Christmas recital

Every December I hold a recital for my piano students. This year, as I am taking violin lessons, I also performed. Here are some clips of Joshua and me from the recital. Joshua has been playing for just over a year now, and I have been playing violin for 4 months. I have 14 students right now which keeps me busy, but it is so fun to see their progress and see the sense of accomplishment in their eyes after they perform at a recital. It's a pretty good gig.

Give Thanks

Thanksgiving 2008 was the ultimate Barlow extravaganza. Wednesday we headed down to Ephraim in our shiny new mini van (don't tell Mike I called it that) to join the rest of the family. Everyone was there, which is always fun. Karen's girls were into Twilight, so we went and saw the movie again. We all pitched in for the big dinner, where we had seventeen people, four dogs, and a cat. In our spare time we played football on the new Snow College feild with Tony's family and Daniel and Becky. Saturday we went to Salt Lake city together and enjoyed a lunch at Sizzler and a trip to the aquarium. We had a wonderful time! We are so thankful for a loving family that likes to be together!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

another childhood cuteness moment brought to you by Joshua Barlow...

(Joshua) Andrew, your bowl is hot pink.
(Andrew) No!!
an arguement ensues over the color of the pink bowl. Mom is doing dishes at the sink. Two minutes pass by and the argument grows more heated.
(Joshua) Andrew, the bowl is hot pink!!
(Andrew) NO!!
(Mom) Joshua, just let it go. He doesn't know his colors. You're just making a fight.
(Joshua in a whisper) Andrew, it's hot pink.
(Mom) Joshua!
(Mom) I have an idea. Lets change the subject and talk about something else. How about butterflies. Joshua, what do you know about butterflies?
(Joshua after a momentary pause) Sometimes they're hot pink!

2nd Annual Eggnog Day

Just a reminder that the 'Official' Eggnog Day is upon us (the first Monday in December). I know that many of you (Grandpa Barlow and Daniel) have already been celebrating this holiday everyday for the last month in anticipation for the actual day; but now it is finally here! So I hope all the practicing has prepared you-- Grandpa. For those of you unfamiliar with how this works, it's pretty simple. Go to your local grocery store or equivialant (Wal-mart, to those in Ephraim) and buy as much Eggnog as you dare consume without needing medical assistance. Then go home and drink it! We like to put a movie on (Christmas Story, or Christmas Vacation); this seems to help distract us from the fact that what we are doing is against current medical advice or common sense, but the rest is all up to personal peference. So, please, anyone who is interested in joining in on this very special day, don't hesitate. As always, be safe and do not drive afterwards if you can help it-- of course you probably won't be able to get your gut behind the wheel anyway after all that yummy, fat filled, yellow nector of holiday cheer.

Gingerbread part 4 - overkill

Okay, I know that the gingerbread project has totally taken over my blog, but no more after tonight....because it is finally finished! It's drying overnight and then tomorrow it will be out of my kitchen. Yeah, we can actually use the table for eating again. Anyway, for those of you who are still interested after all my obsessive posts, here are the pictures of the final project, and I swear this is the last time you will hear about it!

Gingerbread part 3

Sunday - slight detail work but mostly a nice break.

Monday - Andrea came and we started work on the grounds. We shaped hills out of floral foam, and then covered them with frosting and green sugar to make grass. The dirt is brown sugar.

Tuesday - Today I am working on landscape details. We used cream cheese mints to mold rocks. Marshmallow and pretzel trees adorn the hills. The pumpkin coach is in the works - it is also molded out of cream cheese mint paste. The horses still have me baffled - I'll figure it out by tomorrow though, because that's when we have to place it in the front window of Poco Loco on Main Street Logan. I also finished the tall gold spire of the castle today.

Gingerbread Update

Friday - Assembly day. I put my pieces together using various techniques for support as you can see from all the soup canse an baking soda boxes. Rubber bands work nicely too! The towers were a bit tricky and are leaning slightly. I'm bugged, but not enough to break them apart and restart.

Friday night I visited Andrea for a twilight girl's night out, and here's a picture of her progress.

Saturday - Today the assembly continued. I spent the morning attaching turrets to my part. When Andrea and Betsy got here we started the major work.

While Andrea finished painting her walls with pearl dust I constructed the false floor for my portion and mounted it on the castle base.

Then we built Andrea's walls and columns around it. We had a little trouble getting the pill bottles and spice bottles out that we were using for supports on the inside!

Betsy ran to Logan and, thanks to her dad, brought back a nicely shaped board for the final display. Once the castle was moved to the board, we were able to build the bridge and pour the sucker batch lake.