...like a horse and carriage.

I have one wedding edited.

Whew!

Who knew that would take 4 times as long as the actual taking of the pictures? I have another 300 from the second wedding to start and 2 families to finish editing. This is a time-consuming process....

Here are a couple of my favorites from the first one. I'll post more later.

I also put them all on my new business-type website. If you're exceptionally bored,

you can see it by clicking here.

I hope you're all enjoying your last moments with your 2007.

It might be next year before I write again.

local cuties...

I'm trying to gear myself up for a wedding I'm shooting tomorrow,
so I thought I'd post a few of my latest faves for good luck.

Gotta love the ferret with his fancy sweater. You can't see it, but it has a hoodie that he wasn't keen on keeping on his head. :-)

He and his owner frequent the park that I took almost all of these pictures in.

Here's hoping it's warmer in Mesa than the 20 degrees it's been here the past two days.

We be Jammin' in Primary...

Last night, we had a Primary Board Meeting to get pumped about the new year's theme, pass out our new materials, sing, eat and watch this:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4377332801854648428&hl=en

I retired to bed at 3:30 AM upon completing it the night prior, but if I do say so myself, it was well worth the sleep deprivation.


Primary Rocks.
Our kids are awwwww, so cute too...eh?

The Primary ROLL-OVER

I love the end of the year. December is starting become something of an overwhelming month, but I LOVE changing up the Primary stuff.

The theme for 2008 is awesome. So simple, so sweet. I love it.

Here's what I've been working on tonight -

(in addition to the rolls, the schedules, the lists, the calendars and the other lists. Oh, and also - I'm making some lists. In addition to meetings, we also believe in lists.)

I JUST love this. It's the cover page, for the teachers' manual binders.

What's great is - most of them are pictures I've taken of local ankle biters. I have a vision of plastering pictures of my lil' primary stewardshiplets all over the primary room this coming year.

Now, I know of at least a couple of my teachers who read my blog. Why they read it is a whole other mystery, but since you weren't supposed to see this until Sunday, just act surprised when you do. Ok then.

A Night NOT-forgotten...

Last Night, after what was a completely horrible day (about which I'll blog later), it was immediately remedied by the following things:

Michael McLean

Live at the Gammage Auditorium

For the Forgotten Carols

It didn't hurt that there was some Deep-Dish beforehand.

And great company as well.

(except I didn't bring the camera, sorry. We enjoyed sprucing up the Season with Doug's mom, brother & family.)

Thanks for fixing the day, Michael.

You have a way of doing that.

If you feed them, they will come.

So, weekly (and for an extra half hour each Sunday for the past month) we host the ward choir in our home.

I play the piano, Doug runs a playgroup downstairs ;-)

and Bret mans the kitchen.

There's great fun to be had by all.

you should come!

Bret has taken it upon himself to make some kind of dessert, cupcake, bread, cream puff, or random food-colored item each week, and has it ready for consumption by the end of the rehearsal - all in a quaint display, usually with fresh veggies and dip to help balance out whatever extra amount of sugar he may or may not have accidentally added in.

He made green lemonade one week and wondered why people haven't been going for the drinks in recent weeks. Tate and Whitney like to help when they can, but he usually prefers to be alone in there.


Thanks Amy and your fun class for the cool attire. They look like legitimate chefs. They can't wait to come back when your schedule's less FULL.

So. If you're hungry, need something to do to burn the 10 hours before church starts, and enjoy a little do-re-mi now and then. Come on over. We'll put on a chicken.

Or ...at least Bret will.

Holiday Duet...

You may have already seen something like this online, but for our ward Christmas party, I was asked to put these two together.

LDS production of "The Nativity" and Amy Grant's "Breath of Heaven."

It's kind of like they were made for each other, perfection. I, of course, added a few of my own dramatic and sound effects because...well, that's how I operate. It's a sweet little arrangement. Enjoy!

Thirsty for Bling?

So, I just love http://www.etsy.com/ (careful, it's a little addicting). And while I was on the other day, I happened upon this little treasure:

I gave up drinking it a while ago, but occassionaly indluge just to remember why I love it so much.
Getting the necklace has been something of a parodox. The day it came in the mail, I stopped in for 'a drink' and it seems I've had one everyday since! WHAT!?!?!

It could also be that I've been quarantined to my house with my baby with the funky mouth virus, and I'm teetering on the edge of insanity. Yeah, let's chalk it up to that.

Anyway, it's my new favorite bling. Can't wait to wear it on the next G.N.O.

Survival of the frigid-lest

So, I guess I now have two notches in my proverbial Triathlon Belt.

Special Items of Interest:

• After only having slept about 4 hours the night before (Fever-laden-Kyle induced) and then upon parking, opening the door and feeling like I'd stepped into a refrigerator, taking my bike off the rack and finding my cursed front tire to be flat, I suddenly wondered what on EARTH I was doing.
  

• CO2 cartridges and guns, while intimidating, are actually very handy and problem-solving.


• My lil' popsicle toes were numb before it even started. I think the standing on the pool deck in the 50 degrees in my swimsuit in the rain had something to do with it.
  
• Do I have a circulation problem if I lose feeling in my feet after 2 miles on my bike?
  


• This after 14 miles, of course, made running a little difficult, especially since (previously unknown to me) the first mile and half were ALL UPHILL. I wanted to crawl in the storm drain I passed, and cry.

I finished, though. And in a decent enough time:
1 hour 41 minutes 30 seconds

Funny, I had the same thought this time while I was running, that I did last time, "Who on EARTH thought this was a good idea? I'm SO never doing this again."

Ahhhh, well... I have a feeling that I'll ignore myself again. I'm already planning for the next one...this time in a REAL lake in Havasu.

We spent the rest of the afternoon with Doug's family in Phoenix making Christmas Candy Trains (yum).

Now THOSE are the carbs I'M talking about...

And then came home to this:

What a

perfectly

exhaustingly

lovely

day.

the 11th hour...

I really should be going to bed, especially since I feel like I'm getting sick (or maybe it's the Airborne mixed with the Gatorade mixed with the pistachios) since I am, ya know, doing a triathlon tomorrow... but I was in here making some adjustments to my Tri-2-playlist and thought while I was here, I'd post a pic or two from our lil' party we just finished.

It kind of went down like Thanksgiving does: spend all day planning, cooking and decorating, and then in an hour it's over. It was great fun though, and we enjoyed having everyone over.

Speaking of my playlist, now that it's complete - it ROCKS! I downloaded a bunch of Christmas Dance re-mixes, so it will not only be inspirational, but festive at the same time! Here's hoping CASCADA's "Last Christmas" and Crazy Frog's "Jingle Bells" will get me through the last mile in whatever amount of inclement weather we're supposed to be expecting tomorrow.

Of course, I'm bringing the cheering section again. If the music doesn't get me through, this image should... (!?!?!)

If at first...

If at first you still succeed, but you'd like to TRI it again anyway, go ahead.

I'm gearin' up (quite literally) for my second Triathlon on Saturday. I've upgraded a few features since my first, but my body has started showing a smidgen of wear'n'tear from what I've been doing to it over the past 6 months. I'm hoping to (once again) just finish, and be vertical upon doing that.

I'm in good company again this time, so it's going to be great fun. Tomorrow starts my rigorous carb-consuming and gatorade gulping.

I'm preparing for (or at least SHOULD start preparing for) a dinner party at our house that takes place tomorrow night. I should have requested the menu inlcude pasta. Maybe I'll prepare one extra side dish. Where's my list? Add that to it!

I'll report in, when it's all over... until then, happy hydrating!

Seventy-six trombones...

Well, I don't know if they even HAD a trombone, but they DID have a xylophone, provided by yours truly - Bret S. Burch.

The Liberty Band ROCKED the house at the Prescott Christmas Parade last Saturday.

I was hesitant to even go, since it was Fri-GID: rain and hail - blowing from the side, wind, 36 degrees, rain and hail blowing from the side, overall freezing conditions, and did I mention the rain and hail were blowing from the side?

So, I decided my "overly-joyous despite the weather" son was worth the sacrifice, and we drug the kids up there bundled like little eskimos.

They were colossal troopers.

I guess I really wanted to go, because when his band came by, I totally started crying. He had been SO excited for SO long to strap that xylophone to his back, and pound out "We wish you a Merry Christmas" while he marched along.

It was a. dor. able.

'Tis the Ivory Key Season

Merry Ivory Tickling Christmas to me.

If you counted SEVEN pieces, you would be correct.

I, of course, have all kinds of time to sit down and practice them all.

It's beginning to sound a lot like Christmas.

on lifting...

It's been a week for heavy lifting.

Ok, Tate doesn't weight more than like 35 pounds, but it sure felt like I lifted that off my blah-g boredom.

What do you think of the facelift? I had to retrieve a few files from a drawer in my brain that I haven't opened since college, but I managed to finagle the html code all on my lonesome!

Evidently, we ARE allowed to show a little bit of our very own creativity while producing a page all about US in the first place. I highly enjoyed it, although it IS almost 3 AM.

I should really get a life.

Cafe Rio Salad, without the Cafe or the Rio.

So, we had the sister missionaries over for dinner tonight, both from Utah, and both with vast Cafe Rio/Costa Vita (is that what it's called now?) experience. So, I took it upon myself to declare it Cafe Rio night. I couldn't believe how much this tasted EXACTLY like the real deal.

It was as if I were freezing my touche off in Provo again, standing in line there, waiting for 2 hours to order and eat this, and then go to a movie for $1 at Movies 8 with the rest of the BYU, but then again, NOTHING like that, yet it still tasted like it!

SO LONG "driving 2 hours to Mesa salivating the whole way," I can make it in the comfort of my own kitchen now.

What a perfectly lovely ending to an otherwise frumpy-in-nature day.

BTW, Thanks, Lisa, for saving my hind end and doing a bit of shopping for me, while I was putting out fires of various natures on the left, right, and in between left and right. K. you're just great. And yeah - great minds think alike, as always.

AZ Art.

So, I was sitting in here minding my own business, perusing mindless Internet while I should have been cleaning the kitchen, when my eldest ran in and said, "Mom, come quick out to the deck! And bring your camera." Usually this means he's arranged the recycle trash into some kind of sculpture and wants me to document it.

However, tonight he was clearly heralding a legitimate photo-worthy event. This is what I found, on the deck:

It's all in the shoes...

I had the chance to assist in a tag-team effort bridal photography shoot last week. I'm not at liberty to disclose the results, except for this ONE, that turned out so cool. We blew it up, added an inspirational quote, framed it and gave it to Jamie at her bridal shower. awwwwwww.

T-day

T is for

Table Trimming

Taking Chances

Talking while eating

Tasty beverages

Thankfkul Hearts

bribery, bread and eye-batting...

The other day I bribed everyone with ice cream and a whole loaf of bread to feed the ducks, to go back to the park (as a family this time) and attempt to capture the perfect family picture for this year.

My kids climbed up onto this rock while I was looking for a location and Bret (my assistant and self-proclaimed people positioner) said, "Mom! How about this?" We tossed Kyle up there and this is what came of it:

I also loved this one:

This girl LOVES to pose for pictures. She's not half-bad either. That makes it nice. Oh the images I have saved up for HER someday wedding video...