I miss Fall...

I had a great weekend in Utah! I got to spend lots of time with my nieces, nephews, sisters and mom & dad! We had fun raking leaves, playing in the leaves and going for walks! I love walking outside in the cold air and losing my breath for that one second because of the chill! I miss that! I am sure in February I will be glad that I am here in sunny AZ! The highlight of the weekend was the BYU/ UTAH game. I was dressed all in red, sent a picture to Greg with my GO UTES sign and was left to wonder if I would get a ride home from the airport! He was there...My poor kids are caught in the middle. Greg has promised to pay for school and buy them a car if they will go to the Y...I have promised the same thing if they go to the U. And the bonus of the U is that Grandma and Grandpa are so close. We will have to wait and see who wins. (I really do think the Y is a great school and would be happy if any of my children went there. It is hard to be a Y fan from Salt Lake!)

Sisters...

Is there anything better than sisters!

I am so lucky to have 5 of the best!

We are all within 8 years. Yes, there was always some drama - boys, PMS, clothes, etc... loved it then but lovin it more now!

Our little seamstress!

Annie loves to sew. She started taking classes this year and is moving very quickly. She has made a sewing bag, pajama pants, a pillowcase, some SUNS capri pants, and is now working on a stuffed rabbit. She loves it. Both of her grandmas are excellent seamstresses and I would love for her to grow this skill.

So far, she is my most domestic child and I love it. She is the best to help in the kitchen. She loves to cook and has taken some cooking classes. We love you Annie! I love the company!

We love Carrie Underwood

We watched American Idol faithfully when Carrie Underwood was on! We all loved her and were so excited when she won! She came to AZ last weekend and we took the whole family. The kids thought it was the best - Callie made it through her first 4 songs.

























We found our friend "COCO." He is on the zoo crew at the Suns games! He is awesome!

Teenager...Yikes!

So we finally made it...the teenage years are here! I have already had glimpses of the rolling of the eyes, the life's not fair attitude and all the comes with it! It is going to be great! I can tell. I am grateful for Greg and his relationship with Ash because she and I clash a bit...I don't like to admit that but it is true. All she wanted for her birthday was a cellphone. Of course she is the only 7th grader at school that does not have one. ( I do know of plenty others myself) I wanted her to get a phone. She is at the dance studio over 13 hours a week and I wanted to have that contact with her. Dad was not so convinced. We have been warned of the bad that comes with a phone. Isn't that true with anything - there is bad that comes with the good? I will say it came down to the day before when we finally made our decision.

So, her only clue was that her gift started with a "C" and was about 2x4 inches. That matched a phone size and she was convinced!. I kept telling her no - so she settled on the idea that it was a camera. Good guess, but wrong! I had gotten Carrie Underwood tickets! I was excited. The plan was to take the whole family. I do parties every other year and this year it was a family party year.

She requested a scavenger hunt on the morning of her birthday to find her gifts. So we all got up early, Greg was on one of his 22 miler runs and she was bummed to have to wait for him to get back. He got home and she started hunting! It was fun. The whole family got involved - I think that is going to turn into the tradition, so I am going to have to get more creative...We had 5 clues with the last clue leading to the big present. I had really convinced her that she was not getting a phone, so when she opened it - She was in shock that we had got the phone! We spent a lot of time at the phone store to learn all we needed to know to keep her safe and have it be a good thing. We found one that we felt comfortable with and can be monitored on the computer at home! I hope that we are not sorry! She realizes our concerns and she is a good girl! We trust her and I am thinking only positive!

So...Happy birthday Ash! - needless to say, the concert took a major 2nd place to the phone!

What should we be this year for Halloween...

That is always the question for 2 months before October 31st. You would think that I would figure it our before the week of. Here is what we ended up with this year...

We have Ashlynn and friend as the 80's aerobic instructor!

We have Richard Simmons and his groupie...

The Bride!

A Candy Corn - this was my favorite! Thanks Grandma Sydney for helping us make the dress!

And the Ute football player! Dad thought the plan was for a BYU football player - but he suprised us and came up as a Ute! Go Utes!