Annual Turkey Bowl!

One of the traditions that we enjoyed and missed in Arizona was the annual Turkey Bowl Football game. The popularity of this game has grown and since we we've been absent for a couple of years, we were surprised by how many men participated this year; just a little over 60 men! Here's a picture of the men listening to the game rules and Greg waiting with his team on the sidelines.

Here's Greg making a catch...

The day was a big hit for Nathan because he got to do his favorite thing of all time. Run outside for 6 hours straight! Here's Nathan sneaking over to Greg while the team was huddling. He just wanted to be 'by' Daddy, so he sneaked over, hid behind Brian's leg and then he quickly ran away.


Here's Nathan with our Nila, Josh & Lynn's dog. Nila was very interested in Nathan's goldfish but Nathan wasn't in the mood to share, so he tried to push Nila away with his foot but then Nathan softened up and let Nila lick his fingers, which just encouraged Nila & Ruby both to ask for more!


Here was a first, I've never seen Nathan laugh or giggle at other kids until this day. The little boy in the blue would climb and jump off this orange truck which would send Nathan into these delightful fits of giggles, I only wish I had made a video instead of snapping pictures.


During 'half-time' Josh grilled about 90 hot dogs for the players, wives, and kids....


Good times!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving 2008! We had the pleasure of spending Thanksgiving with our FRamily (FRiends who are as close as Family) here in Arizona.

~ and by the way ~
Welcome to the world Asher B. Norton!!
(pictured here only 8 days old!)

Garage Sale 4 A Cause!

This weekend we hosted a Garage Sale for a Cause! For a good laugh, click on the picture above to enlarge, I had no idea this is what I look like when I laugh...and does it look like I'm holding the dogs tail? :)

Our church home group, recently discussed how easy it is to get caught up with materialism and consumerism these days, especially during the holiday season. The only cure for those ailments is to think of and invest in others. So we hosted a 'Garage Sale 4 a Cause'. A local family who has no near by relatives or any community/church support to speak of is suddenly in need. Mr Ormand had an unfortunate motorcycle accident while on his way to work, while Mrs. Ormand, who is 8 mos pregnant, stays at home with their 3 children, ages 3, 2 & 1. The accident occurred about a month ago and he is still hospitalized with severe head injuries. The Ormand family was who we needed to be thinking about.

It made me proud to work side by side with people who were willing to sacrifice STUFF and personal TIME for someone else's benefit. So we posted signs, we shopped our own garage sale and we just hung out. The last picture in this group is of the White family, Amber (who watches Nathan during the week) Maysen and Lance.

Nathan loved being outside and drove his little car around the shoppers...'Don't mind me!'...

When it wasn't busy, we kicked back and relaxed a bit....


We had some 'Shenanigans, Tom-Foolery and Ballyhoo' (can you name that movie line?) that took place as well. We were selling Nathan's lion costume and Lance couldn't resist trying it on. And normally Dave looks pretty intimidating because of his tattoos and biker boots but in this hat he pretty much just looks like a regular goof!




We worked the garage sale from 7am-11am, by the time us gals paid for our own purchases we had raised about $100 for the Ormand family. I was a little disappointed though, I met a neighbor who made $1,400 at her last garage sale so I felt like we could have made out better than we did. Since we had a ton of stuff left over, we plan a repeat in late January...at which time I should not be in charge of any prices! In the midst of a garage sale, my alter ego, 'Crazy Korean Lady' comes out, it's very scary. Her personality is very similar to the Chinese waitress in Mickey Blue Eyes. In the movie she is forcing someone to eat a fortune cookie, repeating 'Eat Cookie!... Eaat Cookie!....EAT Cookie!'. At the garage sale my alter ego is trying to force people to buy stuff they don't want and as incentive, I slash prices ridiculously low and practically give stuff away. It's not good for the bottom line so Crazy Korean lady cannot be present at the next garage sale! All in all though it was time and energy well spent and for a good cause. The last picture is a group shot of our home group, minus 1. Some are old friends from our previous stint in AZ and some are new...hmm, how nice! ;)

What? Greg is on GodTube?

Since this is my personal blog, I can be mushy and say I'm so proud of my talented husband!

See for yourself: http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=4aac3d43a6974ae091f0

Shiner...Sleepover and Soundcheck

We had a full weekend and since we had company over for dinner both Thursday night (the Norton's) and Friday night (Landon & Julie) it kinda felt like the weekend started early for us!

Saturday morning, Greg had softball practice for our home group co-ed team so Nathan and I joined Greg at the park. Much to our surprise there was a lot more going on than just softball practice. In the small town of Queen Creek, AZ (population 23,000) there was a Skateboarding contest taking place. Needless to say, Nathan and I both were intrigued and we ended up watching some of the contest even though we were supposed to be over at the softball field!

Here's Nathan watching from the fence...


This little guy was the youngest competitor, he was a tiny 7 year old! I couldn't believe it.


While watching the skateboarders, Nathan decided to take a seat...next to complete strangers. He sat right next to the girl in blue and he sat so close to her they were literally touching leg to leg. Funny part was, she didn't seem to notice, she never even glanced at the stranger who practically sat on top of her. He seemed to like the girl in the pink coat and whenever she applauded, he would to.

The bad part about sitting on the bleachers though was, he fell backwards and landed pretty much on his face somehow and came up with a face, mouth and ear full of dirt. Scared me to death! He got a good size knot on his head and a little bit of a shiner around his right eye and of course, I felt like a horrible mother and completely responsible for his boo-boos.

We did make it back around to the softball field for a little while. Here's Nathan with Amber (in the hat) who watches Nathan during the day and her 11 mo old little girl, Maysen. And Brian, a Fever Pitch Red Sox fan. If you haven't seen the movie 'Fever Pitch', you need to see it to understand how dedicated Brian is.


Watching from the fence is so boring for a little boy...so Nathan tried to sneak on the field...DOH! he was caught by Dad!


If you can't join them, move on. Since Nathan couldn't play softball, we moved over to the playground. If you enlarge this first picture, you can actually see Nathan's shiner around his right eye.


Remember the post about the Asian posture, where Nathan holds his hands behind his back? He still does it...so cute! As for the next picture, one day maybe I'll get the timing right when he's coming down the slide, seems to be a bit of a challenge for me.


Saturday night, Nathan had is first sleepover! Greg, Lance & Amber had to be at the softball tournament so I babysat Maysen, Nathan's little buddy. These could have been really good pictures of Maysen, if I had used the flash but I was trying to do the natural lighting thing but they came out blurry. Hopefully, one day, I'll figure it all out....


Here I used the flash, big difference. Here are both of them with their bottles just before bedtime...how cute is that?


Nathan was so pooped, he fell asleep with both feet outside the crib!


Sunday morning Greg played drums at church, as usual he did a great job. Normally, he is very stoic when he plays and doesn't move around much but in this brief video I captured, he actually moves a little bit, I'll take the credit for loosening him up!


The strangest thing is Nathan always knows when Greg is up on stage. After everyone leaves the auditorium, I let Nathan walk down the steps to the stage, fortunately, he has yet to figure out to get up there, so we're safe for now!


Just another beautiful and busy weekend in the life of the Hulls!