If you are tearing your hair & your kids are wailing about having to practice, hang in there!!
Melissa is the Choir Director in her ward.
Dad & I were invited to their Christmas Program.
WOW! It was incredible & I can tell you it was because of Melissa. You could tell the choir loved singing for her & she loved directing them.
The first song they sang was Joy to the World & truly you felt joy as they sang - it was uplifting!
Every song was beautifully done!!
I'm just saying that all those piano & voice lessons paid off!!! Well done Melissa!!

New Business.... New webpage

I just finished my new webpage for Monkey Bars.  Take a look and tell me what you think.

www.monkeybarsonline.com

Color Test

Uncle Ted sent me this and I thought it was pretty funny.  They say it takes an average of 5 tries to get all of the questions right.  I did it in 3.  Tell us how well you did.

http://www.humorsphere.com/fun/8787/colortest.swf

Random Pictures

Rusty REFUSING to smile...

Garrett TRYING not to smile...

And Brent posing!

John Williams/Star Wars Tribute

We found this on youtube recently and our kids love it.  It must have taken forever to make it.

Funny Conversations

In the car...

Thomas:  Mom, there's a school bus!

Me:  Yep

Thomas:  Mom, it's a bus... like "Bus" Lightyear

While cooking dinner, clam chowder in bread bowls...

Thomas: What's that?

Me:  Bread bowls

Thomas:  Huh, it's bread bowls... like the Incredibles.  

Me:  What???

Thomas:  Bread bowls, like the Incredi"bowls"

I can't decide if he's really smart to piece together things that sound the same or if he just watches too many movies.

First Snow

We had our first snow tonight and could not resist throwing a few snowballs!!

Happy Halloween!

This year was so easy. We gathered costumes from our dress-up clothes and from DI. Rusty was superman for $4! Lindsay was a witch for $2! And Haylee was a blonde Snow White with a crown for $3! Come on, that's sweet! We went to our wards Trunk-or-Treat in the church parking lot. It was chili night so I volunteered to bring soup. I'm not a big chili fan. I brought Melissa's Cheeseburger soup and it was the most delicious thing out there! Although our kids ate hot dogs and drank A&W's root beer with dry ice. A couple in our ward who started the trunk-or-treat flyer warning "please no cross dressing!" (Sunny and Cher) came as Germans in little liederhosen and were hysterical. Our 2nd counselor also got my vote for best costume with his sumo wrestler blow-up costume. We didn't dress up. I appreciate those who do, but....yeah. The kids made their rounds and got a minimum of candy which was almost gone that night. Haylee ran around with her friends all night while Rusty kept sneaking off into the church to run around in the basketball court. Lindsay just hung out and was cute as can be. Russ and I visited with other couples and then we all went home and watched a movie. With our lights off! (No trick-or-treaters!) Happy times!

Article

Check out this article.  Mom and Melanie - our cookies are famous.  We should have made 300!  Just kidding.  I am still seeing them in my sleep.

http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/JaimeeRose/36871

After coming with me a couple of times to the chiropractor Thomas decided to fix Mike's back.  He made him lay down, he jumped on his back a few times, kept asking him how that felt, closely examined his neck and then got out his tools.  He said his name was Doctor Thomas.  He then proceeded to ask Mike if it was a 1 or a 2, a 2 or 3, 3 or J, J or purple.  It took us a minute to realize he was now imitating my optometrist.  I've decided I spend way too much time at doctor's offices.

Mindy's Other Girls Trip

Mindy took off again this weekend.

Click here to see what crazy thing she did.

Smarty Pants

We've been watching a lot of political news webcasts lately, can you tell?  

Turkey Trot Challenge

On November 27 I will be a 40 year old father of four.

But at least I will be running in the Turkey Trot.

What's your excuse???????

You have almost 3 months to get into race shape.

Mindy and I registered today. Paige and Kate are registered for the 2 mile fun run.

So.....

Go here to register: Mesa Turkey Trot registration

Or here for info: Turkey Trot Info

Below is a training schedule to get you to the race. Click on it to enlarge.


Of course we will excuse Dad, just like the past 20 years, but the rest of you have no excuse.

See you at the start!

Fang Update

The two bottom teeth have come in but the top . . . "I vant to suck your blood!"  

More Navoo Trip

More pictures because this was a great trip that everyone needs to do with their kids at some point.


This was our favorite part, pulling the handcarts. It was hot and the trail was actually hard. We crossed a stream three times and had some hills.



Then we started hitting all the main sites like the brick making factory.

The printing press

And of course the Black Smith who still passes out prairie diamonds. (horse nail rings)
The next day we watched some pagents...

...and played outside the restaurant.

We found the names of relatives who died on the trail to Salt Lake City. (This was a Moffat relative)
Then we ditched the kids for a temple session. When we came out there was a great rainstorm.
On the way back to Chicago I stopped by to see the triplets. They were beautiful, looked big and healthy and seemed to be in good hands.

We spent a day at the Natural History and Science Museum which was pretty cool.

The next day we caught the trains into the city and took a boat tour. Here we are getting on the "L".




Then we walked about 8 blocks to the world famous Garrett's popcorn which was a huge hit.

The next day we drove to Wisconsin and hung out on a lake which the kids loved.

And I finally got my Chicago Pizza in Wisconsin.

I vividly remember when I went there as a kid. It's not the easiest or cheapest trip, but well worth it. We are planning on going again in a few years when the boys are older.

Great Movie Line...

Out With The Old

My old blog is gone for good and it's never coming back. ever. So I'm starting over, click HERE for the new one.

Manta Ray Dive

Check out this link.  There is some video of what it looked like when Jeff and I did the Manta Ray dive in Hawaii!   The coolest thing I have ever done!

Click here!

Who are you?

Take the Quiz here!

PS. I totally disagree, I thought for sure I'd be Maryanne Daschwood. Whatever

Vampire Baby

Look close, can you see his fangs?

Dirt

Today he found dirt.  

Emerson found a pen

Random Stuff

This morning we were running late for church so Mike and I got the boys dressed and then quickly got ourselves dressed. In the middle of our frantic scurrying I saw Thomas and Emerson waiting patiently for us, playing together on the floor. CUTE!

We had a fun weekend, Friday we went to a baseball game with a bunch of Mike's co-workers. Thomas likes baseball.
Both boys did awesome and we lasted almost the entire game. Emerson wowed everyone with his ability to fall asleep amidst all the cheering.

At one point Thomas got a hold of my camera.

On Saturday Mike and I were one of the millions who saw the new Batman movie. Long and lots of violence but we both loved it! 

Today, Sunday, we had the missionaries over for dinner and by the time they left we had both had it with Thomas, he was being a little terror and got sent to his room. Mike left for a meeting and I completely forgot about him up there until about a half hour later. I peeked in his room and this is what I found. Poor guy was exhausted.

Grandma Omerza

I noticed that Melissa labels her posts for this blog so I went through my old posts and did the same. (Everyone else should too, BTW) I noticed it's been a while since anyone has blogged about memories so I expect everyone to do a follow-up post to this one. I think it'd be cool to hear what the older siblings remember. These are my memories of Grandma Omerza (a 4 year old perspective).

Grandma always had popcycles. Either homemade orange or the graham cracker kind. She could always perfectly break a graham cracker hot dog style thus turning it into a "popcycle"

I remember eating tuna fish sandwiches with her, and they were good.

Aunt Bertha moving in and having those bumps by her tear ducts and noticing grandma had them too. But aunt Bertha had buck teeth. Those two things made me like her.

Hiding behind grandma's wheelchair because Max was chasing me and Jessica.

Grandma could make a dinosaur out of her hand and I thought it was bad because her middle finger was out a little bit...

Grandma offered me jello at the hospital and I buried my head into mom because it looked gross and grandma looked different.

Jessica and I thought the funeral was cool because it was like Anne of Green Gables when Matthew died and the bench at the graveyard was bouncy.

Singing songs with Heather for Grandma.

The clothes line in the backyard.

The music box ("gosh oh golly, what do you think of that, a fat old lady sat upon my hat")

iphone 3G

Mom is the proud owner of this new phone! Looks like she's the winner!

Cousin Fun!

Am I prejudice or is the Thomas family producing some dang cute kids?   We got sticky decorating cookies and making candy!   Fun fun!