Stand Ye in Holy Places

.....and with one of your favorite people = double happiness.
A tradition is born.  Chris and I decided we're going to take our kids on a 12 year old trip to Salt Lake City.  It follows the pattern of the tradition I grew up with, an 8 year old trip to SLC, we just missed the boat by a few years.

 My traveling companion and I.  She didn't cry, pout, need to be carried or spill her drink so it was perfect. I even read my own book on the plane.  Whoa.

 First stop was to the Lyon and Healy Harp store.  We were excited to see all the Harps and pick out some fun music to take home with us.  There's only two Lyon and Healy's, one in Chicago and one in SLC.  Sadly for us, this sign was taped to the door, rude!  They just decided to close shop for a random spring break day.  Scratch that awesome plan.

 We did all the temple square stuff which was great.  We toured the Beehive House, and watched the Joesph Smith movie which was amazing!!  Here is Char at the Lion House where the YW organization was created.

 We ate at our favorite place and did not count any calories.  We love the Lion House Pantry.  If I had food that good every day, I'd be huge.  I don't think I could resist.

Here we are at the Conference Center.  It was both of our first times there.  I had to wait 23 years longer then Charlotte did to be in the presence of the prophet of our church.  The reverence and spirit were so strong.  An experience I won't forget and look forward to doing again.

 Celebrating all things YW - even the decorations.

 The YW and their moms have taken over downtown SLC.  This heavy flow of traffic lasted a good 20 minutes.

 Stand Ye In Holy Places.  I'm framing this picture below - even in all of it's iPhone graininess because I love it so much.

I'm so thankful for the inspired Young Women's program built into the church that Charlotte now gets to experience each and every Sunday and Wednesday.  It's plain goodness through and through!!!

So Thankful!

Thanksgiving really happened.  This year was extra special because Grandma and Grandpa came to town for it.  I don't how long the kids stood by the window waiting for Chris to deliver them.  

My view

 Grandman and Grandpa's view when they rolled in.  It's a pretty good view if you ask me.  

I just happened to turn the big 34 the night before they arrived.  We went to the melting pot and cooked delicious food like this.

 Grandma and Grandpa got to see Mason at his first belt advancement.  It was really exciting to see the demo team, but the most excitement was watching Mason break his first board!!

 I might be a mean daughter and wrangle my mom into helping count money for our PTA.  What a trooper.  

 Some self portraits were created and will be treasured for life!!  All credit goes to Mason, our aspiring artist! 

 We showed my parents the new Allen Eagle Stadium for a playoff game.  They went on to win state this year!!!  A big deal here in TX.  

  New Christmas tradition!

Bringing the new beauty home.

  

This picture was taken strictly for my parents entertainment.  

My dad couldn't get enough of the Griswold jokes.  This picture is funny to me in many ways.  

 So is this one - my dad just giving another grown man a little assistance.  

It was such a fun fun visit!  They really came for Thanksgiving which really happened and was really amazing.  Chris made a homemade pecan pie, we played lots of games with our own rules, we had a delicious spread on Thanksgiving Day with our friends Chase and Allison Jensen.  I don't know why there aren't more pictures of the said event, by more I mean even one.  It really did happen though.  I'm so thankful we have a holiday to celebrate being thankful.  My list is long and plentiful and my family and parents are at the top of the list - so how perfect that I could spend the week with them.  

Sing Texas Sing!!

Green Elementary 4th graders put on an awesome musical.  It was so fun and cute.  All the kids did amazing.  We are so lucky to have such a talented music teacher in Mrs. Goodwin - I love that she has all these kids, including mine, so excited about music.  Here is cuteness overloaded.  

 I love my cute cowgirl.  I'm also happy that she's on the short side so can be on the front which gives us an unobstructed view.

 The parents line dancing around the gym.  There may have been a moment when the line got messed up and Chris and another dad ended up holding hands dancing together.  If only I could have been quicker with the camera.

 Even Mallory and her friend Harper were getting into the dancing.

She mastered her line "In Texas it's illegal to drive without windshield wipers, you don't need a windshield, but you've got to have the wipers".

Election 2012

 
I was so calm and voted for Rom.  It came, it happened and no one around here is happy.  I woke up the 7th just in disbelief that it really turned out the way it did.  The majority of Americans felt differently about the course this country should go on then me.  I'm now a minority:-).  There was plenty of company in my misery around this part of the country.
Just look at this fun bunch of ladies I got to vote with.  I was reprimanded for wearing my Romney shirt and pin.  Electioneering - I must have missed that topic if it was ever covered in my schooling.

These were our families election day dinner ballots.  It was very serious, every vote was counted, and recounted when there were 7 ballots cast and only 6 family members.  Serious voter fraud.  The ballot was all in fun but also taught how the election works.  1.  You cast your vote  2.  The majority wins  3. Don't be a whiny and sad if your choice isn't picked.  Rozlyn asked "So does the choice with the most votes win or do you just draw one out of a hat?"  Thank you teaching moment.  

and the results were in.........

I had to take Mason to tae kwon do and also had a church meeting that same night.  In my heart of rationale thoughts I honestly thought it would be a landslide for Romney.  I just couldn't' bring myself to watch the news all day.  I recorded the results coverage but couldn't turn it on.  I kept my phone away and disconnected from the world because I didn't want to know.  My sweet, sweet kids decorated the house Romney/Ryan style and made go Mitt signs all over.  It was so sweet.  They also set the table and made us all Romney name cards.  I was Ann.  It was really fun.  

So Long to Soccer!

Roz has spent the past 5 years kicking the soccer ball around. We've been on the fence for a few season wondering if we should continue and Roz finally decided to hang up the cleats for awhile and pursue other things like year round swim team and starting a new instrument (probably the violin).  Since we've spent many  hot and freezing cold Saturday at her games I had get a few last pics of her in action.

Go Rozlyn!!  Every team she played on loved her.  Each coach would say what a dream she was to coach.  Coach Kirk said at his final banquet that Rozlyn was the most positive and polite girl he'd ever coach.  Here's to future adventures!

Halloween

Here's to our awesome memories of Halloween 2012 and a load of pictures to document the event.

Also, here's to Chris's first ever blog post.  Even though he didn't know he would be contributing, I just went ahead and copied and pasted his email that was sent out to his family. 

Our Halloween was exciting.  It started out at a neighborhood party where Mallory took a cup of lemonade and then spit it all over when she (and we) found out it was really a margarita.  Mason was done trick-or-treating after going around the block and just wanted to lay on the driveway and eat his candy.  The girls kept at it until they had tons of candy and Mason says "Hey!  Why did they get so much candy!"  He would love to vote for an Obama policy of "spread the wealth" applied to trick-or-treat bounty.  Rainie was embarrassed when  one trick-or-treater said "Hey!  You've got opened wrappers!", when they reached in to get some candy.  I thought it was my personal bowl and had left some wrappers in after eating the candy earlier in the week.  

Rainie won our ward's chili cook-off at out Halloween party...quite an honor for a non-native Texan.   It is always a big deal as many non-members come to it every year and Rainie was in charge of the whole thing.  She did great!  This year I dressed up like "Big Tex".   He is the 10-story tall man who has welcomed all to the state fair of Texas for the past 60 years.  He caught on fire and burned down the last week of the fair this year so I had flames coming out of my shirt and black soot on my face.  .

Prepping for the big day.  Mason is in his awesome Mowgli costume from a few years back that he still sleeps in all the time.  

The pumpkin we're most proud of.  The "Rozzie/Rainie" pumpkin or maybe "Romney/Ryan".  

Mallory's school party.  Here cute teacher is "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom". 

 Crafting

Eating cute Frankenstein pudding

Dressed and ready to go for the big night! 

Words with friends:   

Negotiations under way. 

R.I.P Big Tex 

I really love the fair - and I really love Big Tex. 

I love this picture of Mason and Dylan - if only our editor had a cheetos-face feature like the red-eye feature.