The Sorensen Slate

Lullaby in the making

2010-01-28T08:31:00.001-07:00

This morning the boys were playing checkers after they ate their breakfast. For some reason they were telling eachother to be quiet, which turned into some sing-song taunting, then it turned into... a lullaby.

They decided they would sing it to their babies, and Thor said he'd have to have Erik come over and sing it with him, to his baby. Soon it became a fully harmonized song "Be quieeeeet, shush uuuupppp, and go to sleep."

Very nice. I can see any baby instantly falling asleep under their hypnotic discord.

They decided they need to record it, so I'll be sure to post that later if they do.

Sure do love those goofy little bounders!

I'm taking over!

2010-01-27T12:48:00.002-07:00

Yes, it's the end of January, and I haven't posted in forever!

When I decide I love something, I become obsessed with it. My obsessions come and go in phases. And when they come, it's full throttle. I dive into it and go crazy for however long it lasts, a week, a month, but it never lasts extremely long; which can be good and bad. I'm sure Nate would love for me to have an obsession with becoming rich, or making my business more awesome.

It's more commonly things like music, or a certain artist, singing, art/drawing, makeup artistry, making stuff out of clay, just to name a few.

My family knows that when I find a new favorite song or artist, I will listen to that song/artist non-stop for a few weeks at a time (or more, depending). Sometimes they really love me for that... (total sarcasm).

Right now there are two artists on the repeat list, Ingrid Michaelson and Basshunter. But there are a couple favorite songs of theirs that are constantly on repeat in my car, on my ipod, at home, on the computer, in my head.

So, what I've realized is: I need to figure out how to make my obsessions last longer than the short time they do (if they're worth it, that is) and put them to good use! As well as making things that I don't love become an obsession.

Party U.S.A.

2009-12-03T15:01:00.001-07:00

I was mopping the floor today, and had moved all the chairs to one side of the kitchen. Annika decided to make this her stage and grabbed her "mic" and started singing and dancing.

The first song is an original Christmas song "When we're good, we get presents!", then a little Taylor Swift rendition, finishing off with some "Party (in the) U.S.A.". These are her favorite songs, every time they come on the radio she gets excited and starts dancing and singing.

She's constant entertainment, this one!

Blogger wouldn't let me upload the vid for some reason, so it's linked through my facebook... hopefully you can see it!

Halloween!

2009-11-02T10:43:00.000-07:00

Nate was a midget
Nettie was Barbie
Thor was a knight (Nate made the chainmail)
Erik was a sniper
Annika was a zombie bunny

Updates

2009-11-02T10:37:00.000-07:00

Been a while eh!
Things we've been busy with:
Swine flu (everyone got it but Nettie :P)
Doctor bills, who doesn't love those, right?!
Scouts and YW callings
Halloween!! (Pictures forthcoming)
Nate's MBA program (whew, he's been busy with that! He won't like me bragging, but too bad... He got an A- (which for this teacher is amazing) and his professor personally called Nate to tell him how impressed he was with him and that he would willingly give him an excellent referral if he ever needed!)
The business- Trying to get more customers and get some more advertising out there. If you know of anyone who needs some cleaning, send 'em our way, and you'll get some free cleaning!!

Now that it's November, we'll be busy with:
Thanksgiving, yay!
Christmas shopping and planning
Tax season is soon upon us.. well, Nate.. we'll be pining for April soon!
Snow, ugh.

The next American Idol!

2009-08-29T14:23:00.006-06:00

Annika had pulled the piano bench out yesterday, to use as her "stage", and some nail polish as her mic, and started her performance! So I had to pull out the camera and record it.
The song is an Annika original.

Trip pictures!

2009-06-09T19:24:00.002-06:00

Yeah, it's been a while!
I'm hoping to do a full update of our trip to Germany and Italy, but for now, here are the pictures at least!

http://picasaweb.google.com/birdette79

Princess birthday!

2009-04-27T08:32:00.003-06:00

Annika wanted to have a princess birthday party for her third birthday of course.

She had a princess castle cake:
All set to open presents!

Everytime she saw what was in a present, she'd say, "Oh my gosh!" so cute.

She had to model her new princess swimsuit (her two passions) and her favorite new ball from Daddy (She hasn't put it down since she opened it).

Make a wish!

Erik the rocker

2009-04-27T08:29:00.003-06:00

Nate was teaching Erik somethings on his smaller electric guitar the other day, and Erik picked it up so fast, he was playing on his own in no time! He totally looked like a little rocker, he's a natural!

Sleepy girl

2009-04-27T08:25:00.002-06:00

I was out shopping the other day, and Nate texted me that Annika fell asleep... She decided to lie down on these stools and her toybox, and fell asleep looking out the window. How silly! We woke her up shortly after, I don't know how she even slept like that!

Pinewood Derby 2009

2009-04-27T08:09:00.005-06:00

Thor had his Pinewood Derby this past week, he tied for fourth place! He wanted a Thor's Hammer painted on it. They named his car "The Money Car", because we used coins for the weights lol. He did a great job!

The finish line!

Very late Easter post!

2009-04-27T07:49:00.008-06:00

Easter 2009-

We colored eggs the traditional way, both Nate and I used to do this as kids and it's something we do every year with our kids, and I think it's their favorite part of Easter (besides the candy of course :P)

Nate's awesome egg!

We had a very nice Easter this year. We wanted to make sure the kids had fun, but remembered the true spirit of Easter, so we decided to have our egg hunt and stuff on Saturday, and keep Sunday for remembering Christ. The kids had a great time with both days!

Cobblestone Easter egg hunt 2009-
The kids were sooo excited to do the big neighborhood Easter egg hunt, even in the rain!

2009-03-28T15:51:00.002-06:00

Annika and Nate were laying on the floor in the living room together, and she was singing him songs. She said, "Dad, do you wanna hear my Daddy song?"
It went like this:
"I like to love my Daddy, I like to go to the temple with him some day."
Had to write it down somewhere so we'd remember that forever, so cute!

The Ten Virgins

2009-03-27T20:29:00.002-06:00

I was asked to be in a presentation for the Relief Society this week. We did a play about the parable of the Ten Virgins. It was really neat, and great to be a part of. It was the first time I had ever done any "acting", and I think I got my fill for quite a long time.. haha!

http://tuiofuandthomasmusic.com/freesheetmusicforReliefSocietyandYoungWomen.html
Here is the link for the program, it's got some great music in it, as well as just a great story and dramatization for the parable.

Thor's Birthday

2009-02-11T18:20:00.004-07:00

Thor turned 9 on February 8th. I can't believe he's getting so old!
So he decided to have a soccer cake/party. The boys got all dressed up in their soccer outfits and Annika just so happened to want to dress up in her cheerleader costume!
So of course plenty of goofy (and some super cute!) pictures were taken ;)

Thor's choir concert

2008-12-23T13:56:00.011-07:00

Thor is in the Lakeview Elementary school choir. He has been able to perform at the mall, Macey's, and will get to perform in a few other places and festivals this year. He is really enjoying it (even if he doesn't look like it in the pictures lol)

Christmas concert at the school. (On the bottom, 4th from the right.)

University Mall concert. (It's a little noisy, and shaky! He's on the left of the striped shirt kid)

Let it snow?

2008-12-23T13:45:00.003-07:00

We've had SO MUCH snow lately! The kids are loving it... Nate and I, not so much. Nate has the commute to SLC every day, and in the snow/traffic, it's not been lovely. I'm just tired of it all around, driving, the cold, okay I'll quit whining now ;)

The kids helped me shovel the driveway today. Annika and Thor decided to stay out and continue "shoveling" the stairs and sidewalk. (Yes, that's a garden hoe Annika is using.. lol.)

Swimmer girl

2008-11-11T13:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Annika insisted that she change out of her clothes and into a swimsuit. I obliged.. not knowing it was going to turn into a habit!
She insisted on wearing it the whole day, as well as to bed, and after we'd gotten home from the gym this morning (yes, she wore real clothes!), she insisted on changing back into it again. So silly!
So this is her totally posing it up today. She's such a ham!!

The Bread Thief

2008-11-11T13:45:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, I made a new batch of wheat bread, but I made the mistake of leaving one half loaf out on the counter. A little bit later Annika came up to me with a hunk of bread in her hand.. so I went to see what she'd done. Here was the end result:

A hallowed out loaf of bread... lol. Glad she enjoyed it anyway :P

Dancing baby

2008-11-06T11:05:00.001-07:00

Annika LOVES to dance. This is her dance she does every time we watch Psych. So cute and funny!

Halloween!

2008-11-06T10:45:00.000-07:00

HALLOWEEN 2008

Annika as a puppy.

Erik as Draco Malfoy.

Thor as a ninja.

School pictures

2008-10-17T11:03:00.001-06:00

The boys got their school pictures back this week, here they are!

Thor's Bobcat

2008-09-18T19:27:00.000-06:00

Thor earned his Bobcat in scouts a few months back, they just gave it to him this past week, so we took some pictures of his bobcat paws and patch :)

2008-07-23T13:01:00.000-06:00

Things are going really well! The kids have been having a nice summer vacation, playing with friends and each other, and endless "Water parties", which are their favs.
I have been really busy w/ the business, it's going awesome, it sort of just blew up in the last few months or so, which is great! We finally got our web site up and running (not perfect, but it's there!). http://allpurposecleaners.net
I even had to do my first "firing" the other day, good times! :\

Nate's loving his job. They changed his schedule to the Mon-Thurs schedule like the state's. He wasn't sure if he was going to like it or not, because it would mean 10 hours a day instead of 8, which in itself is fine, but including the commute time, it is a little lengthy, especially now that he gets finished at 5, when everyone else that's driving does :\ So now we get up at 5:30, he leaves at 6, and gets home at about 6. But he gets a 3-day weekend, and on thursday holidays (like tomorrow!), 4 days! So there are pros and cons, but so far it's okay.

Videos

2008-06-02T15:20:00.000-06:00

Thor apparently taught Annika to pick her toes, and she loves it... She looks like a baby monkey when she does it, and if she finds anything she goes, FIND!!! lol. She'll hate us for this one when she's older ;)

A picture update!

2008-06-02T14:43:00.000-06:00

An update via pictures!

We've been experimenting with a lot of homemade foods lately. Last week we (mostly Nate, but I helped! :P) made homemade tortillas, and fresh pasta. Yesterday Nate tried his hand at Shepherd's Bread (first bread making experience for him!), and it turned out awesome.

We signed the kids up for the library's summer reading program, and they got these t-shirts. (silly faces sold separately)

Annika got some cute, tiny "clippies" for her birthday from Charli and Aren, she loooves them.

The face (above) reminds me of my "Chubby chipmunk" picture lol.

Annika escaped the house with Thor yesterday (with no clothes on!).
Looking out the window, we noticed she had made herself perfectly comfortable.. on the driveway.

Notice the silly face, when she caught me taking pictures of her!

Happy Mother's day: Erik made me breakfast, on top of a bunch of cards and pictures.
Love the sign!

All's well..

2008-05-16T17:59:00.001-06:00

Nettie had surgery on Tuesday (I had a hysterectomy).
I came home from the hospital yesterday afternoon and am doing okay. We decided to keep it on the down low, so please don't be upset if you hadn't heard about it until now, it was just kind of a tmi kinda thing.
I'm on pain drugs n all that fun stuff, but doing okay other than that. Everything went really well and Nate has been able to take the week off of work so that's been great and everything has been going smoothly. Sorry if this is rambling and I hope it makes sense, lil drug-loopy haha.

Everything else is going well around here. Nate is still enjoying his job. The boys are done with school at the end of May. Thor will be baptized in July sometime (when Nate's parents get back from Iraq/Azerbaijan), Erik is as silly as ever and Annika is as girly as ever!

Annika's Birthday!

2008-04-28T15:42:00.001-06:00

Today is Annika's birthday. Last night we had some cake and ice cream, pretty low-key birthday for her but she was happy. Here are some pics and a video :)

New PJ's.. she had to wear the shorts AND pants! hehe

Cake!

Finding her new bike!

Soccer is over

2008-04-28T15:37:00.000-06:00

Spring soccer is over now. The boys liked it a lot and had fun. They got fancy little medals on their last day.

2008-04-17T17:11:00.001-06:00

I gave the blog a makeover!

Things are going pretty well around here.. It's been spring break, sadly the weather has been lame so we haven't done much in the way of springy stuff :(
Really nothing new that I can think of, so just enjoy the new layout! haha :P

Brian & Annika

2008-04-14T16:10:00.001-06:00

Brian was doing wheelies in the wheelchair at the hospital in Lori's room and Annika insisted on a ride, and then fell asleep !

Annika on Easter

2008-04-05T18:13:00.000-06:00

Annika posing it up in her new little dress on Easter :)

Blogtastic

2008-03-21T18:54:00.000-06:00

So we've joined the bandwagon and started a blog! :P

Thor and Erik started soccer this week. They have both had one game and one practice, and one game coming up on Saturday. I never realized how chaotic this would be.. I didn't think it would be that busy with just two kids and noob soccer! Thor has a game every Tuesday and Saturday, with practice on Fridays. Erik has a game every Weds. and Saturday, with practice on Thursdays! So we have soccer every day except Monday (and Sunday of course).. whew! They are loving it though and very excited about it all, which makes it all worth it right? :)

Annika is having a great time just relaxing and having fun all day. She's really excited it's getting warm out, she loooves to play outside. She's talking a lot now, we hear new words from her every day! She'll be 2 next month, I can't believe how the time has flown!

Nate is really enjoying his new job at HEB, the CPA firm in SLC. He doesn't enjoy the commute as much, but when traffic/weather isn't bad it's not too horrible. He gets to do accounting/auditing, many days he'll go to other companies and audit their finances, etc. Right now he's working a ton of hours, but once "tax season" is over he will be able to work a lot less and we'll see him a lot more!

I'm trying to get adjusted to all these new schedules we've got, between Nate's and the kids. I can't imagine how people do this with more kids and more activities! I have great respect for you guys that do that lol.
The cleaning company is doing well, I think this must be a slow season though. We haven't had many new customers, but I'm hoping once Spring kicks in people will start coming around. With Nate's new job, I've had to quit doing most of the work and just manage it, which was the plan to begin with really. So I've hired a few more girls and have been able to delegate most of the work to them, that's been loverly!