And the tree is up!

Our Christmas tree tradition?

1. Head to the Happy Valley Tree lot the first Saturday in December.

2. Allow kids to run completely uncontrolled while Jared and I find a tree.

3. Have all the kids stop for at least long enough to say, "yeah, that's great".

4. Tie said tree on top of car and head home.

5. Put tree in tree stand and water. Leave it naked over the rest of the weekend.

6. Hold Family Home Evening on Monday evening with an abbreviated lesson and a long activity of decoating poor naked tree.

7. Allow kids to once again run completely uncontrolled while dad has a great time lighting the tree.

8. Take pictures of everyone having a great time completely disguising the pine tree as a snowman's paradise.


9. Voila, Christmas tree. Stand back and admire our wonderful work of art and sigh with relief that it didn't fall over during the decorating. :)

"I Know That My Savior Loves Me"

Family

At this time of year when we think about how blessed we are and give thanks for everything around us, how wonderful it is to be surrounded by family. I sat down to write in my journal last night and could only think about what a great family I have. I know I was a trial to my parents as I was growing up, but I think they have forgiven me! :-) I love the fact that I have 3 brothers that live just minutes away and the fact that our children all love each other and totally enjoy spending time together. I love that my parents live just a few hours away and take time to come up and spend time will us, even just sitting around reminiscing (and learning about things that we never told them when we were kids :-)). I love that my sister is still not TOO far away and we can see each other sometimes - but even more grateful for the technology that allows us to chat and share pictures to share in each others' lives. I love that my so-called "half" sister can come to visit once every 5 years or so but it seems like it was just yesterday because we are all so comfortable together. I am grateful for nephews getting married so we have more family! I love having reasons to get together and just enjoy each other's company, and I love getting together to enjoy each other's company with no reason whatsoever. I love nieces that love me and let me play with them. Thank you to all my family for loving me!

Hanging out at Jeff's around the supper table after eating a great meal.

Grandma made friends with Denika after a time.

Tea and Calista had just done their Primary program and so did Valerie. We did ours just a few weeks ago so all the kids got together and sang the song "I Know That My Savior Loves Me" for Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Laurie. Of course it brought tears to my eyes.
Piper entertaining Aunt Laurie

And Tamsyn and Tea entertaining everyone else with their gymnastics and break dancing.

Halloween success

Every year I come up with a costume for myself and either make Jared be my counterpart or fend for himself. Sorry, Jared. This year I did a bit of both - I was the Red Queen from Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland so he had to be the Mad Hatter, but since the "licensed" costumes sucked we had to come up with our own and I left him to, once again, fend for himself. From now on, Jared is in charge of costumes, because OH . . . MY . . . GOSH . . . here is what he pulled off:

Now, I do take credit for the hat (I bought it) and the thread spool bandolier (I made it), but the rest is pure Jared. His kilt, socks he had me buy and the rest is Savers/DI. And the makeup - all done himself. Incredible. Johnny Depp, eat your hear out! We are thinking maybe Edward Scissorhands next year . . .Here is some more Halloween fun:

Markee and Brittany as Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee respectively, met their match in the Walker boys' Tweedles
Marin and Riley R at the neighborhood Halloween gatheringWe had ball trick-or-treating with Piper - she was SO excited at every house
Jeff and Alison put on a lightsaber show for usIt's always more fun trick-or-treating with cousins

Markee's first "couples" dance

If we hadn't been in Disneyland during Westlake's homecoming week, Markee would have gone to the homecoming dance with Bryce H, but, alas, California called. So she missed out on that dance but made up for it by asking Colby F to the Sadie's dance on the 23rd. Because it was close to Halloween they did a costume theme so Markee and Colby went as Star Trek characters. It's nice when our costumes can be used more than once and I'm so glad that Colby was willing to really be Spock. Unfortunately, we were all at Jeff's doing Jeff, Tim and Erik's birthday celebration as a family so I just had to drop Markee off at home to get ready for the dance and I didn't get to see her off. I did get her to take one picture though. She had a lot of fun, I think it's safe to say by the grin on her face. :-)

Convention

Laurie and I were roommates again, just as we were at the Los Angeles convention last year and the kickoff meeting in Anaheim in January. I'm so glad because we are great friends as well as co-workers. It was a good convention although nowhere near as crazy busy as usual - nice for us! We had a great "pod", with fun people working around us, and I realized how much I enjoy working with my fellow employees. I had been having a terrible attitude toward work because I am so sick and tired of the micro-managing of my "team lead", so this convention time was a nice reprieve and opportunity to alter my attitude. Laurie and I had some of our buddies come to our room on Friday night to play card games and we got a little rowdy and out of control. Hotel security was called. Oops! Saturday night, before we checked out of the hotel we went to the final event of convention - a Styx concert. Yes, I went to a Styx concert. It was fun, but, man, are they old!
Here's our hotel room, it was no Disney Hotel, but it was a very nice room - sophisticated. Here is our "pod". Laurie and I got to work side by side once again. And we had "Scout" to guide us and entertain us with his juggling. :-)

Here are the convention buddies - Scout, Allison, Amanda and me. Laurie wasn't in it because she was the photographer.
We got just a little loud and crazy, trying to play Rage. Probably had something to do with that fun Jen B!

Catching up

I have made a promise to myself to get caught up in everything that has slid this fall. This blog is one of those things. Now that life is a little calmer until the holidays I will get caught up. September is done - October tomorrow . . .