Decorating the Tree

As is our tradition, we decorated the tree "as a family". It took us four days to get it decorated. With the kids basketball practices and games, YM/YW, Explorers, Christmas concerts, etc. it was nearly impossible. They did it in shifts-who ever was home for as many minutes as they could before leaving for their next activity.

Who is this?

I will give a nice big candy bar to the first person who can tell me who Graden was for Halloween.

I'm famous!

Not really. But my company used my handwriting on a 10 foot poster they did. See?

Boring.

a great way to start the day

Apparently, I'm as crazy as some of my family claims.  When I arrived at the gym this morning (at 5:10am - a perfectly reasonable hour in my mind as I've arrived earlier in the past), there was one other person in the cardio area.  Much to my surprise, not a single TV had been turned on.  This allowed me to fulfill one of my somewhat silly desires.  I turned on all the TVs and tuned into this. 

It only lasted for about 15 minutes before someone else showed up and switched channels.  But for those 15 minutes I was in sports heaven!

In other news - if you haven't heard, look who's coming to Provo.  Josh and I will be there - look for something to be posted over the weekend. Let's just hope BYU and Max Hall make a good showing at the game.

Dixie High School Homecoming

Ciera went to Dixie's Homecoming with her buddy Trevor. She went to the Homecoming game where Hurricane won 42-24. She was smart and didn't gloat since all the group she was with were Dixie students.

Jordanelle Sprint

This is the only picture I got of Mel participating in the triathlon:

But I did snap a bunch after until she told me to stop:

just a taste.

of how fun the reunion was.

All-Star

Graden played on the Hurricane All-Star team this week. They lost, but they had a good time!

Wannabe Dory

Ciera is providing a lot of entertainment this summer!

Is this a movie?

This is Ciera-today-while "mopping" the floor.

And more Ciera:

When all this silliness was done, she fell down the stairs-got a rug burn on her leg-and sat in my scrapbook chair and said, "My abdomen hurts!" Hard to believe that she's going to be 17!

Pie Eating Contest

Since Gary is in management at Viracon, they all HAD to participate in the pie eating contest at the company party.

Newsletter for Pops

Well, Dad has decided that he wants a newsletter for EXIT. I made one and had a little fun with it. Read the entire thing, Pops thought it was funny.

My new "dining room"

We found the table I wanted and at the price Gary wanted. I think it looks good with our new bannister.

it's official....

I got into the St. George Marathon. Let the training begin!

Mandy and Maddy, start looking for your tickets! (you promised you'd come!)

Home School

Check out the video to see Grey's home schooling on Friday, May 1.

woohoo!

So, when I got to work on Tuesday (after a fun weekend with Mandy and Maddy), the VP of sales called me into his office. When I got there, he asked me to close the door--uh oh! Well, it's actually good news. I got a promotion! I am not an Account Executive. It just means that now instead of qualifying leads, I get to actually close deals. And, it also means I have a much larger quota. Wish me luck!

Trying to take family photos

Why is it so hard to get them to just stand still for oh I don't know 2 seconds!

obsession

So, I'm a bit obsessed with following cooking blogs. Hey, at least its free unlike wanting to buy cookbooks all the time. I just saw this one such blog, and it totally made me think of Justin.

Mom, can we please have these for dinner sometime soon?

ps--if you are following any great cooking blogs, please share the links with me!

the winner

It looks like Mom beat the whole fam ... and all but 1,984 people in the entire world. You'll have to click on the picture to be able to read it, but check out her ranking! And the fact that she chose 99.96% of the games correctly. I'm impressed.



And it looks like the girls cleaned up this year. The only boys in the top 10? Pops (#3, Matt (#9) & Trav (#10). How does that make the rest of you boys feel??

Little CiCi Doll

We transferred our photos from our old computer and found this one of Ci from 2005 and this one that she took about a week ago.

I'm not Megan, but I'm still amazing

When the end of the month rolls around, the VP of Sales gets very uptight. He's very concerned about hitting the numbers and every meeting their commit for the month. Well, my commit for the month was 16. As demonstrated by the chart below, I achieved 18. So, yesterday afternoon, as the VP was stressed and giving me a hard time, I pulled up a report to show what a great month I'd had. I also mentioned to him that he might not want to harass his top performer. He said, "Why don't you print that out and tape it up right there" (right there being my cubicle wall). And then Shane chimes in with, "Can you show us your awesomeness in a pie chart." And, that's exactly what I did.

Here is what I printed:

Why Melissa is AMAZING!!!

It is currently posted by my cubicle and I gave a copy to the VP of sales. (I actually got him to laugh, out loud--it's only taken me 9 months to prove to him just how funny I am).

So, if there is ever any question, please feel free to reference the above graphic to prove that Melissa is AMAZING!

The Beach

It was COLD at the beach. The water was 58 degrees and it wasn't much warmer on the sand. The kids all got in their suits and played in the waves. I was smart and stayed dressed and only waded up to my ankles in the surf.

More Sea World

See this ride-with the water and long drop-I rode it!

• This is the cool cow by the flamingos. Look at Garets mohawk!

We fed the Sting Rays cut up fish-I even fed them. If you can look close enough, I'm holding the front half of a fish.

Bob's Big Boy

Do you guys remember Bob's Big Boy? We stopped and ate at one in Baker, California.

The milkshakes are still as good as I remember them being. I thought of Travis while drinking mine.

Stay tuned

the internet went down in the hotel we were at, so I have been unable to continue the daily posts. We just got home, but I promise to start posting pictures tomorrow of our exciting time in San Diego.

Brook's most interesting birthday present...

Pooper Scooper Barbie!


Yes, you read that right. Barbie now comes with a dog who eats and then poops! And someone has to clean up after the mutt so Barbie carries around a pooper scooper. And for those of you doubting the truth of this, here is a picture:
What will the next great Barbie do? Maybe they can just modify this one so that you get the real smell of the experience! Won't little girls love that!

San Diego-Day 1-Sea World

Chelsi and Graden insisted on sitting in the "Soak Zone" at the Dolphin Discovery show. As you can see by the angle, I was smart and sat further up so I didn't get wet. They were completely soaked and pretty much stayed that way the rest of the day. Chelsi even sat in the "Soak Zone" for Shamu's show. They were totally awesome shows! We fed sting rays, saw eels, flamingos, sea otters and went to two aquariums in the park. We also rode the Journey to Atlantis-it's a roller coaster that you get wet on-I even rode it. The kids had a great time. We'll go back on Friday and see the rest of the park.

Gabbin' Gavin

Gavin was too busy to participate in all the birthday festivities-he had people to call apparently.

Prom: a ball or dance, as of a particular class at a school or college

**Just added a picture of the full dress for Mandy!**

This is Ciera's Junior Prom at Snow Canyon. The boy who asked her is a good friend of her cousin Cameron. He took one of Ciera's volleyball buddies who moved from Snow Canyon at the beginning of the year. She had a great time. He is an awesome singer and got his a capella group to come to Hurricane on Friday and serenade her (and give her roses). She was in total shock. They had a good time together and it was fun for her to double with her cousin.

She also got a totally awesome metal rose from a boy she likes that actually lives here in Hurricane. She's hoping she gets invited to a prom by him since she wasn't able to ask him to Preference since he was already asked.

She loved her dress and was very glad that she didn't have the normal prom dress since everyone's was basically the same and the 'noise' would have driven her nuts. Thanks Megs and Mom for helping pick out her dresses. (She's wearing the purple one to the next dance she's invited to).

takes direction well

So Ima just keep posting junk cause no one else will...

these are jokes

so Lula turned 5

and Mel and I crafted and constructed her an apron of which we are so proud we can't help but post pictures on the interwebs for all to see.