TV Shows I Like

Mkay, this post is going to make it seem like I'm a total couch potato, and although I do love sitting on the couch, I actually don't watch that much TV. We don't have cable or even regular local channels, so it's pretty much DVDs, Netflix and Hulu for us around here, which I don't mind. I actually love that I don't have to ever even see the crap that's on TV while changing channels. I do miss the NBA and college football, but it's a price I'm willing to pay for now. I explore different shows for free on Hulu or put them in my Netflix queue. If I like a show enough, I usually buy it on DVD. If not, I just stop watching it.

So here are some of the shows I have been exploring over the years and what I like/dislike about them.

Shows I Like But Probably Wouldn't Buy

Monk

This is actually really old, but every once in a while I will watch this on Netflix. This show is a crack up and each episode is a murder mystery solved, so it holds my interest. This show follows the same format for most of its episodes, so I'd say a marathon can get monotonous, but I still love this show.

30 Rock

I started watching these on Netflix too. I think that the first two seasons were funnier than the more recent seasons, but I haven't watched up to the current episodes, so I might not be the best judge. Alec Baldwin is super funny and Tracy Morgan is also a riot.

Pushing Daisies

I might have posted about this show already. It only lasted two seasons, and it's too bad, because I really liked it. It was super bright and whimsical, just like the picture here. The characters were fabulously portrayed. Each episode also was a murder mystery solved. The plot was getting a little lame near the end of season 2, and I think it had something to do with the writers' strike. Too bad, because I liked this show and could have watched it longer. I loved Kristen Chenoweth!

Good Old Staples

Friends

No explanation needed.

That 70's Show

Hilarious.

So You Think You Can Dance

Duh. Best reality dance show on TV.

Project Runway

Also a no-brainer. If you haven't ever seen this show, you must! It is fabulously entertaining even if you don't sew. It's inspiring and informative too. Granted, the last few seasons have sucked, as far as I'm concerned. Crappy outcomes and crappy and inconsistent critiques from the judges. I'm still loyal though and hoping that they step it up next season. (My suggestions are get rid of Michael Korrs and Nina Garcia!)

The Office

Still loving this show. I hadn't watched season 6 at all while it was running, but watched it later on DVD. I don't know why everyone had said that they thought season 6 was lacking, because I thought it was just as funny as the rest of the show. I love (almost) each and every character on this show! Yes, even Andy (actually, he's a favorite) and Kelly. It's hard to find a show that's this funny and that has such memorable characters.

Gossip Girl

Sorry, but I watch this show. And I love this show. Don't judge me, it is seriously addicting. And these people are beautiful.

Newer Discoveries

Chuck

I. Love. Chuck. This show is really funny! The character Chuck is so endearing. He's basically a computer nerd who works at a Best Buy-type store who gets caught up with the CIA. I don't want to give it away if you haven't seen it. I am still watching season 2 of this show, and I think it's still great. If you haven't seen this show and you like action, geeks, and comedy, this is a great show for you. Start with season 1 though.

Modern Family

I just started watching this show on Netflix. And I love it! It is hilarious and very true to life! Family dynamics are pretty stinkin' funny.

Pretty Little Liars

Another new show I've picked up. This show is about high school girls whose friend was murdered and they are still trying to figure it all out. It's not the most well-written show, but the acting is decent and the mystery is pretty riveting. I didn't think I'd get hooked on this, but I have to know what happens next!

Raising Hope

Okay, this has got to be one of the funniest shows on TV right now. It's basically about a white-trash family trying to raise a baby. It's not for everyone (Peter has no idea why I think this show is so funny) but give a few episodes a try. You might love it like I do.

And finally, my favorite show right now!

The Big Bang Theory

Please watch this show! It is so so funny. I just love the characters and the dynamic of this group. I'm not watching it on TV currently, and it's not available on Hulu, but I do have seasons 1-3 and watch them a lot when I am sewing or doing other projects. I can't get enough of this show.

Anything I missed? What are you hooked on these days? What are your classic favorites? Shows you tried, but ended up being lame?

Duck Needs Help

Jonah wrote his first story today. Well, it's the first one that I know of.

He is constantly writing text and pictures on the big Magnadoodle that was meant for Levi last Christmas. He doodles a lot and is already a pretty good artist. But what struck me today was that this is a legitimate story. There is a protagonist, a conflict (plot), and conflict-resolution at the end. It may seem simple as I say it all, but I don't think I was writing stories at 6. The kid's got talent.

Peter and I were talking about our kids and how creative they are. We both feel pretty unimaginative. Yeah, we can make stuff and do stuff, but we are not the ones with the great ideas. We find those elsewhere.

I think the creative gene must have skipped a generation for us. All of our kids' grandparents are pretty creative, especially Peter's mom. Well, at least we get to experience our kids' creativity even if we have no original ideas. Without further ado, Duck Needs Help.

Duck Needs Help
By Jonah Shirley, as told to Peter Shirley

Duck has a problem. His nose is getting bigger and bigger.

He asks dog for help. Dog calls the firemen and the policemen. They come to help Duck.

The firemen fix Duck's nose.

Duck is happy that his nose is fixed and he thanks Dog for his help.

The End.

Five Favorites

This is just for fun. Thought it would be fun to share my favorite finds! These are going to be random posts here and there, basically any time I have something new to share!

1. I love perfume. This is actually a spin-off of my very favorite perfume, Be Delicious. This one is a little more floral and feminine. Peter gave it to me for Christmas. Love it!

2. My fave lipstick, Creme D' Nude, from MAC. I'm more of a gloss wearer, but I do love this color. I hardly ever (okay, never) wear actual color on my lips. I need to branch out, I guess. Go to the counter and try it on! You'll probably love it.
(Not my lips)

3. All the sleeves at the Golden Globes! And there were even more than this. I kinda hate that Angelina Jolie's dress sparkles, but yeah. I LOVE Ann Hathaway's dress. I would wear that... if I had somewhere to wear it to! It's funny, I can't find a picture of her at the GG not posing like this. She must have practiced in the mirror for weeks !
4. New favorite song- Well, new favorite churchy song. We are having the YW sing at New Beginnings and I found a free song online by Lindy Kerby, called One Virtue at a Time. I can't stop singing it, it's really pretty. Listen here. (Click on Download Free mp3.)

5. This tutorial for oragami boxes. I used to make these all the time, but had forgotten how. I would make a bunch of them a tiny bit smaller than the first, so that I had a ton of boxes inside each other. Then I'd put a little treasure in the inside. :)

From Shaggy to Fred

Ha ha, that title sounds really weird. It sounds like a really bad song or a valentine or something. But I'm talking hairdos here. On Saturday, Levi went from a Shaggy to a Fred. At least that's how he described his trim.

My sister says Levi reminds her of Pig Pen from Peanuts, and I have to admit, this kid's face is always covered in something. He doesn't really walk around with a cloud of dust behind him, but you can imagine that part, right?The unruly haircut just adds to the Pig Pen look. It has been getting out of control lately, so I decided it was time for a trim. This poor kid looks homeless. I told him he looks too shaggy, and he thought that was funny. He thought I was talking about Shaggy from Scooby Doo. He kept saying, "I like my Shaggy hair. And I like those hairs." (pointing to the pile of cut-off hair)
But I think the idea grew on him. And here is the transformation! After the haircut, he went in his room to find Fred. I guess he has Fred hair now.

Love you, Fred!

Potty Humor

Yeah, we're hearing it over here. a lot.

Levi has figured out how funny bodily functions are and has been making the most of it. The other night at the table, he stood up on his chair, bent over so his bum was in the air and made a disgusting fart noise with his mouth. Let me tell you, it was hard not to laugh. Peter and I didn't do a very good job keeping our composure!

We are hearing a lot about poop, bottoms and toots, especially used totally out of context by Levi. Pretty much just adding those words into regular sentences. Then , of course, he busts up laughing.

So if you hear any suspicious fart noises coming from our pew at church, you'll know it's not the Welch's Fiber grape juice. It's just our gross (and funny) little boy.

Trip to the Snow

On Wednesday, we headed up to Payson with some friends. Rachel's family has a little cabin up there, and with it only being about and hour and a half away, it was the perfect little trip.

We were worried that there wouldn't be very much snow; there wasn't too much snow around on the drive up. But about five minutes before we were to the cabin, we started to see more. The kids were so excited!

They played out in the snow on and off all day. The best part of all was that we could just put them in dry clothes and throw their wet clothes in the dryer for a while. We did this over and over, since they went out and played a bunch of different times. I remember hating trips to the snow as a girl, but I now know it was because we didn't have snow clothes and I would get soaked and be freezing for the rest of the day. Not fun! The dryer was really helpful.

When they wanted to come in and get warm, they could sit by the little wood-burning stove. It was great!We ate some of this yummy soup Rachel made...

Sat and chatted...

And just let the kids wander and play. The property is all fenced, so they got to just roam.

Later, the kids watched a movie while they got warm.

Then it was back home! The bigger kids fought and bugged each other the whole way home, but the younger ones were a dream!

Milk and Tangled

Levi has been a big milk drinker since he started on cow's milk. But I think his throwing up episodes last weekend might have quit him of his habit! He has been wanting apple juice now, which I rarely buy, but maybe I can dilute it like I used to until he's drinking water. Either way, I'm glad he's drinking less milk, even though it's never really affected his appetite.
We got the soundtrack to Tangled, so we have been listening to this a lot in the car. I have to say, I LOVE TANGLED! If you haven't seen it, hurry up and do before it leaves the theaters! I pretty much think this is the perfect movie. My reasons, like you care:

1. The casting is spot on! I have always loved Mandy Moore's voice, and although for quite a while there, she was catering to a teenage crowd (I guess she was a teenager herself), she is actually a legit artist and has some really great mature music as well. She is a great actress to boot. I think she was the perfect Rapunzel. I seriously can't think of someone who could have played the part better.

I was so pleasantly surprised to find out that Zachary Levi plays Flynn. We are talking about the dude from the TV show Chuck, which I love btw. Zachary is hilarious and has a great singing voice. He kills the part and it's great to have a leading man voiced by one who is less-known for his singing.

Mother Gothel's (Donna Murphy) voice/acting is incredible. I didn't really realize how amazing this woman is until I listened to the soundtrack a few times. You can tell she has been on Broadway, just the way she uses her voice to act her part. She also has amazing diction!

2. Disney is returning to the musical. Before Princess and the Frog, Disney kind of took a break from its traditional form of animated movies and dabbled in more computer animation. They also took the route of having more of a soundtrack than making the movie an actually musical (think Tarzan, Meet the Robinsons, Chicken Little- can't stand that one!) But it's so nice to see them finally get back to where, in my opinion, they belong. I know that not every movie can work as a musical, but I just love the movies where the characters sing. Princess and the Frog was great, and Tangled was even better! Hope they keep it up.

3. This princess kicks butt. I am not a hardcore feminist or anything, but most of the Disney princesses of old are wimpy(Cinderella), bratty (Ariel), annoying (Belle), and spoiled (Jasmine) or even worse, have no real qualities at all (Snow White). Tiana from Princess and the Frog is actually a good role model, who has dreams and works hard to achieve them. She also learns that it's okay to fall in love too because you need someone to share your dreams with. Good message.

*SPOILERS*
Now Rapunzel is a little younger and more sheltered (hello? In a tower her whole life), but is still strong and adventurous. She stands up for herself and isn't afraid to try new things. She has a dream and won't stop until she gets it. And best of all, she has the courage she needs to find out who she really is and also basically agrees to give up her freedom to save Flynn.

4. Great animation.

There. I'm done.

Last Weekend

I've gotten behind on blogging this week...

All last weekend we had an extra girl around! Some friends were going out of town for a wedding and we got to have Lydia for the weekend. Eden loved having another girl around.

We decided to do something fun on Saturday, so we headed up to Goldfield Ghost Town to check it out. It ended up being pretty fun. There was a lot to do there, and we didn't even do everything, but we visited the jail and saw the reptile and desert insect exhibit. That was pretty creepy- lots of scary snakes, scorpions, and tarantulas. A few of the scorpions in there are so deadly that if you get stung by them you only have a few hours to live. Freaky!We saw lots of cowboys and saloon gals...

and we even got to see an old west gunfight!

We took a ride on the train before we left. It was a pretty fun outing for the kids.

On Sunday, Lydia got to come to church with us. Levi ended up throwing up that morning, so Peter and I had to switch out staying home for different parts on the block. It was Ward Conference, which made it even more difficult, but we managed.

Poor Levi spent Sunday night like this. I couldn't get him to go lay in his bed. But go figure, the next morning he was fine and even went to school. Glad it didn't last long. He must have eaten something weird.

Christmas 2010

Yes, we celebrated Christmas. Wow, sorry it has taken me so long to post!

Eden and I had a little date and went to see the Nutcracker in Phoenix. It was a fun little outing, and she mostly sat still. She loved the ballerinas, of course, and she loved the mice, but she was sad when the mouse king was killed. This year my sister, Kira, came down and spent Christmas with us. The rest of the family came on Christmas day. It was fun having her here while we watched Santa bring in our presents.

Christmas Eve was a little crazy. Lexie and her boys came over and Kira was there too. We tried to do the nativity with the kids, but Levi and Phoneix were not into it at all. Eden was the only girl available to play Mary, and Marce wanted to be Joseph. Jonah made a great Wise Man. Levi was supposed to be the angel, but pooped out before his part and Phoenix, the shepherd, just stood there like a deer in the headlights. We finished that up and tried to sing the twelve days of Christmas, but I ended up singing a solo and we didn't even sing the last verse. I guess the kids wanted to go to bed instead of sing!

We let the kids open their Christmas pajamas from us and then we reminded them of where they were hiding.

Peter heard Santa at about 5:45 am and we hurried up and got the kids downstairs to their spots. This year Santa had his list with him and even checked it twice with a little flashlight! Good thing he checked it twice, because he almost thought Levi was on the naughty list!

After Santa left, the kids checked out their presents from Santa. I can't believe I didn't take any pictures. I did take video with the camcorder. I can never seem to do both and Peter won't do it. Suffice it to say that the kids loved their stuff. They each got a Toy Story character- Jonah got Woody, Eden got Jessie, and Levi got Buzz Lightyear. Peter and I got a much-needed set of new pots and pans. We have never in all our married years had new pots and pans. Thank you, Santa! We had a good time opening presents. It's so fun to see the kids. Kira got each of the kids a few presents, and it was really fun seeing them open something I hadn't picked out. Kira also made some ornaments for Peter and I. She had made some for the kids before. They are our initials and she glazed and stained them. Kira is really good with wood, so they are really pretty!

Lexie and Sharrid came over afterward for our Christmas brunch. It was really good- eggs, bacon, fake cinnamon rolls, oj, and hash browns. After we ate, we didn't have much to do besides sit around and wait for the rest of the family to drive in from Nevada. Mom and Dad called and told us they were only in Kingman, when really they were just an hour away. We were totally surprised and overjoyed that they were here!

We had our gift exchange first, then handed out the extra presents. Tibi got me a Forever 21 gift card! Yeah for shopping. The kids of course got pajamas from Grandma, which they loved. (Mom, Eden wants to wear her nightgown every night!)This year I made Lexie an i-spy blanket. And Lexie and I together gave my whole family DVD copies of all of the home video footage we have. My family didn't get a camcorder until I was in high school, and that footage had been stuck on old cassette tapes since then. So Lexie and I took it and got them all put on DVDs. We were really excited to give the family the home movies! We watched a lot of them over the weekend. It was so funny to see us all 13 years ago!

Some of my favorite gifts this year were the waffle iron my mom got me, the pomegranate jam and syrup she made us, and a pillow and Christmas table runner. Also, I loved that she brought me some tamales! I had been craving them all month! Yeah, there they are, in my fridge. A note on that Welch's FIBER. Do not drink a glass of that before a three-hour block of church. Let's just say no one had an accident, but it was pretty close. I dumped the rest down the sink and we'll be getting regular old grape juice from now on. My sister, Michaela gave me a jewelry tree, and one of the coolest homemade presents ever! This shirt. She made one for Kira, Lexie and me. It has street names of some of the places we have lived over the years. We are very sentimental in our family, and I just loved this gift. So creative and thoughtful.Lexie gave us a big box of homemade goodies and a bunch of forks! For some reason, we have way less forks than spoons and knives, and it's kind of a running joke over here. Now we have plenty of forks! She also got our kids some electric toothbrushes, which we all love!

We had a lot of fun with my family. The kids came to my ward and Mom and Dad went with Lexie. Then we had a nice ham dinner. We all sat around the table and Mom made up a little "game " for us. We would take turns naming a musical artist or band, and then wrote down our favorite song from that band. It was funny because some of the favorites were so predictable and some were surprises. It was just a fun time to chat and laugh. It was a really great weekend. The kids were so happy to see their grandparents and aunts and uncles. Here's the whole group.Back row: Sharrid, Lexie, Michaela, Kira, Landon

On the couch: Levi, Grandpa, Grandma, Eden

Front row: Peter, Connie, Phoenix, Marcelus, Jonah, Tibi

Right after my family cleared out, we found out that Peter's brother and family were coming down. We hurried up and changed the sheets and got ready for more guests. The kids had a fun time playing with their Utah cousins. Again, no pictures. Actually, I did get one. Our nephew, Nick, climbed up on our playhouse and the dog next door jumped up and bit him right on the nose! So I did get a picture of that just in case animal control needed it :) This was actually the next day.Kevin and Kristie had our name in the exchange this year, and got us a couple of games, Buzz Lightyear Operation (the kids love it!) and a new game called Quarkle. We haven't tried it yet, but maybe tomorrow night for family night. Kristie brought me this lovely window!

I know it may seem weird to you, but I just love this! I will have to scrape off the excess paint on the glass, but that's easy. These old windows are hard to find! I know that you can do a lot with them, but I think I might just want to hang it up somewhere as is (after I scrape off the windows). Thanks, Kristie! I love it!

I wish I had taken a picture of all the Christmas cards on our wall. It was covered! Thanks to everyone for sending us your Christmas greetings. I just love seeing the pictures of your beautiful families and hearing how you are doing. Hope you all had a fabulous Christmas.