Friday Flashback - Halloween

I have so many great Halloween pictures so for the rest of the month all flashback posts will be of past Halloween costumes. Today I'm putting up the kids costumes. I am one of those mom's who loves to dress the kids in a theme. I'm afraid that Tayson might be outgrowing it...how sad for me! So I have to decide if I theme or don't theme this year. What do you think?

2002
I think this onsie is hilarious. Todd's great-grandpa bought this for Tayson when he was born.


2002
I made this costume for Tayson's first Halloween. I was on maternity leave bored to tears watching Martha Stewart on TV when I saw these trick-or-treat bags so I made this for Tayson's costume and now it's his trick-or-treat bag. I think it's the last time I did something crafty!


2003
Tayson in his Lion costume stealing candy.


2004
Tayson loved Tigger when he was 2 so we did a whole theme with the boys and Lexie was Piglet (but I couldn't find the picture with her in it).The whole time he was wearing his costume he would go "woo hoo hoo hoo" just like Tigger - soooo cute!


2005
Tayson and Lexie. Tayson loved Darth Vader and kept saying
"Luke I am your father". He hated wearing his mask.


2005
Sweet Luke as Yoda.


2006
We went for the Zoo theme. Claire was a leopard, Luke a monkey, Tayson an elephant and I was the zoo keeper.


2007
This was my first year of no theme with the kids (although the boys were both super hero's).

The Office

I am cleaning out my office at work and moving to a different one (I got a new job...yippee!). I didn't realize what a pack rat I am at work. I have bins and bins of junk to throw away.


These files date back over 10 years....what in the world do I need these for????


Seriously? Did I really keep these Cd's and a zip disc?
I haven't even had a zip drive in like 8 years.


These gems are only good if you know Nu Skin history and just how old all of these products are.

And just for the record I'm throwing it all away and only keeping what I really need. It's about time I got rid of this stuff.

I guess I should also put down that Todd and I both started new jobs this week (this is for you Steve). Todd is working with a Consulting company named Perficient as a lead technical consultant on their ECM (enterprise content management) team. He's traveling now and will most likely be gone 4 days a week most weeks. My new job is still here at good ol' Nu Skin as the Director of Regional Web Marketing for the America's, Europe and South Pacific. We are both really excited about our new jobs.

Happy Birthday Sherry

Today is my big sisters birthday. I have posted so many times about her because so much of who I am is from being her younger (but not smaller) sister. I have SO many great childhood memories of Sherry.

**This picture is of my Grandma Giboney with Sherry and I when I was a brand new baby**

Here are a few of my all time favorites:

Christmas Presents: When Sherry and I were in high school (her senior year my sophomore year) we decided to buy each other presents. In our family we draw names and only get 1 sibling a present (there are just way too many of us to buy for everyone) but we decided on our own to get each other something. Sherry kept talking about how excited she was to share the present she was buying me and led me to believe that she was buying me a sweet new jean mini skirt. I was STOKED! So I spent a big chunk of my babysitting money at Dillard's and bought her a Liz Claiborne wallet. Christmas morning came and we opened our presents. Sherry loved her wallet and when I opened my present to my utter surprise it was NOT the sweet mini I was hoping for but the Dirty Dancing cassette tape.

Money: One time we were riding home and I was on the back of the banana seat bike with her when I spotted a $20 bill on the side of the road. Sherry came to a VERY fast stop and we skidded out on the cinder (little black very sharp rocks instead of salt for snowy roads that took forever to wash away in the spring). I went flying off the bike and scraped up my knees and face pretty good. Sherry kept the $20 since she was "older" and I think she still owes me $10!

Sherry is my idol!!! If you know her you know that she truly is AMAZING and can do EVERYTHING. I am so grateful for the influence she has been in my life and continues to be even though we live way too far apart.


My First Triathlon with Sherry and Heidi.
I never would have done anything this crazy without Sherry.



Sherry and I finishing my first half-marathon. Once again something I NEVER would have done without her influence. (btw...she had been finished a long time and came back to cheer me on and run me in the last 400 meters)

To Todd with Love...

This is for you Todd. We really missed you tonight at the game. It looks like you need to practice a little more with Tayson. Taking 4 kids to a basketball game during bedtime wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The kids were good and I only had troubles when I had to take Luke to the potty and when we were leaving. But the promise of ice cream cones on the way home did the trick and they all jumped in the car and buckled up fast.



**A few funny things to note: watch how crazy Tayson runs, and that the rebound hits him in the head (his hands are not up), and listen to the crazy boy next to me I have no idea what he was talking about but he kept talking about the "Chinese boy" and talking about the Chinese....it's crazy.

We love you and miss you and can't wait for you to come home!!!

Happy Anniversary to Me

My blog is officially 1 year old. I can't believe I've been blogging for a year already. This Christmas I am going to buy myself a present and print this baby out for a journal. So if any of you have successfully printed yours into a book let me know where you did it.

A few fun stats on my blog:
My profile has been viewed: 422 times
I have had 228 absolute unique visitors and 1153 visits
I'm not sure how RSS readers work with google analytics though....

I love blogging and plan to keep this going for many more years to come!

St. George Marathon

This weekend I went to St. George with my parents, Timmy and Sophie to watch Sherry run in the St. George marathon. We left mid-morning Friday and got there around 3:00 PM. Sophie was great and we didn't have to stop once.

Sherry was AWESOME!!! It's really no wonder why she's my idol. She has been nursing a hip injury the past few weeks so my mom went into full doctor mode and worked on her forever Friday night after dinner. The race was cold and rainy so I didn't take very many pictures. Sherry said it was perfect running weather, but not the best for spectators. Rain or shine we were there to cheer her on! Her goal was to finish in 3:45 to qualify for Boston next year and she told us she was going to run with the 3:40 or 3:30 pacers. We showed up at about 3:15 to be there on time - good thing too because she came cruising in fast at 3:26!!!


Here she is coming in very strong. Look at her knees that's how you can tell she's feeling good - no shuffle!



My mom and dad worked hard to get an ice bath at the finish of the race. My mom borrowed a kiddie pool then my dad got some bags of ice on the way to the race. In order to fill it with water my dad was taking a big trash bag and filling it with water from the drinking fountain - talk about dedication.
Even in the freezing cold Sherry sat down in her ice bath, all wrapped up with a warm cup of peppermint tea. People looked at her like she was CRAZY! But it worked so well, she wasn't even limping the rest of the day. We would see people who did the race and you could pick them out so easily because of the "shuffle" but Sherry was walking so normal. I'm not sure if I would be able to sit in an ice bath though.



Timmy, Danny and Ethan - the cheerleaders!


We are hoping to do it next year - Sherry, Danny and I (not running together of course, I could never keep up with those two). Hopefully we can get in.

Wanna join us?

Flashback Friday - Mark

This post is inspired by the email I got from Mark this week. He is on a mission in California (only 9 more months to go). Every once in a while I attach pictures to my emails for him to keep up with my ever-growing kids and fun things we do. So this week to spice up my email I sent him the picture of my new hair do. Here is what he wrote in response (exactly how he wrote it grammar and spelling unchanged).

"haha, When I was looking at the picture my comp looked over and asked "is that your mom" and I was like nah dude thats my sister, my mom is alot older than that. It just reminded me of all the times that people thought mom was grandma and it made me laugh. but dont tell mom that."

I am kid #4 and Mark is #10 we are just under 16 years apart in age. I have so many hilarious memories of Mark as a baby since I was practically his mom. George and Steve were both on missions and Sherry left for BYU soon after he was born (I think he was a week old at her graduation) so I was the oldest kid at home.

Once I went to the grocery store with my dad and we took Mark (just the 3 of us). The checkout gal thought my dad was some sort of pervert hanging out with a high school girl and "their" baby until I called him dad. Then she prolly thought he was so sweet to take care of his daughter and "her" baby.

When I took a year off from BYU I thought I should take a class or two at the local community college so when I went to find out about classes I took Mark with me (as always) and the lady helping me thought he was mine and treated me like some dumb high school drop out - I was SO MAD that I practically yelled at her as I walked out and no I didn't end up taking any classes.

And there were the sweet Chinese ladies at my mom's dry cleaning place who NEVER believed my mom and I when we would tell them he was her baby not mine.

I'm sure I could go on forever with stories. I was at Mark's birth and don't mind at all being confused for his mom. I sure hope my kids turn out as great as he has.


Mark with Dad and Mom
Seriously could he be a cuter kid?


Mark, Me, Jeannie and Timmy
This was the summer after my freshman year at BYU.


Here I am with my "boys"


Jeannie, Me, David and Mark
Nice muscles David...look at his ribs you can see everyone of them
I'm not sure why but we always made silly faces in pictures.