Christmas Lights on Temple Square

We braved the crowds and went to Temple Square on Friday night to see the newly lit lights. It wasn't too cold and we had a great time. We had to park a few blocks away but the walk did us good considering all the pie and treats we have been eating the last day or two. We walked around the square, checked out the Tabernacle, listened to the Nativity reading, and then headed over to the museum to walk through. There were some cool Polish nativities on display there and they had already added President Hinckley's memorabilia in the hall of prophets.

Mariah and Jalyn in front of the Salt Lake Temple.

Thanksgiving 2008

A Thanksgiving with no cooking or cleaning. It was great. My mom came out to Utah for Thanksgiving and we decided since it was just us girls that there was no reason to cook. So after going to see High School Musical 3, we had our traditional Thanksgiving dinner/lunch at Mimi's cafe. It was perfect, the food was good and the desserts were amazing. And best of all, I didn't have a single dish to clean up. Later in the evening we had more pie with my mom's brother and 2 of my cousins. We played cards and chatted and had a great time. It was not your typical Thanksgiving but now we have new memories of a fun experience.


My mom and the girls!

Standing outside of Mimi's Cafe. We are absolutely stuffed!

Twilight- Rock Star Style!

I wish I had had my camera! My friend Laura called tonight to see if I wanted to join a few girls to go see Twilight. Mom is in town and after talking to her, we agreed to go. Laura insisted on picking us up and what a shock when a driver (her husband) comes to the door to pick us up. The girls are all out waiting in the LIMO!!! We had sparkly cider and chocolate pretzels and were treated so nice. It was great. The movie was OK but going with these girls and my mom was a blast. I only thought it was a group of gals going to see a movie, who knew it would be such a memorable evening. Man, I wish I had my camera!

a blister on my knee?

So I woke up Sunday morning with a blister on my knee cap. Who gets burns on their knee caps? Apparently I do. I will tell you why. I live in Utah and it is starting to get cold. I HATE being cold. I think I also have poor circulation in my feet because they are always freezing. Even if I put socks on, my feet won't warm up when I crawl into bed. So now I sleep with a heating pad. I turn it on and put it in my bed while I am going through the nightly ritual of brushing my teeth, getting jammies on, etc. Well, Saturday night I fell asleep pretty quickly and I think the heating pad was under my knees and the protective covering that keeps me from getting burned slipped off, exposing the super hot plastic stuff underneath. So there you have it, I have found a way to burn and blister on my knee cap. What a weirdo!

Our last first tooth...

Shane did it! He lost his first tooth. It was very exciting and he had been waiting a very long time. He kept wiggling and wiggling and finally a friend of ours wrapped dental floss to yank it out. It didn't work and Shane just kept wiggling and wiggling. Last Friday, at his friend's birthday party, the dad got a napkin and pulled it out. I think Shane was surprised that it worked. So Shane put his tooth under his pillow and guess what he found in the morning? HIS TOOTH! What? The tooth fairy forgot? Does that only happen in our house? So we had to check again. Maybe the tooth fairy got nervous when she saw the cats and didn't have time to pick up the tooth. Or maybe she left the money but couldn't grab the tooth. Sure enough, way under the covers, Shane found his money. That silly tooth fairy.

I realized though that this is the last time that one of our kids will lose his/her first tooth. That chapter is closed. There is still plenty of teeth to be lost and braces to be had and cavities to fill but no more first teeth. It was a bitter sweet experience.

Halloween 2008

This is Shane as a shark and Jackson as a skeleton.

Jalyn is our purple and black witch.

This is Mariah and our neighbor Morgan. Mariah was a tree in the rainforest. She had a sign on her back that said, "Save the Rainforest!"

MC Hammer!

This is my cousin Kenyon dressed up as MC Hammer this year for Halloween. I was cracking up. He always comes up with some funny and creative costumes. A few years back, he shaved his head, painted it white, and went as Uncle Fester. I had to include the bike shot to show the contrast in color. I am sure he got some double takes as he was driving around town. Hilarious!

Lake Tahoe in June 2008

We were in Lake Tahoe for my youngest brother Dennis' wedding. We stayed some extra days and enjoyed the scenery. The kids had a great time. Dennis got married on a boat out on the lake at sunset. It was beautiful but cold! I forgot my camera on the boat but Dennis looked good and Karen looked hot. Her hair was awesome! Congrats to you two!

I think someone threw a rock and we thought it hit a boat down in the water. We didn't hear any screams so I guess we were safe.

It's all about Jalyn!

This is her little alien she made in the Legoland play center.

Her cool car. She tried to beat Shane in a race on the ramp.

Look, she can spell her name!

This is Jalyn on the driving ride. She ran a stop sign, ran a red light, drove on the wrong side of the street and basically showed me that she is so not getting her driver's license any time soon.

Cool sunset!

Jalyn is standing next to me as I go through the pictures and she is telling me which pictures I should post. So this is her addition. She wants to say..."I like the water reflections on the sand. I like the clouds in the sky. I had the best time at the beach."

I forgot Jalyn...

Oops...sorry Jalyn. I posted a different picture I thought was Jalyn but was actually a duplicate of Shane. Jalyn also wanted me to post this cute picture of her and the princess.

Happy Halloween!

These were cute pictures from Legoland. They had a trick or treat street so they all got candy which kept them entertained the rest of the day. We paid careful attention to whose bag was whose so that there were no disagreements or accusations of someone eating all the candy. We made it through pretty painlessly. Good times, good times.

My bro Darryl and his family

While I was in Texas 2 weeks ago to attend Craig Decker's baptism (Yeah, Craig!), Tammy Cook and I drove the long, long drive down to San Angelo to see my brother Darryl and his family. It was totally worth the drive. I haven't seen them since Darren's funeral in June and it was really fun to hang out. Tammy taught us a new card game and we stayed up late chatting. We also had some authentic Texas BBQ from the local dive pit and I got to see Rosa too who I haven't seen in a really long time. I didn't get a picture of her though. She is a beautiful girl and it was great to see her. It was a short visit but it was great to see y'all and I am really glad I drove the 4 1/2 hours.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOSH!

Love, Love, Love the hair!!

Darren doing his yo-yo tricks!

I think Darren was nervous before the wedding. He hid his stress by entertaining the crowd! I am so glad we have this video of him doing what he loved. We miss you Darren and think of you all the time. We all wear our "Darren-shoes". We don't call them Cons, they are "Darren-shoes".

More Legoland and beach...

These are more fun pictures of the kids at Legoland and at the beach. We were at the beach most of the day and I never put sunscreen on the kids. I know, add it to my "Mother Of The Year" award wall. Sorry kids. They were hurting today. We also saw dolphins! That was probably my favorite part. They were out playing in the ocean while we watched from the beach. Growing up in Northern California, I saw lots of sea lions but no dolphins. That was cool.

Legoland!

We went to Legoland for UEA weekend and had a blast. Matt is working in the Carlsbad area so we loaded up the car and headed to California to see him. We stayed at his apartment, so I am sure we annoyed the neighbors. They are used to these quiet computer geeks and instead they got a weekend of kids!

This is the mom and dad at the entrance. They were completely made in Legos.

I thought this was a beautiful sunset shot of Jackson and Mariah playing in the waves.

Les Miserable

My cousins, Rachael and Raquel, Jacqui, and I went to St. George for a girls weekend and to enjoy a spectacular performance of Les Mis at the outdoor theater in Tuacahn. It was also the weekend of the St. George marathon. In the history of the marathon, it has rained twice...the second one being this last Saturday. We were so nervous that our performance would get canceled since it was rainy off and on all day. Well, the show went on. It was slightly drizzling off and on at the beginning but nothing too major. With about 30 minutes left in the show, the rain picked up and it started sprinkling harder. The last 15-20 minutes was performed in a downpour. We were SOAKED! The poor performers on the stage had to be miserable too. Regardless of the weather, we had a great time and the performance was truly brilliant!

Old fashioned rug beating

Anyone up for an ol' fashioned rug beating? It was that time of year to get our rug all aired out. The kids had a great time using the rackets to get all the dust out. Sometimes chores can be fun!

How sad is this? Poor little Shane has asthma and it has been really acting up lately. He has been needing to do his nebulizer treatments frequently and always just before bed. This is how exhausted my poor child is. He can't stay awake to finish his treatments. This night was funny because he was propped up and I had to pry his mouth open to get the nebulizer out. He is on new medication now and seeing the chiropractor to get this asthma under control. Poor kid!