Some Christmas highlights

The look on her face is awesome. Her gift to him...chocolate! What a great brother.

Artist's rendition of the new LDS Temple to be built near us. 2nd son built and stained the frame. Thanks to the great scout leaders who taught them how.

New American girl doll. I was very pleased with the quality of this expensive beast. And, the outfit Grandma bought for her. Thanks Grandma!

Pretending she is a doll. Notice the doll shoes on the toes:)

What a great Christmas. Everyone home and healthy. Hope yours was as good as ours.

If you are looking for peace...

I couldn't help but share this video found on youtube or lds.org. It brings peace to my mind and heart. I choose to have faith when everyone is freaking out.

http://youtu.be/EMwKxmTLaCs

Long time no see. If the next six months goes as fast as the last six everything will be great. I won't even try to recap. It just seems like every year from about the 2nd week of May to the middle of September I am swamped. This year it was a little longer. With this exciting event in our lives we have had some requests to see pictures and have a little more detail of what is going on. So I thought I would try really hard to keep you posted.

The picture on the top is a guess list for the mission call. It was all very nerve racking. After finally getting the papers submitted, the call arrived in the mail on Wednesday ten days later. I nearly had a heart attack. Tyler is going to college an hour away tho and was not coming home until Friday. He promised us that we would not open it with out him. I've already told the next kid that I'm going to open his at the mail box.:) Well, we waited ever so patiently and Friday came. Once everyone was assembled he finally opened it and was so surprised. He was hoping for Japan, but was very happy. Copenhagen, Denmark! I wish I could go with him. He said I can't. Dang!

Great Finds

We like to go to yard sales on Saturday mornings. And by we, I mean my husband and I. I'm always amazed at the things he'll find to buy. This last weekend he found a bowling ball and pins for like...a dollar. His intent is to take them up the canyon and shoot them. He likes finding interesting targets. Well, the kids took them out back and set up an alley and spent about two hours having a great ol time. I love it. I took pictures but for some reason my lovely computer won't read my sd card.

He also bought another monitor for my computer($3.00), because he thinks I need to be looking at two at the same time. I may become spoiled.

In another post I want to talk about date night ideas. I guess going to yard sales could be considered a date, right? So, get your ideas ready to share.

Pretty Sure I'm Gonna Cry!

Graduation is approaching quickly. Let the world know, I will cry when I see him in his Cap and Gown. Excited, Sad, Scared...you name it. I will be feeling about a million emotions that day. If there are that many. :) What an awesome experience it has been. Looking forward to some very exciting ones to come. Love you T!

森の木琴

Have you seen this yet...Wow!

Guardians of virtue: Young Women song

Are you aware of the beautiful song "Guardians of Virtue" that is the Young Women Anthem for this year? It is just beautiful.

Happy Easter!

Reuse your old tights

makeroomforstyle.blogspot.com

If you have a lot of tights you may like this article. You don't even have to have any dancers in the family.

Eagle Scout Project

The first weekend of April we had a huge snow storm that took down and uprooted a bunch of trees at the park near us. When my third son called the city asking about Eagle projects they were very excited. The city just doesn't have the man power or money to clean it all up. So to have a service project like this will benefit our city greatly.

If you are interested in helping we start tonight at 5:30 and go until dark. On Saturday we will be there at 8am until 11am. Bring some work gloves and any pruners you might have.

It is also a great way for our children to take ownership of the things they use. Hopefully they will take better care of these things in the future. Keeping them nice. They will see that things don't just magically appear beautiful. They must be a part of it.

The men will cut everything in small pieces so the rest of us can put it on trailers or in piles to be taken to the compost pile.

The downward dog pose just about did me in today. Man am I a wimp. Apparently I need to do yoga more than one day a week. Maybe I'm low on iron. Anyone want to do steak for lunch? Any other ideas to get some iron, besides the pills?

Here are some of the benefits of this pose, just in case you were wondering.

Benefits of Downward Dog Yoga Pose

• It elongates and release tension from your spine
• Stretches the calves, hands, arches and hamstrings
• Strengthens your shoulders, arms and back
• Improves mobility of the digestive system
• A mild inversion can calm your nervous system and helps in relieving stress
• Relieves headaches, fatigue, back pain and certain level of insomnia
• It also helps in relieving the symptoms for menopause
• It tones and strengthens your entire body and can also help to alleviate back pain.

I guess I better put the cautions here also.

Cautions Before Practicing Downward Dog Yoga Pose

• People with wrist problems like arthritis or carpal tunnel syndrome are not supposed to do this asana
• If you have high blood pressure you should skip this asana
• People with eye or ear infection are not recommended to practise this asana, till the infections are cleared.
• During late-term pregnancy this pose must be avoided.

Namaste

Art projects and Beignets

Two interesting things I learned about yesterday; French Beignets (New Orleans 4/18/11) and this funky art project my son did at school.

Click here for the recipe. They are basically really good scones. I used my candy thermometer because it says to do them at 350 degrees. Worked great. They were the best ones.

The art project is easy if you must do one. Wrap whatever with clear wrap and then wrap the outside of that with clear tape. When you are done with that make a big slit or cut down one side, remove body part, and re-tape.

Fun for scouts to do if you need a welcome project. Last year I went to the high school and they had full body casts done and propped up all over the school. Just a little freaky. This year the teacher conserved on material.

Top Three Low-Tech Props For Little Dancers | Dance Advantage

This year I have been teaching a creative dance class for 8 and 9 year old girls. I am always looking for ideas to help them explore movement and to find confidence in themselves. This link below is great to share with you because it gives you an idea of what a creative dance class is like, and to give you ideas if you ever have a time where you are teaching young ones. They love to move, and moving is a great way to learn.

Top Three Low-Tech Props For Little Dancers | Dance Advantage

Drum Line

Trying something new and being involved in some sort of group is a good thing. For his senior year T decided to join the Winter Drum Line. This is what he plays and has had a great time doing it. Very proud of him.

Movie Time

I've always loved the movie "Nanny McPhee", but I've never seen the second one, until this weekend. I loved it, almost better than the first. And, there were no big cleavage shots, so even my boys felt comfortable watching it. Very funny. So if you need a movie this weekend, there you go, "Nanny McPhee Returns"

Question for you

I've finally come to a point where something must be done about all of the cups & glasses that my family uses throughout the day. Because every time they get a drink they use a different cup we have a mess. And, through the years we have collected a bunch of these things. One whole cupboard is dedicated just to drinking containers. When Summer comes and everyone is home it even gets worse. This week I threw out all of the ones that didn't look so great and I have hidden all but one for each person. Then, because they are old anyways, I wrote names on them. Don't worry, I have some nice ones put away and paper ones for when guest come.

So now for my question. What do you do in your families? How can I solve my problem?

Spring in Utah

What a beautiful day we had yesterday. I woke up around 4am and saw all of the snow coming down. It was so peaceful, I couldn't help but watch. Not to worry tho, it is Spring and it will melt. Well, we got so much it just may be around for awhile. I actually needed some moisture to water my peas.

Why Do You Run?

Been There Done That!

Going through old photo albums the other day and found this little treasure of my husband. No wonder my husband wasn't ever impressed with Justin Bieber. He already did that hair. Love it!!! You should have seen our pre-teens reactions. They have no idea we've had a life without them. By the way this is 10th grade.

Slide project

Right now I am working really hard on transferring some family slides into digital format. I thought Kim and her family might like these with her parents in them. I don't think they have been seen since they were taken. The children are Kay and Diane's.

Sunsets and Photo Shoots

Normally my family hates photo shoots, but this one turned out to be a really fun spontaneous thing that made us all laugh. Oh, and we got some great pictures from.

California!

This February we forced ourselves to get away from the daily grind and took a quick vacation to California. Quick meaning, we were only in Cali for two days. Our travel time was longer than that. Oh well, someday I will go longer and go visit some friends. So, this is how our road trip started and what we left behind.

This is the fun we had.

I noticed on the picture above, the heights of my children. Usually it looks like a ladder from tallest to shortest. At this point we are in groups. Those two little boys have caught up with me. I am well on my way to being the shortest of the bunch.

First time my children have seen the ocean. Yes, it was cold, but we didn't care. They swam anyways and had a blast. It was way too much fun. We were just grateful there was no snow around. And, grateful we could all spend some time together.

Road Trip

We recently took a long road trip and here are a few pictures of my sweet little darlings smashed in the back seat of the minivan.

Above is my favorite.

I wish they were this good.
Poor little sister! Don't let her fool you, she can handle them all.Here's big brother, oblivious to the world around him.:) Dad's making the 2nd oldest check the tires.

Spring Cleaning

I've finally motivated myself to do some Spring cleaning. Because I don't have a lot of time in one single day I've decided to clean one room each week for twelve weeks. So far so good. The first room was the office. Always a sore spot of course. It took two days to do. I set the timer for two hours each day and wahla it was done. De-junking was a must but I must say we've done pretty good and didn't need to throw much away. Problem, not much storage, so I went online and found a 4 drawer filing cabinet (brand new looking) for $30.00. Fabulous and it holds everything. Yea!!! I hate having to look at everything. It's so great to have it all hiden. Peace of mind.

Needing some green

I went to Target today and saw their beautiful garden decor and it set in motion this need for green. Tempted to paint a wall. Don't worry...don't have time.:(

Thanks Mom!

For Valentines my Mom sent each of us some Valentine cards and some money for a treat. Thanks Mom! Everyone was pretty excited about that. At home she was making everyone else this way yummy dessert that she calls "Ice Box Dessert". It is my very favorite, so I thought I would make it for us. Growing up she would make this for special occasions. I thought you better have the recipe.

Ice Box Dessert

2 1/2 cups. graham cracker crumbs
1 cube margarine (softened)
1 package of dream whip or lucky whip
1 cup powdered sugar
1 8oz. cream cheese
2 Tablespoons milk
Mix margarine into crumbs well and press into 19x13 pan.
Fix dream whip according to the directions on the package. Then mix in powdered sugar, softened cream cheese & the milk. Then spread over the crumbs. Top with crushed pineapple or a can of cherry pie filling, or blueberries. Then refrigerate.

Also, for Family Home Evening we played this game. It is such a blast. We actually borrowed it to give our teenagers some ideas on ways to keep the conversation going on their dates. I also take it with me when I sub at the high school. They love it. One of the questions is, "Would you rather be the circus person that the knife thrower throws knives at or the one who puts their head in the lion's mouth?" It's a crack up. My children from 8 to 18 play this together.

Well, I hope you had a nice Valentines, big or small.

Dance Night

Here they are waiting for their dates. Don't they look handsome.

G's first date.

T's third time to sweethearts with her. They have a lot of fun together. Both boys went with different groups and both had a great time.