Feliz Navidad

I haven't gotten any Christmas cards put together.... I'm thinking Happy New Year Cards this year... after our cruise ;-) So we just wanna "wish you a Merry Christmas from the bottom of our hearts!"

Christmas Performances

After a tearful dash from the stage of the nursing home the night before, Alyssa recovered to perform a cute Christmas dance at an elementary school assembly....

It's almost Christmas!!!

Wow, what happened to Thanksgiving! It all went by too fast.... Here are some pics from mom's house at Thanksgiving, pics of Alyssa's first singing recital, and a birthday party for friends, Paige and Paris....

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Elf Yourself this Christmas! Or maybe your inlaws????

Maybe not such a good idea to do to your inlaws (unless they have a good sense of humor like mine), but I know your kids will love it.  They have a few more options this year with the dances.... Lots of fun!!!!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Ice Skating

We had a pretty easy-going weekend!  Love those.  Football banquet on Friday... Zack and Paul went to the BYU game on Saturday while Alyssa and I went to see Madagascar 2 and then we took Alyssa ice skating for the first time.  We all looked like first-timers.  We all had fun though.  Forgot the real camera, so these are from Paul's crackberry.  

Halloween

Zack and Alyssa at Halloween Party at church...
Zack was some sort of Mafia guy.... Alyssa refused to wear her butterfly costume to the church party. She made up her own..... whatever...

I actually dressed up to hand out candy and see if I could scare a few kids.... but I forgot it was my turn to take Alyssa trick-or-treating. I got to embarass myself at every house. The most embarassing part was when they'd ask me if I wanted candy.... do I look that desparate?

Pre-School Trunk or Treat

Two "Trunk-or-Treats" plus Trick-or-Treating = way too much candy! Alyssa's Pre-School Program was cute. She actually sang this year, so that's a big improvement, although she wouldn't put her hood on for her butterfly costume.... One thing at a time I guess....

Zack's 7th Grade Pic

October has flown by... Been busy, but not sure what I've been doing :-). Looking forward to posting some Halloween pics later this week, but in the meantime, here's Zack's 7th Grade Picture. What a stud! He'll be even cuter when those braces come off in a few months!

Soccer Pics

Alyssa's Soccer Picture - Fall 2008

Click to Enlarge

Play Date!

We have great friends that we made at Taylor Dance Studio last year.  Looking forward to many more play dates!  Thanks for coming over!

This is my first post from the mac!  Hopefully it turns out!

 Counter-Clockwise from the left: Samuel, Eva, Alyssa, Paige, Paris and Drew

Fall Day at the Zoo!

I'm so happy I can post these pictures. My camera went missing right after our day at the Zoo and I was so convinced it was lost, I was preparing myself to buy a new camera. I'm stoked that I found it, but a little bummed that I don't need a new camera. There are some pretty cool ones that I was looking at.... I guess my b-day and Christmas aren't too far away.
We are having beautiful weather, but it's supposed to cool down and get rainy towards the weekend. Soccer will rain-out, but football will play during blizzards, so no free Saturday for us.
Back to the main topic. My friend Brittni and I took our girls to the zoo last Thursday. Alyssa loves Paige and Paris. Brittni's friends, Sarah and Chris, came too. The adult-kid ratio was just right :-). I love fall..... I wish it could be this nice year-around.

Soccer!!

It's been a few weeks since I've posted. Our Saturdays are full of soccer and football. Alyssa is doing better at soccer and actually tries to kick the ball during the game. She's a quick little runner, but doesn't always know what to do when she gets to the ball. She loves being a part of a team and wearing the uniform. Here's a preview of the team pic. The coach looks mean in this picture, but he's a very nice dad who deals with the girls very well. To remember their names is a feat in itself (Alyssa, Ashley, April, Alysha, Emma, Ella, Haylie and McKenna) and to get them to run a drill is like herding cats -- near impossible. But they look cute and have fun, so that's all that matters, right?

Holy Snake!

Because my sister Carey doesn't have her own blog (it's really easy, Carey, you should try it), I wanted to post this "blog-worthy" picture and related story. Carey lives in Rancho Murieta, outside of Sacramento. It's a gated golf community several miles outside of the city. They have beautiful trails and lakes and open areas. They also have alot of wild life, like this little rattler that found its way into her kitchen. She thought it was a regular garden snake and called her husband who told her to pick it up with tongs.... yes, TONGS! Luckily my sister called her smart friends and they told her to call the community security guard who was there in two minutes.... Thankfully everyone was okay, but those baby rattlers are more dangerous than the mommies and the daddies... That just goes to show.... when in doubt call your friends....not your husband :-)

Saturday Afternoon Lights(?)

Saturdays are now all about football and soccer. Alyssa's soccer took a break for the holiday weekend, but football started and won't stop until end of October/November. Zack is #51 and plays Defensive End & Corner and something else on Offense.... I know, I know... I should probably know what all the positions my kid plays. But you gotta give me credit for knowing some of the positions... When I cheered in High School, Denise's dad had to sit in the stands with signs that said, "Defense" and "Offense" so we knew what cheers to do. In our defense, we couldn't see over the sidelines to know what was really going on. My excuse today is that I'm taking Alyssa back and forth to the restrooms. At least we had beautiful 97 degree weather and the snow won't start for at least another couple weeks ;-)

And they're off....

The carpool just picked up Zack for his first real day of Middle School. He went last Thursday for a half-day with just the 7th graders, but everyone will be there today. It will be 100 degrees in Sandy today and Albion has no air conditioning and no windows. It is a big brick box. Whoever designed Utah schools in the 1970's was stupid.

I'm sitting here stressing about if I sent him with enough water and if I emphasized enough to him that he's responsible for writing everything down. He thinks he can remember things without writing it in his notebooks. I sometimes get those waiters who think they can memorize your order instead of writing it down. Zack makes me nervous in the same way, but instead of screwing up my dinner he's going to forget assignments and cause his academic downfall for the rest of his life.... okay, maybe not that dramatic.

I couldn't find a picture of his first day of kindergarden (did I own a digital camera then?). The closest I could find was the last day of first grade. The effect is still them same though... Just wanted to show you how much he's grown....

GGW 2008

Nope... it's not Girls Gone Wild... Almost though... It was my annual get together with my girlfriends from high school (Gilroy Girls Weekend) last weekend. Terri was so sweet to have us up to her family's "cabin" in Truckee. From the pics you can see that it was a luxurious house that could have fit at least 10 more people. We had a blast catching up and lounging pool side. I'm so lucky to have friends that go so far back. We missed Denise, as she was helping her sister in the delivery room in Sac all weekend. Thanks for the fabulous weekend!

Lizzie and Kim eating yummy Guac!

The Great Room where we cheered for Michael Phelps!

Kimmie, I think that deer wants a kiss!

I think we look like we just graduated from High School yesterday :-) (not almost 20 yrs ago)!

Hot, Hot, Hot

Alyssa and I went to visit my mom in La Quinta. Originally it was supposed to be an "after surgery" trip, but the doctors postponed mom's surgery until September, so Alyssa and I went anyway.... It was only 107 - 108 degrees while we were there (unseasonably pleasant?!?!) so we had a lot of fun in the pool.