BEATLES ROCKBAND

Since I'm not dwelling on the past, but looking to tomorrow (to understand what I mean by that, you'll need to read the post below this one), I thought I would share with you another thing that I am looking forward to....Beatles Rockband. For those who have known me a long, long time, you know I LOVE the Beatles - have since I was little. I never had posters of the hottest teeny-bopper star or the coolest bands at that moment-in-time on my bedroom walls. Instead, I had the hottest Fab Four plastered on my four walls (oh, and James Dean, of course, was included). I still remember listening to their music on the 'ol record player when Grandma Mona sent aunt Wendy and mom the old records. When I first heard their music, I felt like it was the music I was meant to grow up and old with. It fit me and my personality. Once, me and my siblings dressed up in my dad's church suits, fashioned guitars out of Construx, put together some crazy drum set with pots (I believe), and I even think we stood up an old typewriter case in front of the drums that advertised our band's name - the Beatles - and we lip synced Beatles songs for mom and dad with a mini concert (this reminds so much of Liv's, Maggie's, and Ian's "Pinky Doodle" rock concerts they sporadically put on for us). So, I'm gearing up and resting the voice for 09.09.09 when it's released. Here's a link my mom sent me with the commercial for the Beatles Rockband. Enjoy!

http://www.tor.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=blog&id=33463

Oh, and I know what you're thinking.....for as much as I'm spouting about "looking to the future", I sure spent a lot of time in this post going down Memory Lane, aka reminiscing.

Full of contridictions I am. But, hell, so is life!

BECAUSE MY MOM ASKED...

To be honest, I kind of am bored with "blogging". (If that hasn't been apparent already.) It's kind of like that new restaurant everyone is raving about; so you go and it is as delicious as everyone says; and you keep going back; but eventually, the food isn't as special or unique anymore; the restaurant becomes like the rest of them; it kind of runs it's course; that's how blogging has felt for me. But my mom insisted that I update this thing and I hate to disobey. So, here we go again! And maybe with having the break, I'll rediscover the fun of blogging. We'll see.

So, I'm not going to bore you with a summary of the past 3 months or so. Needless to say, I've been busy. We've been busy. And though there is plenty to talk about, like I said, I'm not going to revisit the past.

Let's just start with our excitement for the future.....namely the upcoming "Harry Potter" movie. We are so fortunate to have a bread delivery man in our family (aka Grandpa Mike), who happened to hear a radio announcement on his early morning drive that tickets for the midnight showing were going on sale a full month before the movie's release. He gave us a call immediately and we were able to secure our tickets - the seats were going like hotcakes!

In preparation for the movie, as a family, we've set up a special "Harry Potter" table. We spent a whole Sunday morning sorting and organizing all our HP Legos. Though our goal is to rebuild all of our sets before the movie, its become quite a tedious and time-consuming project. So, we may not accomplish it. Also, we have been watching each of the previous HP movies to get us more pumped up then we already are.

B and I decided Jake and Liv are easily old enough to join us at the midnight showing. Good ol' Grampa Vance said Ian and Mags could come have a sleep-over with him.

Here we come July 15th!!!!

To conclude.....I thought last summer was the BEST summer I have had since having kids. And I'm not saying that all my summers prior have been awful, but there has been a sense of dependency and restriction that I've felt for a number of years with having "little" kids. Believe me, I had fun, but it wasn't until last summer that I felt free. It was so liberating to be able to just get up and go. I didn't feel tied to the home or limited on what I could do because of the age of my kids. But I'm finding that this summer is AMAZING! There have been very few days that we haven't had something planned. We've been to art museums, parks, libraries, movies, pools, golfing, hiking, plays, concerts, etc. I guess, too, I'm taking advantage of this time because sooner or later I know the inevitable will happen and the kids will stop wanting to hang out with their mom. Kind of sad. So, here is to the Summer of '09.

HAPPY, HAPPY LIVVY

To the Birthday Girl, Liv!

OH, BY THE WAY...

The toothfairy is a fool.

She left $1.00 under the pillow and 25 cents in Liv's tooth holder.

This is why you're fat

I found an awesome website today that everyone should add to their reader...

http://thisiswhyyourefat.com/

SO, WHAT DO YOU DO WITH NO TV?

We're heading into our 3rd week without a TV.
(I believe it was either SoapNet or SpongeBob
that finally did it in.)

We've been waiting for the part to arrive,
but it's on back-order and we aren't sure
when it's going to get here.

Surprisingly enough, we've discovered
that one can survive without the boob-tube.

Here are a few things:

You become creative.

Your kids form their own rock band.
They call themselves the "Pinky Doodles" and
perform a live concert in your living room.

"Butterflies" is our favorite song!

You dust off the IPod.

You listen to Muse's "Blackholes and Revelations"
over and over again
and realize once again why this is one of the BEST albums ever!

BONUS: Your kids know every song by heart.
(Sadly, YOU still don't know the lyrics.)

You make a discovery.

You catch up on all your regular TV shows via Internet.
(Who would of thunk???)
This is known as "snuggle time"
because you literally have to "snuggle"
to be able to view the images on your laptop's 13" screen.

You take a chance.

While searching for celebrity news on www.imdb.com,
you come upon a show called "Legend of the Seeker".
And then you find yourself 10 hours later
fully caught up with the entire series.

And then you read...

and read....

and read...

and read...

and read some more...

(I think you get the picture - no pun intended!)

FUN IN FEBRUARY

It's All About the Princess.

Can't believe it!!! Four years old.

Our very own princess was showered in the traditional manner:
Gifts, balloons (Thanks favorite Auntie Auds!), hugs and kisses,
money, cards, and treats.

Double the Fun!!!
Family get-together to celebrate
both Maggie's and Gramma Mad's bdays.

What could be better than Papa Murphy's pizza and rolls?
Um...Grampa Mike's homemade German chocolate cake!!!
Yummy and delicious!

Can't Stop the Birthday Fun.
It was Gramma Kimmy's bday too. Another family get-together!
We enjoyed presents, heart-shaped sugar cookies,
and fresh fruit on top of sponge cake.

But what could outshine all of this?????.........
One handmade macaroni noodle necklace. (Thanks Erik!)

A "sweet" visit
from the Valentine Fairy.
Come Saturday morning, we found that
our personal Valentine fairy had brought us
President Obama trading cards, SpongeBob chocolates,
tickets to Disney on Ice, and more chocolate.

Liv lost another pearly-white.
Liv lost a bottom tooth while eating a PopTart on her way to school
and then lost it again walking into the school.

Liv wrote a note begging the Tooth Fairy to leave her some money
even though there was no tooth in exchange for the cash.

After a couple nights with no response, tonight Liv decided
to take a different approach -
by placing a white pom pom in her tooth holder
to see if the Tooth Fairy will think it is a "real" tooth.

Um....we'll have to get back to you
to let you know if this devious ploy fooled the fairy.

BYU MUSEUM OF ART

I had been wanting to take Jake and Liv down to the Japanese woodblock print exhibition at BYU for some time now. And with the pressure of it coming to a close in a week, we headed down on this past Saturday. We also invited Ms. Segura and Mr. Alarcon to join us (They are teachers at the kid's school and they are also from Spain. Ms. S and I have really gotten to know each other over the past few years because we share an interest in art and I help teach art to her students. She loves and appreciates art so much and wants her students to learn about different artists. And I really like this about her.)

We arrived at 1.00pm and spent the next couple of hours looking, sketching, puzzling and resting. We spent most of our time in the woodblock exhibit, which was amazing! The accuracy, the detail, the patience one needs to do this type of intricate printing just astounds me.

We also stopped in to see the Dan Steinhilber exhibit. Jake was quite annoyed by what this artist put up as "art". He just didn't get why 3 swings hanging from a ceiling constitued something artistic. I had to agree that most of his installations were a bit "off", but both Liv and I enjoyed the balloon wall art. It was huge and colorful.

On our way home, Bea and Antonio treated us to a late lunch at Zuppa's.

It was a nice afternoon to spend with the kids as well as with Bea and Antonio.

FAREWELL TO 2008

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!

NEW!!! - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince trailer

All I can say.....I can't wait until 07.17.09

(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0417741/trailers-screenplay-1-10-2)