November 2012

November 2- Sarah's school had free skating at the old Classic. We didn't try skating this time, but we brought their razor scooters. The kids loved it. We made it a family night and got pizza there too.

^ Then later that night we got together with the Ryan's and played games and ate Halloween candy while the kids watch a movie and eventually fell asleep. :)

Nov 5- In the morning we got together and helped Dad clean out his garage. Then later, we got extended family pictures with the Johnson family, and got pizza and hung out at our place. 

^ The PIE has delicious GIANT pizza's! More than enough! Love my family! Nice to relax after the stress of pics. :) 

P.S. Auzi loves Cami!

Nov 6-

^ We voted!! I got more involved in this election than I ever have. Even if it didn't end with the result I was hoping it was nice to be more involved and educated. God Bless America!

Disclaimer: LOTS of Ragnar pics, but that's what happens when you have so much time on your hands sitting in a van for 2 days. :)

Nov 8- Let RAGNAR begin!!  I organized a Ragnar team this year. With much anticipation and planning, our team (Cirque du Sorelegs) made it together. We rented vans in SLC and caravanned down to Vegas. We carb loaded at Macaroni Grill which ended to be a funny thing, but it did the job. 

^We found our hotel and got to bed.

Van 1- Doyle bros- John, Mark, Kevin, and the gals Steph, Shelley and me.

Nov 9-

^Here we come in our bright colors! 10:30am start time. The temperature dropped 20 degrees from the night before!

^The van in it's glory with it's lovely inflatable animals- thanks Kira! Team #347

^We started up the Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort. As you can see the 20 degree drop delivered snow to begin. It was freezing and windy!!! Hence the reason I snuggled in a little too close to Kevin's arm for the pic. So sorry! ;) So unintentional, but gave us all a good laugh when viewing afterwards. :) 

I was the runner #1. 19.1 miles total.

Run 1- 10:30am. Downhill. 7.1 miles. I love downhill! Fastest average mm for me. (7:15 mm!!) =50:29min.

^Feelin' good after first run! Check out those cool socks!! With the cold most of our florescent clothes were covered.

^Apparently everywhere got cold and Utah got a bunch of snow. Ed and the kids built a snowman. Ed took the kids all weekend Thursday-Sunday. Glad he is willing and good at it. Thanks babe! I pumped during the trip and Madison took bottles from Ed with no hesitation. Nice to have a little freedom. :)

^At our first exchange we met our teammates from Van 2. Couple: Spencer and Kira Thunell, bros: Tom and Nick Hanks, and Brock Keddington and friend Andrew. Check out the sweet florescent get up they found! Jealous. They looked awesome! Those might be womens shorts...:) I can't explain the photos they took. What happens in Vegas...

Run 2- 7pm. Uphill. 6.4 miles. Lots of stoplights messed with my time :(. 9:05 mm =1:01 Still freezing and windy!

Nov 10-

Run 3- 6am. Ending Uphill. 5.6 miles. 9:15 mm =51:01 min 

^Dance Party after! Stiff muscles and all! Music going non-stop made the trip! Good times!

Van 1 is done!! Last exchange 'til the end!

^Van 1, and the gals

Our team finished 108th out of 518 teams. Official time-30:07:00 with a 0:09:09 mm pace. What a great team! Well done everyone! Team took 55th out of 319 team in the mixed division :) Good for not pushin' it. :)

We got showered and went out for dinner and walked around/mingled a bit after. Nice to see everyone cleaned up a bit in something other than sweaty running clothes. :)

Nov 11- We slept in a little, got breakfast and drove home. 

^ Beautiful view. Even desert. Fun weekend, but eager to get back to my fam.

Nov 12-

^ We got to have cousins stay with us for a couple days. Elle and Crew. Sarah made sure to dress Crew up.

Nov 15- Ed's B-day!

^Ed worked, but got off early enough so we went and saw Skyfall, got food, put the kids to bed and chilled. Ed checkin' all his bday messages, and he got a watch for his bday. :)

Nov 16-

^Madison has emerged and the scooting has turned into crawling! Itty Bitty girl.

^The baby food-making production. Tedious, but I think Madison seems to like it best. 

My friend had a couple extra tickets so Meg and I snagged them and went and saw the last Twilight show last minute. Good excuse for girl time and definitely entertaining. :)

Nov 17- Primary Children's has a day that they let kids come check out the OR. Since Aunt Melissa and Ed work there we took the kids.

^They loved it! They got to dress up like surgeons and do pretend surgeries.

^They look so official. Fun to change it up. Not every day you get to hold medical tools, etc.

^That evening Ed and I went out to celebrate his birthday at Spencer's Steakhouse. It was good. :) Love you Ed. 40 is sneakin' up! Can't believe it! So young at heart! ;)

Nov 19-

^For FHE we put up our fake tree, set up the train and had hot chocolate. Kids are so easy to please sometimes. Sometimes they are the only motivation to do certain things that take work too. ;)

Nov 20-

^This discovery stage is the cutest!

Nov 21-

^Can't resist taking pics of these Utah sunsets. Even if a photo doesn't do them justice.

Nov 22-THANKSGIVING- Ed and I got up at 6am to put our brined turkey in the oven. We hosted Thanksgiving this year.

 Rub a dub dub

^My 3 kids in the tub! 3!!

^Aunt Jodi brought some cute crafts for the kids.

^The 6 eldest cousins. :) Sarah, Avery, Crew, Kai, Zachary, and Elle.

^All of the food was delicious!! I missed the dessert pics. :(

^Living away from Utah so long our friends became our family. Now that we are back our family get to become our friends. Thankful for family this year! My Aunt Heidi and Mom's friend John joined us this year too.

^We had Thanksgiving lunch instead of dinner since Ed had to fly out at 1:30pm. Workin' man! I dropped Ed off at the airport and then came back and hung out with my family for the night.

Nov 23-

^Sarah told me she learned how to write cursive. Good effort. :)

^Another beautiful sunset.

^We bought 1/4th of a grass-fed cow. :) It filled our whole deep freezer! Think we're set for a while. :) Thanks Jodi for doing all the arranging!

^ Even though I still think these will be around, I needed to take a picture of our last box just in case. :)

Nov 26-

^Multiple reasons why I love walking in on this.

Nov 28-

^Had a girls night with Steph and Rachel. Complete with a new warm drink for me, cookies, cards, candy, and girl talk. Felt like a teenager again. One thing is for sure- I will never grow out of girl friends and girls nights.

Nov 29-

^Madison is standing!! The top two are Madison. She resembles both Sarah and Kai. :) The bottom left is Sarah the first time she stood. The bottom right is Kai the first time he stood. Love my kids!

^Kai got to have a play date over here with  3 other boys finally! I like the sight.

^We also watched my friend Meg's little angel, Keaton and daughter, Addie that morning for a little bit. 8 kids total. The babies slept and the older kids entertained each other! I like it!

Nov 30-

^Madison is movin'! Standing, crawling...all over! She can't be stopped! I love a determined girl.

October 2012

I'm glad to have a blog that motivates me to take pictures of the happenings in our life. This has become my new scrapbook. I can't believe how many pictures I take a month! Almost one a day! Documenting my family's life day by day is pretty neat. I love looking back on the pictures and memories created. Contrary to what you see here, if you know me, you know that I complain a lot and life isn't always hunky dory. I choose to post about the things that make me feel accomplished and good about myself and my family. I'm trying...

Oct 1-

^Kai playing with Madison and sharing his hat.

Oct 2-

^My kids rarely fall asleep during the day anymore. I love the feeling that the kids are so worn out they want to sleep.

Oct 4-

^The air is crisp. Ed concocted a little riding train for the kids, so we took a little ride to the park in the afternoon.

^ Oh the joys of Bunko with friends. For October we dressed up. I'm that alien lookin' thing. :)

Oct 7-

^Every night, Auzi waits for Sarah to come to bed and sleeps with her snuggled up all night. My kitties did the same with me growing up. I'm glad they have each other.

^Conference Sunday is always pretty chill. Naps are usually a necessity. Madison snoozed in the swing.

A couple of years ago I started doing puzzles while I listen to conference and I'm always much more alert and able to listen. 2 puzzles this year! A 250 and a 500 that I just had to stay up and finish! :)

Oct 8-

^My neighborhood does some cute things. This little treat came at the perfect timing one night. Right after the kids were in bed. Warm chocolate-y goodies on my porch- and then in my mouth with some cold milk. Mmm!

Oct 9-

^Rub-a-dub-dub 3 kids in the tub! Cuties.

Oct 10-

^Trek to Disneyland. We bought season tickets to Disneyland last year when we lived closer to it, so we decided to get in one last trip before they expired the next week. Beautiful scenery on the way down.

... a stop for lunch in Vegas to see our friends, The Nash's.

^When we got to CA, we had about an hour before Disney closed so we headed over for a few rides. The kids were so excited! After Disney we ordered pizza to our room and went to bed.

Oct 11-

^We headed over to California Adventure pretty early and avoided some lines. We were able to go on some rides twice in a row. Weather was perfect! A little overcast and some sprinkling, but much better than super hot!

^Some nice guy gave us a pass that got us straight to the front of Toy Story. Thank you sir for helping us avoid the 45 minute wait with 3 young kiddos. As you can see Madison did a lot of Bjorn sleeping on-the-go.

^Rocket ride

^Happy girl

^Bug Land!

^Small world-with a sleepin' babe again.

^Tea cups

^Dumbo

^Snuggley babe

^Splash Mountain was my favorite as a kid! Kai liked it too apparently. I don't have the pic of Sarah, but her face looked terrified. She's still not into fast rides with big drops. 

^ Last ride of the night. Peter Pan. A favorite. 9am-8pm today. We're beat! Kids did well over all. Much better than last year. :)

Oct 12-

^Day 2- HAVE to get the typical pic.

^Sarah loves the princesses. We saw most of them last year, so we only saw Ariel this year.

^Cars Land was crazy busy, so we stayed for a short time and did one ride. It was fun though. :)

^Jungle Ride

^It's a small world. A kid favorite.

^Disney Parade

^After Disneyland 8am-6pm (whew!), the Katz's came and met us for dinner. The kids reuniting is always the cutest. Love the Katz Fam!

Oct 13-

^After breakfast we packed up and met the Katz's at the beach for a couple hours. The kids loved it of course! Then we got lunch and headed to the Katz's house in LA. We did haircuts, nails, ordered take-out,

 ^Kristen and I snuck out for some shaved ice-ice cream and then we watched a movie. The kids loved having a sleepover. We relish the time we get to spend together. Thanks for always being such wonderful hosts! We miss ya!

Such a great, yet exhausting trip! :)

Oct 14-

^We woke up early in the 5 o'clock hour and said our goodbyes and then Ed dropped me off at the airport in LA. I flew to San Fran with Madison while Ed drove with Sarah and Kai home to UT. Sweet Rebecca picked me up at the airport and we headed to try and catch Julia and Kaylynn at the end of the Nike Women's Half Marathon. Of all things, I forgot the Bjorn so Madison just had to be zipped up in my jacket. Long walks with babies in your coat are hot! She was a good sport. We missed their finish, but met up afterward for brunch. 

^Brunch was near the "Full House" houses, so we did a drive by. ;)

^Brunch was delicious!!! Nopa. Good food and good company. Julia, Rebecca, Brook, Kaylynn and us.

(^A pic of Sarah on their drive home. Ed said the kids did great!)

^We got to the hotel and refreshed before heading out for some shopping. Red lipstick for all seemed like a fun idea. :)

^After a full day we headed to dinner. I love being in the surroundings of the city. A block away from Coit Tower. :) These girls know how to eat! That's what girls trips are all about. Shopping and eating! :) By this point Madison was getting more difficult. Irregular naps, no schedule, 4 days of vacation under her belt. I learned quickly that girls trips are a little less fun with babies. My angel baby became a little less angelic. Overall she was doing okay, but man was it exhausting!! Such good friends.

Oct 15-

^This little turkeys predictability became less predictable. :( She was up in the night twice. Trying to keep a baby quiet so your friends can get some sleep adds a little stress. :) AND she wanted to be up at 6am, so we sat/walked in the hall for an hour or so before she fell asleep again. One thing lacking on this trip- good sleep. Compounding after days= no bueno. I started asking myself pretty often, "What was I thinking?!" :) Given the situation for her-she did wonderful, but a far stretch from what I was used to. I am a schedule freak. I like things to be predictable.

^ We got showered and headed out for brunch. Neiman Marcus Cafe. Pretty good. Food is always so pretty. Julia had to try on a designer dress. I mean, "why not"? Madison joined in on the fashion.

^Food, food, and more food. Pinkberry deliciousness.

^Madison's first taxi ride. :) I think she liked it.

^Osha Thai for dinn. Sea bass, duck and pumpkin curry.

^I never skip dessert. :)

We headed back to the hotel, gave Rebecca a quick haircut and then Julia and I stayed one last night and I talked way too much! :)

Oct 16- 

We got up and headed back south to Sunnyvale. Julia dropped me off at my friend Ruth's house where I'd be staying and doing hair. I got right to work. 10am-10:30pm. Hair, hair, and more hair. Less cool with a fussy baby that is sleep deprived and used to being strapped to you all day. :) Clients (10) were very gracious and Ruth was ever so sweet. She made me meals, held the babe, etc. Such sweet people. CA is full of them!

Oct 17-

Wednesday was the same. 8am start and with a last minute cancellation I was done by 6pm instead of 10pm. ;) (14 clients) I got Madison to bed (poor baby) and was able to go out to dinner with some friends. I was only an hour late. :) But, Ahhh! A breath! 

^It feels like I never left when I see these girls. Conversation flows so easily. They are all a part of me I will never forget. Hassle and all- always good to see. Thanks to everyone that could make it! Missed all of those who couldn't or have moved. Hope to see the rest of you next trip!...if there is one. ;) I was able to stop by Rebecca's newly bought house after dinner and Pinkberry. So exciting.

I got home that night to a crying baby. :( Once again, no predictability. Poor Ruth. Found myself feeling like this was the dumbest idea ever!!! All 3 vacations separately may have been doable, but 3 packed back to back with a baby...not so much! Utterly exhausted. And all of the people that I have put out that had to help me...feeling a little guilt.

Oct 18-

Thursday brought more clients(5). 8am-2pm and then I headed to the airport. A total of 29 people in 2.5 days. I SO love doing hair! I SO love these clients! I SO hope I can keep it up! But, one word can describe the last week. EXHAUSTING!! 

^Meet Ruth. She offered her house, food, and arms to my baby for all the craziness. Can't thank her enough. And to all the friends who helped out and drove me around, I love you and am ever so grateful!

Back home- to all the people who watched Sarah and Kai- Thanks a million! I don't want to give up these trips, but all the arranging that has to go on now...will have to decide how worth it it is. Doing hair is kind of my therapy. I love visiting with friends. I love feeling accomplished and getting my creative outlet. I am definitely blessed to be surrounded by such supportive friends and family that allow me some "me" time.

^ Madison did pretty great on all the flights. Ready to be back on a schedule, ready to have my angel baby back, ready to sleep, ready to exercise again, ready to make some changes for the better, ready to reevaluate life and what choices will do me/us best. I am continually learning. 

Oct 20-

^Home to beautiful Fall! We got some family pics taken and went to a Halloween Party at some friends. 

^  In CA Ed and I always threw a party. It was kind of nice to attend a party this year. Dressing up is fun.

Roman Goddess and Hercules. 

Thanks Tya and Brandon.

Oct 25-

^SNOW! Already?! I know it won't hold up quite yet, but...

The kids were thrilled! Got dressed in their snow gear and loved it.

^My angel baby is back!! :) Happy as can be again! Whew! Just took about a week to get our heads screwed back on. :) She melts me, love watching her grow, and I love how sweet Sarah and Kai are with her. She is laughing lots, scootin' on her hand and knees, rolling, movin'. Fun to watch.

Oct 26-

^I started a Music Makers class in my basement once a week. A morning and an afternoon class. (As if life isn't crazy/busy enough) But my kids love it! Been fun so far! We had the kids dress in their costumes for class. Thanks everyone!

^Grandma came by and stayed a while since Ed was out of town. We cleaned, made cookies, got dinner and hung out. She helped while I hosted a Ragnar meeting. Love having Mom.

Oct 27-

^Bright and early, got my craft on for our ward craft day that I helped with.  Crafty once a year at least is good. :)

^ Grandpa invited us to a Halloween party with him. Kids got in costumes, they had bouncy houses food and fun entertainment. Busy while Ed is gone is good. Thanks Dad! 

^Loved watching the break dancers. Love music!

^ Sweet neighbors gave me a release for an evening run. Breath of fresh air- literally! Love the scenery where I live.

Oct 28-

^Johnson Family cousins! We got together for dinner since my brothers are back from SC. Love my fam! Then we picked up daddy.

Oct 29-

^Once a year, during Halloween I like to make homemade chili, cornbread and doughnuts. The Ryan's joined us this year. Wonderful company.

 Oct 30-

^Ed does some fun things with the kids. ;) He's good at playing with them.

^Madison is sitting. :) Last harvest from the garden. Onions. The frost killed the millions of tomatoes. Good year though.

^We ran out of time last night so Ryan's came back and finished out the original plan and we carved pumpkins and had dessert together. Kids get along great, and so do we! Did I mention they are the only other ones in the ward with a baby?! Crazy for Utah- I know!

 Oct 31-

Buzz Lightyear, Snow White and our Strawberry

Meg and Mike had us over for pizza, etc before we headed out for trick-or-treating.

^ Kai and Madison didn't last too long, but we had some fun!

^A fun neighborhood. Most interesting (but good) hand outs- hot chocolate, hot dogs and doughnuts.

Tuckered us(Kai) right out! Success!!

Fun, busy month!