December Ketchup

By the end of December, our memory card was full with...

12 zillion markers, thanks Santa

11 funky crusties (An Avery specialty glare)

10 dancers posing

9 dowels of ribbon

8 ice skates slipping

7 jars of candy

6th time's a charm...making reindeer dust. Ella popped open the sugar bag like 5 times!

5 ladies working (Lorraine not pictured)

4 train cars chugging

3 frozen runners (19 miles!). Oh yes, those headbands are reversible green and red.

2 children asking

And the best neighbor gift we've ever received...how cute is that?

Blue Man Blue Man Blue Man!

Best. birthday. party. ever. And it wasn't even mine.



This was the most perfect fit for Bryson's decade-celebrating birthday party...no silly hats and loads of base. We spent Saturday in Vegas with no kids (a treat in and of itself), ate at a yummy buffet (see below), and thoroughly rocked out at the Blue Man Group, ending the night watching the fountains outside the Bellagio.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm homemade ice cream and gelati

...and now you are an adult...

Is this Christmas, what I have, or is it tuna?

I ran into Jessica Simpson's verion of Mary's Song on Seriously, So Blessed! (guilty pleasure) the other day. What the...??? Yes, it is WRONG to sing the best Christmas song ever in a breathy, seductive way. Thanks for desecrating that.

I also realize that this is not a new CD and I should have probably run into this before now. I'm just not as cool as I used to be. And my old fogie husband is turning 30 next Sat.

Gone baby gone

My hair, that is. I cut it all off.

Of all the reasons I don't like our new afternoon church time, here is one reason that I do.

Mod Podge and me...the start of a beautiful friendship.

Just give me candy, OK?

Not our best year for good manners. But...we have been pretty sick this week and it was quite a feat to get everyone out of fevers by Saturday night so we could run around in the cold and tempt fate with reckless abandon.

 

Ella = butterfly for Friday night ward party
Ella = Sleeping Beauty for Halloween night
Avery = monkey (mostly just pants) for Halloween

We didn't stress about what the kids would be this year because we just figured there is no need to buy costumes when you have an overflowing dress-up bin. Honestly, every day is Halloween when you're 4 years old. So Ella changed her mind every day about what she would dress up as and since I hadn't put my blood, sweat, and tears into making a masterpiece, I was happy to accomodate her whims. I just hope next year we aren't sick!

Released

Three years, four secretaries, four choristers, six counselors, 96 primary teachers, an unofficially called errand-running husband, and one very big tube of Halloween M&Ms later, and I find myself back in the pool of calling-less members getting ready to jump in to a brand-new split ward (well, at least until Sunday!). Identity crisis: I am no longer the primary president.

This is bittersweet, for sure. Primary is the best place on earth. So many good, strong, fun people have poked their heads into primary for long or short periods of time on their way to the bishopric, relief society presidency, young women's presidency, etc. They've all left an impression and I'll remember these experiences forever.

By way of grand finale, we had our primary program in sacrament today, with a whopping attendance of over 400 filling both chapel overflows. My favorite part of this year's presentation was a slideshow featuring families in the ward that played in the background while the kids sang "The Family is of God." It was right at the beginning, but it should have been at the end. This was a photo album of our ward family, and the emotional impact struck home; we love them all.

I passed on the dilapidated binder today and now there is a clean, blank space on my desk where my primary bag used to sit, overflowing with papers galore. I know it will be filled with new responsibilities soon, but for just a second it feels a little empty.

Queen of Hearts and Alice in Wonderland Costume Set GIVEAWAY!!!!

Of the places I love to stalk...Queen of Hearts and Alice in Wonderland Costume Set GIVEAWAY!!!!

Worth it!

So, I'm a budgeter. And this morning I was crunching some numbers in honor of my one-year anniversary of when I started getting the newspaper. Specifically, for grocery coupons. This is what I found:

In the past year (November 08-October 09) I spent about 40 percent less on groceries than I did in the previous year (November 07-October 08). Factoring in the cost of the newspaper brings that number down slightly, to a roughly 35 percent savings.

Even though we are spending less, we get more. So it's not a fair comparison. I'm getting low on cereal right now, which means I only have about 50 boxes in my pantry. I have toothpaste to last until 2020. We've not just been saving money, but building up storage. We also have an extra kid in diapers since the previous year and we are still spending less.

And then there are the valuable lessons that you realize you're teaching when your kid makes you something like this:

 

Priceless. Haha. It's a coupon envelope to take to the store with me. It's full of expired coupons that I let Ella play with and has a list on the front for me to write what I want to buy (lettuce, apparently). My favorite feature, however, is the little coupon cylinder taped to the left for me to set aside the coupons I just need to use for that day to hold them separately. Love it!

Grand Canyon

 

Uh-oh. Steph showed me Picasa. Sorry kids.

 

We live two hours away from the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Maybe two and some change. But still...four years down the road, and we're just barely making it to our local slice of one of the world's wonders? Funny how that works out sometimes. We wanted to go before our pass expired at the end of October. And it was beatiful, perfect weather. This little stinker would not smile or hold still for my signature mommy shot with Grand Canyon backdrop.

 

We stayed in these dorm-room-sized cabins at Jacob Lake that the kids fell in love with. Unlike Zion, it was not a get-your-hands-dirty type of hiking weekend, but more of a park-and-look-park-and-look-park-and-eat type of a weekend. It's just so massive. I hear, however, that the South Rim is where to go for more of that kind of thing. And of course Havasupi is still on our list of things to do before we die. We threw in some random spice too: Bryson climbed a huge lookout tower with Ella, we dropped by Pipe Spring National Monument on our drive home. And now, since Bryson is headed up north today for a chunk of the week, here is a we'll miss you picture for him if he reads this...

 

Ridin' Skillz

Ridin' skillz in action: Ella can bike it all the way to the park and back (approx. 1 mile round trip) without (much) incident. Thank you, Nana, for the best birthday gift!

Best Race Foreva-eva

All I have to say is this: 3:49:12, 8:44 min mile. Hoo-rah!

This is getting to be my lucky tank. I've worn it for 3 St. George's now and have always beat my PR.

Snow Canyon. Hi fam!

And...I'm spent.

I tried a few new things for this race.
1. I ate an entire pizza the day before the race. I didn't mean to, but it sounded good for breakfast, it was all we had for lunch, and then by dinner it was gone. So, carb-loading, maybe...?
2. I waited 10 minutes after the starting gunshot before I took off. I let the crowd clear out and then hit the road. Also I was drinking hot chocolate and standing in front of a fire and the temptation to leave warmth for cold was not very high.
3. Pace bracelet. I picked up a 3:50 pacer at the expo as a good time to shoot for and it got to be a game to see how far I could get ahead of the bracelet times.
4. Friends...we had a good showing of buds from our hood both running the race and cheering.
5. Desert Hills middle school PE issue shorts. Thanks middle school neighbor that moved and gave me these. I love eclectic pieces of wardrobe like this that remind me of good people.

So if I drop 9 minutes off my time, I can qualify for Boston. Tempting, very tempting. To be continued...

Fall Starts Here

My favorite time! Yay! Bring on the corn maze...
With Monica in town this past week, it's been fun times every day. So we usually wait a little longer to hit Staheli farm, but wouldn't want to miss the company. I know it's technically still September, but this yearly tradition makes me want to bust out the donuts, cider, and pumpkins.
Counting down: Two more days until I will get my fall decor down from the attic.

Under the Sea

Ella Green is now age 4...and we had fun on the ocean floor!
Par-tay!

We kicked off the festivities with a luau feast of terriyaki chicken and rice, pineapple skewers, whale crackers, veggie-rama, fishy cookies, and mini shark aquariums.

A cookie-eating lost little mermaid.

Limbo contest...how low can YOU go?

Conga line

Look at this stuff--isn't it neat? Definitely now Ella's collection's complete :) Thanks guys!

I LOVED these fun cake/ice cream creations! The buckets were vanilla sand and chocolate mud (aka cake, pudding, Oreo or graham cracker mix) and the ice cream cakes were the artistic property of Kandyce McCracken. I handed her a bucket of ice cream to store in her freezer until the end of the party and this is what she showed up with. Wow.

We sent the kiddos home with a real goldfish to keep. The gift that keeps on giving. I hear they like goldfish crackers if you don't have fish food on hand...? Cannibals.