love/hate

winter solstice. that was yesterday. and here's the thing about winter solstice. i love it and i hate it. hate it: it's the shortest day of sunshine in the whole year. that's tough for me. i need sunshine. i thrive on sunshine. sunshine is my air. love it: the days only get longer from here, AND only 4 days until that blessed christmas day. i could not be any more excited.

i still have so much to do it's unreal. december has been insane. so much so that at times i am literally living from 10 minutes to 10 minutes. work has been nuts and christmas has crept up on me so quickly that i am way behind and still have shopping to do. and wrapping. ahhh! picked up beth's last gift at the wonderful clothes pony yesterday. (super excited about that one..) the town was a-buzz with shoppers and skaters amidst christmas carols playing in the background. it was very jolly.

and tell me, in what other town do you see this?






c'mon, how rad is that? where else have you ever seen painted pianos just out in the town for anyone to play? i love fort collins. notice the little kid playing... totally busted out jingle bells, right off the top of his head. it was awesome. very jolly. and helped me keep my mind off the fact that it got dark at 4:22pm.

hank and i put beth down and wrapped her presents tonight while we watched charlie brown's christmas and home alone. i know, old school, but great holiday movies. we were totally cracking up. and when we got done, i looked at my tree and just felt so.... blessed. i am so lucky. we are so lucky. we have such a good, comfortable life and have so much when there are so many that have so little. i love that i get to spend time with my family. i love the different spirit in the air. i love that we have all been healthy. i love that we have get to celebrate the birth of our Jesus Christ. and i am so grateful.

but i have also learned that toys are hard to wrap. they're all weird shapes and uncooperative and awkward... so they're not pretty, but they're wrapped. this one is my favorite. both wrapped and unwrapped. can't wait for her to open this one. yes, it is what it looks like-ish. but now you'll have to wait and see it after beth does. but it's awesome.

and notice the troll wrapping paper, gifted to me by a good friend who thought i might appreciate it. and she was right, i love it! how original is it. and it's like 30 years old to boot. love it! (thanks annette!)

okay friends, time to hit the sack. another full day tomorrow. and only 2 days til chirstmas then.

yikes/wahoo!!!!

Merry Christmas friends.

meet dean

nope, not my dad. not this time. this is new dean. just arrived dean. who came to my sweet SIL kate and her husband on december 3. he's the whole reason we went to utah. we had to meet him! here are some pics of this new little guy...

this one is my favorite....

check out his awesome blue eyes.

and i LOVE this photo. she put her hand on him to soothe him and keep him calm while we took photos. the second she did he totally mellowed out and calmed down. i LOVE this photo.

welcome to the world dean. we can't wait to watch you grow.

road trippin'

we made the 10 hour drive to southern utah for a long weekend. little nervous about the drive with beth but she was such a champ. went 4 hours the first day which she slept about half of (but was great the rest of the time), and drove the remaining 6 hours the next day, of which she slept 4 hours of. it was awesome. we'll see how she does on sunday when we make the drive all in one day. in ski traffic. on I-70. blagh.

she really has been a total sport.

haven't made this drive in a long time, but as we went it brought back a lot of memories. back in the day when cedar city was my stomping ground i drove that route home and back probably a hundred times. the landscape was so familiar and i remembered so many landmarks and checkpoints and could tell you pretty close how much longer to get home (or to the next town) from just about any given point along the way.

can't tell you how many times i just wanted to go home, so jumped in the car and made the drive late on thursday night, coasting into town on fumes and pennies, with a good mom who'd give me money for gas to make it back on sunday.

we are here to meet our new nephew and cousin, dean. he is the CUTEST new baby boy ever. he really is. so small and perfect. and so exciting. pictures of this new little guy to come soon.

and this picture did not come from this trip, but i am posting it anyway because i think it's a great picture. we were at lowe's the other night and they had this guy on display that of course we had to try out. of course!

let me tell you, it was the hit of the day. this little girl loved this car... we pushed her around the store in the car and got the wheels all dirty (apparently we were the only ones who thought "display" really meant "free sample"). she really thought it was the greatest thing ever and i thought it was a good investment, but hank thought it was too big and didn't want to store it and "where would we use it?" the zoo! i replied. not a good enough answer i guess because we walked away empty handed.

rats.

it was fun while it lasted.

but we'll be back.

as of late

friday night hank, beth and i went down to denver to a marriott client event which included the parade of lights. such a great parade. even the band people put lights in their uniforms and on their instruments. the floats are awesome, and it is really a cool parade. totally adds to spirit and fun of the season as it winds in the heart of downtown where the old buildings along the street are lit and the trees strewn with white lights. it was also 50 degrees out (yes, even at 8:30 at night) which made it all the more enjoyable. it was packed and the bleachers we sat on were so jammed full that all of us could barely move. little tough with a 9 month old. she did pretty well... for the first 20 minutes. and then she was done. so we made our way out of the crowd and watched the rest from our hotel room 19 stories above. bummer, but nevertheless magical still.

the next day i woke up feeling terribly sick and just, blah. and i had promised a friend that i would help her clean her new house before moving in. after getting back from denver i rested for a bit, and then went over to help and i was completely and totally worthless. sorry friend. i feel much better now, please call me if you want me to come out again. i promise to be much more productive.

we also just finished putting the lights up as of like, 20 minutes ago. and thank goodness because i am really tired of having christmas storage bins sitting in my front room. they are gone now (thank you my love), and i feel much better. the house looks awesome (again, thank you my love). no pics to post yet, but perhaps in the near future. our street is definitely the best in the area. people are starting to drive up and down it slowly to look at the lights.

as we were finishing up outside, a guy came out of our neighbors house and said to our neighbor "the lights in your yard look pretty good here. your whole street looks good. you guys got some kinda community contest goin' or something?"

i wanted to say, "no, but we should. because we would totally win."

well, we might not win - there are some pretty good light displays around here. but we do keep adding lights every year, so eventually we'd win. we'd have to.

we even put lights on our deck this year. (i know, who sees those anyway? well, we do. and we like it okay?) and while we were back there putting lights on our deck, i had the most brilliant idea ever. we actually have a really great back yard that's fairly large with trees and bushes that border the perimeter of the grass and now we have this great deck.... (do you see where i'm headed with this?) next year we are going to put lights in our back yard (we're done with lights this year) and have and Ice Party (or some other clever name) and have the party in the backyard with with an amazing display of lights to keep us entertained. and we'll have lots of hot chocolate and cider, maybe a sweet white elephant gift exchange, bring your gloves and your scarves... come on! does that not sound so rad and original??? i'm so stoked on it. like, seriously. hank is stoked on the lights in the backyard thing, but not so much the party yet. i think he thinks i'll forget or grow out of the idea by next year, but nope. i won't. i think it's awesome. it's totally going to happen. so get ready friends and fam who live close by. you have a year to gear up for it.

and lastly (how random is this????) i've decided i'm going to live my life as though i am about to be a participant on the amazing race. anybody watch it? (and am i the only one who thinks nick is the biggest jerk on the planet...?) because here's the thing: the people who make it to the end and do the best are always physically fit and in shape. the notso-fit folks usually get booted in the first few weeks. and since being on the show is a personal dream/fantasy/lifelong goal of mine, so i've decided that if i act like i'm really going to be on the show, i will train and eat and get in shape so that i can make it to the end and win (obviously). and since i haven't found any other things to motivate me as of late, i'm just rolling with it. i start training for it tomorrow. and there you have it.

ps: hank just saw how long my post was and said, geez, that is so much to read. is there even enough space on the internet for that? and i responded that no, i'm sure my blog will implode because i have more than 2 paragraphs. good grief already.

slow and steady wins the race

thanksgiving this year was awesome. the food was amazing, the friends are rad, the christmas lights and tree went up (we added more this year, wahoo!), and i feel like i have so much to be grateful for this year. we've all been healthy, we have jobs that afford us a comfortable life, and most importantly, we are happy. so happy. it's amazing how far we've come from just a year ago, how much has changed, how full life seems to be, and how fast it's gone.

thanksgiving day beth finally started to crawl. slow and sort of flailing at first, with lots of faceplants. but now that she's figured it out she loves it. she LOVES that she is mobile and can get to where her little curious/mischevious mind wants to go. particularly now that the tree is up. she still faceplants it every once in a while (kind of funny, c'mon...), but that's becoming less and less and we are doing more and more chasing. her poor little knees are red and bruised from being on them so much. but she loves it - it doesn't seem to bother her at all.

i was talking to my sister yesterday, and i told her that she beat me to a post. the its-way-too-early-for-christmas-decorations-and-music-but-im-totally-eating-it-up post. right after halloween i went shopping and there was christmas stuff everywhere and carol of the bells playing. normally, i'm not one to overlook thanksgiving being that it is a holiday just for food and football. but i will tell you that this year, i was all over that music and jolliness. it got me so excited for christmas this year. SO excited. maybe because it's beth's first. probably because the feeling in the air is different, people are generally different this time of year, and it's such a great time to remember what CHRISTmas is all about. love, love, LOVE this time of year.

i made hank pull out christmas vacation and watch it with me the other night. oh man, that movie is such comedy. i don't think i'll ever get sick of the classic lines like,

"if i woke up tomorrow with my head sown to the carpet i wouldn't be more surprised than i am right now,"

or "lotta sap in here. little full, lotta sap,"

or this conversation (which has been quoted a million times in my family):

"and why is the carpet all wet todd?"

"i don't know margo!"

('member that jen?)

so many great moments and one-liners. totally classic. just added to my holiday cheer.

i've been taking beth outside to see the lights on our house and to the other houses in our neighborhood with lights. it's so cool to watch her eyes get big and just stare at them, taking it in. of course, she doesn't get it, but it's still so fun to see her take things in for the first time and watch the lights twinkle and dance, or the reindeer move. i can only imagine what goes through little heads when they see stuff like this. would kill to get in her mind sometimes.

yes friends, chirstmas is upon us. those salvation bell ringers are out in full force and by jove, it's time to be merry.

now if we could just get some snow right about december 24th....

6 years (and 3 days) ago...

... hank and i tied the knot. sealed the deal (pun totally intended). strapped on the ol' ball and chain. (that one was for you babe). got hitched. and it was beautiful.

and now 6 years later, life gets better and better with each passing day. this last year in particular has been amazing and i am humbled and grateful at the wonderful life i have because of him. sure wish i would have thought to get him a card to tell him that... woopsie!

yes, i've heard about it everyday since. and yes, he got me a card. i am so lame.

we went out to dinner, just the two of us, and reminisced of "favorites" from the year. beth, of course, topped the list. but there were lots of other memories shared and laughed about, and we talked about how much our life had changed from just one year ago. crazy what kids will do to you... we wondered how it will change in the next year too. i can't imagine it getting any better or more fulfilling than this, but somehow i have a hunch it will.

how did i get so lucky?

i love you dearest hank. you are the light of my soul for sure. thank you for being the awesome man that you are and loving me for imperfect, quirky, stubborn, needy, silly me.

down by the water

a few weeks ago i was driving by this private lake and saw a small beach, riddled with old fishing boats, canoes, and sailboats landed for the season.

"holy hannah" i thought to myself. "that would be the coolest place ever to take pictures."

the victims? the brock kids. suckers.

it actually worked out perfect. eliza and i had been trying to find a good time and place and this presented itself nicely for the occasion. the result:











good times down by the water.

thanks again for letting me drag you and your kids across the country for this friend, eliza. you and your kids r.u.l.e. :) let's do it again sometime...