"Look at me Mom!"

This is what I heard Kamryn calling from her room and this is how I found her.

Both she and her brother know how to climb in their cribs but haven't figured out how to climb out. She just sits on the side railing and waits for me to come get her. I figure I don't have too long until she does figure it out and then I'll really be in trouble.

Tagged Again

This tag comes from my friend Ashley.

A- Attached or Single? Attached
B- Best Friend? Paul
C- Cake or Pie? Pie . Double Cream Lemon at Marie Calender's - on sale this month
D- Day of Choice? sunday
E- Essential Item? My new laptop
F- Favorite Color? Green
G- Gummy Bears or Worms? Gummy bears
H- Hometown? SLC, UT
I- Favorite Indulgence? Pedicure.
J- January or July? July, for SURE!! Can't stand winter
K- Kids? Justin Paul - 15, Brooke Lindsey - 13, Taylor Benjamin - 10, Jared Truman & Kamryn Lindy - 2 1/2
L- Life isn't complete without? My family and the gospel.
M- Marriage date? August 31, 1991
N- Number of brothers and sisters? 2 sisters 2 brothers
O- Oranges or Apples? Like them both - but very picky about them - apple has to be very crisp and orange has to be very sweet and juicy
P- Phobias and Fears? I have very serious issues when it comes to mice and I am afraid of the dark.
Q- Quote? It is listed at the bottom of my blog - first heard it in the movie Akaela and The Bee
R- Reason to smile? My husband, my kids, my family, my friends.
S- Season of choice? SUMMER and Fall in Utah
T- Tag three people? Hmmm....whoever feels like doing this lovely thing.
U- Unknown fact about me? I used to take guitar lessons and had to sing and play in front of people at a recital.
V- Vegetable? Broccoli and spinach, though I love almost all veggies!
W- Worst Habit? Too much time on the computer
X-ray or Ultrasound? Ultrasound. I had plenty of these when I was pregnant with the twins.
Y- Your favorite food? Oh man, can I just say FOOD! If I had to pick though, it would be Mexican.
Z- Zodiac Sign? Born on the cusp of Libra and Scorpio

Shannon Hale

Over the last 4 days I have read 2 Shannon Hale books, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed.
First, I read Book of a Thousand Days and then this morning I finished Austenland. Both were very good. It's so great to have a local author doing well and writing good books that I can recommend to my daughter (she actually read both books before I did but I knew it was safe to have her read them). It's just one of my big faults that I am a compulsive reader and when I start a book all I want to do is read and do nothing else.

How Embarassing

So, this morning was going like most --- I went to exercise from 6:15 - 7:15. When I got home my kids were up getting ready for school (that part is not normal). Taylor, my 4th grader who I usually have to wake up, was up and eating breakfast. I got involved with looking at class descriptions for Brighton High School (another blog altogether) and said goodbye to the teenagers. I was still going over course descriptions and then heard the little ones talking so I decided I better get in the shower before I got them up. I took a long hot shower and then was fixing some stuff in my room. I came in the kitchen and made a phone call to my good friend, Melinda, and was talking to her about book club and high school registration when I noticed Taylor still here reading. I was so shocked to see him and was puzzled why he wasn't at school. And then suddenly I realize that I had forgotten him! I felt so bad!! I totally forgot to take him to school. Now in my defense, Taylor admitted that he'd gone back to bed after breakfast because he was cold and wanted to get warm and he thinks maybe he fell asleep. So out of sight, out of mind is how it goes for me.

What an ORDEAL!!

Did you read this article in the paper?
We were part of that nightmare on I-15. Brooke always has volleyball practice on Wednesdays at Open Court by Thanksgiving Point.
Her coach called just as we were getting ready to leave for practice and told us the practice would be optional due to the storm and that she would be there because she was coming from Provo and the storm hadn't hit down there yet. So I told her we would come with the 3 girls from our area. A little storm doesn't bother me and I'd watched the weather at noon and the weatherman had said the storm would dump a few inches and then move out so I figured it couldn't be too bad. This ended up being a very bad decision!
The freeway was totally backed up going down there and it took us 1 1/2 hours to get there, which was 30 minutes late for practice. We finally made it to Open Court and got a phone call from the coach that she'd been stuck on the freeway trying to go north from Provo for an hour and didn't know if she'd ever get there. One other mom braved the storm and was there with 2 girls so we ran the practice ourselves and then let the girls play cards while we waited for the traffic to clear up from the frontage road.
One of the hardest things of that night is that I had Jared and Kamryn with me which is unusual. We kept watching for the traffic to clear up and it never did so at 7:30 we decided to just deal with the traffic jam. It took us 45 minutes just to go one mile down to the freeeway entrance. By the time we got there the Highway Patrol wasn't letting cars go north on the freeway so we were forced to go south on I-15 towards Provo instead of going to SLC. We spent a total of 4 hours in the car trying to get home. Most of that was on the freeway either just sitting or going about 5 mph.
Luckily we had a full tank of gas and sandwiches I had made because the girls go straight from practice to YW. We stopped in Lehi when we got off the freeway to turn around to to go north and got drinks. For part of the time we had my laptop running off a battery so the little kids could watch a movie and then the girls started watching one of the pirates movie until the battery died.
At one point Kamryn and Jared had a crying spell but fortunately it didn't last too long and they went to sleep. The girls had a great attitude about being stuck in the car for so long and even started making up stories about the other travelers around us. One story they made up actually was true.
We finally made it home at 11:30 at night. The worst part was that we missed out on our Young Women's activity. Luckily, due to the storm, school started two hours late the next morning so the girls could sleep in.

Valentine's Day

Here is what my sweet valentine brought me on Valentine's Day.
We had a nice evening as a family - everyone helped clean up the house and shovel the driveway. Then we went out to dinner as a family to Iggy's.
When we came home we put Jared & Kamryn to bed and then we played Hearts - very appropriate game for the day.

I'm so sad

This is really such a trivial thing but it has made me so sad.
Kamryn had her FIRST haircut and it was done by her BROTHER!!
She's had a hard time getting her hair to grow and it's finally looking really cute and has lots of curls.
This morning Paul's parents were staying here while I helped at school. When I got back Carolyn asked me about a little curl of hair that Kamryn brought her. I'd seen it earlier but didn't think much of it. It started making sense. There was a lot of hair on the back of Kamryn's jacket and we found more little ringlets in the living room.
I asked Jared if he cut Kamryn's hair and he said YES and he seemed proud of the job he did.
Luckily he only cut off her hair in the back and it isn't really noticeable. I think this happened yesterday afternoon sometime (I'd given Taylor a haircut after school and I think that gave these two the idea). Thank goodness hair grows back but in Kamryn's case it sure grows awfully slow.

So much SNOW!!

On Tuesday and Wednesday I stayed up at our family cabin with Jared and Kamryn and my sister Susan and her kids. She went up the day before me and told me I would not believe how much snow was up there.

As you can see, there is a TON of SNOW!!! I can't remember the last time we saw that much snow up there.

We had a good time staying INSIDE the cabin. The kids all had fun playing with each other and we enjoyed playing games and watching movies. It's always a great get away up there.

Volleyball Rollercoaster

We rode the volleyball rollercoaster all weekend.
We were scheduled to go to Boise on Friday for a tournament that Brooke would be playing in on Sat. We were really excited about this trip because we had so much fun last year.
Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate with this trip. We waited all Friday morning for IVA to decide whether or not to go on with the tournament scheduled in Boise (the biggest problem was that the roads were closed from the Utah/Idaho border most of the morning). Finally, aboaut 1:00 pm we found out that we officially were not going to play the tournament in Boise but instead at Open Court in Lehi. We were all bummed to not be going on our fun little weekend away but relieved at the same time to not have to travel in bad weather.
We went ahead and did a team bonding night on Friday night and went to Training Table for dinner and then went bowling. The girls and moms had a great time.
Saturday was a down day, unfortunately, because the girls really struggled in the tournament and lost all 8 games that they played. By changing the tournament around our team got moved up a division and thus played higher ranked teams. Their first two games were really tough but they improved from there and almost won several of their remaining games. It was definitely more frustrating for the parents and the coach than the girls. They tried hard and never gave up. We decided to still go out to eat after the tournament and have a good time together. Hopefully the next tournament (in 2 weeks) will go better.

My list

Here's my list for our FHE activity:

Paul - dependable, great laugh, non-judgmental, hard worker, honors his priesthood
Justin - easy going, good sense of humor, good student, artistic
Brooke - easy going/flexible, plays the piano, good student, good friend
Taylor - good friend, good student, great laugh
Jared - great smile, leader (bossy), likes to play with Kamryn
Kamryn - enthusiastic, happy, likes to play with Jared

Taylor's list

Here is Taylor's list (he struggled the most the night we were doing this, thinking of things):

Dad - He tickles me, gives me advice, and helps me with math
Mom- she tucks me in, makes me lunch and helps me with homework
Justin - smart, fun and good at basketball
Brooke - gives a good example, smart and tickles me
Jared - happy, funny, cute
Kamryn - happy, funny, fashionable (the picture below is how Kamryn was dressed during this activity hence the fashionable statement from more than one person)