10-10-2009 Chefs Shera & Luke!

Shera and Luke made everyone lunch and dinner yesterday. We got to order what we wanted for lunch and they made the dinner for us. I ordered cheese and crackers and juice. By the time dinner was done we had 2 dishwashers worth of dishes. ( I should have taken a photo of the kitchen) But they got to be creative and I didn't have to cook! Hooray for Italian marinated uncooked egg noodles heated in the microwave! But Drew did tell me he was ready for me to start cooking again soon! LOL

This was my check for lunch. They supplied the money for me to pay. Wouldn't that be nice in real life?

10-10-2009 Saturday - Dove Chocolate?

I just love Doves!!!

But in the house???

We love our doors open, and we have about five bird feeders.
But I've decided the two don't combine well.

The flying dove - wish it was the chocolate kind!

10-5-2009 Monday - Family Night at Pumpkin City!

Yay! It's Pumpkin Season again! So for family night, we went to Pumpkin City!

The kids love playing the games and winning the prizes.

Holly and Jeff had a battle with the blow-ups!

Luke and Shera did go on a couple of rides too!

Pumpkin line-walkers.

Q: Why is a moon on an outhouse?
A: Back in Colonial times when many people couldn't read, a man's outhouse had a star and a woman's outhouse had a moon. The cutout gave them light inside the room. It is thought that the men let their outhouses fall into such bad shape, that it was the women's that survived.
(No surprise there!)

This is about as close as we get to farming & camping these days!

We had a big pumpkin just like this in my elementary school playground. It always brings back great memories each year when I see it here!

10-3-2009 Saturday - General Conference Weekend

We enjoyed the 179th Semi-Annual General Conference of the LDS Church this weekend. We played Conference Bingo, worked on photo albums, ate, and napped. Our home teacher of 13 years, Brother Moncur, asks each of us every October and April visit, which was our favorite talk. That is always a very difficult question to answer with so many great talks to choose from our church leaders. But this time I can easily pick that it was Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's talk and testimony of the Book of Mormon and Jesus Christ. Our whole family was so moved by his conviction - I loved it!

Here is Jeff relaxing during conference.

We missed Saturday morning's address to go to a very touching funeral. The kid's voice teacher's 39 year old daughter, Heather, had passed away from the swine flu. She left her husband and 7 year old son. We went down to Fallbrook and attended the ceremony which was in their horse corral. It was probably the most unique funeral I've ever attended. We were all asked to wear jeans and boots. Heather showed horses and dogs (she has the #2 Bassett in the U.S.) and loved hard rock, so they had an animal parade and showed her animals during the funeral to the music of Billy Idol. We all clapped to the music and watched. They told all sorts of funny stories about Heather. Her son showed us a collage of his mommy and I couldn't stop crying. At the end of the funeral we all clapped to the tunes of ACDC.
(Side Note: Get your vaccines this year.)

After the funeral, the kids got to feed the horses and of course, the questions started coming. Now, if you have a daughter, then you know the question that I'm talking about... "Can I have a horse daddy?????" And daddy's answer is always the same, "If we move up to Utah and buy a cabin, then you can have a horse." End of discussion...

Sunday morning I thought I would try to make homemade cinnamon and orange rolls for the first time. The girls helped me make them all the while listening to Luke complaining that he didn't like orange rolls. I cut the cinnamon rolls very unevenly (see back tray) but I got the hang of it and I think the orange rolls looked quite spectacular!

The best part was that they all tasted great! As we were all digging into our rolls, (I made 40), I asked Luke mid-meal, "So you must like the orange rolls afterall, you are eating a second one now I see." Luke shook his head profusely and said, "No, this is my third one!" We all started laughing. Home run!

9-29-2009 Tuesday - Shera's Achievement Days Night

Last night, Shera had recognition night for her church Achievement Days. She had to get up in front and explain a talent she's developing and then share it. All of the girls were so cute and funny - because none of them wanted to go. Finally, they began to take their turn. Shera got the nerve about in the middle of the night.

She played a song on the piano and I completely forgot to tape it. I only took this photo and enjoyed the piece. It was really cute and she didn't make a mistake. She did a really great job. And so did all the girls. Way to go Shera!

9-26-2009 Saturday - Nightmare Night!

Nightmare Night!
And that is what this show was called that the kids made for us - complete with tickets, seats and lighting with special effects!

This Saturday was a down day for me as I was not 100%. But the kids had a great time choreographing three songs and putting together a show for us.

It took them the whole day to do it, but it kept them out of my hair and Jeff was able to work on his haunted house. Little did we know what this choreography consisted of until we were watching it!

Jumping off the shelves, dancing all over and jumping on the bed! Definitely not the norm around here!

Can't help but think of Twilight when I see this move by Shera! Whoa!!!

So here's one of their fun movie dances. They are so excited for me to share it here and put it on You Tube. Go check out the other ones on my account: CarolStarr1

9-21-2009 Monday - Luke And The Twins

Luke had a play date with his two best buddies, Drew and Dillon, who happen to be twins.
They are cute little boys at Luke's school. They were in the same class last year for 1st grade and played all the time! But they consider themselves to be triplets actually because all three were born the same day.

My only problem is I can't tell them apart! We went to Chuck E. Cheese's and let them play crazy to get all the energy out. Boy, are twins busy - but cute!

9-19-2009 Saturday - Tropical Holly!!!

Another theme dance but this time at San Clemente. Holly got into the tropical feeling by wrapping a sarong around her top and a big shell necklace with a flower in her hair! Ah... to be young again...

9-12-2009 Saturday - Jungle Holly!!!

I had to post this photo I took of Holly right before she left for the Mission Viejo Stake Dance on Saturday night. It was a jungle theme and she went for the "jungle huntress" look. She put her hair extensions in and did up the makeup. I love the pouty lips and hand on the hip "don't mess with me" attitude! I think she hit the nail right on the head!

9-12-2009 Saturday - Saturday Morning Computers???

Remember Saturday morning cartoons?
So do I...
But this Saturday, I had a realization that my kids don't watch Saturday morning cartoons, even when they don't have anything to do or anywhere to go...
Instead, Shera was looking at our family photos on my computer...

Noel was playing music on her computer...

And Luke was playing games on the family computer...
All at the same time...
Oh well, at least they are active little kids - so I don't worry too much about it. Later that day, Luke was playing with a friend down the street, Shera was working on her scrapbook, and Noel was helping Jeff build the haunted house in our garage.
So much for cartoons :)

9-11-2009 Friday - Never Forget...

These sobering photos are from the 9-11 attacks. Like all Americans, I will always remember when and where I was on this life changing day. I received a phone call from Jeff as he was driving to work. He told me to turn on the news. I immediately did and proceeded to call my father in Hawaii. It was about 5:30am at the time and I knew I would be waking him up. But I knew this was different and a historical terrorist attack was happening; he would want to know. My brothers were visiting him and we all watched the television while on the phone as the second of the twin towers was hit and both fell to the ground.

I will never forget...

Thank God for our Police, Firefighters and the Military keeping us safe.
We can never repay you for what you do...

9-10-2009 Thursday - It's The Most Wonderful Time of The Year...

I think my favorite commercial of all time is the dad riding down the aisle on the shopping cart with his kids at Staples... Do you know that one?
Yes, I made the kids quickly jump out of the car after we were all loaded to get at least one photo before school! All the kids had a great first day. They love their teachers and they all have friends they know already in their classes. Whew!

Holly left at 5:30 this morning to help with ASB and the new freshman, so I didn't get this photo until tonight when she was in her pajamas! That's my girl!!!

Here's the best commercial ever... :)

8-31-2009 through 9-6-2009 Mexican Riviera Cruise!

Last week, our family went on "The Mariner of the Seas" cruise ship down to Mexico for a family vacation. We went with our friends, the Cadden family. We had a group of 13 of us and had a fantastic trip! There was always something to do and someone to do it with!

This was our beautiful ship! They had all sorts of activities like rock wall climbing, miniature golf, basketball, cinema, and in-line skating. There was also a salon and spa, different restaurants, shops, and even a Johnny Rocket's and Ben and Jerry's!

We were lucky enough to have a balcony at the back of the ship and the Cadden's were right next door to us.

The kids swam a lot too. There were 3 pools, 5 spas and 1 whirlpool on board!

And they even had an ice-skating rink! This ship was totally decked out! (pardon the pun) :)
They had a big circus ice show that was amazing to watch also!

Tom Cadden was good enough to pick these kites up in Cabo San Lucas for us to fly. What an adventure for the kids to run all over the top deck flying kites and watching nose dives that dented the ship! Eventually, unfortunately, our kites were lost at sea. :(

Jeff kisses Shera on formal night.

Beautiful Noel and her dad.

In Puerto Rico, the kids got to hold an iguana and a funny little green lizard on their head.

All the kids slid down a natural waterfall slide and jumped on a rope swing in their clothes. We didn't know we'd need our swimsuits as we just rented a car and driver for the day to show us the sights. Here is Noel holding her nose while sliding into the water and Carissa is watching above.

We went to the flea market in Puerto Vallarta too. We had to cross a suspension bridge where the river was going quite fast and it was quite deep too.

In Mazatlan, we rode horses on the beach, swam and had delicious Mexican food on the water.

In Cabo San Lucas, we got to go parasailing. This is Holly coming down from her ride.

We took a catamaran to Santa Maria Bay and went snorkling and fed the beautiful tropical fish. We also saw several flying fish too!

We went by the arches at Land's End and it was so beautiful there! Cabo has gorgeous rock formations! Adios!