Caption Please

Let's play a game...what is Hal saying? The winner gets a prize.

For Grandparents, Aunts and Cousins (Uncles too)

Men's Health

A few facts:

First: So when Reza and I first started dating, he frequently referenced Men's Health. If you haven't had the pleasure of a conversation with Reza you will know he is a wealth of facts---about nearly everything. I used to try and fact check him, but I quickly realized he was usually right. While we like to joke that Men's Health is the other Bible in our house, it's a pretty good magazine and has good recipes.

Second: Reza is morally opposed to breakfast for dinner. I really enjoy breakfast for dinner, but I also like making food my husband likes. The other day while flipping through Men's Health I saw the recipe for "Huevos Rancheros" and knew that he would never NOT like a recipe from Men's Health--especially when it says it makes a good dinner in the description.

Third: We have a tradition in our home titled "Taco Tuesday". We (I) make tacos every tuesday--it's one of our best dinners of the week and the possiblities are endless.

Taking these three facts into account I tricked Reza into eating breakfast for dinner! Thank you Men's Health for publishing this recipe. (It was fabulous by the way).

Thankful

 

These two pretty much sum up the gratitude in my heart today.

Joy

Smitten

happy HAL-O-WEEN

I think it's clear he prefers Dole.

Photo Shoot Fail

So I didn't rotate all the pictures---rotate your head instead. Let's just say Hal decided to be a 6 month old and the cute monkey photo shoot was a fail.

Still mastering the art of sitting

creepy cat that has no tail

27

 

All I wanted for my birthday was to spend the day with my boys at the Pumpkin Patch. Besides the fact it was 89 degrees on October 11--it was perfect! Nothing like hay rides, slides, farm animals and pumpkins to make a day great. (I won't like I do miss Circle S, but Butler's Orchard was pretty good too). 

Now that I am 27 (one of my favorite numbers by the way) I felt I needed to do a little accounting. In the past 27 years I have:

been in school for 19 years

received 3 diplomas (UAHS, BYU, OSU)

been married once

had one baby

served a mission in the Philippines

visited 4 countries (Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, Philippines)

seen 26 temples

been inside 7 temples

technically owned 1 car-a 93 Camry purchased by my dad and gifted to me

lived in 2 states (Ohio and Utah) and 1 district (Washington)

Read the Book of Mormon a minimum of 25 times

Read the Old Testament cover to cover once

Rushed the field after 2 football games (State Championship 2000 and OSU vs ND 1996)

taught my Mom how to text

cracked one windshield

wrecked zero cars

had zero speeding tickets (and only a handful of parking tickets)

You get the idea.

All in all I am blessed and grateful for my life!

50 Miler.

Seven years ago, I received a phone call from a mission friend. He asked me if I would help him with his scouts 50 mile bike ride. We went out to the desert west of the Salt Lake Valley, I followed the boys in my truck as they rode on parts of the Pony Express trail.

Now it was my turn to take the boys in my scout troop on a 50 mile bike ride. We have been partnering with the Bethesda and Potomac wards for the cycling merit badge. Our adventure began by camping along the Potomac river, at Swains lock, in Potomac, MD. On Saturday morning we were joined by Elder Hardie of the 70 and Bishop Marriott, both members of the Potomac Ward, and active cyclists. The would lead us (15 young men and 6 leaders) from the campsite to the Washington DC LDS temple. From there we rode down Rock Creek Park (which I may add is beautiful this time of year). We stopped by the Lincoln Memorial to take the above photo, we turned around at a very windy Haines point. From the Lincoln Memorial we took the Capital Crescent trail back to the C&O tow path to our camp.

I would post the data from my garmin, I'm sure about 3 of you would find that interesting. I will say we set off at 9:30 am... 57 miles later... I finished about 30 minutes before the next scout/leader. All the boys and leaders were back safe by 5:15pm...

Three of the boys did the ride in jeans, I told them how impressed I was that they rode in jeans, one of the boys piped up and said "I did it in skinny jeans!".

203

Reza just raced an Olympic Distance triathlon on September 25. It was way too hot for being the end of September but he did an awesome job. We invite everyone we know to plan on doing it next week. We can rent a sweet house and have a great weekend at Smith Mountain Lake, VA.

Go Cougs.

I am still working on my sports photography. If you look closely you will see Reza.

What a finish!

Carnivore

Hal likes to put the entire head of his rubber ducky in his mouth. Silly boy.

The Pantry

It's a thing of beauty. We live closer to a grocery store, than you can park next to one. We have come to call it the pantry. Awesome, I went there twice today. We go there almost daily. Why keep a pantry stocked when you can just go across the street and get what ever you need. The produce is always fresh, and always there. We can buy fresh fruit and veg that we are going to eat right away. I love it, If I want some gummy bears after dinner, boom, 90 seconds later I have them. It's half time and I want chips and nacho cheese, boom, I'm back before the commercial break is over. One night, we had already sat down for dinner and I wanted some sweet chili sauce. I was there and back, and the food was still hot.

Couture Baby

Yes I bought jean diapers, and yes he's pretty much standing on his own.

Go Cougs

Over Labor Day weekend we took a whirlwind trip to Utah to watch BYU play Washington for their season opener. We also got to see our friends the Derr's, Hudson's, my brother Jacob, my Aunt/Uncle/Cousin and the Magleby's. We started the trip by leaving our home at 4 a.m. Saturday morning, and concluded it by walking back in our front door at midnight Monday. Hal was a TROOPER! The Cougar's won, and we got to eat Cafe Rio. Not a bad weekend. It was the first time I had been back since I graduated 3.5 years ago, I missed Provo and forgot how amazing it is to live right next to the mountains.

No Words

I mean HONESTLY! Look at that face. It's killing me. We went to the Nationals vs. Cardinals game on Saturday with Todd and Elaine. Yes, I know he is wearing a Phillie's outfit, but it's the only baseball thing he has, and he was going to out grow it and it game with a sweatband. (Thanks Hayley!)

Toys

Mohawk

Brown Bear

My mom made Hal his wonderful "Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?" quilt. It has all of the animals and the children in it. He also really like playing with his own brown bear and talks up a storm to it!

Friends

Lucky for me Claire (a friend since 6th grade) just moved to DC to do her residency at National Children's. We live down the street from each other and we get to see her about once a month! We love it.

Even more...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Typical Hal expression

Hal and his girls

Go ahead Kyle, make fun of the hat. I happen to love it.

My Boys

Hal sleeping with Farrah playing

Like the beach a bit more

Still not feeling it

Hal was less then impressed with the beach, Farrah however loved it

Hal's "California Grandma" and "Oldest-older cousin" (self-named titles) came to visit for a week. Farrah was a fabulous cousin. My favorite thing about them visiting was listening to Farrah talk to Hal---especially when we were in the car. She was so sweet with him, and a great little babysitter when I took a shower or ran across the street to the grocery store. We were quite busy the whole week---we spent a day at Rehoboth/Dewey Beach, DE, a day at Mount Vernon, saw Ramona & Beezus and played at Clemyjontri Park. It would have been perfect if it hadn't been so blasted HOT everyday!