Jada's Day to Shine!

Yesterday was Jada's 2nd grade Christmas program. She has been talking about this and practicing her songs for a long time. She did a great job. She got to check out early so I took her to get a treat. Did she want a doughnut, brownie, ice cream??? No, she picked salad. If only I thought of salad as a treat.

One of those bleary kids is Jada.

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I only charge $100000 per sitting and you too can have some amazing photos just like mine!! )

The theme was Cowboy Christmas. Of course!

Also...
Jada's piano piece for the Reflections contest went on to the next level. They had an award program and Jada had to play her song for everyone. She did a wonderful job. She had to play standing up because the seat was too low. Poor girl has my height genes.
All the good parents took pictures of the kids on stage getting their medals I just patted myself on the back for remembering to take the camera to at least one event of the day.

I'm A Winner!!!

I won an Ipod Nano!
I never win, ever.. except for a cake walk in kindergarten.
So I'm excited and going to jump up and down and feel really cool for a little while.

Celebrating Luke!

Luke recently turned four!
We brought in the celebration with a Sunday gathering of friends for cake (Jessica's best recipe ever) and ice cream. We then had a family party at Chuck E Cheese. The people who work there must be extremely patient or half crazy. That place is loud and obnoxious but Luke loved the attention, games, gifts, and food. So I'd call it a success.
I will add pictures once I get some from my Mom. I remembered the camera but forgot the batteries (so typical me)

Some things that are great about Luke:

He still loves Monster trucks, diggers, police cars, ambulances, fire engines, Nascar, etc......

He loves his blue blanket called old B
(old because I tried to buy a replacement for washing days but the new one doesn't work)

He won't go to bed until he watches part of Sports Center with his Dad.

He comes to work with me almost everyday and fills his Rhino with parts that everyone has to search for later.

If he wants out of chores he will suddenly become sick.

One of his favorite songs is "Bad to the Bone"

He would live in sweat pants or pj's if I let him.

(Hmmm it fills like I'm writing about a 40 year old man not a 4 year old boy I guess they really don't change that much it just becomes less cute) ha ha

He loves stories and cuddles and back tickles and tells me he loves me almost everyday.

I love Luke and don't look forward to the day when I have to send him off to school, I'll miss having my buddy by my side all the time.

THANKS

Today we have an early Thanksgiving at the In-Laws so here is some of my thankful list:

Health for me and my family
A home
Jobs
Friends who stay around even when I'm grouchy or flakey
Laughter
Exercise
Family
Freedom
Food
A Good Marriage

"more than meets the sky"

Halloween 2009
warmish weather
PTA carnival
one bumbleebee transformer (singing the song over and over using the words transformers, more than meets the sky)
one angel/devil who's costume magically made her look older
one princess mermaid loving the sparkles
lots of friends
lots of candy
Halloween bash at Drury's filled with good food and some creepy guy giving us all a true Halloween scare

I think I'll call it a success (except for the jerks who smashed our pumpkins)

The Ride

I could hardly wait to bike ride in Moab. I've never done it even with my hippie tree huggin past. I read up on some of the different rides they had them rated 1 to 4 with 4 being hard. I wasn't worried I mean really, I totally conquered Dutch Hollow (ok maybe not conquer but I felt experienced enough) I have my old homegrown Schwinn that sparkles in the sun and was a very good bike back in 1999. I should have taken a hint when the people riding in the van started making fun of the Schwinn on top I should have ran when I looked around and saw some of the body armor people had on. The van driver took one look at me in my workout gear and michael Jackson riding gloves and decided to show me the one bail out point if the 30 mile ride got too technical or if I was in danger of bleeding or freezing to death. That was enough for me I was going to show these gloating, armor wearing, full suspension riding fools that I was capable of riding their supid little trail.
and....... I did it!!
I only flew over the handle bars twice. I did almost freeze to death at the top but my loving husband gave me his gloves and sweatshirt (if that's not true love I don't know what is) and the best part is I would do it again. (with body armor, better gloves, and a full suspension bike.)

Ten Years

To celebrate 10 years of marriage we took a short trip to Moab.
Last year we celebrated Brandon style (Raiders game) this year mine.
I loved both trips. I'm glad I married someone with different interests I've experienced so many fun things in the past ten years that I would have missed out on. (Who knew I would grow to love watching professional sports)

Happy Halloween

Hope everyone has a fun Halloween weekend!

Lagoon

Last weekend was pure bliss for my kids. We spent the entire day at Lagoon with Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncles. Jada went on Colossis (?) for the first time. She had been planning and measuring herself all week to make certain she qualified. She even tried to wear her sandals with heels just to be a litttle taller and seal the deal. When the time came to go on it she freaked and changed her mind but scince I'm such a good parent I grabbed her and said "You're doing it!" The Lady at the counter didn't think that was good parenting she pulled Jada aside and spoke to her privately and gave me the hand when I tried to put in my 2 cents. I'm not sure what she said but Jada stopped crying and stood in line fearlessly. She even opened her eyes during the second loop and said "Whoa! Cool!" and demanded we do it again.

What a fun day!

The EARLY Snow.

g

This was just a taste of what's around the corner.
But today is BEAUTIFUL!!!
Warm, sunny, autumn colors, no school.......
and Luke is sick, poor kid, I'm going to drag him outside anyways to soak up some of the sunshine.

What will we do?????

We have a serious problem.
This kid loves, craves, needs sunshine.
Cold weather is on the way and winters are loooong in Heber.
I can't even imagine what will happen when his sandbox is covered with snow.
Wish us luck!
(We may need to spend some time in San Diego)

Lake Tahoe

Just another day in paradise.

We squeezed one more minute out of summer by heading to Lake Tahoe the week before school started. We spent a day on the beach, a day in a boat, and a day mountain biking at North Star. Thank goodness we have friends with"friends in high places" we were able to vacation like superstars without the superstar prices.
(check out Felix in the boat, love the pose)

Back to School

First day of School 2009
I wanted to take pictures of the girls with their teachers (just like my Mom always did) I started walking with them towards the school and Mia decided to lay down the law. No more walking in with them and no pictures.
It's bittersweet watching them grow up.

Morning Rides

Why oh why did we wait until fall to start mountain biking in the morning?? We wasted too much precious sunlight training for runs. (Running is fun don't get me wrong but doesn't bring that vacation feel that biking in the mountains has) It's been so much fun to get out early with no kids and hang with the girls. We aren't super stars and won't be entering any mountain bike events anytime soon but we sure have seen some pretty sunrises, had a few laughs, gotten a few scrapes, and felt young and free.

Two Wheelin

This past summer Luke took the big leap from little to big kid. He still struggles with slowing down and often just jumps from his bike rather than use the brakes. We've got a pretty good supply of bandaids that are depleting fast but he loves every minute on his speedy bike.
(Thanks Uncle Kayden for running around Plaza and teaching him this important skill!)

Stewart Falls (Sunday hikes)

We had to fit in at least one more hike before the football season hit.
From now on it will be pure torture convincing Brandon to leave the couch. If the weather stays nice we'll just leave him home!

Summer In a Nutshell

I'm just sitting watching the rain clouds roll in and thinking back on summertime fun. It seems there is never enough time to fit it all in, Oh but we sure do try!

We spent a couple days at Flaming Gorge. I've never been before and was impressed. Both Jada and Mia tried wake boarding. (a few bribes were used) Maybe someday they will actually enjoy it. If not, I guess more time for the rest of us.

We spent a fun 4th of July weekend with friends up at a cabin. We swam in a cold pond, took ATV's out for a spin, snuck rides on the neighbors zipline, and lounged around listening to the rain.

I finally rode on the Heber Creeper! Took the short trip and that was long enough. Jill and Jenny came along for the ride. Loved having all our kids together (except Mia, she was in California)

Will someone just post for me????

Well I started off the summer with good intentions of updating then life happened. Summer flew by with trips, swimming, running, work and then more work. So here are some highlights. (those that I had the camera for anyway)

Some major milestones of Summer 09

*Jada begged and begged to get her ears pierced and won.
*Luke spent hours in an ant infested sandbox and only complained once when one bit him on his privates (poor boy) I'm still working on getting rid of the pests.
*Some flowers actually grew in my yard.
*Half of the fence came down in the backyard, we took one look at all the work required and then went on vacation.
*I ran 2 half marathons and 2 10ks and one 5k.
*We camped and didn't lose Luke.
*Mia got up multiple times wakeboarding.

More pictures will come later when the computer stops giving me fits or when I get motivated.
Until then enjoy what's left of summer!