Day at the Park

We are so lucky to live by so many parks and schools. One of our favorite places to go is the nearby Ameila Earhart Elementary school because it's not usually as crowded as some of the other parks. And they have a baseball field. On this day we took Cornel & Bekki's kids to the park to play baseball.




Kage batted first. He's such a sports fanatic.



Jaida played in the "sand" while the boys batted.


Then Junior had his chance at bat.


When Jaida finished her "castle" she decided she wanted a chance to bat.


Then I decided to try it. No comments necessary.


See, you can't even see the ball because I hit is SO far (not because it's on the ground behind me).


After playing baseball Spencer, Savannah & Suzie came and we played on the playground.


Don't ask me why she decided to go down the slide on her stomach when she knew I was going to take a picture of her. I don't know if she was being camera shy, or just showing off for her little cousin.

I thought we needed a picture of the two of us together.

Me and my sweet (dorky) husband :)

Las Vegas

For Jonathan's birthday this year we decided to get out of the cold and go to Las Vegas. We hit our usual spots: Memphis Championship Barbecue, our favorite barbecue restaurant; the indoor swap meet where we always buy the best teriyaki chicken jerky there is; and, of course, the Las Vegas Premium Outlets.

The other thing we did this trip was go to the Temple. I had never seen the Las Vegas temple before and it was so beautiful. These are pretty much the only pictures we took of our trip, but it was probably the best part of the trip anyway.

Hidden Treasures

Last weekend I let the dogs in the house to sit with me while I was waiting for Jonathan to get off work. I snuggled up on my couch with a good book and only Tito and Kimo came to sit with me. I had been reading for over an hour and when I got up to take a break I wondered where Kookie was. I went into the bedroom just to check if she was in there, and this is what I found:

I'm sorry to say that the couch in our bedroom wasn't exactly clean. But she was so cute tucked in Jonathan's sweater, I had to take a picture.

Then I looked closer...

I noticed that she wasn't just using the sweater like a blanket, but more like a sleeping bag. She was actually stuck in the sleeve of the sweater!

And while I was laughing and taking photos she was wagging her tail and trying, unsuccesfully, to get out. I had to help her back out of the sleeve because she wasn't about to let me pull her through it. Dogs are so entertaining sometimes.

We're Still Alive!

February was a tough month, but March has been better. I still haven't had time to post any pictures, but they are coming soon.

Also, I am getting rid of my other blog (http://www.kcsaluone.blogspot.com/) and will be posting on this one exclusively. That means there may be a whole lot more posts about "Karen's Thoughts" on this blog. But it will be easier for me and that's all that really matters, right?

Loves!
Karen

What We've Been Doing

Between Christmas and New Years I had Jonathan help me rearrange our spare room so that I could have more space for crafting. It took a little doing - taking doors off their hinges, etc. - and Jonathan wasn't as excited about it as I was, but he was really great to help me. I love my new space!

Now that I have a craft room and table I've been working on the quilt I started last year. It's been fun and rewarding to spend my time making something worthwhile instead of watching tv.

Here are some pictures of my craft room and the quilt I've been working on.

We've also been working on our kitchen remodel. We've passed our electrical inspection which made it okay for us to finish up the sheetrock. We spent a whole day putting up sheetrock and starting the mud & tape process.

This is proof that I helped with the sheetrock. I love those power tools!

After J finished the mud and tape we tented the room so he could sand and texture. I can't wait until it's finished. It will be done in 2009, that's a promise!

Artists on my MP3

• The Killers
• Jimmy Eat World
• Jack Johnson
• 311
• Jamiroqua
• Ben Folds
• Kelly Pickler
• Kenny Chesney
• One Republic
• Miranda Lambert
• George Strait

My Christmas Present

Jonathan did so well getting me the one (and only) Christmas present I opened. Okay, so I got more than one present if you count all the before Christmas purchases I made for myself, including a Cricut and a shopping spree at the Las Vegas Premium Outlets. He's the best gift giver!

Anyway, the one present I opened on Christmas day was a wonderful movie that I fell in love with and had to watch 4 times before we returned it to Blockbuster.

It was this movie:

I love this movie! Did I already say that? Well, I do. I love the whimsy and charm of the story. The actors are great. And it has a good message. This is one great movie. Jonathan even watched it with me - which is a feat when it comes to girly movies. We even got his brother, Spencer, to watch it and he chuckled the whole way through. Granted, the men won't care to view it more than once, but girls - you'll love it!

Non-Resolutions

I thought it would be nice to review the non-resolutions I made last year and see how I did. Then I'll list some new non-resolutions for 2009.

2008:

• I will be working one Friday a month in this new year of 2008 and not because I choose to (sucks). This never really happened, we hired a part time employee and I made them work every Friday - nice.
• I will try to exercise more. I haven't been exercising at all so I figure I'll shoot for once a month at least. I had a good stint of working out for 5 weeks in April/May, but after that I never really got back into it.
• I will try to eat better (i.e. cook more). I think I cooked more than I did in 2007, but not nearly as much as I should have.
• I will try to study the scriptures instead of just read them. Still working on this one.
• I will try my best to get pregnant (that should make Jonathan happy). Still working on this one.
• I will finish at least one quilt. I cut out half of the pieces for the top of the quilt and haven't worked on it since.
• I will spend less time watching tv. Hmmmm.
• I will plant a vegetable garden. Planted a garden, didn't nurture it, didn't harvest anything except for a handful of grape-sized tomatoes that were supposed to be romas.
• I will take more photos. Check.
• I will get sealed to my wonderful husband in the temple. Hallelujah.

2009:

• Exercise more
• Cook more and eat healthier
• Keep the photos coming
• Study the scriptures
• Finish quilt(s)
• Get pregnant, but in the meantime research adoption
• Plant garden - and pay attention to it
• Hold FHE regularly
• Craft more/use sewing machine more
• Learn how to make a great loaf of bread
• Finish remodeling the kitchen/living room

I guess that's it because I can't think of anything else. I hope all your wildest dreams come true in 2009!

Snow Fun

I got to play in the snow a lot during the Christmas holiday. It was fun making funny snowmen and having snowball fights with the kids. Here are some pictures and videos of our fights.

On this day I got to play in the snow with my nephew, Dylan. He had SO much fun playing with me.


We made (tried) a snowman that was swimming away from sharks.


While I was finishing up the snowman Dylan was making a stash of snowballs to throw at me. He was quite proud of his supply.

On Christmas Eve I got to play in the snow with all the Cluff grandkids, except for Dylan. We built a big snowman head coming out of the snow. He had sticks for hair, but you can't see it very well because of the kids sitting behind his head. I thought he was cute.

The kids thought it would be funny to have pictures of them eating his face:




Then we had a snowball fight!



Hope you all had fun in the snow during the holidays!