Jack Christmas

As a kid you never think about Christmas Lights the way you do as a home owner.  First you have to buy them, which is an expense, and then to keep them on is an expense.  I think about decorating every year, and this year I decided, again not to buy lights, but to bring Sandy Claws outside.  

I love the purple little lights on Zero's doghouse

Temple Dedication

It seemed like years we had been waiting for the temple to be built.  The bishop asked if I would like to be in the temple for the dedication and I responded, well I'm not going to say no.  Of course I didn't want to take the opportunity away from anyone else, but how could I say no.  I also volunteered to help the day of the dedication, 7am to 7pm.  I basically just put on shoe coverings on all day and it was a day unlike any other.  

After all the shoe coverings were on we knew there were to be a few visitors!  I got a pretty good spot right in front of the doors.

No shoe coverings to put on meant, impromptu photo shoot.

This guy saved me from some awkwardness and I was incredibly grateful.  We finished the night off being shuttled back to the water park, long day, but one I won't likely forget.

Temple Celebration

I knew there was really no chance of getting to see the temple celebration.  For weeks they prepared for an amazing celebration, filled with dance, music and fun.  Court was in the celebration and practiced his dance at mutual.  I had prepared to watch the celebration like everyone else on the internet. That was until I was at a training for helping on the day of the dedication and they asked for volunteers to be ushers.  Of course my hand shot up and asked, does this mean we would be able to watch the celebration? he said yes and my hand never went down.  I almost felt bad being able to go, because so many people wanted to go and were not able to due to capacity at the football field.  The performance was amazing and it wasn't until I watched it online that I realized what a big difference, watching it in person made on the whole experience.  

                          There was time before it started and I went and found Court on the field.

Waffle Love

I think it was Julia who told me about Waffle Love.  Its this food truck that sells outrageously priced waffles.  Granted you don't really know that going in, you think maybe they will be 3 or 4 bucks…and then 30 dollars later you bought 3 waffles and you can't even finish one!

This waffle truck is hardly ever in north phoenix and the closest it ever got was paradise valley, so when they said they were going to be at a neighborhood party just north of my parents, I grabbed my mom after she went hiking to come with me.  All the waffles sounded so good that we got three and brought back some to the house. My advice, never buy more than one!!!

BenBob Turns 1!!!

Emily went above and beyond for Bennet's first birthday. I was amazed at what she had planned for the kids at the party and all the activities and goodies she had for them.  Of course the theme was hunting and we all got to wear camo, which I loved.  It was fun to get to see Will's parents and all of Emily's family and the food was amazing!  

I was also thankful to Will who knows how I love taking 500 pictures.

I was afraid that since I hadn't seen Bennet in a while, that he wouldn't let me hold him, but he was a champ.  He is so fun to watch and such a happy boy!  

Jack Halloween

I don't know why I always do this, but somehow the week before Halloween I come up with an idea.  This year was no different.  I typically hate dogs, but Zero gets a pass…he is a ghost and therefore has no hair, so I don't despise him.  You can see above the disaster my house was in with styrofoam everywhere.  The roof of course was the most time consuming, I cute each shingle individually, but it does make it look pretty legit so it was worth it.

I also saw in my parents neighborhood who tried to do something similar to the jack face below.  I used electrical wire to make the outside have a form, and then used fishing wire to make it hang on the roof.

For Halloween at work we had a costume contest with prizes.  I didn't think I'd win, but it was fun trying to be like Miranda.