The Infamous Halloween Party!!

Now for what you have all been waiting for....pictures and video from the Ball's Halloween party!! All I ask is that you don't hold anything against any of us. This is what happens when you get together a bunch of friends, without kids, and hang out until 2 in the morning :)

The costumes...

Greg and I went as Edward and Bella, of course :) As I was putting on his "pale" makeup and adding dark rings under his eyes, he commented that if this is what men are suppose to do to be sexy (he knows how everyone is in love with Edward), then he's been doing it wrong this whole time! By the way, I may have Greg begin wearing the white make-up on his face from now on because it makes me look totally tan!!! Yippee...that never happens!! Also, the reason I look like I have black eyes is due to my "red eye" remover. It obviously got a little out of hand :)

This is what the back of our t-shirts said. Those of you who have read the books know that the ending is still up for grabs!! GO EDWARD!!!

This is Steve and Ashley. You'll get to see the lighter side of these two pirates when you check out my videos :)

These were the single ladies for the evening. Their spouses had to work so I forced them together to take the photo. Maryanne is the Cheerleader and Amy is the gypsie. Maryanne is the artist behind my new hair. She's awesome :)

This is Aaron and Catey (it was their party) or should I say Mr. and Mrs. Incredible :) And yes Catey is incredible!! She's had 6 kids and is able to pull off a body suit!! Totally incredible, don't you agree?!?

Rheanna and Justin decided to play doctor for the party. You can't tell in the photo but Rheanna is about to have a baby. She's actually being induced tomorrow!! Good luck with that Rheanna :)

My Most Recent Claim to Fame!

Last night, Greg and I went to a Utah Jazz basketball game. Our tickets are 6 rows behind the visiting teams bench. To get to our seats we have to walk directly in front of the opposing teams locker room. As we walked by heading to our seats, one of the Golden State Warriors was coming out of the locker room. We just smiled and kept walking. Greg ended up being about 2 or 3 steps in front of me, as we passed by him. As we continued walking, I could tell that someone was right behind me and before I knew it, someone had grabbed me around my shoulders, pulling me backwards, causing me to almost stumble. My first thought was that a security guard was stopping me so that the Warriors player could get past me. But as I turned my head to see who it was, I realized the individual was towering over me!! It was the Warriors player. He leaned down and started talking to me. At first what he was saying wasn't registering because I was so surprised. My mind was trying to process what was going on. I began focusing on his words and began realizing what he was telling me. It went something like this...

"Look, your man didn't even realized that I snatched you. He should never walk ahead of you like that."

Sure enough, Greg was quite a few feet ahead of me by now and hadn't looked back to see where I was. The player continued on...

"If you were my girl, I'd never allow another man the chance to snatch you away. Look, he still hasn't noticed!"

I went on to explain that we have been married for almost 12 years and that the "protective" thing kind of wears off during that time. He repeated...

"If you were mine, it would never happen. I would never walk in front of you."

By this point, Greg was all the way through the tunnel and stepping onto the bleachers. FINALLY... Greg looked back because he realized I wasn't with him or maybe it was due to the fact that all of the security people were staring at me and the G.S. player with huge smiles on their faces and Greg was just following their stare. I'm not really sure, but for whatever reason he finally looked back. His face was shocked as he realized that I had been snatched by the NBA player. The player again reminded me that I shouldn't let a man leave me behind because someone else will swoop in and take me. Then he gave a quick squeeze on my shoulders and quickly walked down the tunnel. He stopped at the end and gave Greg some sort of fancy hand shake and gave him a manly pat on the shoulder, letting Greg know that he was just playing around.

So, anyway, I thought the whole thing was odd but somewhat flattering. It's not everyday I get "snatched" by an NBA player. As the game started, Greg and I watched to see who the player was. He ended up being one of their starters. He was #2, Mickael Pietrus. I told Greg that the player had a really cool accent and it turns out he's from France.

Just as the game started I realized one of the reasons why he may have been so nice to me and Greg. I was looking around the arena and I realized that one of the colors for the Golden State Warriors is orange. I looked down at Greg and myself and started laughing because we were both wearing orange shirts with blue jeans.

So, the moral of the story is if you are going to a Jazz game either wear Jazz colors or research the opposing teams colors so you don't find your wife being snatched by the opposing team's player! :)

I want to finish by defending my adorable husband, whom I love. He was only a couple feet in front of me and I tend to lag behind. It wasn't his fault that I was snatched and he's decided to never let it happen again :)

Spa Party!!

I am going to be posting a few quick posts over the next little while, just so I can catch up!! Things have been so crazy that I have fallen behind on my postings and on reading everyone else's posts!! But hopefully the chaos is over and things will go back to normal :)

So, I want to start out with my "SPA" post. I had a spa party on October 27th, at my house and it was so much fun!! I invited some ladies over and we were pampered with some really great products. I encourage everyone to host one of these parties because they are totally worth it! I took a few photos (I'm saving some of them for blackmail opportunities) but I'll post a few of the others.

Here's Ashley relaxing with her soothing eye-pads on. A rare moment for a mother of three :)

Here I am with my green "seaweed" mask on. They insisted I have a photo taken of me since I was taking photos of everyone else! I know, I'm looking HOT but please try not to bombard me with fan mail...OK?

More green faces! It's totally ridiculous that Aubry & Ashley can look that good with green goop smeared all over their faces!

So, that's it for now. I will return shortly with photos (and unbelievable video) from a Halloween Party one of our friends threw. I promise, it's not something you'll want to miss. Let me give you a hint...just imagine Mr. Incredible getting down with a pirate...I won't mention names now but one is in our Bishopric and the other might be our Executive Secretary. I knew that would peek you interest...so until then :)

Greg's New Toy

I just had to blog about Greg's new toy. He got his new company car yesterday and he's in love with it! I must admit, it's pretty nice. He upgraded to add leather seats, a sunroof, Sirius radio, and a few other things. But what he didn't expect was something called "Sync" which allows you to actually hook up your cell phone to the vehicles speakers. He can call and received calls with only voice commands and then he just talks and the person on the other end, responds through the speakers. It's very cool!! I have to admit that I just had to go get a new cell phone (one that's compatable with Sync) just so I can call people while driving, well, WHEN I get to drive his car!! :)

Here's a picture of Greg and the kids with his new "Golden Calf" (I always mention that just for you, Ken). Oh, I suppose I should say what make it is. It's a Ford Explorer with an additional row of seats in the back...because our family is so HUGE, we really needed that! Please don't take that like I'm complaining, because I am definitely not!

Moving Forward...slowly

"Time passes. Even when it seems impossible. Even when each tick of the second hand aches like the pulse of blood behind a bruise. It passes unevenly, in strange lurches and dragging lulls, but pass it does. Even for me."
"New Moon" pg 93, Chapter 4-"Waking Up"


Ok, so I am slowly recovering from my latest addiction. I am now able to sometimes think of other things besides "Twilight", though I still have quite a ways to go. The paragraph above, says it all, at least for me.

Quickly I'd like to welcome some new comers to the Twilight fan club...Katie S., Melissa N., and someone who would like to remain anonymous (your secret's safe with me-though recognition is the first step to recovery). Hopefully soon, we will be welcoming Karie H. and Shannon R., both who will soon be starting the series.
The "Twilight Family" is growing bigger every day :)

Now for my actual "post". I have been working hard on getting my storage room organized. I got the first, of hopefully several, Shelf Reliance Switch Back Shelving Systems up for my canned food storage. It seriously, is a gift from heaven!! Completely amazing!! I recommend the systems to anyone interested. They are totally worth their weight in gold!

The only set back to organizing my food storage has been realizing that I have an over-abundance of some things and not nearly enough of others. So, right now as it stands, if there was an emergency, our family would be living on canned corn, canned green beans, macaroni and cheese, cream of chicken soup, ramen, tomato soup and of course, the 10 yr supply of cold cereal I've somehow managed to acquire. These items are bounteous within our home. If you are ever in need of anything listed above, you know who to call.

So, I still have two more shelves to organize and then I'll be taking a few photos to post, so that you all can "ooooo & aahhhh" along with me. I am SO excited!!! I am hoping to have the photos up later today.

Until then.... :)

I'm back with some photos!

This is my new switch back shelving. I LOVE IT!!!

My original shelving but now it's much more organized!

This is where you can see my "lack" of household supplies (very pathetic, I know) and my "over abundance" of cereal. Now to put this into perspective, Hannah is the only one of us that eats cereal, usually about once a week, and even then I won't let her eat the sugary kind! (I may have to add Lucky Charms, Cocoa Pebbles, & Cinnamon Toast Crunch to my eating plan...NOT GOOD!!) This morning, I insisted she eat a bowl of cheerios, with fruit and yogurt. I would hate to see all my "free & $0.50" boxes of cereal go to waste. What a shame that would be!

100 Dreams

For work, Greg has been reading this book that's suppose to help him inspire those under him to reach for their dreams, at work and in their normal lives. Well, this has prompted Greg to inquire about my dreams. I must admit that I don't have very many. Like I told him, I would love to take photography classes and maybe take some sort of archery/shooting classes, also. And if I could dream BIG, I would also include making it onto a reality TV show! So, my list was very short and did lack in the creative department. He encouraged me to write down 100 dreams that I have for my lifetime. OK, now that may not sound hard, but let me just say, I'm on #14!!! Yeah, and that was with me racking my brain!!! Greg says that the book states that we should have 100 dreams that we can be continually reaching toward on a daily basis. Now, I don't mean that all 100 have to be reached for on a daily basis but progress in at least one of the areas. So, when I sat down last night to begin my list, I was very disappointed with myself. 14? That's pretty pathetic! Anyway, I am now encouraging all those who read my blog, to make a list of 100 dreams that you have. I am hoping that I'm not the only one with a lack of imagination for this kind of thing. I am actually beginning to wonder if I fear failure! Maybe that's why I have so little to shoot for. The more I'm shooting for, the more likely I am to fail in some of the areas. This has given me a chance to analyze myself, which I am always grateful for. I like trying to figure out my inner self and in so doing, helping myself grow. So, I hope each of you have fun with this little challenge and make sure to get back with me on the number you were able to come up with. And while I wait to hear back from each of you, I will be exerting all my energy in coming up with more for my list. I at least need 20, right?!? Good luck :)

Let's Play Dress-Up!

I really thought these photos were cute, though I'm sure Gabe will think differently in the near future :) Hannah was having fun dressing him up and of course, I just had to take pictures. The truth is, Gabe really seemed to enjoy being Hannah's little Ken doll. Doesn't he make the cutest ballerina!?!

Here's some other cute pictures I took of Gabe. I had him playing in his room while I was putting away laundry and I went to go check on him, and of course, he had destroyed his room BUT it looked like he was having fun!! Do any of your kids have fetishes with the heating vents?!? Because Gabe won't leave them alone!! I may have to super glue them in so he can't get them out :)

Well, that's about it! Just wanted to post something and this is what I came up with. My kids are my world so why not blog about them, right?