Novaburn

I feel like I post so many girl's nights it seems like all I do is hang out with my girlfriends. While I am fortunate to do so, Mike and I actually do get a date night in every week. Well, as long as we can find a babysitter, that is. Last week we saw our friends band, Novaburn play at Liquid Joe's. His name is Lance and he is the guitar player on the right. I am always amazed at how well people can play guitar. Unfortunately Mike and I were still on a turkey hangover so we were not the most energetic fans. We did enjoy ourselves though. It was fun to see him in his element. Another fun tidbit is that the vocalist/guitar player on the left is in another band of an old friend of ours.The band is Dirty Birds and they are apparently still around.
His wife, Dana and I were at the NKOTB concert together and I told her he had a lot to live up to (; and he didn't disappoint. It was a fun night of rock, friends, crowd watching and eachother. Date nights are great. I ABSOLUTELY love my kids to pieces, but once in a while it is nice to remember Mike and I are still a couple. And, we like to think we are still cool. If you disagree keep it to yourself. Ha Ha. Thanks for a great night dudes.
They are radical so check them out. Sorry if calling you radical takes away from your hard rock image Lance, but I am a dork and it is one of my favorite words. Check them out at NOVABURN.

An Ode to Thanksgiving

Staying up late to make homemade pies
that surely will add inches to our thighs.
The tables were set, the food was cooked
How delicious Mike's turkey looked!

The feast was on, it was time to say grace

Everett got food all over his face.

Summer enjoyed her first taste of food
It put her in a more Thanksgiving mood.

As the food settled we got in the groove

Playing Rock Band and showing our moves.

A time to be grateful for blessings galore

And stuffing our bellies till they can't stretch anymore.

Later that evening, at precisely midnight
Mel and I shopped with all of our might!

The older I get the more I appreciate Thanksgiving. Growing up we were always in Colorado for hockey tournaments and usually had Thanksgiving dinner at Denny's or the hotel. I LOVE cooking an elaborate meal, decorating the table and gathering with friends and family.
This year we had my brother Mike, his wife Melody, her sister Naomi, Naomi's husband Jeff and 3 gentlemen visiting from India to Mel's office: Mehool, Ranjeeth, and Fishwa. They were good sports to try all of the food and were fascinated by the concept of jello. Mike was excited at the thought of having "indians" for Thanksgiving dinner.
I am blessed to have amazing people in my life. I never feel I am alone or unsupported because of all of you. Thank you for being a part of my life and I hope you all had a fabulous Thanksgiving feast.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fu-un!!!

Dana wore an awesome "unit" (remember those?) and I used more hairspray than any hair-do requires. Seriously, my hair felt like an over styled poodle.

Yo', Jen's bodacious mom and sister threw her the raddest surprise 30th birthday party. We all had to dress up in 80's attire and I think we met the challenge in a boss way. They had a fun "Amazing 80's Race" planned for us so we hit the city in our dope ensembles lookin' for studs and feelin' stellar.
1. Our first stop was our old Alma mater, West Jordan High School, where a basketball game had just ended. We had to make up a schweet dance routine in front of the school and perform it on camera. I think we still have it ladies.
2. Our second stop was the Hummel residence. Amber's parents were waiting for us and when we arrived we had to sing our school fight song. Luckily, we had a poster with words because it has been a while.
3. Next, we hit our old post-game hang out Sconecutter. Sadly, it was deserted. I guess it isn't the "cool" place to chill anymore. We shared a shake and had to answer questions pertaining to our High School days. I was surprised at how much we have all forgotten over the last eleven years. It was great fun reminiscing. We have shared a great deal of ups and downs together. We have also shared too many hilarious moments to count.
4. The night was still young as we made our way to Shopko, a place where half of my friends worked back in the day. We had to find 20 items for $30 and we completely FAILED! We misjudged by quite a bit. Mr. Nellis would be severely disappointed in our math skills.
5. Our last adventure took place at West Jordan Middle School. We had to make up a music video as we sang to "Girls Just Want To Have Fun". We each had to have a solo and I chose to pull out some awesome break dancing moves during mine. A- I cannot break dance and B- my back is never going to heal and C-it was totally worth it. If anyone would like to see the video I am sure it will be on U-tube eventually. That or MTV. We were quite fantabulous.

I absolutely LOVE that nobody acted too cool to participate. If anything I think we are all more adventurous than we were in High School because we couldn't care less what people think of us. (Not that we ever did.) Thanks Gale and Jill for hosting such a fabulous evening and Happy Birthday Jen! I am so glad you were in town for your big day and that we got to celebrate together. It was definitely a night to remember fer sure. For us, and for all who had the pleasure of witnessing our charades. I am totally stoked for the next party.
The Posse


Yearbook Photos

Happy Birthday Princess Oakley

Time goes by so quickly. Tracy's best friend, Oakley, turned five last week. They have been best little buddies since they were literally in diapers. Charity threw the cutest princess party for her. It was fitting to have it centered around Princess Aurora because we caught Tracy and Oakley playing sleeping beauty once. Charity caught them right before the kiss! Oakley has grown up into a strong (in every meaning of the word) girl and we have loved being a part of her life. She is so much fun to be around and we look forward to many princess parties in the future.

Charity made the cutest castle that Everett unfortunately got into before the candles were even lit. He ate one of the sugar cubes off the side. Sorry again, Char'd.

Prince Tracy pinning the lips on Sleeping Aurora.

Tracy slaying the dragon.

Prince Everett

Summers first princess party. She loves her new tutu and cannot get enough of it. She loves to play with it and fluff it around her face. My friend makes them and if anyone is interested I can give you the info. They are great Christmas gifts and so adorable!

Hotel Bollinger

While our lucky friends were in New York City their cute kids, Tolman and Addison spent the night. It was a really fun night. I was proud of myself for getting them fed and in jammies with teeth brushed before Mike got home from work. Luckily they all went to bed well too so I could sneak off to "Twillight" with girlfriends (Mike is a great sport!) We keep saying we are done having kids but I loved having a house full of them. Especially as they gathered around for stories at bedtime. I had to take a picture of all the kiddies as we went for a walk because I felt like a walking preschool. Thanks for sleeping over guys. Next time Dave will have to come too because Everett was truly disappointed when he heard he wasn't coming.

Still Hangin' Tough

So, New Kids on the Block was sooooo incredibly fun tonight. I will eventually post some pics, but until then you can check out Kristen's blog. She is really on top of things and has already created a slide show.
I hope by kids are as lucky as me to have such wonderful friends. We have know each other for 14+ years and are still so close. Through the good, the bad and the Danny's (get it girls?) we have always stuck together. I love my girlfriends and feel incredibly blessed to have them in my life. We have more fun now than I think we did in High School. And now, we don't have curfews. LET'S GET THIS!!!

Real Men Wear Pink in the Rink!

Nothing like a good old fashioned game of hockey to teach your kids about good sportsmanship. :) We went to the Grizzly game last week and WOW!, what a game. The Grizz tied it up in the last 20 seconds, we went into overtime and finally a shootout! Not to mention the many, many fistfights that broke out. I love hockey. The Grizzlies won and we had a fabulous time. It was the Pink in the Rink game where a portion of your proceeds go toward supporting breast cancer research. It is a fun event because the ice is pink and the team wears pink jerseys.

A Romp in the Snow

On Wednesday it snowed quite a bit. Well actually, it started on Tuesday and continued through Wednesday, but that's beside the point. The point is it snowed, and it was my day off so I was lucky enough to be home during the first snow! The kids couldn't wait to go outside and play so after about 45 minutes of tracking down mittens and gloves, taking a picture of "Tough Guy Everett" finding snow pants and getting them all bundled up, and trying to get them to hold still for a picture on the couch, we made it outside! We had a blast and the boys ganged up on dad in a snowball fight. Also Everett decided to take his gloves off and play in the sand while I was taking the Gargoyles from Halloween off the roof. Then he was crying because his hands were cold, but I couldn't just put the mittens back on because he now had sand stuck to his cold, wet hands. So I cleaned them off and put them back on, and he still was cold, so he sat under the carport on the steps for a minute until he was warmed up.

Lost Pictures of the Elusive Artist

Once apon a time, we were uploading pictures from the camera to the computer, and we accidentally left the camera on the bed afterwords. Mysteriously, it disapeared for a time. When finally it resurfaced, (interestingly enough in the boys' room) only the camera was found, the case was nowhere to be seen. After a few weeks, the case was once again found and reunited with the camera. Time passed and as I was looking through some pictures I had just taken, I stumbled upon the lost photos (and videos) of the Elusive artist. Take a look and see if you can figure out who is the Elusive Artist. Listen closely in the video and you'll here commands like "hold still". Also notice other things that have gone missing, like someone trying on one of Mom's shoes.

Everett the lyricist

This is Everett's version of "The wheels on the bus", and NO, he didn't get them from me:
The Wheels on the bus go round and round.....
The wipers on the bus go swish swish swish....
The people on the bus go up and down....
The driver on the bus says MOVE YOUR BUTTS (rather than move on back)....

Kids these days...

I don't think of myself as old but occasionally I realize I am from a completely different generation. Yesterday in primary we were talking about good and bad things we can do. The gal doing sharing time asked for some examples of things we shouldn't do and these are a few of the responses:
Drink alcohol
Smoke
Lie
and my favorite....
SEND SPAM EMAIL!
Seriously, kids are hilarious.

cigarette+car=BOOOOOOM!

What happens when you leave a burning cigarette in your truck?

At about 4:30 we saw a fire truck drive by with it's lights on. I looked out the front window and was suprised to see a huge ball of fire down the street. By the time we got bundled up and I grabbed my camera the firefighters had already done their job. That is why this photo shows none of the flame. Tracy and Everett were so excited to see the big trucks I joined the nosey neighbor club out on the street. The firemen were so nice and gave all of the kids junior firefighter badges. I am grateful nobody was hurt and that we live between two fire hydrants. I am also grateful we live so darn close to the fire department. Even if they do come to our house on the 4th of July to bust us for illegal fireworks. Nice work gentlemen.

Happy Birthday Deac Deac!

Deacon is the luckiest little boy in the world because his birthday falls on Halloween-the greatest holiday EVER! We were so excited to celebrate his second birthday with him. He and Everett are best little buddies, with an emphasis on LITTLE! They are both the tiniest guys. Charity made him the cutest race car cake of which Everett kept sneaking bites. I don't know where that kid puts it all?
Usually it is the right of the father to put together toys, but Troy and Mike were too busy playing with their new cell phones. Boys and their toys right? Charity and I had fun putting together Deacon's radical new race track. It would have been a lot easier without four toddlers running through, but we made it work.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE DUDE!