Manly Men

How would I describe these guys? Three words:

Hard working

Alpha male

Jackhammer

Merciless

Insatiable
Also...

Kindhearted

Friendly

Loving


Um. And...

Completely ridiculous.

Thankful for Friends

This Thanksgiving, we are so very thankful for the relationships we have with the people we love. We are thankful for our family and we are thankful for our friends both near and far. And speaking of friends that are far, we are thankful for these two people:

Kristopher... I love this photo of him because when I see it I can totally hear him laughing. I loved hanging out with him and hearing his laughter. I love hearing his heart (you can too! check out his amazing devotional blog and hear how God is ministering through him!) and I love that he is more than just a friend to us. He is part of our family.

Melissa. I am always thankful for her. I am thankful that I got to spend a long weekend hanging out with her, acting silly, eating various flavors of hershey's kisses, playing games, watching tivo, and simply BEING with her. It had been too long and yet when we saw each other the months disappeared and it was like we had just seen each other the day before. Everything fell right back into our comfortable place and I love that. It reassurred me that, no matter what, our friendship can endure anything. Miles, schmiles. There is no such place as far away.

I am thankful for so many things. But today I am especially thankful for these two.

SQUISH YOUR HEAD! I AM GONNA SQUISH YOUR HEAD!

As an aside, I am also thankful for Facebook, where I have been able, in the last 2 weeks, to reconnect with people I haven't seen in over 15 years. I love technology. :)

Puppies in Virginia

So Rick and I got to take a fantastic trip two weeks ago, and we got to visit our friends, the Dahirs. It's been 10 months since we saw them in person, and that was just too long. So we took advantage of a free plane ticket I had and we flew across the country to see them. Can I just say it was SO GREAT to be there, with our friends again? Well, it was. And look at them!

They are doing so great, as you can see. LOOK at their neighborhood. It is seriously out of a book. OH and look at that puppy. I LOVE HIM.

And he loves to eat leaves. And people. And furniture. And everything. And he is so stinking cute. LOOK at those leaves! Imagine the leaf piles you could make! IMAGINE THE JUMPING!

They are imagining the leaf pile. And the jumping. I am sure of it!

We were trying to take a series of photos with the kids throwing leaves in the air, but every single time, the leaves would all just blow right on Kristopher. No matter where he stood, he ended up with a pile of leaves on his head.

Aaaah. Brotherly love. The boys were pretty brave, playing in the leaves like this. This is exactly where the puppy stays most of the day... and there were definite surprises hidden under the leaves!

This is my favorite picture. Why? Because what 13 year old boy doesn't know how to climb a tree? I will tell you. Adam. He was seriously the most pitiful tree climber ever. Hopefully living in this neighborhood with trees galore, the boy will learn a thing or two about climbing. Cause this is just plain SAD. hahaha

You know what's NOT sad? This puppy. I love him. And he loves me. And my camera. And he wants to eat my camera.

But he's SUCH A GOOD BOY!! LOOK AT HOW CUTE HE IS!!

He also loves to eat his leash. And show me how he loves to eat his leash. :)

Awwww. I love him.

Absent from the blog... sorry

Been organizing, cleaning. and obsessing.

I found a 12 foot pre-lighted Christmas tree at Sam's club so I bought it the other day (since ours was on its last legs last year)... and I made Rick and the kids put it up already. :) :) :)

Now I am obsessing over Christmas and decorating and what I want to do... and the landscaping is starting on FRIDAY... friends are coming to stay on Sunday... somewhere in the next few days I need to finish cleaning the house (getting some paid help with that one), painting the guest room (yeah, from when I painted a few months ago and never finished the last wall in the guest room), editing 4 more photo shoots, designing holiday cards for friends, family, and clients... I have to go to the gym today even though I am still totally sore from Monday's training session... and I can't stop thinking about how I haven't even started thinking about Christmas shopping.

SO there is much to be done, including updating of the ol' blogs. Twill happen soon. Mayhaps after a good night's sleep. Sorry no pics this time.

Oh and if you are on the Facebook, come find me. I have been wasting far too much time over there. :)

Home Improvements

It's fall, so we of course were itching to do some home improvements. The first one we did was an easy one, but it had huge impact on the look of the front of our home. We painted the front door. No longer a dull, faded red... our door is now a vibrant cranberry red and I love love love love love love love love love it! It took an afternoon and I can't believe the impact one quart of red paint has done for the look of our house.

Next up is our front landscaping. Bye bye gross rocks! We FINALLY got our HOA approval today, so we can get started. New trees, new plants, new concrete pathways... our house is going to have serious curb appeal! I can't WAIT to see the transformation. And it will be all chronicled on the blog! WOOHOO!

Our other big home improvement transformation was one I have been dying to do since we moved into the house. Our house came with a nice washer and dryer combo... front loaders, Maytags... really, I couldn't complain. So I didn't. Even though they were NOT the washer and dryer I wanted. I wanted the ones that could be stacked... or the ones that had the controls in the front so that I could put a countertop in the laundry room. So I used, and appreciated, the washer and dryer that came with the house. And dreamed of someday getting the ones I wanted.

Then our friends Eli and Deidre moved into their first home... and they needed a washer and dryer but couldn't afford to go new. I had been eyeing the washer and dryer of my dreams, which had just gone on sale at our local Home Depot. So Eli and Deidre got a great washer and dryer for a great price and I scheduled the delivery of our new washer and dryer set... the LG stackable front loaders!! We removed half our cabinets, painted the room, and got a set of stock base cabinets and countertops from Home Depot. In one weekend my laundry room transformed from what you see above to the beautiful view below (cue clouds parting and angels singing):

We still have a couple little details to add to make the room perfect: a coat rack on the wall to the left and an organizer on the other side of the washer/dryer. But right now none of that really matters... every time I enter this room I get a huge smile on my face. :)

Haloween Day, or Halloween Part 3

We enjoyed our Halloween Day (Nevada Day) off from school... just chilling and relaxing and getting ready for the evening's festivities. The kids and I went to see High School Musical 3 that morning and we all loved it (although Riley did fall asleep during the last 20 minutes). During the afternoon we got the house ready for the family to come over and I got started on making chili for dinner. The kids, meanwhile, got into costume and character and I shot a few pictures of them...

Presenting MARIO AND LUIGI!

Grandpa Rich came over as the Phantom of the Opera, while Grandma Dee was Cruella De Vil!

I dressed up as Bellatrix Lestrange, although you can't see the whole costume here. It was pretty great (but I still wish I had gotten someone to draw the Dark Mark on my arm)...

Rick was his usual antagonistic self and didn't want to dress up. Her first insisted it was cause he was a Muggle. Riley said he should be "R MAN" and gave him the gold letter R to walk around with. HA. Finally, Rick got out his black cloak so at least he was a little bit Halloweenie.

Carl didn't have a costume on when he came over, so we provided him with a wig and a mustache to turn him into Andy Samberg.

Then Rick borrowed Riley's Mario mustache so he could be Uncle John...

And, finally, we all got to see what Liane would look like if she were a mustached mullet-haired freak. Special.

My only regret of the night is that I didn't get a shot of Chef Christophe and his Sous Chef, Mama Lali! The kids were sooo excited when they answered the door and Mama Lali and Papa were both in costume! Papa had on a chef's hat and jacket, and Mama Lali had on a jacket too! They were so cute.

We spent the evening enjoying each other's company, eating yummy chili and salad and drinking hot apple cider. The kids watched Nightmare Before Christmas before falling asleep in utter exhaustion on the couches, and then Liane and I played a little Trivial Pursuit against Rick and Carl. I'd like to say it was a close game, but sadly the game was skewed heavily toward the guys and we didn't end up making a strong enough comeback. That's okay. We know we will win NEXT TIME.

School Dress Up Day, or Halloween Part Two

For school dress up day, only kindergarteners were allowed to wear their Halloween costumes. The rest of the school wasn't, because it ends up being too much of a distraction. However, they did make a slight exception. Since October 31 isn't just Halloween around these parts, but also Nevada Day, they said that the older kids COULD dress up if they wanted to represent themselves as an old Nevada pioneer. So after a run to our local Deseret Industries, my favorite place for All Things Random in the Clothing Department, I knew we had a perfect costume for Violet. The dress was from the thrift store (and just $2! can't beat that!), the petticoat was from Violet's Mrs. Claus outfit from last Christmas, and the apron was a pillow sham we had in our linen closet. Add one of Violet's random wigs from Grandma Dee and we had an instant pioneer!
Then there was Riley, who insisted on wearing his halloween costume...

If you weren't sure, Riley was dressed up as Mario from the Super Mario Bros. (for Halloween Violet was Luigi. Wait till you see them together. AAHAAHA)

He loved wearing the mustache, only it didn't last too long... about an hour into the day he started sweating and the adhesive was wearing off, so we took it off and he went the rest of the day with a drawn-in mustache, which was still pretty cute. :)

Face it. My children are adorable.

on Monday... pictures from Halloween Day! WOOHOO!

The School Carnival, or Halloween Part One

We went to our school's first annual Fall Festival and Carnival the Friday before Halloween... Violet invited her friend Crystal to join us and they all dressed up in costume. Crystal was a sassy witch, Violet was an auto mechanic/pit crew worker/witch, and Riley was The Hulk.
We gave Violet some authentic looking grease stains...

and Riley was showing me how he could "Squeeze (his) boob and not even feel it". Neat.

The girls found their teacher dressed as a scary ghoul...

and then they did some "trick or treating" down Halloween Lane (a row of decorated refrigerator boxes manned by students from the nearby high school)...

and Riley even met up with his own Mini-Me!

There was a super fun haunted house, funnel cakes, and lots of games and treats. But the kids were most excited about the RAFFLE. This year the school opted to forego the normal cookie dough/giftwrap fundraiser route and see if they could just raise money by having parents donate directly to the school and making 100% of the donation tax-deductible. After the cookie dough debacle from a couple of years ago where the school lost an entire page of Violet's orders, I was all for something like this. Plus I loved the fact that ALL the money we gave went directly to the school, instead of most fundraisers that only generate a 30% return at best. Everyone who donated was entered into the RAFFLE that had tons of prizes... including gift baskets, show tickets, and even a TV! Of course you can imagine what the kids wanted. They were rooting all night for us to win one of the three 20" flat screen TVs that were being offered. And wouldn't you know it? The second one was awarded to US!!! The kids went BONKERS. It was so cute! The TV is now taking up residency in our guest room, much to the disappointment of the kids, who were hoping they would finally get a TV in their room. Sorry, charlies. hahaha

More halloween coming up, including School Dress Up Day and THE BIG HALLOWEEN DAY ITSELF! Stay tuned. :)

Her Second Swim Meet

Violet participated in her second swim meet ever... this one at the old YMCA by the Meadow's Mall. It was so cool to go there and see the pool in which I learned how to swim... especially because I remember it as being SOOO HUGE. But, of course, it wasn't at all. Violet was especially adorable, and she did a great job. The best part? She got to swim with Jeffrey and Molly, Erin's kids.

Molly and Violet before the races began...

Rick watching closely as the meet started...

Molly swimming the backstroke...

and Violet doing the breaststroke...

Jeffrey did the breaststroke, too. He was way into it...

Violet getting some last minute coaching before her butterfly race...

and Riley watching from the stands as his sister was swimming...

During the 50 Butterfly, Violet did awesome... of course she was also very curious as to what was going on around her...

and she had a strong turn with GREAT arms out of the water!

AND SHE WON! First place for the 8 and under crowd. We are so proud of her very first ribbon for swimming!


She also swam the 100 IM race... here she is making her final turn to finish the race...

and in that one, she came in SECOND! We couldn't stand it we were so proud!!

I love this picture of her... she just looks so mature here. She still loves swimming, and I know the wins at this meet have really boosted her confidence in the sport. I hope she continues, because I love being a swimmer's mom. :)