Grateful Sunday

Yesterday was an awesome day. Nothing grand happened,
but little reminders occurred all day of how lucky I am
and how grateful I am to my Heavenly Father.

I talked to my mom in the morning before Church and
she related an awesome story about the power
of fasting. It really struck home with me that
the Lord does hear and answer prayers.

It happened when I was 7 (i'm pretty sure).
anyway, I don't remember it
at all, but my Dad had left for Utah either late
Sunday night or early Monday morning and asked
us all to fast. My older siblings, Jenny and Brent,
myself, mom and dad all participated in this
fast. My dad asked us to fast for 24 hours (I'm not
sure I could do that now). anyway, it was agreed
and my dad was going to go to an early session in the
temple on Tuesday morning. I am sure the fast was
to know if moving to Utah was the right thing, for
our family and career path.

My mom said that Monday was Iowa testing in school and
she worried about us all not having a good breakfast
or lunch to make it through the day, but when we came home
we were all perfectly fine. She said that Jen, my oldest sis,
didn't have a migraine like she usually did when she didn't eat,
and we all told her that it didn't bother us at all to see the
other kids eating.
I thought that was a great story to be reminded.

Then at Church we watched the video
"Just a Stone Mason" It was an AMAZING story
about a man who was converted and committed to
the gospel. Definitely a tear jerker for sure!
I hope that you all have the opportunity to
watch it sometime.

Last night after Church, we ate yummy Cafe Rio pork burritos
(thankyou Jen for the recipe!)
and played games as a family.
I love my little family so much.
They each are so wonderful, along with
my rockin' hubby! He is fabulous in every way!

I also got to talk with my awesome friend, Kirsten, too! I miss her
a lot! They moved to Tuscan, AZ. Lucky duck.

quick story:
Last week, while Tayler and Rylee were playing Tay
was pretending to be the mom and Rylee was her little girl.
I was laying on my bed reading, and I was deemed the
"grandma" in the pretend scenario. Tayler came in and
asked if I could watch her
little girl for a little while because her and her husband
were going to a temple session. Of course I gladly accepted
with a great big smile on my face. That made me
so happy that of all things she chose that to do on her
"pretend" date. I love that little girl. She then
preceded to tell me what Rylee enjoys doing
and that she had already eaten dinner. She said
almost word for word what I always say when we
get a babysitter. It made it laugh.
When she returned a little while later, she asked
if Rylee had been any trouble. How funny!

Anyway, it was a good day that made me reflect
on the things that are important in life.

Then this morning we woke up to LOTS of
snow. It took me a good 10 minutes to scrap
my car to drive to school. I wasn't so happy about that!
Oh well, it's almost all melted by now. That is a positive!

SPRING.. where are you???

Hope you all have a great week.

Easter Weekend

man, i am slow to post this week! Our weekend was fun!

Friday, we were going to dye our Easter eggs,

but Sean took Rylee and Tayler to
Horton Hears A Who

they both loved it, but Tayler ate too much popcorn and threw

up around 2 a.m. Nice!

Saturday, after work, we dyed some Easter Eggs. The girls had a

blast using their creative minds. I wish that I liked hard boiled eggs,

but I only use them in potato salad.

Later that day we had a party up at Sean's sisters house. We had dinner

and an Easter Egg hunt for all the kids.

Sunday morning, they woke up to yet some more eggs around the house

(seriously, I think they rec'd more candy than Halloween).

Since it was Easter, Sean didn't have meetings in the morning.

Man I forgot what it was like to have him home. IT was really nice.

We had a yummy Easter breakfast and then got ready so that we wouldn't be late,

since we were speaking.

My little kiddos

(I couldn't get a good one of them all together. They were being too silly)

The talks went very well. After Church we came home, made dinner,

went on a walk, and called it a day.

Snip, Snip

We cut cute little Tay's hair this afternoon and then enjoyed a little lunch together. I love how it turned out (even though I'm not a huge fan of how the stylist do it). She was so cute while getting it cut. I wish I would have taken my camera!

Before

After

I think she's such a cutie pie (and looks a little older now too)

My mom came up Wednesday night since it is her schools Spring Break. We had a great time! Wednesday evening we just hang out, and Thursday we shopped and shopped and then had an appt. to get her hair cut as well. It is SO adorable-- I wish I would have taken a picture of the back! She is such a hip grandma! Thanks Mom for hanging out with us.

Since we shopped for such a long time yesterday and the kiddos didn't get naps they went to bed super early! Jayson fell asleep at 7:30 and didn't wake up until 9 this morning, and the other 2 went down at 8:00 and slept until 8:30 this morning. It was blissful!

I vegged on the couch and caught up on ALL my shows. That hasn't happened forever. Sean was at the Jazz game (which didn't start until 8:30) so we were all sound asleep before he got home at midnight.

This little kid is on the move and into everything. He loves the freedom of getting places now.

I can't believe it is Easter Weekend. I think we will be dying some eggs tonight. Hope you all have a great weekend!!!

Loves and hugs!

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

All 3 terms I experienced this weekend..

The Good:
It was suppose to snow Saturday morning for our Ward Easter Activity, so we racked our brains with ways to do an "inside" Egg hunt, but with 150 kids it would be pure chaos, but we were willing to do it anyway. Well, the weather totally cooperated with us and the sun was out (and actually wasn't cold).. so the hunt went on without a hitch-- Outside!

Hooray!

The bad:
Saturday our Ward party started at 9:00. Set up was at 8:00 and we were picking up donuts, juice and milk at 7:30. My alarm went off at 7:42 a.m. AHHHHHHHHHHH... I still had to do all the above mentioned things and get ready and feed my sleeping baby beforehand. Don't you worry I would have woken up at 6:30 P.M. just fine!

The Ugly:
Did I mention that I got up at 7:42 and had to be to the Church by 8:00 and nurse a baby. You get the picture. Didn't look my best, but I got the job done!

(more of the bad)..I have to speak in Church on Sunday. Easter Sunday no less. I do love to prepare for talks, but HATE giving them.

Tayler is out of school until the 31st. I love having her home. She is such a joy to have around. Rylee has been sick with something and is completely irrational about everything. Tayler and I just look at each other and roll our eyes!

Our goal is to paint our Master Bathroom during her break. She is thrilled. We just need to go and get the paint. Wish us luck!

Wonderful Time

The girls out on the town for Disney's Princesses on Ice!

So it did prove to be everything we could hope for and more! Rylee and Tay were so excited and just made me smile with excitment to be there. I love to see them so happy! The Delta Center seemed to transform into Disneyland. You could buy just about anything princess your little heart desired (of course everything was a wee bit spendy!)

We arrived on time with 5 minutes to spare even! There were tons of "princesses" all

around (I think almost every little girl in the Delta center was dressed in their favorite princess get-up).

Tayler was Cinderella and Rylee was Tinkerbell. Both were very cute and oh so well behaved.

I met Sean in Woods Cross and left him with his little boy for some Father and Son bonding time!

I loved my girls night out, but SO sad that I didn't see Kris and Katey (where

were you?), you can read their cute story here. I am so glad you got to go, just sad I didn't see you :)

Thanks to my wonderful friend Brittney for driving down to SL and buying the tickets for us too. It was so much fun to go with her and cute Elise. Thanks for the wonderful night.

Tomorrow is our Ward Easter Activity. Seriously, STOP the madness, I just did a ward activity 2 weeks ago! I pray the weather is okay so that we can "hunt" outside. (if not things will be a little squishy).

Happy Weekend all!

We are off

to see this! I have two little chickadee's that are

very excited!! I hope it proves to be everything they

thought it could be and more!

I am in LOVE...

....with my new bedroom and with my husband for purchasing it for me!! Thanks babe!

I just need to find some window treatments now.

I'm not sure I will ever come out!

don't worry dear Kris I will totally do your tag (after I rack my brain). loved having your kiddos for a while. They are awesome!! ;)

Case solved

Little Jayson and I headed to the Doctor tonight and learned that he has a

• Double ear infection and
• bilateral eye infection

Thank heavens for the great pink medicine! He should be back to his old self in no time. Poor kid! He has probably had it for over a week and a half now. Yikes!

Big boys don't cry...

Don't let his cheeriness in the picture fool you. He has not been a happy camper for quite a while. I wish I knew what it was that was bugging him. Maybe Dr. M* can help. I think we may take a trip to the Health Center in a while.

This morning Rylee helped me make cookies and rolls as part of our dinner we are taking tonight to a friend that just had her new baby. We had such a great time doing it. I love when I have some 1 on 1 time with my kiddos. It seems to not come around too often, but with Tay in school and Jayson asleep we were victorious!

We are feeling very productive today. Hope all is well wherever you may be!

Update

The Progressive dinner is over and done with, and I think it went very well. Our
group was awesome! We hosted the appetizers at our house and after the salad
course Sean and I went over to the church to trade off with the other couple in the
nursery.

There were 47 kids,

so it was us and 5 Young Women against all the kids.

3 hours

It was OUT OF CONTROL!!!!

Anyway, I have heard a lot of feedback to how wonderful it was, so I am glad
that everyone enjoyed themselves and met new people. Hooray!

Yesterday was a stressful day. You know the days that you just feel like
the world is against you. There are several reasons, which I won't expound
upon, but I am grateful to my husband and sister for listening to me. Sometimes
you just need to put everything back in perspective. That is my new goal.

Today, I woke up with a new attitude to try my best to look at the positive.
I don't want to get mad at my kids (or husband) because I have taken on
way more than I can handle and thus be the beneficiaries of a stressed out
Mom who takes everything out on them. That is so not fair.

I have decided that it is okay to say "no" even without a real reason. It
will be fun to try it out and see if I can really do it. Wish me luck.

.. and with that I have a 3 year old that is waiting to play Barbies with me.

p.s. Jayson had a tooth pop through. That may explain his prolonged orneriness,
although he is pretty sick still with a wicked cough.