murray family

Patriarchal Blessing

2011-07-10T20:31:00.000-06:00

Well today was a pretty great day.

I'll back up... the last little while Shawn has been debating on getting his patriarchal blessing. Well two weeks ago he went to the Bishop for his interview. The Bishop and him decided that he is ready.

Well we called the Patriarch and he decided that today was the day. Well we talked a lot about what it is. Then today in sacrament I found some lessons on what a patriarchal blessing is. He read those. He fasted. He prayed.

He was scared to death.

I am not sure why.

Well I got my blessing when I was 18.

Steve got his when he was 24 (and we had Shawn & Alyssa).

It was pretty cool to be at both of ours.

But WOW!

To be at your little boys (ok so he is not so little anymore) patriarchal blessing was one of the most amazing things. He had some really great things said in his. Some really great promises. I have always realized what a great boy I have but after hearing his blessing...

it just confirms it.

Well I know this isn't really important to everyone reading this but I didn't want to forget how I felt today.

Shawn you make your Mom & Dad proud.

Family Photos

2011-07-04T17:59:00.002-06:00

So a couple of weeks ago we had our family pictures taken. We just got them back and I am pretty excited about them.

Aren't they awesome!

Um ok so when did she grow up? Boys... she is only 13. Isn't she pretty though?

I can't believe this is my baby! She is so cute.

He is so dang awesome! And handsome too.

WOW! 15 years old... he'll be dating soon. I'm not ready for girls to think he is as cute as I think he is.

All of this because two people fell in love. I know cheesy, but sometimes I can't believe they are all from us. I just don't feel old enough.

When I asked our kids where we should take pictures, train tracks was the most requested place. I am not sure why, but I really just love them too.

9th Grade Promotion...

2011-06-06T23:29:00.000-06:00

I am pretty sure that I just went to my own 9th grade promotion... well at least it seemed like it. When did I get so old as to have my own kid do this?

from left to right:

Matt Kauer, Shawn, Mitch Plant, Kolton Larsen, Zach Wall and Jared Walton

"This is for you Mom and Dad"

Can you even believe that they are almost the same height? Weird!

He is just so dang handsome... and now a sophomore!

Mother's Day Photos for Grandma's & Great Grandma's

2011-05-14T22:17:00.001-06:00

So for Mothers Day this year we took the kids over to Gardner Village for some pictures to give to all of the Grandma's. I took some of just my kids and then we also took some with all the grandkids which is our kids and also Jarred and Rachelle's cute Andrew. I think they turned out pretty cute? Don't you think?

My Life...

2011-05-05T19:05:00.000-06:00

So I haven't blogged again for a while so I will do a little update. So Laura is going to school right now at Southern Virginia University. We miss her like CRAZY. We haven't seen her since December 27, 2010. It was the day we were flying out to Hawaii. We think about her everyday. BUT guess what... we get to see her TONIGHT! We couldn't be more excited. I can' wait to hear ALL about her boyfriend Brandon, her classes, her after school life... just everything. I am sure she has so much to tell us. We love her! She is a really great kid... well young adult. We are so proud of her and the things she is doing in her life.

This boy... Shawn... Isn't he handsome? He is doing great. He started a lawn mowing business last year. Well this year his friend Matt and him are doing it together. They rock! They already have a handful of clients, I am so proud of his hard work. Also he just turned 15... yes I have a 15 year old. I can't believe it. He will get his driving permit next week.... I can't wait to have another driver in the house. He is just an all around fun kid to have in the house.

Alyssa - Well she is just cute. She has been dancing and singing and dancing some more and has lost some weight while doing it. I am pretty proud of her. She is a great kid and I love seeing her grow up. She just became a teenager two weeks ago... I can't even believe it. She is super fun right now. She is a really funny girl.

Cameron - he is super funny. He is always doing stuff to make us laugh. I love having this smarty pants in our family. He has been doing so great in school. It really does just come naturally for him. He is also a very sensitive kid with a big heart. He is in the middle of his soccer season. He ROCKS! I love his little team. They are just cute little friends.

Miss Ashley - She is a sassy pants. She'll be 9 next week. Where has the time gone. I love her. She is actually our busiest child BUT she is also our very best helper around the house. She is always our first one to get her homework done without complaining. She is beautiful and super spunky.

Andrew is my nephew. He is about the cutest baby ever. Rachelle and Jarred are super cute parents . I LOVE when I get to tend him once in a while. He is such a lover. I am so glad that Rachelle and Jarred decided to make me an Aunt. I love every minute of it. He is just a sweet baby!

Steve is super busy with Heating & Air Conditioning, and being a HOT Fireman. He loves to be a fireman. I can't wait until he is somewhere full time (Roy is just part-time).

I love what stage our kids are at right now. I love that we are friends.

So in a nutshell this is my life.

i love this quote~

2011-04-07T23:20:00.004-06:00

"what do we live for, if not to make life less difficult for each other."

-george eliot

Blogging is hard...

2011-03-29T00:32:00.005-06:00

So for what ever reason I have been horrible at blogging for the last months. I use to be so great. We have had some great times and some not so great times. All worth blogging though. I will try to go through our last couple of months.

January -

Hawaii - I just think that Hawaii is probably what Heaven is like. I love to be there with my family. It is perfect weather and it is just beautiful.
Steve started his fireman job. So exciting. So hot!
We went to a surprise party for our friend Dave.

February -

Laura's Birthday - We were able to celebrate this year and actually CALL her to tell her how much we love her and how much she really means to us.
Valentine's Day - Love is the the best holiday.
Shawn & Alyssa were in the school play "Once upon a Mattress". I love to watch them up on stage. They are just great.
I travelled to Denver and San Francisco both for work.

March -

Cameron had the maturation program (isn't that blog worthy enough? My little boy is growing up)
We were able to go clear in the heck out to the boondocks and visit with our good friends Jeff & Cindy. Jeff had Cancer and we were taking pictures on a CD out to them. We ended up visiting for about 2 1/2 hours. We reminisced about vacations that we had had - The Disney Cruise and numerous camping trips. Jeff also was able to tell us how to treat each other and how to treat our kids. He told us of faith and family. It was a really special time that we will cherish with them.
Steve had a display at the Home and Garden Show.
We had a Young Womens fundraiser dinner and auction.
Our friend Jeff Anderson passed away. We travel camping with them and we also went on the Disney Cruise with them. This one one of the saddest days. He was such a great, amazing man. He loved his family and he loved his friends. He made every single person that knew him feel like they are very best friends with him. He has an amazing wife and friend of mine Cindy. I love them both. Heavenly Father knew what a great man he was and needed him. Love you guys.
We also had the opportunity in our ward to clean out a hoarders house. It was one of the GROSSEST things that I have ever done. But hey I can do anything for 9-10 hours right? Think human, cat and what ever else poop and pee everywhere... yes I said gross right?
We also got a new Bishopric. Bryce Benson Bishop, Corey Johnson 1st, & Dean Morrell 2nd. AWESOME!!!!
We went to a viewing & funeral. Steve sang and played the guitar. He did a great job. Cindy, Jeff's wife spoke - unbelievable... I don't think that I could do that.
I went to a surprise party for Natalie. I love friends. I love surprises.
I went to Denver again.
I found out that I have pleurisy. A lung infection that feels like your lung is being pierced. It feels like I can't get enough breath. I watched our friend while he talked to us a few days before he passed away, he was trying to get his breath. I can't even imagine. I feel like I do and mine isn't even a little bit like his. It really made me get to the Dr. quick when this happened and also just really really feel for Jeff even more than I already did.
Jami & I also took Kenadee & Alyssa to the young women conference and then to Market Street Grill. They are so cute and fun to watch. I can't believe how grown up they are.
We celebrated my baby sisters 24th birthday. Wow! That would make me OLD! I really love Jelissa. She has a great personality. She bought her first house and I LOVE it. I LOVE her style. I want her to come and decorate my house. She is just darling. Happy Birthday Baby Sister!

Well that brings us to right now. I am sure that I have forgotten something. I am READY for warm weather. I really do not like this cold gross weather. I will try and post more often.

Valentine's Day!

2011-02-17T09:51:00.000-07:00

Happy Valentine's Day!

So on Valentine's Day our tradition is to hang out with our kids and then we pick another (not so busy) day to celebrate with each other. This year I decided to cook "Flemings" Restaurant food for us and our kids and eat it by candlelight. I did it as a surprise so I had Steve take the kids away for two hours so I could get it all done. So here is my attempt.

Filet Mignon... cooked in Butter.

Cheesy, Creamy Potatoes

Sauteed Mushrooms

Shrimp Cocktail

Homemade Rolls, White and Milk Chocolate Fondue with apples, bananas, and pretzels to dip. I also made cream corn with parmesan cheese but forgot to take a picture.

Here is the table all set up.

Also I had a gift for each person on their chair. For the boys I got them a CTR ring and Cologne. For the girls I bought them a necklace, headband and perfume.

And for Steve I bought him an alarm iPod dock.

With all of the "surprises" that I did for them, I was still the one who was most surprised. When they got home they came home with gifts for me too.

They bought me a build a bear dressed in a fireman uniform so that when Steve is at the fire station I have a fireman to sleep with.

They brought me roses. MMMMmmm they make my house smell great. They also got me a ceramic pizza baking stone for baking pizza and bread.

And lastly, Steve surprised me with a ruby heart necklace. Now Steve isn't typically one to get me jewelry so I was super excited about this. He does buy me jewelry from places like Chico's (which I love) and also on vacation but not usually from a Jewelry Store. this was a fun fun surprise.

I love Valentine's Day. It is actually my favorite holiday. I love the colors, the smells (food and chocolate) and that everyone is just a little more "loving" on this day.

Happy Valentine's Day. I am glad I have you to love.

Thankful...

2010-11-17T22:45:00.002-07:00

I really am here... I have just worked A LOT lately. Like 117 hours in a two week pay period A LOT!!!

I thought for my first post in November I would post about some things that I am thankful for.... Random things as the come into my head.

-Heavenly Father

-Jesus Christ

-The Gospel

-Steven

-Laura

-Shawn

-Alyssa

-Cameron

-Ashley

-My new nephew Andrew

-My Parents and in-laws - I love that we love to hang out

-My awesome siblings... Jarred, Rachelle, Josh & Jelissa - I am the lucky girl in the world to be so close to them

-Diet Coke

-Mexican Food

-Food

-My AMAZING circle of women that I know (some of you are far and some of you are near, I love you all)

-My Work

-Creativity

-Scrapbooking

-My Expedition

-Mine and my Families Health

-School

-Learning

-Sacrament Meeting

-My fantastic young women

-My calling

-Cooking

-Presentation of Presents

-Organization - No I am not always organized but I love it when I am

-Homemade Salsa and Homemade Guacamole

-Tortilla Chips

-Blogs

-Handwriting

-Bedtime

-For Sure NOT the word moist

-Laura's Parents (Madison & Debra)for Raising an AMAZING Daughter and sharing her with us

-Glass Jars

-Clean Cars

-Clean smelling kids

-Holidays and Traditions

-Singing out LOUD (especially to embarrass my kids)

-Sonic Ice and lots of it!

-Matching colors

-My awesome home

-My iPhone

-Computers

-Technology

-Fireman Jobs

-Marrying my best friend

-The Temple

-Soft Sunday Sounds on FM100 on our way to church (my kids don't love it as much as me)

-Christmas Lights

-Airplanes

-Baking

-When people trust you and believe in you

-My kids accomplishments

-Theater

-Soccer

-Service (to others - I have a harder time when I am being served)

-Family Scripture Reading

So it is a random look into my head... I am thankful for a lot more. I just could go on ALL night.

Love you all!

Welcome Little One!!!

2010-09-29T22:50:00.002-06:00

Andrew Jarred Cameron

Birth Day September 29, 2010

He is 8 pounds 21.5 inches long

Mom is doing well. She of course still looks cute even after having a baby!

Dad is doing well too.

They are going to be great parents. I am so happy to see my little brother as a Dad.

Congratulations!

You guys do great work. I really, really love him!

Love - AUNT Jennica

(p.s. I am an Aunt for the first time - he already loves me)

me... an Aunt!

2010-09-28T23:11:00.003-06:00

I am going to be an Aunt sometime tonight. It is 11:11pm on September 28th. I hope they call soon. I have been waiting for this day for 36 years and 2 months to become an Aunt. I am sitting here thinking about Rachelle and Jarred as they go through one of my favorite times in my life... the birth of our children. Good Luck guys! We love you!

My blog design...

2010-09-13T22:04:00.002-06:00

Steve told me today that I should post about why I have the ribbons on my blog. I found this background and LOVED it. I have a small obsession for crafting, but not because of the actual crafting part but because of the products. I love, love, love to feel the product. I love the feel of textured papers and ribbons. I love the smell of craft paint. I love new crayons and markers and colored pencils. One of my favorite things in the world is a brand new easy to color coloring book with a new box of 96 Crayola Crayons. If they are not Crayola just don't bother... I don't want them.

I love to go into to scrapbook stores to supply my hobby of buying scrapbook supplies. I do eventually use them... I just really like the buying them part too.

My favorite time of the year is school supply shopping time. I LOVE when all of the supplies go on sale and I can buy a bunch of everything. for example this year when all of the 24 packs of crayons were on sale for $.25 I bought 48 packs of them... I know I am obsessed. Weird, shocking... me with OCD. It is ok I have finally admitted it.

Here is goes... "my name is Jennica and I am obsessed with craft supplies"

School Started...

2010-09-12T19:39:00.004-06:00

Shawn started 9th grade. So far he loves it. He has a great group of friends (they call themselves the crew). There is seven of them. He is loving being the oldest in the school. He is doing well so far. We are about 7 months away from him getting his learners permit. Wow - where has the time gone?

Alyssa started 7th grade. Oh my gosh I can't believe that my little girl is in 7th grade. She also has a great group of friends. They are all in a little temple group. They have been going twice a month. She is loving having seven classes. One fun thing that happened... in seventh grade the kids make a mouse trap car. They design it and then they race them at the school. The school record was 163 feet and it was made last year. Well my little seventh grade girl made the NEW school record of 174.8 feet. Awesome job Alyssa!

I can't believe that Cameron is in 5th grade. That just seems so old. I remember 5th grade so well. I just can't believe he is there. He has Mrs. Dow. She seems like a great teacher. She is really organized. I love that. I love the curriculum in 5th grade. He has some great friends too. He love hanging out with the guys and doing all kinds of fun things. I am also noticing that he is also starting to like to hang out with some girls here and there. Weird.

Ashley is in the 3rd grade. It seems like just yesterday Shawn was there and now my baby is there. She has Mrs. Birth. Se is a little tiny teacher but she is GREAT! I also love the curriculum in third grade. She has some fun fun little friends. She is in Activity Days at church and is loving that.

I thought that life would slow down when they went to school but I have found a lot of stuff to keep me occupied. I love the schedule of school. I love that they go to bed early and read. I love that I have six hours to my self. I know - I am a mean Mom, but I love it!!!! School Rocks!

Life is GOOD!

2010-08-07T16:09:00.003-06:00

Steve, Laura & Me

Steve & Laura hugging goodbye

Our five kids! I love them.

Isn't she pretty?

This is right after they hugged for the first time in 18 years. Look at Steve's teary face... cute huh? It really was one of the sweetest days.

Life is GREAT!

So I will start from the beginning... so you are aren't lost. About 18 1/2 years ago Steve and Rachel (His high school girlfriend) placed a baby girl that they named "Sydney" up for adoption with LDS Social Services. They held her, talked to her, fed her, cried, laughed, smiled, cried again for 3 short days. Then they watched as they put her little car seat inside the van and drove away. And then they thought about her, and thought about her, and thought about her. They thought about the amazing parents that had adopted her. And they cried some more.

Now fast forward two and a half years. Steve and I met and became friends and one day he was talking about "Sydney". I asked him "Who is Sydney?". And he told me the story. I loved her from the beginning. Her little pictures... she was so cute. The story was so amazing. We talked about her all of the time. We became best friends, then started dating, then married. We still talked about her all of the time. All of the time we would talk about when to tell my parents. Never was a great time. We almost brought it up A LOT. But we didn't. I always felt like they would hate him. I wanted to protect him. (Looking back we did the wrong thing by not but hind sight is always 20/20). We waited, and then waited, and then waited some more.

Now fast forward 14 years ("Sydney" was 16) We were over at Rachel and Aaron's (Rachel's Husband) House. Rachel said "I have a surprise for you... come see this". We went into her bedroom and she had some updated pictures of "Sydney"... and her name... it was now Laura. WOW! She was beautiful, and old, and 16, and not a baby anymore. WOW!!!

Now fast forward 2 more years. Laura was now 18. I got on facebook one day (May 17th) and saw a post from Rachel about how her daughters were some of the greatest things that she ever made. She has some pretty great daughters (Leah-13 & Lucy-10). But I knew some how that she was talking about all three of her daughters. I started looking at her posts... and oh my gosh she met Laura... WOW!!!! What a great, amazing, beautiful story! I just sat there and cried and of course what the luck - I couldn't get a hold of Steve to tell him. I cried. She is BEAUTIFUL. I love her... of course we love her. He finally came home to see all of her pictures.

A couple of days later we had the kids get into the hot tub (our family meeting place). We talked to them about the atonement, forgiveness, repentance, love and "Sydney" or now as we know her as Laura. We told them they have a big sister that is 18 and she amazing and beautiful. They jumped out of the hot tub... they wanted to see pictures. We sat there on the computer and looked at all of her pictures with them. And we waited patiently to meet her.

A couple of days later we sat down with my family and told all of them... we waited too long. I know that. We felt bad. They were surprised. We showed them all of her pictures. We said we were sorry for waiting. We wished that we could take that part away.

But now to move forward... we were so excited. We counted down days, minutes and more days... she consumed us. The kids couldn't wait, Steve couldn't wait, I couldn't wait. But we waited. We at least had her pictures to look at and we talked to Rachel to see what she was like. She is a pretty cool girl.

So Steve hoped for Fathers Day... she didn't contact, any day at this point... we were so excited. Finally, while Steve was on scout camp (of course we had to wait some more) we both received a friend request from a Laura Sowell. We made a meeting time. Then Tuesday August 3, 2010 we were able to finally meet her. Steve and I met with Her Mom and Dad (Debra & Madison) and Rachel and Aaron at Cafe Rio. We weren't at all nervous but when we got out of the car all of the sudden we were nervous. I said to Steve "what if she hates us". He laughed.

We walked into Cafe Rio. We saw her Mom and Dad but not her. We finally saw her. Steve and her went to each other and hugged and hugged and hugged. I was in awe of the moment and forgot to take my camera out. When they were done I got a picture of them together. The first since she was a baby. It really was so cute. Then I got to hug her. I was so happy to finally meet this little girl (who was now not a little girl) and hold her in my arms.

We sat and talked with her Mom & Dad and Rachel & Aaron for about an hour and a half. Then Madison her dad said that they would like to all come over and meet our kids. When we got to our house our kids were so excited to see her. They all hugged her. They just kept looking at her and talking to her. They couldn't wait to show their big sister their bedrooms. Her Mom and Dad were so sweet - they asked all of our kids about them, about their likes, favorite subjects, friends etc. They are really great people who have raised a really great daughter.

Since that day we have had a swimming day with Laura, a sleepover with Laura, FHE with her and her parents and then we went to her ward and had Sunday Dinner with them.

We are excited everyday to find out more about Laura and the first 18 years of her life. We can't wait to see what the future brings and to get to know her better. She adds a lot to our family. Our kids absolutely adore her. We appreciate her parents and all of the time that they share her with us.

We love you Laura!

Our last year...

2010-07-04T15:52:00.002-06:00

So last year in January Steve came home from work one day and we were talking about the happenings from the day... he said "Jennica... I have something I want to ask you." "Um ok - should I be nervous?" he said "No - of course not. I would like to see what you would think if I decided to go back to school and become a fireman" Honestly my first thought (without thinking about anything) was "AWESOME - firemen are HOT." then reality set in. A lot of questions... How long does it take? What is the schooling like? How expensive is it? WOW!

Well after some talking about it and some praying he was all signed up and we were up for a really long, tiring year. We had no idea how hard it would be. He would work full time and go to school full time and I would be a single mom. Well I am proud to say that we made it... sometimes we felt like we were barely hanging on by a small string... but we made it. He finished school in December. They liked him out there and asked him if he would come back (twice) to intern and teach. Pretty cool but again busy!

Well now we are in the waiting game. He has tested and passed four different cities - Murray City, West Valley City, South Salt Lake and Salt Lake City. We would be happy with him getting a job with any of them. I can't wait until my hot husband is a fireman. He is going to love it. He has worked SUPER SUPER hard to get this. Pray for him to get one of them.

My new favorite quote!

2010-05-27T17:23:00.004-06:00

"Often small acts of service are all that is required to lift and bless another: a question concerning a person’s family, quick words of encouragement, a sincere compliment, a small note of thanks, a brief telephone call. If we are observant and aware, and if we act on the promptings which come to us, we can accomplish much good."

President Thomas S. Monson

Happenings...

2010-05-02T19:11:00.002-06:00

So we have had a busy couple of months. I can't believe that I haven't blogged for two months.

I can't even remember what we did in March... it was obviously so exciting.

In April Alyssa and I went to New York. My Mother in Law takes the kids when they turn 12 on a trip of their choice. They love this trip. Alyssa picked New York. We were so excited to go on it. It was fun to spend time with with her alone... no other kids. I love to talk about what ever she is thinking about, and have one on one time. I will post pictures soon.

On April 17th, Alyssa turned 12 and came in to my beehive class for young women's. I have been waiting forever for this moment and now it has finally come. She has been so excited too! It is fun on Wednesday Nights to have her, Shawn, Steve and me all go. She is a great kid. She always tries to make the right decisions. For Alyssa's Birthday she invited her 3 best friends to go see the play that Shawn was in (FOOTLOOSE), Dinner and I surprised them and took them to get their makeup done at the mall at the Bare Essentials Store. Then they had a sleepover. It was a great group of girls. They are so much fun. We had decided on a smaller group than normal so we could spend a little more money and time. It worked out great. I love all of the girls that she hangs out with. They are a awesome group.

On April 26th, Shawn turned 14 and now he is a teacher. It is weird to have him be so old. He is a great kid. I love his personality. He is such a great example to his other siblings. For Shawn's Party we had 5 of his best friends over. Shawn wanted Homemade Mexican Food for dinner (a boy after my own heart). Then we took our kids and them and went to Boondocks and then had them all over for a sleepover. We went to Boondocks on a perfect night. It was a little cold but nobody was there so we were able to do any activity we wanted. It was great.

Well that is about it... I will post pictures soon of all our happenings...

Fantastic Quote!

2010-03-03T21:35:00.001-07:00

I read this quote on my super cute friend Janet Murray's
Blog... I love it! It is so true and she truly lives by it. She is always so
sweet and happy! She is a great example.

"Spread love everywhere you go: first of all in your own house. Give love to your children, to your wife or husband, to your next door neighbor, let no one come to you without leaving better or happier. Be the living expression of kindness."
-Mother Theresa

Photography Class

2010-02-27T19:45:00.006-07:00

So today I took a class with the cutest Photographer named Emilie. "Photos by Emilie". I love her style. My family actually knows her from the ward where my Dad was in the Bishopric. She has a great personality. She is someone I could totally hang out with. Oh ya and she takes amazing pictures.

So these pictures are some of the ones that I took. She had us take all of the pictures in "manual" setting. We learned a lot about Aperture, F-stop, shutter speed, and ISO. Which make a little more sense after today.

Her "subjects" that she brought in were so stinkin' cute which always makes it fun to take pictures. It helped so much to have her critiquing our pictures.

I was pretty overwhelmed because I am not that great... But I would like to do some homework and really practice and get good at this. It was super fun.

I am glad that I took the class - I can't wait to take another one from her.

Hawaii... oh my favorite place!

2010-02-17T21:30:00.004-07:00

Thank you Mom & Dad for an amazing trip. We absolutely love Hawaii. It is so beautiful. We stayed in two of the prettiest hotels. We stayed in the Fairmont on Maui and Hawaii (the Big Island). WOW! The hotels were a vacation in them self. The beds were so comfy that we didn't even want to get up in the mornings.

Josh and Steve. My baby brother is so grown up now. He went through the temple for the first time on this trip in Kona (I will talk about it in another post).

Me and my cute little sister Jelissa. She is so fun. I am glad that we are so close. I love her carefree personality.

This is the four of us getting ready to go on a helicopter ride. Oh my gosh I love to fly in helicopters.

While we were in Hawaii we saw the whales the whole time. When we looked into the ocean we would see a whale jumping out of the water. AWESOME... for whatever reason whales really fascinate me.

Real live LAVA... WOW!!! So cool. This volcano has been continually erupting since 1983. The lava is 2200 degrees. It is much more amazing in person. I really loved the helicopter ride... did I mention that?

Aren't we cute? We are flying the helicopter.

My cute Mom & Dad on our hike.

Me and my Hot husband! We had such a great time. We were able to sit by each other, hold hands, sleep in together, nap together, nap again together, lay by the pool (him in the shade under an umbrella and me in the sun getting sun spots and aging), we ate with out cutting each others food or getting spilled on. We had a great, great time!

Thank you again Mom & Dad... we LOVE you!

Where to start... Um lets see... Grandma's 80th Birthday Party

2010-02-17T17:25:00.005-07:00

So my Mom's Mom... Grandma Barlow turned 80 in January. For her birthday we had a big party at my Mom's House. We sent out about 60 invitations. We ended up having about 100-150 people there. She was so cute and so appreciative.

She is such a cute Grandma... I am pretty sure she is just about a saint... she had 15 kids. And she is NOT CRAZY! I would be... well I am and I only have 4. I think of her every time I am stressed out with my 4 kids.

Here she is with her Baby Brother, Uncle Brent. He lives in San Antonio, Texas. He was invited but told her that he couldn't come. He only told my Mom so that she could plan for him... he surprised her at my Mom's house he just showed up. Grandma just cried and cried she was so surprised and excited.

I love my Grandma. She is an amazing woman and I look up to her. I am glad that she is my Grandma. It is only in the last few years that I have become close to her. She was a completely different Grandma when my Grandpa was alive. I am glad to get know her... she is amazing.

Happy 80th Birthday Grandma! I love you!

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland Quote... LOVE IT!

2010-01-14T23:38:00.002-07:00

My friend posted this and I am copying her... I LOVE this quote.

"Let people repent. Let people grow. Believe that people can change and improve. Is that faith? Yes! Is that hope? Yes! Is that charity? Yes! Above all, it is charity, the pure love of Christ. If something is buried in the past, leave it buried. Don't keep going back with your little sand pail and beach shovel to dig it up, wave it around, and then throw it at someone, saying, 'Hey! Do you remember this?' Splat!

Well, guess what? That is probably going to result in some ugly morsel being dug up out of your landfill with the reply, 'Yeah, I remember it. Do you remember this?' Splat.
And soon enough everyone comes out of that exchange dirty and muddy and unhappy and hurt, when what our Father in Heaven pleads for is cleanliness and kindness and happiness and healing.
Such dwelling on past lives, including past mistakes, is just not right!"

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

"The Best is yet to Be" January 2010 Ensign

50 thoughts about December...

2009-12-27T21:51:00.006-07:00

Our Cute Cute kids in their Christmas Outfits!

Our little Family

1. Beautiful
2. Fun
3. Crazy
4. Jesus Christ
5. Love
6. Shop Shop Shop
7. Christmas Eve PJs
8. Busy (is that the same as Crazy)
9. I love Christmas Sacraments
10. Christmas Clothes
11. Love Christmas morning excitement
12. Christmas Evening = Love
13. Fresh fallen snow
14. Spending only cash
15. Food
16. Smells
17. Lights
18. Temple Grounds (with the lights & nativities)
19. Nativities in our House
20. Baby Jesus
21. Mary
22. Music
23. Dance & Voice Recitals
24. The Book of Luke in the Bible
25. Fondue
26. Work & Ward Parties
27. Receiving Christmas Cards every day in the mail
28. Service
29. Sub for Santa's
30. Love
31. Friends
32. Family
33. Cooking
34. Treats
35. Weight Gain... oh just kidding just checking to see if you are still reading
36. Exercising
37. Christmas Concerts
38. A Christmas Carol at Hale Theater
39. Spending time with just the six of us!
40. Quiet evenings home by the fire with the tree lights on
41. Reminiscing about Christmases past
42. Christmas Outfits and Colors on the Sunday before Christmas
43. The smell of Cinnamon
44. The day after Christmas
45. The Birth of our Savior Jesus Christ
46. The song "Mary did you Know" and hearing Alyssa singing it!
47. Peter's Gift (a play the Shawn & Alyssa were in)
48. Homemade Christmas Candy
49. Loving Husband
50. Great Kids

Our crazy performing week...

2009-12-14T10:05:00.006-07:00

Introducing the cast of "Peters Gift"

Shawn & Alyssa were two of the four main parts... yay! Good Job cute kids.

Shawn was hilarious! I am so proud of him... he is so natural up on stage. He absolutely loves it. He had a few solos in this play.

Alyssa was darling up there... I actually got teary eyed watching my little girl be up there. She opened up the play with a solo... the room dark and the spot light just on her. Cute!

Here is two cute boys that have been friends since they were in their Mommy's bellys. They are all grown up and going skiing with the fourth grade.

He looks like he should be on "The Christmas Story".

Dance performances...

Isn't she cute... SASSY as all get up - BUT cute!

...and finally more dance performances.

In the middle of all the performances, we have had soccer games, our ward Christmas party, Steve's work Christmas party, shopping, My work Christmas party, Young Mens and Young Womens, dance practices, dress rehearsals, scouts... anything else that I am missing?

As you can see we have been having a quiet month sitting home by the fire... reading Christmas stories, drinking hot chocolate, and cuddling... oh wait that was a relaxing dream that I had. We've been busy but I LOVE it! It is fun to watch our kids in all that they do. We have some pretty great kids.

PS - We had our annual fondue family fondue night last night... I will post pictures soon!

An almost perfect Sunday...

2009-12-07T10:02:00.002-07:00

Church was so great.

The testimonies that were shared were great. I love to hear My teenager give his testimony, Shawn is sweet. I love to have Alyssa say "do you think that I can sneak up there before the Bishop closes the meeting?", I love Mogie DeMann's spiritual side. I loved all the testimonies and was glad that I could grow from them.

I went to young women's and Julie gave an AMAZING lesson on Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ's Gifts to us and what we can give back to them.

Then YW testimony meeting... the girls weren't shy yesterday and shared their testimonies and then Jenny Baldwin got up and made us all cry with hers.

We came home and cleaned up the living room a bit and decorated for Christmas. It was fun to hear the kids excitement. Steve and I fell asleep around 6:00pm cuddled up together on the couch with the Christmas Tree light on. I love this season.

We then made crepes and waffles for dinner.

We finished off the night sitting in the hot tub talking about the upcoming crazy week.

It was an almost perfect Sunday!

I am feeling...

2009-12-02T23:14:00.002-07:00

a little overwhelmed.

That is it!

Not a whole lot more to post about... well actually a lot more to post about but I am spent!

Good Night... I miss you all!

Oh and one more thing...

2009-11-21T00:10:00.002-07:00

It was our 14th Anniversary this month too. Steve I love you! You work so hard for our family to make our life better. I am glad that I married you. You were my right decision. It is fun to have my best best friend live in my house with me. For our anniversary this year we went to dinner at our favorite place - FLEMMINGS! and then we went to see "CURTAINS" at Hale Theatre. We love going to plays there. We have season tickets. Our day was pretty low key. We went to Rich's Bagels for breakfast and hung out together the whole day... I even got to go to work with him for a while. We had a great time just talking about our future.

Steve - I LOVE YOU!

Happy many more years to come.

Love - Me

This one is for you Jelissa...

2009-11-20T23:32:00.005-07:00

Where to start? Well at the most recent I guess! So elementary kids all three entered the reflections contest this year for the first year ever. The theme was "Beauty is..."! Cameron took a picture of of whale tail in San Diego this summer and then zoomed in on it and blew it up. Ashley drew a picture of a rainbow, mountains, trees and a butterfly. It was so dang cute. I loved it. Alyssa took a picture of the San Diego Temple Moroni from sitting on the ground looking up to the spires and the Moroni... seeing it through flowers. It really was beautiful.

SHE WON! Can you see the cute excitement!

Ashley and Cameron were a little sad but they both did good and they were glad that Alyssa won.

So about Alyssa again... about a month ago she decided to run for the Grant Elementary Student Council. You had to write an essay of why you would like to do this job and then specify what position to run for. She picked Secretary/Treasurer. Then if you made the first cuts then you go on to making some posters and campaigning to the 4th, 5th and 6th grades. They campaigned for a week and SHE WON! This was a great self esteem boost which she need so I am glad.

CONGRATULATIONS!

Nikolah K. - President
Brooklyn M. - Vice President
Whitney R. - Secretary
Alyssa M. - Treasurer

Cameron's Soccer ended for about a week until indoor soccer started. He was super happy to start playing indoor. It is different but he likes it even when their team lost 13-zip!

Dance, Dance, Dance! My other three are in Guyz n Dollz. They are loving it. All three of them love the kids in their classes. What a fun uplifting group!

We are now car salesmen. It is pretty cool but it also meant that by selling two cars that I was going to have to ride the UTA. AWESOME!!!! Luckily my amazing sister let me borrow he cute little for escape for the month! Thanks Jelissa, I really really appreciate it! We sold the 03 Expedition and the 04 Mini Cooper. We just got an 07 Expedition! I love it. It is really nice to have a car big enough for our family.

We had Halloween in there too but that is a whole other story in it self. Jelissa - My life is pretty boring. I am sorry - no great pictures of some AMAZING place that I have traveled to. I love you Jelissa - I will see you in a couple of days!

Grant Elementary's 50th Birthday Party!!!

2009-11-09T22:17:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday GRANT!

Grant Elementary Built 1959!

All current and former students (and their parents), teachers, administrators, and staff are invited to attend the celebration!

50 Rockin' Years

Open House and Sock Hop
(with Steve as the DJ)

November 12th 2009

6:00 PM to 8:30 PM

@ Grant Elementary

Please come to celebrate with us!

My Young Women Craftyness (is that a word)

2009-10-01T09:32:00.004-06:00

So in Young Womens I am the second counselor. I get to welcome in the cute new beehives. I wanted to give them a little something when they come in. I give them a little sack with all of the "stuff" that they need in young womens but it didn't seem like enough.

personal progress book
personal progress journal
parents guide to young womens
for the strength of youth booklet
their favorite candy bar

All of this just didn't seem like enough. I started to think (and search the Internet) for some ideas. I came up with these little blocks that were a conglomeration (again is that a word) of ideas that I had seen online. Our 2009 youth theme is "Be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity"(1 Timothy 4:12). In these blocks I just simply wrote "BE" and then on the little tag it says "thou and example 1 Tim 4:12". I painted the block and mod podged it. They are between 5" and 7" square. I think that they turn out pretty cute. The new little girls seemed to love them.

Harley Dog...

2009-09-27T22:20:00.004-06:00

So last week (on Friday) my brakes went out. On Saturday Steve was changing them at our house. He went to the back to get our car jack from under Shawn's car and when he moved it there was some anti-freeze that he didn't notice dripped out. Sometime in the day Harley went out back to potty and licked some up (we didn't see him do it - we found out later). Apparently anti-freeze is sweet and pets like to like it. A few hours later Harley started to get a belly ache and started to have diarrhea and throw up. We just assumed that he was sick (we still didn't know about the anti-freeze). Steve walked around to the house to see if he could see anything that he got into and that is when he saw the fluid. We just thought he would get it out with diarrhea and throw up. Be Sunday Night he was doing worse. He wouldn't even get his head off of the pillow. He was so lethargic. It was super sad. Sunday Evening Steve and I decided to take him to the Pet ER. We got him up to Cottonwood Animal ER around 9:30pm. The Doctors did some tests on him. They came up with that he did in fact have anti freeze in his system. This is when we found out how bad it is for pets. We found out that a HUGE percentage of animals that eat anti-freeze actually die. The Doctor suggested that because Harley was SO dehydrated he should keep him over night for a couple of days. He said he was in kidney failure and then it would go to his liver. This is when I asked how much this was going to cost. I really love my dog (I thought that I would NEVER say that about an animal), but I can't afford thousands of dollars. He said it was going to be about $500 - $600 a day with tests and everything else. It might go down in price after the first couple of days. UUUMmmmm I am not sure about you guys but I can't afford that much money for my dog... my kids yes but not a pet. We asked what our alternatives were and he suggested that we take him home (basically to die) and to keep him hydrated he would show us how to inject his body with fluid. Basically keep him comfortable and love him for the rest of his short life. We were pretty devastated.

We decided to come home and get some rest (it was 1:30am by the time we left) and then the next day Steve and I would spend the day with him and tell the kids as soon as they got home from school. We during the day he got worse and worse and worse. We just hoped that he would make it for our kids. I think that Steve and I cried pretty much all day. It was really hard to know that we were going to have to tell the kids as soon as they got home.

When the kids got home Steve and I were sitting on the couch waiting for them. They walked in and knew that something was wrong. Except for Shawn, they didn't even know that we had taken him to the Vet. When Steve told them what was going on they all four immediately started to cry... uncontrollably. Which really made it harder to explain everything. We told them that the Doctor didn't give a very great chance of living. We told them that the Doctor told us that we should decide if we would want the Doctor to put him to sleep and take care of his body or if we should let him just die at our house with us around him and then we would decide as a family where to bury him. They picked that he die at our house and we would pick where we bury him. They thought maybe (if we promised to live here forever) we could bury him here at the house so they could go out to visit him every day. That was so sad to think about.

We decided to take a whole bunch of pictures with him. We were all sobbing. I could hardly even see through the lense to take the picture. I had no idea I loved him so much.

The kids were so cute they just took turns holding him. It really was tender. Our family is lucky and hasn't had to deal with death yet with anyone even Great Grandparents. We didn't really know how to deal with this.

Well with a whole lot of prayers and a whole lot of luck Harley slowly started to do better. By about Wednesday or Thursday he was on the mend. I think that now he is back (almost) to himself. He is still a little tired but that is understandable. I hope that he stays in our family for a long long while. We are happy that the kids decided to have hope that the doctors would be wrong and he would live. We all really love him.

WELCOME BACK HARLEY ~ WE LOVE YOU... STAY AWHILE!

My new favorite hobby...

2009-09-17T23:36:00.006-06:00

So after hearing years and years of 5th Sunday Lessons on being prepared, I finally got myself a cool new hobby... I love buying food storage supplies. I am not kidding. I am getting the biggest highs from it.

I actually have a 3 month (almost) supply now. It is amazing... I love to go down to my storage room and look at it. These are just a few pictures of it.

I figure I don't really look all that great in all the new clothes that I buy anyway and food ALWAYS fits me. I am now buying that. I shop all the ads and go in and by the stuff that we use if it is on sale and then I buy at least 12 of what ever it is. It is such a great feeling to know that our family would be pretty prepared in case of an emergency. There are so many emergencies that we could encounter here in Salt Lake... financial included. I am going to keep going... it feels great. I still need to save up our stashed cash and a few other things but we are well on our way. I love my family and I want to be as prepared as possible for them.

I challenge you next time that you go to the grocery to pick up 12 of something that is on sale and stick it in your food storage.

Happy (NO) Labor Day!

2009-09-07T22:50:00.004-06:00

Happy Labor Day!
I am pretty sure that I have the strongest husband... He didn't drop me in the river on accident or on purpose... AMAZING!

So this year for labor day we decided to leave Sunday right after Shawn & Steve did fast offerings. We decided to take the kids up to Mirror Lake area and find a spot to camp.

Sometime during the trip I found Ashley and Cameron laying on our bed just looking out the window and having a cute little conversation. I really love the sibling bonding that you get on a family trip.

I am not sure what my eyes are doing. Weird! Maybe they are still glued shut from the long time that I slept in or maybe from the 2 hour nap that I took. Either way they look funny!

What a fun quick, unplanned camping trip. I love to spend time with my little family! We actually camped up in this same area about 7 years ago when Ashley was a brand new little baby! We took a family picture on a log just like this. We were even in the same order, only Ashley was in a baby car seat. It is weird to see what has happened in 7 years. Our kids are so old and big now. It really happens so fast. I love them. I love their ages right now. I wish time would slow down.

Happy (no) Labor Day! I hope yours was as fun as ours!

The Best Summer Vacation...

2009-08-30T22:52:00.002-06:00

The BEST

"In choosing how we spend time as a family, we should be careful not to exhaust our available time on things that are merely good and leave little time for that which is better or best. A friend took his young family on a series of summer vacation trips, including visits to memorable historic sites. At the end of the summer he asked his teenage son which of these good summer activities he enjoyed most. The father learned from the reply, and so did those he told of it. 'The thing I liked best this summer,' the boy replied, 'was the night you and I laid on the lawn and looked at the stars and talked.'"

Elder Dallin H. Oaks

This was one of my favorite quotes from Conference. I love to listen to Elder Dallin H. Oaks. He is such a great speaker. I thought I would put this on my blog to help me remember what the most important things are in life. We had such a great summer with the kids. We did do a couple of vacations this summer but most of all we hung out and had a great time with each other. Sometimes I forget about those little important things in life.

Back to School!!!

2009-08-25T22:12:00.003-06:00

Miss Ashley has a little mind of her own... I know shocker! Nobody knew that right? Well this year I won't be picking out any of her clothes... she is in second grade... and you know having Mom pick out your clothes is for littler kids... At least she has pretty good taste. She is a little sassy pants but funny and sweet too. She loves to show me that second graders ALWAYS brush their teeth, floss, make their beds and clean their rooms everyday with out being asked. I won't tell her any different.

She has Mrs. Hyer/Mrs. Snyder split for 2nd grade. I am really excited about that. They are both just amazing teachers. We have a really great class, the kids are fun and so are the Mom's (I like that).

Cameron is my little stud. He really could care what he wears as long as someone else picks it out. I tell him all the time "Bud you look handsome" he says back "Mom you are pretty". I like him he is my self esteem booster. He has Ms. Brakke for 4th grade. I think that she will be a great teacher... He loves her. He has Callin L, Colby W, and a few other friends in there. I am pretty sure that if Lisa... er I mean Callin Jr wasn't in there we would want to change classes.

Alyssa is just beautiful and sweet. She just wants to please me. She tells me every night that she is glad that we are best friends. I love her age. She was so fun to shop with this year. She has her own little style. She has Mrs. Laidlaw for 6th grade. We had her with Shawn too and I just love her. Alyssa has a lot of great friends (and great Mom's) in there.

Shawn is my big eighth grader. I love his age. He is just so dang fun. I love to be friends with him. He loves to be different than everyone, he just has his own little style. I like that confidence. He is a great friend to all and really likes the ladies. He has some pretty great teachers. I hope that we have a great academic year with him. He really wants to get good grades. I love that he is in Jr. High.

I LOVE when the kids go back to school. I love the schedule (oh and the break). I love that we get to have OCD and be organized. My kids love to see their friends everyday. Happy Mother's Day... I mean back to school day!

Pioneer Trek 2009

2009-08-01T23:10:00.004-06:00

So we were invited to be a Ma & Pa for our Stake Pioneer Trek. Four years ago when our Stake went we were invited, we had to say no because of Steve's work. So this year when it came around I was pretty much begging to go. I started to get nervous because I had such high expectations that I thought maybe it would be as great as I imagined. I loved it much more than I ever thought that I would.

First of all... everyone kept saying that they had the best family... but in reality, we REALLY did. I loved each and every one of them.

We had Matt, Maya, Jael, Anastasia, Josh, Corina, Rayce & Nick. They were all in between the ages of 14-18. They were all so great. We had one that we hard but only because she wouldn't stay up with the group and she would fall behind and get lost from us. I am pretty sure if she were a real pioneer, she would have gotten lost or died on the trail. I know that is terrible to say but really true.

Steve grew his beard pretty thick for the trek. Then the second day into it he shaved it to look like "Brother Brigham". It was sweet - Well okay it was actually really gross. But our trek kids loved it.

This picture is right when we met the kids. They were all so different from each other. When we all first met I wasn't sure that they would all become friends. By the time we left they were so great together. They were all friends.

This was one of the most spiritual times that I have ever had. As we would walk more and more I would just think about all that the pioneers went through for us. One of the nights we had a huge "company" party. We all square danced together. We were laughing, sweating, thirsty, our legs were giving out from so much walking and all of the sudden we heard gun shots. We heard "bad guys" screaming at us to get out of town move on. Even though I knew that it was pretend I was so panicked. It took me a minute to find all eight kids. I started to think and realize how the pioneers felt. I was getting worried about my 8 kids. Were they safe? Were they looking for me? I really that this was just a drill but I guess being a real Mom it just hit me what they went through.

There were times that Steve and I would just hold hands and talk while our trek kids would pull or push the cart. We would talk about what it must have really been like. They were brave and strong. The trials that they went through were so different from ours. I can't even imagine what it was like. Steve decided that we could have been great pioneers. We would have just jumped in and done it. It was such a different time then. They didn't have the stresses that we have now. Their kids didn't deal with what our kids and teenagers deal with. Our Trek Theme was "Fortify our Faith - Step by Step" they talked a lot about how we are modern day pioneers. They read a quote at one of our stops:

by Elder M. Russell Ballard... It reads "The Lord isn't asking us to load up a handcart; He's asking us to fortify our faith. He isn't asking us to walk across a continent; He is asking us to walk across the street to visit our neighbor. He isn't asking us to give all of our worldly possessions to build a temple; He is asking us to give of our means and time despite the pressures of modern living and then attend regularly the temples already built. He isn't asking us to die a martyr's death; He's asking us to live a disciples life. "

I love this quote. It is so true. We are both pioneers in our own way. We both have different trials. We need to help our neighbors around us.

On the last night we were there we had our little trek family together getting ready for nightly family prayers. Steve was talking to our trek company boss (his name was Jeff Bryan and also happened to have his son in our family). They looked like they were having a pretty serious discussion. All of the sudden Steve comes over to me and our kids and says "Ma - get the kids together. I need to talk to you about something serious. One of our brothers has died. We are going to have to bury him here tomorrow. " I kept saying "what? how? who? why?" I was assuming he was kidding but I guess you never know... He went on for a bit (even saying lets pray for Ma because tomorrow will be a sad day for her leaving one of our kids here). Finally he told us that he had to go to base ball back home, their team got to the finals. It was a weird feeling. I had a little bit of the sick feeling that a Mother or Father got when they had to leave them buried and then move along the trail.

The next morning when we got up as we were walking along the trail we saw on the side of the trail two shallow graves with a couple knelling to mourn the loss of their son. The other one was for our trek son. It was a sobering experience.

I loved going as a MA because I really felt like I could do the real thing, I learned a lot about the pioneers. I can't wait to read some books about them. They fascinate me.

I am so thankful that I was able to go in the pioneer trek. I just hope that they call me to something next time again. I loved it that much.

It you have read until now you are a saint. I mainly posted so that I could remember it. This was a long post... I am sorry!

Wow! Life gets crazy!

2009-07-06T00:23:00.002-06:00

Here are a few of the highlights from the last while!!!!

We had our 2nd Annual END OF SCHOOL PARTY. 6/5/09 - (We love this tradition. We hold this in our circle with all of the neighbors. We have a family BBQ first. Then we have all the kids from babies to teenagers our dancing with all of the Mom's & Dad's - Steve loves to pretend to be a DJ) The kids and parents love this party!
CAMERON turned 9 YEARS OLD. Oh my gosh. 6/5/09 - I can't believe my baby boy is growing up so fast.
We had CAMERON'S BIRTHDAY PARTY with all his friends. 6/8/09. He just wanted to run and play games. He didn't want me to go to a lot of work. They did eat a lot of pizza and fruit (Cameron's requests instead of cake)
GIRLS CAMP - 6/9/09 - 6/12/09 I loved every minute of it. We made so many new friendships. The girls were great. One night I sat down and wrote a letter to each one of the girls. They are such fabulous girls. Also I serve with AMAZING leaders.
GUYZ N DOLLZ CRUISE - 6/12/09 - 6-20-09 We took the family on a 4 day cruise with the family. We drove. My in laws went too. Afterward we went to Sea World. My parents surprised the kids and came with us. It was a lot of fun.
Shawn SPOKE in SACRAMENT - 6/21/09 On Father's Day. He did an amazing job. He didn't look one bit nervous. He is a natural.
We went to a SCRIMMAGE game on a high school field with the OGDEN OUTLAWS and REAL. It was so fun to see the so up close.
BEAR LAKE - 6/26/09 - We went with our Elders Quorum to Bear Lake for an evening. We stayed in Kyle Lind's Cabin... it was AMAZING!!! I think that he said that it was about 6800 Square Feet.... WOW! - That was a great group of people. We had a lot of fun.
Ashley & I went to MISS COLTON'S wedding - we went with LISA L. & THOMAS and JOCELYN R. & CAYDEY - We went after to Chili's... MMMMMmmmmmm it was yummy & fun.
P90X - 6/29/09 - A bunch of us in our neighborhood started an exercise program on Monday, Wednesday, & Friday. It has been so great so far. We will see 90 days into it to see what I think then.
MOM & DAD ANNIVERSARY - 6/29/09 WOW!!!! 37 years! CONGRATULATIONS!

Well that ALMOST gets me up to speed... I will update about the 4th weekend SOON! We had some CRAZY experiences. I missed you guys... I will blog soon again!

Happy 36th Birthday Steve!

2009-05-22T11:52:00.005-06:00

Steve is always up for a party. This was Battle of the Bands at YM/YW.

He loves to wrestle with the boys.

He absolutely love his two princesses.

His family is important. He makes a point to be at everything for the kids that he can.

He looks up to his hero... his Grandpa Fugal.

He is an amazing Husband.

He has great friends and loves them like the brothers that he doesn't have.

Steve - I have glad that you are my husband. I love that we get to have adventures in our life together. I am glad that you are always trying to make me laugh.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ~ I LOVE YOU!

Charlie & the Chocolate Factory

2009-05-03T19:19:00.003-06:00

So I know you might be sick of me talking about the kids plays BUT Alyssa and Shawn are in another play. This time they are in Willy Wonka Jr. (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). Shawn made the part of Mike TeeVee. Alyssa is Veruca Salt. So they both play the snotty kids. They are pretty funny in it. I am very proud of them. They are both doing really well in it. If you would like to take your family to it let me know. If you get tickets in advance they are cheaper.

Willy Wonka Jr.
@ Midvale Main Street Theatre
7711 South Main Street (700 West)

Dates: Thursday, May 7th - 7:00pm
Friday May 8th - 7:00pm
Saturday May 9th - 2:00pm & 7:00pm

If you bring 2 cans of food to donate, you will get a free popcorn and drink and they will donate all of the food to the food bank.

Tickets are $8 Adults (or ten at the door)
$6 Kids 3-12 (or eight at the door)

We would love to see you there.

Happy Easter?

2009-04-29T22:25:00.004-06:00

I realize that it is not Easter anymore. I have been so crazy that I haven't even had time to post about it. It is one of my favorite holidays. This year we went over to my Mom & Dad's House on Saturday to color eggs. Then my Mom & Dad gave us our Easter Baskets which included our Easter Clothes in them. My Mom has always bought the kids Easter Outfits and loves that part of it.

This year for Our parents baskets the kids helped us put together a cute basket full of 12 eggs. In each egg was a scripture and a symbol that represented the scripture. The last one just was an empty egg with the scripture that reads "He is risen". We also had made homemade chocolate covered Easter Eggs with Chelby and Steve's family. We gave each of them one of those too. That was a super fun but messy project.

Here is the cute outfits. We went with Kelly Green, Hot Pink, Cream and Black this year. It turned out so cute. I loved our outfits this year.

I was able to teach the Easter lesson in Young Women's. I taught about Christ's last week of life. I know that they always say that the teacher learns A LOT more than the student BUT for sure it is true this time. I love Christ and all that he has given me and my family. As I was thinking about my lesson and going through each day of that last week of His life... I got thinking about my weeks. I have my lists... as crazy as I may be each day... nothing I do ever compares to even one of his days... One of the things on his "To Do" list for that week was to hold the cross and walk the streets to get the cross to Calvary where he would then be nailed upon it. In the midst of his crazy schedule he took time to wash the feet of the disciples. As if he didn't have enough to do. I love him and the sacrifices that he made for me. I want to strive to be more patient, kind, service oriented, loving, spiritual and better for him.

“He is not here: for he is risen, as he said” (Matt. 28:6)

Happy Easter!

I am officially the proud new owner of a teenager... Happy 13th Birthday Shawn!

2009-04-26T16:34:00.005-06:00

Today is Shawn's 13th Birthday. I can't believe that I have a teenager. He is such a great kid. I love to have him in our family. Here are 13 reasons that he is great.

1. He saves his money and spends it wisely. He has already bought his first car. He bought my brother Jarred's old Toyota Land Cruiser to fix up for when he is 16.

2. He is the best big brother. He is an amazing example.

3. He is a fun friend and seems to get a long with everyone. (Maybe I am partial because I am his Mom)

4. He is an AMAZING son!

5. He is SUPER handsome. He is one of the best "dressers" and is stylish. (again I am his Mom)

6. He LOVES his phone.

7. He loves this Country and the Gospel.

8. He is Funny!
9. He is a pretty tender boy. He cares about peoples feelings.
10. He is always willing to help with projects.
11. He is a smart kid and really loves school.
12. He is VERY artistic. He loves to draw, take pictures and act.
13. We are so lucky to have him in our family. We love him.

Happy Birthday Bud. I hope you had a great day!

Happy 11th Birthday (yesterday) Miss Alyssa!

2009-04-18T21:39:00.004-06:00

Yesterday Alyssa turned 11 years old... I am having a hard time believing it. For some reason it really hit me yesterday more than most years. My little girl is 11 - WOW!I honor of her birthday I will write about 11 things that I love about her or that she is good at.

1 - Singing... she really has a talent for it and I am so glad that she likes practicing it. I hope she sticks with her voice lessons and gets really amazing at it.

2 - School... this picture is from the first day of 5th grade... She is good at school.

3 - A daughter... she is a wonderful daughter. She is always thinking of others. She loves to do little surprises around for me like cleaning or straightening things up or doing the dishes. She really thinks about our feelings... even if sometimes it is a little late.

3 - A Sister... she is an amazing sister. Shawn and her have the sweetest relationship. She is usually cute with Cameron & Ashley too. One of the days during spring break I found her playing "school" with Cameron & Ashley for about 3 hours. She is good.

4 - Soccer... Even though she doesn't always like soccer... she is GREAT at it. I hope for exercise sake she sticks to it.

5 - A neice & granddoughter... She gets along great with her Aunts Jelissa & Rachelle and also gets along with her Uncles Jarred & Josh. She loves ALL 9 grandparents and is grateful that they are all still alive to get to know and learn from.

6 - Being her... she is what she is and she is good at it.

7 - A friend... she really tries to take everyone's feelings into account. She is a great friend to a lot of people. I am proud of her for that.

8 - Crafty... She is super crafty and very artistic. She does a great job of "coloring".

9 - Kind & Tender... She kind to others... she worries about how they are feeling.

10 - A daughter of GOD... She is an amazing Daughter of GOD. She loves this church and the tender spirit that she feels there.

11 - All around great... I love the age that she is at. We are friends. We share clothes. We talk. We tell each other secrets. I hope this lasts. I love her. She is a great daughter.

Alyssa - We love you! Happy Birthday Princess!

ANNUAL EASTER EGG HUNT!!!!

2009-04-07T22:06:00.002-06:00

EVERYONE IS INVITED!!!!!!

Annual Neighborhood
Easter Egg Hunt
& Potluck Dinner

Friday, April 10, 2009
6:30pm SHARP!!!!!

Meet at Kalia Cove
Don’t forget a basket

Hot Dogs will be provided
Bring a side dish or dessert to share!

Please send money or candy donations to Karen Demann by Wednesday Night
(564 West Kalia Cove)
288-0371

This year we will have a flashlight egg hunt for the Jr. High (and older) age kids starting at Dark – Remember a flashlight

BONKO BABES!

2009-04-01T23:57:00.006-06:00

This is our "first ever" bonko babes and husbands picture.

Look at us... can you believe we have been playing bonko together for 8 years.

We have had SO MANY memories together. We have gone through so much together. Here are a few of the things we have done together:

Laughed
Cried
Ate dinner together (to many to count)
Watched a husband go and come home from serving our country... multiple times!
Went through puberty and grew boobs (3 new pairs)
Exchanged hundreds of recipes
Cried some more
Went through pregnancies together (a lot of them)
rolled a serious amount of dice
talked into the wee hours of the night
scrapbooked
ate more candy than is humanly possible...
talked about problems
talked about strengths
just talked about nothing at all
frantically cleaned our own houses to be ready for the "bonko babes" to come over
had many, many, many "honorary bonko babe" subs
gained weight
went through countless surgeries... for almost all of us and our husbands :)
lost weight
went through sickness and health
showed concern for each and everyone of us at different times

I love each and every one of you. I am thankful for all of the bonko babes & honorary bonko babes. I am thankful for the lessons that have been learned from each of us. I love you girls. We are so lucky that not only do we ALL get along so do our HUSBANDS... It means a lot.

Ok - enough sappiness. Sorry I've just been thinking a lot lately.

Love - Jennica

PS - HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY Birthday Jenn - You are an amazing person! I love you!

I have SPRING FEVER... BAD!!!

2009-03-31T01:13:00.003-06:00

I am getting SPRING FEVER... BAD!
This weather is just crappy. I thought that if I decorated for spring/Easter maybe that would help. SO here is my Christus Statue with Easter Egg Garland around him... cute.

I made this little sign tonight. I am pretty sure I LOVE IT!!!! It made me happy!

Here is my cute eggs hanging down from my kitchen light.

and My front entry... A pretty frightening bunny rabbit, a Happy Easter sign, a spring wreath and a cute picture of my kids in their Easter Clothes the year we moved in here.

I love Easter. I was able to teach the YW about Christ's last week of life last Sunday and about Easter. I have thought about my little to-do list each week. WOW! It seems so meaningless compared to the things that were on Christ's to-do list for not only his last week of life but every week of his life. He is amazing. I need to remember all that he went through for me and I won't be so "poor me" anymore. What an amazing man he is. I love this Gospel. I love that we can teach our Children of his life. I am so thankful for the atonement and Resurrection. I can't imagine where my life would be if I wasn't brought down this path. I am thankful for my own testimony and what I learn from the testimonies around me.

I love spring and it's new beginnings!

I am alive... really!

2009-03-30T13:47:00.003-06:00

A few ups and downs of the last month...

up - I just dropped off Alyssa for her first ever time going to the mall alone with a friend. Her and Kenadee decided to go and try on clothes and have a little lunch... with their own money. It was the cutest thing ever to hear them giggling and so excited all the way there. I can't believe she is growing up.
up - I was able to leave for a warm little break with my Mom to go and visit my Grandpa, Grandma and Aunt & Uncle in Phoenix. It was so great to go there and see them. I really miss them. We stayed up late every night talking. It was fun to catch up with them.
down - I have been super crabby and a little depressed lately. I am not sure if it is the weather, no money, just in a slump or a little of everything. I need to figure out something to mach me feel a little better. Any Ideas?
up - Shawn and Alyssa tried out for the play "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" they both made a part of one of the kids that get a golden ticket. Shawn is Mike Teavee and Alyssa is Varuca Salt. Both of them get to act a little sassy and stuck up. I am excited for the show. It should be pretty cute. I will let everyone know when it is so you can bring your kids.
up - Young Womens is so much fun. I love the girls. I love the leaders. What a great experience.
up - The school play - the kids (Humpty/Alyssa, Piggy/Ashley, and Spider & Tech Crew/Cameron and all of the other school kids) DID an AMAZING JOB!!!! Chelby and Wendy were absolutely fabulous.
down - THIS ECONOMY!!!!! Steve has been so dang freaking busy working his tail off and making NO MONEY!!! Yay!
up - My friends.... I am just so dang lucky. You girls are so amazing. I watch the things that you do, the way that you raise your family, the way that you treat your husbands, the amazing things that you do everyday that I see when you think no one is watching. I love you all. I am lucky to have you.
down - Weight Watchers - I am just not cut out for this skinny thing... I think full figure girl suits me better.
up - Couples Bonko - I love everyone of you... I love the friendship that we share. We have been through SO MUCH together. I thank each and everyone of your and your husbands for the examples and all of the memories. I love you guys. I love all of the things that we have gone through to make us all closer. You guys make me happy.

So that is my post - I am sorry that I fell off the face of the earth. I just haven't felt up to blogging. My life seems just a little down right now. I will get better.

Ramdom Days...

2009-02-19T10:12:00.010-07:00

This is Jill (our Bishops Daughter) and Kali picking on Steve. They all love to tease each other. This picture just makes me laugh. Jill "pretending" to kiss his cheek and Kali just grossed out. What cute cute girls.

Mr. Cameron is just my lover boy. He is always telling me that he loves me so much and I am pretty and I am the best mom. I am telling you he makes my day!

I have been terrible at taking pictures lately. This is clear from Christmas... I need to be better at taking pictures and blogging.

Miss Ashley wasn't in the play last week. Her class wasn't old enough. I took this picture after the performance. She loves to be up on stage. Hopefully we can keep her doing plays and not "other" stage performances... ;)

Alyssa loves to perform more than anything... She is a natural. This is her second play. She starred as the part of a "cupid". She was super cute in it. She is becoming such a beautiful Young Lady.

This was Shawn's first time performing... I was so impressed. I had NO IDEA he could sing. He did a good job. He had to sing a duet twice with this cute girl... Mackenzie. I really love to watch my kids perform and do their sports... what a great time in our life.

Cameron had his first "real" pinewood derby. Steve sent him and Shawn into the office to search the Internet with some ideas for his car. They decided on an iPhone car... or should we call it a "car phone"... cute huh? He got the award for the "Most Technologically Advanced". Cute Cute Cute!

Last week in Young Women's Julie planned a super cute activity. We had a "Road Rally"/ scavenger hunt. We split up into teams. We had to capture everything on "film". One of the items was that one of the kids had to kiss someone on the cheek... So of course Shawn was the one that got volunteered and Ashley Velez was the one that got kissed... I am not sure how Dayna and I feel about this BUT it sure makes for a CUTE CUTE picture.

Last night for Young Women's we had Good Works Wednesday... I decided to take my little class to "visit the elderly". I didn't necessarily want to go to an old folks home so I decided to take the girls to visit Bertha. She is my neighbor from Midvale... I haven't seen her for a while. I was thinking that she was 98 years old... when we got there she told us that she is 99 YEARS OLD! Oh my gosh... in August she will be 100. She is still as funny and spry as ever. I made some fun comment and she said to my girls "do you have to always put up with her? She is a liar... don't believe a word that she says". She is just funny! She thanks us about a million times... but that wasn't the best part... when we got in the car I thought that I might hear some "glad that is done" type comments and instead I heard this... "that was one of my favorite YW ever" "Can we go see her next week too" "Let's invite her to our YW sometime" "WOW - she is funny and super fun"... I LOVED to hear that. It made me a little teary eyed to know these girls love her like I do. We are going to invited her to one of our activities and then for her birthday they want to make a big happy birthday card for her and get it over to her. Yay! What a great night.

After we got home we had a quick planning meeting and planned through June - what a great feeling to be planned out. I am so blessed for being in this calling. I love these young girls. I hope and pray that I can't influence their lives in some positive way like they have done for me.

So being the great "scrapbooker" that I am I totally for got my camera to take a picture with them and Bertha. I will do it for sure next time.

Another day in the life of a crazy Mom...

2009-02-11T22:15:00.006-07:00

So today was a CRAZY day...

Steve and I went to Rich's Bagels and got a bagel to go... even the few minutes together was a welcome break.
I worked... Normal for my Wednesdays... A pretty productive day.
We thought that Jarred & Rachelle's house got broke into again... It was just her cousin... the neighbors called the police in the mean time and her cousin had six cops come and handcuff him with guns drawn... scary at the time but fairly funny now... I still haven't talked to Jarred or Rachelle after they talked to the cousin to see what he said... at any rate that is just funny though (I guess more so where it wasn't me). I would be thankful that the neighbors were looking out for your house I guess though ;)
I came home and got the kids a snack and got them ready to get to their nightly ritual.
Lisa W. took Miss Ashley to dance (Happy Birthday Sydney & Sara... you cute 7 year olds)
I took Shawn & Alyssa to their final dress rehearsal.
Their play "ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE" is tomorrow and Friday!!! Please come, if you buy tickets at the door just tell them you are there to see Shawn or Alyssa... they get credit. It is at the MIDVALE MAIN STREET THEATER, 7800 South 700 West (the old Comedy Circuit) at 7:00pm both nights!!!
I picked up Sara & Ashley from Dance and took he and Callin home then Cameron, Ashley, Grandma Camille & I went to Walmart for Valentines and Candy... I love Valentine's Day... It might be my favorite.
Grandma bought all of the kids McDonald's because I didn't think that I would have time to feed them before YW.
We went to pick up Shawn & Alyssa (they were not out on time... "crap we might be late for YW/YM) - Dayna dropped Ashley off at me in the street in Midvale.
I dropped Shawn & Ashley Velez off at Combined YM/YW at 6:56... "yay, they made it".
I went to drop off Alyssa to Voice Lessons
I went to drop off Cameron & Ashley to my house.
Picked up Steve @ home
Cameron babysat for 1/2 hour. YES - Mother of the Year. I felt like if I was leaving my two youngest home for a 1/2 hour to run to Young Women's, Heavenly Father was going to watch over them because I was doing his work... I was right... they did great.
Chelby picked up Alyssa from Voice Lessons... Chelby you are a LIFE SAVER - thank you!
I FINALLY GOT TO YOUNG WOMEN'S @ 7:08... only EIGHT minutes late - way to go Jennica!!!!!!
Julie had the BEST night planned. We did a video scavenger hunt... we laughed and laughed and laughed.
On the scavenger hunt... one of the things that someone in each group had to do was kiss someone on the cheek... MY SON KISSED CUTE ASHLEY VELEZ ON THE CHEEK - as soon as I find where my card reader ran off to I will post a picture... I AM OFFICIALLY OLD - MY SON KISSED SOMEONE ON THE CHEEK~~~~
We had such a great night... GOOD JOB JULIE!!!!
I came home ate dinner and got the kids in bed...
I finally have ONE SECOND to myself.
I am off to go take a nice HOT bath!!!
Tomorrow is MATURATION for Alyssa - Yes I already said that I AM OLD!!!
GOOD NIGHT!!!!

Tag... You are IT!!!

2009-02-02T23:00:00.003-07:00

Tag I'm it...

So I thought this might be kind of fun to do. I have done this before but it has been forever... My sister in law, Rachelle said that I needed to blog so here it goes...

5 Things I was doing 5 years ago:

We had just found this house in Murray so we were starting the buying process. FUN! This was the best move of our life.
We were preparing our oldest child, Shawn to be baptized.
Picking out bedroom colors and bedspreads for the kids new rooms.
Sitting out on our soon to be neighbor, Karen DeMann's driveway with her and Jami Morrell talking for hours and hours and hours.
Being a Mom of an 7, 5, 3, & 1 year old. I am so happy to be where I am today!

5 Things on my to do list for today:

Make dessert for 50 for Shawn's school play.
Make wood "love" sign for work and home with ModPodge, Scrapbook paper and paint.
Eat lunch with Hubby, Parents, & Siblings
Have Family Home Evening with the Sutton's
Do Meet the Masters ART in Cameron's Class.

5 Things I would do with a million dollars:

Go on a Dream Trip with Just Steve & I.
Take the kids on a Disney Cruise again.
Pay off our house and the few bills that we have.
Take the kids on a humanitarian trip.
Hire a cleaner.

5 Places I have lived:

Murray, Utah
Holladay, Utah
Midvale, Utah
Murray, Utah
?

5 Jobs I have held: (in order)

Marie Callendar's
Sam's Express
Christopherson Travel - Travel Agent
Mom
Christopherson Travel - Event Coordinator

5 Things I want to be doing in 5 Years:

Going to (or be done with) SCHOOL
All Debt paid off
Living Comfortably
Being the Mom of a 17, 15, 13 & 11 year old kids. OH MY!
Being HOT Wife of the year... Ha Ha Ha!

5 People I tag:

Lisa W.
Dayna V.
Chelby S.
Lisa L.
Kelly S., Kelly T.
Natalie D.
Leigh Ann T.
Jenn B.
Julie S.
Katrina H., Katrina S., Catrina L.

Did they just say 5... sorry - I couldn't remember!

A day off of school...

2009-01-16T17:37:00.004-07:00

I haven't felt like blogging a whole lot lately... I am not sure why. I decided rather than going back and blog about a whole lot of nothing (not a whole lot has been going on). I would start from now.

Last night my Uncle Marv's band played at a place called The Sandlot. It was a grand opening party. We went with Chelby and her girls. It was cute to watch our girls dancing with "The Bee". The highlight of my kids night was to meet "the lady from KUTV 2 news"... Mary Nicols. They watch her in the morning on the news. They thought that was pretty cool. Later in the night Shawn went to his friend Mitch's house for a sleepover and we had Cassie S. over for a sleepover. We had so much fun. We watched "Watcher in the Woods". It was made when we were about 13 years old. I remember that it was scary so I thought that I wouldn't be now... um - I was super freaked out. You will have to see it. SCARY!!!

Today was great. We all slept in. Then we hung out around the house... Steve made crepes for the kids. Then after we took friends home and picked up Shawn the kids and I went to Red Robin for lunch. We ran errands... WalMart, the Bank, my office. Just a low key fun day. My in-laws called and wanted to take us to Chili's so we ate dinner there. We ran into the Sutton's. What a great night. I am ready for bed and it is only 8:15pm, but Steve wants to go to a movie. We might do that. Fun Fun Fun! Well that is all for now. I am going to try to be better at blogging. I am just in a slump lately.

Merry Christmas Outfits!

2009-01-02T22:52:00.003-07:00

Where does the time go...

2009-01-02T14:27:00.005-07:00

THANK YOU MOM & DAD!
Because I am so behind on posting I am going to skip a whole bunch that has happened. I will post about Christmas soon but I want to post about our amazing trip to Mexico first.
We went to Irapuato, Mexico to visit some small villages that our family has donated money to. We hadn't ever seen the project. What an amazing eye opening experience. WOW! To see how people live and to see that they are happy and content... amazing!

This was EVERYWHERE... Raw meat... Oh my gosh... the smell! I can't even explain what it smelled like... well - I could but I WONT!

We went to this house to visit a friend of our "guide" - Anna's. This picture is her WHOLE house. I was amazed at how clean and "decorated" it was. Even with nothing she made it her own. She had such a terribly sad life. We sat there and "listened" to her story. She of course spoke Spanish and we don't so Anna was translating most of it.

This is the lady that lived in that house. This was her front "door". It was a sheet - THAT IS ALL! She lost her husband 6 years ago to a sickness... it sounded like prostate cancer. His family gave them 10,000 pesos (about $700) for medical. She thought that she didn't have to pay them back but the day he died they told her that she owed them the money back... They said she had to pay them ALL of the money in eight days! She only had 50 pesos to her name. That is about $4. She has had a whole life of sadness just like this. She is not alone. Everyone that we met had stories just like this. What amazing people. They were so happy too. Even with nothing. They don't have toilets, running water, some don't have power to their village. WOW!!!

This is another house in one of the villages. Look how tall Steve is to it. This is their WHOLE house!!!

This is the medical center that Jarred and my Dad built 12 years ago when they went to this village. The family that still lives there totally remembered them. They brought out a "scrapbook" of Polaroid pictures from when they were there. They were teary eyed just talking to Jarred and Dad and meeting the rest of the family. What a humbling experience. They were amazing people.

This is Juan and Anna. They work for CHOICE Humanitarian that we do all of our humanitarian work through. They live in Mexico. They are such a great family. Juan just happens to be the Bishop in the ward there. We went to church on Sunday. We didn't understand a bit of what they were taking about but guess what. The spirit was still there (of course). We stayed through all three meetings. Jarred, Rachelle, Steve and I all went to primary to see how the kids were there. So great. They were so amazed that we live with in 10 minutes of a temple. They were so great.

One final picture... This was a kitchen in one of the villages. It was outside. With a rock wall all around it. The stove was a "griddle". You put a log of firewood underneath it and light it to cook. I just can't imagine... we have it so great. Even on our worst worst worst day we have it a million (or more) times easier than them.

What an amazing experience. I can't wait to go on a full humanitarian work trip now. I want my kids to do it too. Mom & Dad - thank you so much! I am thankful for the opportunities that you provide for me and my family.
I love you!

Another crazy week gone by...

2008-12-15T23:04:00.002-07:00

Monday - We started the week off with a dance performance for Alyssa. She is in a group with two of her cute little friends Cassie S., and Emmy S. They all did such a great job. Alyssa had to sing a solo for her voice teacher also at the performance. She sang "My Favorite Things". She hasn't seen "The Sound of Music" so she wasn't to happy about singing that song... I told that once she saw the movie she would love the song.

Tuesday - We had Ashley's performance today. She is in her group with her best friends... Sara W, Ella M, and Maggie S. All of these girls were so stinkin' cute. Oh my gosh to see there little butts shaking was so cute. I love to watch her dance. Alyssa also had a solo that night too.

Wednesday - I worked! I had YW. We had the cutest service project. It was called "Joy to the Ward". We had all of the primary kids come to play games and do crafts so that the parents could go shopping, eat dinner, take a nap, sit on the couch or just about what ever they wanted to do with out the kids. It turned out so great. We had 5 stations. A craft, a game, quilt tying for a hospital, a snack with story, and Santa Bingo. CUTE CUTE CUTE - Great Job Stacey!

Thursday - It must not have been too great because I can't remember.

Friday - Well it is Friday - that is just good in it self. We had our ward party. Always a good time to be had at the good ol' ward party. We also had two soccer games... Yay!

Saturday - Was so stinkin' fun. We had NOTHING going on that we HAD to do. We went to McDonald's, went shopping at Target, surprised Grandma Karen and put up her trees, went to Woody's to eat, The girls had another performance at a Ward house... yay 2 ward parties in a weekend... what more could one ask for?, Finally Steve and I went shopping for some last minute things... What a great day.

Sunday - Steve and I got up and flew to Denver for my Christmas Party there. When we got there Steve's iPhone said that the weather was 1 degree - yes you read it right 1 degree. It was hard to breathe it was so cold! We went shopping all day then to our work party at the Marriott where we were staying. It was a super fun day.

Monday - We went to a buffet breakfast as if we hadn't gotten enough to eat the night before. Then we flew home, quick trip but FUN! I did a tiny bit of shopping before the kids got home, I took Harley to get a haircut... Oh my gosh he looks so dang cute. Then tonight we went to Alyssa's Voice Recital. She has a great voice. I love to hear here sing. It is really a talent that I wish I had. I think that I want to take voice lessons too. I am not sure if I could do the recital though, I might chicken out... Some Day!

There is a quick overview of my week.

With all of our life's so crazy right now I miss our girls nights out.
I miss the girl talk... lets do it soon!

My favorite weekend of the year...

2008-12-07T22:18:00.003-07:00

Friday night - My work party! It is so much work to plan my work party. I love every minute of it though. I will have to upload my pictures... later though. This year we had my uncles band "Joe Friday" come... Oh my gosh, it was so much fun. Most of the guys would not dance but the girls... we had a great time together. What a fun night!

Saturday Day - CRAZY!!!

Alyssa's Soccer Game at 9:00am
McDonald's with my Parents at 10:00am
Finish making creamy chicken noodle soup at 10:30am
Young Women's leadership training at Stacey Benson's at 11:00am
Boutique with my Friends at Chelby's at 12:30pm
Cameron's Soccer Game at 1:45pm
Make Treat for Neighborhood Food Drive at 3:30pm
Neighborhood Food Drive at 4:00pm - 6:00pm
Dinner at Barbacoa at 6:15pm
Kenadee Morrell's Nutcracker Ballet at 7:30pm
Shopping for Family Fondue Party at 10:00pm
Start preparing Young Women's Christmas Lesson at 11:30pm
Bed at 1:00am - Yawn!!!! Glad that day is OVER!!!

Sunday - I got up and finished my young women's lesson while my kids and Steve decorated our 2nd tree right behind me... I loved the sound of their reminiscing about the ornaments. So cute. We rushed to get ready for church and get there. Sacrament was so great. Steve bore his testimony... it is always fun to hear what your spouse is thinking about and pondering. I love to publicly hear his testimony. In Sunday school I sat by Lisa W. I really love the family relations class. I have learned so many great things. I know sometimes it doesn't look like it but I really am trying to be a better Mom. I love what I learn from the Shewell's - they are great teachers.

My dreaded lesson... I think that it turned out pretty good. When we left time for testimonies some of the girls actually got up to bare their testimonies. It was the first time since we have been in there that they have stood up. It is so sweet to hear their thoughts... I love them.

FONDUE - it is our absolutely our family's favorite tradition. We eat with Us, Steve's parents and real Dad, My parents and my siblings... I will for sure post pictures... they are great. We eat SO MUCH at Fondue. Bread dipped in Cheese fondue, Apples, Bananas & pretzels dipped in white chocolate, milk chocolate & caramel and steak, shrimp & chicken in oil to cook and then to top it off we have a spinach salad. Oh my gosh - I gained 20 pounds tonight!!!! YUM!!!

All in all it was a great weekend but BUSY! I am going to bed!

Another fun conversation with Ashley...

2008-11-28T10:35:00.002-07:00

Ashley - "Mom, what if on Thanksgiving when I am a Mom my Husband likes BYU Football and I like Utah Utes?"

Mom - "Well that would be funny huh? You would both have to watch different TV's"

Ashley - "Uh NO! I would just take the remote because I am the Mom and he would sit by me and watch Utah Utes."

Seriously... where does she come up with these things... Steve and I don't even watch football. She is just funny!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all...

2008-11-28T10:14:00.002-07:00

My top ten things I am thankful for today... (in no certain order)

1. That we could have 42 people eat with us yesterday... including Aunt Suzi & Uncle Wes family surprising us from Phoenix!
2. Steve & all of the hard work that he does for our family. I love having him for a best friend.
3. Our 4 kids... each of them have such different personalities and I love it.
4. Our Country and those men & women that fight for our freedom (thank you Buck).
5. The Gospel... I can't imagine what it would be like for Steve & I to raise our kids with out it.
6. (I just asked Ashley what she is thankful for... so this is hers) "I am thankful for EVERYTHING that Jesus gave us and the world... oh except for alcohol... oh ya... that wasn't from Jesus, that was from Satan."
7. Our Warm Home.
8. My whole family. It is such a blessing to have a family who all gets along and wants to spend all their time together.
9. My friends... you guys are so much fun to talk to and have fun with. Thank you for all that you teach my by your examples.
10. Our education.

I am on a countdown...

2008-11-22T07:57:00.002-07:00

I love Thanksgiving... I love to eat... I love my family... I LOVE THAT MY GRANDPARENTS fly in from Phoenix... I love to eat more... I love to play family games... I love Jarred & Jelissa's homemade cream pies that have more graham cracker crust than they have pie filling... I love to stay over at my parents house with the whole family until the wee hours of the morning...

This year my Mom & Dad have 42 of us coming to their house. This includes My Grandpa, Grandma, Other Grandma, My Mother in law, Father in law, & and my other Father in law. I love that I can eat with all of them at one time and not have to trade houses or "years" with my in laws. I haven't always loved thanksgiving growing up... BUT now... I think it might be my favorite.

I am thankful for all of you.

Happy Thanksgiving!

So Ashley says today...

2008-11-18T17:22:00.002-07:00

She comes in to my room all ready for school with a different outfit on than the one that we had picked out and she actually looks really cute (sometimes her outfits are a little different). I say to her... "Wow! Look at your cute outfit, you look really cute today." to which she replys... "uh, I know... I TRY to look cute everyday."

Well touche!

100 Things that I am Thankful for... In NO particular order

2008-11-13T22:20:00.004-07:00

Steve
Shawn
Alyssa
Cameron
Ashley
My family
The Gospel
Jesus Christ
My amazing group of girlfriends
My job
Steve's Job
Steve's hard working skills
My marriage
Diet Coke
Rich's Bagels
Scrapbooking
Thank you cards
My awesome neighbors
A super great ward
A bishopric with a sense of humor (remember I love to stick my foot in my mouth)
My Young Women
The amazing ladies that I serve with in YW
My Grandparents
The love for learning
Photography
Computers
Karate
Shopping
Shopping when I have money to spend
Cooking when I have a stocked cupboard & fridge
Scentsy Candles
Baking anything
Jewelry
Flowers
Chocolate
Peanut Butter
Grant Elementary
A great community
Reading
Reading the Scriptures
A clean car
Clean kids
Clothes that match
Summer
Fall
Conference
Calendars
Lists
Soccer
Dancing
Traditions
Girls nights out
Cuddling
Watching movies with homemade popcorn from a pan
Cars that work
A warm house
Baths
Magazines
Target
Christmas
Christmas Shopping
Holiday smells
Family in town for the holidays
Tax Refunds
Family Vacations
Rio Grand Cafe
Pebbles in my Pocket
Giving gifts
Making dinner for my Dad & my Fathers in Law
Fondue
Dinner with RV Friends
Family parties
Work parties
Night games with the neighbors
Sacrament speakers
The ages of my kids
Fonts
Cell phones
IPods
Cameras
Vacations with just Steve
Hot Tubs
King sized beds (we don't have one)
Socks
Slippers
Sweatshirts
Blankets and a good book
Fireplaces
Great coworkers
Creative people
President Thomas S. Monson
The Temple
Christmas Lights
Hot chocolate
Picnics
Communication
Dates with Steve
One on One time with each kid
Sense of humor
Blogging

Updating...

2008-11-12T22:45:00.002-07:00

Apparently I don't blog enough says Julie & Lisa L. so here I am blogging! I am pretty much addicted to facebook so blogging is on the back burner for a minute but I don't want to be the one that can't journal on my blog for my kids so here it is.

Love you guys - Thanks for checking my blog even when I have nothing to tell about.

Happy 13th Annivarsary Steve!!!

2008-11-09T22:13:00.003-07:00

So I am a litte behind in blogging... for no other reason but that I haven't felt like it.

Anyway... Sunday was our 13 year anniversary. I can not even believe we have been married for 13 years. It seems like just yesterday that we got married. We have done so many great things in our 13 years.

Here is 13 things that we have done together:

Went through the temple
Had four kids
Bought two houses
Went on many, many fun adventures
Gained a testimony together
Paid a lot of bills
Started a business
Paid a lot more bills after that
Had some surgeries... some good... some not so good
Had a miscarriage
Met the greatest neighbors ever
Had the best friends ever
Adopted Harley

Steve... thank you for making me laugh. I have loved every minute of our lucky 13 years...
I am looking forward to many many more.

I LOVE YOU!
Happy Anniversary!

A cute family photo shoot!

2008-11-02T22:26:00.003-07:00

Isn't she about the cutest little thing you have ever seen?

We did a little impromptu photo shoot of the Sutton's on Saturday!

It was fun to take some fun pictures of friends!

It made me decide that I want to start doing this for a living!

Do you think that I will ever get off of my lazy butt and do it? Probably not but I want to!

Chelby looks amazingly awesome especially after loosing a whole lot of weight! She is my idol!

Their girls are just super cute!

Look at Chelby's cute skinny butt... She doesn't even know that I took this picture! You guys get to see it first! I love this family. It really was fun to take their pictures. Their girls just loved posing. I am glad that I am friends with them. Chelby... thank you for all of your help all of the time!

Steve & Jason Mraz...

2008-10-28T23:18:00.004-06:00

So about a month ago Steve said to me...
"I guess I better tell you... I am surprising the kids with tickets to see Jason Mraz in concert"

I was equally as excited as I hoped that the kids would be. I love Jason Mraz.
Well the concert was tonight. When the kids got home from school I told them that they could play for a tiny bit and then they had to shower and get ready in nicer jeans and shirts and Dad was taking us somewhere. I got a whole lot of "shower... in the middle of the day" "what... I want to play with my friends" "do I really have to go?" ....oh my gosh and to think that we still do nice things (like surprises) for our kids.

While we were sitting at dinner they were trying to guess where we were going. They all decided that it was to Hollywood Connection to their movie theater to see High School Musical 3 because the boys haven't seen it.

While we were walking over to the "theater" they realized that Jason Mraz was in town... "oh that sounds like so much fun can we go... can we go"... so Steve said "OKAY!!!"

They were like "what... are we really not going to HSM3? The only one at this point SUPER excited was Shawn... he couldn't wait. Finally we "talked" them into being excited. We ended up having so much fun. About four songs into the concert Ashley was so tired that she fell asleep on my lap. I asked her (in her sleep) if she liked the concert and shook her head yes! Well I guess money well spent ... right?

Happy 32nd Birthday to Jarred!!!

2008-10-25T23:47:00.005-06:00

Today is Jarred's 32nd birthday.

I love him for a lot of reasons...

He picked a great wife and treats her so cute. I am proud of him. He is an awesome guy.
He is an really great uncle. Our kids just adore him and always look forward to seeing him.
He is fun. He does crazy things and is always up for an adventure.
He is a super friend and brother not only to me, his big sister, but to Steve. They have a great relationship... he truly is the brother that Steve didn't have growing up.

There really is a lot more reasons... These are just a few!

I love you , Jarred... HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Disclamer

2008-10-21T23:34:00.001-06:00

I LOVE to take pictures and usually do a pretty good job... but everyone is commenting on how cute my last ones of the kids are and I didn't take them... Steve did.

Way to go Steve!

Our attempt at fall pictures of the kids...

2008-10-20T22:57:00.004-06:00

I am pretty sure that it is MUCH easier to get good pictures of
other peoples kids.

We were quickly loosing light!

We were also quickly loosing patience!

Check out their cute matching outfits (refer to prior post).

Pretend you don't notice that Ashley got out of the house with
her "favorite" shoes on... not the black ones that match.

I also let my cool 7th grader have a little opinion on dressing himself...
NOTE the gray stripes!

Luckily he is a great kid!

All in all my kids were pretty good. We all made it through the experience!

What makes me quirky...

2008-10-19T22:48:00.003-06:00

Jenn B. this one is for you...

Definition of quirk:n.1. A peculiarity of behavior; an idiosyncrasy: "Every man had his own quirks and twists" Harriet Beecher Stowe.2. An unpredictable or unaccountable act or event; a vagary: a quirk of fate.

Rules:
Link the Person who Tagged you. Mention rules on your blog. Tell about 6 quirks of yours. Tag 6 fellow bloggers to do the same. Leave a comment to let them know.

I have OCD characteristics so this should be fun.

1. Just like Lisa W. I shower the same everyday. I wash my hair, rinse, then condition... while the conditioner is setting I shave... first my right leg, then left then my right pit, then my left last I shave my bikini line... finally I rinse my hair.

2. I have to put chapstick on every night before bed if I forget I can't sleep until I get up and put it on.

3. I am a big list maker... I love my grocery list especially to look good. When my family writes something down on the list that I need to get... I have to re-write the whole list... It has to be how I like it.

4. I have to shave my legs AT LEAST once a day. I hate even the slightest stubble.

5. I have to have all the chairs pushed in the same at the table. It doesn't matter if it is my table or a table at the furniture store... they have to be the same.

6. I like my cans in the cupboard to all face the same way with the brand facing out and the cereal boxes to all face the same way with the nutrition label facing out... NOT because I read the label but because it looks more uniform.

Bonus quirk... I LOVE it when my whole family dresses in the SAME colors scheme. It makes it easy in the likely chance that I take pictures then I can scrapbook easier and everyone can match the paper.

Are we still friends... I know I am weird!

I tag all of you who are reading this and haven't done it yet. These are fun to read and they make me feel a whole lot more normal when I hear the things that you do. So if you haven't done it... now is the time.

A peek into our crazy schedule...

2008-10-16T22:53:00.004-06:00

Monday

Steve started a new job. He is going to be working for a company call Fix it Squad / Redrock Heating & Cooling. Our friend Jeff that owns A-shed, that he has been working for, also owns this Fix it Squad. They do all kinds of different jobs... when they do new construction in heating they will be doing it under Redrock Heating & Cooling. It is fun to see that going in full swing again. It just feels right. Steve is super excited to help it grow. He will be doing sells for both companies. The best part is that he wont be doing the parts that he is not quite as good at which is the bills and secretarial stuff. I am proud of him. He is excited.
Monday night we went to eat dinner out at Chick-fil-a. We went to support this amazing little boy that I wish we knew. His name is Trent Duval. He is eight. He is loosing his battle with leukemia. You will have to go on his blog and read about him. You will fall in love with him too. I am not a cryer... his story made me sob. He has affected our whole family. Our kids pray for him each night. Read his story... www.trentduval.blogspot.com.

Tuesday

We went to dinner with a whole bunch of friends. We are so super fortunate to have such great people that surround us and help teach our kids. We went to hang out with Buck & Leigh Ann Taylor while he is still in town. They are two of the most amazing people that I know. Buck in serving our country in Afghanistan. He does it well. His stories are so great. He is on a two week leave. He will go back on Monday for about four more months. Leigh Ann is so courageous. I just watch her. I think that she is an awesome woman to hold everything together while her husband is serving our country for our freedom. I love them. All of our kids were so interested in all of Buck's stories... they just kept asking him questions. I loved watching my kids with my friends. Shawn especially had a good time because he is the age that I hung out with some of them.

Wednesday

I was in charge of our Young Women's combined activity. We had a lady, Date Rape Advocate, come and talk to the girls about Date Rape, then we did a service project for them... the South Valley Coalition, that she works with. WOW! is all that I can say. Here are a few of the statistics... realize that most of these statistics are from UTAH.

1 in 5 teens who have been in a serious relationship report being hit, slapped or pushed by a partner
In 1995, 7% of all murder victims were young women killed by there boyfriends
1 in 8 Utah Women will raped sometime in their lifetime
Rape is the only category of violence that Utah EXCEEDS the nations violence

So this information last night was scary to me... you should hear all of these statistics that I have from her... WOW! It makes me nervous to raise kids in these latter days. What an eye opener for me. I looked back on times that this could have easily happened to me or one of my friends. SCARY!

Thursday

NO SCHOOL
Alyssa & Ashley had a fall performance. It was so cute. They and all their little friends did such a great job. They are in Guyz N Dollz with Cassie S, Emmy S, & Alyssa and Ella M, Sara W, Maggie S & Ashley... They love it. They all were all so cute.
Alyssa had a soccer game. The final score was 10 to 0... we won. We were doing so great that John mixed up all of the positions and let Alyssa play forward instead of defender... She scored a goal... how fun to see her play somewhere else. They have a great team and they really are getting so great together. They are having a fun time.
Finally we ended the night off with a soccer party at our house. All the girls and their families came over for dessert, soup & rolls. All the parents sat around and talked while the girls played, sang karaoke, and watched a movie. We had a great time.

Tomorrow we are taking the kids to Lagoon... I will take pictures...

Couples HaLLoWeEN BoNKo!

2008-10-12T20:30:00.002-06:00

Two cute Geishas
~Jason & Nicole~

a suicide bomber
a cute soldier
~Buck & Leigh Ann~

Colonel Sanders and
his Cute Southern Belle
~Ben & Natalie~

Napoleon Dynamite and
a cute pregnant Deb
~Trent & Julie~

Murray Mayor Snarr and
Murray's favorite idol David Archuleta
~Steve & Me~

Hannah Montana and
her sidekick Lola
~Callin and Lisa~

Olympic Gold Medal Winner Michael Phelps
and Gold Winner Womens Beach Volleyball Player
~Eric & Jenn~

a portly Napoleon and
Josephine Bonaparte

(Sorry that the pictures are first...
This was the only way today that I could get them uploaded
- I was having major computer stress - sorry)

Well last night we had our famous Couples Halloween Bonko. It is very anticipated all year long. We start talking about and thinking about costumes a year ahead. This year was amazing.

We always start the night off at Bonsai. The employees there even anticipate it. They take pictures of us and always say they can't wait to see what we come up with the next year.

This year the biggest HIGHLIGHT of the night was when Buck and Leigh Ann came walking in the restaurant. Everyone started clapping and cheering. He has been gone serving our country in Afghanistan. He is on a two week leave. It was so good to have him home safe and to give him a big hug. We have missed you Buck!

We held Bonko at our house this year. It is always such a great reason to clean house. I love how the house looks when it is clean... if we could only keep it this way always.

What a fun fun fun group we have. I love each and everyone of them. They all bring so much happiness to our lives. I love you guys!

My weekend...

2008-10-08T22:16:00.002-06:00

Steve, Me , Shawn, Cameron, & Ashley all went to the Sand Dunes in Idaho this past weekend. Alyssa stayed home with Grandma Karen (She had her last Snow White performance). Yay! As cute as the whole thing was it took ENTIRELY TOO MUCH TIME! I was so tired of taking her to practice after practice after practice. I am glad to have my girl back. I missed her.

Here are a few highlights from our weekend.

Weekend get a way to Idaho.
Steve & his boys on a four wheeler ride with Cameron & Shawn riding their own 4-wheelers.
Talking to Alyssa after everything that her and Grammy did.
Conference. Because it rained and we stayed in the motor home more we were able to watch all four sessions of conference (minus 1 hour of the last session). I love conference. I really love to hear our leaders talk. I love the talks that you know they are answering a prayer of yours directly. They are amazing men and women.
Our friends... we have a great group of friends that we go on our motor home trips with. I really love them all.
Great food... I love camping food... we always grill a salmon and steak... MMMmmm!

Anyway... we had a great weekend. It is always good to be back home.

I am BAD at BLOGGING...

2008-10-08T22:04:00.002-06:00

I absolutely love to read all of your blogs, I even get annoyed when you don't update them... then why am I so bad at blogging? I feel SUPER overwhelmed. With my whole lift right now.

My house... is a HUGE disaster.
My laundry... well it looks as if I do laundry for the whole neighborhood.
My car... smells and looks like some small animal died in it.
My craft room... looks like a kids play house.
My brain... is fried!!!
I do have a clean theater.

I have couples Halloween Bonko at my house on Saturday. I am pretty sure that I will have it cleaned up by then... I hope!

Please keep blogging... it keeps me sane. I would miss you guys if you didn't do it.

Looking Back at our Week...

2008-09-27T20:22:00.002-06:00

Monday - Steve & I both worked all day then after school Alyssa had Drama Practice and also Soccer Practice.

Tuesday - Steve & I both worked all day. After school we had the room parent orientation (I get to be the head room parent in Cameron's class this year). Then I had to run to Shawn's first big Jr. High Parent Teacher Conference. It went pretty well. Then Shawn had karate but he somehow talked me out of going because of parent teacher conference. Cameron had soccer practice then finally we went to scout pack meeting for Cameron... yes this was one of those nights that we didn't eat until 9:00pm (we seem to have a lot of these).

Wednesday - I went on a field trip all morning with Alyssa's class to the U of U - Natural History Museum. Steve worked. I came back and went straight to Cameron's class to do the Meet the Master Art program - what a cute cute age. I ran straight from there to my nail appt. I finally got to sit down and have a break. After school Ashley and her cute little friends had drama class. Alyssa had voice lesson's & play practice (yes if you are wondering she is in WAY to much right now). Steve and I both had young men's and young women's so we didn't even know how we were going to pick her up and my life saver, Chelby saved me and picked her up for me. Thanks Chelby!

Thursday - We started the day off at Dad's & Doughnuts at 8:00am. We all went because I was helping set up and take down. I came home and had a relaxing face wax at Jami's house. Then Steve & I both worked again... I am beginning to see a pattern here. After school we had "Cookie Friday" for the Jr. High kids - They didn't have school on Friday so Chelby & I changed it to Thursday this week. Then Shawn had Karate, Then we had Cameron's Soccer practice & Alyssa's Soccer game. Finally I headed over to Kneader's to meet all the Bonko Girls (and Sub's) for Dinner then to Mindy's house for Bonko. Cute Cute prizes. I have the best set of girlfriends. I am not sure how I became so lucky. I love each and every one of you for completely different reasons.

Friday - I went visiting teaching to Julie Smith & Jami Morrell. Shawn & Steve played golf because Shawn didn't have school. Then they came home to watch some episodes of "Prison Break" together. Then Shawn, Steve & I all went to lunch at "Five Guys Burgers & Fries". Yummy! Steve then went to work and Shawn & I grocery shopped. We did a few chores when we got home and I started to decorate for Halloween. Then we raced to get ready because Julie & Trent invited us & the Sharples over for a really great homemade dinner. BBQ Lamb, Cheesy mashed potatoes, bacon wrapped asparagus, you goat girl salad and the VERY BEST homemade peach pie that I have ever had. YUMMY! Thank you Thank you Thank you for inviting us. The next time is our turn. I love you guys... it was fun to sit and talk with the 6 of us.

Saturday - We had to leave our house by 7:30am for Cameron's game that was in Pleasant Grove, then we ate breakfast at McDonald's, Then straight home to drop off Steve to go to work. The rest of us headed to Guyz N Dollz to Alyssa's Snow White play. She is so stinking cute in the play. Then straight from her play we headed up to Heber for her soccer game. After her game we ate dinner at the Dairy Keen in Heber with Brad & Jamie Mackay. We are now home and BEAT! It is 8:30pm and I AM READY FOR BED!!!!!

I am sorry that this is such a BORING post BUT it is purely for journaling purposes only.

I am tired -

I am just sitting here at Mom & Dad's House...

2008-09-21T19:41:00.005-06:00

I am just sitting here with my cute new sister in law. She just started a blog for her and Jarred so I am showing her how to use it. Also she gave me a link to her cute wedding pictures if any of you would like to see them.

http://www.kevinwinzeler.com/gallery/6001897_tNcnP/1/375168068_XtVvj#375168068_XtVvj

The password is Wedding... make sure you have a capital W

Sorry - I don't know how to make the link so you can just click on it from my blog. You will have to cut and copy - sorry!

Let me know what you think. I love them.

I have a million things to tell about...

2008-09-20T23:35:00.002-06:00

Where do I start...

Callin & Lisa's Eternal Family - Steve & I went to the temple to see Callin & Lisa sealed together as an eternal family. I loved every minute of it. They went on their 10th wedding anniversary. It was so fun to see their little family standing together in all white together in the sealing room. I really loved it.
Shawn's Black Belt - In January 2008 Shawn tested for his black belt. He has been in a waiting period since then to see if he would get his black belt. He finally received it. It was so much fun to see him get it. We are so proud of him.
Girls Weekend Out - I went with Jami, Dayna, Jenn & Lisa W. to stay in a hotel, then the next day very tiredly we went to an all day woman's conference. It was so needed and so much fun. It is just amazing how much therapy it is just hanging out with 4 girlfriends, a fart machine, puffy pants & peckermints.
Couples Date Night to Bonsai & Laser Tag - I am pretty sure that I don't like playing that game with people I don't know. I really had fun hanging out though with ALL of the couples that were with us. We had about 26 of us there. I love that.
Alyssa's Snow White Play - It is a cute little show. It is fun to see all of the hard work that you daughter puts in to something. If anyone wants to endure a kid play (your kids would like it) she is performing TWO more Saturdays. September 27th and October 4th. It is at the "OLD COMEDY CIRCUIT" in Midvale. Her performing arts place (Guyz & Dollz) bought that place. It is now the "Midvale Main Street Theater". Go and bring your kids.
Soccer Games - Alyssa & Cameron are really enjoying soccer and are actually pretty good. I really thought (before I had kids) that I would NEVER let or even want my kids activities to run my life. Now I love it.
School - I now love having all my kids in school. I still really miss Ashley (my partner in crime) but I do get a lot more done. All of my kids are loving school.
Steve & the State Fair - Steve was at the fair for the first two weeks of September EVERY day. I realized that with me being a single Mom... our kids can't be involved in as much as they are in. It is nice to have him help me. I love you Steve for all that you do. Leigh Ann - I thought about you everyday while Steve was gone. Please let us know if we can help you in any way... and just think it is a countdown until you see him.
I really have the greatest husband, kids, friends, family, and people around me. I am glad that I have good people to learn from all around me.

I am so tired... I just miss blogging and wanted to update. More for my self than anything.

CONGRATULATIONS Callin & Lisa!!!

2008-09-06T22:17:00.003-06:00

So today we were able to go to the Salt Lake Temple with some of our very best friends... Callin & Lisa. Seriously this was one of my very favorite memories that we have had together as friends.
They received their endowments at the 4:00pm session. I loved seeing them dressed in all white. They just looked so great, they really had just a great spirit about them. I am so thankful that I am friends with them. I am thankful for the example they are to us. They have worked so hard to get to where they are right now. I love, love, love to watch their testimony grow. I am counting down now for Friday to see their cute family become an eternal family.

I love you guys... Congratulations!!!

Basement update...

2008-09-02T16:16:00.003-06:00

So here is the update... Tears and lots of them really help... it makes your husband not mad at all... in fact he probably thinks that you need therapy because you cried so much and you are not a cryer... It helps believe me I tried it.

So after having the carpet drying with six large fans since Sunday night... the carpet and pad are DRY... We are crossing our fingers in hopes that the wood and sheet rock are not damaged. When Cameron's wall collapses... I will let you know that wall WAS in fact damaged... but for now I think we are good.

Oh and for are lawn... it officially sunk in the area about 3 inches... that is how much water we had.

Just for the record... Steve did say "HOSE" not "HOSES"... I'm just sayin'! But he wasn't at all mad so I can't even try to pass blame...

So what is the dumbest mistake you have ever made...

2008-09-01T00:49:00.003-06:00

Mine was tonight... Steve was up putting Alyssa's new bed together in her newly painted room. Outside we were filling up the hot tub because we just cleaned it out the other day. Steve asked me to go turn off the hose. I did. About 2 hours later Steve went outside for something... and came in screaming... "JENNICA! GO GET SOME BUCKETS AND TOWELS... CAMERON'S ROOM IS FLOODED!!!!!!!!!!" So I ran and brought down all 90 towels that we own and the kids and I started mopping up the carpet... while Shawn & Steve were bucketing it out of the window well. We used the shop-vac to vacuum, mopped the floor again, and Steve ran to my parents to get the 6 construction fans that they have in their basement. Did I mention that we just finished the basement a couple of months (like 1 1/2) ago... So here is what happened... He asked me to turn of the hose... which I did... what I didn't know was that there was actually two hoses in the hot tub. Well the hot tub started to overflow and the 2nd hose came out and planted it self right in Cameron's window well... and then promptly filled it up. It is amazing that I could see the carpet through the tears flowing down my cheeks... I felt like the worst person EVER!!! I couldn't even get mad at anyone but my self... crap I hate that!

So the moral of the story is... don't put a bed together on Sunday... your new basement will flood.

Clean Kitchen & Family Room...

2008-08-30T16:55:00.004-06:00

You would think that with all my kids at school all day I would clean then...but NOPE, I finally did it today! I deep, took everything off of my counter, cleaned my kitchen.

I also put together my 2008-2009 "Mom's Control Journal" so I know where and when my kids are at school functions, school parties, dance, drama, soccer, karate, voice lessons etc. I also put together my new Young Women's binder.

I have been putting off laundry all day... it is time to do it before my amazing husband takes me out on a date.

School & Mom...

2008-08-29T00:18:00.002-06:00

I am bored and lonely with my baby at school. I keep looking for her at Costco & Target. I even thought of having her paged as a lost child. I'm sure then I REALLY would end up in the nut house. I hope that it gets better. I miss them... I never thought that I would after the crazy summer that we have had. Maybe I will get something done this year while they are at school... and maybe then I won't.

SCHOOL IS HERE!!!

2008-08-25T22:51:00.004-06:00

So there is that day as a Mom that you look towards. Some days really excited for and some days not excited at all for... The first day of school for your youngest child! Well guys today was that day for me. Now you all know how Ashley is super busy... okay sometimes down right crazy... BUT... she is still my youngest child... AND she started 1st grade today! I really thought that I was excited... or more like so dang EXCITED. As the day inched closer and closer I realized that I was a tad bit sad. Not bawl my eyes out sad but "this is a really weird feeling" sad. I am in a fully different chapter in my life. I realized today that I would be running errands alone from now on, I wouldn't hear her playing in the other room while I was cleaning, she wouldn't be my lunch buddy etc, etc, etc. I really truly am going to miss her and her little voice.

So to make matters worse... I also had my first kid start 7th grade on Friday. Oh my gosh... could I be any older? Don't answer that I am feeling OLD! He absolutely loved 7th grade. 7th graders didn't go today ... so we went to lunch with Catrina & Ashlyn Leffel (oh ya and Dad). We had a great time. It was fun to hang out with just him.

My middle two kids are doing normal (I am thankful) things like going to 3rd & 5th grades. Those grades seem manageable and safe.

All of us sat down at dinner tonight and the kids told us their favorite first day memories.

Ashley - "I get a big girl desk & 3 recesses"
Cameron - "I like my new friend Triston... he is new in the school"
Alyssa - "I REALLY like my teacher... she is funny just like me"
Shawn - "I love that I have 7 different teachers incase I do something wrong I only have to see them for a short time." GREAT he is planning to do something wrong?... Let's hope not!

What a great day. I hope that tomorrow is not quite as weird... as much as I thought that I WOULD NOT miss my kids while they are at school... I did!

GNO Movie Night!

2008-08-19T08:04:00.003-06:00

Thursday Night!
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
Meet at Chelby Sutton's house @ 9:00
(or if you don't know where Chelby lives let me know and
you can meet me here before that and we will drive over together)
Leave Her house @ 9:15

Come one, come all! It will be a lot of fun!
Hope to see all of my sister friends there.

I love you all.

Happy Wedding Day Jarred & Rachelle Cameron...

2008-08-18T07:54:00.002-06:00

So I am all done being Jennifer Lopez in The Wedding Planner... I thought that the wedding ceremony & reception turned out so great. Here is a time line of events:

9:30am wedding rehearsal at Sundance
11:30am Lunch with the wedding party at PF Chang's
Rachelle's Mom took both of my girls to get their hair done at a salon
Picked up all of the flowers to take them to Sundance to decorate with
Decorate, Decorate, Decorate
Decorate, Decorate, Decorate
at 4:40pm (ceremony started at 5:00pm) we all got in our motor home (about 12 of us) to quickly get ready
got out to the ceremony at 5:00pm
ceremony
pictures
more final decorating
reception
clean - up
bed at about 2:00am

I loved the night so much. Watching my brother and his cute bride get married was for sure one of the best days of my whole life. Here are some of my favorites from the day:

All of the guys wore tuxedos BUT Jarred, Shawn & Cameron wore the ones with tails
Jarred also surprised Shawn & Cameron and the three of them wore a top hat (oh my gosh... I can't wait to put pictures on to show you how cute they looked)
Jarred surprised Rachelle with diamond earrings to wear that night
Watching all 4 of my kids walk done the aisle... so cute
The look on Jarred's face when he saw Rachelle in her wedding dress
The look on their faces as they were getting married
Dancing, Dancing, Dancing at the reception
I LOVED dancing with all of the girls to Mamma Mia's "Dancing Queen" with Rachelle in the middle of the circle
Rachelle & Her Dad dancing to Mamma Mia's "Slipping through my fingers"
Jarred looked more content & happy than I have ever ever EVER seen him
At the end of the night Jarred & I stood together in a little hug and he told me that I would NEVER understand how much that it meant to him that I had dropped everything to plan their wedding and how much he appreciated what I had done... Just that right there was thank you enough.

Jarred, I can't tell you enough how happy I am that you found Rachelle. I really love her and I am excited to have her as my sister. You guys are a really great couple and The love that you have for each other shows so much.

I love you guys... CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Just checking in on a Sunday Night!

2008-08-10T22:22:00.003-06:00

So this morning I was catching up on all your blogs around 9:40am and my phone rings... for whatever reason... my stomach dropped (you know the feeling right)... I thought "I am getting called to the Young Women's presidency (note: I hadn't even looked who was calling). I looked at the caller ID and the phone said "Church of Jesus" . I picked it up. Here is the call I had with the second counselor in the Bishopric... Glenn Phillapoom.

Jennica: ...Hello
Glenn: Um Jennica are you coming to your meeting?
Jennica: Uh - I would totally be at my meeting if I had known about it.
Glenn: Well how fast can you get over here?
Jennica: I have to just throw a dress on... I will be right there.
Glenn: Oh ya - don't forget to bring Steve with you.

My thought - oh great what is it... my second thought... I KNOW that I am being put into the Young Women's Presidency. I just knew.

Well we got dressed in record time and ran over there.

I was called to the Young Women's Presidency... (I just felt it)

Stacey Benson is the President (She moved into the Decker's old house and is also Leigh Ann's sister in law) I walk with Stacey every morning and I really love her already... I can't wait.

Julie Smith is the 1st Counselor - I have loved Julie since the first time I met her. She is just such a great role model for me. I can't wait to be with her too.

I am the 2nd counselor - I am sure that I am not as qualified as the others but I will learn.

Lisa Wilcken is the secretary - We go way way way back. You know as far back as when her and Steve dated. We know EVERYTHING there is to know about each other and we still love each other. She is just like a sister to me. Again - I can't wait to be with her too.

As you can tell... I really lucked out in the great women category. They are all amazing and I can't wait to get to know them on a much better level.

We have huge shoes to fill... Jami Morrell was the President before Stacey and her and her counselors were amazing. They did a great job and the girls just LOVE them. We will be asking them often for their help. Have a great break guys... you are amazing women... you will have a different calling quick.

I am excited and scared for this new endeavor.

Mamma Mia...

2008-08-07T23:47:00.003-06:00

So tonight a couple of us girls went to see Mama Mia... I have been wanting to see it. I had NO IDEA how much I would love it. I really think that it was the best show that I have seen in a LONG time. It is my new favorite! I totally want to make a video of me and my friends doing the movie... I just think that it would be a blast to embarrass our kids like that... the least we could do it dress like them and go out... are you in? Lets plan it!

That was just what I needed on a really stressful couple of weeks...
I love you girls for going with me. You are the greatest... we missed those of you who didn't come. You can still be in our play!

Nothing new and exciting to update...

2008-08-06T08:43:00.003-06:00

Just thought that I would check in... I have been reading about all of you but I just haven't had a whole lot going on to blog about. My days all consist of the same thing... WEDDING! I do love to hear the fun things that you and your families are doing... Keep up the good work, I love to read about you!

I am just tired...

2008-08-01T22:59:00.003-06:00

I am tired.

I just finished:

Back to Back Murray Max Tournament Games in Park City for Alyssa yesterday and today

I am planning:

A bridal shower for Jarred's Fiance (Saturday, August 2, 2008)
A golf tournament for 144 people (Monday, August 4, 2008)
A wedding - 550 invitations (Friday, August 15, 2008)
School clothes, and my favorite... supply shopping
24 more days of fun things to do for the Summer (I have failed miserably at this lately)

Again... I am TIRED.

My Cameron is just cute...

2008-07-30T22:47:00.003-06:00

Today Cameron was riding around with Steve doing errands for work. Steve came home from Scout Camp just today to work. Steve was on the phone and Cameron grabbed his notebook off of his lap. Steve said "Bud what are you doing I am using that...?" Cameron said "Dad, hold on I have something important to write... I need to write down this DOT COM for Mom... It really will help her and save her time for Uncle Jarred's wedding. Then she can be with us more"...Steve looks over at what he is writing and he wrote "www.brideaccess.com".

Maybe that is an indication that I spend entirely to much time pretending that I am J-Lo in The Wedding Planner.

On my to-do list tomorrow...

2008-07-28T10:39:00.002-06:00

Go walking with Stacy Benson (6:45am)
Go to Xpedex with Jarred & Rachelle for invitations (7:45am)
Go to Kinko's to meet with the Manager to print (9:30am)
Somewhere in there take a shower and get dressed
Oh ya and I have three kids at home (Steve & Shawn are at Scout Camp)
Call DJ, Flower Lady, Harpist?, Cake Lady Etc.
Help with Bridesmaid & flower girl dresses.
Oh ya by the looks of my body I have NEVER forgotten to eat either.
Go to Sundance to meet with Brandon the Event Coordinator there (1:00pm)
Did I mention that Sundance is ONE HOUR away?
Did I also mention that Sundance is ALSO ONE HOUR back?
Get Alyssa to Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs play practice - She tried out a couple of weeks ago and got the part of "Happy" (4:00pm)
Karate for me - I will really need it today (6:00pm)
Cameron & Alyssa are scrimmaging against each other with Murray Max Soccer at Grant (7:00pm) This will be fun to have them play a "friendly" game against each other.
I think somewhere in there we will eat dinner... I said I think.
I need to finish New Moon in the Twilight series. Maybe that should be number 1 not 15.

Wish me luck... With Steve up at Scout Camp... I am pretty sure that I have NO IDEA how it will all work tomorrow.

CONGRATULATIONS Jarred!!!!

2008-07-23T15:51:00.005-06:00

Congratulations Jarred & Rachelle!

On July 21, 2008, while on a 16 mile hike my cute brother Jarred & Rachelle got engaged. I am seriously so excited. I really love Rachelle. She fits perfectly into our family. She is perfect for Jarred. They are so darling together. We have had so many fun times (trips, parties, dinners, late night talks etc.) with them together. They have been dating for about a year and a half.

Jarred decided that he wants to get married soon, so they are getting married on August 15th (yes 2008) at this point. I get to help plan a lot of it. I am so excited.

Congratulations Jarred & Rachelle!

My birthday...

2008-07-21T08:27:00.003-06:00

First of all I LOVE birthdays! It doesn't matter whose it is... I just love them!
My Mom still treats me like I am 10 years old and spoils me ALL day. So here is how my birthday went... I woke up around 8:00am. Steve wishes me happy birthday and had to get to a meeting. The kids got up and climbed in bed with me (I love this about summer). Shawn got up and made me a plate of fruit (he even decorated the plate, cute).

My Dad text me to go to breakfast at McDonald's with him & my Mom (Remember I still get treated like a 10 year old). They gave me a skirt & shirt from Banana Republic (my Dad had picked it out). Then my Mom & I started on our shopping on our birthdays tradition.
We went to the mall to all the summer sales. I did get some fun stuff.

a pair of cute jeans from Banana Republic (on sale $24.95)
2 short sleeved sweaters from Nordstrom (on sale $24.00)
2 tank top wrap around shirts from J-Crew (on sale $7.50)
a dress from the cute Motif? store in Gardner Village

We went to lunch with Steve, my Mom, Jelissa, Josh & Tori at Cheesecake Factory... MMMmmm I really love that restaurant. Then more shopping.

We got home around 4:30pm. I got the kids all ready with cute clothes and cute hair and we met up at the Rio Grande Cafe. My whole family, my in laws, and Steve, me and the kids went. Everyone spoiled me.

my Siblings gave me a cute Fossil travel purse with money in it to spend and cute J-Crew flip flops & a head band.
my Father in law (Steve's real Dad) bought me an outfit from Old Navy... Is that the cutest most daring thing to buy your daughter in law an outfit. It is a little dress and shrug.
my Mother in law & Father in law gave me money
my Parents gave me money, a purse camera (so I can post more pictures), and some albums & frames to put my new pictures in... cute Memory Theme.
my Kids went with Karen and spent their OWN money.
The boys bought me COKE Jars for my kitchen, and a cooking with COKE cookbook... they were so excited they couldn't even stand it... CUTE CUTE CUTE!
The girls bought me a little lantern like lamp in red.
They of course all made me handmade cards.

Saturday Night - Steve took me to our favorite place to eat... FLEMINGS Steakhouse.
I love it there. After we walked around The Gateway. I just love to walk hand in hand and not have anywhere to go and nothing to do. It is the best... oh ya and you get to people watch.
Later that night is when Steve gave me my presents from him. I had told him lets just get couches for the theater so we can watch movies as a family finally so that is my main gift is we are going to get those but... he also went to the mall (his least favorite place) to get me an outfit... so he has bought me exercise clothes before or a shirt or something... but never an outfit... He went to Banana Republic and bought me the cutest Shirt & Skirt. The shirt is kind of a periwinkle with white polka dots and the skirt is white. I can't even tell you how proud and impressed I was with him. HE DID GREAT! He also bought me a little bag of goodies (more for him) at Victoria's Secret. HE LOVED THEM! I will spare you the pictures of that.

I received many, many, many gifts and calls and texts from all of you guys... you are the best!

All in all it was an AWESOME birthday... again I am 10 and I love my birthday.

A walk down memory lane!!

2008-07-20T23:07:00.001-06:00

Heres a little game! Leave a comment on my blog of a memory that you and I have had together.
It doesn't matter if you've known me for a short time, or a long time, anything you remember! Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.
Ready, Set, GO!

Happy 34th Birthday to Me!!!

2008-07-18T00:27:00.004-06:00

So I was asleep just now and Shawn came to wake me up...

"MOM, you just got your first birthday present for the day... Your friends are rolling around like army men and pretending to have guns and toilet papering our house"!

Dayna & Jami, you guys are the best. Thanks for the birthday present... I just love it.

And just because I didn't mention your name... I know who else was there too.

Love you guys!

PS - Do you want me to get you the left over roll of toilet paper on my porch
that you left... It is still on the roll!

Sleeping Kids on a Summer Morning...

2008-07-02T08:33:00.002-06:00

I just checked on all of my kids and they are peacefully sleeping. I love to watch my kids sleep even when they are 12 and an inch and a half taller than me. I just love to sit wand watch them and wonder what they are dreaming about. I love to ask them about their dreams when they wake up. Even after a crazy day, when my kids have been crazy, I have been crazy etc etc Heavenly Father knew to give us time to watch our kids peacefully sleep. I just truly love it.

Scentsy & Daisy Do's Party...

2008-06-30T23:46:00.004-06:00

I am having a
Scentsy Candle and Daisy Do's Flower Clip
Party.

Tomorrow, July 1, 2008
6:00pm - 8:00pm (open house)

My house - Call or email me if you need the address

Please come - I absolutely LOVE the Scentsy Candles. My friend Dayna Velez just started selling them, so I thought that I would have a party for her.

I also LOVE the Daisy Do's Flower Clips... My friend Jenn Berrett is the cute creative one that started this. My girls love them and they just make their hair look darling.

www.scentsy.com/galev

www.daisydos.blogspot.com

Please come... if nothing else we will have good friends and treats.

Happy 36th Anniversary Mom & Dad!

2008-06-29T11:41:00.005-06:00

Happy 36th Anniversary Mom & Dad!
Today is my Mom & Dad's Anniversary... I am really glad that they are married... well mostly because I would not be here. My parents have a really great relationship. They love to be together. They work together, they run errands together, they do yard work together. Every Friday night they go to dinner at the Rio Grande Cafe. My Dad plays songs on the jukebox that were their songs when they were dating... Isn't that cute?

They just do everything together.

My parents are a really great example to Me and to Steve. They are a great example of what a marriage should be. They love to still hold hands and take walks together.

I am glad that Heavenly Father blessed me to come into their family as their oldest daughter.
I am a lucky girl.

I LOVE YOU MOM & DAD... HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!

An added bonus to living where we do...

2008-06-24T23:24:00.003-06:00

So I have mentioned how great my neighbors are, the awesome ward that we live in, the fact that we live in a circle, that I love my house and that we live right behind the school BUT the one exciting part that I haven't mentioned... We live right by by the freeway!!! So you are wondering what is so great about that right? Well tonight I was sitting here reading blogs (like I always do at night) Shawn & Alyssa were laying in Shawn's bed reading books, Cameron & Ashley were asleep and Steve was just getting home from doing something at our rental. I heard a LOUD screech... I mean loud... then a huge crash. I ran up stairs and Alyssa & Shawn heard it too. So we did what most normal people do... we all three got on the roof to see if we could see the wreck that had just happened out on the freeway by our house. Now you might think this is the first time for this... no we do it often for entertainment. We have seen (or heard) 5 semi trucks roll over. One of which we heard crash at 3:00am and it woke us up. That one we had to actually go out on the freeway to help the people. We helped them out of their semi (it was turned on its side) then waited with them until the cops & ambulance came. We really have an awesome view from our roof to see these exciting things.

At least now you know that it doesn't take
a whole lot to amuse me.

CONGRATULATIONS Josh!!!

2008-06-22T00:22:00.003-06:00

My Baby Brother Josh just got engaged. He is getting married to Victoria Grandinetti. He has wanted to marry Tori Grandinetti for most of his life (we have been next door neighbors with her since she was 3 months old). Tonight he finally asked her to marry him. Finally, I won't be the only one out of my siblings that is married. I am SUPER excited.

CONGRATULATIONS you two... I can't wait!

Our "finished" Basement!

2008-06-19T21:11:00.003-06:00

We are MOSTLY finished with our basement! Steve has done so much work down there. He designed it, did the electrical, plumbing, touch up painted, tiled the bathroom... the list goes on and on and on. I am so proud of him and his great work. We took the boys to Home Depot to get the paint swatches for the painter a couple of months ago. I wanted my boys to get to pick their very own colors so I am warning you... the only ones that we picked were the hall and the theater chocolate browns. Shawn picked a dark orange (he is doing an African Art theme). Cameron picked dill pickle green (he is doing a soccer theme). Here are a few pictures. You will have to come and see it to get the best idea.

I am proud of Steve... he really is a handy Man!

Thank you Babe... I love you!

Christopherson Travel work party...

2008-06-19T20:28:00.005-06:00

Yesterday was my summer party at work. As most of you know I am in charge of the events at Christopherson Travel. I really love it. This is the party that all of the employee's get to invite a spouse or guest and their own children. We had 230 people last night. We went to Fat Cats at the Pizza Factory. We rented the whole place out and at dinner there too. When we first get there they put out pizza after pizza after pizza, salad, bread twists and a whole bunch of different drinks. We brought in Paradise Bakery Cookies which to me are awesome cookies.

The other thing that we do is we buy prizes for the party. This time I did it a little different. I bought a prize for each of the kids under 15 years old. They had a choice of a soccer ball, foot ball, basketball, jump rope, or a bat & ball. We bought 70 of those prizes. Then for the adults 16 and older we bought 2 prizes per lane. I ended up with about 75 adult prizes. A few of the prizes were: Car wash bucket, movie bowl with popcorn & treats, gardening pail, picnic, coolers filled with treats & drinks, lots of board games, etc, etc, etc. We have a lot of fun buying them. The people at Target always think we are crazy - I should take pictures next time... it is pretty funny to see our carts.

I know most of the American population works full time but after a party I am always even more thankful that I am a (mostly) stay at home Mom. Monday I worked 9 hours, Tuesday I worked 8 hours, and Wednesday I worked 13 1/2... I was super done. Today I only worked about 1 1/2 hours. Then tomorrow we have our June Birthday lunch and we are doing it for about 60 people. I get to work tomorrow until about 2pm. I am fairly tired today.

Back to the party... My kids LOVE this party! It actually ruins the fun of Fat Cats for every other time we go there because at this party they can go up to Grandpa Mike and ask for dollar bills for the games, we get our lane from 6p - 9p straight even if they leave to go play somewhere else for a bit, they also get to run wild without Mom & Dad chasing after them the whole time. Most of the employees know who they are and the kids know them too. They are always excited to see a certain few and go up to hug them. It is just a good party and a really great group.

BUT... by the end I feel like the Barbie on Toy Story 2 (Tour Guide Barbie) at the very end while the credits are rolling... "Are they gone yet... are they gone? Great because my cheeks are killing me from smiling!".

What a fun night!

Weekend Update...

2008-06-16T22:30:00.002-06:00

Our Weekend started out with Steve telling me on Thursday that we were hosting an Elders Quorum Dinner Friday Night at our house. Fun but I will have to change plans (we were suppose to have dinner with my Grandma who was in town from Phoenix and the rest of our Family).

Friday: We got up and took Cameron to his very first scout camp. Then I cleaned up and got the house ready for the evening party. I didn't understand exactly what the deal with Friday night was - all I knew was that we were having the Jeremy & Kelly Taeoalii, and Spencer & Erin Turner over for dinner. I did find out later that a few other couples in our Elder's Quorum were also "host couples". Each couple had 3 couples over and the idea is to get to know each other on a closer level rather than with a huge setting where you stay with in your comfort zone. I think that I like idea. Fir dinner we all brought our own meat to grill and then a side dish. We had strawberry spinach salad, potato salad, cut up fruit, and Chips. For dessert we ate "better than whatever" cake and peanut butter rice krispie bars.... MMMmmmm! They stayed until about 11:00pm. Dean & Jami's group saw us out side and came to talk and Trent & Julie came over to talk too. What a great plan and a fun fun evening. I know the Taeoalii's pretty well but I didn't know the Turner's very well - We had fun getting to know them.

Saturday: We got up very quickly when Alek Morrell knocked for his ride to Scout Camp with Cameron. I am so glad that he knocked - we slept right through the alarm. We got Cameron off to his scout camp. Shawn & Steve went to work together for an hour and a half. Then at 9:30am we met my brother Josh, My Mom & Dad at McDonald's for our Saturday Morning breakfast tradition. Then from there my Mom, and my two girls & I went to brave Costco the day before Father's Day (on a Saturday) while Shawn & Steve went to help my Dad and Brother's move something.

Then Steve and the Kids and I met back up at our house to get Steve, Shawn & Alyssa ready to go boating. We got their lunch, drinks and snacks and their swimming suits and towels (note we forgot sunscreen). Then we headed over to help the neighbors move in. We did that for a bit then Steve and the oldest two were off.

Ashley and I went to go Father's Day shopping. We ate lunch with just the two of us (she picked Arby's). We bought Steve's Dad's both a book on the Declaration of Independence (it was super cool). We also went in with all my siblings on game night for my Dad. We bought him a variety of board games that he didn't have - he has been really into this lately. For Steve we made a gift certificate for him to pick out a porch swing (I am pretty sure I will pick out the wrong one) and we bought him a huge supply of Garments (I know - EXCITING but it is what he wanted). We went and picked up Cameron then came home to wrap gifts.

Saturday Night: We went to dinner with Grandma and the whole family at The Training Table. It is always good there but I always feel so guilty after eating it.

After we went to Wal-mart to do a little shopping and to Harmon's. Steve wanted to grab a few things.

Sunday: Steve and I woke up early - because for whatever reason nether of us could sleep. He informed me that for Father's Day HE wanted to make breakfast. So I got up to help. This is why he wanted to go to the store Saturday night. We made yummy breakfast burritos, and crepes with fruit and whipped cream. We had Scott & Katrina Heath over because we had made SO MUCH FOOD! It was fun to sit and eat and visit while we were all still in our Jammie's.

Then we got ready and headed to church. What a great meeting. I loved hearing the cute kids sing for Father's Day. Each of the Men in the ward got a Candy Bar. We had a Relief Society lesson on Prayer. Joan Fackerall taught it. She is a great teacher.

After church we went to My Mom & Dad's house for a BBQ & swimming. We invited Steve's Mom & Step Dad and his Dad. It is always so nice to combine them together so we can sit and visit and stay as long as we want and not have to leave to go to in-law's houses.

The kids had a blast showing off in the pool for their Grandparents. They did flips and cannonballs off the diving board to see who could get us the most wet.

Steve helped my brother Jarred with something in my Parents mechanical room so Ashley & I went up and got in my parents bed and watched the news with them. I haven't done that since I was single. It was fun to sit with them like that again. Cameron fell asleep in the theater on a love sac and Shawn & Alyssa stayed up with the big kids (Jelissa & her friends).

We had a super busy, but fun weekend.

We ended it by tonight having Steve's real Dad over for dinner. The kids played in the sprinklers and then after we all sat down to make a HUGE list of activities for the summer. My kids are getting bored. I found a list that I had on hand that has a list of ideas from A to Z. Most of them are free. We can't wait to start taking our field trips.

I am super ready for bed tonight. GOODNIGHT!!!