PCMC Visit

A week after the big carnival party we finally made it up to
Primary Childrens Medical Center.
We brought up a basket full of gifts to donate.
Jared and Kamryn had fun unloading the basket and filling the shelves up.

Jared and Kamryn with their gifts to donate from their birthday party.

When we got up to the hospital Kamryn wanted to give all the girl gifts to the girl patients and I had to explain that we weren't going to see the patients. The kids were disappointed about that but it all ended up okay. We met Marie who was the hospital rep for donations. She was great with the kids. She spent several minutes talking to Jared and Kamryn about their donations and then showed them around the lobby area and talked to them about all the different patients there. She showed them lots of pictures and was so cute with them.
It was a great experience for them.

Lots to Report On

Yesterday was Brooke's volleyball club year end party.
Brooke was awarded most improved player on her team.
Way to go girl!

Brooke's team
Great group of girls
and great coach, Adriene

Today Taylor got his braces off!
Check out that great smile :)

Empanadas and World report

Saturday night was empanada night. Parry's whole family along with Cecilia's mom, Julie, met us at my parents so they could show Taylor how to make empanadas.
It took the whole evening but was a lot of fun. Julie did most of the work and I felt bad not really helping but didn't know what she was doing and couldn't really communicate with her. She only speaks Spanish but seems to understand a lot of what we were saying.
Taylor helped with most of the process, especially with making the dough balls and then filling them with the meat mixture.

Parry showing us how its done. He's a real pro.

Julie showing us how to fold and pinch the dough.

Taylor did a great job and his looked so much better than mine.
The best part of the night was talking with Parry and Cecilia about Argentina. It was also fun talking to their kids about their visit their 18 months ago and what the kids remembered about it. They attended school their and told Taylor a lot about it.
It was interesting comparing what Taylor had learned for his report from books and the internet with what Cecilia and her mom told him firsthand from living there.

Taylor getting ready to give his report to his class. He did a good job and shared a lot of what he learned from Parry and Cecilia. The kids loved the empanadas and many had seconds.

Argentina

I have learned a lot about Argentina today. With two brothers that served missions there and my sister-in-law is from Argentina you would think I'd know a lot about it but I've learned I don't.
I have been helping Taylor with his 6th grade country report. I feel like I'm back in school and its actually kind of fun. Of course, I'd rather do all the work myself, but that's not the point.
Taylor did a great job putting together his display board and drew an awesome map of Argentina (that is not something I could do). Luckily the Argentine flag is easy to make/draw. Tomorrow night we are getting together with my brother and his wife and they are going to teach Taylor how to make empanadas so he can share them with his class on Monday.

Deals to Meals

This is a great website! I've been using it for over a year and have saved lots of money. Its so great to know that when I check out the deals for the stores I shop at the items in red are the best prices. Its totally worth the $4.95 a month - I've paid for the subscription price for the year in one shopping trips' savings. And the meal planner is awesome! Check it out - you can try the service for 2 weeks for free.

More Carnival Fun

Kamryn and Jared at the start of their carnival party.

Jared and Kamryn with their cousin Kyson. They are good friends and get to play together frequently. Kyson told him his mom it was a fun party and he was so excited that he won the "Guess the Gumball" game. He guessed there were 180 gumballs in the jar - there were actually 221.

Brooke and Justin were great to help at the carnival. Justin got out of school early to help me set up. They were both very willing to do the face painting and did a great job with the kids. It was fun to have them there. After the party was officially over they played all the carnival games and competed against each other.

When I started thinking about what to do for Jared and Kamryn's birthday party I was considering doing separate parties so it could be more what each of them would want - all girl or all boy. Then I read about the idea of a carnival party and thought that would be fun for both of them. Carnival parties are very popular and there are a ton of ideas online. Some people talked about how they planned a party for 3 - 6 months - that's crazy!! I had 12 days and that was just perfect. Luckily I got a lot of help from very good friends - from doing the invitations to helping decorate and set up. I never could have done it without such great friends.

We invited 22 kids - it sounds like a lot but you have to remember this was a birthday party for 2 kids. We invited everyone from their preschool - 14 kids besides Jared and Kamryn. I felt very strongly about this - I didn't want anyone being left out. We also invited some neighbor friends and some cousins. A carnival needs lots of kids and we had about 21 here.

We totally lucked out with the weather - it was sunny and warm and a little too breezy. My friend Jenny came over with her kids and helped me set up. I never could have pulled it off without all of her help. She even did Kamryn's hair and it was so cute.

We had lots of games to play on the basketball court - tin can alley, clothespin drop, bowling, ball toss, hole in one, ring of fire, penny pitch, ping pong toss, skee ball and water golf. At each game they got tickets for playing the game. At the end of the party they got to come to the prize center to buy toys and candy with their tickets. One little boy was so cute and asked if he could pick out something for his sister - I loved that.

Justin and Brooke started out the party with face painting. And then the big hit of the party, Bubbles the Clown, arrived. The kids lined right up to get a balloon animal or sword from the clown. Thanks to my great friend Paige for sharing her talents with us.

Everyone, the kids and adults, seemed to have a good time and it was all worth it. Thank goodness we don't have big birthday parties like that every year.

Birthday Carnival

Countdown to the Carnival

So, besides counting down to their birthdays, Jared and Kamryn have also been very excited about their big party. Its a carnival theme and its tomorrow in our backyard.
My friend found this cute ferris wheel cake on Parents.com and it was funny because I'd thought if I did any kind of cake I'd do a ferris wheel one. Brooke and I made this today and hopefully its still standing for the party tomorrow. It was actually fun to make and have it turn out just like the picture.

Kamryn on her actual birthday - it was pretty bright outside.
The dolly was a gift from her grandpa.

Jared on his actual birthday
The teddy bear was a gift from his grandpa.

Lagoon Day - Physics Style

Early last week I got a text from Justin asking if I could be a chaperone for physics day at Lagoon Day. I thought that sounded like a decent assignment so I agreed to do it and I'm glad I did.
I rode on the bus with about 40 juniors and seniors out to Lagoon last Friday. All I had to do was set up a meeting time and place with the 10 students assigned to my group. We met at 1:00 at the merry-go-round for them to turn in their packet. It was physics problems they'd done in connection with some of the rides out there. None of it did I understand. Most of the students did the packet while they were on the bus on the way to Lagoon. Justin's group actually did the problems at each ride - I was shocked by this.
Unfortunately it was NOT the greatest weather. It started out sunny and nice but then a storm blew in and it was raining and trying to snow. Most kids were in shorts and t-shirts and no jackets. I stayed inside during the rain. I was the nerdy parent and actually checked out all the physics experiments and displays. There were kids who made models of rides. One ride looked so cool and scary that I hope I get to ride the real thing someday. There was a long line of jr high kids participating in the egg drop. They had their egg in some kind of protective packaging and then rode the sky ride and tried to drop their egg on the target and have it not break. Most kids missed the target. This whole day is sponsored by Utah State University and their are big prizes at stake. The greatest part of the day for our high school was the physics bowl - a kind of quiz show based on physics questions. Our high school had 2 teams participating with 3 students on each team. Our 2 teams faced each other in the semi-finals and then ended up taking 1st place and 3rd place. The 1st place team each won $19,000 scholarships to USU!! All for spending the day at Lagoon answering physics questions - that is so cool!!

This is Justin with some of his group - Sadie, Jenna, and Justin. Justin's friend, Yusef, also worked with them. They were nice enough to let me hang out with them part of the day and go on a few rides with them. One of my YW, Mackenzie, was also very cool to let me hang out with her for part of the day too.
All in all, this was a very cool chaperone assignment and I look forward to doing it again next year when Brooke gets to go.

Happy Birthday Kamryn

Happy Birthday to Kamryn!

Kamryn is FIVE today! She has been so excited about her birthday and even made her own countdown calender and every day told me how many days left until the big day. We celebrated last night with our family and grandparents because Wednesday nights are crazy at our house. Today she gets to go to dance lessons and take the treats to preschool.
Kamryn fell asleep after dinner last night so we had to wake her up for the party so she was pretty mellow to begin the fun. She was cute to give everyone a hug after they gave her a present. She was very happy to get a new doll from her grandpa and cute new clothes from her mom. She was especially excited to get these building blocks from her Grandma and Granddad. Jared's had some and she always wanted her own to play with.
Kamryn is all girl! Good and bad :) She wears dresses almost all the time and loves to have her hair fixed pretty. She loves her nails painted and can't wait until she's bigger so she can wear heals like moms wear (Her dad is just dying with all of this). She loves to play anything with Jared and they are always making up their own games. One of her latest was having Jared be the baby and she was taking care of him.
Kamryn is doing very well at school. She is starting to read and will spend a lot of time reading beginner books. She loves art and is always coloring something. We have her masterpieces hung up ALL over the house. She has a great smile and very contagious laugh. Lately she's showing a lot more of moody girl side but we hope that's a short lived phase.

Happy Birthday Jared

Happy Birthday to Jared!!

He's FIVE today. He's very grown up all of sudden and getting ready to go to Kindergarten. We celebrated with our family and grandparents last night because Wednesday nights are crazy at our house (mutual, work, bishopric meeting). We had balloons, cake and best of all presents. Jared was so excited to open presents and kept asking when he could pass them out. I asked him who he was going to pass them out and he would think for a minute and then say "oh, you pass them out to ME!"
Jared was very excited about all of his presents and organized them very neatly as he opened them. He was even excited about the clothes his mom gave him.
Jared is a very loving boy and very helpful. He is a peace maker - he has to be to deal with Kamryn sometimes. Jared has a great smile and the greatest laugh. He loves to play anything with Kamryn and they are always making up their own games. Their latest one had to do with going to the jungle and looking for animals with their binoculars, a recent "gift" from their grandpa.
Jared is very smart and does very well at school. He is starting to read and is always sounding out words wherever we go. He is very scared of dogs and anytime we go to someone's house he asks if they have a dog. If I say they do, he waits in the car. We went over to our friends house the other night and they have a little dog that he knows and is okay around her after an hour. Before we went over he told me has was excited to see Madi. I told him that he was going to be brave. Then he started taking big deep breaths and I asked him what he was doing and he said he was getting brave.

First job

Justin got his first "real" job and last Saturday was his first day.
We went as family to be his last customers of the night.
He is working at African Ice. I think its going to be a great first job.

Trying to decide which flavor to get.

Justin doing a great job.

Justin was a good sport to serve us all and let me take pictures.
Lucky for him no one else was there at the time.

Watch this!

If you would like to feel the spirit today, watch this.

Update to Women's Conference

Check out "this link" for info when selected talks will be broadcast.

Also, so you can plan your schedule for next year - the dates for the conference next year are April 28 and 29, 2011.

What I Learned

I was very lucky to be able to attend Women's Conference at BYU with my friend Cynthia. I went last year with friends for just one day and knew I wanted to go again. It was great to be able go for both days and we even stayed down there at the Travel Lodge (next year we'll make reservations earlier to stay at a Marriott property because we noticed they have a shuttle that takes you to campus).
I took lots of notes in my journal and want to share some of what I learned:

• I went to a class called "Seeking After True Beauty" and Julene Judd was one of the presenters. Just before she started her talk she had her daughter Sarah sing a really beautiful song about virtue. One of the lines in the song has really stayed with me and i've thought about it a lot ever since. It was: "I didn't come to earth to compromise." Just think about it. Its my new motto.
• Sister Julie Beck, the general RS president, gave an amazing talk in the opening session. I took so many notes and couldn't possibly share all of them. The main things I took away from her talk were: "A woman is like a lionness at a gate in her home." "What's important to the woman of the home is what WILL happen." And then she talked about priorities - "When our priorities are out of order, we LOSE power. She talked about this order of priorities - 1 essential things, 2 - necessary things, and 3 - nice to do things. "To walk with the Lord we have to have these priorities in order." The last thing she talked about was a special assignment she gave us. She asked us to get a blue copy of the Book of Mormon and write in the front of the book "Who am I?" "What are my responsibilities in the House of Israel" and "How do I fulfill my responsibilities?" After writing those questions, then read the book of Mormon with those questions in mind and keep a journal about what you learn during that scripture study.
• One speaker shared how she has her children memorize the definition of integrity.
• "If we are faithful, all of our losses will be made up" - Joseph Smith
• One of the classes I went to was titled "Lessons of Faith and Courage from Emma Smith" The first speaker was Katherine Nelson and she is the actress who played Emma in the recent Emma movie and the Joseph Smith movie. She talked about how she came to audition for the role and the experience of making the movie. It was very touching to listen to her.
• One last quote from Elder Dallin H Oaks, the closing speaker of the conference. He said in relation to service, "its amazing how much you can get done if you don't worry about who gets the credit."

Its a a great gift to attend Women's Conference and I look forward to going again next year. Come with me :)

A miracle

We had a little miracle around here this morning.
Yesterday afternoon Brooke mentioned that she lost her contact - on Saturday! She forgot to tell me until then. She'd been in the bathroom and her right contact flicked off her eyelashes and she looked and looked and couldn't find it. Her dad helped her for a bit but they never found it.
She had an old one she wore yesterday but its not the right prescription so it makes her dizzy. I was supposed to call the eye doctor this morning and order a new one. Before I called the eye doctor I felt like I should go look myself, even though it seemed pretty hopeless since it had been almost 3 days since she'd lost it.
I looked all over! I shook out the 3 rugs in there and listened for a little tiny tinkling sound but nothing. I scoured all over the floor and under the cabinets and all along at the edge of the tub. At the very last spot, by the tub under the door - I found it! I couldn't believe it. Jared and Kamryn had stood right there Sat night after their baths. It must have been on the one rug and when I shook it out there it landed to be found. YEAH!!!

MIA

So here's what's been going on since I've been MIA:

• Finally finished up with the roadshows and had our cast party last week. Another post with pictures coming up for that. Now I have my Wednesday nights free again - yeah!
• I've been helping out with Paul's dad a bit. I took him on some errands one afternoon and I think he enjoyed not having to drive. I'll have to make a regular schedule for that. I also helped him with moving his home office from one room to another. Now that is a huge project. We've also been going through some of Carolyn's things with him and distributing wanted items to daughters, DIL, and grand-daughters.
• Allergies have been wiping me out. I worked in the yard two different times last week getting rid of weeds and that nearly did me in.
• I dealt with Justin's first accident - actually still dealing with it. Brooke called me last Thursday after school to tell me that there had been an accident in the back parking lot. I went over and Justin and a Sr girl had both tried to leave at the same time. Initially it looked like it might have been his fault because her whole front bumper was knocked off. But upon the insurance investigating it looks like it was her fault because she actually kind of read-ended him but his bumper caught hers I guess and pulled it off. Luckily no one was hurt and I don't think we'll end up paying anything.
• Paul and I have been teaching a temple prep class at church. Actually Paul has done all of the teaching so far but I've been very supportive - I bring the chocolate.
  

Carolyn's Funeral

Carolyn Truman Adams

Carolyn, my mother-in-law, passed away on Tuesday, March 30. This was a blessing to her and her family. She has not been well for several months, especially since she took 2 serious falls last September. I am grateful she is no longer in pain and not suffering anymore.
She is a beautiful lady and was a wonderful example to me and my family. She LOVED her grandchildren and they loved her.

This is her obituary that is in the paper today:

Carolyn Truman Adams
1934 ~ 2010
Carolyn passed away peacefully in her home the morning of March 30. She was born July 15, 1934 in Enterprise Utah, the daughter of Alma Truman and Alta Holt. She attended and received an Associates Degree from Dixie State College in St. George, Utah. She married John A. Adams on May 14, 1960 in the St. George Temple. Carolyn loved music and had a beautiful soprano voice. She sang in the chorus of the Salt Lake Oratorio Society performance of the Messiah prior to her marriage. She sang in various ward choirs and led several women's choruses. She played the piano and was the favorite accompanist for several vocal soloists. She also played the organ and played for many funerals. She was an active member of the LDS Church and served in many callings throughout her life including that of a full time missionary together with John in Oakland, CA. She always enjoyed being with family, especially her grandchildren. She is survived by her husband John, her children Kaye (Dale) Madsen, Steven (Tina) Adams, and Paul (Lisa) Adams, 13 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, brothers and sisters Delmont (Karol) Truman, Deneice (Dexter) Snow, Ada Jane (Lee) Kleinman, Lonnie (Leslie) Truman, and Margaret Marshall. The family wishes to express their appreciation to the staff of First Choice Hospice for their loving, tender care of our wife and mother. Funeral services for Carolyn will be held Saturday April 3 at 12:00 noon at the LDS Chapel located at 6350 S. Rodeo Ln (1545 E.). The family will receive friends at a reception Friday April 2 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Wasatch Lawn Mortuary 3401 S. Highland Dr, and one hour prior to the funeral service on Saturday at the LDS Chapel. Carolyn was a wonderful example of righteous living and unconditional love. We love you and will miss you - until we are together again.

Photo Tag

this is a photo tag, that I was NOT tagged by my cousin Amelia to do, but i'm going to do anyway.

Rules:
1. Open your first photo folder
2. Scroll to the 10th photo
3. Post the photo and the story behind it
4. Tag 5 or more people

the story behind the photo above:
This is Kierra, my niece. We were on a family hike up Spanish Fork canyon. It was a beautiful fall day and we all had a great time.

Tag: Susan, Holly, Cynthia, Julianne, and Amanda

More Volleyball

This post is not about Brooke playing volleyball, its about Justin.
He tried out for the Brighton Men's volleyball team and made it on the team. This was at the end of February. They have been practicing twice a week since then and tonight was their first match.
Men's volleyball is not an official high school sport so this is a club league. High schools playing each other but run by county rec.
The games are on Tues and Thur nights for the next 6 weeks. I could only go to the first match tonight (had to get to the final roadshow performance, more about that later) but it was fun to watch. Justin didn't play at all in that match but of course played in the match that I missed. There are 14 guys on the team - which is really enough players for 2 teams and I wish they had made 2 teams.
In the first match, Brighton lost the 1st set and then won the 2nd set in their match against Skyline. Men's volleyball is such a different game than what I'm used to watching. Its really going to be fun to watch them play and especially to improve during the season.

Spring

Spring is the most torturous season for me - I'm so excited for winter to be over and for it to be getting warm. But I have pretty bad spring allergies and they start early. I've got symptoms already and its no fun.

A fun thing to report - my sister and I took our kids to Classic Fun Center today (thanks to my friend Cynthia sharing some bounce back passes, thanks). They had fun in the bounce center and Kamryn and Kyson liked the jungle. Jared wouldn't go in there at all because they had that weaved webbing to climb around on and he's afraid he'll fall through. They all had a lot of fun playing the games and getting tickets. Kamryn had an easy time picking out her prizes but it was so hard for Jared to decide on prizes that he gave up and said he didn't want anything because he couldn't choose. I ended up choosing 2 different snakes for him that he loved. After they were worn out we went to get some lunch. Now I'm worn out.

Story time

I just finished reading 4 library books to Jared and Kamryn. We read Ducky's Rainbow, Welcome to Kindergarten, My Lucky Day and Skippyjon Jones. The last one was my favorite and by far one of the best children's books I've ever read. I laughed out loud and had so much fun reading it to them. I can hardly wait until tomorrow when we read it again.

A Great Day

Today was a great day.
Started out going to an exercise class at the Rec Center with my friend, Desiree. Its called Boot Camp and I'm not sure I ever want to go back, j/k. It was a butt kicker class and it made me feel old but I survived and will probably go back sometime this century!
After the class we picked up our kids from the nursery and took them swimming. We all had a great time and it was good to see that Jared and Kamryn haven't lost too much of what they learned last summer since I have been a serious slacker about taking them this school year.
Tonight I went to dinner with my wonderful group of friends from JR High and High School. Its always so great to get together with them and catch up on their lives and listen to their stories.

Funny Kids

The kids were messing around the other day with these glasses and it made me laugh.
So I got out the camera and we started taking pictures.

Starting with this picture, the kids took over the camera and took these shots themselves.

Snow Day

We're having a snow day around here. It's probably the most snow we've had at once this winter (it seems like that anyway). All of my kids are home today so it seems like a real snow day. The high school kids are out because its the end of the trimester and Taylor is home because its a day off since it was parent teacher conferences this week.
Jared and Kamryn wanted to go outside and have a snowball fight. First they helped Taylor shovel the driveway. It wasn't too hard because most of it was melted.

Jared making a super big snowball to throw at Taylor.

"Here I Come"

Jared having fun trying to get Taylor.

Taylor aiming for the kids

Watch out, Jared.

Kamryn trying to get Taylor.

Taylor winding up with another. This time he got Jared right in the head.

Jared didn't like getting hit with the snowball. He cried and was sad. Luckily it didn't last too long - he started laughing right after, when Taylor was trying to hit me with a snowball.

Not so Sick

I'm not so sick of myself anymore.
Its been a good week. I exercised on Mon, Tues, Thur and Friday. Not too bad a week for just getting back to it. I bought a new exercise DVD - The Biggest Loser (can't remember which one specifically) that is a 30 day shape up plan. The first week was pretty easy (still have to do 2 of the workouts since i missed today) and each workout was only 10 minutes for the first week. On Friday Jared and Kamryn did 2 of the sessions with me. They were so cute with their weights and following along. When it was finished Jared wanted to do more and Kamryn was "too tired" about 2 minutes into it.
Even better were my eating habits. I jumped in big time going back on a diet I did before Jared and kamryn were born. It was from e.diets but was basically following recommendations from the American Heart Association (I had and still have high cholesterol). Luckily I saved everything from when I did the diet before so I'm just following all the same meal plans. That's the worst part - meal planning and now its all done for me for about 8 weeks. I didn't cheat at all, haven't had any soda in almost 2 weeks, and hardly any sugar. That is a miracle for me. I have been seriously addicted to sugar and chocolate for months and going off pretty much cold turkey has gone much better than I predicted. Its so great to get some self control back in my life.

Quote for Me

Just read this the other day from the book I Am Scout: A Biography of Harper Lee

...Regarding people who were difficult to accept or respect, Nelle (Harper Lee) said "Our response to these people represents our earthly test. And I think that these people enrich the wonder of our lives. It is they who most need our kindness because they seem less deserving. After all, anyone can love people who are lovely."

This was one of those moments where I really needed to be told that.

I'm Sick of ...

I'm so sick of myself! I've been a fat, lazy slob for way too long! Today, that is going to change!

This is my usual cycle - get in shape, get sick of being good, then let everything go to pot. And then I have to get to the point that I hate myself and then start over again.

So, here's to starting over - I hit the treadmill again for the first time since Thanksgiving. I'm going to follow the same schedule I did for my marathon training, only doing the 1/2 marathon schedule this time. I'm not sure that I'll be doing a half marathon this year but at some point I'd like to try it.
I'm also starting e-diets again. It worked for me before (the summer before I got pregnant with the twins) and its one I can put the whole family on so I don't have to fix different things.
I'm putting it out there so I have to be held accountable.

Valentine's date

I just got back from a little getaway with Paul. We decided to celebrate Valentine's this weekend (since we couldn't actually go out on Valentine's day since it was Sunday and the night before was our adult stake conference meeting). We were gone for 24 hours and spent only $5.07.
We headed up to Park City to have dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. We'd been given a gift card (from one of Paul's sub-contractors) 2 Christmases ago and were finally going to use it. We'd been to Ruth's one other time so we knew what to expect going in - VERY pricey place. Paul is not really comfortable in places like that but he survived.
Ever since we went the first time I knew I wanted to order the Sweet Potato Casserole. YUM!! It really is like a dessert to me and that's what I had for dessert. Its probably a sin but neither one of us ordered steak - Paul had their stuffed chicken and I had a very good vegetarian dish of sauteed mushrooms and grilled portobellos mushrooms served with mashed potatoes, broccoli, tomatoes and asparagus that I lovingly gave to Paul. It sounds like a strange a dish but it was very good. We also had ravioli for an appetizer and their chop salad too. We had all that and it came to $77.00. Its unbelievable to us that people really go there and spend that much money on food. And the really crazy thing was to see how many people had their kids there with them. Since it was Park City I'm sure they were all families on a ski trip from the East Coast (their accents gave them away). It was a very entertaining place to people watch. We left their so stuffed that it was almost painful.
Next we headed to our hotel. This was also FREE. From all of Paul's hotel stays up in Idaho at Best Western up there he had earned a free hotel stay. It was based on points and when I called to reserve a room in Park City they told me I didn't have enough points but said that the Best Western in Coleville would be covered by the points on our voucher and some in his account. So we stayed in Coleville (not actually right in Coleville but right off the I-80 exit to go to Coleville). Before we headed up to our room we drove through Coleville - a true small town with only the one Main Street and no street lights. At 9:00 pm the town was all shut down and we couldn't any place open to get some ice cream.
Our room was nice, when we checked in they upgraded us to a suite! We enjoyed the king size bed and fell asleep watching the Olympics.
This morning we enjoyed the complimentary breakfast buffet and then headed downtown to go to the SL Temple. After the temple we stopped at Red Mango for a treat and then went to visit Paul's parents. When we got home the little kids were excited to see us and the house had obviously just been cleaned up. That was a nice treat to come home to.
What a great date weekend.

Olympics

Our family LOVES to watch the Olympics. We watch it every night (and this year it is especially great watching it on our big TV downstairs) and are up late every night. Its so great to watch the triumph of the athletes and so sad to watch them crash. And we love how America is doing in the medals count. We feel so patriotic.

PS. Post update - love this from a friend's status update on Facebook:
Olympicing: a verb used to describe what I do every night from seven to midnight on the couch with the laptop and Bob Costas in my ears.

A Good Feeling

tonight i was able to go with my three oldest kids to the salt lake temple to participate in baptisms for the dead. it was taylor's first time to be able to go. i was able to watch all three of my kids be baptized and it was such a great feeling to watch them and know that they were worthy to be and made the choice to be there. it was also neat to watch the boys be baptized by Bishop Johnson, the man who was bishop when I was a youth in this same ward.

50 Bucks

What would you do for 50 bucks?
Well, today I went downtown to listen to radio music for 2 hours and they paid me 50 bucks. A couple of weeks ago I answered the phone and it happened to be a real person asking me questions about my radio listening habits. I guess I passed her test and she asked me if I'd be willing to help on some radio research. When she said it involved $50 for two hours, I thought why not - that's $25 an hour. And I would use it to pay for (mostly pay for) our family to go see Avatar.
There were probably 2 dozen women in my group - ranging in age from 30-50. We were in a room in an old house and told we would be listen to 3-5 second snippets of songs and then we had to rate on a 1-5 scale how much we liked the song and also if we were Not Tired, A Little Tired or Very Tired of the song. We listened to almost 600 songs in just under 2 hours. The hardest part of it was my hand cramping up so bad from filling in all those little bubbles with my pencil. By the end I could barely hold my pencil. It made me wonder how Justin got through the ACT last week. But then he's used to it and I'm not.
Overall it was an interesting experience and worth the money.

A Very Rare Occurrence

Yesterday, our family did something we very rarely do - went to a first run movie in the theater. Not only did we go to the theater, we went to the IMAX at Jordan Commons to see AVATAR. We left Jared and Kamryn with my mom and brought my dad with us. It was a very amazing visual experience and it certainly made me wonder how some people can dream up so much.

So Great

Yesterday morning i woke up around 7:15. Not to an alarm, just woke up. And felt good and not tired. I thought about it for a minute and realized that I had slept the WHOLE night through, and didn't wake up once! That was a miracle. The last time I did that was who knows when and with the aid of Ambien. I never sleep through the whole night (I'm usually up at least twice to visit the potty). It was a great gift and one I was very grateful for.

So True

Just received this from my friend Leslie and had to share:

Women are angels,
And when someone breaks our wings . . .
We simply continue to fly . . .
On a broomstick.
We are flexible like that.

A Movie You've Got to See

After posting every day for over 2 months I ran out of things to say. The website that does this challenge has a theme for every month and the theme for February didnt do anything for me (the theme is "ties"). So its been a few days and thats okay.
Now I have something to say:
Justin and I just finished watching Iron Jawed Angels. It was so good and everyone should watch it (well, everyone over 10 probably). Its about the women who fought for the 19th Amendment. I wished that Paul and Brooke had been watching it with us (Paul was working and Brooke was out with friends) so we'll be watching it again very soon. Its an HBO movie but I got it at the library. There is one scene of naked women in prison (just shows their backsides) and a little mild language, I think. Definitely a movie that makes you grateful for courageous women who fought for us.

Happy Groundhog Day

Did you know the famous groundhog has his own website?
Check this post about groundhog day - oh so true.
I watched the movie somewhat recently with my kids while we were at the cabin and fell asleep during it. When it was over they said, "you really liked that movie?" That's how it goes with the movies we grew up with, fond memories but when you actually watch the movie again as an adult you wonder why you liked it or you notice how much bad language that movie really had in it.
And the bad news - more winter :(
Now, I guess I better get to work. Have a great groundhog day.

How Sweet is this ?

When Paul and I got home from an adult family dinner with his family, Jared was asleep but Kamryn was awake. She came in our room to give her a daddy a kiss and asked him to sing songs with her. Paul plays primary songs and old classic rock songs along with some Elvis and John Denver most nights with the kids. They love to sing along with him and sometimes get out their own instruments to play along too. Its a great tradition he has with them.