pretty little preggers bird on the lawn had this on her blog today & I am blatantly stealing it. (click on it to enlargificate it.)Post your top 25 played songs from itunes on your blog & comment to let me know you're participating. It's like virtually looking through your makeup bag or purse, and I think will be very telling. Take mine for example. I have developed a problem this weekend since downloading the Twilight soundtrack. I have listened to Never Think 14 times in 2 days. Yes, that is a bit much. AND that doesn't even count the times I've listened to it on YouTube. Another thing I've learned is that I need to listen to more Smashing Pumpkins. There is only one song of theirs that made the list & they are in my top two favorite bands. The other, obviously is Alkaline Trio. Mix that up with a bunch of hip-hoppy/pop songs & you have me. Nothing too cerebral or indie or fancy, but again, that's me. I love my music. What is yours like? Do share. (if you don't know how to do it & have a mac, read the bird's comment on my last post. if you don't have a mac, I dunno what to tell ya.)
I have a really hard time feeling like Christmas is coming until the first snowfall. And that really has to happen after Thanksgiving, because I'm pretty much a Nazi about celebrating holidays in their own time. No decorating for Christmas until AFTER Thanksgiving has had it's day in the sun. It's kind of rude if you think about it. Poor Turkey Day.Anyway, it's been like 60 degrees lately, and I haven't felt very festive at all. That is until today. Sawyer & I baked and baked & baked today & I LOVED it! We made 2 pumpkin pies, 1 amazing apple pie, a banana cream pie & a huge amount of sweet potato casserole. Oh, and a really yummy punch. She was so funny today. I have decided to cut back on the TV & movies, but we kinda have to do it cold turkey, so I was anxious about having to bake all day & having a little girl underfoot. She helped me really well for an hour or so, then started just wandering around the house playing what looked to be the most wonderful pretend something game. She was talking & dancing & singing, under the table, behind the couch, on her bed, hiding in the laundry room, everywhere & she wouldn't let me play at all. It was so cute. It probably didn't hurt that she was wearing a very sparkly new dress that she loves. Anyway, we turned on FM 100 and rocked out to Christmas music all afternoon. I let her help peel the apples with our magical peeler/corer/slicer (the single greatest kitchen invention ever!)
It's kinda hard to do,
but she loves to help, and did all seven apples without complaint (that's saying a lot, she is, after all, her mother's daughter.)This pie is awesome because it bakes in a paper bag. Don't ask me how that increases the awesomeness, but it does. "And that is a scientific fact!"
Yes, she has Uggs on with her beautiful princessy dress. I thought that would lessen her ability to spin & tip-toe, but it didn't seem to.
And yes, she really is this beautiful. Crazy huh?Oh! and I found the true cause of the blood-splattered walls! It was really bad today & I haven't noticed Charlie's ears bugging her anymore, so I did a very through check and found a big scabby area on her poor little tail. I don't know if one of the dogs at Scott & Kim's took a nip out of it, or if it got caught in a car door or what, but it's not looking too good. So I shaved the hair off and bactine'd the crap out of it and slapped her with some bandaids. 
Hopefully she'll leave it alone and my house will stop looking like a slaughterhouse. But she's so pretty!
Happy Thanksgiving, Ya'll! Be sure to do some giving of thanks! And THEN you can decorate for Christmas!
I need a boy sooo bad! Check these out, and now go buy twelve hundred from her! Plus her son is reeediculously cute! I want him to marry Sawyer. His name is Jonas. Jonas. He could be a bump on a log with that name & I'd want to eat him alive.
Last Friday Sawyer & I had a girls day & went to the Utah Chocolate Show. I had planned on entering a cake in their contest, but I kinda overdosed on cakes in the last few months & am taking a little break until spring business starts back up. With the exception of a cake I donated to a charity auction for Karson's Kause, (which I am actually really excited to do) and a friend's cake this Saturday, I will not be taking on new cakes right now! Yeah for a little holiday break! Anyway, it was fun(-ish) to go look at the cakes & hang out with my girl a little bit. I say fun(-ish) because the cakes were pretty disappointing compared to last year. There weren't as many entries & I totally could have rocked their socks off if I'd have entered. Easy for me to say now, huh? Anyway here are some of my favorites.
Very elegant lace work.
Sawyer's favorite, pink of course.
Even more elegant brush work. Why did this cake not win? SOOOO much work!
See, look, they even made tiny little ballet slippers! Geez louise, this should have gotten way more than an honorable mention.
This was the grand champion. The gumpaste flowers were pretty amazing, but up close their piping was like some I'd do, so yeah, not too perfect.
okay, so I'm going to go there. I'm going to drop all my pride & join the ranks of the 700 million other Mormon mom bloggers who are currently posting something about Twilight. Saw it today. And lets just get it out there right now- I freaking LOVED it. I sat there the entire time with a stupid "shish-eating" grin on my face because I was so in love with this movie. I would never, ever, in a billion, kagillion years ever dare to take on a project like this; one where so many people have such strong opinions about how it should be; where the hype becomes a huge monster waiting to eat you alive. Neverever. No one (short of Brad Pitt himself) could ever live up to the idea that people have of Edward. Robert Pattison is clearly not a photogenic person. 
Good thing he is not a model, huh? But he is an actor and a damn fine one at that, because he totally rocked this role. I went to the movie with a huge grain of salt in my pocket & was not at all invested in how it turned out, and it was lovely. Anyway, my point today is 3 fold:1-Do NOT take infants to movie theaters. EVER. It is not the place. Wait until you are no longer attached at the boob, and then feel free to pay a babysitter (like I did, because I wanted to enjoy a movie) and please, by all means, join the rest of the movie goers at the theater. Sorry, its just one of those sacrifices that lives at the intersection of living in a civilized society & being a parent. Both are wonderful blessings that should be enjoyed on a mutually exclusive basis.2-Twilighters, twilight moms, etc.: Please, please, please could you go about living your lives? Yes, they are lovely books & a nice escape from reality, but maybe not to the extent that we need to be picking teams & displaying our choice in t-shirt form for all the world to see.3-If you happen to be a single guy looking to getcha some, a great plan would be to hang out around theaters showing Twilight right after it lets out. The 99% of women coming out of the theater at that time are going to be a little... how shall I put this gently... "randy," if you know what I mean. Timing is everything.There it is, a random rant about my feelings on the subject of Twilight. I'm sorry, it won't happen again. The end.
One of the benefits of being a mac user. Poladroid. Good times.
So today was house cleaning day. I seriously only do it once a week. An hour or two of good old elbow grease pretty much covers it for a week. (One of the benefits of having a house that can be vacuumed completely without moving the vacuum to another electrical outlet) Anyway, I'm down on my knees wiping up the grime on the baseboards in the hall & I notice that there are little spots of blood EVERYWHERE!!! All over the walls, the doors, the trim, even the floor. Everywhere. It's like someone went a little crazy with the splatter paint. Remember "tole painting" in the 90s? You know, those little kitschy decorations and you had to use watered down acrylic paint & an old toothbrush to get just the right amount of splattering on your little Christmas decorations? Like that, but with blood. Nice, huh? It looked like someone had been making animal sacrifices in my hallway. After ruling that possibility out, I checked us all for open wounds. Nope, no open wounds....oh, but wait.... the dog. Charlie, bless her heart, apparently has some kind of an infection in her ears & spent the weekend at uncle Scott's scratching the crap out of them and so now, when ever she shakes her head (which is frequently, what with the infection & all) she imparts that perfect little splatter pattern on the walls. In blood. Lovely. I've cleaned them off 4 times today. Good thing I love her more than my left leg.
How could you not?Next time "tole painting" is popular though, I know who I'm going to for some great splatter work.
We went to St. George last weekend. Matt golfed all day Friday & part of Saturday & then we went to Vegas. Sawyer spent most of the ride down in a cheeto-induced coma, I wish I would have been able to get a picture of her pudgy little cheese-product stained fingers, it was classic.
I was a little leary of taking a 3 year old to Las Vegas, what with the porn-hander-outers on every corner, but it actually was very good, they don't hand their stuff to you if you have a kid, it was like an invisible smut-sheild. Wonderful! Grandma Susie has recently bought a Toyota Solara convertible that she keeps down at the condo & let me just tell you, driving the strip in a convertible is the funnest thing ever! 
We showed her the lions at MGM, very cool, the M&M store, the fountains at Bellagio, but her favorite, by far was Excalibur. She has been talking about "my castle" ever since. I would never have thought I'd have such a princessy girl, not that I'm a jock or anything, but she wants to be a cheerleader for goodness sake!
We finally found her a dance class today. Actually I decided to go with the first one we checked out because she threw the BIGGEST tantrum when I told her we had to wait until Thursday to actually attend a class. So yeah, as of Thursday, Sawyer is starting a Pre-Ballet class at Creative Arts Academy. Is it normal for me to be so freaking excited/nervous for her real, not at home, life to begin?!
Sawyer has always loved cooking with me. Actually, who am I kidding, I never really cook, I bake. There is a big difference. Like between a size 6 and size 12 big of a difference. So yeah, we bake. As soon as I don an apron and get out my measuring cups, Sawyer runs over and says "I wanna help with you mom!" She has an apron, but it's fugly, just plain red with no personality at all. Anyway, the point of the story is that on Sawyer's birthday, which just happened to be on a Sunday when my amazing sister-in-law Jennifer's family was in town, we had a bit of a family party & Jen's mom just whipped up the MOST ADORABLE apron for her! Such a sweetheart, I love them. I cannot even tell you how much she loves this thing. The fabric is ridiculous. Thanks so much, Nancy!
okay, I NEVER talk about politics or religion even very often, but reading my friend Laura's (incredibly well-written) blog recently, I have to link to it, so if you have a minute, here is how I feel about Prop 8.
We had a little party at Susie's tonight to celebrate Sawyer's 3rd birthday, a 5 soup buffet & rolls & salads & magical disappearing grapes (ha ha, Susie!). As always WAYYYY too much food & tons of fun. Matt did some games with the kids, and got the title of "best uncle ever" from Grace. Then we had cake & ice cream & presents. It was very, very fun and just what Sawyer wanted. She also wanted a "Barbie & the Diamond Castle" cake, but that stinkin' diamond castle appears to be made out of glass and is extremely tall, so instead she got a "mom is way over scheduled this week" castle cake. But it was yummy, and she loved it anyway. I tell ya, there is nothing better than the way she says "WOW!" at everything that is even slightly exciting. I can't believe my baby is three years old already. I really meant to have a little sibling for her by now. Best laid plans, huh? I gotta tell ya, this week has been pretty overwhelming, we had our YW in Excellence on Wednesday & I had a lot of little things that had to be done for that, and honestly, that was my only focus for the first 3 days of the week. By the time it was done, I felt like a complete failure in every other aspect of my life; wife, mother, housekeeper, friend, dog-owner, daughter and sister. I have no idea how other people, people with more children, more demanding callings in church, jobs, etc. handle their lives, and manage to somehow make it look all nice & pulled together. No idea! When I get stressed out, not only does my house turn into a landfill, my waist expands two inches, my husband gets verbally abused, my daughter gets ignored or snapped at, and my hair gets permanent pony-tail bend. Oh, and my scriptures gather a thin layer of dust. How do you all stay balanced? How do you decide what to let slide & what to stick to? I feel like I'm just treading water sometimes. I've really got to learn to not let my stress level change how I treat my family. That is what I really need to be learning & working on when these crazy, overscheduled times strike. So yeah, how do you do it?
I had no idea that Sawyer would freak out as much as she did when I told her that she got mail. The birthday card from Grandma & Grandpa today was completely the highlight of her day. She still has last years card on her dresser, they always find these cute little pop-up bunny cards that are so very Asian-cool it's not even funny. It's a great start to her birthday week. I cannot imagine better absentee-grandparents. We are very excited to have you be the best non-absentee grandparents. See you in May!!!!! We love you guys!
So my personal favorite part of our trip to St. George was the time Matt called me & told me that Downeast Outfitters had my lusted after chair for the whopping price of not $1200 (like the Pottery Barn wants for it), not $800, like I was willing to pay for it when I misread a Pottery Barn Sale ad, but $400!!!! In perfect condition except for missing the little extraneous lumbar pillow! I now own the Pottery Barn Green Ogee Madison Chair! You have no idea how much joy this stupid chair brings me. I am in love with it and therefore even more in love with my cute husband who found it for me & was willing to spend much more than I'm sure he was comfortable with for a not completely necessary peice of furniture. Oh, and he also bought that big ginormous couch as well, so no matter what I spent in St. George, he had me beat! Good times all around.
Alright, so now we're up to date and I can post about this last little trip to St. George. All last week I had the worst itchin' to go to some place sunny, to swim one more time, and deny the conclusion of summer. I'm so glad I was able to talk Susie into coming with us, Matt had to work, obviously, and I was go glad he didn't throw a fit about missing Halloween with Sawyer. We did so many Halloween-y things together, it wasn't a big deal at all. I was able to see my sister Jen & her cute kids and Doug & Shannon. Sawyer & I swam all day Saturday & no, I did not take her trick-or-treating, I know, I suck. But we did go to see Thriller at Tuacahn and that was WAYYYY better than any amount of candy, I think Sawyer would agree. She loved all the dancing & only had to cover her eyes a few times. It was mostly funny, not so much scary & we LOVED it! If you haven't seen this yet, you have got to go next year. It is definatley a new tradition for the Davis family. Oh, and Matt from So You Think You Can Dance was in it, so that was kind of a bonus.Sawyer spent most of the weekend tormenting Zoey, bless her heart. She really made us appreciate Charlie & her patience with Sawyer. Actually patience is a bad word, Charlie seems to actually enjoy Sawyer lately, rather than just tolerate her. Sawyer seems to be old enough now that Charlie comes when she calls & they actually play together quite well.
Grandma went a little nuts at the Gymboree and Sawyer is now in love with her "kitty dress." She was literally weeping when I had to wash it, she has worn it to bed twice now. It is apparently the perfect dress for dancing in 
& I even caught her singing into the speaker stand. Susie & I were laughing our heads off. I think it might be time to take a year off from American Idol.
