Night of Stars

"Night of Stars"

Growing up I signed up to do the talent show at my elementary school. I was never lucky enough to have a friend at my school and had to do a "solo." Watching Taylor and Mackenzi perform at our stake talent show flooded back the memories. My boys faired for about half the show and unfortunately the girls were near the end of the program. The other bummer part was their wasn't a lot of variety which made it seem much longer. Don't get me wrong the talent was great, it's just that musical instruments and singing aren't very exciting for littles. By the time it was the girls time to shine, they had enough. They did a great job, see below. I have to laugh because Taylor was embarrassed to show Doug when he got home, but she loves to perform in front of strangers. Go figure.

"Big and Bad"
By Big Voodoo Daddy

Saturday night we headed out for a late night adventure for Maci's birthday party. Greg and Angie had tried to get an earlier time at Pump It Up, but the only time was 8:30-10:30pm. We accommodated some late naps and the kids had a blast. Doug and I included. I even found myself jumping and racing my husband on an obstacle course. By the time it was over we were all exhausted and super sweaty. A good time had by all!

Mom and Weston

Today was our first meeting in the new building. I definitely under estimated our new ward. Oops! It looks like we are going to have a fairly large youth (19 ym, and 16 yw). I know that isn't even close to the numbers in UT or AZ, but that is HUGE for us, especially since most will be active. It was so nice to see ALL boys passing the sacrament instead of having the leaders having to assist. Since all of the former ward members kept their callings, Doug and I have already been planning the Halloween party. We heard by rumor that our new bishop is very detail oriented and very organized, which I am very excited about. We only have next Sunday to advertise and have sign ups to go around, but I have high hopes it will work out just fine.

And in completly unrelated news we have been following the Arizona State football games each week. (looking at blogs makes me jealous and wish I was at the game!) I am not a really big football fan, but have my loyalties to ASU. They had their 7th straight win last night, which means this could put them in the top ten. Yay! Go Devils!!

good deed: made homemade jam

good deed Saturday: made Halloween signup/flyers for ward party

94 More Days Till Christmas

I gasped as I walked around Costco Friday evening and saw a sign posted with the number of days until Christmas. Obviously that is still a while away, but it seems much closer when you put it into a "number" of days until......Of course this was accompanied by toys, ribbon, lights, etc. It takes me a while to get into Christmas especially since we haven't even hit Halloween yet! Our Costco outing had a purpose (I normally try to avoid for fear of spending too much money) we gathered last minute food items, drinks, and paper products for our Ward Back to School Bash. I wish I could say that was the entire focus of Saturday, but unfortunately it was just the icing on the cake. It went something like this........

7:00am: wake-up and even though an hour later than normal--not enough!
7:15am: get kids up for breakfast, clean up house
8:15am: take Jared over to friends to take him to his game
9:00am: took Taylor and Mackenzi over to the stake center for talent show try-outs.
9:45am: take Taylor to her basketball camp.
10:00am: arrive at Jared's game--hurray it started on time!
11:10am: leave to pick up Taylor from basketball
11:30am: luckily Doug was able to pick up Jared from his game on the way home from clinic.
12:00pm: transport Weston to bed (very sleepy and grumpy)
1:00pm: go running with Doug (extremely hot and the longest 3 miles ever!)

Clean Bones (which never lasts long enough)

1:30pm: wash the dog (they get stinky fast)
2:00pm: take Jared to a batman birthday party. He had a blast.


2:15pm: get the mail and find my pink Christmas envelope. So delightful!

Pink Christmas Goods
Thanks Kristi!

2:30pm: eat yummy left over burrito/shower
3:00pm: veg for about 45 minutes on my bed (I wish it was longer)
4:00pm: start gathering stuff for ward party.

Taylor's shoes that fit
Crazy.

4:30pm: had some shoe issues, but discovered Taylor's shoes fit me, I couldn't believe it. (she wasn't so thrilled :)
5:00pm: set up get things organized anticipating the arrival of several people.

Activity Chairmen
Will this EVER be the last party?

6:00-8pm: run around make sure everything is stocked with food, run the bike rodeo, etc.

All the kids were so excited about riding their bikes

8:15pm: clean up, FINALLY drive back home. (my kids were not happy about the departure they fought me tooth and nail.)
8:30pm: quickly bathe boys, unload party stuff and put them to bed
9:00pm: pick up Sara and Ellice for a girls night out in the FJ. (we missed Angie due to her black tie affair maybe she'll post about it)

Ellice, Sara, and Jenny

9:45pm: at Mimi's Cafe poor Ellice gets the stomach flu and our night ends a little early.:(
10:00pm: Drop off the Sara and Ellice show me their darling works of art.I think they need to market them.
11:00pm: drive home and crawl into the cozy to watch t.v. with Doug. I don't think I was ever to happy to have Saturday done with.


good deed: set up/cleaned up ward party
good deed: Sunday wrote a birthday card

Boy's Paradise

I had heard from a friend that the Bass Pro-Shop does embroidery. Since I don't have access to such a machine I headed out this morning to take in the kids school backpacks. I noticed pulling up in the parking lot, I was the only one not driving a truck. It's definitely a sportsmen (boys) paradise. I never understood the ordeal of this store until setting foot inside. I have been there a few times before, but never with my kids. They have things from hunting, fishing, skiing, camping, you name it, they have it.

peering into the huge fish tank

Weston was so excited about the huge fish tank. Seriously these fish were almost as big as him. During our visit they were doing a "how-to" fish lesson. It actually was pretty interesting. (I know absolutely nothing about fishing).

Nascar section

They also have a entire section for Nascar. Who knew there were more than two fans out there in the Nascar world?--hee hee. This one is for you Anne and Sammy! You can actually pay to ride in one of the cars, but due to the ridiculous price, I passed on the offer. I did allow my kids to climb the rock wall. I was surprised at how brave Jared was, he came so close to the top but then gave up. You could see the look in Doug's eyes how excited he was to see all of the "toys" they had in the store. It also brought back good memories for him to see rock climbing. Him and his roommates would do this in Utah on the weekends back in the day. Having three boys, I am sure they will be getting plenty of our business in the future.

Jared almost to the top.

Taylor got up about half way and fell back. The funny thing was during their climb Luke was burying his head on my lap, saying "I can't watch it's too scwary." The rest of the day has been pretty uneventful, which in my opinion tends to result in some interesting things. While organizing some papers we found some old albums of Doug's younger years. If you know my husband when this happens the "jokster" Doug comes out. He decided to show Jared some football moves and to do that, you have to dress out. Look out fantasy football here comes "Broken Bones!!"

Very intimidating :)

good deed: took the kids to Sonic for treats.