P, P, P What Begins With P?

Grandma Dorothy and Grandpa Dale

We ended the month with Dad C.'s birthday PARTY. You can always count on good food and cake whenever there is a reason to celebrate. The kids all enjoyed helping him blow out his 20 something candles. (your at least that young still right dad?) Happy Birthday!!

After some good food and cake what's better than a movie, Princess and the Frog to be exact. AND some popcorn. It was definitely one of the better Disney movies they have made. The music was my favorite.

Jared was being a big stinker this day. I guess everyone can't be happy!

Practice AND Patience also begins with P. Luckily before plunging in taking other family photographs my kids got to be my practice (with a little bribery). I also have to thank my good friend Sarah who was willing to lend me her fabulous lens and expertise. I have learned nothing ever goes as expected. For instance, I had something in my head I wanted them to pose for and it went NOTHING like I wanted. The best photos ended up being the ones I wasn't even intending on them doing. Like standing in water! But, it worked, they had fun, and truely capturing a natural image sometimes takes a little patience.

My f stop was much to low for these photos, hence being a tad out of focus.

Originally I had planned for a dry, photo......

But, by the end of the hour I let them do whatever they wanted.

Here they are in waist deep water, yes WAIST DEEP!

I offered to take a few family Photos during the crazy month of December. Most of the ones I am posting went out as Christmas cards, so hopefully they don't mind me previewing them.

Clouse Family

Hall Family

Schwenke Kids

Varvel Family

Gustafson Gang

They for sure are far from perfect, but I think they turned out rather well for an amateur.

Playing games. My mom got our family the game "Ticket To Ride" for Christmas. Obviously we opened it a little early (thanks to Amazon) and can't get enough of it. It's so much fun! If you haven't ever played I highly recommend it!

Luke and Miss Emma

We also spent a lot of time in our home listening to this little guy practice the piano. I am hopeful that Luke keeps up his ambition to play because I have never heard Jingle Bells so much in my life. (seriously) For just a few months of playing Luke has become quite the piano player. We are so proud of him!

Luke also played soccer this season. He wasn't normally the one to score the goals, but he did make some great passes. This last game he came on fire and decided to score one of the goals keeping them ahead to win the game!

Coach Steve and Weston

Last, but not least we survived an entire season of three kids doing soccer. Weston was my biggest surprise. I never thought he would keep up his stamina running in every game, but man I was wrong. There wasn't a game he didn't either make 5 or more goals or pass to his teammates in an assist to score. His coach nicknamed him the "hammer" because most of the time he was unstoppable. Way to go Weston!

As for Jared he was the boys personal cheerleader. If he didn't have a football game, he was there supporting them.

The Turkey Coma

My yellow paper to prove I beat the turkey!

Okay, so on the week of Thanksgiving I have come to the conclusion that I some how stumbled into a turkey coma which prolonged until New Years. But, better late than ever eh? Because I like to be thorough it's important to start from where you left off. And I am good at back dating. First and foremost I beat the turkey this year at the turkey trot! Sure, he was slower than years past (that's not really important) but I was able to improve my time by a whole 2 minutes.

Doug, Duane, and Dad C.

We spent the day after running that morning over at the Clouse's. Doug decided to attempt a fried turkey. Man, I am SO glad he did. It turned out fabulous. And the 2nd one was even better than the first.

I think we realized what we will be eating for Thanksgiving in years to come. Cajun style turkey..... Yum! Not to mention bringing us back to memories from Thanksgiving in New Orleans.

I volunteered to make all the homemade rolls for Thanksgiving dinner, which included 4 dozen and staying up super late the night before. My hard labor did payoff since there wasn't a roll to spare following dinner.

It looks like Luke had one too many pieces of turkey as well. He lost not one but TWO teeth that week.

Besides consuming a TON of food, bearing crowds on black Friday Doug and I managed to hang my antique door that has been collecting dust in the garage.

Here is the door before painting. I did like the white, but for inside our house it definitely needed some color. Like a big splash of red.

Ta da! Here is the finished product. Merry Merry!

A Week Of Thanks

I truely have so much to be grateful for and to give thanks (which could take up a TON of posts) but, I decided to jot down the things I am most thankful for in particular the ones that come into my mind this week.

Orquirrh Mtn Temple Open House

July 2009

Today I am especially grateful for temple marriages and the sealing ordiance to be an eternal family.

Stake Rodeo

Now that is what I call patriotic!

Tonight was our USA Rodeo put on by the Chandler Stake. And when our stake puts on an event you better believe it is an extravaganza. We were told to dress up in red, white in blue to honor our troops and fellow men currently serving in the war or who have in the past. This couple took it seriously!

Jared attempting the axe throw.

The Fisher Family in our stake have an awesome piece of property on county island in Chandler. Each year they hold a rodeo for their ward, this year we were lucky enough to attend since they extended it to our entire Chandler Stake. I have never seen so many people in my life! They had a petting zoo, axe throwing, pony rides, and tons of food.

They also had a contest for each age division. For the 2-6 year olds they had a balloon stomp with candy in the middle. For the 7-11 year olds they had a pig chase and for the 12-16 year olds they had a steer chase with $100 bills attached to their horns. Too bad they didn't have that for the 30 year olds. Ha.

And as you can see it was tough to control all of the people I don't even think they said go yet, but the kids went wild! Anything for free candy and money right? I never did get a glimpse of Taylor (hence no photos) the moment she arrived she ran off with her buddies.

Weston especially loved all of the animals he got to pet, sheeps, horses, goats and even a llama.

There was also a number of "familiar" faces dressed up as rodeo clowns in order to keep the steer in line. This one in particular happened to be Luke's soccer coach. All in all it was a fun family affair!

Three's A Charm

Stephanie, Amber, Jenny, Denise, Carol, Jenessy, and Rachel

I ran my 3rd half marathon of the year Saturday. And it was my best race yet. I managed to cut a minute off of my time (which was huge for me) and the best part was I walked away injury free and felt GREAT! Me and a few other runner girlfriends carpooled over to the start at 5:45am. (we missed you Tiffany, Minnie and Tishia!) Denise was kind enought to load us all in her car and drive down to Mesa. Don't we look chipper for such an early morning event?

Doug met up with me at the finish line and got some "action" running shots. Just looking at them made me realize how goofy I look when I run. Relax the fists Jenny (apparently I am ready to beat someone up?) Or maybe I was listening to Michael Jackson's Beat It at the time. Ha!

Here I am racing in at the finish. The clock was a minute off of my chip time (which is the time they use) My official time was 1:50:14 A personal best! I someday hope to at least get a 1:45 or less.

Jenny, Denise, Amber, Rachel and Jenessy

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to see a few run in for the finish since we had to hurry off to make it to Luke's soccer game. Jenessy ended up getting a 1:40 (impressive!), followed by Amber 1:47. So even though I felt fast these two ladies were REALLY fast.

Once again I owe much of my thanks to my faithful running partner Amber. I seriously would not have gotten up MANY mornings at 4:30am without her help! (not to mention increase my pace...) I am not sure which race will be next, but tomorrow it's back to the grind for another early 6 mile run. Gotta keep in shape for the turkey trot in two weeks. Stay tuned......

SPT

It's been literally months since I even thought about self portrait Tuesday.

Afterall, Lelly did request a funny.......

Apparently Luke is a gold digger....ha!

Many people who know me, know that when I either get bored or tired I become a little slap happy. We had about an hour to kill in the car. What were we doing in the car for so long you may ask? Doug was inside playing church ball and as you can see I couldn't seem to pull my boys away from THEIR own form of entertainment. Fortunately or (unfortunately) Taylor seems to share that common bond with me. As I was going through photos (still trying to come up with a Christmas card idea...grrrr!) I remembered about a month ago Taylor and I were seriously bored in the car and decided to entertain ourselves with some good old self portraits.

And in case you are wondering, I was laughing so hard I started to cry.

That's All Folks!

Primary Program

"Ahhhh mom do we always have to take pictures?!!"

(yes, Jared it's what we do....)

Traditionally, I try and take a photo of our kids each time something happens big for them at church. Today was our primary program. It was Weston's first time as a sunbeam and the first time Taylor actually didn't have to participate in it. I attempted taking photos before church, but having three rambunctious boys doesn't always go as planned. At least I captured the memory.....it only took about 60 photos in a matter of 10 minutes. Ha!

Hey, Luke could you sit up and act like you like your brother?

Weston, can you tell me a joke? (this gets a giggle everytime)

Much better Luke, but what is Weston doing?

"Hey mom look at this cool rock!"

Luke insisted on making a cool guy pose.

Weston has the cheese mouth down to a science.

Alright guys that's a wrap were gonna be late for church......

(by this point I'm hot, flustered, and need a nap!)

If You Go On A Date With Doug......

especially if it is his birthday, you allow him to choose the restaurant. Buffalo Wild Wings was his choice so I couldn't pass up a Diet Coke. Doug was good and chose ice water. We ordered wings, french fries and Doug an appetizer.

Then I proceed to mooch a few bites off his salad (a big pet peeve of his), but I needed just a little something to hold me over for our wings we were about to recieve.

Of course during this time, it's important to text Taylor just to make sure things back at the headquarters are running smoothly. Once we shoved our faces (sorry no visual) and licked our fingers of wing sauce it was time to head over to walk it off next door at Chandler mall.

We couldn't pass up walking by the Verizon store to check out the newest, latest Droid, but unfortunately we were disappointed since they weren't quite hooked up yet. No fun playing with a phone if it's not on! However, it is exciting that we have something at least close to an iphone. We continued walking and this store caught our eye.

I remembered a jacket we saw in there a few weeks ago for Doug and since he had some birthday money, he decided to reconsider that jacket he was eyeing. And walked away a little happier much thanks to birthday money from mom and dad. After browsing a few more stores and purchasing a new set of headphones for his ipod, we both decided a treat was a must. (well I did).

Tishia, Amber and Jenny

So, we drove over to our new favorite yogurt shop, Golden Spoon. And guess what? We ran into a few familiar faces and their spouses. We sat, chatted and I licked my bowl clean. Yummy, yum. And yes I made them take a photo (even though it is dark).

My favorite, blueberry palmogranite with granola on top.

And then it was time to head home, not too late, not too early with a little Pulse 26 in the background....it was a pleasant evening out. Next week, I think I may do it all over again!