Project 366

I'm trying it again. So far so good. This is a link to my first week, and then some. 

Welcome 2012

For many reasons 2011 was a tough year for our family. At the same time we were blessed in many ways. We are grateful for the blessings but we are also super excited to see what 2012 brings. 

My resolutions for 2011 were a total bust. I think they were too similar to what I had resolved in the two previous year. They were stale. This year I am totally mixing it up and doing the whole "one little word" thing. At first I wasn't too keen on the idea but I've grown to love the idea. 

My word for 2012 is persistence. My first goal is to learn how to spell it LOL! (Thanks spell check!) Through persistence I can complete all my goals wether they are spiritual, health, budget or weight related. I need to learn to follow through and stick with things. If I do that everything will be better. Persistence. It's a great word right?!?

We decided to go to Salt Lake for New Year's Eve again. We had a free night at Marriott that we needed to use or lose and we had gift certificates for Ruth's Chris so it seemed like a good plan. We dropped of the kids with my parents and checked into our room. We hadn't decided if we were going to buy tickets for the EVE party. The events this year didn't sound as fun but while we were checking in we found out that the hotel was selling wristbands at a discount so we bought them. 

We were on the sixth floor with a great view of the events. 

After checking in we had some time to kill before dinner. We learned over the last couple of years that if you wanted to see one of the planetarium shows you had to get tickets WAY in advance. We went in and reserved seats for the U2 laser light show.

 

After securing tickets at the planetarium we went back to the hotel, put on nicer clothes and headed to dinner. 

We had never been to Ruth's Chris before so we were really excited. We both got the surf and turf special. It was so good. We enjoyed the lobster but the steak was my favorite. It was perfectly cooked and so tender. We also got garlic mashed potatoes and broccoli au gratin. Normally I don't even like cooked broccoli but this was delicious.

We were really full but didn't want to skip dessert. We ordered the chocolate duo. 

It was amazingly delicious, incredibly rich and really beautiful! 

We felt so spoiled with the excellent service and delicious food. It was the perfect way to ring in the new year.  

We slowly walked back to the hotel so we could get on comfy, warm and casual clothes for the rest of the night. We drove back to the Gateway for the laser light show. I'm glad we went, because now I know, the show did nothing for me. I went to a laser show back in high school that I thought was way better. This one didn't impress but it was a nice activity in a warm building. 

We dropped the car off for good this time and walked over to the Off Broadway Theatre to watch the improv comedy show. This is one of our favorite things to do on NYE. These guys never disappoint. 

This year there were more performers and they mixed things up a bit. In this scene the guy on the left is trying to figure out the personalities of all the other guys. We had two of Charlie's Angels, Pee Wee Herman, Joseph with the coat of many colors and Napoleon. Hilarious! 

Thanks guys for another funny show. 

At this point we only had an hour left until the new year. We decided to head to the heart of the party. They replaced the snowboarders/skiers this year with the temple of boom. It was not a good swap as far as we were concerned. We missed watching the guys do tricks but with the warmer weather I guess it would have been really hard for them to keep the jump covered in snow.

We listened to the music for a while, went into the Salt Palace to check out the "ball"room, bounce house room and the other bands. It was going to be midnight very soon so we went and found a place to watch the fireworks. We knew were they were shooting off and it wasn't from the temple of boom. It was like no one else knew where they were shooting from. We were in a little area all by ourselves. It was so nice to not be in the middle of a crowd for the fireworks this year. It felt like a private show.

Happy 2012!!!

Our kiss at midnight, the first of the year.

Our hotel and the reflection of the fireworks in a building behind it. 

We went back up to the room to toast in the new year with some sparkling cider.

I had noise makers so I decided to blow one out the window to the people on the street. It was broken or something. It made THE MOST HORRIBLE SOUND EVER! It was like someone was torturing a goose. I got some of the craziest looks. I couldn't help but bust a gut laughing. 

And just because it was so awful and funny sounding I had to blow it again. 

Then Paul wanted to try.

To 2012! 

Christmas Day 2011

This year Christmas fell on a Sunday. We go to church on Sundays. At 11:00 am. There was no way we were going to miss church (or Christmas) but the kids were concerned that we would have to sacrifice one for the other. We told them that worst case scenario would be we just leave the gifts we hadn't gotten to yet for after church. That was unacceptable. 

They got it in their heads that they would have to wake up obscenely early so they wouldn't miss out on either. We put the kibosh on that real quick. We told them that no one was allowed out of bed before 6:00 am. 

Apparently Emma woke at 5:30 and had to sit in bed and stew for a whole 30 minutes. As soon as the clock said six she was up and in the shower. When she was done she told Andrew to get in the shower. This has NEVER happened before. (in all fairness it probably wouldn't have this year either if it wasn't necessary for them to be ready for church) The kids never take the time to get clean on Christmas morning.

After Andrew was out of the shower it was my turn and then Paul's. I am sure glad we got a new water heater for Christmas. If we hadn't it would have been impossible for us all to have a hot shower one right after the other! 

Finally it was time. The music was playing so that meant it was time for the sheet to come down.

This little calendar has a funny story behind it. I had gone to Target to get some stocking stuffers. I of course hit the one spot. They had some sweet little calendars. I saw this one and knew one of us had to have it. For whatever reason I only bought one. That evening Emma and I went on a date night while Paul and Andrew were at a basketball game. We stopped at Target and what does Emma do? She picks the one thing I bought her that very afternoon. The sweets calendar. Grrr. Of course I bought another one so we could both have one. 

We're going to have a red head soon. (At least for a few weeks)

My goodies. I sure know how to stuff a stocking for myself. 

It was a bit of a BYU Christmas. Andrew sporting his new crazy cougar hat.

Paul with his new car flags so he can go to the games in style. As you can see he was totally excited about them.

Emma and her funny bear hat.

This year Emma made everyone gifts. She's taking woodshop so she carved us pen covers that are very cool. She made one for Andrew and gave him a painting and a Disney pin that he's always coveted. He was very touched by her generosity.

She also bought be this super cute frame and had Paul print a picture to put into it. I love it!

One of Paul's favorite gifts was a box of peanut butter Twix. He was so surprised and couldn't believe I had found them for him.

Emma's big gift was a laptop bundle. We had both sets of grandparents go in on it with us. She saw the HP box but still didn't get that it was really a computer. For her. 

Still thinking it was just an old box...

Then she finally realized it was the real deal. Boy was she excited. She was beyond thrilled. 

It's PuRpLe! 

Still thinking, "Is this for real?"

Andrew got an Ipod touch. He was really happy since his had some problems.

This big gift had been hiding off to the side. We told them it was mine but then at the end we revealed the truth. It was Andrew's gift from Grandma Nancy and Grandpa David. It was exactly what he had been asking for. A Guitar! 

We need to ask our neighbor for some help learning how to tune it but he is so so so very excited. 

Santa was good to me this year too. I'm finally part of the tech crowd. I'm slowly warming up to the Ipad. It intimidates me a little bit but I'm thrilled to have it.

My lovely clean living room looked like this after only a couple of hours.  

We made it through Christmas with plenty of time to eat a nice breakfast and get dressed for church. After church we rested, played with new toys and then prepared a fondue dinner. Yum. We all smelled like fried meat for the rest of the night LOL!