fantastic five

Kimi's fifth birthday.

Day One:

Awake at the crack of dawn to get ready for the day.

Help Mom make a butterfly cake. The cake decided upon after much soul-searching.

Stand at window and wait for Grandma C. to go to lunch, and more importantly get a toy.

Return home and try to pass the time until the next party by playing with the new toy.

Eat requested dinner (chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes, rolls, and a hard boiled egg) as quickly as possible.

Take Daddy to store for ice cream after informing family that they are to jump out and yell "surprise!" upon return.

Act surprised when family jumps out and yells "surprise!" upon return.

Finally open presents.

 Act surprised when opening the toy asked for a hundred bazillion times.

Blow out candles on cake (that all that special thought went into) and refuse to eat any.

Refuse to eat any ice cream (that a special trip was just made for).

Just play with new toy.

Stay up way too late watching a movie and having a sleepover in the family room with Cali.

Day Two:

Wake up at crack of dawn to get ready for friends birthday party.

Go with terrible mother to health department to get 2nd swine flu mist.

Wait FOREVER for birthday party time.

FINALLY have a bug birthday party with friends.

Make a gigantic mess decorating cupcakes with friends who decide it is very funny to put frosting on your face.

Crash on couch by 5:00 pm after friends have gone home.

Inform parents that "my spirit tells me I need to sleep, not eat!" and go to bed fully clothed at 6:00 pm while the rest of the family has dinner.

Sleep all night.

When asked, "Was your birthday everything you hoped for and more?" answer "Of course!"

resistance training

I usually use this blog just to chronicle my family, so please excuse this one post that is going to be about me.

Exactly five months ago today I started another little blog with two of my sisters. It was a fitness blog made as a place to keep us accountable to our goals, and to give us a place to discuss, and (really) to complain.

I set a few goals, and did not really expect to meet them, but really hoped to as this felt like a last ditch effort to achieve things I have never been able to in my life. That day I started being VERY careful about everything that went into my mouth, and started exercising like never before. (And I started praying for the help to do it.) My goal was to accomplish it all before I turn 30 in January.

Five months later I am 35 lbs lighter (my original goal was to lose 20), I fit into sizes of clothes that I have never worn in my life, and I am able to do things (like jogging) that I have never been able to do. I really can't express how I feel about all this in words. Let me just say I feel like crying just thinking about it.

Thanks to Scott, Elizabeth, and Christine for being my cheerleaders, and to Shellie for getting me my new shoes that got rid of my last excuse.

So anyways, about the resistance training. This is what I am currently resisting:

That is the egg nog display at my Walmart. Anyone who knows me well knows that I am an egg nog FANATIC. I once wrote and illustrated a whole book about this stuff in my younger years, for pete's sake. Those jugs and cartons sing to me like the sirens in the Oddysey.

So for now I will probably just keep spending a few seconds staring glassy eyed at the display like the children outside those toy store window displays in the movies, and looking forward to Christmas day when I'm going to let myself enjoy what really love.

missing-in-action-figures

Have you seen this droid?:

Remember my post about Ian's love for his guys? Well that has not abated at all. The problem is that his ability to keep track of them does not keep up with his love for them, and the fact that they travel everywhere with him doesn't make it any easier.

Poor Roger-Roger has been gone for months, followed by Obi-Wan. Grandpa just brought Ian a new Obi-Wan this weekend and secured Ian's affection for eternity. Yesterday, Darth-Maul went missing. This isn't the first time. I feel as though I spend half of my life moving furniture, going through every toy box and cupboard looking for lost guys. If anyone can think of a way to put homing signals on these guys I am all ears.

Meanwhile, I'll keep rummaging and Ian will have to just have these pictures to remember them by.

Update: Darth Maul has been located behind a couch. The universe can rest easy tonight.

how was my weekend?

Oh, it was nice weekend. The weather was beautiful, and we got some work done outside and in our storage room. My parents and Tino came to visit.

Why? Because we got a new bishop.

That's him holding the cute baby:

I think he'll do a good job. He has an amazing testimony and knowledge of the gospel and a strong desire to serve the Lord. I also think he's pretty good looking, but that's really beside the point.

We celebrated Kimi's birthday and Thanksgiving with Grandma, Grandpa, and Tino. As long as they were here we wanted to do it all.

Kimi got a lot of cute new clothes from Grandma, Grandpa, and Tino. They were sparkly, furry, and pink. Three requirements for Kimi's fashion.

I was happy because I got to cook up a storm. I tried turkey in the crock pot, a carmel apple pie, and a pumpkin roll for the first time along with some of my favorite Thanksgiving recipes. I'll be posting them all soon on Something New, Something Yummy.

I know that from here on out life is going to be different for our family, but we are glad that it is for a good reason.

going green

Ian likes to stay busy while I'm in the shower.

Markers keep a two year-old very busy.This is Ian after I have tried to scrub him off, turning my hands green in the process.
I think he just likes to see his pictures on the blog, so he does what he can to get them there.

trick-or-treat 2009

Happy Halloween from my little pumpkin, bat, Miss USA, and Obi Won.

Natalie got to wear our traditional first-Halloween costume that has been passed down through all of our children.

Kimi got to wear the bat costume I sewed for her. Thats right, I made something at the sewing machine, right after I dusted it off first.

Cali was the beautiful Miss USA. Miss America was to long to write. Look at her practicing her wave. I forgot to work with her on the "looking surprised with your hands in front of your face" look. We have time to work on that later.
Ian was not dressed as Obi-Won. He was Obi-Won. You should have seen the stealthy way he ran from house to house wielding his light-saber.

It was one Happy Halloween.

when its pumpkin carving time at the colton's

We got together at the Colton's to carve pumpkins the day before Halloween. I must say that pumpkin carving has turned into much more of an art than it was when I was little. This is the first time I have done anything other that your old jack-o-lantern.

There just something about that smell of burning pumpkin flesh. Ahhh.

Kimi wouldn't touch the insides and let Cami do all the dirty work for her. And the carving actually. Thanks Cami!

Cali and I worked together, but she liked the "guts."

Here's Natalie hanging out just in case someday she asks me, "Where was I?" Its been known to happen. Ian was hanging out with Uncle "Z" in the basement. Pumpkins meant nothing to him.

That was Cali with the Kitty she designed

And Kimi with her Kitty that Cami did for her.

Then we frosted sugar cookies. Ian magically appeared for that part.

Cali started out methodically placing her sprinkles.

I guess because she had to maximize the space. Want a little cookie with your sprinkles, sweetie?

halloween at gardner village 2009

Last year I took Kimi and Ian to Gardner Village right before Halloween while Cali was at school and Cali has never let me forget how left out she is. So when she had no school the day before Halloween I thought it was the perfect chance to show her I love her just as much.
Did you see the witch on the bicycle? It's legs were pedaling the whole time.
Here's proof that its not just vampires who enjoy playing baseball:

Here they are riding the ponies. I wasn't sure Ian could do it, but as you saw in the video I posted a few days ago, he was a natural cowboy. :)

Then we got some cotton candy to share even though it was about 10:00 a.m. Hey, it was Halloween. Ian was dubious, but from now on he might pull stuffing out of stuffed animals and taste it just to make sure its not more of this stuff.

halloween parade: the waiting game

It was the annual Halloween parade at school last Thursday. Time to rush to the school so that we can try to cram into the little cafeteria with the other parents and wait for the kids to file in.

We had entertainment though. And it wasn't just the skeleton man freaking out the poor little bunny girl. (I really didn't know that was what my picture was until I looked at it later. I'm really a nice person. Really.)

We had the camera to help keep us going as we waited. . .

And waited. . .

And waited. . .

And waited. . .

And waited. . .

And waited. . .

Finally it started! Whoa, there she goes!

Sigh, this is the best shot I got after all that. Those kids move fast.

She knows we were there, and that is really all that matters.

cultural hall-or-treat

Remember this?:

Well, they did move it inside and my kids were so happy. They have to get the maximum amount of sugar possible at this holiday.

They were costumes were a little undone by the end of the night, but they were still cuties.

It's hard to keep it all together when one is doing the work of a Master Jedi. Good thing that light saber was foam because unsuspecting people kept taking it on the back of their knees before I could stop him.

fall leaves fall

This is one of the advantages of having a lot of big trees: plenty of leaves to jump in.

Or eat. Whichever you prefer.