Dance your heart out!

Hayli was in the Nutcracker Ballet for her dance Studio. She was one of the girls in The Land of the Sweets!
Grandma and Grandpa came to see her dance her heart out!
So did Julie and Christopher!
And Dawn and Ashlyn!

March your heart out!

Here is Hayli with her Girl Scout troop marching in our town's Holiday Parade. They dressed up as Christmas presents and sang songs as they marched along.
At the end of the parade, we all met at the park where there was snow, cookies, and Santa. Now that's a parade!
Hayli makes quite a little Christmas gift.

Paint your heart out!

Zachary had his end of the season soccer party at Paint-A-Dream! He made a snake for his dad, that he is going to give him for his birthday on Wednesday. Shhhh, don't tell!
Here he is with some of the boys from his soccer team, The Red Raptors.
Congratulations on a great season, can't wait til spring when you play again!

Way to go Britt!

Britt's soccer team, The Shooting Stars, won the team sportsmanship award for her division. The refs vote for the team with the players, coaches, and yes...parents, who display the most sportsmanship throughout the entire season. It actually is quite an achievement! Great job my little soccer star!
My parents were in town, so they came to the award ceremony. Thanks mom and dad, you're the best. Dawn and Ashlyn came also. Of course, I just expect them to come... but thanks too! :)

Make a wish!

Britt turned 13 years old on Thanksgiving this year. And yes, we are very thankful for her. We were in San Diego at Dave's parents house so it was nice that she could be surrounded by family on her special day. Here she is blowing out her candles. Make a wish! But, it better not be about any boys!

What the Heck!

Dave had a little "mishap" with his hair clippers. He had the dial turned to the setting he wanted to "trim" his hair, but at some point when he was cleaning the blade and then returned to triming his hair, it moved. And... this is the result! Since there was nothing he could do, we had fun and made a mohawk. A slightly askew mohawk. No, it did not stay. However, he did have to shave his entire head to match up with the mistake. Yes, basically he is bald. Lucky for him, his hair grows really fast. I know...this is why girls go to a salon!

Our Sunday Best!

On Sunday, the kids had their Primary Sacrament Meeting Presentation. They did a great job! Here they are all dressed up in their Sunday best. Julie came to visit with Christopher and Chloe. It was fun, but getting pictures of the kids together after church was like pulling teeth! But in spite of all of the chaos, they look cute! However, Zach was having a low blood sugar episode... and it shows on his face! (Quarter!) Inside joke.


The kids, well mostly Hayli, got Zach in a better mood by tickling him and making him laugh. Boy, was he laughing!! He couldn't stop.

Christopher wanted to join in on the fun, so he decided to tickle himself and make himself laugh! It was pretty funny!














Had to add a picture of the three cutest girls around!! I hope they don't forget...boys have cooties!

The Happiest Place on Earth!

Well, for Veterns Day the kids, Dave, and I actually all had the day off, so of course, off we went to the happiest place on earth, Disneyland! We had a blast. Here are the kids on the Tea Cups-an all time classic! Dave and I shared our own Tea Cup for the first time. Ahhh, how sweet. :)






Here is Hayli in front of "It's a Small World". It was all lit up for the Holidays already! It was really pretty. I'm a sucker for Christmas lights and I made everyone pose for lots of pictures-which of course they all hated, except for Hayli who loves the camera. Thank goodness someone does!





The first and last ride of the day had to be Space Mountain! Here is part of the gang about to blast off! And yes, Julie, we did get a churro! Yum, Yum!

Wanna see something really SCARY?

Here is the picture they took of me about to cross the finish line! To get the full effect, look below in my picture gallery to check out my "marathon face" up close. No words needed...

I did it!!

I can finally check "half-marathon" off the list! Today, Saturday November 3, 2007, I ran the Santa Barbara half-marathon which is 13 miles LONG! I finished in 2 hours, 10 minutes, and 24 seconds. Not bad for a first-time racer, if I do say so myself-and I do! That put me at a 9:57 minute mile, so basically a 10 minute mile...for 13 miles.Whew!

Dawn ran the half with me, and did really great. She finished in 2 hours, 42 minutes, and 38 seconds. She ran a 12:25 minute mile.

Here are some pictures of us BEFORE the race. Look how happy we are!

And Below are the pictures of us AFTER the race. I know, we still look good. Look-we got medals! I haven't got a medal for anything since High School, it was quite exciting!

Goodness, gracious, great balls of fire!

Just wanted to let everyone know that even though we were basically "circled" about by fire, we are all safe. We have 3 fires directly to the west of us that are about 5-10 minutes away... Castaic, Magic Mountain, and Stevenson's Ranch. To the North about 10 minutes away, there are fires burning down San Francisito Road and Seco Canyon. Then to the East of us, the huge Canyon Country fire (about 20 minutes) is still going strong. It's pretty crazy, but we are o.k. Wish we could say the same for San Diego, it is REALLY bad down there. We have a lot of family there, but luckily they are all safe. (As far as we know). Dave's cousin did have to evacuate their home, we hope they are doing well, and their home is safe too.

Whoa...momma!

I just ran about 8 miles! I actually was suppose to run 9, but Brittani had a babysitting gig and I ran out of time because Dave was working and I had to get home. Aaaahh, too bad. Well, I better not slack off because Julie and I have decided to run the LA Marathon in March. (Dawn, are you in?) Can you believe it? And I thought I was crazy for trying to run 13.5 miles in November, and now I've decided to run another 26 miles in March. What am I thinking, I'm not the bionic women...or am I?

I had to post the picture of the most comfortable running shoes on earth!

Happy B-day Miss Hayli

For Hayli's birthday we took her to see the musical "Wicked" at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles! It was amazing. She loved it, and so did all of the kids... and adults too!

For dinner we went to the famous "Pink's" hotdog stand in L.A. It's very famous for its long lines and celebrity sightings! It's inexpensive and a good "dog" at that.

It's official!

Baby #1 is on the way for Chris and Kristen!
The due date is April 23, 2008.
Congratulations!

It's a Girl!

Congratulations to Bryan

and Heidi on the birth of their

new baby girl today-

Julia Kathryn!

Isn't she just the cutest thing?

She was 8 lbs 3 oz. Wow, what a baby!

October Birthday Shout outs!

Happy Birthday to:

Hayli 10/12

Steven 10/16

Michael 10/28

Can you Can Can?

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!We Can.

Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting!

Okay, so they don't sing that song, but my kids and I did get to see the Foo Fighters making a music video at our mall last week. It was fun to see, even though they were filming a part where they didn't sing at all. Oh well, not like I am THAT hip anyway, to be able to sing along! During the summer, we got to see the filming of the Visa commercial where they are in a food court and a lady holds up the line with cash. Hey, are we at the mall a lot? Nah, they just must film at our mall a lot, right?

From Zach for real

My mom is the greatest mom in the world!!!!!!

IT'S A NEW RECORD!!

This has never happened before...never in my 12 years of buying or making Halloween costumes have I ever had one costume, let alone three costumes, this early before! (Check the calendar, its over a month until Oct 31st). I took my kids Halloween costume shopping yesterday, and lo and behold, I walked out of Party America with three costumes complete with accessories. Wow, this is a record for me. Usually, I am panicked, stressed out, and running around to twenty stores the day before Halloween, or when I used to make the costumes...still sewing the morning of. So, here's the low down...Brittani is Dorothy, Hayli is a Sumo Wrestler (I'll explain in a bit), and Zach is a Scorpion Ninja. Since Brittani wants to be Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz (which I love as much as Wicked), it is only obvious that I have to be the Wicked Witch of the West. As far as the Sumo Wrestler goes, if your kids have seen Hannah Montana, I bet they can explain it to ya. Hayli and her cousin, Ashlyn are both being Sumo Wrestlers, just like Hannah Montana did in one of her episodes. Anyways, I just hope Christmas shopping goes as well...

Rain, rain go away...Come back another non-soccer day!

It's raining soccer balls out there! So, my kids play AYSO soccer, and they refuse to cancel games on account of rain! It's pouring out there and Brittani's game gets cancelled only because they play at a public park, and the park says that no one is allowed to play there. (They don't want soccer cleats tearing up their fields). But, Zach's game is at a school, and on Saturdays there is no one at the schools, so it is up to AYSO officials to determine whether the games are played. Well, AYSO's rule is that they only cancel games if there is danger involved ie: lightning. They play in pouring rain, mostly because it's a pain for them to reschedule games. So, my kid is suppose to get sick because they don't want to reschedule. Well, we showed up in the pouring rain at game time and at the very last minute they called the game. I have to say I was a drowned rat by the end of just waiting the 15 minutes it took them to decide if we were playing or not (I sent my kids to the car). Apparently, someone saw lightning. Could you have seen that 15 minutes ago! C'mon, gimmie a break. Yes, I brought Zach to his game, but I wasn't going to let him play-it was pouring!! I mean we're talking about 6 & 7 year olds here. But... I was snack person, so I felt obligated to go, and I knew the other parents wouldn't let their kids play either anyway. So, my point to all this is- Why does AYSO make us show up? It's ridiculous!

My newest project...

I've taken on another project. Maybe I should finish all of the other ones that I have started and haven't finished yet, nah, that would be too easy. Anyway, my girls really want to learn how to sew on the sewing machine, so I have decided to teach them how to make their own aprons. Now, when we have our annual Christmas bake-off we will be "covered". Ha ha-nice pun, huh! I will post pics of our finished products. So, I guess you can be looking for those in the year 2017, if we're lucky. I will be hiring out my little sweat-shop workers once they learn the ropes, if anyone needs an apron? Just kiddin'!

Birthday Shout-Outs!!

Just wanted to say "Happy Birthday" to :

Heidi 8/20

Trevor 8/25

Tony 9/1

Hannah 9/15

Raegen 9/21

Hope you all had great birthdays! We wish

we could have been there to share them with you!

So many questions, so little time...

Okay, today I went to my very first yoga class. Wow, it was pretty hard. Has anyone ever taken yoga before? Please tell me it gets easier. My favorite pose is the "warrior". So, I guess now I'm like a granola or something, do I need to go hug a tree? Just kidding. I totally love it! Anyways, enough about me, does anyone know how Chris and Bryan did on their tests? I hope it went well for them. Do Jill and Mike know if it is a girl or boy yet? Have Heidi and Bryan picked a name for their girl? (#4 by the way) Julie, are you running the half-marathon with me on Nov 3rd? Sandi, do you still "scrabble doze"? Dawn, I see you everyday, so I got nothing. So many questions, so little time.

A new day...

So, today I ran 3.5 miles (up a hill, both ways), had my vitamin water, and ate my energy bar. Wow, do I sound like an athlete or what. Yeah right. Anyway, you have to watch the middle video with "The Hoff" in the car, it is so funny. I think he made the last video (the one with the bike), at the Del Mar Fair, what do ya think?

My Inspiration. . .

Well, I was having so much fun on Sandi's blog that I thought I should create my own. Thanks for your inspiration! This is a fun way to stay in touch with friends and family while being creative in the process. I'm feeling a little verklempt, talk amongst yourselves...