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.

Thanks for voting in my poll, everyone! I'm hoping that when February rolls around, I won't disappoint you guys. I appreciate your confidence! It's a Wednesday that feels like a Monday. I hate holidays in the middle of the week! I worked most of yesterday, then took Kyle to the mall. My trip was threefold in purpose:

1. Look for deals on winter fashion;

2. Serve as my own "advance team" for Christmas shopping;

3. Perform some recon for formal dress shopping.

First, let me just say that retailers must be anticipating slow sales this holiday season, because I have never seen such deep discounts so early in the year, especially on clothes. A lot of new merchandise is already 25-30% off, and that means after Christmas, it will be a fire sale. I plan to stock up on lots of sweaters, long-sleeve shirts, and maybe even a new coat soon.

Also, Kyle is not turning out to be a very a good shopper. He got bored at the mall and began to fuss, then started reaching out from his stroller and tried to pull clothes off the racks. Then, when I let him out of the stroller after we went down the escalator, he ran right over to the "down" escalator and tried to stick his little fingers in the space where the stairs fold and go into the machinery. When I took his arm and led him away from the escalator, he threw a temper tantrum (screaming and crying) right in the middle of Macy's, the little stinker. I put him back in the stroller and wheeled him off, and luckily, he stopped crying about a minute later. Hmmmmm.....quick temper, but doesn't hold grudges. I wonder where he got that trait from? :)

Weekend Update

Hi everyone! We hope that everybody is having a great weekend. I am taking this weekend to catch up on lots of projects around the house and even get started on a little Christmas shopping! November is already almost one-third over, and Thanksgiving is late this year. Therefore, because I hate it when things are left to the last minute, I'm trying to get ahead on it now.

We went to our friend Tranylle's wedding reception last night. It was so fun! She looked beautiful. Here's a picture of Asa and Kyle. It's kind of fuzzy because I took it with my phone and the lighting in the back of the room was a bit dim:

Before we went to the wedding, we had to go shopping at Bed Bath & Beyond for a wedding gift. We got Tranylle and her new husband a breadbox that they wanted, but we were sorely tempted to get her an old-time popcorn popper, just like they used to have on The Price Is Right (or maybe like they still have now...I haven't watched TPIR lately)(unfortunately). Here are two old-time popcorn poppers currently in stock at BB&B. One is a hot air popper, and the other is a kettle-style, like the kind that go on wheels. I have to be honest, I'd be pretty happy if I woke up on Christmas morning and saw one of these babies parked under my Christmas tree!

And, just so you can get a sense of what a true old-time popper is supposed to look like, here's picture of me posing with one that we saw at a restaurant in Ocean City a few months ago. It's also a little blurry...but you get the idea:

Also on our to-do list yesterday was shoe-shopping for Kyle. We found these babies at Kohl's, which is one of my favorite stores for kid-shopping. These shoes were normally $34.99, but on sale for $24.99. I used a $10 off coupon to take them down to $14.99, and then used my Kohl's charge card for another 30% off that for a grand price of $11.40. Love it!!

Kyle's been taking a nap this morning, so I did these two scrapbooking layouts. One is of our trip to the pumpkin patch a few weeks ago when Kyle's Grammy and Granddad were here. The other is some of the best Disneyland pictures.

In other news, I tried a new soda yesterday that is so yummy. It is Sierra Mist Cranberry Splash. I picked up a 12-pack yesterday at Smith's because it was on sale. It's so good, it's enough to make me forget about Diet Coke.

JUST KIDDING! I'll never give up Diet Coke. But Sierra Mist Cranberry Splash is pretty good. If you see it on sale, and you are looking for a perfect afternoon or evening caffeine-free beverage, I highly recommend it. I'm also making a roast today, and looking forward to today's football games. Here's to hoping I can pull off a big win against Jeff in Fantasy Football!

Fun Videos!

Here are some fun videos that we took at Disneyland.

Kyle has recently learned how to blow kisses. It's so cute!

Here's Kyle at Coldstone Creamery. The look on his face when he eats the lemon sorbet is just priceless!

The week is going well, other than that. So happy that tomorrow is Friday! I am going to make a homemade spaghetti sauce on Saturday in the crockpot. I'll let everyone know if it turns out well. If it doesn't, then you probably won't hear about it again. Haha! I also need to do more research for our cruise. We are going to book our shore excursions next weekend. Plus, we're planning a trip next year to Montreal, Canada. The dates aren't definite yet, but probably June 13-20. The last time I went to Canada was for work in 2005. I went to Toronto, but I only got to spend two days there. I think it will be pretty cool to go to Montreal where everyone speaks French. Kind of like going to France, but not as far.

I also got word from the State Bar of Utah that my background check is finished and my application has been formally approved by the Character and Fitness Committee. All systems go for February 24!

Winter is coming to the LV!

Hi everyone! It was 44 degrees when we pulled out of the driveway this morning. Brrrr! That's cold for Las Vegas in November. I could not resist snapping a cute pic of Kyle in his coat and long pants on the way to school. He looked too cute! Fun plans for today include status letters for me in the morning and a deposition in the afternoon. This evening I need to upload some cute Disneyland videos to the blog and work on cleaning and organizing...my never-ending project!

It's Thursday, everyone! The weekend is almost here! :)

More Disneyland Pics

These are just a few more pictures that I had in my phone. I thought I'd share them with you:

Kyle gears up for his road trip. Check out his new big-boy car seat!

Here are Jeff and Kyle in line for the Finding Nemo ride:

Kyle was all eyes on the Finding Nemo ride. We didn't even have to wait that long for one of Disneyland's most popular attractions...about 15 minutes.

We went into L.A. on Friday afternoon to visit one of Jeff's cousins. On the drive back, we got stuck in rush hour. It took us nearly 90 minutes to travel the 35 miles from the Los Feliz section of L.A. to Anaheim. Here, Kyle expresses his feelings on SoCal traffic:

Other than that, I'm just happy to chill at home watching the election coverage. It has just been a crazy day! Since Kyle is still waking up early (no thanks to the end of daylight savings time), I got up at 4:30 and was at work by 5:45. I took an hour to go vote and run errands and ran back to the office, leaving at 3:45 to go get him. I got him home and luckily he took a short nap while I did a conference call with an expert on one of my cases. Then, he woke up very sad. I think he's teething again. His Orajel is at school so we just ran down to Smith's to get another tube. He's doing MUCH better now, and may be up to dinner in a bit.

In other news, I got a letter from the Utah bar about the bar exam. It will be held at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City on February 24-25 -- exactly 16 weeks from today. It's definitely getting closer!

Have a great evening, everyone!

Disneyland Fun!

Hey everyone! I'm so excited to post the pictures from our Disneyland trip. We had such a fun time! Here are some of the top highlights:

Kyle gears up for the weekend with a power breakfast at Denny's -- more specifically, a Junior Grand Slam:


The park was decorated for Halloween with pumpkins and fall colors:

Kyle rides the carousel. He really liked to look at the horses and all the other kids that were riding on the merry-go-round.

Here's Kyle in a cartoon car at Mickey's Toontown. What Jeff's artful photography doesn't show is the screaming, bratty 3-year-old in the car next to Kyle. His mom tried to take him out of the car so Kyle could have his picture taken...but the kid wouldn't get out, and didn't even want Kyle to get in the car. What a baby. Kyle shows that this didn't faze him with his typical aplomb:

We rode on the rocket ships near Tomorrowland. So much fun to make the rocket ships go up and down while we rode them...

This is a pic of the three of us on the ladybug ride in A Bug's Life:

Kyle and I pose before a ride on Flik's Flyers in a Bug's Life. This was a fun one! I'm not sure what Kyle's looking at here...


Asa and Kristol were absolute angels to watch Kyle for about two hours so that Jeff and I could go on some adult rides. Thanks, guys! You're the best! We caught up with them as they went for a ride on Heimlich's Chew-Chew Train! Look at those baby skills they both have! We think they'd do well with a little munchkin of their own.

During our kid-free time, we went on the Tower of Terror. Here we are in line:

We also went on the wild river rafting ride. As you can see, I got wet! I look like I got into a wet T-shirt contest and lost! Haha!

Disneyland just wore Kyle out! Here he is back at the condo for one of our rest breaks. He fell asleep in the stroller on the way back from the park!

We love Disneyland! We can't wait for our next trip!

Daylight Savings Time Ends

Good morning everyone. Daylight savings time is over, so don't forget to turn back your clocks an hour. I saw earlier this weekend that daylight savings time was scheduled to end this weekend, and thought, "Oh, goody. An extra hour of sleep." However, I neglected to pass that memo along to Kyle, so he woke up, raring to go, at 5:03 a.m. Ugh. I put him in his stroller and walked across the street to get a cup of hot chocolate, because Diet Coke seemed indecent at that hour (even to me). I'm now watching re-runs of SportsCenter while Kyle scoots an old box around the floor of the condo, picking up odd bits of things (pieces of leaves, crumbs, etc.) and putting them in the box. And thinking about those lucky ducks that get an extra hour of sleep. ZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Cute Disneyland Pics

Here are a few cute pics that we took with our phones, so we can upload them now. Most of the pics are on the regular camera, so I won't have a chance to download them until tomorrow night. Here's Kyle with his Halloween sweatshirt:

And here he is getting ready for the Finding Nemo ride:

We are headed back to Vegas tomorrow. I can't wait to post some of the great pictures from the trip! We hope that everyone is having a great weekend. We are exhausted! We were thinking about going back to the park for the parade and fireworks tonight, but an evening eating junk food and watching the Jazz game while Kyle sleeps sounds pretty dang good!