New Moon

I almost forgot to post this! I rarely do anything even mildly crazy, okay never! Actually I did cross the road before the crossing guard told me to the other day, no just kidding. Okay so now that I have your attention, I went and saw New Moon at the midnight showing!!! It was so fun! Everyone was so into it. Thanks for a fun night girls! Oh and by the way I am totally team Edward, but I do like Jacob. Okay, Okay I am TOTALLY team Rangi, then the other said people.

Fa la la la laaaaaahhhhhhh!

Christmas at Disneyland is so Beautiful. They really go all out, I love just going to see the decorations and ride it's a small world (it is all decked out for the holidays). We happened to get lucky and get awesome seats for the parade which Jillian was thrilled about!
Aaaahhhhhh!!! Rangi loves to see the kids scared faces- he snapped a pic from the Disney cam. Poor Livi, and what does she say when she gets off, "that was SO FUN!!!"
Here she is thoroughly enjoying Thunder Mountain!!! She is such a sweetie!

Oh Baby...

it's Christmas time again! I have this CD that has a song with this line in it. I have had this CD since I was a freshmen in college. The other day I was listening to this song and couldn't even believe that I have had that CD this long, which led to me to think about all of the Christmases that the CD has been through and how they have changed. In college and when I was first married, Christmas was so calm, I SAVED all my shopping to do in December so I could enjoy the "hustle and bustle". We rarely finished a cookie plate. I had tons of time to address cards and make treats. It was calm, it was easy to focus on the true meaning of Christmas while I was at home or in the car listening to carols. NOW... Whew! Now Christmas is a totally different story; let's start with the fact that our family polished off an entire cookie plate in 10 minutes! My kids were in three Christmas programs in ONE week (and I loved every second-quite honestly that is what I have looked forward to the most since having kids:} We have school projects due, class parties (I am a room mom) presents for the teachers and other school staff we are so grateful for. Church parties, way more cards to send because we know way more people, Christmas shopping and wrapping, wrapping, for so many loved ones! A lot has changed and sometimes it gets a little crazy, but one thing has not changed and that is the fact that our Savior was born in Bethlehem, he came to save a world from sin. He is perfect. Through him we can become perfect. I am so grateful for my knowledge of Him and I hope that no matter how busy we get at Christmas time, the other thing that will not change will be our desire to be more like him and to be an angel on His errand.

Have a holly jolly Christmas...

I don't know how everyone else stores their lights, but despite our best efforts we always get some like this; so of course I put my kids on the job of testing and untangling the lights (because what is frustrating for me is great fun for them). I look over at Caroline and she says take a picture of me I'm all lighted up. So much for helping untangle lights:)
All three kids take their turn putting the star on top before Rangi takes his turn and I tell him how to straighten it a million times before going to do it myself to find that it really isn't that easy. (maybe next year I will commit it to memory).
Sometimes I feel bad that my Christmas tree doesn't look like it came out of a pottery barn magazine... until I watch my kids take out all of the ornaments and reminisce about their whole lives. In Caroline's case she said, "remember when I made this ornament when I was in the first grade and I got married?" Actually you are still not in first grade, nor are you married, and you WISH you made the prettiest ornament we have that no one we know made. At any rate when the tree is all decorated it is the prettiest tree I have seen, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

(As my friend Lisa said...I can't wait to see what the tree looks like in 20 more years.)
Little Old Lady from Pasadena ??? That was my guess too, when she quizzed me. "NO MOM I AM MARY" I do collect Nativity scenes but none of my Marys wear glasses.

Beautiful day

We overlapped our Thanksgiving vacation by one day while my sister was here. We had a great day together. Here are all the grandkids (except Jilli and Penny) with grandpa.
Two beach bunnies
I love to capture people laughing... in this case me in 20 years, me in 50 years.
Hooray for vacations and families!

Post Script

I also forgot to mention that I am so grateful Rangi does NOT have a mullet...but who knew I needed to mention that until he surprised me with this!

I love him, but I do have my limits.

Thanksgiving '09

My little Turkeys!
Do you think she is excited to get her own personal Turkey?
Rachel and Danny played host to the kids table and my kids were thrilled to be so grown up. Maybe next year you guys will get your own turkeys!
Caroline was torn between eating hers and keeping it as a pet.
3 out of four not too bad. Have I mentioned how GRATEFUL I am for these kids?!
ALL eyes open and faces towards the camera...INCREDIBLE! I actually wish you could hear the amount of noise that went into this picture. Every adult in the room was doing their own personal "smile" rendition at the top of their lungs! It was hilarious. We are so grateful for these cousins.

Blessings

I am so blessed. Just want to list some of my blessings... the love of my life and best friend Rangi. Four beautiful kids. Healthy body, healthy mind. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints. My family... I LOVE 'EM! My mom and dad-who raised me to be what I am (like it or not). My brothers and sisters- my best friends in the world (wish I could say city!) Jenni-everyone should have a friend like her! All my friends. Rangi's family... I LOVE THEM TOO! My house, my city, my kids' school, candles, holidays, vacations, disneyland, my bed, America, and have I mentioned BYU? I love that place and am so blessed to have gone there, it is truly a beautiful university! (and I am not just saying that because they beat the U today... we went to a game last week in the stadium and went to the bookstore which just renewed my gratitude.) My grandparents, Rangi's grandparents. Shopping. Garage Sales. Good Deals. Laughter! Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Veterans Day!

Rhino action, not to be confused with hippo action-which I did not get on camera!
We decided to go to the L.A. Zoo on Veterans Day, we were told the zoo is like Christmas (by a worker)... you never know what you are going to get. TRUE. We witnessed a lot of action from the Hippo, namely him pooping ALL OVER THE PLACE. The kids were thrilled. We are so thankful to live in this great country and are so grateful to all who have ever served!

Shark Attack!

Here is Rigdon... very proud of his school project. He got to choose a book to read (non-fiction of course for him) make a mask, and do an oral report. Rigdon LOVES to make things and had a blast paper mache-ing(?), spray painting and gluing this guy together. Needless to say he was a very proud boy; and I might add that he is quite the oral speaker. For Halloween they had to do a poem and he did his complete with actions, so of course the class expected no less this time, and he did not disappoint (according to his teacher).
Watch out JAWS!

R.I.P.

Livi was all tuckered out after trick or treating and fell asleep on the couch while the other kids were looking thru obscene amounts of candy that I will consume most of.
Some years are better than others in our costume world. Rigdon was the bomb this year as Draco Malfoy; he looked just like him in the first movie!
Here he is fighting a dementor! (Although Malfoy would more likely be on his side).
Here we are at the school harvest party. I love this school and all of the neat things they do( for example they had a yo-yo expert come and do an assembly and teach the kids things like encouraging others and never giving up- and they have a yo-yo zone at school for the kids to practice yo-yo tricks in).
Here is Harry Potter with Malfoy; looking a little too friendly if you ask me.
Some more Halloween costume pictures...

I almost forgot that my dad and uncle Steve came out on Halloween night to trick or treat with us. It was fun to have them with us and I think that my dad took more pictures than I did if that is possible, love you dad!

Halloween '09

Here we are out Trick or Treating. There are so many really decorated houses in our neighborhood that it makes it really fun! Except maybe for Caroline that is, because she is scared of anything spooky by the door and won't even go up for candy!
Here is our house on the big night. We had a pumpkin for every member of the family, a ghost for every kid and my personal favorite were the tombstones for every member of the family. The tombstones had "Liv or Die", "R.I.G.", "Ma and Pa- Couldn't out Smart death"(get it) "#3" and "came tumbling after". And Rangi's favorite "Here he lies in a patch of CLOVER"! (our dog is named Clover).
We went to the pumpkin patch on Halloween this year because it was a Saturday, here is my little pumpkin. Can you remember her from last year? She sure has grown!
Here is our little grinning pumpkin at the ward party. Rigdon won the costume contest for most original (Draco Malfoy) and I made it! Rangi won for best adult as Syndrome, which is now being retired after two separate wards, and some school and halloween parties.
Do these dresses look eerily familiar? They are from Roman's wedding where they were white with yellow sashes, and rachel's wedding where they were dyed peach with a little antique lace and some cream sashes, and onto their final resting place-Halloween costumes. I dyed them black and added a little tulle and voila WITCHES! May they R.I.P. (Sarah see all that work was put to use, Thanks!)
Boil, boil, toil and trouble...
Cute witchy...
Witch sister is sweeter?
Pumpkin carving out back
Disneyland is SO cute at Halloween time!

Life as we know it

All the girls on homecoming court got to ask a teacher to be their escort. Rangi was honored to be asked by one of his previous algebra students. Me and the girls cheered him on at the rally!
This is what a typical dinner looks like at our house (I actually took this picture because I thought the kids looked so cute in their Halloween shirts). Dinner actually looks sick, my mom would die because growing up we ALWAYS had the table set nice (sorry mom). The important thing is we do eat together every night.
I love it when all the homework is done and we can go out front and PLAY!
Fifties day for the first graders celebrating their 50th day of school!
Rigdon is playing water polo for the first time and he is doing great. I LOVE water polo so it is hard to tell who is more excited about him playing. It is a HARD sport and he gets pretty cold practicing outside for an hour and a half as skinny as he is- but he has gotten so much stronger!
Jilli is NOT happy on the ground and usually demands to be as close to me as possible. Here she is in her favorite spot!
Crazy hair day!