35 is the new 25!!!

That's my motto of the day. Haha! This morning I worked while Kyle napped, and then we headed out to shop at The District at South Jordan. My old jeans got too big (or maybe I got too small, haha!) so I splurged on two new pairs. One is Miss Me and the other is BKE. Apparently they're all the rage these days. (Of course, when my American Express bill comes, *I'll * be all the rage when it comes time to pay it. Ha!) Jeff is at work, but he'll be back soon. Kyle's taking a quick afternoon nap now, and I'm taking a break from discovery summaries to post this update. Then, we're all going to the Italian place down the street for my birthday. Yay!

Here's a cute picture from this morning. I call it, "Kyle is a two-fisted drinker!"




We hope that everyone is having a great week, and has fun plans for New Year's Eve tomorrow!

Sledding fun!

This morning, Kyle and I ventured out to Target and Sports Authority for a little after-Christmas shopping. We stocked up on wrapping paper and ornaments at Target, then ambled over to Sports Authority to stock up on winter clothes! Winter in Utah isn't too bad as long as you have the right gear. Kyle and I used the money that my parents gave me for Christmas on snowsuits for ourselves at the Sports Authority sale. Their snow gear was on sale 25-40% off, which was very nice as it made our money go ever farther.

Here's Kyle in his new snowsuit, topped off with his Nittany Lion hat:

He can't wait for his first sled ride!

Here are Kyle and I, decked out in our new winter snow gear:

"Bring me the sled, Mommy!"

The temperature was only about 19 degrees!

We took a couple of videos to show off our sledding skills:

Here are Kyle and Jeff taking their turn:

We hope that everyone is having a great Christmas and staying warm!

Adventures with Elmo

Here are some of the cutest videos that we took yesterday. Jeff's parents got Kyle an Elmo Live for Christmas. Initially, it seems like he just didn't know what to make of the little red monster! However, after just a few minutes, he was hugging and kissing Elmo like an old friend:

I also wanted to post a super-cute pic of Kyle wearing his cute little Nittany Lion hat. My brother, who attends the graduate business program at Penn State, got Kyle this ideal cold-weather hat. Kyle didn't get any WSU Cougar or UW Husky gear this Christmas...maybe because of the dismal record of both football teams?

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

I uploaded some of the best pictures from this morning. Here are the three of us, before the present-opening festivities began:





This is Kyle, as he unveiled his Cozy Coupe:

Here are Kyle and Jeff as they tore into their stockings:

I'm going to have to do the videos separately. They are taking a long time to upload! We just finished dinner. We had ham, mashed sweet potatoes, stuffing, and rolls. We're going to have a coconut cream pie later! We're off to play with Elmo Live now!

Christmas Eve!

Good evening, everyone! Kyle and I made it up to Salt Lake last night. We had a pretty good drive, and made the trip from Las Vegas to Herriman in a little over 6 hours. We only hit one brief snowstorm outside of Cedar and then the rest of the way, it was smooth sailing! It was so cold, though! Right outside of Levan/Yuba Lake the thermometer of my car registered -2. Brrrrrr! I saw later it was -9 in Ephraim. I honestly don't know how people can live in that. I guess a subscription to the Cabela's catalog would be in order!

Today we had a great time. We went grocery shopping and to Target, just running a few last minute errands. Kyle got to ride the outdoor merry-go-round at Smith's. We got a pizza to bake at home for dinner. It was very relaxing and low key.

Here are a few pictures from today that Jeff took with his camera:

Kyle on the merry-go-round outside Smith's:


Kyle in the grocery car at the store:

Kyle and I at the indoor playground at Chick-Fil-A:

The backyard -- so snowy!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Our Christmas Tree!

We put up our Christmas tree this afternoon! I think it looks really nice. It was an eventful day. We got up and hit Target and Kohl's. I had a coupon for 30% everything at Kohl's and also a card for a $10 gift card for every $50 we spent. We ended up getting a TON of stuff -- I got three sweaters, some things for Kyle, three or four photo albums for pictures, a pair of running shoes, and some long-sleeved Nike T-shirts. I'm find that my Las Vegas wardrobe isn't working too well in these sub-freezing temperature! :) It's 19 right now! Brrrrrrr!

Here's a picture of the tree. I think it turned out well!

We also went sledding today with some new sleds that we got at Target! They were cheapie plastic sleds but we had a LOT of fun -- it was cold, so it was a good thing that we bundled up. Tomorrow we've got football watching and present wrapping, and MAYBE some bar studying. Then I'm back to Vegas tomorrow night for two days back at work, then driving up Tuesday night for Christmas vacation! I'm so excited!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

L@@K! Snow in the LV, everyone!

Here's a sight that you hardly ever see:

This was the view from my office yesterday afternoon. Snow rarely falls in Las Vegas, and it was so fun to see big white chunky snowflakes falling on the palm trees! Today there is a little left on the golf course across the street. I'm glad this is a short week...I'm taking off Thursday afternoon for SLC, where I'm certain to see more fluffy white stuff! In fact, the overnight low for Friday is supposed to be 5 degrees! Brrrrrrrrr!

In other news, my bar exam prep is going well. I'm scoring 60-80% correct on my practice questions at this time. This is a vast improvement over how I was doing last time I studied for the MBE. I think when I started studying in 2004, I was only averaging 50% right at the beginning, and a week before the test I was averaging about 65-70% correct. I still have lots of studying to do, but I think I'll get where I need to be fairly quickly. Two weeks before the test, I'd like to be averaging 75-85% right on all of my subjects.

Have a good day, everyone!

Change of plans!

I just hate it when I have to change my plans at the last minute...especially if it means changing them from doing something that I really wanted to do. My flight on Friday afternoon was delayed so long that I just decided to stay in Las Vegas, especially since there was no guarantee that I'd be getting to SLC at 9:30 with a cranky toddler. So I stayed in town just hanging with Kyle Monster and doing some preliminary bar exam preparation. I was pleasantly surprised to find out from my practice tests that I'm not nearly as far behind as I thought I would be. I'm hoping that assimilating this information is going to be fairly easy and that I won't have to take too much time off of work or spend a lot of time away from Kyle to get ready. And of course, I took some time out from studying to go down to the Las Vegas Outlet Centers to see if they had anything at the Coach store that I couldn't live without (they did):




I'm pleased to note that Kyle's molars are almost all the way in. He's definitely feeling better and eating a lot more. I didn't like it when my poor little Kyle wasn't happy with his teeth! Here he is today putting away orange sections. (Note: His bib is a Christmas bib that says, "Dear Santa: I've been good all year long (mostly).)

In other news, I definitely feel like I'm getting ready for the 5k on January 17. Today I ran 2.0 miles on the road without stopping. Tomorrow I'm going to try to run 2.5 miles on the treadmill at PT. At least this week is a short week! I'm planning to get further ahead on hours than I already am, and leave for SLC on Thursday afternoon (please pray for good weather!) We hope that everyone is having a good weekend!

Christmas Excitement

I'm getting excited for the holidays, everyone! I still have a bit to do to get ready, but I'm getting there. I'm excited that a big project at work is done as of yesterday, so now I just have minor projects and tasks that will take me up through the 24th! Kyle and I are going to SLC tonight on the 5:45 Delta flight. So excited to possibly play in snow this weekend! I'll be sure to take lots of great pictures! Other fun plans are to go visit the fish in the aquarium at Cabela's and shop for a Christmas tree. Have a great weekend, everyone! :)

Wednesday Update

We hope that everyone is having a great week so far. I wanted to post these pictures yesterday, but it was such a long day. I left the house at 6:15 for work, worked until 4, then went downtown to two meetings, and didn't get home until 9. Yuck. Those are not my favorite days! I've also got a binding arbitration set for tomorrow. Let's just say I'm looking forward to taking it easy this weekend.

On Sunday, Kyle woke up to two mean top teeth coming in. We don't like naughty teeth! They hurt our Kyle!



After some Baby Anbesol and Baby Tylenol, Kyle felt up to helping Mommy cook:

Here's a cute picture of Kyle and I, taken by my mom, this past weekend.

I finished "The Gate House" by Nelson DeMille. It was so good! Although, I'm a little sorry to say that that's probably my last novel for about 12 weeks, because bar studying starts later this month! Right now I'm in the process of sorting and organizing my materials and putting together a study schedule. Next week I plan to begin reviewing my MBE materials and take my first Simulated MBE after the first of the year. This will give me a good barometer of not just what subjects I'm weak on, but exactly how to prepare for the real MBE. I scored a 134 last time. I'd like to get at least that score this time, if not higher. The real MBE consists of 200 multiple-choice questions -- 3 hours of 100 questions on Wednesday morning, and 3 hours of 100 questions in the afternoon. The more practice questions that a person does during the study period, the more prepared they are for the real exam. I want to say I did about 1500 practice questions in 2004. I'd like to do at least that many this time. When doing practice questions under exam conditions, at 1.8 minutes per question, that's 45 hours of review time.

The MBE tests the following subjects:

Criminal Law/Procedure

Evidence (Federal Rules)

Contracts

Torts

Real Property

Constitutional Law

I'll have to write more about the essays later. In other news, my office is freezing this morning, and I gotta go to get exhibits ready for an arbitration tomorrow. Have a good day, everyone! :)

Kyle, last Christmas

Here is a video of Kyle last Christmas when my brother and I were wrapping presents...which became an "Instant Christmas Classic." I think I'll post it every year, just for posterity's sake. It's just crazy to think that he's grown so much in just a year! :)

Have a great weekend, everyone! We hope your Christmas preparations are going well! :)

New Park Pictures

Here are a couple of pictures that Jeff took at the park last Sunday. They turned out so cute!



Kyle is getting to be such a big boy! I can't believe all the things that he can do. He's down to one nap a day most days, and can say so many words, including:

Daddy
Mom/Mama
Kitty
No
Fish
Puppy
Dog
Please
Thank you
Bye-bye
Hi
Cup
Di-di (Diaper)
Ball
Shoes

...plus a few others that I can't think of right now. He can also make a lot of sounds. If he sees a motorcycle or car, or even a picture, he will make motor sounds with his mouth (Vrooom, vroom, vrooom!) He will also growl if he sees something fierce, like a picture of a lion or a tiger, or the Redskins mascot. (Grrrrrrr!)

We hope that everyone's week is going well. My mom and dad are coming to visit tomorrow so I'ma ,, just getting the house ready and everything in order. So, I better go...I just found Kyle trying to eat Kitty's dry cat food! Yuck!

Kyle at the Airport & Adventures in Toddler Toys

Today we flew from SLC to LV. We had a little extra time at the airport, so we visited the little airport playground on the A concourse. This was Kyle's first visit to the play area and he just loved it! The first thing that he did was run over to this little basketball hoop and start picking up the blocks on the floor and throwing the blocks through the hoop.






He alternated between the basketball and this little lawnmower that made popping sounds when it's pushed:

Unfortunately, we did have to leave the playground eventually to catch our flight (and to get a clean diaper on before we boarded the plane.) As you can imagine, this was not a popular decision with Kyle. If you would like to picture the look on his face when I picked him up and put him in his stroller, check out the "squareface" picture below when I took him out of the little car at Smith's!

I haven't gotten a chance to download the pictures off my camera yet but I'll try to do that tonight or tomorrow. I took some cute shots of Jeff and I putting together the Police Patrol Car Cozy Coupe. Or, I should say, attempting to put together the Police Patrol Car. The people at Little Tikes have a sick sense of humor. Apparently, they think it's funny to make the hard molded plastic pieces impossible to fit together....as if parenting a toddler wasn't enough to drive one insane at times to begin with. Anyway, I'm glad we didn't wait until the night before Christmas to attempt this. It wouldn't have been pretty. I mean, I can understand if I, a 125-pound weakling, couldn't put together a toy car. But Jeff had as difficult a time as I did, and he's someone who lifts weights, runs six miles for fun, and often arrests people who do not wish to be arrested. He's tough! We spent over an hour dinking around with the Cozy Coupe, getting more and more frustrated with the inflexible parts and incomprehensible directions that were printed in six languages and probably didn't make sense in any of them. I think we're contemplating just getting Kyle a real police car being sold at auction since it already comes pre-assembled. Come on, Little Tikes. Give us parents a break!

Here's what the ad SHOULD say:

Little Tikes Police Patrol Car! Hours of fun for your kids!*

(*Parents not pictured; they're currently in mental lockdown)


So, I'm off now to Google "Assembly Secrets Little Tikes Cozy Coupe." Wish me luck!

Thanksgiving weekend!

Good morning everyone!  We hope that everyone is having a great weekend and had a super Turkey Day.  I wanted to post two pictures of Kyle from Thanksgiving morning that still have me giggling.  I've got more pictures on my regular camera, but those will have to wait until they can be downloaded back in LV.

Early on Thanksgiving morning, Kyle and I ventured out to the grocery store so that we could stock up on some extra Turkey Day supplies.  When Kyle goes grocery shopping with me, he gets easily bored and after about 10 or 15 minutes, begins trying to climb out of the cart.  My mom had a good idea -- to get one of the grocery carts that have the little car in the front and let him sit in that while I do my shopping.  The idea is that he'll be so preoccupied with the little car that he wouldn't try to climb out.  This turned out to be a great solution to the climbing-out-of-the-cart problem.  However, now I have another problem...formulating an exit strategy for getting Kyle out of the little car and into the adult car to go home!

Here's Kyle as I unloaded the groceries in the parking lot:

And here he is about 30 seconds later, when I took him out of the little car and put him in his car seat:


Too funny!  Well, we are having a great weekend -- thinking about hitting the Golden Corral for breakfast, then grocery shopping and football-watching.  If we get VERY ambitious, we may go for a run.  I'm a little apprehensive about going running in high altitude.  We went to the Jazz game last night which was very fun.  I'm trying to talk Jeff into going again tonight if we can find some cheap tickets.  We'll see what happens!  Have a great weekend, everyone!  Don't forget to vote in the new poll!

P.S.  I was able to get in to see Alexis early, and the Great Hair Disaster has been remedied.  Whew!  That's a relief.  I will try to post new pics later!  :)

Christmas Shopping

Over the weekend, I managed to get quite a bit of Christmas shopping done. The mall wasn't busy at all, and there are already so many discounts at most of the major retailers due to the economy that you can stretch your money a long way. I'm already over halfway done. And while I won't be telling any secrets about what presents I bought for anyone (except maybe Kyle), I thought I would share with you some of the things on MY Christmas list this year...some serious and some silly. I'll leave it up to YOU to decide which is which:

Automatic sushi maker. Jeff says there's no such thing as an automatic sushi maker, and he's soooooo wrong:

Old-time popcorn popper (duh):

Furry boots, for those cold Herriman nights:

Black purse to replace the one that got stolen out of my car last month. I was going to put Gucci or Dior, but in this economy, it's more fashionable to pinch pennies. Therefore, I sensibly and frugally chose a Coach:



Redskins snack helmet...note different compartments for chips and dip:


Personal, in-home, Diet Coke fountain machine:




A new Mommymobile:

Baby brother or sister for Kyle:

My own helicopter to cut down travel time between SLC and LV:


Little cottage for weekend getaways (really more for Jeff than me, he says he's always wanted a cabin):


Happy shopping, everyone! ;P

Oh my gosh...love it, love it, love it!!

I can't attest to the veracity of this story, but it popped up on the FB site of a friend of mine from law school:

Redistributing the wealth 9:38pm

Here's a story I came across in the WSJ. It's from a letter to the editor recently published in the Chicago Tribune. Folks with big brass ones like A. Hart make me proud to be an American. Keep it in mind when you vote. Here's the story:

Redistributing wealth

On my way to lunch recently, I passed a homeless guy with a sign that read "Vote Obama; I need the money." I laughed. In a restaurant my server had on an "Obama 08" tie. Again I laughed. Just imagine the coincidence. When the bill came, I decided not to tip the server and explained to him that I was exploring the Barack-Obama-redistribution-of-wealth concept. He stood there in disbelief while I told him that I was going to redistribute his tip to someone who I deemed more in need—the homeless guy outside. The server angrily stormed from my sight. I went outside, gave the homeless guy $10 and told him to thank the server inside as I've decided he could use the money more. The homeless guy was grateful. At the end of my rather unscientific redistribution experiment, I realized the homeless guy was grateful for the money he did not earn, but the waiter was pretty angry that I gave away the money he did earn even though the actual recipient deserved money more. I guess redistribution of wealth is an easier thing to swallow in concept than in practical application.—A. Hart, Forest Park

OK -- end of political commentary, back to our regularly-scheduled programming. ;P

Apple Cup Agony

So I woke up this morning to the very rude sight of this picture, which a "friend" of mine from law school who went to WSU put on the Facebook site of everyone that he knows who went to Washington. He is a butthead for doing this...even though I have to admit that it was a pretty funny trick:



However, I have to be honest. The Huskies played terribly, and simply did not deserve to win that game. It was a consolation that Utah finished the season at 12-0 and will be going to a BCS bowl game. We watched the game over at the home of a friend of ours who has several children older than Kyle. His youngest son is in kindergarten. During halftime, the kids went out to play on the basketball court, and Kyle got inside this little car. He really seemed to like it. I think it means he'll like his police car when he gets that for Christmas:


Have a great Sunday, everyone! :)

New Kyle pics and video

Hey everyone, and Happy Thursday. There's less than a week to go before Thanksgiving. Gobble gobble! Don't forget to vote in the poll (to the right.)

I uploaded a bunch of new Kyle pics. Some have asked where all the Kyle pics went. Here's the problem: he's too dang fast now for me to take pictures of him! He either runs away from the camera or toward the camera to try to grab it away from me. Most of the pictures are blurry...just a fuzzy munchkin in action, such as below:


I think I'm going to have to invest in a digital SLR and some photography classes. There have been a few that turned out. Here they are.

Kyle has learned to push his fire truck up against the TV to try to change the channels when he can't find the remote:



Here he is before we took our walk yesterday. He just loves his stroller!

Occasionally, Kyle doesn't get his way. He likes to try to take knives out of the dishwasher and play with them. He also likes to pick up pens and try to write on the walls and furniture. When I see this, I take the knives/pens away. This is what happens:

Here's a fun video of Kyle. He knows how to touch his head and ears if you ask him. He can also clap his hands and touch his shoulders too. So cute!

In other news, I had a good appointment with my knee doctor yesterday. I'm going to do six more weeks of physical therapy and then I am discharged to a home exercise program. I'm looking forward to doing that. I definitely feel so much better than 8 weeks ago when I started. I remember being in a lot of pain in Cabo and in Maryland in September and having to limit a lot of my activites this whole year. Now, pretty much nothing. I can walk as long as I want to, and I've even started running part of the way on my walks. I'd like to build up to run about three miles at a time while pushing Kyle in the stroller. I am back to my law school fighting weight from 10 years ago! Yay! I will be turning 35 next month (or as I like to call it, twenty-fifteen) but I feel like I'm 25, physically anyway. It is a good feeling to not have constant pain anymore.

I also finished Heat Lightning. It was such a good book. I just started The Brass Verdict. We have some fun plans for the weekend, too. Kyle and I are going to do some Christmas shopping on Saturday, clean out the refrigerator and get things done ahead of time since we'll be out of town for Thanksgiving weekend.

Have a great rest of the week, everyone! :)

So these are the two dresses that I chose for the cruise in January. Unfortunately, the tropical dress that everyone loved was in stock, but not in my size. So, I opted for a satiny red tea-length dress and another one that is black and floor-length. You can't really tell from the picture, but the black dress has a wrap across the front that has this glittery but understated accent. I'm very excited. These pictures weren't taken in the greatest light, but you get the general idea. Also, I know that I just had my hair done a couple of weeks ago, but I'm already ready to go back and have more blonde put in. I always get these great ideas once a year or so about adding in brown, and then when I do, I always regret it. Next time I need you guys to talk me out of it, okay? :)



We're having a very fun time this weekend. Friday night we played bingo and won a ham! It's in the freezer right now, and we're going to bake it at Christmas. Yesterday we went to a party and watched the UFC fights. I was cheering for Randy Couture and I was disappointed that he didn't win. I'm very excited for the next big fight in December because Forest Griffin is fighting.  Forest goes to physical therapy with me.  While I use the leg machines for my knee, he uses the shoulder machines.  I also saw him once at Discount Tire when I was getting new tires put on my truck.

That's all for now.  Have a great weekend, everyone!  :)

Interesting Google Factoid

Did you know that if you do a Google Images search for "Notre Dame," you get pictures of both the Fighting Irish and the Parisian Cathedral?

Other semi-interesting factoids so far today:

1. I just got invited to sit on a panel entitled "Women & Careers" for a Women in Leadership conference in February.

2. I just ate a delicious donut with raspberry filling.

3. Can't wait until 11 because I'm leaving to go to the airport!!!

4. I am almost done writing a deposition summary.

5. I'm still weighing the costs and benefits of different types of old-time popcorn poppers.

6. Kyle got mad when his diaper got changed this morning. Such a temper! :)

7. I'm halfway through the book "Heat Lightning" by John Sandford. Soooo good!

I just read an article in the Deseret News about the gay & lesbian community now threatening to "blacklist" supporters of California's Proposition 8, after staging destructive protests at LDS temples and other church property in California and in Utah, organizing a Utah boycott, and lobbying for the church to lose its non-profit status.

This behavior shows exactly how much "tolerance" this contingent really has of other opinions. "I accept everyone and I believe in democracy, but anyone that disagrees with my liberal point of view is a hateful bigot who has no right to speak out" seems to be the order of the day. Now, as an attorney, I understand that to opponents of Prop 8, the matter is a constitutional issue of civil rights and not one to be put to a majority vote. However, a constitutional point-counterpoint analysis is beyond the scope of this blog, and in fact, I usually make a concerted effort to keep politics and religion off my blog altogether.

But I'm making an exception to that today to say enough is enough. A church has every right to participate in the political process and mobilize its members in the political process, just as any liberal non-profit organization, such as PETA, NARAL, or like organization does. And a political process can never take away a right that never existed to begin with until it was created by a panel of activist judges.

One exit poll on election day conducted in Southern California showed that the same African-Americans who turned out to vote Obama into office also voted in support of Proposition 8 at rates in excess of 70%. I don't see any gays or lesbians organizing protests or boycotts in Compton.

After observing the reactions of the gay and lesbian community over the past week since the election, especially those directed at the church, one verse from 1 Nephi comes very prominently to my mind about the guilty taking the truth to be hard, for it cutteth them to the very center.