Family Pictures

My friend Alisen, who is a photographer (Photos By Ali) took our family pictures this year and did an amazing job. You can see them here: http://aboddy.photobiz.com/cart/gallery.cfm

Karisa turned 8

On November 25, 2001 at 2:21a our precious baby girl was born. I can not believe that my baby is eight years old already. I am really proud that she balances sharing her birthday with the Thanksgiving Holiday every year. I find it only amazing how God has blessed us with a baby we are so thankful for and allows us to celebrate her birth every year with all the other blessings in our life.

On her birthday she had a friend over after school and we baked pumpkin pies together and then they played until the little girl went home. Then we went to Pizza Mart for pizza and ice cream followed by an amazing church service. For her birthday I made her a recipe binder to keep all the recipes her and I make together. It is a place where I can hand write messages to her and we can record the memories made while cooking together. She wasted no time adding to her binder by helping with Thanksgiving dinner. It was so such a delight to see her with her binder in her hand helping her grandma and me bake and cook. She also snagged a Miley Cyrus CD (Party in the USA, anyone) and a hula-hoop.

On Thanksgiving we sang happy birthday again and she received gifts from her Uncle and his family (a friendship bracelet making kit). Of course grandma went above and beyond and bought her the coolest Bible ever, a very stylish outfit and an EASY BAKE OVEN!

We are truly blessed to have such an amazing daughter.

Apple Pie

I was invited to a pie party yesterday and that meant I had to actually bake a pie. After seeing a delicious looking apple pie that Mr. C's cousin posted on Facebook, I asked and received the recipe and made the Crunch Top Apple Pie my game plan. I was rather impressed with my how my pie turned out, given my lack of culinary skills. Here is the before and after oven pic.

There were 11 pies at this party and I tried them all in order to crown a winner. Can you say sugar overload. After we played a game of ultimate outburst. I had a great time with great friends. I guess if you have to have an excuse to have a get together with girlfriends, having pie is a delicious one to have.

The pie that received my vote and the winner was the maker of the Creamy Banana Pie. It was so yummy. The other pies that were made are:

Lemon Tart

Double Layer Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie

Chocolate Pudding Pie

Cranberry Peach Tart

Pecan Pie

Amazing Apple Pie

Chocolate Cream Pie

Turtle Pumpkin Pie

Nestle' Toll House Walnut Pie (Black Cat Pie)

Crunch Top Apple Pie (mine)

Oh, and I didn't do that from memory. My brilliant friends asked for and then printed out all the recipes and even had us make a little Pie Party Recipe Booklet to keep them in. My friend are genius huh?

I Survived a Duathalon

On November 7, 2009 myself and group of awesome girlfriends ventured to Casa Grande very early in the morning (it was still dark) for a race. First of all, the fact that I was up at 4:00 a.m. is success in of itself. My race consisted of a 1.5 mile run, a 10 mile bike ride, and a 3 mile run. I started off feeling great and my first transition went really well. Then, as I soon as I started to pedal on my mountain bike I knew I was in for a brutal ride. 10 miles of a rough course with people whizzing by on their road bikes yelling, "On your left!" I hung in there and finished the bike portion but my second transition was not so smooth. I jumped off my bike and my legs were jelly. I immediately started to chant my theme verse "I can do all thing through Christ who give me strength" and just put one foot in front of the other. My legs felt like bricks and I'm almost certain I could have walked faster than I was running but eventually they loosened up a bit. I managed to finish the 3 miles in just over 33 minutes (which is rather slow for me). Physically this race kicked my butt and I was not at all impressed with my performance BUT I finished and for that I will hold my head up and be proud.

I must say that I am extremely proud of my girlfriends. Jocelyn, attempted and kicked butt in her first triathlon and conquered her fear of the water and Missy rocked her triathlon four months after giving birth. These woman are a true inspiration of strength and I value their friendship.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

This year we went back to the basics and kept it simple. Thanks to our new outlook we spent a total of $3.78 on Halloween costumes this year! Everything you see we already owned except for the black t-shirt that cost $2.70 at Michael's and the witch hat that cost $1.08 at the dollar store. We didn't even have to splurge for a pumpkin because Kaiden won one at school. Last night we enjoyed time as a family carving a pumpkin after reading the book The Pumpkin Parable-on loan from a friend- and as we carved the pumpkin the kids refreshed us as to what each step meant in the parable and were amazed at how bright the light was shinning through the pumpkin.

The kids enjoyed an evening of trick or treating with their cousin, devouring as much candy as they can, they ran crazy burning off all that sugar and now they are off to bed.....

Parent Teacher Conference

We had parent teacher conference yesterday and all was good. Our kids have always excelled in school and they continue to make great strides academically. What we as parents are most proud of are the awards for citizenship they received. Each of their teachers praised their character, attitude and behavior. Talk about making a moms heart smile. Every morning when I drop them off at school I say to them, 'Shine like stars in the universe!" which immediately puts a smile on their face.
It is great affirmation for parents like us, who put so much pressure on themselves to raise children who value responsibility and character. We give continued praise for the hearts of children.

Fall Break

We had an amazing fall break. We went on an RV trip to Huntington Beach with two other families from our small group. 6 adults, 12 kids and 3 RV's.

Vacation wouldn't be vacation without a mishap would it? We caravaned to Palm Springs on Saturday evening and stayed at an RV park there so we could break up the drive. The next morning after having breakfast and braving the community showers we were headed to Huntington Beach. After a quick stop at the WalMart and a gas station we were on our way. There we were driving down the highway, destination paradise when all of a sudden Mr. C calmly says we have lost all power and pulls over to the side of the road. I grab the phone and call the other two RV's that were ahead of us and they make there way off the freeway and back around towards us. In the meantime, I am first thankful that our kids were ridding with another family and the baby was sleeping. I began praying like crazy and had a sense of peace that this situation would be taken care of. Mr. C went into action and when the other men arrived they put their heads together and worked their magic, and we were back on the road. Praise God.

We arrived at Huntington Beach and parked our RV's side by side and took the kids to LOOK at the ocean, well any person with common sense knew they would not just look and indeed they ended up wet!

It was great to share a week of fellowship with good friends and allow our kids to build a stronger bond with other kids.

I even managed to go on a 3 mile-ish run and an 8 mile-ish bike ride. I really need to pick up my training to keep up with my rockstar girlfriends.

We ate, we made smores, we swam, we had so much fun. So much fun that my camera stayed inside the RV the majority of the time, only coming out for a sunset or two and a quick lived trip down to the water for fear of sand getting in it.

We have been truly blessed not only with the resources to make this trip happen but with amazing friends who we share our lives with.