Buyer Beware!!

I planned for two weeks to go check out this store down the road about 45 minutes. I wanted to get the advertised ceramic pan. IF I have been a Barbie doll, it would have been perfect!

iPhones

Kids must be getting iPhones younger and younger these days if these are the kinds of messages I am getting....

Gdhxhxhdbdbxbzhh. Dhhhjeieoejrhri

Sent from my iPhone

Pictures

I L*O*V*E pictures: looking at, taking (have taken roughly 8,000 in the pasts two years) and editing them. My husband gave me a very precious gift: pictures. He rescued hundreds of my old pictures and some home movies (just a few of those as I have been told our physical collection of home movies is "lost") off of my old desk top computer. The computer itself is inoperable. He had to use sneaky spy stuff (I pretend he is working with Chuck) to locate and extract these images for me. It took him hours upon hours. I hope he knows how much it means to me. They irreplaceable memories. I heart you, Matt.

PS Prepare to see posts of old pictures!!! Ha hA

A look back...

Over the weekend, the kids were scanning some older pictures so we will have a digital copy of them. I thought I had picked up the folder of Matt's mission pictures. But, I picked up a folder with, among other pictures, included some of Matt's old girlfriend. The kids were quick to tell me that I was cuter than his old girlfriend but that I was NOT cuter than this particular person Matt has kissed....

If I can't be cuter than the dolphin, I will be content to know that I am cuter and smarter than the old girlfriend since I realized what a great husband and dad Matt would make!!

The kids love this picture.

Among the pictures we also found my brother's engagement picture and a picture of my dad and grandma taken in my parent's Park Street house about 16 yeas ago. Sometimes it is so crazy Matt shares so much of my history.

Hobby Lobby

I saw these lovely items today at Hobby Lobby. They are labeled "Spring Fever." I am just telling you right here, right now, I would need a fever of some sort to use these items in my home and I am pretty sure it wouldn't be Spring Fever.

OK. Two funny stories about Hobby Lobby.

#1 My sister, Sara, is the queen of sewing and crafts. I am pretty sure her husband has invested in Hobby Lobby stock. I guess she goes there so often her oldest daughter, Libby, has developed a serious dislike of it. Just to add fuel to that fire (cause that is was we Sorensen's do: slightly torment our children with love) Sara has started calling Hobby Lobby "Libby Lobby" and I have been assured that Libby hates it with a capital H!! I hope to one day see the fit that is thrown when Sara says "Libby Lobby."

#2 Today, after I captured that lovely picture above, I was looking at patterns. I had txted my darling husband that I was next door to his work at Hobby Lobby. When he isn't busy, he sneaks over and we make-out in the fabric department :) Well, today he basically told me he was too busy with a circuit board to run over. I sat and looked at patterns for a while, feeling sorry for myself that I didn't get to see Matt. After I chose a pattern, I got up to go choose fabric and ran smack dab into Matt's arms. I screamed slightly, but in a good way. Later, when Kat got home she asked what I did today. I told her of my Hobby Lobby trip and how Matthew scared me. Her response was, "Well, at least we know Matthew is a good husband." What's up with that?!?!?

New Cousins

Ali, Kat and Luke have been very blessed with cousins in their lives. They have fabulous cousins on the Olson and Sorensen side whom they love and are loved by. Recently they inherited some new cousins.

And they are a bunch of Paines :)

Matt has a cousin, Jeff, and his wife, Carolyn, that live here in Franklin. Matt works with Jeff. They have six wonderful children. They all took to each other right away. We love hanging out with them.

These pictures are from the company Christmas party that was held January 6th. Yes, a bit after Christmas, but we were all too busy to party before then! It is fun to see the way the kids gravitate towards each other.

Erica, Ali and Kat

Benjamin, Jared and Luke

Benjamin had just eaten some jalapenos and was crying! True story :)

Rebecca and Rachel

Soon to be Elder Ethan Paine. Ethan is headed to Baltimore in March to serve a two year mission for the LDS church.

Some Christmas Presents

At the top is my "Dictionary" and Thesaurus. Below that is Dictionary and her boyfriend whom we have named, you guessed it, Thesaurus :) Aren't they cute together?

This is the dang cute Yahtzee game Sara made for us. I forgot to take a picture of the cute dice. You might asked why I don't just take it now and add it. Well, I am in a current battle with my photo program. It seems to only have one way to upload pictures. I get one shot and that is it. So, when I win the battle, and MATT will, I will add a picture of the dice to this post!

This is a picture of the screen of Kat's iTouch.

Ali must have taken her camera to school as I can't find it to take a picture of. Matt has the elephant art hung in his cubicle. So, I will get pictures of those items later.

I did try to upload other pictures of Christmas presents, but these are the only ones that Picasa decided I should be able to post :)

Tablecloth

While my parents were here, my mom commented on our tablecloth. I told her it was easy to clean up as it was laminated. Now, I can't swear to this, but I am pretty sure I heard her lean over to my dad and say, "I think she means it is vinyl." When I was at Bed, Bath and Beyond the other day, I took this picture of the packaging :) While I was at it, I bought a vinyl tablecloth!

Great Minds...

For Luke's birthday, back in November, we gave Luke a rocket. Matt picked it out. He said he loved rockets when he was younger. Since he does some work for the defense department, I think it is safe to say he is still fascinated with such things!

They have been working on this rocket for weeks. This is a couple of pictures of one day of work. In the second one, Luke is holding a blow dryer to help dry one of the fins. The next step is spray painting it.

We can hardly wait to launch it! Don't worry, we will capture it :)

Next up...Pinewood Derby. Yes, the boys are already planning and scheming....but, we won't blog any plans since we don't want to to tip the competition off!

YW Basketball

It is back....YW basketball. This time we have two daughters on the roster. Yes, folks, Kat is playing basketball!!

Unfortunately I seemed to have been in a bad location for picture taking as evidenced by the bishop's head in every picture, the poor quality of pictures due to the shadows I was sitting in and the fact that I didn't get any pictures of Kat the Great :)

Kat has the fabulous play: get the ball and throw it as fast and hard as possible to Ali. It worked pretty well.

They won their first game. Hurray!

I promise better pictures this coming week. But, enjoy these great shots of Ali for now.

Family Prayer

Each evening, well, most, we gather for family scripture study and family prayer. After we read out of 2 Nephi, Matthew asked Luke to say the prayer. Luke is nine and is plenty able to pray on his own. Yet, he asked me to help him pray. So, I started singing, "Heavenly Father, are you really there?" After a brief pause, Kat piped in, "YES." After we all stopped laughing, she said she wasn't going to wait for Luke to get an answer to that question right now.

Kids. How dull life would be without them.

We welcome you 2010!