Low Girls Gone Hard Core

This past week, Heather and I went swimming and skating in one night. Our legs were J-ello by the end. As if that weren't bad enough, we decided to go skiing the next day. Dad, Heather, and I went up to a resort in New Hampshire and had a great time on the slopes. Heather and I now congratulate ourselves in caring naught for our tired legs. We're so hard core.


Swimming (note to reader: this is not Heather or Amy swimming)






+ Skating





+ Skiing (all within a 24 hour period)




= 2 Hard Core Girls + Sore legs

Bennett's First Christmas

Hello and Merry Christmas to everyone. Thank you for all of the thoughtful gifts. Bennett loves to play with his multiple mini-sport balls, Clarke and Anna. We went down to the Ranch (newly renovated!) for Christmas this year. Morgan's sister from Denver came up, along with her family, as well as Morgan's parents, and his younger brother and wife. Despite the lack of snow (no snowmobiling), we had a cozy relaxing time there and are heading back for the New Year's Weekend. Here are some pictures of Bennett on Christmas morning.

Here he is in his Santa suit. It was a bit of a struggle to get it on. And the hat was simply not an option (see below).









Santa brought Bennett his favorite food: a banana. He also gave him a plush sheep. Bennett loves that when you squeeze it, it grunts (confusingly, like a pig). We love the irony of a sheep wearing a knit sweater.









Here is Bennett watching all his relatives opening presents. He didn't really get what all the fuss was about, was a good sport nonetheless.


We hope you all had a Merry Christmas in Boston and California. Don't party too hard for New Year's.

The Paper That Ate Amy

Okay, so it's December 21 and I'm still at school finishing a paper that's due tomorrow! Who's brilliant idea was it to have school run this late!? Seriously. I'm writing a paper about the Lectures on Faith and it's very interesting, but I've been working on it all day (I've only stepped outside the building once), and my room seems to be collapsing on me.

I am slowly going crazy. 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - Switch.

Ah, by the time anybody reads this, I'll most likely have handed my paper in already and this blog will just seem like a dream. Until then, agggghhhhhh........

Mexico Pics - at last!

We've finally gotten around to posting a few pictures of our trip to Mexico.

This first one is of everyone at "Thanksgiving Dinner" at a local hotel. It was actually really good turkey and stuffing.

Below, Bennett learns he hates swimming for the first 10 seconds, and then grows to love it. To be fair, the pool was quite cold and most people weep when they first get in.





As you can see, Bennett soon loved splashing and being chauffered around in his (Jon) Turtletaub.



He also looooooved his visit with Grandma, Grandpa and his Aunties!





Here was the least welcome visitor we had in Mazatlan this trip - the largest spider any of us had ever seen (or that Morgan had ever smashed into smithereens with a shoe).

Those are larger-than-normal bricks people!

One sick day and nine hours of Lord of the Rings later . . .

I am officially a Low! Clarke told me the initiation process concluded this afternoon, after I finished watching all three extended version movies. The recent obsession started last week when Clarke had a sick day - you'll have to ask him what happens when you eat too much chocolate in one sitting - he rested from MIT for two days and watched Star Wars and Lord of the Rings (the Fellowship of the Ring). I caught the last twenty minutes of the movie and decided to start back at the beginning. After finishing #1, we called our friend for 2 and 3 (there is a Christmas idea for everyone - we don't have them). I woke up today with a sinus headache and since I didn't have class or any relief society/service obligations, I decided to watch both of them. Aragorn was crowned king around 4 this afternoon and I officially became a Low. I may not have been ready at Christmas for this total allegiance to the family and the Tolkien classics, but 9 months later, it is done.

How is it already December?

I guess time flies when you're doing nothing on a beach in Mexico. We've landed in cold Calgary (snow and -20 here) and we've realized that December does, in fact, follow November. I'm starting to freak out a little about Christmas shopping. I got the sense from a few conversations on our vacation that we don't want to pull names just yet, and instead opt for the traditional gift-giving to all members of the family. I think there should be one tweak: couples count as one person. That is, please don't give a gift to Morgan, myself and Bennett separately but one gift to all of us, or smaller gifts. Put another way: you will only be receiving one gift from all of us. There's just too much shopping otherwise (we've got a whole other family to shop for too). What do you think?

Also, I would appreciate some suggestions on what you would like for Christmas or what you know someone would like for Christmas (including Mom and Dad). Be sure to provide plenty of suggestions. If it's easier, people could set up wish lists at amazon.com The earlier the better seeing as all of you live so inconveniently far away from me.

Sorry if my panic is coming across in blog-form. We're moving to the new house in two weeks, and it seems Christmas just can't be postponed.