New Moon Girls Night Out

It was Alyssa's birthday and her nice husband arranged a girls night out to see New Moon for her. We started the evening at her house doing manis, pedis and eating this amazing food. She makes to die for treats and arranges them beautifully (my picture is not that good). After we took a limo ride to the midnight showing (yes.... I felt a little crazy to be up this late...but it was sooooo worth it!) of New Moon.

This was Alyssa's first limo ride ever... she was like a kid at Disneyland... she was so excited and giddy. What goof balls...

i have not rode in a limo since high school... it was fun and we didn't have to worry about driving home so late...

we made it to the movie without falling asleep... actually it was easy because the girls kept me laughing the entire time. i am officially a "Jacob" girl... i did feel a little guilty staring at him so much in the movie... he is so young, but super HOT!!!

A Time Out for Women - 2009

sisters, sisters and more sisters....
Haylee.. Tonya.. Me.. Tina

I have six sisters and one brother.... getting us all together is near impossible! When I realized I could get three sisters, my mom, aunt, niece and friends together for an entire weekend I knew it would be great! We shopped (yes malls....they had malls!) in Vegas and St. George, ate amazing food and stayed up late into the night talking and laughing. I think all women need weekends like this to recharge and gain perspective.

My favorite speakers at the conference were Cheiko Okawsaki (probably wrong), Emily Watts and Mary L. Edmunds. I was laughing and crying throughout all of their talks. Hopefully, I can apply what I learned to my family.

We missed you A.J. and Tori... we'll get you on the next girls trip. Thank you to those who went! It was much needed and I enjoyed all of you!!!

my friends, Dawn, Jan, Ashley & Vicki kept the trip eventful.... we laughed so hard....

Tonya's mother-in-law, Karen was able to join us for the conference. She was fun and blended in with the group easily....

The last night we ate at the Pizza Factory...their breadsticks are huge and really good!

Sisters... still looking good and definitely not acting their age...

My Curious One...

Lately, my days are filled with keeping this little guy out of trouble. He is so adorable, but definitely a curious child, which I love and hate at the same time. To this date he has broken more in my house than any other of my children. On this day he confiscated my mascara and colored all over his face....

this smile has saved him more times than I can count...

so proud of himself....

While I was doing laundry E2 became obsessed with putting on K's clothes... after trying for a while he finally got his underwear on and then managed to get his shorts on. He wore K's clothes all day and then would not let us take them off at night. I love this little guy....

Halloween 2009

Halloween is one of my kids favorite times of the year. They love the pumpkins, decorations, dress up and definitely the candy. We went to a fun party with carnival games and trunk-or-treat....they loved it. Unfortunately, most of my pictures turned out blurry....I hate that! I was able to salvage a few pics....

E our fierce pirate and K our Captain Jack... They had so much fun playing games and collecting their candy.

S's favorite part was getting a huge cotton candy. She was our princess, of course.

Eli loved participating in the games. He was our little glow in the dark skeleton.

Stephanie, Doug, Oliver, Gabriel and Lily joined us for Halloween. It was fun to celebrate with them and see their cute costumes.

Geogia Brown Elementary is on the MAP!

This is my latest project. My elementary school wanted a map on their black top and I had three girls in mind to help. They needed to do a project for Personal Progress and so we combined our efforts along with 25 volunteers to create this amazing map.

After much planning, we began by cleaning the pavement then created a grid to help our amazing artists draw the map. We are thankful that we had two brilliant math guys to help us!

It was 108 degrees on the day we did this. The easy ups provided much needed shade, but did not help with the heat. It was really unbearable. I was amazed at how hard the girls and our volunteers worked. We started the map at 7 a.m. and finished at 4:30p.m. It was a long day, but really fun to do with the girls. When we were done I went home and took a cold bath.

This made it all worth it! I went early on Monday to watch the kids as they came to school. They were so excited to see the map. I am so proud of Camile, Shanna and Elizabeth for doing this as a service project. They could of chose something easier, but in doing this they were able to make a difference for many years to come.

On the Move....

E2 has finally decided to walk and he is loving it! I do not like the crawling stage, so having him wait until 16 mths to walk is a hard for me.... but now he is WALKING!! Yea!

School Days...

The kids are back in SCHOOL.... Words cannot express my gratitude! At first, I was sad at the loss of the unstructured do what you want summer, but now I am so HAPPY! Now there are times when I can even ask myself what I would like to do for the day, instead of planning around the little ones. Loving IT!!!!!

My boys... I cannot believe how big they are. K is now in 1st grade and E is in 3rd.

My S is in preschool and looooooves it!