Human Right's Day

I figured since it is Human Rights Day then that applies to me as well. So today I gave myself permission to enjoy this to it's full extent. Some of my rights today included the following:

-The right to sleep in . . late . . even though my kids were already awake and doing their thing.

-The right to skip my workout for the day (I know I shouldn't have but I did anyway).

-The right to eat breakfast after 9:30 and insisting that my son make the scrambled eggs for everyone.

-The right to officially declare it a pajama day.

-The right to let my kids play Nintendo games, Wii games, computer games, and watch movies to their hearts content (I even joined them).

-The right to to eat lunch whenever we wanted and to eat whatever we wanted (every man for himself)

-The right not to work on primary stuff at all during this day.

- The right not to nag, complain or harp on my children to do chores or any such thing like unto it.

-The right not to cook dinner and opt for eating out.

Not a bad day huh? Good thing holidays only come around once in awhile or we wouldn't be such a great contribution to society.

Actually we polished up quite well to go to dinner. Brianna has been into being fancy and Roger and I decided it would be good to have a nice night out to work on our manners and so forth. Roger received a generous gift certificate to Maglebys for teaching a class at BYU. We also had a coupon from the Entertainment Book plus BYU basketball tickets that would allow us to get free slices of chocolate cake. So we were set up well. We all dressed in fancy clothes (well most of us, my teenager has different ideas of dressing up so we decided to choose our battles that night and let her be). We went to the restaurant and I must commend my children because they all did very well. They kept their napkins on their laps, their elbows off the table and their voices at a good decibel level. We enjoyed good conversation and food. I would deem the dinner a great success. We went to the bookstore afterward which is always a joy for the whole family. I hope to have many more of these types of evenings in the future.

Just Because . . .

This morning at about 10:15 a.m. I heard the garage door open. At first I panicked knowing that no one should be coming home at that time. But I soon heard Roger's footsteps walking on the kitchen floor. He had an appointment cancellation at his office and decided to run home and say hi. He brought me a lovely bouquet of flowers and a card too. What a sweet surprise.

I realized that I haven't ever written about how thoughtful Roger is to me. There are many many times when he brings me flowers for no particular reason except to say he loves me. I used to think that flowers were a waste of money since they just die but I have since changed my mind. I love them and they bring me joy especially at this time of year. Thankfully he realized their value before I did.

He always calls me and asks me if I need anything picked up before he comes home. He has saved me many trips to the store just because he asks. He is currently sending me an e-mail every day to tell me something he loves about me. Today he sent me #48. I look forward to these e-mails every day and without fail they make me smile.

Roger loves his children but he has never ever denied the fact that he loves me more. He tells the kids this often and shows them by constantly putting me first. He always gives me the middle cinnamon roll because it is the softest or the best place to sit and so forth. He wants his children to know that their father loves his mother.

Today I had a headache and a sore back. So he gave me a massage in the short time he was here. It was such a nice treat that is unexpected on a typical day.

Another good thing about him coming home was that he noticed I had a complete flat tire. So he helped me pump it up and followed me to Big O Tires to make sure I made it okay. And since the tires were under warranty I got a bran new tire for nothing. Sometimes things do work out for the good. I guess it was providence that he came how today.

Everyday Hero

In Mrs. Ball's Kindergarten class she teaches the kids about heroes. Then each child is assigned a day where everyone in the class honors them as an every day hero. Today was Brianna's turn.

She has been really excited for this day. She wanted to wear a dress to school and she put sparkles on all over face. I went to her class to be there for the event. She got high fives from all of her classmates and got a special flag pin. She showed the class a flag she created that represented herself. I got to share some special things about her to everyone and then read one of her favorite stories. Today it was Fancy Nancy. She is recently on a Fancy kick again. She has been dressing up and decorating her room and doing all sorts of fancy things. She told the family yesterday that "It is a fancy life". Anyway, we read the book together and just celebrated Brianna. The rest of the day she gets special privileges such as being the class helper and so forth.

Brianna is definitely a hero to me. She is a genuinely happy person with a enthusiasm for life. She reminds me to enjoy the simple things and be grateful for those happy moments. She is truly a gem in our family.

The New Do

Well Alyssa got her haircut last night. She wanted to be dropped off and told me that I would have to wait to see what she would choose to do. I was surprised to see her new style. Not only did she chop of several inches and layered it but she also added a couple of years to her age. Holy cow, how did she get so grownup?

My New Toy

For Christmas I got a new toy. It is rare as an adult to actually get something "just for fun" but I did thanks to my wonderful husband. He got me a fancy camera with all the bells and whistles. I even got a couple of different lenses including a high powered zoom lens. It is sweet!!


I have always been interested in photography for as long as I can remember. In 8th grade I was in the yearbook class. We were handed out cameras and instructed to take candid shots of Jr. High life. It was so fun to me and I was always trying to get that "perfect" shot that caught the essence of my subject. Not only did we get to take the photos but we also got to process them in a lab all on our own. It was so exciting every time I did the photo wash to see an image appear as if by magic. I was thrilled each time a photo came to be.

Once I had children, my interest in photography grew once again. Mainly because we were poor college students and couldn't afford to go and have fancy pictures taken at a studio. I didn't want to miss out on my kids milestones and I also wanted to capture their childhood in a more professional way. My mother-in-law gave me my first SLR camera. The kind that you have to set the aperture, film speed and
shutter speed. And of course at that time it also required film. I soon devoured all kinds of photography books and even took a community class to learn more. It was definitely a trial and error hobby and more often than not my pictures turned out terrible. But every now and them I would get a gem that would be worth it all.


Time passed and soon my film SLR was replaced with a point and shoot digital camera. Wow did it amaze me that you could instantly view your work and even delete the ones that you weren't pleased with at that moment. But in a way it was sad to me. I missed the ability to manipulate my photos by adjusting the lighting and focal lengths. I got okay pictures but rarely did I have the one that made me go WOW.



Well, that is over now because my new camera makes that all available to my fingertips once again. I still have the convenience of digital film and even auto features when it is just one of those days. But, I can also allow my creativity to come through once again. I found I am a little rusty. I still get many poor photos. But when I can take 3,000 on one card it doesn't bother me so much. I plan to practice a lot and maybe someday I can call myself a photographer.

Here are a few of my favorite shots that I took while playing around with my new toy.

The MVP of the game!

Well it is that time of year again . . basketball season. Ryan had his first game today. It started out a little slow and I had worried glimpses of "long" games in the future with little scoring and many mistakes. But then something clicked not only for the team but for Ryan. He caught the "vision" and then there was no stopping him. He stole the ball many times, rebounded like crazy and scored basket after basket. Our team ended up winning 40-8 and Ryan himself scored 18 points. I was a proud mother and in the end very much enjoyed the game. Maybe I will get to have a basketball player in the family after all.

Oh and of course I don't want to neglect mentioning that Ryan had a super fun time which is the most important thing . . . right? :)

Snow Fun

Our family has really gotten into sledding this year. We have been several times this season and it has been great entertainment for free. Since the hill is so close to our neighborhood there is usually always at least one family from our ward sledding there as well. The kids love to do chains with their friends and share tubes.

I love love love the fact that I don't have to get my kids dressed anymore. They can all put on their own hats, boots, mittens, coats, snow pants etc. and it is wonderful. My life and attitude has changed because of it. I now enjoy going sledding as well. Not only that, but rarely do I have to carry, haul or pull a child up the hill. Our family dynamics have evolved over the years but it just keeps getting better.

Thanks to Scott and Nan Teerlink for some of the candid shots of us going down the hill (including the one of me wiping out Brans Peterson a neighbor kid). I plan on hiring him to come to all of our family events from now on to document it. Rarely do you see a picture of me with the family and I kind of like being included.

Isn't this view amazing? We live in such a beautiful place.