So Proud

Yesterday, I heard Lucas babbling after his nap. I walked in to see he'd learned a new trick. He'd figured out how to pull himself up. I had to take a picture of his little proud smiling face. Immediately, he started practicing his new skill on furniture, walls and anywhere he can. Now he just needs to figure out how to get himself down.

Real Men

Jeff and I went to our first hockey game on Thursday--and I've got a new favorite sport. I love the fast moving, manly men skating across that ice. We were in the 3rd row so we could feel the plexiglass shake when the players would slam each other against it. We were even treated to a couple of fights! After watching them for a few minutes, I realized what wusses some other pro sports guys are. Whenever a basketball player gets bumped, he'll flop to the floor and cry and someone will get punished. In hockey, we saw a fight that went on for at least a minute and the refs just watched. It was great! Now, I'm not a fan of fighting, but its refreshing to see a bunch of testosterone-filled dudes slamming each other around and not being babies about it.

Yup, that's me in a bright red jacket--lesson learned. I will always check out the opposing team's colors when selecting an outfit. It didn't even occur to me as I was getting dressed that morning to check. I felt so retarded when I was sitting there in bright red and gold (Calgary's colors) in a sea of black and purple. Luckily, no one threw anything at me, though I swear a couple of the players did glare at me...

Surprised!

I had a birthday last week. It was a great day. I went to lunch with one of my bestest girlfriends and Jeff brought home a yummy Red Velvet Ice Cream Cake. Jeff gave me a gift card and assured my big present was on its way. Since I had class that night, we made plans to go out to dinner on Friday. The girls told me that their gift to me was going to help keep the house clean--what more could a woman want than that?!

So Friday night we went to a yummy dinner with the kids. When we came home, I unlocked the door and as I set my purse down, I noticed that my house smelled like perfume. I glanced over into the family room and noticed that there were a bunch of people sitting in my house!! I was a still confused as my friends yelled "SURPRISE!"

Jeff had enlisted the help of Tarja and arranged a party complete with cake, games and some of my dearest friends. To show them how much I love them, I'm not posting the horribly unflattering photos of them that were taken during a game :)

It was such a fun evening and I felt so blessed to have such great people in my life.

Mobile!!

Lucas decided it was time to get around, so he's begun crawling. He hadn't had given it much effort until he was up at Grandma Moody's house--maybe it was the carpeting instead of wood floors that he liked. But I love his little army crawl--he reminds me of the plastic soldiers on Toy Story.

Apples to Apples

Since it was the end of the apple season, my sister Sara and I took the kids to Oak Glen and we bought LOTS of apples this last weekend. It was absolutely pouring but we decided to take the tour of the packing plant that one of the farms offered. It was interesting to see the antique cider press they still use to make cider and 100 year old barn where they pack their apples. The girls even got to taste, sort and learn about some of the different heirloom apples.

The next day was a canning extravaganza and my mom, brother Mike, sister-in-law Kara, Sara, me and the girls peeled, cut and jarred 69 cans of apple pie filling. It was a lot of work to do that many, but it was rewarding to see all those jars filled with apples.

Family Pictures

I can't remember the last time we had a family photo done (without being in some sort of a costume) so it was time.

Lucas was so interested in the ocean it was hard to get him to look away.

This was NOT photoshopped. The photographer was adjusting her lens and captured this.
It's creepy and hilarious at the same time.

Haloween 2010

This year I was back in the swing of things and decided it was time for a Magical theme.

For the occasion, I turned my little prince into a toad.

We carved pumpkins, went to the annual Trunk or Treat--where Jeff won the Chili Cookoff!! Cara had her first Chili entry and she's already planning what she's going to cook next year.

On Halloween, we did something a little different. We carved our pumpkins, passed out candy, baked and delivered treats to a few friends. Jeff has also decided in the last couple years that he wants to take over decorating for Halloween. He's vetoed my "cute" decorations and has brought out the creepy things. He made a zombie (which we've named Bernie) and he set up the piano, with a skeleton playing creepy music so the trick or treaters can see it in the front window.

Halloween--A Retrospective

It all started 9 years ago. For Cara's first Halloween, I thought it would be fun to dress as a family. This little number that I dressed Jeff in (combined with next years' gettup) started a tradition and I've been sewing every October since.

2001: Peter Pan, Wendy and Tinkerbell

2002: Monster's Inc.: Sulley, Boo, Mike and Roz

2003: The Ladies of Chicago

2004: Pirate and his wenches

2005: Witches of OZ

2006: "Knights"

2007:Classic Monsters


2008: Cowboys and Indians

2009: Fairies
Stay tuned for 2010...

A Big Day for My Little Girl

Natalie chose to be baptized last Saturday.
It was a big day for her with lots of friends and family to support her. She was baptized by her daddy.

She wore the same dress that her Grandma Moody, Mom, and sister Cara all wore.

Afterwards, we had lots of yummy cupcakes.

As I did with Cara, I put together a little video recapping some big moments for her thus far.

Happy Birthday Natie!

For Natalie's 8th Birthday we had her party at the bowling alley. She had lots of fun bowling and playing with a few of her friends. It was a great party--and easy for mom to put together!

Roadside Carnage

On the way home from our 4th of July weekend in Utah with my brother and his family (more to follow about the visit) we got a little lesson in physics.

We were riding with my parents and to make sure we had enough room to make the journey comfortable, my dad had placed some items in their carrier on top of the car. We had traveled to our destination without any issues. However, when my dad was reinstalling the carrier on the car for the ride home, he was missing 1 of the 4 locks that held the carrier lid closed. Being the resourceful man that he is, he figured a zip tie should do the trick.

Well, we had been on the road for a few hours and I heard a little pop. Ignoring my instinct, I said nothing, figuring it had just been a rock in the road or something. After we had stopped for lunch in Cedar City we were traveling down the 15 when all of a sudden we hear a commotion and look behind the car just in time to see the carrier skidding across the freeway. Immediately, my dad pulled over as we watched helplessly while car after car managed to swerve in time to miss our belongings. We were all hopeful. Until the semi truck hit it.

At this point, I was more upset not knowing what was gone. I wasn't watching as my dad had loaded this carrier so I didn't know completely what of mine (and my kids) had made it on top of the car and what was inside with us. But I knew I had seen my suitcase put in there.

So there we were on the side of the road between Cedar City and St. George when this nice lady in a SUV (with her children in the back) pulls over. She walks out into the middle of the road and holds up her hands to stop traffic. Cars come to a stop (to my amazement) and my dad drags the carrier (now missing my suit case) to the side of the road. Amazingly, my mom and dad's suitcases, and a bag containing my kid's dirty laundry is still inside the carrier. My belongings are a different story. I immediately look around (this is all happening very fast, mind you) and I see my stuff scattered all over the freeway. Traffic is still stopped, so I start running all over picking up anything that looks like it doesn't belong there. I grab my makeup bag, my jewelry case, the concentrator attachment to my hairdryer, a bag of laundry and a few random articles of clothing. But what I don't see is my suitcase. We think it may be back far enough where we can't see, so we decide to drive up to the next exit and turn around.

About a mile up the road there we see it. My poor suitcase sitting on the side of the freeway. It had been dragged a mile by another car. We pull over and I open it expecting to see it completely devoid of its precious cargo. To my amazement though, I see almost everything that I hadn't picked up on the road earlier. It even had both of my shoes I had packed for work the following day.

I have to say that I am so grateful. I think I recovered about everything. I won't know for sure until I do laundry and completely see what I may be missing since I had clothing packed for over a week (and I don't know how to pack light). But two of the saddest victims of this whole ordeal were my suitcase and my make-up bag. I had one bracelet break (and I'm not too upset over it since it wasn't one of my nice ones). But the make up bag. . . well, pictures will do it more justice.

I think the girls at the makeup counter will be glad to see me. The only things that were salvageable were my brushes and 2 of my eyeshadow colors.

The suitcase destruction makes me particularly sad though.

Jeff bought this for me and I've never seen another like it :(

I have to say that even though a few material (and expensive) things may have been lost, we were very fortunate. The carrier could have hit another car, could have been more damaged or someone could have been injured. As I told my sweet girls, who witnessed all of this. Things can all be replaced. People can't and since we are all safe. It's all OK.

Start of Summer!

After the Mud Run, we went back to Ryan and Kelly's house in San Diego. Jeff helped his brother install a microwave while Kelly and I entertained the kids and visited. The following day we all went swimming.

The girls had fun playing in the water and practicing diving with dad.

Playing in the Mud

Back in January, I registered for the Camp Pendleton Mud Run. I did this knowing that I would be having a baby several weeks before, so I would be nice and motivated to get my running shoes back on.

This was my third time running it. The last time was when Natalie was a baby so it had been a while. Lucas seemed to tolerate all the commotion as calm as ever.

First, we secure our shoes, so they don't stick in the mud.

Then we make our way over to the start with the 5,500 other runners.

At first its difficult to actually run since there are so many people.

But the freezing cold fire hoses make a little room.

The river crossings make your shoes nice and heavy.

Just in time for the steep hill

Once you hit the first mud pit/wall you have a little break while you wait your turn.

Then you get to cross the lake. They say it's only 4.5 feet deep,

but lucky me, I got to swim the whole thing.

And if you didn't get muddy enough, there's the last crawl through the mud.

Yup, that's what I call a good time.

The hardest thing about the whole thing: the freezing cold public showers to when the race is over. I love this event. Sure, there are the hard core athletes, but I highly recommend this for anyone--even if you aren't a runner.