Trick or Treat, Smell my feet....

Speaking of feet, I have to share a Hazelism. I was putting her to bed the other night and she said "Let me smell your feet."
I don't think I have ever blogged about that girl's obsession with smelling EVERYTHING! She loves when things smell good, but I kind of think she is even more satisfied sniffing something stinky (that was a fantastic alliteration, if I do say so myself).

So, anyway...
"Let me smell your feet."
"NO, Hazel! That's gross!"
(whiny voice) "Yeeeeesssss!"
(exasperated sigh) "Here. Smell my cheek instead."
(angry) "NO! That smells good! I want to smell your stinky feet!"
followed by a screaming tantrum when I wouldn't comply.

WHAT A WEIRDO, RIGHT?!

Alright- back to my original reason for posting.

Tuesday night, Owen had his first choir concert at school.

( disclaimer: My camera takes great pictures in most situations, but apparently flourescent cafeteria lighting is not our friend. If I use the flash, everything goes black...if I don't, it's just one big blur. So frustrating. )

Owen was SO stinking precious. He is so much like me on a stage. He is SUCH a performer every other day of the week, but put him on a stage and he kinda freezes. All the kids around him were doing exaggerated hand motions, but Owen kept his hands down by his side and just kind of halfway did the motions. He kept looking around at the kids next to him and giggling. He told us later that he was embarassed the whole time.


He even had a little speaking part. He says "We are learning to read rythms in music class. This rhyme shows we know about quarter notes and eighth notes. We call them ta and tee-tee."

Look (in the video) at how many kids are in the 2nd grade at his school. It's crazy big. I'm so in love with his school, but I'm starting to stress about how big it's getting. It's only K-4 and there are over 900 students!

Tonight we had our pre-Halloween events. First, we went to Owen's school carnival (rip-off) and then we went to the church trunk-or-treat.

Cutest kitty EVER (even though you can't really see her ears or her tail in these pics)

Owen was some character called "Thing" He always wants to get these superhero-type costumes and then won't even wear the mask.

My precious friend Shannon. I love her.

Shannon and Tupou's trunk

Hazel and Alex


It's kind of been a long exhausting day, and I have to get up and go to a soccer game in the morning. Soooo....why am I blogging at midnight?

Mraz Mania

I can't believe it has taken me so long to post about my Jason experience. I have no idea why, but blogger has not been letting me upload videos lately. I let one sit and "process" for TWO DAYS and it never uploaded. I'm so sad!!! I wish you could see why I love Jason Mraz so much. I'm so thankful that Paige introduced us years ago. He is just so talented. I love his voice (which sounds amazing live!), his lyrics seriously move me, he has such a sense of humor with his music, and he is such a happy, funny, engaging performer. I love him.

I convinced two friends to come watch me swoon over Jason Mraz when he came to Tempe. I didn't think I could be more in love with him, but the way he sways his hips and caresses his guitar....holy cow. Sexy.

Anyway- it was a three day music festival with a LOT of performers. Friday night was apparently for the old folks...the line-up was as follows:



Colbie Caillat
Gavin Rossdale
THE B-52s!!! (WHAT THE CRAP!?!)
Jason Mraz
Rob Thomas



So, yeah....we were obviously only there for Jason (although it was a fun flashback to hear Gavin performing some old school Bush). We arrived in the middle of Gavin Rossdale's performance, ate some food, found a spot to set up camp, and decided to sit and relax (and conserve our energy) throughout the very trippy, very annoying B-52s performance. Here's what I stared at the whole time they were on stage:





Why was she even standing up? She was like 15! I know she wasn't into the B-52s! Which brings me to another question...why was she even there?!?


We didn't think there was any reason for us to bring our I.D.s since we don't drink alcohol, but when we arrived we realized that they had completely split the crowd. One whole side was alcoholic and the other side was teenagers, old conservatives, and us. Our crowd was booooring. Although there were a couple of bedazzled and sequined weirdos jammin to Love Shack.


Then, of course, as we were trying to move up for Jason's set, we somehow got stuck behind the tallest person there (who also happened to have a stinky gas issue).



I finally crowded him enough that he got the message and moved over. My nose was thankful.



Me, Melissa, and Shannon





Jason on the jumbotron:

Future Models?

A friedn of mine convinced me to enter my kids in the GAP casting call (he really loves Owen and Hazel and thinks way too highly of them....lol). I know there are so many beautiful kids in there, and they are usually ethnic....BUT....I think my kids are cute and I guess you never know what they are looking for. :) If you want to vote for either of them, here are the links. Spread the word. We could win a trip! (Wow- I hate myself for this post).




http://family.go.com/gapcastingcall/entries/lingseyd/179765131/ Hazel

http://family.go.com/gapcastingcall/entries/lingseyd/239765527/ Owen

Okay- I guess I will just have to continue to filter myself. I can't stand the fact that going private means that none of you read my blog! Forget it.

I don't really know why I am so behind on my posting. I have just been feeling very uncreative and unfunny lately. But I guess I need to satisfy the select few who might care about our boring day to day happenings.



A couple of weeks ago, we took the kids out of school, threw some crap in the car and drove up to Oak Creek Canyon to have a little family camping trip. We all needed to get away. I wish we had gotten even further away. I mean, I'm not complaining. It was beautiful and relaxing, but I was a little sad that we could still hear street traffic from our campsite. The place we used to camp in GA was soooo peaceful.....



Anyway- here are a million pictures to tell our story:

This drive could NEVER get old. It's stunning.

What else do you need to survive a road trip besides a few good movies, some pillows...



and a belt with which to strap a flashlight to your head? I don't know. I just don't know.

Here's our beautiful campsite- for some reason nobody chose to camp anywhere near us. Maybe is was the kids darting around screaming at the top of their lungs.

I'm not sure what she was doing here, but this face makes me happy.

Yep- that's pretty much every picture of Owen these days.

Those of you who know me will get just how terrifying this is- I had to do my business in the bathroom and just as I was relieving myself, I looked up and saw the mother of all black widows. Holy crap...literally. I can't even explain how huge this thing was. I also can't explain how stressful it is to poo into a giant abyss while choking back sobs of fear. Not fun, my friends.

The campgrounds were so beautiful and Owen and Hazel were determined to explore every inch.

while eating popcorn balls

which resulted in a few stops to clean popcorn from their teeth....with their shirts?

Owen did everything little boys should do while camping. He peed on several trees (I chose not to photograph that), played with fire, and broke some sticks over his knee...and probably ate a bunch of dirt.

That night we made silver turtles (foil dinners- hamburger patties with potatoes and onions)

Hazel loved everything- including the onions...

Owen wasn't as enthusiastic

That night we, of course, roasted marshmallows. I think I had about 6 smores. My belly hurt. Isn't Hazel such a good multi-tasker eating her smore while prepping two others? Mama's proud.

Am I drunk in this picture? Or maybe just a lack of make-up makes me appear so. And do I always need to get Hazel in a choke hold to get her to pose for a photo?

Hazel started to get cold and whiny and scared of all the skunks that were literally surrounding us. Owen offered her a little warmth and comfort while being the brave big brother.

The next morning, skunks were forgotten as we started the day with powdered doughnuts.

Then we packed up camp and headed over to Slide Rock. We had to stop to pose on this gorgeous tractor. It was strange to see how natural Nathan looked on a tractor.

Here it is. Beauty, right? I know. A couple of people were actually IN the frigid water. See that little head poking out of the water?

Owen joined the select few and waded into the water. He then proceeded to slip (hence the name slide rock) and fall into the water in the last of his clean clothes.
Hazel laughed and pointed and watched Owen flounder from the comfort of this warm rock.

And here's a little clip to make you feel like you were a part of our joyous one-nighter.