Outfits for family pictures

We are headed to Breckenridge tomorrow after school to spend General Conference weekend relaxing at the condo. My parents are coming up Saturday afternoon. We plan to swim and shop and eat and play games and of course watch conference together. We also plan to take family pictures. Maybe at one of the old abandonded mines with the changing fall colors in the background. I'm kinda excited!

I've been back on the wagon for 8 whole hours and it's just about to kill me. I went to a Weight Watchers meeting this morning for the first time in, I don't know, 4 or 5 months. What does this mean? It means when 3:00 rolls around and I get a hankering for a large plate of nachos I'm grabbing a piece of fruit instead. And let me tell you, it's not cutting it. I'm going through major withdrawals. Delicious corn chip, cheesy withdrawals. Sad.
I'm also participating in Dr. Oz's Transformation Nation challenge. I'm pretty sure I'm going to win the million dollars. And when I do, I hope that I feel like all of those nachos I passed up was worth it.
This might just turn into a weight loss blog for the next few months cuz I'm going to need something to do to keep my hands busy while I'm not eating nachos.

pintrest project #1 Check

pinned from this blog.

And it was easy peasy. I like the green she used better than the one I used, but mostly I'm very happy with it. Now what to make with all of the salsa I dumped out of the jars?

We like it dirty

Dirty Girl Mud Run 2011

Oh my word, we had so much fun! We walked most of the course and stayed together to cheer each other on and of course cover each other in mud. Even though going around obstacles was allowed we completed every obstacle, in style I might add. I love my friends. It was such a good day.

I started my blog in July of 2008 and averaged about 10 posts per month. I also averaged around 10 post per month in 2009 and in 2010 I bumped it up to just over 12 posts a month. This year 2011 I'm averaging less than 6 posts per month. So this post serves a duel purpose. First, to discuss why I haven't been blogging as much and Second, to up my average for the month.
It's not that we haven't had as much going on, or that we've had so much going on that I haven't had time to blog. It's just...I don't know...I've been feeling... kinda...boring. Which is sad, because I love looking back through my blog books and remembering all the little things that I would have been sure to forget if I hadn't written them down. This blog is my journal/yearbook/activity log, and if I'm not updating it then I'll forget. Forget the funny things my kids say and the kind thing that my friends have done for me and all of the ways I'm driven to the edge of insanity each day and the ways I've coped with being driven to the edge of insanity each day, and all of the small and large ways I'm blessed every minute of every day. I don't want to forget those things but I'm feeling very uninspired and like I said/typed... boring.
I wish I was a better writer. I wish that cleaver words would just come to me and I could make the retelling of my ordinary life interesting some how, but in the absents of those talents I feel that it is still my responsibly to write stuff. Even boring stuff. Because someday I will want to remember it and without writing it down it won't be there to remember and it will be as though it never happened. Sad.
So for today I'm making a list (I know, boring) of things to remember.
-The weather today is beautiful and perfect and completely lovely
-I really like using the word "lovely" to describe things that I love.
-McKay had parent/teacher conference today and he is a kind, smart, wonderful child with great fine motor skills.
-Nate had parent/teacher conference this week and I think that middle school is just what that kid needed. He's doing great. a few things still to work on, but mostly great!
-The leaves on my aspens are turning yellow.
-I wanted family pictures while every thing was still green. (Maybe we'll do that on Sunday)
-I bought a new fall jacket. It's long and red and I love it.
-I'm itching to decorate for Halloween, but holding out til Oct. 1st, except for the sign on the front door, I couldn't resist.
-I want to try for two posts a week whether I'm feeling inspired or not.
the end

Family Night

I still haven't thought of a clever name for our special annual family night, but I'm going to tell you about it anyway. See the beautiful star we got from Piggy&Dirt (Kurt Knudsen). It has our theme etched in the middle and the year above it. So pretty, now to find the perfect place to hang it.

For dinner we had salad and rolls and pork chops and cheesy broccoli and rice. But before we ate everyone filled out their questioner about something they had accomplished that was hard and how they felt when the did it. Then they wrote one hard thing that they would like to accomplish. Here are every one's answers:

McKay- Writing my name at school.- I felt good.- I want to learn to read.

Gracie- Did the splits- I felt happy-I want to do a cartwheel.

Abby- A back bend over- I felt like I worked hard. I want to do a front handspring.

Bryce-I ran the Bolder Boulder in 59 min. I felt tired but good. I want to cliff jump at Lake Powell.

Nate-I did cross country.- I felt tired and sore.-I want to play varsity football in High school.

Natalie-I ran a 1/2 marathon.- I felt relieved and excited. I want to keep my room clean.

Sam-I graduated from college.-I felt fantastic, excited and relieved.

Then we talked about how we have to work hard to reach those goals but with Heavenly Father's help we can accomplish anything. After dinner we went to the back yard to break open our geodes. Great object lesson, thanks for the idea Meg.
Then we came back in side and Sam gave each of the children a beautiful Father's Blessing. Each one was very specific and suited to that child. It was a wonderful thing to be a part of. After the blessing I gave everyone a gift that was made by my friend Krisi at KLG designs. It's a key chain to put on their backpacks or keyring (Sam), to always remember our special night together and remember that we can all do hard things.

I can do hard things!

Today is the day. Our first annual family... theme... introduction... night (I need to come up with a better name for it.) It started with me getting out of bed at 6:45, showering, getting dressed and making the kids breakfast, cuz I can do hard things. Don't scoff, it really was hard for me. You know what else is hard for me? Not thinking "That's what she said" every time I say "I can do hard things". I know, so immature. Curse you Michael Scott. I have some cleaning and shopping and decorating to do for the special night, but I'm really excited. I hope it's fun and memorable.
In other news. Bryce had his first flag football game on Saturday and scored a touchdown. His team did really well and won 25-13. Nate was sick and missed his last two cross country meets which he didn't seem too upset about. Today he starts flag football. Sam took Bryce, Abby, and Gracie to a Rockies game on Saturday. When asked how it was they responded, something like, "It was awesome. We ate Cracker Jacks and ice cream and nachos and Skittles and popcorn and giant pretzels and soda and..." So ya, they had a good time. Oh I almost forgot a major event from the week end. Sam and I decided to replace the blinds in our bedroom, and then, we actually did it! Amazing! That's all for now. I have laundry calling to me.

Lake Powell 2011

This is where we got to live for a whole week!! The first 4 to 5 days at Powell this year were heavenly. The weather was perfect. We found a lovely place to park the house boat. We were with a super fun group of people. Then the ear infections struck. I'm not going to say much about it because I want to focus on the positive. I'll just say that 13 or 14 of the 23 people in our group ended up with some degree of swimmers ear, ranging from pretty mild to horrible, ear swollen closed, sicker than crap. Six of those people and a total of 9 ears were from my family. Yuck!!! Now back to the beginning of the week, the super good part. We got there on Saturday, August 27th. Got the boat loaded up and headed back to the buoy for the night. Sunday morning we took off to find the perfect spot to park for the week. We stayed in Forgotten Canyon on a small beach with lots of great places for climbing and playing. Just a short swim from the back of our boat was a great big rock island for us to cliff jump off of and climb and play. The kids spent a lot of time rowing the hot dog or swimming to the island to play. We went knee boarding, and exploring Indian ruins and playing games and spent lots of time relaxing in the sun.

I put together a collage for each of the kids so get ready for picture over load.

See the rock McKay is sitting on in the bottom left picture in his collage. He came to me and said "come er mom. I'll show you where the Indian's leader is buried." He brought me to this rock. I asked him who told him that and he said Bryce did. Of course Bryce did. After this picture McKay started digging for the bones of the Indian leader.

McKay was scared to death to get in the lake when we were there in July, but this time he was so brave and swam around like a little fish the whole time. He even did tricks jumping off the back of the house boat. I finally got to see Abby on the knee board and she was awesome! Nate jumped off the cliff into the lake. His advice to Bryce was, "You just have to go for it before the common sense part of your brain kicks in." Great advice. Gracie's favorite part was going to the Indian Ruins and playing with friends. Bryce never did jump off of the cliff but jumped off of the top of the house boat a lot. This year we had a mini field day for the kids because their school field day was while we were gone. We also did wish lantern's which was really cool.

I think the kids are all caught up with the school work they missed and most of us are felling mostly better, so we are settling back into the regular schedule. Our big family night was supposed to be tonight but I couldn't quit get it together so it will be tomorrow night, I hope.