Thanksgiving happenings..

Whew this year's Thanksgiving was CRAZY busy!!! It was a short week at school which was nice and we made toilet paper roll turkey's, which actually turned out super cute. On to Wednesday, I had a HUGE family shoot for my friend April Wolanin. A total of 23 people!! 13 of which were children. I was seriously freaking out because I have never done such a huge family before. Thanks to Jaime for letting me pick her brain and it turned out really well for the most part. Here's some of those pictures.



{Swain Family}



On Thursday we left for St David Arizona, to spend that holiday with Robert's family. They live on about 500 acres and Rex (my father in law) ranches cattle. Well they have a few horses and the kids LOVE to ride them everytime we go, so Grandpa saddled up the horses and was walking the kiddos around the yard. So it was mine and Maddie's turn. Now mind you last year I had a "incident" with one of the horses' named Nutmeg. She was doing fine as I started riding her around the house when she all of a sudden darts off towards the barn up along side the barbed wire fence. I'm thinking that I'm going to tear my legs up (stupid city chick was wearing Capri's at the time) I was then ducking to avoid being clotheslined from one of the tree's. So sure enough she stops at the barn and I get off. So now speed up to this year. So I get on Nutmeg and Maddie is sitting in front of me and Rex says that she'll follow behind him and Lydia on Smokey. So we set off and in the back of my mind, I'm still a little worried that she's going to flip on me. Well she was actually doing very well and we were quite away from the house when all of a sudden she completely turned around and started darting this way and that at a full gallop. I'm hanging onto Maddie for dear life and trying to pull back on the reigns and she's yanking her head around. I'm yelling, "Whoa!!" over and over again and she finally slows down and my mother in law comes running. She yells across the yard, "Are you okay?" Then she realizes that I have a kid with me. She freaks!!! I'm freaking even more then ever and I ask her if I should drop Maddie over the side to get her off because Nutmeg was starting to freak out again. She told me to get her off and try to get the horse under control. So I drop her over the side into some soft sand, all the while praying that she won't get trampled!!! Then Nutmeg starts galloping AGAIN and Kay says, "pull back." I then look at her and say, "I want off!!" She tells me that it's ok and to go ahead and finish my ride and to lead her back over to where Rex and Lydia were watching my lack of horse riding skills. So I lead her over to them and my heart is POUNDING!!! She does fine for the remainder of the ride and I get off of her and walk over to my mother in law. She then tells me that Nutmeg does these kind of things all the time. So we're laughing about my brush with death (Ok not really, but I thought I was going to die LOL) and Barbara (my sis in law) gets on Nutmeg and started to ride her and within minutes come flying around the house screaming. She did the same thing that she did last year to me! The funniest part of this story was Maddie telling grandma Kay that mommy kept saying, "Whoa". That was hilarious!!! So here she is. Crazy horse! :) She's the one that Kim and Kyle are riding with the blue bridle.



Ok now one to my favorite part. They have a monastery near their ranch and it has a giant cross that you can see from the highway. I've always been really interested about checking the place out and so me Robert, Paul and Barbara drove over there. It was a photographer's dream!! It was amazing. They had a meditation pond area with giant Japanese Koi fish, rustic benches and a beautiful bridge. Here's some of the photo's I snapped. Unfortunately The sun was going down way to fast so I was only able to snap a handful of good photo's. We also took some family pictures of all the kids and I took some of my brother and sister in law's families and of course a TON of baby Carsyn... gotta love those chubby cheeks! I also added some photography that I took around the ranch..just because! :)







{One of the peacocks running around the monastery}



{ The in laws}



{This is Rob's younger bro Lee and his wife Hanna}



{Rachel Rob's sis and hubby Dave & baby Carsyn}







{Maddie waiting for her turn to ride the horse}



{ Paul, Rob's youngest Bro }



{ Flippin sweet door into the "rock house"}



{The Ranch}





{ Us :) }

Now onto Friday. I had another family shoot at Freestone park at 4:00 and after that I went to Deneigh's mom's wedding reception to also take pictures for some much needed practice . HAHAHA! It was so awesome to see Laurel be so happy and we couldn't be more happy for her. She deserves the best!



Well this was another wonderful Thanksgiving shared with family and friends. I'm so grateful for my family as well as good friends that might as well be family. I love the quote that says "Friends are God's way of apologizing for our relatives. - Unknown " Tee hee.. no I really do love and appreciate my family.
Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!

The INFAMOUS BLUE dress...Me and my Robbie..Oh and I got my Armpits Waxed.

So I was in the process of uploading my "ugly" blue dress picture (why does that sound so Monica Lewinsky-ish? LOL "the infamous blue dress" ewe..) Anyhoo I started looking at our other photo's of the other dances that we went to together and I just had to post those pictures as well. So here is a representation of how we "grew" up together. Look how young and SKINNY we were??



















On to the armpit thing. So I know your all wondering why I'd blog about such a thing? Well this was monumental! I seriously almost chickened out and didn't go through with it. First off you have to let it grow to a length of extreme hairiness (yes this was REALLY hard for me) So I strategically wore shirts this week that wouldn't permanently burn someones eyes if they were to get a peek of the horror which were my armpits. Its not like you can wear a sign that says "harvesting armpit hairs stay back 50 feet!" Could you imagine if someone would of seen? I STILL remember sitting in relief society and the teacher was lifting her arms up as she was talking and holy moley she had hairy 'ol MAN pits!!! I will forever remember her for that. How weird am I huh? Don't answer that! LOL
So back to my story, so on Tuesday morning I couldn't take it anymore and that evening I made the appointment and I was soooooo scared! It didn't help that the girl said, " it hurts really bad." So she asks to see how long the growth was and I was so timid as I'm lifting my armpits for the world to see. So as she starts melting the wax, she explains that they don't just put a huge glob of wax and pull once, NO NO they do little sections in the direction of growth and then rip off the wax. She also says that if it bleeds that it is even better because it means they ripped out the whole follicle. AHHHHH!! BLEED? So now I'm seriously considering running for the door. If it wasn't for the fact that I'm wearing this "little" towel wrap thingy and I was having serious hospital gown complex, fearing that I was going to expose even more of me as I was running.. so I stayed. So she starts and I gotta admit that it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I think it hurts more when I'm getting my eyebrows done. They do have to pluck the ones that they miss and so was all up in there, which was wayyyy weird but she was sooo AWESOME! Not to mention it only cost me $7.50 because its at Leslie's school. Whoo hoo! So there you go guys, I'm sure this is way more info then you ever wanted to know about me but I just wanted to share especially if you ever wanted to get it done yourself. Argh what we do for beauty!! LOL

Sarah..The 100 truely pointless facts Challenge!!

Ok so I was talking to Amy Doodey head this mornin (I just started calling her that..hope she doesnt mind) and I blurted out that for my next blog I wanted to write 100 random things about me. She replied that it was hard enough to write 10 things about ourselves for another blog. I said, "The challenge is ON!"
So I'm going to write 100 things about me... yes my friends 100. Everything that a person could ever wonder about, even those that you could care less about and even those really WEIRD ones that are going to leave you scratching your heads, will be exposed HERE!
So now I want to pass this along to everyone else. Lets see who can complete this. I know its hard to talk about ourselves..but maybe it could lift our spirits, make someone laugh at you, and close the gap between each and everyone of us and bring us all a little closer. Ok that last part was me being full of beans, but you get the point! So onward my friends!

1. My full name is Sarah Ann (Kutchinsky)

2. I was born in Bitburg, Germany

3. My birthday is May 24, 1978

4. I attended Crismon Elementary

5. I went to Rhodes Jr high

6. I graduated from Dobson high in 1996

7. I've only had 5 boyfriends

8. I've only kissed 3 boys (pathetic huh?)

9. I loved to play with Gem dolls...

10. My little Ponies...

11. She-RA...

12. and Barbies.

13. I have 3 brothers and 1 sister.

14. I am the middle child

15. I am 6ft 2 inches tall (or to be more precise 6ft 1.5 in ..Pam :P )

16. I hate to play basketball

17. I suck terribly at any sport and I hide from the ball.

18. I played the clarinet for 5 years.

19. I played the Viola for 1 year.

20. I took choir throughout Junior high and part of high school

21. I flunked 9th grade English because the teacher SUCKED. (Mr Craig the weirdo with long red hair)

22. I had to take summer school that summer to make up the failing grade.

23. I can't roller blade. (tall large lady + wheels = Armageddon so ya better all run and hide)

24. I've never been ice skating (see above)

25. I love to draw

26. Music is a huge part of me

27. My best friend was Emily Jackson in elementary school

28. My best friend was Stephanie Roger's and Amanda Mox in Jr High

29. My best friend was Michelle Samsford/Melissa Perkins in High school

30. I picked up trash around campus for a job when I was 15 at Dobson and when I saw my friends, I was soooo embarrassed about it that I lied that I was doing it because I was in trouble. (thats what they'd have the bad kids do for detention)

31. Me and Amy dated the same guy (not at the same time)

32. I went to Germany when I was 10 years old for a MONTH

33. I went on the Sound of Music tour in Salzburg

34. I have family that still live in Germany

35. I used to tie a string onto my pink Barbie convertible and pull it behind my bike so that my Barbie's could go for a "drive" (yes I was the weird kid in the neighborhood LOL)

36. I got caught for cheating in 5th grade. Me and my friend would split up the work and I'd do my part and she'd do hers and we'd swap. I got caught and my teacher was LDS and she knew that I was and she said, "what would Heavenly Father think about this?" As well as adding," He loves you." Yep..never did that again!!!!

37. I used to love to climb trees and sit in them for hours and sing made up songs. (see 35)

38. My father was in the military

39. I'd ride my sweet pink banana seat Huffy bike around Crismon elementary for hours with my little Walkman listening to Madonna's "Like a Prayer" album cassette tape.

40. I used to always write poems and I still re-write the lyrics to songs to make them funny.

41. I took a beginning dance class my senior year of high school and I loved it!

42. I wore the UGLIEST blue dress to homecoming. (don't believe me? Ask and I'll send you a picture)

43. I took German for 3 years in high school

44. Me and my peeps would hang out on Mill Ave on the weekends

45. We would also tape an empty soda cup to the roof of the car and drive around and laugh at all the people would would try to tell us that we left our soda on the roof. (yikes)

46. I remember sitting in chemistry and listening on the radio when the OJ Simpson not guilty verdict was read.

47. I remember in elementary school watching the coverage of the "Challenger" explosion

48. I ran into the corner of the wall when I was 3 or four and busting my head open and needing 7 stitches

49. I caught my pinky finger in the door when I was 3 and taking off the top portion of it and getting plastic surgery on it to repair the finger and save the nail.

50. Tv shows that I loved when I was little were Punky Brewster, The Brady Bunch, Scooby Doo, The Cosby Show, Double Dare and Silver Spoons.

51. Later I loved Saved by the Bell and Beverly Hills 90210.

52. Me and some friends of mine snuck out to going toilet papering and when we got back my window was closed and the blinds were down. My mom was waiting for me in the dark in the front room sitting and slowly rocking on the rocking chair. (Think of the movie "Psycho?") You wouldn't believe how freaked out we were and we stood there arguing who was going to go in first. LOL..lesson learned.

53. I used to have a HUGE crush on Leonardo DiCaprio as well as Eddie Furlong (in the Terminator movies)

54. My first job was at Jungle Jims Playland ( now its called Jeeper's now a days) I was a party pro!!

55. I then worked at America's Best contacts and eyeglasses

56. I went to Disneyland with Robert and his family for our senior trip

57. I don't know how to sew

58. I hate feet..they're disgusting so please never put them on me, or drop a Motrin in their high heeled shoe and make me still take it... (tee hee Twylla that was for you, your a true friend)

59. Me and Robert met each other when I was on a blind date with his friend (no hard feelings I promise)

60. I kissed Robert first after we were dating for a MONTH. He drove away and honked his horn, whooping out his window....see I have that effect on people. J/K

61. I'm getting tired of thinking of things to say

62. I'm a four year seminary graduate

63. My first car was a 87 Toyota Corolla stick shift (which I didn't even know how to drive it at first and wouldn't get on the freeway for nothing)

64. I didn't get my driver's license until I was 18 (mom wouldn't let me get it)

65. I failed the first time because I did 2 California rolls.... (stupid Californians :P )

66. I love smelly things candles, lotions, glade scented oils and I'm obsessed with making my home smell nice. Ask anyone that knows me and they will agree.

67. I'm soooooo weird and wayyy OCD about food. If I don't know the people very well or they tend to be dirty...I have a hard time eating it. I'm also paranoid about expiration dates. You can catch me checking labels for expiration dates. Food needs to be refrigerated within a reasonable time and if it sits out for more then a couple of hours (depending on the food) it goes in the garbage. Yes I know I'm sick..so very sick. LOL

68. Wheww got that last one off my chest..

69. I have four beautiful children

70. I've had 4 C-sections

71. 3 out of the four of my kiddos have food allergies and we carry an Epi-pen with us wherever we go.

72. We have 3 girls and 1 boy

73. Yes I'm the mother that says that I'm going to show their kids all the starving kids in Africa and how they could only wish to eat all the lovely things that they get to eat so you better eat that darn pop-tart!!!

74. I hate taking all my kids to the store.. and if you hear screaming and/or crying you have a 8o% chance that its us in the next isle over..(huh Deneigh?)

75. I like to sing and dance with the kids in the car

76. I love talking before bedtime with Robert and laughing about stupid things and feeling like its a slumber party every night. I love that awesome dude!!

77. I love to have tickle wars until one of us gets hurt..usually me as I go flying off the bed

78. I love photography and its another huge passion for me.

79. I love to scrapbook and make cards

80. I live in the middle of the wilderness and have seen a huge variety of weird insects that I'm sure have never been discovered..hmmm the Sarah bug?! Could work...

81. I love my friends and family and wouldn't know where I'd be if it weren't for them

82. I'm LDS and gosh darn proud of it and I'm so blessed to know the truth and I posses a strong testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel.

83. I'm my wards chorister and I must admit was terrified of this calling. More then any other one that I have had. I didn't know how to do it in the first place (surprise) and I'm still learning. It is sooo very hard for me to stand in front of people unless I'm singing a solo (I know..refer to # 35 again) I have learned to love it and look forward to it every Sunday. It did effect my choice of shirts..no more short sleeves..wouldn't want to knock the bishopric off the stand with my flabby arms. HA

84. I have the most awesomist group of girls who love me for me and support me when ever I need anything. I have grown so much from all you girls that words can't describe fully how amazing you are.

85. Twylla

86. Amy

87. Erica McP

88. Neigh

89. Leslie

90. April

91. I love to go in 80's attire and go into circle K and buy slurpees and talk to the creepy night clerk lady about her red hair.

92. I work at an elementary school.

93. I still have BROC that needs to be cut. Girls??? Anyone interested???

94. I like to clean... and I'm meticulous. Hmmm maybe thats where all the weird food stuff comes from.

95. I loved CKC!!! Convention time is one of my most favorite things to attend. Its like Christmas for me. Not to mention some crazy girl moments in the hotel room. Plunger anyone?! LOL

96. My fingers are tired.

97. My eyes are crossing

98. I can't feel my legs any longer.

99. I'm in love with Blog Spot..thanks Neigh

DRUM ROLL.........

100. I'm so greatful to have made myself reminisce and think about 100 things all about me. I have to giggle when I think about all of these things, these memories that have made me "me". A super great family, a supportive and handsome hubby and some wonderful friends.

Candles, Crafty stuff, a WHOLE lotta Signs. {not of the religious type either} and Strep Throat.

*On to Friday's candle party. April Wolanin sells Gold Canyon Candles and because I LOVE them and she's doing me a ginormous favor for watching Maddie, I decided to have a party for her. Denise, Twylla, Erica McP and Cynthia all came to a wonderful night of smelling all the yummy scents. I apologize to all my fellow friends of whom I forgot to invite. I literally remembered to invite most of everyone a couple days before. Its been a crazy week that's for sure! Anyways, earned some awesome free candles and this was one of them. Its the hot cocoa candle and I'm so afraid to burn it because its just too darn cute! Not to mention that it smells like real hot cocoa. For anyone who would like one of these give April Wolanin a call!

*Robert and I just started doing a small side job to earn some extra moolah. Friday was his first day and because it was last minute and I was having the candle party, he went by himself. It does kinda stink, but its decent money and overall easy work. We put up the signs for the home builders in Maricopa.







* Super Saturday was AWESOME! My card class was really fun and I was able to make my Christ board which turned out way cute! I also finished some other projects that have been lying around the house for awhile.





*I made the "Love" wall hangings out of the Making Memories large alphabet chipboard letters. I covered them with Crate paper scrapbook paper {which was my FAVORITE paper ever} I added flowers, a button, rub-ons and some large brads. I hung them with thick burgundy colored ribbon and tied a bow at the top. {I have to fix my "V" I cut the ribbon too long}











*Next I used the super saturday idea of the ceramic tile with the saying on them. I already had this one from a boutique that I was at and bought the whole quote for 2 bucks!! Originally I didn't like the look because they were soooo huge, well I put the lettering on and I actually liked how it turned out.



*My last project was a board for above my door. My friend Lisa has this saying over her front door and I feel in love with it. I like the Return with Honor, but I really wanted something different so I ordered the vinyl a while ago and finally finished. Thank you Erica for once again putting it on for me perfectly straight!! LOL



*Lastly now on to Mister Kyle. Poor guy was running a 100.5 fever on Monday night. {Of course I couldn't find a single thermometer in the entire house and had to bum Erica's old one} He also had a soar throat and mine had started hurting earlier that day. {Dun dun dunnn} Anyways, I took him to the Dr and his strep test came back positive but mine was negative thank heavens. She said that I just have some sort of a virus and its not surprising because I'm around little kids all the time . The Dr prescribes chewable antibiotics for Kyle and I go and fill his prescription at Walmart. When I get to the car and open the bottle, I was overcome by these HUGE pills that smelled like FISH! No way in heck was he going to take 2 of these twice a day. So I get on the phone and ask if they can change it. They said that they'd leave a message with the Dr. I wait and wait so I decide to call back and they tell me that the Dr has left for the day. I said, "well can't you reach her on her pager or something?" She says, "No ma'am she's at home." I start boiling at this point and I said, "Ok well call her on her home phone or cell then." She finally says, "Let me get you an office manager." I wait and wait again and she come back and says that the Dr on call will call it in for me. I said, "thank you so much." Then my phone beeps and its some Dr from India {as a side note if I was telling you this story in person, this next part would be in a heavy (and awful) Indian accent} LOL "Mrs. Atkinson, I will get in touch with Dr Bhalla and she will call you in a new prescription." I say, "ok thanks." Feeling victorious for conquering the curse of the large and stanky pills , I decide to leave in a little bit to go pick it up. All of a sudden the phone rings just as I was about to leave. It's the office manager of the Dr's office. She says , "I'm so sorry for what happened earlier , and I'm calling it in right now." I then asked her if she talked to the Dr because I was already told that it was being done earlier. She tells me that SHE was going to call it in now. So FINALLY it does get called in and Robert picks his meds up a little before 8 pm. Argh! He seems to be feeling better and I'm starting to feel like I can function again. He will be returning to school tomorrow and I'll be able to go back to work. YAY!!!

Now that I'm all grown up....YIPEE!!!

I love music and I was thinking today about the music that I used to love back in the day and as I went and listened to some..I just had to giggle. So in celebration of nearing my 6 months left of my 20's I'm posting some of my old school favorites on my player! I really associate past experiences with the music that was going on at that time. From hanging with friends to some "make out" sessions {shhh tee hee} So many memories from swimming at Rhodes Jr High and hearing Color Me Bad, TLC or UB40 playing on the pool's radio. To me and Stephanie belting out ALL of Ace of Bases' hits from their first album. {The SIGN and it opened up my eyes} Then there were the countless date nights when my husband, then my boyfriend introduced me to Alternative... Collective Soul and the Cranberries. LOL Then there is the TV show that I loved the best {Saved by the Bell} Are you a Zack fan or a Slater???



OH wait, I guess there could be some Screetch fans out there as well?! Come on EVERYONE knows the song right? I also included some of my favorite movies of that time. {Sister Act} was my first movie that i got to go to without a parent!! So it holds a special memory because me and Stephanie thought we were sooo "grown up"! I also really loved {Edward Scissorhands}..why?? Not really sure! HA!



Anyways, I've been so very blessed to have kept some awesome friends over the years and we can sit back and still laugh at our old crushes and stupid things that we used to do. It was such a simpler time then huh? Even though we thought life was soooo hard. I'm content with the person I became and the things that I had to go through to get to this point. {Not so much the weight gain HA}
So here's just SOME of my favorites that I narrowed down. Enjoy! :)

The nerve of some....

{I posted this originally at a forum and I copied and pasted for my blog}

So my story begins on Saturday. Me and the kiddos left to go to our church Halloween carnival. Well I get home and finally get everyone settled when I hear some firecrackers going off outside. I step out in our backyard and soon notice that our 2 month old puppy is MISSING!!! I panic and notice that the bricks that block the fence were moved over and a hole was dug. I get on the phone to call my neighbor and ask if her daughter can sit on my couch while I go and look for her and she said "sure and that she was going with me." Sorry this ones gonna have a lot of conversation back and forth!
We search on foot the nearby golf course and the breeze way to the desert behind our houses. No luck.. all the while I have this sick feeling that someone has found her and that we will not get her back. I then said, "I want to go in the car and make a quick loop around the neighborhood." So we get into her car and start around the block. On the way back, I notice some kids standing in front of the house on the corner on the street directly behind ours. Mind you it is 8:45 at night and these boys are probably around 7-8 yrs old. I ask, "have you seen a white puppy?" Immediately one of the boys say, "Is it white and black and has a blue collar?" I said, "Yes!!" He then points to the other boy and says, "we found her in the desert and he has her at his house." So I asked the boy where he lives and he wasn't answering me and the other boys says, "right down there." So I run down the street and knock and this other little boy answers probably around 10 yrs and I said, "I heard that you have our puppy can you please go and get her for me?" The boy stares at me and says to hold on. I then hear the mother say in the yell, "WHY DID YOU TELL HER?" I was appalled! I couldn't believe that this ho bag was going to steal my dog that was missing for maybe 3 hours!!!
I then hear her say something about all the money they spent on stuff for her and then she comes to the door without the dog. The first thing she says to me is , "Can you reimburse me for the kennel that I bought." I said, "no ma'am I'm sorry but I can't." I wanted to rip her face off but something told me to keep it calm. She asked AGAIN and I say the same thing. Then I see our puppy coming up behind her and i get down and call her and she wouldn't come to me right away, so I reach in and grab her front paws and took her out of the house!! Then the lady asked me if she was a dalmatian and I said,"no she's a mutt that I got from someone at Walmart for free." I swear I think she thought she bagged a dalmatian!!!
Anyways, this really made me mad. I couldn't believe that these people didn't even attempt to try and find the owners on a dog the obviously belonged to somebody!!! Then was wanting her son to lie about it and then asked me to pay her back for the kennel!!! Honesty has obviously flown out the window these days. Im soooo tempted to go back and tell her what I really felt.

Halloweeeeeennnn!

So another Halloween has come and gone and the kids had a super wonderful time. Since they had loads of candy from trunk or treat and the fall festival, I only took them to some houses on our street. Lydia went with Anna to a thingy in Queencreek and had a blast. Here's some pictures of our spooky night.













Drum roll please here's the Atkinson Pumpkin 2007! Those who know us will understand. HA! :)