My season of life

If I had nothing better to do with my time right now I'd want to recreate this:

..but since I do have plenty better to do with my time and a realist than I should probably be focusing more on the below picture. Got to make sure I focus on the right season for the RIGHT SEASON. (get it?) I'm all about seasons of life right now.


Just sitting here trying to get pumped up for all of the Halloween festivities. You see Halloween and I have never really been best friends. I probably would have liked it better this year if I didn't procrastinate on the whole costume for the kids thing. Hopefully I will get it all worked out. Really don't the kids just like the candy anyway?


I'm feeling a little nostalgic so keeping with the spirit of this post I better flashback to last year on Halloween.

No..that's not us feeding our kids lunch @ Costco.

The hats that tell a birthday story!

My Dad is wearing his birthday hat today. Have you ever thought about all of the purposes hats serve. Some hats are there just for fun, some hats for protection and some are just symbolic and go with certain uniforms. My Dad has literally and metaphorically worn many different hats in his life. He has even worn a Benjamin Franklin hat (we'll get to that story later as it is kind of apropos with my Dad's life). As I sit and think about him today I marvel @ how diverse he is. He knows and can do anything. He is a very solid man who has been blessed with a keen mind. Something that many people are surprised by is that my Dad graduated with an art degree from BYU. Yes I guess you could say he is kind of "artsy fartsy". Most people (or shall we say some people who used to try and take me out on dates) were a little intimidated by his 6' 5" large frame but what they didn't know is that he is kind of a softy. If only those boys who I brought home knew this then Dad probably wouldn't have gotten the name "Mike Dogg". The name has since stuck even though the above Charger pants have been put to rest(thank goodness). Oh bless those pants, holes and all. Dad thanks for being secure enough with yourself to sport those babies around the house even if you thought the President might be knocking @ the door.

Now back to all of the hats my Dad wears. The first hat I think of is the very sweaty ball cap from all of his hard work he rendered throughout the years. I don't think there is a day gone by that he hasn't said, "I'm sweatin like a pig." Two of the only nice ball caps that I can remember that he has worn were one that had a silver star on it and one that said Benjamin Franklin on it.(Benjamin Franklin use to be the name of a mortgage company) He wore that Benjamin Franklin hat to Universal Studios once and when a few of us siblings were lost we found somebody who worked there to help us find our parents. When the Universal Studio worker asked what my Dad looked like we said, "he's really tall and is wearing a Benjamin Franklin hat." The man first looked @ us strangely and then told us well in that case, then he shouldn't be too hard to find. It wasn't until later that I realized the man probably pictured a loony man who dressed up in hats that came from a different century.(not too far off)

He then went through a Indiana Jones hat phase where whenever we went on any adventures the hat came too. If only he would have worn that hat when he tried to get my sister and I up for a hot air balloon ride @ the age of six. Something about that hat makes me feel adventuresome so I could have quite possibly went up in the balloon that day if the hat would have been there.




Even though he still wears all of the above mentioned hats, the hat that he is most recently wearing is what I call his "Bacca" hat. Bacca is what some of the grand kids refer to my Dad as. The Bacca hat is probably one of his best hats. The sweaty Dad ball cap has prepared him to transition nicely to wear the Bacca hat. He looks very distinguished and well seasoned when he wears that hat. I can't deny that he has been my Dad for a few decades now even though it was just yesterday I was @ the hardware store listening to Alan Parsons Project & Moody Blues while sipping an old fashioned sarsaparilla. What I can deny is that sometimes I am selfish and secretly wish that I could freeze my Dad back to the day when Thrifty ice cream was only a quarter and I could have him all to myself. I guess we are living the Plan and this is the natural progression but why do you have to get older Dad? On this day I will "let" you get older only because you do wear the Bacca hat very well and if you don't believe it then ask any one of your 10 grand kids. I'm pretty sure they think there has never been another man who wears the Bacca hat as well as you do. Love you Daddy! Now which hat did you wear when we suckered you into being the one to take us shopping. You know all of the sisters will agree that we would have taken you shopping over Mom any day. Thanks for being so fun. Happy Birthday!

Party continues...

Grandpa and Nana came over for some more birthday celebrations. We wanted Dad to feel special since we really didn't get to celebrate this weekend. He is very non traditional when it comes to birthdays so we all split desserts from AJs and everybody blew out their own candle.

Happy Birthday super W!

Happy birthday to the man behind the curtain or shall we say the Wizard of my Oz. I think he and I would differ on what pictures of him are considered studly. He may opt for pictures of him with his big jeep or with his guns but I opt for pictures of him with my babies (pure manly man studliness). What a year. I hope you are happy with where you are in life as you mark another big year off the calendar.

Love, wife.

Does anybody know how to put a bunch of pictures into a
collage? If so pls. feel free to comment. Thanks in advance.

Aprons of love!

Mom thank you so much for donating your skills and time lately. If you haven't already checked out this site, feel free because there is a silent auction going on and you don't have to be a local to participate. Domestic Bliss is holding their annual Fall Festival this Sat. Hopefully the community will come out and represent. Liza here's a preview to what's coming to Oregon really soon.

I asked the little girl in the above picture how she wanted her hair done for preschool today. Without hesitation she said "I want my hair like Barack Obama". Of all the things she could have said and of course she thought she was so funny even though she has no idea who he is. I could probably get her hair to look more like John McCain before I could get it to look like Barack Obamas. Sheesh what does she think..I'm a miracle worker or something? Kids pick up on everything.

Midnight oil..

The above picture was me trying to take a picture to capture a moment I was having the other night. After I saw the picture I took, I almost deleted it because it was such a crummy shot but right before I hit delete I thought actually this picture perfectly captures the moment. I was feeling a little hazy or foggy @ the time. I have been burning the midnight oil the last couple of weeks more than I should. I've tried to oust staying up late because I need as much sleep as possible if I am to survive my current day care calling. It's just so hard to be disciplined in the bedtime arena because after the kids go down it's finally quiet and I have so much to do. I'm sure many can relate. Anyway I have been able to justify staying up past my bedtime recently by telling myself it's better to be up & ready for crying teething babies then to be woken up out of sleep between 12 am and 1 am. Well right on target baby "B" woke up screaming around midnight. After I went to get him he just laid his head on my shoulder and all of my worries just melted away. I am so thankful for those sweet moments that remind us what is important. It's all about balance and if I can't do too much outside of being Mom then that is just fine. I have to constantly keep reminding myself because I tend to get carried away when I sign up for extra projects. Anyway if you were to ask what I've been up to lately well then let me just show you. I have an awesome friend who most graciously took some photos. Not only is she a good friend but is very talented. I'm just saying cause it's true and maybe somebody else may want to use her for her skills.


{photos by Sweet Moments Design}

A few of the above items will be auctioned off @ the Domestic Bliss fundraiser for the Stephanie and Christian Nielson fund. I sure hope it will be a success. It's neat to see so many people banding together to help in the cause.

Fall is in the air..

We got a little excited about the drop in temperature today so daddy decided to get all festive. In honor of Fall he cooked our dinner in a pumkin.





from this...


to this...


The boys were there..


the girls were there..


Took a break & took some pictures outside while Dad finished up in the kitchen. Yes those chairs are mine & they are straight out of the 80's. Hubby wished they were @ DI.






The dinner was delicious! Thanks Grandma for the recipe.


I love this time of year.

Not too bad for a quick little point and shoot action today. I really love the Mare-Bear! She got some smarties for this pose.

Cosmetics sales fare well during economic slowdown and with Mother/Daughter bonding...

When I lived in California, I was considering a management job with Laura Mercier, I remember talking with the regional rep in my third interview where she tried to sell me on the industry by telling me a little trivia about the cosmetic industry doing really well during times of economic downturns. She told me that specifically in the Depression cosmetics and alcohol actually went up in sales. I get why alcohol does so well during depressing times even when money is tight but I wasn't too sure about the cosmetic thing so I went online to confirm what she said. According to Encyclopedia.com, "Smooth sailing for cosmetics also was evident during the Great Depression of the 1930s, when sales of inexpensive cosmetics out-sold mid-priced food items and clothing." I find that interesting but I guess it makes sense being that the cosmetic business tends to be a place where women can feel good about themselves, regardless of other aspects of their lives. Cosmetics always seem to make me reflect on a date I had with my Mom....

I'm such a sucker for beauty tips. My Mom can confirm that as well. When I was about 11 my Mom decided to have a mommy daughter date. She even let me choose what the activity was going to be. Of course my vision of mother daughter bonding was to do some sort of beauty pampering event. My mom is such a low maintenance lady and has never used much more than just a bar of Dove soap. Bless her heart she went along with my plan anyway and took me down to the local drugstore where we loaded up on face masks, scrubs, polish etc. I will never forget that night and how important my Mom made me feel. Keeping with the spirit of this post I had to reference an article I came across through My Yahoo titled Wacky Beauty Tips That Work. When I read through the 30 tips I can confirm that I've tried a few of them and feel that they really work. I swear by #25 on the list. If you want to check out the list go here.

both photos via Flikr