So it has only been 1 year and 2 days . . . .

That is how long it has been (1 year and 2 days) since I last posted anything on this blog.  Obviously I am not a great blogger, but I just got the family pictures we had taken this summer so I thought I would post a few of them.  Our good friend, Amy, took these pictures.  We lived in the same apartment complex as Amy and her husband John when we first got married and when Mason and Sydney were born.  We had so much fun living by them and we, fortunately, have stayed in touch over the years.  She has started a photography business so while she was here visiting her family this year (she lives in Florida) we were lucky enough to get her to take our pictures.  She did such a great job and we had so much fun spending a couple of hours with her.  Thanks, Amy!!!!!

I wish that I was "Jessie's Girl"!!

Well, this is my quarterly post.  I guess we haven't done too many things lately that have gotten me to update my blog.  But, there are a couple of things I decided were "blog worthy".

Most recently (last Friday), I went to Wendover with my friends, Annette, Janet, and Michelle (Annette's sister).  I had never been to Wendover before, so when Annette suggested it, it sounded like fun.  The event that actually got us to drive 2 hours on a Friday night to kind of the middle of nowhere was the Rick Springfield concert.  Those of you closer to my age will remember Rick Springfield as the singer from the 1980's whose most famous song is "Jessie's Girl" - he also played Dr. Noah Drake on General Hospital (I don't watch General Hospital, but I hear he is back on occasionally).  I wasn't a huge Rick Springfield fan, but he wasn't too bad to look at and who doesn't love "Jessie's Girl"?  We weren't sure what to expect since after a quick Wikipedia update on Rick Springfield we found out he had just turned 60.  We were pleasantly surprised to see that Rick still actually looks pretty darn good and still sings and plays the guitar like a young guy.  All in all, it was a lot of fun (although the buffet at the Peppermill hotel wasn't the greatest food I have ever eaten), and I would be game to go to Wendover again.  I should just mention that Janet is not really old enough to remember Rick Springfield too much (too bad for her that she has old friends), but Janet's older sister is the same age as me and Annette and so she remembered her older sister listening to good old Rick.

Annette, Michelle, me, and Janet

The other thing I thought I better at least mention on my blog was our cruise to Alaska.  It was a BLAST!  We went with Dru's whole family, and it was one of the best vacations we have ever had.  I can hardly wait to go on another cruise again!  I was not sure how much fun Alaska would really be and I wasn't thrilled about packing my winter coat for an August vacation, but I would go to Alaska again in a heartbeat!  The scenery was beautiful - we saw whales, porpoises, salmon, and bald eagles, and while the weather was cool, the only day it was freezing cold was the day we sailed around the Hubbard glacier (see the picture below).  Even though it was about 30 degrees, we stayed on the deck of the ship for about 2 hours looking at the glacier - it was amazing.  If you want to see more pictures of our trip Bryn posted a whole bunch on her blog.  (The word "blog" is a link to Bryn's blog, but with my current settings you can't tell it is a link - or you can click on the link to her blog on the left side of my blog.)

Hubbard Glacier in the background.  We got a lot closer to it than this picture - it was very cool (no pun intended).

WICKED!!!!!!!!

Wow, 2 posts in one night - that has to be a record for me - and they are both about Sydney. Everyone who knows Sydney knows she is obsessed with Wicked. She listens to the music nonstop and knows the whole story even though she had never seen the musical. So when Wicked tickets went on sale for Salt Lake I tried to get them - I had my whole class of 35 students trying to get on the website to buy tickets, but with absolutely no luck. Syd was disappointed but she was a trooper and didn't complain - too much. We told her we could maybe go to San Francisco and see it this summer. But, I got feeling guilty, that Syd - who never asks for anything and is happy with whatever - was not going to see Wicked. Without the long story, I found 2 tickets on row 15 (yea for KSL Classifieds) for the very last show in Salt Lake (yes, I know it was on a Sunday). I didn't tell Syd I had the tickets so on Sunday, Dru came home from church about 5 minutes before I came home with Sydney. He put one of the tickets on Syd's iPod docking station and turned her iPod on - of course playing songs from Wicked. When we walked in the door, I asked Syd if she had left her iPod playing the whole time we had been at church because I could hear music coming from her room. She went in her room and saw the ticket and what followed was a lot of screaming, jumping, hugging, and weird dancing. Her reaction was totally worth all of the trouble to get the tickets. So, a few hours later, we were off to the Capitol Theater. Syd LOVED it (so did I) and we had a lot of fun on our little "mother/daughter date" to Wicked.

Syd's New Look!

So, the other day I told Sydney I was sick of looking at her hair in a ponytail. Her long hair was pretty when it was straightened, but she doesn't like to take the time to dry it and straighten it because she has so much hair and it has a lot of curl so it takes forever. So she ends up just putting it in a ponytail every day. The other day I told her if she was just going to wear a ponytail we should cut her hair off so at least it would have some sort of style. At first she said no way, but the next thing I knew she said she wanted to cut it.

Luckily we had haircut appointments today so here is the before (it had, of course, been in a ponytail all day so the before really doesn't look good) . . . Syd had Mindy turn the chair away from the mirror so she wouldn't see it until it was completely finished.

And here is the after . . . (with Mindy, the girl that cuts our hair - thanks, Mindy!!!) She loves her new haircut and it looks super cute!

Fun-Filled Weekend!

I figured it was time for my quarterly blog update so "hello" to the two people that may read this. It has been a busy weekend so I thought I would post some pictures. Bryn's birthday is tomorrow (the 13th) but we started celebrating on the 11th. Instead of a big party, Bryn just decided to do some fun things with a couple of her friends - Lexi and McKaley. We couldn't have a birthday withotu Lexi - she and Bryn have been to each other's birthday parties every year since they were 3. Anyway . . . we took the girls to get pedicures and then we stopped at home and picked up Mason and they went to see the Hannah Montana movie.

Here are the completed pedicures -



Here are the girls with Jack who is the owner of the place where they got the pedicures -

At the movie theater -

Here is a picture of the girls in their new Easter dresses. Mason actually got a new Easter tie, but by the time I got home from church he had already changed his clothes so I just got pictures of the girls.

After church we went to Grandma and Grandpa Jorgensen's for the annual cousin easter egg hunt, dinner, and another mini party for Bryn - here are almost all of the cousins - we miss you Luke and Kira!!!!! - and the newest cousin, Sophie was sleeping. They were lining up on the stairs from youngest to oldest getting ready to go to the backyard for the Easter egg hunt.

And, last but not least, here is Bryn with her ugly bunny cake. More years than not, her birthday is right around Easter and we always make this silly bunny cake.

Baby ?

My sister Stacey had a baby girl this morning, so as soon as school was out today I went straight to the hospital to see her (I had to be the first one there so she would know who her favorite aunt is going to be :-) ). She is so cute and she looks a lot like Anna (her older sister for those of you who don't know my sister and her family) - they have the exact same nose. If you have been on Mel and Stace's blog you saw pictures of her right after she was born, so here she is later in the afternoon. She is so cute and it is always so much fun to have a new baby in the family. Now if she just had a name . . . . Anna is already calling her Sophie but we'll see who gets to pick the name.

This is Anna's favorite picture - but keep going - the last picture is the cutest!

Anna has been waiting a long time for her baby sister and she is so excited she is here! I didn't get a picture with Thys and the baby - he had already gone home for his nap.

Here is a picture that shows all of her cute hair - she has a lot - it just doesn't stick straight up like Anna's did when she was born. And no, I didn't put the bow in her hair - it was already there when I got to the hospital!

If anyone even remembers I have a blog . . .

I know I haven't posted anything on this blog forever - things are a little crazy and updating my blog obviously isn't on my list of things that HAVE to get done. But, I thought I would post some pictures we had taken last week for our Christmas cards. The girls' piano teacher (who is also my sister-in-law's sister-in-law - so almost family), Cheri, was very nice to let us come to her awesome backyard of the house they just moved into and take some pictures for us (Cheri is a very talented girl who can do lots of things!). I didn't use any of these pictures on my card, but there were a lot of good pictures of the kids. Thanks, again, Cheri ! You are the best!