20 Random Thoughts...

1. I love my family. They're hilarious. I love hanging out with them and playing games, and laughing together. I love learning from them. They're soooo dang smart.

2. I REALLY need to blog more. I've been slacking for far too long. I need to blog so I can keep a record of what goes on around here - for posterity's sake. And for sanity's sake.

3. I'm VERY blessed. I have AWESOME friends. They inspire me to do better. Be better. Contribute more.

4. I need to get more spiritual. I've been seriously slacking in that department.

5. My kids make me want to be a better Mom. Person. Friend. Wife. Daughter. Aunt. Human - everything.

6. I miss Meredith.

7. It's cool having my mom live so close. The kids love playing games with her, and it's nice having a grandma around for them. She's a really good influence on them. And me. Do you know she just up and went dancing all day long? She's 62! She saw an advertisement online that said the city of Austin was having free dance lessons for the day. She went dancing ALL DAY LONG - by herself. That's awesome. I told her to call me next time so we could go together.

8. My grandma Ruth turns 90 this year. We're celebrating with her for the 4th of July in Arizona. Seriously? July in AZ? Whose plan was THAT?

9. I took a trapeze class last month. It was awesome! I want to get really good at it and learn more tricks. It's terrifying standing up on the platform though. I've learned that if you squeeze your butt tight, the butterflies in your stomach go away.

10. I've been living in a construction zone for about 5 months. I cannot WAIT for my house to be finished so I can have some peace and quiet to get some OTHER projects done.

11. I want to take a photography class to figure out how to use all the fancy buttons and knobs on my new camera. Oh the fun I'm going to have!

12. I LOVE music. I love everything about it. Love lyrics the most. I'm always in search of the next best song that moves me. Sad, happy, thumping, spiritual - good stuff. Anything that makes me FEEL something.

13. I snorkeled for the first time last week. It was incredible! I panicked at first - breathing under water isn't normal. After I got the hang of it, I didn't want to stop. I learned that smiling underwater breaks the seal of the mask and mouthpiece - the mask fills up with water, and you choke on salt water. Lesson learned. No smiling or laughing under water!

14. Matt turns 16 next month. Holy Moly! He won't be able to get his license on his birthday, because he doesn't have his permit yet. He has to practice a LOT before we turn him loose. Yikes.

15. Sydney and Rylee come in our bedroom every morning at 6:00 - 6:15 am to snuggle with Del and I. They take turns switching sides. It's my FAVORITE part of the day. I hope they never grow out of it.

16. It's really weird when your old babysitters have babies of their own. Makes me feel ancient. Rebecca has FOUR of her own - I taught her how to drive a stick-shift in the old JEEP when I'd take her home, and Kristi gave Sydney her little scruffy dog that she still sleeps with, and she just had a baby of her own. Dude, I'm old!

17. My really old hotmail account keeps sending out spam to random people. I've tried closing the account at LEAST 20 times, and it keep regenerating itself. It's driving me INSANE! I get spam from MYSELF. Gah!

18. I have to substitute teach in Relief Society tomorrow, and I'm not making much progress. Instead, I'm playing on here.

19. Del is a pretty cool husband and Dad. I think we'll keep him. He's super smart, and funny and is always trying to do better than the day before. He's a really good listener, and can make some killer birthday cookies. His fried chicken is pretty fantastic too. He's awesome.'

20. Gotta start running again. Ick. Pain, here I come. :(

Happy Birthday, Del!

I'll try to backlog and update the past 6 months in between posting what's current. Sound good? Because at the rate I'm going, I'll be behind all stinkin' YEAR.

So - Del just turned the big 4 0.

Morgan is now in control of this post, because my Mom forgot to sign off, lucky me! My Mom has been suffering from what I like to call, The Summer Stress Disorder or SSD. SSD causes extreme loss of patience and control in one's actions. She has been venting her SSD on the one's close enough to smack or ground ( almost always ground) I would like to inform all of you Bloggers that I will probably never be heard from again, and hopefully you're smart enough to know what happened ( I died of BOREDOM!). PS This is all just a joke from me to Mom. No hard feelings =)

Kelsey & Kim come to visit!

Early November Kim and Kelsey came to Texas for a lovely visit. It was AWESOME - they came just in time to help me move all my furniture to get new carpet. I really didn't PLAN that, it was just a happy coincidence! LOVE you for helping me. :)

Kelsey is competitive. Whenever we get together, she wants to see if she can beat Kim at arm wrestling. Then when Kim squashes her like a little bug, she comes to ME to help boost her ego back up. See - I'm a giver. LOL.

Missionaries...

We like the missionaries. I get to know them really well from cutting their hair, and they usually eat at our house once a week. I even get to know their families from sending them emails with videos and pictures.

They are AWESOME! We love how they bring the spirit into our home, teach us little lessons, and even do a service projects every once in awhile. In fact, they substituted for me last night on a Scout - Board of Review. They are great examples for my boys.

We love the missionaries. Here are just a few of our favorites...

Elder Hertig

Elders Hertig and Halversen watched the video on my blog of Eric, Jared, and all my kids having a scream contest. Hertig said he could out-scream Jared, so we let him give it a go.

Here's his attempt:



What do you think?? Jared, or Hertig?

Christmas Tree Setup

We like music. We like dancing. We like to MAKE kids dance. It's awesome. I learn some cool moves from my kids.

Back to December....

Del and I went to Disneyland for our Anniversary - sans children. Ruthy came to stay with the kiddos while we were gone. Thanks, Foof!

The first day it rained all day, but it was great, because there were no lines to ANYTHING.

The second day we went back the weather was gorgeous!

Cinderella's Castle

The Christmas decorations were AWESOME. So beautiful.

I talked Del into getting our faces painted. A HUGE Leap out of his comfort zone!

We went to the Cheesecake Factory that night for dinner with these still on our faces. It was AWESOME!

Halloween 2009!

Holy Moly - it's JUNE!!!

I cannot believe it's been 6 months since I last blogged. Let me just apologize to my family (siblings) for slacking, since they seem to be the most annoyed that I have not blogged. I'm sorry from the heart of my bottom. Please forgive me. :)

So - I'm going to be playing catch-up for a little while.

I skipped Halloween last year. I'm not sure what happened to October?!

We each carved our own pumpkins for FHE.

All the pumpkins sitting on the front porch.

Travis is some ghouly montster thing-a-ma-jig, Rylee is Hannah Montanna, and Syd is a candy corn witch.

Matt was a nun. He was so pretty! People at the ward party didn't recognize him. They kept asking who the new girl was.

Here are a bunch of pics from the ward party.

Ken as Nacho, Keri as Sister Encarnacion. Their orphans are MIA.

The Wizard of Oz Family: Leslie as Glinda, Brent as Elphaba (Wicked Witch of the West) and Ryan is the Tin Man

Kaitlyn is Dorothy

Kylie is the Cowardly Lion

McKeneley as the Scarecrow

Brynlie is the cutest little Munchkin

Elphaba and Nacho getting friendly.

Rushell as a Fairy

The Talbots

The Gilliams - Scooby, Shaggy (who is really bald), Daphne, and Wilma

Melanie - Jailbird

Hazel - as Super Girl

Betsy as (I think) The Greatest American Hero

Ethan as a cute little cow, and not sure what Bill is.

Laura as a sassy, sparkletastic elf.

Jeremy - self explanatory.

Lonya and Cayden

Mary and Lowell Dennis

The Elders and the Nun. Elder Halversen, Matt, and Elder Hertig

Bryce as Bozo

Sarah made a GREAT clown!

Rylee went as Miley Cyrus for the party. For the school Carnival, she was Hannah Montana. She said the wig was too itchy.

Bug wanted to wear a shirt that said, "I'm with Stupid."

Anniversary #17...

December 5th was our 17th Anniversary.

I wanted to do something special for Del this year, so I put together a slide-show for him. At first I put all the pictures in random order, but it was too disjointed, so I just re-finished it for him in chronological order (or as close as I could get it.)

It's hilarious going through old photos. Basically it's a HAIR and FAT diary. Some years we ate and looked better than others. Fat and happy seems to be the theme.

Before ya'll comment on my lovely 80's bangs and big 'fros, just remember your kids will make fun of YOUR hair too.

Happy Anniversary, Del. Thanks for putting up with me for so long. Love you.

If you want to watch the video - click HERE.

Filth...

Del came out of the bedroom yesterday morning and walked into the office to review his Sunday school lesson before church.

The kids were still asleep. The kitchen was spotless - sparkly and shiny.

He came out of the office 30 minutes later to find the kitchen a disaster area.

He looked at all of his five children and said in a very STERN voice, (aka - a loud roar)

"Why in the world would you people want to live in filth?"

to which Bug quickly replied, "Because it's easier to maintain?"

Del laughed. The rest of them laughed.

Props go to the quickest wit in our house. AND they cleaned up the mess. :)

The King - Part Deux....

September 29th, 2009.

King Del, that is.

Sir, Del.

Master Del.

MISTER - Del.

Del - who works for Apple.

Yowza - looking shnazzy in his new suit.

Del FINALLY got the promotion that we moved to Texas for. Hallelujah! He's worked very hard, and we're super proud of him. He's officially Chief Cook and Bottle Washer. Yay!

So we had a party! Invited our good friends to celebrate with us and had a surprise party for him when he got home from work. Some were able to come on such short notice and we're so glad they showed up, as we had a TON of food!

Enchiladas and Burritos

Beans and Rice

Chips, Salsa, and Creamy Jalapeño Ranch (our favorite)

We made a toast to Del with our fancy plastic margarita cups filled with Rootbeer & Sprite.

I had to stall him because we weren't ready. He was supposed to pick up the kids from piano lessons, but when he got there, there were no kids. I had the piano teacher tell him that her husband had just taken them home.

He knew something was going on when I panicked and said I needed him to stop at Walmart for some milk because we had none. Only we DID have some that we had just bought the day before. I yelled - "Er - just don't come home till 6:30!"

ugh.

The Man of the Hour - and me.

Kylie

Leslie

Brent (his favorite pose)

Ryan - love this one. CHEESE!

Brynlie

Rylee - making faces. Her favorite thing to do.

James - trying to stay awake.

Cute Auntie Mhari.

Sydney

Apparently, the girls took the camera upstairs to strike some poses.

McKeneley

I'm sad I didn't get pics of all the helium balloons and giant banner that we used to decorate. Oh well.

After the party was over, we had fun with the helium balloons.

Good times :)

Congratulations, Del!