A Dancing Easter Egg Hunt

Brianna just loves her dance class and especially Mrs. Courtnie.  She is so sweet and cute with the girls.  Today during dance class she hosted an Easter Egg hunt for the girls.  Can it get any better than that?

Just a little side note:  Brianna chooses out her dance outfit each week.  She is certainly creative and has come up with all kinds of combinations.  I am not really sure where she gets her inspiration but she definately has a vision.  This week she wore a black leotard with her swimsuit cover up.  It was cute I must admit.  I figure that this is one time in her life that she can get away with it.  So I look forward to many more interesting outfits in the future.

Spontaneous Cousin Visit

This weekend, my brother Brendan and his family decided to come to Utah for their spring break.  Because it was a last minute decision and a surprise to all we didn't have anything exciting planned.  But it didn't matter because we made our own fun.  The kids just love getting together.  We played batmitten, talked a lot and had a great BBQ.  I sure love my brother and enjoy his company so much.  I love that every now and then my kids get to catch a glimpse of the crazy and fun guy that he is as well as his incredible spiritual side.  He is a wonderful teacher.

Lately, due to many different things that are happening to people around me, I feel a sense of urgency towards maintaining family relationships and building upon them.  Families are the heart of everything and truly bring joy in your life.  I am grateful to be blessed with wonderful family members on both sides of our family.  It truly enriches my life.

General Young Womens Broadcast

Today was the annual Young Women's Broadcast.  Alyssa really wanted to attend in person and we were fortunate enough to get tickets.  We headed to Salt Lake with Alyssa's good friend Makayla and her mom Jen.  And as a last minute add in, Maddy and Lucinda made a surprise visit from Idaho and were able to join us.

Getting there was frustrating with the downtown traffic.  We lucked out on a parking spot and had to "run" to get there on time.  But we made it and once we were settled it was a wonderful meeting.

Alyssa really was excited to be in the same building as the prophet.  It is always good to see in person the magnitude of the Conference Center and the numbers of young women that showed up.  It reminds us that we are part of something larger than just our own ward or even stake.

The theme of the meeting was "being strong and of good courage" centered around the story of Joshua in the Bible.  The messages were inspiring and the music, by a youth choir from Lehi, was amazing.

President Uchtdorf spoke about how every great story starts with "Once Upon a Time" and ends with "Happily ever After"  He reminded us that every great hero must pass through great trials in order to receive the growth necessary to have that happily ever after.  He said that God knows our story and can direct us to that end.  My favorite quote was this: "It is how we react to trials and adversity that determine our happily ever after, not the trials themselves".  Such a great reminder about how we can control our destiny and even our happiness.  Alyssa especially enjoyed his talk.

Afterwards we went to JB's restaurant for stuffed french toast and crepes.  We had a nice laugh at Jen's salad that could of fed a family of 12.  It was great to be in the company of such good people.

I am glad we took advantage of this neat opportunity.  It is easy to forget sometimes and take for granted all that we have at our fingertips here in Utah.  Thankfully Alyssa brought it to my attention.

The long days of March

For whatever reason, March seems to be dragging by ever so slowly.  We are keeping busy, doing the "typical" every day stuff and yet,  I feel a little stir crazy.  I am not sure why since we have had some glimpses of spring to come.  I guess March has been my January this year. 

Needless to say, we have been quite busy.  Here are a few highlights from the last couple of weeks.

-We attended New Beginnings with Alyssa.  It was a nice evening centered around Personal Progress. Alyssa is about half way done with her Personal Progress goals which is commendable since she has only been in the Young Women's program a little over a year.

-Ryan had his last basketball game of the season.  Roger bribed him with a donut if he accomplished certain things during the game and Ryan played out of his head.  He had something like 22 rebounds, 8 points and I don't know how many steals.  It was a great game to end a good season.

-I got my yearly strept throat and was down for a couple of days.  It wasn't fun and yet my kids are a lot more self sufficient and helpful when I am sick now.  We muddled through it and thanks to a wonderful shot in the behind I was up and running before too long.

-Saint Patricks Day came and went.  I did go and help in Brianna's class.  We made rainbow toast and the kids thought it was pretty cool.

-The Young Women had Bishop appreciation week and Roger was innodated with lovely thank you cards.  It is nice to know that he is appreciated.

-We had Stake Conference this past weekend and the adult session was outstanding.  I was once again recharged and thankful for the spiritual upliftment that I received.

-Roger attempted for the first time to make homemade tortillas.  They came out a little like navajo tacos but the kids thought they were pretty great.

-Roger and I celebrated the end of our diet by going to The Cheesecake Factory.  Kind of an oxymoron but we had a gift card and it is one of my favorite restaurants.  I love the corn cakes and I always get the Bang Bang Chicken and Shrimp.  I don't even care if I have cheesecake because the rest of the food is so tasty.

-Inspite of splurging at The Cheesecake Factory, we ended our diets with great success.  Roger lost 23 pounds and I lost 16.  Not bad for 4 weeks.

-We attended a fundraiser banquet for Eagle-Condor. We enjoyed yummy food, good company and made donations towards the projects in Peru.  Having been there now, I feel much stronger about reaching out to those people, especially the kids.  I also got to see some of the group I traveled with to Peru, which was kind of fun.

-We had our monthly family dinner which was nice and came to a decision of where we will go for our summer vacation together.  We will be at a place call Ponderosa Ranch near Zions Park.  I can't wait for summer.

-Another term ended and Alyssa once again got a 4.0.  Ryan and Brianna were equally as successful in their studies.

 -We did have a few days of decent weather last week.  There was sunshine and it was close to 60 degrees.  Everyone loved it.  The kids played outside until they were exhausted.  I was able to do quite a bit of yard work, cleaning out my flower beds from the winter.  I love the smell of spring and being able to get my hands dirty.  I even worked on my garden.  I was able to plant cold-weather vegetables, as well as sugar snap peas and carrots.  I am still fighting those darn deer though, and am not sure how successful my garden will be.

-Even though it was barely 60 degrees, Brianna thought it was sweltering.  She changed into her new swimsuit and ran around the yard.  Because I was fertilizing the grass, I told her she couldn't be out in her barefeet.  So she went inside and found a pair of rubber gloves and put them on her feet.  She looked like a duck walking around.  I guess it is time to buy some sandals.  The best was when she put on her winter boots, with her swimsuit, and rode down the street on her scooter.  Oh what do the neighbors think??

Well that is about the long and short of it all.  Onward and upward.

Give a Day, Get a Day

Disney is doing a special promotion this year.  If you are willing to give a day of service then you are rewarded with a free day's admission to the park.  Since we go to Disneyland every year, even though we say we aren't going to do so, we decided it would be a good opportunity for our family. 

There were several types of services to choose from and in the end we decided to put gift baskets together for an animal shelter.  The baskets will be put up for auction to earn money for the shelter.

All the kids willingly donated money to help purchase the necessary items.  We Then had a fun family night going to Target and choosing things to put in our baskets.  We ended up doing a family game night basket, and a doggy basket.  They turned out pretty cute I think and hopefully will bring in some money.

Roger and I delivered the baskets yesterday and so we are good to go to Disneyland.  Even if we end up not going, we can donate our tickets to charity.  It is a win win win situation for all.

Nickelcade Fun

The kids had a day off from school and since the weather was not very pleasant we decided to go to Nickelcade.  We invited our cousins, Colby, Cooper, and Addy to come along with us.

Alyssa is not present in any of the photos because she had the opportunity to go to the Temple to do Baptisms for a family in our ward that had family names to be done.  It was a tough for her to be left out but I was proud of her for choosing to so something more important and lasting.

Since every game costs at most 4 nickels to play the kids are able to try everything and anything.  This includes the dreaded crane game.   Kids everywhere are drawn to these money sucking boxes with hopes of obtaining the elusive prizes inside.  I have yet in all my life seen anyone be successfull at winning this game.  Yet my kids are like all others desiring to just give it a try.  It didn't take them long to figure out though, that their nickels would soon be depleted if they continued to feed this machine.  Hopefully they learned a future lesson.

We had a great time goofing around, playing air hockey and doing our darndest to win as many tickets as possible to trade in for amazing prizes (haha).   We were successful and Brianna was proud of her slime and plastic bow and arrow.  Ryan's magnets were equally as impressive.  The fun we had was the best prize of all.