My first blog giveaway!!!!

I feel the need to put four exclamation marks (a record for me) because I have won something, something good, for telling a joke!! It all started on the second of December. I was skimming cjane's blog when I stumbled across a post announcing...

My heart raced with excitement. I quickly read the few comments at the time an discovered...

I quickly wrote something before I went to seminary. Shelley wasn't too happy. It went something like...

This was the best I had. The sad part was that I sort of forgot ab

out it, and so I failed to check back at the end of the day to see if I had won. Five days later I was perusing the cjane blog, and to my supreme joy and excitement I found...

Perhaps this will justify the four exclamation marks, Hmmmm?

The long Awaited Diana Photos!!!

Diana, the Greek Goddess of the Hunt, is the name of a lovely analogue camera that I bought this year. It is a delightful nostalgic blue with a hugo flash that is the only thing that requires batteries.

Everything else; the focus, the aperture, the shutter speed, and even the shutter itself, are completely manual. Mom and Dad still don't understand the reason I don't just go with digital, and I'll admit, it is a ton easier and simpler. But there is one reason that outweighs everything, in my mind at least. That thing is the flaws.

In a digital camera only

one thing is put to chance. That is if the picture will upload or

not. But with the Diana, everything

is entirely up in the air. This is the beauty. I'll let the pictures

speak for themselves.

A Little Music

Esplin to Morgan

Things to be Thankful for

I think I speak for all of the Esplin clan when I say we're very grateful Cordell escaped a most terrible doom today.

I Am Leslie Hall.

This Saturday I attended a Halloween Party with my Father. We won't be in town on the 31st so I didn't have a costume prepared. No need to fear, it only takes a day and a trip to Hobby Lobby* to become Leslie. *Hobby Lobby is Ms. Hall's preferred craft outlet.


I even be-gemed my own sweater from Savers! I call it Galactic Blossom.


This party was for older folks but I did find two adults who had actually heard of Leslie Hall.


Favorite?



The hair was a toughy, I just couldn't quite match her volume.


Don't worry, I haven't chubbed out. Brookalicious helped me create a butt/thigh/belly combo.


Leslie Hall, you are my Hero.

Helmet Head

Tonight we hung out at my grandma & grandpa Newton's house. It was so fun to take Penelope into the play room to play with the same toys I did when I was her age. She had so much fun with the vintage dolls and super old-school rocking horse. But. . .




Her favorite item to play with was the helmet. She kept it on until I took it off (about 5 minutes).

Bed Hair

We've had some good bed hair recently. Penelope's hair is getting a lot longer and much more unruly. Now I'm remembering my mom spraying "no more tangles" in my hair and brushing it when I was little. I remember she did that at night and put our hair in curlers on Saturday nights so we'd have curly hair for church.


Penelope is getting to a fun stage where I could put little pigtails in her hair, but I'm WAY TOO lazy to find her some good elastic bands.

See where Penelope gets it? I slept with my hair wet. It's always fun to see what happens when I sleep like that.

The Garden of Forkly Delights

I have finished. I only made a portion of the painting and only the important characters, but after a month and a half of burned fingers, smelling like candles, and potentially inhaling toxic fumes my vision has finally come to fruition. So here they are, my lovely "forkinators"...
(This is a reenactment of the painting "The Garden of Earthly Delights" by Hieronymus Bosch. It consists of forks and spoons only, no glue and no paint. The red stuff is fondant.)









































































Thank you Melissa for the idea to make this and thank you mom for helping me get the cake out of the pan.

1950's Secretary, My Dream Job?

Today was career day. Shelley and I therefore dressed up, albeit more than anyone else in the school. I was a 1950's Secretary, or 1930's, I'm not sure. My crowning piece (excuse the pun) was my hair. I woke up EXTRA early in order to do it up, and here are the results...

At long last I have an idea of how those girls did their hair! Fifteen bobby pins, give or take.

Keep in mind: I did my hair completely blind from the back. I call this an accomplishment.

Head shot with the glasses. How riveting.

Don't you just love it? I even used my typewriter case as my backpack for the day!

Back to "work"

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Chris and I have noticed Penelope's uncanny sense of coordination. Maybe we're super proud parents, but we're just constantly amazed at how well she can keep a beat, shake her booty and twirl in circles.

Recently, I came across some old ballet costumes. One that I wore when I was four looked particularly small, possibly the size for a 16 month old. As soon as Penelope squeezed into that little leo she pranced around the house like a little princess. Or like someone from Alice and wonderland (which is what the performance the costume was for).

Doesn't she look like she's walking the runway?

I don't know where this dance move came from, but it's adorable.

Striking a pose.

Here I am at four years old, posing for the camera. Some days I miss ballet tremendously. I hope Penelope will love dance as much as I do.

Fuud.

So I've been making all this food and taking pictures for the fun of it. I was afraid it was rather pointless until I realized that I have a blog to boast on...
(p.s. the first three pictures were taken w/ my phone, so they're not as good)

Sweet and Sour Chicken.
Took a while, but tasted amazing.

Pasta I made up. It reminds me of those TV dinner things, except way yummier. Brookie's friends finished it off pretty quickly.

Left: Eggs with onions and cheese.
Right: Broccoli steamed and sauted in soy sauce (aka Lindsay style).
Suprisingly good together.

Oober fluffy waffles full of blueberries and chocolate chips.
They were so much simpler than I expected!

Chocolate Mousse. mmm.

There's a hostage situation over at IS•LY

The Nels has struck again.

Crazy Dog.

As I was pulling up to the house after Cross Country this morning I noticed something strange on the wall... it was Molly. She was majestically stationed on the corner of the brick wall waiting for someone to come home. It was relatively amusing to see her keeping watch.

This is why we honeymooned in Cancun . . .

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Weddings and Babysitters

Weddings are infinitely harder when you have a kid to tote around. Scott, thankfully, babysat while we were in the temple.


Linnley is the 5th bride to wear that dress! I kept thinking that dress is the wedding equivalent to the sisterhood of the traveling pants. Every one of us has different body types, but we were all able to pull it off!


The bridesmaid dresses were a lot more comfortable after we sewed the wrap part shut. Black was a good color for all of us.


Grandpa Scott & Judy. Grandpa did a great job on the wedding ceremony.

Ayden was so happy to see Lin & Nathan come out of the temple doors, but not happy about that kiss!

Here's my dad, ready and waiting for the Sartorialist to take his picture.

We're Under Attack

Brookster didn't do it.  She wasn't that hungry.  Shelley is too squeamish.  Cordell?  He's too picky about what he eats.  Molly would be crying from the cactus spines in her nose.  Besides, she doesn't roam around in the front yard.  I can only assume that we are under attack from some giant flesh eating, desert dwelling monster that has started with the golden barrel in the front yard as an appetizer.  What to do, what to do.