Dear Santa...

THAT'S HOT!

You may wonder what I do while I sit waiting for my boys to get done with their baseball practices...

Well, I read, or play games on my phone while sipping on a delicious salted caramel hot chocolate from QT.  YUM!

 

Ouch!

Head, meet concrete...concrete, Head.

OUCH!!

FANTASTIC 14!!

I can't believe my Tyger is 14 years old!!! 

He had his birthday dinner planned out for months...Bellagio's for a "big calzone".

"BIG" was an understatement...

They were

GIGANTIC!!

The only thing he asked for was BEATS headphones. 

He got them.

Spoiled child.  (haha!)

Oh, how I love this boy!  Happy 14th Ty!

Annual Relief Society Progressive Dinner

Tonight was our ward's annual Progressive Dinner.  I opened our home to serve the main course.  There were a lot of yummy soups and I think there was a pretty good turn-out. 

 

Music, Music, Music?

Treyson and Ty both had concerts tonight.  Treyson's was for strings and Ty's was for chorus.  The were both good.  And short.  No complaints here!

 

Sixteen Candles and Other Stuff

So...my baby turned SIXTEEN.

16

And I don't want to know whether it was sweet or not...although I'm leaning towards, um, not.

He wanted exactly 2 things for his birthday.

1-A CAR

2-AN IPHONE

I told him to go to plan B.

As it turns out, plan B through Z were exactly the same as plan A.

After much consideration, we were absolutely sure he wasn't going to get either.

What he did get was......

***Drum Roll Please***

 A brand new Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone!!

And from what I understand...it's BETTER than the iPhone!

I wasn't sure if he'd like it or not, but he did!  SCORE!!  I think he had a great day!

We took Tanner to sushi for his birthday dinner on Saturday, December 1st and took Treyson along as well because he never did get his birthday sushi.

I sure love these boys!

Tanner took his Drivers Test on the 4th, but had a little run-in with an orange cone...so....well, you can guess.

BUT...on the 5th he took it again and PASSED!!

We have another licensed driver in the house!!!  Woot Woot!

 

On the 8th was Winter Formal.  Tanner was asked by Sadie Johnson and he was pretty excited.  The Sophomore class was in charge of Winter Formal, so Tanner spent a lot of time at the school decorating the cafeteria and then had to be there after the dance to clean up.  It was a l-o-n-g day!

I think he had a good time though.

He's growing up way too fast.  Sniff, sniff.

150K

The good ol' burbie turned over 150,000 miles today!

Wow!!

Christmas Lights!

How to put Christmas lights up in the dark:

You wear a headlamp.

 

Family Christmas Photos

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was great this year!

We started the day at the Mesa city Turkey Trot.

Kevin and Tanner decided (the day before) to run the annual 10K.  I've never seen so many people in my entire life...

Tanner came in under 55 minutes and made his goal, and Kevin came in at 1:04.  Pretty good for not training at all, if you ask me. 

So, you're probably wondering about the girl...well, that's Sadie...and she likes my boy...and my boy likes her.  I don't like any of it, but what can I do?  He has to grow up...I guess.
Oh, and Tanner beat the Turkey!  Don't ask me how that guy ran a 10K in a full-on turkey costume, but he did, and everyone who beat him got a certificate.

 

It was great to have G&G Lewis down to celebrate with us!  We finished off the day with pie and multiple episodes of Downton Abbey.  It was a fantastic day!

Uuuuggggg....

So, in the process of trying to get some photo files off of the Internet, I unintentionally deleted every photo on my blog.

 

Who knew that deleting a Google+ file would remove my photos from Blogger?????????

 

Obviously I didn't.

 

So now I have to go through and manually re-enter all of the photos from my posts.  I am really thankful that I have books printed of my blog through 2011.  I think I will just re-insert all of the 2012 photos and start fresh from there.  You know, because I have tons and tons of extra time to be able to do that...

 

Uuuggggg.

First Date...Coming Soon

Tanner got asked to his very first school dance today. 

He was pretty excited and I cried.

Not really.

OK, maybe a little.

Anyway...his friend Sydney helped him put together some stuff to answer Sadie.

Winter Formal is on December 8th.

 

Veteran's Day Tournament

Ty's team played in the Veteran's Day tournament this year and did pretty well, although they were pretty upset about getting 2nd place after all of their hard work.  It was a fun weekend!

Technical Difficulties...

All of the photos have disappeared from my blog and I have no idea why...

 

Please stay tuned...

DRAMA!!

 

Ty had to take Drama this year as an elective.

He wasn't too happy about it.

However, we now have this gem to add to our library of hilarious family videos!! 

The sound is really bad, but listing to Tanner giggle as he is trying to video tape it is the best!!

 

Kevin and I weren't able to go, but Tanner said that Ty did really good.
He definitely makes us laugh all of the time!!

Post Election Funk...

I'm exhausted.

I haven't slept for the past few nights due to major anxiety surrounding the Presidential Election.

Last night, after watching the results, I tossed and turned all night.  I am in serious need of a nap right now.  I'm so very, very tired.

AND I'm in such a funk.

I attribute the funk to the fact that I was completely invested in this election.

I have been reading everything I could set my eyes on for the past 6 months.

I have talked to everyone I know about the issues I felt the strongest about.

I "tweeted" and "facebooked" oodles and oodles of information I found.

There wasn't any more I could have done.

But I still feel completely let down, and quite frankly, a bit in shock.

As Kevin and I were talking this morning, we both agreed that it's not necessarily the fact that Obama won a second term that upsets us most, (although it does upset us!) but the steep decline in moral and ethical attitudes of the American people.

Washington, Maryland, and Maine legalized same-sex marriage.  As of November 2012, six states— Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont—as well as the District of Columbia and two Native American tribes, have legalized same-sex marriage. In the November 2012 general election, voters approved ballot measures in Maine, Maryland and Washington to permit same-sex marriage in those states, but same-sex marriage will not be official until state election officials have certified the results.

Maryland and Rhode Island recognize same-sex marriages performed in other jurisdictions.

Colorado and Washington legalized the recreational use of marijuana.  Really?  Recreational use of marijuana??  I am curious if Obamacare (i.e. ME being taxed within an inch of my life) will pay for drug rehab for all the pot heads this will create?

 

Massachusetts actually voted on whether doctor assisted suicide should be legal.  Did you know it's already legal in Montana, Oregon, and Washington? 

 

Even though the Catholic church claims it is against abortion, over 50% of Catholics voted for Obama, and by voting for Obama they basically voted for Obamacare which includes funding abortions. 

 

On another note, New York has banned the sale of SODA over 16 oz. in their restaurants, street carts, and MOVIE THEATERS.  Excuse me? 

 

Did you know that in 2008, President Obama assigned a "Technology Czar" whose main function was to make sure that regulations were put in place to LIMIT THE VOLUME OF YOUR PERSONAL STEREOS, CAR SPEAKERS, IPODS, ETC????

Excuse me again??

(for a complete list you can find it here)

 

Did you know that President Obama has used his "Executive Order" 130 times during his first 4 years in office?  President George W. Bush used his 140 times in 8 years.

Factcheck.org says this:

Obama has been sidestepping Congress through his “We Can’t Wait” initiative, a series of executive actions that he claims benefit the middle class through infrastructure projects and economic policy changes.

He also skirted Senate approval in January when he appointed nominees to the National Labor Relations Board and to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The appointments were unprecedented because he made them when the Senate was technically not in recess, prompting legal challenges from conservative groups.

In June, the president halted deportations of illegal immigrants who entered the United States when they were children and met certain requirements, such as the lack of a criminal record. The change mirrored provisions of the DREAM Act — failed legislation that Obama supported and Senate Republicans blocked in 2010.

And in July, Obama changed welfare policy to allow states to modify work requirements if they test new approaches to increasing employment. Obama did not submit the policy change to Congress for review, which the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office concluded he should have done.

 

I have many friends (who happen to be teachers) who voted for Obama because they claimed that Romney didn't care about class sizes and would cut education budgets down to the quick. 

From factcheck.org:

Obama also claimed that Romney “cut education spending when you came into office.” That’s true, though it’s worth pointing out that the state faced a budget gap and the Democratic Legislature proposed cuts, too. Our colleagues at Politifact documented a similar Obama claim on this point.

 Romney actually proposed a modest increase in state (Massachusetts) K-12 spending categories and larger cuts elsewhere. The $248.7 million in education-specific cuts reflected primarily the work of the Democratic Legislature in a time of serious financial crisis that predated the governor.

He did not want to cut education spending...just wasteful education spending.

 

It concerns me, beyond measure, that the unemployment in our country is hovering around 9%...although depending on where you look, some numbers are as high as 19%.  Any way you look at it, however, it is too high.

 

I can't understand why people can't grasp the fact that if we don't MAKE anything in this country, we can't CREATE jobs.  Everything in our country revolves around the ECONOMY.  If the economy is healthy, then everything else follows. 

 

President Obama claims that manufacturing jobs have doubled since he took office.  That is not true.

Obama correctly states that manufacturing jobs have increased by more than half a million since hitting bottom, but he fails to mention that the number regained is less than half the total lost since he took office.  (factcheck.org)

The auto industry and failed bail out is also a travesty.  There are substantiated rumors that Chrysler/Jeep and looking to move their production to China.  C.H.I.N.A. 

 

Obama claimed that he was "going to war" on coal energy and oil.  He is more interested in developing "clean energy" than to use the resources we have HERE IN OUR COUNTRY.   Pennsylvania's main job provider is coal mining...

explain to me, then, why they would vote, overwhelmingly, for Obama?

 

 

  Here's what I have finally come to:

I did what I could.  I exercised my right to vote.  I love to be able to cast my ballot.  What an amazing freedom.

And through these past few days my testimony of my loving Heavenly Father has been strengthened.  My resolve to "prepare every needful thing" has been strengthened.  I know that when I live as I should, when I obey the commandments, and when I put all of my trust and faith in God I will be okay.  My family will be okay.  And God knows exactly what He's doing.
I love this quote:
"It isn’t as bad as you sometimes think it is. It all works out. Don’t worry. I say that to myself every morning. It will all work out. If you do your best, it will all work out. Put your trust in God, and move forward with faith and confidence in the future. The Lord will not forsake us. He will not forsake us. … If we will put our trust in Him, if we will pray to Him, if we will live worthy of His blessings, He will hear our prayers." - Gordon B. Hinckley

Happy Halloween

How Is October Almost Over????

I can't believe it's the 24th of October already...

The speed at which time is flying by is shocking to me.  I can't seem to get a handle on it.

I also can't believe how bad I've been at blogging lately.  I guess I just don't have anything to say, or at least not anything worthwhile.

The boys are insanely busy, which makes me insanely busy.  Between Kevin's work schedule, the boy's baseball practices, and Tanner's Student Counsel responsibilities, it seems like we are always running and none of us are ever in the same place at the same time. 

I have been really thankful, lately especially, for some really great friends who have been so helpful with giving rides, etc, to help me out.  I have found that it is truly impossible to be in 4 places at the exact same time, no matter how hard I try. 

So what exactly have I been up to?   Well, I have been obsessed (to put it mildly) with politics lately.  I can't seem to get enough information.  In fact, just a couple of minutes ago I watched Donald Trump offer President Barack Obama 

FIVE MILLION DOLLARS

 to the charity of his choice if he would offer up his college applications and his passport application.  FIVE MILLION DOLLARS to do something he should have done four years ago.

Heck, he can have my college and passport applications in exchange for FIVE MILLION DOLLARS payable to the Lewis Family Charity!!!!

I got giddy when I was filling out my early voting ballot.  It makes me happy to be able to VOTE!  What a wonderful privilege!

I'm excited, however, for the election to be over only for no other reason than getting rid of the horrible, viscous, and untrue t.v. advertisements.  The amount of slander and disrespect in this country seems to be at an all time high, and I am sick of seeing it every 15 minutes.  (That is, when I actually have time to watch t.v., which isn't very often.)

What else? 

The boys had their Fall Break from Oct 12-19th.  We basically just chilled out for a whole week!  It was fantastic!!  We did go see the movie "Here Comes The Boom", which was excellent, and we also watched a lot of movies at home.  Kevin took the boys to an ASU game but they ended up leaving before half time because ASU was getting massacred!  They came and picked me up and then we went to get a Bahama Bucks. 

On the 19th we went to our community's annual Fall Picnic.  It wasn't as good as years past, but we still had a good time...

until we couldn't find Tate...

for 45 minutes.

We finally had to send out all of our friends to look for him.

I had a smallish...or huge-ish (depending on who you ask) panic attack.

Ty FINALLY found him INSIDE the video game truck.

Don't ask me why he was INSIDE the truck, but he was.

Dang kid.

 

This week I have Treyson and Tate's Parent/Teacher conferences, and then this weekend is the big Halloween Scream Baseball Tournament.

Treyson plays in Peoria, Ty plays in north Mesa, and Tate plays at Big League Dreams in Gilbert.  They all play at the same times...not sure how we're going to do that, but as usual, we'll figure it out.

I'll post photos this weekend.

That's all for now...

Now on to my day!

Garden Take 2

Gonna give it one more try...

I guess time will tell!

Just Call Me "T.K."

So, my little baseball stud had a baseball tournament last weekend...he did great!  He told me that we should just call him "T.K." when he plays baseball...because, you see, it's his "baseball name".  He never ceases to make me laugh!

 

Their team ended up winning the 9U AAA Championship!! 

Way to go HALOS!! 

Oh...and "TK"!!!

 

Ty's team played this weekend, too, in Goodyear, and they ended up taking 2nd place in the 14U Majors division.

Homecoming 2012

 

 

 



 

HALOS

Treyson and Tate had their first club tournaments this weekend, and boy, was it BUSY!!

Tanner had a double header, Ty had a club practice, Treyson had two games, and Tate had two games.  We all left the house around 7:15 a.m. and didn't return home until 10:20 p.m. 

It was a super long day, but it was fun to watch the boys play with their new teams!

 

 

Happy 11th Treyson!

 

I Remember

11th Birthday List

This list was thrown at me as I lay in bed, then the thrower quickly ran away.

Thank goodness for a list...I wouldn't have ever thought to buy him "alot of candy" or a "liter of Dr Pepper". 

Can't believe my Treyson will be 11!!

"If I Was A Olyimpein" by Tate Lewis

Mission: Flat Bill

How to flatten the bill of your hat: by Treyson Lewis

 

Homemade Chinese Food

I'll admit, I'm not a huge fan of Chinese food...but, my family loves it so I thought I'd dust off the wok and give it a try!

Recipe:

1 bag of Chinese rice noodles

4 or 5 boneless/skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite sized pieces

3 or 4 carrots, cut on the diagonal

1 head of broccoli, cut into bite sized pieces

1/2 cup frozen peas

1/2 cup sliced mushrooms

4 eggs

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

Sauce:

Mix together

1/8 tsp Chinese Five Spice

1/4 tsp Rice Wine Vinegar

1/2 cup Yoshida sauce

1/2 cup soy sauce (light or low sodium is ok)

1 cup water

Directions:

Put rice noodles in a large bowl and cover with warm water.  Let sit 30-40 minutes. 

Add 1 tbsp oil to very hot wok, then stir fry the garlic and chicken until chicken is almost done.  Remove from wok and set aside. Add a but more oil and scramble the eggs in the hot wok.  Remove when done.

Adding a bit more oil if needed, let wok get hot and add the carrots, broccoli, peas, and mushrooms, and stir fry until slightly tender. 

Drain noodles--they should be softened. 

Add the noodles to the wok, along with the chicken and egg, and add sauce, stiring until everything is coated in the sauce.  Cook until veggies are done to your liking, and the chicken is completely cooked through.

Enjoy!

Labor Day Weekend 2012

On Thursday morning, Sara and I went to Utah on our annual Swiss Days trip!  We spent Thursday in Salt Lake City at the City Creek mall and enjoyed lunch at Kneaders. 

Friday was spent in Midway enjoying the Swiss Days festivities!  We had lunch with Bonnie, Rebecca, and Michelle, and when we finished in Midway, we headed down to SLC to visit with Murline and go to dinner with her.  We went to Layla where the company and the food were fabulous!

On Saturday we went to Dear Lizzie and then to have lunch at  Blue Lemon.  We shared fettuccine alfredo and a pannini...yummy!!   After lunch we headed back up to Salt Lake to go to a few boutiques and then it was time to head back to Phoenix.  It was such a fun trip and I'm already looking forward to next year!

 

 

Sunday morning, Tanner and I were up extra early to drive to Flagstaff to meet Kevin and the rest of the boys.  Ty's club team had their first tournament of the season this weekend and I was really excited to see Ty play!

They did so well, and Ty did exceptionally well with many RBI's, including a 3 run, 320 foot home run in one of his games!!  Awesome!!