The Carver Crew

Because You Care

2011-12-16T19:08:00.000-08:00

Here are my grades for Summer 2011 and Fall 2011. I was taking 15 credit hours for both semesters, and despite that I think I still did rather well. It's been a very long year.

End of a Year, End of a Season, End of a Semester

2011-11-22T10:27:00.000-08:00

Sooooooooo..... It's been almost a year since I last posted. Yikes! That what happens when you go to school continuously from January til now. I'll post some more of my grades for those of you keeping score ;)

My current semester ends December 9th and I plan on working on my blog over the holiday season. I have a whole year to fill in! So hopefully I'll see ya'll in a couple of weeks and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

2010-12-17T19:16:00.000-08:00

Another 4.0!!! I practically did a happy dance! Soooooo excited!

Next semester however will not be so happy :(

--Beth

Almost Done...

2010-12-02T19:37:00.000-08:00

... with another semester and hopefully it will result in decent grades. I will have about 3 weeks of "vacation" before I have to go back to the grind. That's when I am hoping to catch up a little and tell you all a little more about my year.

So talk to ya'll soon.

--Beth

Power In His Touch

2010-03-06T12:00:00.000-08:00

This is the play I am in currently and I love it! The music is fabulous and the lead cast is just awesome! Be prepared to bring some tissues!

It will be at the Peery Egyptian Theater in Ogden on March 26th & 27th and at the Rose Wagner Theater in SLC on April 5th and 6th.

I won't be at the performance on the 27th but you are welcome to go that day even if you won't see me :p

The show is being produced to help the Utah Food Bank so its for a good cause!

Check out the website here and see what you think:

Power In His Touch

Thanks guys!!

-Beth

Another long hiatus...

2010-03-05T14:20:00.000-08:00

So its time for an update. You know, since its been like forever...

Emily:
Started Early Intervention Preschool in September. This preschool is designed for children with special needs. Emily has had a speech therapist and an occupational therapist for the last year and this preschool is the next step. The really cool thing about this preschool (besides all the fun paintings that Emily brings home) is that Emi is in class with "normal" children as well so that she can learn off of them. Just from September until now she has made huge strides. Here are some of the things she has made the most improvement:

1. Lot less tantrums
2. Not as long tantrums
3. She talks my ear off
4. Playing better with other children
5. Can fetch items for me now! Muahahahaaaaaaa.........um..

Sarah:
She is getting so big!! She is almost as tall as Emily now! She is picking up words like crazy but it is really hard to understand her sometimes. Her favorite word right now is "stuck." Something is always stuck, whether its her (trying to get on a bar stool) or a toy (generally her "blankie"). She is also quite partial to the word "broken." Her hair is to her shoulders now and is getting the most adorable curls on the end :) Even though she is adorable, she is an extremely messy baby! She manages to get dirt in every place imaginable.

Beth:

I am still wading through mounds of homework in hopes of reaching that illusive degree. My major is English Teaching with a minor in History Teaching but I am hoping that Weber will recognize ASL as a valid language so that I can minor in that instead. I got another 4.0 last semester, which I am thoroughly pleased about because it made me a much better candidate for the Education Program. Once I get in I can start taking my education block classes. I can also slack off on my grades, right?

Thats pretty much it for where we are right now and hopefully I can make another post in a little while with pictures of what we've been up to.

--The Carver Crew

May 09

2009-08-31T12:00:00.000-07:00

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Kinder Suprise!

2009-08-30T20:13:00.001-07:00

Traek, a good friend of mine, brought me back something from Germany :) This brings back childhood memories :) :)

April 09- Chicken Chasing

2009-08-28T12:00:00.000-07:00

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

April 09

2009-08-26T12:00:00.000-07:00

Make a Smilebox slideshow

March 09

2009-08-24T12:00:00.000-07:00

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

March 09- Sisters :)

2009-08-21T12:00:00.000-07:00

These are pictures from March 2009

Make a Smilebox photobook

Feb 09- Random Stuff

2009-08-19T12:00:00.000-07:00

My siblings got to go to the open house for the Draper Temple. So this pic is of Matt and Tori and my cousins Cameron and Talayna.

While we were remodeling the storage room as a 5th bedroom for the girls, the girls got to sleep in my room. Lucky me, right?

And finally... Beth gets bored sometimes...

Jan 09- My babies :)

2009-08-18T09:00:00.000-07:00

Make a Smilebox greeting

January 09- My Birthday

2009-08-17T09:15:00.000-07:00

Hey I had a birthday, shout hooray...
And I'm to lazy to put these in order :)
Hugging my best friend Jo :)My friend Natalie roasting a 'mallow :) I really wanted to roast marshmallows so I cleared that tiny spot on the patio...

Umm Christmas Pics?!?

2009-08-17T08:00:00.000-07:00

Apparently I made these a while ago and forgot to post them lol! I know I'm all over the place this month *shrugs*

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Nope... nevermind..

2009-06-22T15:12:00.001-07:00

so I was gonna do a bunch of blogs recapping this year yadda yadda yadda, don't feel like it now and I don't know when I will feel like it again....

Time to try and catch up!

2009-06-14T10:34:00.000-07:00

So I know my blogging has been very sporadic and while I don't think that is going to end anytime soon I can try and catch up on the months that I didn't blog. I would have to start with December because I am kinda bummed that I didn't ever post pics from around Christmas.

So here we go...

Heres some pics from December, the girls got a kitchen toy for Christmas and the whole family went to the Lights on Temple Square.

See ya around!

Emily's Budding Talent :)

2009-05-08T14:00:00.000-07:00

Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay!

2009-05-06T22:09:00.000-07:00

Beth is awesome sauce :)

Updated New Stuff

2009-04-18T12:00:00.000-07:00

I bought a new camera, cuz I kinda needed to since mine sort of.... short circuited? I think thats how you describe it.... Anywho, I bought a Nikon something or other, its cute and works really well. I'm pretty impressed so far. Since I can't take a picture of it with my own camera (uh duh Beth) I will some day get around to taking a pic of it with my dads camera.
**Hey look I pic of my camera! Its about time huh?**

**Now here's its bum...**

So when I ordered this new camera I ordered some books and a movie too. I couldn't help it really, I wanted them so bad and they had free shipping!! Lol! Ok ok, so I probably could have resisted but I didn't want to ;)

Anywho I bought 5 "Once upon a time" books (ones I haven't read yet) and the movie Equilibrium. And since I got a new camera I took pictures of course :)

I am really enjoying the Once Upon a Time series (even though I no longer have the time to read them right now), they are retellings of fairytales and a lot of them are very clever. There are a few I don't care for but most of the ones I have read have become my favorite books. Golden (retelling of Rapunzel) is amazingly good! Crimson Thread (Rumplestiltskin(sp?)) and Before Midnight (Cinderella) are also among my favorites. This series is written by several authors (I thinkthey are all women, which doesn't really matter...) and my favorite ones so far are Cameron Dokey and Suzanne Weyn.

The movie Equilibrium is amazing. The fight scenes are comparable to Matrix! I hadn't even heard of this movie until recently and it came out in the beginning of 2002. Turns out that it had a limited release, which I believe was related to the fact that Sept. 11, 2001 effected the movie industry for awhile and this movie deals with things that after Sept. 11, we, as a country, became sensitive to. I think it's speaks very strongly to us today. Those of you who are my friends that follow politics, check it out. Those of you that are action movie junkies should check it out too. Its got Christian Bale and Taye Diggs in it, so even better :) Just a warning though, it is rated R. I have a ClearPlay, which gives me the option to watch it edited, but I saw it unedited accidently at my friends house (we didn't know it was unedited until we got to the end). And even so I was surprised, I only remember 2 swear words (it was the same one said twice) and a graphic sword fight at the end. Anywho, check it out if ya want :)

Well I think I've rambled on long enough and I need to write some other blogs.

Laters!

Bad News...

2009-04-08T12:00:00.000-07:00

So its taken me 6 months to write this bad news because I didn't know how to write about it, plus I was waiting for it to be the right time. I still know when the right time is but I've decided I finally need to let this burden go.

Jeff and I are getting divorced. Quite a few of you may already know this either from my mouth or anothers' but I wanted to make an official announcement.

We have been separated since August of 08 and I have been living with my parents. The girls stay mainly with me and they are adapting surprisingly well to the change. Jeff and I went to counseling shortly after he came back from Seattle and things just were not going anywhere and we struggled to make progress. Eventually I came to a decision, prayed about it, and received confirmation that this sad business is the best option for our family.

Jeff and I are going to mediation this month to see if we can resolve parent time issues and get this divorce finalized.

I know its sad, but keep in mind that I have had several months to work on myself and regain my happiness and so there is no need to worry too much :) I love you all and would love to hear from you.

-Beth

Raptor Chick!

2009-03-11T13:54:00.001-07:00

My sis is now famous......
or infamous, you decide....

Happy Late Late Late Valentines Day!

2009-03-05T10:27:00.000-08:00

Yes I know it is March but I was goin through my pics and realized I had pics of this awesome thing I did with my dad for my mom for V-Tines Day....

.......

.......

Tada!!!! I made it myself :)

Mom didn't want any pics but she really liked her gift :)

Wow I'm tired...

2009-02-20T22:51:00.000-08:00

So like usual I am really busy but I will take a little time to gloat a bit lol since you haven't heard from me for a while. I started school again in January and so homework has been keeping me pretty busy. I am really enjoying being back in school and I am beginning to feel like my brain is actually working again. I am enrolled at Weber State and right now I am taking 4 general ed classes at the Davis Campus, which to me is awesome because it is pretty close to me at this point (oh yeah I live in Layton now). Recently I took my first tests and got the high score in 3 of my 4 classes :) That feels pretty good! I also have gotten really good scores on my essays. I'm so proud of myself yay!!
Anyways I've also kept myself busy in other ways and maybe at some point I'll blog about that...
Well have a fabulous weekend!
--Beth

Ummmm..

2009-01-13T21:13:00.000-08:00

I've been really busy....

Heres a cute video....

Happy New Year

2009-01-01T19:15:00.000-08:00

I know that its been like 2 weeks since Christmas and I still haven't posted any pictures of the girls opening presents but I will some day. In a future blog I will let you know when I update this blog with pictures haha!

However I would like to post some New Years Pics!!

Before we went to some friends house for the party, my girls and I went with my family to the lights on Temple Square. They were beautiful! Despite it being really cold, we had a great time wandering around. The girls had fun! I even let Sarah walk around a bit.

I hope everyone had just as much fun as I did! I got play Cranium until midnight, pop poppers, drink sparkling cider, play Rockband until 3 in the morning, and then watched funny videos til 4!!! And the girls were so good!! They got along with the other children and even went to bed well despite all the partying. So heres a few pics from last night. The one to the left is Traek, our gracious and hilarious host, and to the left is one of his daugthers throwing confetti on herself. The last is of Emily jumping for joy in all the excitement.

Happy New Year!!!!

Random Pics

2008-12-31T12:00:00.000-08:00

Just a random bunch of ice pics, enjoy :)

Matt is a Ghost

2008-12-29T12:00:00.000-08:00

Matt wanted me to take pictures of him for school. He wanted ghost like pictures and this is what we managed to get...

I think they turned out pretty good.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T12:00:00.000-08:00

Here are some of our Christmas pictures and probably on the 26th I will add some of opening presents and all that jazz.

Ignore that fat lady with the cute baby...

Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!!! And remember the Christ part of Christmas ;)

My Fantastic Girls!!

2008-12-24T12:00:00.000-08:00

Here are just a couple of great pics of my girls :)

Sarah

Emily

Tub Time!

Snow!!!!!!!

2008-12-22T12:00:00.000-08:00

We love snow :)

Mommy dragging the girls down the tiny hills in Grandmas front yard.

Grandma dragging the girls around her front yard.

We got lots of snow... see?

Heres a closer look.

Look I got snowy to take that picture!

Heres a video of the girls sledding...

Chalk!!

2008-12-19T14:00:00.000-08:00

Emily had fun playing with chalk shortly before the snows came in... which is my next blog :)

Yikes lots of catching up to do!

2008-12-15T10:16:00.000-08:00

In the week and a half I took off from blogging its seems like everyone wrote like 14 blogs each LOL!! I am so behind! Hopefully in the next week I can catch up on everyone's blogs and write one or two of my own :) Wish me luck on this endeavor lol!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

2008-11-27T12:00:00.000-08:00

Here's some turkey cookies for you to virtually feast on :) I made them at family home evening when we were playing with sugar cookies, frosting, and random tips :) Hooray!

I really enjoy Thanksgiving for the food, the food is really good, especially when Marie Callendars graciously makes it for us. However, I also like this holiday due to the fact that it gives me a chance to reflect on what I am truly grateful for.

-My wonderful girls
-My awesome family
-My friends (that means you!)
-My musical talents (as weak as they might be)
-The ability to read and write and semi draw.
-The ability to use all my senses and limbs
-And most of all I am thankful for my Savior and his sacrifice, that I may be atoned and live eternally with my family.

I hope everyone also takes a moment to reflect and I love you all. Have a fantastic Thanksgiving!

Princesses!

2008-11-26T12:00:00.000-08:00

A while back I got these two dresses from my cousins. They were meant to be doll dresses but Emily found them and thought they would be excellent princess dresses :)

The Scarlet Pimpernel

2008-11-24T12:00:00.000-08:00

"They seek him here, They seek him there, Those Frenchies seek him everywhere..."

Friday night I got the wonderful chance to go see Davis High School's production on The Scarlet Pimpernel!!!!! It was amazing!! Wow!! Wonderful!!!

I didn't actually know anyone in the play and only learned that the it was playing there by accident (a banner on Main Street) but I am so glad I got to go.

The costumes were awesome, the set amazing (they even had a ship), the acting fantastic, and the singing for the most part was fabulous.

I have a few complaints, some awkward silences when the live orchestra didn't play when changing sets 2 or 3 times during the second act, and the fact that Marguerite sometimes sounded like she had a latino accent rather than a french accent. But overall it was so good!
The lead actor playing Sir Percy Blakeney did an amazing job at playing the fop and was absolutely hilarious! The actor playing Citizen Chauvlin was an amazing singer, professional quality even. Some of the scenes had us in stitches while others were almost unbearably romantic lol!

P.S. Yes I am really disappointed and sad BYU lost. I feel really bad for poor Max Hall :(

A Cougars Fireside

2008-11-21T16:00:00.000-08:00

Since Saturday is the "Holy War," the rivalry game between UofU vs. BYU, I decided to write this blog as a tribute... and to gloat a bit :)

I can't remember when it was, I think it was in September, but I had the great opportunity to go to a pre-game fireside in Ogden for BYU. The fireside included talks by some of the football players, a special musical number, and talks by Bronco Medenhall and his wife. It was awesome!! The talks were so spiritual and meaningful to me, especially during my current trials. And Sis. Medenhall was an amazing speaker, she even outshined her husband. Bronco Medenhall's talk was also really cool and it was really cool to hear his testimony and see how strongly he felt about his faith. Also I got to hear Fui Vakapuna sing :)

Here's a pic of the Cougar Defense bus

The Offense bus
Me and my Uncle John waiting for the fireside to start.
My dad :)
The part of the football team that came for the fireside :)
I know its blurry, my dad's camera doesn't zoom well, but that's Bronco Medenhall and his wife :)

Thanks Cougars for an awesome season! Go Cougs!! Beat the Utes :D

P.S. Yes I know I am going to receive flak for this blog... especially from you Aggie fans... love you :)

Tori's Orchestra Concert

2008-11-19T16:00:00.000-08:00

Just waiting for Tori's concert to start :)

Gotta keep the baby entertained somehow

I was trying to get Sarah to smile by touching her nose lol! Great time for my dad to snap a picture eh? But at least it worked :)

Emily was excited for the concert!

Go Tori! Play that bass!! (if you click the pics you will see I circled Tori in red)

Tori's orchestra has a lot of work ahead of them but it wasn't too bad a first concert of the year. I am excited to see the next concert.

Emily did great sitting through the concert but my brother Matt had to walk around with Sarah to keep her entertained. So next concert Sarah will sit it out and Emily will be my concert buddy :)

Lend Me a Tenor

2008-11-17T16:00:00.000-08:00

Last Friday night I went to see Lend Me A Tenor at Tori and Matt's High School. It was so so good!!

The story is that it is 1934 in Cleveland, Ohio and a famous tenor is flying in to perform Otello at the opera there. Well the arrogant tenor, Tito, shows up really late with his angry wife Maria in tow, making the assistant, Max, and his boss, Saunders, really unhappy. There is tension between Max and his girlfriend (who said no to his proposal) Maggie as she is anxious to meet Tito. After Tito has an argument with his wife she walks out on him, a distraught Tito accidentally takes too many sleeping pills. When Max goes to wake him for the show he fears he is dead. Max and Saunders then try to figure out a way to cover this up and find someone else to play Tito in Otello. You can then imagine the hilarity as Tito wakes up and tries to go perform the show after they had found a replacement! The whole second act deals with the aftermath rife with plenty mistaken identity problems!

Tori's friend Casey from the ward played Max and he was amazing! He was absolutely hilarious as the bumbling, immensely shy/nervous assistant. His comedic timing was practically perfect :) Good job Casey!

This play was so funny that I practically laughed non-stop! And everytime my dad laughed he shook our whole row!!!! It was awesome! And the set was amazing! So if you are in Layton this week you should go check it out :)

Halloween Night

2008-11-16T16:00:00.000-08:00

So as one of my favorite holidays rolled around, I was super excited about dressing up the girls and taking them trick or treating. Unfortunately the day before poor Sarah got a cold and on Halloween she couldn't go out :( But she did help me hand out candy :)

And by "helping" I mean "eating."

And by "helping" I mean "sitting" in the candy bucket?!

Doh!

Emily did get to go trick or treating though :) She was a fairy!! I bought my very first costume for my daughter this year!! It was only like $3 or $4 so no big deal and it was adorable!!

After one street her pumpkin was full because people gave her extra candy for being so darned cute! She kept saying "punkin" and "tank you." She also said "tick teat" once :) I'm so proud!!

As the trick or treating ended all my siblings friends showed up at my parents house to check all their candy and hand off candy they didn't like or collect the kinds they did. It was hilarious to watch all that candy flying through the air.

And for some reason Tori went as a Indian for Halloween night... not sure why she didn't stay a cute hippie...

Don't click on the fuzzy one, its better this way.

Halloween Dance.. A bit late I know...

2008-11-15T17:00:00.000-08:00

I have been either extremely busy or recovering from being busy so now I have finally had some time to sit down and show you the pics from my siblings halloween dance.

Tori was a hippie to match her date Jake. It was a girl's choice dance and she asked him, it was soooo cute! This is a pic of her fake eyelashes BEFORE we trimmed them! They were so long she could barely open her eyes! Matt went stag to the dance and was a vampire :)
Here's the group together from left to right: Jake, Tori, Josh, Matt, Jackie, and Valerie.

Tori's best friends Jackie and Valerie. And Matt's best friend Josh with Valerie. You can tell Val ecstatic to take a pic with Josh. 8-) its a long story. Something involving when they first met and Val beating the crap out of Josh....

Here's Tori and her "date" Jake. She's the only one of her friends to ask someone and I am so proud of her :)

Josh wanted to take this pic with the girls. I think its hilarious! Of course you can tell that Val was thrilled.... This other pic is of Tori's friend Scott who is really sweet. He didn't come to the dance with the group but he left with them haha. I also thought his costume was funny. He's a cat in a hat :)

After the dance everyone congregated at my parents house. If you look carefully you can see me, but don't look too close cuz ugh....

And I couldn't resist this adorable picture of Sarah from that night. Yes that is macroni in her hair and an Arby's box on her head.. go figure...

Tomorrow, Halloween Night's pictures!

Matt's Homecoming Dance

2008-10-29T15:00:00.000-07:00

(I just realized that I had written this blog and never finished it or posted it.... I think I had been waiting for pictures.)

My brother Matt went to Homecoming... with a girl! He even asked her!!

My little brother is such a sweetheart. He has high functioning autism and this makes life hard for him. He is such a gentleman though and is always trying to be nice to others and considerate of others feelings.
When my brother Doug was in high school, my mom made a rule that the boys had to ask a girl to every dance. My brother Doug ignored this rule until his senior year and so Matt is taking up the slack. His junior year he asked a couple of girls when he felt comfortable enough to do so. This year, his senior year, he is planning on asking a girl to every boy's choice dance.
So to start off the year he walked around the school and walked around while at church, listening for the girl he would take to homecoming. After a few days he was talking to my sister Tori's friend's older sister Maria, he discovered that she'd really like to go to the dance but didn't think that anyone would ask her. Matt made his choice.
To ask her to this dance he wanted to do something special so my mom and I came up with the idea of him asking her with a charm bracelet. What we came up with was a lot of little boxes with one charm in each (of what were her favorite things, like music, the guitar, Disney, etc) and a bracelet to put them on. Each little box had a word on it that said when you put it together "Please Go To Homecoming With Me Matt" and then had a bunch of little kids in the neighborhood deliver them in order.
To respond she put a whole bunch of balloons on the door and inside them were little scrolled up pieces of paper that said "My answer is....." He had to pop all the balloons to learn that "Yes!" she would go with him. He was sooooo nervous!!
Here are the cute couple getting ready to go.

On her right hand is the charm bracelet on the left is the corsage with a pearl bracelet. When the flowers die and you take them off you can still use the pearl bracelet!!
Here is another couple that went with them.

Another Tag...

2008-10-28T15:00:00.000-07:00

1. Post the Rules to your blog
2. Answer the six 8 items
3. Let each person know they have been tagged by commenting on their blog.

8 favorite TV Shows:
Big Bang Theory
Stargate Atlantis
Pushing Daisies
Eureka
Sarah Conner Chronicles
Heroes (though I am kinda mad at it right now)
House (ditto)
Bones (ditto again)

8 Things I did yesterday:
Woke up
Went to a class in Ogden
Went to Doug & Emmy's restaurant for lunch
Baked pumpkin pies
Comforted a friend in need
Decorated the pumpkin pies with whipped topping (I made a ghost and a mummy)
Went to my cousin's sweet 16.
Went to bed at 1:00 utterly exhausted!

8 Things I look forward to:
Sarah not sleeping in my room.
McCain winning.
Halloween
Thanksgiving
Christmas
Losing weight.
My singing lessons.
Seeing Jekyll & Hyde on Tuesday

8 Favorite Restaurants:
Brazos Grill
Teppanyaki
Olive Garden
Applebees
Chilis
Doug & Emmy's
Famous Dave's
Cafe Rio

8 Things on my wish list:
My friends and family to have happy, healthy babies
My life to get on track
A telescope
A car
A college degree
More books
A butt load of Hayao Miyazaki dvds
To go to girls camp with my sister

8 People to Tag:
Carolyn
Christine
Jen
Jessica Stell
Julie
Nicole
Rachel
Rebecca

Tag

2008-10-27T15:00:00.000-07:00

I have been picture tagged where I am supposed to post the 4th picture in my 4th folder.

Yes that is a praying mantis on my hand....

Now I tag Spanky, Mrs. Mordecai, Rachel, and Jessica Stell :)

Helping my bro reach his goal

2008-10-26T22:49:00.000-07:00

Matt is very creative. Thus, he and his best friend Josh came up with this idea they call "A.D.D. Brainstorm." The idea behind it is that this is a bunch of their random thoughts during their ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) moments. They then film them, edit them, and post them on youtube.
Matt's goal is to get lots of hits. So here is my effort to help.

Brainstorm 1 (kinda funny but long)
Brainstorm 2 (funnier)
Brainstorm 3 (by far the funniest)
Teleport Madness (pretty funny too)

There you go Matt and I hope the rest of ya'll enjoy :)

Pics of Sarah

2008-10-26T22:48:00.000-07:00

Happy Baby :)

She loves stuffed animals. Her favorite pastime is hugging them.

Mmmmmm rice milk.....

Huh? You talkin' to me?

:)

Having fun in the tub!

She likes to help dry things as well.

Messy baby!

And she knows it too!

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

2008-10-21T17:27:00.000-07:00

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

This is an amazing dress!!!!

Pics of Emily Part Two

2008-10-19T22:30:00.000-07:00

Hi Emily :)

Emily and Sarah eating lunch :)

Emily was slowly scooting them under the table!

Bye-Bye Emily!

Emily got really sleepy while eating lunch one day....

*Snooze*

Ewwww... drool...

And Emily learned to blow bubbles! Yay mommy doesn't have to do it now!!

Pics of Emily Part One

2008-10-19T21:01:00.000-07:00

And so starts some posts of pictures of my girls. First up... Emily :)

Helping Mommy clean up.

This is how she smiles for the camera :)

And this is a close-up of her beautiful eyes!

Another really good pic of her eyes!

Oh?!

Just cute :D

Taking a nap with Uncle Matt :D :D

Sonya

2008-10-16T22:22:00.000-07:00

My mom's cousin passed away today and my heart is aching. She meant a lot to me and I am really, really sad. I felt like her life was prematurely taken away and that there are so many things she still had left to experience or see. And when I took a step back and realized that I was feeling this way I reminded my self that there were a lot of great things she got to see. She saw all of her children married and even had a few grandchildren. She was happily married and very happy in life. I will really miss her but I know that she is with our Father in heaven.
When I was in Jr. High, I was in Logan for an orchestra contest and I got really sick. It turned out that I needed an appendectomy and I was stuck up in Logan for that. Sonya came to visit me and brought me balloons and candy. Her visit lifted my spirits and it was so nice to see a friendly face. I saved those little souvenirs for years.
Another fond memory I have of her was very recent. My dad and I traveled to Logan for her son's wedding reception about a month ago and at the reception I got to talk to her a lot and it was so much fun chatting with her.
I have lots of good memories of her and I will always cherish them. I will miss her and my heart, thoughts, and prayers are with her family.

"Our Biggest Loser"

2008-10-13T22:28:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine, from my days at the MTC Cafteria, has decided to co-found a group called "Our Biggest Loser." Its basically their version of "Biggest Loser." And the goal is to lose as much as possible, as safely as possible. Its for those of us who have had babies and have never been able to, or bothered to, lose the weight. Its for those of us who have slowly put on weight over the years and would now like to have a good reason or excuse to lose it. Or whatever your reason may be.
And the incentive you might ask? There is a fee of $25 and it goes into the pot and whoever wins at the end gets the pot. So encourage your friends to join, the more people who join, the bigger the pot!

So check it out, heck I may even join....

Our Biggest Loser

p.s. If this post doesn't make much sense, I'm blaming Big Bang Theory...

I love Halloween!

2008-10-01T08:00:00.000-07:00

And its right around the corner! Why love Halloween you might ask? Well perhaps I will feel inclined to tell you, or perhaps not. Regardless its still a nifty holiday. Okay okay you twisted my arm, so here's the scoop.

There's something about dressing up in ridiculously cool costumes that just gets me. What other time of year do I get to wear a medieval dress or my yukata and get away with it?? How many of us have never really grown out of that "dress-up girlie" phase and are secretly hiding this passion? Well I certainly do and I think I may have to form a group for misfits like me who have not fully matured in the whole "dress-up" area. And if I can't dress up myself for Halloween then I get to dress up my kids. So what other time of year do I get to dress my children in really cute and really funny outfits like bumble bees and tootsie rolls?

Also what other holiday/time of year do you get to walk door to door receiving possibly tainted candy from total strangers. Sure the possibly tainted candy is a risk, so kids remember to always have an adult sift through your candy, but its a risk I am willing to take. As long as the candy isn't from China.

So, yeah, the reason I love Halloween so much is purely commercial and has nothing to do with what the holiday stands for at all, but to me that's okay. It celebrates a pagan holiday (I think) that I know nothing about and would probably disgrace accidentally anyway and I like capitalism. There, problem solved. I can like a holiday for the pure commercial value in it.... and the candy... and the costumes.... oh wait that's all part of the capitalism thing....

Well to get you into the Halloween mood, heres a little game to lighten your day and make work and little bit more enjoyable. Make sure to have the volume on for a little while because the guy is pretty funny. Have fun!

Pinewood Derby Time!!

2008-09-30T23:00:00.000-07:00

My parents ward in Layton has the coolest Pinewood Derby I have ever seen. I haven't seen very many but still its very cool.

First of all, anyone can participate. That means me!! Secondly, no rules. Seriously. You can do whatever you want to that car. Last year my brother Matt hot glued a Lego ship on top of his and my brother Doug carved his into a Speeder from Star Wars and even had a Stromtrooper riding it. He also created a cheering section made of his Star Wars villain action figures to sit at the bottom of the track. I didn't see this but I heard it was awesome. He won "Best Cheering Section." Another guy got a piece of pine firewood and tacked wheels onto it.

So after hearing these stories my sis Tori and I got super excited planning what our cars were going to be.

Matt made another Lego creation.

Tori made a turtle.

My Dad made a regular car.

I made a cake on wheels :) It was styrofoam that had be shaped into a cake, frosted, covered with fondant, and then accented with frosting. I thought it was amazingly cool.

So we go to the festivities and see what cars we are up against. There was a Trojan Horse, a Miley Cyrus car, and an Aquarium on Wheels to name a few. The races were quick and fun and most cars made it out okay. One snapped in half but the poor girl was a good sport about it. My cake car won its first heat but lost the second to the neighbors heavier car. I actually blame it on the fact that my wheels were wobbly but I didn't want a rematch. I wasn't in it to win it, I was in it to look pretty.

Unfortunately I came away from the contest not winning anything (The Aquarium car won most creative and people's choice award and the best crafted award went to a car that looked like it was a skateboard with this really cool plastic covering) but I still had tons of fun and so did everyone else :)

Clowning Around in Suits! And skirts too...

2008-09-25T22:11:00.000-07:00

This happened a couple of weeks ago but I've finally finished the picture things, also I tried a new things with the collages and made them more like a scrapbook page.

So another picture heavy blog :) You know you love it...

So we were hanging out with my cousins and some friends having a good ole time goofing off!

Jeffery the Steroid Addicted Giraffe :)

2008-09-25T16:02:00.000-07:00

My brother has this friend, Josh, who is absolutely hilarious and he wrote two "fairytales" the other day. When he read them to us we died of laughter and I very nearly pee'd my pants. I think this kid might have a future, and he's only 15! Here is a taste of "Jeffery the Steroid Addicted Giraffe"

Once upon a time in the rolling plains of South Africa there was a giraffe named Jeffery. Jeffery was small for his age and couldn’t reach the highest, best tasting leaves on the tallest trees. All his giraffe friends would make fun of him by calling him names like: Shorty McShort Shortson, or Weakling McGiraffe, or Mr. Ponypants. Jeffery tried as hard as he could to reach the highest leaves on the tallest trees, but to no avail.
One day some very loud (very muscular) tourists came by on one of the weekly safaris (they were common in these parts). As the tourists’ jeep hit a bump in the road a small vial of clear liquid with a needle sticking out of it, and a bottle of what looked like candy fell out of the jeep. Jeffery sniffed these strange new substances. He took the bottle of candy and tried to smash it open with a rock but since he was a stupid weak giraffe the rock was too heavy and he fell over and his butt landed right on the needle of the second bottle.
“Ouchies!” Jeffery cried out. But then he felt something strange, something like his neck muscles were getting bigger. “Jeepers!” he said to himself “what ever this is it's making me bigger and stronger!” So Jeffery tried once again to get the highest leaves on the tallest trees. He could reach!

*************

But something was troubling Jeffery. He felt like he needed to get bigger, and stronger. So with the help of a monkey hostage Jeffery was able to “borrow” some more steroids from the muscular tourists. Eventually Jeffery was the biggest strongest giraffe in all of Africa. There wasn’t any tree he couldn’t reach.

**************

Eventually some local African natives killed Jeffery in a marvelous hunt that would forever be called “Foosu foosu gigante el druggie girafffe” or “Hey look at the giraffe we just killed, it’s friggin huge!” loosely translated. Jeffery’s body was so concentrated with steroids that the natives that ate it had super human children.

Hope you got a laugh :) And as soon as I can I will post some excerpts from his other story "The Little Emo That Could"

Oh yeah, and yes Josh is a little disturbed....

Tagged.... woohoo!

2008-09-21T23:08:00.000-07:00

I am: reading graphic novels, I'm such a nerd.
I think: I should go to bed soon.
I know: alot of random trivia that no one else cares about. (I'm leaving this one the same because this is so me Nicole!)
I want: To lose some weight and get back into shape.
I dislike: soy and tofu, yucky and bad for you too ;)
I miss: Tammy :(
I fear: spiders
I hear: I Dream of Jeannie of all things?!?!?! And Emily pretending to be interested in the show.
I smell: The computer desk??
I crave: Oreos and Chocolate cake. Oh and about anything with mint and/or peanut butter.
I cry: alot
I usually: walk up 3 flights of stairs several times a day. You'd think the weight would be coming off
I search: for the answer to life, the universe, and everything... oh wait.. 42!
I wonder: What my girls will look like in 20 years
I regret: too many personal things to list here
I love: my family and the wii, oh the wii :)
I care: about my poor little sis. Life is so difficult for her right now what with starting high school and suddenly having her cousin come to her high school and becoming instantly popular...
I always: like to read and watch tv. I always like to sing too.
I worry: about the end of the world and not having food storage
I am not: good at math!
I remember: who I am and what I'm doing here, how existential.
I believe: in my religion.
I dance: in the kitchen and the living room with my girls
I sing: whenever I can
I don't always: make the right decisions
I argue: cuz I'm stubborn
I write: when I can, which is way less than I want. I'd love to finish my book sometime this decade.
I win: nothing
I lose: lots of stuff, including my keys
I wish: I could have a life do-over
I listen: pretty much anything but rap but my favorite artists are Kelly Clarkson and Natasha Bedingfield
I don't understand: why my hair won't do what I want it too
I can usually be found: in the basement or in the living room
I need: a break
I forget: stuff all the time
I am happy: when I sleep
I tag: whoever wants to do this one

Sarah Birthday Party #2

2008-09-09T12:31:00.000-07:00

This was also a combined birthday party for Jeff, Emily, and my grandma Brown.

My twist on an "over the hill" cake. Sarah= We've only just begun, Emily=Terrible Twos, Jeff= Quarter of a century old, and grandma Brown= Definitely over the hill!

My squirrel, acorn and stump. Plus I made pretty much the rest of the cake, like the fence and signs, flowers, the grass, and the trail :)

However my brother Matt made the bunny and my sister Tori made the "square" cow which was too tipsy to stand on its own. BTW the "square" cow is an inside joke ;) Hi Tori!

*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~*

Mommy and Sarah

Grandma Brown, my cousin, Uncle John, Tori

Grandpa Brown, Aunt Tanaya, Michael

My Mom

Aunt Kathy

Daddy and Emily

*~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~*

Apparently Emily's "Laughtop" was so cool, that everyone had to play with it....

LOL!

2008-09-09T11:43:00.000-07:00

Take the Quiz here!

You are Elizabeth Bennet of Pride & Prejudice! You are intelligent, witty, and tremendously attractive. You have a good head on your shoulders, and oftentimes find yourself the lone beacon of reason in a sea of ridiculousness. You take great pleasure in many things. You are proficient in nearly all of them, though you will never own it. Lest you seem too perfect, you have a tendency toward prejudgement that serves you very ill indeed.

(Haha pretty close to true!! Not sure about the "tremendously attractive" part though)

Now for my sister Tori....

Take the Quiz here!

You are Marianne Dashwood of Sense & Sensibility! You are impulsive, romantic, impatient, and perhaps a bit too brutally honest. You enjoy romantic poetry and novels, and play the pianoforte beautifully. To boot, your singing voice is captivating. You feel deeply, and love passionately.

(This is sooooo her!!)

Sarah's Birthday Party #1

2008-09-02T21:43:00.000-07:00

The birthday girl enjoying pie!

Aunt Misty and cousin Kiara. Uncles Brian and Jon.

Grandma and Grandpa Carver

Daddy and Uncle Brian. Aunt Annie and Uncle Brian.

Sarah and Kiara chatting it up. Uncle Ben and Aunt Norma.

Friends Shannon and Craig Campbell. Friend Abigail Campbell and some random bee.

Ethan Campbell

The Happy Birthday Song and blowing out of the candles.

changes...

2008-08-29T15:25:00.000-07:00

I decided to open the blog to everyone because people were complaining (my mom) about it being a pain in the butt. Hurray.

Quick Update...

2008-08-20T18:50:00.000-07:00

We're back in Logan for a bit. This weekend we are headed back down to Layton for a reception and a birthday party! Today is Sarah's birthday so Hooray!!! I can't believe she's one!!
So hopefully I will be able to post some pictures of what we've been up to and pictures from Sarah's parties soon. How soon you may ask? Well that depends on whether or not my computer and my camera cooperate.
--Beth

Invasion of the Pod-People!!!!

2008-08-01T19:13:00.000-07:00

Well sort of....

I was looking at some of Emily's old pics and I discovered something odd.....

Which one is which????

If this is too easy I'll make another harder one lol :)

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog!!!

2008-07-29T12:19:00.000-07:00

Its on www.hulu.com for the time being. Don't know how long it will be there. I loved it and I recommend it to anyone who loves musicals!! Or Joss Whedon...
Watch it, love it, sing it!
Dr. Horrible

2008-07-28T19:50:00.000-07:00

We were tagged by Katrina and John to give six facts about ourselves. For the fun of it I am going to include possibly embarrassing facts:

Jeff:
1. I really don’t want to do this tag, so my wife will fill it out for me. *sigh*
2. He secretly likes Firefly.
3. He hasn’t changed his style of clothing since high school. Seriously. Same shirts…
4. He wears out the knees of his jeans at alarming rates. The bum comes next.
5. He has lost his wedding ring at least once. He thought he lost it at the BYU Testing Center but his dad found it hiding with the spare tire in our trunk. Long story…
6. He can’t stand to have his hair long, it drives him nuts. Something about how his glasses sit on the hair by his ears when it gets too long.

Beth:
1. I am a hermit. I hardly ever leave home and spend all day playing with my kids or surfing the web.
2. It’s no secret I like Firefly. Or Serenity for that matter…
3. I think the pwned is the funniest word! And I use “ridiculous” way more than any person should. I mean, it’s ridiculous. Also, the word “hilarious.”
4. I really like baggy jeans. If I could wear men’s’ carpenter jeans everyday that would be so aw3s0m3!!
5. I used to pop everything all the time, my knuckles, my neck, my toes, my back, etc. One day I read an article that says it causes arthritis , I haven’t found this article again but it creeped me out enough that I haven’t done it since.
6. My favorite game on the Wii is Cooking Mama or Wario Ware, it’s a close tie.

We tag: My dad, Mrs. Mordecai, Cassandra, Nicole, Christine, Rachel, and anyone else who wants to do this one for kicks

The Rules
A - Each person has to list 6 facts/habits about them.
B - After part A, go to 6 people's blogs and leave a comment letting them know to read your blog, and that they have been tagged.
C - List at the end of your posting who you have tagged.

What a transition!

2008-07-28T15:24:00.000-07:00

We decided to set our blog to private and thanks to everyone who's willing to put up with the transition! It was a lot more difficult than I thought!
But I am so glad that all of you will be joining us for more blogging! Huzzah!
See you out in the Web,
Beth and Jeff

A Berry Pickin' We Will Go!

2008-07-27T18:33:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we (Annie, Tori, Emily and I) went to Harvold Farms in Carnation, WA. They have U-Pick strawberries in June and Raspberries in July. These raspberries were the biggest raspberries I have ever seen!! And they were so goooooood too!!

The only down side was that you had to pay in cash or check so we could get only as much as we conveniently had in our wallets. I had $3 and the price was $1.25 a pound. So keeping it under about 2 pounds was entertaining. I managed to make it with a pound and a half!! Wahoo!

But that definitely means I will be coming back adequately prepared next time!

This was the last day my sister was up here visiting us in WA, sad :( But we had a great time and we'll miss you Tori. But hey we'll be back in UT in like 3 weeks anyway. Have a great time at Girls' Camp Tor!

What my girls have been up to....

2008-07-27T18:19:00.000-07:00

A post of pics :)

P.S. My dad FINALLY started a blog so I am very excited and proud. I'm excoud or prited, not sure which. Check it out though http://theadventuresofchrisinoman.blogspot.com/

Experience Music Project and SciFi Museum

2008-07-23T12:33:00.000-07:00

First off this was my first time driving to Seattle! I was really nervous (for those who don't know, I really do not like to drive) but I did great. At least that's what my sis-in-law Annie and my sis Tori said :) Secondly we got free parking for the day which was really cool because you have to pay out the nose to park anywhere in Seattle!

The SciFi museum was awesome! Lots of cool weapons, costumes, and robots!! Apparently they don't let you take pictures inside the exhibits :( :( :( So I don't have any to show.

Several people around me were taking pics so I pulled out my camera a snapped off a shot of a Klingon for my dad, a shot of weapons from Dune for my mom, and a shot of Gundams for my bro Doug. This guy walked up to me and told me that I couldn't take pics in the exhibit and that I'd have to delete my pictures. He asked me "how could you miss the big sign?" I said I thought it just meant no "flash photography" since I had seen several other people taking pictures. He gruffly responded that it was a sign with a camera and a big "X" through it. I apologized and asked "politely" if he wanted to watch me delete the pics and he walked off. Even after that point I still saw lots of people taking pictures and several using the flash and yet I never saw any of them get in trouble. Just my luck that everyone else can do something but as soon as I do it I get in trouble. But that is a different rant.

My main rant is why the heck can I not take pics in a museum??? They don't even sell pictures of the exhibits or anything so all I have to show you is their website where all they show you is their less impressive stuff. I am so glad I didn't have to pay the full $15 a person to get in!

Next we went to the Experience Music Project, which if you like guitars and Jimi Hendrix, you'd probably think it is cool. The Sound Lab on the top floor was the best part of the exhibit. You could try different instruments and sort of "learn" to play songs. The stations were the drums, guitars, bass guitars, and some specifically for vocal. And the best exhibits in the EMP were the interactive ones.

Overall the place was pretty cool but there were definitely some things I have complaints about. I would've made a formal complaint about the no photography thing and how confusing their map was but there was no way too.

If you are not paying full price its a pretty cool way to spend a couple of hours but I don't think its worth the price they ask.

Microsoft Company Picnic

2008-07-23T10:59:00.000-07:00

On Saturday the 19th we went to the Microsoft Company Picnic and had a great time of course. As well as a few bad sunburns. Well my sunborn was ok but a couple of my family members got burned up good. Sorry guys!

Jeff and I went with his brothers and their wives. We left the girls with my sister, so it was just us for the day :)

We took about a 30 minute bus ride from Microsoft Campus to get to a farm near Snoqualmie. The farm had been turned into a giant fairground with free food and rides :) We started the day with a climb on the rockwall. Jeff got all the way to the top (yay Jeff!) and I made it about half way because I was too short to reach around the rock outcroppings to grab the handholds. Then we got strapped into some bungees and jumped on a trampoline. Jeff and I tried to do flips but it was soooooo hard. If I hadn't been on the bungee I would've been able to do it but instead all I did was make myself sick lol. Jeff's brother Dan got it down and was doing flips like crazy. It was cool and we were all impressed haha! After that we rode the mechanical bull!! All of my texan friends should be very proud of me. I didn't get 7 seconds but it was really fun. Jeff didn't get 7 seconds either so I don't feel so bad :)

After that we went on a cool ropes course that was up above the ground. You had to had tennis shoes to go on it so those of us with flip flopd or sandals (i.e. Jeff, Brian and I) had to share shoes in order to go up there! So I wore Annie's, Jeff wore Dan's, and Brian wore Julie's!! It was so worth the awkwardness though haha!

We crossed the whole fairgrounds looking around, looking for stuff to do, and eventually found the food. We had some great food. Some really amazing potstickers, ribs, yakisoba, cheeseburgers! All free!! The best kind!

After lunch we kinda split up, girls and guys. The guys went and played with RC cars and Cue Golf (mini golf elevated up on a pool table sort of thing and you use pool sticks to hit the ball) and the girls did the Puzzle Quest! It was soo fun but pretty hard. We went around to different stations and solved both the easy and hard puzzles. It took us like 4 hours but we finally did it!! I am including a pic of all the work we did to solve the puzzles :)

After that we went and ate food again ( I got a really yummy braised pork sandwich!) and then we headed back home. My poor sister watched the girls for 9 hours! I felt especially bad because I told her it would be like 3 hours tops :( Oops! So as payment I took her to the SciFi museum yesterday, which is my next post.

Don't Kick Your Sister!!!!!

2008-07-16T15:58:00.000-07:00

As I am reprimanding Emily with this lovely phrase I happened to come up with a song... perhaps it will amuse you the same way it has amused me.
It is set to the chorus part of "Follow the Prophet" for those of you who are familiar with it.

"Don't kick your sister,
don't kick your sister,
don't kick your sister! You know the right way!"

"Don't kick your sister,
You must love and kiss her.
Don't kick your sister!! You must obey!"

Have a great day.

Laziness Returns!!!!

2008-07-15T18:42:00.000-07:00

So in this bout of laziness I am going to post links to my very wonderful, very talented, sister in law who so lovingly put together 8 blogs chronicling our vacation in early June. The reason I didn't post one myself are varied; my camera was a bum so I didn't pull it out much and therefore don't have many pics, she was already blogging about them, her pics are sooooooooooo much better than the few I have, and I'm lazy. So enjoy her wonderful blog and make nice comments, especially on the ones that have me being the true doofus I am :)

Vacation Day 1
Vacation Day 2
Vacation Day 3
Vacation Day 4 & 5
Vacation Day 6
Vacation Day 7
Vacation Day 8

And just cuz its amusing, heres a video with my wonderful singing talent.... sort of....
Amazing Singing Snapdragon!

P.S. Julie you are soooooo awesome!! I owe ya something really good for covering my laziness :)

Happy Birthday Jeff!!!

2008-07-13T00:29:00.000-07:00

Since its 1:35 AM, Jeff's 25th birthday was yesterday! Happy birthday honey! A quarter of a century old! For his birthday we went to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle.It was way fun but definitely tiring to walk across that whole zoo!Regardless we got to see a lot of cool animals...and we'll all probably sleep well tonight... whenever that may be :D After the zoo we went and hung out at the pool for a bit and then headed back to my place to make dinner.
After dinner we played Brian's new expansion packs for Carcassonne (btw Jeff and Brian are twins and therefore they share the same birthday). Carcassonne is an awesome game if you've never played it before. I totally recommend it! I also recommend the game Jeff just got, Age of Gods!After games we had the boys' cake. Annie (Brian's wife) and I have spent the last 2 weeks molding the cake topper out of candy clay (melted chocolate and corn syrup). We decided to do a cake of the boys in their kayaks duking it out, which is actually pretty typical for them. The cake came out awesome!! Thanks to everyone who helped!!!!!

P.S. Oh yeah I cut my hair!

More Kayaking...

2008-07-12T23:53:00.000-07:00

We took my sister kayaking earlier this week and it was tons of fun. Here are some cool pics. Oh and Tori says she had a great time.

Happy Independence Day Ya'll!!

2008-07-04T23:17:00.000-07:00

We went to the Bellevue Family Fireworks and had a great time!!
I have a video of the fireworks and I'm trying to post it to youtube but we'll see what happens.

Any ideas?

2008-07-03T16:05:00.000-07:00

Any ideas how to keep Emily from getting out of her room? The door has handles on it rather than knobs so I haven't found any safety lock thingies. Also it needs to be temporary and leave with us without leaving damage.
Also how can I politely ask my neighbors not to smoke in front of my living room windows without invoking a holy war?
I've been feeling kinda down recently and this video just cheered me up a bit. Enjoy!
Dancing Matt

What my girls have been up to.

2008-07-02T03:14:00.000-07:00

In the last week Sarah ate an oreo,

fell asleep in her highchair,

got into her stroller all by herself,

and ate cheese off the floor.

In the last week alone Emily has spread shredded cheddar across the floor and let Sarah eat it,

put Ramen in a diaper I left on the table,

and repeatedly pulls the cushions off the couch and unzips them.

She also discovered she can climb out of her bed, open her door, open my door, and wake me up. At 2:40 in the morning!!!! That's why this blog is at 4:14 AM.

And here is a lovely video of Emily getting into my fridge and stealing frosting flowers when she was around a year old. Just to prove that she's been causing mischief for awhile now :)

Another good pic of Sarah eating sand recently:

Seattle Aquarium...Finally

2008-06-30T13:03:00.000-07:00

Friday the 20th we went to Target, good ole Target, and bought a leash. A leash for Emily. Its a puppy! The leash is a puppy. We didn't get a puppy.

Sarah got a bear. How appropriate considering our nickname for her, "Sarah Bear."

Emily really likes hers! But Sarah can't even walk yet so we'll wait on that one.

So Saturday the 21st, feeling nice and bored, we decided to visit the lovely Seattle Aquarium.We got to try out the new "leash" and see lots of cool stuff!

Hurray!!!

2008-06-27T15:51:00.000-07:00

Ok so I'll do the blog on the Aquarium after this one but this video is just so dang cool!!

Fun with hair...

2008-06-27T13:03:00.000-07:00

So like I said in my previous blog, I was thinking about getting bangs. I don't think I will now but I would still like a new haircut. While surfing around the internet for haircuts I found Clairol's Try It On Studio and spent about an hour playing with styles :) Here's some of what I got:Most of them are silly (especially the last one with bangs that kinda looks like my sister) but it was fun. Unfortunately it didn't really help me pick a new style since they didn't have too much that had the curls I was looking for.

You should try it out, its kinda funny!!

Next, my blog on the Seattle Aquarium.... finally...

Ok one more question!

2008-06-22T15:45:00.001-07:00

Wow two posts in one day and both questions! Woo!

Anyways, Jeff and I caught like the last 30 minutes of this movie called "Spanglish." It seemed ok but the ending was kinda lame (might be that way because we didn't see the whole movie) but regardless there was this actress, Paz Vega, who had a really cute haircut. So the question is, dare I attempt bangs (again)? Check out this link for Paz Vega and look at the pics from Spanglish. Let me know what you think. I will try to even have a little poll thing you can vote with off to the right.

I tried to include some images but they were too tiny :(

Just something random...

2008-06-22T15:22:00.000-07:00

So as I wait to get pictures off my camera(because my battery has to charge) I have decided to pose a question. First off, I was thinking about my late great grandmother Brown who I did a report on as a kid. She lived through the Great Depression, she was living in Mexico at the time but it still applied. I remember her talking about how they used to save scraps of things in case they needed them later. I remember her talking about string and soap mostly. They saved little bits of string and yarn in case they needed them and they would also save the ends of soap bars and put them together to make a soap ball in order to use as much as possible.

So as we sit on the brink of our generation's "Great Depression," I can't help but wonder what little things will be the things we save. Or will the only things we save be the bigger things like food, gas, water? So my question is, if your necessities were still available what sorts of things would you scrimp and save? Would it be bits of string? or bits of paper?

Awesome Restaurant and Awesome Husband

2008-06-20T10:07:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday night I got to go out on a "girls night" to Seattle. My sis-in-law Julie has a bunch of friends from her old ward who got together to eat out at a fun restaurant. We went to this Moroccan restaurant called Marrakesh! It was really awesome! We sat on low benches or cushions on the floor around low tables and ate dinner with our hands. We decided to get the royal feast which included some appetizers, almost every entree on the menu, some mint tea and some dessert. At the beginning they poured lukewarm water over our hands on a really pretty basin and then the wonderful food began to flow out of the kitchen. Afterwards they rinsed our hands again and put an orange scented water on our hands. The staff was dressed in traditional garb and performed some rituals, like the hand washing how they poured the tea. It was really cool when a bellydancer appeared and danced for us! It was amazing! It was really funny when some of the girls got up and danced with her! The atmosphere of the restaurant was so cool! When I have some pics, I'll add them (or link you to Julie's blog cuz I forgot my camera).

At the end of the night I returned to my poor husband who had to watch the girls all by himself for the 4+ hours I was gone. I was soooooo pleasantly surprised! He fed them a nice dinner, changed their diapers (apparently Sarah's was really bad), put them in pajamas, and put them to bed on time!! I am amazed!! I am also incredibly grateful for my wonderful husband!!

A Birthday and An Anniversary

2008-06-18T15:08:00.000-07:00

Monday the 16th was Emily's 2nd Birthday!! Happy Birthday sweet girl! :)
So I thought I would write a blog dedicated to my little 2 year old. She can walk and run, play peek-a-boo with her sister and hide-n-go seek with me.
She’s finally starting to make progress on her speech. Words like purple, bubble, dog, Chewie (Grandma and Grandpa Carvers’ dog), cat, car, baby, sister, Sarah, Sarah Bear (Sarah’s nickname), mom, dada, duck, hey, hello, and bye bye have graced her lips. But not necessarily in that order and there is probably some that I’ve forgotten. She has also had a couple of phrases like “who is it?” and “abc” and recently she has started to count, sort of.

She also spends several hours a day on her "cellphone" which can be anything between a real phone to a rubberband. Or even nothing, like this picture shows.

She has a doll named Molly that she is very attached to! As well as a varied assortment of stuffed animals (most of which come from Jeff's childhood). So every night Emily goes to bed with Molly and some other random stuffed animal that has taken her fancy that week. And her hair has gotten pretty long, it’s just below her shoulders when wet and just above her shoulders when dry (due to the curls). She’s kinda short and skinny for her age but this only makes her “pixie-like” and she’s such a rockstar! She loves to sing and dance snd her favorite song to do both of those things is “How Does She Know?” from the movie Enchanted. She is also such a big helper! She’s likes to help me load and unload the dishwasher (she handles the forks and spoons), load and unload the dryer, help change sisters diaper, and help bring in groceries.
She’s also becoming very brave. She is getting less afraid of crossing the bridge and going down the slide at the park as well as getting more used to the swimming pool. Hopefully we will get to start the whole potty training process when we get back to Logan.
For her birthday she got bubble bath, a doll house, a leapfrog leap pad, and some other items she hasn't opened yet ;)

Also on the Monday was mine and Jeff’s anniversary! Three years!! WooHoo!

oooOOOOoooo... Video Response :)

2008-06-14T15:57:00.000-07:00

Mrs. Mordecai, I think Emily approves!

Back and Front Yard Tag

2008-06-13T15:35:00.000-07:00

After a very long and busy two weeks, I am finally back into blogging. I also have lots to share with ya'll!

But first, Mrs. Mordecai I have not forgotten you!

Heres my front view from the left to the right and looking down my front stairs.

The view of my balcony and the back view from left to right :) And now I will tag Julie and Katrina!! Have fun!

--Beth

The pics for the blog :)

2008-05-28T19:23:00.000-07:00

Pics at Idylwood on Friday:

Saturday: kayaking, Seattle Center, and dinner:

Sunday: no pics :(

Monday: Hiking

Seattle Center, Dinner Parties, and Kayaking, Oh My!

2008-05-28T17:15:00.000-07:00

Friday: My sis-in-law Julie was able to come hang out with me and the girls after work on Friday and it was great! We walked down to a park called Idyllwood and had a great time. Due to the fact that we didn't have strollers at the time we carried the babies. Sarah strapped to my front and Emily hanging out on Julie's back :) The park was great! It has a nice little beach on Lake Sammamish and a great playground. The only bad part was the walk back! All uphill!

Saturday: We started the morning semi-early by heading back to Idyllwood park with Jeff's brother Brian and his wife Annie to go kayaking with our new inflatable kayaks! We had a great time. The only one who didn't enjoy it was Emily who seemed cranky that we woke her up and made her sit in Brian's boat lol! The girls looked adorable in their life jackets :) After that we joined up with Dan and Julie and headed into Seattle to go to the Seattle Center and see Speed Racer at the IMAX. Thanks to Sarah I missed most of the movie but what I did see looked awesome. After that we went and played with some cool water toys and walked around a Cultural Fair for awhile. Later that evening Annie made us rice with chicken and broccoli covered in a yummy peanut sauce! MMMmmm! And then after that we went swimming at our complexs' indoor pool. Overall a pretty great day!!

Sunday: We went to church at 9AM only to find out that we were at the wrong ward! Our ward apparently starts 11AM. While that is nice I wish we had known earlier lol! Dan and Julie invited us over for dinner that night and Julie made a very yummy Chicken Alfredo and we watched Stardust while the boys played computer games. Their house is sooo cute btw, I will have to remember to take pics next time.

Monday: Memorial Day morning we went and took a hike in the Watershed Conservation Park and it was absolutely beautiful! We had a great time with Brian and Annie! I took some great nature pics that I will post in a separate blog. When we got back we invited Dan and Julie to join us and continued to play games and make failed doughnuts.

Now its a new, slightly quieter week and I am still happy to be here! I had the greatest weekend!! Thanks guys sooo much!!

And I promise my next blog will be much shorter :)

Safely in Seattle

2008-05-20T12:16:00.000-07:00

So after a very long 2 days, we made it into Redmond, WA on Sunday afternoon. The girls were very good! We drove for 8 to 9 hours on Saturday, stopping to eat and take some restless legs breaks, and drove another 3 hours on Sunday. We spent Saturday night in Kennewick, WA and had a nice relaxing time in the hot tub. Unfortunately for Jeff and I, the girls didn't want to sleep so long as they were in the same room together so I had to spend a lot of time walking the halls with Emily in the evening and Sarah the next morning.

When we got to Redmond we got our keys for our apartment even though the guy bringing them was 15-20 minutes late. However, any crankiness we had had was instantly gone when we saw our fully furnished apartment. Its awesome! The furniture is great and the apartment is huge! Not only that but when I asked for a crib, high chair, desk, and microwave they brought all those things the same day without any problems. So now we're moved in and have some food in our fridge :)

On Sunday, Jeff's brother Brian and his wife Annie brought over some home-made pizza and the stuff for root beer floats. We played Wii for a bit and ate pizza. Soon after that Jeff's brother Daniel and his wife Julie came over and we played more Wii and had the root beer floats! It was so awesome and we had a great time seeing everyone.

We look forward to lots more fun here in Seattle!

Here some pics of our place-

Our bedroom:

Our Master Bath:

Emily's Room:

Sarah's Room:

The Washer & Dryer:

The Kitchen:

The Living Room:

The Park Out Back:

We're Off!!

2008-05-16T21:33:00.000-07:00

Well tomorrow morning, around 10 or 11, we are leaving for Redmond, WA! Yes that's right we are moving! But never fear we will be back in mid August!

A couple of weeks ago Jeff got offered an internship in the Embedded Systems group at Microsoft. We decided that Jeff would go by himself and me and the girls would stay behind and guard the fort. The reason we decided to do it this way was due to the fact that we didn't want to lose our great apartment and not have something to return to. Or pay rent to hold onto this place while it sits empty. It was a really hard decision but I buckled down and decided to do it.

On Monday, Emily was messing with some of our contract info and our contract renewal paper fell out. I noticed it had something about "Summer Storage." This summer storage option is where we can lock up our apartment, turn in the keys, and just go to the internship without worrying about our stuff. Not only that but it is at a greatly reduced rate.

So Jeff wrote his Relocation Specialist and said that the family is coming and they said "sure." Now we have an apartment waiting for us right off of Microsoft campus and we are driving up there starting tomorrow.

Wish us luck because its a 12 hour drive with our "wee" ones!

Spring Flowers and Wee Ones...

2008-05-09T15:41:00.000-07:00

So Spring has finally arrived!! And the girls and I were enjoying a little time outside in the yard :) Emily just roamed around picking up anything of interest to her. This included dead leaves and the flowers that have fallen off the tree, as you can see.

Sarah however crawled around eating anything she could get into her mouth! This included twigs, leaves, tiny flowers, and dandelions that Emily insisted on feeding her! Never fear though, Sarah apparently has a cast iron stomach.

I'm not entirely sure which child had a better time playing out in our yard. All I know is that they definitely didnt want to come in, even when it started to rain.

Emily spent most of her time collecting all the little flowers that had fallen off the tree and hoarding them. It was really hard to take them away from her. People must have thought I was abusing her with how loud she was screaming at me! I let her in the house with some one day and that was a HUGE mistake lol!

Part Three: cuz I don't know how to spell Trois...

2008-04-28T12:49:00.000-07:00

Now for part three:

Saturday: After playing games Friday night we slept well and got up the next morning to another wonderful breakfast and some cleaning at the farm. While cleaning, us girls (sister-in-laws) got to go through Grandma Gowan's jewelry and see if there was anything we liked. There were so many beautiful things and I think every girl got something lovely. I am so happy I got the chance to because now I have something to remember Grandma Gowan and something that is still practical and will be used :) Also while exploring I found a cool book that turned out to be a Mason's code book or something. Everybody thought it was really cool so I guess I found something good. And after a morning of sorting and cleaning we headed back to the hotel to get cleaned up and do some other fun activities we had planned.

While getting changed some of the family decided they were now going to take a trip up to Montreal and leave the rest of us passport-less people behind. As they were getting ready to leave we were stuck with figuring out what we were going to do with our day. It was kinda weird that they didn't realize what they had done was inconsiderate and left us with little to no plans. So we decided to do what we could with what time we had. We headed to Lake Placid to do bob-sledding and just barely missed it by 15 mins. Apparently they stop doing rides an hour before closing time.
Following this disappointment, we decided to try something else. We headed to the Ski Jump area and found out that that was actually open! So we got to take this elevator to the very top and see what it is like to be ski-jumper looking down the slope. We had a ton of fun pretending to throw each other off!

At the bottom of the ski-jump was a podium and we took some pics there as proper Olympians.

We headed back to Wilmington after that to get Jeff's parents but first stopped at a waterfall and then next a chocolate/gift shop and picked up some really yummy chocolates, some fudge, and some real maple syrup! We then went and got Jeff's parents and headed back to Lake Placid for dinner. We had some pizza at this great place where they hand tossed the dough! After that us, Brian and Annie, and Daniel went to this place to play laser tag and some arcade games. The laser tag was pretty sweet! The walls were panels that hung from the ceiling so you could push through them if you wanted to. They didn't make very good cover but if you saw someone on the other side you could push the wall into them!! It was hilarious! They let us go in there without supervision even!

Later that evening we came back to the hotel again, played games and went to bed.

Sunday: We had breakfast again at the farm and then headed off to church. We went up again to Lake Placid and went to this tiny little ward building. Just by going to their branch I think we double their attendance for that day!! It was basically a relief society room used as the chapel with some smaller rooms on the side. This branch was the one that my mother-in-law was in when she joined the church, so it was especially cool to see where she went to church and even meet some of her old friends from there.

After church we went to the cemetery to see the grave site and the headstones. It was really interesting because it was raining the whole time we went to the grave and after we left but it was mostly sunny while we paid our respects. It was very lovely. After that we went back to the farm and explored the forest until it was time for Sunday dinner. Annie, Misty (Kiara), and I headed out after the boys but they left us way behind, so we explored for ourselves, and got some pics too.

Dinner was pretty great! We had such a great time talking with Jeff's uncles Roger and Walter! We had the greatest time just sitting around the kitchen table eating and sharing stories!

Monday: Since we were leaving later in the afternoon we decided to pay one last visit to Lake Placid and say goodbye to Aunt Ginger since she was so kind to us. She gave us some more of that heavenly cheese cake and we headed back to Wilmington in time to make the journey back to the airport.

We got home safely without any delays, picked up our girls from my mom's house, and spent the next couple days recovering from the trip and re-bonding with our girls.

The End

P.S. I will soon publish a post of just my artsy photos

Part Deux

2008-04-25T11:49:00.000-07:00

Ok so I lied... but I'm writing this blog now :) So lets see where I left off...

I forgot to mention that after we had dinner in Lake Placid we went to the farm for a little while to explore. As this was the first time Jeff and I had ever seen the farm it was amazing! The farmhouse is unique as it was built by my mother-in-laws ancestors and the history that went along with the farm was amazing as well. Since I love history so much, it was incredible to actually see first hand the history this place holds.

While we were staying in Wilmington, Jeff and I got to share a room with Jeff's twin Brian and his wife Annie. It was sooo much fun! We stayed up late every night talking and the boys had a lot of fun attacking each other... oh and locking each other out. The only main complaint was sharing a bathroom with two boys!

Friday: We went to the farm and had breakfast there. It was the coolest thing ever. Jeff's Uncle Roger made us all ham, eggs, bacon, and pancakes cooked on the old wood-burning stove. He cooked us breakfast almost every morning and these are some of my best memories from the trip because it was so cool! How often can you say you had breakfast cooked on a wood burning stove? Let alone one as cool as this?

After breakfast we all headed back to the hotel to get ready for the funeral. To see my account of the funeral see one of my previous blogs :) It was very lovely regardless and it honestly moved me to a great deal more tears than I thought it would. It was very touching and I hope others experienced it the way I did and felt the way I did.

After the funeral we got changed and headed back out onto the road to explore. We soon found ourselves exploring AuSable Forks and Jay and we had a great time! In Jay we stopped at a really cool covered bridge that had been there for a really long time! Of course I couldn't help but take a pic or two... or three... or four :)

Part Three to come later!

PS. Happy Anniversary Brian and Annie!!

The NY Trip

2008-04-23T08:53:00.000-07:00

Ok so I am finally going to sit down and write out this trip after several days of forgetting and false starts! Beware this post may be long and full of pictures. Those of you who know me, know that I am a shutterbug! Anywho on with the story and I'll try not to bore ya!

First thing first, the traveling. Our flight got off just fine from SLC, had a layover in Denver that wasn't too bad, and then landed at LaGuardia airport in New York City early in the morning without any problems either. I mention this because three of Jeff's brothers had serious delays! At LaGuardia we barely made it to our next flight because we are used to SLC aiport and you can just walk from terminal to terminal. We had no idea the we would have to take a 5 minute shuttle to get to our next flight. We got there just in time to be the last ones boarding. It was really cool though because it was something out of an old movie. We walked do some stairs out into the early fog shrouded morning and walked up to our plane. The plane was a puddle jumper so it was like 36 passengers with two propellers!! And a funny story was as Jeff and I were sitting there were 2 business women who were sitting in front of us complaining. Apparently when they got on the plane the flight attendant told them that to balance out the plane he needed them to sit in the back or else the plane wouldn't be able to take off!! They weren't stick figures but they were definitely not overweight! But besides the minor drama we made it into Burlington, VT just fine.
And then the wait started.... After a very long night of flying, we got into VT and found out that Brian and Annie, who we were going to share a car with, got delayed 5 hours because they're flight got canceled!! They were stuck in JFK for 5 hours while we were stuck at a mall in Burlington. On our way to the mall, my rolling luggage bust and one of the wheels broke off so we had to carry our bag around the mall. Then Jeff tried to fix it with Gorilla Glue and Duct Tape! Basically I got to wheel around a ghetto looking bag from store to store. It did last long enough for me to get 2 new pairs of shoes for $9!! Eventually Brian and Annie came to pick us up and we were on our way to Wilmington, NY!
Now here come the pictures :) As we were driving we passed a really cool lake that was all frozen and cracking so we pulled over and took some pics!

Turns out that the lake was part of Lake Champlain and that we were going to be taking a ferry across it. The ferry was awesome even if we didn't see Champ. I've never ridden a ferry before so it was way cool to me.

Finally we reached our destination and got to Wilmington, NY!! But once we reached town we got a text message telling us to keep driving! We were headed up to Lake Placid to meet up for dinner at a restaurant run by one of my mother-in-laws aunts. The food was amazing and and the cheesecake was the most amazing thing I had ever eaten!! Not to mention the rootbeer! There we celebrated my mother-in-laws birthday. Soon enough we headed back to our motel, the North Pole Inn, and crashed for the night since all of us were exhausted.

So this post is pretty long and its taken me like 3 hours to type it, I will call it a day for now. Part Deux to come tonight possibly, but more likely tomorrow.

-Beth

Grandma Gowan's Funeral

2008-04-16T20:47:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday my husband and I flew to Upstate New York (Wilmington to be exact) to pay our final respects to his Grandma Gowan who had passed that previous Saturday. Her funeral was on Friday and it was beautiful. It was conducted by her Methodist minister, and being LDS, this was a different thing for me and it couldn't have gone better. The ceremony was beautiful, touching, and moving as we were reminded of how kind and wonderful she was. It was amazing to hear the wonderful stories her family shared about her and to see how much she was loved. She will be dearly missed.

I took a few pictures of those who attended and of some the wonderful flowers she received. Here are a few of the best.

2008-04-08T21:09:00.000-07:00

My friend Hannah had this one on her page and even though she didn't tag me I thought I'd pass it along too.

1. Pick up the nearest book (with at least 123 pages)

2. Turn to page 123.

3. Find the 5th sentence.

4. Post the next three sentences.

5. Tag 3 people.

"Dark as a Sharan. But I'd swear he has blue eyes. I've seen the like before, but where?"

Name that book and I owe you something good :) And now I tag Julie, Rachel, and Jen :)

Oh and I can't help but post a pic!

Yes that is Sarah under our couch... unplugging our internet.... explains a lot..

2008-04-03T14:26:00.000-07:00

So I know a few of you have not been introduced to Sarah so I thought I would post some pictures so that you may be acquainted with this sweetheart.

Sarah was born 8/20 at 8:20 :); Introducing Emily to Sarah

How little this sweetheart was at 1 month; Her first smile at 2 months

Sarah unhappy about her blessing gown :); Sarah's eyes! 3 months

She's such a happy baby- 4 months; Yummy fingers- 5 months

Sarah at 6 Months

The Carver Crew

2008-04-01T12:20:00.000-07:00

Jeff- Is currently working on his Graduate Degree in Computer Engineering. He should be finished in December and we're both excited! He is so ready to be done with school! The debate now is whether to stay and get a PH'D or go into the workforce. At least we have some time to think about it. Recently he has taken up both fishing and racquetball and has been enjoying both. He is waiting for the snow to all melt so that he can hike and go fishing again :)

Beth- Is busy being a stay-at-home mom! I currently am taking 2 classes online from BYU and working on decorating cakes whenever I get the chance. I am trying to finish reading the Wheel of Time series and working on a possible screenplay for a mormon movie :)

Emily- Will be 2 in June and we are excited. She now has 10 teeth and head full of light brown, curly hair! She likes to run and jump as well as sing! She loves to play with her sister and watch Veggie Tales. She likes to talk on the phone, help me with dinner and the dishes, and unload the dryer! She is such a big helper!

Sarah- Will be 1 in August. Thats right, we have 2 kids under 2!! She just started crawling within the last 2 weeks and its been really exciting! She follows Emily ever where and likes to crawl under things she shouldn't, like the couch! She's got a good amount of dark hair on her as well so we will see what happens with that.

Well thats all for now! Enjoy the pictures!

Finally!

2008-04-01T12:16:00.000-07:00

So after a lot of contemplation and prodding from friends and family, I have finally started a decent blog :) Well at least thats the goal :) My question is though, is there a way to post lots of pictures and put them in a separate file or do I just put them in the blogs?
Oh well, for now I will just post a blog with some pictures and a basic how we're doing now. Now on to the blogging!

-Beth

The Carver Crew

Because You Care

End of a Year, End of a Season, End of a Semester

Almost Done...

Power In His Touch

Another long hiatus...

May 09

Kinder Suprise!

April 09- Chicken Chasing

April 09

March 09

March 09- Sisters :)

Feb 09- Random Stuff

Jan 09- My babies :)

January 09- My Birthday

Umm Christmas Pics?!?

Nope... nevermind..

Time to try and catch up!

Emily's Budding Talent :)

Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay!

*Updated* New Stuff

Bad News...

Raptor Chick!

Happy Late Late Late Valentines Day!

Wow I'm tired...

More Videos

Ummmm..

Happy New Year

Random Pics

Matt is a Ghost

Merry Christmas

My Fantastic Girls!!

Snow!!!!!!!

Chalk!!

Yikes lots of catching up to do!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Princesses!

The Scarlet Pimpernel

A Cougars Fireside

Tori's Orchestra Concert

Lend Me a Tenor

Halloween Night

Halloween Dance.. A bit late I know...

Matt's Homecoming Dance

Another Tag...

Tag

Helping my bro reach his goal

Pics of Sarah

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Pics of Emily Part Two

Pics of Emily Part One

Sonya

"Our Biggest Loser"

I love Halloween!

Pinewood Derby Time!!

Clowning Around in Suits! And skirts too...

Jeffery the Steroid Addicted Giraffe :)

Tagged.... woohoo!

Sarah Birthday Party #2

LOL!

Sarah's Birthday Party #1

changes...

Quick Update...

Invasion of the Pod-People!!!!

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog!!!

What a transition!

A Berry Pickin' We Will Go!

What my girls have been up to....

Experience Music Project and SciFi Museum

Microsoft Company Picnic

Don't Kick Your Sister!!!!!

Laziness Returns!!!!

Happy Birthday Jeff!!!

More Kayaking...

Happy Independence Day Ya'll!!

Any ideas?

What my girls have been up to.

Seattle Aquarium...Finally

Hurray!!!

Fun with hair...

Updated New Stuff