Love Story meets Viva la Vida

Sid and I went to see Jon Schmidt last night. I had never even heard of him before - to you pianists scoffing right now, I am sorry but its true - until last week when Sid played this for me:



Its great that he is so talented and yet we were able to see him in Tooele in the back of an old family owned music store. Totally humble. The concert consisted of us requesting songs. He played Billy Joel for Sid and even played with his feet for some kids in the audience. Loved it! And if you ever have a chance, I really recommend it!

**Thank you Lisa for watching Avery! She had a blast and CANNOT stop talking about the carmel apple :)

my BIG baby

Yesterday Avery and I got to watch Vander, the newest addition to the Buckingham's. Avery and I had so much fun. He was such a good baby and did well being away from mom for the first time. I had dug out her old papisan chair for him to sleep in and Avery was a little mother makng sure he had his binky, blanket and even some of her toys to make him feel comfortable.

Well, I walked in on Avery reminiscing after lunch today with the music and vibrations soothing her afternoon rest. I was explaining to her that when she was a baby she used this chair all the time and started digging through pictures to show her. She thought about this for a while, then ran to sit in the chair and started gabbering about taking a picture...I didn't realize what the fuss was all about until I asked her, 'you want me to take your picture in the chair?' her eyes lit up and she gave me a big ole smile....so here you go! A before and after of our big baby...I can't believe how fast she is growing.

Craft Hope

I found out about Craft Hope on one of my favorite blogs I follow. Craft hope accepts handmade donations to share with those less fortunate. The current project benefits the little heroes preschool burn camp in Sacramento, CA.

Avery LOVED these little guys and was a little confused as she watched me tape up the box and leave her 'babies' at the post office, but once I showed her all the other monkeys on the Craft Hope site, explained that they are going to live with other monkeys she seemed OK with it.

Sid who?

Avery and I are going through husband/daddy withdrawls this past week. He's been so busy at work we are starting to forget what he looks like!

Last week he had to fix our gate that Ollie managed to wiggle out of, (she didn't get very far, just ran right around to the front door and cried to be let in) then he took off for Cedar to take advantage of his dad's shop to wrap up some projects he's been working on for the office. Since he came home Monday night, we haven't really seen him. I don't know how he's doing it. He got home at 10 last night and was gone before we were up this morning.

Thank you Sid for all your hard work!! We love you and miss you!!

Meet Olive

Well...we added another to the Nixon family a few weeks ago. We had been talking for a while about getting a dog. We visited every shelter we could find in the Salt Lake Valley, and found a 2 year old Beagle that Sid fell in love with. She did really good with all of us and seemed like a really calm dog for a shelter dog. We didn't realize until we were going to start the adoption paperwork that she had issues with her previous foster family. We couldn't chance it.

Sid was crushed. On the way home I ran to the store for some grocery's and saw a lady arms full of little Beagle pups. Well, sort of. She breeds Beagles and her neighbors Mini Australian Shepherd got to her. I called Sid and told him to come quick. I played with all of them...they were all adorable, but one kept coming to me and I was partial her too. When Sid got there, he went to the same one. It wasn't even a question at that point.

She's been a good pup so far. No chewing, digging...yet. I am crossing my fingers that she will just skip all of that. We found a trainer that works with Search and Rescue dogs and is POST (Peace Officer Standards & Training) certified that we start training with tonight.

Avery has a pretty interesting relationship with Ollie. She loves her, but I think she loves even more that she has someone to boss around. Everytime they play she is tattling on her or trying to scold her for some unknown reason only to Avery. We are starting to think that there's just as much training involved with a two year old than the puppy. Any tips appreciated!

G O M E Z

After 10+ years of following Gomez, they are still as great as ever!

We hung out after the show and visited with a couple of the band members - who were VERY down to earth and chatted about everything from vacations, honeymoons and -of all things- a little bit of guitar building. It was really neat to see that they are just normal people and truly love their fans.

They were on Conan Monday week check them out here and they are off to Lolapalooza for this weekends' show.

Paul "Blackie" Blackburn - Bass/Guitar

Ben Ottewell - Vocals/Guitar

Congrats Denny

I have to brag about my little brother. He graduated on Thursday from the National Polytechnic College of Science in Marine Technology to be an underwater welder. He was one of 15 in his class and made the deans list. We couldn't be more proud!

Way to go Denny! We love you!!