Happy Birthday Mom!!!

So, today would have been my mom's 53 birthday. It was a melancholy day. In honor of our birthday lunch tradition, my dad, sisters and I all went to lunch at the Red Lobster, one of my mom's fave places. When our waiter came to get our orders, he asked what the special occasion was. We all sat there in an awkward moment of silence before I told him, then he had his awkward moment not knowing what to say to that. It was a nice but weird lunch. She should have been there with us.

My good friend Jana gave me a framed quote that says "If I had a flower for each time I thought of my mother, I could walk in my garden forever." Not all of you knew my mom so to remember her on her birthday I wanted to share some thoughts of her:

She was beautiful
She was an amazing listener, and would listen with genuine interest
She had more friends than anyone I know
She had a green thumb, she won yard of the week 3 years in a row
She was the fastest walker on the planet, none of us could ever keep up with her
She was an efficiency expert "if you are going up take something up if you are going down take something down"
She was FFA queen

She loved to get her nails done, OPI Bogota Blackberry was her favorite nail polish color

She never had her cell phone with her
She loved animals, and had good animal aura

She loved to go on criuses, Alaska was her favorite
We always knew when she had a migraine because she would do "the eyebrow thing"
She was always "on the up and up"
She loved to make up useful sayings

She loved jammy time
She always gave the best gifts
Her house was decorated with grapes
She was obsessed with Africa and always wanted to go on a safari
She thought she was a doctor in a former life and would often prescribe "cocktails"
She was fascinated by forensics
She loved Ralph Lauren clothing
She always and only wore Eternity perfume, every time I smell it I cry
She always stood when she ate
She could eat her body weight in lime sherbet (all 100 pounds of her)
She was a hard worker, she managed Musicland and Sam Goody in the mall for 25 years
She knew anything an everything about all kinds of music
Elton John and any smooth jazz were her favorite
Even though she worked full time she still made me breakfast every morning
She was an immaculate cleaner, her house was always spotless
She loved Pepsi, I have a picture of me with a bottle filled with the stuff
Her favorite breakfast was a can of Pepsi and a bowl of dry Shredded Wheat
She loved to eat ice but she had to let it "breathe" first
She would put a bag inside her garbage bag
She broke several teeth eating sour candy (another fave)
She was an amazing chef and always cooked like there were 500 people coming over
Her grandkids were her world! I know that Olivia loved her more than me...

Most of all she was my best friend! I miss her everyday and hope she knows that I love her "forever, forever".
Happy Birthday Mommy! I love you!!!

The Robinson Men

On Monday we went to the Robinson's new house for family dinner and Family Home Evening. We had a really good time. The kids were in heaven! The new house has a full size basketball court and full size pool. Too bad that it is winter and not summer! They did brave the cold, however, and play basketball for about 45 minutes before they were frozen. The picture is of the guys playing Harris's new favorite game Hungry Hippos. I bought it for him after his dentist appointment. He was so good getting his cleaning and (unfortunately) first filling. He did it all without sedation or gas! So he deserved a "prize". What handsome guys!

Trevor's Birthday

Today was my nephew, Trevor's, birthday. We had a great family birthday dinner at Jann's house.(as always) Yesterday he had a bowling party with his friends. Liv and Harris had a blast. Liv was winning until she dropped a bowling ball on her fingers. She couldn't bend them after that. But the best bowler of the afternoon was Ryan, Jann's 2 year old. He got 7 strikes! All the kids thought it was great, they would cheer like crazy for him. He was so proud of himself. It was cute. Anyway, Happy Birthday Trev! We love you!

Happy Halloween!!!

Tonight we went "trunk-or-treating" at Chet's parents' ward. There was a big ward party with dinner, games and then the "trunk-or-treat". I think that is the way to go. Fifty cars all in one place; no doorbells, no crossing busy streats, and you are done in like 20 minutes! The weather was amazing tonight. It was warm! I remember last Halloween it was snowing, so we nixed the "trick-or-treating" and watched Rudolph. Tonight when we were done Harris said, "this was the best "trick-or-treat" day ever!" I think he was right.

We also stopped by Jann's to "trick-or-treat". Harris-Zurg, Liv-Hermione, Ryan-elephant, Cami-Nancy Drew, and Trevor-football player.

Halloween bowling with Chrys and James.

"Trunk-or-Treating"

Yes, I dress up the animals.

Disney Bee and Princess Tiffany

The Johnson's and Rock Band

So tonight the fam went to the Johnson's for authentic Navajo Tacos and to play Rock Band. Jeff Johnson has been Chet's best friend since sophomore year in high school, and Whitney his wife is Navajo. Since Chet and I started dating in high school, I have also been friends with Jeff, he's the brother that I never had. I remember in high school there were times when Jeff and I would hang out while Chet was working. After hanging out a couple of times we had to tell people that we were brother and sister because there were several people that told Chet that I was cheating on him with his best friend! High school is sooo dramatic! Anyways, back to tonight, we had a great time! Whitney made authentic Navajo flat bread from scratch! She has to buy special flour in Salt Lake to make them. They were delicious. After we ate we played Rock Band. It took a while to get it set up because the guitar wouldn't sync with the game for some reason. We finally gave up on the guitar and just had drums and vocals. Harris wanted to play the guitar, even though it was broken, Liv sang along to Paramore and Chet played the drums. I was the designated picture taker, which I was fine with. When the kids had had their fill, Chet and Jeff played along to Thirty Seconds to Mars. Chet on vocals and Jeff on drums. It was HILARIOUS! I got some awesome video of Chet doing his best Jered Leto impression, but have been threatened to be cut off financially if I post it. I will post an awesome picture instead. Thanks for a fantastic night guys! Lets do it again soon.

FHE: Carving Pumpkins

Tonight for our Family Home Evening activity we carved pumpkins. This is always fun, because eventually Livvy cries because her pumpkin isn't perfect, Harris is more interested in watching The Great Pumpkin, and I break out in hives. (I'm allergic to pumpkins) But what would Halloween be without carving pumpkins?

Can you tell who is carved into the pumpkins?

Chet's Inaugural Post

So, Jaime pointed out to me that our URL is chetandjaime.blogspot.com and that there was some serious lack of chet. At first I thought she was swearing at me, but then I realized she meant she wanted me to add a little. So, keeping with the theme of this blog I will limit my posts to anecdotal updates on our regular family life. (I will save my other rantings about life, philosophy, religion and politics for my personal blog, soon to come of course)

Today, Harris and I had some father/son time while the girls went out and purchased a new sunday outfit for Liv.

Harris absolutely loves dinosaurs, he always has. His favorite books have always been fact books on dinosaurs. He likes stories (Dr. Suess etc.) but absoutely loves to sit and hear facts about all sorts of dinos. His favorite is a little known carnivorous biped named Coelophysis. Why exactly he has picked this as his favorite I don't know, but he always picks it out in the various dinosaur books we have. I wonder why he shuns the more "commercial" dinosaurs like T-rex and Stegosaurus and think this may indicated some sort of tendency to root for the underdog.

Anyway, Harris and I spent the majority of the morning reading various facts about dinosaurs and decided to spend the afternoon at one of Harris' favorite locations, "The North American Museum of Ancient Life". For those of you that don't know, this museum is a huge dinosaur museum in a local location called Thanksgiving Point. We did many cool things at the museum today; we ate lunch at their cafe (Harris had dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets), we viewed the various fossils, we spent some time in their erosion exhibit where Harris got the chance to play with sand and water, (see below)

and he also had the chance to "dig" for fossils in the fossil dig exhibit. (see below)

 
We had a great time. I love being able to spend some one-on-one time with the boy. (I am currently in the planning phase for a daddy/daughter date, more on that to come)
Once we finished up at the museum we weren't done yet. Thanksgiving Point is also hosting a seasonal attraction called, "Cornbelly's". Cornbelly's main attraction is a huge corn maze shaped like David Archuleta (awesome, I know) but also has lots of things for kids to do like this giant jumping pillow thing (see below)

And this crazy room chock full of popcorn kernels (again, see below)

Yip, an ocean of dried corn...

Anyway, by the end of the day (around 3 in the afternoon) Harris was exhausted. The problem was that we still hadn't done the actual maze yet (you know, the main attraction) and I was quite determined that we do it (heaven forbid I wouldn't get the chance to get lost somewhere in Archie's left nostril...). So, this final photo I offer to you was the reaction I got from Harris and will officially end this post, enjoy.