Lilypie First Birthday tickers

Lilypie First Birthday tickers

Saturday, November 28, 2009

I am the Champion, my friends

Aug. 29, 2009
(I'm on the right in the green dress, you can't miss me)




In Mesa, AZ every Thanksgiving there is a 10K run held. It is the largest 10K in all of Arizona. You have the option of running either a 1 mile fun run, a 2 mile fun run or the 10K (in case you don't know that converts to 6.2 miles). On Thursday November 26th, 2009 I ran the 10K. I finished in 1 hour 27 minutes & 41 seconds.

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I ROCK!!!
(In case you can't tell, I'm the skinny girl in the hat!)

Friday, November 20, 2009

Our little football fan

This is a pretty cute "conversation" that Mark & Katy had a couple weeks ago.



And here's a picture of our little superfan!

Monday, November 2, 2009

Happy 6th month brithday Katy!







Happy 6th month birthday my sweet little Katy! I am so happy that you are my daughter & I am so blessed to have you in our family. Your sweetness and love add to everything we do & I cannot imagine not having you here!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!


The whole family


If you look closely you can see the snakes in my hair & that Mark isn't just "posing" he's frozen in place. We were Medusa & a man turned to stone. I think we pulled it off pretty well.


I thought about making my Katy-bug a lady bug for Halloween but the thought of the wings made me rethink that plan. Then I saw this ADORABLE flower costume & I knew it was perfect. The prettiest flower around!


Jay as black Spiderman (NOT Venom!) doing his best web-slinging pose!


Beautiful Lizzie as Cinderella. The costume was a little itchy that explains the white t-shirt underneath. Not sure how to explain the goofy side smile!

We had a blast at a couple different parties & trick or treating yielded PLENTY of candy for the kids. I almost can't wait for next year!

My mad chili making skills

My ward had a fall festival party on Friday the 30th & part of the festivities was a chili cook off. I am pretty confident in my skills as a cook but I am not so confident that I would KNOWINGLY sign up for a cook off of ANY type! However, I did sign up for this (I originally thought I was just signing up to bring chili for a potluck, I didn't realize until AFTER I had signed my name in pen that it was actually a cook off!). Well, I decided to really go all out. Even though it has been FOREVER since I made chili with the beans made from scratch I decided to do that this time. I soaked my beans overnight on Thursday & when I got up on Friday they had done what dry beans do and that is they absorbed the water and tripled in size! My ENTIRE crock pot was full! Thankfully I mentioned this to my friend Kym & she graciously said she would take some of them off my hands. After getting those beans (Literally HALF of them!) I started my beans cooking. I diced up some onion & minced some fresh garlic and put them on low with LOTS of water! When they were nice & tender I started browning and seasoning the ground beef (all 2.25 lbs of it!). I added my diced tomatoes & tomato sauce & some seasoning. I have recently discovered how much I enjoy the flavor of cumin but I went INCREDIBLY overboard while seasoning my chili with it. It was ALL I could taste! I called my mom & sister for some advice on what to do to make my chili taste like something OTHER than cumin & the "helpful" advice I got was to add a ton more garlic & chili powder. Well, I did, and wouldn't you know it? It worked! I gone THIRD prize out of around 20 different chilis! I was SO shocked & excited. I didn't get to have a whole bowl of my award winning chili but I still have a little leftover & I have had one request so far to make it when the family is all together for Thanksgiving this year. Anyway, here is a photo of me with my "trophy" and a close up of the trophy.