what a ride!

last night was closing night for scarlet pimpernel.

over all we are excited to have our lives return to normal (whatever that means), but sad since it has been such an awesome show and great experience for taylor....

it was especially fun seeing friends and family after the show - even though i didn't take photos of half of the people who came?

thanks to everyone who came!

 i saw the show EIGHT times, yup, all eight shows. it was crazy, but worth it. i didn't want to regret not going and seeing taylor, so i went. (thank you rich for holding down the fort while i was gone). i kept waiting for it to get old, but it never did. part of the reason was that the show was always amazing, the level of talent in this little pocket of davis county is seriously astounding. i especially enjoyed the charachter chauvelin sing "the girl" and "falcon in the dive". check out these videos of him, you will be amazed at his talent, and  i DARE you not to swoon!!

falcon-

amazing right? ya.

the cast party was also last night and the mom in charge had a GENIUS idea to bring in a couple of hair dressers to cut hair all night long since most of the boys were DYING to get it chopped after the show. taylor was no different.

BEFORE

AFTER

 no more pony tails for this kid any time soon.

 ahhhhhh. deep breath and gearing up for the next week, including: tons of costuming for the jr.high production of oklahoma, some big school projects AND election finals since taylor made it passed the primary elections. wish him luck!

seven for sunday

a few random bits...

1. there are times that i feel like i'm living my whole life in the car. i put almost three thousand miles on my van in january alone. the main reason is all the back and forth from our previous city (where the kids go to school and dance, etc.) to our new one. its only a few miles away, but the back and forth several times a day apparently adds up to a lot! one positive thing about it, is that i get to listen to the conference cds in the van while i drive. i love our general authorities!

2. to save me from the looney bin, we broke down and bought a third car for taylor to help with all of the running around. its nothing fancy, but it's not a "beater" either, somewhere in the middle.

i don't really care what it is, i'm just happy for it because it will help cut down on my driving everyone everywhere immensely. that is, as soon as he masters the stick shift. :)

3. taylor hasn't had any time to master the stick shift (although he does fairly well with it), because his high school production of the scarlet pimpernel has taken over his life. opening night was friday, and it was absolutely amazing!!!

if you're local and haven't bought tickets yet, i say GO GO GO, you will laugh your head off and be blown away by the talent! it has been a great experience for him, i'm so glad he's had this opportunity.

4. taylor getting into hair and make up for pimpernel isn't getting any less strange for me. doing pony tails and eyeliner for my son is just plain weird. i can't say that i ever dreamed about that for him when he was a baby. spencer claims he can't even look at him with the make up on because it trips him out too much.

i have to admit, it is pretty funny how different he looks with make-up, not like our regular taylor at all. 
and i have to add, that this boy, who usually wears his hair a little on the long side, can't wait to cut his hair when the show is over! apparently it's crossed the threshold that he can tolerate. 

5. i have been so happy to have some beautiful sunshine spring-like weather lately. its been a wonderful excuse for ethan and i to drop everything and go play at the park, which we've done twice in the past couple of days. absolutely lovely.

 6. we have the world's nicest neighbors. kristie, the christmas tree decorator, is also a hair dresser and agreed to curl allie's hair for dance pictures last week. this is a big deal since allie's stick straight hair is a mile long and weighs about ten pounds. i have no idea how she did it, but she managed to curl every last piece of hair into spiral perfection.

allie was beyond giddy and kept stopping in front of the mirror to giggle. thanks (again) kristie!

7. cutest friends EVER. taylor has been super busy with the musical, some big school projects and also, running for student government! a couple of his friends knew he was a little overwhelmed and showed up to celebrate his half birthday. "half" of a cake included.

 unfortunately, he was at play practice, but late that night when he finally made it to bed, it made his day to see these treats sitting there.  it makes me so happy to know that my kids are surrounded by so much love.

we're bracing ourselves for another week of the musical and campaign week!
wish us luck!
spencer wants me to tell everyone that he was here too. :)

fashion statement

while i was sick this weekend
i was grateful for my sweet husband who ran the household
while i slept
and coughed
and slept
and puked

and slept some more.

at one point i emerged from my bedroom to look for the heaven-sent ibuprophen

and on my way to the kitchen, i came upon this bold fashion statement:

the top half of his ensemble says, "ride like the wind bullseye!"

the bottom half says, "i like monkeys"

and the footwear says, "my mother is sick and i have no supervision today".

in other words,

one more reason i hope i don't die prematurely.

or at least until ethan knows how to put together a decent outfit.

or at least until he knows how to match his socks.

perfection or nothing

this girl...

is lovely

caring

delightful

bubbly

beautiful

friendly

talented

curious

hard working

SMART

did i mention lovely?

and i adore her

but she is also

a perfectionist

which can be kind of rough

because she has a very full schedule

there's just not enough TIME during the week

to devote to cleaning her room the way she wants it to be clean

on saturdays when she does clean it, it can take HOURS - for real.

because every little thing has to be organized and reorganized to death

during the week, there's no time for such details

which means she doesn't clean it at all

so usually looks something like this...

sort of a "perfection or nothing" approach

saturdays are perfection,

weekdays are nothing

and when i said being a perfectionist can be kind of rough -

i meant rough on ME

because in this house, her room is what i see across the hall

every time i leave my room

and it makes me completely insane to see this mess

all

the

time.

but really, i've mostly tried to make peace with it

because if that's the worst thing, i'll take it

so i try not to nag her too much about the room

i said try

because i know it's just not that important in the grand scheme of things

and she's so lovely, i'll take her perfectionist or nothing room

especially over, you know, piercings and drugs and worse.

with that said,

a few weeks ago, i learned something new about my girl...

this girl

this darling, beautiful, lovely, talented, perfectionist with a messy room....

will do

ANYTHING

including cleaning her room in the middle of the week

WITHOUT BEING ASKED

for a chance...

to drive

and if you think i'm not taking advantage of this, you're wrong.

three things

lately ethan says, "mom, three things", holding up three fingers and then proceeds to tell me four to five random things. it usually goes something like: "one. why do we have green bananas?" "two. can i play playhouse disney on the computer?" " three. where are my mittens?" "and four. can i have gum?"

there is never the same amount of questions or tidbits as he originally tells me there's going to be, they are listed one right after the other without letting me answer them one at a time, and there is always a varried sampling of information.

his lists of random things always makes me giggle. i usually answer him back the same way.

so today i'm posting "three" random things, ethan style.

one. saturday ethan took the best bubble bath in the history of bubble baths. we poured the normal amount of bubbles in but this time we turned on the jets which made the bubbles go crazy. he was pretty excited when the level of bubbles kept rising and rising. when taylor and spencer saw what he was up to, they were super jealous and vowed to take a bubble bath like this one soon.

two. i don't know what came over me during the hair styling routine this morning. but today, i curled a throw back to the late seventies with a little bit of feathering and everything. i loved it and felt a little connection with farrah all day long. just kidding, but i did like it.

three. i think taylor is super handsome. i'm always surprised when i see him walk in the door from school. he is so grown up! tall and handsome and kind. i love this guy.

four. teenagers like texting. our phone bill is pages and pages long. luckily our fee is just a flat rate for our whole family (that the teenagers help pay each month). at first i wasn't sure how i felt about texting, especially since the number of texts per month are in like the 4,000 range (for real) PER KID,  but now i've decided that it's no different than all the hours i spent tying up my family's phone line when i was a teenager. plus, i LOVE being able to get ahold of them during the day. scenes like this make me laugh. what i should've done was zoom out to show that they're in the middle of people talking all around them, but also in their own little world.

onward

the overwhelming task of the overdue christmas post
is lingering over my head
and blocking my ability to post.
which makes me feel super behind
which blocks my ability to post
etc. etc.
and so, i'm giving myself permission to SKIP it.
the end.

onward with a few miscellaneous things.

i love little kid handwriting.

i wish i would've taken photos of the older kids' handwriting from when they were young.

come to think of it, spencer and taylor's handwriting probably still looks the same,

but it's not as cute when you're past 1st grade.

speaking of taylor and spencer....

how man moore boys does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

i took this photo after they had been up there fiddling with it for more than fifteen minutes.

for some reason, it just cracks me up that they had such a hard time with it.
maybe because i've heard too many screw in a lightbulb jokes?

spencer is back to his old self now that indoor lacrosse has started.
the bad light and plexi-glass arena make it almost impossible to get a decent photo,
so i can usually be found cheering (too loudly for rich) instead of shooting.

after the first game spencer decided he needed to work out on the treadmill more often.

i wonder if it has something to do with all the video game training he does?

i'm so lucky that all of my kids love music so much.

i'm even luckier than the high school musical AND the jr. high musicals are two of my most favorite of all time and all three of my teenagers are participating in them.

the high school is doing the scarlet pimpernel - with guillotine special effects and all. 

 and spencer and allie will be doing o.k.l.a.h.o.m.a - ooooklaaaaahoooooma!

hmmmm....too bad hugh jackman won't be staring in the jr.high production!

i love the music from both of these plays so much! i have been listening to them non-stop since we heard the good news.

a few more reasons to look forward to spring.

over christmas break there was more than just christmas morning that we were counting down at our house.

allie was counting down to three days BEFORE christmas when she could smile metal-free again.

 and all of us were counting down to TWO days before christmas when we could welcome these two cuties home from their mission in hawaii...

it was definitely nice timing to have them home for the moore family party the next day.

even if it meant getting up before the sun to see them at the airport!

last sunday we enjoyed hearing their talks at their homecoming.

 glad to have them home.

tall enough to be a man

i have a big christmas catch-up post coming soon.

but before that, there are more important things to blog (and brag) about...

like wishing a happy 14th birthday to this handsome boy,

i mean, man, i mean, young man.

i get a little weepy when i think too much about what a big year this has been for spencer.

he was always a good kid, but this year, i can tell that he knows it.

spencer has the best attitude and most positive disposition.

WHAT? yes, that's right i said, positive and spencer all the same sentence.

no more being the eyore of our family, like i said, i can tell that he feels better.

a lot of times in the last few months, i have found him in the kitchen, doing the dishes without being asked.

just because they needed to be done.  

and even though i would love him if he didn't do the dishes, this is just an example of the kind of kid he is.

yes i'm bragging, i just think he's great.

this year, he scored more then 12 lacrosse goals, i lost count.

earned lots of merit badges at scout camp

auditioned for and made it into the jr. high musical (coming this spring)

helped ethan with countless hours of whatever wii game he was trying to master.

pulled thousands of weeds and moved at least that many boxes

wrestled for the first time with the jr high team

(and only threw up once during their hard-core conditioning)

helped taylor hang our christmas lights

ran track for the first time and rocked the hurtles

starting shaving good grief!

grew at LEAST six inches and two shoe sizes to pass allie and catch up with taylor

with a lot of hard work, he's earned all As and Bs so far this year

plus lots of things i'm forgetting

man i love this guy!

tonight we'll be celebrating with a spaghetti dinner, strawberry cupcakes and a late lacrosse game with his indoor league team. and maybe later saving the world from the evil covenant.

in other words, his version of a pretty much perfect night.

happy happy birthday spencer

i love you

self defense

i'm not sure i've ever smelled worse morning breath

than that of one ethan tanner.

for real.

its baaaaad.

and he knows it.

and he thinks it's funny.

so he breathes on me during our good morning squeeze.

on purpose.

gross.

it makes my stomach turn.

so the other morning, i'd had enough and decided to defend myself.

so i turned his beloved blanket...

into a bad breath guard.

it worked!

and i enjoyed my good morning squeeze nausea free.

trimming the tree

i was unpacking our tree decor a few weeks ago and asked taylor, "where is the box of good ornaments? these are all crap." taylor replied, "those ARE the good ornaments".  i was shocked. seriously shocked. when did my tree get so ugly? most of the stuff we have has been in the box since our first christmas and it was TIME to update.

so i  made an executive decision right then to have a grown up tree this year. so i picked out some stuff and called my cute neighbor kristie over to get the job done. i saw her tree earlier in the week and she has a gift for sure, so i knew she was the girl for the task.

she worked her magic and i just have to say...I LOVE IT!

it makes me happy every time i look at it.

the photo doesn't do it justice, it's just so gorgeous.

pure elegant joy.

my favorite part has to be that she put whole bouquets of poinsettias in the tree - i never would have thought of this! poinsettias are one of my favorite christmas symbols and this tree is loaded with them.

also, most of what i chose had glitter on it.

i have a thing for glitter.

it's just so...glittery.

i'm realizing now i should've taken more detailed photos.

and just incase you're wondering, i don't have one bit of guilt about not having any homemade ornaments on the tree this year.

not even a smidge.

because i'm feeling so happy when i see it, there's no room for guilt.

add the fm100.3 christmas music playing in the backround and we are definitely ready for christmas around here.

poor kristie should have faked some incompotence, because she did such a good job, she has a job for life now. i love that her philosophy for decorating the tree is "cram it in". who knew cramming could be so gorgeous?

sigh

thank you kristie!

zoolander

you would think that the older my kids get,

the easier trying to take their photo would be.

i mean, they're MY children after all.

it's not like i don't ever take their photo.

it's not like they haven't practiced this a million times.

or even more.

but it's always the same routine.

they pose for a few "nice" shots.

and then just as we're getting into it,

spontaneously, they all break out into their alter egos,
and any control i had of the shoot, magically disappears.

there are always "super model" poses...

although, really, i don't know what magazine they could possibly be posing for.

freaks are us?

there are always "kung fu" moves...

but i'm pretty sure the big fat panda would be just be embarrassed for them right here.

and of course, funny (a.k.a. dorky) faces...

but really,

i don't think i would have it any other way.

because they kind of crack me up.

except when it's december and i'm freezing and want to get into the house.

men in tutus

i could have titled this "the moores have moves", but since that was the title of my last post, i'm going with with men in tutus instead. however, it is a video displaying spencer's sweet moves and is giggle enducing for your christmas season pleasure.

for the jr.high boys' choir, they put together a number called, "nutcracker in three minutes". choreography provided by allie and chloe, entertainment provided by spencer and kyle and other eighth grade boys not afraid to make fools of themselves infront of a live audience. backround cackling provided by me, sorry about that, i just couldn't help myself.



i have to say, when allie and chloe showed me what they had put together, it didn't look anything like this. watching these boys made me actually appreciate how much work and talent real ballerinas put into their dances. with that said, i've never laughed outloud at one of allie's recitals. my favorite part has to be when spencer gets "lifted" by his partner who is tiny.

the moores have moves

it was funny when we did it two years ago, and seriously, it just never gets old.

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

ethan's favorite part is that rhino made it into the video.
the rest of us all agree that spencer had the perfect face for a vid like this.
have a good laugh.
we did.
happy christmas everyone.

to put you in the mood (christmas that is)

have you heard?


i haven't really used my blog for plugging products, but rick starr's new christmas cd, an acoustic christmas, is really fantastic. it's been playing at my house non-stop for the last couple of days and it's really set the tone for me and made me excited that christmas is coming. my teenagers especially love it, the sounds he produces are just beautiful.

we were lucky enough to have a personal performance of this song, and rick's talent blew me away!
to hear a sampling of the rest of the songs on his new christmas cd (and buy one for yourself), go to rickstarrmusic.com.

christmas is coming!

silver lining

i don't really know if i'm quite ready for the slushy white stuff.
especially because we've woken up to it for two mornings in a row.
it stinks to add an extra ten minutes of coats and boots whenever trying to get out the door.
which in this house, is often.
and mucking through slushy parking lots while errand running.
bleh. yuck.

but it sure is pretty.
and like most everything inconvenient, there's a silver lining, like...

fuzzy slippers and sherpa boots
extra blankets on the beds for snuggling at night
a cozy house
kids (especially little ones) in snow pants and all the gear
turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy and pie
never being too hot (which for me, is always)
craft projects at the kitchen table
fire in the fireplace
movies and sherpa blankets on the couch
organizing inside instead of yard work on the outside
creamy soup - well, any kind of soup really
thick, soft scarves (i found the coolest one today!)
beanies that make my dirty hair instantly cute
christmas!
quilting and crocheting
snow angels and sledding
every single little tree branch decorated with flakes
and the hundreds of photos of the tree branches decorated with flakes

oh ya, it all sounds lovely.
but most especially, i'm ready for this...

hot chocolate baby.

in the morning,

or any time at all.