Classic Skating

We went to Classic Skating for our friend Ryan's little boy's birthday party. I'm just posting a few pics of my cute boys since I had to brag a little here and there...they sure are handsome and I sure got lucky and I sure do love 'em!

Sally came to town!

So this is my beautiful friend Sally from Santa Monica :) We were friends in HS and she was responsible for setting me and Jason up on a blind date! Do I owe her my soul? Well, probably not, but a whole lifetime of THANK YOU's!!! She was dating one of Jason's good friends so it only seemed natural to set us up so we could go out together. Supposedly Jason had been spying me the year before when he'd see Sally and I but we didn't officially meet until the next year :)

So I haven't seen my beloved friend since our friend Tyler died (refer to my post 9/11), 3 years ago so when she told me she was coming into town and would love to come and swing by for a quick visit, you can bet I was totally thrilled to be able to see her and catch up for a few. Her bro was up in Eagle Mountain where she'd be so it would have been ridiculous of her NOT to come for a visit being so close. It was great to see her again, she always makes me laugh!

I had my boys get a picture with her (minus my preteen oldest son with an attitude!) and the two of us took some silly pics of ourselves that I will refrain from posting as I look like a total dork. I'll save myself the humiliation!

Braxton turns 5!

My sweet little Braxie turned 5 this year! I can't believe how the time flies...I feel like a broken record always saying this about each one of my kids, but it seriously does! Then I have to ponder about whether or not I really have made the most of those years I've had with each one so far...I really hope I have...I'm sure there was always room to do more, but I have to assume I did the best I could at that time.

We did 2 parties, one with our extended family and one with just his brothers and parents...he wanted a lightning bolt cake with Perseus...ummm, what was that?? Yeah, that's our little creative Braxton, so whipped up a lightning bolt as best I could without having been given prior notice this is what he wanted, to not being trained in fondant or having any special 'tools', this is what the end result was, pretty funny! I also ran out of the politically correct lightning colors, hence this is what you get! LOL...I sure got a good laugh about it all, but I really think he thought it turned out very cool :)















Loves his paper jams guitar!







Spinning Mater truck~ it was spinning at the moment I took this picture, promise :)


I always make the kids wait until their 6th birthday before we do the friend birthday, so we had lots of fun with family and Braxton's cousins, and here are a few highlights of his special day!







He wanted an ELMO cake, like I had made for his brother Payton's 1st birthday, so I thought, sure why not! I knew how to do it better this time around and it's fun for him, too :)

Milo!

So here is our not-so-little puppy dog, Milo. We got him last year before Thanksgiving, and let's just say...WHAT WAS I THINKING???! It's been one crazy year of the dog...I should have known what I was getting into, but like the saying says about "puppy dog eyes", well, that's exactly what Milo did to reel me right in and take hime home! My boys, all 6 of them, had been wanting a dog for sometime...but I held my ground with a firm NO for what seemed like an eternity! Until one cold, wintery day in November at the Smith's grocer.

Milo as a little puppy



I do have to say he really is a good dog...freaked out by the vacuum and Jason's drum-playing (but who wouldn't be afraid of his drumming?) just kidding, Jason is an awesome drummer...but aside from his quirks he's been a good pal for the boys and I'm glad he's a part of our family. Now if we could only get a fence this spring, we'd be set!

33 and who's counting?

Another year older, hopefully wiser! Here is my self-portrait going out for my birthday...I decided to make myself purple since it's my favorite color, LOL! I can't say I like the fact I'm gaining years as well as pounds, but getting out for the night with my honey makes me endure having to say another year older...and don't forget wiser! We went out to one of our favorite restaurants, Blue Moon for some yummy sushi! Then we went window shopping around the District and went to the Rocky Mtn Chocolate Factory from a treat.

I'm just glad I am alive another year to have been able to experience life with my sweet little family and all my extended family, friends and neighbors. Life wouldn't 'BE' without any of them!

My sweet little Braxton went out around our yard to pick me these flowers: some lavender, a sunflower and a dandelion...he's going to make a girl someday very happy and lucky indeed :)




Cameron my sweet 6 year old told me Happy Birthday mommy, more times than I could count! He wanted to make sure I felt loved and special that day...what would I do without him?

Flowers Jason brought home for me!

Fashion show

So my boys decided to go running through the house in my heels~ they did pretty good considering I can hardly 'run' at all in my heels...it's fun watching them do things like this, then I know they don't take life as seriously as we adults do, sometimes :)

Fort Knox

Funny how kids seem to congregate together and become a part of something, without ever having to officially send out an 'invite'...that's what happened in our neighborhood this past October and into November. It was a mild couple of months-worth of weather...don't get me wrong, as with Utah weather it can change almost instantly and we did get snow, as you saw with Braxton's snowman he built, but we really did have great weather that the kids definitely took advantage of and started putting together a 'fort'-like structure.



I could see it from off of my deck so it was fun to watch how more and more kids seemed to just show up, and do their part of making this neighborhood 'fort', as the boys liked to call it. So of course, in the comfort of my own deck I snapped a few picture because I was pretty sure the fort would probably come to an end, as all good structures do, so the kids would at least have the pictoral memory to go with it :)





Putting the fort together piece, by piece...going well into the night! It was funny because this fort was literallly the PERFECT sitter, seriously! The boys would head over there after their schoolwork was done (an added incentive to go and create at Fort Knox) and would literally be there until dark! Trying to get them to come back home for dinner was like pulling teeth sometimes...and we got them to behave by the almight threat of not being able to go back there tomorrow if they didn't listen!




So there I would check on them intermittently from our deck and there they were, I could count on that! That's what I mean by the fort sitter :) It was great while it lasted...I guess there are some pros to living in a neighborhood with a bunch of empty lots and I love that the kids didn't let all the 'waste' go to waste!!

Halloween 2010!

So here it is again, Halloween 2010! Who doesn't like Halloween? Well, I'm sure there are plenty of people to argue me on this, but there is something about that crisp chill in the air, filled with the smokey mist from REAL fireplaces...can't compete with the real deal...or the dental bills to prove that you overestimated your children when they tell you they will one have a few pieces of candy a day...or how about ALL the candy that seems to be everywhere, pervading our common sense to not over-indulge, when really, this is the time of year when you can actually get away with it! :)

Not to mention being able to bring out your alter-ego around this time of year, and get away with it without ending up being committed into a mental hospital, right? As a preteen and teen I was the one to decorate my mom's house and make it all festive...I really get into the festiveness of it all.

Now I do it at my own home now, and I know my boys love it when we take out our several bins of decorations...they actually begged me to take them out mid-September, so I gave in and did what they wanted :)

I like to try out a few or at least a couple of new recipes to make for Hallow's eve and this year I made pumpkin chocolate chip whoopie pies...all I can say is WHOOPIE! Whoopie on the tast and whoopie on the calorie count, but I wasn't counting anyway, haha!

Here are just a few pics from our night...my mama, my sister Laurie, aka Robin, my sister Lindsay and her 2 kids came over to chillax...it was fun to get most of my family to come over and hang out with us weirdos. So here are some pix, enjoy!



Every year I make sure we buy some pumpkins to carve, and everytime it gets closer to Halloween I DREAD having to cut into all of those pumpkins, for then I know my perfectionistic personality will rear its ugly head and I won't have any other choice but to carve them to (almost) perfection, ugh! But I suppose
I must get some kind of an ego-boost from doing this, or well, I suppose I wouldn't even be doing it at all!


If you notice the pumpkin front and to the right, is throwing up its innards...that would be a great big thanks to my oldest, Jaeden, for coming up with his own design :)



My creation from a copy :)











My little monkey...and a creepy shiny thing walking by on the other side!



Our creepy treats table





Jason and I going out on a speed-date down to the gas station for a coke: 'Date', you might ask? Sometimes running down to the gas station for a drink, kidless, to just be with eachother is enough to jump-start our parenting batteries...sometimes you gotta take what you can get, beggars can't be choosers, no?



My creepy date! aka the Joker!



Alas, one final picture before heading into the gas station, mask-less...we figured it might not be to our advantage if the attendant thought we were holding up the place :)



A very witchy end to the night...