Trunk or Treat

Our ward held their Trunk or Treat on Tuesday night.. For those that might not know what this is... We park our cars in the parking lot of our church and the kids trick or treat from car to car. I love seeing the creative ways people decorate their cars. It was a great night. It started off with a chili cook off. Mike made his delicious chili and entered it into the contest. We couldn't believe how many crock pots of chili showed up. I don't think I have ever seen so much chili in one place in my life :). Unfortunately Mike didn't win... but we took the empty pot as a sign that his chili was well liked.

The kids had a blast "trunk" or treating. They scored too. Having so much candy in the house is not helping my diet plan. Those darned sweet tarts.

Eberly went as Athena; Ever since watching Percy Jackson she has been very into Greek Mythology. She is now reading the Percy Jackson series and LOVING it.

Katie went as a "retired" angel. Let me explain. She wanted to be an angel for Halloween. But seeing how PICKY she is... finding a white angel costume that she liked, and that wasn't $30, was next to impossible. Then I found these cute blue angel wings with matching skirt. She LOVED it. But since angels wear white.. she said that she is retired.

Sara went as a vampire. Not really sure why she wanted to be a vampire. My mom had found this cape when she was going through her fabric. Sara saw it and HAD to be a vampire.

Jimmy went as a wizard. Again.. Not sure where the idea came from. But it was an easy costume. I found the cute wizard hat in the dollar bin at Target!

Thanks to my Mom for making Eberly and Jimmy's costume. My kids would have gone as ghosts if she hadn't stepped in.

Happy Halloween.

Light the Night

Every year Crimestoppers puts on a 5k run. It is apparently a pretty big competition among different police departments to see who can get the most participants. Mike, Katie and I decided to participate this year. I was very nervous...1. I haven't been very good at running lately. 2. I went to a concert the night before. 3. I had to run 2 booths at the Halloween Carnival that same day. I honestly didn't know how I was going to have the energy to do it. So I told myself that I would just walk it. I would let Katie and Mike run it.

We got there..after sitting in a ton of traffic. I had NO clue what a big event this was. I swear every cop in the city, that wasn't working, was there. It was awesome. We signed in, got our nifty glow in the dark t-shirts and got ready to...walk :)

Well we started at almost the end of the pack. It was just so crowded. Once we passed the starting line everyone started to thin out. My Katie was ready to go and to my surprise so was I. So I actually started running and I was able to keep up with Mike and Katie...for a little while. I could see that I was slowing my poor Katie Kat down so I let her and Mike go on up running 3/4 of the race. I only walked for about 1/4 of it. I was so proud of myself. But I was more proud of my little girl. She ran the 5k in 40 minutes! (I came in at 43). We figured out she came in 9th place for girls in her age category. SOOOO proud of her.

It turned out being a great night. I did way better than I thought would. I thought it would take me 2 hours to walk the thing. Not only did we support a good cause but it has motivated all three of us to get working and beat our time next year. In the words of Katie "I'm gonna kick their butts next year."

Slacking

So I keep on saying that I am going to keep up on my blogging. It just hasn't happened. I am going to make an early New Years Resolution. I think it is so important to journal what is happening in our lives. With how busy our lives are it is easy to forget..even the small things. So this is it. This is my goal. I am going to stay up on my blog. Wish me luck...

Day 3 - Grow A Garden

Today is Day 3 of the 77 Days of Summer GROW A GARDEN... Well, if you saw yesterday's post we went on a 4 mile hike. The kids were completely EXHAUSTED from their hike. They had no desire to do any gardening whatsoever. Can't say that I blame them. On top of that Jimmy also has bronchitis and Eberly was spending then night at a friend's house. So we decided to move onto Day 4...HAVE A READING CONTEST! What a great way to spend the day when you are exhausted. We changed it up a bit though...Instead of doing the number of books we read..we are doing the number of pages. I thought this would make the contest a little more fair since Jimmy's books are only a handful of pages and Eberly's are just slightly longer :) When the kids finish a book they will let me know and we will record it. I will also take this time to discuss the book with them to make sure they really read it :) I will keep you posted how they are doing. I think I am going to join this contest too.

Day 2 - Treasure Hunt

Today is Day 2 of the 77 days of summer. Today was HAVE A TREASURE HUNT! I decided to change it up a bit. We did a Treasure Hike instead. Mike, Katie and Jim are going to Little Lakes Valley in a few weeks. They really wanted to test out Katie's shoes and backpack and to see if she could handle a hike. So we went on a hike together as a family at Daley Ranch in Escondido. We hiked about 4 miles. We had a fantastic time. And yes...we did find some treasures along the way....pretty flowers, great views, lakes, a tarantula halk, snake trails and yes...coyote poop..and lots of it. We had so much fun. Even little Jimmy who has bronchitis did a great job. This hike had a lot of hills too. I was really proud of them.

77 Days of Summer

Yes.. I am finally blogging again. My mother in law has a fantastic list of 77 things to do over the summer. http://www.gingerproffitt.com/res_list.php?cat=13536&cn=77+Days+of+Summer+Fun I have decided that I am going to try and follow this list..as closely as I can. I may have to arrange things here and there.. but I will give it a shot.. Today is HAVE A PAJAMA DAY!!! Yep... It is noon and we are all still in our pajamas. I have accomplished a lot today while still being very comfortable... I have worked (from home of course), done dishes, done about 5 loads of laundry, vacuumed, cleaned the bathroom, made my bed. I think we need to have more pajama days.

Merry Christmas!

What a wonderful Christmas! We had a great time Christmas Eve with my mom. My Aunt came from Hawaii. We had a wonderful night. Christmas was just as wonderful. Got to spend the afternoon with my wonderful in-laws! Dinner was FABULOUS!!!! I absolutely LOVE the holidays. I love spending time with all my loved ones! I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family. I am also SO blessed to have married into a wonderful family. Love you all! Happy Holidays!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Primary Program

Sunday was our primary program. As always it was fantastic. The kids were ecstatic to have Grammy and Nana come and watch them. Eberly talked about how she can show love to her family by helping her brother and sisters when they get hurt. Katie talked about how she feels when she gets promptings from The Holy Ghost. Sara talked about how happy we were in Heaven but Heavenly Father wanted more for us.. and Jimmy.. Good old Jimmy. He was asked to respond to the question "What makes your family happy"? The other kids said things like "my family is happy when.. we pray together, when we go to church, when we have family home evening.." Not Jimmy. "My family is happy when we go out to dinner." What more can I say?

Hidden blessing of the day 9-4-09

So as you may have read in my previous blog.. I am trying to find and write down a blessing in my life every day.. But I am making it a "non-obvious" blessing. One that might take a little thinking to figure out....So here is my hidden blessing of the day....

Mike is REALLY sick..fever, sore throat, cough.. (hopefully not the piggy flu :).....
Anyways.... he came home from work early last. Hard to imagine where I can find a blessing in this right...We all know that when men are sick it is just like having another child. Well my hidden blessing is that I don't have to sleep alone tonight! :) Mike works grave yards and since he will be calling in sick tonight I won't be lonely....

Finding the good in small things

I was laying in bed last night thinking... Why do I do that? Why do I always think when I REALLY need to be sleeping? anyways.... I am trying to be a more positive thinker these days. Facebook has been a real eye opener for me. You get a sense of everyones' good days and bad. It has made me realized that EVERYONE struggles in one way or the other.
Well I have decided that it is time to find the blessings in the small things in life. I am not talking about the obvious ones; (friends, family... etc) I am talking about the little things. So I am going to write about one blessing every day. I think it is going to be a great way to keep up my positive thinking... Here is an example of one of thought about last night...
Last week we took the kids swimming. There is one blessing right there.. Yes it has been 100 degrees for the last week. BUT if it wasn't hot we couldn't have enjoyed an afternoon at the pool :)
Anyways.. back to my thought....Mike and I were lying on the lounge chairs when all of a sudden we heard this LOUD thunk! No.. it wasn't an earthquake.. No it wasn't a boulder falling down a hill... It was my poor Eberly falling "up" the rock stairs up to the slide. When I realized that the "thunk" I heard was Eberly hitting the rock I was pretty panicked. She hit her chin and her shin very hard on the stairs. I know I know.. where is the blessing in this right? Here is where I feel blessed... she hit HARD!.... Did she need stitches? NOPE! Did she lose any teeth or crack any? NO! Did she have any brain damage? NO! Did she have a good size bruise and gash on her leg and chin? YES! But compared to what could have happened... I will take it! This is my finding the good in small things :)