

We hiked up to Sperry Chalet with Joe's parents in the summer....what a hike! It was worth it!

We went to the Edmonton Corn Maze and they had the most beautiful sunflowers everywhere!! They also had this cute bike track that Taylor loved racing on!

We took the girls to Fort Edmonton Park in September. I love this next one of Hannah with the ice cream cone! And she loved the horseys too!!

Alysha, Maren, Jenny and I took some princess pictures of our girls. Jackson was the only prince there!

These last pics are some of my favourites.

This last picture won me $2000 in a contest I entered in January! Studio414contest.com

These are pictures from the Webster family reunion in July. As usual I took too many pictures!

2008-08-20T10:53:00.000-07:00

My Hannah is 1!

2008-06-26T22:19:00.001-07:00

She just ate some dirt in this one!

Scarlett Butler

2008-06-06T22:31:00.000-07:00

These are some pictures I took of Barb Butler's new baby, Scarlett. What an angel!

These are pictures I took of Taylor and Hannah after church one day. Taylor actually posed for me!!! And Hannah wouldn't sit still.

2008-05-09T13:18:00.000-07:00