Oh Fiddlesticks!!!

My 85 day challenge

2011-11-13T20:30:00.000-08:00

I have an old CG friend from my BYU days that has become a health and fitness guru. This girl has amazing will power and because of that is incredibly fit! I have followed her journey to becoming fit for the past year and a half and at first I thought "Wow! she is crazy" but then I gained a lot of respect for her. I always thought to myself... I wish I could be that strong and finally get some of these flabby parts toned!
Well a few weeks ago she issued a challenge to whoever wanted to take her up on it. The challenge was to cut out all junk food/candy from then (it was a week before Halloween) until Thanksgiving. I thought long and hard about it and decided... let's do it!
So I made a commitment to not eat any junk food, sweets, soda and chips... but I didn't stop there. I decided to extend the challenge through the Holidays and do it for 85 days, with only two free days... Thanksgiving and Christmas. I know, I know... I'm truly nuts. But I am also determined. Determined to get this body fit and healthy again.
So far we are on day 20 and I'm happy to report that I am still going strong. The first few days it was pretty tough, but as it has gone on it's getting easier to 'just say no'. Tonight our family went to a 'pie party' at our neighbors, I even made a pie... a Sweet Potato pie, with a meringue topping. (it looked delicious), but I just sat and visited with everyone while they ate. I will admit... some of those pies looked so stinkin good, I really wanted to take a little nibble. But I resisted. Only a week and a half until my free day. I can do this.
I've also stepped it up at the gym, trying to spend 2-2 1/2 hours there each day. Hopefully all this hard work and going without will pay off.
When I get the munchies I grab a handful of nuts or some jerky. I also REALLY some Greek yogurt, sprinkled with granola and drizzled with some blue agave-THAT is such a treat, like a bowl full of ice cream!
Hoping I can hang on and accomplish this goal!

My latest attempt at craftiness!

2011-10-18T16:52:00.000-07:00

I love to blog stalk crafty blogs! I have found some really awesome ones lately... there are some amazingly crafty ladies out there! I love seeing all the fun things they have created but hate the guilt I feel after visiting their sites... guilt from not decorating my home as cute as theirs, for not throwing as awesome a party for my kids as they did, for not doing craft projects with my kids... etc. Oh well, some day I will have the time and energy to try all those amazing ideas.

When I saw this project, I knew that I had to do it... it's just too cute to pass up!

I put a cake board on top and then wrapped a coordinating ribbon around the edge.

Can you stand this?! I just love it. Here is the instructions so you can make your own dang cute cake platter.

Supplies:

Pointy boots

Flat, plastic platter(charger) or Plastic cauldron

Orange vinyl

2 heavy duty plastic cups (not disposable)

Black electrical tape

Ribbon

2 - Orange 1.5" wide ribbon 36" long

2 - Black/white polka dot 22" long

2 - Black/white check/striped 18"long

2 - Orange thin ribbon 12" long

2 - Black thin ribbon 7" long

1. The boots were purchased at Saver's and had hardly been worn.
I bought black boots and then cutout vinyl, orange circles with my cricuit.

Stuff the boots with newspaper - leaving about 2 inches of space at the top.

1. These heavy duty plastic cups were green until I spray painted them orange, I also bought these from Saver's.

2. To make the stripes - adhere black electrical tape around the cup - easy, peasy!!

This was how the website did it, with the black cauldron on top of the feet, also SUPER cute. I may remove the cake plate and put my cauldron on for trick or treaters.

Witch-a-palooza party!

2011-10-13T08:10:00.000-07:00

For the past several years I have had a Girls Night Witch party and last night was the night! What a fun time we had! We always do a potluck dinner of soups, rolls, appetizers and desserts. I LOVE soup and I love getting to tryout different ladies soup recipes... YUM!

After we ate we voted on our favorite Witch hat and awarded the winning prize to DONNA! I am bummed that I didn't get a picture of her hat up close. She bought a hat and then dressed it up... it was the most beautiful witch's hat I've ever seen! Everyone just loved it. Great job Donna!!!

Then we played a really fun team game that we call 'person, place or thing', it's a charade type game that has everyone laughing throughout it!

Then we did our witch gift exchange. Everyone brought a witch themed, home decor gift and we put them in a pile. Then we all drew numbers and when your number was called you could pick a gift from the pile or steal from someone else. Once a gift had been stolen twice it was 'locked' and could no longer be stolen. I love seeing all the fun creative and DARLING witch items that people brought. It was such a great night and I was once again reminded how lucky I am to have such amazing friends in my life.

Most of the group... four people had to leave before we could take the pic. L-R

Front row: Me

2nd row: Amy, Briana, Missy, Lisa, Jessica

3rd row: Jani, Stephanie, Jennifer, Becky, Michelle, Nichole, Dani, Nicki, Jodi

Back row: Donna, Michele and Kristen

Missing: Carol, Laura, Angie, Jen and there in spirit was Melanie (her baby was sick and her hubby was out of town.. we missed you Mel!)

The soup table. We had Tomato Basil, Chicken Noodle, Cheddar, Minestrone and Tosacana (the kind they serve at Olive Garden) So yummy!

The appetizer table and off to the right, the dessert table

Socializing before dinner

Socializing during dinner

I love this shot of Jen and Jodi... wish the lighting was better.

Everyone called these two 'Twitches' since they had the same hats (which were darling by the way!)

Playing our game

Look at all those darling wrapped gifts! So cute!

It was a packed house

Amy, myself and Kristen. Friends for such a long time!

One year ago....

2011-10-10T22:11:00.000-07:00

Isn't it crazy how fast a year goes by? Yet if you are told 'in a year such and such will happen', it seems so far away? So much can change for the better and worse in just one year. Tomorrow marks the one year mark for the day that Chris lost his job with Goal Zero. I will always remember that day and the thoughts, worry, anger and concern for my husband that I felt. I was consumed with worry about how we would make things meet financially. Chris loved that job and he was GOOD at it!
So began the horrible process of looking for another job, filling out applications, submitting resumes and then interview after interview only to be told "sorry we are going with a different person". It can be hard on someones ego... oh so hard. Satan has a way with working hard on someone that is going through a struggle, to convince them that they are worthless and have no value.
At the time I was worried about where our family would be a year from now, would we be able to stay in our new house in the neighborhood that we LOVED?
The saying really is true.... When one door closes, another one opens. Chris was able to find a job rather quickly with a GREAT company, doing something he LOVES and is even BETTER at.
So to Goal Zero and their peace of crap management team I say THANK YOU! Thank you for being the fools that you are and letting Chris move on to bigger and better things. We are SO much better off for not having you in our lives. I am grateful for a husband that fights hard to get back on his feet when he has been beaten to the ground.
I am now excited for what the next year holds in store for the Meek Family, and that is a great feeling to have.

It's in the MAIL!!!!

2011-10-08T21:16:00.000-07:00

Look at the fun toy I have coming for me in the mail! I have wanted this FOREVER, but it is pretty expensive and there is always a more important bill to pay so I couldn't justify it.

Well I finally saved up enough money to splurge a little.

I feel like it's CHRISTMAS!

Conference Weekend

2011-10-02T21:28:00.000-07:00

Wasn't it a great conference session? One of the high points for me was in the final session, one of the last speakers. I wasn't looking at the TV when the speaker started, but as soon as I heard his voice I KNEW that it was familiar. I looked up and almost at the same moment that his named flashed on screen I knew who it was. It was my Seminary teacher from my Junior... or maybe senior year in high school. BROTHER RICHARDSON! He was such an amazing Seminary teacher for me, he went above and beyond to try and reach all of us and help us develop a love for the scriptures. I think about him and his teachings all the time and I have often wondered what happened to him. Well today I got my answer! I'm not at ALL surprised that he is now a GA. Wow! It was kind of surreal seeing him up on the TV screen. Pretty cool if you ask me!

While I watched conference I worked on some holiday Subway Art on my laptop...I'm kinda addicted to these, I just love creating them. I sent them off to Costco and get to pick them up tomorrow, I can't wait to see how they print out and look all framed. I printed them in a 11x14 size, so they will be nice and big.

The Halloween subway art

The thanksgiving subway art

I created this one a couple of weeks ago, but then changed it today to the one up above, I can't decide which one I like best.

BYU gametime!

2011-10-02T20:43:00.000-07:00

Friday a friend offered us their tickets to the BYU game and I gladly accepted them. I don't think I have been to a game with Chris before, so I was excited to go. Remember I spent five years of my life going to every home game cheering on the team while I was a member of the Cougar Marching Band. Sitting in that stadium brought back a FLOOD of memories for me, especially hearing all the same band tunes that never seem to change. It was very nostalgic for me.

Me and my honey...take a look at the couple to the left, pretty funny.

The actual game was pretty intense and fun. We pulled out the win in the end LITERALLY, so it was all good.

The power of the Wasatch!

Had to get a shot of us with the field behind us, the fans stormed the field at the end.

After the game we went to a dive of a place called Sammy's, it was SO GOOD! I can see them featuring it on Diner's, Dive's, Drive-in's.... YUM!

I always look forward to my weekly date nights with Chris, it was fun to do something out of the ordinary for us. Hope the opportunity comes around again!

A magical weekend inTime Square, Mary Poppins and 15 years!

2011-09-27T22:57:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago Chris told me what his upcoming travel schedule was and I was pretty disappointed... he would be in New York during our 15th wedding anniversary. I. Was. Bummed.

So Chris suggested that I fly out and join him over the weekend, he didn't need to ask me twice! So I arranged for the kids to stay with different friends in the neighborhood and Faze with my brother, booked my flight and off I went!

I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty nervous about making the trip alone... not the flying part, but the getting to the apartment once I got to NYC that scared me. So I pulled on my big girl panties and made the trek. The trip from the airport to the apartment we were staying in was supposed to take about 45 minutes... well it seems that I got off at the wrong subway exit.... and wandered aimlessly around the city until a very sweet female New Yorker literally WALKED me to my subway stop, which WASN'T close by. Hallelujah for nice people that are willing to help lost tourists! The trip from the airport took 2 hrs. and 10 min.! YIKES.

Oh well, I made it.... that's what counts. It was so good to see my man! Friday night he took me out to eat at an amazing place called Max Brenner's. It was a chocolate bar and was SO yummy, especially their dessert menu! Wow! The desserts were so beautiful and unique that I had to take pictures of it. What I would give to open a similar place here in Utah, it would be a hit!

I LOVE this pic! This was taken on our 15th anniversary. Chris really wants to take pics like this of us wherever we travel... here's hopping to lots more pics like this!

I think he is so hot in this pic, we were waiting for our subway when I took this. I think this should be in a magazine add! LOL

I feel so lucky to have Chris as my husband. What an amazing 15 years we have had! It is incredible to believe that I love him more today than I did the day I married him (and that was a WHOLE lot of love!)

This was at dinner on our first night at Max Brenner's

Some photo's of our first night's desserts. SO AMAZING!

The next day (our actual anniversary) Chris had to wrap up a business meeting in a town called Scarsdale. I could LIVE in Scarsdale! It was such a cute, darling town. It really was an enjoyable afternoon.

While he sealed the deal, I read my book and took a pic. LOL

After we got back into the city we went for a 45 min run in Central Park. I LOVED the park, but not so much with the run.... am I EVER going to like running?! It was fun to see the park and be with Chris though.

For dinner we were limited on time, so we found a sushi bar close to the theater. Then we went to the show!

I love this picture! Look at Chris, I love that he went all goofy for it... so cute!

Waiting for the play to start.

We had box seats that were super fun! They were great seats and the show was spectacular! I am such a lucky girl!

Happy Anniversary babe, oh how I love you!

My version of us at Time Square

After the play we just HAD to go back to Max Brenner's to get some more yummy desserts! I loved it!

Our last day in New York! We traveled into Hobokon NJ so that I could make a visit to CARLOS BAKERY home of the CAKE BOSS! It was pretty surreal seeing the shop. We waited outside for about 30 minutes and then once inside we had another hour wait. It was crazy!

Some shots from inside the bakery

This is the table where Buddy does his cake consults.

Of course I HAD to get a T-shirt! We got about six different goodies to take home. Once we got to the airport I decided to open up the boxes to take some pics and unfortunately two of the cupcakes squished into one... very sad, but we ate it anyway and it was great!

For the flight home Chris had a seat in first class, so being the gentleman that he is, he gave me his seat and he took mine in coach. This is the meal that they served us. First class is pretty cool to ride in! How sweet is he that he did that?!

The next few pics are some cool pics of my sexy husband. Babe, thanks for making our anniversary so incredible. I love you more than words can say. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world and I look forward to what the future hold for us and our family.

I LOVE HIS BODY IN THIS PICTURE!

Yep, He's STILL my Hottie with a Naughty Body, this pic proves it!

Here is that awesome picture one more time, but in black and white.

Conversation with Tae

2011-09-19T23:00:00.000-07:00

Today I was sitting with Tae, helping with her homework and we had the following conversation.

Tae: "Mom, today at school a boy asked me to the middle school dance that is coming up"

Me: "Really?! Hmmmm, what did you say?"

Tae: "I didn't say anything... I just looked at him like this!"

I couldn't help it, I just busted up laughing. That poor little kid, he was probably mortified that she would react that way when he worked up the courage to ask her.

Her face reminded me of this picture

I'm still laughing about it. I guess I should be thrilled that daughter #2 isn't as boy crazy as daughter #1 is. It's a good thing... can you imagine having TWO boy crazy daughters?!

If she reacted differently, I'm sure Chris would have to run out and by a ~~shotgun and shove~~l squirt gun.

Days 6 & 7, a kiss goodbye for Mickey, a long drive and an anniversary surprise!

2011-09-16T20:12:00.000-07:00

Our last day at Disneyland.... :-(

Basically today was filled with doing all of our favorite rides one last time. We also got to see the Aladdin show, which I have always wanted to see but never made it to. It was AWESOME! The kids loved it, and so did Chris and I. Tonight we were supposed to go and see World of Color, but the idea of waiting in line to 'maybe' get a good spot to see it and then walking back to our hotel (because the shuttle would have quit running by then), and it was pretty chilly, were all reasons that all of us opted not to stay and watch it. So I took the kids to spend the last of their money and then the entire family went to eat once again at Coco's. It was a great day and I was super sad to see it end.

Did you know that if you stop by City Hall on Main street they will give you a pin for your birthday, 1st time visit, just married and just celebrating.... FOR FREE! Here is yet another reason to love this magical land! So I got a Happy Birthday pin, Faze got a '1st time' pin and the girls got a 'I'm celebrating' pin.

Tower of Terror for the 2nd time, Tae decided to sit this one out. I probably should have too... it gave me some serious chest pain, both times I did it. I really think my heart can't handle it anymore... sad.

Splash Mountain the 2nd and 3rd time. There was NO line so we had to run around and do it again!

I LOVE this time of year, especially at Disneyland! So freaking cute. I even bought a couple of darling Mickey style Halloween decorations.

Chris bought me a birthday cupcake... I have to admit, not my favorite. I'm kinda a cupcake snob and am very picky about my cupcakes and buttercream icing. If it isn't good, it just isn't worth waisting the calories on it. Oh well, it was super sweet of him!

Waiting for Aladdin show to start

Faze loved the bumper cars!

Today we got up and loaded up the van to drive home. First we stopped at Downtown Disney, I collect spoons from all the vacations we go on as a family (or a couple) and I had forgotten to pick one up. So Chris dropped me off at the entrance and I ran into the shops to buy my spoon.

Then we drove as far as St. George and are spending the next couple of days here at my Aunt's house.

The drive home was pretty painful... the kids were restless and fighting for most of the trip and I had a pretty good headache by the time we got here. Why is it that at the end of family vacations I need another vacation, MINUS MY CHILDREN?!

Lucky for me, that is just what the doctor (husband) ordered! Chris just told me that he is going to New York for business next week and since he will be gone over our anniversary, he is flying me out there for the weekend so that we can be together! Can I even describe how excited I am??????!!!!!!!

YAAAAAHHHHHOOOOOOOO!

(SHHHH! don't tell Chris, but I think that I'm a little spoiled!)

Day 4 & 5- Disney, Beaches and Birthdays!!!

2011-09-15T00:57:00.000-07:00

Day two at Disneyland was actually mostly spent over at California Adventure. Faze LOVED the bugs life section. Sienna and Tae were bummed because California Screamin was closed for repairs. BUT Tae went on Tower of Terror for the first time, I was so proud of her... she was so so nervous about it but in the end she said that she liked it. (Don't worry Amy, I totally yelled your name while we were falling!)

Around 3 we decided to head back over to Disneyland and finish out the day there. It was a great day!

Today was a big day for me! My birthday! I am so glad that we decided to have our vacation fall over my birthday, it made for such a great day! We decided to make today our beach day, so we spent the day at Huntington Beach, my favorite beach. We ate at one of my favorite spots in Huntington Beach- Ruby's Diner out on the pier. So yummeroo. Then we made our way to the beach. Missy's sister lives about 10 minutes from the beach so we stopped by her house and picked up her boogie boards and umbrella's. I'm so glad that we did, I was able to try body surfing on the boogie board for the first time and I LOVED IT. We literally spent HOURS out in the water. Chris rented a surf board and tried surfing, he was even able to stand up on it! It was pretty hot. :0)

We left the beach around 6 O'clock, then dropped the kids off at the hotel and headed off to dinner with my parents. A few years ago I went on a girls trip with some friends to HB and we ate at Kings seafood and I LOVEd it, so I really wanted to come there for my birthday. It didn't disappoint tonight! So yummy!

Today was an amazing day!

My favorite place, with my favorite man, doing my favorite thing! does it get any better than this? No way!

Kyler, Kade and Faze.... the best of buddies!

Tower OF Terror... she is hard to see but Tae is there, right next to me on the back row.

Anyone that knows me, knows that I LOVE my popcorn. Of course Disney does not disappoint in this department! Best. Popcorn. Ever!

My sweet little nephew, Jaxton

On my birthday with my mom!

Ana wouldn't look at the camera... not really sure why.

Holy cow, best shake ever.... Vanilla black cherry... to die for... no really! Look at Faze's face, he was so upset that he didn't get his own shake. Seriously, my kids were pretty awful today. I think someone forgot to tell them that it was my birthday and that they needed to behave! Sheesh.

Yep, she pretty much did this all day. She refused to get in the water.... teenagers.

My sweet grandpa

My bro Ryan

Tae loved body surfing as much as I did. She was so brave and was taking on the big waves with me and Chris.

My cute grandma

These next few shots are some cool shots that Chris took with his camera and then did some fancy editing.

My amazing dancing daughter, so cool with the pier as her backdrop!

A message for my man... yep it's true!

At dinner with my parents

My special birthday menu (look at the top Left hand corner)

The reason why I picked this place. I love their coconut shrimp!

Ready for my Alaskan King Crab!

My birthday present! Best gift ever!

Day 3

2011-09-12T23:13:00.000-07:00

Today was FANTASTIC! The weather was beautiful, around 80 degrees and lines were not too bad. My kids were in heaven and so was I!

Waiting for our shuttle bus to come and get us

On the shuttle, headed to Disneyland!

One of my favorite places ever, Main street Disneyland!

I have always said that I would live on Main Street if I could, well this is the spot that I would buy.

Ana and Tae showing off their new Autograph books that my mom made for them. They are darling! I will post pics of the book later.

The kids loved trying on hats!

I LOVE this pic of Tae in her hat of choice... so stinkin cute!

Sitting in Donald Ducks chair! Donald Duck is his FAVORITE!

He was so excited to meet Donald!

My favorite ride, SPLASH MOUNTAIN! I was so excited to take Ana and Faze on this one since they had never been on it before. Faze saw the ride and tried to get out of it. So we told him that the ride was Whinny the Pooh and then distracted him until it was time to get on the ride. He ALMOST didn't get on, until I bribed him with a sucker and a hat and then he reluctantly agreed.

I think he liked it until the end... he has vowed never to go on this one again.

Goofy had a great time teasing Sienna. What a goofball!

Faze with his suckers and hat that he got for being brave... little did he know that he would have gotten that anyway. LOL

Today was a GREAT day and we can't wait to go back tomorrow!

Disney Vacation: Day 1 and 2

2011-09-12T08:02:00.000-07:00

The day began at 4:45 AM! Yes that's right AM. No we are not crazy excited to get going, Chris had a triathlon at Yuba Lake and we were going to hit the race first and then meet up with my parents at the Yuba exit. The race was awesome and Chris did amazing... like usual! This was the first race that I have been able to go to one of his races and I was so happy to be there and cheer on my sexy racer.

Coming out of the water, in third place...

Taking off on his bike, finishing the bike section in third as well...

Coming in from his run and finishing the race IN THIRD! Yay baby, you rocked it!

This was a fun race because two of our good friends also were racing, Justin and Ryan. It was fun to be their cheerleaders as well.

Then it was off to Primm! We got there with zero complications and immediately headed to the pool!

Our traditional shot with me and the kids in the pool.

Love these crazy kids of mine!

The next day we woke up and ate breakfast, then loaded up the car to head out on the road. The goal was to arrive in Anaheim around 2:30 that afternoon. As we were loading things Chris mentioned that the tire looked low so he was going to head over and put some air in it. When he got back the tire looked almost completely flat. I guess there was a nail in the tire and when Chris put more air in it, the pressure of the air coming in the tire pushed the nail out and BAM the hole was unplugged and the tire was FLAT. Right about that time, my brother Ryan and his family arrived in Primm (they had spent the night in St. George). It was decided that the closest place to get a new tire was to drive BACK to Vegas and get it (reminder this is a Sunday morning). So we loaded everyone back into the two working cars and drove over to the outlet mall for everyone to hang out at while we wait for Chris and Ryan to drive and get a new tire. That was at 11 AM.

The fixed tire...

So we tried to entertain 7 little kids in the mall. Children+Mall= my LEAST favorite combination... Oh well we made the most of it and everyone remained in good spirits.

Sienna tired on shoes ;-)

At 2 PM, we were finally back on the road. About an hour into the drive Chris mentioned that the car thermostat showed that we were starting to overheat. Great. So we turned off the AC and cranked on the heater and rolled down the windows and tried to make it to the next gas station. We made it there and took a look under the hood. We couldn't find any problems... the thermostat was BURRIED in the red section, which really the car should have been dead if this was accurate, so it was determined that the gauge probably wasn't working. After speaking to my grandpa (who owned the van we were driving) he wanted us to find a mechanic shop and have it checked out. We made it to Victorville and found a pep boys that said they would do a diagnostic on it.

This is me thinking... ARE WE EVER GOING TO GET THERE?!

We arrived at Pep boys at 4:30 and just hung out in the parking lot... all 13 of us.

After an hour and a half they gave us the news that we had a faulty radiator cap that wasn't holding the pressure necessary for the gauge to read accurately. It wasn't over heating after all! What a blessing. Again we were on our way and arrived in Anaheim at 7:30 PM, a mere five ours later than we should have.

My other brother Joe had driven down the day before so he 'missed' all the fun and met us at the hotel.

Everyone was STARVING so we drove to Coco and ate a yummy meal. The kids were tired and restless so my brother gathered all the kids together and started telling them stories... this is a blurry pic but shows the cuteness of the moment, all those little boys watching my brother so attentively. It was cute.

So now we are here and anxious for the rest of the trip to have ZERO glitches from this point on!

T MINUS 24 hours!

2011-09-09T10:22:00.000-07:00

M-I-C... see you REAL soon! K-E-Y, why? because we ~~LIKE~~ LOVE you.

M-O-U-S-E!!!!

That's right folks, the trip of all trips is about to commence! You may remember that for Easter this year we gave our kids a trip to Disneyland, well the months of waiting and anticipating are almost OVER! My kids are so excited!

My mom has been planning for weeks little special goodies for all the grandkids. Last night they stopped by to give them their first goody.

These darling Disney duffle bags FILLED with goodies to take on the trip! And when I say goodies, I mean outfits (two or three per child), toys for the beach, flip flops to match said outfits, sunglasses (also matching), stuffed Mickey dolls, and some munchies for the drive down.

All the kids posing by their bags.

Sienna posing in one of her new outfits

The items in their bags... it was like Christmas! Spoiled kids :-)

Tae thinking... "I pretty much have the best grandparents EVER!" Yep, I think she is right!

Wait till you see the next surprise that my mom has for them. I can't tell you what it is yet, due to my kids reading the blog, don't want to spoil it... but it is TO DIE FOR!

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's off to vaca I go!

Labor Day weekend

2011-09-09T10:07:00.000-07:00

What a great Labor Day weekend we had! It was filled with boating trips, bbq's, baptisms, family gatherings and THIS awesome waterslide that my aunt and uncle rented for the family to enjoy. Can you believe this slide?! The kids LOVED it and we all had a good time! Thanks Deedee and Stan for arranging everything!

TMI???? Probably.

2011-09-06T22:36:00.000-07:00

Holy cow! The mosquitoes this year have been crazy! I don't mean out in the wilderness or woods, but right in my own backyard. I don't ever remember them being so bad. I am a spray Nazi when I go camping and really pride myself on the fact that I very rarely get bitten on camping trips. But man! I don't think to put it on while I am at home. On two separate occasions we have even had them in our room at night and then wake up the next morning with bites all over. My poor kids have fared far worse than me and they get the WORST reactions from them, they get so swollen and are just miserable.

Well a couple of nights ago I was awakened to the familiar buzzing sound around my ear and I was just too tired to get up and find the spray so I just threw the covers over my head and called it good. Chris ended up getting three bites and Ana got one right in the middle of her forehead and under her chin. I thought I must have dodged the bullet because I couldn't find any bites....

Well I was wrong. I found three QUARTER size bites all right next to each other and you will never guess where I found them... on my right cheek, and I don't mean the cheek on my face! How in the heck did I get bitten there?! I mean seriously, I don't walk around naked.... I'm baffled. Of course now that I know about them they start itching. Let me tell you, THAT is not the most choice places to be scratching.... especially in public. So if you see me around the next few days, just ignore me if you see me giving it a good scratch and remember there are THREE HUGE BITES that I am trying to relieve! Sheesh.

OH! Another annoying tidbit that happened yesterday... We opened the garage door to leave somewhere and I noticed a strange object lying in our driveway. I looked closer and realized that it was a dead mouse! Not just any dead mouse, but a mouse that was rather large (prob five inches long) and it's head was partly ripped off. I freaked out! We figure some animal like a cat left it there as a present. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that there is one less mouse (especially that size) running around the neighborhood, but that was DISGUSTING! I made Chris come and take care of it. He scooped it onto the snow shovel and then the little stink chased me around the driveway with it. I'm sure it was quite the spectacle for our neighbors to see... me screaming as Chris chased me around with the snow shovel. So not funny.

Date night video

2011-09-06T18:29:00.000-07:00

Chris made an AWESOME video of our date night out on the boat this weekend. Take a look
here to view it's awesomness.

Today after church...

2011-09-04T22:37:00.000-07:00

In the course of all the craziness yesterday, I realized that I never took a picture of Ana in her dress on her actual baptism day. So today after church we took some of her out in our backyard. I thought that this one turned out so cool. Faze actually snapped this one! (Well it was set up on a tripod and he just had to push the button) LOL.

I took these with my cute little (unprofessional) pink camera.

I told her to do something that showed how she felt about being baptized... this is what she did. I love it!

This time High School Musical style.

And of course one with her mama.

Friends + Wake Surfing= Amazing date night!

2011-09-04T16:27:00.000-07:00

This summer we have had the oppertunity to go out on boats with some of our friends. This year they taught me how to Wake surf and I LOVE IT! I'm not very good at it yet, but who cares! It is so stinking fun.

This past Friday the Stringham's invited a few couples to head out to the lake in the Beehive (the name of their new, YELLOW boat). We brought dinner of Jimmy John's and ate out on the lake. Everyone took turns surfing and Chris of course brought along his super nice camera. This camera is pretty amazing and can produce some awesome photo's. I am so grateful for the amazing friends that we have made in our neighborhood. Thanks so much Troy and Michele for sharing your fun toy with us!

Michele, me and Nichole... love these girls!

Chris taking pics of Brook out on the wake

Michele is a PRO at surfing!

This is Brook's boyfriend, David. David and I learned how to surf on the same trip a few weeks ago, he has improved so much since then!

He even has WICKED wipe outs... can you believe this shot?!

I will admit, I have gotten a lot better too. Not real crazy about this shot though... I look kinda dorky.

Johnny is AMAZING! This is one of my favorite shots.

I just love my Lisa-girl! She is a blast to be with.

Freaking amazing Nic.... pretty cool pic too!

Ryan (Nic's husband) doing a 360... yep he did it without falling. Ryan is a king on the lake! (and according to Troy, I'm a PRINCESS...YEP THAT'S RIGHT TROY!)

This pic is so cool! I think Ryan looks photo shopped in. I promise that he isn't!

Troy finally getting his turn after driving the boat for everyone else.

The perfect shot to end a perfect date night! Thanks everyone for a fantastic night.

Analeigha's big day

2011-09-03T21:31:00.000-07:00

My Dear Baby girl,

It seems like only yesterday that they laid you in my arms for the first time. Eight years ago you came into our family, now look at you... growing up so fast and making such important, grown up decisions. Ana, I am so proud of you! You are such a sweet little girl. You are so kind to all your friends and so dear with all your baby cousins. We love you so much! You have the best smile and laugh, it is so contagious. You bring me so much joy and happiness and I feel so grateful that Heavenly Father allowed me to be your mommy. I know that the decision you made today made your Father in Heaven so proud of you. I hope you always remember this day and how you felt. You have so many friends and family who love you and came to support you on your special day. Always remember how much your mom and dad love you. You will always be my little Beeter-Boop! I love you sweet girl.

Love,

Your mom

All dressed in white

Ana and her Danka (my dad)

Waiting for the program to start

Deedee and Will. Aunt Deedee agreed to give one of the talks at the baptism.

Tae and Chris sang a musical number. Tae sounded just like an angel, it was so sweet and dear.

Getting ready to be baptized!

My sweet grandpa... I just love this man.

I have the bestest of friends. Always their to support and help in any way needed. My friends mean so much to me and today they certainly stepped up to the plate!

The centerpieces

I loved how the cupcake tower turned out. I made 200 mini cupcakes and a cake topper for the top of the tower. I LOVED how her cake turned out, one of my favorites. The cupcakes were so yummy, I made three different kinds- almond vanilla with salted caramel butter cream, strawberry lemonade and chocolate-chocolate chip with vanilla bean butter cream. For the luncheon we had pulled pork sandwiches and lots of various salads. We had about 70 people in our home, we have such amazing family and friends who came from near and far to support us.

This was an amazing day but also pretty stressful for me. Actually the week leading up to it was the stressful part and I can honestly say that I'm grateful that it is over. Now I have to work on getting over the negative feelings that I'm feeling towards how things were handled in regards to planning this joyous event.

Right now I am too tired and bothered to go into the LONG details of everything, so I will just end with AnaLeigha was a beautiful angel today!

It's great to be 8!

2011-08-29T21:37:00.000-07:00

I am so excited for my little one's big day! I've been busy trying to get everything ready for her baptism luncheon following the service. It's a lot of work.... but she's worth it.

Here are the invites that I made.

I am totally into subway art right now, so I wanted to try and make one... here is what I came up with. I will frame it and put it somewhere in the house on the day of her baptism.

I also wanted to make a sign that I could frame and display at the luncheon and then hang in her room after, so that she can always remember her special day

On Sunday she had her interview with the bishop. Our bishop is such a great man and he was so darling with Ana. She was really nervous about her interview, but he had her laughing and smiling in no time. I guess she answered all of the questions correctly, because he said she could baptized. I just love my little princess!

And so it begins!

2011-08-29T21:20:00.000-07:00

Another school year has begun... time for the traditional pics of the kids on the front porch. I can't believe that all of my kiddo's are old enough to be in school. I just blinked and BAM, they are growing up!

Sienna ready to begin 8th grade. She started at a new school this year, public Jr. High.... YIKES!

Cute lil monkey boy, watch out Kindergarten....HERE COMES FAISAL!

Giving mommia a squeeze before sending him off to his class.

AnaLeigha getting ready to start 3rd grade!

Taelynn is a middle schooler now! She is excited to have a locker and that she gets to ride her bike to school every day.

I love my kiddo's!

An angel in heaven

2011-08-24T20:53:00.000-07:00

My heart is so sad right now. A wonderful, beautiful, courageous young lady passed away today. Her name is Lindsey and she was one of my former colorguard students. What an amazing girl she was!

I met Lindsey about 13 years ago when she tried out for color guard. You couldn't help but love her, she was so kind and just darling. A few months after she made the team she learned that she had a brain tumor and they performed brain surgery to remove it. Unfortunatly for me, this meant that she could no longer be on team.... the doctors didn't like the idea of her throwing flags and rifles above her head (crazy, I know!). The team as devistated, but Lindsey remained close to all of us and instead came and helped us with our equipment at our competitions.
To make a long story short, over the past 13 or so years she has had 3 or four more brain surgeries due to tumors coming back. Last February, Lindsey and her husband Josh received the devastating news that there was nothing more they could do for her. Of course her family was heartbroken, but you know what her response to them was? She said "Hey, I'm not dead yet. I'm here and alive". What an amazing attitude this young girl had! Her family created a blog for her about a year ago, to tell her story and I have been following it for the past nine months. It is so uplifting and inspiring. I recommend you go and visit it and read her story from the beginning. It will make you laugh and cry and just feel love for Lindsey. The blog address is
www.forlindsey.blogspot.com
For the past few weeks the family has known that Lindsey's time on this earth was very limited and maybe that is why I have been thinking about her even more than normal...
This morning I dreamt of Lindsey. She came to me to say goodbye and tell me that she is free from pain and limitations. I started crying as we embraced, sobbing actually. Begging her not to go. She gave me one of her beautiful smiles and told me she loved me and then she was gone. I woke up just sobbing and had this strong sense that either Lindsey had passed away yesterday or would do so today. I tried to shake off the feeling, but all day I kept thinking about the dream. Earlier this evening I received a text from one of my former students, who was on team with Lindsey, saying that she had passed away today.
Even though I know that she is in a much better place and free from pain, I weep for those of us that she left behind, especially her husband Josh and her family.
I keep thinking about the dream. Why did I have it? Was it just a coincidence that I had that dream the day that she passed away? I'm grateful for it though, because I feel like I really was able to say goodbye to her and tell her that I loved her.
It brings me peace right now.
I will always be grateful for what she taught me, about faith and about love. She really was such an example of a Christ like person.
Her favorite food was french fries, especially from Taco Amigo. I will always think of her whenever I eat french fries from Taco Amigo now.
Thank you Lindsey for your example and all the countless memories that I will always remember about you from when you were on colorguard. I love you Linds.

Ana's baptism photo shoot

2011-08-15T16:22:00.000-07:00

Last night we got Ana all done up and took her to some spots around town to do a little photo shoot of her in her baptism dress. We had such a good time, well at least I did, I'm not sure Ana LOVED it. She was hot and sweaty. These first few pictures are some of the pics that Chris took with his camera.

These next few are some that I took with my camera that were some of my favorites.

I'm pretty pleased with how these all turned out... of course the subject matter was pretty beautiful! I just can't believe how grown up she looks!

All grown up

2011-08-12T16:05:00.000-07:00

It always amazes me when I get a wedding announcement in the mail from one of my former colorguard girls. Not because they found someone to marry, but because to me they will always be little junior high/high school kids... forever and ever.

I only taught at Riverton for one year, but in that year I met some of the most amazing girls ever.

Mylee was one of those amazing girls! What an honor it was to be asked by her to make her wedding cake!

Yesterday was her wedding and what a beautiful bride she was! It was fun to be a part of her special day, thanks for asking me Miles, it meant a lot!

Our weekend in Pineview!

2011-08-07T21:57:00.000-07:00

We got home today from a fabulous weekend of camping with our dear friends up at Pineview Reservoir. This has become an annual tradition in our neighborhood, this was the third year that we have gone and we honestly look forward to it every year. This year certainly didn't disappoint!

The days were filled with playing at the beach, boating, wake boarding, tubing, crafting, game playing, sand volleyball playing, friend playing, swimming, sun bathing and junk food eating. The nights were filled with, campfire sitting, marshmallow roasting, Werewolf playing, and just enjoying each others company.

We truly feel so blessed to have so many wonderful friends in our neighborhood, they are AMAZING people, some of the best we have ever lived by. As I sit here typing I am reminded from my aching body, just how much fun we had on the water. I tried wake boarding and ACTUALLY got up and skied around for a few minutes before crashing. I was so proud of Faisal and Ana. Faze tried tubing and LOVED it, Ana tried water skiing and was not so in love with it. I'm just so proud that they tried it. Sienna and Tae ate it up tubing and knee boarding. We were in a different campsite this year because our normal site was already booked, the new site had an awesome sand volleyball court that the kids LOVED hanging out at, not only playing volleyball but also playing in the sand. The water was pretty high this year so there wasn't much of a beach, so it was pretty cool that they had another sandy area to play in. Warning! Lot's of pictures!

Here is a video I took of Ana skiing for her first time!

Sakina

2011-07-31T20:56:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we said good-bye to our beautiful foreign exchange student Sakina. What an emotional day it was. Our family grew to love Sakina these past two weeks and will miss her terribly.

I just love this picture of her. I love how she always has to do this piece sign in all of her photos. LOL. What a beautiful girl she is. Our family was definetly blessed with having her in our home and getting to know her. I will blog soon about our two week adventure, but for now, please enjoy this beautiful pic of 'our girl'.

My most important body part

2011-07-31T20:48:00.000-07:00

Today in Sunday School the teacher asked which body part would it be the hardest to live without. I leaned over and whispered to Chris "My lips.... cause then I would have a hard time kissing you!"

I love kissing my husband (and my children for that matter), if it were an olympic sport I would win the gold medal! Too bad my hubby doesn't share in this same enthusiasm....

Random thoughts.... ten days ago I had a filling replaced. Something that hadn't been bothering me at all, not one tiny bit. For the last 10 days that same tooth just ACHES. I'm terrified that maybe the tooth got cracked during the procedure and will eventually need a root canal. I say this because a few years ago this EXACT thing happened to me. It irritates me that before this happened my mouth was perfectly content and pain free. Now it bothers me on and off all day. Should I be concerned about this? Grrrrr.....

5K pics finally!

2011-07-31T19:23:00.000-07:00

Chris finally got some pics edited from my race! Hip hip hooray!

Me and my friend Jodi after the race (I can tell this was after because of how my hair is sticking to my head! GROSS!)

Sprinting to the finish line!

After the race Dion gave Jodi a victory kiss (I had to be a part of the moment also LOL) Dion and Jodi are the greatest friends! They are our Framily!

Me, Jodi and Kenzi at the beginning of the race

FINALLY crossing the finish line! I actually ran it faster than I originally thought....34.15!

Chris also took all the video footage and created a video of the entire experience. He did an awesome job!

Jenny's first 5k from Christopher Meek on Vimeo.

My first 5k!!!!

2011-07-20T16:11:00.000-07:00

Many of you have asked about my first 5k race ever that happened three weeks ago. Truth. I have been wanting to post the pics along with this post, but Chris took them on his camera and when he takes pics he does them in raw format (no idea what that means) and he has to edit them before they are post-able. I have begged and pleaded with him to please just edit one or two, but as you can see this post has ZERO pics on it. This was such a HUGE event and I felt like it needed to be documented so I am posting it before I forget my thoughts on this event. (Babe, PLEASE edit some pics for me. PLEASE.)

The morning of the race I woke up before my alarm went off... at 5:30! I was so excited/nervous. I met my friend Jody and my friend Kenzi (from work) at the race site. It was a chilly morning, but I was ready! I thought that Chris was going to just wait for me at the finish line taking pictures of me, but as the race was about to start he informed me that he was going to be racing along side me with his camera in hand so that he could video tape the experience. I thought it was sweet of him, but I was also bummed that I would have anyone waiting for me to cross the finish line. Oh well.

Then just like that the horn sounded and the race began. It was a pretty good course, with only one hill....it was a pretty steep hill, but not too hard surprisingly. I felt pretty good until the last half mile, but then the queasiness feeling started hitting me and I really had to talk myself out of walking. I knew that I was pushing myself harder then I do when I normally run. I looked over at Chris and said "right about now I could use some words of encouragement!" I also told him that he better not be video-tapping anything that jiggles!

Me and Jody pretty much kept up with each other and as we turned the last corner and saw the finish line we both just started sprinting. It was awesome!

My personal best time to run that distance was 39 minutes, so my goal was to beat that time. I was really hoping to do it in 36 minutes.... as I crossed the finish line I looked up at the clock and saw the numbers 34.21 min!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was shocked and excited and then I just wanted to throw up! LOL
Once that feeling left I was pumped! I am very proud of my little accomplishment. I haven't signed up for another race yet, but I hope to do one or two more before the summer ends.
It feels pretty cool to have earned my own 'racing shirt' (the name my kids call all of Chris' race shirts that he gets when he enters a race, they use them as night shirts to sleep in). I also got a participation medal... I just might frame that bad boy.
Hopefully someday I will post the pics!

It's a girl!!!

2011-07-15T21:55:00.000-07:00

Yep that is right! We have one more member of our family. Today we picked up a new daughter! We signed up to be hosts for a foreign exchange student and tonight she arrived. Her name is Sakina and she is from Japan and will be staying with us for two weeks. She is so sweet and kind. We are so excited to have her stay with us and be able to get to know her better. We can't wait to show her around Utah and introduce her to some fun new experiences. Pictures will hopefully come shortly :-)

WARNING! Stay away.....far far away

2011-07-06T17:57:00.000-07:00

Yep that's right. This house would be a really good one to avoid. I'm annoyed. Pretty much at everything and everyone. Just ask my kids, they will tell you.

This picture describes me perfectly right now. So BEWARE!

Guess it's time to lower my expectations (again) for my friendships... family.... co-workers.....the grocery bagger at Smith's. Yep, even he ANNOYS me, and I didn't even go to Smith's today, but the thought of him annoys me.
I've been on the edge of tears all day long and the longer the day goes the more annoyed I get. I don't even care and things are just spilling from my mouth that I have no business saying or even thinking (don't worry I didn't swear), I'm just mean....mean and nasty and I don't even care. So PLEASE stay away, or I might bite your head off too.
"I'll get you my pretty, and your little dog too!!!"

I must be crazy, my new purchase and illness

2011-07-02T21:44:00.000-07:00

I did something yesterday that I have always wanted to do, but never had the confidence to try..... I SIGNED UP FOR A 5K! wow, I never thought I would say that sentence in reference to myself. But alas, it is true! I will be running my first 5k race one week from today! This is HUGE people. The registration place was at a running store and while I was in there filling out my paperwork I started looking at the wall of running shoes. Chris has told me for a few weeks now that I needed some decent running shoes and I have been fighting wanting to spend the money on them. While I was in the store the clerk asked me if he could do a fitting on me, he did and then told me about some foot problems that he can see that I have that some decent shoes could fix. I have had some pain in my knee and hips while I run and the clerk said that a decent shoe could fix that.

So I broke down and bought a pair....

I'm not gonna lie, I was really hoping to get a pair of pink ones, but those were another hundred dollars, so I settled for these bad boys.

This morning I went for my daily run, excited to try them out. Everything went great except for one thing, the flu bug has been going around our house and it appears that today was my day to catch it. In the middle of my run I almost had an accident (and had to really concentrate to make it home to the bathroom) and had to cut my run a bit short. Luckily I made it home, but oh man, am I a mess right now. I've got stomach pain, head pain, joint aches and the big D. Pretty much I am MISERABLE!

But hey! At least I have some great running shoes! The light from my laptop is killing my eyes so I think that I will head my sick self up to bed. BLAH!

Block party video

2011-07-02T15:15:00.000-07:00

Chris made an awesome video of the footage that he took at our block party. It is pretty fun so take a look.

Best block party ever!

2011-06-30T22:36:00.000-07:00

One of the things that I love about our neighborhood is the Block Party at the 4th of July! We have been coming to the block party for about six or seven years and have always looked forward to it. Now that we live here it is so much more fun to come to. Our friends the Lindsey's started this tradition and it has really grown into a huge event. Steve is in a band and he builds a stage on his front yard that the band plays live music on. There are bounce houses and bbq's lining the street, and food galore, then at the end of the night we have a HUGE firework show. This year's fireworks were crazy amazing! Since they made arial fireworks legal this year we had an awesome show.

All of my brothers and their families came this year.

Me and my good friend Jodi, oh how I love this girl!

My sweet niece Addie, she thought the band's music was too loud.

My nephew Ty hates getting his picture taken!

The Bowen Family. Such amazing friends!

John did NOT want his pic taken.... too bad John!

Jason sitting back and just chilling

I have so many great friends in this neighborhood! Just love this Dani girl!

Carol, Melanie and me.

My running mentor Melanie. This girl is awesome!

Dani, Carol, Melanie, me and Angie.

One of the three bounce houses that were there. Faze loved this one.

Troy.... being Troy. LOL

He was supposed to take a picture of Me, Michele and Nic but took some of himself instead. Nice.

Another bounce house... more geared to the grown ups. This was a blast!

Lisa of course challenged me to a duel. I forget who one.... probably her. :-)

A shot of the band on the stage.

As usual we had a great time! My kids said that it was the most fun they have had at the block party. So grateful to live in such an amazing neighborhood! Thanks to the Lindsey's for all the planning and efforts that they went to to make this a huge success!

Surfing....FOR REAL!

2011-06-22T22:25:00.000-07:00

Tonight our family was invited to go boating with our good friends the Stringham's. We had such a good time with them! Only me, Sienna and Ana were able to go because Chris had work he had to do and Tae was at a birthday party. We packed up a dinner and got to the lake around 6:30, once we were out on the lake we started surfing! I have seen people surf off the back of a boat before, but had never tried it and always wanted to, so I was excited to try it.

I love hanging out with Michele and Troy, they are such amazing friends and so much fun to be around. Thanks again for the invite guys.

The front of the boat became the teenager hangout spot.

Me and Michele.

Troy the best coach ever! He was awesome at getting me up on that surf board.

Sweet little Ana.

Savannah. Sienna and Brylee

The next few shots are of me SURFING! I got up relatively quickly, I loved it! It was so much fun and I can't wait to try it again.

We stayed out until the sun went down, look at this beautiful sunset.

Surfing Date Night

2011-06-21T19:24:00.000-07:00

Last week we went with a group of our friends from the hood on a date night. We decided to go try surfing at the Provo Beach Resort.

A group shot. Jeff and Melanie, Dani, John, Me, Justin and Chris (Lisa was taking the picture)

Dani was awesome! This is not easy! It looks pretty simple, but alas.... not so much!

John is a natural!

Dani right before a big spill.... I mean face plant. :-)

Another option to surfing... body boarding.

An awesome shot of me going down! The down fall to crashing.... The water is shooting out with such force that it can take your bottoms right off. Learned this the hard way. Now I know what swimsuit NOT to wear! LOL

Yep that's my hot hubby ridding the wave!

Oh ya baby.

Justin was a great surfer!

Another group shot. This was such a fun night out! Thanks everyone for being open to trying something new. Till the next extreme sport date night!

Father's Day and Several Birthdays!

2011-06-19T21:42:00.000-07:00

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! Today was a pretty good day. We had amazing lessons in church today and I left just feeling so peaceful and uplifted. I think that it is kinda strange that my Father's Day experience was FAR more spiritually uplifting than my Mother's Day was. Weird. Better late than never I guess....

Hopefully I will get around to blogging about our lessons today, because they were very thought provoking and I really want to blog about the thoughts that I had about them.

For dinner my dad planned a big family get together with all my cousins and aunt's and uncle's that live locally. That made for about 45 of us! It was supposed to be outside, but it was rainy and cold today, so we crammed into my parents house. On top of celebrating Father's Day we were also celebrating some birthday's, five to be exact. Two of those being my mom and my Aunt Debbie, both of them love Disneyland, so my dad asked me to make a cake for them that was Disney themed. Here is what I came up with.... I think that it is one of my new favorites!

Two of the birthday girls.

My cute hubby eating his yummy Father's Day dinner.

Kisses for Daddia!

The reason he gets to celebrate this holiday.

Opening his Father's Day gifts.

My sweet dear husband leaned over and said the sweetest thing to me at church today. He told me how much he loved me and how grateful he was for me. He thanked me for making it possible for him to become a father. I looked at him and he had tears in his eyes, which made me get emotional. I love my husband and what a great father and husband he is to our little family. I love you babe.

Miss Lehi Pageant

2011-06-18T23:38:00.000-07:00

For the past couple of months I have had the opportunity to work on the Miss Lehi pageant committee. For the past several years I have judged tons of pageants and have always wanted to be on a city committee and help out behind the scenes. I have such AMAZING memories from back in the day that I participated in pageants, I LOVED all of the ladies that gave of their time and served on the committee for the the Miss Pleasant Grove pageant. I truly looked forward to our weekly workshops and to this day am so grateful to those women that gave me confidence to pursue my dream/goals. Because of this I have wanted to give back and maybe help another girl have the same positive experience. Cedar Hills does not have a pageant so when we moved here I googled it on the internet to find out who the pageant director was for this city and then asked if I could help in any way.

I was put in charge of the Children's Miracle Network fundraiser. This program was very new to me. Back in my day we didn't have fundraisers and platform issues. So I had to learn pretty quick what all that was. Basically I had to set up ways for the contestants to raise money that we then donated to the Children's Miracle Network charity. Evidently, now in order to compete, each contestant must raise $100 towards the charity. It's a pretty cool idea I think.

Last Saturday was the pageant and the four days leading up to that I was at the high school each night helping set up back stage, helping with dress rehearsals etc... I also was a 'hostess' for one of the contestants, which means I have her backstage helper on the night of the pageant. My contestant was Jayden and she was AMAZING. Talk about a sweet and talented young lady!

This is Jayden in her evening gown, boy can this girl sing!

All the pictures I took turned out blurry, but one of my committee friends took these and I stole them from her blog (thanks Natalie!).
Boy did this experience take me back! So many memories came racing back to me. I really loved this time in my life and really miss it. I have considered going back and competing in a 'Mrs.' pageant, I have even looked into the requirements. I would love to have an excuse to buy and evening gown and practice my pageant wave again! (elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist....lol) The bottom line is after having four kids, the thought of the swimsuit competition freaks me out! Who knows, maybe I'll get brave and try for it next year.
P.s. Surprisingly Jayden didn't place, but she did win the talent portion. I begged her to come back next year, telling her that I didn't win on my first pageant either. She said that she would, I really could see this girl as a future Miss Utah....ya, she is that good!

talents.....

2011-06-13T18:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday at church our lesson was on developing our talents. A great lesson and it really made me think. I wish I was 'talented' at so many things.... too many to list. I have always wished that I was a runner. It is such a great form of exercise. I always admire the friends that I have that do crazy things like run races and worse... marathons! I just don't know how people can do it and as luck would have it, I am married to the runner extraordinare! I have tried in the past to be a runner.... a few years ago, after I had Faze I actually got into the habit. I was going on a girls trip to Disneyland and I REFUSED to be the fattest girl on the trip so I started a six week running program before my trip. I lost 10 lbs, so that was rewarding, but after my trip I just lost the desire to run. So I stopped.

(oh how I wish this is how I looked while I ran)

Well the desire has arisen again. So last week I gave it a go. Again. I have to admit that it was a tiny bit easier this time around since I have been going to the gym for the past nine weeks. But it was still so hard! I ran almost 4 miles without stopping! This is huge for me. HUGE! There were so many times that I wanted to stop and walk... but I let my Glee music on my IPHONE keep me going. Especially the song 'Fat Bottom Girls'. If that isn't incentive to keep going then I don't know what is! Lol

I will say this, recovering after running is rough! Yesterday my hips were SCREAMING at me and the balls of my feet are pretty tender. But I fought through it and ran again today. I wish that I could say that I am a graceful runner and that at the end of my measly four miles I look strong... but alas, I'm pretty sure that I look like this.

Here's to developing a new talent. Wish me luck people. Wish me luck.

The hazards of baking cookies

2011-06-09T20:30:00.000-07:00

Chocolate chips- $2

Sugar and eggs- $5

Being eager to help make cookies... a little too eager- Priceless!
LOL. Chris texted this picture to me, when I saw it, I couldn't figure out what he was doing in it. Then I realized that he was stuck in the lid of my Bosh machine. I laughed and laughed! I just love the look on his face.

No worries.... we got it off of him. Funny kid!

Got Allergies?!

2011-06-09T20:18:00.000-07:00

Allergy season is in full swing! Yikes, we can't even go outside for ten minutes without our eyes watering and itching. Ana and Tae have never really complained about allergies before this year, but man are my kids miserable! As I sit her typing this Ana is itching her eyes like crazy. Sienna has always been the worst off, but a couple of weeks ago someone brought a horse to school, I'm not sure why, but they did. Sienna knows that they bother her so she was good to stay away from it, but it was a windy day and before too long she was itching her eyes like crazy. I happened to be at the office that is two doors down from their school, so Sienna called me and told me that her eyeballs where swelling shut and that the school wanted her to go home. So she walked down to the office and when she walked in I just started laughing. My poor little daughter looked like she had just been in a fight. I have NEVER seen her eyes so swollen before. One of the perks to working in a pediatric office is having access to medical supplies and doctors! I took her back and had one of the PA's take a look at her. He pumped her up with some allergy medicine and eye drops. A few minutes later Ana came walking in the office looking just about the same way.... so we did the routine all over again. After we got home we took these pictures... this was after the medicine had been in her system for 30 minutes, so a lot of the swelling had started to go down, but you get the idea.
She just looks so miserable!

GO KARTS...aka crazy drivers!

2011-06-05T12:09:00.000-07:00

Last night Chris and I went with some couples from our street to race go-karts. What a freaking fun time we had! If you have never done that then I highly recommend it. Those little buggers can go so fast....dangerously fast. We decided to race girls against girls and boys against boys. I was flying along, overtaking a few competitors in my quest to be in first when up from behind, my friend Carol hit me just right and sent me spinning out of control into the wall. I have never been in a car accident before, so this was a new sensation for me. I'm pretty sure that I have whiplash! But it was a blast and I'm so glad that we went. After racing we went to The Dodo to eat... yum! Before you put on the helmets you had to put on some type of headwear... Melanie is modeling hers.
Now Stephanie had to model it...cute. LOL
Jeremy had to jump at the chance to relive his youth. He is like 6'7, so it was pretty funny to see him sitting on this kids toy.

If you didn't want to purchase one of the AWESOME black hat covers then they had some sexy lunch lady hair nets that you could wear. They were pretty sweet. NOT.
Me and Steph, pre helmets.
Me and Nichole
Right before the ladies raced.
Yep, Chris can even ROCK a helmet. Hot stuff!
Carol- the craziest driver ever, she is the one that caused my awesome spin out!

All the girls looking at our race speeds and placements.... due to my crash, I came in last! :-(
Now it's the guys turn.
Ryan getting ready to zoom off.
My hottie hubby. I have to say, he was the SLOWEST driver of us all, I think he was lapped at least four times!
All the girls. Melanie, Carol (sorry for cutting your head off), Nichole, Stephanie and me.

The grand champs! Jeff and Melanie were the WINNERS! They were also the only ones who have done this before so I think that had a slight advantage over everyone.

So glad that we were able to spend time with our awesome friends! Next time we are going to do indoor surfing! I can't wait!!!

Lots and lots of posts

2011-06-02T14:05:00.000-07:00

I am trying to play catch up and have posted a ton of new posts. So many that you have to click on 'older posts' to see them all. Take a look if you want :-)

My daughter is hilarious!

2011-06-02T13:56:00.000-07:00

The past couple of weeks my oldest has been giving me a hard time about wearing her flip flops. We are almost the same shoe size and sometimes it is just too convenient to quickly slip on her shoes as I'm headed out the door. Every time I do she gets mad at me... really I should just get me my own pair and respect her belongings.

This morning, after the girls had left for school, I was getting ready to head to the gym and went to grab some shoes to wear when I came upon this site.
I laughed and laughed. I guess she got me pretty good, what a clever child I have! Always a fun day when your child teaches you a lesson. LOL

Memorial day weekend

2011-06-02T13:31:00.000-07:00

Sometimes getting away is just what the doctor ordered! The weekend started out with me going with my brother, parents and Tae to Las Vegas to help my other brother move his family back to Utah. Chris and the kids went to St. George to my Aunt's house and on Saturday my parents dropped me and Tae off in St. George to join them. We stayed until Tuesday morning and then me and the kids headed back home.

We spent the weekend relaxing, playing games with my family, shopping and swimming. My aunt is friends with someone that has an amazing pool in their backyard and she arranged for us to be able to swim there one afternoon. These are the only photos we took the entire weekend.
I love this pool, it is pretty fabulous!

Sitting in the hot tub... the pool water was FREEZING!

The Graduate!

2011-06-02T13:14:00.000-07:00

Last week our little man graduated from his last year in Pre-School! This year he went to pre-school just two doors down from our house....SO CONVENIENT! My friend Michelle runs a preschool in her basement called Buttons and Bows Pre-school. She did such a great job and Faze learned so much!Faze with Miss Michelle
All of his classmates
I love the little shirts they made, each of those hands belonged to one of his classmates. So cute!
Singing their little songs. This one was his favorite song "Chooty Chaw"

Mr. Sun, sun, Mr. golden sun....please shine down on me!

So proud of our little guy!

CALLING ALL SUPERHERO'S

2011-05-31T19:14:00.000-07:00

For Faisal's 5th birthday I decided to do a superhero themed party. I was SO excited for this party. I had found so many fun things and made some cute stuff to go along with the theme.
In my head I had a vision of how I wanted everything to look, I just had to find how to make it all happen. Starting with the invites! I kept going back and forth on either doing a superhero or pirate themed party. When I found these invites it made the decision for me...it was EXACTLY what I had in my mind. I found these on Etsy, it was a kit you could buy and they were all matchy matchy and personalized. So I got invites, thank you cards, address labels, water bottle labels, happy birthday banner, cupcake toppers, goodie bag labels and sucker super hero's (see below). I LOVED the characters that were used... it was exactly what I wanted, they were darling. I sent the gal the info that I wanted written on the invite and picture that I wanted used and BAM! It was that easy!
I got some small manilla envelopes and found the 'top secret' logo online which I printed onto my envelopes. Notice the cute address label :-)
The thank you cards! Gotta get those sent out....
Now for the fun part, the decorating! Always one of my favorite parts. I seriously would love going into a party planning business, so so fun!
We served the superhero's lunch. This was the lunch table. I LOVE how the banner turned out that I made.
The 'Super Sweet' table. I tried to get foods that were in the color scheme of the party red, blue, yellow and green.

'Kryptonite' rock suckers! These were a huge hit!
Super pop rocks! I was pretty excited that they were packaged in my color scheme.

I made green and blue 'mother goose popcorn'. So yummy!

These turned out so stinkin cute! Superhero suckers anyone?!
A closer shot of the lunch buffet.
Strawberries, grapes....
cheeto's...
green and red jello jiggelers and PB&J sandwiches.

another shot of the birthday banner.
These were the take home 'goodie bags' filled with blue and green popcorn.
Cupcake toppers, these turned out so cute!

Seriously the cutest water bottle labels ever!
The cape crusaders!
Practicing their 'super' flying.
Eating lunch. This was supposed to happen out on the lawn, but it was just too chilly.
I blew this little guy up and had it laminated. It was on the front door as guest arrived and then doubled as a game for "pin the star on the superhero"
Playing the game.

Opening presents!

I found some darling blue and red capes online for CHEAP! Cheaper than I could make them, so I bought one for each child and then cut out white fabric stars that I stitched onto the back of the cape. Then I printed our superhero out on iron on sheets of paper and ironed the image onto the star. After the guests arrived I sent them on a treasure hunt and at the end of the hunt they found their capes and superhero masks that they then decorated. They looked so cute!
Our cute little Mya modeling off her outfit.

Faisal loves his cape. He wears it all the time!
At the end of the party he was ZAPPED! It was an awesome day for my sweet little man. Happy birthday buddy boy! Your momma sure loves you.

My baby turns 5!

2011-05-31T18:33:00.000-07:00

I can hardly believe that my Fazey is 5. Where has the time gone? For his birthday we hung out as a family. That evening we went to a new place in Provo called Provo Beach Resort and then out to dinner. What a blast it was! If you haven't been to the Beach Resort then I highly recommend it, although it is kinda pricey.5 years old and so BIG!
He got this crown in Pre-School and insisted on wearing it all day long, he's the birthday boy so we let him.

Present time!!!
He was SO EXCITED to get his WII games.

The girls did the ropes course and had a blast.

The younger two were too short to go on the ropes course so they went to the kiddie playground.
We also enjoyed a game of croquette golf, kinda like miniature golf.... pretty fun.

Posing on a surf board

Fun in the arcade.

He was hesitant at first but after some force he went on the merry-go-round and of course... LOVED IT!
Finally off to dinner at Malawi's Pizza, YUMMY!

Ballroom Festival

2011-05-31T18:09:00.000-07:00

Sienna had her first team match competition! Her school selected various students in different categories and levels to compete against other students in Jr. High ballroom programs around Utah County, then they competed against each other at the Ballroom festival. Sienna competed in the advance Samba group, there were three other couples in her group and her group took FIRST! It was so fun to watch her dance and yell out her number. The gym was PACKED with dancers. It is amazing how many kids in this county know how to ballroom dance, it was a lot of fun!First place ribbon and flowers from her dad!

This was during the freestyle dance with all the dancers on the floor. Holy Cow!

Mother's Day 2011

2011-05-31T17:40:00.000-07:00

The reasons I am able to celebrate this holiday!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chris making my Mother's Day dinner, one of my favorites-Chicken Tikka Masala. It was SO delicious!
My gifts from my kiddo's. They also gave me a new pink camera that I took all these pictures with.

The gift from the ward... Chocolate covered cinnamon bears, one of my favorites!
My mom and sis-in-law Amy getting ready to eat our tasty dinner.
To be honest the day wasn't so great in the beginning. My kids were awful at church and I left sacrament all sweaty from fighting with them, but things got better after getting a break from them and spending time in relief society (of course the cinnamon bears helped a little too).

Spending the end of the day with my own mom also made the day even better. I have a wonderful mom that I just adore and only hope that I can be as good a mom to my kids that she is to me.

Ooops.... drum roll please!

2011-05-31T17:30:00.000-07:00

Wow, sorry to keep you all hanging about Sienna's BYU ballroom tryouts. If you haven't seen her post on her blog yet then let me announce SHE MADE IT! We are so excited for her! Her practices start at the end of June. I can't wait to see how her dancing improves over the next year. CONGRATULATIONS my sweet little dancer!

Ballroom Tryouts

2011-05-07T20:51:00.000-07:00

Today was a long day. Sienna decided a few months ago that she wanted to tryout for the BYU youth ballroom team. Well today was the day! This past week she got together with the partner that she was going to tryout with, his name is Scotty. It was crazy being back on that campus, so many memories. She rehearsed in a dance room that Chris and I took a Folk dance class in when we were first married. Now my oldest was dancing in there.... where has the time gone?!

I was SHOCKED with how many kids were there trying out, well over 100! There were two teams that they were filling, each team has eight couples. That means that there were only 16 females that would make it onto a team. Not very good odds. There were so many great dancers, it really blew me away with how much talent was in that room.

Sienna was pretty nervous and excited, so was i.

We were about an hour early so that the kids could have time to practice. Unfortunately her partner was also dancing with another girl, so they had to share him. I felt like the other girl was being a 'partner hog' and Sienna is so quiet and shy she wouldn't go and interrupt them. I finally told her to ask one of her other friends to practice with her. His name was Harrison and he was on the BYU youth team last year. I think in the long run it was probably a blessing in disguise. Just frustrating that they had been practicing all week and just like that she had no partner.

Sienna was pretty flustered too. I had to calm her down and remind her that she just needed to relax and HAVE FUN and that it didn't matter if she made it or not. It seemed to help her.

It was a long, long day. Luckily Sienna was in one of the first groups to perform. She did AWESOME! I was so proud of her. No matter what the outcome is, I am so proud that she had the courage to tryout. We find out on Wednesday if she made the team.... keep your fingers crossed for us!

Scotty, Ingram (his other partner) and Sienna
She didn't want me to take this picture, hahaha too bad!
Lucky number 105....hopefully
Practicing with Scotty

This was just a portion of the amount of kids that were trying out. YIKES!
Lining up in numerical order, about to face the judges.
Partner #2- Harrison
Playing 'hand wars' to pass the time until it was their turn

Last minute instructions before heading into the judges
On deck
Afterwards we went to the infamous creamery for some yum yum ice cream!

The mean kid

2011-05-05T21:15:00.001-07:00

What do you do when there is a mean kid in your son's preschool class? What if that same kid is also in his Primary class? What do you do when no one wants to play with this kid? What do you do if this kid has been telling their teacher's no and being disobedient in class? What if this kid is your son?

I love my son and can see the good that he possesses. I'm not blind. I know my child is far from perfect. He is on the spoiled side and loves to get his own way. He is also a four-year-old boy, who likes to play rough. But he has such a sweet and wonderful side... he is famous for randomly coming up to me and saying that he needs 'a hug on the neck' and gives my big loves. He is a snuggle bug and gives the best kisses. He tells me he loves me ALL the time throughout the day. He definitely has us wrapped around his little finger.

I know that he can be naughty and throw fits. I know this. I'm trying to work on ways to keep him from acting out and trying to find ways to hold him accountable for his misbehavior.

My girls NEVER behaved this way. They never talked back to adults and caused problems. I really feel like I'm re-learning how to parent with this little guy.

It is the worst thing to see your child sit inside and cry that no one wants to play with him. I've tried to explain that it is because he doesn't play nice and when he acts like this then other boys don't want to be your friend. He doesn't get it. He is just hurt by it.

This week I had three different phone calls from random people telling me that he is a challenge and it needs to be addressed.

I feel like such a failure to my son. My heart aches for my sweet little boy that just wants friends to play with. There are things that I can do better to help him and Chris and I are trying different things with him.

I just wish that others got to see the sweet side of my son that I get to see...

I hate this feeling.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Etiquette??? Or lack there of

2011-05-03T20:05:00.000-07:00

Like I said in my previous post, I have been spending a portion of each day in the gym. I mentioned some of what I love about going to the gym, like the smell.... I know strange. It doesn't smell like sweat but instead it reminds me of bike tires, which I love.

Well, some things that I really can't stand about the gym are some of the people! Seriously, I don't know what it is with some of the people there. They think that they own all the equipment and they actually participate in 'saving' the weight machines. What?! How do you 'save' a weight machine? You either are using it or your not.
I was on the step machine (it had only been on it about 20 min) and a lady came up to me and demanded to know "how much longer are you going to be on this?" She didn't say it nicely, she was rude! I was so caught off guard I just starred at her for what seemed like forever.

I would never act like that to someone on a piece of equipment (or off equipment for that matter). I would patiently wait, just like I always do and then jump on after the person was done.

There have many MANY times that I have gone to use a machine and someone says "I'm using that", I look over and they are using a weight machine close by. What?! I don't care if you are in the middle of doing a circuit, you don't get to call dibs on four different machines at once. It's just rude. Period. The end.

It drives me bonkers!

Rude people in general make me crazy! It seems like I have to deal with rude people at work ALL the time. I don't get it. I was raised to be polite and kind ALL THE TIME, why do some people feel like they have the right to be rude and unkind to people? Rude people suck.

What motivates you?

2011-05-03T08:50:00.000-07:00

I've thought about this question a lot for the past few months. I've really tried hard to find some self motivation to get myself back in shape. I'm tired of not fitting into clothes that I used to be able to wear. I'm tired of seeing 'dimples' in spots that are NOT cute and endearing. I'm tired of seeing a muffin top. I'm tired of not being a healthy eater. I'm tired of seeing others find motivation to become more active. I'm tired of watching the Biggest Loser while eating a big bowl of ice cream.

For the past few months I have had three friends inspire me with their fitness goals being made. Boy do they look incredible! Thank you friends for being my motivation!

Well I FINALLY just said to myself "quit whining about it and DO SOMETHING about it. So in April I started my new fitness goals. I found this awesome FREE app on my phone called "my fitness pal". It basically is a food and exercise journal and it is so helpful to record the things I eat and the exercises that I do each day.

I'm not on a diet. I eat what I want and just record my calories, once I hit my daily quota I'm done for the day. I have to admit that most days I really have to try hard to eat enough.

My main fitness goal is not focused on losing weight (surprisingly) It is to tone up my 'soft spots'. I have a pretty awesome weight lifting routine that I do almost every day and after one month I am happy to report that I can see a difference!

Even Chris said that he can tell that I am getting more toned. My pants are fitting better and my 'dimples' are becoming less noticeable.

More importantly I feel better! I love that part! I love the smell of walking into the gym.... it just gets my blood pumping. I love the taste of my protein shakes at the end of a workout. I love feeling the burn of pushing myself in one of my exercise classes. I love feeling sore the next day because that means that I worked hard the day before. I love that I still have another month before swim suit season hits :-). I love that I am healthier!

Kindergarten check up

2011-04-28T15:05:00.000-07:00

Today Faze had his Kindergarten check up. Yes, that's right.... my baby is going to Kindergarten next year. When did my baby get so grown up???

Faze is terrified of going to the doctor. He always thinks that he is going to be getting a shot, well this time he was right. :-(

We did the urine sample at home and I told him that we had to take the sample to the doctors. When we got there he said "Momma, I will wait in the car and you take the peepee to the doctor". He was paranoid of everything, the eye exam, the blood pressure cuff, and don't even get me started about the finger prick. He is such a cutie pie though and was pretty funny.
This was after his finger prick, obviously unhappy!
Look at his face, so funny.
They had him write his name on a little card.
In this picture he asked me how everyone knew his name. I told him that I work with all of these people and that I told them. He told me that I wasn't supposed to do that, it was supposed to be a secret.
Coloring his paper and adding stickers to it.

Dr. Foster did a great job!
After the exam they took his picture to add to his card.
All done! Finally a smile.
His reward for being..... mostly brave. :-)

A moment to brag

2011-04-27T16:26:00.000-07:00

The past few weeks we have had a lot of sad and downer things happen in my extended family. Things that have really made us dig down and pull up our shirt sleeves and try to shoulder others pain and trials. I love my family... all of them, from my brothers down to my cousins and my cousin's children. We are such a great support system for each other. I have loved watching the way everyone has really stepped up to the plate to help out family members in need.

So in light of all the icky news that we have received lately I thought that it would be a good thing to share some great news.

My brother Nic is a pilot. He and his sweet wife are such great people and parents to my darling niece and nephew. Nic is such a hard worker. Anyone that has ever gone through what it takes to become a pilot knows how tough it is, especially how hard it is to get jobs for big airlines. Well this week he had a job interview with Sky West Airlines and dum, dum, dum dah

HE GOT THE JOB!!!!

I'm not sure about the specifics of the job or if it will move them closer to home, but we are so excited and proud of him.

My kids have been asking in their prayers that Nic would do well with this interview and what a great teaching moment this was for them.

We love you Nic and are so proud of you!!!
This is Nic and my nephew Logan in his plane at his current job.

Easter 2011

2011-04-24T20:28:00.001-07:00

Today was a great day. The kids started out the morning with searching for their Easter baskets that the Easter bunny brought them. Then we headed out to church and got our spiritual cups filled. I had wonderful lessons today that really touched me and helped me feel the spirit so strongly. I am so grateful for my Savior and for what he did for me and each of us.

After church we came home and we took a few pictures of the kids in their Easter clothes.

The kids were REALLY uncooperative and it was such a struggle to get any shots at all... little turkey's!

She looks so grown up in this picture. I bought this dress for her and can now say that I officially can buy her clothes at the same stores that I shop at, not kids' stores. (different sizes though....WAY different sizes)

These two can be such little goof balls. They just crack me up!

I don't know why but she LOVES making this face. HILARIOUS kid!

Chris and I did a special gift for the kids for Easter this year and to give it to them I made a picture scavenger hunt. I took close up pictures of different things around the house that they had to guess what and where it was, find the item and retrieve the clue. The clues were strips of paper with one word written on it. The words put together made up a sentence that gave them a hint as to what our surprise was.

Here are the pictures:
A bowl in our china hutch
The baby grand piano
Our book shelf
The water dispenser to our spare fridge
The rock wall on our playset
The mailbox
A decorative suitcase
The inside of the girls medicine cabinet
The bar-b-queThe front door
The garbage can
The shed...This is where the surprise was hiding. It was so funny to watch the kids race around the house and yard trying to find the next clue.
Ana holding up the basket.

The word strips said "Our family's surprise is happening this fall! Can you guess what it is?"

Opening up the basket....so excited to see what it was!

Hmmmmm..... I wonder what all these items have in common?!
They figured it out! They were all Disney related items. We are going to Disneyland this fall!!!

As you can see from the pictures they are VERY excited. The last time we went as a family Faze was only one. The girls have gone with my parents a few times but Faze hasn't so he is super excited to see Donald Duck!
For dinner we headed to my parents house.... before dinner we did an Easter Egg hunt with all the cousins. This year was the first year that two of my kids HID the eggs, not FIND them...it was a bitter sweet moment for me to realize that my sweet babies are growing up.
They did a great job hiding them!
Faze did a great job FINDING them.

We even had the Easter Bunny show up and surprised us all.... the littler ones FREAKED out, they were so scared. It was hilarious!

After the great hunting it was time to come in for a tasty dinner.
My mom went all out to make the table settings cute.
My sweet nephew Ty-Ty.... just love this little guy!
Oh how I love this man. This is my grandpa, one of my hero's.

After dinner we sat around talking and the kids told everyone about their trip to Disneyland. Of course my parents wanted to come, which I figured they would want to (they have annual passes, lucky ducks!) and my brother and his wife decided that they wanted to come with us instead of in November like they had planned. So we decided that we are going in September, it happens to fall over my birthday, which I'm elated about!!! I can't think of a better place to spend my birthday then in Disneyland! I'm so excited!

So here I sit in bed, typing all of this, exhausted, but so content and happy.

Happy Easter everyone!

1 year anniversary

2011-04-15T14:13:00.000-07:00

It was one year ago today that we took a leap of faith and moved into our new home and neighborhood. It was one of the hardest and scariest things that we have done, but we knew that it was the best thing for our family.

Now a year later I know for a fact that this was the best thing we could have done! My children have flourished in their new surroundings, especially Sienna. The young women in this neighborhood are AMAZING and such good examples for Sienna. She has made some amazing friendships and for that I am beyond grateful.

Chris and I have made some fantastic friends also. There are dear people here (and in our old neighborhood) that are like family to us and have welcomed us with open arms and we just love them.

I'm grateful for a Heavenly Father who is mindful of my little family and knows just what we are need of. I feel very blessed.

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!!!

2011-04-15T13:49:00.000-07:00

Well actually it was a bbq dinner!

The other day we were out and about with my dad and we were trying to pick a place to go for lunch. I recommended one of our new favorite places, Dickey's BBQ in AF. Have you been there? If not, then I highly recommend it. So yum-a-roo! So I suggested that we go there. On the way there we were listening to the radio and the station we were listening to announced that they were at Dickey's grand opening and to come on down to get some discounted food and enter to win some drawings. Sweet! I was so excited to get some discounted food. When we got there the place was PACKED! My dad had no desire to wait so we decided to go elsewhere. As we were about to leave they announced that the drawing for a years worth of Dickey's food and tickets to a concert were about to be drawn. I hurried over and entered mine, Chris' and my dad's name. I then folded my paper in my 'special' way and dropped it into the box. You had to be present to win so I convinced my family to wait until after the drawing to leave.

A few minutes later they did the drawing for the year's worth of food. They called some ladies name and nothing. She was not still there so they drew another name..... and drum roll........

They called MINE! I started freaking out and ran up to collect my prize. I NEVER win anything, so I was so excited!

I have one free card a week for a year. Guess I know where we will be going for date nights for the next year!!! LOL

Our new cabin

2011-04-14T19:52:00.000-07:00

Oh how I wish this was ours! This past weekend we went and stayed in this beautiful cabin with all my family. It is my brother's in-laws cabin, not ours :0(

For Christmas my brother gave all of my family members a weekend at this cabin. We spent four days up there and it was WONDERFUL. We had such a great time visiting, playing games, riding snowmobiles and watching movies. Thanks Nic and Krista for such a wonderful time!
This picture was taken this summer, when we were there the snow was as tall as the first deck!
Part of the front of the cabin... I couldn't fit the whole thing in my camera's lens. It was huge!
This was the great room and dining room.
Another shot of the great room.
This was the downstairs family room/game room
The theater was INCREDIBLE! I literally felt like I was at the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland. It was called "Big Thunder Mountain railroad Theater" Inside it looked like you were inside a red rock mountain. The picture above was of the stage in front of the screen and a cool mural on the wall.
The chairs were those 'rumble' seats that shook when the movie scene did, and all the seats reclined.
They even had a train set that ran around the top of the ceiling.
Freaking coolest theater I have EVER scene!
The entrance to the theater was right next to the 'ice cream parlor'
This was the downstairs kitchen that they called the ice cream parlor. All the little jars along the back were filled with different types of candy to be mixed into ice cream. They even had those cold granite slabs like they do at Cold stone that they mixed our ice cream on.
One of my favorite things about the cabin was how kid friendly it was! There were three different playing areas for kids. Here was the first one.
This was so DARLING! It was in the basement next to the ice cream parlor. I just love all the details that were added.
Look at this mural! I love how they made it look like the names of the kids had been engraved into the wall.
This was inside the General Store, the back wall was a painted mural that opened up into a secret hiding place. The kids loved playing store!

This was the second play area in the 'Princess room'. The front of the room had four beds and the back of the room they turned into a little cottage. These two pictures were in the cottage.
This faux fireplace was so darling!

The front of the cottage.... everything but the shutters were painted on. So cute!
Another mural, across from the beds.
A shot of the room from the doorway. This is where my girls slept.
The third play area was the 'tree house' room. It had a awesome bathroom in it, the picture above is the tile floor in the bathroom, it had frogs, lizards and leaves in it.

Another mural against one of the walls
Can you believe how awesome this is?! The tree trunks felt so realistic. Behind the trees were three sets of bunkbeds.
Ana playing on the log bridge that took you from one play area to the other.

The entrance to the tree house.
At the other end of the room they had another little deck area for them to climb up in and play.

The cabin sat on 160 acres of private land for us to snowmobile on. The snow was so deep and each night we got a new foot of snow. It really was incredible and so so fun!

Skiing with Lisa

2011-04-14T19:34:00.000-07:00

While Chris was gone on business to Switzerland (ya, I know, lucky duck!) I took advantage of some ski passes that I had to Sundance. I took Taelynn one week and my amazing friend Lisa the other week. Lisa had never skied at Sundance so she was excited to go with me. We had SUCH a good time, it was an amazing day....so warm!
Check out that view! Perfect blue sky's!
Us at the top of the mountain. They have a lodge up there that we ate lunch at.

Hilarious! On the first run down, Lisa decided to take the harder route and I took the easier way. I looked over at her just as she took a huge spill! It was so funny! Then she couldn't get up... it took her several tries to finally get back on her feet. She was so shocked that she fell, she said that it has been years since she has fallen. What a hoot!
I think that she looks like a movie star in this pic. I seriously think that skiing is such an ugly sport... I feel so BLAH and frumpy. Why does everyone else always look so cute and stylish while they ski and I look like a stinkin Oompa-Loompa?!