Emi is now Sweet Sixteen

Yes, my baby is 16 (yesterday, March 17)!!!!!

 And she still shows her food ...

She asked for Hawaiian food for dinner and then met a bunch of friends at Leatherby's. It was a lot of fun for her. Happy birthday Emi!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dallas!

Three or four years ago, Dain gave me a gift certificate to drive Nascar. I chose to set it up in Dallas because we were living in Houston at the time. We went to Dallas a couple of years ago and my driving was canceled due to weather. So we went to the State Fair instead. We tried again over Valentine's weekend. We flew to Dallas only to have the event canceled again due to weather. And because I set it up there, I can't transfer it to another track. Soooo, we will be back.

We decided to make the most of the weekend. We went out to dinner at some of our favorite Texas restaurants, went to the Zoo, to the House of Blues, and even just drove around and found a beautiful lake. It was a slow and simple weekend. We enjoyed the time together and we enjoyed being back in Texas.

Three birthday! My dad's, Alyssa, and Mine

Alyssa, my dad and I share the same birthday: January 25th. I was born on my dad's 25th birthday and Alyssa was born on my 24th. So when I turned 25, my dad turned 50 and Alyssa turned 1! It was a great party. It's been a few years since then, but we were lucky to be together this year for our birthday. Here are some pictures.

Cake time!

with my dad and Aly

May parents with some of the grandkids

With my mom and sis-in-law Jenn

No party's complete without empanadas

Christian is in Bolivia!

Christian made it to Bolivia. He arrived in Cochabamba on the 4th. He spent a few weeks at the MTC in Lima, Peru. He's doing well, learning to bathe with buckets, and hopefully losing a few of the lbs he gained at the MTC. :-)

Christian with Sister and Elder Tenorio, Mission Pres.

Christmas on the Slopes

We ski every Christmas. We get up early and open presents while the cinnamon rolls are baking. Then we have a yummy breakfast and head up the canyon. This year, as we have the last few years, we went to Brighton Ski Resort. We got there early, beat the crowds, and enjoyed a beautiful day. I haven't downloaded the family pictures I took but here are a couple taken by Dain on our way back to our car. Unfortunately, Christian wasn't able to call because he's in the MTC in Peru and you can't call from the MTC. He was missed.

Homeless Shelter

Emi, Dain and I went to the Road Home, the local family homeless shelter in Salt Lake City, to help out this morning. It's a yearly tradition and we love going there! Today, we were assigned to work in back unloading donations, sorting through the boxes and bags, repackaging and dividing everything. Then we had to load again into other trucks for distribution. It was heavy, busy work. It made us feel so grateful for everything we have! We're grateful for all our blessings and all the "stuff" we have. We really have so much ... maybe too much.

Christmas Week

It's almost here! It's almost THE day. Even though for the last five years we've been in Utah during this week, it's been odd not to have my green backyard and swimming pool available. I miss it. Don't get me wrong, I'm loving the snow and the chance to wear all my cute sweaters and scarves, but I miss my home. I guess that too shall pass, right? Maybe? There has been stuff happening lately in my personal life that has left me with tummy aches (hey, I'm a mom. I use that word). So I'm sitting here eating yogurt, my go-to for tummy aches. It works!

This has been a slower year as far as gifts and stuff  like that and I'm loving it. No rush to get just the right anything. With two girls at home, giving gifts is simple. Girls are easy! clothes, jewelry, perfumes, etc. Simple, simple, simple. :-) Now Dain is hard. The man has everything and more.

Dain played a bunch of concerts with Jon Schmidt. It was a blast to watch him. I was also shocked by how big Jon's kids are ... I guess all kids grow up.

I'm looking forward to our family tradition of skiing both the 24th and the 25th. We enjoy being together, we love being on the snow with Santa (he's quite the skier, you know) and we see some of the same people every year. I look forward to seeing parents and siblings and nieces and nephews. I hope we can talk with Christian on the 25th. He didn't know for sure if they would be able to from the MTC in Peru.

Last year (2009)

I'm so grateful for everything in my life! I'm the luckiest girl around.

BTW, we still haven't registered our cards in Utah! or changed our drivers licenses ... bad, bad, bad.

Christian's in Peru!!!!

He got to Peru this morning! He will be at the Peru MTC for 3 weeks and then on to Bolivia!!! Talked to him last night. He called from LAX. He was scared but excited. His email this morning is completely different. He sounds happy to finally be there.

Temple Square Lights

We decided to see the lights early and avoid the crowds. Every year we go see them close to Christmas, but then again, we were visiting then. Now that we live here, we can go anytime! We also took Traxx instead of driving downtown and I loved it.

I love the reflection fountain on the East side of the Temple. It's beautiful! I love the nativity scene in the middle.

It seems like there are less lights every year, but I understand. No need to overdo and waste all the electricity. It's beautiful anyway. It was such nice night to be there!

We had dinner at The Garden Restaurant. On Thursday, I get to go back as I'm taking my office to The Roof for our annual Christmas party. Love the view from up there!

Made it to Utah!

First was the goodbye lunches ... It was a bit surreal but I loved spending time with my friends! I'm happy that they all come to Utah every now and then.

Next was finishing packing the car and wait for the movers to come get our stuff. Movers took everything on 11/15 and off we went. Not a dry eye in the car ... :-(

Stopped at some fun places along the way ...

But we got the message loud and clear ... We'll be back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

House for Sale, Moving to Utah

Welcome to Utah!

So you all know that we're moving to Utah ... These past two weeks have been crazy to say the least. The house is officially on the market. If you want details, check out Dain's blog. He's written down everything. We packed up a few things into a rental truck, attached a trailer with our jeep, and hit the road to Utah. We drove there is about 3 days ... It took FOREVER. The truck doesn't go as fast and we had to stop every two hours to gas up the truck. I have to admit Dain and I loved the trip. It was nice to see a new route (thanks to Carolyn Fjord), and we just had a nice time on the road. The truck, however, was a different story. They're noisy! And difficult to sit in. I loved being above the crowds but that's about it! The ride through Northern Texas into New Mexico and then Utah was really nice. I had only been on the northern route and it's ZZZZZZZ. Kansas is really, really flat.

We were there for a week as we moved a few things into the condo and then took Christian to the MTC. I blogged about the MTC drop off at his blog. Then Dain had to go to training at Brighton Ski Resort where he will be teaching this winter. I think that's the highlight of his winter. He's very excited to spend time in the mountains with friends. We flew back last Sunday.

We will be here through next Monday (Nov 15) and then we move to Utah permanently. We have professional movers do the big stuff. Most of it will end up in storage anyway.

I've been very nostalgic thinking about our years here in Texas. I love it here. I love Sugar Land. It's bittersweet. I did pick up a couple of new clients so hey, I will be back. :-)

New Mission Blog for Christian and Dain's New Blog

I started a new blog for Christian's mission. Oh, it's so empty ... but I fully intend to write in it. It's been such a crazy few months with everything coming together at once. Dain's job loss, Christian's mission, moving back to Utah, and losing our doggy. Really, too much going on. This is Christian's mission blog:

http://eldercraig.blogspot.com/

Dain started blogging after losing his job and he has a TON of people reading it. Hundreds every day. It's pretty interesting to see it develop and become popular. He's had people writing to him for help, people thanking him for his honesty, people who have lost their jobs, who have lost kids to cancer. It's amazing what a blog can do .... You can read it here:

http://daincraig.wordpress.com/

RIP Dax

This is Dax taking a nap. We're not sure when he was born. I adopted Dax in early 1999, maybe January or so, and I got him for Christian. This was right after my first husband died and I felt like having a dog would be a good thing for him. Even though I grew up with dogs, I didn't really know how to take care of them other than feed them. Dax was a good dog right from the start. He really didn't do much damage (except for Barbie's hand which he happily chewed off). Even though he wasn't big, his bark was scary, and he kept people away, which was good for us. He could jump higher than any dog I'd ever seen. I later found out he's a catahoula, a Southern dog bred to hunt coons. When we moved to Texas, he came to life. He loved it here. Makes sense.

When I met Dain and we started dating, he started taking proper care of Dax. He would take him on walks and play with him. Dax was kid #4. It never ocurred to me to walk Dax. lol Really.

The earliest records on Dax are from 1994, so we've always used that year as his birth year, but in reality, we don't know. Our vet thought he was much older based on his teeth. So we know he was 17 years old, at least.

We'll miss him. He was a nice, quiet dog (unless someone came to the door). He was loving, didn't bother anyone and aged gracefully. He's now with our other dog, Sassy, who died a couple of years ago from cancer. We're leaving Texas and leaving parts of our hearts here with our doggy friends.

We're Moving

I haven't posted here in a long time because life has been crazy. We're officially moving back to Utah and I'm SO SAD. I love Texas. I love the people here. It's such an open minded part of Texas. I can't say it would be the same everywhere, but in our little corner of Texas, I have come to love the diversity. Our kids' high school has the following ethnic distribution: White 41.9%, Asian 42.5%, Hispanic 9.0%, African-American 6.6%. The Asian group includes Indians. My kids have great friends and may I add, this is a darn smart group of kids. I've been pleased with the schools and how they have challenged our kids. No more smarty pants here. They had to work to keep up with the higher level of teaching (compared to their schools in Utah). I also love that our kids have been exposed to a variety of backgrounds and religions. I wish I could drag this diversity and the schools back with us.

Our house is now officially on the market. It went online yesterday. Our house is also now full of boxes and we have thrown away so much, I'm afraid I may have thrown away some good things too. I hope not. It always worries me.

Oh, and now I have to keep this house clean at all times .... :-)

Pickett House Restaurant

 I was so excited to go to this restaurant! It's East of Houston and it took us about an hour to get there. Pickett is my maiden name, so I HAD to go eat there.

All the food is all you can eat, family style

We went on a hike after eating ... we were STUFFED.

Alyssa Was Here!

 So I am WAAAAY behind on posting. We were SO lucky to have Alyssa come home for a few days! We miss her a ton. She's graduating from Utah State at the end of this school year .... Yikes, where has time gone? Of course, besides swimming and eating out, we had the requisite family (minus me) basketball game. I'm the official photographer and cheerleader. I cheer for whoever makes a point. And we did hit a concert too. It was fun!

Push Ups Part 2

Alyssa reminded me that when she came home, she also beat Christian ....  I just have to brag (sorry Christian). :-)

Push up competition

Christian and Emi have to compete in push ups every now and then ... Yeah, Emi beat him. :-)

Butterflies

Butterflies! We went to see the stinky flower and actually enjoyed the butterflies more. So many beautiful ones!

And some cool lizards ...

Nacogdoches

Dain and I needed to get away so we spent a weekend in Nacogdoches. We took the steam train and it was SO much fun! We drove up on Friday, then on Saturday morning, we jumped on the train which chugged along the forest for 1.5 hrs. At one point, the trained slowed down because we were held up!

They started firing at the train then managed to get on board. It was really cute. They ended up going up and down the train cars asking for donations for a charity. But they did it by offering to "throw that good for nothing man in your life off the train". ha ha

At the other station, when we arrived, there was a big party waiting with signs. We had pre-ordered lunch, so we had a picnic while we waited for the trip back. We took the chance to walk around the area and take pictures. The area is so pretty. It's in the middle of a forest of pine trees.

It was such a nice getaway and so close to home!

Dain Bakes and Stuff Like That

Dain was the MC for the Oyter Creek Park 4th of July. Here he is with Michelle Fisher, who works for him. He's a great MC!!!!

I had been ranting about craving cinnamon rolls. Well, I think he got tired of me talking about them non stop so he made some. Here they are right before he baked them .... He put in raisins (which I don't like) but he compensated by adding chocolate chips. YUM

And round things off, he made this delicious bread. :-) Yeah, I love bread!

Idaho/Utah Trip

We went to Idaho and then Utah. We landed in SLC then rented a car and drove up to Idaho. We hadn't seen my parents in a while plus my younger brother opened his third restaurant and we wanted to see that too. I LOVED the cooler weather. Dain went out for a walk early in the morning and he couldn't get enough of the cooler mornings. We take stuff like that for granted when we're kids!

On the way back from Idaho, we stopped in Ogden, at the Solomon Center and went skydiving ... indoor. Dain and I have both done real skydiving but we thought it would be fun to do as a family. It was a blast! The kids did very well!

We also hiked in the canyons. We love Big Cottonwood Canyon and we were lucky to be able to do a couple of our favorite hikes. This picture was taken on the same rock where we had our very first family picture taken. Cool memories.

There was plenty of snow up on top!!! We had a great snowball fight. Well, they all did. I hid behind the camera. I love this shot of everyone running down the mail slope at Brighton.

After SLC, we went to Central Utah, the town of Joseph to be exact, where we met with Dain's mom, hubby and all his siblings for a quick get together. Dain's mom rented an old church turned vacation rental. It was very cool!!! Dain's family is really into sports so the kids spent the time playing baseball, basketball, riding bikes, etc. I love the colors and the beautiful red rock.

The worst part was saying goodbye to Alyssa and coming back to Texas. It's so far away ....

Christian's Mission Call!

Christian received his call yesterday. He is called to serve in the Cochabamba Bolivia Mission. He enters the MTC on November 3rd, 2010. We're very excited and very proud of him!

In one of his missionary suits ... the packing list calls for just one suit, so we need to decide which one he will take!