Not a lot to say lately...

I have been reading all of your blogs and really enjoying them. I haven't had any super huge desire to blog myself. I like to read about you guys and hear that you have fun things going on and that you don't sound as crabby as I feel. I am not super stressed. Christmas is coming along nicely, my fridge is fixed (finally), my kids are healthy, I love my husband, I love my neighbors and the rest of my family... but for some reason I am super crabby. So - thank you for posting about fun things so I can read about all of you. Thank you for the example that you are to me as wives and mom's. Thank you for the example that you are as people. I love you all.

Merry Christmas!

PS - I hate when my house is messy. Probably why I am crabby... oh well!

Good Stuff...

Tonight we began our goal of reading in the scriptures every day for the 10,523rd time in our marriage. Okay so I might be exagerating just a little bit we haven't done it quite this many times. It is such a great feeling to have your husband gather the family in the living room with their scriptures and lead you in the right direction. It is always a great sound to have your kids sound out some of the hard words in the Book of Mormon. Even Ashley read. Of course I had to tell her the words in her ear.

I am thankful for a great husband who leads us, and great kids who want to follow us.

Denver...

It seems to me that the snow in Denver, CO is much, much colder than it is here. Maybe it is just because I was there and not here. We went to Denver for my Colorado Christmas Party. We ate at a restaurant called "The Capitol Grille". We had the most amazing mashed potatoes in the universe. I really liked the steak too but the mashed potatoes were great. I really like to eat.

I love that it has snowed for the holiday season. I love snow in December. Come January... no more snow. I do like it though in December.

While we were gone we had our really great neighbors doing nice things for us. Dean Morrell helped (I mean did it himself) my kids shovel the walks... when Darrell Pehrson saw that he was doing it by hand he came over and did the rest with a snow blower. Mogie DeMann made sure that Shawn came with him for the food drive and shoveling peoples walks and then took him to lunch at Arby's. Karen DeMann let Cameron come to play half of the day. I am sure that other things happened too that were great I just didn't hear about them. I really love our neighbors. We could not even hand pick any that were better. We are very blessed to have the neighborhood that we do. Everyone is so willing to help each other. I am glad that we live here.

We had a lesson on Joseph Smith today at church. It made me think about the movie downtown. If you haven't seen it yet... stop what you planned for Family Home Evening tomorrow and take your kids to see it. It is so good. I love Joseph Smith. He and Emma are two of my favorite role models. What a great lesson that Cindy Pehrson gave. I could listen and learn from her spirit all day long.

What a crappy day... sort of!

My fridge decided to break... aarrrggghhhhhh!

What a perfect time in my life to either get it fixed (hopefully) or buy a new one (hopefully not). As of right now they can't find the part that is broken. What a dang pain in my... pocket book. I really didn't want to buy a fridge for Christmas. We have been wanting one for our garage... we just wanted to buy it on our time... not right now. Tonight for fun we will be going out to get a garage fridge... fun!

To make my life just that much better Miss Ashley has been sick for two days with diarrhea. Poor girl. In Ashley fashion she is super happy still... just more cuddly. What fun!

My favorite weekend - part 3

This is the last of them today... I promise.

Harley was able to play in the snow for the first time this weekend. He wasn't so sure about it. I guess that I wouldn't be either if I were him... It was over his head.
He is such a cute little dog. He has a great personality.

My favorite weekend - part 2

Okay second part to the weekend.

Every year on the first weekend of December we have the same three dinners.

First my work party. This year we had 186 people at it. It was a lot of work to get it ready. I booked the Grand America clear back in February. I have been working on the party off and on since then. This past month has been crazy getting the final touches done. We had a group called The Cadillacs come they were super fun. We gave our employees IPod Nano's... I hope that they all liked them. I know that I did.

Second our dinner with our friends that we travel with. We went to Ruth's Chris Steak House... there steak just might be my very favorite steak in the universe. It was such a relaxing dinner that I didn't have to plan or do anything for except to just get ready and show up. I always look forward to this dinner. It is just so fun to get together with friends for a great evening of talking and eating great food. Sorry I forgot to bring my camera for some pictures... next year.

Third our very very very favorite meal of the whole entire year is our annual fondue night that Steve's Mom started. She has invited our family since Steve and I got married. We now have it at our house because she is getting tired. Last night we had the biggest group that we have ever had. There were 16 if us.

My Mom & Dad, Steve's Dad, Steve's Mom & Step Dad, Jarred & Rachelle, Josh & Tori, Jelissa, and Steve & Me & the kids.

Okay you are now going to have picture overload.
Jarred and Rachelle STILL eating.
As you can see Steve's Dad's didn't want to leave the table either.
As you can see after dinner Josh didn't move a whole lot. We were seriously stuffed.
After dinner we always have a white elephant gift exchange. Here were some of the highlights... My pretty Christmas plaid dress with a mitten head band.
Shawn's HUGE bra and underwear set.
Cameron's picture of Jarred sportin a stylish mullet with steps on the sides.

A side from the fact that I gained about 900 pounds it was a great weekend. It is always our very very favorite of the WHOLE year.

My favorite weekend - part 1

I will do this post i n 2 parts because it is so long.

Last weekend both of our girls danced at the festival of trees. The pictures aren't super great - we were not that close... even on the front row.

Alyssa is in a group called Guyz n' Dollz just north of the Fashion Place Mall. She just loves it. It is a singing group (think Madrigals). She gets to sing and do a little bit of dance. Singing is her thing. She has a great voice. She is just becoming such a sweet little pre-teen. I love her age right now.

Ashley is in a group called Studio 56 just on 5600 South and 700 East. She is made to be a dancer... hopefully not a striper (LOL). She loves to dance more than anything. She doesn't like ballet very much. She says that when she is on her toes it hurts her legs. She also doesn't like to stretch. "It hurts" she says. She was up on stage before her group started dancing telling the girls where to stand because they were in the wrong place. Ashley bossy... weird. She was so stinking cute up there.

Thanksgiving Weekend Update...

Oh my gosh. I am sorry that I haven't updated. We have had a week of "giving thanks". It started out with last Saturday my Dad's Uncle Donny came in town from Seattle. Then the weekend... then Tuesday my family from Phoenix came in town.

Wednesday a whole lot of getting ready for Thanksgiving dinner for 38 people.

Thursday - Saturday:

~A LOT of EATING (big breakfasts, left over lunches and big dinners & tons of homemade pie)
~Playing every board game
~A lot of coloring
~Watching tons of movies
~Eating
~Guitar Hero playoffs
~Talking, Talking, Talking
~Did I mention eating
~Every day we would get to my parents to hang out with all 38 of us at about 10:00am and we would bring pj's and go home around 1:30am.

I think that the high light of the whole weekend was when we all sat around my parents living room and my Grandpa sang & played songs that he had written for my grandma and the family. It was super cool. They (grandpa & grandma) then told everyone how they met (we have heard it a million times but we still LOVE it). Then they asked all of us in age order to recount the days of us meeting and falling in love with our spouse. What a great time. Even the kids stayed around to listen. We sat there and laughed, cried, and laughed some more.

I know that everyone thinks that they have the best family. It is really just great to be one of those people who think their family is the best. I love every weird one of my family. I can't think of anyway that I would change any of them.

Here are some of the highlights in pictures.

Try this out... How smart is your blog?

I am not sure how they rate these... I am nowhere near genius. With my luck it is backwards day ;)

Cash Advance Loans

Try it I dare you. Don't be scared!

Temple Tonight...

Just a reminder that we are going to the temple tonight. Meet at either my house or Julie's house at 5:30pm. We will car pool. Everybody is welcome to come we would love to have you. If you can only go to dinner after we will eat around 8:15pm at Jason's Deli (just south of Fashion Place Mall). We really hope to see you ALL there.

High School Musical Ice Tour

So a couple of days ago my Dad called me to tell me that he was able to get High School Musical Ice Tour tickets to the Delta Suite. I was so excited. He had enough for My little family of 6, Alyssa's Friend Kenadee, My Mom & Dad and Josh & Jelissa. Alyssa was so excited to bring a friend. It was so much fun. When we got there they had a buffet waiting for us of meat & cheese nachos, foot long hot dogs & fix'ns, caesar salad and a fridge full of drinks and popcorn. The kids were so dang excited. What a fun way to watch any show. The ice tour was super cute but then again I secretly have always wanted to be a cute ice skater. I also told Steve tonight that I think that maybe I will take voice lessons so on the side (of being a Mom) I could go on Disney's Ice Tours with them to sing and dance/ice skate. He said that would be great... in addition to my chef career, photography business and my internet card business.

I guess that I will just stick to being a Mom.

I will post some cute pictures of the kids at the Disney on Ice tomorrow. I am ready for bed. Good Night.

50 favorites things...

I really have nothing to blog about today so I thought that I would write a random list of my 50 favorite things in no specific order.

1. Sonic Diet Coke with cherry & lime flavoring
2. Baths
3. Our ward
4. Our kids after a bath or shower
5. The smell of Steve's shaving cream on his cheeks & neck
6. The look of sleeping kids
7. Parties
8. Rich's bagels
9. Bajio
10. Blogging
11. Scrapbooking
12. Vacations
13. Motorhomes
14. RV show at South Towne Expo
15. Dates
16. The temple
17. Girly feel good movies
18. Sitting around talking to anyone
19. Katrina Shewells & Mandy Deckers Sunday Lessons
20. Pictures of Christ
21. Christ
22. Pictures of Joseph Smith
23. The relationship between Joseph and Emma Smith
24. Crushed Ice
25. making cards
26. taking pictures
27. airplane rides
28. car trips
29. the mountains
30. fall leaves
31. Autumn
32. warm weather
33. hot tubs
34. our bishopric
35. work
36. service
37. cooking
38. Christmas
39. Valentines Day
40. being Married to Steve
41. being Shawn, Alyssa, Cameron, & Ashley's Mom
42. being a daughter
43. girls night out
44. Weight Watchers
45. Thanksgiving for the family not the food
46. siblings
47. neighborhood parties
48. annual fondue night
49. traditions
50. America

OK so the list was long, but I could have went on and on. It only takes a few minutes. All of you who read my blog... YOU HAVE BEEN TAGGED!

In memory of... Doug Stoddard.

Next Saturday, November 17th will be the two year anniversary for the day that Doug died. In honor of him we thought that we would go to the temple and to dinner after. We will meet at our house at around 5:30pm to figure out how many cars we need. If any of you would like to go let me know. We would love to have you. Even if you don't know Doug at all or very well come with us anyway.

Happy 12th Anniversary Babe!

So I was going to post yesterday for our Anniversary yesterday but never had a second. It was a super fun day though. They kids were out of school which I wasn't excited for that on our anniversary, but Steve decided we were going to have fun anyway.

We got up and did our own thing... errands, work, clean house etc.

At about 11:30am Steve came home and we started the fall outside stuff. We cleaned and sprayed off the porch and put up Christmas lights.




At about 1:30pm he decided to take all of us motorcycle riding. We loaded up and went up to the Bountiful "B". Our kids have never really rode their motorcycles on "real" trails. They have just mostly rode on the street. They had so much fun. The girls and I hiked up to the Bountiful "B". It was just a fun afternoon.

We had to get back to get Shawn to scout camp. Grandma Karen came over and babysat. Steve and I went to dinner. He really wanted Bonsai. So we went up there. It was fun. We had the owner of Bonsai cook for us. He said they we short on cooks and so he was cooking. It was fun to have him cook. After dinner we decided to go to Target (one of my favorite places) and get more Christmas Lights. It was fun to just walk around and do a little Christmas shopping.

It was a very simple day but a fun one.

Here are some pictures from over the years.




Here are a few of my favorite things about Steve:

~He is an awesome Dad. He loves to do things for the kids that he didn't have the opportunity to do as a kid.

~He is an awesome Husband. He is supportive of the things that I want to do.

~He is a great provider for our family.

~He holds the priesthood and uses it for our family.

~He LOVES to be the scoutmaster.

~We have so much fun just talking about the day.

I could go on but this is a long post anyway.

Happy Anniversary Babe! I love being your best friend.

Happy 53rd Birthday Dad!

Today is my dads birthday so in honor of him I thought that I would list my favorite things about him.

~ The way he always asks about YOU when he is talking to you...rather than talking about himself.

~ When someone is talking negative about another person he makes sure he says something positive about the person. (This drove me nuts when I was a teenager)

~ The things that he has taught me and Steve about finances.

~ The LOVE he has for our kids.

~ He always tells me he loves me.

~ He puts his arm around me every time he sees me.

~ He is AWESOME in his calling as 2nd counselor in singles ward bishopric.

~ He really loves to be with my mom and always holds her hand. When they go to a restaurant that has a jukebox he always plays songs a for her from when they were dating. I love the example they are to us in marriage.

~ He is the hardest worker that I know.

~ His jokes that are what we call "Dad" jokes. He is just SUPER fun to be around.

I love you Dad! Happy Birthday!

TAG!

5 things I was doing 10 years ago:
*Getting ready for my second child to be born
*Being in the Young Women's Presidency
*Working as a travel agent full time
*Having so much fun with just one child
*Having our 2 year anniversary in 2 days

5 things on my to-do list today:
*Work
*Lunch with Steve
*Go to 4 kids parent teacher conferences
*Make dinner
*Clean house... that one never gets done so it is always at the bottom of the list

5 snacks I enjoy:
*Trail mix with MnMs
*chips and fresh guacamole
*Sonic Diet Coke with Cherry & Lime
*Fruit (Raspberries, Cut up apples, pears, etc)
*Homemade salty & buttery Pop Corn NOT microwaved

5 songs I know the lyrics to:
*Lets make love - Tim McGraw & Faith Hill
*Just about anything from Sarah McLachlin
*Because I have been given much
*Don't take the girl - Tim McGraw (Ashley's FAVORITE)
*His Hands - Kenneth Cope

5 things I would do if I were a millionaire:
*Go on humanitarian projects in 3rd world countries
*pay off my house
*Save for my kids missions and weddings
*Invest
*spend money at Costco even more than I do

5 Bad Habits:
*Eating
*Biting my fingernails
*Avoiding doing laundry
*Staying up too late
*procrastinating

5 things I'd never wear again:
*a perm
*leg warmers
*overalls
*pegged pants
*fluorescent anything

5 Favorite Toys:
*My blog
*My iPod
*scrapbooking
*Making cards
*my camera

People Tagged: any of you who read my blog and haven't done this post.

Sevier County, Christlike Friendships, and Voting!

Well today seemed like a busy day.

I got up and got the kids out the door to school really quick today. They were gone by 8:35am. I went quickly to vote at Riverview. I waited in the line and they told me that I vote now at Liberty. So I went there and waited in line there too. I voted! Whatever the out come of the referendum... it is for sure nice to have it done.

I HAD to go to TaiPan for work... tuff I know.

I went to lunch with Julie, Amber, kids, my Mom, Dad and Brother Josh. We ate at the food court in the mall.

I had to meet Katrina at our house at 200pm to get everything set up for our enrichment tonight.

I went to buy cute flower clips from Jenn Barrett.

I went to Grant Elementary to see Alyssa do her presentation on Sevier County. She had to pretend that she was a wax figure from her county and stand there by her poster and rattle off facts when someone pushes her "on" button. She dressed up as a farmer from Sevier. A pretty cute one I might add. She memorized her parts and did a great job. I was proud. She had 2 grandpas, 1 grandma, Mom, Dad and siblings there to support her. What a fun project.


Then tonight for enrichment Katrina and I showed the display that we did back in May at the Women's Conference at BYU. Our topic was on Christlike friendships. We presented it to our ward. I think that it turned out pretty good. We had so much fun researching it. We both have so many great examples of Christlike Friends... that made the whole thing a lot easier.


I just sat down to blog and eat a bowl of cereal because I hadn't eaten dinner. I feel wiped out and exhausted tonight. I would love to sit in the hot tub with Steve tonight to have our nightly 1/2 hour talk but he went to a movie with my Dad, and Brothers. Maybe we will tomorrow.

Good night!

Family "OUT" Evening...

Tonight we had family "out" evening... not family "home" evening. We decided to take the kids to the Joseph Smith Restoration movie. WOW! It doesn't matter how many times that I see it. It is just as good as the first. I love the testimony that I have of the Prophet Joseph Smith. I can't event believe what he went through to restore this church for us. I love, love, love the relationship that he and Emma had. What a great example of love, sacrifice, fun, spirituality, and respect that they teach us for our own marriages.

Our kids were amazing in the movie. Shawn just loved it especially when Joseph Smith was about his age at 13-14. Alyssa cried in the part where he was tarred and feathered, Cameron was ultimately worried when he almost got his leg amputated when he was about Cameron's age and Ashley was just concerned the WHOLE time. I told her a part that was about to happen and she said "Mom... how do you know? Did you see this movie before" I said that I had read the scriptures and they told me the stories. She thought that was pretty cool. She said when he was praying in the Sacred Grove... "Mom did you know that two white shiny guys and they're going to talk to him and one is Jesus?" I said "I know that" She said "I learned that too". I love that my kids have their own little testimony.

If you haven't taken the opportunity to take your kids to see it... GO! It was an amazing experience. I love our church. I love watching Me, Steve and our kids grow spiritually.

Guys weekend out...

This weekend a whole bunch of guys in the neighborhood got together and went to Moab for some mountain biking. They had such a great time. In total there was 15 of them. Steve went and so did my brother Jarred. Steve knows that I always want to see pictures of the trips he is on, usually he does a great job of it. Not the case this time. He only brought me back a few. Here is a couple of them.


It sounded like they had a great time. They rode about 40 miles in total in the 2 days. What a fun memory for all of them.

The kids and I had a great time here too. We scrapbooked both nights and stayed up late. What a fun weekend.

A super cute conversation...

While my kids were doing their weekly chores today here is the conversation that I heard from the other room...

Cameron: Alyssa, can I mop with you?
Alyssa: Sure... I will teach you or do you know how?
Cameron: I would love to have you teach me... I don't do it as good as you.
Alyssa: This is one of my favorite chores.
Cameron: This is a chore? How can something this fun be a chore. I want to take turns doing this every day.
Alyssa: We should do that for Mom.

If only everyday was that easy getting them to do chores. I tried to get a picture of them mopping but they caught on to me listening and watching.

Sevier County, UT

In the 4th grade at Grant the kids learn about the counties in Utah. They have to do a report and a wax museum on one of the counties. When Shawn was in 4th grade we got to put in our choice for the county. They tried to give everyone the one they wanted. We decided to start a tradition where we would take the family on a little weekend trip to "their county". Shawn's county was Grand County Utah. Which is where Moab, Utah is located, We had a blast taking the kids there and exploring the county. Moab is one of our favorite places.

Why am I telling you this...

Well fast forward two years and Alyssa is in 4th grade. Well this year they did it different. Mrs. Fiori (the teacher) picked out of a hat which county they would have. We anxiously waited to see where in Utah we would be going on a quick vacation. The project is earlier this year so we were trying to figure out how to fit the trip in. Well, she got Sevier County Utah, Which might be one of the most boring counties in Utah. We were not able to find a whole lot of stuff to do on the Internet.

On Tuesday of this last week Steve decided to take the day off of work and drive to Sevier... which is Richfield, Monroe and Venice Utah to take some pictures and experience what there is to do there. Well he found a whole lot of nothing, but he said they had a great time. They left at 5:30 am and got home at about 7:00 pm. He said that Alyssa took 2 or 3 naps during the day, talked about everything, sang, and just had an all around good time in the booming county of Sevier. If you ever have the chance to go... do! We have some great pictures to show you how fun it was.

OK, so if you haven’t already heard, it’s NaBloPoMo, or National Blog Posting Month

OK - I am stealing this from another friends blog...

Here is what she wrote. I am going to try it... I challengen you all to also. We will see how it last about 4 days into it.

OK, so if you haven’t already heard, it’s NaBloPoMo, or National Blog Posting Month. You can read about it here http://nablopomo.ning.com/ but the gist is that you post something on your blog every day for one month. If you’re like me, sometimes you want to blog, but the blank screen elicits nothing from your mind and then the phone rings or the child puts a toy down the disposal or your boss has actual work-related work for you or The Oprah comes on and lickety-split you’re distracted and the blog suffers. Heal the blog. Save the blog.

What? You don’t have a blog? Why not? It’s free! Create your own at blogger.com.

What? You don’t know what to write about? No excuse, I’m going to help.

I’ll give you 35 ideas because you’re bound to think that at least five of these are really stupid. (And remember–a post can be as long or as short as you like! Even one sentence. Even one phrase.)

1. Describe your morning routine. What happens as soon as you wake up?
2. Make a list of your obsessions
3. What’s the best advice you ever received?
4. What’s the worst advice you ever received?
5. Write a letter to your eighteen-year-old self
6. List the contents of your purse
7. When was the last time you picked your nose?
8. Write about an awkward moment
9. Are you judgmental? Why or why not?
10. What does it feel like to be you?
11. What’s your favorite thing to do barefoot?
12. You have an evil twin. Describe him/her.
13. Who or what influenced your taste in music?
14. Make a list of words that begin with G
15. Does your name fit you? How did you get it? What other name(s) would fit you?
16. Make a random list of memories from your childhood
17. Write a list of thank you notes to anybody living or dead
18. Write about a time you put your foot in your mouth
19. What are your ideas about death and what has influenced them?
20. You wake up in a hospital, having given birth to twin walruses. What do you do next?
21. Write a conversation you had with someone as verbatim as you can recall
22. Make a list of ideas that would spread peace
23. What’s on the menu for your Thanksgiving dinner?
24. Are you more like your mom or your dad?
25. Are you a fair fighter? What are you like to argue with?
26. How would you react if you found a hidden camera in your house? Who do you think put it there and what would they have seen?
27. Describe your thought process as you decide what to order from a menu.
28. What’s wrong with America? What’s right with America? (Or your own country)
29. What would happen if you were separated from your cell phone, e-mail, Internet access, and TV for a week?
30. Do you ever think you were born in the wrong decade or century? Why or why not?
31. What age do you think of yourself as?
32. What are you favorite snack foods?
33. Who is your best friend? What makes your friendship work?
34. List ten things that get on your nerves.
35. What are you picky about? What are you laid back about? Make a list of both.

Of course, if you think all 35 are stupid, feel free to write your own ideas in the comment fields. Remember—the best blog ideas are stolen!

Happy Halloween Continued!

Here are the pictures of Halloween. I really don't love Halloween but it ended up being a fun day. My favorite part is after trick or treating when all the Grandparents come over for homemade soup, chili, salad and bread. I love that part of the day. The kids looked so cute and they had a great time. It is weird to me to have a son who wants to go trick or treating with his friends not his MOMMY... I guess I am not as fun :)