Who knew Joseph carried a purse?

Izzy has been know to take things and make them her own. Among them my DVD's. Over Thanksgiving she compiled all the things she wanted to take home in Sophie's car seat including my new Madagascar 2 DVD. I would take it out and then find it back in the car seat minutes later. Addie put her nativity set out this year and it magically disappeared up to Izzy's room. Addie told me that she brought it back downstairs and this morning she found baby Jesus in the kitchen. When she went to put baby Jesus back she found Joseph wearing a purse. A polly pocket purse none the less. Maybe Izzy thought Joseph needed some fashion, or maybe he was on diaper bag duty.

the GOOD, the BAD, and the absolutely ADORABLE!

first The ADORABLE:

I LOVE this picture of Sophie. Absolutely ADORABLE! She's so cute, and her little laugh just makes you want to melt.

The GOOD:

Last Friday Kc was installed as a 2010 officer with his Mason lodge. All of us (minus April and her family) were invited to attend the installation at the Masonic temple in Salt Lake City. They served us a nice dinner and then we moved upstairs for the ceremony. It was really neat to see, and we are so proud of him. He was installed as the Senior Steward and he has a special chair and everything! Kt and Izzy were really good through the whole thing. Sophie was making her bird noises. She has been nicknamed Kevin (from the movie "Up"). Overall great experience!

Pre-installation:

Getting installed:


After with the other officers, and then with family:

This was supposed to be a son/parent shot (below) but Isabelle decided to stay and made a rather cute addition.

The elevator didn't go all the way to the bottom so grandpa was lucky enough to get to ride on one of these (picture below). Addie, Shaun and the girls had already left by then, but I wish Izzy could have seen this. She made sure grandpa watched "Up" over Thanksgiving because there is a grandpa in it, and he rides one of these chairs up and down the stairs and I'm sure she would have loved to see it.

The BAD:

Brook was jumping off some blocks one evening last week and the blocks toppled over when she jumped causing her to fall. When she fell she broke her fall with her elbow. April took her over to Instacare and they took x-rays. The doctor then referred her to an orthopedic surgeon. The next morning April took Brook to see the ortho surgeon. He took more x-rays and said Brook needed surgery the next morning. The next morning Brook cried and screamed she was so scared. Poor girl. The nurses eventually gave her some medicine, that is like valium, to calm her down. The surgery lasted about 45 minutes, and when Brook woke up she was crying again--this time in pain. The surgeon had to reset her bones and put a long pin and two little pins inside her bone. The ends of the pins are sticking out of her skin so when her cast comes off the doctor can pull them out. The nurses gave Brook some morphine for the pain and sent her home. She is doing good now. In ten days she will get her hard cast, but until then she has to wear a soft cast until the swelling goes down. Grandma said that Brook was acting really goofy after she got her medicine and was saying, "Grandma you have two faces". I would have liked to see that.

Sweet Baby Shower: Dear Lizzy

Early June Addie's friend Lindsay and I threw Addie a suprise baby shower. Since this was baby No. 3 I don't think she was expecting it, which made it all the sweeter. We decided to have her shower at her favorite little boutique Dear Lizzy in their bistro cafe. It turned out so cute. We had delicious salads for lunch and cupcakes for dessert. Lindsay really did a lot for the shower, and in the end was unable to attend unfortunately. We really appreciated all her help. The beautiful photos were taken by the wonderfully talented Natalie Malan. You can see her baby Penny in some of the pictures, but because she was behind the lens, you won't see any of her sadly. If you've never been to Dear Lizzy in Highland then you are definately missing out.

Sophie Claus

Some of you might be thinking 'who arranged these photos in this weird fashion?!!!', while others will be shaking their heads and tsk tsking. Truthfully, I started putting this together and the more and more I played with it the worse it got. Poor Sophie. Getting displayed in the tackiest photo montage known to man. Too bad that I'm too lazy to fix it now. Please don't hold this against her. She's too innocent. Do disregard the background/text and focus on the semi-fuzzy/blurry pictures from my parents camera. If only I'd had my camera. A couple things to look out for in the crappy cropped pictures are the frequent appearances of Kt in the background. The bottom right featuring only her teeth and a hand is my favorite. For now enjoy the lil' butterball in her santa suit (dress). Better pictures in a better arrangement coming soon. I promise.

Give Thanks '09

Wishing everyone happy holidays this season from the Conder family! {See photos of our family Thanksgiving below}.

We had a really GREAT Thanksgiving this year. Dinner was had at April and Chris' w/tons of food and we actually managed to all get together to snap a family photo. Kc was only able to come home for about 24 hours, but we are happy for the time we had with him. The rest of the weekend was pretty relaxing. Full of movies, eating leftovers, Chuck-o-rama, Zions park, swimming, and LOADS of shopping. April, Addie, and I endured a sisterly black friday for the second year in a row starting out at the early morning hour of 3:30 a.m. It was full of lines, running, more lines, lots of stores, and exhaustion. The only thing missing was a sister photo shoot in matching shirts at the Wal-Mart photo studio. Addie had to get back to Sophie by 6:30, but April and I trudged on successfully till 10:30 a.m. Did I sleep the rest of the day? Yes, yes I did. Barbie winnebago: check. Easy Bake Oven: check. Gilmore Girls Season 1: check (and more that can't be named at this time, hint: serger (whoops--that hint is for me).

I also managed to fit in a work-out session and a visit to the St. George temple (where I was reunited w/an old friend) so the trip was complete. The only draw back was the minor bit of a bug I had for the whole of the weekend and Brook's bout w/bronchitis. Poor girl. She's getting better though, which helps grandma not to worry as much. Mom and Dad were gratious hosts as always, and mom was frantically trying to accomodate everyone as usual.

*A major highlight was dressing Sophie in the Santa suit (dress) I bought her from Wal-Mart and then showing Addie. She looked so cute (and HI-larious). Pictures of the jolly little Sophie Claus to come.

Matching $2 kitten shirts, awwww.

Who Me?

Recently Nicole arranged a girls night out to see "Curtains" at the Hale Center Theatre in West Valley. Her sister Michelle starred in the musical and was superb, of course. After the show we spent our hard earned cash at McDonald's. Below left to right (top) Tracy, Nicole F., Michelle, Anamae, Season, and Nicole W. (bottom) Jill, me, and Jayna.

I bet you can't guess who was the star that night though. No need to try and re-focus your eyes, you're seeing it right.

Tonight I finished my one and only decoration for Thanksgiving. One week before Thanksgiving. Way-ta get things done early. Addie cut out all the cardstock and the letters to make the banner and I made the pinwheels and hung it with not-real-durable raffia. Cross your fingers, legs, and eyes the raffia doesn't break and send "Give Thanks" into a heap of no thanks.

A couple Fridays ago Nicole F. and I made this cute little jingle-bell-birthday banner for our good friend and old roommate Jill. She was the poster child for roommate prayer in college wards. Gracias Jill. I have to say that Nicole and I did a pretty darn good job on this one. If my basement wasn't such a dark cave you might actually be able to get a better idea of what it actually looks like. I intend to make another for my home office using the same "ingredients", so stay tuned for those photos. Any suggestions for a cute word to use for my banner in my office?

Last but not least {of the post focusing soley on me} is my Halloween costume. Here is the pre-wear of the unflattering pink poof of a costume that I fashioned for myself. The fact that I actually sewed myself a costume before the holiday passed is reason enough to give myself a round of applause and a semi thumbs up.

Part of the costume had to include popping the "Lawrence Welk Show" bubbles. Nicole blew bubbles while a fairy, princess, and high-forehead-little-handed-wierdo popped bubbles.

Happy Halloween '09!

Halloween 2009

A scarecrow, 2 witches, and wolervine. Watch out for those plastic electronic claws. They'll almost scratch you. Sadly Bk wasn't able to take them as part of his costume for school because they were considered a weapon.

Below: Bk's school Halloween parade featuring a cute little parade watcher Brook.

Izzy dressed up for preschool. So pretty.

Kt at her school. Also pretty.

Halloween night we went to a couple parties. The first at the Malan's new home. We had soup in bread bowls. A cupcake walk, bubbles for my little hands, trick or treating for the kids, etc. I will try and post more pictures from my camera later. After I went to my stake singles Halloween party which was in a word, adequate.

Judy, a 50's housewife, Kelly Kapowski and Zack Morris, Merlin, Mad Madame Mim, and a russian sailor.

Below Zack Morris is to cool for us. So he just hangs out in the background.

The girls dressed up.

All pink! I love that Sophie is sucking on my little hand.

Penny & Sophie. Natalie made Penny's costume. Even her hat! That Natalie is unbelievable.

The next post should be dedicated solely to my wacky/ unflattering/weird costume. I know that's all you've been waiting for. Hopefully I can post before Thanksgiving. I still need to post pictures of Addie's baby shower back in June at Dear Lizzie. It was so cute. Adorable pictures by Natalie as well.