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Saturday, November 7, 2009

Why all the posting?

May be you have  noticed - maybe you haven't - but I have posted every day in November so far.

Well I am finally ready to make the committment.  November is National Blog Posting Month and I am joining.  The deal is you have to post once a day for the whole month!

Wasn't sure I could or wanted to do this so before making a committment and letting you know what I was doing I thought I'd see if I could post here every day for a week - so far so good.

So I am making a committment and letting you hold me accountable (if there really is anyone out there reading this blog - I know you are Tamara and Emily!!)



Do here goes!  Would love to hear from you if you are reading - it really isn't hard to leave a comment - just click below!

Friday, November 6, 2009

Cali's Birthday Celebration!

Cali had a wonderful 20th birthday thanks to her roommates and brothers!

The day started with our family tradition - jumping through the crepe paper streamers.  Thanks to Brittany for making sure this family tradition was preserved!


Brittany fixed her breakfast too!

She was treated to lunch at Cafe Rio by her brother Logan and he brought her a special balloon!


They had dessert at Coldstone - yum!!




She had fun opening her birthday packages - one from her family and another from her friend Kat!


For dinner her roommates surprised her and took her to Zupa's - her favorite place!

There were cupcakes for dessert!




Her two brothers were there to celebrate with her too!


After dinner the girls headed over to the Nickel Arcade for some fun!






Glad you had a fun day Cali - wish we had been there to celebrate with you!

Thanks to Brittany and all your other roommates and your brothers for taking such good care of you!


Thursday, November 5, 2009

What Makes You Happy?

In Tessa's AP Language class this last week they were talking about Happiness.  They were each asked to make a list of things that make them happy.

One thing I have learned about happiness in the past several years is that ....

"Happiness is not having what you want, it's wanting what you have."  

Not always an easy lesson to learn. 

Tessa gave me permission to share her list.  You will notice that the first thing on her list is her family - even though it is qualified!





















Since her list didn't scan in very well.  I will retype it to make it easier to read - in her exact words! She wanted to make sure I didn't change anything!

"Things" that make me happy by Tessa Wilkes
My family (on good days)
Friends (most of the time) when having fun
Christmas season
Hot Chocolate
Music
Favorite movies
Beach
Neighbor get togethers
Good food (most likely my mother's cooking)
Sleeping in my bed, especially with sheets right out of the dryer
Sunny autumn days
New things (temporary)
Achievements
Good news
"Escape" - something that takes your mind off things
Playing with little kids (neighbors)
Dancing
Being outside (good weather, hiking)
Funny voices
Acting crazy
Serving others
Doing things I love

So what makes you happy??

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Rascal Flatts and Darius Rucker Concerrt

Last Friday night, after the Halloweenie Roast, Tessa and Hannah headed out to the Rascal Flatts/Darius Rucker concert.  They were pretty excited.

They had an amazing time and here are a few photos from their evening!










Tuesday, November 3, 2009

It's Somebody's Birthday Today

Twenty years ago today - this sweet little baby girl joined our family!!  We were so excited that it was a girl!!



The delivery room was full of doctors, nurses, student doctors etc.  and they were all cheering for a girl since we had two boys.  Yeah!!

We love you Cali!

Check out my birthday card to Cali over here.

Monday, November 2, 2009

Halloweenie Roast


Friday night we hosted a neighborhood Halloweenie Roast.  I blogged about the party over at Your Homebased Mom but since this blog has become my family history I wanted it here too and I know some of you only read this blog.

It was a fun party!.

I created a fun Sweet Treat table with a Candy corn Bar,  Chocolate Witch fingers, Vampire Blood Soda and Shari brought yummy candy corn. 

And then there were those cute Frankenstein cupcakes I made.


For dinner we cooked hot dogs over the portable fire pit.  Since it had been raining during rhe week and the grass was pretty muddy we opted not to use the in ground one at the back of the yard.  We had the regular hot dog condiments and I even made Coney Sauce.  The neighbors heled out with salad, veges and dip and cheesy bread that looked like candy corn!
The kids had a great time cooking their own dinner!



The moms even got into it!


Of course Jim hung out with his buddy Declan.



It was an evening of food, friends and fun.  We really do have the best neighbors!!

And the "Broken Girls" compared wounds!  Molly broke her arm playing soccer!

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Happy Halloween!

Cali and her roommates had a fun Halloween.

They started out their celebrating by visitng a local pumpkin patch and picking out some pumpkins for their apartment!


Looking for the perfect pumpkin...


Found it!

Did you girls actually carve your pumpkins??


The girls got all dressed up for Halloween too.  They actually had two different sets of costumes.  For Friday night Cali dressed up as a pumpkin - I think she is a rather nerdy looking pumpkin with those glasss.  I love the green headband that looks like a stem!!



On Saturday night all the roommates dressed up as crayons.  I think they are darling!!
They purchased the pants and shirts but then used their amazing sewing skills to turn them into crayons!


Thanks to Jenesee for letting them use her sewing machine to create their fun costumes!





I think they were darling!!!


I guess Cali looked so realistic that someone tried to color with her!


A bunch of cute crayons!


Viva Las Vegas

Cali has been leaving me messages on my Facebook page asking if I have forgotten about her since I haven't posted about her here on the blog in a while.  No, I haven't forgotten about her but we've had a lot going on around here at home.

So in order to make up for my neglect I am going to do at least two posts all about Cali!!  We love you Cali!!

Last weekend Cali and her roommate from last year Andrea headed to Las Vegas - where Andrea lives.  One of her other floormates went with them as well as Andrea's boyfriend.

They enjoyed a fun and crazy weekend!


They enjoyed a hike




And also a visit to the Strip!  Cali's first visit!

Cali also experienced some other firsts (I think?!)

She went shooting - that is as in shooting a gun!


And then there was another first.  Something that really makes a mother proud.

My daughter went dumpster diving!!


I don't think they were actually inside the dumpster - just behnd it - or were you Cali???
They scored big time when they found whole boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts!!


What a find!!

They had a great weekend and arrived back in Provo safe and sound!!

Viva Las Vegas!!

Trick or Treat

Tessa originallly told me she wasn't dressing up for Halloween but I guess she changed her mind.  She put together this cute little witch outfit from things we had at home (thank goodness).






I had picked up the cute orange witch hat earlier in the week because I figured someone would use it sometime and it was cute!

And the spiderweb tights I found at Target came in handy too!

Tessa spent the first half of the evening hanging out with Hannah and a few of her friends.
I loved Hannah's peacock mask!




Molly was Miss America and Leslie was a Flapper/20's girl!

I headed down the street with the girls to go to the haunted houses a few neighbors had put together.  The four girls were in a line walking down the middle of the street and I was taking picures of them.


.  A group of cute Asian mothers with a bunch of kids asked them if they could take their picture!  I guess they thought they were someone famous since there was a photographer following them around taking pictures of them!!  They had all their kids get in the picture with them!


he neighbors did a great job with the haunted houses.  I actually screamed!!  Some of the smaller neighbor kids helped out at them.

Here is Olivia scaring her mom!


and Lauren with her head on a platter!!



Neighbot Brock was part of the Balzer's haunted house and he too was being served up for dinner!!

We didn't have as many trick or treaters this year - I think the kid's in our neighborhood are just getting older and there aren't as many little ones but it was a fun evening.  We still had fun handing out candy.



Here's Declan and Joe all dressed up with a friend of theirs!

Happy Halloween!