Thanksgiving

I am grateful for our Thanksgiving surrounded by family and friends.
Here are Vanessa (Shawn's wife), Olivia, Kjell, Holden, Marcus, Joshua, Weather, Grandma Nordmark, and Shawn:

Photo 2: Grandpa & Wetherill

Photo 3: Attempting to take a Christmas card photo

Photo 4: Mom and me

Photo 5: Dad & Mom

Photo 6: Tracie, Olivia, Mom, & Pam

Photo 7: Mom between 2 Rocks (Pam and Tracie came over after dinner to visit)

Although every one of us experienced some sort of sickness while my parents were visiting, we were still able to enjoy going out to eat, walks around the neighborhood, getting some projects done, shopping, and playing Trivial Pursuit (after much coercion by me).

Halloween

We began the almost balmy evening with a pre-trick-or-treating party at our neighbor's house (we won the guess how many Hershey kisses in the jar contest!) Marcus was tireless when it came to trick-or-treating...I could almost see his little doggy tail wagging. Holden got a kick out of pushing everyone's doorbell - the candy was just an extra bonus. Baby was happy to play with unopened candy in his stroller (the sound it made was very entertaining).
Kjell brought back many hats from his trip to Asia, including the two we are wearing. Certainly not my best effort at a costume, but was feeling a little under the weather today. Kjell is a Communist, Marcus is Scooby-Doo, Holden a bee, and Wether a bug.

Blog Book

Has anyone else been stressing out about getting your blog printed off for years now? Been wondering the best method/website to use? I finally turned my blog entries from 2007 into a book and I am very satisfied with the process, cost, and result. Here are some pictures:

I downloaded Booksmart from Blurb, which proved to be very user friendly (and free). When chosing to create a blog book, I selected to "wing it" instead of having Booksmart format each page for me. I don't recommend selecting the latter. Like I mentioned, the software is very user friendly and only took me a few minutes to figure out how to format my own pages, although I discovered more "tricks" as I went along. It will let you know how large you can make a picture considering the resolution so that each photo is crisp and clear. Booksmart will also show you where each page will be trimmed.

My book is almost 100 pages, printed on premium paper and bound in hard-cover with a dust jacket. Including shipping the book cost me about $50. Check the website for more details. This is cheaper then printing out hundreds of photos and buying an album! And the best part? Sitting on the couch propped up by pillows under a warm blanket and watching TV while making my blog book...oh how I love the digital age.

My Little Helper

Couldn't help but use the title "My Little Helper" seeing as it is practically manditory for all moms in the blogging world to do so when a picture is captured of the oldest child actually helping the youngest child (or any child trying to help clean but really is making a bigger mess). Anyway, hopefully this will be the first of many "My Little Helper" posts:

I gave Wether a chocolate covered pretzel the other day only to find a regular pretzel sitting on the floor by his feet a few minutes later and a chocolate covered baby. Marcus noticed this and instead of complaining that he didn't get a treat or lick his brother clean, which wouldn't have surprised me in the least, he went and found a wipe and actually cleaned Wether. Well. Without being asked. I think I'll keep him.

Refinished High Councilman Table

Found this table and 8 chairs at a garage sale for $165. Here are the before and after:

Surprise Visit

Wether and I are enjoying our last day in Connecticut. We decided on Monday to fly here to surprise my dad on his 66th birthday and departed from Utah on Tuesday night! We've had a great time visiting, shopping, eating out, and going on the boat. What a nice break for me and a real treat for mom and dad to spend some time with W.W. who mom has now dubbed "dub". Kudos to Kjell for taking charge of Marcus and Holden in my absence. So far they've hiked in Rock Canyon, eaten at Applebee's, made bottle rockets, and (hopefully) Holden will be getting a much-needed haircut today given by daddy. Well, we're off to the airport in a few hours - wish me luck on the long flight!

Marcus at 4 and a Half Years

Marcus is growing up so fast! My lovely sister-in-law Julie, who took all these gorgeous pictures, said "Marcus led his own photo shoot. 'Take my picture up on the ladder and over here by the grapes'. Sometimes he'd get so close to the camera, I couldn't even focus. I'm glad he had fun, too."

Marcus loves pre-school and has really gotten excited about writing letters and his name. For the past month or so, any sort of art project has held Marcus' attention for quite a while. Our refrigerator is covered with intricately colored pictures, cut out designs, glued-on and colored Styrofoam peanuts and the like. He needs no motivation to take on an art project and begins many on his own. Marcus is looking forward to carving pumpkins and daily begs Kjell to wrestle with him.