Christmas

Been a long time. And it will probably be a while yet before I'll be able to post anything substantial. Right now we are frantically trying to get the house and EVERYTHING ready to go to Mapleton for Christmas. We're enjoying the holidays though and will give an update in the new year.

Merry Christmas, from the Potluck family!

Pumpkin Festival

Right after the Sheep Parade we walked over to the pumpkin festival. Again, it was my first time actually participating in this Cedar City tradition. It was awesome. Leah got to jump in leaves, decorate a cookie, paint a pumpkin, get a temporary tattoo and eat a donut without using her hands. Abby seemed to enjoy it too, although, as I previously mentioned, she ended up spending most of her time in the stroller. She got a tattoo and shoveled in a donut as well. I think they both enjoyed being out. So did I. Here are our pics from Pumpkin Festival, 2008.

Sheep Parade

Only in Cedar City can the annual herding of sheep down Main Street be called a parade and the activities surrounding it become a festival. I'm not sure what the real title of the festival is but all day Leah has been calling it "The Sheep Parade". Lenny was on a campout with the scouts so I loaded up the monstrous double stroller and took the girls to watch the parade. They loved it! Both of them laughed and squealed and giggled for the whole 2 minutes the sheep were in view. I was disappointed Lenny wasn't there to see it. And I could have used the extra hands. I couldn't work the camera, the camcorder and hold/keep track of the kids. So Abby spent most of her time in the stroller (which made for boring, shadowy pictures) and Leah got sick of me hollering at her to "Get back here right now!" It was my first sheep parade and I actually enjoyed it. It was amusing to me; trucks and trailers and kids throwing wool into the street and, the big finale.... sheep! It really is "Festival City."

Canadian Thanksgiving 2008

Since college I have been celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving (long story). It's basically just an excuse to dress like lumberjacks, drink Applebeer and eat jelly donuts, and call each other hosers. It's turned into quite the big ordeal. This year we had over 20 people here, not counting children, and I'm hoping to make it even bigger next year. Here are some pics from the festivities:

Notice the beer mug...

The decorations.

Three of my hoser brothers: Matt, Phill and Andrew.

Our Vacation: Albuquerque, New Mexico

We spent October 8-October 12 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Friday morning we woke up super early to go to the International Balloon Fiesta. It was spectacular. It was a special shapes mass ascension day and there were all sorts of crazy-shaped hot air balloons. We saw a cow, bumble bees, Nemo, a cathedral, a jack-o-lantern, an airplane, and a stork, to name a few. Leah got a chocolate donut (pictured) and I ate the most delicious cinnamon roll I have ever had in my life. No joke. I'd go back just for that. Here are a few shots from the balloons. Enjoy!

The Zoo

Saturday we went to the Albuquerque Zoo and had a ball. The kids were well-behaved, the weather was nice and cool, and the animals were actually entertaining. Couldn't have asked for more!

Leah gets VERY up close and personal with a cougar.

Dad and Abigail, waiting for the rest of us.

Our beautiful girls sure love their daddy!

Abby's favorite part was the little train ride we took through the zoo.

Leah and I got to ride a camel. She was so excited about it. I expected a little hesitation but there was none. What an adventurous little girl!

Abby's Hat

More photos. These are the ones I am using for Abby's birthday invitations. Such a cute girl! She got her first tooth today. Only 1 1/2 weeks before her first birthday!

Leah's Eyes

My daughter, Leah, has the prettiest eyes I have ever seen. They are gray and gold. They are beautiful and I wish they were mine!

My *Other* Blog

I love yard sales.

For the past two summers my sister-in-law, Ash-a-Bash, and I have braved crowds, heat, early mornings, kids in car seats, and Scentsy girl (long story) in order to go yard saleing. Last summer we were both pregnant and some of the sharp, sudden turns and ill-placed cul-de-sacs made us both motion sick. But still we went. This year only Ash is pregnant (heh heh) and there were times we loaded the three kids in the mini van to scour the city for treasures. Pain in the butt? YES. But still we went. We are yard sale fiends! I'm going to miss it. Darn Cedar City weather and changing seasons! Yard sale Saturdays will have to wait until next summer. Or do they?

I started a new blog called Cedar City Yard Sale to help sate my yardsale passion until next saleing season. Basically, this is my attempt at a digital yard sale. Maybe I have something you can't live without. You never know. Give it a look and check back often as I will be constantly adding new stuff over the winter.

And all proceeds will go to help boost next year's yard sale economy.

I can't wait!

When I Grow Up...

When I grow up I want to be a photographer. It's my dream to someday have a fancy pants camera and the knowledge to make magic with it. In the meantime, I'm using a borrowed point-and-shoot and pretending I know how to use Photoshop (only Elements... sigh.)

We took the girls to the nearby college campus for an attempted photo shoot. Here are a few of my fruits. My girls are beautiful!

Family Bonding

Tuesday night we decided to take the girls to the park for some fun family bonding time. We got to the park and set Abby on a blanket to watch the "baseball" played by the rest of the family. (Big red bat... big white ball... you know the drill.) Baseball was all fine and good. Lasted about 5 minutes.

After baseball we busted out the frisbee. That was tons of fun... for about two throws. I have to admit, it was my fault it all ended so horribly. I "gently" "tossed" the frisbee to Leah who was standing about two feet away. The edge caught her in the bridge of the nose. We laughed and kept playing. Even Leah laughed. Until she saw the blood.

Blood started pouring out of her nose. She freaked out. I went into battle mode trying to find wipes or SOMETHING to keep blood from getting everywhere. Leah sensed my panic and started crying even louder. Passersby were trying to ignore us and families were pretending to enjoy their picnics in spite of the loud bloody mess happening just yards away.

To calm Leah down, I sent Lenny on a mission for ice cream. Not far away an ice cream truck was blaring its tinkley music and I expected a speedy rescue from the tears. Not so. Apparently there was a long line at the truck and Lenny happened to run into an old friend and needed to make small talk. (Sorry, babe, but this is MY story. You can rebut in the comments.)

In the meantime, Leah is STILL crying; Abby is trying to eat the blood-covered frisbee; I'm trying to keep Abby away from the frisbee and minimize the blood getting on me, Leah, and the blanket; and Lenny abandoned me for the ice cream man.

Finally, Dad showed up with the ice cream and Leah calmed down enough to eat it (and eventually calmed down enough to stop the bleeding, as well).

No more frisbee. Once the trauma was over we tried the playground but it didn't take long for the bleeding to start up again. And we only had one wipe left.

So we went home.

Family bonding.

The Rise of Pooka and Goomba

No, Lauren and I have never blogged anywhere on the web, but with the influence of Leah and Abigail in our lives, it seems like a fun way to record some of our family moments. As this will be my first post here, I'll keep it short for introduction's sake.

Leah will be 3 in December and Abigail 1 in October. To give a little more perspective on these 2 facts, note that Leah can say the Pledge of Allegiance, write here name, create sentences that contain about 3 to 4 more independant or dependant clauses than I could creat at her age. Abigail is mimicking many of our actions (some of my favorite being the slow-blink and the double-handed point-to-the-sky move) and can lift herself to standing if she has something to hold on to.

I love my wife for setting this up, and I love my kids.

I'll say more later because it's time to help with dinner.

THE Blog

I feel like I have to write something amazing for the first blog post EVER but I've got nothin'. So I'll just post SOMETHING and then the pressure will be relieved and the brain juice will start flowing. I invited my husband, Lenny, to contribute to the blog as well so I suppose this will become The Family Blog. You know, the kind where you send an email to everyone in your contacts list saying "Check out our new blog!", the contacts who truly love you visit once, and then all the people who supposedly love you forget about it forever. Until, of course, you bring it up again in your Christmas letter ("Here's our blog address, everybody!") and score a few sympathy visits. Whatever floats.

And now, having stated my opinion of blogs in general and predicting the imminent doom of our own, here it is...........Our Family Blog!