Can't I get a HAPPY Halloween?

What? I can't HEAR you!

Oh... that's much better!

Happy Halloween 2009

Happy 4th of July!

do not try this at home

I knew it was trouble when:

1. I asked Whitney what we should have for dessert on Mother's Day.

2. She had the perfect recipe.

3. She had never made it or eaten it.

4. Jean couldn't even read it to me over the phone because she couldn't pronounce some of the words. (and she's a gourmet chef...and smart!)

5. When she scanned it over to me, it was four pages, small print.

6. It called for more than one alcoholic beverage.

I was smart and delegated dessert to Whitney.

She made several trips to random grocery stores trying to find strange ingredients and the result...

Pour cherry liquor on some cardboard slabs and top it with pretty shavings, and you'll enjoy our Mother's Day dessert.

I repeat: do not try this at home.

I knew it was trouble when:

I asked Whitney what to have for dessert.

fresh squeezed lemonade

cost: $3.50
earned: $31.25
(and we even slashed prices to half off 15 minutes after opening!)

grandma paul

I stayed after Women's Conference to visit Grandma Paul. It was so nice for Jann, Debbie, Billie, and Andelyn (and little Soleil) to entertain me for the day. I am so lucky to have family that is so helpful and that I enjoy visiting so much. It had been a while since I'd seen Grandma, so it was a bit tough at first to adjust to seeing her that way.. with oxygen, struggling to speak. But as we got to chatting I was shocked to realize how well she remembers the funniest things. She was remembering all my "missionary mishaps" with old boyfriends and how it took Troy and I so long to decide to get married. She was recounting the stories like they happened yesterday. Grandma always had dating advice for me. My favorite thing was when she shared and Grandpa's love letters with all the girls. This picture of them on their honeymoon hung in my college apartment for years.

Just driving to her house and walking through her halls brought back SO many memories of summers in Utah. I remember walking down to the swimming pool and eating plums from the trees on the way home. I loved when we helped clean Grandma's garage… we always found such treasures in the closet...lots of gold leafing and the greatest coats and party dresses. Trying them on entertained us for hours.

Oh I'm glad I could see her again.

mia maids

This weekend Noelle, Kris & I headed up to Utah for some "presidency bonding" at Women's Conference. The weather was beautiful and I even enjoyed the rain. Being my first Women's Conference, I didn't have much to compare it to (except those wild EFY weeks!)

We mapped out our classes and thought we'd picked some real winners (a perfect blend of heavy spiritual and light humor...or so we thought) After staying up till all hours in the morning chatting, even light spiritual was too heavy as were our eye lids. So we made sure to cross the entire campus multiple times down the long flight of stairs to the fieldhouse for some more humor.. but it was nowhere to be found.. we just kept being stuck in serious classes, with no backed benches, no ac and loud fans. They were actually all great, just not what we had expected. Although Brad Wilcox came through for us in the end and we were thrilled.

Thursday night they had a concert and this "boy band" a capella group did a 80s-90s rap medley. The women were in the aisles dancing and waiving their cell phones around like lighters. I was embarrassed to even be in the crowd, I was laughing so hard I was in tears. The MC called us "a bunch of Mia Maids" for how we were acting. He hit it on the head! They also had other wonderful performers including "Bring Him Home" by Dallyn Bayles . Now THAT deserved a standing ovation (unlike the closing song following Elder L. Tom Perry's devotional where we were the ONLY three women sitting out of 26,000). What snobs we are.

One of my favorite parts of being away was that I ate constantly and never prepared or cleaned my own meal! (and yes, strawberry milkshakes and "Cougar Tails" are considered meals!) I'm still a bit sick from eating the entire brownie sundae solo. I'll never live it down!

I loved what one of the speakers said...that most of what we will take away from this conference, the ideas, insights, inspiration... will come through the discussions we have after we go back to the hotels each night with the women we came with. I absolutely found that to be the case. I was so uplifted, enriched and edified (and sometime mortified!) by the stories, advice and discussions both Kris and Noelle shared on our trip. I am so lucky to be surrounded by great women!

smokey the bear

Troy took the "first batch" camping and from their dirt and smiles,

it looked like fun! Apparently Troy almost started a forest fire when the wind picked up. Way to go Smokey!Dallin was the photographer and came back with lots of pictures..

mostly of fire.

memory lane

Each night before bed, Troy tells the kids a story. He usually tells a story of his childhood... growing up on Harrison street (out in Gilbert when it was nothing but fields and farms).

So after conference we took the kids and Troy's parents out to the old house on Harrison.

It was fun to see the old prints in the cement and have the kids recognize so many things from the bedtime stories. (They kept trying to find "the mean dog named Butch")

Life sure was different "back then"... with all that space and no safety concerns. (climbing on electric fences, burning the weeds with blow torches, underage driving, playing with matches... yes my kids are learning some real gems from 'ole dad!)

It was a lovely stroll down memory lane.

reverence tent

We tried the "Reverence Tent" idea for General Conference. I love the idea of teaching about King Benjamin and how the families turned their tents to face the prophet as he taught them.

But I think, aside from the photo op, I was the one that spent the most time in the Reverence Tent. All those pillows were just calling my name!

But I was reverent!

april fool's day

Dallin & Ella were fooled by their milk that started off white, but changed colors with each bite!

Having a hard time drinking your juice, Dallin? Gotcha!

public transportation

We decided it would be a fun family activity to take the kids to try the Light Rail that runs from West Mesa into downtown Phoenix.

Dallin and Ella loved the ride and entertained all the passengers with their squeals.

We got off and walked down Mill until Allison started throwing up all over. We chose to forgo dinner and get back home. Allison had another "incident" all over Troy on our way to the train. And then again all over me on the ride back. I was trying to contain it in a bag in my purse, but not doing a great job. I was dying of embarrassment as all the other passengers were just looking at our mess and enduring the smell. I hopped off with the baby at the next stop and sent Troy and the other three alone to ride back in to get our car then pick me up. Thank heavens for cell phones because I had no idea where I was when I hopped off and just sent the rest of my family on their way.

Allison eventually fell asleep and I started walking toward home (another 15 miles). After a mile or so (in three inch heels) Troy and the rest of the crew found us and we all made it safely home. I don’t think public transportation is for us yet.

the original pancake house

Whenever we get together for breakfast with the Farnsworths.. it's ALWAYS the Pancake House out in Scottsdale. The place looks like a dive at the base of a Motel 6, but the apple pancake that you have to call in and order an hour before arrival, is heavenly! It's becoming more and more of a circus to get us all together, but I'm sure the waitress is well tipped! (And Grandpa didn't even have to fight for his fresh squeezed orange juice and hot maple syrup. Do I miss that? Hmmm.)

lucky guppie

We got a fish last weekend and already I want to flush it down the toilet. The bowl gets too dirty too quickly and grosses me out. But today I walked in and Allison was sitting on the kitchen island (still no idea how she got up there) stabbing a butcher knife into the fish bowl. Luckily nobody was hurt, although, secretly, I wouldn’t have minded the fish’s tragic death. I guess his name proves true. Lucky Guppie.

a + a = trouble

These girls are just something else!

This is pretty typical of Allison and Auburn. I will get one out of the tub and dress her and by the time I go back to get the next one… they’re back together in the bath.

The twins had their 18 month check up and waiting for the doctor had me in stitches! The girls were running around and under the exam table, pulling the paper off the table etc. They were just giggling their mischievous giggles and I was desperately trying to think of anything to keep them off the floor yet out of all the drawers and cupboards. I couldn't think of anything.

Allison and Auburn LOVE to empty out my dirty clothes basket. Auburn came out last week with 8 layers of clothes she had adorned herself in… dirty T-shirts, underwear, garments, and pajamas. Lovely.

This is our daily life.

tea parties

My girls love to dress up! We gave Ella a tea set for her birthday and I think every sip of water she had for the next week was out of her little tea cup. She had some friends over a couple days ago and they had a ball getting dolled up for their tea party.

Happy Birthday Ella!

mamma

Allison wanted to help make the cake.

Happy Birthday Mom!

all you need is love....all together now

This Valentine's we had fun making lots of treats for those we LOVE!

And of course, ended with Troy's sweet treat for the kids.

let the rain fall

I love our family tradition of making sopapillas on rainy days.

nag nag nag

To Mom, (pretty much the only one who reads my blog) I am trying to put up my pictures from the last couple months. (back-blogging) So you'll always see this race post (becaue it's the most recent). Just scroll down and see if anything new is posted after the race. OK.. so can we please stop the "when are you going to update your blog" phone calls? :) I love you! Sand

she's goin' the distance, she's goin' for speed...

Last year Karen impressed me by finishing the London's Run half marathon, a charity race to benefit children fighting cancer. So this year she tried dragging me into it. Which, actually, wasn't too hard of a sale, I've been wanting to run a marathon for years now, but my knees haven't had the same goal. But I started training at Christmas time and was really enjoying it. The weather on Saturday morning long runs was ideal and I think it's the longest I've ever been alone post twins.

Unfortunately, Friday I came down with the flu and I was bitter...really bitter. Dad and Troy gave me a blessing and the next morning I drug myself out of bed and out to Queen Creek.

The race started and I ran and ran and ran. I felt pretty good and made a goal to not let anyone pass me after mile one. I think I'm a little more competitive than I thought and kept trying to get ahead of whoever was next in front of me. (The same way I drive.) I felt bad if it was a guy next in line for me to pass, (for their male ego) so I would give them about 30 seconds to pick up the pace... and if they didn't they had to deal being passed by a girl. (When you're running 13 plus miles you have to think of something to pass the time.)

It was also touching and motivating to see the posters of the children fighting their cancer battles encouraging us to "keep going". I think I choked up a few times just feeling how lucky I was to actually be running and in good health.

The last mile I was ready for the race to be over and then I saw Troy. I thought he was staying home with the sick kids, but there he was cheering me on the last leg. It felt so good to round the corner and have the energy to sprint home and see Karen & the kids.

I looked at my finish time and was instantly bummed. 1:50. I had wanted to finish right over 2 hours... (120 minutes). So when I saw the clock I was thinking 150 minutes. Then Troy informed me the clock said 1 hour & 50 minutes... ten minutes faster than my goal. Ooops! I was now thrilled. Instead of a 9 minute mile that I was used to, I had been running an 8.3 minute mile. I think because I was sick I couldn't gage my pace very well... wich turned out to be quite advantageous. I'm glad it's over, but so glad I did it. Now I'm looking for a Saturday marathon and time and energy to train for it.

We had so much fun celebrating Chinese New Year.

We all dressed up in authentic Chinese costumes and made delicious Chinese food.

Dallin was the pro at eating with chopsticks!

Rub Allison's Buddha for good luck!

four seasons?

Not having seasons excludes us from a lot of those great “childhood memory” things… snow angels, jumping in piles of leaves, tasting icicles etc.

So Troy tried to fake it for the kids by raking as many leaves as he could to make a measly pile. The kids thought it was a blast to jump in, even though they were hitting hard ground each time because the pile was so meager!

sassy

Ella inherited bad hair genes (no offense to my lovely inlaws). It is thin and her hairline starts half way up her head. So we tried cutting it to see if we could make it appear fuller. The jury is still out on whether it helped or not... but she thinks she is so sassy now!

bitty

Having Whitney here for the holidays had to be one of my favorite things. All she wanted to do while she was here was "nothing" (sounds like her birthday wish mentioned here). Quite honestly I didn't know what to do with such low expectations. I tried my hardest to do nothing while she was around, but I was rarely successful. We put her to work. Whitney just went between Karen, Mom and I and took an aspect of our life and decided to fix it.

* Apparently Karen needed some make-up tips.. which is always so successful with 7 kids running around.

*She completely rearranged Mom & Dad's living room, somehow moving a grand piano by herself!

* My wardrobe was rampaged and purged of all 90s clothing. (except for the denim overalls... I want my kids to have something totally authentic to wear for 90s day at school someday). Of course we had to try them all on and mock me first.

*And the biggest project of all... Whit decided to fix my kids. (They are slow as molasses and so I end up doing everything for all four of them... gets very wearing.) Whitney knocked on the front door one morning before school and introduced herself as "Miss Independence". She was all dressed up with the craziest get up and make up. My kids' eyes were like saucers... they'd never seen anything like it. She explained what "independence" means and showed how she got herself dressed that morning. She had made up a little incentive program (magic beans... which they still think will "grow a surprise") for them to get dressed every morning by themselves before the timer rings. Dallin and Ella ate it up and took right to the idea. Way to go Miss Independence!