Some of my favorite pictures ...

I love how pictures just capture a moment, a feeling, a memory. Here are some of my favorites from our last few years:Hiking in Goblin Valley. We don't take our kids into the great outdoors as often as we should so this trip was a highlight of that summer.Christian outside of the Lego Store at Disneyland. I love the coloring and visual of the giant Lego but I also love the memory of that trip. We told the kids that we were headed to Disneyland about 2 hours before we left for the airport. Major screaming ensued. Such a fun surprise. :)
Gingerbread house making parties with good friends. The tradition started with these friends, the Bowens, and has continued with the Preslars. I plan to keep the tradition alive with my grandkids someday.These are most of my sisters-in-law on the Mayfield side. I am very blessed with fun sisters-in-law who are now great friends, too.I'm also very blessed with great friends. We walked/ran in the Race for the Cure this year, which was a first for me. We laughed at all of the various phrases on the shirts: "Save the ta-ta's" and "Big or small, we'll save them all" were my favorites.Our first cruise - first of many, I hope. Traveling with our friends made it even more fun.My cute dad and 2nd mom, Shirlee. My brother took this picture while my dad was in the middle of chemotherapy treatments. I'm so grateful for these two great people and their influence in my life.Baby Elle at 2 months. Another beautiful picture taken by Uncle Quinn.This picture cracks me up because I'm not sure Elle's bow could be any bigger. Is it actually larger than her head or does it just look that way?My immediate family. My cute mom who raised us all alone and my siblings who are the greatest. This was at a Mayfield family wedding, which explains why I am the only one wearing a corsage.Look at the size of that tummy! Wow. And this wasn't even my 10 pounder. This is usually my state during my drug-induced labors. Give me an epidural during labor any day.My sisters and me. Mike said he had a copy of this picture during his whole mission. Who would've thought? With my Haley at a Hannah Montana concert. Another last minute surprise that also resulted in major screaming.My sister Kelly and me with our youngest babies. We've had two babies "together" and I've loved sharing that experience with her.At Aunt Heather's & Uncle Jed's wedding.Christian and his cousin, Ali, were in Peter Pan together. Christian was a Lost Boy and Ali was Peter Pan. Such a fun experience seeing them on stage together.My brother, Thomas. Such a handsome guy, don't you think?This picture was taken at about midnight. Haley was going to the bathroom in the dark and when I turned the light on, this is what I found.Obviously a photo shop job but still makes me laugh.Christian and Mike at Disneyland. I hardly recognize either of them. May the force be with them.I love this picture. These are my siblings (except for my 2 brothers who live away) and all of our kids wearing LiveStrong bracelets for my dad who is battling colon & liver cancer. We took this picture for him to show him our love and support.

It's a late night

Friday night, the kids had friends over for a "late night." Haley, Sara, Paige and I had "Sparkle Spa Night" complete with nail painting and "facials" (which really just consisted of me massaging their faces with lotion). We used sparkle lotion on their arms and legs and glow-in-the-dark sparkle nail polish. What girl wouldn't like that?
Always the poser. :)
The boys spent the evening riding bikes and skateboards and playing on the Wii. These are some of Christian's friends from his old school. The two in front share Christian's love of legos. In fact, their teacher last year called them The Cal Tech boys since she assumed they'd all become engineers or something. Time will tell.We had pizza and I made cookies and rice krispie treats. Nothing like a little sugar and hyper kids on a Friday night!

You want a piece of this?

Look what Christian can do! This is a re-creation, of course, but today at Taekwondo he broke his first board. He's been taking for a couple of years but we've bounced around at different places until we found a great fit for him. He loves Taekwondo and is really taking off. It's so fun to see him be this excited about something, especially considering the hard few weeks he's had at school this year. But that's a whole other story for another time....

Things that crack me up:
* My husband's newfound obsession with Facebook (He resisted for so long and now can't stop) :)
* The way Elle runs: head down and arms pumping
* The movie A Knight's Tale
* The Office
* My kids, on a daily basis

Things that are my pet-peeves:
* How the house becomes a total wreck over the weekend
* Poor spelling/grammar
* Interruption of a good night's sleep
* Other people's lack of ability to follow through with things (If you say you'll do it, just do it already.) I, of course, never have this problem. :}
* When my DVR says it will record something but doesn't.

Things that I need (aside from you, honey):
* Girlfriend time (phone calls, late night movies, lunch dates)
* A computer (e-mail, Facebook, blogging)
* A daily fix of chocolate and Diet Coke
* A good page-turner
* Harmony in my house

Things that I'd like to give up:
* My love of fast-food and eating out
* My addiction to chocolate
* My love of shopping
* My compulsion to do Christmas shopping early. I regret it every year because the kids inevitably change their minds about what they want last minute and I realize I've bought too much over the last few months. This year, my goal is to wait until December to start.

Camping the easy way

This past weekend, we went camping with our ward at the Heber Valley Girls' Camp. For a city girl like myself, that was definitely the place to go for a fun camping experience. Mike and I just don't have the gear or stuff to camp comfortably with our whole family. But this campsite is the perfect middle ground.... complete with cabins that sleep 16 each, real bathrooms with showers, a pavilion with tables and a fridge for leftovers, running water and even electricity in certain locations. And still plenty of dirt, rocks, and outdoorsiness to make the kids happy. Aside from a posh motorhome, this was the next best thing.It was great going with our ward, too, because breakfast was provided the next morning and smores the night before. We teamed up with friends to do dinner together, so that wasn't bad, either. Like I said, camping the easy way.We also participated in a ropes course that is set up at the camp. Our favorite part was this giant swing-type thing. We were strapped up in a harness, hoisted up to the top of a large tree and then went swinging way out the other side. I am not a huge fan of that kind of stuff but I'm happy to say that I did it. And so did Mike, Christian, Haley and Paige. Great pictures, eh?All in all, fun weekend. Thanks, Becca, for pulling this all together. You probably didn't have as much fun as the rest of us but we sure enjoyed ourselves.

It's too quiet ....

Peace and quiet isn't always a good thing when your almost 2 yr. old is running loose in your house. You know something's up when you don't hear anything for minutes on end. Sure enough - this is what I found. Good thing we only have washable markers at our house, huh?

What's on my happy list today?

My cute high school friend, Andrea, frequently blogs about her happy list. So I'm totally pirating her idea and making a happy list of my own....

1. Bath & Body Works' Coconut Lime lotion. It takes me back to Kuaui, Hawaii. Mike had a work trip there (gotta love work trips like that!) and the hotel had coconut lime lotion. I totally stocked up on the free daily supply. This version is the closest I've found and it's yummy.

2. Sore muscles from a good workout. I've been going to a Sparq training class that is seriously kicking my butt but since I need my butt seriously kicked, it's been a good thing.

3. Orange shoes. I actually have 3 pair. Seriously. And Elle has these polka-dot mary janes. A funky pair of shoes is icing on the cake! (Right, Andrea?)

4. Scenes like this...5. Blogging. I resisted starting a blog for so long, thinking it would be just one more thing on my plate that I'd feel obligated to do or guilty about not doing. I have been happily wrong. Not only have I really enjoyed blogging but it has taken guilt out of my life. How, you ask? I had decided that for now, in my 4-little-kids-at-home stage of life, that scrapbooking would take a backseat to my sanity. But this blog has replaced my scrapbooks (and keeping a journal, for that matter). I download my pictures instantly, write my thoughts and memories, and voila .... no more guilt. Love it.

Open mouth, insert pedicured foot

Paige and I had a "mommy date" yesterday and went to have pedicures. She kept telling everyone, "This is my first pedicure!" The cute lady who painted her toenails made such a big deal over her, and added sparkles and everything. Paige is such a girlie girl and the whole outing just made her day.

I sat by a woman and her grown daughter as they both had pedicures for the daughter's birthday. My first thought upon seeing the mom was that she looked a lot like Janet Lee, the widow of former BYU president Rex Lee. After awhile, I finally asked her if that's who she was and sure enough ... We had a nice conversation about their time at BYU and I mentioned that I attended the Y while they were. She paused and said, "Then why are you wearing a University of Utah shirt?" "Uhhhh..." Awkward silence... Truth is, I married an avid Utah fan and graduated from the U myself. Plus, Mike and I were headed to the Utah football game as soon as Paige and I finished our pedicures. But any explanation I could give just sounded lame in my head, especially considering Mrs. Lee's loyalty to the Y. So I said, "Umm, I actually really like both schools. I have very fond memories of my time at the Y (true, Mike - sorry!) and I had a good experience finishing my degree at the U. I like them both!" I'm sure I sounded like a babbling idiot. I sure felt like one.

Where does the time go?

Oh my goodness! I feel like I've been running full speed all week and haven't quite caught up. You would think that life would have slowed down with the older 2 kids in school all day. It seems like it takes me a few weeks to get back into the swing of things ... back into the schedule. I need to just spend a few days here at home catching up on laundry and cleaning.

We have been doing some fun stuff, amid the karate, dance, scouts, basketball, gymnastics and piano lessons. We spent Labor Day with Mayfield cousins, some of whom just moved back into town. Our kids were in heaven, knowing their Seattle cousins are here to stay. Hopefully many more cousin parties to follow....Can you spot the triplets?

I started the UofU's Women's Football Clinic with some friends and family. It's basically a dumbed-down football class so we chicks can keep up with our men while they talk football. (That's the literal description, in case you were wondering. j/k) We meet the players, the coaches, see the weight and locker rooms and run game footage with Coach Whittingham. It's my 2nd year going and I love it, but not near as much as Mike loves that I'm going. He loves telling his guy friends that I'm attending football camp. The night of the clinic was Christian's scout pack meeting and I felt bad leaving Mike to juggle all 4 kids alone, but he smiled and said, "We're fine! Go have fun! Say hi to Coach Whit for me." and practically shoved me out the door. All I have to do is throw terms around like "pancaking the defensive end," "dumping the ball into the flat," or "picking up the blitz" and Mike is putty in my hands. With Meggan G. and some random woman in front of the quarterback's locker. Poor guy has no idea how many women filed by and oggled over his smelly uniform.In the weight room with Becca, Stephanie and Tammy. Good times, girls! (Here's a link to a story on t.v. about us last year and you can see little clips of us here and there. http://www.utefans.net/message.php?id=677569)

I went to a late movie last night with Rachel. We saw "Errand of Angels" about LDS sister missionaries in Austria. Rachel and I both served missions ourselves so we had interesting reactions to the movie. On the one hand, it was fun to see parts of missionary life that we both remembered well. But it was also painful to watch the rejection and hard days of missionary life. We kept talking after the movie about our missions and how incredibly hard they were -- that we wouldn't change the fact that we had gone and acknowledge how those experiences largely made us into who we are today (in great ways), but that the day-in/day-out of missionary life is just so difficult sometimes. I'm so glad I went but I'm so glad I'm home now. Serving a mission with Mike, though, is something I definitely plan on doing. That would be a much different experience, I'm sure.

Did you really just say that?

Ever since my kids were born, I have kept a Word document for each of them recording little things in their lives. "4 months - turned over; 8 months - first tooth" .... As they start talking, I record what words they say and exactly how they say them (Paige used to say 'aahpay' for airplane). As they get older, I record life events or achievements. The best part of their lists, though, are the funny things they say. The kids and I love to look back over them and laugh at some of the things they have said. Just thought I'd share a few of my favorites.

Christian:
* After saying his prayers and asking for the baby in mommy's tummy to be blessed, he added, "And please bless the boy in daddy's tummy."
* Looking at a picture of Jesus ascending to heaven on a cloud, he asked, “Is Jesus saying, ‘To infinity and beyond!’?”
* When he asked what daddy did at work, I told him that dad was an attorney. Later when Mike came home, Christian said, "Dad, you are an aturkey!"
* “Mom, is ‘What the hell’ a bad word?”
* “Paige is like a buffalo in a Chinese shop.” (a bull in a china shop)

Haley:
* Don’t worry, mom, I didn’t say ‘dumb.’ I said ‘damn.’”
* Took one look at mommy's outfit and said, "Mommy, I’m not sure that works.”
* “Christian, you always complain about eating your dinner. I don’t complain. Even if it’s disgusting, I just eat it!”
* While Mike was serving as bishop, Haley said, "Mom, we’re kind of the boss family of the ward, huh?"
* “So Nephi and his family sailed across the ocean and landed in Neverland.”

Paige:
* “We don’t call names, stupid Haley!”
* "This Diet Coke is tasty to me.”
* Paige was upset when mommy said she had to buckle her seat belt. She said, “Just because I don’t want to be in this family anymore! I want a new mommy.” I said, “Really? What kind of mommy do you want?” She said, “A mommy with prettier hair than you.”
* She tipped our Lladro Christus statue over onto herself, breaking his arm off in the process and scratching her own arm. She came crying to Mommy saying, “Jesus hurt me!”
* “What if pee pee and poo poo could talk? They would say, ‘Help! I’m trapped in this bum!'”

Elle:
* Loves to shout "Mom!!" at the top of her lungs.
* Walks around the house singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, except the words are "Up-a-bup-a-bup-a-high."
* Says "Beat!" (which means 'eat') the very minute we pick her up out of bed in the morning.

Back to school

See, this is the post where I'm supposed to have really cute pictures of my kids on their first day back to school. Cute pictures of their nice hair, new clothes, donning their new backpacks .... Did I remember to even take a picture? I wish. Who would know if I took a picture of them tomorrow, on their 4th day of school, and just told everyone it was taken on Monday? Well, now you all would .... I might just do it anyway. For the scrapbooks that I no longer keep.

I have a new tradition, for the last 2 years so far; an idea totally stolen from a friend of my sister's. It's a back-to-school breakfast for all of my girlfriends. On the first day back to school, we drop our kids off and then come back to my house for breakfast. Some people come high-five'ing everyone and giddy that school is back in session and others come in tears (you know who you are), sad to have their kids away from them all day long. Either way, we laugh and eat, offer a shoulder to cry on and just enjoy each others' company. In fact, we had moms of all ages and stages of life -- moms of babies and no school-aged kids, a mom whose youngest is a senior in high school and everyone in between. I'm so lucky to have such great friends. This breakfast has been a fun tradition and I plan to continue it for many years to come.

Interview with my girls

1. What is something mom always says to you?
Haley (age 7): Love you.
Paige (age 4): I love you.

2. What makes mom happy?
Haley: Cleaning my room or making my bed when I'm not asked to do it.
Paige: Probably, me.

3. What makes mom sad?
Haley: If she has to tell you to do stuff 100 times.
Paige: That's a tough one....

4. How does mom make you laugh?
Haley: Funny jokes.
Paige: That silly voice that you do.

5. What was mom like as a child?
Haley: How am I supposed to know?
Paige: You were funny.

6. How old is your mom?
Haley: 35. 36? 35.
Paige: I know that there is a 6 in it, but I can't remember the rest of the numbers.

7. How tall is your mom?
Haley: About 5 1/2 feet.
Paige: You're about 80 pounds.

8. What is your mommy's favorite thing to do?
Haley: She loves to spend time with our family.
Paige: Play with Elle and me.

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
Haley: She, like, reads a book.
Paige: You always tidy up the house and stuff.

10. If your mom becomes famous, what would it be for?
Haley: Probably for being the best mommy in the world.
Paige: Probably having the prettiest house.

11. What is your mom really good at?
Haley: Lots of things. I don't know - there's so many.
Paige: Drawing.

12. What is your mom not very good at?
Haley: Ummm, at acting like a baby?
Paige: Hip hop

13. What does your mom do for her job?
Haley: Well, she watches Elle and Paige during the day while we're at school.
Paige: To watch over Elle.

14. What is your mom's favorite food?
Haley: I'm just going to guess .... Indian food?
Paige: A 32 ounce Diet Coke.

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
Haley: When she wins an award or when she does something really good. For example, when she plays the piano. I could never do that for a kid my age.
Paige: When I make some popcorn and be so good at stuff.

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
Haley: Emily Elizabeth from Clifford
Paige: iCarly or Diego

17. What do you and your mom do together?
Haley: We joke around with each other.
Paige: We go shopping sometimes.

18. How are you and your mom the same?
Haley: We both have the same color eyes and the same color hair.
Paige: We both are healthy and strong and brush our teeth.

19. How are you and your mom different?
Haley: Well, the age difference.
Paige: The colors of our eyes are a different color so they're not the same.

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
Haley: Because she acts like it.
Paige: The smile that you have.

With This Ring, I Thee Wed (Mike's View)

By Special Guest-blogger Mike

Since Misty recently blogged about how she and I met from her point of view, (With This Ring, I Thee Wed), I decided to write how we met from my point of view.

Felt Hall, BYU 

The first time I saw Misty was in the parking lot just south of Felt Hall at BYU.  My new girlfriend, Erin, was almost giddy as she introduced me to her little sister, Misty. Besides experiencing the slight guilt of thinking that my girlfriend's little sister was remarkably hot, there was something about Misty that immediately caught my attention; something that I hadn't consciously experienced before. She was visibly unimpressed with me.

Mike-Summer of 1988 (a few weeks before meeting Misty)

Intriguing.   I mean, what was there not to like?

I quickly performed a self-inspection. Ocean Pacific corduroy pants—check. Izod shirt with flipped up collar—check. Worn in Converse Skid-grips—check. Drakkar cologne—check. The beginnings of a pretty decent mullet—check. And yet, inexplicably, it was clear that Misty was not nearly as impressed with me as I was with me. I had even already mentioned that I used to play football. What was wrong with this girl?

Not that it should have mattered to me. I was a big-time college man. I was taking off to live in Spain for a couple years. I wouldn't hold this poor girl’s lack of judgment against her. But in the back of my mind, her obvious lack of interest bugged me!



A couple of years later I was back at BYU and found myself walking down the stairs of the HFAC (oh my gosh--I sound like such a zoobie!) when I nearly ran smack into Misty.

HFAC Staircase

She was a knockout in her Guess jeans and sweatshirt. We smiled at each other and reached out for a friendly, platonic hug. Now (to paraphrase "The Princess Bride'), in the history of mankind there have been several noteworthy hugs: There was Adam and Eve’s first post-expulsion-from-the-garden hug. There was Antony’s embrace of Cleopatra as they strolled the beaches of the Nile. Then there was the pre-Bollywood cuddling between Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal--which lead, of course, to the construction of the Taj Mahal. And finally, there was the devine snuggle-fest between Zeus and Juno on top of Mount Olympus. All of these hugs paled in comparison to my first hug with Misty, on the stairs, in the HFAC. The girl who clearly was not impressed with me two years earlier had given me a hug for the ages.  (Misty has just read this paragraph over my shoulder and is rolling her eyes at me…whatever!)

This picture of Misty was taken within weeks of the "Hug."

Notwithstanding the "Hug," I didn't run into Misty again for nearly four years. I had transferred to the University of Utah and was about to graduate. In fact, I had already finished all of my course work and had no reason to be up on campus. I was supposed to meet another girl at the LDS institute building. I walked into the class—and there she was. No, not the other girl…but Misty, the great huger who didn't like me.

I sat a few desks away from her and gave my peripheral vision a serious workout. Honestly, I didn't know what to do. She had to like me a little--the "Hug" was proof of that. But, I had already been “Dear John’d” by her sister and dumped by her roommate. Could I really stand yet another rejection from the Farley family? Then there was the sticky issue of the other girl, who would be arriving soon.

I quickly performed a self-inspection. Forest green Girbaud jeans with the cool tag in front—check; wannabe grunge flannel shirt—check; Doc Martin shoes—check; Eternity for Men cologne—check. Hair---well, there was nothing I could do about that now.

I decided to go for it.

Looking over at her, I smiled sheepishly and said, “Hey. We should grab a root-beer down at Hires after class so I can hear what’s going on with your … people.” Somehow the absolute confidence I had when I was 18 was nowhere to be found. The other girl, who had come in the back of the room and was now watching me, walked out of the class as I slid into the chair next to Misty.

Misty blushed awkwardly and gave me a resounding and heart-felt, “Uh...why not?”

And that, my friends, was all the encouragement I needed.

Great Olympic moments

Here are videos of my two favorite Olympic moments so far ....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu-YAMiS5wA
- and -
http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/BMvvESkxwNVFw4g8

Week in review

It's been a crazy, busy week ... Hence, the dearth of blogging. In fact, there was very little productive happening around here this past week. We had 2 cousins here all week, ages 2 and 4, which made for lots of fun, chaos, laughter, crying, diaper changes, lost shoes, lost toys, lost children, chasing after, short tempers, cleaning up, bedtime mayhem, helping, clothes washing, whining ... you name it, and that was all just from me. I told a friend that I am not cut out to handle 6 kids. But then I remembered how often I've had my older nieces over night and decided that it isn't the number of children but the closeness of ages that was crazy this week. We had some fun, though, and I think their parents appreciated the R&R.

My sister-in-law then turned right around the next day and took our 4 kids overnight so I could surprise Mike with a night at the Anniversary Inn for a belated anniversary celebration. We stayed there on our wedding night and haven't been back since so we had fun reminiscing and laughing about how different the two nights were from each other. I remember being so embarrassed when we checked in the first time, having just been married and knowing that the girl at the front desk knew exactly what we would be doing that night. This time, we laughed when we saw a new bride and groom come in looking a little embarrassed themselves.

After we picked the kids back up, we went up to the Alpine Slide in Park City. Elle wasn't quite old enough but no one said anything when we took her on. Christian and Haley cruised down in their own carts, Mike took a timid Paige who wanted to go slow and I took a fearless Elle who wanted to go "fast!"No, Mike and I didn't dress like twins on purpose. I absentmindedly packed both of our bags and just didn't pay attention to the fact that I dressed us in exactly the same clothes. Duh! Anyway, this was kind of our last hurrah before school starts on Monday. Mike pointed out that we've had plenty of "hurrahs" this summer, to which I replied, "Yes, but this is the last one." I rarely need an excuse to get out and do something fun.

High school reunion

Mike had his 20 year high school reunion this weekend. Seriously -- 20 years. How does that happen? Mike had/has a great group of high school guy friends that we still keep in frequent contact with (some more than others). I've been trying (in vain) to find a high school picture of them all together so if any of you others have one, please send it my way. Here's a current picture of most of them...These are such great guys ... Dave, Chris, Dave, Craig, Mike and Troy. I really like them, but I like their wives even more.I love these ladies. I tease Mike that I'm better friends with some of them than he is with their husbands anymore.

I definitely had more fun at his reunion than he will have at mine in a couple of years. I knew quite a few people, which is more than he'll be able to say about my high school friends. I just haven't kept in touch with many of them. I've reconnected with a couple via blogging and I have fond memories of many but we haven't stayed in touch as much as we should have. I guess that's why we have reunions, huh?