PARTY CENTRAL

Phew! If ever there was a full weekend of family fun--it was this one. While our neighbors were out enjoying the last hunt of the year and their wives convening for their own parties (thank you Brandon for not being the least bit interested in guns) we headed up to the big city to join family-- (who thankfully also are not interested in guns.)

If you're going to go out and get manly with nature, golfing is a way better choice: less time, less money, less dangerous, less smelly, and no carcasses to deal with. That is how Brandon and a few other husbands spent the morning, on a beautiful mountain course.

They got back in the nick of time for their wives to join the annual C. family ladies LUNCHEON, followed by the ladies CRAFT. Lucky for me, there was no painting involved in this year's project. Just pretty hair bow's for little girls. So fun. I felt my creativity getting better with each one. Here is a random sampling of some of everyone's (thanks to T for the good ideas). I'm thinking this was so fun I will want to make more when I get a crafty minute this weekend. Ladies, let's work on improving the glue gun--how bout super sticky dots or something that will keep our fingerprints intact.

Last the best of all for the day...The C. Family Halloween Party. Riddles, guess the candy in the jar, donut-eating contest, cake-walk, pinatas, the spooky backyard forest, an almost true ghost story that scared baby Cannon, and the Monster Mash (Aunt Megz has the moves even when she's preg.!) Then there were all the cool costumes. My personal faves: W.'s road kill, B's monster truck, and Crocodile Cannon. (photo will be on the official Halloween costume post) ....oh the memories our kids are going to have...Thanks to everyone.

And as if that wasn't enough partying we carried it over one more day to celebrate the baby blessing of 2008 baby #6, who isn't just a number, he is the newest cutest member of the C. fam.! What a weekend! And that explains why my facebook page says, "I'm glad to be home."

Thanks to CC for hosting us and providing us with all the things we forgot to pack.

My Out--What's Yours?

Thanks Mom, for not letting me quit the cello! You'd think she would have given up after all the complaining and threatening I did. It worked for the piano. And yes, she was right I regret not having taken more lessons. In High School I kind of had to choose between soccer and the cello--but after I learned that soccer season started with summer training at 6 a.m. everyday it wasn't such a hard decision. I loved playing in orchestra with all my cool friends. Brandon says orchestra people are nerds...I try to correct him..."No that's BAND." But, whatever. Anyway, playing the cello was great. Then I found out you could earn money playing the cello. That was the best high school job ever to play in a string quartet for weddings, parties, etc. One time we didn't get paid, so we went to the gate of Temple Square, set out our cases, and began playing Pachelbel's Canon in D. The cello has the easy part so I was able to look up and see our music have an effect on people: couples nuzzling in close, holding hands, children with eyes a-sparkle--okay I made up that one. But, for sure it made people feel generous. We earned 20 bucks in that 20 minutes-- our best gig ever!At this stage of life, playing the cello is my out--girls night out. A group of us get together every Thursday evening (during the school year) and play. Sometimes we play for church functions, or community events, sometimes we play at the schools. And once in a while we even get PAID to play--like yesterday. We played for a wedding: bridal chorus , wedding march and all! Fun Fun! We love it. We do have our differences though:

Violin I might say for example, "Let's play Pachelbel super fast."

and I might say, "No way, that would be sacreligious."

and violin II might say, "Forget Pachelbel let's play Pirates."

and I might say, "not at MY wedding you wouldn't."

and then pretty soon our bows are clashing. "Pirates" is what we call the medley of music from the movie "Pirates of the Caribbean." It is super fun and swashbuckling and Halloween-y all at the same time--but not the best song for a wedding. We played it anyway. After an hour of classical hits we figured no one was listening to our background music anyway. Then we played Mozart's "Eine Kleine" and got a standing ovation--apparently they WERE listening!

Just as a bonus, I'm going to include some of our favorites besides the aforementioned--in case you want to add some class to your iPod.

Vivaldi--Four Seasons

Handel--Water Music, Royal Fireworks, Messiah, Largo, Entrance of the Queen of Sheba

Bach--Air, 2 Gavottes from the D Major Suite, Jesu Joy of Man's Desiring

Boccherini--Minuet

Mozart--Marriage of Figaro, all of his string quartet stuff.

Schubert--Ave Maria, Moment Musicale, March Militaire

Mouret--Rondeau

There are of course many other great classical hits. These are just a few that are arranged for string quartet and these are pretty much what we would play if you hired us for a wedding --**Pirates upon special request.

20, 10, 5, 1...

20 years ago:

I thought boys had it way better in life. I was a tomboy and played soccer at recess with the rest of the boys. I loathed Tuesdays because that meant piano lessons-- Couldn't wait for Thursdays because that was gymnastics. I didn't know what stage fright was--for extra credit I would memorize poems (mostly shel silverstein) and volunteer to recite them in front of class. Boy have I changed...



10 years ago:

I decided I better learn how to cook. I was newly married and had to tranfer my credits from BYU to the U of U to finish up my degree while BD attended grad school. I spoke Spanish more than English when I worked PT at the hospital as a nurse aide/translator for the newborn and maternity units. We were poor but happy folk.



5 years ago:

2 little kids kept me busy. I was into running and scrapbooking (the cut and paste kind.)



1 year ago:

Blaah! I was so sick with pregnancy I wanted to die. I watched every DVD we owned and had IV's while my kids hopped from neighbor to neighbor and the church brought in food.



Yesterday:

I made cookies in honor of homemade cookie day (I'm so easily persuaded), did homeschool, took B. to gymnastics where I met a nice mom from Peru that I could practice my rusty Spanish with, rode bikes and had foot races in the church parking lot with BD and the kids (BD beat me every time even when he was holding 2 kids), did yoga, pulled an all-nighter thanks to that stubborn baby boy--which brings me today. Zzzzzzzzzzz.

Ohhhhmmmmm

Brandon and I have been doing our yoga 3x/week for how many weeks now? Maybe 3. We are big fans. Brandon is sure he can run faster and shoot better on the court--sure, why not. And I, well I am feeling quite empowered myself. I feel like I can do things I once only reserved for the man of the house--like taking out the garbages and filling up the car with gas. I think our excitement has rubbed off on Cannon. Here is a basic intro to yoga:
1. UPWARD DOG

2. From upward dog , straighten the back, look forward.
This is PLANK. Do a pushup here, if you want to.

3. Keeping hands and feet flat on the floor, lift the buttocks skyward and look down.
This is DOWNWARD DOG.
Finish by returning to position one: UPWARD DOG. Ohhhhmmmm, don't forget to clear your mind and BREATHE. Do 6 of reps of this routine before bed and you'll be sleeping like a baby. Ha!! If only Cannon slept like a baby--he's more like a 2 a.m. alarm clock that won't go off.

Attention City Slickers!

You know how sometimes you just need a change of scenery?! Well, thank goodness for Saturdays. We decided to take a fun family trip to our nearest mountain getaway. It's so great to be able to hop in the car and drive 15 minutes before the view changes completely. Trees, hills, rocks, wildlife (in the form of roadkill, sadly.) We ascended up the mountain to about 10,000 feet--try marathon training at that altitude!

The view of the valley below was amazing. It was like being in an airplane. We could see the little patchwork of farms below while being practically in the clouds. At that point we turned into a forest of quaking aspens, which were a lovely golden hue. Then we saw it--the strikingly blue Fish Lake.

We ate the lunch we packed along the lakeshore trail and did some walking. Our girls had fun finding treasures: rocks, leaves, old animal bones?, The lake water was so tempting to wade in but they found out quickly it was FREEZING cold. No water skiing here.

I think all the girls got some one-on-one with mom and dad and some good family bonding. We all found our mountain experience to be extremely refreshing!

Any of you city slickers that need a change of scenery--or just want to do some marathon training--come on down...er up!

Our 6-month Old is Gifted

This little guy was playing the piano and singing along yesterday afternoon. A little bit of drool got on the keys but so what? All artists have their eccentricities. Our kid is gifted.
In church today, during the quiet passing of sacrament, he decided to give his talk he'd been practicing all week. In his loudest clearest voice he repeated, "BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH...." His calling the people to repentance went on for a good 10 min. and even the girls were a little embarrassed by him. Dad said he had "great confidence in his delivery."
He'll be doing firesides by 9 months.
HAPPY 6 MONTH BIRTHDAY TO OUR BABY CANNON DUHN.

It's not very often that I walk out of WalMart with a warm and happy feeling. But, yesterday was different. Kate and Brynn were at Liberty Girls (aka homeschool club.) Adrie was the only one that wanted to go but too bad 3 yr. olds aren't allowed. I thought about begging...I ended up taking her and baby to Walmart. We were just going in to pick up some pictures and some garam masala so I could make cc's rikki tikki tembo chicken dish. They didn't have it so I made my way to the photo section when I got swept into the children's clothing section (the store is laid out just so that will happen). Anyway, there in the girls section I found...tada...$3 dollar outfits--that didn't even look like they were only $3 dollar outfits...see? cute huh. I think I was able to get Kate a complete wardrobe for next summer.

Meanwhile, Adrie out of the shopping cart is pushing baby in the shopping cart and they are out of sight. I panicked imagining where a 3 yr old and shopping cart could have ended up?---in the boys section. Yikes. I put Adrie IN the cart so I could safely get back to browsing. She, in her clear diction, yells out from the top of the cart, "Mom did you sleep in that shirt?" When I mumbled a yes she started loudly taunting, "YOU'RE IN YOUR P.J.'S, YOU'RE IN YOUR P.J.'S"--definitely time to go! Even after, that Adrie ended up with her own $3 dollar outfit and the messiest frosted chocolate donut in the case. So we left that store with a pretty good feeling overall and darn it I didn't even use the handicap sticker.

Shopping seems to have this effect on all males.