Monday, December 28, 2009

Playing around with my new lens


Chris smoked a turkey this year with his new smoker from his parents. Delicious.

The wood soaking before being put in the smoker.


My nephews and neice visiting us and playing in the snow.

My bro and his youngest.




Tyler my nephew. Awww, I remember when he was born, now he's all grown up.

My neice


Ang and I being silly. We're wearing leather pants btw.

Random pictures I liked.






A tradition to see the lights at Temple Square



Remembering 9 years ago. Wow.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Monday, December 14, 2009

This is Vy's 3rd tournament. You may want to turn your volume down. I'm going to try to be quiet next time. A couple things I learned...a nasty headlock is called a cross face and Vy doesn't like to be in one.......Vy is not a quitter......he fights to the bitter end.....or in this case a victorious end. He sort of reminds me of a praying mantis.



Toki has a really good "shoot or take down"

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Been Hyper lately

The kids and I made some ornaments. Here are a few.

Finally finished this quilt after 4 1/2 years. After buying our home, I really wanted the boys to have Pottery Barn like quilts but wasn't going to pay for them. So I started this project. It's totally imperfect. I tried hand quilting it and that was the major reason it wasn't getting done. So I decided to use a sewing machine to finish it up. It is so messed up and I love it and my kids are fighting over it. The other is pieced together. Hopefully I'll get hyper again and quilt it.

After walking around the paper store for an hour, I finally decided on this look and if I got this card in the mail, I would stare at it all day long ;0).

Tried making caramels for the first time. A couple things I learned.....carmels need a lot of time and patience and you need to cook the heck out of them. (I had to go back and edit this. Chris was displeased. He posed the question, "what if I talked like that?" Well...he made a good point because I wouldn't like that. It just doesn't seem right coming out of Chris' mouth. I told him I really want him to go to Heaven and when he does that he needs to come and visit me with his wife and kids and then I stood corrected again....."wives and kids." oops sorry dear, "wives and kids I mean."


I made a soft caramel and a hard caramel. I liked both very much.

For years now I've been imagining sketches of the boys on my wall. So here's a practice run. Toki at 4 months.

He is going to Regionals for his Reflections art project. Congrats! Vy was jealous because he didn't make the cut, but got over it. These boys can be competitive with each other. Vy placed 1st and 2nd in the last two wrestling tournaments they had. Toji was very jealous. He came in third in his last two tournaments which is really good as well. Jealousy......A kink we're trying to work through (if at all possible) before they hate each other. Wondering if we should just have them in completely different activities.

A couple things that happen every Saturday/Sunday when Chris can. He makes waffles and he always forgets the last one. So here it is, burnt.

And seriously contemplating signing up for this.LA marathon I had been thinking about training for another one. And even more specifically, imagined my brother and I doing something like this, I was actually thinking more of a half marathon. And then it was as if he read my mind. He called me up and proposed the challenge. I'm always up for a challenge. He overcoming his individual struggles is probably equivalent to what I would have to overcome.......3 kids, snow and cold, time constraints, and my body falling apart. This is going to be tough.

Will try to get around to posting up the two tournaments that the boys participated in yesterday and the week before. Wow. It's a tough sport.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Yes Please.......I'll take an XX

Comments I've gotten since having 3 boys (some more than others)...
1. So you going to try for the girl?
2. You NEED a girl.
3. Ohhhh, if you had a little girl, she would be soooo gorgeous.
4. You need to have 6 kids.
5. What if you have a fourth and it's a boy...followed by a hahahaha.
6. You've been slacking. (this may be something I tell myself)
7. This is how you have a girl....followed by a variety of options, some more explicit than others. (I like to hear what my lady friends have to say. It was weird to hear some of the comments made by males, usually not requested by me.)

Some expections I'm hearing....get pregnant, have a girl, and make sure she's gorgeous.

And for $18,000 I could do it:



Interesting article. It mentions that most countries have banned the procedure. It's legal in the U.S.A. and 70 percent of one doctor's clients are from those other countries. I think it's too extreme for the purpose of just choosing a gender but think it's a fabulous option for those who have a huge chance for genetic disorders for example those families who have had all kids with a genetic disorder. When I've been pregnant, I've always skipped out on the genetic disorder testing. I don't want to make myself worry about information I can't do anything about. If it's obvious on the the ultrasound....that's another thing.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Our Thanksgiving Trip to see Family in Southern California



A blissful day at New Port Beach. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my family. The boys wished we could stay longer. I was missing my family and this trip was exactly what I/we needed.






My parents moved back to my childhood home in Alhambra. We use to think it was haunted. Staying there brought back so many fun memories. I no longer feel the presence of a ghost :0) and the boys and us really enjoyed our stay.

On our drive back Chris thought about what he could do for my parents. He said that every time they come to our home, they mend our fence or help out on a house project and he wanted to reciprocate that. When he saw the unpainted shed that my dad just built, he got to work and painted it. And just when he thought he was even, my dad takes our van to the shop for an oil change and to top the fluids and fills up our tank.





We went golfing. Chris went a couple of times with my brother.



It was actually really fun and relaxing.


We went to Disneyland. The boys including Lolo got to ride on lots of roller coasters.....Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Indiana Jones (excluding Lolo), Star Tours. They were troopers. Wow, can't believe we're at this height stage.


























Briefly visited an old friend...the one who was brave enough to share with me the Book of Mormon and her religion. It changed my life. And I can't thank her enough. I have been blessed tremendously.




Hanging out with my cousins that I grew up with.

Brother making some nutty concoction that was actually quite delicious with pie and ice cream. Glad my family loves my hubby and vice versa.