Another Year Another Trunk--Or Something Like That

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I don't know if it's because it's the first of many fun things to celebrate in a big way this time of year or because of the fond memories of so much candy-getting as a kid or what, but I just love it! One of our favorite family traditions over the past couple years has been participating in ward "Trunk-or-Treat" festivities. After our landslide win a couple years ago as "Whos" in "Who-ville" and our squeaker win last year as the Scooby-Doo gang and the Mystery Machine (against some stiff competition, I might add), we were hard-pressed to pull out any good ideas for a sure hit this year. We literally started brainstorming our ideas on the way home from trunk-or-treat last year! With a little help from my parents, we pulled it off as the Flinstones from Bedrock. So we ditched the trunk completely in favor of the golf-cart "Flinstone-mobile." Jason and I were Fred and Wilma, Kacey was Betty Rubble, Jordan was Barney Rubble, Kennadi was Pebbles, and Kami was a girl version of Bam-Bam (we lovingly reffered to her as Kam-Kam). It was no easy task coming up with costumes, either. Not a single Flinstone pattern in all of Las Vegas! Fortunately, the prehistoric fashion wasn't incredibly advanced, and I was able to pull it together with felt, fleece, and whatever other inexpensive fabric I could find. I even used an old fur pillow for part of Kami's costume. Everyone wanted to know where I got my "pearls." Of all the hard work, those were the easiest to make! I just strung a ribbon through a few styrofoam balls.

Kacey's Back!

After her first road trip without us, Kacey is finally home! She spent a week in California at a swimming meet (with just a little extra time for Magic Mountain, of course). Every day Kami commented on how much she missed Kacey, and when exactly Kacey would return home. Kami asked constantly if she could call her big sister.

The best part of Kacey's return was what she brought with her--a cooler full of Chick-Fil-A chicken! My mother-on-law knows how much I love Chick-Fil-A and that we don't have one in Vegas, so she bought a ton of nuggets, carefully packed them in dry ice, and sent them home with Kacey! It made doing all of Kacey's dirty laundry and cleaning out her cooler worth it!

Shopper's High

I can't help it, I am a sucker for that "high" I get when I save so much more than I spend at the grocery store! This week was AMAZING! I spent $71 at Albertson's and saved a whopping $209! Don't do the math cuz I already did--that's a 75% savings! One of my favorite parts is shocking the checkers. The checker today was actually a manager and kept commenting about "how well" I was doing. When the total finally came up, he circled the savings with his little fingernail like they do at Albertson's now and could hardly believe it. As I was walking away, the bagger said, "Wow! I have to take notes!" Then the checker said, "Yeah, some people really know how to do it!"

I couldn't help taking a picture of my "goods," but I promised my kids I wouldn't do it every time. As I was placing all the items on the dining room table "just so" in order for everything to be visible, Kacey commented that she hoped no one came over while my display was up!

My Champion!

Kennadi and I flew to Reno last weekend for the Nevada State Gymnastics Meet. I love to go to Kennadi's meets. I love the time we get to spend together, and I love to watch how all her hard work pays off. The last meet Kennadi competed in was in Long Beach, California where she competed on a broken foot. Even with her broken foot, she took second place on vault at that meet. Since Long Beach, Kennadi has been in a funky "boot" and enduring physical therapy in hopes that her foot would be healed enough for State because this is the final meet of the season for Level 7 gymnasts.

Kennadi didn't disappoint! Although her vault was not up to her personal standards, she placed well. The most exciting part of her meet was the incredible 9.70 that she pulled off on beam. Not only did this earn her the title of Nevada State Beam Champion for Level 7, it was the highest beam score awarded!

Needless to say, I am a proud mom! Thanks for a great weekend, Bubby--I love you!

My Awesome Sister

Last week was crazy busy! The best part of the whole week was when my sister and her family visited from St. Louis. THEY DROVE!!! She must really love me...


I love that Kennadi and Sophie are such good friends, and the Maddie and Kami could hardly get enough of each other. I love that Ryan fits himself in wherever the girls will let him! His personality is so refreshing, and he never fails to put a smile on my face.



PJ (I insist on that being my nickname for him even though everyone else calls him Phillip) was especially fun this trip because he can really communicate. I forgive him for calling me "Uncle Sissy." I got to the point where I could even understand him through his binky. My favorite part about Phillip is that when he is tired, he curls the hair on the top of his head around his finger.



I'm so grateful my sister wanted to spend her birthday here. We had so much fun going to see Steve Wyrick (an awesome magician) and eating at an old-time Vegas Italian joint. Jason and Dave managed to keep us laughing.


We played "Cities and Knights" (not the benevolent kind, Nenn) which I don't think I won once. I'm going back to playing with Kami and Kennadi so I can win once in awhile!


Even though it took Bobo and Dave something like two days longer to get home than they planned, I know they'll make the drive again! I miss you already, Bobo!

Happy Birthday Old Man!

Jason celebrated his 40th Birthday yesterday! Hard to believe he is as old as my parents were when I thought they were practically ancient!

There was no breakfast in bed this year since Jason wanted to take charge and make sure breakfast was prepared his way. Actually, he got up and prepared bacon and eggs for the whole family--what a guy!

I think Jason's favorite gift this year (and mine, too) was the book of letters I gave him from friends and family. It was my goal to gather 40 letters from as many people that know and love Jason as I could find. I got 40+, which wasn't a surprise since everyone who knows Jason loves him. I feel blessed to be married to the guy everyone wrote so fondly of in their letters. We laughed and cried and had a little explaining to do. The explaining had to do with letters from friends circa the teenaage years... It was all in great fun, though. It became abundantly clear (though I've suspected all these years) that I am getting the payback through one or two of my own children for Jason's shenanigans as a teenager!

Yeah, me for finally posting to me blog again!

Lady Luck

Kennadi's gym hosted the annual "Lady Luck" meet at the South Point Hotel last weekend. This is the first meet of this competition season, and it's a biggie! Over 1200 girls from 25 states compete at this three day meet. This is Kennadi's first season competing at level 7 as an optional gymnast. Basically that means she has her own routines choreographed for her on each event. Here's the lowdown on how she did:

Starting things off with a bang, Kennadi earned a whopping 9.35 on floor which earned her second place on floor. Next came her least favorite event--vault where she blew the judges away and nabbed first place with 9.45. On uneven bars, she kept up her streak and took second place with 9.25. Finally...it was her final and typically best event--beam. Unfortunately, she didn't do quite as well as usual and took fourth place. We were so proud and beaming that we hardly noticed the lower-than-usual beam score, and it was still good enough to earn Kennadi 2nd place all-around.

Equally exciting was the girls' team score. For those of you less familiar with gymnastics, the team score is calculated using the three highest scores of all the gymnasts on your team. Due to injury and illness, we had only three girls competing level seven. It leaves little room for error when you have to count every single score! Most teams had at least six girls' scores to use. Needless to say, it was thrilling when the girls pulled of a second-place team score that was just .5 of a point behind first place and more than 3 points ahead of third place.

WAY TO GO KENNADI!!!