Last minute plans....

are sometimes the BEST!! We decided that we really should see Disneyland all decked out for the holidays, so we are taking the kids and heading out New Years Day for California (I checked the schedule, and Disney leaves Chistmas up until the 5th)!! How fun is that?! Lennie and I both got the time off, as well as Aunt Nancy!! It will be a bit of a whirlwind trip, but it will be fun. And we got a SMOKIN' deal on a hotel room since we booked so last minute....go figure....it was ½ price and directly adjacent to the park!! Good times!!


Christi

We hope your holiday's were as Merry as ours!!!

I know I haven't blogged in a while, but we have just been so busy!! We had two holiday parties at our house before Christmas. Christmas Day was lovey, and we spent it at my mom's house (Lennie's dad did join us there for dinner.) Thank you to all of our friends and faily who were so graceous to send us cards and gifts, etc. I will update this post soon with pictures of our festivites (including Jonny learning to ride a dirt bike!). We hope everyone had a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Christi

Decking the Halls....

Monday night for Family Night, we put up our tree and a few other decorations. The kids were SO excited they could hardly contain themselves when we started getting the ornaments out. It is amazing how it just FEELS more like Christmas once the tree is up!! I love it.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Temple Lights....

Saturday night, we went to the temple to walk around the grounds and see the lights with some members of my family. I took pictures (*of course*), but I guess I need to practice my nighttime shooting more, because they are all pretty blurry. You still get the idea, LOL. It was a fun night, we even got to sit and listen to 2-5-9 sing. Havent heard them in years, they were still quite entertaining. Here are some shots from that night.

New family photos....

Last Saturday evening, my friend Ashley and I arranged a SWAP! We met at the temple grounds, and she took our family photos, and I took hers. Such a deal!! It was fun to see her (she lives on the WEST side of the valley, so we don't get together often) and get family photos too!! All went very well (well....except the part about Lennie putting his glasses BACK on after I told him to take them off!) Not sure if SUN glasses are photoshoppable or not....I guess we'll see. :0) (Love you, honey)

Anyhow, here are some of our pics. Some of them I have done some photoshopping and changes to....some of them not yet.

Murphy's Law.....ever heard of it....

I have!!

So....what is today? Oh yeah, Thanksgiving. Right? What happens on Thanksgiving?....you eat. How do you prepare much of the food you eat?.....the oven, right?

Yeah well, my assignment for dinner today is the ham. No problem. Except that there *IS* a problem!! I was baking some fish last night for dinner. At the end of the baking time, I turned my oven to Broil to get a nice golden crispy finish to my parmesean crusted cod. Two minutes later, I go to take the fish out and turn off the oven, and it will NOT turn off of broil. I cannot get the knob to BUDGE. What is going on!? So I take the outer knob off and try to turn the post that sticks out....nope, not moving. I move to pliers....still NOT moving. Well after several minutes of trying and trying, I finally got the broiler off, but the oven is still on and set for 500 degrees.....knob still not wanting to turn. I kept trying to turn it down....I kept at it until......well, you guessed it.....I BROKE IT!! Now the knob turns alright.....and turns and turns and turns and never stops......and the oven is still on and set for some unknown temperature. It is still WAY to hot to touch, so I go OUTSIDE and flip the breaker so that it will cool down and Lennie can pull it out and look at it. SIGH.

We have no oven. Lennie took it apart this morning, and I am thinking this oven is heading to the dump. Looks like I am going to go to my moms EXTRA early for dinner tonight because I have to bake the ham there. Which means I miss my nap....which I need because I work tonight. Ah Well.....I am thinking it will be a slow night at work anyhow - maybe I'll even get cancelled (dare I even think it???).

One funny thing that happen amid all this.....Sadie - the ever-positive-look-on-the-bright-side wonderful girl she is, said to me "Well, mom....now we can get a BLACK so that it matches the fridge and the dishwasher". LOL, such a girl to think about that hee hee....but you know......she is right!!!!

crAzY hAiR and PaJAma DaY!!....

Every day for over a week, I have heard the question "How many days until the day before Thanksgiving?" At first I was puzzled by this question, until I found out that today is Crazy Hair and Pajama Day at the kids' school. They could not wait!! I didn't even have any trouble getting them up and ready for school today....they WANTED to go, LOL!! I, of course, snapped some photos before they got too far! Fun. Sadie calls hers a "princess hat of hair", LOL (some of you may recognize this style from girls camp a couple years ago)!!

Everyone Loves a Parade!!!

For as long as I can remember, it has been an annual tradition in my family to be involved with the Watson Flower Shop float and a parade. The flower shop was opened by my Great Grandparents in 1927 (I think)...and is still owned and run by family. I worked there all through college.

Now, the tradtion has evolved over the years....it used to be the Mesa Days Parade in March....and now it is the Gilbert Days Parade in November. Decorating the float used to involve pinning colored stock (a flower) into styrofoam boards to cover the float....now it involves gluing petals and leaves to boards to cover the float.

But some things never change...each year, it is the 5 year olds in the family who get to ride. I rode when I was 5, as did my siblings, and all (or just about all) of my 52 (yes, I said FIFTY-TWO!) first cousins. Now it is our children who are riding. Each year, many of the rest of the family walks along side the float passing out stems of flowers to parade watchers. It is a fantastic tradition for our family, and one that regular parade attendees look forward to as well.

This year, Sadie was a float rider. She was SOOOOO looking forward to it, and had a blast smiling and waving as the float went down the parade route. Since she is our youngest, she is the last one in our family to ride. It seems strange to think that we are done with that. Here are some pics I took of her that day. Oh yeah, if you are thinking to yourself...."my, it looks a bit warm in the photos....even for AZ".....you'd be RIGHT!! 85 degrees is TOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOT for November!!

One of my fondest memories from my childhood is riding the float. I got to ride with my cousin Charlene. She and I were good friends. We were less than 2 months apart, and all the other cousins our age were boys (who we loved too, but there is something special about girl cousins!). She passed away when we were 11, and I cherish the memories I had with her. I called my uncle (who still owns the Flower Shop) and he sent me a photo of the year I rode the float!! You can see that alot has changed....and some stayed the same. Click on the photo for a better look.

I also have to give a HUGE thank you to two of the nurses I work with at Gateway. I did not know the dates of the parade had been changed this year, and I was scheduled to work Friday and Saturday nights. This would have made it very hard for me to be there and be awake, let alone have Sadie there and ready on time. Brandi and Sarah both went out of thier ways to make schedule changes with me so that I could be there, and I appreciated that SOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!

Fun on Veteran's Day...

Since the kids had school off today, and I was not working, I wanted to do something fun with them. We decided that it would be fun to spend the day at Oak Flats. Man, was that a GOOD idea!! We invited Grandma and Zayah, as well as a friend of Jon's to come with us. A fantastic time was had by all!! The weather was perfect, the kids were SO well behaved, we visited the cave, we climbed trees and rocks and had lunch....and I was click, click, clicking away with my camera. I took about 80 shots...they were SO fun!

I bet you think that right about *HERE* there should be a slide show of all the fabulous fun we had today. Well there SHOULD be, but somehow, I managed to delete the WHOLE ENITRE CARD of pictures. So all we have to show for it are dirty faces, tired bodies, and memories. Guess we'll just have to go again, LOL!!

Flashback Friday....

I found this hiding in the files on my computer last night, and I was CRACKING up. Maybe it is just me, but looking at our little Sadie-bug (who was 3 years old at the time) singing this song from The Little Mermaid made me laugh and laugh (oh, and the BURP in the middle of the song helped too). Thanks to Mehana who caught this moment of cute-ness for us on her PHONE back in 2006, LOL!!

Lenard is on a ROLL.....

HONOR ROLL!! Way to go Lenard!! We are proud of you and we love you!

The Poodle, The Pirate, The Jedi....

Those were the costumes of choice this year. Lenard sort of made his costume up...he is his own kind of Jedi!! Jonathan's was a recycled costume from years past, and we made Sadie's after she saw it in October's Family Fun Magazine and fell in love with it. I thought they all looked Great! I was sad that I had to work, so I could not go out trick-or-treating with them, but I got them all dressed and took some fun pics. I am lucky to have kids that dont mind indulging me in some fun photo-ops!! Lennie took them to Aunt Shannon/Uncle Donalds house to trick-or-treat with the cousins in their neighborhood, then they stopped by the hospital so I could see them (and show them off, LOL). A fun night which resulted in WAY too much candy. ;0)

Oh yeah, since we are allowed minimal costumes at work, I decided to wear my nurses hat (from gruaduation 13+ years ago) and be the "old-timey" nurse. Everyone at work got a big kick out of that.

Oh YEAH I did!!......

I, for the first time in over TWO MONTHS, I went into my scrappy room and created something!!! It felt really good to handle paper, cutter, scissors, glue, ink, chipboard....all those fun things.

I made this title page for an album. It is not for me. I have an Uncle who is dealing with some significant health issues right now, and my dedicated Aunt is right by his side. They have done so much for me over the years of my life, and I feel a bit helpless right now. Well, my Aunt is one of the most positive people I know, and she has a great deal of faith as well. She is taking all of this and making the best of it. She really is finding joy in the journey.

I already had the idea of making her a notebook where she could put her photos she takes and notes and emails that people send. I even thought about the title, and 000when I heard President Monson speak in General Conference about Finding Joy in the Journey, I KNEW that should be the title of the book. Here is what I came up with this afternoon.

Birthday Artwork....

Saturday was my birthday, and when I walked in the door that morning (from work...I worked the night before) my kids were there showering me with beautiful artwork and singing to me "HAPPY BIRTHDAY". I have great kids, and I am lucky to be thier mom!!! I wanted to share a few of their lovely creations with you.

Disney Memories...

What a FUN time we had!! We are definately going back!! It is amazing the difference a couple of years makes. All the kids are old enough to deal with an entire day of fun without naps, etc. WOOHOO!! We went ahead and bought annual passes, so you can be sure we're going back SOON!! Hopefully so we can see it all decked out for Christmas!!!

The countdown is ON!!!....

MySpace Countdown Clocks

Well, we've actually been counting down for about SIX MONTHS....but we are getting down to the wire now!! I have been busy getting things ready. I got new tires on the Tahoe and had the oil changed. I am putting together traveling bags for each of the kids with activities for the car ride. I am so excited about these! I know, I am silly, but it makes me happy to think we'll be prepared for the car ride. The kids have no idea I am doing this or what is going in them. I have gotten some great ideas from friends about fun ways to include snacks and other goodies in them. I'll be sure to take pictures of the bags before I let the kids dig into them. I think later this week I am going to go to the Disney Store Outlet and get some t-shirts (much cheaper than buying them inside Disney, LOL). After today, I only have 2 days off work before we go....I am going to be TIRED on the trip over, so hopefully the kids will be engaged in thier bags and goodies and I can sleep a bit in the car :).

I am NOT going to vote on November 4!....

I REFUSE......I won't do it. Nope, no polling lines for me.....because I just ordered my early ballot!!!! YAY! (of course, I am still VOTING!)

Since I am working nights now (and I don't know my schedule for that time yet) I'd rather not spend a couple hours in line when I need to be sleeping, LOL.

That being said, I am REALLY ready for this election to be over already! I am done hearing about it, let's just get on with it!! The end results will be whatever they will be....whether I like them or not.

Its ALMOST cooling off....

Well, it is October, and it is ALMOST cooling off. We even dared to take a trip to the park while the sun was still up the other day----GASP!! It was just under 100 degrees (as you can probably tell by the reddened faces of the kids)....which is, believe it or not....COOLER than it has been. We invited a friend of Sadie's to come along with us, and the kids all had a great time....in spite of the heat.

I took the opportunity to play a bit more with my camera and new lens.....the setting sun made it a bit of a challenge, but I still came out with some decent shots. I love playing with photography and hope to someday take some classes to improve my skills.

School Picture Day, and I got a new LENS!!

Today is school picture day for Sadie, Jon and Lenard. So they all got new shirts, and last night the boys got haircuts. I take so many pictures, that I dont buy the school ones, but I still like them to go looking nice for them...and I usually buy a class photo anyhow.

Yesterday I got a new lens for my camera - to replace the one I dropped on our 4th of July trip. I wanted a good "walk around" lens. I looked and read reviews, and I chose a Canon EF 28-135mm IS USM. I love the image stabilization feature, and the mid range zoom which will be good for most situations. I still have my 70-300 zoom with image stabilization if I need it. I am excited to learn about it and play with it some more (and take it to Disneyland in THREE WEEKS!!!). It was a good excuse to snap some pics of the kids before they left for school today :)

Not much scrapping going on here.....correction....absolutely no scrapping at all going on around here!! However, I did win a layout contest last month (with a previously designed layout) and I spent my prize winnings on some new paper!! YUMMY. Got some FUN Halloween stuff....so maybe, just maybe I can pull out some pictures soom and get some cute pages done!

Totally MIA.....

Well, it seems like I havent posted in forever...I am so neglegful of my blog!! But of course....there are reasons.....

I am just getting ready to head in for my 3rd 12 hour night this week!! I am adjusting pretty well, to the whole night shift thing. I am sleeping in the day without too much trouble, and my kids seem to be ok with it. My sweet hubby is helping out GREATLY....I couldnt do it without him.

I do feel a bit disconnected from my life, LOL!! I have not been scrapping AT ALL!.....not a stitch. I miss it. Hopefully once I am in a routine, I can work that back in. I should be able to. I havent been getting online much either....so I am missing the boards/blogs and the scrappy discussions. But it will all come with time.

Also, I wanted to post a quick update on DH...... Lennie had a CT this month, and ALL IS STILL TOTALLY CLEAR!! YAHOO.....I am grateful that Heavenly Father continues to bless us this way!! YAY for Cancer FREE!!!

After tonight, I dont work again until Monday night....maybe I'll be able to check in on the blogging a bit this weekend. :0)

Gotta go back....back....back to school again!....

(After reading that title anyone singing the song from Grease 2??? hehehehehe)

Well, the kids have just finished thier first whole week back to school!! So far everything has been great. The kids love thier teachers and have not had any homework, so we've cruised through this week. Hopefully we can keep it up as the weeks roll on. Here are some pics of the first day!





I didn't get any pictures of them as they walked onto the campus, because this is as far as I was with them. I had to get ready for WORK each day, so Lennie was taking them to school.

Yep, I finally started work this week. It has been a long week!! I worked 40 hours....It's been a LONG LONG LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time since I have worked 40. Even when I was "full time" at the hospital last time I was 32 hours. PHEW. This week was all day shift, and I feel like I cannot settle in really since this is not going to be my schedule. But it was all good! I couldn't have gotten through the week without Lennie, Mom, and Lennie's dad to help me out....THANKS SO MUCH!! I am glad it is the weekend, and I don't work until Tuesday (more day shift).

Curly Locks...

OK, so this is the layout that I was originally working on for the ScrapLove challenge #3 when I remembered I was not allowed to use a sketch for the contest entry. I used this sketch by Becky Fleck over at pagemaps.com (love all her sketches!).

I am really happy with how this layout turned out...the color combo is just SO Sadie! Even though this one didn't make it into the ScrapLove contest, PageMaps is also having one right now....so it will go in that one...YAY! This layout is also done on a transparency, so I am again providing two views of it....one photo with nothing behind the transparency, and one scan with a piece of white cardstock behind.

The pictures of Sadie were taken over a year ago when we were getting ready to go to my brother's wedding reception...she was a flower girl (which is the ONLY reason she has a bit of makeup on!!).

Thanks for looking!

My Future's So Bright...I Gotta Wear Shades!!...

Another challenge down over at ScrapLove.com's Summer of ScrapLovin' contest....and once again, it WAS a challenge.....especially photographing it!! I must have taken 50 shots of this thing!! The challenge was to do a layout using a transparency as a background....also incorporating a song title or lyrics into the title.


Breathing a HUGE sigh of relief that this one is wrapping up!! This one nearly knocked me for a loop!! Partly because as I was working on a layout for this challenge and as I was minutes from finishing it....I realized that I had absent mindedly picked up a sketch that was on my desk and I was using it for that layout. ARGH!! For this contest, we had SPECIFICALLY been asked NOT to use sketches for our layouts. I had to start over from scratch late yesterday afternoon...the day it was DUE. THEN, getting a picture of this thing has been HARD. I really wanted a good pic of the transparent layout, but I am afraid that just was not happen....especially since the natural sunlight was long since gone by the time I finished it last night, LOL!! The good news is, I like this layout almost as much as the one I originally was working on for this challenge....YAY!! I did go back and take a new picture of it this morning now that the sun is shinning and I like it much better...PHEW!


Just look at little Grant (goes by Lenard now, but it was Grant back then)!! These photos were taken 10 years ago!!!!


This is a scan of the layout with a white piece of paper behind the transparency.


The journaling under the photo is a line of lyrics from the song that I used as my title. "Things are going great, and they're only getting better." Then all the words on the transparency (it is by K & Co.) are things that the future holds for him!! Thanks for looking!