Liam Turns 8!!

Hard to believe my firstborn has turned 8! He celebrated his birthday in style by renting a small movie theater out and showing the movie Megamind to his friends. Yes that is Charlie in the front row by Liam. It was the easiest kid party I have ever been involved with, they just stared at the screen the whole time. I could barely get them to stop and eat pizza and popcorn.

We did have a few minutes after the show to eat some Pokeman cake.

Last but not least Liam opened a few presents as everyone gathered around to watch.

Happy Birthday Liam!!

Newport 2011

It was a little cold in Newport but I won't complain, apparently we missed a bad storm in Utah while we were gone. Here is some picture of out short trip to Laguna Beach and some more shots of our visit to the San Juan Capistrano mission.

Winter Woes

I think the end of January and first part of February has got to be the most dreary time of year in Utah. The inversion sets in, everyone gets a cold and I'm not sure Valentine's Day and President's Day actually count as real holidays. To make matters worse we were unable to go on the family trip to Santa Barbara this week and I kept seeing Adam post pictures of the beach on Facebook. Couldn't stop thinking of the great time all were having while I drove home in a blizzard from Evanston, Wyoming.

Well, enough of the negativity. We all get to go to Newport in about two weeks and I am trying to remain engaged in some kind of project around the house to keep me busy. I am currently working on adding some changes to our living room. Most of the furniture is from our old house and doesn't really fit well into the new house. Here are some pieces I've purchased and can't wait to get the whole project completed. What do you think? I started off ordering the chevron blue rug and now contemplating getting a plush velvet blue couch and white console for the TV. Ben's not so sure if all this white is manly enough for his tastes but I reassured him I'll add some more masculine elements in later. Now if only I can get Sam to do some paintings for the space.

Christmas 2010 Recap

Just had to recap how our Christmas went this past year. Liam finished off the 2010 school year with a Christmas concert.

I was on call for the hospital all week so we had to stay in SLC and celebrate Christmas without the extended family. Luckily I didn't get called in on Christmas Eve or Christmas day so we had a nice dinner with some sparkling cranberry juice.

To keep the night exciting we made some sugar cookies for Santa!

I also snuck a peek at what Santa brought the kids before they came downstairs.

Liam was pretty pleased Santa left him a foosball table and Nintendo DS game.

Lila was excited to finally get some girl toys. I think I have mentioned before she is all girl, she was pretty enamored with her first pair of heels!

This is a photo from today. She has a fixation with heels. Too bad she can't walk very far in them.

Art

I've been looking to buy some new artwork for my house lately. I've always been a sucker for maps but particularly liked these colorful maps by Aaron Straup Cope.

I also thought this was a nice photopgraph on canvas by Irene Suchocki.

This is by Richard Diebenkorn entitled "Ocean Park" which he painted in 1980....not sure if I love or hate it.

Lastly, this is John Singer Sargent's "El Jaleo" which is a more traditional oil. Would really like to have a nice mix of different kind of pieces like this in my house someday.

Anybody else have a favorite new artists?

More Holiday Festivities 2010

Christmas couldn't go by without the annual Bennett, Tueller, Johnson and Deere work party. Ben and I left the kids with a sitter and had a nice meal at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse.

2 days later Ben's family came into town and all the girls went to a Santa Tea Party at the Grand America Hotel. Here is Maia and Kaitlin getting ready to order.

Lila and Grace prepare for Santa's arrival.

Lila was not so sure of Santa when he arrived and cried when he got too close.

Here is Jenny and Maia doing some mother and daughter bonding.

The Nutcracker 2010

Following tradition Liam and I went to the Nutcracker for our 5th consecutive year in a row. As in previous years we met up with Sam and the gang. Although Lila was not quite old enough to sit through the show she wanted to pose for some of the preshow pictures.

Sam and the boys all came in plaid or red ties. Kristen came beautifully dressed in a black fur and sparkling headband. With 6th row tickets we all sat back and enjoyed the show.

After the show we met at my house briefly and got a few more family pictures, unfortunately, Charlie was NOT in the mood.

To finish off the evening we went down to the Paris for some french cuisine. Not sure the waiters loved having several small children at the table to serve but we did manage to escape without any outbursts or temper tantrums.