Sunday Joy

One of my very favorites things about this lovely fine weather we are finally having is that we can walk to church... if we get up on time and make it a priority. 9:00am church may not sound early to some, but I think it is 1 hour and 30 minutes to early. Some congregations meet in their building, and they are the only ones to meet on a Sunday. But in Utah Mormon congregations, several groups (sometimes three) will all share a building on any given Sunday. We rotate every year, and we are currently on the 9:00am rotation, but will move to the 1:00pm in January.  Our services are three hours long, so it's nice that we don't overlap, so we also don't run out rooms.  Regardless or the time, or the method of transportation, I'm grateful to go to church with my family.

Owen scootering to church, whilst wearing his boot (bc of the incident of the broken leg.) Classic.

I made an apple pie for dessert and forget to take a picture of it.

Preston was sharing a bite with Norman. Darling. 

*** This post is for Sunday, May 29th, 2016***

After 16 1/2 years of Parenting...

I finally got to attend a swim meet for one of my sweet children. Annie Joy gave the following a whirl: 100 IM, 100 Back, 50 Butterfly, and 50 Breast. She did super well and it was just entertaining to watch. My little piranha.

I think it's very clever that they write the events and heats on the swimmers arms so 

they won't forget. So fun.

***This post is for Saturday, May 28th, 2016***

Final Field Trip!

I volunteered to chaperone at what will be my final field trip of the 2015-2016 school year.  And it was a winner! The aquarium with Owen. I was scheduled to do a tv demo, but my fabulous son thought it would be more fun for us to go on a field trip together, than for him to go on a field trip and me to cook something tasty in the studio.  I completely agreed. The demo is moved to June, and the field trip fun was worth the bus ride!

Love this picture: both the kids so eager for the trip that they don't want to sit down, and the mom in the middle of attempting a phone call on a loud bus.

Right when we got there. We named our group "Shark Attack" and they all did a 

wonderful job of not getting lost.

Owen's head in some bubble thing inside an aquarium.

Just a Bite! - Finding Nemo

Cool rope bridge in the tropical area of the aquarium.

The class went to the park after the aquarium, and Owen wanted me to sit with him 

and his friends for lunch, and wanted to take a selfie with him.  Feelign totally loved by 

the second/soon to be third grader.

*** This post is for Thursday, May 26th, 2016.***

Not one More Minute

I had an epiphany today. If I spend one more minute in this house with this horrible cream color paint in my upstairs hallway, I'm going to lose my mind.  So I bought paint, and went to town. Even better was that Calvin is old enough and tall enough that he joined me in the fun and we finished fairly quickly.

The prep work, such as wiping walls, taping off the area is simply the absolute worst part of painting any space. It took forever!!!!

*** This post is for Weds, May 25th, 2016***

So much painting to do, so little time.

This is the Place..!

Annie participated in our school's annual "Utah, This is the Place Pageant." It's a lovely program, all about what the fourth graders learned this year; the rock cycle, Utah history, all of the counties, etc. What made it even more fabulous is that the pageant has set songs and a set program, and this is the fourth time I've seen it, having watched Preston, Calvin, Simon, and now Annie perform it. The only difference between the pageant and what I learned growing up about "This is the Place" was this: According to my father, "When Brigham Young spoke in the Salt Lake Valley, he was trying to say "This is the place where I have to pee." According to my dad, the saints were so eager to stop that they cut him off and set up camp. He didn't have the heart to tell them they needed to go just a little bit further North to Idaho.  Yes, my fathers is from Idaho.  That's how I remember that story. But even with that minor deviation from what I know to be facts, the pageant was still lovely.

There were about 100 fourth graders (4 classes) in the performance. Annie's class did the song about the transcontinental railroad and the golden spike.  She's in the turquoise bandana and overalls just left of the Union Pacific.

Well done Annie.  Posing with two of her pals.

Annie taking a picture with her fan club. Norman is trying to bite me and I thought it was hysterical.

Annie with her English teacher.

*** This post is for Tuesday, May 24th, 2016***

Trusting my Hair Stylist

I have a dear friend who is a hair stylist. She is fabulous and fun and we had a little chat about lice.

When she was growing up, the school regularly did lice checks. If someone had them, notice was sent home and all the parents treated the lice at the same time to prevent spreading. )Why don't we do that here too?) Also, having lice wasn't like the worst thing ever.  It wasn't treated as if it were an STD... And she's a hairdresser (and a fabulous one at that.)

I've heard of several kids at the school who have gotten lice, so when one of my dears had an itchy head, I checked it out and it was lice. The others often share the same room and bed at night so they got in on the lice killing party, which consisted of stripping beds and sanitizing all times that could have come in contact with the lice, lice shampoo, using the tiny lice removing comb, and watching the movie "Stardust" on Netflix, because that's simply a great movie. Not a fan of lice, but I had such a fun random morning with my kiddos. Lice no more... until next time. 

Only a few more days until the school year ends.

Today actually got me excited to stay home with these turkeys. 

One of these Things is Not like the Other...

I used to love that Sesame Street song, the one of these things is not the other game. 4 items, one of them different than the others somehow. Tonight was the final performance of the top choir at Preston's High School, Woods Cross. The group is called the "Madrigals." And they are fabulous. It's like listening to a professional choir, where the director is dedicated, all of the choir members love what they do, and they are on pitch. It really was a lovely performance. The only hiccup came when the choir changed from their formal attire to their casual (yet still matching) attire. It was then revealed that my handsome, talented, entertaining son, apparently hadn't been able to locate his second outfit. Ryan and I sank a little in our seats, but they still sounded fabulous. And at the end of the performance, I just declared to mutual friends that there was simply no way we were going to pay a dime for that second costume!  Mercy.

Formal. Looking good.

The guy next to him is also in a the wrong shirt, and lost his suspenders too.

But I bet he was happy to stand next to Preston.

Awesome Gone Awful

Love spending time with my family, especially when we're doing something fun, in a place that accommodates the desires of everyone, aka, Lagoon. In a 15 minute five, my family can be at Utah's fabulous theme park complete with loads of roller coasters, rides, carnival games, picnic areas, train rides, a zoo (that is so old and lame for the animals that it should be banned), and it even has this old historic section, like a walk in the wild west. It has several splashing water rides, and some high fat, high calorie carnival food.  Ryan and I went to the Bountiful temple in the morning, and took the kids to Lagoon in the afternoon. We had only been there a little over an hour when I got a horrifically lame migraine, complete with blurred vision, sensitivity to sound, smells, some nausea, and an overall feeling of sadness. Migraines are not bad headaches.  They are straight from H***, and I think it's a warfare tactic used by satan himself. I spent the rest of the night trying to sleep off my migraine, and my sweet husband spent the rest of his night keeping my darling children out of the house to give me peace and quiet.  He's the silver lining of my Saturday.

Preston taking his little brother on a car ride for little kids.

How cute are they tougher?!

Norman and I waited patiently for the Octopus water ride, and then we got wet.

***This post is for Saturday, May 22, 2016***

Find the Light, and Pizza

The drama department at Preston's High school had a fundraiser tonight, a delicious dinner with karaoke.  The night before, Preston let me know that he volunteered to have me make 100 rolls for said event.  Mercy, I do love to bake, and yet... the night before?! Fine. So I spent several hours today baking rolls. I'm so glad nothing else was on the agenda for the morning.  

Preston won the "award" titled "Find the Light." Basically, it was his teacher teasing him about sometimes missing his mark on stage when he's supposed to be in the spotlight.  At least he got a flashlight out of the deal.

New pizza place opened up in Bountiful next to Top Hat Video.

For the love of all things Italian, this place is amazing.

They have a wood burning stone (purchased in Italy.) It was incredible.

If you're looking for authentic, fabulous pizza, this is seriously a tasty slice of real Italian food, without the jet lag a flight to Italy would incur.

***This post is for Friday, May 20, 2016***

My little Fish

As an absolute blessing, our local recreation center (South Davis rec) costs my family $42 a month to be members. This includes access to the indoor track, the lap and recreation pools, ice skating rink, massive weight room and exercise machines, and free aerobic/work out classes.  I'm not sure about what everyone else considers a gonga, but I think that's quite a large benefits package for such a tiny price. I love Bountiful.

Norman dipping around after a dip in the pool.

For the love of all good things. Baby fudge, I tell you.

Beginning of the End

With just 11 days of school left, we are starting to get into the beginning of the end of the year events. Today found Annie presenting her Utah Desert Landscape diorama, and Calvin performed in his final band concert of the year. 

Annie holding her assistant and standing next to a pal she's had since she was 1.

Singing a song about Utah.

Had a well check today with Simon, and Norman found himself a blue lolly.

Calvin hit the drums with such fire and energy!

I hardly ever catch Calvin making funny faces.

And I finally did.

And I'm posting it on my blog.

Refugee Baby Shower

Recently, my church has encouraged us to make a better effort with those who are refugees, asking us to think about "what if their story were my story?" Though this mandate is clear that one on one personal friendship and time is invaluable to helping refugees succeed, the reality is that refugees are somewhat scarce in my neck of the woods, but we still wanted to help in some way. The three women's presidencies gathered to discuss what we could do, and we came away with a fabulous, fun plan. We threw a Baby Shower for refugees. We checked with some local organizations to determine what was needed, and things took off from there.  It was delightful. The young girls, Primary (ages 8-11) planned the shower games. The teens, Young Women (ages 12-18) took care of the drinks and decorations. The Women's organization, Relief Society, handled the invites (which went out via email, and were hand delivered to the 150+ homes in the neighborhood) and also delivered the donated goods once the party ended.  Each presidency member brought some goodies to share, and our hostess with the mostess welcomed everyone as they trickled in for the open house.  With such generous friends and neighbors, the event was a smashing success.  

The invite.  Not fancy, but it got the message out.

A view of the festivities.

A view form a different side of the room.

Some of the food. The far left back wooden platter was holding banana bread cookies with some fabulous frosting.  Worth every calorie.

End of the party I called for reinforcements to help carry stuff to my carry.

Preston isn't just a handsome face, he's also good at lifting diapers and car seats.

My entire van was loaded to the top with the donations, middle seats too.  

What a haul!

I'm at the Utah Refugee Center with my assistant in front of our donations.

Norman is such a good assistant.

This is the other side of all of those donations.

These lovely gals were the volunteers that processed the donation.

Well done, ladies... What shall our next project be?

Family Tradition

Lucky Owen went shopping with his grandparents the night before his baptism.  Each of my children have loved spending this alone time with their grandparents, and war makes it even more memorable is that this special shopping trip is when they pick our their first set of scriptures.  What a fun tradition.  I love my in laws, and Owen loves his new scriptures. And he loves his grandparents too.

Trying to find the perfect case is much easier when you lay them all out on the ground.

Grandpa reading to Owen, with Grandma as the camerawoman.

The final version. Why put your first and last name on the book, when your entire name can be crammed on the cover?!

Stake Conference

If you'r not Mormon, you might not know what "Stake Conference"  means within our church community. Two times a year we have what's called stake conference where several congregations (6-8ish) gather for a large conference service. We usually meet for three hours on Sunday, but Stake conference is only 2. However, any of us with kids don't usually feel like we're getting away with one less hour because our children usually break off into kids classes after the first hour of church. But on Stake Conference, we all sit together for the 2 hour service. I love Stake conference because I'm always dead curious what the talks will focus on, and our church start time is different for the occasion, and I enjoy mixing it up.  Incidentally, the talks were on repentance, things being made right and fair in heaven, faith, answers to prayer, and service... at least that's what I got out of them.  I'de love a poll of what other people felt the focus was.

We went to Temple Square in the morning with our free time. Norman is with the group, but under the bench.  Ryan packed a picnic lunch for the affair, but the weather was foul so we just ate at home.

This is a ridiculous attempt at catching me and my friend in our matching outfits.

I usually like to coordinate what I'm wearing with a friend for stake conference (not really, though.)

Black top, black and white striped skirt, cool glasses. Check.

Winning the Poop Hat

I can't imagine it getting much better for our 8 year old, than pestering his father to partake in a carnival game in an attempt to get him to win a poop hat. After 2 out of his 3 shots, Owen proudly walked away with his new hat, and Ryan walked away feeling like a totally awesome father.

Owen brought some of his allowance money, and put his money and faith in his dad's basketball shooting. Faith rewarded.

The winning shot. Well done, Ryan. 

Owen battled Ryan in a game of Whack-A-Mole.

Though Ryan tried hard, Owen was the winner.

The winner of this blue stuffed fish.

In honor of this lovely weather, we picnicked for lunch.

***This post is for Saturday, May 14th, 2016***

Cast to Camping

Owen finally got his cast off today. He will now play in a boot for the next month, and then he will be free. At least he can take a bath now, and sleep without anything on his leg. When his cast came off, he had so much dead skin!

Thumbs up indeed.

Packed and ready to go.

Catch at the campsite.

I drove my Mom to the Ogden airport, and then Annie and I partied while the boys were away. Norman stayed with us, since he's just a little man cub.

*** This post is for May 13th, 2016