straight shooter

Hey I don't work at all this week! And turns out I only blog at work (don't tell my work)! So I'm going to be gone from here mostly until next Monday I think.

However, I will leave you with a treat. The weekend before Christmas I went to Colorado Springs to visit Katie and drive back to Salt Lake for the holiday with her. We walked past this old timey photo place and talked about how when we were little we always wanted to do it, but knew with the cost and a crapload of kids, it wasn't going to happen for our family.

Best thing about being a grown-up? Being able to fulfill childhood dreams.

See you next week.

hot cookin'

Sometime in November Naomi shared a recipe for Cranberry Orange Scones on her Google Reader. I thought the recipe looked really good and in an uncharacteristic move I printed it, stopped at the store for ingredients, went home and baked. And I was successful! Because my scones looked like the picture scones (which is how you measure baking success right?)!

So I think I've made them like 5 times since then because I like to really pound into the ground a baked good that works for me. I made a bunch last night to give to my co-workers and they're so good and so easy and a nice holiday treat that isn't super sweet. And don't you just want to bake on snowy days anyway?


Cranberry Orange Scones Recipe via The Way The Cookie Crumbles
**I think the recipe makes more like 12 scones rather than 8

forces at work

Last week my friend Nicole hosted a DIY craft night and had found a spectacular wreath of pom-poms for the project. I forgot Christmas is like tomorrow and figured I had enough time to make a Christmas colored wreath...cus how long can it take to make little pom-poms?

The answer is forever when you need this many.

Luckily it's cute enough that it's worth the work! Unluckily, we don't have a door hanger so I'll get around to getting one probably like the week after Christmas.

Which means this will be hanging until June probably.

it's christmas! let's be glad

Blog, did you think I had abandoned you? Well I did.

But it was only a week and I was very busy everywhere on the internets looking at all the crap I want to get people for Christmas (that I won't really get) and looking at all the holiday crafts I'd like to craft (that I won't really craft) and thinking of all the holiday baking I'd like to bake (that I won't really bake). Sometimes it's overwhelming really. Does anyone else think with regularity about how awesome it would be to be independently wealthy? Anybody?

Anyway, I went to a friend's cabin up Big Cottonwood Canyon over the weekend and it was wonderful. Wonderful because we sat around a huge table forever enjoying great food and then moved around the fireplace forever and enjoyed great conversation and some games. And there were Christmas lights and garland and cozy blankets. And all of that would have been enough to make the cabin stay wonderful...but I fell asleep late, late Friday night looking out the giant windows in front of me. And there stood leggy pines outlined against the gray-blue sky, with stars glinting in the dark.

It was peace and stillness like I don't take in often enough. And I thought, hey your life is pretty nice Emily.

So Saturday I woke up to the sounds and smells of Dallas preparing rolled oat pancakes 15 feet away while morning light flooded my sleeping space.

And I thought again, hey your life is pretty nice Emily. Even if you're not independently wealthy.

can't take my eyes off of you

This is what I saw in the backseat of my mom's car today.

He's like an adorable little muppet or something.

getting the done job

Do you ever have 960 items in your Google Reader and the thought of getting through them makes you feel like you've put off a school assignment? Only duh...it's not a school assignment Emily, you have no obligation (but you do because think how good you'll feel about yourself when you get through all of that!).

I also feel like I've accomplished something productive in life when I make it all the way through a TV series on DVD, so whatever.

a sunday smile

Does anyone else's Sunday mornings look like this?

And then lately like this too?

(I totally forgot it was Fast Sunday yesterday)

heroes and villians

I finally saw Fantastic Mr. Fox last night and it made me want to have 10 babies to watch it with (and to listen to the soundtrack with).

this road I'm travelling

I did a terrible job taking photos in California. I think the problem was two fold.

First fold- around Aaron's family and friends I didn't want to be the constantly photo snapping person I usually am around my friends and family (cus maybe annoying).

Second fold- any time Aaron and I are alone, I have a hard time taking pictures of just him and then pictures of just me...cus boring town. I mean, it's not like either of us are Morgan after all.

But here is a quick idea of our time there.

Uncle time!

Sausalito time

Skeleton face time

Pizza time

Tunnel time

Garrett time!

Sibling time

Baby time

So true time

body movin'

Hi, I went to California for Thanksgiving. And I ate my way through 2 cities and 2 ten hour car rides. Then I came home and Hoon's mom had filled our house with candy.

And did I tell you that before all of that I ordered sweatpants that didn't fit me? SWEATPANTS THAT DIDN'T FIT. So it's going to be a long month around here guys...

the news

Come sometime around May, this little Morgan face

will be joined by a little baby brother face! Kill me now cus I can't handle how cute 2 of them will be.

So far Clifford: The Next Generation would be a total hit in China (you know, cus only boys).

i belong to you

Hey whole world, I joined the throngs and I also saw New Moon last night. Janelle recently did some serious shopping at the teenage section of Nordstrom which got her 4 fancy tickets to an early showing at a theater in Orem.


So Janelle and Tasha and Michelle and I entered a strange land of rich teenagers and the rich moms who dress like teenagers where everyone was wearing too many things in their hair and also SO MANY UGGS. But wow, we had a great night.

And of course, I have some thoughts about the actual movie.
1. Did anyone else notice that Edward's vampire nipples are weird? Cus they are totally weird.
2. The Indian kid actually gives Bella a dream catcher. Hilarious!
3. Teenage love is REALLY serious guys.
4. Did the bigger budget somehow make the dad hotter? Cus he seemed hotter.
5. But why did the bigger budget only pay for Jacob's muscles and not the other werewolf boys' muscles?

After I couldn't help but think two things. You want like a really great surly teenager who is obsessively in love? Pleas watch My So-Called Life (Jordan Catalano!). You want a really great love triangle? Please watch Felicity.

spanish bombs

Aaron and I went to a surprise birthday party for our friend Zach last night. It was Mexican fiesta themed.

See?


And I have two really good Mexican Aaron jokes from the party.

Okay, so after the surprise part everyone (white people) played a party game of Pin the Moustache On the Zach...


everyone except Aaron (the Mexican) who was in the kitchen cooking!!!

Then we went outside to do the pinata.

The birthday boy took a shot,

Kim took a shot,

Miaken took a shot...

but only Aaron could really break the pinata (its in his blood)!!!

Oh man, I crack myself up. Anyway...it was a great night.

happy kid

I love pizza. Like could eat it for dinner every night kind of love it. I also have never met a hot dog I didn't like. So maybe sometimes I get teased about having the taste buds of a 5 year old. And I like to think that's not entirely true. But then I was just looking at my afternoon snack.

Which apparently I'll finish eating before I take a nap on my floor mat.

natural beauty

Have you been missing Morgan around here?

Well now he does this face when he knows his picture is being taken.

And he can find his tummy and his nose and 2 out of 3 times he correctly identifies the adults around him.

Oh I love that baby-who-is-turning-into-a-kid.

i know there's an answer

I've only seen the trailer, but hey Cameron Diaz...how about, don't push the button?

money, money, money

Back in October on the way home from the Vegas Ragnar race, we listened to an episode of This American Life called, Return To The Giant Pool Of Money which discussed in a really understandable way last year's economic collapse. Like really, everyone should listen to it (and probably also the original The Giant Pool Of Money too).

And part of the reason it was so understandable is because of the Planet Money guys, who know how to take financial talk and turn it into normal people talk. I thought they were great and Aaron informed me that they have a podcast every week where they talk in normal person talk about whatever crazy financial stuff is happening in the country. And Aaron subscribes to it.

So the very next week when I heard an ad on the radio saying those Planet Money guys, Alex Blumberg and Adam Davidson were coming to Salt Lake for an interview I got us tickets. What a great girlfriend!

That interview was last week and it was very cool and informative and mostly filled with grownups. But we were okay because Aaron was wearing a cardigan.



Seriously though, listen to those guys.

homewrecker

I saw this bookmark at Barnes & Noble last week (when I went to buy a book that was in the New Age section...self roast).

Women of America, I am ashamed.

sad sad city

I think the internet just made me realize I can never be pretty with my current short haircut.

Feel really sorry for me please.

be there

construct,

write down,

light,

and goodbye sins!

we live again

We're making Loy Krathong boats again this year to float anger and grudges down City Creek. And again we won't be making the beautiful banana leaf boats you'd see in Thailand,

but rather, we're making paper plates and construction paper boats like you'd see in an elementary school art class.

I was a gypsy like 3 years in a row in elementary school cus I was allowed to wear big hoop earrings and a bunch of my mom's scarves and jewelry. Like mother like daughter I suppose cus my make-shift office party costume today came completely from my own wardrobe this morning.


But I've said it before- I'm a bit of a fair weather Halloween fan. Like New Year's Eve, in theory it's ripe for a crazy party evening...but oh so often it just ends up kind of falling more on the mellow end. Which is fine by me in these years until I have little babies I can dress up as hot dogs (I will dress my children like hot dogs). I'm glad though I did a couple of social pre-Halloween activities; I've gotten all the spirit of the season and pumpkin treats without any of the plastic costume and spray on hair paint smell.

Like pumpkin carving at the 3rd Annual Pumpkin Carving Party...

and pumpkin vomiting,

and Pac-Man jack-o-lanterns.

Or Aaron looking so cute and domestic in the kitchen preparing leaf tortilla chips

to go with his Halloween 7 layer bean dip,

which we took to our friend Dallas' very specific Martha Stewart Halloween Dessert Party (I made the pumpkin tart with the spider web on it).

And I even kind of wore a costume when Brita and I tried on our prizes for winning the food appearance competition.


Happy Halloween!