Adam surprised me with this video for our anniversary this year. It is a little long, but I love it!

Our "off track" trip to The Living Planet Aquarium

This is a picture of me, Jonah, & Chase on one of our field trips while Jonah was off track.

Tagged

I have been tagged by Jennifer. You are supposed to post the fourth picture from your fourth folder and explain it.



This picture was taken on our last cruise. For those of you who have not been on a cruise, they (the cruise line) find many reasons to randomly take pictures at every opportunity. Then they post ALL of them at a certain area on the ship where you can look at them and buy them if you want. This picture is a picture of a picture. We took it because the girl in the picture looks like Kelly from "The Office". I really wish it would've been a "Dwight" look alike.

I really don't know what the deal was with the pirate guy, I was kind of embarrassed for him because he had to go around from table to table at dinner time and take pictures with everyone at the tables. Mind you most of these people are adults who don't really care about "pirates", unless maybe it was Johnny Depp dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow. Anyways, he was going around making pirate noises, and talking like a pirate etc. I would've had a greater understanding had there been more children. But even then he was a pretty ghetto version of a "pirate".

I am now tagging: Amanda, Lisa, Debbie, & Eden. It's kind of fun to see what the fourth picture of the fourth folder is.

IT SNOWED!!!

Well, here are some pictures of Jonah playing in our first snow. We woke up this morning and it was completely white outside. I have to admit...I really love it. I get excited every time it snows like this. I know I am an adult and I'm supposed to not like snow, but the kid in me still gets giddy every time I see the first snow. I love Christmas time and this just gets me ready for it.

For anyone interested. I am now on Facebook. I have to admit, while I have been on my blogging strike, I have been there. So if you ever want to check there I have some updated pictures. But hope to be up to speed soon in my world of Journaling/Blogging.

I am officially done with cooking...

I will admit growing up I NEVER wanted to be domesticated. As I have gotten older I've really wanted to learn to cook...not just cook, but cook well. When we built our home I put a lot of time and effort into the kitchen, because someday I was going to cook and create some of the most delicious meals there. I was going to cook all of the time. Maybe I'm not patient enough, or maybe I'm just not meant to be in the kitchen. I don't really know. What I do know is this...The time and effort spent on deciding the meal, then going to the grocery store and making sure I have all of the items, then taking the time to prepare the meal (while trying to manage dealing with all the needs that the children inevitably have when I am in the kitchen)all of the work that goes into it is not worth what the results are. Which is mediocre to less than average food at best. So, mind you much time, thought, and effort has been put into this meal that is not edible in the end. I end up with a really messy kitchen, and a very hungry family. Not to mention the frustration and disappointment I feel. I really feel like cooking in my home does more harm then good. I am not a quitter, so I will not give up but I can't tell you how frustrated I am. I guess cooking class is my last option and final hope. Otherwise I will have to stick to the few items I do have down. Just thought I would share that.

Seattle

Adam & I went to Seattle a couple weekends ago with some friends to go watch a BYU football game. The guy's actually went to the game and the girls went shopping. We had a great time. We did go to a Yankee's/Mariner's game which was fun, and we visited Pike Street Market. I also got my fortune told out of one of those machines like on the movie "Big". It's amazing what you can find out for only .50 cents!

Jack Johnson Concert

So I did something completely out of character for me...I was spontaneous. Monday I realized Jack Johnson was in town for a concert. Normally I would've been bummed and figured it was too late to do anything about it. But this time instead I took action. It was probably after 2pm that I realized that he was here and so I hopped on the internet, made a few phone calls to make sure the concert wasn't sold out, found a babysitter (thank you so much Allie for helping me out, especially so last minute!!). I called my other "not so spontaneous" friend Natalie to commit to go with me (this is something so totally out of character for both of us). We showed up to the concert with no tickets. This may not seem like a big deal to most but for me it's HUGE. For me spontaneous doesn't happen unless I plan for it. So another milestone in my life has been reached and hopefully this experience will open my eyes to many other doors/windows of opportunity for change & growth...after this just about anything is possible! I am breaking barriers all over the place. The concert was totally fun and Jack Johnson was fantastic!!

In case you are wondering the butt shot was "my view" for a good chunk of the concert. Which was fine because we were so far away from the stage it really could've been anyone up there lip synching Jack Johnson's music. We were at the USANA amphitheater. We had a blanket on the lawn and just sat and listened to his music. It was a great night for an outdoor concert.

Go ,Go, Power Ranger!!

Ok, so Jonah LOVES the Power Rangers, especially the Red Power Ranger. So when we found out that "Rocky" one of the red power rangers was going to be at South Jordan Rec. Center teaching karate we were all over that!! We knew that this would be a dream come true for Jonah. And let me tell you it certainly was. He was so happy when he found out he could hardly wait. When he got home from it he was beaming!! He went around showing everyone his autographed picture of Rocky in his power ranger suit. To quote Jonah from about a year ago he said, " I wish there were power rangers in this town." Well, that Saturday there was. The only thing that could probably top this is finding out that Super Man was real.

Happy Birthday Corinne

This is my friend Corinne (the one who convinced me to run the Provo 1/2 Marathon with her and then ended up not running it!! =). This is she and I on her birthday taking at least 20 pictures trying to find one that didn't have a problem. Well...we couldn't find one, so these are the one's that I picked. She got this princess birthday cake...because the friend that gave it to her is a princess! I mean because she is a princess. I really think this may be my new favorite gift to give all of my friends on their birthdays. I found the cake at Target. I have never seen cakes like that before so hopefully they keep making them. I never found out if the cake tasted any good, but it was at least really cute.

We Did It!!!... (Provo Half Marathon)

Watch out Boston here we come!!!

Saturday, August 9th was the half marathon and I did it!!! I have to say I'm very proud of myself, and my cute friend Lisa who did the race with me. (Thank you Lisa! you are awesome!!) The race was a really great experience and I am so excited to do more of them. It did make me realize that I am okay to wait a little bit longer on running a full marathon. I will shoot for next year.
It was so fun to see Adam, Jonah, and Chase towards the finish line cheering me on. This really was truly a great experience mentally, physically, and spiritually. It made me realize how closely connected those things really are. That race helped me to see where I am at...and lets just say I have some room for improvement =) But I am excited to do it!

Burnt Cookies

This is the story of my life. I get trying to do too many things at once and the end result is burnt cookies!! Here I was so proud of myself because I was supposed to make cookies for our joint YW/YM boating activity tomorrow. I made them last night baked 2 pans and then refrigerated the dough to finish the next day. So I am trying to give Chase a bath, make lunch, start baking the cookies, get Chase dressed, answer the phone, help Jonah, check e-mail (yes, I recognize these are not complicated things, but for someone who struggles to multi-task it may as well be rocket science). I was doing so well I set the timer, checked the cookies when the timer went off, the cookies were not done so I would reset the timer...and that is where it gets me...those extra 2-3 minutes. Those extra 2-3 minutes is the difference between a perfect batch of cookies, and what I end up with which is very brown, crispy cookies, that nobody likes to eat except for Adam. So I burnt the last 2 pans of cookies. Now I will be purchasing store bought cookies (which is probably what I should've done in the first place...so much for being Betty Crocker!!) Once again my feeble attempts are thwarted of trying to multi-task. Why can't I just know that I must always FOCUS on the task at hand and then move on. FOCUS,finish, then move on, FOCUS,finish then move on. Instead I fool myself into believing this will be the time that I achieve accomplishing many things at once. I am Queen of "good intentions" but as my father would always say, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions". I'm not sure why he would say that. I only remember that he did. But it always made us laugh. We all know now where I am headed if thats true. I guess I will be able to tell Allie if in fact Kate really is "Cute as Hell" (refer to Allie's blog). Next time you catch me in the act of attempting to multi-task, simply remind me of these two words,"burnt cookies" Charlynne..."burnt cookies".

*For the record Allie I can already tell you she is much, much cuter than that!!

Chain Letter...Blog Style

So, I've created this blog for journaling, but I did this on my friends blog and it was kind of fun! If you're not into this kind of thing that's OK, I get it.The rules are: You leave a comment on here of a memory you have of me or my family. Big ones, small ones, what ever, doesn't matter. Then you post these instructions on your blog. If you leave a message for me I will assume that you are playing and I will leave a memory of you on your blog! So have at it....or not but I would love it if you did!

I copied the above literally (every word) from my friend Eden's blog. Thought it was fun...play or not, it's your choice. Except Eden there is no choice, you are already playing. You are actually the only one I am expecting to play...anyone else will be a pleasant surprise.

New Blog Backdrop

Ok, I am getting really frustrated. I see plenty of really cute blog backgrounds out there! and every time I find out what site to go to; I am sent on this endless maze of ridiculousness that leads me to nowhere...it just wastes lots of my time!!! and still no new blog background! So props & kudos and whatever else to all of you who are smarter then I, and have found some really darling blog backgrounds. I know it can't be that hard. I am obviously doing something wrong. I will just stick with my trailer trash, generic, blah, nothin' special blog and hope that you will still find it worth reading=) If anything it should make you feel better about how cute your blogs are. If any of you could offer enlightenment/help on the issue, I would really be so grateful!!

Father's Day

Sometimes you get discouraged
Because I am so small
And always leave my fingerprints
On furniture and walls.
But every day I’m growing -
I’ll be grown up some day
And all those tiny handprints
Will surely fade away.
So here’s a little handprint
Just so you can recall
Exactly how my fingers looked
When I was very small.

4th of July / Capture the Flag (or diaper)