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!

Line upon Liney

Caroline is full of so many funny things that it is time I start blogging them so we can remember them in years to come.

At the doctor's office, "mom if I am cute and reverent, will I get a sucker?" she doesn't know what to do when, she just knows those are important ones.

"Daddy is my best friend, but it's okay mom you can be my best friend too."

Lunch time almost daily, " Can we go get the kids now?"

We were talking about what sports Rigdon and Livi wanted to do in high school and Caroline says, " I want to be a stop signer when I get old enough just like at Rigdon and Livi's school." Apparently she wants to be a crossing guard, so we can take her out of gymnastics and save some money!

Loving Life

This is going to be the name of all my posts that simply share my feelings or insights about my life at the time. If you only come for pictures these will not appeal to you, if you think my last name has a connection to my intellectual prowess these may prove different. I am someone that sees the sunny side of life most of the time. My kids have really tested this side of me, although they truly are the sunshine in my life. I don't like laundry or mopping the floor, homework is a thorn in my side, but other than that I am extremely blessed. I love life. Right now I am loving our beautiful weather, LOVING that I made my first apple pie from scratch (crust and all). Loving Friday night football games with Rangi, the kids and lots of friends.

Yum!

Just thought I would post a picture of sweet baby J. enjoying her macaroni and cheese. She devoured it like it was candy, and it probably has the same health factor.

Adjective fest!

Last week my friend Jennifer and I went to go see the BYU ballroom dancers. It was truly breathtaking. The dancers were SO talented, their costumes were stunning AND modest. They each changed costumes for every dance, the music ranged from salsa to swing, and there was never a slow moment. I recommend it to anyone that wants exquisite and wholesome entertainment. Next time I am taking my whole family. Thanks for a charming night Jennifer!

general conference

What does this little back pack baby have to do with general conference? I LOVE them both! General Conference is a weekend where we get to stay home and listen to our living prophet and apostles (just like Moses and Abraham of the bible) teach us about the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love to make it a special weekend with our family that focuses on how lucky we are that God still puts living prophets on the earth. We love to get comfy and the weather this year was perfect; cold and a little rainy. We also went on a fun little hike/picnic in the new nature reserve by our house!
Here is everyone hiking away... meanwhile I am trying to hone my photography skills in the few minutes I get a month!
Hooray... we made it to the picnic table and had a very relaxing and uplifting weekend!

Life in general

Here the kids are practicing their skills at the skate park
Rangi is still looking pretty skilled
Three guys that I love headed up to the top of San Gorgonio
Rangi doesn't do anything BUT intense in every sport he plays and that includes broom hockey at church. (13 stitches later, 1:00am and my visiting teacher all helped out with his intensity).
We finally renewed our passes to the happiest place on earth because Caroline is at the prime age and we couldn't deny her any longer. All three kids with no cavities also added to the celebration!
I have been working in the yard, planting fall mums, and making ghosts that light up, to make it look like fall here. Unfortunately this picture only documents Rangi's handiwork in trimming this cute tree we thought was an out of control bush. We did not plant the yard so we have to figure out what everything is... in this case a pygmy date palm and we love it now!
Enjoying our first Dodger game! ( Hey I was raised in an Angels family) We were lucky enough to be given great tickets, and take only the two oldest to a game!