One more thing......

......I'm thankful for.......

This guy.

That I have a husband who's so dang HOT!

And that he can always make me laugh. So hard.

We got a little carried away taking pictures for our Christmas card.

These are some that didn't make it on the card.

I know. It was a super tough decision.......since they were all SO good........and they all really captured who Brian is........but I couldn't use them all!

My personal fave.

Love you babe. You crack me up!

Thankful

Our 2009 Thankful Tree.

I think we covered the basics pretty well. With a few random....... or creative ones.........like pillows, pajamas, beds (I'm detecting a trend here) , diversity, rain forests, and pumpkin cookies.

I thought I'd make a list of random, though no less worthy of gratitude, things I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving............

I'm thankful for chapstick. I'm thankful for Tivo. I'm thankful for Christmas cards. I'm thankful for Adam's Peanut Butter Fudge Ripple cheesecake. I'm thankful for Spanx. I'm thankful for earplugs. I'm thankful for Pull-Ups. I'm thankful that Diet Coke is not specifically mentioned in the Word of Wisdom. I'm thankful for iTunes. I'm thankful that soccer is over. I'm thankful for Visiting Teachers who drop off treats. I'm thankful for Steve Nash. I'm thankful for flip-flops. I'm thankful that none of my kids are into cheerleading. I'm thankful for free food samples at Costco when I'm shopping at lunchtime. I'm thankful for cheesecrisps. I'm thankful for low-rise jeans. I'm thankful for elementary school band teachers (bless their hearts). I'm thankful for shutters. I'm thankful for Photoshop. I'm thankful for 5-dollar Little Caesar's pizzas. I'm thankful for temple work. I'm thankful for cinnamon. I'm thankful for neighbors who don't report me to CPS when they find my 3-year-old running naked in the street. I'm thankful for Stephenie Meyer. I'm thankful for laser hair removal. I'm thankful for pistachio gelato. I'm thankful for people who actually read my blog. I'm thankful for Weezer. I'm thankful for Playmobil. I'm thankful that a new Bachelor starts next month. I'm thankful for in-house babysitting. I'm thankful for non-LED Christmas lights. I'm thankful for the gazillion kids in our neighborhood. I'm thankful for XM radio. I'm thankful for love notes from my kids. And right now, I'm very thankful for online shopping.

So much to be thankful for.

flag football

This was Max's second year playing flag-football.
With the same group of cute neighborhood boys.
He loves it! And never complains about going to practices.

Their mouthguards kill me. They constantly play with them.

And you gotta love these awesome, dedicated dad coaches.

Thanks guys!!

volleyball

Mars was on the 9th grade Volleyball team this year.
I had no idea she could play volleyball! But she was awesome!!!
And the games were really fun to watch.
We're thinking about club volleyball............

I just don't know why the shorts have to be so short!

Halloween 2009

We had the Bakers with us for Halloween this year, so it was extra fun!
Brian was stoked to have a buddy to help him out with the "haunted house" , which was a little scarier this year I think.
I was a lame Halloween mom & didn't get dressed up. I'm so ashamed. I'll have to make up for it next year.
So this is what Halloween 2009 looked like.............

Then off to the Neighborhood Block Party..............

My favorite costumes of the night..........Tina Turner & Prince........formerly known as Tommy & Leigh. They were awesome!

Til next year, Haunted House!

Happy Halloween!!!

Odds & Ends

I'm back. Time to participate in life again. And feeling so behind in everything I'm afraid I'll never catch up! But SOOOOooooo glad to be feeling better. I'm not even wishing for a miscarriage anymore!

Luckily, I haven't felt like picking up my camera much lately, so I don't have a ton of photos I'm behind on.......but here's some of the latest...................

Gus has been learning to put his clothes on by himself.............

Cousin Brock got married to Liz..............

......and had a beautiful open-house at the Z's.

And 16-year-old cousin Melia made the cake! SO AMAZING MEL!!!

And then it was October break.

We decided to stay here & look after the neighborhood while everyone else went to Disneyland.

So we did some fun projects like cleaning out the pantry & the garages..........

Max found a PoGo stick in the garage that nobody's touched for years, and he's hardly been off it since! He can now bounce over 1000 times without stopping.......with no hands!!!I'm not kidding. He's got some skillz.

Zane after a long morning of DS-playing.......

The kids would just fend for themselves while I did more of this..........
And that was how our October break went.

It was a dream come true.

This poor kitty.............

She gets more 'love' than she can handle.

Jake portrayed Paul McCartney for a school assignment.........

They were awesome.

AND we've all managed to escape the swine flu so far!

So now I need to go throw Halloween together!!!