yea uncle steve and Emma too.

So we went to Phoenix last weekend for my big brother's graduation from DeVry, and my little sister's baby's blessing. It was so great to be able to be there for both exciting times. We are so proud of Uncle Steve


it was fun to be with Parker and Granny and Granddad
The kids loved yelling "yea uncle steve" when he walked across the stage.


Okay LOVE may be a bit strong. It got a little long towards the end.


Granddad forgot how much fun it is to take a road trip with kids. Jared was okay with leaving his big boy pants on the side of the road, but was way bummed that he didn't see a coyote in the process!


Just reminding my self why I am not sad that I don't live in a city anymore (you can't tell in the pic, but all the brake lights were on, and I was in the carpool lane)!



but this is why I love Phoenix: (besides my family that lives there of course)


SO here is what I got at IKEA: the VANNA ta da! I'm not entirely sure what category of furniture it falls into, but I LOVE it so much. I call it my mini mudroom.

This is what it looked like before IKEA

And that I why I love IKEA. It gives me one more happy place in my house. And if you want to see how cute my niece Emma looked in her blessing dress head over to my sister's blog
Phew that was a long post!

Miss independent

SO my sweet Hannah is growing up. Unfortunately that means she wants to do things on her own. I found that out the hard way a couple of times last week. On tuesday I asked Hannah to put the scissors away and this was the result:



She had decided to give herself a haircut on the way to put the scissors away. I didn't even notice it until I went to do her hair for girls night. Luckily I have a fabulous friend who is an amazing hairstylist. I called her and she worked her magic! (Thanks again Candice). The problem is that Hannah LOVED getting her hair done and hopefully she won't see cutting her hair as a way to get to go to the stylist in the future!

She looks so sad because I told her that I took the picture to send to Santa if she ever does it again. I'm not above a little blackmail.

Then the next day, she was helping me chop lettuce for tacos. I was showing her how to tear the lettuce with her hands (trying to keep away from anything sharp) and I left to go help Jared and came back and she was gone. I figured she had gotten bored and decided to do something more exciting than tear lettuce. A few minutes later she came downstairs and I noticed something red on her finger. Apparently she had gotten a knife out to cut the head of lettuce, cut her finger (luckily ony slightly), seen the blood, walked upstairs, washed her finger, and put a band-aid on. All without a word to me. So she is cutting the apron strings (a litle early in my opinion) and wants to be "like a grown up". Sigh- I am so not ready for her teenage years!

rest of wanda witch pictures.

So here is the rest about the party. Jamie came up with a fear factor game, which is what most of my pics are. The whole party was so much fun. Thanks everyone who came. Jamie has more pictures on her flickr account, and I am still trying to figure out how to get them. Maybe I will add them when I do.

wanda witch winners!

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Originally uploaded by joshuaterry77

Wanda Witch Party

So, last year I saw a Halloween party idea on Meckmom that I totally wanted to do, but we were in the middle of moving and I didn't really know anyone. But this year I enlisted my awesome friends, Jamie and Jenni to be my witches (hee hee) and throw the party with me. It was this past Friday- and it was so much fun! The idea behind it was that we were the witch sisters and no one was supposed to know who we were. SO we created a fake email address and only communicate with the people we invited through it. And we pretended like we were also invited and we had no idea who was throwing the party. We had a ton of fun trying to keep it a secret, and still talk up the party so people would still want to go. I think that Shannon was the only one who figured out who we were.
Anyways, we spilt into teams and went on a scavenger hunt around town collecting ingredients for the witches brew.


I am surprised how competitive some people are, oh and my team thought that I was going to drive them into the river, but it actually was turning out well, until we got the the park where one clue was and someone had stolen the clue. SO we had the confess and tell our teams who we were, but it was still a blast! Then when we got back to my house we played a version of fear factor. My husband is a pansy! We were out in the 2nd round. And do you know what the totally disgustion thing was that made him quit? OATMEAL! seriously? I was more than a little disappointed. But he probably saved me, because I am pretty sure that there is no way that I could have drank the nasty concoction that they had to to win. Way to go Katie and Ty and your iron stomaches!
After everyone cleaned up and Gordon stopped puking (just kidding Gordon), we played what-if, which I hadn't played since college. I think that the whole night was tons of fun- now I have to decide what project to do next! Here are some pics. to be continued!!!

Picture tag

Carly and Greg had this on their blog and it looked like fun. Go to your picture files and choose the 4th picture from the 4th file and post it, and then tell about it. We store our pictures alphabetically by month and year so my 4th folder was August 2003, and this was taken at Hannah's blessing. It is amazing to see how much our family has changed. My neice, Ashley is a senior in high school now (she's the one in the back). And Zach is the blond sitting in the front row on the right- he looks completely different. Plus, now we have added 6 more grandkids since this picture was taken. Crazy how fast time flies! So anyway, I tag all of you who read this. DO it- it is easy and fun.

Okay funny me- I actually did it wrong. But since I already wrote all of that, I am leaving it. Our 4th file is actually April 2003 and this is the picture I should have put up

it's from a family trip we took when I was pregnant with Hannah. Kerry went with Dad to the California Dental Association Convention and we went to Universal Studios. It was a blast, even though I couldn't ride any of the rides. Doesn't Kerry look like a baby in this picture? When did we get old?

Fire drill! or material possession obsession

Okay so we didn't exactly have a fire drill, but this week the kids are talking about what to do incase of a fire. I know that it is important for them to know, but it was a little tramatic for my kids. Let me explain. Kerry did a great job talking about what to do if there is a fire. (I wasn't home, I was shopping). He calls me and asks if I think that Granny's house would be a good meeting place- she lives 2 doors down- it was Hannah's idea.
So I am way proud of them and then I get home. They told me that they checked the smoke detectors and that they know how to get out of the house. Then somehow we get on the subject of going back in. Kerry told them that they don't go back in the house for anything. Well, that started the waterworks! We're not talking a few tears here and there, we're talking full blown devastation.

"But what about my toys," cries Zach.

"We can buy new toys," says Dad.

"But Dad I will miss Rose and Sleeping Beauty, and all of my other stuffed animals that I don't know their names," says Hannah between sobs.

Seriously?! It took us a good 10 minutes to calm them down. Apparently, my kids have attachment issues- to their stuff! It was so hard to keep a straight face. But I did because they were so serious. Does this mean that they have too much stuff? And I have to admit that I am a little worried if we have an actual fire- I guess if I can't find them I should check the playroom- can't you just see Zach standing at the window throwing each stuffed animal to the safety below?

so much to post so little time

I have soooo much to post about, I don't even know where to start. But I am mucho exhausted-o so let me just say that Disneyland was so fun. Here are some pictures and I will post about our days once I catch up on some sleep.

funny kids top 5 for Sept 29-October 5

1. Zach: (in the Sonic drive-thru) Mom if you keep buying diet cokes, you are going to waste all of your Disneyland money!
2. Jared: (while standing at the toilet) Mom, I think that we are all out of pee-pees today
3. Hannah: (while saying closing prayer at FHE) Please bless my family, but not strangers.
4. Zach: Awwww! Dad you punked me! (how does he even know what punked means? He's not a fan of Ashton Kutcher that I know of)
5.Hannah: (after being told she doesn't get to play on the playground cuz she didn't behave) But Mom I tried to choose the right, but my brain told my arms to move all over the place!

Happy Birthday to me!

I had the best birthday! I feel so loved. My husband started the day letting me sleep in while he and the kids straightened the house. When he had to go to work, I heard him tell Zach and Hannah to finish the family room and not to wake me up. Little did he know the battle that he had just created. Zach is my worker bee. He works until the job is done, sometimes even doing more than his fair share. I can bribe him with almost anything, and he does a good job most of the time. Hannah, on the other hand, is pretty much the opposite. She will do anything, and I mean anything to get out of work. She is too sick or too hurt or too tired, or just doesn't want to. And as far as bribes go, well I could offer her the world and she still wouldn't clean. I have to be right beside her every step of the way in order to get anything done. So, my birthday morning all I hear is, "Hannah, clean it up." followed by giggle giggle (hannah giggles to bug Zach). Then ,"Hannah, shhhhh don't wake up Mom." Louder giggles. "Hannah, stupid, just clean it up." "Jared, no clean!" Then I heard a few slaps, and some crying, footsteps on the stairs, followed by, "NOOOOO!" and a huge thump, which I later learned was Zach tackling Hannah to stop her from waking me up. Well, birthday sleep over, I went to survey the damages. And as soon as my sweet boy heard my voice he burst into tears, and lunged once again at Hannah. "Hannah you woke her up, you ruined everything!" After some calming down and explaining things we finnaly got it all figured out, and I did end up with a clean family room. Zach has such a sweet heart, but such a temper! I have a hard time teaching him to control it without losing mine sometimes. Were little sisters just put on Earth to bug older brothers? I think that if you ask my big brother he might say, "yes!"
So after the drama of the morning, I got to get together with a bunch of friends for a birthday brunch. It was fabulous! My friends are the greatest. Then I met my mom at Buffalo Wild Wings and kicked her butt at trivia (she probably let me win cuz it was my birthday), and then she took me shopping. Later that afternoon, Kerry came home with flowers and a cake and we opened presents. he got me a new camera which has not gotten here yet, but I'm sure it will be fabulous. Then my wonderful parents watched the kids while Kerry did as all wonderful husbands should do and took me to Chili's for dinner.
Thanks everyone who called, or told me happy birthday. I am so lucky to have such great friends and family.

Bye Kali

Okay so my song choice is a little dramatic, but I am way sad that my friend, Kali, has moved. To the-middle-of-nowhere, Nevada no less. I am sure she is doing well, I know that I will hear from her soon- when she gets internet.
But we did get to do some fun things before she left. Like go to the temple, and them deal with the total idiots at Bed, bath, and Beyond (shoulda got a picture of them).



Then a bunch of us got together to say goodbye, it was funny cuz Kali was sick and wasn't going to come to her own surprise goodbye party, but then she came so Tayton could play with Jared and SURPRISE!



Arrrrrrgghhh! One last pirate adventure. Jared keeps asking me if we can go pick up Tayton- but I think that middle-of-nowhere is a little far for a playdate!


I will miss my friend- you people are lucky to have her, and anytime you want to come melt in the heat, you know you are welcome (kali-not "you people")