Tanner Stole the Spotlight

Tanner came crawling down the hallway sporting Snow White's headband. He looked so cute, we had to snap a picture! This second picture is for you, Graham! Tanner is definitely one cute boy!

Mia and Her Princess Storage Bin

Nana gave Mia this princess bin to hold all of her princess clothes and accessories. Looks like Mia didn't quite have the same idea!

A Card from Mia's Great Grandparents!

Mia was so excited to see a card from her great grandparents! She opened up the card and saw the money inside. She pulled it out, and immediately handed it to momma and said, "Here you go." She's so funny!

It's Mia's 3rd Birthday Today!!

Mia turned 3 today! She helped momma pick out her birthday cake for the party. Mia was so happy to see her Princess cake! She is a big girl and knew exactly what to do when the candles were lit on her cake. She blow them out with no problem! I'd have to say that birthdays are fun when kids turn 3 years old. She was so excited about all her presents. We all had such a good time celebrating Mia's Birthday!

More Clowning Around

Who would have thought I'd be a clown twice within a month! It's not even Halloween! These are the before and after pictures from an evening of being entertained by the Ricks family.

Shayla and Josh sang and told jokes as they were accompanied by their dad, Brent. They had props and everything. Toward the end of the program, Cindy sang a few beautiful songs along with the piano. What a talented family! Brady and I were hoping they would rub off on us, but we didn't necessarily mean this much!

Silly Pictures

Here are some silly pictures we were able to capture.

We caught Sophie sticking her tongue out.
We caught Brady teasing Baby.
We caught Brady's hair on fire while he was playing with the dogs.
We caught Shayla's hair on fire, too!

(Those last 2 photos just may make it to my hairfire blogsite.)

I May Have Found My Next Dog

Check out these two cute little dogs! They seriously reminded me so much of Penny and Nichi. So cute and full of personality! Sophie is the momma, and she's bigger with more black. Baby (Valentine) is the baby. She's more grey/white.

Can you guess their breed? They're Yorkie-poos! (Yorkshire Terriors mixed with Toy Poodles) This is the shaggy look. When they are groomed, their whole bodies are cut short and are left with a lion's mane. Cute, cute! I love their pointy ears! When I go down to see them again, they should be all done up, and I'll be sure to get some snap-shots!

A Weekend in Tucson

This last weekend, I went down to Tucson to go hiking with Brady.

I typically spend the night at Brooke's house, but this weekend she was having family over from out-of-town, so I couldn't see her.

But, I just happened to meet some relatives of mine the week prior. Let me introduce you to the Ricks!

From left to right, in the picture of all of us at the bottom of the post, we have Brent, Shayla, Cindy, Cori, and Josh. Brent is one of great aunt Margaret and Ariel's sons, or in other words, my mom's cousin and my second cousin.

When I got to Tucson, I met up with Brady, and we went on a nice 8 mile hike to see the 7 Falls up in Bear Canyon. We weren't the most prepared hikers...we forgot to buy water for Brady (we survived on 4 bottles of water between the 2 of us), I left my cell phone in the car, and neither of us had a watch. I was bummed out when I later found out my battery was dead in my camera. I couldn't take any pictures! So sad! Now I definitely have to go back so I see this place again. One cool thing about the hike, though, was I saw A, a Hem/Onc nurse from PCH, up on the hike along with one of her fellow nurse friends. What's the odds of me seeing someone in Tucson that I know!? They were there in Tucson because of the Tour de Tucson, which was going on blocking most of the city. (Another thing I wasn't prepared for!)

It was a long hike, but when we finally made it, I was completely amazed by the view. Unbelievable....literally 7 waterfalls--one above the other! Each fall had a pool of water and we dabbled our feet in one. Nice cold water after a long hot hike. One of the pools seriously looked like it could belong in someone's backyard. The rock was cut in a way humans would design a pool. In the background, there was a small cove where the water was falling. It had the appearance of a fancy shower. It's amazing how water can smooth the edges of the roughest rock.

Not only were the rocks and water amazing, but the small creatures we saw. There were little frogs all over the place. The frogs' skin blended in so well with the rocks that many times as we were walking we didn't know a frog was there until they leaped away in front of us. We were also fascinated by some water bugs. They appeared to be swimming upside-down and backwards. So weird! But, in reality they weren't. Pretty cool.

Toward the end of the hike, I was feeling pretty sore and tired. Brady was going to play some guitar with a friend later on that Saturday evening. I ended up not going and spent time with my long lost relatives!

I dropped off Brady, and headed toward the north part of town. (Of course they couldn't live anywhere near each other! :) )

At dinner, I was instantly able to see how fun Shayla and Josh were! Stories galore! "Oh my gosh..."Josh is so animated! I learned a lot from the few minutes I sat down with them. Shayla wants to be a vet. She loves all animals, especially horses! They are both so smart! I found out later that the two of them are home-schooled. Shayla is nine and Josh is five.

Wow, Cindy, I don't know how you do it all. You have such an organized house, you teach, you cook healthy, you sing, and you're the RS Society President in your church ward. Amazing!

Brent is an incredible piano player. They have a grand and a mini grand piano in their living room. Sunday night all 4 of them entertained Brady and me with all their talents.

It was so fun getting to know the Ricks. They welcomed me in their home the moment I arrived. It was so nice to stay with their family. I have future plans to go down and see them again so we can the visit the wildlife museum and the zoo!

Not only was I able to get to know all of them so well, I also got to get some dog play time in. They have the cutest dogs! I will post some pics of them next!

Dianne's Birthday!

November 12 is such a special day...it's Dianne's birthday!

We all had fun decorating her cubicle and eating yummy cake. We had Olive Garden for lunch because a generous family provided it for everyone in our department. That was so nice of them.

By the way, we were all surprised on Thursday, Nov. 8, because Terri, our supervisor, brought in some gorgeous roses for Dianne's birthday. She also brought us all breakfast. Thanks, Dianne, for having a birthday...so we all can get spoiled!

The four of us from left to right are Cori (me), Wendy (Research Nurse), Dianne and Nica (Clinical Research Coordinators). I'd say we're one cute bunch!

Dianne looked forward to having lots of coconut cake for her birthday party that night at home. (She has a thing for coconuts!) She showed me a picture of it the next day, and it had a pretty elaborate design of a dog that her husband created. I was impressed!

Just for your information, November 12 is also Meema's (my grandma's) birthday! I was able to sing to her...and she actually liked it! We chatted for a little while. She seemed to be having a very nice day.

Carly and Kent

Carly and Kent were married on Saturday, November 10, 2007. I was able to go to their reception. I know the two of them from the University 6th ward. It was a very formal wedding. I showed up with they were all eating a nice meal, and then came the toasts. My friend Jeanette gave a sweet little toast, and as you can see Mike gave a toast. I just met him this past week. Cassie and Jeanette were bridemaids for Carly. They were all roommates. So now the two of them are on the lookout for another cool roommate...maybe it will be me!

The last two photos are of Carly and Kent dancing. After the toasts, the dancing started up. Check out her dress...it's beautiful! She looked like Belle (but in a white dress) from Beauty and the Beast. Then last but not least, the cake was cut. Just a dab of frosting was found on the tip of the bride's nose. Very tasteful. Oh, by the way, I wasn't able to catch the bouquet of flowers...I guess I'm not ready for marriage myself yet!

A Couple of Rodeo Clowns

Grant and I were Rodeo Clowns for Halloween this year. We showed off our fun costumes at the Stake Halloween Dance on the Monday before Halloween.

Then, I was able to wear my outfit at work all day on Halloween. The Hem/Onc Department at Phoenix Children's Hospital all dressed up as farm animals or farm-related characters. It was so cute to see all the kids dressed up at the clinic and hospital! My two favorites were a little Elvis (he wore a white jumpsuit had a toy guitar in hand) and a little Belle (from Beauty and the Beast). She had a fluffy yellow gown and her hair pulled up with a tiara. So cute!

After work, I went over to Grant's to help pass out candy for the kids. They had a great turnout! It was much better than last year...no one came to my apartment. Sad, huh? Then, Grant and I watched a scary movie...1408. Yeah, let's just say, I'm still not ready to watch scary movies while living on my own!

It's Gary Cruz!

Gary Cruz is a Weekend Sports Anchor on CBS, Channel 5.

He began his anchoring career in 1974 at KUSA-Denver and was a sports anchor in LA for 9 years. He's also known for his radio work as sports talk host at XTRA in LA and hosts his own show, the Positive Side of Sports, on ESPN Radio 860, KMVP.

Gary was also a color commentator for the Denver Broncos pre-season football as well as the Denver Gold of the USFL. While in Denver, Gary hosted the John Elway Show on KMGH-TV, and in LA was the host of the Lakers pre-game show on KCAL-TV.

Gary was invited to speak at the Desert Cancer Foundation of Arizona because he personally is a cancer survivor. He shared some touching words about his family and their trials with cancer. His mother died of cancer a week before he was diagnosed. His brother died a week later, and just recently he lost a sister to cancer. He now has 2 surviving brothers. Just within this year he has lost half of his family to this horrible disease. By the way he portrayed himself at the luncheon, he appeared to be doing a great job keeping his spirits up. I commend him for his strength.

Linda Rainford Award

On October 25, 2007, Nica was asked to accept the Linda Rainford Award in behalf of our Cancer Research Principal Investigator, Jessica Boklan, MD.

Nica invited me to be her guest to attend the tenth annual "Learning, Loving and Living with Cancer" Luncheon held in Chandler, AZ. It was hosted by the Desert Cancer Foundation of Arizona.

The program started off with a welcome from the Mayor of Chandler, Boyd Dunn. The bulk of the event included the words of a few breast cancer physicians, a couple musical numbers, and the awards ceremony. The final speaker was Gary Cruz, a cancer survivor. (Photos of him are posted in the next blog.)

The Foundation provides an awards ceremony to recognize Linda Rainford each year by presenting a beautiful rose award to a dedicated cancer physician. Linda Rainford fought a very courageous battle against cancer for 6 years with stage 4 ovarian cancer. This award was dedicated to her because of her courage to confront an ominous disease and her tenacious belief in living life to the fullest.

This award is given to the recipient whom has contributed to the betterment of cancer education, prevention, and treatment.

Nica did a great job accepting the award Jessica's behalf. The actual award was a gold-plated real red rose. It was a very nice award. Congratulations, Jessica, for being recognized for your great work! (On a side note...Nica couldn't have done any better with her outfit choice...it matched the rose perfectly!)