happy birthday JACE

Jace was such a PRECIOUS baby!

now he's a big, tough, cool 3-year-old

I love you Jace!

FINALLY ... a regular Saturday

Yup. It was an early morning.

But absolutely perfect!

After my alone morning time full of accomplishment,

I took Brad to work and on the way home saw oodles of yard-sale-signs.

So I came in the house shouting

"GOOD MORNING KIDS ... LET'S GO GARAGE-SALE-ING"

And they all woke up happy and excited for the day.

It was a great day for sales.

Something for everyone.

The big buy was Sierra's new

ROUND BED.

Which precipitated deep cleaning .. because she gave her old bed to Bryan and Bryan's bed went to the garage for sale on craigslist. Since Bry and Sierra were deep cleaning their rooms (including washing walls and baseboards!)

Azure joined in and did the same with her room.

So, not to be outdone, I thoroughly cleaned the master bedroom too.

The house looks like we hired a maid service.

Bry's now at the movies with a friend and the girls are at a birthday/halloween party.

Everyone's happy.

especially me.

mornings

I can't help it ... I think I get this from my mom:

I AM A MORNING PERSON

Saturday morning, 4:17:

well, we all conked out last night by 9pm ... Bry in his own bed

Brad on a camping mat on our bedroom floor cuz his back is out of whack

I'm on my side of the bed,

Az on Brad's side ... and Sierra on the floor next to me.

We should have invited Bryan in and made a party of it.

It would bring back the good 'ole days... it's amazing how many people can fit in one bed, especially when 5 of them are little.

Anyway, I'm not a great sleeper anyway, so this morning

I awoke to dreams of trying to sell ads with a blue-tooth in my ear that was receiving mostly static (don't know where that came from - I've NEVER used a blue-tooth)

and decided it would be better just to get out of bed.

I was going to try to go back to sleep on the couch

but by the time I opened the door to let the

GLORIOUSLY COOL air in, I was wide awake.

So here's what I normally accomplish in the wee morning hours before everyone else wakes up:

* juice wheatgrass with my hand grinder

* make other juice

(I LOVE craigslist ... $25 for a new juicer!)

* read my scriptures

*prayers

*exercise

*catch up on facebook

*read blogs

*sometimes write a blog post

*take care of email business

*plan the day

*unload dishwasher

*straighten living room, family room and kitchen

*work on must-do things I never can do because I can't concentrate when everyone's around (currently editing the video of Gage's birth)

*sometimes I even get a shower in before everyone wakes up

Perhaps this is why I'm a morning person. It was therapeutic to make this list and see that it really is worth it to get up a couple of hours before the rest of the neighborhood!

Downside:

I crash around 8pm.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TREVOR!!!!

50 years ago today, Alaska became a state.

what can beat that????

26 years ago, Trevor was born!!!!

He has blessed our lives a million-times over.

Trevor was an EASY toddler.

In fact, he was so good I was afraid he'd never get into any trouble and he wouldn't be "normal"

That is, until I got the phone call from pre-school one day.

it was the end of the day

and they had just FOUND HIM!

I guess Trevor and his cohorts, Josh & Fang Yung had disappeared.

They were hiding in the school all along.

The school was furious.

I was relieved.

although Trevor continued his pranks through the years, he's always been

JUST PLAIN GOOD.

Trevor is kind-hearted and giving beyond measure.

Especially with his time.

Family ALWAYS comes first.

Trevor is an example to all of us.

WE LOVE YOU TREVOR!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

it's a small, small world!

FINALLY, we're on the air with

TOURISM TV

Sierra joined me in the studio on Friday to shoot 2 new shows and an interview with cast members from one of the shows.

(Thanks Sweet-Sierra)

Then Saturday night Brad and I joined our producer, Trip, and his family at the Sahara to see master-illusionist Rick Thomas and his wild animals perform.

After the show I spoke with Rick on-camera for This Week In Vegas.

(this show will air beginning Oct 28th for 2 weeks on the tourism and convention channel in over 80,000 hotel rooms)

now here's where

"it's a small, small world" comes in

Since Monday when I heard I'd be interviewing him

his name kept playing on my mind.

Rick Thomas, magician ....

Rick Thomas - married to Kim Thomas?

Kim helped us with our production of

A Nephite Christmas

when we lived on Guam.

I'd met Rick at some of the rehearsals, and although the church has 3 branches on Guam, most members at least knew OF each other.

I couldn't remember if his name was Rick though.

I didn't mention anything to anyone, but Friday night (night before the interview) I woke up (not a new thing - I wake up every night)

several times thinking about Kim.

Well, while walking from valet parking to the box office last night

I told Brad that I thought this might be the guy married to Kim and brother to Rhett (Rhett stayed with them in Guam during the time of our production and was the lead male part in A Nephite Christmas. Great voice, but he never really learned the words to the main song he performed and I wrote the words! Opening night he made up 70% of the words and it became a whole new song!)

Ok - you know how this ends....

Right before we began the interview

Trip (our producer) asked him,

"Hey - have you ever performed on Guam?"

Rick: "Yeah - for 5 years"

Me: "When?"

Rick: "15 years ago"

then we made the connection.

Cool, huh.

yup. it's a small, small world!

Gage's Blessing Day Pictures

It was so nice to be together ... all of us!

Taking a few minutes to unwind after church

I don't know if any of us felt like we got enough time holding Gage ...

Trev & Caci had JUST returned from overseas ... they had been traveling for 3 days and hadn't slept. period. That's true family love.

Redferns and Chapmans all gathered. Gage has a lot of people who love, love, LOVE him!

as Jace says: "unca-bry"

is he gorgeous or what?!

I just had to put this in cuz it's a kissing picture. I didn't even know it was taken ...

Brad flew from Las Vegas to SLC late Saturday night,

then slept for a few hours before leaving Sunday 5am for Rexburg with his mom.

sweet

Saturday night Toni Redfern taught us "scum" (is that what it's called?)

it's like The Great Dalmuti and tons of fun.

I expect, after winning most of these hands, for you, Steve-o, to address

me as "your highness" from here on out :)

Saturday morning our Sitka friend, Michaela Dunlap, got married in the Twin Falls, Idaho temple. This was at the luncheon after the wedding.

Brooke was so glad to show Gage to one of her friends.

(congrats Michaela! and thanks for inviting us to the wedding!)

Brad's sister, Liz, and her sweet husband, Jeff opened theer home to us

The kids had a BLAST staying with Aunt Lizzy

Saturday while we were at the temple.

(they played on their slot machine and learned how to play black-jack ...

thanks A LOT Lizzy! jk)

Good Grief!

Time goes way too fast.

I'm sad that blogging is taking a back seat

... there's just so much going on

and when i have a bit of time, it gets taken up sleeping.

just a quick catch-up:

we had a GREAT weekend

in Rexburg.

GAGE

is so adorable.

our 2 nights there i snuggled the little cutie-pie

ALL NIGHT

with no one asking for a turn.

He was

ALL MINE.

added bonus:

Trev, Caci & Jace made it.

WE WERE ALL TOGETHER

even though it was only for a few hours.

life may be zipping by,

but it's FILLED with joys.

love you family.

Conference Weekend

For so many years we lived far, far away from life where you could watch conference on TV at home. In Alaska, and before that, in Guam, we'd dress up in Sunday best, go to the church and watch and listen to conference on a scratchy screen. The kids were young and we'd try to keep them occupied with them playing "conference bingo" (October conference they'd play with candy corn and April conference they'd play with those gross candy eggs ... both things that the kids don't like enough to snarf down ... they'd last thru the whole conference!)

Then for the past 2 years we've been so excited to live close to family and close to SLC - so we traveled. We spent conference weekends with our grown kids (SO NICE!)

So this weekend we thought it was time to begin some new traditions

* conference weekend traditions *

and I've learned

it's never to late to begin a new tradition

This has been a great weekend.

Does anyone else think that conference just gets better and better each year?

and that what used to seem like SO MANY hours now seems to just zip by?

Saturday morning we got up in enough time to go to IHOP for breakfast

this was SUCH A TREAT that (thanks for the idea, Brooke)

that I think we'll make it a conference saturday tradition!

Then we watched the 1st session

After those 1st 2 hours we hit the local garage sales

and the were GREAT!

We even had time to make a quick trip to the local thrift store

before the 2nd session began.

Sadly, Brad had to work all day.

Saturday afternoon, after the 2nd session we stopped in at the grocery store

for

PUMPKINS

While the men were in Priesthood meeting

we had girls night out ... 1st stopping at Deseret Book

(we never win the prizes)

we met up with Nancy O & Heather S (fun!)

Sunday morning we had an autumn breakfast of

PUMPKIN BREAD

FRENCH CHOCOLATE

CITRUS SMOOTHIE

Between conference sessions we carved pumpkins

Everyone really enjoyed conference this weekend -

including our collard lizard atop Bry's head :)