for jodie and anyone else that cares

We finally saw Hairspray and we LOVED it! I haven't laughed so much in a movie in a long time. The casting was perfect, the music fun, the comedy hilarious...it was great!

If you are lame like us and still haven't gotten out to see it you should. You won't be disappointed unless you hate musicals, people in drag, politically incorrect comments, and great dancing.

Was this mother not the funniest character ever? We were laughing so loud in the theater because of her. See what a "devil child" can turn us mothers into.

time to get serious

I know, I know, I keep saying that I will update this blog yet days go by with no new posts. Now I really need to buckle down and update because my blog class is in a week. I need help with something...can anyone tell me how I can link all the blogs I read daily and get an update on who has updated their blogs? Did I even word that right? I believe there is a way to see on one page who has updated and who hasn't. Is this true? It would lessen the amount of time I spend catching up on everyone's life and I would like to share it with my class. Anyone? Anyone?

all things halloween

I think my fingers are permanently black from all the spray painting I have been doing this week. I have sprayed it all...flowers, frames, candelabras and more. Nate has been a big help spray painting I just hope I am not creating a tagger - look for his work coming to a freeway near you!

Today I have been busy working on costumes, running from fabric store to fabric store. Megan is easy. She is going to wear the gypsy costume she wore for her medieval faire at school. Nate is going to be Frankenstein because I found some killer shoes at Goodwill for $7.00. They are black, huge and clunky - totally perfect for Frankie. Emily is going to a pirate and I think we have convinced Luke to be her side kick. My hope is to have the costumes done in the next couple weeks - we'll see if that actually happens.

Does anyone else do anything fun for Halloween? We'd love to hear what you do.

we are back on schedule

Love this picture of the kids on the first day of school - just had to share it.

So we finished the first week of school. We are happy to be back on a schedule although the mornings have been a beast. Everyone has managed to get up early with out too much drama but I think we are all struggling with the sound of the alarm clock.



The kids are all happy with their teachers and so are we. Emily seems to have made the transition into middle school easily and our hope is that it will continue to be an easy adjustment for her. Middle school is one of those scary rites of passage that can send even the strongest parent into bouts of worry and fear - now think about the poor kid facing the peer pressure halls of doom. The whole thing has drama written all over it. We are just glad that all seems to be going well and that with Megan and now Emily we seem to have passed the first scary week of 6th grade with flying colors.

attention all bloggers...

I need your help. I have been asked to teach a blogging class for the women at church. Not sure why, as evident by my lack of posts lately, I am not the best blogger out there. Anyway, here is what I need...

please answer some of these questions and feel free to share whatever else you think would be good for me to teach.

• why do you blog? for yourself, to keep in touch with family, other?
• how often do you post?
• what do you post about?
• what cool things have you learned to do on your blog? post video, have music playing, etc?
  
• what do you wish other bloggers did on the blogs you read?
• are you worried about having too much info out in cyber space?
• anything else you want to share?
• if you were taking a blog class what would you want to learn?

Thanks for the help. I am hopping to get my posts updated soon. It will look really bad if I teach the class and I haven't posted for a month :)

back and tired!

We have been away camping in Yosemite for the past week. We just rolled in tonight and have a ton of work to do - why is camping so much work? We had a lot of fun and we can't wait to share but it will have to wait - we are way too tired.

a want or a need?

I never knew this fabulous machine existed and now I want, no, need one. Really, I do need one. Think about all the shirts I make and pay a small fortune to have printed through Uberprints or the local print shop here. I am sure this would be a money saving device. I could become a famous tshirt designer and sell my shirts throughout the world - we'd be rich! See, this machine would make us money - now I really must have it.

let the countdown begin...

Can you feel it? Have you seem what is happening in the stores? Halloween is coming. I ran across this today and it makes me happy. I must pre order.

partied out

No pictures with this post because I am feeling too tired to download photos. Friday was Emily's HSM birthday party. It went well and all the screaming girls seemed to enjoy it. Saturday we celebrated Fete Day. That party was much more subdued then the night before. I will post about each party it just won't happen today.

I was looking forward to a quiet Sunday with no guests but that changed when the missionaries told me at church that we had them for dinner. I only had to tell myself a few times to "just keep smiling" Luckily I had plenty of food left over from the weekend so we threw together a meal and had a nice visit with the missionaries. We even ended up inviting a neighbor over to eat as well so the whole weekend was full of entertaining.

kids say the darndest things

Grammy Baker was nice enough to watch our kiddos the other night while Derek and I went to the concert. It was Monday night so she had singles FHE at her home. The kids were in another room playing while she was having family night. At one point Luke went to the kitchen doorway and peeked in to see what Grammy and her friends were doing. The kids said that when he came back this is what came out of his mouth...

"There's a bunch of grandma's out there with freakily large hair and one grandpa with freakily bald hair"

When we heard this we nearly laughed ourselves silly - "freakily large hair"? Sooo funny!

pioneer children sing as they walk, or bob for apples

Still catching up with summer activities...

Pioneer day was held a week or so early this year, I think because of our youth conference pioneer trek. The kids had fun, Derek was a star, and I tolerated the heat.

Derek was asked to "be in the band" this year. Every year for pioneer day we have live music. Derek was asked to perform a few songs this year. While he sang I got to play groupie. He did a great job of course and I wasn't so bad either cheering and taking pictures of my rock star hubby.Emily, Nathan and Luke had fun running around with friends and playing at all the game booths. The kids were thrilled when they got to come home with goldfish that they won. Derek and I had a feeling that the fish might not live long (maybe the 1 inch thick layer of dead goldfish in the pool at the booth contributed to our uneasiness) Sure enough the tears flowed the next morning when not one, not two, not three but all 4 of the goldfish were found in the morning "sleeping" Emily and Nate were fine with the flushing ceremony but Luke was a sad little guy.The other fun booth was bobbing for apples. It was hilarious to watch all the kids try and get those pesky wet apples out of the bucket. I have to admit I was a little grossed out by the thought of all the gombu in the water. Any ideas how to spell gombu? Spit and snot were flowing - yuck, it gives me the heabies now just thinking about it.I have failed to mention Megan in this pioneer post. She was not busy with the booths, pleeeeease, she is 13 and was quite happy hanging out in packs with her friends.

more blogging catch up

Going to the Squeeze concert reminded me that a few weeks ago Derek and I went to a concert at Mission Viejo Lake with some friends of ours, the Wrights. We saw Rocco Deluca and the Burden. Max Wright knows the drummer from when he worked at Nordstrom with her. That's him, with the arrow.

Max outdid herself like always. She made yummy boxed dinners for all of us and she even made homemade cookies for the band - cranberry oatmeal - they are seriously amazing. I need to get the recipe. Max always does everything with such an attention to detail - I appreciate the great evening she put together for us.

It was a fun night and the lake is a great place to see concerts. We sat Pat Benatar there last summer. It's a great location and is always a fun summer activity.

a summer fete

Deanne, one of Derek's cousins has introduced us to a new holiday - Fete Day. We are going to see if we can't pull it off this Saturday because we can always use a good excuse for a party. If anyone else is interested in throwing a shindig - go for it and then leave a comment on Deanne's blog and let her know how it went.

Here is what I am planning for our summer fete...

I'm setting up outside, by our fireplace. We'll have a rug laid out with pillows and we'll also use our outdoor furniture - the plan is to set it up like we did for our divination classroom at the HP party. On the coffee table outside I am setting up a fondue spread so that we can sit around the table and stuff our faces. We'll have chocolate fondue but we'll also have ice cream cake because that's the rule for fete day :)

I still need to pick a color. I think I might go with blue since the boys have a blue rug in their room that I can use but I still haven't decided.

For our activity...I'm not sure. I don't really have any ideas for this yet.

So there you have it - our plans for fete day. Now go plan your own and invite some friends and family over for a Saturday full of fun and memories.

oops, here's the video!

80's flashback

So Derek and I are off to the Greek Theater tonight to see us some Squeeze - one of Derek's all time favorite bands.

For those of you unable to make the concert tonight sit back and enjoy this video complete with really cool 80's girls dancing in the background - love the 80's girls, they make a good video great.

While we are on the subject of the 80's...who thought to bring the 80's fashions back? We are seeing it in a lot of stores. Do we really need oversized t-shirts with sashes, stir-ups, slouchy boots and big bangs to come back?

golf, anyone?

Please check out this golf tournament that will benefit lil' Abby. If you are interested in learning more about Abby and her family click on her link at the right of our blog.

we're all in this together

we'll actually Emily and I are in this together with maybe a bit of help from Derek. We have been working on Emily's birthday party coming up this Friday and we're going with High School Musical for a theme - could there really be another theme? Come on, she's turning 11.

We are keeping it pretty basic or as basic as my over active party brain will let me. I know that a lot of people are planning HSM parties for this Friday so I thought I'd share some of our ideas so that others can steal them if they want. I'm all about stealing for the greater good of a party.

Here are the invites we came up with...

These were so easy to make. I found megaphones at a local party store for less then a dollar. i hot glued them to cardboard cake rounds from Michael's and the hot glued on the shredded paper (I was trying to get a pom pom feel) I printed all the invite information on to a iron on transfers that you can find at any office supply store and then ironed it on to felt cut into the shape of a pennant. That was then glued to a dowel and stuck in the megaphone. I printed out a big collegiate letter with each guests name and then tied it to the top of the dowel so that everyone invite was personalized. These pictures happen to shoe two letters at the top because it was for a set of twins. The fonts I used were walkway black and varsity and cane probably be found at dafont.

These invites could easily be turned into decor for the party. Instead of all the invite info you could put wildcats, etc.

We are doing our party outside so we can show the movie on our big screen. Before the movie we are serving dinner and playing some games. Dinner will be cafeteria food - boxed milk, pizza, bagged burritos, tater tots, not sure what else. I found spork, napkin combos packaged in sealed bags at Smart and Final - I love them and they look so cafeteria. I am serving food on red cafeteria trays that I found a Target.

I'm still working on games. I found plastic cell phone filled with candy that I am adding guests names to. I will hide them throughout the party idea and guests will have to find their phone. I will have some tie in to Mrs. Darvis (you know the home room teacher/ theater gal that hates cell phones) I'm still thinking about other games.

A bit before the movie starts we'll pull out the popcorn machine and movie candy and settle in t watch the East High crew dance and sing.

missing some summer fun

I haven't been the best about posting our summer activities. The plan is to spend the next few days going through photos of what we've done this summer and post them but somehow my best plans always fall to the wayside so don't hold your breath.

A few weeks ago the kids and I went to the Sawdust Festival. I used to go as a child with my mom so a couple years ago we started taking the kids. Local artists showcase their work and it is fun to see what they create.

Everyone's favorite part of the festival is making your own pottery. The last time we went the girls and Nathan (Luke was too young) made vases. During the firing process Nate's vase broke :( Here is what the girls created..I have these displayed in our front room and have been anxious to get back to the festival to have the kids make more pottery to add to the collection. Here are pictures of this years creations...

Nate creating his vase
Emily and her bowl
Luke making his first vase - he is so happy to be old enough
Megan creating a bowl
the kids work before the glazing and firing process

We haven't picked up their pieces yet but we all can't wait to see them. I love this summer activity!

thinking of susan

I never finished posting pictures of Austin.

While Derek was there on business I was visiting with my friend Susan. Susan and I met my junior year of High School. She and Lisa quickly become my dearest friends - we spent the last few years of high school together and roomed together at college.

Susan is an amazing person and it was so fun to be able to spend time with her and her family. She took us to some great Austin locations but what meant more then visiting some cool places was being with her. Thanks Susan for the great few days we spent together!So one of the cool places we went to was the world's largest urban bat colony. Every night people hang out to watch the bats fly out from under the Congress Bridge. We didn't have a great vantage point and the night was overcast but we were still able to see some of the bats.
Susan's family also treated us to the Salt Lick. Talk about some good barbecue - it was delicious! If you ever plan a trip to Austin, I would recommend going here. Derek was in beef brisket heaven.
Derek at the Salt Lick

We also went to dinner with Susan and her girls at a place called the Hula Hut. It was on Lake Austin and had a fun atmosphere and good food.

It really was a fun trip. It could have only been better had we been able to stay longer. I would have loved more time with Susan and more time to see Austin.

potter pics

I keep getting requests for pictures of our Harry Potter party. I only took a few since I was busy with party prep but I will get the photos I have posted soon.

My brother took a bunch that you can see here. Thanks Ryan for taking them and let me know if you have a problem with me posting them here.

love these shots...

love this guy!

Utah is my photography heaven. There are so many buildings, textures, locations, etc to use in photographs it's unbelievable. We were busy with the family reunion so I wasn't able to explore much and take photographs. We definitely need to plan extra photography time into our next trip to Utah so I can get pictures of Derek and the kids.

On the drive home we did make a quick stop by a railroad. I wasn't comfortable pulling off to the side of the road and having the kids walk down the railroad (besides they were not dressed in the clothes I would have preferred for this picture) Derek got to be the model and I love the shots I got. Technically they're not the best shots but I still love them because Derek looks so handsome in them.

the photo above looks like an album cover to me

don't mess with texas

Ok, Texas is serious about their state. I don't think their is a place with more state pride. we have never seen another state that has their own state store. At the mall and in downtown Austin there was the "Texas Store". That was the name...Texas Store. I wonder how a California Store would do or how many people would visit Utah Store.

Everywhere we went the Texas star (or some form of it) was displayed proudly. I saw it on fronts of houses, on backyard fences, on buildings, store fronts, cars, etc. I am not kidding when I say it was everywhere.

Here is a Texas rangers star in our hotel bathroom. There were also stars on our room walls. On a side note the hotel we stayed in (The Driskill) was pretty amazing. It was built forever ago by an ol' cattle baron. It had some cool history and was beautiful. Of course the star was present in force at the capitol building. One morning I took a walk through Austin by myself while Derek was in meetings and I ended up at the capitol. What a beautiful building with so much history.

The walk was miserable because of the heat - how does anyone live there? I can't believe I served a mission in the south and tracted and rode bikes in the heat and humidity. Gotta love California!

Door into the capitol

Looking up at the ceiling in the capitol

the front gate

a room in the capitol building - the lighting fixture is the star

I could have taken hundreds of star pictures - I probably should have it would have been a cool gallery but oh well, the stars will just have to live on in my heart.

been trying

I've been trying to update the blog with pictures but I'm having no luck. I'll keep trying but don't hold your breath.

hey y'all

Derek and I took a quick trip to Austin, Texas while the kids stayed at my aunt and uncles house. We got home late last night and now the kids and I are trying to clean up the mess from the Harry Potter party. I have pictures to download and share but they'll have to wait. Check back tomorrow and hopefully I will have pictures up.

The begining of the end

We are now home from Borders happy, with books in hand. It's time to lay down and begin to say good-bye to the boy we love. Happy Reading to all those who are enjoying book 7.

i'm gonna hate myself in the morning

oh wait, it is morning. My computer says it's 2:41 am and her I sit happily waiting for some things I'm printing. I am right in the thick of preparing for tomorrows shindig and I'm feeling wide awake and full of energy (I'm sure the candy and soda I have been nourishing my body with has something to do with it) My only concern is how I am I possibly going to be able to keep myself awake while waiting in line at midnight tomorrow? Wonder if I can convince Derek that it's way fun to hang out at Borders for 4+ hours with hyped up teenagers and cranky tired kids (and adults) How can I make it sound good?

two thumbs up for mr. potter

Megan with her golden ticket
just one of the 8 lines outside the theater for the midnight showing
my brother hanging out with the ladies

Megan and I loved the movie. I always get a little perturbed when they leave stuff out or change things and that happened a great deal in this movie but I guess that's to be expected when the books are so long.

We both are anxious to see the movie again with the rest of the family - how nice it will be to not have to wait until midnight to see it. I think Meg may be on her own for the next midnight Harry Potter.

potter peek

Friday is the HP party. Here is a peek at the potion bottles I have been working on. I think I have done somewhere around 30 or so bottles. I have a few more left to do but am having a hard time figuring out what to use for the contents.
Today I started to turn our family room into the Gryffindor Common Room. We are also creating a herbology classroom, the yule ball, the divination classroom, the great hall, and the room of requirement - that's the plan anyway. We'll see how much we can get done over the next few days.

get ready tooth fairy

Luke has his first loose tooth and he is beside himself with happiness. We think he is anxious to get it out and get some cash from the tooth fairy because we caught him doing this...yes, he decided to try and pull his own tooth out with the plastic tweezers from a kiddie doctor set. He has had no luck as of yet but Derek did offer to try knocking it with a hammer - Luke wanted nothing to do with that plan, go figure.

still recovering

I am still so tired from the midnight movie on Tuesday but we are plugging along anyway with Potter party preparations. Here is the invite we sent out via email...

Note...With owl post being checked regularly we couldn't risk sending this to you by owl so instead we are using muggle email and hope that you have the understanding to use email correctly. Should you have any problems reading this email please contact Arthur Weasly at the Ministry of Magic, Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Division.

We're pleased to inform you that you have been invited to the Hogwarts School of Magic and Wizardry for an extraordinary evening of celebration, commemorating the release of the 7th installment of our own Harry Potter's personal memoirs. The open house style celebration will take place on Friday, July Twentieth from half past seven until half past nine. Please feel free to come and join us anytime during the celebration.

The evenings festivities will be centered around many of the well loved and time honored traditions & activities that we hold dear here at Hogwarts. You will be able to participate in some of the classes that are taught at this fine wizarding school. For the wizards and witches that have already graduated from our fine institution perhaps you want to come and relive your night at the Yule Ball. All will be able to walk our halls and see those special places throughout the castle that Harry, as well as other students, visit daily. These activities and many more will take place on this very special evening.

When the bell tolls announcing the end of our celebration all who wish to are invited to join the Hogwarts staff as we head to Flourish and Blotts to purchase our own copies of Harry's memoirs...Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. All in the magic community are invited to Flourish and Blotts, but to not arouse any suspicions amongst the muggles the store will magically relocate to 22372 El Paseo, Rancho Santa Margarita and will take on the look of a popular muggle establishment, Borders. Harry's book will be available for purchase at midnight that evening.

This will be the final celebration here at Hogwarts so all are invited to participate in this historic event. In an effort to prepare for all those wishing to attend we need to plan accordingly. Please contact the headmistress by sending your response via email to dbakerfam@cox.net as soon as possible. Please let us know your name, the names of those attending with you and the ages of any young wizards under the age of 18 so that we can be sure to have proper and legal activities for our underage witches and wizards. You may forward this invitation on to others in the wizarding world that you think would be interested in attending but please try to send it only to those individuals known to the Hogwarts staff. During these perilous times, with Lord Voldermort lurking about, we must be cautious and allowing large groups of strangers into the castle would be foolish. Some exceptions may be made so feel free to contact us if you have any questions. As another safety precaution the location of Hogwarts will be revealed to you after you respond via email

A few last minute items...

Wizard or witch attire is encouraged, but muggle clothing is always appropriate.

Drinks and hors d’œuvres will be served.

We hope that you will be able to join us as we celebrate the boy we have come to love and his final book Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

I may not post much more this week but check back next week for party pics and much more.

i'm not as bad as i thought

64%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

the rebellion begins...did you get your tickets?

Tickets were purchased last night and now it's just a waiting game. Megan and I, along with some friends plan on getting in line around 8pm. I got dinner made and packed up, magazines to read and games to play - it's going to be a long night but it's so worth it.

thanks for the post

the checks in the mail.

I have hijacked the blog! You will have to bear with the lack of entertainment value in my post, since I could never compare to the master blogger who is my wife, but I thought I would sneak on and make a post of my own. Denise is always way too kind when posting about me, and I could bore you with all of the reasons I don't live up to the hype, but instead I will take a moment to blog about my favorite subject....Denise.

As you may have noticed on this blog, she is talented, funny, beautiful, and just a plain blast to be around! I feel so lucky to have her as my friend and my wife and look forward to spending forever together. Sorry guys...you will have to settle for some lesser lady out there...the best one is taken!

Love you Denise!!!!

a little wet cement

So here is what we are planning for Monday if I can talk myself into it the drive. I love having LA close enough to go and do things but sometimes, well let's face it, most of the time the drive is long because of traffic. We are also trying to get to San Diego this Thursday to visit Scholastic's Knight Bus so I may be way tired of driving.

Back to LA...for any of you visiting this summer, or anytime for that matter, and looking for things to do while you're here check out these two sites...Audiences Unlimited and On Camera Audiences You can get free tickets to TV show tapings at both of these sites. You have to check back often because they update dates frequently but if you can get tickets going to the shows is a ton of fun. We have gotten tickets to Hannah Montana, Cory in the House, American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, America's Got Talent, Disney Channel Games and Are You Smarter Then A Fifth Grader. A few of these we got because we are on a waiting list so some of them we weren't able to go to because of date conflicts. We have been lucky with some of them to be able to pick the dates we wanted to go and had it all work out nicely.

Anyway, if you are looking for an LA type thing to do I recommend going to a taping. Think about it...not much is free anymore but this is and at some of the tapings they feed you - pizza, drinks and candy and entertain you with the show and a warm up comedian person - good deal!

Some pictures from one of our tapings...Disney Channel Games (last year)

Jackson "I said good day" Stewart

"Smokin' Oakin"

"Bop Bop Bop Bop to the top" Ryan - HSMusical 2 coming soon

the cutie himself...Troy/Zac - we are all excited to see Hairspray

"Corey Corey Corey in the House"

now showing

Friday night was movie night again at the Baker house. We showed The Incredibles and ended up with 32 people here - if I counted correctly. We didn't do hot dogs this time but we had popcorn, nachos and drinks free of charge. We decided to let people pay for the candy so we set up a concession stand case to showcase what we had. It was a great addition. I found a shadow box at Michael's and used velcro to secure the candy inside. I printed up little yellow tags with the price and taped them to the candy. It was an easy project and made life so much easier since kids couldn't come and just grab candy off the table. Emily worked the concession stand and kept all the candy hidden behind the table only giving it to people when they paid.Another addition to our movie night was tickets. I loved how they turned out that I plan on using them every time we show an outdoor movie. I got the template for the tickets here I found the link on the forums at Backyard Theater. If you are thinking about an outdoor theater you have to check the website out -lots of good ideas and great pictures of outdoor movie set ups. Back to the tickets...the template was easy to use and once we had the tickets printed up on matte photo paper they look pretty legit.

welcome home!

Davis returned home from his mission to Canada on Friday. Carise asked us to go to the airport to take pictures since Cassidy and Carly couldn't be there. Here are some of the shots...

waiting and waitinghe's here!Carise could hardly contain her emotions and a ton of my pictures after this one came out totally blurry because her crying was making me cry

brothers

so happy to have her brother home

love this shot of a mom so happy to have her boy home

busy with summer

We're still around just busy with summer. Today we are swimming in our blow up pool from Big Lots and running down the ice cream truck for sweet treats. We spent most of the morning cleaning bedrooms because that's what all kids want to do on summer vacation :) It had to be done.

We are still busy with Harry Potter preparations and I am starting to get my pre party stress feelings. Will I get it all done? Will the decorations be ok? Will the party be any fun?

I'm hearing yelling from the pool - I better go break it up before someone ends up crying.