The Stance...

This is the stance that Asher assumes most of the time while he is playing. I think it is pretty much the cutest thing ever. It amazes me how long he can stay like that, my legs would start to go numb. I guess little kids have better circulation than adults who are 30 weeks pregnant...shocker!! Speaking of circulation (which is taking me far away from the purpose of this post) I have reached the stage in pregnancy where it becomes almost impossible to find a comfortable position to sleep. I am open for suggestions, as I can't remember what worked last time...what works for you? How do you make it so you fall asleep, but all of your appendages don't?! Anyway...moving on.

In this picture, Asher is playing with a zip-lock bag full of change, while I am preparing his dinner, which is a big improvement over the clinging at my legs and insisting to be held, that he is normally doing when I am cooking. So needless to say, I was thrilled that he was doing anything besides that, even though the coins are probably very dirty and there was a big possibility that he could have eaten one of them (don't worry, I made sure he had his binky in the whole time I was cooking).

After his dinner, he resumed his playing, and I am quite certain that he would have been entertained with this activity for at least an hour. But unfortunately (for him, HA!), it was bed time!!

And of course, the evening wouldn't be complete without a display of Asher's "faces". My favorite thing is that he seriously goes through his "repertoire" of faces one by one, and holds it until the camera flashes, and keeps going as long as the camera is pointed at him!

This is mine and Nate's personal favorite!

Asher's first times in the snow...

There is so much snow in Provo, it's amazing. Both our front and back yards are still covered. I don't remember there ever being this much snow in Provo and actually having it stick for more than a few days. The downside is that all the parks are covered in snow too, so the list of fun things to do with a child is greatly diminished! And to make matters worse, both the Provo Town Center and University Mall have closed down their indoor play areas for various reasons (PTC will reopen in March), and so now there is really no where to take Asher to play. So even though I still haven't got Asher snow pants yet, we have been playing in the snow, and he loves it! He is so cute when I tell him it's time to go outside, he gets his hat that we always put on him, and tries to put it on himself. He'll even go get his coat when I tell him to, and then he sticks out his little hands for me to put his mittens on...so cute! The other day, he got a little too excited, and started running at full speed down the icy driveway, and totally ate it...so sad! He was lucky though, in the end, there was just a tiny scratch! Here are some cute pictures and video of him playing in the snow. One of the clips includes him tromping around in a huge puddle of melted snow (how easily entertained children are), apparently the cold, wet pants weren't an issue for him. He had a bath to warm up after we went inside!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Happy Birthday Lexi!!

Ok, ok, so this is shamefully over due!! Alexis' birthday was back on November 23rd, but due to being out of town for the holidays, and then trying to catch up on blogging, I neglected to do a post for the baby of my family for her 14th birthday. I am so horrible!! But I am determined to show her that I love her just as much as the rest of my fam, and will now (Jan 14th) do her birthday tribute.

Alexis Joy is the 6th of 6 girls and the youngest of 7 children. When I found out that my mom was pregnant, I wanted it to be a boy so bad, and was positive that it was a boy. I was extremely disappointed when we found out that it was yet another girl. But I soon got over it, and actually had the privilege of watching her be born and cutting her umbilical cord. Now, at the time, in the mind of a 6th grader, it wasn't so much of a privilege as it was a traumatizing experience, that convinced me that I would never have children, as I did not want any of that "stuff" coming out of me!! But that didn't stop me from becoming her second mother and spoiling her to death. I've always felt a special bond or closeness to Lexi, and believe that a large part of that is due to the fact that I saw her come into this world.

Alexis has, like the rest of us, been involved with Galena since she was 7, and loves to dance and perform, and has become such a beautiful dancer. Every time I see her, she is practicing and perfecting some difficult step. She is very dedicated! She also, like the rest of us, has been put through the torture that is the paper route. She and Hailey are lucky, however, as they only have to do it every other day. She is also very generous and seems to be the one person in our family that always has plenty of money saved. Keep it up Lex!

I have also been so impressed by the questions that Lexi asks...they are always so insightful. She has always surprised us by the depth of her thinking and reasoning, even at a young age. I think that she has a strong testimony of the Gospel, and really thinks about things and why they are the way they are. I hope that this pattern will continue with her as she goes through HS and makes important decisions in her life.

It has been so neat to watch Lexi become a beautiful teenager. She is very social and funny, and so so sweet. She is so good with her nephews and loves them so much, and they love her just as much...probably because she is one of the only ones willing to play with them! I can tell that she is a very nurturing person and will be an amazing mother some day!!

I love you Lexi, and hope you had an amazing birthday. I am very sorry that this tribute is so late...better late than never though, right!? ;)

Fun Facts about Lexi...

1. she has a tiny, adorable little figure
2. she loves Cinderella
3. she will watch a movie once and pretty much be able to recite the whole thing back to you...she is very good at movie quotes!
4. she loves movies and watches a lot of them
5. she will turn the volume up very loud while watching a movie, and will get annoyed if she still can't hear due to people talking!
6. me and hailey can both crack one of our toes continuously, and it drives alexis nuts!!
7. she has beautiful muscular legs
8. if you let her, she would eat nothing but candy and other junk foods all day long...just like me! :)
9. she has the worst teeth of all of us, and as a result has braces, and will have them for a long time. but she will be-u-ti-ful when they are off!!
10. she is way more spoiled than any of us have ever been...she is definitely getting all the hookups! probably the one perk to being the baby of the fam!! ;)

About Motherhood...

This is how I found Asher after I finished this post!

Well, it has been one of those days today, where I woke up in not that great of a mood, I turned on the hot water while Nate was taking a shower and "made his shower go cold", and was frustrated and concerned about cleaning and organizing our house and making Asher eat his veggies. After a while, I decided that I needed to chill out with many things, especially spending so much time and energy thinking about how I am going to make my child the perfect eater, the perfect sleeper...the perfect everything. I've decided that while those things are important, sometimes they just don't matter. Last night, I called Nate while I was working to see how Asher was doing, and he told me that he kept waking up crying (which he never does), and I spent the whole night worrying and trying to figure out why that happened. I get so frustrated thinking about what more I can do, when in reality, I think Asher is doing pretty darn good and is a pretty typical child. After I realized that, I made a resolution to just do my best, and then spend the rest of the time loving and enjoying him and helping him to grow and be happy and love the gospel. After I had thought about these things for a while, I got on the computer and read a post from my friend Tabitha's blog, talking about another blog and how it inspired her about motherhood. I went to the blog and read the post and was totally caught off guard, as I was all of the sudden in tears. It really made me think about motherhood and the gift from God that it is, and it really reiterated the thoughts that I had been having today, and helped me to understand them even more. It made me think about Asher and our little son soon to be born, and how I want so much to give them love, and to teach them about the things in life that really matter. It made me think about Asher's little arms and how much I love them, especially when they are patting me on the back when he is hugging me. (if you look at our family picture on our blog, it shows how cute Asher's arms are. I have that picture on our wall and look at it every night while he is in bed, and it sounds weird, but his arms are really the cutest part of that picture...they're so small!!) It made me realize that I need to cherish those tender little moments more, and stop caring that he loves broccoli one day and hates it the next, or that this kid is saying this many words, but Asher only says this many, etc etc. It made me realize that I need to be WAY more patient, and that the best way to teach Asher to be patient is to be an example of that to him. I love being a mom, and am so grateful that it teaches me to be better and more Christlike, so that I will know how to teach our kids to be those things! Yes, I learned all that from one little post (I told you, it's just been one of those days)! The blog is called Antique Mommy, I hope you will take a minute to read her inspiring post! Now, if you will excuse me, I think Asher needs a cookie!! ;)

After his cookie!!

That's right, another"sweatpants" day. Have you seen the snow outside? There is just no way we would be going anywhere! Why not be comfy?!

Asher's new "things"

So Asher has been growing so much. Not so much in stature, but his little personality is sure blossoming! He has been doing some of the funniest things lately. The first thing I noticed a week or so before Christmas, and has been going strong ever since. Apparently, climbing into and sitting in small places is really fun, because it is one of Asher's favorite things to do. First he would pull out the drawer in our kitchen and empty out all the tupperware and climb in and just hang out, complete with blanky, binky, and snack! Then it went on to things like laundry baskets, the little basket that we keep out shoes in in the entry way, and so on. Check it out...

Asher has also learned how to "pose" for pictures, or in other words, make cheesy faces and smiles at the camera. It is so funny. I wonder where they learn stuff like this, it's not like he ever really sees us posing for pictures. I love it though...

Aren't these pictures of Asher in his sweats awesome?! No he is not in his PJs, that is the outfit I put on him for the day...he looks like such a scrounge (look at his hair too)! You know how you have those days where all you want to wear is sweats? Well, when I feel like that, I tend to dress Asher like that as well! Don't worry, I will put real pants on him when we go out today!

This is what the area in the above pictures looked like before Asher came into the room (I wanted to get a picture of everything he got for Christmas). As you can see, it didn't look like that for long! By the way, Asher loves his tent that Great Grandma Lenie bought for him. He thinks he's pretty funny when he goes in there to hide from mom and dad!

Happy New Year!

Happy 2008 everyone! We had a fun New Year's Eve over at Andy (Nate's brother) and Kacey's house up in Sandy. They were already having some neighbors over, and Nate's sister Kierstin's flight was cancelled, so we decided to head up and see her before she left the next day. We just sat around and talked and ate lots of food and played our new Ticket to Ride game. We had put Asher to bed around 7pm, and at about 11:15pm, he decided to randomly wake up and not want to go back to sleep. So since we were going to be driving home in an hour anyway, I decided to let him stay up. So he got to ring in the new year with us. He was very happy to be up so late, although was very scared when all the noise makers and confetti poppers started going off. Last night, he woke up again around the same time, and was very sad when Nate wouldn't let him stay up. He never does stuff like that, so I'm hoping this doesn't become a regular occurance!

I don't usually do official New Year's resolutions, but I do try to think about the coming year and what I would like to accomplish in general. This year, I am going to get organized, (preferably before the new baby comes) finish painting the basement (if it's the last thing I do), and continue with my running, with the hope of completing another marathon (if anyone wants to join me, let me know!) and becoming a better overall runner. We'll see how that all goes, considering that I have been saying I would paint the basement since before Asher was born!

Here are some pictures from our New Years Eve shindig...


Asher wrapped in his favorite blanky


Kierstin (Nate's sister) and MacKay (Nate's brother)


Josh and his date, Jen


Me, Nate and Asher...why Nate can't just smile normally in pictures is beyond me! I guess that is just one of the things that makes him "Nate"!!

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas!!

(very belated!!)

Well, we had a wonderful Christmas in good old Sactown! We made the drive last Saturday, leaving SLC at 7:00 am, and got into Sac around 5:30pm-ish. The drive was ok, Asher was kind of a pill at the beginning, but turned his attitude around and was pretty good for most of the trip, considering he only slept for an hour total the entire time. Then coming over the Donnor Summit, our tire blew out, and he was pretty much an angel the whole time we were stopped on the side of the road, and the rest of the way to our house. So he had lots of toys and books to keep him occupied, but the thing that kept him the happiest was Nate's Newsweek Magazine. He would sit back, cross his legs and look at it like he was really concerned with the world of politics right now. It was pretty dang cute!

Our Holiday festivities consisted of Sunday dinner/party at Grammy B's (with all the cousins and Aunts and Uncles on dad's side), Christmas Eve dinner/party at Uncle Jeff's (with all of mom's side of the fam), followed by the traditional party at Aunt Jeanie's (mom's aunt). After that, we came home, read the Christmas story, and got to work helping Santa set everything up in an aesthetically pleasing manner! (one of my favorite things to do!).


On Christmas morning, Asher woke up at 8:30ish, and Joel and Kadin followed suit shortly after. Here are some pics and video of them coming out in the morning. Asher was so funny, first he tried to swim into the pile of presents, then he saw the camera and proceeded to pose and make faces for us, then he heard Kadin and Joel and went out to beckon them to "come out and see all the cool stuff" (in the words of a 16 month old).

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I think it was all a little overwhelming for Asher.
We ended up putting him in his bed after awhile, he didn't sleep, but I think he enjoyed the alone time. We spent the whole day at home with just our family, which was nice. Ashley did a lot of people's hair, including mine, which was very nice of her. My Grandma Lenie and Uncle Jeff joined us for dinner. I made a delicious beverage for Christmas dinner, and a double chocolate cheesecake for dessert (which didn't set enough by the time we ate it, so it tasted way better the next morning!!) After dinner, we all gathered around and recited our memorized poems for dad (a cool new tradition that dad started 2 years ago) It really is so cool to hear all the different poems that people chose, and to hear why they chose it and what it meant to them.

Part of the fam at dinner
(Whit, Ben, Lexi, Ash and Jill)


Me and Nate by the tree, with me looking more and more pregnant everyday!

All in all, it was a very successful Christmas. Nate loved his James Christensen picture (The Bassoonist) that I gave him...or so he says! I have chosen to believe him as he was quite convincing! As well as his many gift cards and enormous vat o' jelly bellies! I love my new Christmas dishes and juicer (which I used to make this beverage), and am so excited for my two prenatal massages that Nate got me! Asher loves all his new books and toys and clothes. (I think his favorite gift was actually the Thomas the train that I bought for him the day after Christmas!) We also scored some other sweet stuff, such as the Planet Earth dvds, Ticket to Ride, the Ocean's trilogy set, as well as the complete works of Jane Austen!! (Nate was really excited about that one!) Nate's parents gave each of their married children an original watercolor painting of the temple that we got married in. They have a very close friend who is an artist, and she put a lot of time, research and effort into each one to make it special. I LOVE it, as I have been wanting a really nice picture of the Oakland temple, and love that this is our very own, unique painting. Thanks mom and dad O!!


We just got home from Sacramento last night, well this morning at 3:00am. I have to say, that leaving at 3:00pm is pretty much the only way to travel with a child. Asher took a nap for an hour and a half at the beginning, we stopped for dinner, then he went to bed. He did actually wake up for awhile at the end, but just sat there in his seat, silent, staring out the window and chillin'! What an angel!

It really was such a good Christmas season for me, as I really tried hard to think about our Savior, and the reason that we have this wonderful time of year. I truly feel that my testimony of the birth of our Savior and the plan of salvation have grown in the last month, and I am so grateful for that. We feel so blessed to have our own little family with Asher. He brings us so much joy, and just gets cuter and cuter everyday! We are so excited to see what joys life will bring with two little kiddos running around!!

We hope you all had a fabulous Christmas as well, and hope you have a Happy New Year!

Here are a few more pictures that I just couldn't resist sharing...

Here is Jillian looking hot in her new under armour running gear, along with Whit's new brown boots!


Here is dad, stylin' in his new American Eagle jeans that Hailey, Lexi and Jill got him. I think that they were trying to tell him something about the style of his previous jeans!! :)

Asher helping with the laundry in Grandma and Grandpa's room!

Asher finds it is best to do the laundry wearing only his diaper, preferably after he has gotten all his clothes wet from playing in the dog's water!

It's the most wonderful time of the year...for treats!!

One of the reasons that I love the holiday season so much, is that I get to eat and make delicious, festive treats! This past week I have been a busy little baker. Well, I guess I should actually say Candymaker, as baking and making candy are two very different ball games. This year I decided that I wanted to do Christmas goodies, and get this, I actually did it! Woo-hoo!! I have always wanted to try making peppermint bark, and I found the most scrumptious recipe on Epicurious.com. It turned out so good. I also made some sugar cookies, made with the most delicious recipe ever. They are seriously the softess, yummiest sugar cookies I have ever had. However, I have decided that in years to come, I probably won't do the cookies for Christmas goodies again. I think I will stick with the candy. A little too much work for not very many cookies, and after I finished decorating one batch, I was "done" with the cookies. Last but not least, I decided to try my hand at the English Toffee that my mom makes every year. They all turned out so yummy, and I will definitely keep the two candies as holiday goody traditions!

Another one of my new favorite holiday treats (although you could really have it any time of year) is Frozen Hot Chocolate. So yummy! It is a lighter dessert item, that is very easy to keep within a reasonable portion size! I have made this several times already this season, (I thought of you every time Ellen; so glad you're home, I've missed you!) and they were scrumptious every time!

So since I have been so busy in the kitchen, I am sorry to say that Asher has been slightly neglected. Although I have been pretty good about only doing it when Asher is napping or in bed for the night, there was one morning when I really wanted to get my cookies decorated and make another batch of toffee, so I just let Asher do whatever for a couple of hours, and this was the result:

Asher went through his normal morning routine of taking all the tupperware out of the drawers, and taking the dish towels from the cupboard, and then proceeded to go through the trash (not as gross as it sounds), go under the sink, get into the hutch drawers and cupboards, all while still wearing his PJs!! You gotta love it! While it drove me a little insane, I just told myself I would deal with it after I was done! These pictures actually don't really do it justice, but trust me, it was not a pretty sight! But he sure was a happy little guy!

Go to my Chocolate Kitchen blog to see recipes and pictures and tips!!

Life is good...

We really don't have that many gifts yet, most of those are just cute gift boxes for decoration!

It's true, life is good right now...

1. It's Christmas time, I have a beautifully decorated tree to light my spirits everyday, my blog is red (and who wouldn't want a red blog?!), and I am getting ready to make lots of Christmas goodies!

2. Asher is not nearly as bad at not touching the tree as I thought he would be. I almost didn't get a tree because I didn't really want to deal with him pulling ornaments off of it every day. Which, the first couple of days, is exactly how it went down. He would take or touch an ornament, and I would take him and look at him and say: "asher, don't touch the tree, if you touch the tree again you are going to go into time out in your crib" Then I would let go of him, and he would walk over to the tree and stick a finger out and poke an ornament and then look at me with this huge smile...what a little stinker!! Needless to say, it was much too funny and cute to put him into time out. But don't worry, I am not always that lax, and he has definitely spent plenty of time in timeout, and now, he doesn't even notice the tree!

3. I had leftover MudPie for breakfast this morning. That's right people, MudPie, as in ice cream and whipped cream and a delicious cookie crust! :)

4. Asher has been feeling and acting much better every day!

5. I have been doing a good job (if I do say so myself) at keeping my home straightened up and the dishes done (thanks for the inspiration Lark!) even though I feel like that is all I do during Asher's naps, I think it is worth it.

6. I totally have so much more energy these days, so I can actually get things accomplished, I got my Prenatal Yoga dvd in the mail the other day, so all I need to do now is strap on my unitard and get going!!

7. I think I may have actually done something right on Nate's Christmas gift this year, which is quite the accomplishment, as he is very hard to buy for. He pretty much NEVER gives me a list to go off of, and if he does, it's just full of electronic gadgets and other boring stuff like that (after the first time, it's just not fun to get another ipod because your last one is full), so I just have to fend for myself. That's alright though, I guess it does make it a little more personal, as I actually have to think about it.

8. I am for the most part done with my Christmas shopping, (and I want you all to know that I found myself some seriously awesome deals this year!) except for the few things that I am waiting to come in the mail (I love online shopping), and then 2 small things I am finishing up today, thanks to my great friend Costco. Then all I will have to do is wrap the gifts, which is really my favorite part! Seriously! I worked as a home assistant for a few years, and one of my favorite parts of the job was that she had me wrap TONS of Christmas gifts every year. So I would just put on a movie or some Christmas music, and have at it! Anything that involves making things look pretty is totally for me!

9. Did I mention it's Christmas time?

10. In a few weeks, we will be on our way to Sacramento to hang out with the fam, where we will proceed to celebrate Christmas in true Busath fashion...with lots of food and presents!! Nate and Ben will undoubtedly make sarcastic comments about the "materialistic oragy" (sorry if that is inappropriate, but it's a direct quote, what can I say!?) that is Christmas at my house! FYI people, there are a lot of people in my family, and Christmas has always been the only time of year that we really get anything, except for our birthdays, so I think we are perfectly justified in our materialism!! Plus, we still focus on Christ and all that good stuff!! :)

11. With Christmas shopping behind me, I have plenty of time to devote to focusing on the true spirit of Christmas!! One of the things that I am doing to be more Christ and love centered this year, is following this blog. I'm sure they didn't plan it this way, but the theme of love (dedicated to a late friend) is perfect for this time of year. They have a new post every day, with a new challenge. I try to read it everyday, and even though I am not perfect at doing the challenges, I really try to think about them, incorporate them into my scripture study, apply the themes to this time of year, and implement them into my life as much as I can. You should all check it out, as it is, if nothing else, a great daily reminder of the important things in life!

12. Really, the only unfortunate thing, is that my mom forgot to send the Galena Christmas videos that I requested, with my sister Jillian after Thanksgiving. How does she expect me to get in the Christmas spirit without inspiring music and dance selections such as "Lets have a Christmas Celebration", "Decorate your tree with love" and "Skateboardin' Santa"?!

Hope you are all enjoying the Holiday season so far!!

Look at our little daredevil balancing on his walker toy!!
Such a cutie!

Asher's busy morning...

Disclaimer: I wrote this post on Monday, but was far too lazy to upload the pictures until now, so sorry!

Asher and I have been sick for the last few days, with a cold. Poor Asher has been really sick with a really bad cough complete with lots of snot in his lungs and in his nose! Yesterday was NOT a fun day at church or at home. So this morning, I thought I would treat us to some whole wheat chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. Ok, lets be honest, it was more of a brunch. We were both up early, but definitely not up and running!! Asher didn't really eat a lot of his, but he sure enjoyed eating some of them and making a mess with the rest. We don't ever really give him sweets or chocolate, so they were probably kind of rich. This picture was taken after I wiped his nasty nose, so it was actually a lot messier looking before, but it was grossing me out. Notice that he is showing you the food in his mouth. He saw himself in the mirror once when he was eating, and was so fascinated by it, that he thought we would be too! And yes, he is only wearing one sock! And yes, he is still wearing his PJs!


This picture is after he decided to play "where's Asher?" with his chocolatey hands


Despite Asher's poor little sick self, he is surprisingly happy in the mornings (probably because he went to bed at 5:30pm last night, and didn't wake up until 7:30am this morning) and then gradually deteriorates throughout the day. I had an adorable video of Asher waddling around the house, chattering, and carrying around his diaper bag like a purse, but it won't upload for some reason. You will just have to use your imagination!

Christmas Around the World...

Friday night, Nate and I had date night, we went to dinner and then Christmas Around the World. So being a Folk Dance Alumni, it is impossible to just go and sit through a performance without noticing certain things and commenting on everything that needs commenting on, which quite frankly, is a lot!! Now, seeing as how there was so much to comment on, I can't just get by with saying that the show was great and go on with my life. So for those of you who were unable to attend this year, I will lovingly provide you with a play by play of the performance, so you feel like you were right there with me! Trust me, there is something at the end that you are going to want to hear, so I suggest reading on (at least for Folk Dancers!)

The show started off strong with an awesome Turkish Black Sea dance done by PAC: great foot work, great energy, Great!

Philippines: your standard Tinikling, pretty fun, not too many feet getting caught in the poles, and only a few candles falling off the guys forheads.

PAC girls do a dance I've never seen from China, pretty, but kind of boring

Puerto Rican...9 or 10 WILK...enough said!

Ireland: A little disappointing. The three hand was nice (way to go Hillary), but it was followed by a new dance that was basically a soft shoe done in hard shoes. You can tell that the dance is really meant to show off the 2 male dancers that are dancing with like 12 girls. A pretty traditional song, nothing too exciting, no fancy footwork...and then, that was it. the band came on and played David's Jig, which was the biggest crowd pleaser of the whole suite.

The United States:
Southern Reflections...not one of the funnest dances to watch (much more fun to actually perform) so I entertained myself by looking at all the dresses and picturing everyone who wore each one. It was so funny to look at a dress and see a specific person, like Katie Rynearson in the mint green dress, Jasmine in the fuscia and white dress, Marsha in the lacy yellow number, Marie in the navy blue, Emilee in copper, me in the mustard yellow, and so on and so forth. That right there should tell you how many times we wore those costumes!!

Appalachian patchwork...done by 9 or 10 RB I'm sure. All I could think about while watching this (besides all the memories of tour flashing through my head... Lindsay, how you managed to finagel your way out of all those lame American dances on our last tour is beyond me, and quite frankly, I still think it is wildly unfair!) was: I wonder if these girls have any idea how many hot, sweaty girls have worn those dresses? Probably not!!!

Western Clog...great, fun clogging piece. Fun footwork with lots of toe stands. I guess those are all the rage these days. Again, they were wearing the blue satiny dresses that will forever reek of BO, with the bloomers that are pretty much skin tight. Gotta love it!

We're all in this together...Guest performers Greg and Maria Tucker plus 140 brightly costumed kids. (Why, oh why, must clogging costumes be so hideous?! I mean really!) Fun, energetic dance, complete with tiny little 3 foot cloggers, double- doubling their little hearts out in their bright pink sequence.

Austria: yodeling, guys with white, skinny legs, wearing leiderhosen shorts that are far too short for comfort, flexing, slapping eachothers butts, and frolicking on stage...by far the most entertaining dance in the whole show!

Norway/Sweden: vocal number, lots of close ups of people who don't know the words to the song...i LOVE that!! :)

Russian: A PAC girls dance with lots of fun turns, wearing one of my favorite costumes...the black with orange and green.

Slovakia: PAC guys, wearing awesome blue stretch pants, the one where they steal eachother's hats the whole time. Very entertaining and cheesy. You gotta love that no matter what year it is, and no matter who is on the team, there are always going to be a team full of guys more than willing to ham it up.

Hungary: this was actually done by 9RB it looked like. I was just greatful that there wasn't a full blown botolo...man am I sick of that whole suite. how long do you think we have been doing that? the suite ended with none other than ferfi.

Romania: Oas...i do love this dance, but a couple years ago, Ed changed the music to this slow stuff, and it isn't nearly as fun. but it is still a great dance. it will forever remind me of brent brimhall, no idea why.

Ok people, now for the clincher...this is where we would normally expect Hopak, our beloved finale. So about 1 minute before Hopak was supposed to start, (Russ Wood is announcing Ukraine with one of his fabulous narrations!) Nate says, oh yeah, they're not doing Hopak! WHAT?!! How can you just not do Hopak? I guess it is this new piece, I don't know if they are planning on making it the new finale, but let me tell you, that would be a HUGE mistake. I will say that the costumes were beautiful, and it would have been fine for a new normal dance, but NOT a new finale. Oh man, it really was such a disappointment! The music was far too hokey, as was the dance...picture the dancers thumbs in their armpits and several circles with some kind of spirit fingers going on. The music had no energy like Hopak does. Of course, lets be honest, the girls are really just wallpaper in Hopak, but the whole dance is so pretty and energetic and fun, and what girl doesn't watch Hopak before she is on PAC, and long to wear those red boots?! How sad for these girls, no red boots. Instead, it's: here are your leather bulgarian looking slippers. So sad. There was no standing ovation or wild applause at the end, the energy that is usually created by Hopak, was replaced by anticlimatic tags for all the back up teams and then bows. Sigh. I talked with Benny and Keenan afterwards, and they too were disappointed.

So there you go folk dancers, your own personal CAW review. I hope I was sufficiently critical! ;)