Turkey Time!!!!!!

For Family Home Evening last week we had our first annual Turkey Off! It was a ton of fun.

It was my week for the lesson, so I decided (in honor of the holiday this month) to have a lesson on gratitude and President Monson's talk from General Conference, Finding Joy in the Journey. I loved hearing this talk when he first gave it at conference, and it was equally great to study this talk again for Family Home Evening. President Thomas S. Monson truly is a prophet of God. One quote from his talk that we loved and wanted to share is the following:

"Said one well-known author: “Both abundance and lack [of abundance] exist simultaneously in our lives, as parallel realities. It is always our conscious choice which secret garden we will tend . . . when we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that’s present—love, health, family, friends, work, the joys of nature, and personal pursuits that bring us [happiness]—the wasteland of illusion falls away and we experience heaven on earth.”"

This quote helps me realize that even though bad stuff will happen in my life, if I focus on the positive and remember to be thankful for my blessings, I can still be happy. I am really grateful for that and for the joy we can experience here on earth.

And speaking of joy...after our lesson we had some joyful activities going on. heehee We decided to have a TURKEY OFF for our fun family activity and we went into separate rooms to secretly create our own "gratitude turkeys." Which are now up for public vote. So.....without further ado, PLEASE cast your vote as to which gratitude turkey is the WINNER of the first annual FOOTE FAMILY TURKEY OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Which turkey do you think is the BEST???

VOTE NOW!!!

DO IT!!!

We know ...it's hard to choose because they all 3 look so amazing.

Vote for your favorite. :)

All the cool kids are doing it.

Number 1 (this is a tracing of Sarah's cute little hand, not an easy feat I might add)

Number 2

Number 2 (cool view of beak . . . not too shabby eh? Not that I am trying to sway the vote)

Number 3 (I would like you all to know that this is hand drawn, not printed or purchased, can we say skills? I think so)

As I said, it is not going to be an easy choice, so think it through and choose wisely.

Now it is up to you, the voting public. So let's get out the vote!

Danny Gans - Las Vegas' Entertainer of the Year

So, in case you couldn't tell from the title of this post . . . Tyler took me to Phantom as he promised he would for our anniversary. . . or maybe not. . . but I am still hoping :)


Actually, we went and saw Danny Gans for a fun date night. It was awesome!!!


Danny Gans has got some mad skills with his impersonations. We both really liked his Frank Sinatra, John Mayer, and Michael Buble. He was way good, and he sounded completely different from one song to the next. It was impressive!!! He even did a pretty good Jeff Foxworthy and Bill Cosby.


We totally got hooked up with these tickets (which was nice, and why we felt comfortable splurging on a Shirley Temple . . . which was good . . . ) thanks to my awesome husband! Free tickets are a very nice thing, let's just say, in Tyler's words "we know a guy who knows a guy" or something like that. Anyway the show was totally fun.

Not only did we get some free tickets we got to sit in the box at the back of the theater. It was totally awesome! We were lucky for once! (honestly we have really bad luck a lot of the time, we just have to laugh at the bad stuff that happens!) But this time we totally lucked out, we got this little room thing in the back with actual chairs and LEG ROOM and a little table for our drink, and it was SOOOO NICE! It made the show that much better.

Thank you Mom and Dad for watching Sarah so last minute for us!!!!!

Anyway, if you are in town and looking for a great show, Danny Gans is not a bad way to go! But he is only here until November, and then who knows what he is doing.





This is the view from our awesome box seats!!!!!






This is me enjoying the box, pretty good eh? Tyler thinks we should try to buy the wallpaper from them when they close in November! I am thinking not.







Tyler told me to write that he is showing just how big our box was . . . but in fact, he is doing the YMCA and mocking about 300 drunk people!!! haha!!!






I couldn't post about Danny Gans without posting this picture of the ugliest shoes in the world. When Tyler was in line for our beverage he saw these shoes and let's just say I am glad his phone has a camera.

Who you gonna call . . . The Exterminators!!!

So pretty much our house has . . . or rather had an infestation of bugs. Now we did not have the typical bug problem you might expect, I know you are thinking gross, cockroaches, or ants, or maybe termites, maybe hornets, or wasps, or even the dreaded killer bee! But no, we had a malady of a different, some might say luckier (according to Mulan anyway) we had a colony of crickets making themselves at home in our home.

I know what you are thinking, crickets couldn't be all that bad, they are nice little bugs and quite cute (again, reference Mulan) and their chirping is actually quite calming. I would agree with this statement, we actually have an alarm clock that has soothing sounds and one of them includes cricket noises. I agree that crickets are great for camping, and ambiance, but up close and personal they are little beasts!

I don't know how many of you have had truely close encounters with crickets, but they are actually grosser than you would expect. They get into EVERYTHING first of all, and show up when you least expect. For example, you are looking forward to a tasty bowl of shredded wheat in the morning (alright actually I eat Captain Crunch, I just wanted to try and sound grown up)you open up the cupboard and grab a bowl, when all of the sudden a cricket leaps from the bowl onto the counter! You grab a paper towel to smash it with and he dives to the floor!!! You don't have shoes on so you are still depending on the paper towel as your primary weapon and barrier! You strike, he eludes, you attack again and get him! GROSSSSS!!!! Now you have smahsed cricket all over the floor and you have to clean it up! How tasty is that Captain Crunch sounding about now? Not very, I can tell you from experience! Not to mention you now feel like every dish you have is unsanitary, as well as the counter, and especially the floor where your little girl is going to be crawling.

I have stared them down many times when I try to go to the bathroom, and let me tell you they hold their ground! Not only that they are fast, you try to smash 'em and they jump away and under a couch, or behind the cabinets, under the fridge, or into your DIAPER BAG!!!! Not only that, we now know that crickets can climb walls!!! Did you know that!?!?!?! Like little spiders! I walked into our guest room and there was one hanging from the ceiling!!! I took a picture with my iphone for evidence of the devilish abilities!!!!





So to put aside your doubts - YES it is a big deal to have a cricket infestation! That is why we called the exterminator! Thanks Preventive Pest Control! You guys rock!! We are now cricket free, and will hopefully be bug free for a long time!!! Yipee!!! WooHoo!!!!

The Lazy Days of Summer (at least as far as posting is concerned)

You may have noticed that our blog has not changed much in the past . . . uh . . . about 2 months!!! Yikes! That is awful I know, and I apologize for not keeping everyone posted on what we have been up to, which has been a lot!
So in the last two months since we posted we have done some awesome things -

We have traveled the globe (Particularly the Philadelphia, California, Utah, and Portugal areas of the globe).

We picked up my younger brother, John, from his full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints (see the last link on the sidebar) and traveled Portugal for a week (including an overnight stay in a castle!) It was awesome.


My younger brother had not seen Sarah in person yet, and it turns out that Sarah really loved John right from the first moment they met. (I think John might like her too . . . she is pretty likeable you know!)


I'm so proud of him and so glad he's home!





We also had a nearly full day layover in the City of Brotherly Love and saw some cool sights and ate some great Cheese steak!

This is the real deal. Yum!



We went to a really fun Brown Family Reunion in Utah (for the Foote side of the family ha ha I have to clarify because we have two different Brown Family reunions, one on my mom's side and one on Tyler's Grandma's side, but don't worry we aren't cousins - we won't have deformed kids :) the geneology has been done on this!)


This is Sarah on the Fourth of July at the ranch. For Sarah, crinkled nose=REALLY happy. :) She really loves the ranch.


My Cowboy :) ~Too bad he forgot his hat!

Sarah has decided to start eating food - not baby food, but anything WE are eating. (She thinks she's grown up.) She also started crawling, pulling herself up, cruising, and...drum roll please....she can say mama and dada!!! But she doesn't say it all the time, she's only said it a few times, but VERY clearly, but I am excited anyway!


Her smile says it all. She likes REAL food!


She LOVES watermelon!


She's "cruisin."


We have been to the lake a handful of times (always fun).


Here is Sarah enjoying some sun.


And here she is after a fun filled day of sun.

We also traveled to Southern California for my Grandpa Sandy's funeral. This was not a sad funeral but a beautiful celebration of an amazing life! He was an amazing man and grandpa, and I am grateful to know that I will see him again someday.


This is Grammie and Grandpa Sandy at our wedding with my parents and us. We miss you Grandpa Sandy! And we love you very much Grammie.

Sarah also went to the beach and to Disneyland for the first time. She loved both of them, of course, she has great taste like her mama! hehe


Sarah--excited to start the day at Disneyland.



Getting some rays.


Mr. Muscles


Me and my girl!


We celebrated my 24th birthday (since it was 08/08/08, Tyler had to work all day, so luckily my family was around to celebrate it with me). Thanks guys! We celebrated my sister, Stephanie's birthday, too, and enjoyed throwing her a baby shower. I am so excited to have another nephew soon!

Tyler and I also got to celebrate our 3 year anniversary! We had a pretty good time, but watched the least romantic movie on the planet for our date (Batman - The Dark Knight - It was dark and not romantic--Lame for an anniversary, but it was still nice to spend time with my hubby. We did go to PF Chang's for a really tasty dinner, and I loved spending time with Tyler! :) I want to give special thanks to my family for watching Sarah so we could go out.
We might try to go to Phantom of the Opera to do a make up Birthday/Anniversary celebration sometime soon too. I'm excited if we do.



I am so grateful I am married to this man for eternity! It's been a wonderful 3 years. I love you, Tyler!

I will try to do better about posting! ;)

And, for all the family reading this that I got to see this summer, I loved being with you. Thanks for helping make my summer awesome! Love you!

Cruisin' smart

So you might have read the post below and thought that our bikes are pretty cool. But recently we purchased a cooler form of transportation. Yes, that is right . . . the Foote Family purchased a smart car!!! We love it!!!


It is not quite as economical as the bike . . . but it is pretty close! It gets 47 mpg (take that $4.25 per gallon) and can go up to 90 miles per hour (no joke . . . it really can) and it is really cute and small!!! Not only that, but also it can park practically anywhere very easily. In fact, I parallel parked it perpendicularly today! I just got out smiling because parking never felt so good. The truck I parked next to was actually sticking out farther than me!!! I love it!!!!

The one down side to the smart: it only seats two people . . . and we can't put a car seat in it . . . so Tyler gets to drive it :( I guess that is an upside for him . . . and it will be a fun date car for us.

There is currently an 18 month waiting list at all of the smart dealers, and we just decided to get one for sure on Friday. 'How did we get one then?' you ask. Autotrader.com hooked a brother and a sister up! Friday around noon Tyler called me and asked if I wanted to drive to California for our date night to buy a car. (We have been looking at getting a second car and had discussed the possibility of getting a smart to go along with Tyler's other business idea, but thought we were at least a month away from buying one until Friday at noon when he found this beauty!) So we drove to Cali and bought a car . . . we are now broke, but we got a cool car, and if necessary we can sell it pretty easily . . . we think :) So if anyone is looking to buy a smart car we will review all offers, however I am kind of attached to it already.



Here are a few photos:

Yeah, I pretty much love it.

Look how good my husband looks with a sweet baby and a sweet car!

As you can tell Tyler likes the car too!

What a good looking picture . . . good looking baby . . . good looking man . . . good looking car . . . good looking house . . . man I'm lucky!!!

Look out Lance Armstrong here we come!!!

So we got some bikes recently and they are AWESOME!!!! I got Katie a bike and a trailer for Mother's Day and I got a bike for graduation (thanks Mom and Dad and Katie) and we haven't looked back. Katie's bike is a cross between a mountain bike and a beach cruiser, it is pretty fancy and a nice smooth ride. I got a road bike, it is pretty sweet let me tell you.


We love to go for bike rides, even though last night was really hot! (We went at like 8:30 at night and it was still like 95 degrees!!!! ) Why do we live in such a hot place?!?!? But it was really fun still, and once we were moving it wasn't crazy hot, just super hot. Anyway, we love our bikes and Sarah loves riding in her little trailer. She is way cute in it. So that is our new thing to do together as a family, so if anyone here in town would like to join us just give us a ring.




Here is a picture of all of us as we started our ride! You can see Sarah chillin' in the trialer. Thank goodness for tailgates and camera timers (and patient wives and daughters . . . this was try number 4)

I have been riding with my Dad and brother Jason as well (thanks for the shirt guys) so we are really getting into this biking thing. We actually rode all the way to the chapel and back one morning (there were still a lot of party goers out at 5:30 am) and it was an awesome ride . . . 19 miles round trip. We are planning on doing the loop at Red Rock, we tried it years ago and we got whooped by the trail, but this time I think we will be ready.


Sarah really loves bikerides!


Here is what the trialer looks like. Which we got a great deal on by the way. It was the display model at Costco (no assembly . . . woohoo ) and it was marked down by $40 since it was the display, talk about a double bonus!

More pictures of Sarah

So we have been a little busy so we have not posted too many pictures of our little girl lately. So here are some of the long overdue photos of our little sweetie. She is so great, she is starting to do all kinds of fun stuff I have been waiting for. She is smiling, laughing, rolling over, playing, trying to walk, all kinds of fun stuff. Being a parent is awesome!!

These are two of my all time favorite pictures of Sarah, she will usually not smile at me when I have the camera, but this day she did. What a cutie!

Then mom decided to give her a little kiss . . . you can see how she felt about this. . . Katie claims that this is the face of pure contentment . . .

This is Sarah in her awesome pajamas, I love the little feet on the bottom, she didn't like that part quite as much as we did. She loves to rub her feet together ALL the time, and these got in the way a little. But dang she looks cute.

So . . . Sarah has a hard time with enjoying food, we had many failed attempts before this moment (and even more since) and those failed attempts had left us without a clean bib . . . so . . . we just got her ready for her bath for easier clean-up. Pretty smart if you ask me . . . I am thinking about trying it . . . or not. Anyway she still won't take solid foods, we don;t know what got into her this day, (other than the carrots) but man we wish she would eat.

So Sarah likes to squish her head into stuff while she sleeps. most mornings when we get her from her crib she has crept all the way up to the end of the crib and her face is smashed into the bumper, well she did the same on the couch. Just a few minutes after we put her down (don't worry we were watchnig her, we wouldn't let her roll off, I know some of you were worried about that) Anyway, here she is fast asleep... guess we made her sleep in her small basinet too long :)

Here are a couple of pictures of Sarah and Katie braving the cold to come to my graduation. They are awesome, and cute!!! I know it doesn't look too cold, but it was snowing just an hour or so before these were taken!!!

Isn't Sarah thoughtful? And how true that is . . . her Dad is pretty smart :)

Here are a couple of cute photos of Sarah just before things got ugly and the food came out. We love our kid!!!!!