Won it in overtime!

What a game! Wow! GO COUGARS!

Thankful

I love that Thanksgiving hasn't gotten too comercialized. It falls smack dab between super fun Halloween, and the Ultimate holiday...Christmas. Thanksgiving is just this nice, not too overdone or decorated holiday where we can just concentrate on being with family and reflect on our blessings...which are many. This past year was hard in many ways, but the thing I will remember the most is how blessed we have been through all of it. We have incredible family, friends and church. We love you all. Thank you.

15th birthday bash at New Moon Premier

Dancingqueen took a few of her friends to the premier of New Moon for her 15th b-day. Of course Amanda and I needed to go to make sure shirtless werewolves were appropriate for them to see. The jury is still out, so we are going to have to go again tonight to double check.


After the movie, we went to The Pie for dinner.
Watching Bella struggle over who she loves more really builds up an appetite.

Happy 15th Birthday! We love you!

"That's Entertainment" meets the Health Department

Amanda and I had the 2nd half of our families get their H1N1 (or more affectionately in our house called the Hiney) shots this morning.(the younger group got them a few weeks ago) Everyone who happened to have appts at the same time as us had toddlers with them. These toddlers were quite entertained by our girls who were singing, laughing and goading each other on. When we went to the injection room (OOOOOH, THE INJECTION ROOM), it was like our own little partay. The girls were putting the bandaids on each other, daring each other not to cry, begging Tysen to hold their hand, and passing around Jackson, Crazygirl's stuffed dog (who also got his own bandaid). Of course they had to decorate themselves with the flufighter stickers before going back to school. I'm sure the toddler mom's were thinking "wow...maybe they never do grow out of the toddler stage!" Quite entertaining for all, and I am sure, MUCH quieter after we left!

Dear Santa

I have been a really good girl this year, only a few snarky moments, but none that I deserve COAL over. Here is my wish list in no particular order. (although if you want to pay close attention to the ones with the asterick by them, that would be sweet.
1. a case of toilet paper. Do you think I jest? only those with no children think of this as an absurd wish. We have gone through our year's supply faster than I can replenish it.

2. Makeup that is mine and only mine. Somehow my daughters have taken over my bathroom, my makeup and a certain oldest child has taken over my shoes. But only my cute trendy ones, leaving me to wear only the ugly dependable ones. Somehow though, it's still not worth getting up earlier in the morning for, since she leaves for school MUCH earlier than I do. But I digress. My makeup, my favorite colors of lipstick that are suddenly GONE, are only to be found months later in someones backpack or locker.

3.* The opportunity to go to the bathroom without being urgently needed elsewhere. Not that I take all that long in the bathroom. Really I don't. I grew up in a house of six kids and one bathroom that we were allowed to use. Mom and dad's bathroom was basically off limits. Now that I have kids I know why. So seriously, I don't need all that long.

4. Silverware and cups that don't wander off. We started our marriage with beautiful matching sets of glassware, stemware and silverware that all matched. Now we have mismatched plastic from various restaurants, 3 forks and a handful of spoons. None of which match. Seriously, where is my silverware? Is there a cup in the house that isn't made from plastic?

5. *My own cell phone. I know it APPEARS that I have my own, but my address book is full of numbers from people under 5' tall. I am constantly getting texts and calls that are not for me, but are for one of my darling daughters. (insert shout out HERE for all of my new bff's in the 7th and 5th grade)

6. Just once, can I drive someplace to take MYSELF to go do something cool? I live in the car, but only see parking lots as I drop off and pick up. What goes on in those magical places we call buildings? Hmmmm. Must be fun

I think that is all for now, but then again, it is only mid November, and I am me, so don't think of this as the final list. That won't happen until around the 24th of December.

Who needs braces when you have vegetables

Braces are coming in one week, (Spacers have been in for a few weeks now) the girls are apparently getting used to the look with cucumber slices, and entertaining themselves with my camara in the process. I found these pictures when I downloaded a file today.


Nice.

Dan's surgery

This is now in our front window...as if you didn't know to NOT smoke in our house :)

We are finally home from Dan's surgery. He had an umbilical hernia repaired. It was supposed to be a short outpatient thing, but ended up taking twice as long, then he hasn't been able to keep his oxygen levels up, so they kept him for pretty much the whole day. We are now home, but he is on oxygen for a few days...crazy! Even on oxygen he is barely into the 90's for his saturation levels. He isn't allowed to take the pain medication, because it is relaxing his body too much, so he is in a lot of pain, but thankfully sleeping. Advil is going to be his best friend this week! We are waiting for the oxygen company to drop off his big tanks and teach us how to do that, he was sent home with a 3 hour refillable tank that he can tote around, not that he is going anywhere anytime soon! We have wonderful friends who took the girls and made us dinner(thank you!!!) and Dan's mom rushed to the hospital from work as soon as things started getting crazy. She came home with us to help out. What a day!

*update we now have the oxygen, his lips are no longer purple, good thing!!!!

Crazygirl dancing at the U of U

Crazygirl got to dance at the U of U spectacular during halftime at the U of U vs. New Mexico game. She had a blast!

She got to hang out with the CUTE cheer boys...wow!
Dancingqueen was quite jealous!

Kallee is the captain of the crimson line, and her choreographer for dance

Madison is her solo choreographer and also on the crimson line, how cool is that?!

Can you find her in the middle of the group?

Down on the field, after it was done. She had a blast!

Dan wore his BYU blue under the red so that "the red wouldn't touch his skin"

Training Table cheese fries are always the way to end a great night!!!!

October fun

Dancingqueen had her choir concert last night. It was a fall hoedown/halloween theme. They were all in cute fall clothes at the beginning, then came out like THIS

We really liked the train ride for "Nightmare Before Christmas" with the cousins and Grandma & Grandpa. We can't wait until next year to go back!

Here is Dramaqueen and her cousin talking it up with the "Ghouls" as we were standing in line waiting for the train

We got a shot of all of the cousins sitting still for a brief second. All we are missing are Dave & Audra's 3 and Kris & Blain's 4 kids! We had a blast with Rob and Natalie coming up for a visit.

Halloween Fun

We had a great Halloween this year. The girls were off track, so we didn't have the traditional halloween parade at school, and the older girls were off on Friday. We went on a really cool train ride down in Lindon, that was themed after "the Nightmare Before Christmas" on Thursday. I wish we had gone back and done it again, it was that cool. Next year for sure! On Halloween we went to our ward Trunk-or Treat. We have such a fun ward, and so many creative people! More adults dress up than in any other ward I have lived in. We had a small after party, and the kids went trick or treating together while we watched the U of U game and ate yummy finger food that everyone brought over. The next day my family all came over to BBQ and celebrate birthdays. It was a great weekend, done just the way I like it, with lots of food, friends and family!