Handmade Book Give-Away

My friend Hillary turned me on to a fun give-away that her sister-in-laws are doing. The books are handmade and very beautiful. If you live in Utah, Kendra teaches classes there. Here is the Kendra's website http://www.kendrasbookbinding.com/

The give-away instructions are happening here on Katie's blog http://notesfromaveryredkitchen.blogspot.com/2009/11/win-free-book.html

If you are near American Fork on December 5, check out the details of the boutique being held in that city and additional ways to win the give-away items.

Thanksgiving Day Festivities

We have only 5 family members in southern CA now so our holiday dinners are quite small. Our good friends, the Holbrook family, who have uber large family gatherings, were not able to get together with their families this year. We decided to combine our dinners and be one big family for the day. We had quite a good time.

Brittany came over a little early and lent a hand to the preparation at our house. It was great having another pair of capable hands to make punch, set tables, whip potatoes, etc. It took a bit of pressure off for sure! Heather helped her, and it was cute to watch them together.

Jenna pitched in and helped with some peeling.

Here we are, ready to eat!

It was a very warm day here in southern Cali which made the backyard a perfect place to eat.

After dinner, the kids played outside...

then inside...

And the fun continued later on when we went to the Holbrook's home for pie and games. Here is the Rock Band ensemble...

and the Old Fogie card club. Good friends, good food and good fun made for an awesome Thanksgiving celebration!

Random Fun

Special Person's Day 11/20 - I was the girls' only special person this year. I guess it's good they had someone to be there to visit their classrooms and listen to them sing. The school always does such a nice program. I look okay for having only three hours of sleep.

My little knight. She can be so creative with a discarded wrapping paper and toilet paper roll. The helmet is from her old Hershey's Kiss costume. Sometimes ya just gotta laugh. It was pretty cute.

Jenna wants to tap dance. She's obsessed and can't wait to be enrolled. We have hand-me-down tap shoes that are a little too big, but she dressed up in them and was feelin' the glam.

On 11/20 when New Moon was released, Jenna saw me wearing my TwilightMom.com sweatshirt. She decided to don her apparel. The animal print scarf is a nice touch. She's got the theme gene like her momma.

Saturday 11/21 was our cast party after the show. Near the end of the party, the kids got on stage to perform numbers they either had wanted to do, or were in. They had a blast!

Monday 11/23, we ran over to Disneyland to go shopping. Our favorite store is the "Jack and Sally Store" as we call it. Love it! Thanks Walt for all the free birthday money!

New Moon Release Party

I wasn't planning on going, but at the last minute, I couldn't stand it and had to keep up my midnight release viewing tradition with Sarah. Charlotte and Sarah organized a great get-together for the Twilight Moms in the LA/Orange County area. They had a dinner before the movie which I was sad to miss, but I zoomed to the theater right after my rehearsal. We had a packed theater and the movie was...well don't get me started. I'll be gushin' all over. Here are some pics...

Charlotte, Me and Sarah

The great raffle prizes Charlotte put together...

Our full house...

My awesome seat mate, Mary. We were good sitting next to each other because we hadn't seen the movie yet. It was fun to have a few sighs and giggles together.

Good Morning America

Surprise! We ended up on Good Morning America too. Had no clue until my Dad sent a link to the story. I clicked on the link, very excited to see another story about the TwilightMoms. All was going well until they shifted from our interview into their own story with this lovely transition...

"These moms are borderline obsessed in ways that would make their kids blush."

Lovely huh? In talking to the owner of TwilightMoms.com this weekend, she told me that our story isn't exciting or sensational enough for them and they are always looking to twist it into something more sensational. She thinks, and I agree, that if we don't give the interviews, they'll just use whatever crud they can find and put a story together. It's better if we give an interview and let them know what we're really about. If they choose not to use that or twist it, I guess that's the chance we take. None of the interviewers get the story they're looking for from us because we just aren't the way they describe us. They often confuse TwilightMoms with moms who love Twilight.

Are we obsessed? I guess I am in the way that I'm passionate about scrapbooking or hanging out with my girl friends. If it's an obsession to have a hobby or an interest that you enjoy, I'm obsessed. There ya go.

Oh yeah, here's the link...

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=9144276

News Links

Here are the links to the video and write up...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYWn1hibN7w

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/twilight-moms-lineup-moon-movie-madness/story?id=9131124

It's hard to believe that we were with them for 4 hours. We told them so much and answered so many questions. They spent so much time with us and were so attentive to details. I would have thought there would be more. I am happy that they didn't make complete fun of us. Hee, hee.

New Moon...ABC World News...

The ticker on my blog is counting down to the New Moon release! We're under 24 hours away, and it's so exciting. Last year at this time I was attending a little After Party with my friend Sarah and the cast of Twilight. This year Sarah went to the Red Carpet and got to watch the movie with the actors! Story for a different blog. She and I forgot to talk about what everyone was doing on premiere night so I got to watch it all unfold from afar. Sniff. Okay, on to other news.

The NEWS. ABC World News with Charles Gibson. 8.4 million viewers. I'm so glad I didn't know before hand! I'm not sure I would have been able to put a sentence together!

A producer and crew came to my house today to do an interview that had been set up through TwilightMoms channels. They were here for about 3.5 hours and it was so different than the KCAL 9/CBS2 interview last year. Much more time, more staging/props, lighting, body mics, sound checks, questions...it was a little more intimidating. I think we did well. You never know how the media may choose to spin a story. We'll see what happens. It could be not the greatest coverage of us, or it could be fantastic. They take much more footage than they need, so I know they won't use everything. It will be fun to see what they do. In the meantime, I'll be holding my breath and crossing fingers. I'll be at rehearsal when it airs, and then at the New Moon release party with some TwilightMoms. I won't even see it until the next day. Fortunately most of the TwilightMoms will be busy with release parties, so I won't hear too much before I get to watch the dvr.

The sound engineer was nice enough to take pictures before the camera rolled. Britten's "Tiny Dancer" Alice doll is in the shot. Woo-hoo!

The producer was great and really easy to talk to.

We covered some of the great things about TwilightMoms like the friendships we've made, things we talk about and the creativity of the women. This was a shot of some jewelry that has been created by Georgia, Kriselle and Mary B. It was fun to share these pieces from these talented ladies. We had some trivia cards that Charlotte has made and some of the buttons for Alex's Lemonade Stand. Charlotte got to talk about these items.

Sarah was going to cover the various shirts that we've collected, but we were short on time and they decided that the video footage would do. I covered the Twilight shelf behind my head. The producer asked me to walk her through it on camera.

Near the end of the shoot, Shelly ran down and took a picture of all of us. This was really fun. I hope TwilightMoms gets some great coverage, the really positive kind. I don't like the stories where they make fun of the fans. I don't think that will happen. Cross fingers with me...

I had to take a picture of the back of the light. Diva! How perfect is that?!?

Big Show Photos

There were so many photos taken over a couple of days that I'm sure I'll be posting more. Here are some fun shots I got of the groups on the last day.

"Let's Get It Started!" - Me, center, back, green shirt...

Miss Heather in "Hoedown Throwdown"...

The cast of "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"...I can spell this in my sleep now!

My Supercal partner, Jana...

Some divas from "Don't Rain On My Parade"

Heather, Jenna, Sarah and Lauren with Giselle for "True Love's Kiss"

Sarah, Jenna and Heather in their "Lion Sleeps/Move It!" costumes...

Michelle, Kiki, Dawn, Melissa and Trish in "Les Mis Finale" attire....Those three on the right look a little like the Spandex sisters...hmmmm....

Trish and I sport our big hair! Go Spandex sistahs!

facebook issues

I love facebook. I love that I can login and see what my friends are up to no matter how far away they live. I have reconnected with friends from high school, linked up with current friends, and can send quick shout outs to my family. It's great.

Here's what I don't love. I get friend requests from people I know, but they are not necessarily the people I want to have viewing my silly little facebook updates. The ones that are especially frustrating are the husbands of women I only sort of know. I got a request yesterday from the husband of a woman at church I've said hi to maybe once a month over the past year. What do I do with that?

I'm not into the "how many friends can I acquire" thing that I know some people care about on facebook. Maybe that's what it's supposed to be about? The other thing I'm wondering is, do John or Jane Smith really want to know what I'm doing on a day-to-day basis? I don't ever post anything inappropriate, but you never know when something might be fodder for discussion or might be read the wrong way by someone.

Maybe I shouldn't worry so much about it, but I still kinda shudder when I think about some of these people I know less well reading what I post.

Any thoughts?

This Picture Has A Story!

Here are the rules:

*Open your first photo folder.

*Scroll down to the 10th picture. (if you dont have 10 in that one, then go to the next folder that does).

*Post that photo and the story behind that photo on your blog.

*Tag 5 friends to do the same.

The Story...

I went to the first folder that had at least 10 photos and this is what came up. Not very interesting to look at, but there is a story, tee-hee.

This was a lovely pink inflatable chair for the pool. On the day we left New Mexico I knew we would be at the pool at the hotel in Flagstaff in time to swim. I had forgotten to bring any floaty fun with us, so when my sister ran to Walgreens to pick up photos, I asked her to find whatever she could for the pool. This was all they had left for pool toys, and we threw it in the car. Later at the pool, the girls were having fun with it and we were all hanging on to it. Then I decided to use it as it was intended, as a chair float. I hoisted myself out of the water and into the chair, and I immediately heard a strange hissssss. The chair did not support my weight at all. The seam ripped immediately and the whole thing went under. We laughed at the five minutes of fun we got out of it (and the 15 minutes it took me to blow it up with my own air!) At least we tried, huh? I buried my whale-like thoughts and continued to have fun with my girls in the pool. Hey sis, did I ever pay you for this floaty?

Tagged:

Michelle B.

Katie B.

Shari H.

Kristie K.

Jessica E.

The Big Show - Update

One week down and one to go! We have 5 shows this week--Wednesday night through Saturday night. We're looking forward to seeing lots of friends at the shows this week. Here is a recap of week one...

Our teachers, Mrs. Haukness (5th), Ms. Dillon (former 3rd and current 2nd), Olivia, Mrs. Smith (Sarah's 2nd), and Mr. and Mrs. Hunter (former 1st) came to see the show. All had great things to say about it. Here are Heather and her teacher, Mrs. Haukness...

Our dear friends Angie and Daisy came as well. We LOVE it when we see our friends at the show!

Here are the little princesses from "True Love's Kiss"...

And yes, the pink Spandex...Aren't we three Dancing Queens lovely??

Thanks to everyone who has been to see us and to those who are coming this week!

Trunk-or-Treat and Halloween

FRIDAY: School parties, the pumpkin patch, and Trunk-or-Treat

We took Jenna to school to say hi to her class after being out all week. She was happy to see her teacher.

Since we missed out on the big pumpkin patch adventure due to Jenna's unexpected fever Monday night, we took a detour to our little Smith Farms pumpkin patch. There were about 5 large pumpkins left, so we grabbed two, took a pic and called it good.

Later that evening, we meet up with friends at our annual Trunk-or-Treat event. Here are Heather, Maddy, Grace and MacKenzie. They had so much fun together!

Jenna and Sarah found Sean and Gavin. It was super fun to have so many friends to be silly with.

SATURDAY: Halloween

After a full 8-hour day at rehearsals, mom and dad were quite pooped. However, we were determined not to let the show take over and ruin all the fun so we did a little quick carving before heading out to Trick-or-Treat.

Full makeup and ready to roll!

Finding friends, Trisha and Sarah along the way.

Our happy Jack. Mom designed the face. She doesn't do scary.

Sister Holbrook was a sport and brought apples over so the younger girls could bob. No party this year. Too much rehearsal stress and a sick Jenna. But carving and bobbing made up for it. Sarah got to hang out for a little bit and sort candy so the girls were happy. It takes so little to please them, and we were happy to oblige.