Monday Music

The day after Christmas, KOST stops it's Christmas music. That was a pretty clear indication that Christmas was over and done.

I even got a cd of Christmas music for Christmas that I didn't listen to before Anna packed up all our Christmas stuff.

That means we're all back to regular music again at my house.

Also, for Christmas, I got an iPod classic. Very cool.

I'm in the process of loading my CDs on it. I haven't kept track of how many CDs I've put on it since for some of them, I'm only putting the songs I like instead of the whole thing. But so far I have about 620 songs, and I've only just begun. But it's been pretty fun so far putting them on the iPod, so I'm eager to keep going.

So, today's music is inspired by my iPod loading...

Duran Duran "Ordinary World"



Green Day "Walking Contradiction"



And one song actually inspired by playing Rock Band 2 at my brother Kyle's house recently...


Lush "De Luxe"

Friday Flashback 1.2.09

Today's flashback photo is of Angus.

It was 3 years ago on Dec. 31, that Angus died. Anna and I are not the fanatical type of pet owners, but to put it in perspective; We had Angus longer than we've had kids.

We got Angus when he was 6 weeks old and we had only been married for about 6 months. He was 9 1/2 years old when he died. We had him for over 9 years. Duncan just turned 7.

We still miss Angus, and smile when we see his photos and appearances in home videos.

It's Been Almost Non-Stop!

You'll notice that the date of the entry before this one is the 19th. That's almost 2 weeks ago. Well, things have been pretty non-stop since then for us. I'll give you a small break down of our last two weeks.

12/20: karate class for Duncan, Duncan's birthday party

12/22: Duncan's birthday, Anna's first day of winter break, Christmas shopping, Duncan's birthday Dinner, Jason and Kristi joined us.

12/23: Anna has a meeting with some school district people about Liam, More last minute shopping, wrapping presents till very late.

12/24: McAlister Christmas in the morning, Extended Foutz family Christmas Eve get together.

12/25: Christmas morning, open presents at home, Take family pictures in ElMonte, Spend the day at the Foutz compound, get home late.

12/26: Back to the Foutz compound to visit with Grandpa Letterman and Maggie, get home late.

12/27: Clean and pick up the house, Kevin's family comes over to play, Jason and Kristi come over too to watch the UFC PPV that night.

12/28: Head back to the Foutz compound to let our kids play with Kevin and Dawn's kids before they head back to AZ. Play some Rock Band 2 till late at Kyle's house.

12/30: Spend the day up at the McAlister cabin in Wrightwood playing in the snow.

12/31: Catching the boys up on their "off track" homework, later tonight we're playing board games with some friends from the ward.

As you can see, there hasn't been a whole lot of time for the Bloggy Blog. But we do have TONS of pictures, so I'll be playing catch up with all the things that have been going on over the next week or two.


Hope you've had as good a time as we've had over the past couple weeks.

Friday Flashback 12.19

Today's flashback photo is of Jennan. This was taken in April of 2007. She was a few months shy of her 2nd birthday. That's only a few months more than Tegan is now.

What a cutie face!

Jennan will be turning 4 next summer. Then on to pre-school! She can't wait.

Anniversary Day

Though our actual anniversary was Tuesday the 16th, we celebrated it by going to Disneyland on Thursday the 18th. Anna's mom and dad kept the kids Wednesday night, all through Friday morning.

We stayed at a hotel across the street from Disneyland Wed. night, spent the day at D-land, drove home that night, and I went to pick up the kids this morning (Anna went to work).

After dropping the kids off at Anna's folks' house, we went to Ernie Jr.'s Taco House for $1 tacos. After getting our fill there, we headed on down to Anaheim. After checking in at the Anaheim Plaza Hotel and Suites, we went to the Denny's down the street and had some caramel apple crisp a la mode, and hot chocolate.

The next morning we also went to Denny's for breakfast. It was a very hearty breakfast, and a good start to our day.

I wasn't really going to pose like this, but Anna got me before I put my finger down.

We went into Disneyland first to get some "Happy Anniversary" buttons to wear. We hoped that they would get us a pack of tortillas in Cal. Adv. We had our picture taken in front of the huge Christmas tree at the start of Main St.



We had some time before Ca. Adv. was open, so we went over to Space Mountain. The line was pretty short. But before we could get on the ride, it broke down. Bummer. But we did pretty much walk right on the Buzz Lightyear ride where I blew Anna away with my huge score.


After getting our buttons, got denied at Space Mountain, and did Buzz, we headed over to California Adventure. We went on Soarin' over California, then went over to the Toy Story Midway ride/game. Anna got in line, I got us some fast passes for California Screamin'. The wait was maybe 15 minutes for the Midway. Anna out scored me. The line was still short, so we got back in it. The second time, I outscored Anna by way more than she outscored me the first time. After that, we went over to California Screamin' and got in the regular line. Our fast passes weren't good yet. The wait was probably 30 min. or so. That's a very fun roller coaster. When we were done, our fast passes were good, and we went again.

We headed over to the Mission tortilla factory. Waited, got our free tortilla sample, and that was it. Neither of us were offered a pack of them. We went through again. This time we asked if we get a pack because it's our anniversary? Nope. Packs are only for birthday button people. Bummer. We also went through the bread demonstration.

From there we went to the Bug's Life Theatre to see the 3D show that the kids don't like. It's a fun show.

Anna wanted pictures of us with our bug eyes on.

That picture of me reminds me of those sunglasses I'm wearing. Wednesday was overcast and rainy. I didn't need my sunglasses. Thursday was sunny; but I had no sunglasses. I forgot them! The sun was bothering my eyes enough (I have very sensitive eyes), that I bought a pair in Disneyland in the morning. I was going to maybe return them at the end of the day, but decided to keep them.


After Bug's Life, we headed on over to Disneyland. Our lunch reservations would be soon. We got some fast passes for Big Thunder Mountain and headed on over to the Blue Bayou for lunch. We knew we needed to try the Monte Cristo sandwich (learned that from last year), but we both didn't want to get the same thing, so I ordered the mahi mahi (but we split both meals). The fish was pretty good, but small. It was on a huge bed of greens. We liked the Monte Cristo; me more than Anna. We both agreed that the powdered sugar was distracting, but I liked the berry sauce a lot, and Anna didn't care for it. The prices are outrageous, by the way.

Taken before the discrepancy between price and food was vastly apparent.

Anna being silly.

By far, the best thing at the Blue Bayou is the cookie boat! The cookie is so good and chewy, and the ice cream is nice and creamy. If we ever go again, we'll just be going for that.

After lunch, we went on Big Thunder Mountain (twice), Pirates, Indiana Jones (twice), Space mountain, Honey I shunk the audience (Anna's idea), Matter Horn, Snow White, Pinocchio, Mr Toad's, did a bunch of walking, etc.

In line at Indiana Jones.

As we were walking out to go to Naples restaurant in downtown Disney, the winter/Christmas lights and snow "show" was happening along Main St. Anna wanted a picture of her with the castle and "snow".

We went to Naples, found my cousin Colleen that works there and made a reservation. In the time before we sat, we looked around downtown Disney and walked in and looked in a lot of the shops there.

Once we were back at Naples, we had some really good mozzarella sticks, and a pizza. Italian pizza sure isn't what we're used to. Anna wasn't that hungry to begin with, so she didn't eat much. I was fine, so I ate more than she did. By this time, around 9:45, we were pretty much done. It had been a long day. We walked back to our car, and headed home. It was a really fun time.

A huge thank you to Anna's mom Bonnie, for watching the kids.

Breakfast With Santa

Last Saturday, the primary had a "Breakfast with Santa" activity. There aren't any picture of the breakfast part. There's just too many kids that need something continually, to have the time to take a few pictures. They had pancakes and eggs with milk or orange juice.

But Anna did get pictures of the kids sitting on Santa's lap...

Tegan wanted nothing to do with sitting on Santa's lap.

Now that dad has rescued her...

Pretty pretty Jennan

Liam was happy to talk to Santa.

Duncan's all about the whole Santa, lists, and being good this year.

After sitting on Santa's lap, the primary kids went into a room to make a Christmas craft. They were making a snowflake type thing with beads.

The kids were invited to wear their pajamas to the activity if they wanted to. Only about half did. A few of the leaders did too.

The gift from Santa this year was a pillow case. They were donated by Anna's mom. She made them.

All the kids that went had a good time.

It's How Guys Do Fancy- Update

Carl's Jr. has a new burger. It's called the Charbroiled Steak Sandwich. And with each new burger, there's a new commercial. The commercial for this burger is pretty funny...

...at least I like it. (Great casting!)

There's a coupon for $1 off a new Charbroiled Steak Sandwich HERE. I can't wait to try one.


**Update**
A few days ago, Anna and I split one of these Charbroiled Steak Sandwiches, and I have to say, I was greatly disappointed! Anna didn't care for it either. It had very little flavor. The Ribeye six dollar burger was 100 times better than this is. (But they don't have that anymore.) ::sad face::

Whoppers are way better too. (We had those last night. Happy Anniversary to us!)