so much waisted time...

Lost is back. My favorite guilty pleasure. And, of course, mindless time spent on the internet. The latest? www.find815.com. don't go unless you are interested in waisting hours (like I just did).

It is fun, don't get me wrong...but should games really require that much brain power? Or should they just not be played at midnight?

p.s. did anyone else feel like they totally ripped us off by saying it was a "2 hours season premier"... and occupying one hour of it by showing highlights from the first 3 seasons? Duh, I already know all of that because I watched all three seasons, and then "everything you need to know about Lost in 8 minutes and 15 seconds." I just got it too--815. Clever.

Welcome back, Lost.

IV

Have you ever felt like you're having a medical emergency...and if you don't get hooked up to an IV administering chocolate and peanut butter, you might perish?

Grrrrrr....

We have to cater tomorrow, and I am really upset about it. This gentleman called, emailed, called, emailed, and called, and called and asked us to cater. No matter how many times I told him catering was closed until the Spring, he insisted that he was going to make it work. "I will just go order 100 dawgs from the shack then." No, sir, that won't work. Can you imagine being behind someone who is waiting for 100 dawgs? That'd never work.

So we told him he had to have his event to Tuesday, because Jayson and I just CAN'T miss mutual, especially tomorrow (New Beginnings for me, Jayson's first mutual being Scout Master and Young Men's president--I'll explain later). This guys said he'd move it. Then called and said he couldn't make it work, so he moved his event by a few minutes. That doesn't really help either--event in Provo at 6:00, mutual at 6:30 in Springville. We're going to be in a HUGE hurry to get this done and then get to mutual, and Jayson and I will both be really cranky. But what choice did this guy leave us?

But the thing I'm most upset about? They'll be having their sweet little party in their warm, comfortable cultural hall and we'll be outside grilling in THIS.


I'm so mad.

the cabin...over Christmas break.

Growing up, my Grandpa Thompson owned a cabin outside of Cedar City. Every year our family would vacation there. It is a place of so many great memories for my family. It has so much character (its pretty 70's), but we would spend our days outside hiking, fishing, playing in the stream, chopping wood, and having an amazing time. Shannon posted a bunch of pictures from when her family was there this summer, if you want to see how amazing it is there.

When my Grandpa passed away, he left quite a large sum of money for his children. My parents decided to honor his memory and give their children something he had given them. They found a beautiful cabin about one hour away outside of Oakley, Utah and bought it for us.

I don't think our family could begin to thank my parents for the cabin. It is our place. When I was single I went almost every weekend for 2 months. Jayson and I honeymooned there. We've been there very often since. We love it there, and we love it best when we can spend time with family there.

After Christmas, several members of my family were in town, so we got together for a few days at the cabin. It was classic Livingstone...

Delicious food...

Oh Heck... (this is the Livingstone game. We play lots of games, but we ALWAYS play oh heck)



and the kids played together. Here Ian, Mae, Josh, and Sara watch Shrek on the laptop.

The next morning we took the snowmobiles up to the sledding hill. This was our only run all together, because Mae just wasn't having it.


Ian and Sarah B. sledding.

A few days later, we got together at my parents house. We did the usual...eat, play games, hang out and have a good time. Being together was enough of a celebration to merit one of those amazing chocolate bomb cakes from Costco. I think we pawned it off on Allison and tried to sing to her for her birthday, but she wasn't having it. The cake was mmmmmmm.....

It was so much fun having you guys around for a few weeks. Thanks for making the trek to our neck of the woods. Don't you think we should have a reunion this summer?

Mae wears overalls and ponies

Mae's hair is getting long enough that we can do some things with it. But, Mae only lets them stays in for 3 minutes, tops. I love the ponies, Jayson doesn't. We really just need to let it grow a little more before it will really work.


We all worked in the cellar this week. It's been getting pretty stuffed, and needed to be cleaned out. So we all got on our work clothes and headed down, and boy did we get a lot accomplished.

Mae's monthly update

Some of my friends do a monthly update on their children, and I think it is the MOST fabulous idea ... mostly because I'm sure I'll forget all of this way too quickly.

Mae is almost 15 months and she is growing leaps and bounds everyday. She is now quite a confident walker and has mostly given up crawling for good. She still walks like Frankenstein, but she is QUICK. It took her a long time to start walking, but I think she's made up ground really quickly.

She LOVES to play and has a new, incredibly infectious laugh. She giggles and giggles when you chase her and loves to be surprised. She also loves her new blocks she got for Christmas. She doesn't have any idea how to build things, but she is the master destroyer.

One of our New Year's resolutions is to do something fun together each week. We've been spending more time finding fun places for her to play and be a kid. We've been to some of the local play places. We're excited for warmer temperatures and opportunities to play outside. She's enjoyed it though, I think. I feel a lot better about myself anyway.

She is also now fascinated with the bathroom, so we try to always remember to close the door. Every once in awhile we forget, and find a juice box in the toilet, or an entire roll of toilet paper unwound on the floor. 

She has picked up some new signs (I never thought I'd be doing this...), and its actually been helpful for her to ask for what she needs. She is really good about asking "more please", and can say "finished" and "thank you." We're working on "sorry," and hoping we don't have to use it constantly.  

We are impressed with how much she understands and for how much personality she is showing. She is too much fun. She has brought infinite amounts of joy to our lives, and that joy has been quadrupled lately. Being a parent is truly the purpose of life.  

J Dawgs, UV Mag

Have you seen this article?

It was in the Utah Valley Magazine one year ago, but I just found a digital copy. It was written by Mary Craft of Culinary Crafts (probably the most prominent catering outfit in Utah). Other than misspelling Jayson's name, its a sweet article. Here's the link:
http://www.uvmag.com/janfeb07/images/pdf/112.pdf