New Moon Premiere

Well I said I wouldn't blog about Twilight again until New Moon came out in theaters and that's happened so here we go....

First there was the midnight showing of New Moon that some of my pals went to go see. Understand that I am such a lover of all things Twilight that I made myself wait until the following Monday to see it in hopes that the screaming girls would have had their fill by then and so that when I went to see it- no one would be screaming and drowning out the sound of my Edward's voice. However, I didn't want to miss out on the fun so I went in line and waited with them just to hang out and talk about Twilight. Yes- that is exactly how nerdy I am.

Here are the girls who went opening night. We are standing in front of the "Clock Tower in Volterra" (it was set up in the Theater's lobby) but whoever took the picture didn't realize that we wanted it in the picture (which is why we stood in front of it) so you don't get to see it. Oh well.

Then Monday finally came and I threw a Bella-Themed-Birthday-Party before we went to the movie. Here is the invitation that I made:

In the book Alice has a pink cake for Bella so that is what I made. It was strawberry flavored and delicious.
These are the girls who went Monday night with me. Notice that we're all holding "The Forbidden Fruit" like on the cover of Twilight?
Here we are at the Theater in front of Jacob Black's house. There was even a mailbox with the name "Black" painted on it. Kudos to the theater staff for being so creative!
I thought the movie was really great and much better than Twilight. I think having a new director really improved things and I also thought the acting was better- perhaps the cast took some acting lessons between movies. And I must admit that while I will always love Edward- Jacob Black sure caught my eye in this one. Can you blame me?!?

And that is the end.

My Handsome Boy

We took Kien's 2-year pictures and I'm a pleased with the results:
This is his sultry GQ pose:

PS- finished reading Life As We Knew It, The Host, and Graceling. All very good books. By far The Host is my favorite. I think I might even like it more than The Twilight Saga! (Yikes! Don't tell Edward!)

Media Musings

So since my love affair with Twilight I decided that I needed to get back in the saddle in search for a new love. I missed being completely sucked in by a story and it's characters. I saw a trailer for an upcoming movie called "The Time Traveler's Wife" and I remembered seeing the title on a list of books that you should read during your lifetime. So I figured I'd read the book and then watch the movie as a special treat. I actually really liked the book, the style it was written in, and the characters. It was such an interesting love story with it's own unique dilemma's. However, it was like a PG-13 movie that pushed the very limits of its rating- tossing in just enough swear words and that one vulgar scene. So I cannot in good faith, recommend the book to any of my LDS friends. :S However, the movie version was fairly clean and they did without the yucky scene. Of course the movie left out a lot of other things as well but hey- that's what movies do.So I took a little trip down to Barnes and Nobles in St. George and walked through the teen section. I figured if I read a teen book it has to be clean because otherwise parents would be mad. That combined with my weird fascination with Fairies led me to pick up this book: Wicked Lovely. It's about a girl named Aislinn who can see fairies all around us that the rest of us are blind to. I liked all the parts with the fairies but one of the male romantic leads was a human named Seth. Seth was described as having "bars in his face" that made him so hot. He also had pierced nipples. LOL.... I just don't find piercings attractive at all so it was hard for me to like him or see Aislinn's attraction to him. (Not sure if I'll ever find another imaginary character that I will love as much as Edward Cullen.) :P So anyways, this book was part of a series and I stopped at the bookstore and seriously considered buying the second book just to finish the series but when I read the back and saw that it was all about a girl named Leslie who was obsessed with getting this one tattoo I knew it wasn't for me. If the piercings bothered me I'm sure the tattoo's would as well. Sorry Wicked Lovely, thumbs down from me. (It's probably aimed towards the emo's out there.)
Then just two days ago I took Kien to the park next to our house where a bunch of other moms were playing with their kids. I had brought "The Host" with me. I figured if Stephenie Meyer won my heart with Twilight, maybe she could do it again with this book.
I had just started it and was on the first chapter when one of the other moms started talking to me about books and her book club. I was ecstatic! She just lives a couple houses down from me and they are meeting on the 14th for the first time. The book for the month is "Life As We Knew It". She told me where to pick it up to get their book club discount so I did and I'm about 1/2 way through it right now. I LOVE IT! It had me in tears by chapter two! It's about what would happen when an asteroid hits the moon, slightly pushing it closer to the earth. Suddenly the tides are effected and giant tsunamis wipe out all the coastlines. That's why I started crying- because Hawaii was wiped out and the coast of Alaska (where Nome is) was utterly destroyed. If it were a real event, my family and friends would be gone. Anyways, the story follows a families struggle to survive during these hard times. Gas prices sky rocket and food is no longer delivered across the country. It has seriously freaked me out about not having enough food storage. When Bret gets home with the car today I am going to buy more food storage ASAP. Anyways, I totally recommend this book. If anything, it will make you want to make sure you have sufficient food storage! (I will start reading The Host again after I finish this one.)
So anyways, that's what I've been reading lately. Now I will plug my new favorite show- Glee. I love it. Probably because it has all these musical numbers and I've always wished life was a musical. Also because in high school I was a drama club geek just like these kids. Something about performing just makes you feel special. I'm a "Gleek".

Go HERE to watch the first 5 episodes of Season One for FREE.

I Cut Kien's Hair

Well, I finally did it myself. I cut Kien's hair. When I started I instantly regretted it because his beautiful blond locks were just falling to the floor in bigger heaps than I anticipated. This is his "Before" picture:

And while it's shorter than I originally wanted it to be (I used the biggest setting on Bret's shaving kit- an 8), I don't think it turned out too bad. Besides, it'll grow back.
Here are his "After" shots:
He was so happy just to get a little lolly pop while I cut his hair so he was pretty well behaved. Good job Kien.

Trailer Cake

I made this for my sister-in-law, Erin's, cake competition:
A tribute, to our old home.......

So Much To Blog, So Little Time: Part C

During my sister's visit, we went to the Bountiful Temple (Where Bret and I got married) and we did baptisms in proxy for our very own deceased family members. It's the first time I've ever done temple work for my own relatives.

This was my nephew Jeremy's first time to the temple as well.
When I was sitting inside waiting, my sister handed me some cards with names. It really hit me when I recognized those names and knew stories about these people or had even met a few of them. I just felt the spirit confirm how very true this work is and that there really are people on the other side waiting for this.

Among the people was my Grandfather on my Dad's side (He's the grown man):
My Uncle Sumner (The one Driving):
My grandmother on my Dad's side, Mary Viola Munn:
And my Grandpa on my Mom's side. (I was 12 or 13 in this picture):
It was just a really neat experience. I look forward to more.

So Much to Blog, So Little Time: Part B

This past weekend Kien and I went up to the SLC area because my sister, Kim, and her family came down to visit from Alaska. During our stay up there, we went to Hoogle Zoo with them. It was a lot of fun.

Kien has little zoo animal toys so I let him hold whichever animal he was looking at, at the time. Can you see his Elephant? That is little Braddock by the way, Becca's son. Kim and I grew up with Becca in Nome, Alaska.
Here's Me, Kien, and his cousin Addison on the Merry-Go-Round.
My sister Kim and two of her kids, Addison and Jeremy.
Kien told me that he wished he could be raised by apes.
We took the train ride too! I'm in the back with Kien, then there's Kim with Addison and baby Aiden, then up front is her husband Sean, son Jeremy, and other baby twin Reese.
Kien liked the Train ride.
And all the kids: Kien, Aiden, Reese, Bradock, Jeremy, and Addison.

So Much to Blog, So Little Time: Part A

Well shucks, I haven't blogged in a while and a lot of Stuff has happened. So I'll break it down into parts.

Part A

I chopped off 12 inches of hair and donated to Locks of Love. It was weird seeing my hair in a loosely braided pony tail on the counter in front of me while the stylist went to work on what was left on my head. It's probably what an amputee feels like when they see their dismembered body part. Ok, that was a bad joke. I'm sorry to anyone who has lost a body part that may have been offended by my previous comment. It's just that I recently read The Time Traveler's Wife where a man had to have his feet amputated so that's swimming around in my head.

Bret likes my hair cut. It reminds him of the good old days when we dated in Hawaii.

Happy Birthday Kien

I woke up this morning and thought to myself "I can't believe I have a two year old." Time has flown by and that's what they say about having fun. Kien is my little ball of fun and I love him. He is a sweet boy. Yesterday Bret pretended to attack me and Kien FREAKED OUT. He chased after Dad and yelled "No!" He was just trying to protect his momma. To repay him for his heroism I threw him a birthday bash. Enjoy the pictures!

I made this cake for Kien. I love making cakes but you all probably already know that about me.

The Rowley's.
Kristi Barnes with Kien and Bryson.
Cute little miss Brooke Barnes.
Andrew working on his tan.
They decided to use the kiddie pool as a raft!
Kien is just like his dad- being a wallflower at his own party.
He was so excited about the presents that it was all a blur.
Mom sure must love you for making you a "fisss" cake.