2007- in a nutshell

I wrote a very lenghthy year-in-review, but it was to long!  I am not kidding!  So I edited it and still was a little to over the top.  So this is our 2007 year- in- pictures:

• We are expecting a baby in August.
• Pregnancy and Jennifer don't mix! (Hyperemisis)
• Chris falls and breaks his elbow.
• A stool falls and breaks Ryan's big toe.
• Haley turns ten!
• Ryan turns five
• Claire is born and is beautiful! Claire and I missed sharing a birthday by one hour.  Chris surprised me and flew my sister in to visit from NY.
• Chris' Grandpa Winkel passes away
• Everyone is crazy in love with the new addition to the family.

Lovely Light...

I have been in love with this chandelier ever since I saw it in this fantastic store on Newbury Street in Boston.  My Mom, Sister and I went last May and I just can't get it out of my mind!

Posted by request.

A great weekend!

I took the kids to Richfield while they were out of school for Christmas vacation.  Emily and Zach were visiting from NY.  It was so fun to see her little belly finally looking pregnant- only 10 more weeks to go!  

Then my Mom and I packed up the kids and went on to Salt Lake.  We went to the Clark Planetarium and to the Children's Discovery Museum.  Then meet Emily and Zach at the Cheesecake Factory!  We stayed at the Marriot by the Galivan Center so Haley and Ryan could squeeze in a little ice skating too.  We did a lot in such a short time and with three kids!

Two Teeth!

4 1/2 months!  Growing too fast!  Claire surprised the heck out of us on Saturday.  She had two little teeth pop through!  She was so happy and pleasant that I did even consider that they were on their way.  Sunday how ever... She was sad and in pain. 

 I got her a little teething ring at the grocery store in Foothill Village in SLC while we were waiting to meet my Brother there late Saturdaynight.  He had a sweat shirt on that said "Notre Dame Women's Boxing"  I love it.  He said that when he was going to school there he had  passed a girl on campus wearing this sweat shirt.  It was quite big for her.   Intrigued, he stopped and asked her how he could get one.  She said that you have to be on the Women's Boxing Team.  Then she asked if he would pay money for one?  

- Sure.

-Twenty dollars?

-Sure!

She took it off and handed it to him.  (She had a shirt on underneath, of course.)

He handed her twenty dollars and they went their separate ways.  

This is a picture with Claire and her new teething ring.

Christmas Day 2007

 Christmas morning around 4:00 a.m.  Chris got a phone call that he had an alarm go off at the office.  So he had to drive to the office to take care of it.  I started getting a little worried so I called him and made him stay on the phone and tell me what he was doing.  It was really windy that night so I am sure that it was just the wind, but still!  

Then Chris got up at 6:00 a.m. to make orange roll dough and let it raise so we could take them to his home teaching family later.  

Around 7:30 our kids got up and so that meant we were up again.  The jolly old man was good to us this year.  Haley was pretty surprised to get an I-Pod and some cute American Girl things.  Claire got a high chair.  She was thrilled; I'm sure of it.  Ryan was very excited about his cool robot fort and I-Coaster.  And Chris got the Apple TV.  (but ended up returning it after doing a little research and deciding it wasn't something we needed right now.)  

But,  no one was more shocked then I was.  Chris got me the bag that I have been going crazy over for a least a year now.  He actually tried to get it for my birthday, but it didn't come until the middle of October, so he had been hiding under his desk for 2 1/2 months now. - How he pulled it off; I'm not sure!   { I am finding that EVERYONE else knew he had gotten it! }

Anyway, after playing with Santa's gifts for awhile, we had breakfast and finished making the orange rolls.  They were "delectable!"  (Ryan's new favorite word! )  So we put them on a cute little platter and Haley and Chris ran them over to his home teaching family's house.  Well, there was a small accident and the orange rolls ended up all over their front steps.  - Oh, well.  It's the thought that counts, right?

After that we opened up the rest of our gifts.  I do have to say that my kids- with the help of my Mom- gave me the cutest pair of bunny slippers.  I love them!  They have a great little wedge heel on them. 

 

It was great to kind of drag the Christmas magic out all morning.   My Mom called to see what we got and we were just starting to open gifts.  The kids were so great to not be in a hurry.  I though that was very commendable.  This was the first year we have had Christmas with just our little family.  Usually we are at one of our parents homes, or they are at ours.  It was kind of strange- being without them. 

I forgot to mention that we got rockband.  A family that rocks together... well, ROCKS! 

I love Christmas.  

The Postum conundrum

Yep, it's true they are not making Postum anymore!  What is a girl to do?   

This weekend I when to Richfield to visit my family.  I called the grocery stores to see if they happened to have any Postum.  No luck.  Then my Dad got involved.  We called every surrounding small town with hopes that maybe the news about the Postum supply hadn't gotten there yet.   We even called Royal's Market in Loa!  Some lady had just cleaned them out.  So we had to think outside the box (or outside of the state- as it were)  I called my Brother in Bakersfield, CA.    The following is the post that he put on his blog  The story ends well, but read on.  It's worth it!

Ransom Note

Wow! After doing a little research and finding out that my sister was right, I'm starting to feel greedy. Like flared nostrils and dilated pupils greedy. It turns out I'm sitting on a gold mine. Postum is a thing of the past--and judging by the Postum Forums out there (you heard me, Postum Forums) this stuff is soon going to be more valuable than....something quite valuable. Maybe I'll come back some time and fix that little non-simile. But for now, know this: I have 19 large jars of Postum in an undisclosed location and it's mine. MINE I TELL YA! I'm holding it for ransom.

Our arrangement was that, since Utah is fresh out of Postum from St. George to Logan, I'd cruise the markets here in Bako and ship her what I could find. Guess what, sister? DEAL'S OFF! Call me to make an arrangement. Or visit my new Postum eBay store.

Okay. I'm not really holding it hostage--I'll send it as soon as I get back from SLC--but you really should sell this on eBay--those people are nuts!

As a side note, I had just finished packing my cart with this powdered liquid gold when I spotted a not-very-active member of my ward walking past the aisle. Not wanting him to see me with a ridiculous quantity of something I had obviously just taken from the coffee aisle I quickly ducked my head and turned into the next aisle which, as it turns out, was the magazine aisle. If you're ever sneaking around in the supermarket to "avoid the appearance of evil" be sure to find a better spot to hide than the magazine aisle. I'd rather be seen juggling flasks of Jack Daniels with a cart full of pinot grigio than appear to be scanning the covers of Maxim and Hot Rod. Luckily, I don't think he saw me. At least not he stood behind me in line at the checkout.

"Wow!" he said.

"It's Postum--no caffeine," said I.

"Don't worry; I won't tell."

"I'm serious--it's out of production and my sister wants it."

"I said 'don't worry; I won't tell.'"

"Yeah, thanks. See you around."

So I have several jars of the good stuff!  You can find some here on E-bay!  :)

It gets better...  now it's in the news. 

TUESDAY, JANUARY 1, 2008

Ahead of our Time

Look what made the front page of the Deseret News 3 days after my last post. The author, Sara, as I like to call her, never called me for a comment on the tragedy, though.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,695240438,00.html