A Day in the life of.......

Grandma and Grandpa Honeycutt Visit and San Diego

2010-12-23T08:02:00.000-08:00

Last week Travis held a Christmas Party for his team in San Diego so mom and dad hopped on a plane to California while Grandma and Grandpa Honeycutt held down the fort with the kids in Arizona.

Reece had his preschool Christmas party and Grandma and Grandpa helped out in the classroom. Nineteen 4 year olds building gingerbread houses--Mrs. Hylton is one brave teacher! The kids had a blast.

A little soccer playing

Pillow fighting

My parents flew in Monday afternoon so after Family Home Evening Monday night we made Santa Hats. You take a sugar cone and dip it in melted red chocolate and turn it upside down on to a scoop of ice cream. Add a little whipped cream and there you have it.

Meanwhile in San Diego while Travis was busy working I was busy doing a whole lot of nothing. I didn't really feel up to shopping or too much sightseeing but enjoyed relaxing in the hotel reading and was able to go for a run outside as well. It was a nice short getaway.

Travis had a dinner for the district one night and it was fun to meet everyone and put some faces to some names.

We did manage to sneak in one sightseeing expedition to the USS Midway which was really cool.

Funny how I was only away from the kids for a few days but I was ready to get back home. I think that I also was wanting to visit with my parents more since they were in Arizona without me. They flew in Monday, Travis and I flew to Cali Tuesday-home Thursday and parents flew back to Utah Saturday so it all went really fast. On Friday we were all together and went to dinner and see some Christmas lights and I really enjoyed having my parents here. It's always fun to see them come and hard to let them go back home.

It's beginning to Look a lot like Christmas......

2010-12-06T21:41:00.000-08:00

Christmas is definitely my favorite time of year. It comes and goes too quickly.

Here we are trimming the tree but the tree topper doesn't fit on top of the tree in our new home. Oops.

Mom is the official ornament hander outer. And everyone helps decorate the tree. I'm definitely not one of those moms that has to do it all myself to make it look all perfect. If there are 15 ornaments on the same branch and the kids are happy then that is okay by me.

Ornaments are super special in our family. Every year the kids get to pick their own new ornament and whenever we go on vacation we always try to find christmas ornaments of the place we are visiting and then that way when we pull out all our christmas stuff we can also remember the fun things we did on different vacations.

Reece found his "My First Christmas Ornament" and is excited to find a special place for it.

Here is Landon with his Mickey mouse ears ornament he picked from our 2008 Walt Disney World Trip. It is a oversized locket and very cool.

Reece found a monkey surfing on our 2009 Oahu, Hawaii trip

Here is Dayton's Walt Disney World ornament that he decided to put his name on. (At the time I got upset about that) Now every year when we pull out this ornament everyone says. "Oh, Dayton here is your ornament, remember how you put your name on it and mom got so upset about that." Ya, kids never forget.

A new one to the tree this year from our Spring Break Sedona trip

Homemade ornaments are also some of my favorites

Here is a rudolph snowman/reindeer one that Reece made just yesterday.

Dayton's version of a snowman

Mom and Dad's Maui Hawaii trip turtle ornament 2010

Every mom loves picture ornaments. Here is Dayton as a baby.

Sadie's pick from Oahu 2009 (okay she was only 1 year old but mom was sure she would love this one)

I've always loved the idea of Advent calendars but haven't ever found one that I loved so I decided to make my own.

I made it with envelopes with days of the month on the outside, inside is an activity that we can do as a family to countdown until christmas. There is also a silver snowflake ornament that as we countdown we can put a new ornament on the tree.

Reece's homemade paper chain necklace for the little tree

Dayton's version of the appropriate tree topper

Stockings are hung by the chimney with care..

We are ready for Christmas.......

Just for fun

2010-11-30T08:21:00.000-08:00

Why was I not surprised when I was inside and I heard a loud "MOM!!!" and I walked out and found this.

Followed by, "I was getting my balloon"

Then later that day I saw this. Can you see it? A lovely sticky hand thingy magigger stuck on my ceiling in the most convenient place.

That's okay because after getting the mail and noticing that Dayton has been approved for his first credit card I felt better. Can wait to rack this thing up then call the company and tell them he is 8 years old. Too bad for them.

What does Dayton need a credit card for anyway. He is too busy rollerblading and finding dead, smooshed snakes to scrape up with his stick and bring home to show mom. "Nice honey, that's just lovely."

Don't you love it when you tell your kids to go to bed and they tell you they aren't tired and then later you find them asleep on the stairs.

Reece is out cold.

How about a game of twister.....except we can't find the spinner

So we make our own move ideas like "left bum cheek on yellow" and "head on red"

One day we got hungry and called Wendy's to deliver some food. You didn't know they delivered? Well, maybe just for us.

Directly in front of our house.

Kids hopped the fence to get the free Frosty coupons.

(sorry about the terrible picture, camera battery dying)

Dad has no idea what we do when he is out of town. Mom didn't want to sleep in her room all alone so we had a sleepover, on a school night. We are so rebellious.

Kids. Loved. It.

Maybe too much.

Mom in vain: "Guys you need to go to sleep"

Don't be fooled, they only pretended to be asleep.

Sadie: "My brothers don't wear shirts to bed so why should I?"

Mom: "Ummmmmm, I'll explain later. Like 12 years from now."

Good night my babies. Sleep tight.

Thanksgiving in Utah!

2010-11-27T08:20:00.000-08:00

We decided to pull the kids out of school and make the 10 hour drive to visit family. It was worth the effort. We rolled into Grandma and Grandpa's house about Midnight Saturday but first thing Sunday morning Reece and the others were out playing in the snow.

Dayton built about 3 snowmen in Grandma and Grandpa's yard.

Sadie wanted in on the action so big brother Landon helped her make a snowman.

After church we all met over at Aunt Tami's house for icecream Sundaes. Here I am with all of my nieces and nephews (except Courtney). The kids definitely love playing with their cousins and I wish we could more often. We try to make it to Utah at least twice a year but that just isn't enough.

Travis and Erica with Tami's baby Shae

From left to right my brother Travis, Kyle, sister in law Camille, my dad and my brother in law Chris.

It's always a full household when we get together. 14 adults and 13 kids.

Here is my cute mom and my brother Kyle

The next day we decided to make the drive up North and visit Travis's grandmother Peterson. She is in her 80's yet is still such a mover. We took her to lunch at the Golden Corral (one of her favorites) and we just laughed when she kept wrapping up leftovers in her napkin to bring home to her dog. It was a great visit.

Have I mentioned yet that it was super cold in Utah so we opted for an inside activity and headed to the local rollerskating rink. I use to hang out here a lot growing up. Grandma even gave it a whirl around the rink a few times.

They rink lets kids ride scooters around the rink too so Landon and cousin Amberly opted for that.

Sadie also had a scooter but needed help from mom to make it around the rink.

Reece on the other hand has been riding a scooter for years and was happy to show off to Grandma and Grandpa and all his cousins his mad skillz.

Dayton is pretty awesome on the rollerblades

Cousin Amberly Phillips (same age as Landon)

Landon

Cousin Skyler

Sadie gave up the scooter and decided to hitch a ride on mom's hip for some more roller rink action.

Travis rollerbladed too but for some reason I don't have any pictures but I know I have video so I'll have to post that up when I get an extra minute.

Thanksgiving morning we were up early and driving to Travis's parents house for the big feast. They live about 3 hours away from my parents so we usually split our time when we are in Utah. I didn't get any pictures of the actual dinner? I guess we were more focused on the face stuffing. Rest assured it was delicious. Travis's mom is a fabulous cook.

The Day after Thanksgiving Travis and his brother Ben and Landon and Dayton headed out to find some rabbits. (My apologies little bunnies)

The amount of ammo and weapon arsenal needed is mind boggling to me. But when you have miles and miles of open space (what I refer to as BFE) it's a great place to test out your fire power.

Travis is pretty cute and looks tough with all those guns.

After the hunting expedition there was more snow play.

Sadie is so cute.

Dayton testing out the tree.

Cousin Brody and Reece were inseparable the whole visit. They played hard for 3 days straight.

Aunt Kelli and Dayton on the other hand had a serious rivalry going on that would commence each evening when we played cards together. (wink, wink)

Cousin Tannice is sad here because her and Sadie played lots and lots but when it was time for a picture Sadie wouldn't have anything to do with it. Poor Tannice. :)

All the cousins on Travis's side.

Even the oldest cousin of all Braden.

Overall it was a great trip.

Not pictured was also shopping, some running, plenty of eating, movie going, and lots of visiting.

We have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving and at all times of the year.

Pumpkins and Halloween Fun

2010-11-09T09:07:00.000-08:00

Friday afternoon Travis flew in from California and I had plans for the family to go to the pumpkin patch but getting in the car and driving there would have been too easy. We like to make life exciting and complicate things a bit more so we decided to have the water heater leak all over the garage. Of course we did this while dad was out of town so mom had to call Grandpa Honeycutt (my dad) in Utah and ask him how to shut it off. Travis wasn't answering his phone after several calls! Work schmurk--I'm having an emergency here!

Anyway, mom was a little bummed by the water heater drama because miraculously Landon and Dayton didn't have a football game this week and so that meant a FREE SATURDAY!? What? I've never heard of this? What do people do? So when the water heater went out and Trav said he needed to replace it I thought REPLACE WATER HEATER is what was going to do with our FREE day. But to my utter amazement Travis took out the old water heater, slapped in the new one and was done in no less than 20 minutes! He is the MAN!

So we were off to THE PUMPKIN PATCH! Old Navy? Naturally the water heater being done so quickly was not exciting enough so when we were about 20 minutes into our drive to the pumpkin patch Dayton pipes up with a "Mom! I forgot my shoes!" Nice.

So we made a quick detour and stopped at the closest store which happened to be Old Navy and I ran in and bought him these. I told Dayton he had to pay me for them because he has a habit of always forgetting everything (helmet for football, homework for school) and I wanted to teach him to be more responsible so I wouldn't have to always bail him out. I told him they cost $37 dollars :)

We finally arrived at the Pumpkin Patch?

They had some steer roping the kids practiced on.

They also had horse rides

Reece was ready to race and was a little annoyed with the guy leading the horse.

Sadie wasn't quite sure what to think. She liked petting the horse but was a little unsure what to do riding it.

Here we are getting ready to take the hayride out to the pumpkin patch.

And here is the Pumpkin Patch? NOT! False Advertising. It was disappointing that it wasn't an actual pumpkin patch and that they just had pumpkins piled up. Kids were a bit disappointed too as we have always have gone to a REAL patch and cut our pumpkins off the vine ourselves or gotten them out of our gardens. Landon and Dayton kept saying "If we were still in Colorado we would have tons of pumpkins just in our backyard"

I have to admit I was pretty homesick too for old friends and family and past traditions but tried to put on a happy face anyway. Landon and Dayton chose the biggest pumpkins there.

Sadie was definitely the cutest pumpkin in the patch.

They had a petting zoo there so the kids thought that was fun.

When we got home we went into the carving part. Reece and mom had this brilliant idea (that I promise I didn't steal from anyone) to put marshmallows in for the smile (wink wink--evil laughing). Isn't it cute? Reece did say if he didn't like how the marshmallows looked he would have to take them out and eat them. Guess what got eaten?

Landon and Dayton each made scary faces and if you can believe it I didn't get a picture of their pumpkins? Oops-my bad. It was about 11:30 at night and I'm guessing I was in zombie mode by then. Overall it was a fun night even though there were some bumps along the way.

The next night we had Trunk or Treat at the church which was somewhat weak but the kids were happy with the candy and even though Halloween was on Sunday this year Landon and Dayton and Reece hit our little neighborhood for more candy. Apparently I am a loser mom this year as I missed getting pictures of the kiddos in their costumes--who does that? Oh ya, me. Landon was a zombie, Dayton was a ninja, Reece was Batman one night and The Hulk the next night and Sadie was Dumbo the Elephant. Mom was a witch and dad wore his lovely mullet wig.

It was a fun weekend.

Wednesdays

2010-10-27T23:10:00.000-07:00

Most of you that follow my family blog know that my husband travels often for his job. Like every week. He is usually gone during the middle of the week, Tuesday-Thursday. I usually have two parts of my day. The part where the older kids are at school and I'm home with the two little ones and the part when the older kids get home from school. Well today I want to talk about the 2nd part of my day, specifically Wednesday. Anyway Travis happened to be home this Wednesday and at 3:30 he said the FUNNIEST thing.

To quote he said: "So we don't have anything tonight do we?"

I actually LAUGHED OUT LOUD.

My reply:
"As soon as kids get home in 10 minutes we need to get on homework"
I continue: "From 4:30-5:30 I will be taking Dayton to scouts and helping the scout leader with their activity"
"At 5:30-6:30 you need to take Reece to soccer practice and you'll need to take Sadie with you."
"When I get back from Dayton scouts at 5:45 I'll pick up Landon and take him to his scout meeting that's from 6pm-7pm, but you'll have to pick him up at 7pm because I have a meeting at the church that is at 6:30-7pm so I won't be back in time. Oh ya, you will also need to grab Seth (friend) while you are getting Landon and just bring him to our house and his mom will pick him up at our house because she won't be able to be here until about 7:15"
He inserts:
"When do we eat?"
I reply:
"We will eat at when I get home from my meeting, around 7:30 and then I'll start on homework and you can get ready for your church meeting that is at 8:30 and I'll get the kids in bed."
His reply:
"I just remembered I need to go out of town suddenly"
My reply:
"(laughing) Ya! welcome to my life"

10 minutes are up, kids are home from school, ---Ready Go!

What actually happened.

Everything that I was suppose to do went off without a hitch.

Dad's part?? Well.....

Reece made it to soccer but without shin guards or a water bottle (sort of important when your going to be running for an hour)

Dad did pick up Landon and Seth from scouts but instead of bringing Seth to our house where his mom was going to pick him up he dropped Seth off at his house, where nobody was home, and drove off without waiting to see if Seth got in the house okay, which he didn't, and was left outside, in the dark, waiting on the curb, for his mom to get home.

Of course Travis realized his mistake immediately when Seth's mom showed up at our house to get Seth and Seth was not there and she immediately jumped back into her car and sped home and Travis was left thinking ......oh crap. After several phone calls, (Travis calling to apologize, me calling to apologize) I'm happy to report Seth is just fine and hopefully not permanently scarred for life.

On the way home from my meeting I called Travis to make sure he wasn't screwing everything up check in and let him know I was going to grab a pizza for dinner. (I didn't know anything about the Seth incident at this point)

His reply: "Oh, I've got dinner cooking just grab some milk from the store."
My response: "Really? Wow, how nice. Okay cool, see you in a minute"

Getting home with milk and $65 worth of other "stuff" (that always happens right?). Kitchen is a BOMB. Kids are finishing up the last of the chicken nuggets.
Me thinking: "How in the heck is the kitchen this messy from making chicken nuggets?"
Travis says, "What can I make you? I had no idea the kids ate so much and they ate all the food and there isn't anything left for you (as he is finishing eating my salad from Paradise Bakery that I had for lunch and was saving the rest for later)."
It's 8:00 at night, I'm tired, I'm hungry....Travis has a meeting to go to.
My reply: "I'm fine, I'll find something"
I'm thinking: "Seriously could have been eating pizza right now (with my leftover salad) and had a clean kitchen"
Travis leaves for meeting and I finish up homework, clean kitchen and get kids in bed. Travis rolls in at 10:30 pm and is exhausted.
Travis asks, "You do this by yourself when I'm gone?"
My reply, "Ya, today was easy"

For the record, I would NEVER EVER want to do his job. Way more than I could ever handle but it is sometimes nice when he realizes my job is hard too.

You are of worth, of Infinite Worth

2010-10-05T16:46:00.000-07:00

Today as I listened to this song by Miley Cyrus I reflected on a recent experience I had.

"I can almost see it

That dream I am dreaming

But there's a voice inside my head saying

"You'll never reach it"

Every step I'm taking

Every move I make feels

Lost with no direction

My faith is shaking

I was at the mall a few days ago in a popular store. There were several teenage girls there with their mothers and the girls were picking out and trying on dresses for the upcoming Homecoming Dance at the local high schools.

I look forward to the day when I can take my own daughter shopping and have "girl time" together. Unfortunately the feelings I had while in this store were so opposite of what they should have been.

The dresses that these beautiful girls were trying on were so inappropriate for who they are. I was crying inside. I watched these girls try on dresses that were too short, too tight, too skimpy and too "grown up". I also watched the mother's acting more like peers than parents.

My heart was breaking.

I was quiet on the outside but on the inside I was screaming!!

I wanted to take the girls in my arms and shake them and say:

"Do you know that you are worth so much more than what that dress shows you as?

Do you know how valuable you are?

Do you know that you are already beautiful and you don't have to wear things that diminish that beauty.

You are of worth! Of INFINITE worth!"

Parenting isn't a popularity contest.

Our children deserve so much more than that.

Call me old fashioned but I still believe it is a parent's responsibility to teach and rear their children and parents will be held accountable for the way they do or don't do this.

Why did these mother's approve of their daughters wearing things that take away from their true beauty and show them as objects rather than self confident, strong, respected, beautiful young women that they are?

It is easy to be discouraged. It's easy to think that morals and values are out of date, out of style and things of a past world, a different time--- but they aren't.

Instilling morals and values in our children and in our society are more important than ever. I think about the heartache that comes when you dismiss it too easily.

Society likes to teach if you restrict, discipline or "preach" too much than you are limiting your children and crushing "who they are" and it labels you as being "close minded."

I say if you are too open minded your brain falls out.

If you don't restrict some things for your children then natural consequences of actions (teen pregnancy, drug addiction, lost opportunity from failing grades etc.) will restrict your child for you.

If you don't preach to your children about the things you feel are important who will? I'll tell you who will--peers, media-including TV shows-music and lyrics--magazines etc., society, popular trends of the day, and anyone else they come in contact with.

There is a lot of good in the world. More good than bad.

But I gotta keep trying

Gotta keep my head held high

There's always gonna be another mountain

I'm always gonna wanna make it move

Always gonna be a uphill battle

Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose

Ain't about how fast I get there

Ain't about what's waiting on the other side

It's the climb

The struggles I'm facing

The chances I'm taking

Sometimes might knock me down

But no, I'm not breaking

I think this song can be applied to parenting. There are always going to be things we as parents want for our children. Sometimes it will be an uphill battle, sometimes we are going to lose. Sometimes we might get knocked down but we can't break. We have to keep trying. Always trying. We have to be strong. Push on.

The one part of the song I disagree with is where she says "Ain't about what's waiting on the other side" because it is EXACTLY about what is on the other side. We have a goal for our children and we have to keep our "eye on the prize." We cannot let our view get skewed with all the distractions in the path. We have been entrusted with these precious children and the responsibility is ours. We can do it.

I may not know it

But these are the moments that

I'm gonna remember most, yeah

Just gotta keep going

And I, I got to be strong

Just keep pushing on"

6 Months Later.....

2010-09-12T22:02:00.000-07:00

It's been Six months since we moved from Colorado to Phoenix so I thought I would jot down some thoughts and maybe check back again in six months to see if anything has changed.

* It doesn't seem "real" that we are living here yet, it seems like a long trip.
* I miss my church in Erie. Our church here has a lot of nice people but I feel somewhat of a disconnect still. Today the ward was split and I'm hoping this will help to have a smaller ward. We live next to HUGE churches with congregations of over 30,000 people. How the heck would their leader meet their needs? It seems nuts to me.
* Landon and Dayton were more of the "bigger fish in smaller pond in Colorado whereas now they are the smaller fish in a big pond" They are fitting in well and have made some friends but still need more. Reece has thrived in the preschool here and has a best buddy next door.
* Football here is nuts compared to Colorado and I thought Colorado football was nuts. We LOVE it here though. Actually there are tons more sports programs and lots of options to choose from. Most things also go year round.
* I've become more of a recluse here. It's been 6 months and haven't had one party yet? WHAT! I keep telling myself to have people over but then I don't.
* Love the Elementary school here. Good programs but keeps the kids super busy. Landon is in the Gifted and Talented program here like he was in Colorado but is finding it more challenging here. The teacher hands out a lot more homework and I think expects a lot more. Dayton especially is thriving a lot more here than in Erie and has an excellent teacher this year-YAY!
* Preschool is more expensive, along with speeding tickets, car insurance and ELECTRICITY!
*I love having more stores, entertainment, church, and school close by. BUT I need to stop eating out so much cause I'm getting fat :) It is too convenient.
* Monsoon's are awesome and apparently it's been a mild season.
*It's hot in the summer (duh) but it's bearable. Everyone just goes out of town in the summer. I can do that.
* I loved my Colorado house more but I love my Phoenix backyard more.
* Travis travels a little less here but still quite a bit. At least he gets paid more :)
*As my kids get a little older I find myself wondering about what I want to be when I grow up. I don't think I'll be satisfied being at home by myself when they are in school all day. I'm starting to look at different options.
*Starting a running blog has been fun to connect with others who share that interest and to read about their triumphs and challenges.
* My kids will have a lot of opportunities here. Excellent schools, excellent music teachers, excellent extra curricular activities and a lot of kids and families around that share our values.
* We will live less than 5 miles from a new Temple! Our church building is next door. Huge blessing.
* I miss my friends in Erie and Parker a lot. I had a lot of friends, especially in Erie, who shared my same passions and I haven't found those here yet---but I will!

After moving as much as I have I know things just take time but I'm not very patient. I know I have to put myself out there and make it happen but sometimes wouldn't it be nice if it just showed up on my doorstep?

Not such a huge exciting post. More for my benefit than anyone else's, but thanks for following along.

Labor Day Weekend

2010-09-08T18:29:00.000-07:00

You'll never guess where we started off Labor Day weekend at! FOOTBALL GAMES! It was awesome and I can't believe I didn't take any pictures :( What a lame mom I am. I'll get some next time. I was too busy cheering I didn't think about it. Landon's game was first and they creamed the opponent 34-0. Dayton's team followed up with their own smack down delivery with a win of 40-0. It's sort of brutal to watch when the score is so one sided but we have been on the other side of the smack down our fare share so I was excited to start off the weekend with wins. Dayton was especially loving it as this was his first football game ever. He is tight end and we noticed he loves to "lay people out". He is a brick wall. It is hard for me to even lift him anymore. He couldn't get enough.

Anyway, after football we lunched then loaded the mini for our quick trip up north to Sedona. We have heard this is a great close place to get away and we were excited to relax and get away together. Reece is always excited whenever we get to stay in a hotel. He thinks it's the coolest thing.

When we got to the Hotel we had two adjoining rooms reserved but they didn't have two rooms that adjoined waiting for us. They had upgraded one of the rooms to a suite (nice thought) but in so doing made it so we had two rooms on different floors--! Umm, this doesn't work when you have little's under the age of 10 unless mom and dad split up which was not in the plan. Anyway they eventually found us two rooms together but they didn't adjoin. Anyway, not ideal but whatever. To "make up" for their well intended screw up they gave us free breakfast so the kiddos took full advantage complete with hot chocolate.

Landon being a goof

Reecer man's best attempt at whip cream mustache

mmmmmmm Bacon!

and chocolate covered marshmallows? Yes, they had a chocolate fountain at the breakfast buffet. All in the family partook except yours truly because nothing says gag like chocolate marshmallows first thing in the morning. Dayton took a plate and was sneaking it back to our room and mom and dad were teasing that he was going to get in big trouble for that so he is trying to hide it.

After picture Travis said "Why are you taking a picture of me eating yogurt? Is that exciting? Me: Maybe"

So after breakfast we did some of this

Sightseeing in Sedona

And some of this

Hot tubbing in Sedona, too cold to swim, it was in the 90's, brrr (just kidding, we swam too)

Some shopping

Sadie put this hat on first thing when we went in the store so naturally we HAD to buy it. I love girl shopping!

And too much eating

Dayton was really excited the restaraunt left all that crap (you know, tomato, lettuce, pickle) off his cheeseburger so he didn't have to scrape it off. SCORE!

We enjoyed some street entertainment

And made some of our own

I liked this mat, and wanted to buy it but everyone else was "too cool" for it. (I'm easily entertained)

1st night was pure relaxation, we went back to the hotel and watched movies. Home Alone 3 for the kids and 310 to Yuma for mom and dad. It was great.
Monday was the only day we really had anything substantial planned and that was to check out the Slide Rock State Park. According to the latest reviews it was suppose to be a casual but fun outing for "families". So toting our four littles we headed up and to our dismay this is what we found.

Total bummer! Every now and then they have to close the slide because of bacteria. GROSS. The ranger said they test the water every day and this is the 9th time this season they have had to close it. Well, we tried to make the best of it and hiked around a bit.

Dad also found a lizard which is always a hit

He also found this....FREAK

And then we watched (like annoying tourists) as the ranger did this?.......

Do you see the little friend he dumped out of the garbage can? We could sure smell him.

Goodbye little skunk, thanks for the entertainment.

After our "strenuous" hike we had some snacks

Followed by a "photo op". How many camelbacks do you need for a 1 mile hike? It depends on how many kids you have. Our case 4. They loved it.

It was a short quick trip but we had fun getting away together. Happy Labor Day!

A Different Life--Good or Bad?

2010-08-31T12:14:00.000-07:00

When I think about my childhood I have fond memories of playing outside all day long with all the neighborhood kids playing kick the can, no bears out tonight, steal the flag and all sorts of games until mom came out on the deck and yelled for us to come home. Memories of tubing down the canal and getting out at the last second before we went into the Syphon! Rope swinging into the river and playing in the field where we were sure the "devil worshippers" lived. (Not really, we just had big imaginations)
Last Saturday Dayton was at a friends house "hanging out". They swam, they played video games, they ate, tortured his friends sisters but then he told me about something else they did that made me look at Travis and think? WTH? I started laughing out loud at the thought of it.

Remember when you were little and you would "prank" call the boy or girl from school that you thought was cute. Or when you had sleepovers with your friends you would go TP a house and doorbell ditch all the neighbors.

Well Dayton was so excited to tell me all about his little rebellious act of gate calling?! --Seriously--

We live in what I consider a nice home in a gated community. Outside of the gated community there are some REALLY Nice big homes that each have their own gate around their own home. Dayton's friend lives in one of these homes. So instead of the traditional doorbell ditch routine, what they do instead is go push the gate button and run away?! OMGoshers? They are so rebellious.

My kids have a very different life than me or my husband had growing up. No we aren't the Trump's or anything but I worry about their perception of the world.

For example:
According to Landon and Dayton we are the only parents that make their kids do chores! THE HORROR!
They also have to help earn money for the activities they choose to do. Football for example costs around $400 per kid (ridiculous-but that's another story) so they get to help with all the fundraising and after selling, cookies, jewelry, asking for sponsors, selling sport cups, and doing extra jobs guess what? They have earned what we asked them to help with. According to them most the other player's parents chose the "buy out" option. Is it easy to go around with your kids selling all this crap? NO! Would it have been easier to maybe just write a check? Would that have been the best thing? Well, you know my answer to that by what we chose for them to do.

Reece, age 4, is saving his money for a Wii (gasp!, No we don't have one) a unicorn, and a horse. In that order.
Dayton is also saving for the Wii. So far they have around $140. I don't remember when they started saving.
Landon recently got an I-Touch (I won't let him have a phone) that he saved for and bought with his own money. After he got his, his friends mom went and bought one for his friend the next day (nice). I told him he must have chose the wrong parents-he has a rough life.

As parents we work so hard to give our kids the things "we didn't have" when we were kids and yet I often find myself asking if I'm giving them anything at all by doing that.
I wonder if we would all be better off breaking out of these "gated" places, prisons, that we create and choose to live in and go back home by the "devil worshippers" where things were perfectly normal.

Landon and Dayton's new piano teacher!

2010-08-30T21:09:00.000-07:00

Today Landon and Dayton had their first piano lesson with none other than William-Joseph. Seriously?! How cool is that. Of course I made a grand impression seeing as I was only 20 minutes late since I COULD NOT find his house even though I allotted plenty of time. True to form, what can I say, I'm a loser. Hopefully the boys will be back on the piano playing bandwagon in no time. Someday I will treat myself to my own piano lessons but for now I must live vicariously through my children.

Check out William's skills-- I never get tired of hearing him play. So fortunate to have him in our area and to teach the boys. Super talented.

"Asturias" by William Joseph on Dr. Phil

Drive In Movie!

2010-08-28T12:00:00.000-07:00

I thought it would either be a total nightmare or fun to take the kids to a drive in movie and we lucked out by having it be the latter. You never know how things like this will go. They kept asking what was going on and why are we in the car. Last time I went to a drive in was when I was in high school so it had been a while for me too.

Reece suckered me into buying a glowstick necklace thing they were selling during the movie. They drove around in a golf cart yelling what they were saying.....uh tryin to watch a movie here. It was very high class.

We say Nanny McPhee which I wasn't too excited about but actually turned out to be cute followed by Toy Story 3 which was cute too. The kids were wasted as we headed home at midnight. I'm not sure why Dayton fell asleep upside on the chair like this but I stopped asking myself why Dayton does a lot of things a long time ago.

Look what Landon brought home from school today........

2010-08-18T20:20:00.000-07:00

It sounded like a good idea three months ago when he asked if he could sign up.....

and boy was he excited to show me what he already learned.......

Wowee. I guess it's okay because it's always so quiet and calm around here we needed more noise music?! Fun times ahead with Fifth Grade Band!

It's Back to School Time!!

2010-08-16T14:58:00.000-07:00

Hee hee hee. I love this video!

What it takes to send a preschool, 3rd grader and 5th grader off to another year!

Reece was excited his supply list included feathers and pom poms.

Landon not so much since his list had 8 spiral notebooks and 2 reams of "wide ruled" lined paper.

Look what I made last week .....

I framed these cute photos of my babes and placed a little hook under each one so that they will have a place for their backpacks and school stuff.

For today it is holding all their supplies. Tomorrow-homework, art projects and library books. It's an attempt to stay "on top" of all their stuff.

Reece was really excited to show his luggage tag? in his Preschool Back to School Photo. Okay buddy, whatever makes you happy!

Here Reecer man is showing his back to school supplies!

His bags were so heavy he could barely lift them.

Dayton chose the sporty look for his 1st day of 3rd Grade

Strong arming his school supplies!

Posing for back to school pictures is old news for Landon since he will be a "upper classmen" going into the 5th grade today!

Not even breaking a sweat with all those notebooks.

One final "group" shot before we pile in the car.

Mom was informed by 3rd grader and 5th grader that NO PICTURE taking would be allowed at their school so I'll move on to the preschooler who doesn't know better yet.

I'm excited for Reece and he is excited to be "big enough" for school. He had a great 1st day of Pre-K! Look there is his name on the door! Welcome Reece!

Who wouldn't want to go to preschool again? Look how fun!

Well mom and dad were sad to see them all go back to school but we know we have to cut the cord sometime :)

Sadie is thinking "I can't believe my brother's left me with these crazies"

It wasn't long before dad was back to doing this...

And mom and Sadie went and did this with the other mom's that were sad to see their kids head back to school.

Sadie and her girlfriends still a bit in shock of what all this means. Hopefully everyone had a great back to school day AND has a Fabulous year!

Are you Ready for some Football!!!

2010-08-14T22:50:00.000-07:00

I'm super excited about the boys football this season! We are participating in the Pop Warner league and they are so put together it is such a breath of fresh air from our experience last year in Erie and both Landon and Dayton have awesome coaches. Actually there are about 9 coaches per team plus a team manager and a team mom. It's pretty intense. One of the things that is intense is the price tag! The initial cost is around $175 ish per player. This is pretty typical but then you have about a million things you do fundraising for. At the end of the day the total per player amount is around $400 and goes up if you make it to playoffs and other levels. I think it's a bit over the top. Football is not suppose to be a rich kid sport but that's where all the fundraising comes in. Right now between Landon and Dayton's teams we are selling.....cookie dough, pizza, jewelry, cinnamon rolls, BBQ nights, sports cups, suckers and other food at practices and games, having a team garage sale, poker night?, and asking everyone, every business and their dog if they would like to be a sponsor. It's sort of insane. Fundraising sucks but it pays for the equipment-including uniforms, field usage for practices and games, referee's, etc. etc. Dayton was hitting the fundraising road tonight in our neighborhood and brought in about $60 buckaroos. Parents can do a "buy out" but seriously? I think it sends kids the right message to make them earn the money themselves and that money doesn't grow on trees and gives them good sales skills. If dad can sell a $80K drug to earn his money they can sell some overpriced cookie dough. Dayton's team even has their own website www.deervalleybullwhips.com Ummm ya, they are 8 years old. Anyway. Here are some fun pics.

Landon is a receiver, he is in front looking for the ball.

Oh crap it looks like he is going to miss it?!

Nope, somehow he managed to hold on to it.

Landon has actually been doing really well so far with catching I'm just not that great of a action photographer to get his good catches. Hopefully the team has some decent passing plays. The QB seems to have a good arm so if they can connect that will be fun to watch.

In case you haven't heard me say or you don't know but it is hot in AZ. Like 110 degree hot during practice. Landon is grabbing a ice cold wet towel from the "towel" cooler. The kids drape these over their heads and around their necks to cool off during water breaks. This is "my job". Everyday I fill up the cooler with ice and water and 20 washcloths, bring them to practice, take them home, wash, dry, repeat the next day. A little different than the Colorado snow we froze in last year during football.

Pop Warner does this magical thing with siblings. If there are siblings on different teams they work it so the kids will be on teams that practice on fields next to each other at the same time! Seriously a mother's dream. So while I'm watching Landon's practice I'm also watching Dayton's practice.

Dayton is #78, Here he is conversing with his peeps.

Dayton is on the line. Am I surpised? No way, he is solid. I pity the fool that tries to go through him. He is third one in on the right.

What I don't like about football is having to "ice" the hurt body parts of my 8 and 10 year olds? I get it when I have to ice because I'm old and my body has been through the war but little kids? Every time I ask "Are you sure you want to play football?" The answer is always the same.
Eye roll, followed by a "Yes Mom"

Okay then. Love you boys. You're the toughest/coolest football kids out there.

Saturday's Super Savings-Electricity

2010-08-14T21:38:00.000-07:00

Today I opened our electric bill from Arizona Public Services and I about killed over.
$789.00 Big Ones! Holy Helen Keller!
Yes, it is summer, yes it is hot, yes we run the AC but seriously this is ridiculous.
Well, rather than whining about things I can't control I'm taking charge of what I can control.
I've decided I need to start being more frugal. I know how to save money, cut corners and get good deals but I've been lazy about this because if there isn't a huge need to do something than a lot of times we just won't do it. I'm going to start having regular posts on my blog on how to save money and I'm calling them Saturday's Super Savings so check back on Saturdays for ideas on how to save. If this is something you need or would like to learn GREAT! Follow along. At any rate I'm going to do this and save money and keep track of what I actually save.
First on the agenda is Electricity! What a shock since this is what sent me over the edge. Have you ever looked closely at your electrical bill. There is a lot of crap in there. Taxes and fees you can't do anything about but there are things you can do stuff about.
Peak and off Peak consumption. Here in Arizona the peak hours are from noon-7pm and off peak are all the other hours.
For my current bill:
Off peak costs $88.68 for 3416 kWh
On peak costs $402.20 for 1923 kWh
$206 in Fees
$91.76 in taxes.
It's an Obamanation!
Do you think how you vote doesn't affect you directly? Think again. I'm already paying over $300 and I haven't even flipped a switch. But that's a topic for another day.
So back to the topic... even though I'm using more electricity during the off peak hours the on peak usage is killing me!
What to do about things you can do something about.
#1 Vote--If your not sure who to vote for, ask me I'll tell you.
#2 See where you are using electricity on peak that you can switch to off peak.
For us we didn't have to look too far and I'm embarrassed to even show some of this. The environmentalists would have my head.

Can we say Refrigeration?

Energy efficient fridge we moved from the garage to kitchen

Consolidating all fridge contents into 1 fridge, plenty of room

Our "wine" cooler we use to use to chill our beverages, Now we use it to "store" them until they can be moved into the "main" kitchen fridge. This one has been unplugged.

When we moved into this house it came with 3 Refrigerators AND we brought one with us! Crazy I know. One full size in the kitchen. One full size in the garage. A wine cooler (and we don't drink wine) that we use to chill our Gatorade and a smaller fridge outside by the pool. Running two refrigerators that are outside in 115 degree Arizona summer weather is nuts! Of course this didn't dawn on me until today. Talk about a DUH moment.

The fridge by the pool was super convenient and nice but a electricity sucker for sure. Being outside in over 100 degree weather?! Crazy waste of electricity. It's been unplugged and look-all my lovely chilled beverages are gone. Good news is if we have people over or decide to have a party we can easily plug it back in and not pay for all the days when we don't even look inside.

Well the last fridge we are saying so long too. As of tonight it will be up on Craig's list. The truth is we can manage just fine with one refrigerator and while I will miss the convenience of having two I won't miss the cost. Keeping a refrigerator in the garage when you live in Arizona is just not practical. In Colorado or other cooler places it worked out fine and wasn't that much more of an expense but it won't work here! So long sucker!

The other big killer for us is likely the pool and water features. This is an easy fix.
You have to run the pool cleaner and the water features or your pool and water fountains will end up looking like a big brown swamp but you can set the timer to do this during off peak hours rather than during the middle of on peak hours.

Having this pool cleaner run at night during off peak is just as effective as having it run in the day it will just cost you less.

Same with running the pump for water features.

So I have 4 refrigerators and a pool.
Your thinking "I don't have those problems" so this post doesn't help me at all but I'm guessing if you take a look around your home sweet home you'll find your own electricity suckers. How many TV's do you have? Is there a VCR hooked up to each one? How about a DVR? Do you change your filters? What kind of lightbulbs do you use? Do you turn your computer off when your finished or let it idle all day? Etc. Etc. The list goes on and on.

So let's see if all these little changes make any difference in my bill next month? If not we might need to move in with some of you during the summer months....any takers? :) Kidding, kidding.
Let's start being more green shall we? That way when we have unexpected expenses we will be covered. See you next week!

Happy Savings :)

Monsoon!

2010-08-07T21:56:00.000-07:00

It doesn't rain much here in AZ but when it does watch out! We had a down pour about a week ago and we were loving it!

Dayton thought we needed more water so he grabbed the hose and was heading my way but I found a use for our snow sled and blocked!

Landon found a use for the snow shovel we brought from Colorado. His target--Dad.

Check out the pooling water on the grass. Crazy.

My baby is TWO!

2010-07-25T21:51:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Sadie!

This is what she wanted to wear to her party--pretty typical--she is in a house with boys all day.

I managed to get her to take off the mask and put on the birthday crown but she was not having anything to do with a shirt. Okay, she's 2 and it's her Birthday so whatever right?

Dad did the honors of making her Birthday Cake. Pineapple Upside Down cake-Yum!

Her gifts included lots of girlie things like Strawberry Shortcake purse, My little ponies, new swimsuit and clothes and a lovely grocery shopping cart that she had been eyeing on our last Toys R'Us visit.

Having Sadie in our home has been nothing but a joy. She is my snuggler and such a big helper. I definitely have a little shadow following me around doing what mommy does. Does it get any better? I love you Sadie Ann

Elevate Running Camp-Flagstaff Arizona

2010-07-24T11:16:00.000-07:00

My running camp experience

I follow a few running blogs and a few weeks ago as I was reading Lazy Bones Running there was a post about "Mean Deans"! It was a really hard speed/strength running workout. I was curious so I clicked on the link and that is where I was introduced to Coach Dean and his Elevate Running Camp. It sounded interesting and helpful but what are the chances that I could go and am I brave enough to go to a running camp when I really have no clue about running? If it was basketball, soccer or spa camp sure, but running? Anyway, I pondered on it but didn't really consider it but I just kept thinking about it, and thinking about it. Finally I asked Travis if he was going to be in town during the dates of the camp and miraculously he was. I emailed Coach Dean and asked if there was room for one more and a week before camp I found myself signed up and paid and that was that. Suddenly I was going to running camp?! AHHHH!

Below is a picture of Coach Dean Hebert the director of the Elevate running camp. He has too many achievements and credentials for me to list on my blog so take a minute and check out his site if your interested. I'll just say that I learned more from him in the 4 days I was at running camp than I have in the last 5 years I've been running. (And if I've ever given you any advice on running than forget it because I was pretty much wrong on everything) Thanks to Coach Dean I'm excited again about running and feel like I have the tools I need to become the runner I want to be.

Coach Dean giving Alisha her Elevate Running Camp T-shirt! Woot woot!

We learned SO much it would be impossible to list everything but some of the topics presented and discussed were:

Neuromuscular training
The "old" philosophy of training of more miles vs the New Science of quality over quantity
Learning how to prioritize training workouts
What workouts you should do
Eliminating "junk miles" or "tweeners" which are basically just going out to run a certain number of miles without any purpose (probably most of the way I ran before)
Hill running and how to run hills
Speed workouts, speed and strength workouts
Finding what pace you should be
Mental training
Injury prevention
Aqua running
The three "R"s
Nutrition
How to make your own effective quality running plan
Along with much more detail within all these topics.

Below is a picture of Deb, Rob and me (taking lots and lots of notes during one lecture)

A picture of Rob and Kyle sporting their new NAU (Northern Arizona University) shirts. The camp took place on the University Campus in Flagstaff Arizona. We stayed in the dorms :) It was comfortable and the camp fee was great ($325 for 4 days-including room, food, and everything for the camp)

Fellow campers Michael, Renee and Rob

As you can guess at running camp you go running a lot. Who knew? :) Here we have Coach Dean explaining to us how we should run up hills. Here is a short steep hill we are suppose to run up at mile pace (the pace we would run if we were only running 1 mile, not a all out sprint but a fast pace)

Rob Charging up the Hill

Michael going up the hill

Deb on the hill

Renee, Christina (author of Lazy Bones Running blog), and Alicia

Jackie and me running up the hill

At the top catching our breath

Here is another workout that was a long steady hill run we did and we were suppose to try and stay at 5K pace since it was a longer hill. This is considered a more passive hill running workout because of the steady pace and running up and down the hill. Deb is a strong athlete and would get a head start and try not to let Rob catch her. Rob is a strong runner and made hill running (and any kind of running) look easy.

Kyle is a fast runner and is a twenty-something single guy who acted like a twenty something single guy and we liked to tease him but it made camp fun. He usually lapped me several times on all workouts and on this last hill workout I was finally getting to the top of the hill with about 50 meters to go and I suddenly heard some breathing behind me and I turned around to see Kyle come around the corner about 70 meters back and I'll be damned if he wasn't going to pass me on his SECOND hill run and it was only my first hill so somehow I managed to dig deep and pull out a kick and make it to Coach Dean before he overtook me. I have to celebrate my victories even if they are just to only get lapped by Kyle twice instead of three times :)

Here we all are at the top of the hill at Lowell observatory (this is where they discovered Pluto)

I was by far the most inexperienced runner and the slowest runner of the group but runners are amazing people and my new running friends from Elevate Running Camp were no different and took me under their wings and helped me feel welcome and I learned so much. Deb was so inspirational and such a strong person it was comical to me that she didn't think of herself as a runner (her real sport is nordic track skiing-she is on the US nordic track team and she is a ultra runner and her short races are the 50 milers, preferring the 100+ mile distances) Christina is an amazingly fast runner and circled back several times after finishing her run to help me get through the last of my run. Michael did the same. Renee and Rob always offered me words of encouragement. It didn't go unnoticed and I appreciated the support. Sometimes in life you do something out of you comfort zone and you think "Why am I even here?" I was very much feeling this way before I came to camp and the first day of camp I was trying hard not to let my emotions show but let's face it I don't have much of a poker face and I wear my emotions on my sleeve. It was quite obvious from the first run that those at the camp were much better than me and if I could of out run them I might have headed for my car and got in and never come back but I stuck it out and it was an amazing experience.

Here is a picture of all of us having a "night out" from the cafeteria.

From left: Alicia, Christina, Renee, Jackie, Rob, Michael, Coach Dean, me, and Deb (missing from picture is Kyle)

Thank you Coach Dean for an amazing four days of running and life education, running workouts and therapy! It was awesome! I'll be back next year!

Have you ever done something out of your comfort zone? What was it?
Happy Running!

**Thank you to my husband Travis and my kids for being so willing to let me go and have this experience, I could have never done it without all your support. Love you so much.

Poor Jasper

2010-07-06T20:47:00.004-07:00

While we were in Utah for vacation for three weeks we were not able to bring Jasper so we scouted out some boarding places and boarded him. I called every few days and was always told he was doing just fine but of course, how can you ever really know? Well about 4 days before we were suppose to be going back to Arizona we get a call from the Boarding place that they found blood in Jasper's stool and that he was looking really lethargic. Keep in mind he is in Arizona where it is 115 degrees out. The place was an indoor/outdoor kennel but we were worried. We told them to take him to the vet and long story short, after running lots of blood tests, x-rays, etc. everything came back normal but the vet said he was very dehydrated and wasn't acting like a puppy. She gave him an IV and he immediately started getting better. I know the kennel had water available at all times for the animals so I don't know why he would be dehydrated but he was. We were happy to get back to Arizona and get Jasper back in our care. Travis took this picture of me allowing Jasper to ride home from the kennel on my lap (he is 75 lbs). And I've forgiven him of the carpet eating incident. Total cost for boarding and vet for our 3 week vacation- $1300. This dog is more spoiled than my kids. What can you do.

Here he is when we first got him. Eight weeks old.

My protector on my night runs. Glad you are feeling better buddy.

"No kids under Eight allowed on the Dam tour!"

2010-07-05T20:48:00.000-07:00

On our way back to Arizona from Utah we decided to go the Vegas route. We stopped at the Hoover Dam and showed the kids. (Actually what happened is I was telling Travis not to stop because I am terrified of heights and it was freaking me out. He stopped anyway and said "Fine you sit here" and took the kids to show them. I was terrified but forced myself to follow after him because otherwise it was certain that one of my kids would plunge to certain death from the wall without me there) It is hard to see how freaky it is in the pictures so just take my word for it. The bridge in the background is HUMONGOUS! They built a new highway to acommodate traffic and my guess is to reduce security issues of people driving across the Dam.

Well since we were there I said we might as well do the tour. We rode the escalator down to the tour start and guess what? There was a sign that said "No Kids under Eight on the Dam Tour"--I wish I would have taken a picture of that because it was funny. So guess what we all repeated over and over because we find humor in saying the word Dam a lot. Landon and Dayton came up with varying saying such as "Well, I don't want to go on the Dam tour anyway" and "Dam tours are for losers". Here is a picture of us leaving the Dam tour area via the Dam escalator. Okay I'm done :)

(P.S.--The Dam tour is $30 per person!? Rip off)
We settled for some nachos and the boys showed how tough they were by placing a jalepeno on each one. Then we headed back to the car. The End.

Dayton's Special Day

2010-07-03T20:48:00.000-07:00

July 3rd was a very special day for our family. Dayton was baptized in Utah with family and friends there to celebrate. It was nice to have most of my siblings there with their families to support us and Travis's Aunts came as well. My good friend Molly Cherrington also came to support Dayton. Something wonderful about seeing your husband and child all in white. Landon was able to give the opening prayer, all of Dayton's cousins sang a special musical number and Grandpa Honeycutt gave a talk on the Holy Ghost. We love you Dayton and are pleased with your decision to be baptized.

Handsome guys

Our little family. Proud moment for mom and dad.

Dayton with Grandma and Grandpa Honeycutt

Mom and Dad gave Dayton his first set of scriptures for his baptism. Study and learn from them son. Grandma and Grandpa Honeycutt gave Dayton a baptism journal to help him remember this day.

Aunt Kathy, Aunt Dawn, Aunt Heidi and daughter Brooklyn (not pictured Aunt Mignon "Boo") all came to support Dayton and their oldest nephew Travis. I am closer to these women than my own Aunts and appreciate their support of our little family. I know it isn't easy as they are all very busy with their own children and grandchildren. Thanks for coming.

Sunday after Dayton was baptized Aunt Tami and Uncle Chris blessed their 3rd son Shay and we took a impromptu Honeycutt family photo. All kids and grandkids are here. First time in how long? It's a miracle. It was great to be together. I love my family so much. Living away from family you learn to appreciate them so much. Having almost everyone at Dayton's baptism was so great. Uncle Kevin is a river guide and was in the Grand Canyon Saturday during Dayton's baptism but was able to make it back for the blessing.

All the grandkids of Ken and LeeAnn Honeycutt

**Side note: The Day before Dayton's baptism I went to my suitcase to get the paper that I had from my Bishop in Arizona to allow Dayton and Travis permission to get baptized in Utah. I had placed it in the front pocket for safe keeping. Well it wasn't there. Panicking I searched everything but it wasn't anywhere. After several phone calls between the presiding Bishop and my Bishop in Arizona everything "was approved" and it was fine. I mention this because when I got my suitcase off the luggage carousel after returning from Hawaii I noticed the front pocket was open and I had a thought to look for the paper and make sure it was there. I ignored the thought as I just wanted to get back to my parents and see my kids. I don't know what happened but I'm guessing I ignored a prompting from the HG and if I would have listened perhaps I would have avoided the missing form hassle. Live and learn. Thought I would document so I can remember to listen even if it seems like a small thing.

While you were out....

2010-06-25T12:53:00.000-07:00

While I was lying in bed with shingles in Hawaii my kids were having a blast with Grandma and Grandpa Honeycutt, Aunt JeriLynn, Aunt Tami, Uncle Kyle and Uncle Travis and all their cousins. Activities included a birthday party, lots of swimming, movies, Thanksgiving Point, Cousin sleepover party at Aunt Jerilynn's complete with a tent, Liberty land rollercoaster and speed track and laser tag. Did I miss anything? I have to admit I was a little jealous....sheesh. Here are a few pictures of the adventures. They had SO SO SO much fun.

Carter, Sadie and Reece

Landon, Brady and Dayton

Brady, Dayton in the background

Kenaydee and Sadie

Amberly and Reece

A bunch of them :)

Grandma and Carter

Sadie Ann

Pirate Landon

Aunt Tami and Sadie

The "big" kids Amberly, Landon and Dayton

Maui--for better or worse

2010-06-24T20:47:00.000-07:00

Travis and I had an opportunity to go to Maui without the kids and were so excited to have some time together. Unfortunately the trip didn't turn out quite as we had imagined thanks to a little thing I came down with--or should I say broke out with--SHINGLES. One word--OUCH. After our Ragnar race I thought I had a spider bite but it kept getting worse and hurting so we decided to go over to the urgent care and get something for it before we headed to Hawaii. The doctor took one look at it and said, "Uh, that's not a spider bite, you have shingles". WTH. So the doctor gave me lots of medication and assured me as long as I stay covered and dry it was not a problem for me to go to Maui. Great. Sounds fun.

Here I am, very covered and dry on our balcony.

Travis although I'm sure was somewhat bored was great to take care of me and a good sport. I mostly stayed in bed the whole time other than a few brief exits for food and one snorkeling trip where I drugged up and suffered the consequences later.
Here are some pictures of the before mentioned snorkeling trip. It was fun and the turtles were awesome.

Well, I can't say it was the romantic getaway we had planned but we did enjoy being together and a HUGE Thank You to my mom and dad for taking care of the kids while we were gone.

On the Rag-Wasatch Back style!

2010-06-18T14:04:00.000-07:00

It all started out one sunny Thursday afternoon in Midway Utah. Twelve members of the M.O.M (Mind over Mileage) running team gathered to head up north for the Wasatch Back Relay.

Team Captain Adrienne bestowed upon each member a shiny new turquoise water bottle with running girl decal and names to match.

Next they headed to Olive Garden to carb load (?) for the race.

Upon leaving the restaurant BFF Stephanie decided to embarass Adrienne or was it herself (?) in a rendition of "O Captain my captain"

Note to self: Be careful what you wish for on fb it may come true :-)

Then it was on to the Van decorating. Below are some pics of the coolest van :-)

(warning: judgements may be biased because this is my blog and I said so)

and it's members

Not to be confused with the Too Cool Van :-)

(kidding.....hee hee)

and it's members.

It was determined that all members of both vans had enough coolness to be on the M.O.M. team

On to the Awards:

Best Diva Picture Award goes to Jarrie

Or is it Natalie?

Best we love each other picture award goes to:

Is it Amber and Jen with the look how cute we are hug?

Or the "We are sisters" of course we should win side hug...

But Amy comes in with the it is super early in the morning and we have been up all night running and I'm still here to meet Carrie hug....

or if you don't like that one how about this one with Tara and the look how cute we are with our white sunglasses hug??

Jen tries a second time for the award pointing out that this isn't a hugging award and I can have the best we love each other picture just by showing concern for my sister. True true.

But alas Adrienne swoops in at the end and steals the show and takes the prize with the "We obviously love each other the mostest" picture with hot husband Travis.
Hey, if you don't like the results of the award please feel free to comment and I'll put them in my round file to address later :)

Okay, now that that's settled let's move on.

Coolest running picture award:

Amy knows she has this one in the bag with her "my feet aren't even on the ground" photo

but Adrienne objects with her but I'm smiling while eating dust on my dirt run
Natalie smiles and notes that she is the only M.O.M member cool enough to run "barefoot" Good point Nat!

Jarrie chimes in with "I should win because I had to run up Avon pass on my 3rd leg in the middle of the bloody hot sun and it was a non support leg! So pick me, pick me!"

Travis jumps on that bandwagon with a "Hey I had to run up Avon pass too which was my last leg and it even slowed me down to a 6:28 pace causing me to only pass 27 people instead of my usual number" and then he added "plus I have a cool sweatband on--Eat your heart out Richard Simmons"

Jen laughs under her breath and says "It's not called the Avon Pass Series you guys it's called Ragnar and that's the hill I'm on :) Remember? And I'm smiling and waving"

The New Yorker says: "I'm from Sea Level and they give me the highest elevation straight up hardest leg, I should definitely win this award for sure!"

But then Amber looks at us and says--"YOU GUYS WERE IN A VAN and I was still too fast for you guys to get a picture of me running so I WIN! End of discussion"

Okay Amber you Win!

Peace out award goes to:

Adrienne submits this: Ummm, too posed=Fail
Susan tries this: Too smiley=Fail
and the winner is........our East Coaster Sara

Biggest Poser Award goes to:

Stephanie throws her 80's gun pose into the mix
Amy tries to strong arm her way to the win

Adrienne tries a too cool pose. Verdict: Fail

Tara gives it a valiant effort and pulls out all the stops with the flag girl

Followed with her own patented strong arm woot woot girls rule pose

but alas, none of the above mentioned were any competition for our very own

very ultimate poser Susan

who out did the entire M.O.M team and perhaps all Wasatch Back runners
put together with her sheer number of poser portraits! We concede the title to you! We are not worthy.
In true sportsmanship Susan comes back with a "Neiner, neiner neiner"

You should receive your awards in the mail shortly but if you don't then it is probably because it was lost in the mail so just know it was the thought that counts.

And thus ends the Adventures of the Mind over Mileage team in their opening debut of the Ragnar Relay Series with the Wasatch Back.

Put your arms down ladies you just ran 188 miles and haven't showered in two days!

This is your captain, over and out.

***Race was followed by lots of food eating and spa relaxing which photos are available to interested parties for a small fee*****

Grandma and Grandpa Jensen Visit

2010-06-10T12:41:00.000-07:00

Dayton's Birthday 8 Years old!

2010-06-06T12:41:00.000-07:00

We celebrated bright and early in the morning with smoothies and cupcakes for Dayton's Birthday.In our home 8 years old is a magical birthday. That is the magical age that you get your first BB and pellet gun. I found this out a few years ago from Travis when Landon got his. Apparently it's not til the age of 12 you get your first "real" rifle. (Help me!) Anyway, Dayton was super excited and we made the trip to Cabela's and spent THREE LONG HOURS there and he finally settled on the one you see in the picture. I'm pretty sure we would still be there if a certain mom didn't threaten all the lives of those in her family if they don't get the heck out of there!

My boys aren't into toys too much anymore, they like stuff like flashlights, compasses, survival stuff and of course the normal football and sports stuff. Dayton got some of each from his siblings. Grandma's and Grandpa's went the smart route and sent cold hard cash for Dayton. A gift all Jensen's love no matter what age. Happy Birthday Dayton. We love you!

Copper Creek Elementary End of School Party!

2010-05-28T12:42:00.000-07:00

Copper Creek had a end of year carnival complete with blow up slides and a movie at the end. We decided to go as a family and show our support for the new school.

Reece, Sadie and Dad enjoyed the big slide. Some more than others.

Travis and the boys are super excited about the new Mixed Martial Arts place that we discovered at the carnival and will be starting lessons this summer.

So you might be asking why there aren't any pictures of Landon and Dayton especially since this is THEIR school and this is suppose to be THEIR party? Well, it turns out that Landon and Dayton have reached the magical age of where it isn't cool to hang out with your parents and little brother and sister at the school carnival. So upon arrival and us buying the tickets they immediately ditched us and went with their friends. No worries, no hard feelings, Travis and I will just adjust our Last Will and testament accordingly and we will see who is laughing in the end. Mwahahahahaha!

Reece preschool party!

2010-05-27T12:41:00.000-07:00

Reece had an end of the year preschool party where we went to a puppet play and then the Spaghetti Factory after for lunch. It started out okay but then....

Reece started in with one of these......
then this......
and finally this....
Sadie is like her mom and doesn't have much of a poker face and wasn't impressed. Can you tell?
Finally ending with all the preschoolers running amok at the restaurant. Sounds pretty much like what you would expect. Good times had by all.

It's good we had a bib on!

2010-05-22T22:06:00.000-07:00

Sleepy Girl

2010-05-22T22:05:00.001-07:00

Reece's 3 year old preschool

2010-05-22T22:02:00.001-07:00

Even though there were only a few months left in the school year Reece needed something fun to do so when we got to Arizona we signed him up for preschool at the Peace Lutheran preschool. He loved it and he had a great teacher Ms. Shuster. He will return there in August for the "official" 4 year old preschool. He wanted me to do his hair "spiky" so even though it was a bit long I did. He is cute no matter what!

Reece and Sadie Ann

2010-05-17T13:23:00.000-07:00

As I was uploading my photos onto my computer I came across several photos that brought a smile to my face. Reece and Sadie really do love each other. Hopefully as they get older this bond will get stronger. A mother can hope. I love my little ones.

Mesa Temple visit

2010-05-15T12:41:00.000-07:00

Travis, Landon and myself were lucky enough to be able to attend a broadcast of the Gila Valley Temple dedication here in Arizona. I've been to a few dedications and it is always such a wonderful thing. The next day while Landon and Dayton were still in school I decided to take the littles and visit the Mesa temple grounds. It was a beautiful day.

It's the Melvers!

2010-05-15T09:52:00.000-07:00

We are so lucky to have the Melver's stop by when they were in Arizona. Josh was in Arizona for work and being the romantic he is he flew Kristin out for a few days to be with him. Ohhh, so nice. I got an email from them Sunday morning saying they were here and would love to come by later if it's okay. OKAY? HELLO! YOU BETTER COME BY! It was fun to visit and hear about their recent China trip and other adventures they always have going on. Of course the time went too fast and the duties of life said it was time for them to go but we are so glad they came. (Let this be a lesson to you all, if you are in Arizona and don't stop by I will hunt you down!)

As the Melver's pulled out of our driveway I suddenly remembered "I need a picture!" So I flagged them down and they came back for the photo op. We love you guys. Come back soon!

Josh and Kristin are some of our BFF's and we miss you so much already. I'm so thankful for the times (and future times) we have had to be get to know each other.

What I like about Arizona

2010-04-29T14:09:00.000-07:00

Lately I have been like the children of Israel looking back at Egypt and murmuring about where the Lord has led me and wanting to go back. I know we were led to Arizona and even though it is hard it is where we are suppose to be and yet with all the home construction, lack of friends and other stresses that come along with moving I find myself looking back and feeling sorry for myself. So this post is about all the things I like so far about Arizona.

*I love that it is warm.

*I love my community. My kids can ride their bikes, scooters all around and there isn't any traffic. In fact we are at the end of a street and nobody drives by our home unless they are coming to my home.

*I love that it takes less than 5 minutes to get to church.

*My kids get to attend an "Excelling" level school which is highest in Arizona.

*I love that a half a mile from my home is a state park that I can run in any and everyday if I want.

*I love that the church is building a temple right next to our church building.

*I'm excited that Wet and Wild water park is three miles from our house and we bought season passes for the summer.

*Summer movie program where you get to go to 10 movies for $7 what a steal.

*I love that there are more than 40 Young women in our ward and they love to babysit.

*Travis loves that Elder's Quorum is having a "Burgers and Bullets" activity. You bring your own meat and guns and ammo and practice target shooting. "Salad and all that other stuff is not allowed because it just gets in the way of the real eating."

*I love that we are only 6 hours from San Diego and Disney.

*Location, location, location. I love that we are within 5 minutes from the mall, tons of restaurants, church, grocery stores, preschool, school, and everything else I do on a daily basis.

*The best part about Arizona is Travis is home a little bit more.

Hotel Survival tips 101

2010-04-25T22:25:00.000-07:00

So how do you survive a hotel with four little ones by yourself after being emotionally and physically drained from moving?

About $80 worth of room service consisting of hamburgers, pizza, fries and lots of icecream.........and $20 worth of movies.

Our last night in Colorado

Aliens

2010-04-23T10:08:00.000-07:00

I found this story Landon wrote for school in his backpack and wanted to record it because I think it's hilarious.

Aliens

By Landon Jensen

One day I woke up and found an alien. I told the alien to take me to his leader. The alien was 4 feet tall and had a head as round as a big bouncy ball. The alien took me into a flying saucer and pressed about 500 buttons in 1 second. When we got to his planet it was 20,000,000 AD. We had traveled through time! The alien said that his planet was planet 2,805,640. After that we went to this enormous castle. When we got in the leader (whose name was Zor) asked the alien if I was a prisoner. As soon as the alien said no Zor dived at me. Right when that happened the alien ran into the flying saucer and flew straight toward me. Luckily I ducked and it hit Zor. Then I ran into a different flying saucer and flew home. That is when I learned to never trust aliens.

What I'll miss about our Erie Home

2010-04-20T22:14:00.000-07:00

Well, here it is in all it's glory! Our Erie home. One last picture as we drive off to our hotel and then head to DIA to fly away to

Arizona. I wanted to document some things I loved about our Erie home so I don't forget. First is the outside, I like the curb appeal of this house and in the spring the bushes will be golden and grass green for nice

curb appeal. Too bad about a year later the builder built a spec home in the vacant lot 2 HOUSES down from us that is the EXACT model chose the EXACT colors. I was 9 months pregnant at the time (with Sadie) and I let the builder know how annoyed I was with that. Who wants their neighbors house to look just like theirs? Duh. Oh well, I still liked my home.

The backyard was a little tricky but we had a plan. We built it in a tiered system and although we moved before finishing our deck with the stairs that led to the top tier I still thought we did a great job. Travis lifted and placed every single one of those blocks. He's amazing. Purple lilac buses in the back in front of the second wall and yellow forsythia in the front to provide a natural hedge border. I wish I had pictures with everything in bloom. Three yummy peach trees on one side with our garden spot on the top tier with sprinkler zoning for each individual box. I guess my canning carrot days are over :)

I loved this chandelier. Before we moved into our home I saw it in a home at the Parade of Homes and thought I would never be able to have it because I guessed it cost so much. Then another day I was in a lighting store and there it was. It was as expensive as I thought but Travis indulged me and we got it. It was perfect for our entryway and since we were going to live in this house for the rest of our lives we justified the expense. Two thousand dollars. Good bye my overpriced chandelier that I loved anyway :(

Dayton's room was a striped paint job with crown molding. It went well with his bedding.

Much like myself, Landon is a creature of habit. His Erie room was just like his Parker room with beadboard on the bottom and blue paint on the top. Whatever makes him feel comfortable is okay with me.

No I won't miss my formica countertops that I was planning on replacing with granite eventually but I will miss my 2 dishwashers....yes my 2 dishwashers were so awesome, I never had a dirty dish in the white sink that I was also planning on trading out for the stainless steel when I got the granite.

Along with 2 dishwashers I also had a second laundry closet upstairs (yes I'm spoiled) and when I was showing the new owner all the features and how to work everything he mentioned they might take out the stackable washer and dryer and just make it a linen closet. WHAT! ARE YOU CRAZY! Anyway, I almost died, what mother wouldn't love 2 laundry rooms. I told him not to do that, that would be stupid (we had already closed so whatever).

Four car garage with high ceilings. Self explanatory in the awesomeness of that. We didn't have a utility door because we were planning on putting a garage door on the back end of our 3rd bay garage so we could pull a trailer right through the garage and park our future "toys" on the back cement patio that we had poured last summer. It was a good plan.

Along with building 2 monster retaining walls Travis also built a bench and a firepit for our backyard. We plumbed it for gas but prefer wood so we never added the insert.

Notice three little hand prints..."Landon, Dayton and Reece were here!"

(okay, I'm almost crying now...this is why I haven't blogged much)

As much as I loved my house in Erie, I've moved enough to realize that I never miss the houses or the things in them but the things I really miss most are.......

The amazing people I can't take with me.

Everywhere I have lived, my house was never the cleanest,

my hair was never the cutest,

I'm far from the most stylish, but

I've always, ALWAYS had the BEST friends.

Miss you All!

BTW: Why do I not have any pictures of the Copes, Melvers, Maddox's, Shriners, Johns, Toys, etc. and more of my BFF's? Send some to me!

Mom Look at Me!

2010-04-19T22:27:00.000-07:00

Why am I not surpised to find him here? Love you Reece.

"You would be a Mormon"

2010-04-14T13:46:00.000-07:00

I was at lunch today with the kids and I couldn't help but overhear the conversation at the next table. There were three guys and as far as my eavesdropping could uncover they were pastors at one of the local churches here. I should say two were and the other guy was "applying" for the job. It was basically a job interview but it seemed so wrong. At one point one of the pastors asked the guy applying if he really enjoyed preaching and just for arguments sake "would he do it if he wasn't getting paid for it". At that point I felt like (but didn't) piping up and saying, if he wasn't getting paid for it "you would be a Mormon". I find it disconcerting that pastors and preachers from other churches just decide one day that they want to be the messenger of the Lord and then they go to "school" and suddenly they are. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure a lot of them are very good people and want to serve their fellow man and help people learn about the Savior and do a lot of good things. It just seems a bit odd how they are "self appointed" or "hired". The actual name of the "mormon" church is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, so it stands to reason that the head of the church is Jesus Christ and therefore he should be the one doing the "hiring" for positions. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has a lay clergy, meaning they are not paid for serving in the church. They don't sign up or request positions rather they are called by those in authority who have received the authority from those who have the priesthood power. The Church of Jesus Christ was established when Jesus Christ was on the earth. Before Christ died he gave the priesthood authority to Peter who was the prophet of the his Church after Christ died. Joseph Smith received the priesthood from Peter, James and John. God has always "called" prophets. They have never applied for the job. I don't remember Jonah saying "send me, send me--I want to go preach, and then getting swallowed by a whale for dramatic effect" or Moses saying "Hey can I go argue with the guy I grew up with and then destroy his life by allowing his 1st born kid to die" or how about Noah saying, "I have a great idea, how about my family and I be the only remaining people on earth and we will live in a boat with a bunch of animals". Why would God suddenly say, "Well, I use to call prophets to lead my church but man seems much smarter now so I'll just let them decide who and what to do" I don't think so. Maybe I should have said something, it wouldn't have been the first time.

Crack kills buddy, crack kills....

2010-04-05T22:14:00.002-07:00

I have a feeling I'm going to be seeing a lot more of the sideways smile this summer than I'm use to, and yes Dayton is already sporting a tan line :)

Mind over Mileage

2010-04-05T21:28:00.000-07:00

BTW I have another blog for a race I am participating in in June. It's www.mindovermileage.blogspot.com feel free to visit me there as I sometimes post things on there and not here. The race we are doing is 188 mile relay from Logan to Park City called the Wasatch Back, its part of the Ragnar Series. It should Rock. Here are some of the diehard chicks I roll with. Love them!

Landon heads into Double Digits! 10 Years old!

2010-04-05T21:14:00.000-07:00

Before we left for Arizona Landon had an early Birthday party with just a few friends. We had pizza and cake and went to a movie. They had a great time. It was good to have one last Hoorah with such great kids.

Parker and Landon along with other friends Nathaniel had a duct business where they would make wallets and other various items out of duct tape and sell them. They were so funny about coming up with their business strategies. Mostly I think they saw lots of $$ signs.

This bottom picture is on Landon's Real Birthday March 26th about a month after the top pictures. We had been in Arizona for a week and some of our favorite friends John and Laura Cecil from Parker Colorado were in Arizona for their son AJ's (top left) baseball tournament so we were lucky enough to have them over for BBQ, Cake and the kids swam in the FREEZING pool. It was so fun to be with them I didn't want them to leave and when they did I felt homesick. Not sure if I was homesick for Erie, Parker or just my mommy but anyway. This picture is so funny because Laura is more like a sister than a friend and that means I can be real and we ate in our disastrous house and had fun and nobody cared. Plus Landon thought they came all the way to AZ for his Birthday! Not really but he thought it was cool anyway.

BTW this picture was taken about 10 ish at night and all children were on the verge of melting down after very long days for everyone.

Olympic Training Center--Colorado Springs

2010-02-17T12:27:00.001-08:00

We have lived in Colorado for around 6 years and hadn't made it to the Olympic Training Center yet so we decided we would take a quick trip down to Colorado Springs and check it out before we head off to Arizona. It was interesting although I was somewhat unimpressed. I don't know what I was expecting and don't get me wrong it is cool but it wasn't anything super fancy just your basic things you need to train, and you can train anywhere. It would be nice to come and focus on your sport and not worry about anything else but athletes train all over and I didn't see anything that made me think they would have a huge advantage of training here. Cool to see nonetheless.

Can you feel the Love......

2010-02-17T12:20:00.001-08:00

Nothing says I love you like a bunch of candy from the school Valentine Parties

I told Travis not to waste money on roses for me so he bought me this beautiful tulip and iris arrangement. Probably the prettiest one I've seen in a long time. Loved it, even though it's probably a waste of money. He is too good to me.

Reece was cute and made me and Sadie little Valentine Cards while he was at the gym one day.

Dad went ahead and commissioned Landon to make this awesome duct tape roses for me. Best roses I've ever gotten! Love them.

Mom and dad reminded the kids that we do love them and gave them each a balloon and some candy. It was a great day.

Reece quote of the Day

2010-02-10T12:42:00.001-08:00

Reece: "Mom, is this straw waterproof?"

Me: "Umm, ya"

Reece: "Wow"

Love it.

100's Day at School for Dayton

2010-02-08T16:01:00.001-08:00

Dayton decided to that he would use 100 pieces of gum for his 100 day poster. He did a great job putting it together!

I love this kid!

2010-01-28T12:40:00.000-08:00

4-wheelin!

2010-01-28T12:37:00.001-08:00

With the weather warming up a bit Reece got to try out some 4-wheelin...Sadie loves riding along.

Dayton also got to try out his new BMX bike

Reece turns 4!

2010-01-28T12:24:00.001-08:00

Our little Reece man is 4 years old! His birthday was on Sunday so we celebrated with a turtle cake and icecream. Saturday we went bowling as a family for his little party. Since his birthday was on Sunday Reece was super MAD that we had to go to church on his birthday. He just couldn't believe we were making him go. I don't mean a little annoyed I mean MAD. It was sort of funny and disturbing that he was so ticked off about that. He hasn't quite fallen in love with the new big primary and would love to go back to his nursery class.

We love you Reece! Happy Birthday!

Game Night

2010-01-28T12:23:00.001-08:00

Christmas Morning!

2009-12-28T20:21:00.001-08:00

Christmas morning at around 6am we found out that Santa came!

New BMX bike for Dayton

New mountain bike for Landon

Jeep for Reece and Kitchen for Sadie

Electric bike for Dayton and Landon

Fun play preschool for Reece from Grandma and Grandpa Jensen

Landon made this jewelry box for Sadie Ann. He worked really hard on it, I love seeing my kids taking time to make things for their siblings, it's so fun.

One of my favorite presents to give was for Reece. COWBOY BOOTS! He has wanted some for months and I found these at Gymboree....yeah!

Landon made me a beautiful bookmark that he personally weaved at school!

Dayton gave Reece some hand puppets that they can make together!

Dayton made Landon a leather pocketknife holder! And a surprise $5 bill.

Landon also made a bookmark for Dayton and gave him a $20 bill of his own money!

A Garmin Watch for Dad, it does everything except run for you. (This was actually suppose to be for his birthday in November but mom is slow so I threw it in with Christmas)

Dayton made this butterfly hair bow for Sadie and Mom gave her some Cinderella sparkly light up shoes...which she loves!

Gift cards to GameStop from Grandma and Grandpa Honeycutt! Big Hit!

Books, candy and cold hard cash from Grandma and Grandpa Jensen! Yeah!

Ride on car from Grandma and Grandpa Honeycutt! Princess Edition. Loved it!

Habla Espanol? Trav wanted and received the Rosetta Stone Spanish Set.

You know what are a girls best friend. I'm too spoiled and surprised. I had no idea what Travis and the kiddos got me.

Landon spent a lot of time making Reece 30 Paper airplanes! Reece loved it.

Reece spent a good part of Christmas day playing with the race car track from Grandma and Grandpa Honeycutt. Thank you!

Dayton made these cute place cards at school for the family. Little fingerprints made into little people. I love the stuff my kids make, they are the best gifts. We put them right to use for our christmas breakfast, which happened at about 11am.

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends. Thank you for all the gifts but especially for being a very important part of our lives. We love you.

Christmas Eve Night 2009

2009-12-28T15:46:00.001-08:00

As bedtime on Christmas Eve approached we had our annual

"Open one present from mom and dad"

which is always the very exciting pajama's.

After opening new pajama's we decided to watch the

"Joy to the World"

dvd that shares the Christmas story of our Savior's birth. It was interesting to watch the kids watch the story. They were really quiet and really paying attention. Afterword I think it was the first night we didn't have to ask twice for the kids to hop in bed.

Christmas Eve Dinner with the Yates

2009-12-28T15:29:00.000-08:00

We were lucky enough to be invited to a prime rib Christmas Eve dinner by some of our bestest friends Fred and Susan Yates. I love it when you find a friend who is more like a sister and better when your husband likes her husband! We love hanging out with the Yates and as our impending move to AZ gets closer and closer I'll take all the opportunities I can.

Here is a classy picture of Susan, such the host! Love it.

Sadie and Megan

Travis and Fred get along great and often play basketball together. Trav loves it when they are on the same team but always wants a back rub when he has to play against Fred. Apparently he has to use more energy since Fred is so Tough!

I'll finish cooking right after some bubbly! (Apple cider of course!)

Sorry about the closed eyes Susan. I love how excited Landon looks to be getting some asparagus. The food was delicious! So much that I think we will be starting the prime rib Christmas Eve tradition. (So I'll be calling, emailing, facebooking for the recipe)

I'll I had to do was bring dessert--cheesecake. Which sadly was store bought but that's just the kind of day, week, month it's been for me.

It was a wonderful night. Thanks for having us!

My Gingerbread Girl

2009-12-28T15:25:00.000-08:00

It never gets old shopping for girls!

Coal Creek Ward Christmas Party

2009-12-18T18:00:00.000-08:00

Good food, good friends and lots of fun.

Dayton creating a marshmallow snowman

Reece had a chance to tell Santa all on his list

Sweet christmas songs from all the primary kids

Disney on Ice

2009-12-18T15:34:00.000-08:00

I thought it would be super fun to take the kids to see the Disney on Ice show that was in Denver. It wasn't quite the Disney experience you get when you actually go to Disneyworld but we still had fun (until the fairy part where Landon and Dayton looked like they wanted to slash their wrists).

Getting ready for the Action!

I think dad thought we were at a hockey game and didn't realize this was figure skating til it started. Just kidding.

Overpriced popcorn and cotton candy always make things better.

Landon and Dayton were mocking Reece's Lighting McQueen hat.

Reece didn't think that was very funny!

We enjoyed being together even if it wasn't quite what we thought it would be.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.....

2009-12-10T19:30:00.000-08:00

Trimming the tree

Look at little Sadie she is a natural

Attempting to make chocolate covered pretzel molds

Poor Reecer man, he has been sick for a week and didn't want anything to do with decorating the tree or making the chocolate pretzels but still attempted to smile for a picture. We love you buddy, get well soon.

2009-12-10T19:24:00.000-08:00

Landon and Dayton's Christmas piano recital 2009

Here they are with their teacher Zach. He is a great teacher and the boys enjoy piano and never complain. Dayton has only been playing for a few months but is a natural, very nice surprise. Landon being the perfectionist he is does well too although at the old age of 9 years old he has quite a demanding schedule and piano practice sometimes fall to the wayside. Still they are both learning and improving and ENJOY it which is what mom is happy about. It's fun to have music in our home since Travis and myself are not musically inclined.

Fourth Grade Showcase Night

2009-12-10T19:18:00.000-08:00

Landon had his music performance and "showcase" night where families were able to come see what the students have been working on during the year.

Landon with buddies Nathaniel Lampros and Parker Simpson

Technology class where they are set up with lots of Mac's and it is true that Landon and Dayton teach me how to use our Mac at home. Not surprising since I can't even work the PS2.

Thanksgiving Weekend

2009-12-10T19:07:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving weekend was a bit crazy. The day before Thanksgiving was Travis's Birthday. I must admit I totally dropped the ball. I love him so much and he never expects anything but it was a bit pathetic. Reece and Sadie helped me make some birthday Key Lime Pie and we sang Happy Birthday but that was about it. For his Birthday we decided to get him some new running shoes and a Garmin watch which are still at the store waiting to get picked up. We went out Tuesday night to try them on and get stuff for Thanksgiving and after getting all the trimmings for Thanksgiving dinner Travis said, oh well, let's just get it later. Later seems to be when we do things for mom and dad. Happy 34th anyway babe--we love you. We also made a trip to the airport to pick up Grandma and Grandpa Honeycutt--yeah family coming to us..love that.

Poor Grandma and Grandpa, Sadie does not like anybody when mom is around. Dayton is not happy about saying goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa and having to go to school.

It was a relaxing but fun weekend with my parents. We had Thanksgiving together and were also joined by the Cope's and the missionaries. I think my dad enjoyed talking the missionaries ears off with all his old mission day stories. It was nice and laid back.

Here are Reece and Sadie testing out the pie. Looks like a hit!

I went for a run and.......

2009-12-07T21:48:00.000-08:00

This morning I put a great inspirational quote on my facebook status. Next thing I know my stinker friends and sister start giving me crap...all in good fun of course. So anyway, I'm at the gym running on the treadmill and I'm not really sure how far I was going to run, probably five or six miles. This is how my run went, and I thought I'd jot down my thought process so my posterity can see what a nut their mom is.

"Mile six: Well, I feel pretty good I'll just run a little more til I'm really tired.......(mile 7).....you know I really hate ending on odd numbers.......I don't know why it's just annoying so I'll run till mile 8....... (mile 8).....you know that would be funny to comment on my fb that I ran 3 5k's, ha ha, I might as well run to 9.3....(mile 9).....I'm this close to double digits and I probably won't run this far again for a while so I might as well run 10 since I'm close....(got distracted watching the news and went 1/2 mile further)....(mile 10.5)....oh great now I'm past 10 so what do I run to now?....thinking....thinking....huh, a 1/2 a marathon is only a few miles away I should do that, I haven't done that since I trained for a marathon years ago......okay cool....I'm going to run a half a marathon on a treadmill......(mile 11).....great my knees are starting to hurt......(mile 11.5)...oh great my water bottle ran out.....I need water.....hmmm.....I wonder if I chuck my water bottle at one of the trainers and smack them in the head with it they will realize I need some water and get me some......(mile 12)....okay only 1.1 to go, I bet Travis is thinking I died somewhere in the snow since I'm gone a lot longer than I told him I would be.....oh well....(mile 12.5).....playlist starting over, lovely, I'm sick of these songs I need some new tunes.....(mile 12.75)....girl next to me that has been on the treadmill for exactly half of a mile keeps looking over at my treadmill stats....knock it off girl....mind your own beeswax...(my treadmill had started over because you can only run up to 99 minutes then it starts to cool you down so you have to start it over, I think since my treadmill was only showing a couple of miles and I was dripping sweat and my tank was drenched in sweat she was wondering what my problem was....I DON'T HAVE A PROBLEM treadmill stat watcher!).....finally mile marker 13.1! Wahoo!.......my first half on a treadmill.....where is the finish line? Where is my t-shirt?...oh well....I guess I'll go home now.....I might regret this tomorrow.....but probably more like Wednesday."

Chicken and Tootsie Rolls

2009-11-23T19:17:00.000-08:00

Every night when we put the kids to bed we take turns telling stories. Tonight I thought Dayton's story was pretty interesting so I thought I would write it down so I don't forget.

"Once upon a time there was a little boy and his mom asked him to go to the store to buy some chicken for dinner. When he was at the store he saw some tootsie rolls and he loved tootsie rolls so he bought those instead. Then he was like, "oh no" my mom is going to be so mad at me for not getting chicken so he cut off his butt cheek and gave that to his mom and she cooked it up and they ate it for dinner. After dinner she said "mmmm, that was the best chicken I ever had" and gave him some more money for him to go buy the same chicken. So he went back to the store and once again saw the tootsie rolls and spent all the money on that. He decided he better cut off his other butt cheek and gave that to his mom and she cooked it and they ate that too. The next day when he was at school his mom was in his room and saw lots and lots of tootsie roll wrappers and when he got home she said, "you know the rule, your not suppose to eat that much candy!". So she pulled down his pants to give him a spanking but he didn't have a bum. The end.

So after Dayton was done telling his story I asked him where he heard that story from and he said "GRANDMA JENSEN!" ha ha ha, I think that is the funniest part. Oh my, our posterity is doomed.

New Moon

2009-11-21T17:10:00.001-08:00

Any teenage girl (or young hip mom) will tell you that Stephanie Meyer's Twilight books and movie premiers are worth losing a bit of sleep over. I hosted a pre-movie New Moon party for some of my favorite ladies and we had a ball and then headed to the midnight movie! We had trivia games and lots of yummy food. Although Team Jacob kicked Team Edward's butt (even with all my subtle and not so subtle hints) in Family Feud we all know who gets the girl in the end so I guess it was okay.

Scary/Funny/Goofy face picture

Susan Yates and I made "Team Edward" shirts!

My friend Jarrie with her daughter Paige worshipping the same wolf what's his name?

I have the cutest friends don't I?

November 11th

2009-11-11T11:47:00.000-08:00

I can't let this day go by without expressing my gratitude for my family. I love them all so much. Kaylee Ann came in and out of the world five years ago today but has stayed and will stay in our hearts forever. We love you. "God be with you til we meet again."

Love,

Mom

Arizona

2009-11-05T19:13:00.000-08:00

Well, we have lived in Erie for a little over two years now so you know what that means. Time to move! Actually when we bought this home we thought we would live here forever but last week Travis was offered a District Manager position that will take us to Phoenix. We have been so blessed to live in many different cities and we have loved every one of them. The hard part of moving is of course leaving those we truly, truly love behind. I wish we could just pack them all up and take them with us. Thank goodness for FB, blogging, emails and good old fashioned phone calls. We are in the very beginning stages of this move so I'll write more when more is happening. It's never dull around here is it!

Halloween or Bust! Or a Busted Halloween?

2009-11-02T19:04:00.001-08:00

So this Halloween I was completely on top of everything! Oh wait.....I mean I was so not on top of anything! The week started out with Travis being in California for the week. We were expecting Grandma and Grandpa Jensen to come for the Halloween weekend but Wednesday and Thursday of the week the Heaven's opened and decided to pour out loads of snow onto us. The good news is the kids got one snow day out of it where they didn't have to go to school and the really good news is that the kids only had one day instead of two like other neighboring schools. :) By Friday the snow had cleared and the kids were happy to go to school and have their school Halloween parties. I was able to share a halloween story with Landon's class for his party and the "good" moms had some fun games and treats for the kids. Unfortunately because of the snow Grandma and Grandpa Jensen were not able to make the trip from Utah and so we celebrated Halloween without them. Friday night we went to the ward trunk or treat and the kids got plenty of candy. Saturday we were planning to go pick pumpkins from the pumpkin patch but since they were covered in snow we checked the stores instead.....Guess what--no pumpkins. We had two pumpkins from our garden so Landon and Dayton quickly laid claim to those and poor Reece got stuck carving an apple---ha ha, he was just as happy though. Saturday night Travis took the boys up to the Vista Ridge neighborhood and they went trick or treating with the boys friends the Simpson's. Sadie and I were on candy patrol at home and Sadie had fun waving at all the ghosts and goblins that came to our door--even with the sceeerie apple out front. The kids were worn out and went right to sleep. And no I didn't get ANY pictures of the kids in their costumes. (What kind of mother am I?) Landon was a scary skeleton guy, Dayton was a football player, Reece was Winnie the Pooh, and Sadie was Little Red Riding Hood. The best part of Halloween night?? The fact that I didn't have to do sharing time or conduct the next day! Yahoo! Is this post too real world? (and on Sunday morning we forgot it was Daylight Savings and we arrived at church an hour early....duh)

No School! It's a snow Day!

2009-11-02T18:59:00.000-08:00

Wednesday and Thursday right before Halloween we got a ton of snow! The kids were very disappointed that they couldn't go to school---NOT!

Our entire firepit was buried. Luckily for Travis he was in sunny California. Mom is tough though and we held down the fort on our own.

I Love SuperBus!

2009-11-02T18:53:00.001-08:00

Reece participated in the superbus gymnastic program at the Erie rec center and had a great time.

Landon's first year of Tackle football

2009-10-25T15:03:00.000-07:00

Whenever anybody asked me what I was doing the answer was usually the same....Landon has football. Landon playing tackle football was a real eye opener for me on what my future with three boys is going to hold. Two hour practices everyday until school starts then two hour practices three times a week when school starts and games on Saturday that can be anywhere from two to three hours.

The Erie nine year olds had two teams this year. Since this was Landon's first year he was on the team with all the new kids. One thing I learned is that there is a lot of politics even in little kids sports teams. Travis and I not knowing this were out of town in Utah on vacation during football camp as most other parents of first time tackle football players were not at the football "camp". Actually, it was more of a tryout. Long story short the "seasoned" coach got to pick his team first leaving everyone who was new or not as practiced for the second team. It wasn't that our team didn't have talent. We did, a lot of the kids were really great, Landon included. It was more of a size issue. You can see in the picture below my 60 pound Landon was holding off 100-150 pound opponents. Usually our biggest kid was smaller than the other teams smallest kid.
The good news is Landon gained a lot of experience this year. On offense Landon alternated between running back and offensive line. (Again, a 60 pound offensive lineman? Tiny but mighty!) On defense he played outside linebacker. Another fun thing is that Travis was able to help coach when he was in town and really helped the kids learn how to tackle effectively. One year down #? to go? (Landon is #41 with the green long sleeve shirt under his jersey)

Dayton's Soccer

2009-10-25T14:56:00.000-07:00

Dayton decided to play soccer this fall and is really having a lot of fun. He has been able to play forward and scored a goal in every game except one. So far his team is undefeated. Watching him play soccer has made me really miss playing, he is such a good kid and we love watching him. Go Dayton!

Is it time for Soccer? Is it time for Soccer? Is it time for Soccer?

2009-10-25T14:49:00.000-07:00

When you are the third child with two older brothers you are most likely going to attend many football, basketball, baseball and soccer games. Reece has definitely paid his dues and since he has reached the magical age of three he is finally old enough to participate in a few things of his own. Here he is in the Tiny Tyke soccer program. He loved it!

Reece's good friends Peter Lorch (blue) and Max Christensen (orange) were also Tiny Tykes this year.

Reece at swimming lessons

2009-10-25T14:42:00.001-07:00

Reece is a super swimmer and loves his swim class he takes every Thursday over at Lifetime Fitness.