December is flying by

We've been keeping busy, as I'm sure all of you are, too. We've baked a ton of cookies, gone to fun parties and loved getting Christmas cards in the mail. We've shopped and danced to our favorite holiday tunes in a kitchen that can actually fit us all!
Trent started basketball and he's on the Bull's. They've had a rough start to the season, but we're hoping it gets better after the break.

He's in the blue shorts.

Elise turned 7 on the ninth, and unfortunately came home from school early not feeling so well. Here's how we started the day, with her opening presents:

Here's how we ended the day, with her cake:

I took her to the doctor the next day and she had strep throat. She was miserable, and I was so happy the antibiotics started working right away. I am always so thankful for modern medicine when my kids are sick. I don't know how those pioneer women did it.
Here we are baking gingerbread men on Sunday. I've tried lots of new recipes this Christmas, some winners and some 'thanks, but don't make those again, mom.' I think we'll pass on these next year, but the kids had a great time. Rachel just thought it was playdough. Hailey was at a youth activity, so she missed all the fun.

I'm excited for my brother Kristopher to come down on Thursday and spend Christmas with us. It will just be us this year, which is a little weird, but it'll be good. To say the kids are looking forward to Christmas morning is a huge understatement, and I can't wait to see their faces that morning.

Merry Christmas to you and yours, and I hope you enjoy your holiday, like I know I will mine.

And here's a little extra I had to throw in. Rachel has been coming up with the best fashion statements lately, and here is what she treated us to tonight:

Halloween '09

Hailey looked at me in shock when I said I hadn't posted our Halloween pictures, so I'm being a good mom and getting them up, finally.

Greg and I were invited to an awesome couples party and we had to come as a famous TV or movie couple. We had a blast that night!

Group shot before they all took off.

Our UPS Driver. Can you see who the package is going to?

The best Transformer money can buy, Bumblebee.

Our pretty ballerina.

Cuter than Christian Bale.

Pablo the Backyardigan. She was supposed to be Cinderella but freaked out when I put the dress on her. Luckily Elise suggested Seth's old costume, and she was very happy. She loves the Backyardigans! Her favorite phrase is now, "I go trick or treat with Daddy! I Pablo! I like candy!", said in the cutest voice you've ever heard.

It was a Beautiful Day

I haven't posted in a month, and I'm sorry, Mom! Life has been insane and there is a lot I need to record, so I'll just get to it.
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October 23rd will now be known as U2 Day in our home. That is the day Greg and I went to see them in Vegas and there will never be another concert to top it. Our friends Ken and Katie Craig live in Vegas, so after meeting up with them, we headed to Sam Boyd Stadium. Our new best friend Jason had been waiting in line for all of us since noon. We had general admission tickets, so when the gates finally opened at 6 pm, it was mayhem, everyone running across the field, trying to get the best positions. This is the set up of the stage. Click on it to appreciate how massive it was.

Well, we ended up in the inner circle, about ten rows of people in front of us, and three behind us. On the picture above, see the person on the left side of the screen, inside the circle? We were a little bit closer than that. Perfect!

This is Ken. He and Greg have been friends since their freshman year at BYU. They had seen U2 in Vegas in '92, fresh off their missions; they had a lot of fun rehashing that night and complaining about how old they've gotten.

The Black Eyed Peas opened the show, and they were good. Not really my kind of music, but compared to most opening acts, they didn't suck. That Fergie can sing, even when she is singing about blankets.

The lights went out and the spectacle began. We were treated to songs from their new album, as well as classics. They played for 2 hours and they were amazing. There were two bridges that rotated, allowing the band to reach the outer circle. When the bridge stopped, where were we?

Yes, that is Bono. (It's not the best recording, but you can see how close we were.) The Edge also played a solo on 'End of the World', right above us. We could see the bracelets on his arms, the insane way his hands moved as he played. When we turned around to face the outer circle, you felt like you could reach out and touch them. Larry played bongo drums around the circle and it was great to see him out from behind the drums. Bono's commentary was great and they even incorporated bits of Coldplay and The Killers songs into theirs, as both Chris Martin and Brandon Flowers were there that night. Bono also pulled up a teenager from the audience, running around the circle with him and giving him his sunglasses afterwards. Talk about a memory that kid will have forever! By the end of the night I had no voice, and we couldn't hear properly for three days afterwards.

There are not enough adjectives to describe this show.Two nights afterwards they had their live YouTube show at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. It was the same show we saw. If you didn't see it, here is a link to the highlights of that show. (Though they left off some of my fav live ones; Mysterious Ways and Elevation, to name a few.) But it gives you an idea of the scope of it.

http://www.u2.com/news/title/rrrtest#

This pretty much sums it up.

Translation: "I'm so happy!"