Aqua Chicks

I love my little waterpolo girls. I love that they play on the same team and that they have this time together. I never thought I could love watching a high school sport as much as I loved basketball, but I was wrong. I love my little aqua chicks.

Before And After......

By far the BIGGEST laugh of the day came after riding a water ride on a less than warm day....a water ride that goes straight down where you are COVERED in water....and not a little water. The picture speaks for itself.





With Grandma and counsins in town and a very special birthday (happy 18th D!!!) on a school holiday, we decided to take advantage of it and head to Knott's Berry Farm. I intended on being the official photographer - which I did. Here are a few favorite pictures from the day.

It's Christmas!!

This year Christms was on a Sunday. I LOVE Christmas on Sunday; I wish we could do it this way every year - like Easter. We had an amazing meeting with some of the best music around - thank you, Kerinda VanWagoner. We started a new tradition that I think I'm going to love. On Christmas day, we have a big brunch and the following day, we have Christmas dinner. Just our little way of making the beauty of Christmas last a little longer. This year, "K" came for dinner the day after Christmas. We had a wonderful time together.

Family Fun During The Holidays

Right before Christmas we made a mad dash to Utah for Dan's wedding. It was beautiful! We were so foruntate to be able to fit in a trip to Temple Square. Considering it had been years since I had been there at Christmas, I had forgotten just how breathtaking it is when it's all lit up and ready for Christmas. There was such a great feeling there as we all walked around, bundled up and enjoying the terrific scenery and the beautiful spirit. It was the perfect way to begin the Christmas season.






The day after Thanksgiving, I always begin putting up the Christmas decorations. This involves the dreaded Christmas tree; don't get me wrong - the tree is AMAZINGLY beautiful....once it gets up, but getting it untangled from whatever baffoon put it away the year before almost always requires a merit badge in untying knots and Judge Judy to make a ruling. It's never pretty. Fortunately, this year we had "E" who is the most calming influence any household can have. If she hadn't been around, I might have shoved the tree somewhere...and not up the chimney. Anyway, she helped from start to finish - which was more than can be said for any of our male counterparts who disappeared when they saw she had a handle on the whole thing. All I can say is, "Thank heavens for Miss E"!!!!




I LOVE Thanksgiving....it's definitely my favorite holiday of the year. To make it even more wonderful, our whole family was together this year. YAY times a million!!!!!!! We had our amazing sister missionaries join us, along with one of our great friends and former missionaries, Elder Lopez. Probably my favorite part of the day is when everyone has eaten and we're all sitting around the table, unbelievably full and we start sharing stories. It always evolves into hysterical laughter. Definitely a day I am grateful for.

Another Yummy Muffin....

I just found a new cooking blog that I LOVE: www.ourbestbites.com - thank you Marianne for turning me onto it!! And because I found this great new blog, I also found a great muffin recipe - perfect for the fall. Enjoy!
Streusel-Topped Pumpkin Chocolate-Chip Muffins
(I'm not the biggest fan of pumpkin, but these are great!)
1 Duncan Hines spice cake mix
1-15 oz. can pumpkin
1 cup sour cream
1/4 c vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1-12 oz pkg chocolate chips

streusel Topping
1/2 c sugar-I used brown sugar
1/4 c flour
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
3 tbls butter

Preheat over to 350. Line 2-12 cup muffine time with cupcake liners. In a large bowl, combine the cake mix, pumpkin, sour cream, oil, eggs and vanilla. Mix intil all the ingredients are combined then add chocolate chips.
Divide the batter evenly in the caupcake liners. Whisk together the flour, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, then cut in the butter with two knifes until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Sprinkle the topping over the batter. Bake the muffins for 20-30 minutes (i had to bake them 30 minutes

What Was I Thinking?

I have a question: why did I think these earrings looked cute? What in the world was I thinking? I'm pretty sure that by wearing them I just assured myself a place on What Not To Wear.

Reunited

A couple of weeks ago, I had lunch with my amazing, wonderful, forever-friend, college roommate! She was in town for a seminar and happily we were able to get together for lunch. It was more fun than I can even express; if you didn't know better, you'd think that we lived around the corner - not that it had been years since we had seen each other! Nearly every story ended with one of us if not both of us busting out in laughter. She is SO much fun to be around. I've been thinking about all the things that we have in common that have helped us remain close friends:
*We both married terrific guys
*We both had four children - two boys and two girls!
*We were in each other's weddings
*We have faithfully sent Christmas cards to each other every year
*We both love to laugh
*In college, we made popcorn every day
*We were each other's therapy when it came to the guys we dated
*She is responsible for my love of poppy-seed salad dressing because we used to eat these big salads with poppy-seed dressing
*We've both had ups and downs

My list could go on and on, but the truth of the matter is that the biggest thing that we have in common is our love for each other. You're wonderful, Evelyn. I absolutely love you!