Nora Jane Tate

Nora Jane was born on April 10, she weighed 8 lbs, 9 ozs, and 20 inches long. We are so happy she is a part of our family...we love her so much. I was so happy that I had the day off of work so I could visit little Nora on the hospital soon after she was born.

I think she looks a lot like Ella in this picture.

I just love these next pictures. Ella wasn't able to hold Nora when she was first born. Nora had some minor complications at the beginning...she was hooked up to all kinds of wires and such. The first time Ella saw Nora was through the windows. I just love Ella's face in these.

These were taken two days later at Jules & Justin's on Easter. Nora has a couple little scratches on her face from the tape they used to keep the wires in place. 

Here are all the kids right before the easter egg hunt.

Oh, and the proud parents are Jamis & Dawn. She's a keeper you guys!!

Lou Lou

a few of my favorite things...

Favorite Album: Lykke Li - Youth Novels

I can't tell you how many times my cubicle neighbor at work has told me turn my music down in the last two weeks. It's all because of this album. I can't help but sing along and dance in my seat. My two favorite songs on the album are "I'm Good, I'm Gone" and "Little Bit" which can both be heard here on her MySpace page. I just saw that she's on tour and of course she's not coming here. Lame.

Favorite Food: Annie Chun's 

As a single lady who is constantly on the run...hahaha, just kidding. But seriously this stuff rocks! See where it says "Ready In 1 Minute"? Annie is not lying. It literally takes a minute to cook and it's soooo good. I have everyone in my office hooked. It's not too pricey either. About the same as a Lean Cuisine. There are a ton of different flavors but the Chinese Chow Mein is my favorite! Also, if you like sticky rice but find it kind of a pain to make. Well you're in luck. There is also a sticky rice bowl that she has that also only takes 1 minute to cook. And it's good sticky rice. Check out the website here.

Favorite Movie of 2008: Slumdog Millionaire

If you haven't seen this movie yet, do it. Do it now. It's up for numerous Oscars this year including best picture. This is the first year that I've seen all the nominated pictures and it definitely deserves to win. I love anything Danny Boyle directs but this is by far my favorite of his. Just see it. You'll love it. You can see the trailer here. Oh, and the soundtrack is great too!

Favorite Movie at the Sundance Film Festival: Push - Based On The Novel By Sapphire

So this year the big winner at the Sundance Film Festival was Push. It's based on a novel by the African-American poet Sapphire. I've never read the book and to be honest I don't think I will. This film was definitely hard to watch at times. The story centers on an illiterate and obese African-American teenager in 1980s Harlem who is pregnant with her father’s child — for the second time — and is also abused by her mother. It's not a true story, thank goodness, but you have to think that this kind of stuff happens ALL the time. Like I said, it was very hard to watch at times but at the same time it was so inspiring how the main character, Precious Jones, rose above. The girl who played Precious was amazing and it was her acting debut. She had never done anything before. But it was the performance by the actress Mo'Nique who blew my mind. I had no idea she had it in her. She's a comedian who I had never really been that impressed with. She plays the villain in the film and she does an amazing job. I don't care what movies come out from now until the end of the year but I believe she should win the Oscar for best female lead. And it wasn't until recently that the movie even got picked up by a distributor. There was talk that maybe it wouldn't get picked up because of the subject matter but I'm so happy that Lionsgate finalized the deal this week and bought the rights for 5.5 million. It now it looks like Oprah and director/actor Tyler Perry are behind the film so you know that will help it a ton. Read this article to read more. Others who make cameos: Mariah Carrey, who surprisingly was awesome! (I never thought those words would come out of my mouth about her acting) And the gorgeous Lenny Kravitz who I fell in love with a little more if that was even possible. I highly recommend this film but if you choose not to see it I would totally understand and if you hate it I would also understand. 

Loves,

Lou

I'm tired from all the bloggin.

Are you happy people!?!? Three (now four with this one) posts in one day is more than I did all last year. I promise to post more to keep you updated on my exciting (non)social life. I tend to go into hibernation mode in the winter so I feel like I haven't really been doing anything too exciting. This last week was the Sundance Film festival and I've been busy with going to some films. It's the only thing I look forward to in the winter. For the most part I saw some really good movies. I discovered I am not a fan of "video art"...maybe at a museum or something but not 93 minutes of it.  I still have the 2 "Best of Fest" movies on Monday so those will be the end until next year. 

Like I said I promise to post more often and take more pictures with my new camera which I'm loving. 

Loves, Lou

Stuff White People Like

I just laughed so hard reading this. Check it out. This describes like 95% of my friends not even kidding and (I hate to admit) myself .  

Here are some of my favorite "Stuff White People Like"...

#118 - Ugly Sweater Parties

#106 - Facebook

#104 - Girls With Bangs

#100 - Bumper Stickers

#97 - Scarves

#90 - Dinner Parties

#88 - Having Gay Friends

#79 - Modern Furniture

#74 - Oscar Parties

#67 - Standing Still at Concerts

#64 - Recycling

#63 - Expensive Sandwiches

#57 - Juno

#52 - Sarah Silverman

#50 - Irony

#48 - Whole Foods and Grocery Co-ops

$47 - Arts Degrees

#42 - Public Radio

#41 - Indie Music

#40 - Apple Products

#39 - Netflix

...oh gosh, just read the list. I like them all!!!   

Christmas

Here are some of my favorite pictures from Christmas with the kids. 

Photo Booth

I just got around to scanning these from Kyong and Donnie's wedding. They were married September 28th. It was a weekend of festivities up at Sundance with a lot of really great friends. At their reception they had a photo booth and it was the biggest hit. We had so much fun with it. Here are some of mine...

Camera Broke

So my hand-me-down camera broke a while back. That's the main reason I haven't blogged in years. I've been in need of new glasses for a while now and I've been trying to decide between buying a new camera or new glasses...they're about the same price. I decided on buying myself a camera for Christmas.

This is the one I'm going to get (I like the brown). Nothing too fancy but it will work just fine.

That's all.

Sorry Kelly...

I had to do it.

For some reason this picture makes me really happy.

Holy Crap!!

I know, I know, it's been a while since my last blog.  I never have time at work anymore and until now I didn't have a computer. My friend Donnie just sold me his three year old ibook for super super cheap (practically free). I'm so excited to finally have a laptop. Donnie and Chris have been teaching me all kinds of cool stuff...they're big Mac nerds. 

I want to start posting more pictures, so that means taking more pictures. I was thinking of posting a picture a day of whatever floats my boat. I'm a little obsessed with the blogger, Dooce.  If you aren't reading her I highly suggest it.  She's actually a local blogger from Salt Lake, but is one the most read blogs in the nation. She posts a picture a day of different things and they're great. 

Chris helped me with setting up some programs on my my laptop and we decided to have a mini bbq on his porch last night. It was a good night. 

Here he is at the fancy table we set up.

I'm off to the Jazz game!!! Go Jazz!

We went up to Park City this weekend and went to brunch at Cisero's. This was a sign in the front lobby. I thought it was hilarious!!

It's a Snow Party

I live in the Marmalade District near the Capitol. My house is on a corner at the bottom of two hills, one is a lot steeper than the other. Friday night I was getting ready to meet some friends and I looked out side and it had started to snow really bad. About ten minutes later I heard the loudest thud and felt my apartment shake. I looked out my back window and saw a car with it's hazards on in the middle of the street. I went outside to this...

...and then five minutes later this...

Needless to say I didn't end up going out that night, for two reasons: First, my driveway was pretty much blocked that I couldn't get my car out. Second, my whole neighborhood came out and hung out for a good 2 and a half hours watching all the cars slide down the hill. We had the best time ever. One girl brought out warm cookies she had just baked. Another guy brought out drinks for everyone. I've lived in my apartment for six months and didn't know any of my neighbors. Now I know most of them.

This is my new friend Chuck.

These are all the nice policemen that hung out with us.

The next morning I went to check out the damage on the corner and someone had built a snowman out of some of the wreckage from the cars.

I know where I'll be during the next snow storm.

Happy Thanksgiving

Today at work we had a Thanksgiving lunch. Everyone signed up to bring something. I decided to bring the traditional yams and marshmallows. I've never made these before in my life (obviously). I put a ton of marshmallows in forgetting that they would expand under the heat. At least they tasted good.

Marcus Bently

Saturday night a bunch of my friends and I went to see our friend Marcus play at the Hogs Wollow. Everyone needs to go listen to his music...he's very talented. Amelia's Roses is one of my favorites. Seriously check him out. Here are some pictures from that night.



It was also his birthday so this is everyone singing to him.