Christmas Dance Concerts

The girls had their benefit concert for the end of 2009. Studio One always chooses a benefit to dance for and this year it was sub for santa. We enjoyed all the dances and it was great to see Sidney up there dancing away with the Senior team. She really holds her own up their with them. We were all very impressed. Nikki is just so fun to watch she has quit the attitude up their on stage. Jess choreographed a few of the concert dances. Her other studio put on a concert a few nights later where she choreographed 10 dances. Her little girls really love her. It is fun to see the great example she is to those little ones.

Turkey Day

We had a great Thanksgiving Day! Our family ran in the Turkey run. Sid, Austin, Scott and I ran the 4 mile run. Nikki ran a mile run and Conner ran a half mile. I'm so Thankful to my kids for putting up with my ideas, I'm sure they think are lame, and being such great sports. The kids then went off to play football while Sid and I cleaned house. Sid made all our food we had to take to Grandmas this year. It was great for me. Grandma Stalkers was a blast. Everyone was in a great spirit and we had so much fun just eating, laughing, playing games and watching football. We got home around 9:30 and all went to bed exhausted!

Our Mornings

1. Try to wake Conner up
2. Get a Diet Coke and Fiber One Bar out and eat to wake Mom up
3. The girls do their hair together in my bathroom
4. Try to wake Conner up
5. Austin goes out the backdoor and walks through the gate to High School
6. Sid's Jr High carpool picks her up
7. Make Conner get up, he then gets dressed in my room next to the fire
8. Take Nik and Conner to school by 8:00
9. Mom goes back to bed! (just kidding)

Wedding Dress Shopping!

This is not "THE" dress but we had a blast today wedding dress shopping! We found the perfect dress at the perfect price after only 2 stores and 2 hours of trying on dresses. Jess looked beautiful in everything she put on. It was so fun to see her so Happy :).. It looks like we are shooting for a March wedding so we need to kick everything into gear! Here is a pic they took on the day they got engaged. Chase proposed to Jess on the top of the tram. It sounds like it was very romantic. We need Jess to post a comment here and tell us all about it...haha! I only got bits and pieces of the story. Anyways we are going to be busy busy busy for the next 3 months to make this happen. It should make the January, Febuary blues stay away!

Our Bucket List!

For the past few months I have been making a List of 50 things I want to do by 50. It has been really great thinking of all the things I want to accomplish. While we were on our road trip I finished it up and helped Scott start a list. I think I'm going to start a blog about it so I can document the things I do as I finish them. Here is a sample of a few of the things on my list.

Run a half marathon

Take kids to New York

Go to Mexico on a service mission

Prepare Austin for a full time mission

Learn to cook bread well

Read the Book of Mormon two times a year

Grow a great garden

Hike Angels Landing!!!...Check that one off

Our 21st anniversary adventure!

Scott came home from work on Saturday early and we headed to the BYU game. On the way to the game I reminded him it was our ammiversary the next day. We have been very tight on money so no presents but I told him we should go on a cheap road trip. So we called Aunt Cam to come stay with our kids and we took off. We drove to Cedar City and bargained a room for 50 bucks! The next morning we woke up and drove to Zion's National Park. I have been wanting to hike Angel's Landing. Scott agreed and we headed up. Wow I didn't realize it was so scary and high. It was only a 5 mile round trip but the whole last mile is straight up with chains. Very cool. After our hike we took highway 89 to Bryce Canyon. We got there really late, so no hiking, but very beautiful. Our kids would have died of boredom on our road trip but for us it was great!

$$$$$

So money has been very tight these past 6 months. The construction world has come almost to a dead stop. We have at least been lucky enough to find some work in the past month but still are just scraping by. I've always been an avid coupon and sale shopper but lately I've been finding it a challenge. I have been trying to send in at least 50.00 in rebates or free items. The checks are coming in now and it is really fun. Now if we just didn't need the cash I could save it up for some great purse or pair of shoes.

Our biggest expenses right now: Dance, College tuition, the 5 Iphones we pay for, and who could forget the two teenagers and a Mom, that has been in three accidents, insurance bill! Good thing I can keep our food bill down!