Lame Blogger

I know. i am a horrible blogger. I intend to take the time to post but time just slips away from me. So I can't sleep because my mind is running a million miles an hour right now. We've been preparing for Nick's (my nephew) wedding lunch which will be held at our house tomorrow. Everything's ready. The yard. The house. It all looks great for Nick. So. . . Congratulations to Nick and Kylie. Welcome to the family Kylie. It gets a little crazy sometimes but what a great family it is.

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The other thing on my mind at 11:43 pm is that Ali turned 20 yesterday! I remember when she was born and I turned 20 and I remember thinking, "Wow, when this little baby turns 20, I'll be 40. Holy cow that is so old!" Well, it isn't old. You're only as old as you feel. I still feel 20. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALI! So a shout out to Ali. She's amazing. Really. A true professional photographer. A great sister, friend, daughter. She's got great common sense and can do a mean shimmie. . . but don't ask her because she won't do it unless she's in a really weird mood. She has her own style which is often mimmicked. She finds the best music and shares with her mom and Aunts. She always trys to find the best in people. And she is missing her missionary but she'll accomplish much in the next two years. She's definately one of a kind.

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This picture is of us miniature golfing on Rick's 43rd birthday a couple of Saturdays ago. We had a smiliar picture taken about 9 years ago. I'll try and scan it in later. (I know, you're thinking it'll be another month before that happens).Birthday dinner at Chili's. Don't the three of them look alike?
I'm also thinking about Ali, Jill and my trip to Greece and Italy. It was absolutely incredible. We had such a great time and I need to take Rick to Italy. Italy was my favorite place to visit. I loved everything about it, the crepes, the ravioli, the shopping, the architecture the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel, the huge rain storm, the bus system. The list goes on and on.

Jill got in trouble for sitting on these stairs. They blew their whistle at here. She wasn't too scared though. She's such a rebel. (That's her hard core "Hard Rock Cafe - Athens" t-shirt she has on. It enabled her to have attitude)

The other day Rick brought home a box. it looked innocent enough. This would be a great experiment on human curiousity. As soon as you slide the top door open, a mouse pops up. This was Tyler trying to be cool after getting freaked out. I am sure he would never admit that he was scared. (he just read this post and said, "I was not scared") Here's the proof. . .

GOOD NIGHT. I'll try and do better.- Lisa

Thoughts from Chase

Well, first I like to sing . . . a lot. And my mom told me about Dean Kaelin who is David Archuleta's singing coach. And so we called him and signed me up for singing lessons. I went to my first lesson yesterday. He told me lots of things and how to sing. He also said that if I practice every single day, he might take me on as a student for real. So, I've practiced every day . . . well so far since yesterday. Well, got to go, I haven't practiced yet. Better go do that. if you are someone who likes to sing like me, there's only one thing I can tell you. Practice Practice Practice. and ps. don't move your head up and down with the notes. - Chase

19 days till Greece and other random thoughts

Jill (my cute sister-in-law, not that they aren't all cute but she's one of the cute ones, well, they are all cute, anyway) and I are 19 days and counting till we head off to Denver (again) and take off to Greece! So excited! Ali said the other day that she'll be able to experience Greece two different ways, one as a local and the other as a tourist with her mom. I think she'll like the tourist part quite a bit. I guarantee it'll be a party.
Tonight I went to a baby shower for a friend of mine who is just a little younger than me and is having a girl soon. Why on earth didn't they have the cute things she received when i was having my babies?! Now it just leaves me baby hungry. Okay, it's gone.
We get to have my nephew's wedding luncheon here at our house in June. We definately have some work to do to get ready for that. Nothing like a deadline to kick you into gear! Anything for Nick.
Thought for the night: For a brief moment of entertainment, watch your 17 year old son listen to David Archuleta sing a Dan Fogelberg song. Now that's entertaining! I didn't think he could be in such pain. David did great but why would they have a 17 year old sing a Dan Fogelberg song?
Boring post but so am I right now.

Thinking about Ali in a better way

Just a quick update on the Greek Traveler. She is doing great!!! We found an amazing couple that took her in and have loved her like their own granddaughter. We are so grateful for amazing people like them. Ali definately must be living right to have received the blessings that she did last week. Check out her near-daily updates on her blog at www.alievenson.blogspot.com. It's quite entertaining to say the least! She's having a great time and the pictures definately prove it. Thanks for all of your prayers in her behalf!

David Archuleta Day

IT'S DAVID ARCHULETA DAY FOR

BROOKE AND CHASE AND FRIENDS!

They were give VIP passes by our friend at Fox 13 so we woke up at 5:00 Friday morning, got ready and were on our way to see American Idol Contestant David Archuleta up close.

The kids were just a little excited. See the smile on Brooke's face? Does anyone else notice that Chase is the only guy? He knows where it's at.

The excitement increases as David's limo arrives.

It was pretty tough to get a decent picture of him because of all of the people that were pushing and shoving just to see the boy. Brooke being the pushiest of all. . . jk

We're not sure but we think that he was singing just for Brooke.

This was when Dan, Keri and David were looking at Chase asking David a question, "What is your favorite thing that Paula has said to you?" (interesting question). Keri answered for David who seemed a little stumped by the question, "My favorite thing was when she said that she wanted to squish David so tight that his head would pop off and she would dangle it from her review mirror." Okay, that's weird Paula!

And then he was gone. All in all, it was a fun experience for them. It gave Chase the bug for singing even more than he had. So, he had a singing lesson today with Dean Kaelin, David's voice coach. Dean really knows his stuff. In just a half an hour, Chase had already improved on his talent. It was a lot of fun to watch the change.

THINKING ABOUT ALI

I'm not sure that I know anyone more crazy or brave then Al. Fortunately she made it to Greece safe. However, that was not the end of our worries. Oh no. What we didn't know was that was only the beginning. When I spoke with the host mom I thought, "what a sweet lady! I'm so glad she's taking an interest in Ali and will take such good care of her." Hmm. Not quite what we thought. Maybe things will get better. I think that the experience is not turning out quite like she thought it would. However, as always, every experience can be for our good, even if it appears to be the opposite. The good in Ali's situation is that she is certainly learning to lean on Heavenly Father and will need to dig deep to feel him in her life right now. She is also being faced with the opportunities to stand up for what she believes in. I think that if she can stick with this experience, she will have grown up more in the next month than she has in the past 19 years. In the meantime, pray for Al. -- Lisa

1st Annual Chick Trip

So it's the Evenson girl's 1st annual chick trip. We decided to use our trip to drop Ali off in Denver for her Greece trip as our excuse to start an annual chick trip. What a riot the girls are.

Day 1 - Friday -- We thought we'd get an early start by planning on leaving at 7:00. We got out at 11:00. Typical... Anyway, we drove 8 hours through Wyoming with Brooke in the back seat, reading Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Ali manning the radio and talking the whole time about her boyfriend, Travis, and me driving, thinking about where the 2nd annual chick trip will be. By the time we reached our hotel (very nice, however, very close to a railroad track and nightly we wake up, several times, to the sound of a train engineer who is horn happy.), Brooke had a fever. She had absolutely no energy and slept the entire evening while Ali and I played Nerts. I was worried that Brooke would not feel well the entire weekend but she, once again, proved that she can recover faster than anyone I know.





Day 2 - Saturday --We woke up at 8:30 (felt great to sleep in!) We went to breakfast at IHOP and had a fun time watching Brooke be amazed at the diversity in Denver. What a sheltered child. After our bellies were filled, we got pedicures. We love doing this on vacation. Then we went shopping. What? The Evenson girls shop? We were able to hit two of the four malls that we plan on going to. Great mall. As evening approached, we decided we needed to get dinner and since we were right by the Hard Rock Cafe, and we were starving, we'd eat there. We didn't realize when we put in our names for a 1/2 hour wait that we would end up waiting about a full hour due to the fact that it was Denver's prom night. We had a good time watching all of the high school couples parade around in their prom attire. At the same time, we were able to watch a table of middle-aged couples get plastered as they were having a 70's flashback night. They were decked out in KISS wigs and rock duds. Two women were dancing on the tables. Wow, Brooke really does live a very sheltered life. I think she had sensory overload. We decided at this point, 9:00 pm, that we were too tired to go out to a movie so we just bought movie theater popcorn and went back to our room and watched 27 Dresses.

Ali's feet with her toes ready for Greece

Day 3 - Sunday. Long day when you keep the Sabbath Day holy. But it was a nice day. We decided that we needed to feel like we were spiritual so we listened to church music while we got ready and dressed in dresses. Immediately as we stepped out of our hotel room and saw that we were the only ones in dresses, the girls felt over-dressed. I reminded them that it didn't matter and since we were going to find the Denver Temple we needed to be dressed appropriately. Then we took off and were on a quest for the Temple. After going in the wrong direction for 20 minutes, I backtracked and finally found it. Beautiful but anti-climatic because I thought they would have a visitor's center or at least we could walk around it. So we took two pics and then hopped back in the car.

Denver Temple (as close as we could get)

Ali taking our picture in a window. Coldstone Ice Cream, just can't get enough of it!

One of about a hundred pictures of the girls freak jumping into the hot tub

As you can tell from the pictures, we are definately enjoying ourselves. We miss our boys and will be happy to get back... well, without Ali that is. We will be dropping her off at the Denver airport tomorrow for her flight to Germany and then on to Greece!

Next year's trip? Maybe New York!

Why can't time stand still?

I'm thinking today about a lot of things. You know those days where your mind just keeps on going, jumping from thought to thought? I would love to freeze frame our life as it is right now. All of the kids are like mini adults. All of them have fun personalities and I'm enjoying being a mom but there's never enough time to enjoy it all. I think someone sped the clock up and it's going faster and faster.

Ali is leaving for Greece in 25 days, actually Brooke and I are driving her to Denver in 21 days and then she'll leave 4 days later. I'm amazed at the incredible goal that she set and has accomplished. I'm afraid to admit that deep down I didn't think it would really happen. I'm impressed and want to thank those that have contributed to her dream.

I am also thinking about:
Spring, fixing up our yard, fixing up our house (after 9 1/2 years, things are looking like they need fixing up) the blessing of work, the blessing of THREE new babies to our extended family, my darling next-door-neighbors (Lindsey and Ryan, our new bishop), Chase's constant singing love songs to me and the extra long hug he gave me this morning, Ali's best friend now married, listening to the sound of Tyler playing basketball and him announcing to me that he is going to run for senior class president (GO TY!), our busy busy lives right now and how I wouldn't change it for anything, the desire I have to learn charity, looking forward to conference weekend, the proud feeling I have about my dad and how good he's doing, my visit with my brother today, missing my mom, looking forward to summer and hopefully BOATING!, ...

I could go on and on. Life is good!

guitar or singing

I'm a boy who loves to sing and act. but my mom (lisa) says you can only be in a play if you play guitar. i HATE guitar. there is one good thing, my mom will put me in voice lessons. so i am going to ask for your help which would you do... guitar or singing? from chase

Chase again. I'm 11 and I have a BIG secert... I still have my baby blanket. I have had it since I was born. It is now rags but I still sleep with it. I love it so much... my dad will hide it my brother will take it. It makes me so mad. The bad thing is I have only told my mom, dad, brother, sisters, everybody else in my family and now you. It sounds weird but... I still have it and I still love it. But the real reason I told you was because you don't need to hide your life "you only live once so have as much fun as you can". That's what my Grandma Hughes always said to me. Chase

My many trips

Well i just thought i would write whats on my mind and whats on my mind is the many trips i am going on this summer. Just thought i would share them. Well i am going to Denver with my mom and sister so we can just shop and play! then i am going to Florida! for a dance competition. we will get to visit all the amusement parks and beaches florida has to offer! then i have efy for my first year, and girls camp, the first year with my mom! Then of course i have my family vacation but were not sure where were going yet. This is going to be a great summer! I cant wait! ( thats me and chase skiing
-brooke in the winter time. But that

time has passed! its summer
TIME!)