Come What May and Love It!

Setting up the Christmas Tree

2011-12-29T18:27:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year, time to set up the Christmas tree!

Thanksgiving

2011-12-29T18:03:00.002-07:00

This year we had both our parents, Reagan, Dorian and Captain Jack (yellow lab) over for Thanksgiving dinner.

Sarival Ward Cultural Event

2011-12-29T17:22:00.002-07:00

In October, our ward's mission leader organized a fabulous cultural event for people to invite their friends and family to and experience different cultures through food samples, entertainment and browsing at different tables. It was amazing to see how many countries were represented from just our ward.

This was just a taste of some of the entertainment...

Elizabeth's 15th B-day

2011-12-29T17:07:00.002-07:00

Elizabeth really wanted a birthday party this year. Well, she really wants one every year. In our family you had a friend birthday party ever other year until you turned 12 years old. Well, Elizabeth has always had bad luck when she would have her friend party since her birthday always fell around Labor Day. So this year when she asked once again if she can have a birthday party, we decided to go ahead and let her and cross our fingers that this one will be a successful one for her. The only thing was she was in charge of the whole thing. Happy to say, she did a great job, she wanted a Japanese themed slumber party, she did all the decorations, dinner menu planning, games and even made cupcakes.

Skyler's 17th Birthday

2011-12-29T16:50:00.000-07:00

Skyler chose PeiWei for dinner and Swensen's for dessert this year. Yum! His birthday this year was full of his favorite things- video games of course!

New Shelves

2011-12-29T16:32:00.001-07:00

July project: The book shelves in my studio lab room were literally falling apart. My original plan was to buy a couple new sets. After looking at what it was going to cost to buy a couple new pair of decent book shelves, Rick said why don't we just build some shelves? This way it will last, give you more room and you can customize them how you want. What a great idea, so that's exactly what we did!

I forgot to take a before picture so here is a picture of the original shelves in the background of this picture during a group lesson...

Now the mess after everything was cleared off. Hard to believe all this fit on two book shelves!

No wonder they were falling apart!

Starting fresh...

Getting to work...

And we have new shelves!

Nicely organized I might add...

Utah

2011-12-29T14:31:00.001-07:00

This year Skyler and Elizabeth were going to go to BYU for Especially for Youth. So Rick and I had a week to do stuff on our own while they were having the time of their life at EFY.

First stop was staying in Las Vegas at Sam's Town for the night before arriving in Utah...

Visiting with friends... Here is me and Wendy Otteson, an old Tooele neighbor and friend.

Dropping the kids off at EFY, first getting through the long lines...

And they are off!

4th of July BBQ at Sid's...

Quite a few of our anniversary's were at Anniversary Inn. We decided it was a must do and stayed in the "Mysteries of Egypt" room...

Then it was LAGOON time. It's what FUN is!

Had to stop at Leatherby's for ice cream...

It was time to pick up the kids from their fantastic time at EFY so we stopped for breakfast before heading back to Nevada to spend the night.

View from our hotel room at Sam's Town..

It's all about the food...

We walked all the way from Nevada to Arizona and back! Whew!

Especially for Youth- Skyler

2011-12-29T13:53:00.003-07:00

Skyler stayed in the Budge Hall. His counselor's name was Taylor. His roommate was McKay.

Especially For Youth- Elizabeth

2011-12-29T13:37:00.000-07:00

This year Elizabeth and Skyler had the opportunity to attend EFY at BYU. Both Rick and I had attended EFY at BYU when we were teenagers and we wanted to make sure they had the EFY experience. The theme for 2011 was Believe. Hope. Endure. Elizabeth stayed at Taylor Hall, her counselor was Emily. The guys counselor in her group was Wesley.

Before EFY, Elizabeth had a chance to visit her friend, Jessica in Tooele...

Elizabeth took over 200 pictures at EFY. Here are just some highlights...

Girls Camp- "Gone Fishing"

2011-12-29T12:44:00.001-07:00

This year was Elizabeth's 4th year at Girl's camp. 4th years go off on their own and do the "dreaded" 4th year hike. And Elizabeth was really dreading it. However Elizabeth's hike sounded so much more fun then when I had my 4th year hike. They got to explore in a cave, go swimming in a lake, shooting, etc...

Her favorite thing to do was shooting. Her favorite gun was the AR15. She enjoyed the lake and got used to the water real fast after slipping in from a giant slippery rock. She got a little freaked out when the fishes in the lake were nibbling on her toes.

Her least favorite thing to do was gut fish. They had to catch, gut and then eat a fish. She didn't like that at all. Don't blame her at all.

Phoenix Comicon

2011-12-28T22:54:00.001-07:00

This was our first year to attend the Phoenix Comicon. Elizabeth and I were able to meet and have a picture taken with Adam Baldwin who plays Casey in the TV Show, "Chuck". That was fun. In addition we got to hear Bruce Boxleitner (Tron, Babylon 5, etc.), Robert Duncan McNeill (Star Trek Voyager and Producer of Chuck) and Leonard Nimoy (Star Trek) speak. Elizabeth was even able to ask Robert Duncan McNeill a question. (See video here: http://youtu.be/Mnl3o2p57oI) We saw lots of interesting people dressed up like interesting characters as well.

Guys Getaway

2011-12-28T16:22:00.000-07:00

Rick, his Dad and Skyler took a guys weekend in May to San Diego and visited the Mormon Battalion and USS Midway. They had a wonderful weekend spending time with each other.

Adult Prom- April 22, 2011

2011-12-28T13:40:00.000-07:00

With all the hard work that goes into decorating for Stake Prom, they want to make sure it is enjoyed as much as possible. So the night before they invite single and married adults to Adult Prom. I was so impressed how much detail went into the decorating. Definitely tops any HS prom I've ever gone to or seen. The dress I'm wearing is a dress that I haven't been able to fit in until now. Last time I wore it was for our 6th year anniversary date to the Symphony. That was back in 1998, 13 years ago!

We started our night out at The Allen's for dinner with several other couples in our ward.

Stake Prom- Skyler

2011-12-28T13:29:00.001-07:00

This year was Skyler's first year to the spring Stake Prom. On Saturday, April 23rd, Skyler double dated with his friend Joshua Scott. He took a girl named Allison. The decorations were amazing. The theme was Streets of New York. Better than any school prom I've ever seen! It is truly a blessing to have these stake proms for our teenagers. They started out their night at Josh's date, Brianna's house for dinner and then headed to the dance...

Spring Break- March 2011

2011-12-28T11:58:00.004-07:00

Word to the wise...
Disneyland+Spring break=
CROWDED!

Sarival Ward Campout

2011-12-28T11:36:00.000-07:00

March 11-12th was our Sarival Ward Campout. Elizabeth invited her cousin, Alena to come along. We didn't get much sleep. Ha! Ha!

Renaissance Festival

2011-12-28T11:26:00.004-07:00

On February 21st we took the kids to the Arizona Renaissance Festival. The last time we were there the kids were a lot younger.

Now that they were teenagers we thought they would enjoy it more this time around.

First stop TJ's for breakfast...

Waiting in the long line to get our tickets...

Let the jousting begin!

Silly pics...

Blog Catch Up Marathon

2011-12-28T10:48:00.001-07:00

I can't believe how much I missed this year so today is what I am calling the Blog Catch Up Marathon day! Everything that I missed this year but don't want to forget. Ready, set, BLOG...

Halloween Party

2011-10-30T16:28:00.003-07:00

Skyler and Elizabeth decided to do a Halloween party together this year. There was 16 kids that came and everyone seemed to have a great time. Inside the guys played video games, outside we had a laptop and a projector we borrowed projecting movies, later Rick escorted the group to the park across the street for a game (they needed lots of room), lots of socializing, goodies and later made Smores, announced costume contest and candy jar winners, sharing scary stories and funny jokes around the fire pit. Three of Elizabeth's friends that came are foreign exchange students from school. One is from Germany, one from Russia and another from Japan. This was the first time they ever tasted a smore. Her friend from Russia said it was good but very sweet.

Skyler made his costume with Elizabeth's help and was the Purple Masked Salesman from Zelda (videogame). Elizabeth wore my Queen of Hearts costume from a couple years ago at the last minute after her original plan(s) didn't work out.

Here are the pictures!

Julie Fulford's Wedding

2011-09-26T13:27:00.003-07:00

Julie and Jake were married at Graystone Mansion, which is a gorgeous park setting. Greystone Mansion has a fascinating history. It was originally built by an oil tycoon named Doheny in the early 1920s, for his son and his son's wife. The young couple had only lived in it for four months when the son was killed in a murder-suicide with his male assistant. Eventually the estate was purchased by the City of Beverly Hills. It is now a public park and the mansion is frequently used for filming movies and television shows such as Batman and Robin, SpiderMan III and most recently The Social Network.

The weather was perfect and Julie was a beautiful bride. It was great to see Rick's family, some who we haven't seen for years. Here are some pictures, wish I had more but we had to leave before the cake cutting to get back home...

Breakfast at Coco's before the wedding

Elizabeth with Aunt Sylvia

Turtle pond

Wedding Party making their reception entrance

Operation Disney Surprise

2011-09-26T13:08:00.002-07:00

I am sooooo behind in blogging so I thought I better post the latest before I get further behind. I'll have to catch up with the other "stuff" later.

This weekend we drove up to California to go to Rick's cousin, Julie's wedding. We decided that it would be fun to surprise the kids with a day at Disney the day before the wedding. So we left as soon as I was done teaching Thursday night. Got to the hotel around midnight. Rick and I packed the kids Disney shirts so they would have the appropriate clothing for the day. Rick and I had our Disney shirt on, I gave Skyler his Disney shirt to wear and then Rick asked Elizabeth that should wear a Disney shirt since we all had ours on. She said, I didn't pack mine and he said, well you are in luck we did! She thought that was weird but went ahead and changed into it.

To make this day a little more fun and different we decided to participate in what is called The Disney Challenge which is basically a scavenger hunt at Disneyland. We would be in the beginners group which meant that we had until noon to get all our answers in. I came up with our team name, The Fantastic Four and because we didn't have time to make t-shirts I made buttons for us to wear instead. So Rick then said to Elizabeth after she changed into her shirt that I had made matching buttons (now remember they still don't know what is going on). She said "Really?" (sarcastic tone- she still hasn't caught on at this point) and told us she was not going to wear it. He then said those who wear it gets one of these (handing out a Disneyland ticket). It was great! So we then explained that we were going to Disney and going on a scavenger hunt. Which was fun. We didn't win but we learned a lot of fun things about Disneyland in the process.

Here is pictures of our Disney Day...

Trying to decipher the Mayan language- hardest part of the scavenger hunt!

Craig our "Captain"

Now for playtime!

Entertainment in line- Rick learning how to braid...

Space Mountain was "haunted" out for Halloween. It was soooo fun!

19th Wedding Anniversary

2011-01-23T21:39:00.001-07:00

This year Rick and I decided to celebrate our 19th wedding anniversary in Las Vegas.

Our first stop was to go walk on the new Hoover Dam bridge. They have a pedestrian walk across the bridge that gives you an awesome view of the Hoover dam. While most people stopped halfway on the bridge to see the view, we walked the entire length of the bridge. On one side of the bridge was the Welcome to Nevada sign and on the other side was the Welcome to Arizona. So you can say we walked from Nevada to Arizona!

After we checked into our hotel, Excalibur we made reservations for dinner at "Top of the World" Restaurant on top of the Stratosphere. We had a VERY expensive 5 course meal (most expensive dinner we've ever had). The food was very good. I even tried some food I've never had before. I could cut my filet mignon with a steak it was so tender. Yum! We had an window seat with awesome view of all of Las Vegas. Did I mention this was a rotating restaurant? We even saw a few sky divers jump off the Stratosphere while we ate!

View from our window seat...

Excalibur Hotel

I've always wanted to take a Gondola ride at the Venetian hotel...

Bellagio Water Show

Rick surprised me with front row tickets to the Lion King!!!

We did have a little Vegas adventure while we were there, the story is best told in person with both of us telling "our side" so next time you see us be sure to ask about it. Let's just say it involved me running out of the car while Rick was driving (okay he was stopped - if you've driven on Vegas you know how bad the traffic is on the strip, stop and go, stop and go) in the middle of the Las Vegas strip. I'm sure the people behind us were wondering what on earth happened. Let's just say I was desperate!

Me and Sugar Free Blog

2011-01-23T21:25:00.000-07:00

So I started a new blog a few months ago (yep another one- this makes 4 blogs- yikes!) This one is about my new sugar free adventure. I only have two followers right now so if you want to follow me in my journey, be sure to check it out!

www.meandsugarfree.blogspot.com

Hope to see you there!

In case you are interested my other two blogs are piano blogs...

This one is my studio blog: www.FoxxPianoStudio.blogspot.com
The other is a teacher resource blog: www.FPSResources.wordpress.com

Oh RATS!

2011-01-22T12:26:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth REALLY wanted rats for Christmas this year. It's all she could talk about for months. We thought she was crazy but went ahead and gave her Christmas wish. I must say I learned a lot about rats lately and they tend to have a bad rap. They are actually very cute and friendly. The day after Christmas Elizabeth chose her two rats, both female. She named them Noel and Sparky.

Shadow is very curious about these new creatures...

Meet Noel... According to Elizabeth, Noel is a cuddly bug and she gives lots of kisses. She can be shy with new people. When she's by herself she'll explore, she likes shoulder rides and she likes to huddle in dark area's. She has auburn eyes, creamed color with a unique white mark on her face.

Can you find Noel in this picture?

Meet Sparky... She is the dominant of the pair. She likes to play with Noel. She also gives lots of kisses and likes to run around and prance on Elizabeth's bed. Sparky also likes shoulder rides and likes to explore but you have to keep a close on her because you never know where she's going to go.

Sparky and Noel all snuggled in...

Christmas

2011-01-22T11:34:00.003-07:00

We had a nice Christmas this year. Went to Rick's parents for Christmas Eve dinner and my parents for FHE and dessert.

Then Christmas morning we had Rick's parents over for breakfast and mine for dinner. It was an awesome couple days with family!

CHRISTMAS EVE

At the Foxx home...

Beautiful Mural Ethan painted...

At the Holdaway home...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Good Morning...

Swedish Pancake Breakfast- Yum!

Disney World Vacation

2011-01-17T22:44:00.001-07:00

This year over Fall break (October 8th-17th), we went on a Disney World Vacation in Florida. The kids are growing up and we wanted to have at least one more big Disney experience before they were off on their own. We went to Epcot, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studio's and Typhoon Lagoon water park. We took well over 500 pictures so I will just share a few to get a feel of our family fun.

Waiting in line at the airport to leave for Florida...

The Disney Magical Express, here we come!

Checking out our hotel room at Pop Century Resort!

Trying on hats...

And we can't forget the shuttle rides...
On one of the shuttle rides we had one shuttle driver when we were heading back to our hotel one night that was craaaazy! It was a wild ride to say the least. Probably the scariest ride of the whole trip!

ANIMAL KINGDOM

Look at the picture below carefully... do you see her?

MAGIC KINGDOM

HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS

EPCOT

DOWNTOWN DISNEY

RESTAURANTS

Tappan Edo

Coral Reef

Epcot- Fish and chips for Rick in Britain and croissants & dessert pastry in France for Jennifer

Whispering Canyon Cafe

Spirit of Aloha

Tony's Town Square

Garden Grill

Catching up...

2010-12-31T16:07:00.000-07:00

Yikes, I knew I was behind in my blogging but didn't realize I was this behind! Time to catch up!

AUGUST-
August began with Elizabeth getting her vaccinations for high school which she wasn't looking forward to at all (don't blame her). However she was pleasantly surprised that they weren't as bad as she had imagined.

August 7th I went off sugar and started my 90 day weight loss challenge with Lifetime Fitness (more on that later).

August 9th was the first day of high school for Elizabeth- yikes! And then Skyler joined her the next day for the first day back to school.

Then on the 28th we celebrated Elizabeth's 14th birthday! Hard to believe! My youngest is in High School now!

SEPTEMBER-
Elizabeth and Skyler went to their first convention, Laughing Moon. It was held at the high school and put on my their English teacher who is a published author of Laughing Moon, a fantasy book.

September ended with Super Saturday where I traditionally take advantage and make Christmas gifts for my family.

OCTOBER-
October was a fun filled month that deserves it's own post. We went to Disneyworld! I will be posting on that next!

On Halloween morning the Primary had their Primary program. I am the primary chorister and received this calling a year ago just missing the last program, so this was my first program to prepare. I decided from the beginning I wasn't going to stress about it. That regardless the kids will do great in the end so there really is no need to. And that's exactly what happened. The kids sounded like angels and did a great job on their program. Now I just have to remember to tell myself not to stress about things more often!

As you know, Halloween was on a Sunday this year so we went to Trunk or Treat the night before. Elizabeth dressed up like a glow stick man, it was soooo awesome! Skyler was a scary dude. Even though Halloween was on Sunday, our yard is always decked out with Halloween decorations (for my yearly Halloween piano festival) so we get quite a few trick or treaters. Well, I couldn't risk getting "tricked" this year so Elizabeth, Skyler and I took turns to pass out some candy.

November-
November 4th was my weigh in day for the 90 day weight loss challenge of which I met my goal dead on losing 20lbs. I did this by going of sugar (except breads), doing lots of Zumba classes each week and just most recently started boxing. (more below) Since then I have lost an additional 5lbs. I also started a new blog: www.meandsugarfree.blogspot.com to journal my no sugar progress. Now onto my next 25lbs...

In November I also joined another gym, LA Fitness in addition to being a member at Lifetime. Yes, you may say why on earth would any sane person do this? Well, my answer is simple. I wanted to box, not just kickbox where it's all cardio, but join a boxing class where I can actually hit something. And while Lifetime did have something I could sign up for that would satisfy my desire, it would have cost triple+ the amount extra then to just join a gym that already had that class included. So there you go, perfectly sane after all.

This month Skyler and Elizabeth had a youth conference the stake put on. They seemed to enjoy it.

Thanksgiving was at my parent's house this year. Rick's parents went to Ethan's family for Thanksgiving. We gathered together with all my siblings and their spouses and kids.

DECEMBER-
December started off with Elizabeth's dance concert. This year for one of her HS electives, Elizabeth took dance. She did a wonderful job of course!

The rest of this month was the stake nativity, temple lights with the YM/YW, Skyler volunteering for 8 years at Desert Industries, Music at the Mall with my students, breakfasts and lunch with friends, helping and supporting friends, making Swedish nuts for friends, and celebrating the most important time of year with family, Christmas. This also deserves a separate post.

Well, I think I got everything caught up now. So on to some posts that deserve their own spotlight. 2010 has been a blessing for our family, we are looking forward to what 2011 will bring. Happy New Year!

Skyler's Awesome Video Game Cake

2010-07-24T10:35:00.007-07:00

Okay, so I said on my last post on Skyler's party that I would post more pictures of Skyler's cake. It deserves to have it's own post. By the way everything but the PS2box is edible!

My good friend, Vanessa made this cake, she asked me what video game systems he had and designed it based on that. Skyler shared he would like a chocolate and peanut butter cake for his birthday. Yum! For details on how she did everything and pictures from the ground up, go to her blog. Here is a direct link:
http://sewcakemake.blogspot.com/2010/07/wii-love-cake.html

Surprise Skyler!

2010-07-24T09:50:00.010-07:00

Skyler turned the big 16 on July 22nd. We threw him a Surprise Party the next night with a Mobile Game party, a video game trailer that comes to your house. The kids go inside and play video games for 2 hours. Perfect for a bunch of teenagers who love video games! We had some late stragglers so the "Surprise" was with the few that were on time...

Time to leave the trailer...

Cake and Ice Cream time... I knew when we were planning on having Skyler's party that I would have my good friend Vanessa making his cake. I asked Skyler if he wanted a cake for his birthday casually (remember the party was a surprise) and he said sure so I asked him what flavor and he said how about chocolate and peanut butter. Luckily we ended up going to Swensen's for dessert on his b-day night so I didn't have to worry about making a cake. I told Vanessa I would like a video game themed cake and beyond that was up to her. I am going to do a complete separate blog post on this cake because it turned out unbelievably good! She has such a magic touch, if you ever need a cake for any occasion she's the one to call! I know you are just dying to see it so here's one picture (I'll share close ups of everything on the seperate blog post).

Isn't that amazing? I couldn't have dreamed up anything better!

The last hour was cake and ice cream, socializing and more video games..

"Be Strong, Be Courageous, Be All That You Can Be"

2010-07-04T15:38:00.022-07:00

Elizabeth just returned from Girl's Camp at Camp Mokui. She was there from June
28th-July 2nd. The theme of this years camp is the title of this post. They each got a camp "army" t-shirt with dog tags and everyday had it's own theme as well.

Day 1- "Basic Training: Growing stronger through the basics of The Gospel"
The morning started at 7:00am bright and early to check in and receive their camp shirts, dog tag and a sack of "rations". When arriving at camp, they saw that none of their tents were set up. So the awesome Sarival ward girls bucked up and helped all the other girls from different wards set up their huge army tent before they set theirs up. Now these were not regular camping tents, they were big, heavy army tents so it was quite the workout. When it was finally their turn to set up their tent, they found out that they were left with a funny red circus type canopy tent. Without any outside help from the others, they set it up. Easier to set up, but oh the RED! It gave them quite a headache you can imagine. Way to go Sarival girls to grow stronger in the basics of the Gospel through service!

Day 2- "Battle Strategies: When the going gets tough..."
Rappelling day! Elizabeth had the opportunity to rappell last year but her fear took over and didn't do it. This year however, she was strong and courageous and decided to try it out and she survived! Yeah! This was a great experience for the girls to teach them to trust in others and in your safety. Jesus Christ is our ultimate "safety" who will always be there for us when we need him. So even though Elizabeth was a little scared she trusted that she would be alright. If you ask her would she do it again, she would say "YES!"

Day 3- "Combat Gear: Putting on your Armor of God"
The morning started off with some archery. Elizabeth even hit the target on one of her shots. Go Elizabeth!

That afternoon the girls had a service project, re-painting the picnic tables in the area...

Day 4- "Fulfilling our potential: Be All You Can Be"
Camp is more than halfway through. Today was hiking day! Nature, horny toads ("Jub Jub") and more to enjoy. Skits and Testimony meeting to end the day...

Day 5- "Fall Out, Go Home, Be All You Can Be"

Time to Blossom

2010-06-24T14:53:00.025-07:00

June 14-18th Elizabeth had the opportunity this year to go to a Young Women's conference at the Hilton Hotel in Mesa, Time to Blossom. This was their first year putting on this event and it was a great experience for all the girls who went. They had over 250 girls attend from all over the valley (many from Mesa and Gilbert), some from out of state and even a couple from out of the country! Even though there were several girls from our ward going, Elizabeth opted to room with girls she didn't know so she could meet and bond with new friends, and that she did.

Elizabeth's favorite speakers were John Bytheway (she said he was hilarious) and Vivian Cline. In addition to listening to wonderful speakers, Elizabeth was in a fashion show, enjoyed the dances, made some dolls for children in Africa, made new friends and had an absolute blast!

Now for the fun pics!

Leaving home and arriving to the Hilton...

Meeting her counselor, Stacia

Elizabeth was the first of her roomies to arrive. Check out the view from her balcony!

New friends and fun...

Last day farewells...

Happy Birthday Edward Cullen

2010-06-11T18:09:00.017-07:00

Tomorrow, June 12th is Edward Cullen's birthday. If you have to ask who Edward is, then you obviously haven't read any of the Twilight saga books. ;) Last night Elizabeth and I were invited to "Edward's Party" to gear up for the upcoming movie, Eclipse. My friend Vanessa and her daughter Madison, both big fans of the series put on this party and when Vanessa puts a party together you know it's going to be good! She is so creative!!!

Everyone was assigned a character from the movie, we were asked to bring a dish for the Italian dinner and also bring a dozen goodies that represented our character to go in the goodie bags to take home. Elizabeth and I had Jacob as our character so we brought meatballs for the Italian dinner and made Werewolf Munchies and wolf necklaces for our giveaway. It was so much fun to see what everyone came up with. You should have seen the dessert (well, actually you will...) it was unbelievable!

We played a couple games, a trivia game and Twingo (aka Bingo). Elizabeth won a sweatshirt with black out for Twingo.

Check it all out!!!

Elizabeth's 8th Grade Promotion Ceremony

2010-06-11T17:40:00.011-07:00

It's hard to believe our youngest is moving on to high school this next year. On June 1st Elizabeth graduated from 8th grade. She looked beautiful and we are so proud of her and all her accomplishments over the years. Look out Desert Edge High, here she comes!

With the graduate...