President Hinckley Tribute

We will miss President Hinckley, but we are happy that he is with his sweetheart again. We thought this short video was neat. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DONH655IR1E

Pinewood Derby Day!

Something Sweet!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

I thought I would write down some fun memories I have of my Mom.

1. I remember when I was a teenager during the summer, my mom and I would wake early and go walking. I loved the fresh air and talking about life with my Mom. The exercise time always flew by when I had her company.

2. I remember at Christmas time my mom would help me make homemade gifts for my friends. One year we made potpourri hats, another year we made fabric and lace covered soap. She taught me that the best gifts are ones that are made with love. When I smell a hot glue gun (the high temp ones), I think of those times I spent making gifts with my mom.

3. My Mom is a very hard worker. She gets up early and goes strong all day long. I remember when I was young her teaching me how to clean a mirror and vacuum to leave the neat lines in the carpet. The summer before my 8th grade year, her and my dad shipped me off to live in Wyoming with my cousins to weed beans so I could pay for cheer camp. We'd get up at four in the morning and work until mid-morning and then go back again in the evening when it got cooler. I was so excited to be making $4 an hour! She taught me when you want something bad enough you need to work for it.

4. My Mom is an amazing cook. She bakes yummy pies, bread, soup, cookies, rolls and homemade candy. Everything she makes tastes great. I have fun memories of canning peaches with her and how the skin of the peaches just fall off after you blanch them. (the kitchen floor would get so sticky from the peach juice) Her face turns red when she works out or is out in the hot sun. (her mom is like that also and of course that happens to me to) When I'm at the gym people start to get worried when I turn red- I am fine but my face looks like I might have a heart attack or something. I have memories of her coming in the house after picking strawberries and her face matching the strawberries.

5. She is crazy in love with my Dad. They always greet each other with a kiss. When I was younger I remember thinking "ewwwww". Now I am so grateful for the security I always felt knowing how much my parents loved each other. She does cute things for him too. I remember her making my dad a huge homemade cookie one year for Valentines Day.

6. She has such a strong testimony of the Gospel. She has always been someone I could lean on when I needed help with my own testimony. She knows what is right and she just does it! I feel her prayers for me and my family daily.

7. My mom has beautiful light blue eyes with a touch of light green. She also has the cutest little legs. (no fair!!) The first thing she does in the morning is get ready. She always comes down from her room ready for the day. I remember when I was super huge and swollen while I was pregnant with Conner and I didn't feel like moving, let alone getting ready for the day. I must have told her how I was feeling and she told me, "even a barn looks better with paint on it." She wasn't calling me a barn (although I looked like one) but she was right. After doing my hair, getting on a cute outfit and some makeup I felt 100x better.

If I had more time, I could go on forever but the kids need to get to bed. I hope you had a great day, Love You!!

Cooking Group and Don't Blink

Last night, I had Cooking Group (an Enrichment Activity) at my house. I felt like I was Rachel Ray doing one of her 30 Minute Meals cooking show. I did appetizers because I thought that would be fun with the Super Bowl coming up and all the parties that get thrown. The Savory Cheese bread was the stand out winner for the night.

My younger sister, Steph, came & so did my sister-in-law, Gina. After everyone left we sat and chatted for awhile by the fire. (for some reason we were all cold). We talked about the challenges of raising teenagers (Gina has two now). We discussed how strict is too strict, testimonies of the Prophet and so on. We also got on a little tangent about Gina's parents. Gina's dad is 70 and looks like he is 50. Gina said how he loves life and wakes up excited to start every new day. What a great way to stay young and happy. She told us about the Kenny Chesney song Don't Blink so I have it on my blog now. I've heard it before but never listened to the words. Great song! I need to not blink so often. Time passes so quickly and I find myself looking forward to things in the future and forgetting to enjoy the moments now. We also talked about meeting my two other sisters that live in Northern Idaho in Boise and having a girls weekend sometime in March. How does that sound, Camile? Anyway, it was a great night. I have fantastic neighbors and am so glad Steph and Gina live close enough to drop by. We need to have more of those moments talking about life.

Here are the recipes from cooking group. The sweet recipes I got from Gina, the Shrimp Dip is from Jimmy's Mom (we have it at Thanksgiving and Christmas as an appetizer) and I first tried the Cheese bread at my Mom's. (you only need about half the cheese the recipe calls for)

Paintballing

Here's some pictures of our Friday night activities. Steph and Matt came and watched the kids so we could go out. When Steph has kids I am going to owe her big time!

Jimmy's 34th Birthday!

Jimmy's birthday was this week and we started celebrating on Sat. We got a babysitter and went to the mall to look for some shoes for Jimmy. He didn't find any he wanted. Then we got a bite to eat & went to the movie I am Legend. Intense show! Camile and Aaron prepared us by telling us how scared they were when they saw it. When we were in bed that night, we have a couple small windows by our bed that are up high and the blinds weren't closed. Jimmy wanted me to close the blinds because he was still freaked out from the show and I was too scared to get out of bed. So we slept with them opened. It's so funny how shows can do that to you!

On Monday, Jimmy and I went to Park City to have lunch and hunt for shoes at the Nike Outlet. He found a pair of basketball and running shoes that he got. That night, we had the party with the kids and he had a basketball game that he took Conner to.

Here are some pictures of the festivities on Mon. night and some other pictures I found that I like of Jimmy. I'm thankful for Jimmy and the hard worker that he is. I love the way his eyes light up when he looks at our kids. He is such a great husband and terrific daddy to our babies!

I love to see the Temple & I've been tagged!

On our way home from Oregon this week, we stopped in Idaho to go to the Rexburg LDS Temple open house. We left Sophie with Nanny Nette (my mom) and headed to Rexburg. Conner and Kali were very excited and couldn't wait all day to get to go inside a temple. When we were a few minutes outside of Rexburg we spotted the temple on the hill. It was breathtakingly beautiful!! We started singing I Love to See the Temple and then Families Can Be Together Forever. I remember going through the Bountiful and Mount Timpinogus Temple as a teenager and what a special feeling it is to go inside the house of the Lord. I was so excited to be able to take Conner and Kali there and let them feel the special Spirit themselves. Inside it was beautiful! My sister's father-in-law painted two rooms with murals and what a terrific job he did. Wow! We had a special moment in the sealing room where we got to show Conner and Kali the mirrors reflections that go on forever, just like our eternal family. I'm so thankful we have so many temples so close and I look forward to taking the kids to the two Utah Temple open houses soon.

Sheree tagged me a month ago and I am just now getting around to it. Here are 5 things most people don't know about me. 1. I was baptized in the Persian Gulf in Saudi Arabia when I was 8. My dad worked for an oil company, Aramco, from when I was 4 to 10 years old. My two younger sisters, Camile and Stephanie were born in Saudi Arabia. I have great memories from living there and it has made me appreciate more the freedom of religion we experience here in the U.S. 2. I BMX bike raced when I was younger and did rather well at it too. 3. Most of my toes are missing the lower joint. I know- weird! When I was younger, I would never wear open toe shoes because I was embarrassed. I also dropped a cinder block on one of my toes and that just added to the weirdness. One of my toenails looks like a little baby tooth. 4. I have a famous relative! My great, great, great (10 generations) grandmother is Hannah Dustin. She is the first American woman to have a statue erected in her honor. Here's a link to her website to read the amazing story of her bravery www.hannahdustin.com. 5. I can write backwards. I used to practice when I was younger. I am still pretty good at it. I tag Camile, Mom & Dad and Lacey!