Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve we put together a skit of the birth of our Savior. I played Mary, Barry was Joseph, the boys were shepards in the field, and Liza was baby Jesus. She wasn't too happy about being put in a pear box for the manger but luckily it goes fast. Payton is still talking about Liza being baby Jesus. After our skit we watched Luke II which is a movie that is put out by our church depicting the birth of Jesus. It's a wonderful movie. After that we bore our testimonies about the Savior. It was absolutely beautiful. We have begun a tradition of dedicating Christmas Eve to our Lord and taking some time to reflect on his life and ministry upon the earth.

It's hard to believe that Christmas has come and gone. It's such an anticipated day and it's over in a flash. We woke somewhat early Tuesday morning (6:55) to hear Jared exclaim that Santa came. He dug through his stocking and snooped to see what Payton had received also. We told him to go and wake Payton up so that Payton could enjoy his stocking also. Barry and I layed in bed for about 10 minutes just listening to the kids get so excited about Santa.

All presents were opened by 7:45. Even when we try to drag it out by only opening one present at a time it still goes fast. The boys received about 15 new cars from the movie "Cars". Now when Payton watches the movie he has to have them all out and act it out at the same time with whatever car is in the scene. I made the boys tie-fleece blankets. Jared has recently declared his love for the Denver Bronco's so his blanket consists of that. Since Payton is obsessed with "Cars" his blanket had characters from the movie on his. The boys also got some awesome capes from Aunt Wendy! They are shiny and getting lots of use! Thanks Shumways! Liza got some little barrettes for her hair. They don't stay in too well since her hair is barely there and super fine. She also received a gloworm. She loves it. When we turn it on her little face lights up and she gets so happy. Later that night we invited our neighbors over for a rematch of Cranium. We beat them at Thanksgiving and Gloria has been ancey for another round. I'm happy to report that we smoked them not once, but twice! We had a blast with them

Yesterday was boxing day so we took advantage of the foreign holiday and boxed up Christmas. Liza is cruising all over so I thought that we should get the tree down so that she had more room to explore without damaging anything. We are now enjoying some R&R. Barry returns to school on the 2nd and Jared goes back the 7th.

We had a wonderful Christmas this year and it gets more exciting the older the kids get and can really feel that magic of it more. We hope that your day was filled with magic and fun also!

French Hot Chocolate

This is my favorite holiday drink. It's super easy and absolutely delicious!

1/2 c. water
1 1/3 c. sugar
3 squares unsweetened chocolate (Baker's)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/8 tsp. almond extract
1/2 pint whipping cream
milk

1. In a saucepan bring water, sugar and dash salt to a boil and continue to boil for 5 minutes.
2. Melt chocolate in above mixture.
3. Chill.
4. Add both vanilla and almond extract and stir.
5. Whip cream and add to chocolate.
6. Place a spoonful of chocolate in a cup and pour hot milk over and stir till chocolate bits are dissolved.

This is the way hot chocolate is supposed to taste. It's definetely not low-fat! Hope you enjoy this drink as much as we do!

I'm so proud

We are having our annual Christmas party tonight with friends and we were asked to bring an appetizer and a dessert. I always make the same appetizer and it's nothing too fancy but this year for my dessert I found this delicious cake (scroll down a bit on the link) while blog stalking. I decided to try it. It simply looks too yummy to eat. Much to my surprise it turned out fabulous and by far the prettiest cakes I've ever made. Here is my rendition:

1...2...3...Cheese!

Yesterday we went out and got family pictures taken. We decided that it was time seeing how we haven't had pictures done since Payton was 6 months old and that we now have Liza. It was an adventure for sure. I had this great idea to have them done outside amongst some trees. Everyday that it was nice Barry and Jared were in school and it couldn't be done then. Also last Saturday it was snowing and Sunday of course was gorgeous. We finally got them done yesterday and the weather was freezing. I think it was all of 26 degrees outside, although the sun was shining but didn't offer any warmth. Picture day is completely stressful for me. I coordinate clothing, which Barry grumbles about, and make sure hair is trimmed and combed. The hardest and most frustrating part is getting 3 kids to all look at the camera and smile at the same time. All in all it was great and can be checked off my to do list. In the end we made some memories! Here are a few shots of our day including some of the frustrating moments.

A special thanks to Paula for capturing our family and enduring the weather. The boys had fun with Kya.

Favorite holiday movie #2

This is another of our favorite movies this time of year. I think that "Eddie" is my favorite character mostly because I think there is an "Eddie" in every family. Chevy Chase is a great actor and cracks me up in all the National Lampoon movies. I also love the old couple and when the grandpa lights his cigar on the street and causes and explosion and the grandma then sings The National Anthem. This movie is just too funny!

Losing my mind...among other things

I'm pretty sure that I've turned my house upside down to find our extra van key but I've succeeded at nothing. When will the car makers create a high tech device for finding your lost keys? An alarm should sound or an annoying beep should go off continually in the night until the little bugger is found. A code or pin number should be issued for car keys so that all you'd have to do was type in the number to the car maker web site and a map would then be generated telling the exact location of the key. The map would then probably say something like, "Hey retard, I've been on the key hook the whole time you moron", or something to that effect.

I absolutely hate when I lose things. It un-nerves me and I feel like a child looking for the one lost shoe that must have grown a leg and jumped away. That's the only rational reasoning for such disappearances. I love the Arthur episode when DW looses one sock and it turns out that there is a secret underground sock trading organization run by dogs. We've all been there and I'm sure that you all hate it too.

Nothing's safe anymore

My life is going to get crazy. Liza just started crawling today. She's been working on it since last Sunday but has finally figured it out. She is having so much fun exploring. Fortunately she hasn't discovered the Christmas tree yet, but I'm sure that will be the next thing on her to do list. It is so fun to watch her develop and grow. I always wonder how long it will take for all those great milestones to happen and then when they do I'm so overcome with joy that it brings tears to my eyes. I'm so proud of her and look forward to chasing her around too. I've posted a video of her crawling. I hope that it's not to incredibly boring for you! Enjoy.

Fragile....it must be Italian

This is one of our favorite Christmas movies of all time. The narration is hilarious and the events that occur just make us belly laugh. There are so many great quotes from this movie that we recite throughout the month. Can you guess the movie by they picture? What's your favorite line from the movie?

Simply Delicious!!!

I made this delicious breakfast last Saturday and had a mini affair with it. I thought that I needed to share it with you so that it might enhance your breakfast experience.



Strawberry French Toast Bake

1 loaf French bread-torn into bite size pieces
12 eggs
1 1/4 c milk
3/4 c syrup (regular not lite)
8 oz. brick of cream cheese


Topping:

2 c. frozen strawberries with sugar
1/2 c butter
1/2 c sugar
1/4 c milk
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 cap full vanilla extract

Tear bread into pieces. Place in a greased 9x13 casserole dish. Soften cream cheese. Whisk eggs, milk, syrup. Beat in cream cheese. Spread evenly over bread. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Bake uncovered at 350 for 30-40 minutes.


While baking-add topping ingredients (except strawberries) into a microwavable bowl. Cook for 1 minute. Stir and cook 1 more minute. Pour over top of bread. Drizzle strawberries on top and place a dollop of whipped topping on top. ENJOY!!!

You can use any kind of fruit you'd like, blueberries, raspberries, anything will work!

Beaver Believers

In case you were unaware, the Beavs pulled off an awesome win against the Ducks in 2OT at Oregon! The Beavs were able to pull it off even with sub-par officiating. It was the battle of backup QBs. I always love a game when some serious hits occur and there was plenty of that going on. We were way jazzed! In addition we just don't think that the Ducks should win at all because they have awful uniforms. Seriously....have you seen them lately? What's with the locker/metal reflective grid on their jersey and pants. Yuck. Not to mention the urine colored helmets. EEEWWW! Enough Duck garbage, way to go Beavs!!!

That's a wrap!

I'm stalling...it's inevitable but I'm still stalling. With Christmas just a short 26 days away, I have most of the gift purchased for the kiddos but still haven't really hid them from their beady little eyes. Sure they're stashed and the kids aren't sneaking around yet but I know that that day isn't too far away. Wrapping the gifts is still a sure fire way of hiding them from curious ones. But every time I think to do it they wake up or Liza is sleeping and underneath her crib is where the wrapping paper is. Luckily I've still got a bit of time like I said, 26 days.

I'm also stumped on gifts for Barry. Is it just me or are men super hard to buy for? Barry's attire for clothes is usually Kadet oriented. I'm always pressuring him to purchase some hip clothes but he replies with disgust for the style. Power tools you say? What guy doesn't need an extra drill or chop saw? The only problem with that is Barry doesn't do a whole lot of "fixer-upping". Hhmmm....a "Big Gulp" machine would be perfect.

I on the other hand am completely easy to buy for. What wouldn't light up a girl's eyes more than a pair of diamond earrings? Oh wait...you need money for those, oops, my bad! Seeing how I just dropped roughly 40 lbs in the last 6 1/2 months clothes would be greatly appreciated. But then again I love my velour pants and Kadet tee-shirts. I seem to have a lot of Kadet oriented clothing also. Actually, truth is, whenever Barry inquires of me the things that I desire, I'm stumped again. The only thing I can come up with is that I need a new toaster. I can toast two pieces of bread beautifully but as soon as I put more in at the same setting they burn. I assure you, I am a good cook except when it comes to toast to which I blame the toaster. But really, who wants to open their presents on Christmas morning and get a toaster. Boring!

I would love to say that there is nothing I want but that would be a lie because I always want stuff, it's just that it's way toooooo expensive for our budget. Maybe it's humility, maybe it's lack of funds, maybe it just that I'm as difficult as Barry to buy for, if not more, but I can't seem to come up with one great idea. I guess we're left to chance and hope that we purchase a great gift for each other.

Leftovers and decorations

Hello all! We had a fabulous Thanksgiving with tons of food! We invited our neighbor friends The Bacarella's over for dinner and instead of splitting the meal preparations we all cooked everything and then brought the masses together. It really was a ton of food and have forged through the leftovers for every meal since. We've even resorted to pie for breakfast. After we completely gorged ourselves on all the yummy food, we played a few games. We introduced Boggle to Dan and Gloria, then played Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, which none of us are. Then we played Cranium to which Barry and I were victorious, no thanks to our humming skills. We had a great night and the company was better.

The following day Barry went into the deep abyss of the crawl space to gather the Christmas decorations. There was some engineering involved as we decided where to put the tree this year. The computer inhabits the the spot where we normally put it so we chose to put it in the front window. We had to empty out our huge bookcase and move it about two feet and rearrange the furniture. Barry then disappeared when the fun was just getting started to go help out a friend! Thanks Blue! Upon return Barry was not surprised to find that I had put the tree together and cleaned up the mess. As we starting stringing the lights we decided that we didn't have enough light and went to Target to get more. I suggested that 3 strands would be enough and Barry said that we needed at least 4. We got home and started stringing lights and found out that we in fact needed 4. Barry took it upon himself to venture into the blistery weather again and get one more box. We finished decorating before bedtime and it looks great!

Yesterday Barry went onto the roof to decorate the house with lights. In years past we have used icicle lights but last year we changed it up a bit and put colored lights up. Our house actually stands out amongst the other houses on the street because they all have icicle lights too. We are all set for Christmas and mostly need to purchase gifts for each other.

We hope that you are all getting into the holiday spirit and enjoying some wonderful music to put you in the mood.

Adventures in logging

Today our friends Jared and Alicia Welch called and needed some help cutting down a tree. This was a 30 year old tree roughly 25 feet tall. Their tree has been a nuisance to them recently mostly because random branches have been dying. Barry was so excited for the opportunity to do some real labor. He loves stuff like this mostly because he got to use a chainsaw. Jared and Barry had a great time working and Alicia and I had a great time laughing and watching this completely unprofessional duo get the job done. Jared was able to climb the tree to get on top of the roof, they worked without a ladder, and then he tied a rope to the tree and Barry was the anchor and pulled as Jared sawed.

Here are a few pictures and of the fiasco.

Someone's gotta lose, right?

It's always difficult to go into the playoffs and have a goal of state champions in mind, but each week we remain alive there's always the possibility of a loss. Well last night that possibility became a reality. We lost 10-0. A shutout. What? How does that happen? We haven't had a shutout all season. It's a little mind boggling to not score even a field goal, which we tried and missed. The score at halftime was 3-0. That should have made our team ready to fight and really feel that we still had a chance but their mental attitude was not positive and they got beat down. Cherokee Trail was in fact a better team. They were more physical and looked a heck of a lot better in person than on tape. Although our defense did a great job, they worked hard and held them to only 138 rushing yards, total. On offense we dropped 3 crucial passes. On one pass in particular we would've ran untouched to the end zone. Dang!

So now that football is over basketball is in full swing. Tryouts were last week, to which Barry never made it to practice. It's pretty crazy to go from one sport to the next without so much as one day of R&R for Barry. Luckily for him it's Thanksgiving Break and he gets the whole week off of school, but he'll still have practice through Wednesday.

Silver lining: Basketball is indoors and I don't have to bring arctic gear to games anymore. At times I felt as if I were preparing to climb Everest, and I'm sure it looked that way by the amount of blankets and outerwear I was bringing.

Continue to look for basketball scores.

Most commonly asked question

Lately the question of the morning has been "Long or short sleeves, mom?" Then a bit of detective work is involved. I venture out to the backyard to test the weather, to which I give my reply based on my scientific experiment that was just performed.

Has anyone else noticed the change in weather this year? This time last year I believe we were digging out of roughly 6 inches of snow and today I'm sending Jared to school in shorts because it's going to be 70 degrees. It is November, right, or did I not get the memo?

On a Payton related note, this morning I was coaxing him out from under the table to draw when I noticed that we wasn't acknowledging my request. I continued to get him paper and crayons when I see him peek out from under the corner of the table with nothing other than a chocolate smear across his face and a Reese's Peanut Butter cup in hand. WAAH-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Apparently coloring is better than chocolate.

One Semester of Spanish - Love Song

We think that this video is pretty funny. I'm not sure how this lady can stay so serious. Enjoy!

Kadets keep rolling!!!

After an INTENSE game on the field the Kadets were victorious! The first half was a little iffy. We had some great plays but just couldn't capitalize. Our kicker shanked a field goal and we'd get ever so close to the goal line but penalty after penalty pushed us farther and farther away. I think Barry said that in the first half we had 40 yards in penalties. OUCH!

The score at the half was 14-0, Grizzlies. There must have been some amazing halftime speech or they totally got their butts chewed, but HOLY COW, it worked. We came out ready to fight to win! We scored twice and made both PATs which tied it up. Defense was AWESOME! Thunder Ridge didn't score once in the second half. We got the ball back and with 8 seconds remaining kicked a field goal to seal the game! They had to put 2 seconds back on the clock and we kicked a squib and they went no where with it! GAME OVER, final score 17-14!!!!!

I was jumping up and down screaming with tears in my eyes! I couldn't believe it!!! I had some friends hold on to Liza and take care of Payton while I ran down on the field to hug Barry! Can I just say that in almost 8 years of knowing the man he has only cried 4 times, our wedding and at the birth of our children. Now Barry has broken the record and cried 5 times!!!!!! It was the best game of football I've witnessed! I'm so proud of them. It's so exciting to be a part of and our seniors deserved this win!!!

Here's a link to the article in The Gazette: http://www.gazettepreps.com/sports/grizzlies_277___article.xml/kadets_yards.html

GO KADETS!!!!

Happy Birthday Mr. B!

I just had to go through some of Barry's pictures on his birthday and chronicle his life. Unfortunately there aren't too many embarrassing pictures, only cute ones!

Have a great day babe! Happy 33rd Birthday!

Martha I'm not, but I try!

Today I tried my hand at being crafty. My friend Toria has the cutest headbands for her baby Ivy that I've been admiring, so I decided to ask how she makes them because Karo Syrup just isn't doing the trick with the cute little bows I usually stick on Liza's head. I normally will construct a little bow and glue it to my child's head before church and by the time we get there it's off and I have to go to the library and get some glue to stick it back on. Barry finds my efforts useless because of this issue.

So now I've officially converted to the headband and I LOVE IT!!! I'm having a blast making pretty bows for Liza. She is lacking in the hair area and needs a little help jazzing up her skull. This was the first headband I made today and it turned out so cute I can't wait to make more. I was a little worried that the flower would eat up her face but it doesn't. She wore it when we went to get Jared from school and many people commented on how cute she was. I'm slowly learning but it's tons of fun!

Thanks Toria for you help!!!

Playoff bracket is out

The anticipation is mounting. Barry was checking the internet all morning to see if he could decipher the wild card points and figure out who we would be playing for our first playoff game. Surprisingly the bracket came out earlier than we thought. We got a 5 seed which is great and we will also be hosting Thunder Ridge, which is in the Highlands Ranch area of South Denver near Littleton. They are a 12 seed and have a 8-2 record. We played them 3 years ago and lost. I personally thought that Thunder Ridge was on steroids but apparently they weren't, they were just big. Barry says that they only thing that's against us at this point is their name. So it's mental right now. Having home field advantage is HUGE! Barry is at the school right now watching game film preparing for this game. We hope to get at least two post season games in, so keep rooting for us!

GO KADETS!!

The Amazing Spiderman

Yesterday we went to our local Walmart to see Spiderman. A friend of ours responded to an email from Marvel Comics to appear as Spiderman for the recent release of "Spiderman 3". I told the kids that the real Spiderman was going to be in town and they didn't believe me, so as I confirmed the time and place I told them that he was in fact in town. They got so excited and we got dressed as fast as we could and drove to the store. They were taking free pictures and the kids got to sit down and have a "meet and greet" of sorts with the real Spiderman. They had a great time and told everyone about it, and it made "favorite day".

9-1 Best record since 1972!

Last night we drove to Canon City, CO for Barry's final regular season game. I was a bit worried that it was going to be really cold but it wasn't too bad. Don't get me wrong, it was still cold but it wasn't freezing and we still needed some hot cocoa after the game.

What a way to end the regular season with a shut out. The final score was 33-0. Defense scored again and I think that makes a total of 6 times in 5 games. It was great. The kid that scored is our kicker and he wasn't able to score the PAT due to his legs being so tired from running, he's also a linemen (they don't run much). Barry was thrilled to have his defense score again. I watched him as the kid was running untouched to the end zone. It's been a great season and it makes it easier to support when they are winning because their efforts are paying off. We are anticipating the bracket release which will be out tomorrow afternoon which means that Barry will most likely have to go into school for game plan meetings. Hopefully we won't have to drive too far for our first playoff game.

Jared is continuing to have a blast being the water boy. Payton is still jealous and tries his best to sneak down to the sideline to be with Jared. The cutest thing last night was when the team came over to the crowd to sing the fight song and Jared went with them. The team also has a chant that they do after every win and Jared and Payton joined in also. It's great watching the boys with the football team and look up to some of the players. The players are great with the boys and it's awesome to see that side of high school boys.

Trick or Treat!

We had a great Halloween. We've been leading up to the big night for a while by carving pumpkins and decorating sugar cookies, Barry's personal favorite. The boys have been looking forward to dressing up and have had plenty of opportunities to do so. Tuesday we went to the ward playgroup and they got to do crafts and a cake walk. Payton won a cupcake which he proceeded to lick the frosting off and leave the cake. Like father like son! Wednesday, the anticipated day arrived and Barry took the day off to be with us! It was a great surprise. Thanks Barry! Jared's school party was during the last 30 minutes of class and I took Payton and Liza in. Jared loves having us come to school to see him busy at work, although I feel as if I'm a distraction. We then went to Walmart for a mass shopping spree and the kids got lots of attention from random patrons. The night soon arrived and I prepared Chili for a get together at my friend Stacie's house. Barry took the boys trick or treating with their neighbor friend Jacob. They sure raked in the loot. We were pleasantly surprised by the weather, it was a balmy 40 degrees. It actually wasn't too bad considering last year it was literally freezing.

All in all it was a great Halloween and I'm glad the pressure is off for costume making, until next year. We hope you all had a spooky night.

Ok ok. I get it I'm tagged!

What is his name?
Barry Berrett Clark

How long have you been together?
7 ½ years

How long did you date?
6 months

How old is he?
Soon to be 33 but somehow manages to look 48 haha

Who eats more?
Barry…he is ½ Meldrum

Who said I love you first?
Barry, on Valentine’s Day no less.

Who is taller?
Barry

Who sings better?
No question, me. Barry’s tone deaf.

Who is smarter?
Barry is if you care about useless knowledge.

Whose temper is worse?
Mine, but Barry can hold his own especially when a football player is being retarded.

Who does the laundry?
Both

Who does the dishes?
Both

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?
I do. It’s closer to the bathroom.

Who pays the bills?
Me

Who mows the lawn?
We both do. It’s so large that we have to take turns and it often takes more than one day haha. Actually our yard is the size of a postage stamp.

Who cooks dinner?
I do. Unless it’s basketball season, then it’s whoever has the fastest looking drive thru.

Who drives when you are together?
Barry.

Who is more stubborn?
BARRY!! He says he’s not stubborn just right.

Who is the first to admit when they're wrong?
Apparently not Barry

Who's parents do you see the most?
It’s equal.

Who kissed who first?
Barry kissed me. He was jonesin’ this!

Who asked who out?We were set up by one of Barry’s friends, and again he was jonesin’ so he continued to ask me out.

Who proposed?
Barry, if you want to get technical. I’m pretty sure that’s what he meant by “So…do you wanna?”

Who is more sensitive?

Definitely Shannon. Barry is made of stone.

Who has more friends?
I don’t have a tally chart. We’re both becoming hermits.

Who wears the pants in the family?Neither. “The men are the head of the household, but the women are the necks, and they turn the head which ever way they want.”

Who has more siblings?
Barry

Places I've worked
KFC
Pizza Hut
Budge McHugh

Movies I can watch over and over
Top Gun
Beaches
Dirty Dancing
The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Places I've lived
Dillon, MT
Ashland, OR
Medford, OR
Colorado Springs, CO


Favorite TV Shows
Lost
Two and ½ Men
Grey’s Anatomy
Men in Trees
The Office
The Soup


Places I've Been
France
Mexico
Canada, eh

Favorite Foods
Mexican
pizza
dessert
Homemade bread


Places I'd rather be
Some place warm

Weird thing about me
I have lots of quirks, but none that I’m willing to share cuz you’ll all think I’m a freak!

I’ll tag:
Lizzie
Toria

On a roll

The Kadets recovered from their loss last week against Pueblo South and came out ready to beat Mesa Ridge. We won 42-13 making our record 8-1. Nobody can remember Air Academy football having this good of a record in years. We have one more game next Friday and hopefully we can win that one too and have a great seed for the playoffs.

The most exciting part last night that I've been waiting for all season is that Jared made the news! All three news stations were there and he finally got on TV. Jared has gotten quite a bit of celebrity status since becoming the waterboy. When we were leaving the game last night a bunch of the kids and their parents were cheering for Jared and telling him how awesome he does. The announcer even had the crowd yell for Jared again! It's been so fun for him. Here is the link of him on the news: http://www.krdotv.com/Global/category.asp?C=93323&nav=menu552_3 It's the second video titled High School Football Highlights 10/26/07. It's the second game they highlight. Enjoy!

I love tights!

I just had to post these pictures. As you can see in the first picture, Liza is assisting Barry while he draws up defensive plays for their upcoming game this Friday. I love how she has her hand on the computer and the other on the play book. The second picture I thought was just too adorable! I went shopping for Liza yesterday to get her some warm winter clothes and found some dresses. And it wasn't a moment too soon because we got our first snow today. She was definitely in need of some warm things. My favorite thing about the outfit is the tights. I've never been able to buy stockings for a baby. It was so fun!!! Her legs looked too cute in them. It just so happened that I had the perfect pair of shoes that were given to me and she just looked way cute today. I didn't want to put her in her jammies tonight but I knew that it just wasn't practical to have her sleep in her church clothes.

Coming up short....

We had a HUGE game last night against undefeated Pueblo South. It was a disappointing game to watch and with our 4 turnovers we just couldn't pull it together. One of the turnovers was a flubbed snap to the punter that went way over his head and he was tackled somewhere around the 20 yard line. He tried to recover the snap but just couldn't get any motion and was tackled too quickly. Although the silver lining is that we still have a great record that we haven't had in a very long time. Final score: 14-28. Here is a link to the article in the paper today: http://www.gazettepreps.com/articles/yards_210___article.xml/riley_academy.html
Hopefully this loss with motivate our boys to win out. We have two games left in regular season and we should still go to the playoffs. It ain't over yet!

Playgroup and a hike!

Since Jared has been on vacation the past two weeks we've been trying to find things to do so that I don't go crazy. I've come close but luckily Colorado Springs is full of wonderful things to do. Yesterday our ward's playgroup met at Mr.Bigg's family fun center. It's a cheap day, only costing $5 per child 3 and up and I only had to pay for myself for the all you can eat pizza and salad buffet. The kids had a great time playing at "Little Big Town". They can dress up and most importantly, run! It was great to come home with exhausted kids and take naps, mostly because Barry and I had stayed up late Monday night to watch the Rockies win the National League Series. More on that later!




Today I took the boys on a small hike near Cheyenne Mountain here in Colorado Springs. The highlight of the hike was the waterfall called Helen Hunt Falls. It was a fairly easy hike for the kids and it was a beautiful drive up a narrow canyon. The leaves were gorgeous on the drive up to the falls. Upon getting there I was pleasantly surprised by the beauty of the waterfall. The whole time I kept tell myself that I couldn't believe that we've lived here for 6 years and never seen or heard of it. I'm resolved to find the secret beauties of our area and experience them! And again I came home with tired kiddo's ready for naps! YIPPEE!







Back to the Rockies...we are so excited that the Rockies are giong to the World Series that in fact I'm going to try to purchase tickets for Barry to go. The cheap tix are going for $65. Barry has a bunch of friends that all want to go also. I think it would be a great "man date"! I'll let you know if I can even get the tickets. It's a long shot, but I figure how many times does a person get the opportunity to go to the World Series and watch history being made?

Massive Mastiff

We thought that we'd introduce the newest member of our family, for the week. This is Leah as in Princess Leah (I'm not sure I'm even spelling it right, oh well it's not my dog). She is our neighbor's dog. We are dog sitting for the week while they are at Disneyland. Leah is the best dog ever and as you can see from her sheer size you would never guess that she is still a puppy. She is a Mastiff. I believe she weighs around 90 pounds, that's not even all three kids combined. Payton loves her and it so funny to watch the two of them. Payton will walk right up to Leah's face, which is taller than he is, and say "Sit Leah!" and she does. It's hilarious! Liza is completely fascinated by her in this picture and once again we have yet another picture of Payton not looking at the camera, surprise, surprise!

Also, here is a funny story about Payton yesterday at church. The nursery leaders are trying to assist the kids transition into primary for the next two months so that they are prepared come January. Jared took Payton to singing time but never took him to sit with his class. He then stayed when the rest of his class left to go back to nursery for the day and went with Jared for the last hour. Nobody even noticed. When church was over we went to get Payton and the teacher said that Payton never came to class. We began searching the halls and other classrooms for him. Barry in the meantime found him with Jared and took them to the car. I decided to go and check the car to eliminate that. I then returned to the church only to find the teachers in a panic. I then reassured them that he was safe and with Barry and told them how he managed to skip class. Already we have a little rebel rouser!

Quote for the day: "bless Dad that he can drink his Coke". This was a portion of Payton's prayer tonight!