my ponderings of the year

My year in Review:

1. i am so thankful that i finally got off my lazy butt and took myself to the Dr and had my precancerous cells removed and then. THEN. got put on WONDERFUL MEDICATION to help stabilize my crazy issues

2. i love having a niece, mom, and sister who is willing to watch the TERRIBLE THREESOME so Walter and i can make it to the movies at least once a week or i should say that Walter TAKES ME TO THE MOVIES

3. my husband was extra kind to me this Christmas in all that i received. really, i received too much. and i totally love him for it.

4. Brenton and Kylee are now in school full time and it is so nice and quiet...when Tessa is asleep

5. some of my favorite movies were (in no particular order) The Hangover, Inglourious Basterds, The Proposal, 500 Days of Summer, Star Trek, New Moon and many others that i am sure i can't remember

6. some of my favorite music i heard (in no particular order) Empire State of Mind, anything by Bon Iver, Coldplay, anything by Grizzly Bear, all the Glee cast music, Pete Yorn and Scarlett Johansson, She and Him, and Regina Spektor

7. i had a peaceful, quiet, wonderful, funny, and lonely Thanksgiving all by myself

8. my mom has volunteered to watch all 5 of the grand kids tonight so that Nicole, Scott, Walter and I can go see the movie Up in the Air and out to dinner for New Year's Eve. she really is a wonderful grandma that my kids ask to go visit just about every bloomin' day

9. i still have a lot of crap to work on but, i will save that for another post on another day. in the meantime HAVE A HAPPY NEW YEAR'S EVE (and party all night for me...cause i am old old old and can't stay awake. and if i do i get a headache and really really cranky) goodbye 2009...HELLO 2010

and a little preview of what i would wear if i were cool and actually went somewhere supa dupa fancy for New Years Eve...

meet Marci's dress if she thought she was as cool as Audrey Hepburn

meet Marci's dress if she were going out dancing for New Years Eve

meet Marci's dress if she was trying to look as cool as Zooey in 5oo days of summer

and our final contestant, the one i would wear the minute i realized i couldn't wear any of those dresses above with my LDS G's. don't you love it? yeah, me too. i wish i could buy it just for kicks.

you'll shoot your eye out kid

Fabler Resa and Meldel

we went to Ikea last night to search for Kylee's New Bedroom And Other Stuff. for some reason you can ALWAYS find Other Stuff at Ikea. here are two things that we came home with for the princess herself...
the Meldel bed frame...don't you just love the hearts??

and the Fabler Resa a. duvet cover b. down comforter c. pillow case d. bed sheets. my husband could not understand the need for this. it is sooo hard explaining needs to husbands sometimes!

What the What??

in all honesty i don't really have the time to do a nice long post about how our Christmas eve and Christmas went. why you ask? because...i should be in bed...with a heating pad...on my uterus...because it is in major pain. so i am going to make this post a quickie and when i feel like getting out of bed to do a more intricate detailing of our holiday jaunts around SLC/BOUNTIFUL/SANDY, i will. in the meantime let me just say that one of my presents from my ever giving husband was a new computer that does a WHOLE LOT MORE NEW CRAZY WILD THINGS THAT MY OLD RUSTY COMPUTER DIDN'T. i am having so much fun with it. and. AND. it is now stationed right next to my bed cause Kylee is getting her own room. FINALLY! anyways here are some pre Christmas photos...

the tree with all the presents that Santa has laid out for the sleeping children

messing around with photo toys on my NEW COMPUTER. check it out, this is what Ky would look like with blond hair

now that is what i call some REAL BED HEAD...and i let him keep it like that all day long

merry Christmas! i am going back to the bed now.

my christmas eve...eve

first off...we bribed Brenton to not cry at school this week and we promised to take him to see the new Chipmunks movie. he did pretty good so we dropped Tessa off at my mom's and took the other two to see the movie on Wednesday night. when we came back to pick up Tessa, my sister Molly and i fought about where to eat on Christmas Eve. it is going to be just The Ruf's, my mom, and Molly so we decided, SCREW IT WE AREN'T COOKING WE ARE GOING OUT TO EAT. anyways, it wouldn't be Christmas without having FAMILY FEUDS going on everywhere. so we exchanged a few heated words with eachother about where to eat and she walked out the door. my mom then told me to call Marie Callender's and make sure they were open tomorrow night.

so, i get home and call Marie's and here is how that convo went...

ME: are you guys open tomorrow night?

MARIE: yes, we are open til 8

ME: do we need to make a reservation or anything for 7 people?

MARIE: laughter, laughter, and more laughter...i don't think it is going to be very busy here tomorrow night.

ME: ok, well i just didn't know cause i have never been out to eat on Christmas Eve.

MARIE: see you tomorrow night then.

ME: yep.

i then called Molly and told her that we were eating at Marie's to which she replied "ok, love ya". that's the great thing about family. you love them no matter what, cause you have to. you are stuck with them forever but, honestly there is no one else i would rather be stuck with than them.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO THE FAMILIES WHO KNOW HOW TO FIGHT AND LOVE EACHOTHER AT THE SAME TIME!

last minute to do list

eat lots and lots of candy
put on your comfy warm boots

take a train ride

curl your hair and make goofy faces at the camera
oh yeah, eat MORE CANDY!

Merry Christmas and May Your Children Sleep Tonight

Ruf's+Sugar+Christmas+Broadway=singing mania

i apologize for my singing...

the pioneer thingy we do every year

a CANDLELIGHT CHRISTMAS. also known to Marci as...the pioneer Christmas thingy that they do up across the street from the Zoo (ya know what i am talking about right?)

Brady and his "hero" watching the puppet show...with Uncle Scott in the background
this is how the Ruf's CHILL IN THE CHAPEL
...and this is how they try to ESCAPE THE CHAPEL

writing letters to Santa Claus. i do believe this was their favorite part of the night. why, you ask? because it involved FIRE. yes, they got to go outside and put their letters into the fire so the ashes would get sent to Santa. FIRE. FIRE. FIRE!

the little girlie cousins causing some sort of trouble

a mother and daughter moment on the train

oh crap

ok. so. since i was raised in a family where we all had matching Christmas outfits for the Sunday before Christmas. i have decided that i am truly my mother's daughter and put my children through the same drill, every Christmas.here they are looking so cute and well put together. (do you notice that Kylee's tights match Tessa's dress?) now i know you are going to question my sense of humor on this but it just cracks me up for some reason. i had Walter take their pictures before church while i was still getting ready. i had left the camera on video camera mode and Walter didn't know, so this is what happened when he went to take the first picture. after you are done watching 5 times listening to him say CRAP. watch Tessa when he says the number 3.

and this is how our picture turned out. she loves to SMILE WITH HER EYES!

another confirmation

of just how FUNKY and CONTORTED

this little girl can SLEEP!

seeing double

i used to think that all i was, was a mean person who walks around all day yelling at people. then, my husband took my three kids (and by my three kids i really mean my 2 year old plus the other two that i can handle on my own) to New Mexico over the Thanksgiving break and something happened to me. i was happy. i was calm. i didn't have to take any of my anxiety meds (except for that whole alien movie situation). i was laughing. i was dancing. i realized, hey maybe i am not a mean person after all.

(a little of Tessa's work)

i had a conversation with my mom where i was complaining about having a 2 year old and how much i really DON'T enjoy it. and my mom was all, " hey, Marci i had four 2 year olds. but, BUT i will grant you that Tessa is like having TWO 2 YEAR OLDS!!" oh thank you, my mother was understanding me and my struggle with coping with Tessa.

(and yet, another demonstration of Tessa's hard work)

eating green jell-o w/carrots AKA the ward christmas party

atomic fart bombs

for those of you out there who don't own a dog and think that your farts are really smelly. go out and buy a dog. they will make you feel so much better about yourself and your stinky farts. i don't know if it has to do with the size of the dog (around 50 pounds), the type of dog (labradoodle), or what it is she eats (Costco dog food) but, MAN DO HER FARTS STINK! i mean she honestly does produce ATOMIC FART BOMBS. and the thing about dog farts is this. they are totally silent. they are totally deadly. i would spray her butt with an air freshener if i could, or hey maybe i could hang one of those car fresheners from her tail?! i think she would totally go for that. what do ya think Roxy? do you want an air freshener hanging from your butt? ...and she just let another one loose right by me. sweet mother, what is that dog consuming in our back yard??

caught red handed

we have recently NEEDED to put child proof door handles on ALMOST all of the doors in our house. this is due to the fact that we have a two year old who can get into ANYTHING SHE SETS HER MIND TO. there is one problem though, if i forget to close a door to a room i do not want her to get into, her sensors go off and she runs DIRECTLY FOR THAT ROOM. this is one occurrence that happened the other night.
i have a nightstand sitting next to my side of the bed, for DRINKS, books, DRINKS, lotion, DRINKS, candy, and did i mention it is where i put my DRINKS. Tessa has learned that mommy keeps the REALLY GOOD SUGARY STUFF RIGHT NEXT HER. now, sitting right next to my nightstand is a plastic container with STUFF and on top of that container is another container of STUFF(OK, clothe diapers that i used whilst breastfeeding and i haven't bothered to put them away yet). Tessa has learned that if she throws ALL OF THE CLOTHE DIAPERS onto the ground and then throws that plastic container, she can stand on the other plastic container and reach all of the GOOD SUGARY STUFF THAT MOMMY KEEPS RIGHT NEXT TO HER. so when i got up to leave my room (leaving behind my SONIC LIME SUGARY COKE DRINK) i left my door open for 5 minutes to get a glass of water and AND she was in the kids bedroom with daddy watching a movie. i then walk back into my bedroom, and as i do this i turn off my light. i then walk around my bed to set down my water next to my SONIC LIME SUGARY COKE DRINK. the first red light goes off in my mind: were the clothe diapers all over the floor when i left the bedroom, because honestly i couldn't remember? the second red light goes off: my SONIC LIME SUGARY COKE DRINK isn't sitting right her next to my bed anymore, did i move it? i then put two and two together but there is no sight or sound of Tessa...anywhere. now remember, i had turned my light off so it was dark and Tessa was already in her DARK pajama's. so i start to peer more closely around my room and there in the corner i see a TWO YEAR OLD SITTING ON THE GROUND WITH A SONIC LIME SUGARY COKE DRINK IN BETWEEN HER LEGS HOLDING HER HANDS UP IN THE AIR...LIKE SHE HAD JUST BEEN CAUGHT ROBBING THE BANK AND WAS EITHER HOPING I WOULDN'T SEE HER OR HOPING I WOULD SEE THAT SHE HAD SURRENDERED!!

it is TREEtastic

behold, the Ruf Tree, in all its lit up GLORYbehold, the Ruf Children, in all their DECORATORS excitement

behold, Marci, screwing around with the camera and the lighting effect

that's where i want to be?

LIVIN IN BEVERLY HILLS...

confession: i watch 90210

confession: i watch alot of tv
question: this is for all those surfers out there, do you REALLY say GNARLY all the bloody time?
question: did you know that if you live in 90210 and you move to Montana then you have moved "across the country"?

just some ponderings of my recent 90210 tv viewings.