Halloween and Other Goblins

(Just pretend I have been here all along!)

Its been a crazy month. But lots of fun. Here are some highlights!

Me and my [W]itches at Witches Night Out!

Zayla very rarely falls asleep in random places. She fights sleep to the end. So this night I was sitting next to the couch by the end table that Zayla was hanging off of (her favorite hobby as of late) and I realized she had been very quiet. I look over and

SHE IS ASLEEP!!!

My sweet Wren Girl!

Daxon Lost his first tooth!!


She refuses to go by anything other than "Jessie" when she is dressed in her costume!

Blue and the kids at our ward's trunk-or-treat party.



Buzz and Jessie going crazy in the parking lot before Trunk-or-Treat!


I took the kids on the "Provo River Halloween Cruise". It was a lot of fun!


And now we begin the Holiday Season!!!

3 Sure Signs

That my kids are no longer babies. (sigh...)

1. Daxon started Kindergarten this week!!

2. Zayla moved out of her crib and into a "big-girl-bed" this week.

3. A pile Baby "Stuff" I am getting rid of...

...I realize Blayke has not been a baby for at least 11 years, but I just wanted you to see her blonde hair!!

Time goes by so fast. Enjoy the ride!

Beach Bums!

Moments from our family vacation in Carlsbad California!

Does anything say "Summer" better than this??!!


The whole fam at dinner at Joe's Crab Schack (we had a great veiw and a spectacular sunset!) This night was also mine and Blue's 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!!

My Bro and his girls were also with us for most of the week. This is a photo of all 5 Lawhon grandkids!

Good times! Good times!

Summer Rain

I love me some rain in the summertime! And I now my kids beg for the rain so we can go out and dance in it!

I am here. Really.

I have been trying for two days to upload photos to better express our recent doings, but blogger won't let it happen...so you, (my faithful readers), are stuck with my random thoughts. In list form of course:

• In case you have been trying to get a hold of me, my phone is off right now. It sucks not having a phone!
• I am excited for my Scrapaganza this week!
• I need to print pictures for it however...
• I feel like I am drowning in Laundry, housework and little things I have to get done and I will never catch up.
• Which is why I like to leave the house as often as possible and take the kids to the pool.
• Our trip to Flaming Gorge with my family was a success! The best part was of course, the day I spent on the river.
• Muzzy LOVES the lake! He is a great water dog.
• Celebrating the Fourth on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It was kind of fun extending the Holiday. (only in utah county right?!)
• My Fridge is broken right now. We are living out of coolers. Got Ice?
• I don't want Daxon to start school next month.
• He still needs 6 vaccinations, and I am sad for him to go through that.
• I think I picked a great book for bookclub this month!
• I haven't returned to Zumba yet, but I keep thinking about it.

Desert Dwellers

I finallly had a great trip to St. George (mostly surrounding areas of St. George)! I love the Desert and my soul is happy to return to fabulous, reliable, HEAT!
It was just me and the kids on this trip. On Thursday we had a quick swim in St. George with my Bro and his girls who were in town, then that evening we visited my Pop and Debra in Virgin. I have no photos of the evening as Debra was the photographer for the night!

Friday we drove to Overton, NV to my Aunt's house to celebrate High School Graduation with my cousin Kallie! It was a full day, including lots of family, food, swimming, sun, and an almost-speeding-ticket from Officer Johnson (who let me off with a warning because he knows Kallie! Whew!)

Most of the Lawhon cousins together in Overton!

After leaving fairly early from Overton to get our 2 hour drive started, (we were headed back to Teed's house in Sprindgale) we got stopped on the freeway due to a terrible accident. both sides of the freeway were stopped and we were the lucky ones to have been stopped for only just over an hour! This is my sister and I having a very nice truck driver take our photo hanging off his trailer! Its not often one gets to play in the freeway! *We finally got home at 2:00 am*

Saturday was spent at Quail Lake. My cousin Mason found us a great swimming hole and shaded beach.

Me and my kids enjoying the fabulous mix of Sun and Water!

Sunday my siblings, my mom, and the kids took a hot trip into Zion National Park (yeah for free National Park Day!) Daxon, Zayla, Shaylynn and McKynley were happy to be together again!


Zayla, Daxon and Shay playing around after we got done eating. It was so hot that we then had to go find a river and cool off.

It was a fun trip with each day thoroughly exhausting my kids! What more could one want?!

Our Recent Doings...

Someone mentioned to me that I was really slacking on my blogging efforts (thanks Mandra!)...I am sorry! Much has been happening, so here a few shots of whats been going on!








Daxon is in TBall! Its one of the most entertaining things ever!



Zayla playing with her baby and a hole in a box...(I just threw this in here cuz she is so cute!) We are also prepping for potty-training!


I just got back from my annual "Girls Weekend" This year we were abducted by Aliens!


Daxon just graduated from Pre School!

And the best news of all: I now have a kitchen sink and countertops! The remodel is coming back to where things are livable again! I will get photos posted as soon as I clean it up a bit! Ha!

Love to all!

IS THIS EVER GOING TO END?

On May 10th it will have been a month of living with a torn apart kitchen.

I still don't have counters or a sink...

But the Tile is beautiful.
The walls are mostly done with the new color of paint....
The stairs are carpet-free and the woodwork that Blue is doing on them will be fabulous (but currently there are no steps...)

Clearly, the project has spread from just the Kitchen floors to the kitchen cabinets, the Front Room, stairs down to the living room, the stair banisters, and the back part of the living room...

I have not enough energy to get my camera and hook it up and wait for a photo of the chaos to upload. So, you'll just have to be patient...as will I.

We Were Held in the Hands of the Lord Today.

In a fit of rage, Daxon fell from his bedroom window into the bushes below today.

His bedroom is on the second floor.

He is covered in scrapes and cuts, very shaken, but otherwise okay.

I am okay too...

I am so thankful for daily blessings. It could have been so much worse!

Moral of the story: Lock your kids up tight and never let them out of your sight!

String up the Caution Tape and don your Hard Hats!

WE ARE UNDER CONSTRUCTION!!!

Five years we have lived in this house.

Five years we have "planned" on ripping out the gross carpet and replacing it with tile. (Carpet in the dining room - really?)

One year ago Hubband took out the bar/counter that closed off the kitchen from the dining room. (while I was out of town no less!)

If any of you know my hubband, then you understand that his grand scheming brain cannot just stop at a simple tile job...where is the challenge in that?
Which is why we are now re-arranging the entire kitchen plan! We have been talking about it for a while, and Hubband has planned and re planned what he wants to do over and over again. Finally I said "Lets do it!" So we took a trip to IKEA on Friday evening, and got all ready to start ripping apart our kitchen! When we got home and dumped the kids in bed (truly, they were so tired!) we came downstairs and suddenly stopped in our tracks and stared at our kitchen silently for about 10 minutes...

We didn't start anything until the next night!


One final shot of my small, peaceful kitchen (peaceful because it was actually clean!)


End of Day one kitchen-carnage! (Saturday night.) Who rips their kitchen apart at 11:00 pm?! Amazingly, the kids slept through all the noise!



Day two of kitchen-carnage! Daxon is in heaven with all the "helping" he gets to do!!!
Good riddance ghetto linoleum!!!!

Can life be any more exciting???!!!

Girls Trip 2010

This year's girls trip took us to San Francisco!! This place is such a great city and full of many "world famous" things! Some highlights include:


World Famous HAIGHT & ASHBURY Baby!!
I have always wanted to come here and recommit to my grooviness - and so I have!


All my sexy ladies (Lisa, Andrea, Melly, Nat, Leslie, and Milissa) on the boat to "World Famous" Alcatraz. (I never did get a photo of the 7 of us together - for that I am relying on the other gals!)


"World Famous" Fishermans Wharf
This is my favorite photo taken (from my stash). I am thinking I will have someone photoshop me in there....


A fabulous random shot from riding on the "World Famous" Cable Cars! (Try it in the rain too, so fun!)


We went to "Wicked" the first night, and I LOVED it!! Please notice: the SEQUINS!!! We planned a year ago that one evening on our next trip we would bedazzle oursleves with sequins, and so we did! All 7 of us in our Sequins was quite a site to behold!

Other "World Famous" bits: Sears Fine Food "World Famous" for little pancakes, "World Famous" Head Shop near Haight and Ashbury (but I already forgot the name of it!), "World Famous" everything in Union Square!, "World Famous" Coit Tower, and our very own "World Famous" Sir Frances Drake Hotel!

He Knows What He Wants....

Daxon got some new glasses, and these were the only pair he would try on or even consider. You want to know why? Because now he looks "just like Daddy"!


Some Serious Handsomness.....

My Olympic Torch Has Yet to be Extiguished!

I love the Olympics! And for the rest of you, the Vancouver Olympics ended Sunday, but not for me! Which fills me with a need to list (and you know how I love lists) the top reasons why it is better to record all segments of the Olympics. They are:

1. Watch them at your leisure (0bviously!)
2. Find the parts that the kids will like and teach them to chant "U-S-A"!
3. Fast forward through most of the Ice Dancing (boring!) and the very-flaming male figure skaters
4. Fast forward through the scary manly-woman who hosts the late night segments!
5. Fast forward through the biathalon (really, how does one find out that they have an aptitude for skiing and then quickly shooting something?!)
6. Fast forward through all of the cross-country skiing except the end when they medal! (Fast Forwarding seems to be a trend here...)
7. When you really need to catch up on the events, you can fast forward through the human interest stories, and the interviewers who ask the olympians the always-appropriate question: "You just wrecked on the downhill and smashed your chances for a medal, how do you feel?"
8. Rewind and re-watch the bobsled crashes, and speed skating wrecks! (Hubband and I love us some Olympic carnage!)
9. Pause it when the kiddies need something (again), or to wipe your eyes from the discreet tears your're shedding because an athlete who has worked so hard has either won, or wrecked...(I know, I am crying again. Shocker.)
10. Fast Forward (the fastest it will go-with my TV its a "4") the Hockey games except for the last few seconds to find out who won.
11. Fast Forward (back to the trend again) through the same five commercials that are played at every break!

and possibly the most important reason to record the Olympics:

12. My Olympics lasted longer than your Olympics!!

(I should be done tonight, and it saddens me they will be over!)

And one more Olympic thought: Someone needs to train the Athletes from the Grand 'ole U.S.ofA. to PUT THEIR HANDS OVER THEIR HEARTS DURING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM!!! (Thank You Lindsey Vonn and the Men's Bobsled team who did do this!)

All I wanted to do was read on the beach!

So, Hubband and I went to Jacksonville, FL over the weekend! While I was very happy to have gone somewhere I have never been before, I was a bit let down due to the weather.

Rainy. Windy. Cold.

We went for his work, the Western Sign Association was holding a conference. We got to meet a lot of people from all over the country who are also in the Sign Business, so it was very interesting, (for us both) and beneficial (for Hubband). I was totally happy to hang out and read while he was in his meetings. Unfortunately for him, his Florida golfing experience was canceled due to the weather, and unfortunately for me, I was unable to sit on the beach and read...

I figured since I couldn't physically sit on the beach and read, I would pull my chair in front of the window and at least be able to see the beach! This is my rainy ocean view from our room.


During some free time we drove around Neptune Beach area. This is us in front of Jacksonville Beach. (about 2 miles down the coast from our Hotel)

During the days on Friday and Saturday I did some wandering by myself as well. This is me in front of One Beach which is right out the door of our Hotel. (yes, this is self photography. I put my camera on a rail and used the timer!)


This Hotel was so nice! I love it here!

Our trip turned out wonderful regardless of the weather! My main goal for this trip was accomplished, in that I was not-in-charge-of-kids for four days! We did a lot of relaxing in our room (I did a lot of reading, Hubband did a lot of sleeping.) And the nearby shops and restaurants were all very fabulous, and on our way home, it only took the airlines an extra 24 hours to find our second piece of luggage!

Big shout-out to my Sis, Mutha, and Bro, for helping us with the kids!

Our Little Punkins-Teeny-Tiny is TWO!!! 2-5-10

I can't believe my BABY is TWO!!!! All of our extended family were either working, or out of town today so we had a cozy-house-of-Jenk party.

The highlights of the day are:




The kiddies helped me make the cake. They added mulit-colored sprinkles to the batter, which made it a really attractive color!! Yummm!



Her FABULOUS cake! Hooray for heart shaped cupcakes! (and M&M's...)


Sweet Zay after opening all her presents. Who knew the color books and crayons would be the biggest hit?!


Zayla chose In-n-out for dinner. Ummm, thats an in-n-out sticker on my face not ketchup!

Hubband and Daxon enjoying birthday In-n-out. (and that is ketchup on Daxon's face!)

Earlier in the day I took the kids to the Mall to play at the Disney store (Zayla loves all her "best friends") and the Treehouse - which was closely followed by a tiredness-melt-down-scream-fest by both kids! "No crying on your birthday!!"

It was a highly successful day! We are so thankful for our little Wren!!

Too Early for Spring Fever???

I don't know if the groundhog saw his shadow yesterday or not, (I do know it was sunny yesterday) but I am hoping so! If you had asked me last week I would have probably admitted that I sort of wouldn't mind another good snowfall just so the kids and I could play outside and build a snowman or go sledding one last time, but today?? It happened when I went to take my 3 minute leave to get my daily beverage. It was nice outside, I didn't want to find socks (yuck!) so I dug from out of the front closet my CHACOS!!!! Oh sweet freedom with bare feet! I now have spring fever! After donning the chacos for the first time this season, there will be no turning back! So - Mother Nature - is it safe to have spring fever???!!

Cheese. Click. Ohhhh!

I have my kids trained well. Whenever I bring out the camera, (weather its pointed at them or not) they say, "Cheese" and smile real big, then "click", the noise it requires to actually take the photo, and then tilt their heads sideways and say "Ohhhhh!" cuz the picture is so cute, (the "ohhh" is said weather they see the image after its taken or not!) Its so funny!

This photo was taken during a blissful moment when I had just bought them suckers at the gas station (on my daily beverage run). And a rare moment when Daxon wanted to cuddle with his sister and she acutally let him! They are so dern cute!! (But feel free to tell me so as well!)

I hope everyone's January is as blissfully boring as mine!