Florida Photo Fest Part 1

Clay, Ellie and I took a little trip to Florida for a business convention. But mostly just for fun.

We traveled with one of our favorite families in the world—The Harrisons. These guys are the most hard-working, optimistic, grateful, happy people we know. We love them lots. Clay is so lucky to be close friends for the man he works for, and for our family to be close with this family. Talk about rare.

Here are some highlights from the vacay.

Universal Studios

The Barney Show—complete with hearts for the "I Love You" song

Ellie playing in Barney World. Best place ever for kids her age.

I don't think Ellie realized the gravity of the Barney-meeting situation. Did anyone else watch and love Barney as a kid? Even though it was is so uncool to admit it? 

Our favorite ride at Universal—The Mummy

We had some pool time ...

...then it was back to the park!



Welcome to Harry Potter World (such a cool, creative place, whether you are a Harry Potter fan or not!)

Here is a quick video of Harry Potter World so you can feel like you were there :)



Hogwart's Express




The Butter Beer was actually really delicious! Frozen is best.




Hogsmeade Village




The Three Broomsticks Restaurant



Some strange creature antlers in Three Broomsticks



Honeydukes Candy Shop





Inside Hogwarts on our way to the Harry Potter ride. The pictures moved and talked like in the movie—it was really cool!





The Harrison Clan (Minus Amanda and Brinley) Don't they just look fun?




Hagrid's Hut



Next up ... beach time and Cape Canaveral!

An Unusual Valentine's Day Story

As I've mentioned before, I love Mindy Gledhill's new CD, "Anchor." Go ahead—check it out. I'll wait.



The other night, Clay took me on a surprise date. Right before we got out of the car in downtown Provo, he told me we were meeting Mindy Gledhill herself. I was totally confused and excited at the same time. Turns out, my determined husband wanted to take me to her concert, but it was completely sold out. So he wrote Mindy this e-mail:



Hi Mindy


I know this might sound desperate, okay, it's REALLY desperate. My wife LOVES you and your music and I wanted to surprise her with going to your show on Saturday the 12th in Provo. Unfortunately, tickets are sold out and we cannot make your newly listed Monday show. I know you may not have any pull over seating or tickets, but if there's anything you can do to help us, that'd be unbelievable. Let me preemptively offer myself at your service. I will come and clean your toilets or scrub your floors--I'm not saying I could do a great job, but I'll do anything. If you can't, it's totally fine.
I know you posted on your blog that you have released a limited number of tickets at the door, but I was wondering if I could in any way secure them or buy them from you or sell my right arm

Thanks Mindy, keep up the great work!

Clay


Later that day, Clay got a call from Mindy. She said she liked his e-mail and it made her laugh, so she had some options for him. We could get VIP seats to the show by helping her out with cupcake catering or merchandise sales. Clay signed us up to sit at the merchandise table before and after the show and we were in.

I was unsuspecting of the whole charade until we met Mindy the day before the concert. We waited inside an office building and Mindy walked in right when Ellie was 100 percent exposed in all her mid-dirty-diaper-change glory. She laughed and said she had definitely been there. She took us up to her office/studio (the cool place where she filmed part of the music video for "Anchor") and gave us the low-down on selling her merchandise. Her voice was scratchy so I asked if she had a cold—she frowned and said, "Yes." But she was hoping her trick of guzzling down olive oil on stage would help, like it had in the past.

At the concert last night, Mindy's voice was almost gone, so she turned it into a sing along. It was a really fun experience. Mindy is such a sweet, genuine person. And amazingly gorgeous. I am impressed that she released a CD while having a husband and two little boys to take care of. You know how guys have harmless man crushes? Can I have a girl crush or is that just weird? We will just say I look up to her. And my husband is freakin awesome for pulling this off. What a night!

Heading out to the concert

Juts workin' it at the merchandise table.
 {People thought we were BFFs with Mindy so they asked us tons of questions we kind of faked the answers to! It was funny.}

Mindy trying to squeek out a high note. Even with a cold, this girl sounds awesome! 

She invited all the kids up on stage for the last song.



Clay doing his "VIP face" in our VIP seats



Mindy and I 
{She chopped her hair. But she's one of those people who can pull it off, eh?}



Just a random shot after the show. I didn't realize until now that Mindy's husband is peepin' through in the back!



We wish you all a happy {and perhaps unusual} Valentine's Day!

Lifesaver

I was a little nervous about how Ellie would do on the flight to Florida, but she couldn't have been better. This little huge quiet book I put together made all the difference. 

{Thanks for the idea to make this, Karlee!}

{I followed a pattern for most of it, but did my own thing for some pages, like rainbow, umbrella, pizza and telephone.}

 

This girl majorly loves telephones (even felt ones) and hats right now.

Next post: Florida pictures!

Summer in January

I'm pining away for Florida—we just had a week long vacation there and it was just what I needed. It's amazing what 75 degree weather can do for you.

When I'm done pining, I'll get back to blogging. In the mean time, enjoy this little video from one of our days in the sun.

Flashback to the Holidays

Here are a few snapshots from the last couple of months ...

{Tara caught this shot at Clay's High School friends party}

New Year's Eve at the Faircloughs

Ellie's cute cousins at the annual Christenson Christmas Eve party

Kayda and Ellie just laughin together. Twinner cousins!

Christmas morning

Clay looking like a regal sherpa in his new hat & annual Christmas beard

I can't get enough of chubby Katers. I hope she and Ellie are BFs when they get a little older. For now, they need to work on sharing.

Little Santa

Merry Christmas 2010!

Feelin' Crafty

Confession: I never thought I would own a sewing machine. Sewing was never my thing. My knowledge of it ended with a mandatory apron in 7th grade. That's it.

But because of my recent entrance into the stay-at-home mom world and with inspiration from some super-crafty friends, I slowly started thinking it would be cool to be able to sew things for Ellie, myself and friends and family.

My mom bought me a sewing machine for Christmas and I tried to set it up the other day--and failed. So I left the machine, useless, on my kitchen table. To tell you the truth, I was intimidated by it. Finally I decided to try again and even though I hate reading manuals, I broke it out and followed it to the tee. I got a little rush when I sewed a straight line on a piece of test fabric.

I went to Hobby Lobby later that day and saw a cute pair of glammed-up kitchen gloves with a matching apron and it in my cart to buy for my little sister's birthday. As I was about to check out, I realized I had just set up my sewing machine and could maybe make the gloves and apron on my own. So I put them back, recruited my sister for help and here are the results . . .

Haley & Me

Jess is going to look so cute in the kitchen!

I embroidered a little cursive j to make it more personal

I love the flower and the yellow & black combo {color scheme inspired by my cute friend Mollie!}

I think these gloves will make cleaning more fun, don't you?  Don't look too closely, we were kind of wingin it!

 

 

 

 

Next project: Finish this so Ellie will be somewhat occupied on our upcoming plane ride across the country! 

Crawler

Guess who decided to finally start crawling today?

We're pretty thrilled.

She's still learning. :)