Easter Without Pictures

I am still without my camera. I'm very sad about it.

We had a marvelous Easter weekend. My mom flew in from Seattle. It was nice to have her here. Along with it being Easter, my niece Julienne was baptized. It was a very nice experience for our family.

We spent the weekend doing many fun things. Egg hunts, baby animal day, cooking and hanging out. We had a wonderful time. I am thankful for the gift of the resurrection that is made possible through our Savior Jesus Christ.

Two Moments

Two little moments happened yesterday that made me giggle.

#1 Yesterday we went to the zoo. It was crowded and hot. I got a sunburn on my neck that is a bit painful today. I dressed my children in long sleeved shirts and we all overheated. After a full and busy day we were reviewing the day before bed last night. Things were fine until the elephants came up. Earlier that day we had observed an elephant peeing and pooping and apparently this was troubling to Trey. Last night he kept saying, "elephant pooped", "elephant pooped", "I'm scared". He was beside himself thinking about that elephant pooping. It seemed it was a bit much for his two-year-old eyes to behold. Samantha, Seth and I were consoling him and laughing at the same time. I had to assure him that the elephants were far, far away.

#2 Everyone that lives around here knows that we had a life flight helicopter land in the townhome development next to us yesterday. An accident happened where a guy on a 4-wheeler was pulling another guy around on a skateboard going 40 mph or so and the skateboarder crashed on the concrete. This is the sad part. When I saw life flight land a block over from us I said "kids lets load up and go over there" We watched the paramedics for a while until they loaded the guy into the chopper. There is a park right there so Samantha and Trey were playing over there while I visited with friends. Then all of a sudden two policemen started clearing the park. I was a little ways away. By this time the chopper was loaded, loud and ready to leave. I noticed the park was cleared except for Samantha and Trey. I started to walk over to them just as the chopper began to lift off. It was extremely windy even blowing over a stroller. I met up with Samantha and she said "I almost got blowed away"

Becky, remember this?

This is a picture of one of my best friends, Becky, in the blue, my older sister Stephanie in the checkered shirt and me in the red. We were probably 6-7 years old. I just talked to Becky yesterday. She lives in Texas, is married and has 3 boys. We've stayed in touch over the years. Our lives have paralleled closely. We both went to Ricks college, served missions (She went to the Philippines, I went to the Czech Republic) got married within a week of each other, both of our husbands have birthdays Dec 13th, we both lived in Logan for a while and we each have 3 children.

A note about this picture is if you look closely at the wall paper it has little girls all over it. There are probably 6 little girls dressed differently repeated over and over. I remember going to bed each night and my sis, Steph, and I would lay in bed when it was still light outside and ask each other which girl was our favorite. I think we both liked the same girl and always picked her. But we would still play this little game night after night even though there was the same 6 girls to choose from each night.

Love memories.

Snowed In

Tom and I have been traveling to Montana for 10 years now and this has never happened to us. We average probably 2-3 trips a year. We went to Montana for the weekend to celebrate his grandparents 60th anniversary. We also attended a funeral for a man that has been in Tom's home ward forever and celebrated cute little nephew Carter's 5th birthday. It was a fun time. So Sunday after Sacrament meeting we packed up and said our good-byes and off we went. We caravaned with Tom's brother Cade and his family. We got into our drive about 20 minutes and I zonked out! (I feel like I've been behind on sleep for weeks now) I woke up about 45 minutes later and we're in a snow storm. It was a bit nerve racking but after all our drives to Montana I have learned to handle Tom's speedy way of driving through blizzards. Another thing that gave me great relief was that we got new front tires on the Jeep before we left. I think a very inspired move.

We get half way through our trip home and find out that I-15 south bound is closed due to severe winter weather. I was bummed. I wanted to get home because Samantha was going to be the VIP at preschool the next day and I just enrolled Samantha in a private tumbling class which was going to take place on Monday. However we were not home and not going to be home for any of that. We were in Dillon, MT with no place to go at 4 pm in the afternoon. So we thought let's make the best of it. In my dream world I always imagined that being snowed in would be romantic and fun thing. And it is. I decided not to stress about the extra money we would be spending and just enjoy the time to build fun family memories. We decided to check into the $80 a night Best Western instead of the cheaper $50 a night Sundowner motel. The Best Western had a pool. We headed to a discount store and bought swimming suits. It was fun to have Cade, Jill, Grandpa and cousins Leah and Carter stranded with us. We found out where the locals eat and it's a restaruant called Spanky's Garage. We had some awesome BBQ ribs, cole slaw and cornbread. Dinner was fantastic. We headed back to the Best Western and hit the pool. After an hour of Tom and I tag teaming it keeping our kids afloat in the pool we decided to get out. We all got warm showers and into our cozy PJs and went over to Cade and Jill's room for some ice cream. Side Note: Cade and Jill have an adorable puppy (it's a tiny little thing named Bella) and Seth was absolutely obsessed with the puppy. He had to hold it every chance he got. So we ate ice cream and Seth held Bella.

Then we slept, woke up, grazed the continental breakfast for an hour and a half, packed up and got the word that the pass was open and we could head home. (I thought I'd spare you any other lengthy details) The entire town of Dillon was packed, no vacancies. People were even sleeping on the couches in the Best Western lobby. I have not pictures to post because I lost our camera somewhere so I used a disposable camera. When I get the pictures DEVELOPED I'll post some IF they turned out. It's good to be home.

A Late Nighter

I really should be in bed. I've been up since 5:30 am. I just got home from Girls Night and had a blast just chit chatting about everything.

Good night! I really need to go to bed. Hopefully more creative juices will flow in the morning.

A Fabulous Weekend

We had one of those weekends where I wish I could capture it in a bottle. My Dad flew into town on Thurs. (12th). He originally planned to come to Utah for a BYU ballroom dance competition and my birthday. It turned out to also be the weekend of the roadshow. So he was booked the whole weekend. Friday we spent the day prepping for the roadshow performance that night. I had to shop for stage makeup and finish up posters. A wonderful lady in our ward offered to come over and watch our children so Tom and I could focus solely on roadshow stuff at the church. As 6 pm drew near I could feel myself getting more and more nervous. All the cast showed up at the church in time to do hair and makeup. We were all in our seats by 7 pm.

The performance went spectacular. Our ward Rocked!! They danced, sang and said their lines beautifully! The Results: Darling Tana won BEST ACTRESS overall, talented Shelby won BEST VOCALIST overall and we won 1st place!!! This was definitely a group effort with the Lord helping us all along the way. The night ended at 11 pm. I went to my car to find a bouquet of roses from Tom. I went home and all my family was hanging out. Dan and Kyla and Sariah and Neum all came down for the show. I love them and appreciate their support!

Saturday we all met for breakfast. I was on cloud nine. Such a relief to have the roadshow completed. I felt so free not having to stress about it anymore. Then we headed to Chucky Cheeses. With 8 kids where else would we go at 11 am on Saturday? Then Sariah and I went shopping for the rest of the day. Tom was so awesome to watch the children. Sariah and I went everywhere. Old Navy, Tj Max, D.I., Dollar Tree, Good Earth, Target and the mall. We like to mix things up, cover our bases.

Then Sunday! My birthday. Tom was gone at 7:30 am for church meetings. So I was frazzled getting the kids ready for church. We got to church 10 mins late. Then at the end of church sweet Jami wished me happy birthday. She was the first so I got teary-eyed. After church we ate lunch and Tom was off to more meetings and choir practice. When he gets home I remind him he hasn't wished me happy birthday. He wishes me happy birthday and gives me birthday kisses. Then we head to Orem for more fun. We had a great time at Kyla's parents celebrating two birthdays. My niece Ashton was turning 4. She has been so excited about her birthday. We had a great dinner, games, Pinata, cake and presents. It was GRAND! I love having family around. Thanks to everyone for a wonderful weekend!!

Birthday

Things said while lighting my birthday candles:

"We should use the torch from the BBQ"

"It's going to take 4 people to light the cake"

"I can feel the heat from here"

Just a Plain Old Post

It's Tuesday night and we have officially had our last roadshow practice.....sigh. Tom is playing basketball tonight, kids are in bed and I'm racking my brain for something to post. I think I'm going to write just any old thing that comes to mind. My brain hurts. Have you ever had that happen? I don't know if it's from thinking too hard, yelling too much at rehearsal or because I haven't been drinking enough water. Water is my cure for everything. Headaches, chapped lips, dry skin, irritability, these types of things. My sister once told me that in an Asian culture if someone is getting upset they offer them a glass of water. Ok, here is a question. How do you handle stress in large group situations? Like just at this rehearsal. I had 20+ teenages chit chatting and I'm trying to say something. So what do I do - speak louder, really loud. How do other people handle this type of situation? I'd like to know. Oh my, it's almost 11 pm, I should start getting ready for bed. Also does anyone else have a tough time adjusting to daylight savings? Good night.

Roadshow Rehearsal

My life over the past six weeks. I'm having a blast. The youth are excellent to work with and the directing team is fabulous. The count down is on, March 13th we perform this show.

Wish us luck!