Inside 309

Little boy prayers

2012-01-30T22:55:00.000-07:00

Recently heard in Owen's prayers:

"And please help me to get everything that I want and to play all the time..."

"And please help mom and dad not to put tape on my nose..." (Matt had taped his nose up to look like a pig - we tried it on Owen and it freaked him out. He didn't like how it felt).

We love this funny little kid. :)

A giant hole in our ceiling...

2012-01-29T23:49:00.002-07:00

Last weekend (when it finally started raining in California!) we discovered that we had a leak in our roof.... what appeared to be a giant leak. We had water coming in through the fan/vent in our bathroom and water coming through the drywall of Owen's ceiling in several different places.

We called our manager on Friday night right after we found the leaks and let her know. She tried to get the maintenance guy on the phone, but he wasn't able to come until the next Monday... so we spent the whole weekend with buckets and bowls and emptied drawers and tarps sitting all over our upstairs trying to catch all the water that was coming in. The maintenance guys finally came on Monday morning and did this to the ceiling in Owen's room:

Then we had to wait several days for the whole thing to air out. Meanwhile, a bunch of roofers were called out to fix the leak in our roof. Not only did they not fix it, but they also were scraping the roof where they shouldn't have been and opened up a new leak - through the wall and window frame in Owen's room. So we spent the next several days with buckets lined up against the window trying to catch all of that water:

Of course we couldn't leave Owen to sleep in his room while all this was going on, so his mattress got dragged into our room, and all his toys and books hastily tossed out of the way to avoid the water pouring in:

Owen's bed is pushed up against our dresser which makes it extremely difficult to open the drawers... especially at night when he's sleeping right there. Needless to say, our house is a disaster - Owen's room is totally torn apart and our room has clothes laying all over it because we can't get into our dresser. The maintenance guys are supposed to be back tomorrow morning to texture the new drywall they put up. We have to wait for that to dry, and then they'll finally paint. Once the paint is dry (and all the fumes are out), we can finally put Owen back in his room and get everything back in order.

This has been such a frustrating week with people traipsing in and out all day long every day and having to wait so long to get everything fixed. I am glad, however, that we are renting, and don't have to rip out the ceiling ourselves nor deal with the roofing company. And I'm SO glad this didn't happen a month down the road when we'd be throwing a new baby into the mix. As it is, I can't wait until the whole thing is fixed and done so we can get back to our regular lives, get better sleep (Owen talks in his sleep, and hops up in our bed whenever he wakes up in the middle of the night)... and get ready for the new baby to come!

Evil Dr. Who?

2012-01-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

Owen loves Toy Story, and I love how he pronounces some of the names. Evil Dr. Porkchop is my absolute favorite.

What we do for fun

2012-01-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

Owen LOVES to dance. He can't help but get up and move almost every time he hears music, and especially likes dancing to the music from his favorite movies. He's especially proud of his booty shake. :) We have a lot of impromtu dance parties in our house.

Owen loves to play games, and balloon tennis is a new favorite around here. Anything that involves running and smacking is bound to be a hit. :) I just taped paper plates to some wooden spoons, blew up a balloon, and we went to town!

Though Owen can be rough-and-tumble at times, he's generally a pretty quiet kid. He LOVES to color and draw, and is very particular and detail-oriented. We've just recently let him start using kid scissors and glue sticks. I caught this video of him cutting happily away. My favorite part of this is his intense concentration - you can see his jaw and mouth working, which is a funny habit he has whenever he's focusing on something. It makes his little dimples come out. :)

Owen also loves to pretend. He's always making his toys talk to each other. He can carry on conversations with them for hours. In this video he's making his stuffed dog talk to his hand (ie - his dinosaur... he makes his hands walk and calls them dinosaurs). He had no idea I was recording him, or that I was even listening. I love catching him doing this - it cracks me up to listen.

Homemade presents

2012-01-12T01:04:00.000-07:00

With our car blowing up shortly before Christmas and a new baby coming in two months, we didn't really have a huge Christmas budget. We decided to make a lot of the gifts we gave for Christmas. I got really lucky in marrying Matt that not only does he tolerate the crazy amount of crafting/sewing/picture taking/cooking that I do (and the mess that goes along with it), but he himself loves to create things and do projects. Here are some of the things we made for Christmas.

Owen is a really creative kid and is always coming up with imaginative games to play. I wanted to give him some
dress-up clothes so he could be some of the characters that he pretends.

All accessories for all his costumes came from a local party store, Boswells, for less than $16 for everything (including his fireman hat and the cowboy accessories below). I LOVE Boswells.

He's not quite as into superheros, but he still thinks this outfit is pretty cool.

Ever since Owen was Buzz for Halloween, he's been asking if he could be Woody for next Halloween. Literally, if not every day then every other day he asks me when we're going to get him a Woody costume, so I decided just to make one for him for Christmas. He loves this costume!

Matt needed a better place to store his wood carving tools besides in a plastic bag, so I made him this tool-roll. It didn't turn out exactly the way I wanted it, but it works.

Matt carved me this Harry Potter wand for Christmas. Isn't it awesome? He stained it when he was done. Owen and I have been playing what he calls "Shoop" with it. We point the wand at each other and say "Shoop! You're a (fill-in-the-blank)." I've been a couch, a lamp, a desk, and many other things. :) Owen turned Matt into a Mythbuster the other day, and then promptly informed him to "start cooking!". Apparently one wand in the house isn't enough... Matt's planning on making one for Owen soon. :)

And this post would not be complete without some booty-shaking by Owen. :)

He's the best booty shaker around!

Christmas.... times 4

2012-01-09T00:09:00.000-07:00

We had Christmas four times this year - our house, Matt's house, grandma Bromley's house, and grandma Auman's house. Just in case you're wondering, that means we had three Christmas Eve celebrations, four present-opening sessions, three Christmas dinners, and many many hours of driving back and forth and visiting everyone in the area. I'll be totally honest - it was exhausting. We love having so much family close, but holidays get really really hectic. It's also totally crazy having many of our siblings married - each sibling is trying to split up time between both of their families which means that my family got about 6 hours total with everyone present, and we got about the same with Matt's family when all the siblings and inlaws were there.

This was also the first year we've been able to have our own personal Christmas morning, and I LOVED it. It was so fun to set everything up just the way we wanted it and to watch Owen come down to Christmas presents in his own home.

Anyway, as you can probably imagine, I took tons of pictures. Without further ado, here are the highlights of our Christmas 2011:

Gingerbread house... designed by Owen (can you tell? :)

Sausalito Children's Discovery Museum - we had free passes and my whole family went. We didn't love the exhibits indoors, but the several acres of things to play on outside were fantastic!

Auman sibling gift exchange outside the museum in Sausalito.

Lexie (and baby - wooo!), Ryan, Hilary, and Michael.... customary Auman trip to Ghirardelli. LOVE that place.

Cute Kev, Mad, and Bec.

Owen trying not to be in our picture. :)

Mom and Dad.

Michelle at the Farrell Christmas movie party. Yes, she's awesome. If you don't know her, you SHOULD!

Matt's dad always dresses up as a character from whatever movie we're watching. This year he dressed up as Scrooge... and scared the heck out of Owen. :)

Scrooge with the three Farrell girls and the four current grandkids. Check out Owen's face - he's not happy to be that close to Scrooge!

The Wood Ranch house... this house goes all out with Christmas lights. We drive to see it every year. Kind of ridiculous, huh?

Almost ready for the Farrell Christmas Eve white elephant.

Nativity!

LOVE Owen's face in this one.

Owen loves his cousin Ellie - he's always sitting close to her and making sure she's got a toy or her pacifier or whatever she needs. He's going to be a great big brother.

Practicing a cousin song at grandma Bromley's.

Most of the Bromleys together for Christmas Eve - getting ready for the cousin gift exchange.

Getting costumes on for the nativity.

Matt and Josh hanging out waiting for the nativity.

All the nativity kids!

Cute little angel.

Putting out milk and cookies for Santa!

This is what Santa left for Owen for the next morning. He was SO excited when he saw it.

First view of the Christmas tree. LOVE his face.

So excited about the Toy Story umbrella he asked Santa for.

Checking out all his loot!

At the top of the de Young Museum observation tower in San Francisco - we took a trip there while all my siblings were home.

Our fourth Christmas - opening gifts with grandma and grandpa Auman and aunt Karen.

Three silly cousins - boating at Lake Chabot.

Matt and Michelle.

Yes, I know I take too many pictures of this kid, but seriously, how cute is he?!

Playing "Chopped" with the Farrells - Matt's parents and his brother Jon were the judges and Michelle was the host. Matt and I were a team, Jason and Lindsay were a team, and Sarah and Jenny were a team. Exhausting, but hilariously fun.

The cooks listening to the judges' remarks. No, I don't know what Matt's doing to his face.

Isn't she lovely...

2011-12-29T03:17:00.000-07:00

This is Matt writing. I just wanted to take a minute and publicly say how much I love my wife, and how amazing she is to me.

Nicki is the most amazing person I know, and I really do come to love her more each day. She is my best friend and someone I never get tired of talking to, even though she knows what I'm thinking without me saying a word. She is so creative and I love all of her projects that she takes on. She recently made a Woody costume, a pirate costume, a superhero costume, and a fireman costume for Owen for Christmas. She also made me a carpenters pouch for my woodworking tools, and an amazing tree skirt for the Christmas tree. Not only that, but she also recently played violin in several performances on Temple Hill of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker. I don't know much about classical music, but from what I do know, Tchaikovsky isn't easy. And she is so talented she barely has to practice, she just sight-reads the whole thing. How awesome is that!

Not only is she very talented in her hobbies, but she is also an amazing home-maker. She cooks incredible dinners all the time, and is always reading cookbooks to try and find the next greatest recipe. Some of my personal favorites are her spinach keish, chicken tikka masala, and something I think she calls homestead chicken (it's got tomatoes and rosemary... you've got to try it). Of course I've got to mention her deserts too. Like today, I came home from work and she had made some of the best cookies I've ever had. No joke.

Of course I have to mention how much of an amazing mother she is. She is so kind and patient with Owen, even when he is in one of his moods. She takes time every day to play with him, read to him, color pictures, watch a show, or whatever he feels like doing. And of course she always has plenty of cuddles and kisses for him. She also spends time with him almost every day working on his letters and numbers. No joke, Owen will be reading before he turns 4. One of the most frequent things I hear around the house each day is the little guy saying, "Mommy, I love you". What greater proof do you need than that?! I know she is going to be just as amazing with our little girl as well. Oh, that's something else, she does all of this every day with a watermelon strapped to her stomach! Can you say, Superwoman?

Anyway, I just wanted you to know what I have known for a long time; that Nicki is truly one of the most amazing women on earth. I count my blessings every day that she would condescend to marry such a dork like me. I love her and I always will.

Oh, and can I just say one more thing... Isn't she the cutest pregnant woman you have ever seen?

Caroling party and Live Nativity

2011-12-22T14:29:00.000-07:00

Matt's family gets together with the Peterson family in their ward to do a caroling/pie party every year. We start out singing songs and whoever wants to perform is welcome to. Then we go around to people in the ward and carol, then come back for pie! It's a fun laid back night with good friends.

Lauren, Lindsay, and Michelle sing a song.

Hanging out.

Opal Peterson and Owen watch from the balcony.

Lindsay sang us a new Christmas arrangement she wrote.

The two moms setting up music on the piano.

Mike Peterson always sings "Oh Holy Night" - it's a great tradition!

Owen and Opal had a great time together.

Grandpa Farrell playing Polly Pockets and My Little Ponies with the kids.

Lots of picture taking!

Just before the "sock game". Everyone takes off their shoes and has to stay on their hands and knees the whole time (no standing up). The last person with a sock on wins. It gets pretty brutal.

In the middle of the game... it's a free-for-all....

Matt and Clark gang up on papa Peterson.

Every year the Oakland Temple goes all out to get people to come and experience Temple Hill. There are concerts and speakers and other events almost every night. There is also a live nativity that people from the surrounding stakes act in. My family volunteered to do the nativity last night. You show up and get dressed up in costumes, then act out the nativity about every 5 minutes for an hour straight. It was pretty fun. I'm glad we got to do it.

Kevin, Madeline, and Becca were the three wise men.

Matt, Owen, and I were shepherds.

My mom and dad were also shepherds. This is them acting out "American Gothic", though I just realized that we put them in the wrong spots - my dad should be on the right. :)

There are some smiles!

The whole family hanging out waiting for the nativity to begin.

They even had sticks for the shepherds to hold. Owen loved this pointy pitchfork.

Michael and Hilary were volunteered to be Joseph and Mary.

All of us in the nativity.

Pretty lights on Temple Hill.

Only a few more days till Christmas! We can't wait!

Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Ballet

2011-12-19T11:30:00.000-07:00

I have the privilege of playing violin with the Temple Hill Symphony Orchestra at the Oakland California LDS Temple. It's tons of fun - it's a volunteer orchestra that pulls people from all over the bay area. We do several regular concerts a year, and at Christmas we do a special performance of the full Nutcracker Ballet with a ballet school from Fremont. Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker ballet is pretty difficult music, and it really takes a lot to be able to commit to the time and energy it takes to learn 70+ pages of music. This is the second year in a row that I've done it, and I loved it even more this time. It really helps to already be familiar with the music. :) Still, it was a long haul to make it all the way through rehearsals, dress rehearsals, and finally the performances. We finished our performances last Saturday night, and I have to say that this weekend's performances were the best that we've ever played the music. I LOVED being part of this concert, but I'm also glad it's over - now I can actually think about Christmas, instead of stressing about the music. :) Here are my favorite songs from the ballet... listen to them - they can't but help get you into a great Christmas mood!

The Waltz of the Flowers
The Waltz of the Snowflakes (this is probably the most difficult piece in the whole ballet, due to timing issues, but after working SO hard on it and playing it nearly perfectly in the performances, I love it!)
Grand Finale

In April, we get to perform The Lamb of God by Rob Gardner for the second year in a row. I can't wait!

Getting ready for Christmas

2011-12-13T15:24:00.000-07:00

We've had a pretty stressful Christmas season so far, but we've been trying really hard to make time to do things with our little family to get in the Christmas spirit. We've had some pretty fun family nights and family movie nights. We made a countdown chain with a scripture about Christmas on each link that we read each night. Owen is getting more and more excited for Christmas, and if we can make it through this week (this is the week of my dress rehearsals and performances of the Nutcracker ballet with the Temple Hill Symphony Orchestra) without getting any sicker than we are, it's shaping up to be a pretty good Christmas. Here are a few pictures of the things we've been up to.

Decorating the Christmas tree.

This was at the Pleasanton town Christmas parade. It was an hour or two after we found out that our car couldn't be fixed and that we'd have to start searching for a new one, and Matt and Owen's faces pretty much show how we were feeling that day. Needless to say, I didn't take any more pictures.

Decorating the tree at grandma Auman's house. Owen loves her toys and was way more interested in playing with them than in decorating the tree...

...so Matt ended up doing most of it.

This is the first year we've been able to use the nativity advent calendar I made... it's been packed in storage since I made it. I was so excited to pull it out this year!

Owen LOVES the calendar. He loves pulling the pieces out of the pockets and spends all day moving them around the scene.

Owen pausing while eating lunch to play guitar to whatever song we were listening to at that point. We've had a Christmas present factory going in our house for the past week and a half, and our table is covered with sewing machines, cutting mats, fabric, glue, paint, and pretty much every craft supply you can think of.... so we've been having lots of picnic meals on the floor. :)

This is one of the projects I've been working on - a Christmas tree skirt. We haven't had one the whole time we've been married and the lack of one started to bug me as soon as we put up the tree.

There are definitely some things I'd do differently next time, but I'm happy with the way it turned out. And mostly, I'm just really glad it's done. That was a LOT of sewing in straight lines.

Owen and I made toilet paper tube people the other day - Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus, and an angel. I try to do something crafty or fun like this every day with him. He loves these guys.

A Colorado Thanksgiving...

2011-11-28T00:25:00.001-07:00

Matt, Owen, and I flew to Colorado for Thanksgiving this year. We met up with my mom, my three youngest siblings, and Lexie and her husband and we all stayed at our friends the Birds' house. My mom and Lynda Bird have been best friends for years, and all of the kids are right around the same age - we each had a buddy. When we were growing up, our families did everything together. It was so fun to go back and visit... I miss Colorado so much! We did TONS of stuff, so I'll just get right to the pictures... there are a lot!

Owen was SO excited to go on the plane. This is the first plane trip that he can remember.

Owen ended up not liking the take-off or landing... or really any part in between. He closed the window so he didn't have to see the ground outside. He did like that they brought him free drinks and snacks, though.

Riding on the train at the Denver airport!

Waiting for the bus to our rental car... we hit almost every mode of transportation that day!

Sleepy boy in the car on the way to Longmont. We had to tie his head to the carseat. :)

We went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Owen got to dress up as an astronaut and sit in the cockpit of the spaceship!

Trying on some deer ears.

....and some moose antlers.

In the new health exhibit.... each person got their own card that you got to stick into each place in the exhibit and it recorded your results. This one told you how tall you were and how big your wingspan was.

They also had a wall of nails... kind of like the kids toy, but supersized. Each and every one of these faces and hands belong to Owen. Crazy kid.

T-rex bones! Right after this we went into the room that had animatronic dinosaurs that roared, and that didn't go over so well. Owen was yelling "Get me out of here!" the whole time. We only stayed for about 30 seconds. :)

We went to Casa Bonita one day for lunch.... it's the worst Mexican food you'll ever have (really), but it's the coolest restaurant you'll ever see!

Waiting in line for our food.

Cute Lexie and Ryan.

The view from our seats... Casa Bonita has an indoor waterfall and pool. The whole thing is decorated like a Mexican town surrounded by jungle and caves. They have a cliff diver that does awesome dives off the water fall into the pool. That's what Owen is watching in this picture.

Two of the actors doing a gunfight.

Madeline, Kevin, Owen, and our cousin Maddy (who lives near Denver) exploring behind the waterfall.

Waterfall on the right, guy juggling fire on the left.

Matt watching the show from our table.

During one of the skits, this gorilla escapes and runs around the whole restaurant. It kind of freaked Owen out. :)

Exploring the restaurant... on weekends and nights this place fills up - they have hundreds of tables all set up in caves or Mexican houses or the jungle... pretty cool.

Another view of the restaurant.

Madeline and Owen being goofy while exploring.

More restaurant...

On our way out.

Maddy and Owen waiting for our tour of Hammond's Candy Factory in Denver.

Watching the cooks make candy canes.

Holding the samples they picked out after the tour.

We went to the town of Lyons (where my dad's office was in Colorado) and explored.

It's a tiny little town in the foothills of the mountains, but they've recently redone the whole downtown, so we went to visit. It took us about ten minutes to walk the entire thing, and that included a visit to the people in my dad's old office.

Owen jumping off his Thanksgiving dinner. :)

After Thanksgiving dinner we took a walk around McIntosh Lake behind the Birds' house. The two big mountains in the middle are Longs Peak and Meeker Peak. The two smaller ones on the right are the Twin Sisters. They are part of the Front Range, and are the mountains that I got to look at every day growing up. :) I miss them.

We visited Pearl Street Mall in downtown Boulder.

Can you see those tents in the background behind those lightposts? Yeah, that's the "Occupy Boulder" movement. There are about five tents. Bunch of hippies. I would have taken a closer picture, but I'm pretty sure the majority were smoking weed, and I didn't want to aggravate anyone.

Playing in the coolest toystore! It had tons of old toys - ones that I used to play with growing up - plus whole sections dedicated to juggling, puppets, kites, build-your-own kits, and tons of other things. A bit overpriced, but it was fun to wander around in.

We saw Santa on Pearl Street! As you can see, Owen barely held it together. We decided he could write a letter to Santa to tell him what he wanted instead of having to talk to him. :)

At the Swiss Army knife store.

Owen loves Lexie and Ryan.

More Pearl Street.

Driving into Estes Park for their annual Christmas parade the day after Thanksgiving.

Estes is a beautiful town in a valley up in the mountains.

It is the home of the Stanley Hotel, which inspired Stephen King to write The Shining. Parts of the mini-series of The Shining were filmed here.

It was pretty cold and windy with clear skies when we got there, so we bundled up and found a spot to wait.

Waiting for the parade.

Calling grandma Farrell to wish her a happy birthday.

Ryan, Lexie, and my mom standing in a few flurries....

We started getting a little bit of snow, so Ryan decided to put on another coat.... this is my mom trying to zip up his coat backwards, so he can then put on another coat forwards. Yeah, I didn't get it either.

.....and just as the parade was starting, this happened. A huge wall of snow blew into town and blanketed everything in minutes. We all got soaked and were pretty darn cold, but it's our tradition to stay during the whole parade no matter what the weather, so stay we did! I had to put away the camera after this picture, though... it was too wet. :)

Driving back to the airport... love these plains and mountains. Those tall buildings in the distance are Denver.

The front range... I'll miss it.

The Denver Airport... the main building is covered by huge white tents that were built to look like the mountains.

Well, we had a great trip, and I was happy to be able to show Matt more of where I grew up. I miss Colorado already, and would definitely be happy to go back frequently. :) Thanks Birds for hosting us - we had a great time!

a few thoughts about Owen...

2011-11-14T00:20:00.001-07:00

Owen is such a great kid that I wanted to get some of these things recorded before I forget them. This is more of a journal post so that I can remember him at this age, so feel free to skip it if you want to. :)

Owen has never gone through the "gimme" phase - he is generally a very polite boy and will always say please for what he wants. However, when he is not sure whether or not we're going to give him what he wants, he tries all sorts of tricks. Here are two of my recent favorites:

Owen cupped his hands together and looked at them and said "Look at my hands... they would be so happy if they had some goldfish." And later on after he had eaten the ones we gave him "oh... they're so empty again".

When playing with his toys, he always says "it's too bad so sad that I don't have a [insert desired toy], huh mom?"

Here are another few funny sayings from Owen:

*bref-kisk = breakfast
*mishmellow = marshmallow
*long-nower = lawnmower
*longing = mowing (this one kills me every time - he talks about the maintenance guys around our apartment, saying that they're "longing" the grass)
*mlunch = lunch (I have no idea why he adds the extra "m" on the front)
*He calls Slinky Dog from Toy Story "Stinky Dog".
*He copies the Spanish Buzz part from Toy Story 3, but he has no idea that it's in another language. He yells "Buzz Lightyear all ska-tay" when playing with Buzz.
*Owen loves the movie Monsters Inc. and talks about it all the time, but can't quite get the characters' names right - he calls them "Mice Wah-owki" and "Silly"

Today was our Primary program, and since both Matt and I teach in Primary (I teach the 4-year-olds, Matt teaches the 6-year-olds), we had grandma and grandpa Bromley come sit with Owen while we were up on the stand. Owen did great, and loved watching the kids sing. He was SO excited when we sang "I Love To See The Temple" - he knows and loves that song, and sang it at the top of his lungs in sacrament meeting along with the whole Primary. He was so proud of himself for singing with the big kids.

When we picked Owen up from nursery today after church, his teacher said that he had done such a good job coloring and listening. She always tells us that he's so polite and reverent, and that he's totally ready for Primary. It makes me happy to know that we made it through the hitting phase in Primary (which we heard about from Owen for a couple of weeks - "he took my toy so I hit him") and now he does great in church.

Owen loves to color, and especially loves it when I color with him. We each have our own coloring books - his is Toy Story and mine is Tangled. When I color with him he makes me look up the characters on the computer so I get the colors right, and if I color something he thinks is wrong, he tells me to correct it, or he just picks up a crayon and fixes it himself. It gets to the point where I have to sit far enough away that he can't see me, otherwise he just ends up bossing me around the whole time and never coloring his picture.

Anyway... those are just some things that I want to remember about Owen right now. We love this funny boy.

Recent videos

2011-11-03T23:18:00.000-06:00

Here's a video of Owen playing Jenga (he calls it "Jango"). He's pretty good at it, but he thinks that when the tower falls over he wins, and he gets pretty excited. It's pretty hilarious.

Owen making hilarious faces as he tries to get the frosting from his birthday cake off his nose.

Halloween Festivities 2011

2011-11-01T15:22:00.000-06:00

We had a great Halloween this year. This was the first time that Owen has really been old enough to get what was going on, and to be excited about dressing up. We wanted to do a family costume like we have in the past, but once Owen decided he wanted to be Buzz Lightyear, there was no changing his mind. We didn't feel like being Woody and Jessie, so we went as Mario and Peach, and Owen did his own thing. We had a great time carving a pumpkin, going to our stake Halloween carnival, visiting PJ and Courtney at their house, trick-or-treating, and visiting grandmas. Owen isn't really into the candy loving stage yet, so we only went to a few houses, but he still managed to come out with a lot of candy. He's already planning his costume for next year. :)

Skinny little arms. I swear I feed him.

Not too sure about the pumpkin guts.

Excited to put candles in Jack (that's what he named our pumpkin).

Apple cider and pumpkin puffs after a hard night of work on the pumpkin.

We went traditional this year. Owen talks to Jack every day.

Blowing out Jack's candles before bed.

Fishing at the stake Halloween carnival. There were SO many people there, and SO many cars for the trunk-or-treat.

Mario and Peach. I made both costumes, and I must say, I'm pretty darn proud of Mario's hat. That was really tricky to figure out, but it turned out really cool.

Caramel apples at PJ and Courtney's house.

Our Halloween dinner, complete with green monster slime (ps - who knew that KoolAid had SO much sugar in it??? Ok, well, probably everyone but me. That's the last time I buy KoolAid to make at home).

Mummy pizzas, bone breadsticks with blood dipping sauce, and spider web chip dip.

Buzz Lightyear telling what his buttons do. We bought the costume at Target, but Matt made the wings to go with it. Don't they look awesome??

A back view of Matt's sweet wings.

So happy to be Buzz.

The whole family.

Using his laser to fight grandpa.

He was a little sad at first that his costume didn't have a laser, but he got over it pretty quickly. :)

Grandpa helps him fly.

Checking out his haul the next morning.

Right before I took this picture, Owen looked at his candy and said "Wow!". I don't think the point of Halloween hit him until that moment. :)

Teaching Owen how to sort Halloween candy.

Owen boy

2011-10-29T01:36:00.001-06:00

Owen turned three last Saturday. I can't believe it. We were looking back at pictures on our computer, and it's amazing how much he's grown up just in the past year. Here's a snapshot of what he's like right now....

He's a very sweet kid, and loves to cuddle, sit on my lap, get hugs, and give lots of kisses. He's always telling me that he loves me.

He's a big helper. Anytime I need him to do anything, he jumps up and is so excited about helping me. His favorite job is emptying the silverware from the dishwasher.

He is a very good eater. Not only does he eat a lot of food, but he eats almost anything I put in front of him. He likes Indian food and Thai food (both of which I make at home frequently), and will eat almost any vegetable. The only things I really struggle to get him to eat are peas and blue cheese, both of which I strongly dislike anyway, so I don't serve them. :) I'm really hoping that he'll grow up and not be a picky eater at all. That's my goal, anyway.

Owen loves to draw and paint, and is very particular about where the colors go. He went through a stage of a few weeks where he would only color with a red crayon, because that's his favorite color. It was cracking his nursery teachers up. :) He's very detail oriented - the other day in nursery, he was coloring a picture that had a bunch of people in it. He very specifically only colored one eye on each person. When I asked him about it, he told me that he had made them all pirates. :)

He LOVES movies, and has amazing recall of the dialogue. He can watch a movie for the very first time in the morning, and later that day, I'll hear him repeating the majority of the dialogue to himself while he plays. He loves to throw movie quotes into conversations. His favorite quotes right now are "Like you love the beach.... or a good book.... or the beach" (Madagascar 2), "Darn it Barbie!" (Toy Story 3), "I love you Gloria! I always have!" (also Madagascar 2), and "I will call him Squishy" (Finding Nemo).

Owen is learning how to write his letters. He can write the O-W-E in his name, and we're working on N. He can write about 6 other letters as well. He's learning all the sounds of the letters, and hopefully we'll be able to start reading easy words soon. He loves to read, and is as quick about memorizing books as he is about memorizing movies. He can repeat his Toy Story book and almost his whole Nemo book from memory, and says them to himself as he plays.

Owen makes the craziest faces. He inherited this talent from Matt, but still, I don't think I've ever seen a kid make as huge a variety of faces as Owen can do. I can hardly ever get a normal picture of him. He's such a nut. :)

Owen loves to sing and dance. He likes to learn new songs and we sing a lot before bed every night. He can't help dancing whenever some fun music comes on.

Owen generally speaks pretty clearly, and has a pretty good vocabulary. However, he says some hilarious words - most of them are things he just heard wrong the first time. Here are my favorites:
"It's Mormon time!" (It's morning time)
"grocery sandwich" (grilled cheese sandwich)
"blana" (banana)
He also has a wacky accent sometimes - almost like a southern drawl. It comes out in words like "bat", "hat", and "gas". They sound like "bayat", "hayat", and "gayas". It's really strange, and I have no idea where it came from.

Owen LOVES to play games. He loves Jenga (he calls it "Jango") and tic-tac-toe, and will play any game you ask him to, even if he has no idea how.

Owen is a very creative kid. He loves little figurines and small little toys that he can turn into people. He even carries the magnets from our fridge around and makes them do things. When he doesn't feel like making his toys people, he very happily plays with his hands. In fact, at least once every day (and most days many times) we play "dinosaurs" with our hands... you put your hand on the ground like it's cupping a ball, and then stick your index finger out straight. That's a dinosaur. Our dinosaurs go on all sorts of adventures.

We love this crazy kid so much. I wish I could save every single day in a bottle to get out again sometime in the future, because every day is so great with him. In true little kid fashion, sometimes he drives me nuts, but I find myself missing him if I'm away from him for even an hour, even if he's been driving me crazy all day long. We can't imagine life without him, and are so blessed to be his parents.

Here are some pictures from his birthday. He woke up to breakfast in bed and his room covered in balloons, followed by a day at a fair and then grandma's house for cake and presents. Very low key, but a great day with our little guy.

SUPER confused by what's going on.

He enjoyed it eventually. :)

Owen requested a Mater cake, as a complement to his Lightning McQueen cake last year. This one was WAY less stressful than last year - clean lines and store-bought chocolate frosting. He doesn't know the difference and loved it.

Finger puppets from aunt Karen.

His Buzz halloween costume was our big present to him. He LOVES it, and I'm pretty sure he'll be wearing it every day for a while.

Toy Story figures from Grandma Auman. These guys are in play all day, every day. In fact, they've become a new discipline tool - if I threaten to take his Toy Story toys away, Owen will do anything.

All his presents - he loves every single thing he got. All of the tiny pieces of everything have been spread around our house ever since. This kid would be happy playing in a cardboard box, but he's very happy about all the new things he got.

He's a boy alright.

Happy birthday O-boy. We love you so much.

It's a.....

2011-10-14T18:21:00.000-06:00

Thumb-sucking GIRL!

New Apartment Pictures!

2011-08-31T19:55:00.000-06:00

Matt and I finally found a new apartment a month ago. We've been looking for a long time - it's really tough to find cheap housing in the Bay Area, especially in the Danville through Pleasanton areas. We finally signed the lease on this one on August 1. We're happy to be home again! Feel free to send me an email or Facebook message if you need our new address.

The view from the front door. Downstairs bath on immediate right,
then stairs. Kitchen is on the left.

Kitchen. Pretty good size, with a dishwasher (yea!).

Table and pictures in entry.

The family room/office/dining area.

Bookshelf. This is the only part that's probably
totally done being decorated.

The view from the back door. You can see our 'dining room' in the
back and the 'office' to the left of the couch.

Couches....

...and a wacky boy.

Our new entertainment center... a great Craigslist find!

I've converted the closet under the stairs to a pantry.

Our little backyard patio. We've got a small storage unit back there,
and eventually hope to get a small barbeque and some lawn chairs,
and maybe plant something. We have a tiny palm tree and
lots of weeds.... but they're growing great! :)

Owen's room is at the top of the stairs, toward the
back of the house. It started out clean this morning,
but I didn't take pictures fast enough. :)

He picked out his red curtains and is very proud of them (I generally
would have sewed curtains, but his window is eight feet long,
and these panels were super cheap at Walmart.... I couldn't pass up the price,
especially since I never would have been able to get that much fabric for that cheap).

Owen's "Cars-ey bed" in the corner with his racing flags
and Radiator Springs pictures on the wall.

Bookshelf and more wall decorations... all chosen and placed by Owen. :)

Each bedroom has a closet that runs the length of the wall, which I love.
The closet doors are the bane of my existence, though. Because of the way
they're built, you can only open up about three feet of the closet at
once. Kind of makes it hard to use that giant space when
you can't get a whole lot in and out of there.

Full bathroom between our room and Owen's room upstairs.

Giant closet in the bathroom - LOVE.

Our room.

Dresser - another great Craigslist find. Curtains from Ikea...
they block out so much light that my body has been getting
confused in the morning - it's so dark in our room!

Hey Owen, what's that?

What are you smiling about, goofy?

Hmmm.....

Surprise!

Hope you enjoyed the tour. :)

Showbiz!

2011-06-21T14:12:00.000-06:00

My aunt and uncle Debbie and Dave (who were both Young Ambassadors at BYU) run a youth performing group called Showbiz. They put on a song and dance show every year with over a hundred kids from this area. Three of my siblings and two of Matt's siblings are in it, plus several cousins and many of the kids from church around here. It's always a great show and we love going every year. Here are pictures from this year's show!

Debbie starting the show.

My sister Becca's group. She actually got sick right before the show, so she didn't perform the night I took pictures. I was able to see their next show a couple days later, though, and she did really well!

My sister Madeline's group performing a Taylor Swift medley.

Madeline hamming it up dead center.

Matt's little sister Fij (her real name is Melinda) on the left. She's a lot of fun to watch on stage! Her group did a medley from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

These two kids did the "You're my little coochie face" song. SO funny.

Aren't these costumes cute?

Fij's solo.

The younger teen boys (including my cousin Jason on the right in front) doing the N'Sync dance Bye Bye Bye. So funny.

My brother Kevin dancing with Matt's sister Jenny.

Love this shot of them.

Kev's solo. They did a medley from The Princess and the Frog.

Kev singing and Jenny dancing with the lantern.

Jenny's solo!

Madeline on the left and my cousin Jason on the right performing a Grease medley.

Madeline's solo. This song was really cute!

My cousin Chantelle (also in Madeline's group) performing Summer Loving.

Beauty School Dropout.

Madeline looks like she just kicked her partner in the face. :)

The Grease group.

Three married sisters with their husbands at the show.

Grandma Auman came to see it too!

Hilary's wedding... finally

2011-06-16T00:25:00.000-06:00

Here are some of the pictures I got from Hilary's wedding. It was such a beautiful day - the one day with perfect weather in the midst of weeks of rain. The house was totally crowded with family coming in for the wedding, but we had tons of fun (and food!).

My cute dad with Hil's flowers. Waiting for Hil and Michael to change and come out!

My younger sister Lexie helping my younger brother Kevin with his boutonniere.

Cute Madeline. Always a ham.

Matt and Owen got decked out in handmade vests and ties. Matt was SO happy about the bright pink bowtie.

Finally! The new Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence.

Owen thinks he ought to be in the pictures.

Aunt Karen helping Owen to take pictures (so he wouldn't get in so many:).

Grandma and grandpa Auman.

Little kids carrying Hil's train. Her dress was so pretty!

My cousins Kyle and Ashley help Owen with Hil's dress.

Hilary and Owen.

Siblings... Becca (17), Kevin (13), and Madeline (15). Aren't they so cute?

Owen giving Emma a hug. Emma is my cousin Melanie's daughter. Not sure what the official relationship between Owen and Emma is, but aren't they cute?

Matt, me, Owen, Becca, Hilary, Madeline, Kevin, Lexie, and Ryan. All the siblings, son-in-laws, and grandkids in our family... except we forgot to stick Michael in there. Yeah, silly, I know.

There we go. Ryan & Lexie, Matt & me (and Owen), mom, Hilary & Michael, dad, Becca, Madeline, and Kevin - the whole Auman clan.

Our little family. I made that skirt the night before the wedding because I wasn't happy with what I had originally planned to wear. I was pretty proud of how it turned out!

Owen inspecting the yard as we prepare for the reception.

All decorated, just waiting for the guests!

My cute boys just waiting around.

Hilary's pretty cake. SO yummy. My grandma's niece Tanya has catered and made the cakes for most of our weddings. She does a FABULOUS job!

Cousin Heidi is the family makeup artist. She's done everyone's makeup for their weddings.

I made Hilary's veil totally from scratch - ordered the netting, fit it specifically to her head, made the feather clip and everything. I've got to say, I was SO happy with the way it turned out. My mom thinks I should sell them on Etsy - those veils and clips are not cheap - I could probably sell them for a pretty good profit.

Cute daddy-daughter dance.

Getting ready to throw the bouquet.

There it goes. Catch it, catch it!

Cutting the cake. Michael's cute parents are just to the left of him.

Married! Not sure what's up with Michael's face in this picture...

Aunt Karen and I take great pictures.

Matt, cousin Josh, and cousin Heidi decorating the car.

Owen is a little bit confused as to why he's holding a fistful of birdseed. He was also pretty tired by this point.

Matt demonstrates throwing techniques.

Here they come... GET THEM!

Owen has no idea what just happened.

Driving away to the honeymoon!

Cute Lexie and Ryan.

We stripped Owen down out of his party clothes and he spent the rest of the night sneaking food. :)

Memorial Day

2011-06-11T20:06:00.001-06:00

I know, I know - I'm behind in posting. We've been busy. With my cousin Jacob's wedding, a weekend of orchestra concerts, and apartment hunting, I haven't had time to wait for my pictures to load.

Anyway... we had a great Memorial Day. We got up early to go see a hot air balloon launch (that didn't end up happening due to high winds), went boating on Lafayette Reservoir, went to the San Ramon Wind Festival, built a birdhouse, and then had a family barbeque. It was a packed day, but we had tons of fun.

This was as filled up as the balloons got. We were SO glad we woke up at 5:30 to get there.

My cutie boys rowing the boat.

He wanted to "do by self".

Owen was saying "I love to sail!"

He thought this tower was the "Tangled" tower. He kept asking if there was a princess stuck inside.

So excited about his birdhouse.

Putting a Chinese stamp on his kite at the wind festival.

So proud of his panda stamp.

His finished kite.

He was so excited to have his face painted. Can you tell?

See? Told you. :)

Out of the snakes, frogs, cars, other animals and boy things he could have had painted on his face, my sweet boy picked a cupcake. He cracks me up.

Working hard on putting the birdhouse together.

Painting.

Last of the NYC pics...

2011-06-10T17:46:00.000-06:00

Went to see "How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying". Love that show anyway, and the fact that Daniel Radcliffe (aka Harry Potter.... aka the character that I've been obsessed with for YEARS) played the main part made it that much better. LOVED this show.

LOVE.

September 11th memorial.

Trinity Church. Beautiful!

Fishes Eddy. Kitchen store + used restaurant supply store. They carry their own lines of kitchenware, but they also have old diner plates, utensils, and other random used kitchen stuff. I got a set of root beer float spoons for way cheap. Their inventory changes all the time (since they're getting used/vintage stuff), and when I was there, they had ceramic glove molds... totally random, but fun. If only I had my own house....

On top of the submarine the USS Growler at the USS Intrepid museum.

One of Intrepid's propellers.

Flying a medic rescue helicopter.

An A-12 Blackbird... way cool spy plane!

In the 'island' - where the captain commands from.

The back of the Intrepid with the name and the Blackbird.

Tenement Museum. Loved this tour! You couldn't take pictures inside, but each floor was restored to represent a different era. This neighborhood used to produce the majority of clothing items that were available for purchase in upscale department stores. During one period of time, it was the most crowded place on earth. Fascinating tour!

The M&Ms store in Times Square. We could see this guy looking at us in our hotel window. Creepy.

Wall of M&Ms? Yes please.

Empire State Building at night, lit up in white, blue, and orange for the Subway Series.

The Flatiron building at night. Such gorgeous architecture!

I was pretty proud of my ability to capture the traffic like this, but decided that I should probably invest in a tripod.

In the dirty dirty subway. Yuck.

Manhattan Temple.

Lincoln Center.

Front entrance of the Manhattan temple.

Pretty housing on the edge of Central Park (east, I think....).

Central Park.

The fountain and lake in Central Park.

This kid was amazing. And like, 10.

This lady was amazing, too. We stayed and listened to her for a while.

Dollhouses in FAO Schwartz.

Life-size Indiana Jones made out of LEGOs.

The Big Piano show. So fun!

My favorite picture of the whole trip. :)

On my way back home!

More NYC....

2011-05-27T15:00:00.000-06:00

We did SO much in New York. Going back through all my pictures, I'm amazed at what we fit in. Anyway, here are pictures from our tours of Radio City Music Hall, the New York Public Library, Liberty Island and Ellis Island, Grand Central Terminal, and the United Nations.

Radio City Music Hall is a beautiful building in Rockefeller Center.

The downstairs lobby of the music hall - the diamond shape is supposed to be very soothing.

A working diorama of the stage. We couldn't take pictures of the real stage because Cirque de Soleil was setting up their new show. The auditorium is HUGE. The stage is divided into four sections that are moved up and down by huge elevator lifts. It was designed when the building was first built in the early 20s-30s, and has not been updated since - it's still considered one of the most technically advanced stages in the world.

We got to meet a real Rockette!

The main lobby from several floors up. Cirque de Soleil also had things in here, so we were lucky that they had taken a break at this point so we could take pictures. Before being restored several years ago, this lobby (especially the mural in the background) was so covered in soot and smoke that it was just dirty black and gray. When they restored it, there were people who had been working there for years that said they thought they were looking at a new mural - there was so much detail in it that had been covered by cigarette smoke.

The main reading room in the New York Public Library. A BEAUTIFUL building. As much as I love the BYU library, I probably would have done a lot more studying in college if I could have studied in here.

One of the lobbies in the hallway outside the main reading room.

The main entrance hall.

The library is celebrating its 100th birthday and had some cool exhibits up.

The famous lions guarding the entrance.

We had to walk through Times Square to get back to our hotel. This picture kind of captures the glow-iness of this place at night.

On Liberty Island. Karen had to attend a graduation ceremony for NYU this day, so I went by myself to Liberty and Ellis Islands - hence the pictures of myself.

Ellis Island. This room is where the third class and steerage passengers went through to have medical and legal checks done before they entered the US.

A model of Ellis Island. The building that I was in is the one to the right.

There is a huge wall outside with the names of the people who came through Ellis Island. There were TONS of Farrells.

Bernard John Bromley is my ancestor. It took me forever to find his name... I finally discovered that it was behind a construction fence and I couldn't get to it. I stuck my camera over the fence to get this picture - I couldn't come all the way to Ellis Island and not find him!

Outside the main building.

The ceiling of Grand Central Terminal. It has a whole bunch of constellations painted on it with little LED lights to represent the stars. The constellations are actually backward from the way we would see them if we were looking up at the sky.

The 'whispering hall'. If you whisper into the corner, the sound travels up over the ceiling and right to the person at the opposite corner.

The outside of Grand Central.

Beautiful details at Grand Central.

The main hall.

The Chrysler building - down the street from Grand Central. I think it's the prettiest building in New York.

The United Nations! I was sad that they didn't have the flags flying.

With my 'passport', so excited for the tour!

We got to see some of the humanitarian projects the UN is working on... that box in the back is a 'sports in a box' for kids who are displaced due to war or natural disasters. They also have a 'school in a box' that included chalkboard paint - cool!

The General Assembly room!

So excited.

This is what the UN should have looked like.... when we went through much of it was covered by construction and scaffolding.

A UN flag damaged in an attack in (I think) Iraq.

Frick Museum, MMoA, "Catch Me If You Can", and where we stayed...

2011-05-26T21:00:00.000-06:00

The Frick Museum is an art museum housed in a mansion built by Henry Frick. He built his mansion with the ultimate goal of turning it into a museum one day, so the rooms, furnishings, decorations and art all go together beautifully. His criteria for selecting art was whether or not it made him happy - which means that not only does the collection have art from masters, but also some lesser-known artists, and all the pieces are beautiful. It was worth going just to see the beautiful house, not to mention the wonderful art. There was a Rembrandt exhibit there that I loved. We also went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. What an amazing building! We saw lots of awesome paintings there - some Degas, Seurat, Van Gogh, and many others. It's fun to go to a big huge art museum like this, because you see works that are frequently covered in basic art or humanities classes. It was fun to see the originals of paintings that I have studied many times before.

The Frick House. It takes up a whole city block!

Metropolitan Museum of Art. There were a whole bunch of secret service guys standing around (like, 40 or so). Apparently, Joe Biden and his wife were in the building at the same time as us.

A beautiful Van Gogh. This is one of Karen's favorite paintings, so we took a picture.

A display of armor in the MMoA.

Ringo Starr's snare drum! I took this picture for my mom. :)

We saw "Catch Me If You Can" at the Neil Simon theater. I didn't know much about the show, but we ended up loving it! It was very well done.

The view out the window of the apartment on the Upper West Side where we stayed for the first few days. Look at those cool rooftop gardens!

These people built that house on top of the building. Doesn't it look like a cool place to live??

The kitchen in the apartment. Functional, but I'm glad I don't have to cook in there!

The cute studio apartment. The kitchen is off to the right as you enter, before you get to this room. The bathroom is at the end of the room to the left. Small, but cozy.

This picture is for Owen - this fire station was right next to our apartment building.

Karen's house in Pennsylvania. We stayed here for about a day and a half, after our trip to Morristown, New Jersey. I loved her house! It made me anxious to look into getting our own apartment.

The kitchen.

The front view of the house.

This is what we drove through on our way back into the city - the second week I was there was pretty much rainy the whole time.

NYC food!

2011-05-24T21:00:00.003-06:00

Of course there are tons of great places to eat in New York City. Here are the places that we went to and loved!

Shake Shack - the original is in Madison Square Garden (the park, not the stadium). Great shakes, burgers, and fries!

New York Pizza! Karen's favorite place is Famiglia Pizza.

A GIANT hamburger from Junior's. I didn't realize this burger was going to be this big... I had to take almost everything off of it to be able to fit it in my mouth. Juniors has great cheesecake, too. I had a classic plain cheesecake with cherries. Yum!

Eataly. This is a huge Italian marketplace. A lot of the stuff in there has been imported from Italy. There are several restaurants inside, each one devoted to a different kind of food. There is a vegetables restaurant, a pasta place, a pizza place, a wine-tasting place, a bakery, and several other places to eat. We ate at the pasta place - it was SO GOOD. It seriously made me feel like I had never had real Italian food before. I could eat there every day and be totally happy.

The fruits and veggies section of Eataly.

This restaurant was the veggies restaurant - they'd saute up whatever vegetables you wanted.

The "Nuts4Nuts" stand. These are all over the place. They sell roasted cashews, peanuts, and almonds. So good. This was my favorite street food.

Vynl restaurant. Best steak of my life here. It's pretty trendy and way noisy, but the food is so good.

The Waffles and Dinges truck - by far my favorite food truck. This place sells Belgian waffles with toppings - you can either get savory or sweet.

My waffle with strawberries and Belgian chocolate fudge.

SO GOOD.

We also went to Levain Bakery (where I got those HUGE cookies from a couple posts back), to Magnolia Bakery (yummy pumpkin cheesecake!), and to Grey's Papaya (hot dogs that feature in "You've Got Mail"). Oh, and of course we got hot dogs from a street vendor!

Revolutionary War Historical Sites

2011-05-23T20:43:00.000-06:00

We made a quick stop at Morristown, New Jersey on our way to Karen's house in Pennsylvania. Morristown is where George Washington and his troops spent the winter of 1779-80. Washington and his officers stayed in the Ford Mansion in Morristown while the majority of the troops built a cabin city about 5 miles outside town on the Wick farm. Though the winter at Valley Forge has been remembered because of the high number of deaths among the troops, the winter at Morristown actually had more severe weather, and the troops had very little to eat. Their experience at Valley Forge had taught them how to build a more sanitary camp, however, so despite the harsher conditions, fewer men died at Morristown than at Valley Forge.

Our second Revolutionary War site was Federal Hall in New York City (on Wall Street in NYC). This is where George Washington was inaugurated as the first president of the United States, and the building served as the first capitol of the United States until about a year and a half later when the capitol was moved to Philadelphia. The building that stands there now was built after the original Federal Hall fell into disrepair and was demolished. The new building was used as a customs house and federal treasury.

A room in the Ford Mansion where Washington's officers slept. Officers slept in the camp beds, which had stuffed mattresses and canopies for warmth.

The bedroom where Washington (and Martha Washington, when she came to visit) slept.

Washington's personal office in the Ford Mansion.

Front view of the Ford Mansion.

A view of what the soldier's cabins would have looked like. Each cabin slept 12 men.

Unlike Valley Forge, the Morristown cabins were built on hills. This meant that rainwater ran past the cabins to lower ground, and did not puddle in the cabins. Standing water spread disease at Valley Forge and was responsible for many deaths.

An officer's cabin - each side served as a personal bedroom for an officer.

Inside one of the real cabins.

This won't be a surprise for anyone from the East Coast, but the forests there are very different from those in the west - because the trees let so much light to the forest floor, the floor is much more densely packed with plants and bushes. This is part of the reason Washington chose to station his troops in this area - this forest would have been very difficult for an invading army to hack through quickly.

Federal Hall, New York City.

George Washington, standing in about the spot where he was inaugurated.

Inside Federal Hall. The doors to the right and left of the columns were the entry into the vaults where money was stored.

This stone was taken out of the balcony where George Washington would have stood during his inauguration.

A diorama of what the original Federal Hall looked like during the inauguration.

Close-up of George Washington taking the oath of office.

I had fun going to these sites - you don't get a whole lot of cool old places like this in the west with so much history behind them.

St. Patricks Cathedral, Chelsea Market, and a few more things...

2011-05-19T21:41:00.000-06:00

St. Patrick's Cathedral was amazing. I love cathedrals anyway, and you don't get too many really cool big cathedrals in the US, so I was happy to see this one. We also stopped by the American Girl store (which totally reminded me of my childhood), where I found out that they have retired my doll! Sad day. We went to Chelsea Market, which is an old industrial building that has been converted into a food market. It was pretty fun place (especially since I love food and cooking so much), made even more cool by the fact that Food Network has their studios and offices upstairs. That's where the Food Network test kitchens are, and (we think) where the Iron Chef stadium is (cool!). The High Line, which is right next to Chelsea Market, is an old elevated train track through the city that has been turned into a park. It was really cool - I loved the landscaping of the park. We hit up some great NYC food places - Gray's Papaya for hot dogs and Levain Bakery for HUGE cookies. Seriously, they were 6 ounces a piece - almost half a pound. Crazy.

St. Patrick's Cathedral, main altar

"Our Lady of Guadalupe" altar - all the flowers were put their for Mother's Day

Looking from half way up the cathedral back towards the entrance.

Can't get enough of the stained glass.

American Girl Place!

Apparently, I was the "Girl of the Year" in 2007.

Doll beauty parlor. That doll is getting her legs rubbed down with special cream, and after that she'll get her hair nicely brushed out and styled. Look at the cute little beauty parlor chairs!!

Seriously, the cutest public restroom I've ever been in. Certainly the cleanest in NYC.

A view of Chelsea Market... it's really hard to get a sense of it because it's so long. It was really fun, though.

Chelsea Market map. It was this cool 3D scrapbook-like map.

Food Network studios up there!

The High Line.

Old train tracks still visible in some places.

Pretty housing in the West Village where Karen and I went to see a comedy show.

Huge cookies!! It took me three days to finish these. SO good, though. Each cookie cost 4 bucks, but it was worth it.

Gray's Papaya. Not a great picture, but I had to get it since it features in one of my favorite movies, "You've Got Mail"!

Skype-ing with Matt and Owen from our Upper West Side apartment. Miss those boys!

Rockefeller Plaza, NYC

2011-05-18T22:24:00.000-06:00

These pictures are all from our trip to see Rockefeller Center, home of NBC. We went to the 'Top of the Rock' to get a great view of the city, and played with the light room at the top. It was awesome. What a beautiful complex of buildings - each building has beautiful interiors filled with marble and art. Later on, we took a tour of Radio City Music Hall, which is part of Rockefeller Center. It was great!

Radio City Music Hall.

Looking uptown towards Central Park from the Top of the Rock.

Empire State Building.

Looking downtown. Liberty Island is visible off in the distance to the right.

Beautiful decoration on the building.

Karen and me with uptown NYC in the back.

What a beautiful city!

Playing in the light room at the Top of the Rock. You were assigned a color when you came in, and that colored light would follow you around the whole room. We had WAY too much fun with it.

Karen's green for right now.

Trying to confuse the light.

Can you see our colors on the ceiling??

The lights in the elevator shaft going up to the Top of the Rock.

The beautiful lobby of 30 Rockefeller Center.

Pret was my favorite deli in London... I was so excited to find it here!

30 Rockefeller Center.

30 Rock!

"Diagon Alley" at the Lego store.

Tower Bridge at the Lego store.

Awesome dragon hanging from the ceiling at the Lego store.

New York City day 1

2011-05-11T19:33:00.000-06:00

For my birthday Matt bought me a trip to NYC to visit my aunt Karen, who teaches at NYU. I flew in on a red-eye last night and arrived at 8am this morning. We got started right away with a boat tour around Manhattan to see all the sights from the water. It was a good preliminary activity - now I feel a bit familiar with the different areas of the city and kind of where everything is. After that, we ate dinner at the Shake Shack (delicious burgers, fries, and shakes!) and then walked around Times Square. I'm exhausted but I'm having tons of fun. I miss Matt and Owen, but frequent phone calls and texts are helping out. I'll be here for 9 days, and after today's tour, I'm so excited to see the rest of the city!

Karen and me waiting for the boat tour to begin.

Part of the city skyline.

Lady Liberty from the water. It's both bigger and smaller than I thought it would be (I know that's weird :)

Brooklyn Bridge.

Times Square Broadway play posters. We're going to see Catch Me If You Can and How To Suceed in Business Without Really Trying (with Harry Potter as the main character!). SO excited.

Times Square!

Hershey store in Times Square. LOVE.

We're on that jumbotron! If you divide the screen into four quadrants, we're in the top left quadrant in the bottom right corner. Make sense?? :) (This made me think of the line in Despicable Me: "We stole the Times Square Jumbotron!")

Ferris wheel inside the Toys R Us on Times Square.

This picture is for Owen... it's a Kung Fu Panda 2 trailer on the jumbotron.

Don't know if I'll blog every day (likely not), but I'll definitely be taking lots of pictures! I'm so excited to be here! Thanks for a great birthday present, Matt!

Easter

2011-05-02T17:21:00.001-06:00

We had a great Easter week. I got to perform with the Temple Hill Symphony Orchestra and Choir in the Easter oratorio "Lamb of God" by Rob Gardner. It was awesome! The music was beautiful, and we got to meet the composer. This was the premiere performance of this work in California, so he came and did a fireside as well as some personal meetings with the orchestra and choir. We performed at the Interstake Center on Temple Hill as well as at the Catholic Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland. The concerts kicked off a joint service effort by the Catholic and LDS churches in this area. Go to this website to learn more about the music: http://www.spiremusic.org/lamb/. Especially take time to listen to watch the video under "About the Work" - it's a video of Rob Gardner conducting the London Symphony Orchestra on my favorite song "Hosanna".

We also got to spend lots of time with family. Grandma Auman visited for a day and we were able to dye Easter eggs with her. We went to a community Easter egg hunt and saw my cousin Melanie and her little girls there. We dyed more eggs with just the three of us, and then spent some time at Matt's house with his family, where we had a yummy Easter dinner. We've been working hard to teach Owen what we celebrate on Easter - if you ask him, he can tell you that Jesus died for us and we're happy on Easter because he came back (ie - he was resurrected). He can say "resurrection" if prompted, but right now, we're just happy that he knows that Easter has something to do with Jesus. Anyway, enjoy these pictures... I'm working on posts of Hilary's wedding, so hopefully those will be up soon.

Community Easter egg hunt - it was over in about 10 seconds. There were SO many people, but it was fun.

Mad that I won't let him go first, before all the kids.

We found cousin Emma!

SO excited to dye Easter eggs.

Inspecting the one he dropped on the floor.

Easter Sunday outfits.

This kid has mad eyebrow skills.

In retrospect, 18 eggs is probably too many for one kid to find. None of them survived the throw into his basket.

Cathedral of Christ the Light, Oakland, California. Isn't it beautiful? I'm not one for modern architecture, but I loved this cathedral. It was even more beautiful in person.

Can you see my head? (I'm in the violin section)

Life....

2011-04-13T20:08:00.000-06:00

Yeah, I know that's a totally boring title, but our lives are pretty boring right now. We're just hanging out here waiting to find an apartment or condo or something of our own. We're preparing for Hilary's wedding and all the craziness that summer will bring. Life with 12 people in this house is nuts. With 16 (come summer), it will be ridiculous. Anyway, here are a few pictures of things we've been doing recently.

Hiking in the dark and through the mud to help Matt set up a treasure hunt.

Eating Ghirardelli ice cream. It's an obsession.

Going to the beach.

....and kicking sand everywhere.

At least he's enjoying himself.

Building sand castles.

Eating tons of seafood.

Visiting the butterfly house in Monterey.

Visiting the butterfly sanctuary in Pacific Grove.

Dennis the Menace park.

Brushing with a new light-up toothbrush. Owen makes us brush our teeth in the dark now.

Helping dig in the yard....

....making the yard look pretty for Hilary's wedding.

Yeah, we're working really hard.

Can't you tell?

Practicing a little ping pong.

Making funny faces.

Practicing photography.... using full manual mode on my camera.

Slime!

2011-03-10T12:33:00.000-07:00

Matt and I were talking about all the old Nickelodeon shows that we used to love. We found Global Guts (and the Aggro Crag!) on YouTube, as well as Legends of the Hidden Temple and Double Dare, and watched several episodes of each. Weren't those great shows? In honor of the Nickelodeon game shows, we decided to make some green slime (actually, it's more like the Gak that you could buy). We had tons of fun. Here's where we found the recipe:

http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiment/00000039

It was actually really easy, and turned out really well. Owen LOVED it.

Emptying glue into the bowl.

Green food coloring!


Daddy helping out.

Stirring up the slime - almost there!

I didn't get any pictures of when the slime really started to come together - it works best if you stir with your hands, and my hands were busy. :)


We're done! Look at our awesome slime!

More Owen-isms

2011-03-02T12:54:00.000-07:00

Owen is a nut. I have no idea where he comes up with some of this stuff. Many of the funny things he says are when we're riding in the car. All of a sudden, he'll just speak up with something hilarious.

From the backseat on a recent car ride:
Owen: Um, can we go home and have some bacon?
(I'm not sure he's ever had bacon - I have no idea how he knows what it is)

While protesting his drops for an earache:
Owen: No! No more sauce in my ear!

While driving with Matt in the car:
Me (to Matt): Oh, you forgot to put gel in your hair today.
Owen (from the backseat): There's jelly in MY hair!

While in the car again:
Owen: Mom, you're so glad.
Me: Why am I so glad?
Owen: Because it's time to be free.

Just as I started giving him a haircut, Owen started crying and said:
No! I'm not going to have any hair left!

At a restaurant just after the waitress had asked us how we were doing:
Owen: She has pretty earrings.
(Can you tell I've been training him?? :)

In the car, looking at a scratch on his finger:
Owen: Look at my little boobies! Kiss them!
(we're trying to get him to say "boo-boo" instead but have had no success)

Hoarse

2011-02-23T18:05:00.000-07:00

Poor Owen has had a pretty bad cough for a while, and has just recently begun to lose his voice. I would feel more sorry for him except that he's feeling fine, and even a little goofy. He thinks that his hoarse voice is hilarious. In this video he was telling Matt about the animals he saw in the National Geographic brochure, and you can hear his funny little hoarse voice.

The Bromley family....

2011-02-12T01:14:00.007-07:00

Many of my relatives on my mom's side are musical, and almost every family get together includes a bit of singing. The following songs are kind of family traditions for us. Both are played/sung by my uncle Dave. They aren't the greatest videos, but I was mainly just glad to get the songs on record. The first is one he learned on his mission to Hawaii (I know, sweet mission, right?). It's originally by a Hawaiian comic, and it's called Fate Yanagi. Dave likes to change around the names in the song to different members of the family at different times. The second was written by Dave while he was in college, and is truly our "family song" - everyone knows it, everyone sings it, and everyone loves it. It's called Numb Bum. Enjoy. :)

Fate Yanagi

Numb Bum

Oh Owen...

2011-02-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

While looking at pictures on the computer:
Me: Who's that?
Owen: You and Daddy. Daddy's a dork.

While sitting on the potty:
Owen: Is this my homework?

While 'pretend' eating spaghetti Owen made me stop to say a prayer:
Owen: And bless the dinner and the food and bless it.

While trying to decide what to do on the playground:
Owen: I think me wants to do this.

While driving to my cousin's baptism:
Owen: Are we picking up Jesus?

Just after noticing my sister Becca's jean jacket:
Owen: Oh, Becca, you're wearing a pants shirt.

Recent fun things...

2011-02-07T13:20:00.000-07:00

A couple pictures from some random fun things recently. We took a whirlwind trip to Utah to buy a wedding dress for my sister Hilary, and got to see some friends while we were there. We also had fun here making cookies with my aunt Karen and going to see Shrek in San Francisco.

Visiting with old friends on our trip to Utah - my mom's friend Cathy and her daughter Jenni and Jenni's daughter Ari. Fun to see them again.

My friend Amber's baby Cayden - caught in the act of checking out a bridal magazine.

I want this one, mom!

Amber, Cayden, and me at Cafe Rio.

He is such a cutie!

Ninja-bread men. You can be jealous.

Siblings/cousin trip to see Shrek in San Francisco.

Love the Orpheum - too bad you can't take pictures inside. It's such a cool old theater.

Matt's birthday trip to Alcatraz

2011-02-04T14:42:00.000-07:00

Despite living in California for 16 years, Matt has never been to Alcatraz. I've been tons of times with family, and have loved it every time, so we decided that Matt needed to go. And what better day to do it than his birthday?

We drove in to the city in the morning and got there way too early, so we decided to grab some breakfast at the Boudin deli on Pier 39. Yummy sourdough French toast!

Matt's first up close-view of the island as we approach the dock.

Alcatraz started out as a totally barren rock in the middle of the bay, but the people who have lived on it (including the prisoners) have brought in soil and gardened the whole island. It was really pretty!

Matt enjoying his audio tour as he walks through the cellblock.

Just hanging out in a cell....

This huge sign faces the city to let people know that it's not ok to help prisoners escape. I think Matt's trying to look like a grumpy prisoner in this picture.

Alcatraz has the best views of the city! We had so much fun - it was nice to just wander around and learn about the island. It's not cheap, but it's definitely worth it to go there at least once. I've been several times and never get sick of it.

Happy birthday, Matt! I'm so glad you're mine. :)

The Secret of the Sound of Music

2011-02-03T14:16:00.001-07:00

Saw this on YouTube the other day... it's along the lines of the "Scary Mary" trailer for Mary Poppins. This one cracked me up.

Owen-isms

2011-01-22T20:54:00.000-07:00

Matt and I took Owen with us to a CVS the other day. It happens to be located right next to a Taco Bell. As soon as we got out of the car, Owen said "Oh! I want to go to Jingle Bell!"

Owen asked me one morning if he could have some fruit snacks that he got in his stocking at Christmas. I told him no, and he said "mommy, you need to be a nice girl!"

If Owen ever hears me or Matt talking about him but not to him, he says "mom, I'm right here!" as in "I can hear you - don't talk about me!" Cracks me up every time.

Matt was telling me in the car about a news article he read about China, and from the backseat we hear "Dad, China is from Kung-Fu Panda!".... yes Owen, China was invented just for that movie.

Sweet boy

2011-01-14T13:49:00.000-07:00

I'm in Utah for about 48 hours with my mom and sisters to buy a wedding dress for my sister Hilary. I left Owen with Matt back in CA, but I get to talk to him on the phone. Whenever I talk to him, he says "I wuv you, mama. You'll be right back and I want to hold you. Bye bye." Sweet little guy. :)

Christmas tree decorating

2010-12-23T10:45:00.000-07:00

We got to decorate three Christmas trees this year - one at Grandma Bromley's, one at Matt's house, and one at Grandma Auman's house. Owen loved playing with all the ornaments, though he wasn't great at actually getting them on the tree. He loves to look at all the Christmas decorations, and he is SO excited to be able to open the presents under the tree.

I love Owen's face in this one. He loves looking at the village.

Grandma with the finished tree.

Discovering the nutcracker's mouth.

Telling Santa what he wants.

Owen LOVES this...

2010-12-10T12:12:00.000-07:00

Getting ready for Christmas!

2010-12-05T16:01:00.000-07:00

This is the first year that Owen has been old enough to understand a little bit of what Christmas is about. For the past few weeks as we read scriptures with him at night, we've talked about different aspects of the Christmas story. He knows that Jesus was born in a stable, and that there was a star, and that the shepherds came to see him. He doesn't quite understand what the three kings are yet, but hopefully we'll get there before Christmas. We had a Primary party the other day where all the kids dressed up as shepherds, kings, angels, etc. and we acted out the nativity, which he loved. We've also been telling him about Santa and Christmas trees and about what goes under them (he's very sure about that part :). Anyway, we're been doing lots of preparing for Christmas. These pictures are from gingerbread house making and the Primary activity. I'll put up the tree-decorating ones in a few days. Enjoy!

Owen was the main designer and candy-sticker-on-er for our house.

Our cute little shepherd, waiting to go to the primary activity.

The shepherds in our primary tending their goat.

The whole crew in the manger with Andy the "camel" (can you see her hump?)

Hope everyone is having as great a Christmas season as we are!