Mommy's Monsters

In just a little over 1 month my little monsters are turning 3!!!!! I finally freed the cricut from storage and went to work on some invitations and the starts of some cupcake toppers. I am already having fun with this monster theme, I think it's perfectly suited for them right now and can't wait to see what else I can find and/or make. 1 month I can't believe it and can't wait at the same time.

Out With the Old

Today was a long day of installation and waiting for our new furniture to be delivered for the family room. We had been putting off doing either with hopes of selling the house first, but since the market is so slow our couches couldn't take it any more and I have always disliked the green carpet in that room for the 9 years we've lived here. In other words......It was time! I didn't take any before pics but here are a couple after pics. I love it all. The carpet, the new sofa and love seat and the new storage ottoman. I love that even the tiniest things can make it seem like a whole new room.

Chinese In the News

Caleb isn't in this video. However, I thought it was a nice piece on the program. Everyone needs a little reassurance sometimes that they are doing the right thing.

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=14481960


Check it out on KSL.COM.

A LOVE-ly Weekend

Why celebrate Valentines Day for only 1 day? This year we have managed to spread a little love into each of the days of the weekend before. Starting with Friday night where Caleb sat down and wrote out all the Valentines for his class party on Monday.

Saturday we baked some cute little sugar cookies and I made heart shaped pancakes for breakfast.

Today, the boys got their Vday goodies from Mom and Dad. The twins got shirts to wear on Monday and some candy.

Caleb got a Kidz Bop CD he's been dying for and some candy as well.

They didn't take long to dive into the candy.

I got Mike this picture. I thought it was funny. I'm not sure he's appreciating it properly. But anyone that knows how much I LOVE ketchup, should know what a compliment this is to him.
It reads like an eye chart and says "You are the ketchup to my fries."

Mike also got the "early" bug to avoid the mad rush tomorrow and ordered my flowers to come today on Sunday so I could start enjoying them early. This year he went with all sunflowers. One of my fav's. He also gave me a pink Wii remote and nunchuck. I think he's trying to say he wants me to play games with him and the boys more often ;).

And for dinner tonight, we went with the traditional heart-shaped pizza from Papa Murphys.

Tomorrow will be a more relaxing Vday for us. Caleb and I have our Valentines to hand out at school and work and he will have his class party. Other than that I plan on sitting back and watching the chaos from a safe distance.

Chinese New Year

Caleb's school held a big Chinese New Year celebration last night. 2011- Year of the Rabbit. Caleb got to sing for the audience in Chinese with his class (video hopefully coming soon). Then they had performers there to do a Thai Chi demonstration as well as the traditional Lion Dance. The Lion then came out in the audience and around for all of us to see.

It was a really nice program and then we got to do some break out activities. I was assigned to help in the making fans room so Mike and the boys walked around to the rest of the activities. He got to go to the Chinese Market and pick out a couple things, make a lantern, make a hackey sack, get a Chinese symbol painted on his hand, play a game with chopsticks and learn some Thai Chi moves from the performers who stuck around.

He told us on the way home that he had a really fun day at school. I'm so happy that we have him in this program. He loves it.

Front Page

While we were gone, Mike had some excitement of his own here at home. Since we were coming back on Super Bowl Sunday from Vegas and he needed to intercept me in Spanish Fork. He took the liberty to fully complain about having to DVR the Superbowl on his Facebook status. In turn, he was contacted by a reporter at none other than the Wall Street Journal who was doing an article on just that...DVRing the superbowl. He had a couple phone interviews and Friday while I was gone, a photographer came to the house and took a bunch of photo's. It ran on Saturday, we are told on the front page! Read the electronic version here. He's not too impressed with the photo or being repeatedly referred to as Mr. Ouren, but overall how many people can say they've been on the front page of the WSJ?

My little trip made him a 1 day celebrity. He should be thanking me for making him DVR the Superbowl, not complaining. And to top it off his Packers won and he got to watch it later without it getting spoiled for him. Win-Win I say.

Vegas Trip 2011

First of all I want to say, "WE LOVE YOU GEORGE STRAIT!" Here's our matching Tshirts from the concert.

I'm happy to report a very successful concert road trip to Vegas with my sister and a friend. We got off to a rough late start on Friday, but quickly made up time and stopped in for a bite in St. George at our Step-brothers place. Thanks for the yummy stop Mike. Then it was back on the road. We arrived, got checked in and took a break for a bit. Then met up for dinner and a little bit of walking the strip. We didn't take many pictures but here's a couple from M&M world that night.

I turned in early and the next day we met up for breakfast and some exhibits. We saw both the Body Works exhibit and the Titanic Exhibits going on at the Luxor. They were both really fun and educational to boot.

Then it was off to the outlet mall for some shopping. It was a beautiful 70 degrees and sun-shiny. I took full advantage and slipped on short sleeves and flip flops. It was wonderful. Then it was back to the hotel and off for another walk further down the strip for dinner and browsing. We snuck in some slot machines here and there and I came out only $6 down. I'll take that! Then it was time for the main event..... the concert!!!!! We sang and danced in our seats until the wee hours of the morning (nearly 1:30 am!). To sum up Reba and George in one word: WONDERFUL!

After a quick sleep it was time for breakfast and to head out and back on our way to Utah. Thanks to my sister and friend for a great trip full of memories!

p.s.- Don't ask my sister about the Sprite or the rest stop stories. Talk about embarrassing!