My Happy Family

Random Acts of Kindness

2012-02-02T09:15:00.000-08:00

I've been sick this week. It's given me time to reflect as I lay in bed about a time in my life when I was sick for about 16 weeks in 2003. I get sick for the first 16 weeks of pregnancy. It's not fun. I throw up so much I end up dehydrated and on an IV and lose about 20 pounds in that 16 week time. The first baby was the hardest because I didn't know if I'd be like that the whole pregnancy and I'd already lost 3 babies to miscarriages. We were scared, I felt horrible and never thought I'd feel normal again. The second baby was hard since Matt was at school all day, I had the first baby to deal with, and a horrible doctor who didn't think anything was wrong with me until he realized I'd lost 20 pounds and was feeling better at 16 weeks. The third baby was tough because I had 2 babies to deal with, Matt was in school part time and working full time. I made it through with good friends popping in to help when we lived in the new community of Shetland Meadows in Tooele.

I wasn't sure I wanted to go through another pregnancy after that and wondered if I'd have a fourth. At this point I started having major dental problems from all the throwing up and calcium and vitamin loss the babies took from my teeth and bones. I wanted to stay healthy for the 3 boys I had committed to raise. After a lot of prayer, when Jaron (the third baby) was about 3 we decided to have one more...maybe we'd get a girl!

This pregnancy was hard because, not only did I have 3 boys to handle, but an in-home daycare and we needed the money to pay the bills. Quitting wasn't an option for me. We decided I couldn't go back and forth to the ER to get hydrated with an IV every time I dehydrated so we opted to have Home Health come in to care for me. I was put on an IV drip for several weeks. That time was a blur for me. I'm not sure how I got through it. I must have had to get rides for the daycare kids to school since I was hooked up to an IV pole all day for a couple weeks. After that I just hooked myself up to it at night to receive the hydration I needed. My daycare families were understanding and didn't really have another place to take their kids so we muddled through. Smelling food always caused me to throw up. I had the hardest time preparing meals of any kind for the kids, but I did it because I had to. I could usually hold down an ice cold chocolate Ensure in the mornings and tried to eat any carbs I could during the day. The most important thing was to keep hydrated.

During this time my husband had a home teaching companion named David Bates. He was a single 30 something guy and very active in the church. He and Matt became good friends and had 100% home teaching every month. I'm sure Matt told him about things at home. I couldn't cook, so Matt did his best to feed himself and the kids. The kitchen is not his favorite place so he just did what he could. They probably ate a lot of frozen dinners and card board boxed items. I'm not sure, because I'd always go to our bedroom in the basement so I wouldn't smell the food cooking. I always felt more sick at night.

One late afternoon I answered the door to find David standing there with two bags from KFC and a big smile on his face. He said he'd heard I was really sick and couldn't cook dinner so he wanted to help. I was so touched by his concern and thanked him profusely. I'm sure I looked haggard, pale, and thin, but my heart was so grateful. The food smelled delicious. For the first time in weeks I felt like I wanted to eat. I opened the bucket of chicken and chose a piece. I had some coleslaw, potatoes and gravy, and a biscuit. It was the best meal I'd tasted in my life! The kids and Matt ate well that night. There were leftovers for lunch for me the next day and I enjoyed another wonderful meal. I'm sure David had no idea how much I appreciated his kind gesture and would probably be surprised to find that 9 years later I still remember his kindness. I think it is the kindest thing anyone has ever done for me.

I hope this illustration will remind you that if you've ever had a thought to do something kind, even if it wasn't much, you should do it. It may change someones day or even affect them for the rest of their lives.

God's Plan

2012-01-10T08:18:00.000-08:00

I teach the 4 year old children in Primary at church every Sunday. Sunday's primary sharing time has given me a lot to think about this week. Our primary president did a presentation about the plan of salvation. She told the kids to pretend we were going to an amusement park. She had 2 plans that we could choose from. Plan A would be that we had to follow her, ride all the rides she wanted us to go on, even if we didn't want to. We could only eat the things she said we could eat. The great thing about this plan is that none of us would get lost or hurt and we'd all return home safely. When we got home we'd all tell her how wonderful she was and that she chose the best rides to go on and the best food to eat. Plan B would be that we could go on any rides we wanted to and eat anything we wanted. The bad part about Plan B would be that we could get lost or hurt. She let all the children come stand under the plan we chose. I found this very interesting. The adventurous boys all chose Plan B where they could choose what they wanted and have the most fun. The timid girls chose Plan A. The reason being they didn't want to get lost or hurt.

The first thing I thought was, "Wow! It is built into girls to be protective of themselves and those around them." It is our divine natures as girls and women to be protective of our lives and the lives of our children. When our family was hiking in Hawaii there were signs that said, "Stay on Trail". Of course, Matt and the boys saw a trail through the trees that looked way more fun and adventurous. They coaxed me to follow it. I finally relented. As we walked along the boys thought it was great! I kept looking at the drop off thinking, "If someone's foot slips off this path they could fall and get hurt really badly." I told Matt my feelings. Guess what he said? "Dahlene, no one will fall and get hurt and if they do we'll pick them up and carry them out. It will be fine. Quit worrying."

At our discussion at the dinner table Sunday afternoon we had a good talk about moms and how they worry. The boys decided that it's probably a good thing God blessed moms with the characteristic of worrying. If moms didn't worry and protect us, all of us would be dead. They concluded that it's a good thing we have dads or we wouldn't have any fun!

The other thing I've been thinking about from this lesson is about the great counsel in heaven that we learn about in the Doctrine and Covenants, a book of revelations Joseph Smith received from God as he translated the Book of Mormon and helped restore Jesus Christ's true church on the earth. We learn that there was a great counsel in heaven before we came to earth. Christ offered Plan B and Satan offered Plan A. A third of us in heaven followed Satan's plan and 2/3's of us followed God's plan. We know that those of us on earth followed Christ's plan. Those who followed Satan were not allowed to come to earth to receive bodies so we know they are not here, at least not physically. How many of us timid girls had to be coaxed and guided by those who were not afraid to go? We all knew each other in heaven. Who in my life right now may have coaxed me to come experience this great, yet scary life of mine? I'm sure my husband, my parents, my siblings, and many others were there to comfort me and help me make the right choice. Or, was I more courageous than I think I am and helped others follow God's plan? It's given me a lot to think about. I am thankful for the knowledge the Gospel has brought to my life. So many in this world have no idea why they are here or where they are going. Sometimes I wonder why God blessed me to be born in this part of the world, with the knowledge of the true Gospel of Christ? I will just be thankful for it even if I wonder.

The Wind Storm of 2011

2011-12-27T07:12:00.000-08:00

On December 1, 2011 all of Kaysville, Bountiful, and Centerville woke up to a raging windstorm. The forecast had predicted high winds in our area the day before, but we had no idea a storm of this magnitude would come to pass. It started at about 2:00 am. We slept until about 6:00 and got up to look outside. The wind had caused our light in the back to come on. As we looked out I saw the hot tub cover half off the hot tub. We'd gotten Jayden up to get ready for school so we had him go out to put the lid back on. He said it was scary being under the trees that he thought were going to fall on him. He'd only been in a minute when we looked out to see a huge limb had fallen on the hot tub. We decided it wasn't safe to be outside. Matt went out to upright our garbage can and move it to the front, but it wouldn't budge with all the wind. I kept hearing things thud against the house so I went out and yelled at him to come in. The wind was so loud he couldn't hear me so he came in to see what I wanted. I told him we should stay inside, because it wasn't safe out there. We read the scriptures with all our kids for a few minutes. As we finished the sun was coming up and we saw shingles flying like paper everywhere. Our lawn was covered with shingles from other houses.

We turned on the news and found Davis School District hadn't closed school so we commenced getting ready for work and school. Jayden's carpool driver came at 7:00. Later Jayden said he was almost hit with a shingle as he walked out to the car, but ducked just in time. Ben and Matt left for Farmington Jr. High at 7:40. I was so nervous I told the little boys who were scared to go downstairs to play the Playstation while I got ready for work. The electricity kept flashing off and on as I hurriedly got my hair done in the basement bathroom. I watched the news as I did my hair and makeup. The reports coming in didn't sound good so I called Matt to tell him to come back home. He told me he was coming home because most of the traffic lights were out and traffic was at a standstill. It would take him at least an hour to get to work so he would just work from home.

I knew we shouldn't walk to the school with all the debris flying so Matt drove us over in the van. I was afraid to open the garage door for fear it would be blown in, but we did it anyway. Later we would learn that some of our neighbors had done it and got their garage doors blown in.

We got to the the school to find that most everyone had stayed home. I wish I had, but was an employee and didn't want to leave the boys home. Jaron was so scared I decided being at school would be better for him, and it was. He couldn't hear the storm raging or see trees and fences being blown down. I didn't get much work done and the teachers couldn't really teach. We basically kept everyone safe and watched movies or read books.

At noon the district finally closed the schools. Matt had come to get us when he received a call from the district that school was closed. Since I am in charge of lunch at school I told him to come back for us later. We served about 20 kids school lunch while they waited for their parents to come. By the time lunch was over the wind had stopped. Jaron, Noah, and I walked home. We surveyed the damage as we walked. The boys were excited. I was appalled with the damage I saw. I broke down crying when I came to the Baird's home. The had half their shingles missing, part of their fence torn down, their siding ripped up, shingle marks all over their cars, siding, and fence, their trampoline hanging broken against the swing set, and shingles covered their lawn. Matt was out helping them clean up since our house had received little damage.

Our house only lost 3 bundles of shingles Matt easily replaced, part of the fascia and soffit on the east side, which Matt fixed, shingle marks and some small holes in the stucco on our house, and a few branches down in the back. I cleaned our yard for 3 days mostly by myself since the boys and Matt were off helping others. I was glad they could help and didn't feel bad that I cleaned up our house myself. It was a lot of work, but I know others had bigger problems. All our neighbors lost trees and most of the shingles on their roofs. The trees are what took the most time to remove. Jayden worked 23 hours in 3 days just removing downed trees. We received a lot of compliments days later about Jayden and Ben and how hard they worked. Jaron went out to help a couple days, but only for a few hours. I thought it was great that he did as much as he could.

Here are a few photos of the damage.

Down Town Kaysville

Our neighbors poor fence and trees

A huge pine that took out a fence on it's way down

Kirkham's back yard

Lindberg's home was hit hard

Cherry Hill

Anderson's home on Main Street

Hadley's non-existent fence

Banz's siding and tree pile


Banz's house

Frodsham's poor garage door

Hadley's trampoline hanging in Swensen's peach tree

Dabb's roof They are just 2 doors east of us.

We watched this missing gate blow to smithereens across the street

Baird's trampoline has seen better days

Ben and Joseph found this pine cone a couple days later in the street

So sad to see these huge pines fall to their death

World's biggest pine cone. Not sure what tree it came out of.

This story is not over. The storm occurred on a Thursday. Saturday the weather forecasters were predicting another wind storm in our area Sunday night into Monday morning. The governor was very concerned that the debris lying in the streets from the clean up would become flying missiles and do more property damage and cause injury to those out in the storm. Sunday morning came when we received a call from our Bishop saying "Get your work clothes on and let's clean up the streets." Jayden, Ben, and Matt headed out immediately. It was fast Sunday and church wasn't until 1:00. I figured they'd clean up what they could for 2 hours and then be back to get ready for church. I kept the younger boys home to get ready for church. I'd put a pot roast in for dinner and decided to make rolls before church. It soon became clear that the boys wouldn't be home soon and Matt called to say they'd cancelled church services. The rolls were done at about 1:00. I decided that since it was fast Sunday most of the the workers out there were probably starving so I'd take my 4 dozen rolls and hot wassail to a few of them. I loaded it into the van and found a group on Haight Creek Drive to serve them to. They were most grateful. It felt good to help in some small way. I was surprised to see families with small kids out helping. I felt kind of bad that I'd been home with the little guys when everyone was out working, but decided it was okay since I had time to make rolls and deliver them to those who really needed it. Noah had been throwing up Friday night and wasn't doing well all day Saturday. I needed to keep him in and it was good that Jaron could stay home with him when I delivered the food. Amazingly by 3:00 the streets in our stake had been cleared of all debris. The neighborhood looked almost normal again. The only thing left to give any indication that we'd been through a major disaster was all the roofs covered with tarps and stumps of trees everywhere you looked. It was a weekend of miracles. It was a good experience for the boys to give service. At our ward party a week later our neighbor, Vicki Wright, read a poem she'd written after the storm:

‘Twas a few weeks ‘til Christmas
When all through the house,
Not a creature was stirring -
Except for my spouse,
The children and dog were
All nestled in bed -
While a winter east wind,
Filled my hubby with dread!
When out in the neighborhood,
There arose such a clatter -
He kept leaping from bed
To see what was the matter!
But I, who finds sleep
More important than weather,
Stayed blissfully peaceful,
My dreams strung together.
The morning arrived,
And the wind kept it’s raging,
We all watched from windows -
At the war that was waging.
The shingles were flying
From roofs with great flair,
And the siding from houses
Left plywood laid bare.
Each neighbor watched helplessly,
From windows a’shaking,
And some neighbors engaged
In some crazy risk taking!
In the hopes that their fence
Could be saved from disaster,
The McKnights ventured forth
With debris flying faster -
When from what to their
Wondering eyes should appear,
Debris wacking Sheron
Filling Brandon with fear!
The stars how they twinkled,
As her consciousness wavered -
And for a few days a black eye
Left her lovely face flavored!
But the storm would keep raging,
As trees fell to repose -
At the McKay’s they dropped over,
Like three dominos!
At the Kapp's where a tree house
Is the envy of all,
Tree trunks snapped all around
But the house didn’t fall.
For Josh had been praying
As a window glass shattered,
That his tree house would be safe,
As if nothing else mattered!
In the cul-de-sac, shingles
Were missiles misguided,
And the Lindbergs watched fearfully -
As flying debris was soon sighted!
They knew that their trees,
Were about to go dropping,
So they ran for another view
Their eyes all a’popping,
When from up at the window,
They heard such a shatter,
They ran back to the place -
Where the glass was a splatter!
The Andersons roof,
Now gave view to the sky,
And the garbage cans
Flew uncontrollably by.
At the Swenson’s they watched
With chagrin at the sight -
Of the Hadley’s trampoline,
That had launched and took flight.
It now perched, impaled
In their own peach trees branches,
Precarious lurching caused
Severe Swenson blanches!
Every fence was now flattened,
And the neighborhood teetered -
Yet we all watched with wonder
‘Til the wind finally petered.
Mark and Kim felt the sorrow
Of three little pigs,
When they found their new house
Just a pile of twigs!
Perhaps they’ll rethink
Their unpopular ploy,
To move away from we neighbors -
Who bring them such joy!
There were stories of fences,
Tent trailers and shingles -
And as we searched for lost items,
We locked arms and we mingled,
The school day was cancelled -
The phones started ringing,
We ran quickly to Windridge
To collect our small offspring.
When Friday arrived,
School was cancelled once more,
And the cleanup began,
An insurmountable chore.
But neighbors came forth,
With their chain saws and rakes -
And the kids came to help,
Not a one of them flakes!
Now the branches were piled
In front of the houses,
While the neighborhood soon filled
With all of our spouses.
The sight was amazing,
The children how merry -
And the work became light
A small burden to carry.
The Ridings so clever,
Taking stock of the place -
Took a look at a tree
That had snapped from its base -
And they took it inside
Where they trimmed it with glee,
Having created their “Tannenbaum” from the debris!
Then Sunday arrived,
And the report was appalling,
Another East wind
Was about to come calling!
The men joined the Bishop,
Who kindled the flame -
And he whistled and shouted
And called each by name:
“On Lindberg, on Dayton,
On Brimley,” he’d say -
“Come Robison, Preece,
Prince, and Kyle Mckay!
Let’s all gather trailers,
And trucks by the dozens,
And we’ll plan an attack -
That would shock all our cousins!
To the end of 1250 to Haight Creek,”
Came the call,
“Now dash away, dash away,
Dash away all!”
Church meetings were cancelled,
And the neighbors were busy,
The debris disappeared so quickly
It made most of us dizzy!
Treats were supplied,
And some sandwiches offered -
As throughout that great Sabbath,
True service was proffered.
With a gusto that no one
Could ever dispute,
The South Benchers were proving
Themselves quite astute.
In fact one employee
Who works for the city,
Who had been working non-stop -
Quite deserving of pity,
Would state the next day
That if war came to town,
Give each Mormon a gun
And they’d shut that war down.
We gathered together,
And we lifted the load -
And though tattered and damaged,
We cleared every road.
We’ll always remember,
The storm in its fury -
But far stronger the mem’ry,
When we all were a’flurry -
With rakes in our hands,
And the chain saws a’roaring -
And Mike Brian astride a tree,
In the Isle’s yard scoring -
We’ll think of the way
That we banded together,
When we all felt the wrath
Of historic, bad weather.
While suddenly fences,
That kept us apart -
Fell down and fell open,
To join every heart.
Now as we wait hand in hand,
For Insurance Adjusters -
We’ll know that we’re stronger
Than all weather’s blusters.
For we live in a place
Where we watch and we serve,
So that no one need ask -
Or need muster the nerve.
Now at Christmas remember
A baby so small,
Who taught us to love -
And to help through each squall.
While we share food and laughter,
We’re a beautiful sight,
Merry Christmas to all -
And to all a good night.

Merry Christmas South Bench!
Vicki B. Wright
Dec. 10, 2011

Vicki's poem summed up just how we felt during this time. We felt that Christmas had come early. Our neighborhood was blessed to feel the love we have for each other. It was a time I'm sure none of us will forget.

Our Musical Home

2011-11-04T19:09:00.000-07:00

Our house has become more musical this year. Our oldest son, Jayden, started piano lessons in the 6th grade and did very well. He picked up the trumpet his 7th grade year and decided to quit piano so that he could concentrate on his lessons at his new Jr. High. He loved trumpet so much that he requested private lessons. He's been playing the trumpet 3 1/2 years and has accomplished a lot of great things in music. He was awarded the Most Outstanding Music Student of the Year award at the end of his freshman year. He is now in concert band as a sophomore and the Davis High Marching Band. They've been invited to play in the Rose Bowl Parade in January of 2013. He is now starting to raise money for that trip.

Benjamin started Jr. High last year and joined Mr. Wolf's beginning band. He chose to play the French horn. He loved it so much and practiced so hard that Mr. Wolf moved him up to concert band in January. By the end of the school year he tried out for Symphonic band and made it. He was supposed to go to Kaysville Jr. High with the new school boundaries, but chose to get a variance so that he could play in Mr. Wolf's Farmington Jr. High band. Last year the band tried out for the Midwest Clinic in Chicago and made it. Ben is lucky enough to be invited to go this year. They'll be leaving in December for 4 days. It is an amazing feat to get to play at this clinic. They are the first Utah band to get the honor. Only the top 3 bands in the world get to play thereevery year. I'm excited for Ben's opportunity. It will be fun to hear the stories he will have to tell when he gets back. Ben worked hard all summer mowing lawns and fundraising. He earned all the money he needed for the trip.

Jaron started piano lessons this past summer and is doing very well. When school started he was interested in trying orchestra at the elementary school. 6th graders are invited to participate in that program. He decided to play the bass. It's heavy and awkward to get back and forth to school, but he loves it.

He says the hardest part about playing the bass is getting the cover back on and carrying it. As he grows older I think that part will get easier. Fortunately they give the younger kids quarter basses until they are bigger. I hope by time he's in high school he won't expect me to help him transport it. Ha Ha!!

Matt and I are not musically talented, but we are lucky enough to have our first three boys love and excel in music.

Dear Blog

2011-10-27T07:58:00.000-07:00

Dear Blog,
I miss you. I miss my blogging friends and the time I don't have to peruse through their lives much anymore.

I do love my new job. I love being there. I love doing the work I do and presenting the work to the teachers just to see their happy faces and hear their thank yous. I love greeting the children in the halls and chuckling at their antics and words. I love watching the kindergarten kids on the playground, remembering what it was like to be young, innocent, and carefree.

I miss doing yard work, laundry, tidying the house, and internet surfing at my leisure. I miss having all my babies at home, not always running to this or that.

This year is a turning point in my life. I will never have little ones at home again. I actually miss changing diapers and wiping runny noses. Life is always changing. It's good, but then it's bad too.

I am almost late for work right now, so I must say goodbye again for a little while. I hope to get back to pour out my stories, pictures, and feelings on you again soon.

Your dear friend,
Dahlene

The Conclusion

2011-09-04T20:42:00.000-07:00

Everyone said before we left that we had to drive the Road to Hana when we got to Maui. We drove the Road to Hana in the middle of our trip, but I left the best for last. We left at 6:30 am. Instead of going the regular way everyone goes, someone told us to drive it backward. Most people drive to just past Hana and then turn around and go back the way they came. We talked to a guy that lived there and he told us to drive it backward and to drive the full loop. Most people won't do that because the road south of Hana is very narrow and we have to pull over on a lot of spots to let traffic go by. That was not a problem for us since we left so early and there were very few cars coming toward us.

Our first major stop was at the 'Ohe'o Gulch The seven sacred pools. We chose to hike to the biggest water fall 2 miles up through a bamboo forest. It was so lush and green.

This was one of the small waterfalls on the way up.

We passed by a huge banyan tree on the way up. Very impressive!

Of course, Jayden had to climb it!

We passed this cool bridge as the water sailed underneath us.

The bamboo forest was the coolest place I'd ever been. It was so peaceful. Not many people were on this hike as there were other pools below that were easier to hike to. I've never heard the sound of bamboo knocking together in the breeze. It was so cool!

I think we hiked almost a mile before we got through this maze of bamboo. The higher we hiked the more humid it got. Everything was damp, but cool in the shade.

This was the huge waterfall we came to at the end of our hike. It was beautiful!

On the way back the other boys had to climb the banyan tree

By the end Jaron was tired and very hungry. Fortunately for us, we'd brought a picnic lunch to eat at the end of our hike.

Another major stop was the black sand beach. There were cool lava tubes!

The black sand beach! Isn't it gorgeous?

The sand was more like gravel. Very cool!

We stopped at Twin Falls and walked through a beautiful floral garden and trees. By this time it was 5:30 pm. We were tired and not prepared for a long hike to the falls. When we got to a river crossing half of us said we were not up to taking off our shoes to hike across, so Matt, Noah, and Jaron went on. Jayden, Ben, and I stayed behind, but found the mosquitoes were having us for dinner. It helped if we walked so we walked up and down the path while we waited. Matt came back disappointed. He said they got a glimpse of the falls, but in order to get a great view they had to wade through a waist-deep pool to get to it. By then we were exhausted so we decided to head back toward our resort. We stopped in Pa'ia for pizza, but it was busy and the wait too long. We baked frozen pizza at our condo and went to sleep watching "Shark Week" on the Discovery channel.

Our trip to Maui will always remain a precious memory to our family. I hope you've enjoyed the photos of our amazing adventure and hope you get to take your family there someday. It is definitely worth saving for!

Wowie Maui II

2011-08-28T18:52:00.000-07:00

I started a new job this week at the elementary school, and was not able to finish blogging my trip to Maui. I finally have a chance...so here goes!

One of my most favorite parts of the trip was the luau and fire dancers. Fire dancers are the reason we started planning this trip 3 years ago. You can find that story on my last post.

Poor Matt squinting into the setting sun

Noah was thrilled with his bottomless tropical drink

Enjoying our real Hawaiian luau

Noah wanted to buy a fresh lay and present it to me. Sweet, huh?

This was the setting sun in west Maui

After enjoying our luau and the fire dancers we had to hurry back to our resort. We had a sunrise trip planned to Haleakala the next morning. Haleakala is the volcano mountain on Maui. They told us the sunrise was well worth getting up at 3 am to make the 1 1/2 hour trip up the winding mountain. It was worth it, but it was SO COLD!! We took all the blankets off the beds because we didn't bring sweaters or jackets. It was in the upper 30's. I was wishing I hadn't worn flip flops. My toes nearly froze right off!

We were at 10,000 feet at the summit, and so high up we were above the clouds. It was breathtakingly beautiful!

There were people up there singing and chanting as they welcomed the sun over the eastern horizon. It was a spiritual experience for a lot of us.

All bundled in blankets!

My brother's best friend from childhood lives in Maui and has become a pilot. We were able to link up with him and he took us for a plane ride over the Hana rainforest. It was so cool. We'd driven the slow trip to Hana days before, and by airplane it took us 15 minutes to get to Hana. It was beautiful! Below are some of our photos. We had to take two separate trips with the boys because the plane only took 3 passengers. Matt took Noah and Jaron with him, and when they returned I went with Jayden and Ben.

Pineapple fields among the breaks in forest

The beautiful northern shore

White sand beach on the coast. Look at all the coral!

Can you see the lava tubes against the shore? Cool, huh?

It is Jayden's dream to be a pilot. He was able to get a quick flying lesson and actually be co-pilot with Jeremy. He steered the plane and loved every second of it...I, as his mother, on the other hand, was very nervous about it. He did well though.

Ben in the back seat with me enjoying our wonderful view.

This reminds me of The Garden of Eden

One day we stopped at a pineapple plantation. They had beautiful gardens so we took a little walk through them and got some family photos.

The boys loved walking around the pond. Noah found a butterfly and a caterpillar.

The boys couldn't help climbing these cool roots of trees

I still have more photos to upload and more to tell, but I'm blogged out again so stay tuned for the conclusion of our dream vacation to Maui!

Aloha from the Mullins Family!

2011-08-17T14:05:00.000-07:00

Our family has been saving up to go to Hawaii for about 3 years now. Our ward had a Hawaiian luau for a Christmas dinner and Noah loved the fire dancer. He wondered when we could go to the real island of Hawaii to see fire dancers. We started saving up then. We booked the trip about a year ago and, voila, we finally got to go! Let me just say that Matt and I snapped 1,800 photos. I edited and deleted the bad ones for 4 days and we are down to 1040 pictures. I am only showing you a very small portion of the fun we had, because the uploading for blogger takes FOREVER and I don't want to bore you.

Waiting for our flight from SLC to LAX

The first thing we did when we got settled into the condo was go to the beach across the street! The water was a beautiful blue and the sand warm and soft under our feet. We were exhausted from the trip so we planned a beach day for the next day.

There were so many beaches to choose from and we visited many, but I loved the photo of this one as the kids climbed the hill to find our next play spot.

This is what we dreamed Hawaii would look like!

This is what the kids saw as they stood on the horizon.

I made them show me their happy faces.

We had so many photos at the beach so here are just a couple I really liked.

Jayden swimming with the tide. We got boogie boards later.

This is just one of our many creations on the beach.

As we booked the condo a year ago and got the airline tickets we talked a lot about our trip to Hawaii and what we would do while we were there. The luau was #1since Noah wanted to see fire dancers, but then Noah started praying that we'd go fishing in Hawaii. Every prayer he'd give he'd ask Heavenly Father to bless us that we'd go fishing in Hawaii. We kept waiting for him to forget about it, but it went on and on. About one month before the trip Matt started looking at fishing charters and decided we'd book one. It was a lot more money than we wanted to spend, but if we were only going to Maui once in our lifetime with the kids we'd better do it. It was a big highlight of our trip. We had a great time!

The sun was bright and hot, but the spray from the ocean and the breeze as we fished was amazing!

Noah took the first catch. It was a nice tuna.

Jaron reeling in a big one!

Ben caught another nice tuna

This island is the coast of Lanai, a small island just north of Maui. We saw dolphins as we were turning back toward Maui. It was a fun sight to see. Later that week on a snorkel trip we got to go through a school of 100 dolphins by chance, but didn't have our camera because I was worried about the security of a camera on that tour. The dolphins jumped and swam along side our boat that day. What a thrill it was!

Jayden got the last catch of the day. Another nice Acu tuna.

Another day we took a trip to the north side of the island. We'd heard there was a place labeled dragon teeth. The boys had to see that. As we got there for the hike down someone had formed a maze out of small rocks. The boys made their way through it. It was really fun to watch them run in circles for awhile

It's hard to see the formation directly behind the boys, but they did look like dragon teeth sticking up out of the ground. They were formed when the lava cooled as the wind blew against it. I loved the contrast of the black rock and the blue ocean.

When we got to the north side of the island there was a very narrow road where we had to yield to oncoming cars. Not many people take this trip because of the narrow road, but we didn't let that bother us. The views were so worth the slow going.

Me and my boys!

There was a spot called the olivine pools. Down in the lava rock there were pools before the open ocean. They were beautiful, but I didn't upload a photo for the sake of time. This is a trail we hiked down to get to the pools. I loved the red dirt against the blue ocean. This was a dryer spot on the island.

One Saturday we were there we slept in and didn't do much in the morning, but someone told us Iao Valley was one of the wettest spots on the island. The summit received over 400 inches of rain a year so we had to check it out. There was a small hike to the top and we were very disappointed. It is a state park and it said not to go off the trail, but we found a small hidden trail where several people were hiking through the rain forest so we decided to go for it.

We followed the river up into a canyon. Noah's favorite part of the hike was wading in the crystal clear, cool water.

Wading with the brothers

The hike was absolutely gorgeous and jungle like.

The best part of Hawaii for me is that I will never find a snake. Hawaiians think of snakes as bad luck. They get rid of them as soon as they find them so they won't take over the island. That tropical place would be a haven for them if they let them go.

I love my boys!

This is one of the many shots we took of the sunset. They were incredible every night we watched them.

A family photo we took ourselves after church the one Sunday we were there.

I loved this one. I'm so glad I made the boys do this for me.

Of course they had to have a pose in the tree they climbed.

This is only half of our trip. I am blogged out for today, so watch in the near future for the continuation of our dream trip to Maui.

Urban Cowboy

2011-07-29T16:41:00.000-07:00

If you can believe it my boys have never been to a rodeo. Matt and I have attended a couple times before we had kids and had a great time, but we've never been presented with a real opportunity to go since having our boys.

We decided to attend the Ogden Pioneer Days rodeo this year. My Uncle Calvin Curtis was honored that night as a part of the National Day of the Cowboy program. They honored the real cowboys of the west who drive cattle and do all the things cowboys do.

It's hard to see him, but my Uncle Cal is the one waving his hat as they called his name. They honored one cowboy from each county in Utah. My Uncle Cal lives in Sevier county.

This is a clown riding upside down on a horse. The boys loved the clowns the best. They were very entertaining. We also loved the mutton bustin' with the little kids riding sheep. It was great fun, but I didn't get any good camera shots, because they moved so fast.

Uncle Cal gave Noah a cowboy hat. When Noah visited with him at the reunion he didn't believe Calvin was a real cowboy. Now he knows he is! He felt very honored that Uncle Cal would give him a special cowboy hat from Australia. Isn't he the cutest urban cowboy you ever saw?

Noah with Uncle Cal wearing their cowboy hats and enjoying the rodeo

Here is one of the many buckin' broncos ridin' bareback.

Noah could hardly wait for the bull riding part of the rodeo. They always leave it until last, because it is so much fun to watch. Click on the video above to watch the action.

This bull's name was "Black Mamba". We thought this was a cool one because when the cowboy was bucked off he landed on his feet.

At the end we got a surprise of some stunt motorcycle riders. That ended the rodeo with a big bang! I'm sure we'll have more requests to go to a rodeo next year. What's pioneer day without a great rodeo anyway?

Camping With Cousins

2011-07-19T20:42:00.000-07:00

There's nothing like a good summer camp out in the beautiful Utah mountains. The Mullins family gets together every year to spend time enjoying a good old fashioned camp out...well, maybe not so old fashioned. Those of us who have RVs bring them, along with generators, 4 wheelers, and about 20 coolers of food. It's a pretty nice life we live up there. If you know my blogging style you will see that I won't disappoint with many photos of our time together.

My handsome son, Jayden, playing with a dog which he'd love to have come live with us.

Matt's sister Eve, and our cousin Jax. Eve is giving him a map. Jax loves maps.

My boys lovin' on the old dog, Kelly.

See the joy in their faces as they tear around the campsite!

Our little niece Laikynn. You could tell she was enjoying herself. The dirty face is a dead giveaway.

Grandma had cool bubbles!

....and more bubbles...

Noah and Grandpa~Noah was happiest on anything with wheels and a motor.

Matt and his sister (the legs) changing our fuel filter in their spare time. Thanks Eve!

Matt's brother Chris, his wife, Lisa, and baby Laikynn

This was one of my favorite cousin photos!

Noah and Kimber~He loved this dog

Jaron waiting for his turn to drive

The mighty fishermen caught several trout...

Which we were able to eat! Yum! Matt is a pro at filleting fish.

Jaron and the beloved Kimber

Noah and Ben teasing each other

We have the coolest game called 'washers'. It's a little like horseshoes, but with washers and holes to put them into.

Ridin' in this little buggy was a lot of fun!

Matt's mom Elaine and oldest sister Eve

We took a ride in the buggies. I thought this road was gorgeous. That's the boys ahead of us with Aunt Eve

My handsome boys in meadows of flowers

I loved this photo of Noah. He insisted on the flower in his hair.

Reminds me of Little House on the Prairie

Shootin' the muzzleloader with Aunt Eve

Ready...Aim...Fire!!

Cool shot! You can see the black powder explode.

My Handsome Honey!

The wild flowers were plentiful and gorgeous

A nice family pictures after 4 days with no showers. I can promise you don't want to see what's under my bandana.

Meadows of flowers!! Reminds me of the Sound of Music

These were in our campground along with many others. It was the perfect time of year for a camp out up there with all the snow we got this year.

The Curtis Family Reunion

2011-07-03T18:07:00.000-07:00

Every two years the Curtis family gets together to have a reunion. We've met at Flaming Gorge, Glendo, Wyoming, Rock Springs, Wyoming, Monroe, Utah, and this year we met at my parents for the 2nd time in Greenwich, Utah.

My parents have a cool back yard and plenty of land for family to park RV's and ptich tents. My dad made this cute train playhouse for the kids a few years ago complete with a train whistle that really blows. My brother, Wallace, built this teetertotter. The kids love playing on it.

The photo above is a cool contraption my brother, Wallace, built out of metal and balancing rocks. He named it the 'Amazing Balancing Cowboy'. We were all scratching our heads when we would touch the cowboy and he'd teeter, but never topple as he balanced perfectly on one leg.

Even the little guys can teetertotter!

Wagon pulling and riding were a part of the fun!

These two were good buddies.

Serenity is my niece, Daphne's baby. She was born with Down's Syndrome and us such a sweetie!

My cute niece, Shanna. Can you believe she has two boys? Two more to go to catch up to me!

I got to hold my niece's baby, Jaydee for the first time. Can you believe I'm a GREAT aunt? You better believe it!!

Quilting is always a part of our renuion. We raffle or auction them off to raise funds for the food we bought.

Jake, Dahlene, Aunt Lorna, and Amber

Great Grandma Curtis singing to Serenity. Much to Grandma's delight, Serenity wanted her to clap too.

My dad and brother, Pat, are great chefs.

We had an assortment of activites to do while we visited. My cousin, Jesse, brought a cool tattoo kit. I think almost everyone there got a tattoo, including me. They were glittery and cute. I got glitter flowers on my ankle.

We did a fish pond, and money dig, and a bean bag toss for the little kids.

It's always a fun time!!

Big kids and little kids playing a rousing game of croquet. Look at the cool teepee Wallace and Corinne brought! It even had a stove in it to keep them warm at night. Yes! It got down in the 40's at night there in those mountains in June.

My niece, Arbree, was making cute flowers for hair or accessorizing gift bags or purses. She and Phil (in the back) are away at Creighton University in Omaha,Nebraska. One more year and he'll be a lawyer! Hoepfullly they'll get to move back home for employment.

Wallace and Corinne taught us how to make the cutest bird feeders! What a fun way to spend an afternoon.

Case and Racyn enjoying a snowcone

Of course there are always dogs at the Curtis Reunion~Keagan and Noah are enjoying Uncle Cal's dog.

Shanna, Ryan, Keagan, and Jaydee Julander

Uncle Cal and Uncle Doug visit in the shade

Newly married~Derek and Kellie Aren't they cute?

My goofball brother always runs the auction of things we've made or found that would be fun for someone to bid on. Here he is modeling the hair accessories my sister and her daughters made. Lovely, huh?

My brother, Wallace and his wife, Corinne, make denim quilts. They raffled two of them off and Wallace's granddaughter, Sky, was lucky enough to win one of them. Here she is cuddled up with her mom, KerriAnn in her new blanky her Grandpa made.

Aunt Velara and Uncle Allen

Derek and my mom dipping up icecream, my Mom's one weakness. She always has room for an icecream!

My cousin, Jill, and her brother's girlfriend, Shonda

Aunt Lorna and her son Mike

Even the big kids enjoy Grandpa's teetertotter!

My sister Kellie and her daughter Arbree

At the end of the day we played some silly games the kids loved! I found this one on Minute to Win It. The goal is to flip the slinky up onto your forehead and make it stack perfectly. Here is my cousin, Jake, giving it a try.

My sister tried...

Corinne's son, Kevin, tried...

Kenyon tried...

...even I tried it, but failed!

My cousin, Tanner tried for a good twenty minutes, and viola!!!! It worked!! He's the CHAMP!!

In this Minute to Win It the goal is to get the Oreo from your forehead to your mouth with your face muscles. Look~no hands MOM!! Ben actually did it in 45 seconds!!

Noah wanted a picture to show that he'd done it, but he cheated and put it in with is hands. Do you love his glittery spider tattoo on his bicep? He loved it and it lasted a week before it finally washed off.

All in all it was a wonderful 2 days with the Curtis family who we hardly get to see. I hope all my friends out there reading this get to have a fun time with extended family every year or two. We always make good memories.

How does your garden grow?

2011-06-18T08:02:00.000-07:00

Since moving into this new house we've struggled with coming up with a place to grow a garden. We have an amazing yard, but it's so shady in the back we have not had a place to grow a garden. We've had sweet neighbors who have shared their sunny garden spot with us for about 3 years now. They have small children and don't get much time to come out to weed or take care of the garden so since I enjoy doing that we plan it together and I take care of it for the most part. We've shared the fruits of our labors and enjoyed having that space together. They moved away this winter and we have another wonderful family who've moved in. They were also willing to share the space, but Matt decided it's time we have our own space. There is one sunny spot in the back yard. It's a nice, grassy area where the kids can play. We've had our trampoline in that spot, but decided to move it and make our own square foot garden. We've had neighbors who've had success with it so we are giving it a try.

First we bought the dirt. It is a mixture of vermiculite, compost, and peat moss. The soil is easy to turn and is virtually weed free. The boxes only have to be 1 foot deep to plant any vegetable.

After dividing the boxes into square feet it is easy to plant veggies in each box. We bought the square foot gardening book which shows us how to space the vegetables for optimal produce.

The book told us to put a variety in each box. This helps keep the bugs out and makes it look beautiful with the variety of leaves and colors. For instance, we planted marigolds in each box because they naturally keep bugs away with their smell. We also planted onions in a square in each box because their scent keeps bugs away.

Notice the difference between this photo and the next. That is only 6 days difference. The warm Utah weather is finally here and the veggies are really growing quickly!

What is really great about this plan is that we leave some squares open for later and plant other things later in the season so that we can have fresh romaine, spinach, and radishes throughout the summer as we harvest each square foot. I planted romaine and spinach early in May. It is almost ready to harvest a few leaves at time. Last week I planted another square foot of romaine and spinach that will be ready to harvest next month. As we clear out a square foot we can plant something new in it. This looks like a very small space, but let me list what we have growing in our garden. Broccoli, tomatoes, butter nut squash, summer squash (yellow crook-necks), peas, romaine, spinach, radishes, carrots, serano peppers, jalapeno peppers, cilantro, peas, artichokes, corn, sunflowers, wild flowers, marigolds, bunching onions, rhubarb, zinnias, and thai dragon peppers. That's 22 items. I didn't even know I had that much variety until I just counted that list!

The reason the pvc pipe is over the top is to protect the plants from our cold Utah weather. These allow us to cover the garden with plastic on cold nights. This year I'll be able to keep harvesting veggies well into the fall. I've always said I was going to plant the garden to have a fall harvest, but never have done it because there are so many weeds at the end and I'm too tired to start gardening again at the end of summer. This way is so much easier to plant just one square at a time and it doesn't become weed infested. I can hardly wait to make that garden salad this week!

A Memorable Memorial Day

2011-06-09T08:04:00.000-07:00

On Memorial Day this year we celebrated the life of my Uncle Ole who passed away in February. He grew up in my hometown of Greenwich, Utah and wished to be buried back home. When he married he moved to Casa Grande, AZ and never moved back. He would come home on Memorial weekend every year to remember his parents who died and to see our family. Ole served in the Vietnam War and so we were able to bury him with military rites.

My son, Jayden, was honored to play Taps for Uncle Ole's burial service.

A soldier presenting the flag to Ole's oldest son, Ole Jr.

My mom and her brother Bill talking about their dear brother, Ole


Matt, Jaron, Ben, and Noah

After the service we gathered at my parent's house to have dinner and visit. We had a wonderful time. Many of us hadn't seen each other in 20 years. It was a nice reunion.

Jayden and his cousin Tim sitting in my dad's restored sheepwagon

My cousin, Robyn, my Aunt Roberta, and Ole Jr's son, Kyle

Aunt Elberta, Madelyn, and my mom, Iris

Robyn and her son, Alex

Uncle Ole's oldest son, my cousin, Ole Jr.

Uncle Ole's second son, Chris

Uncle Bill and Aunt Roberta

Matt taking my cousin, Emily for an ATV ride

We couldn't have planned a better Memorial weekend. We had a wonderful time catching up and renewing old memories.

Happy Birthday to my Young Sister

2011-03-30T12:16:00.000-07:00

In celebration of my big sister's 29th birthday this year I decided I'd love to do a blog post dedicated just to her. I am so lucky to have a sister. Kellie is 13 years older than me (do the math to see how old I really am!) and I've always looked up to her. Physically she is shorter than me, but in every other way I do look up to her.

Ben

Kellie and Jaron

Jayden

Kellie has a child-like heart. She loves to play with kids and always brings snacks and games for us to play with her. When I was 3 or 4 years old Kellie recorded my little brother and my voices on a tape. As we got older we loved to listen to that tape of us talking and singing songs. I think I may still have that tape and need to get it moved to a disk so we don't lose it. She loves giving presents too.

When Matt and I lived in Arizona we came home in June and Kellie brought each of my boys presents for their birthdays since she missed them on their special days as we lived so far away. She thoughtfully bought books that each boy would love and treasure. We still have those books Kellie signed and gave to them.

This is a video of Kellie and Noah when he was just a baby. You'll see how much Kellie loves to play with kids, and kids love Kellie because she is just a big kid.

In 2006 Matt and I took Kellie and her husband, Dee, to Hawaii with us. I think that is the most fun and memorable thing I've done with my sister so far. We went to the Big Island of Hawaii and stayed for a week.

Looking at the little ocean creatures in the pools

Walking down the Yellow Brick Road to the ocean on the southern most point of the U.S.

The Kona Temple

Kellie has always had long hair. She recently had hair down to her ankles and cut it off for Lock for Love. She got almost 3 feet cut off. This is the shortest her hair has been since she was really little.

Our first try at snorkeling and having a little fun on the boogie boards.

A volcanic crater

Standing on lava fields that had been active just a few years ago. A little green is finally creeping through.

Kellie and Dee under one of the beautiful Hawaiian waterfalls.

I think the funniest thing that happened while in Hawaii is we gathered shells and a cool looking sea urchin that had tons of color. We left them in the SUV rental overnight. The next morning our vehicle reeked! We didn't keep that sea urchin!

Kellie and Dee 2010 Old Folks Party

Kellie, me, and her youngest daughter, Shanna, visiting at my parents house a couple years ago.

Kellie and I share a birthday month. Mine is on the 21st and hers is on the 31st. We go home to Koosharem for the Annual Old Folks Party every year. It always falls on my birthday week. In 2009 it fell right on my birthday. My cousin had the band sing Happy Birthday to me and my sister. As you can see in the pictures above we turned bright red. I love Kellie's expression as she puts her hand to her face in embarrassment. She looks like a little kid who got in trouble. :)

Kellie's daughter, Shanna, gave her a first Grandbaby, Keagan was born in Feb. 2008

Kellie and her oldest daughter, Arbree, with Keagan

Kellie and Keagan

Kellie always has a twinkle in her eye. This is one of my favorite pictures of her, because it shows her true personality.

Mom and I started the tradition of going to BYU Women's Conference back in 2007. My sister has not been able to attend until this year. I am looking forward to the end of April this year, because Kellie and her best girlfriend will be coming with us to Women's Conference. We will make more memories and get more pictures there!

I love you Kellie. You are the best big sister any girl could ask for. I'm lucky to have you!

Arizona Meets Spring in Utah

2011-03-29T09:37:00.000-07:00

While living in Arizona for 3 years we got to know some really great families and left them behind when we moved back to Utah. Since leaving almost 5 years ago we haven't seen many of our Arizona friends. We've kept up with each other through e-mail, blogs, and Facebook, thankfully,

Our friends, Amie, Danny, and their boys got to come visit a couple weeks ago.

Spring in Utah brings all sorts of weather so we planned both indoor and outdoor activities. The weather somewhat cooperated so we took them on our famous Castle hike. You'll see why it's named the Castle hike in a few minutes. On the way there is started raining, but Matt and I saw a part in the clouds and were pretty sure the storm would blow south. Our friends just knew we'd get soaked, but if you've ever lived in Utah you've heard the saying, "If you don't like the weather in Utah, just wait a few minutes, it will change". It did. We never got a drop of rain on us as we hiked.

About a mile up we passed a bridge that was a great place to stop and play.

Jaron rolled a big snow ball and Jayden had to pick it up and huck it in the river to see how fast it would melt.

One, Two, Three! And over it goes!

A view from the top looking over Farmington Bay of the Great Salt Lake. This is a great sunset spot, but we went in the afternoon so we didn't get that great shot.

This is the house that we passed along the top of our hike. That is why we call it "The Castle Hike". It's a gorgeous gated house. There's a pool in the back and I'm sure all the amenities you could ever want. The hike is actually in back of the house, but we got a picture as we came back down the hill headed home in the car.

I'm sure Amie took more pictures than I did. She is the Queen of Blog.

The cute couple

Game Time!!

Homemade cookie and ice cream time!!

YUM!

Matt got to work on his puzzle a little. Danny helped him put in a few pieces.

Danny and Amie's family minus one boy who stayed with Grandma

Thanks for coming to stay Danny and Amie! Your stay was too short, but we are so glad you made the time to stop and rekindle our friendship. All of our friends are welcome to stay anytime. We love having friends over, especially when we haven't seen them in so long.

Springtime in the Rockies

2011-03-08T10:19:00.000-08:00

It's March 8th and this is what we woke up to this morning. Yes, it's Springtime in the Rockies. Almost every March we get a huge, unexpected snowstorm that pales the other storms of the winter in comparison. This year is no exception.

This storm was heavy and wet and stuck to the trees flocking them with beauty.

This is a window from my kitchen sink. We have a corner sink so I have a second window to the right, but that window glared when I put them together, so I give you the beauty I see every time I'm at the kitchen sink.

This is what our backyard view looks like.

I am so glad we moved into a home with mature trees in the backyard. They are beautiful year round.

The sun is shining and most of the snow will melt off today, but I got a beautiful shot of a flocked tree against the sky. Gorgeous, huh?

We have friends coming to visit from Arizona in 4 days. We may or may not have snow when they get here, but we can show them the pictures we took this morning. We'd like to go hiking at Antelope Island, but we'll have to see if the weather will allow that. The forecast is sunny and 54 degrees.

A shot of our neighbor's back yard facing the east. You can glimpse the Wasatch Mountains through the trees.

As much as I love these beautiful Utah mountains they also bring the hard work of shoveling. I can proudly say I shoveled all of this by myself this morning. It may not look like much, but I spent 3 1/2 hours with breaks in between shoveling my driveway. If you've ever shoveled snow at the end of the driveway that the plow has pushed up you know how heavy that is. It may have to melt on it's own, because I think my arms are finished for the day. Hot tub here I come!

He still has fingers

2011-02-28T18:48:00.000-08:00

I found myself counting my blessings as I was counting Jaron's poor fingers this week. Two Sundays ago in church I was preparing to listen to my team teacher give the lesson to our 9 year old kids. Suddenly, the primary president opened the door and waved for me to come out of the room. She said as we walked 2 doors down that one of my boys pinched their fingers pretty good. My first thought was that Noah, my 6 year old, probably slammed his fingers in a door. When I got into the room I saw poor Jaron with his fingers smashed flat in the hinges of a fold-up chair. I could see there was a little blood, but mostly I saw Jaron's pale face with excruciation written all over it. I rushed in. My first thought was "don't show alarm" and "calm your poor son". I could see he might pass out so I helped him gently to the floor as someone held onto the chair. I could hear one of the kids say, "We might have to cut off his fingers to get them out of that chair." Silence~and then finally, his teacher decided he didn't need an audience and got the class members out of the room. I could hear adults saying, maybe we should get a screw driver to get the chair to open up. I saw Brother Dayton and Brother Iverson enter the room. At this point I was just offering comfort to Jaron and trying not to throw up. After what seemed like 5 minutes Brother Iverson pried the chair off his hand and he was free. It was a relief for a few seconds, but then the numbness left Jaron's hand and it started to bleed more. We got him to the couch in the foyer and called a doctor in from our ward. He looked at it and told us we should get an x-ray. After a visit to the Insta-care we found his fingers were not broken and would not need stitches. Amazingly, after one dose of Ibuprofen Jaron felt no more pain for the duration of his healing that week. I did not realize the magnitude of God's blessing that day until a couple days later 2 of my friends said they knew of children who had lost fingers in those chairs. I was so thankful for ward members who came to our rescue and freed Jaron's fingers from that hinge. If it hadn't been for them and the Holy Spirit's guidance, Jaron may have faced much more of a challenge that day. I'm counting my blessings and naming then one by one today.

My New Toy

2011-02-16T07:04:00.000-08:00

Guess what I got for Valentines Day this year? A brand new convection, double oven with a ceramic top. I am so excited about it. I've already made cookies a couple times and it's so much fun to bake 3 dozen at a time! It's so much faster and convenient.

Isn't it pretty? It matches my microwave and refrigerator. When the dishwasher needs to be replaced they'll all match.

I made sugar cookies for my boys and Matt for Valentines Day. They were a hit! I think it only took us 2 days to eat them all.

Three batches at a time! I love it.

Frosting and sprinkles make these cookies heavenly! I hope you had a good Valentines Day too!

Playground Duty

2011-02-09T10:34:00.000-08:00

Since Jayden was born 14 1/2 years ago I have worked at home. Before then I worked in the schools as a speech/occupational therapy aide. I worked with kids from preschool age to 8th grade. I didn't really miss it until Noah went to 1st grade this year. I have enjoyed being home and organizing, blogging, crocheting, and reading for the last 6 months, but have felt the need to be with children again.

I just applied at Davis School District to be a substitute teacher. Right now I am considered a classified sub, which means I cannot replace a teacher in the classroom, but I can be a substitute for teacher's aides, librarian, secretaries, play ground duty, etc. One actually needs a teaching certificate to substitute teach in the classroom in this district. I'm glad, because that means we have our kids in quality schools.

The last two weeks I have substituted for the playground duty twice. I subbed once last week, and it was inside recess because of the extremely cold weather. Yesterday I got to endure the chilly ,but sunny weather as the kids were able to play outside. 20 degrees is the deciding factor in Utah schools. If it's above 20, we play outside, if it's below we play inside. Yesterday it was 24 degrees with a slight breeze. The sun was out for a change so it was beautiful while standing in the sunshine. I had the best time with the kids! Most of them played fair and were quite anxious to please in hopes they'd receive a 'rat ticket'. Rat tickets are handed into the office for a weekly drawing of fun prizes. To get a 'rat ticket' the kids perform acts of service like picking up garbage, looking out for others and defending kids who are bullied, bringing lost balls to us and taking them back to the appropriate classrooms, and returning left coats, gloves, and hats they may find as they are playing. I gave out many rat tickets, made some new friends, and rubbed shoulders with kids I know from church and the neighborhood.

I am so glad to not have a full-time job, because I love being home for my children when they get home, preparing healthy meals, and having a clean and organized house. This is the perfect opportunity for me to work with children 1 or 2 times a week and still do what I love best; being a homemaker, wife, and mother.

Baby Noah at the playground when we lived in Arizona

Sundogs

2011-01-24T09:50:00.000-08:00

Have you ever seen these "puppies" before? They actually aren't puppies, but are referred to as sundogs. We spotted one yesterday as we were driving home from church. We could see the rainbow colors at first. They are a lot like rainbows and fade very quickly. We rushed home as fast as we could to grab our camera. Much to our surprise we were able to get some good shots of it even if the green and purple had faded.

Sundogs are patches of ice crystals in the sky that reflect the sun as it's going down. They are commonly found in January and April. I had to read up on sundogs when we got home because I couldn't remember everything about them. The article I read said there are moondogs too. They are usually not seen because most people are sleeping at night. I remember seeing a moondog one time a couple summers ago. Jayden came running in the house to tell us to come look at it. It was very cool. These are called sundogs because they usually have a tail streaming away from them. You can kind of see that tail in the picture above. They are usually found in cirrus clouds. Weather forecasters have found that they are a sign that a storm is coming since the ice crystals are a form of precipitation.

So, here is my science report for the year. My boys felt that it was a sign of good luck. I hope they are right. Have you ever seen a sundog or a moondog?

Cyberfriends

2011-01-22T15:21:00.000-08:00

I think it is more common now than ever to have friends in cyberspace that you chat with online, share photos with, and social network with than ever before. I've told people I have friends online that I've never met and most of the time they say they have the same thing in their lives. I met a sweet girl like myself online about 2 years ago on GoodReads.com. We both noticed we shared the same interest in the same kind of books and we both have 4 boys. We both got Facebook accounts and were able to share daily status updates, photos, and became well acquainted that way. She's from across the country, Arlington, VA, to be exact. She has a son that just started serving a mission in Peru. It's been fun to watch her blog his letters. We both share interests in music, both of us love hiking, the outdoors, and running. She is very close friend, but the only thing odd about our relationship is that we'd never met eye to eye. All this changed last week. I will refer to her as R in case she doesn't want her information shared with the rest of the world.

R's family came to Utah to ski and visit with family. R went skiing last time she was here, but didn't enjoy it very much. This time she told her husband and boys they could go skiing, but she would take the day to come meet me. I was so thrilled!

R brought her sister, C, with her from the Provo area. She has 3 boys too, and no girls. We have so much in common! When they arrived at my house they got to meet my boys. Because R is passionate about music she asked if my boys would play their instruments for her. Jayden played his trumpet solo for them and did very well. I had allowed Ben to go sledding with his buddies so he wasn't there to play his French horn for them. R and C played a duet on my piano. It sounded so wonderful. They are amazing musicians. I have an early 1900's piano which is out of tune and a little beat up, but they made it sound beautiful!

R, C, and I went out to lunch at the Bun Basket in Fruit Heights. It's such a cozy little place that hardly anyone except the locals know about. Homemade bread, sandwiches, soup, and bakery items, yum! We enjoyed visiting and getting to know each other eye to eye. It was an amazing time. R is still my cyberpal, but now we can say we've met in person. I even got 2 friends for the price of one. I'm so glad R brought C to meet me. We live a little closer and could actually get together sometime if we decided to. C is now my cyberfriend too.

Chasing Away the Wintertime Blues

2011-01-06T08:32:00.000-08:00

Our family had a wonderful Christmas together this year. It seemed like it breezed by, but we did all the traditional stuff; decorating the house, the tree, making and eating sweet treats, taking gifts to neighbors, shopping, and pondering the birth of our Savior. One of my favorite traditions is sending and receiving Christmas cards. Every year I send 40-60 cards to friends and family and receive about 40 back. I love to display them in my family rooms to be reminded of our many friends and family we are blessed with.

January is always the month I dread, at least while we live in Utah. The weather affects my mood. When we lived in Arizona one of my favorite months was January. It's a great month to visit the park, hike, have picnics, and take leisurely walks. In Utah we stay inside and try not to get frostbite or breathe the dirty air that always comes with the January inversion. I think another thing that affects my mood is the fact that the fun and busy holiday season is over and another fun holiday won't be here until Easter, except for Valentines Day, but that's a one-day deal and then it's over. I've tried to come up with ways to make January something I look forward to. Benjamin was born in January so that's something that has helped bring some joy to the month. Over he years I've invented the other things that makes me look forward to January, but never really thought about it until this week.

When I am stuck in the house my creative side comes out. I love to crochet, cross stitch, quilt, bake, and organize. Cleaning out closets, getting rid of the old and bringing in the new are a natural part of my life at the start of the new year. Everyday this week I've tried to clean something out. It makes me feel accomplished and renews the feel of the house. My pantry and fridge are on the list today. When they are done I will feel so good!

I've been crocheting a couple things since Christmas too. I was president in the Young Women's program at our church for 2 years before we left Tooele, Utah for Surprise, Arizona. One of my former young women is adopting a brand new baby this month. He is due at the end of this month and she gets to bring the baby home from the hospital. I'm not sure if they've arranged for a surrogate mother or if it's an LDS adoption, but I will find out the details on Saturday at her baby shower. I haven't seen her in about 7 years so it will be a fun reunion for us. I decided to make a hat and booties for her baby. Here are some photos of what I've been working on for the past couple weeks.

Granny Square Hat and Booties

I plan to make matching booties for the girl hats this week


My sister made me some of these hotpot holders a few years ago. They are my favorite so I learned how to make them.

I'm so glad I've found ways to make good use of my time and bringing in the sunshine on such a depressing time of the year.

From Puzzle to Art

2010-12-12T06:17:00.000-08:00

The masterpiece is finally done. If you refer back a few posts you'll see that Jayden and Matt took on a 5,000 piece puzzle on August 27th. They finally finished it just after Thanksgiving. It took them close to 90 days to complete it. Jayden was in on it everyday for the first few days, but when they only found 10 pieces that fit in 3 hours it was discouraging. Matt, on the other hand, loves a challenge and spent every night after work on it, and sometimes he'd get up a couple hours early and work on it before work. At the last he started putting in 42 pieces a day. It made him want to get it done all the more.

The first picture glared because I used a flash, but you can see the individual puzzle pieces in it so I thought it was a cool picture. The second glares a little, but you can see what it looks like in person better. It is a picture of the Tower of Babel. Once we got it hung Matt said if we found another one the same size it would be fun to do again and they could switch pictures for variety. I think he's crazy! Matt put the frame together himself and we ordered glass for it. I am impressed by how beautiful it turned out.

This is what our entryway looks like now. Ever since we moved in 4 years ago we've wanted a big piece of art on that wall. Now we have our wish.

The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B

2010-11-21T19:41:00.000-08:00

Our oldest son, Jayden, has been playing the trumpet for the past 2 1/2 years. He has come to really love playing and is very good at it. This year he made auditions into Jazz and Symphonic bands at school. Jazz band is a class before school 3 days a week, which means he has to get up by 6 am on those days. He gets right up and doesn't complain much, so that's saying something about how much he loves to play. He has marched in the marching band for the Farmington and Kaysville parades in the summer for the past 2 years and plans to do it once again next summer. He recently had the opportunity to play "Taps" for the Kaysville Veteran's Day program. The city called Mr. Wolf to ask him if one of his students would like to play. He chose his best trumpet player, which was Jayden. He was thrilled for this opportunity. We recorded it and here it is for your viewing pleasure. Matt went up to the loft to record Jayden while the program went on downstairs. I watched the scouts retire the flag. With the trumpet playing above us there was a real feeling of reverence. It made me cry. I wish Matt had recorded what the scouts were doing down below and then panned the camera to Jayden as he played, but you can hear the scouts in the background so you can know kind of how it went. Jayden also had another trumpeter with him who did the echo. He was an adult that got called to help him. The echo was really cool.

Our Timpanogas Cave Adventure

2010-10-15T10:10:00.000-07:00

We are experiencing the best weather for fall this year. Last week we decided to take a hike up to Timpanogas Cave before the snow falls. I had been to Timpanogas cave when the kids were small. I took them with me when we took our youth group. Looking back, I think I was crazy to take them, but at the time I just thought it would be a grand adventure. I'm sure my Bishop who was with us was thinking, "Why did she bring her 3 little kids with us? Is she crazy?" Matt was working and in school so I didn't really have another choice. We were financially strapped so I couldn't pay a sitter either. I never really left my kids anywhere when they were young.
I told Matt it was a fun experience so he needed to go with us. My boys don't remember going. When they went Jaron was a toddler, maybe not even 2 years old. Ben was 4 and Jayden was 6. The boys were really excited about going last week.
It is a mile and a half up a VERY STEEP trail. I did not remember how steep. I do recall carrying 2 year old Jaron most of the way up and back down in 2002. I was 8 years younger then and in better shape for sure. We stopped to breathe and take pictures along the way.
Jayden is almost as big as his dad. They wear the same pant size, but Jayden is a tad shorter.
There weren't a lot of bright fall leaves. Some were green and some were just really faded yellows. I wish I'd gotten the boys to come back and pose with Matt in this one. They ran ahead most of the way.
A pose with my boys.
We were about 3/4 of the way to the cave when Noah decided to lie down and rest while he waited for us. I wanted to lie down right by him, but I kept on swimming, swimming, swimming.
Do I look exhausted? I was just starting to get a bad cold so I had a hard time breathing. I'd also put my back out the day before. Fortunately, walking felt better than sitting. I must be getting really old.
Noah loves to pose. He was pretending to be up to bat. "Hey batter, batter, batter!"
We are almost to the top. Here is the entrance to the cave just above us!!
The last stretch is the steepest! Wow! The red line means you cannot stop on the trail because falling rock is a threat in those areas. We just kept hiking!!
We made it to the top and didn't get a picture because Matt discovered our camera batteries were low. We saved it for inside the cave.
Being in the cave was fun, but by the time the hour inside was over we were frozen to the core. We wish we'd taken gloves for sure! We had a great tour guide who educated us about this cave. Noah was worried it would be scary, but once inside he decided it wasn't bad.
We were reminded that stalagtites were stuck 'tight' to the ceiling and stalagmites 'might' make it to the ceiling if they kept growing.
The hike down wasn't as hard. We enjoyed the beautiful view of the valley.
As I recall they said we climbed 1,600 feet to get to the entrance of the cave in that 1 1/2 mile stretch. It was a great workout and a fun time.
We got to enjoy the sunset as we came back down into Highland. This photo doesn't do it justice. We should have stopped to get a shot, but this was just taken through the windshield as we drove. It was an enjoyable family day.

Puzzlemania

2010-09-26T06:28:00.000-07:00

On July 24th, a Utah holiday celebrating the settlement of the Mormon Pioneers, Matt and Jayden decided to put a puzzle together. They had such a good time with that they started shopping for more puzzles. They found two at the store and put those together in short order. Over the next month they started looking online....and found...a 24,000 piece puzzle that would fit on an entire wall in our basement, floor to ceiling! It only cost $300. I was skeptical. "What in the heck are you going to do with a huge puzzle and where are you going to put it together?" was what I asked. They figured it all out, but I was still asking, "Why would you pay $300 for a puzzle? We don't even pay $300 per kid for their whole Christmas!"

I was finally able to talk them into a much smaller puzzle, only 5,000 pieces, and much less expensive. They found a cool one of the Tower of Babel. They were shocked when they felt the weight of the box and looked inside. The whole box was filled with little, tiny pieces. When they dumped it out it made a huge pile as you'll see in the above photo.

Let the sorting begin!

After spending a couple hours sorting they finally had alike pieces put together in several Ziploc bags. Time to start putting it together!

They got the frame put together quite quickly. Now for the hard part. They started the puzzle on August 28th. I took a picture on Sept. 20th and this is how it looks.

They are about 1/4 done~only about 3,500 pieces left to put together. They are having a good time with it. Matt is actually doing more than Jayden. Jayden waits until Matt makes it easier and then he will work on it. I asked Matt why he would even consider spending so much time and money on a huge puzzle. He said he wants to spend time with Jayden as long as he wants to, because in a few short years he will be off with friends, college, and a mission and we will wish he was back doing things with us. I'm so glad I have a husband that has such insight. It's been fun to watch them have fun together. Watch for my later post when it is finally finished. Do you want to take bets on the date they'll finish it? I hope it will be done by Halloween! We shall see.

Our July With Grandma Mullins/Family Vacation

2010-08-15T19:58:00.000-07:00

I must say this has been one of the most restful summers we've ever had as a family. We brought Matt's Grandma, Marie Mullins, from Atlanta to stay with us for the month of July. She has Alzheimer's and cannot live alone. She has been living with Matt's oldest brother ,Aaron,and his family for the past year. They planned a trip to Brazil for the month of July where Sandra's parents live and we offered to keep Grandma with us. Grandma is 93 years old and still gets around pretty well for her age. She has all her teeth except one that fell out a year or two ago. She loves fruits and veggies and toast and jam. She also loves anything sweet, especially chocolate.

We learned some great things about Grandma while she was here. She used to crochet and bred dogs to sell. Her mother's name is Martha. When I asked her what she remembered about her mother she said with a twinkle in her eye, "She was one fine lady!" One of the most endearing things we found about Grandma is that when she is amazed by something she says, "Good Day!" Our kids found themselves saying it because they thought it was so cute.

While she was here our favorite time with her was when we went for a walk in the evenings when it cooled down. Matt and I would get on each arm and walk with her. She would ask if we knew each of our neighbors as we passed by their houses. We would tell her all about the families that lived in those homes and what we knew about them. The great thing about Alzheimer's is that the next day we'd have the same conversations. We still loved our walks with her. She walked about 3 blocks before she would have to return home to sit down.

We took her shopping with us. She liked to go out for car rides and shopping. If we stayed in one spot too long or were not putting things in the cart to buy she would say it was time to go. She was very patient with us, and we found out if we got her a Dr. Pepper she would let us shop longer. We went to the park with the kids several times and she enjoyed that. I took her on Fridays to the Cosmetology school to get her hair curled for Sunday. She has beautiful hair and I loved how it fluffed right up when I brushed it each day. She loved having her hair done and her nails painted.
The picture above is a four generation photo of our boys, their dad, their Grandpa Mullins, and his mother, Great Grandma Mullins. They came up one Sunday and we got some great photos with Matt's little brother, Everett and his family too.

When Aaron and Sandra returned from Brazil we flew with Grandma back to Atlanta. We found a great deal on tickets so we were able to take the boys with us. While there we took a little side trip with the boys to Orlando where we visited Disney World for a day. The boys loved Magic Kingdom. We'd been there 2 years before so they were familiar with what rides they wanted to go on.

We stopped when we entered Florida to get some maps of Orlando and Daytona Beach. Noah loved looking at the maps as we drove.

The boys actually fell asleep while we drove since we didn't have a DVD player and tv to watch. I couldn't resist this cute photo!

We did a service day to get a day free at Disney. It was a cheap way to enjoy Disney World for a day!
Gotta have a photo with Dad and a photo with Mom!

Noah Loves Zurg--Buzz's Enemy!
Standing in line with brothers isn't too bad!
Standing with Dad in front of that famous castle!
Someone was nice enough to stop and take a picture of the whole family. I love kind people!
Noah loved being able to stand up while holding onto the bar on the Disney Rail Car!
Jaron and Ben riding the Disney Tram~
Don't they look happy?
There's nothing like a great train ride around Magic Kingdom!

Don't ya love my shoes? I went for comfort, not style that day. My sandals would have looked much better, but my feet felt great at the end of the day!
Noah LOVED the race car driving! He loved that he could steer, even if the car stayed on the track. I took this photo looking back from the car Jaron was driving me in. I snapped a lot of photos to get a couple good ones.
This is a look of pure JOY coming from Noah as he drove his dad around the racetrack!
You can't go to Disney and not see a 3-D movie. We went to Mickey's Philharmonic and were not disappointed.
On our way back to Atlanta we stopped at Daytona Beach for a couple hours~just long enough to get everything good and sandy and to say we'd been to Daytona Beach!
The boys love playing in the sand at the beach. We didn't have time to rent boogie boards so they had a great time chasing the waves and little fish, along with playing in the sand.

I love this action shot of the boys running through the ocean waves~
Noah has had a wiggly tooth for about 3 months now. We discovered on our way to Atlanta that a new tooth was coming in behind it crookedly. His Dad told him if he pulled it out in the next couple days he would give him $5. He wiggled and wiggled it and what do you know....it came out! Here he is showing how happy he was to get 5 bucks from his dad. The Toothfairy also left 4 quarters under his pillow. We hope he will not need braces! We've already been there, done that with Jaron. It's EXPENSIVE!
On our last day in Atlanta Matt's Uncle Richard and Aunt Suzanne invited us to swim in their pool and to have dinner with them. They had been on a trip and got back just in time. Here is a photo of us with Grandma, Aaron, Brittani, Lewis, and all of Richard and Suzanne's kids and Grandkids. We only visited a couple hours, but it was nice to be among all those Mullins'. That doesn't happen very often.
I curled Grandma's hair that last day before we left. She looked so pretty I wanted one last picture with her. I have come to love Grandma more than I ever have. The one lesson I learned this summer is that when you serve someone everyday you come to love them more deeply. I'm so glad for the opportunity to share this time with Grandma. My family will always remember it.

2010-07-28T07:26:00.000-07:00

A Tribute to Grandpa Tractor

2010-06-16T16:17:00.000-07:00

It's Father's Day this weekend. I never know what to get my dad. There is nothing I can give him that would even come close to showing how much I love and appreciate him. I decided this Father's Day I would do a tribute to him on my blog. Hopefully he can get to a computer to see it. If not, I'll just let the whole world know what a great father my Dad is to me.
This is my dad and Noah at my niece, Arbree's wedding back in 2005. I'm not sure why that photo has March 3, 2003 printed on it since Noah wasn't born until May 5, 2004.

While growing up one of my favorite things to do was to have my dad build a fire and roast marshmallows. We did that quite often while growing up. The tradition has carried on to my kids.

We can't leave Grandpa's until we have a sticky, gooey and sometimes burned marshmallow stuck to our hands, faces, and shirts!

Grandpa is a skilled wood craftsman. He's made countless toys for all the grandkids. This is a wooden horse he made for Jaron, but got passed on to Noah. Noah loves it as much as Jaron did the day Grandpa brought it!

The boys asked for a train one Christmas. Matt and I looked for a table for it, but decided Grandpa could make one customized to fit our needs. We asked him and he gladly accepted the chore. He even built in drawers underneath for storage. We've gotten many years of use out of it and it will be in use for years to come. Notice in the background a shelf he made to put on my wall. Thanks Grandpa!

For each boy's birthday my dad made a wooden truck, tractor, train, or other cool toy when they were little. Ben and Jayden are just as excited to see what Grandpa made for Noah this time.

Of course, Noah loved it. We still have that wooden truck. They still fill it with cars and other toys and push it around the house.

Grandpa made a tractor just the size Noah could ride one Christmas. He loved it! It rocks back and forth. Many hours have been spent on that thing. We still have it in the basement playroom.

Grandpa has made his yard a playground for his rough-and-tumble grandkids. One of the best things he's added is a Choo Choo Train Playhouse.

It comes furnished with a steam horn and bell. It sounds very authentic!

My Dad's nickname given to him by his Grandkids is "Grandpa Tractor". Every time we visit he gets one or several of his tractors out to take the kids for rides. As you'll see the kids find great amusement in this past-time!

How many kids can we fit in 2 red wagons?

Noah and Grandpa

The riding lawn mower counts as a tractor too!

My Dad rebuilt this sheep herders wagon. He has it parked out back and the kids are welcome to use it as a playhouse too.
One memorable 4th of July all us kids were in Koosharem. Dad let us decorate a flat bed trailer and pulled us with one of his tractors. It was such fun!

The kids liked throwing candy the best. But it was even more fun when onlookers would throw some back to them!

Another great addition to the backyard is the "Summerhouse". Dad and Mom use it as a summer kitchen. It's nicer to use the burners outside to cook in the summer rather than heat the house up. It doubles as a play place for the kids, a visiting and card playing place, and even a sleep out hut for the kids. There is a little room with a screen door off to the side where we've put a few quilts on too! Notice Dad in the background cooking up something tasty for dinner.

My brother Wallace helps my Dad cook sometimes too.

Dad has gathered old relics to decorate the summer house. He even has an old parking meter.

Noah is posing in the window of the summer house where we put quilts on in the summer.
Another thing Grandpa is famous for is his homemade birdhouses. He has trouble with squirrels climbing up to get the bird seeds. We got this photo through their dining room window. Even though Grandpa chases the squirrels out of the bird houses it's fun to watch them.

The greatest part of winter at Grandpa's house are the snow hills. Grandpa uses his tractor to pile snow for the kids to play on.

The boys dig tunnels, climb the hills, and sled down them.

Most Christmases Dad takes us out to cut fresh Christmas trees. This was our Christmas 2009 tree.
When family gets together in the winter we usually play a card game or two. Grandma and Grandpa taught us how to play "Hand and Foot" in this photo.

Dad puts Christmas lights out back for the kids to enjoy when we come. Santa showed up in the sheep wagon.

The Playhouse Train always lights up pretty too.

It looks like Grandpa is looking at a drawing Noah did.

Riding the sled behind the tractor is fun to do too!

My boys have found out if they take a book to Grandpa he will read it to them.

Grandpa's really good at watching movies with a grandkid snuggled up to him too.
Grandpa really likes to play jokes. For Jaron's birthday, which is on St. Patrick's Day, he made Jaron some green jello. He told him there was a present inside so he had to eat the jello to get it.Jaron recruited Noah to help him eat it. Yum! Guess what they found?

A bag full of MONEY!!
Yep! I think we have the Best Grandpa AND Grandma Tractor in the world!

From Son-Up to Son-Down

2010-05-19T11:24:00.000-07:00

This wall hanging is on my family room wall. I look at it sometimes and realize what busy lives we mothers lead. We really are busy from sun-up to sun-down. In my case it really is son-up to son-down. I was thinking how thankful I am to be a mother of all boys.

When I was young I always dreamed of having at least one girl. I pitied mothers with only boys. After I married Matt with each new pregnancy I just knew I was going to have a girl. When I got my 3rd boy I wasn't disappointed. I figured I'd probably have one more and she would be the girl.

Having 3 kids just about put me over the top. Not only did I have 3 boys under the age of 6, but I also owned an in-home daycare with 8 more children to care for. Matt decided he wanted to go back to technical school and start over since teaching was not what he had expected it to be. We had to have a second income to pay the bills and take care of our kids so the only viable way to make money would be for me to watch more kids. I didn't want to leave mine in daycare and it would have eaten up my whole paycheck if I had worked outside my home. I did this for 6 years while Matt finished up with his schooling and found a job that paid enough for me to quit. At that time I decided I either had to have one more child or forget it. This one would be 4 years apart from the others. It would be like starting over if I waited much longer. I was so positive it would be a girl this time. My little Benjamin really wanted a little sister. We had a name picked out and on the day of my ultra-sound I wore pink just to make sure it would be a girl. When the doctor said it was another boy I was so disappointed. When we left the office I cried and told Matt I did not want to have another boy and I did not want to move to Arizona. That's where his new job was that would allow me to quit daycare. I asked Ben what we were going to name a boy since we only had a girl name picked out. He immediately said, "Noah". The name stuck and we got Noah.

I only cried that one day and then decided it would be wonderful to have 4 boys. Since then I've embraced being a mother of only boys. They are such a joy to have. We love camping, hiking, fishing, riding bikes, jumping on the trampoline, playing video games, and hanging out with friends. Yes, they were wild and jumped off furniture when they were little, but as they've grown they've become my protectors and my helpers. They are best friends with each other. I never have to share my make-up, hairbrush, or clothes with anyone. I will never wonder where my lipstick has gone. These are just a few of the reasons I LOVE being the mother of 4 wonderful boys.

What a Lucky Mother I am!!

The Oregon Coast conclusion

2010-05-14T06:34:00.000-07:00

I am a blog slacker lately. I have inside work and outside work that I can never catch up on. It is hard to find time to just sit down and blog! On to our Oregon vacation that seems so long ago, but was only 6 weeks ago. We played at the beach several times during our stay. This picture was taken in the evening. It was a warmer part of our vacation. We stopped and got out to just walk along the beach. The kids just couldn't resist the waves so they were soon up to their knees in it, shoes and all. I sat and took pictures and watched the waves chase them. Three boys came back and took off their shoes and jackets and left them sitting by me. Not realizing it was high tide I noticed the waves kept going further out and then came crashing up next to me. I started to get nervous and made them come back. Fortunately, Noah was up by me when to our surprise a huge wave came crashing in. It knocked all the boys off their feet, including Noah. It came up to my knees. Fortunately, Jayden was standing close to him and caught him before the wave washed him back out. I'm not sure, but something told me we were being blessed by a greater power and Noah may have been washed out to sea if I hadn't felt nervous and made him get closer to me. There is no way he could have run as fast as his brothers did. Jaron and Noah were most upset about it and ran shivering to the car. Jaron had been pulled completely under and had a heavy fleece sweater on. He thought he was going to drown. I wanted to get them out fast because I then realized we were up against a cliff and if the tide came in anymore we would not have an escape route. Needless to say, we lost 2 jackets and 2 pair of shoes. Jayden was able to recover both of his shoes.
Here are the soaked boys in the back of the van. We stripped Noah of his clothes and wrapped him in a blanket, because he couldn't quit shivering and we worried about hypothermia. He didn't want his picture taken. We headed straight to the nearest Payless Shoe Store compliments of our GPS. I love our Magellan! It took us straight there. The boys were so sandy and cold Matt went in and bought 2 new pair of shoes for Noah and Ben.
Of course, it rained on the way back to town and this is what we saw. I took it from inside the window so it has weird streaks in it.

This is a clearer picture of it. It was a gorgeous double rainbow that touched the ground at both ends.

We got back to our resort and put the kids directly into the shower. We put the younger boys in our shower and the older in the 2nd bathroom. I heard Jayden and Ben laughing really hard so I ran to the door and asked what was up. While Ben was shedding his clothes a pile of sand fell out of his underwear. I guess the waves that drenched him also left a sand deposit in his shorts. I had to take a picture of what I swept up. It gave us a good laugh. You would think he would have felt that on the way home, but he said he didn't. Sand sticks to everything so, of course, they each had to shampoo and scrub their hair twice to get rid of it. We managed to clog the master bathroom tub drain. Fortunately, our condo is equipped with a laundry room and a maintenance guy who unclogged the drain for us. I did a few loads of wash that day to get rid of all the sand.

We spent a day just hanging around Depoe Bay one day. Down town on main there was a whale watching place. It was closed that day, but we watched the waves and window shopped. There were these cute little squirrels everywhere. People fed them bread and nuts even though there were signs prohibiting it. The boys loved watching them and took some videos of them with their camera.

Further on we came to a pirate themed shopping area. The boys enjoyed playing on the mini ships and posed for pictures.
Jayden and Noah. My oldest and youngest.

This was a lighthouse that was near Depoe Bay. We could see it from our balcony. We decided to go visit it one day. It was amazing! They had it furnished with old bed frames and other antique furniture. They did a great job in restoring it. I thought it was neat the light still shines at night directing ships into the bay.
On our way to the coast we drove through Portland and then followed the coast south to our destination. There was a turn to the north that said, "Tillamook". Jokingly I asked Matt if he thought that's where they made Tillamook cheese. We were visiting with people in the hot tub at our resort one night and they told us that it was, indeed, the home of the Tillamook Cheese Factory. We decided that would be a great trip to take with the kids. It was one of the highlights of the trip!

We were mesmerized as we watched the machines and people move the cheese along belts and into packages.

If you've never tried Tillamook ice cream and you find it, you've got to try it. It's the best ice cream I've ever tasted! I've heard you can buy it at Winco. We are getting a new Winco in Layton. I think I'll check it out when it opens and get some more Tillamook ice cream. The cheese samples were to die for too.
Yum!!
And More Yum!!

On our last full day of vacation we decided to go down to another Worldmark resort and check out the beach and other surroundings. We found a delightful beach to play on.

The boys found plenty to do.

Like digging in sand like puppy dogs do...

...and climbing trees like monkeys do!

This was the most beautiful day we had there. Look at that dark blue ocean!

Our plan was to go whale watching and deep sea fishing. It was so stormy the whole time the charter boats couldn't take us out. As you can see we had a lot of fun finding things to do on land...

...like digging a tunnel to China!

We almost lost him, but Dad gave him a helping hand and we got him back from the core of the earth.

Noah dug his own impressive hole.

Jaron also took his trip to China!

Some teenagers came before us and were building this "hut" or whatever you want to call it. Jaron was so impressed with it he wanted his picture taken by it. Quite a crude shelter, but a shelter nonetheless.

As you can see we saw some beautiful views, spent a lot of time with our boys, and had a relaxing vacation. That's just what we needed for Spring Break.

On a hike one day we happened upon this "octopus tree". It was so impressive I had to include it in our blog.

We found this rock while out walking to another beautiful lighthouse. I'm glad the zoom on our camera is so good. I was able to get close enough to see the hole in the rock quite well.

The Oregon Coast

2010-04-23T18:51:00.000-07:00

For Spring Break we took the boys to the Oregon coast. We've never been up there. We heard that we could watch the whales and go deep sea fishing so we were excited to go. I know this picture is dark, but I want to show you the view of where we stayed. This is a condo we made arrangements to stay in. It is a great place with a kitchen, and laundry area, 2 bedrooms, and a pull out bed in the living area. The view of the ocean was amazing! It was a great place to stay as we toured the coast. We love our Worldmark ownership!

Below is a picture of our balcony view. Gorgeous, isn't it?

Worldmark had 3 swimming areas for us. This was our favorite since it has a view of the ocean. The pools were heated and they had a great hot tub for us wimpy adults that don't enjoy luke warm water so much.

It rained everyday we were there, but there were snatches of time when the rain would stop and the sun would come out. There was only one day it was really cold. The rest of the time we wore jackets comfortably. I am sad to say we didn't get to go whale watching or deep sea fishing. There were too many storms on the coast that made it too dangerous for the charter boats to take us. The morning we packed up to go home we saw several of those boats head out. What a bummer. We did, however, enjoy many things on our trip.

There were so many cool looking bridges in Oregon. I guess it's because there are so many rivers, streams, and bays on the coast. This is one of the bridges we went over as we drove south to Florence to see the Sea Lion Caves.

As we drove we'd stop and look at the overlooks to see the gorgeous views. They were never-ending and breath taking!!

One question: When did Jayden grow as tall as me? I swear it was just yesterday we brought him home from the hospital brand new.

Another gorgeous view! I think we may blow this photo up and frame it.

This is one of the many light houses we saw in Oregon. They say this is one of the most photographed lighthouses in the world. We could see it from an opening in the cave, but this was taken after we left the cave.

Here are the famous Sea Lion Caves near Florence, Oregon. Amazingly, we walked down a path and saw sea lions swimming in the ocean everywhere. When we got to the end of the path we entered an elevator. As we descended it showed that we went down 200 ft. The doors opened to an amazing cave. Here is what we found--hundreds of sea lions!

I failed to mention the smell of the sea lion cave. When the doors of the elevator opened a nasty smell descended upon us. Noah immediately plugged his nose and wanted to leave the whole time we were there. This picture was taken just before we entered the elevator to go back up to the surface after being in the cave for 30 minutes. He was NOT impressed with the odor of the cave and the 200+ sea lions.

We took this as we left the Sea Lion Cave. I love the colors! Yes, that is the ocean below, not the sky.

Father and Son

Another cool bridge on the south side of Newport.

I love this picture of Matt. I think he is the most handsome man alive!!
I think I'll take a break from my post today. I still have a few days worth of pictures left. I'll post more another day. As you can see we enjoyed the first couple days of our trip.

The Nailbiting is Over!

2010-04-01T11:44:00.000-07:00

Most of you, especially my closest friends and family know that I've bitten my nails for years; even since I was 4 years old. All my life I would get sick of hearing my mom say, "Quit biting your nails." "Get your fingers out of your mouth." I wish I had listened to her, but instead I rebelled and did it anyway.

When I got to high school my best friend had the prettiest natural nails. She could grow them really long and they'd never break. She always painted them a cute pink. I wouldn't paint mine because I didn't want to draw attention to my stubby nails. I tried to quit biting several different ways. I would tell people to remind me when they saw me biting them, put nasty tasting stuff on them, try rewarding myself, put clear polish on as a reminder...all to no avail. I would sit down to watch a movie and not even know I was biting my nails until the movie was over and I'd be back to the drawing board.

We moved back to Utah in December of 2006, the year of my marathon. I had set my goal of running a marathon and had achieved it successfully. I decided if I could run a marathon, surely I could quit biting my nails. In January 2008 I decided that I'd try acrylic nails for a year. It was a new expense and I'd put it off for a year, but Matt was willing to let me try it since he'd been watching me try everything else. Matt will do anything for me. I hope all of you readers are as lucky as I am to have a very supportive husband in everything I do.

All of 2008 I enjoyed going to the spa to have my nails fixed every 3 weeks. It took some time out of my schedule, but I decided to use it as "me" time and really enjoy it. I loved the looks of my pretty hands. I hadn't ever experienced that!

January, 2009 rolled around. I decided to have the acrylics taken off. I did very well for the first 2 weeks. No biting...well, once in awhile I'd catch myself with my fingers in my mouth, but then I'd remember and quit. They started breaking when they got a little longer due to the damage of the acrylics, and I'd find myself biting them again. I decided I'd try another year of acrylic nails.

After Christmas this year I decided to just grow the acrylics out and see what happened when my natural nails grew in. I wondered if my nails would be stronger if I did that? Lo and behold...ta da!! I did so much better. I have not bitten my nails since January 1st this year. I'm sad to say just as they grow out the the length I like them, they end up breaking off and I have to file them and start over, but I no longer have sore, ugly fingernails. Yay!! I hope to find a way to keep them from breaking soon. I feel such a sense of accomplishment. We can all do anything we set our minds to. It just takes thought, planning, sacrifice, and time. This may seem like a silly thing to some people, but I hope this will inspire many of you to set your goals and achieve them. You can do it!!

Super Coupons!

2010-03-23T12:57:00.000-07:00

I recently started following a blog. You've probably seen the big, green button on my blog list; Savvy Sister Shops. This is a friend of mine from high school. We haven't seen each other in over 10 years, but recently met up on Facebook and we started following each others blogs.

At first I was skeptical. I've cut coupons and found some pretty good deals over the years, but decided I used a lot of coupons to buy things I normally wouldn't buy. As I watched Heather's blog over a few weeks I kept seeing her point out free and very cheap items. I asked her some questions and got on board. I ordered a newspaper subscription with the thought of just trying it. I pay $20 a month for a daily paper plus I get 5 Sunday papers full of coupons. Not a bad deal, especially when they told me I could cancel my subscription at any time. I figured $20 was not a big loss, especially when I received a $10 gift card from Smith's for subscribing. That would be a loss of $10 if I didn't save anything else.

Heather's blog points out all the good deals out there for us to go get. It's so much fun to go into a store to come out feeling like I got some awesome deals. Over the last 3 weeks I've watched my short term food storage shelves fill up.

I went to Family Fresh Foods in South Odgen today with another friend who is trying this. The great thing about this grocery store is they double coupons. That is where we get a lot of free or next to nothing items.

I paid $32 with tax for all these groceries today. You can't see all these items, but there are 6 pounds of ground sausage, 3 boxes of cereal, 4 boxes of crackers, 2 Freshetta Pizzas, 2 large bunches of bananas, 4 Philadelphia cream cheeses, 2 Welch grape juices, 3 pounds of butter, 2 bags of pretzels, 2 bags of Cheetos, Dijon mustard, 2 12 packs of string cheese, and a gallon of bleach. I figured it would have cost me over $70 if I had bought these same items without the coupons. I added up all the coupons I used and with the doubling saved $36. Each pound of butter I bought today was 19 cents; the 2 12 pack string cheese $1each; the Welch's Grape Juice $1; the 6 pounds of sausage, 25 cents each. Amazing, huh?

It does take some work, and I think if I had a little toddler it might not be worth the trouble to stand in the store trying to figure out these coupons. I am at a time in life I can go shopping without my kids and I'm having such fun saving money. Heather showed me her organized way of clipping and keeping coupons and since I've organized mine it takes a lot less time. I just added up the coupons I've used over the last 3 weeks and found I've saved $154. That's not including the sales I've shopped--just the manufacturer and store coupons. If you live in the SL area and want to find the deals go to the SavvySisterShops blog from my page.

Happy Birthday Jaron!!

2010-03-15T09:25:00.001-07:00

My 3rd son, Jaron, turns 10 years old on March 17th, St. Patrick's Day. He loves his birthday and everything Irish. I saw this cake on a blog and thought it was so cute. It goes perfectly with the St. Patricks theme as we think of the gold at the end of the rainbow. Jaron was so excited to have me make this cake. I doesn't look like a lot on the outside, but wait until the end of the post to see the surprise!

For his birthday Jaron chose to go ice skating with his buddies. His brother, Ben, took his friends ice skating for his birthday party. Jaron had such a great time he decided to do a repeat. That happens a lot. He looks up to his older brothers.

His friend in the photo above had never been on skates before and fell a lot at first. He hit his head about 5 times in the 90 minutes we were there, but didn't receive a concussion. I was so worried that we should have worn helmets, but we were lucky to only receive a few bumps and bruises.
Here are most of them smiling at me behind the glass. It's so hard to get pictures there so this was the best I could do.

A couple of the boys had never been skating, but here they are doing just fine after some practice.

Here is the whole group at the end of the skating. As much as they fell they wanted to come back again to skate with their families.
Here is a picture of Jaron and his brothers lighting the candles. Noah is really into crossing his eyes for pictures. He follows Ben's lead. I'm sure Ben would have pulled the same face, but he's too busy being a pyromaniac.
The Birthday Boy!

I told you at the end you'd see the surprise in the cake. The boys were thoroughly impressed and so was I! It was 2 cake mixes and a lot of work, but worth it. Jaron was so happy with it. Happy Birthday my 10 year old boy!

On a side note, here is something that shows you what kind of kid Jaron is. He is such a comedian. I came home from a walk one day to see this plate. I'm thinking...what happened? Did they glue it together hoping I wouldn't notice?

I turned it over and found this....I had the biggest laugh I'd had in a long time. My first guess was Jaron, since would do something like that. Yep...I was right. Jaron fixed the plate up himself with Scotch tape.

The BEST HUSBAND

2010-02-15T12:20:00.000-08:00

I must say I have the BEST HUSBAND in the world! We've been saying since we moved in that we need to get storage shelves up in the storage rooms. We've lived here 3 years, and finally, Matt got a wild hair a couple weeks ago, and decided to go for it. This is our furnace room and what it looked like before we got started.

WHAT A MESS!! Right??

Ahhhh! Empty and clean, but needs some shelves for some organization.

Noah had a blast stacking little blocks left over from Matt's work.

TA DAAAAAAA!!!!

Organization of our food storage!!!

Nice, huh? Matt does great work!!

On to the second storage room under the stairs. It was not even sheet rocked.

Matt put up sheet rock and floor to ceiling shelves. We have our 1 year dry food storage and still room to spare on our shelves!

I am so excited and impressed! Thanks Matt for being such a wonderful husband. You are the BEST!!

Ben's Big Year

2010-01-24T21:23:00.001-08:00

This week was Ben's 12th birthday. We were going to go sledding since the weatherman forecast 3 storms before the big day. We did get storms, but they mostly came in the form of rain. On Friday, the day before the sledding party we decided we'd better get a back up plan. We found out Bountiful Recreation Center had an ice rink open to the public.

It actually did snow a good 3-4 inches that night, but by then Ben decided he'd never been ice skating and that might make a really fun party.

We packed up 12 boys~8 of Ben's buddies and 3 of his brothers and headed over to Bountiful for the afternoon.

At first Noah was a little shaky. But as you will see from the following pictures, he got very brave.

By the end he was doing tricks, falling down without fear, and loving it! The older boys did very well since they are used to rollerblading all the time.

They all had a great time!

We drove back home and ate pizza, sang Happy Birthday to Ben, opened presents, and of course, had cake and icecream.

This was Ben's special year. Turning 12 is a turning point for a young man in our church. He was ordained to be a deacon by his father, who received authority from the Bishop to perform this ordinance. Ben now holds the Aaronic priesthood, which means he passes the sacrament to the congregation each week and will have duties including gathering fast offerings from families in our ward each month. He is very excited about this and will be a great priesthood holder. Congratulations Ben on this great step you are taking in becoming a responsible young man and leader in the future. We love you!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

2009-12-27T13:45:00.000-08:00

We had a glorious Christmas this year spending lots of time with both sides of the family. Matt's brother, Aaron, his wife, Sandra, their kids, Sandra's parents from Brazil, and Matt's Grandma Mullins are visiting from Atlanta. They flew in a week before Christmas and spent 2 days at our house prior to Christmas. We had a great time going to temple square, making goodies, watching movies, and having some fun cousin time with the kids. Here is my 17 year old nephew, Lewis, standing by our 7 foot tree. He is about 6 ft. 4 and still growing.

Jonathon, Matt, Grandpa Mullins, and Lewis as they are waiting for our family Christmas Eve program to begin. We always have each family share a musical number, read a story, or have a small presentation, Grandpa reads the Christmas story out of the scriptures, and then we usually have a pinata. This year was a little different because Anona's kids were with their dad. We didn't feel right breaking the pinata without them.

Matt's parents relaxing after dinner and our Christmas Eve program. If you'll notice the background in each picture they have a unique house. They live in the Old Grist Mill at the mouth of Manti Canyon. It was remodeled into a house and used as a Bed & Breakfast for awhile. They bought it several years ago and we have enjoyed the tradition of spending Christmas Eve and Christmas morning there. It has 8 bedrooms and 9 bathrooms. There is plenty of space for the Mullins clan to meet there on any occasion.

Ben, Jayden, and Chris' son, Jonathon, trying not to pull faces at mom while she snaps a few pictures of cousin time

My sister-in-law, Sandra and her parents who came to America from Brazil for Christmas. Her father Dihnno, had never seen snow until he landed at the SLC airport. He doesn't like the cold, but thinks the snow is beautiful.

Two of my Mullins sisters-in-law--Sandra and Lisa, who is Chris' wife, and Sandra's daughter, Brittani, my sweet niece.

Uncle Aaron loves chasing and teasing my boys. Jaron was not particularly happy to be picked up at that moment. He is getting old enough that he knows it will hurt if Uncle Aaron drops him.

Noah loves all his uncles who will chase and play with him.

We wanted a four generation picture while we had the boys' Great Grandmother with us. We got a better one later without me in it, but I don't have a copy yet. Here is a picture of our family with Matt's dad and his Grandma Mullins. Grandma is 93 years old and will probably never get back to Utah on account of her health and age. This will be a picture we will cherish forever.

Jayden and Noah on Christmas morning at Grandma and Grandpa Mullins' house in Manti before the hoopla of opening all those presents with their cousins.

Lewis and Ben just chillin' before opening the presents Christmas morning.

Brittani loves Noah and Noah loves Brittani!

Jayden got a unicycle for Christmas. Matt decided to ask for one with him. Stay tuned for future posts of injuries they are sure to receive from riding those contraptions this year.

This is Matt's brother Chris and his wife Lisa. I think you will notice the resemblance between Matt and Chris. I almost got them mixed up one time when we were on a camp-out. Fortunately I was spared embarrassment and realized before I cuddled up to him that he was Chris and not my sweetheart, Matt. Whew!

I am sad to report that I came down with a horrendous cold starting on Christmas Eve, which grew worse on Christmas Day. We went to Greenwich to visit the Curtis family, but I was so sick I never got my camera out. I will have to make up for that next year. I did get a lot of family group pictures of the Curtis family on Thanksgiving weekend. Here is the family picture we took in my parents backyard that weekend. Christmas is all about family. I just love all the warm feelings I have toward my family and friends at this time of year, and the opportunity to share that love with them through serving and giving.

Mele Kalikimaka Means Merry Christmas to you!!

2009-12-11T20:06:00.000-08:00

We had a Hawaiian Christmas Ward Luau last Saturday. It was so much fun, even in a few inches of snow. It was held in the ward building. There were about 300 in attendance so it was wall-to-wall people. We ate BBQ pork and chicken and a yummy watermelon/pineapple mixture. Wow was it good! I got a lot of pictures, but the lighting was terrible so the pictures aren't great. I still want to post what I got.

Our good buddies, The Denson Family

Two cute Hawaiian Girls~Katie & Kaylie

Jen, Josh and Wil

Newbees to our ward, Matthew and Emily

Noah's Primary Teacher, Kristi and her cute kids, Abby & Marshall. She is the best teacher ever!
Iversons! They have the best boys.

Jason & Angela--They are in Hawaii right now. Lucky ducks!

Warren & Brenda~What a sweet couple

Bruce and Angie~Newlyweds

Jim & Deanna~I serve in the Relief Society Presidency with her. She is the best!

A photo of the "fam" with Santa on the beach. Noah was not so sure about sitting on his lap though.

Karla & Ashley~don't we have the cutest girls in our ward?

Janel & Chris~parents of Noah's good buddy, Jacob

Terry & Becky

Our across the street neighbors and great friends, Kristina & Daniel~We love them and their cute family!
Sherrie & Dan~He was a former Bishop in our ward. Sherrie is the best musician I know. She can play anything at the drop of a hat on the piano and organ.

Jen, Deby & Dave

Kevin, Blake, Angela & Janice~ our close neighbors. Blake just got off a mission to Brazil. Angela is headed to BYU Hawaii in January. She is sooooo excited!
My good friends Jenni and Kristina. They each had babies in September. Aren't Mary and Camdon the cutest babies ever?

Sheron & Dallin with her brother-in-law, who is also in our ward, Russ and Emily

Leslie and her cute kids, Carter, Chloe, and Luke. Luke is Noah's best bud, and Carter is my best bud. He is so dang cute!

James (Mr. Smiles), Chris, Jen, and Emily. James is usually so shy, but I asked him to smile and he did!

Blair and Karalee~He's our dentist and she is a go getter! I just love them both.

This is Noah and his best buds! This was at the end of the night and they were starting to run in circles like Wild Men. I made them stop to take this picture~

Our Stake President, President McKay and his wife Jennifer with Becky, our Bishop's wife and their daughter, Rachel.

As you can see, I took a lot of pictures. Sorry I hope this didn't get to be too many pictures. Every time I move to a different ward I think they are the best people ever.

I have one last video to share with you. We had Hawaiian dancers that did the hula and a man that did the fire dance. He was brave enough to do it out in the snow since we couldn't light the fire in the church. He called it, "The Fire and Ice Dance". It was way cool!

When it was over our boys were yelling, "That was sooo awesome!" Noah wondered when we could see that again. We told him we'd have to save our money and go to Hawaii to see it done on the beach. The next day at church we sat by the Kamalu's who put the whole thing together. He looked at Layne and asked me,"Now we are still going to that place we can watch the guy dance with fire, right?" I told him we would, but it may be awhile before we get there. Here's to the DREAM!!

The Relief Society Quilt

2009-11-19T21:29:00.000-08:00

This past week has been an amazing one. Our former bishop, Bishop Fullmer, has been battling liver cancer for the past two years. He is an amazingly optimistic man and has fought a good fight. He is still fighting a good fight, but he is at the point that he is too weak to keep treating the cancer. He has short term goals set for himself everyday and long term goals that include the whole year. He never gives up. Our ward really loves him and wanted to do something special for him. We decided to make a quilt sewn with our love. Each woman in our ward was asked to purchase a small piece of fabric that matched her taste. Our great friend and talented quilter, Deby Smith, sewed a beautiful patchwork top. Another woman in our ward, Linda Vandolzer, stitched a beautiful poem, written by another lady, Vicki Wright, onto the back of the quilt. For two 12-hour days many of the women in our ward showed up in my basement where we set up the quilt frame to sew stitches into the quilt. We had such a great time visiting and making a work of art. Here are a few pictures of the work in progress:

Here is a picture of our final product before Deby bound it. It turned out so beautiful after the binding was added, but I didn't get a picture of that.

Three other women in our ward and I presented the quilt to Bishop tonight. He and Sandy were so thankful and appreciative of the time spent on the quilt. We gave them hugs and sent our love from our ward members. They sent their love back to all of us. It was a great opportunity to serve this week.

The Amazing Halloween Race

2009-10-24T20:51:00.000-07:00

Last year I hosted a Halloween Party with my friend Brooke. This is not just any Halloween Party. You could say it is "The Amazing Race--Halloween Style". It took 6 weeks of planning, a little stress, and a ton of creativity and imagination. We posed as anonymous witches named Wanda and Wilma Witch. We sent about 26 invitations out to 26 couples in our neighborhood. We explained that this would be a race and they would be placed on teams. They had to respond via e-mail since we were not going to give them our identities. We thought that about 2/3 of them would respond with a "yes", but we only got about 50%. This gave us 13 couples when we wanted 18. We made 1 team of 4 couples and 3 teams of 3 couples. The night went off without a hitch. Brooke and I lied our heads off as we were among the couples on the race. We had a blast and ended at the final destination, my back yard. We ate chili, donuts, and cocoa while we sat around the fire and talked about the crazy things we ran into during the race. Brooke and I finally revealed ourselves and everyone was so surprised--well, some of them had wondered if it was me since it ended in my backyard. I promised myself I would never host another Wanda-Wilma witch party since it was so much work and everyone would guess it was me. Half the fun is remaining anonymous and listening to everyone talk about the party beforehand. It's a lot of fun to get away with lying too since it's not in my nature to do it. Hee Hee! I love being a lying witch.

This year Brooke was moving into a new home and was not able to help me do the party. I was glad since I said I'd never do it again; however, she told my new neighbor, Angee about last years party. Angee asked if I'd help her and Brooke told us we could use the party stuff she'd saved if I decided to do it again. Silly me--I decided I'd try it again. We invited mostly people who didn't get invited or didn't get to attend last year. This time we invited 34 couples hoping we'd get 18 couples to come. We were afraid we might get more than 50% and we only had enough stuff to hide for 6 teams. We ended up with 16 couples. We did 1 team of 4 couples and 4 teams of 3 couples. We decided to choose different locations and try a few new tricks. Before I tell you about the new tricks and the night here are a couple pictures of our team. We dressed as the Scooby Gang. Matt and I were Velma and Shaggy, the Cutwrights went as Fred and Daphne, and the Dyers went as Scooby and a 70's chic. I think Fred and Daphne look the best!!

We also painted our van as "The Mystery Machine". It was so much fun driving around town in that thing. It made us feel authentic. We were mimicking the Scooby Gang a lot of the night. Here is a photo of the van the next morning. Unfortunately, it was dark and we were racing that night and never got a picture of us standing in front of it. I will be forever glad that Mark did not ram our coveted Mystery Machine as he was trying to beat us to our next destination...that boy is so competitive!!

Our first destination was the ice cream shop on Kaysville Main. We had to order a sundae and eat the whole thing to get the next clue. That was easy and yummy. Here is Fred taking huge bites as we enjoyed it. Shaggy is allergic to milk and Scooby is diabetic--bet you didn't know that. So the remaining 4 of us got to eat their share. Yum!! I wish we'd had time to enjoy it more. It was delish!

We went on to more fun, carousing around the Castle Park Hollow Trail, and Layton City Park, and Farmington Pond looking for clues with our GPS and keen minds. The clues were cleverly written--I must be sooo clever since I'm the secret witch who wrote half of them. Hee Hee! Three of the teams did not get the snakes from the Layton Park since they didn't have GPS's that would read exact coordinates--they only had car GPS's. When I say "snakes", I forgot to mention that we were gathering the ingredients for the Witches Brew which we would add to a large cauldron at our final destination. At each location we found a different ingredient to add to our cauldrons. We found snakes, rats, skeletons, eye balls, frogs, and spiders.

To make a long and fun night short I'll tell you about the final and best clue of the night. The most clever clue we found was at the cemetery, but that's not the best part...the best part is when we arrived 2 more teams were there trying to figure it out the next clue. We witches had cleverly tied small skeletons to a small package of peanut M&M's. There was no note on the clue, but the prior clue leading to the cemetery said to search through our candy. Everyone was thinking the M&M's looked sealed, but they opened them and found nothing. My team ate all the M&M's. I was trying not to give away anything so I watched them eat them, hoping they would find what I hid inside. Let's back up to my clever planning before the party night.

I had carefully opened each small package of M&M's without ripping the paper. I then microwaved one M&M per package until they cracked open, pried the peanut out, hid a tiny paper clue inside, and glued the M&M back together. I then stuck a tampered M&M into each package, and sealed each package again with the Elmer's glue. I did not know this was possible until someone suggested it on the internet. Many Peanut M&M's were sacrificed by my experimentation on this clearly, brilliant idea. It TOTALLY works!! No one suspected; many ate M&M's, paper, glue, and all, including my team since I couldn't say a word! We waited for the next team to arrive who finally found the paper clue inside that simply said, "Ruffles have ......" The final destination was to be in our neighbors, "The Ridges" backyard. I came up with that clue...I feel so brilliant! The funny thing is The Ridges were on a team, standing there with us, and had no clue the party was going to end up in their back yard. Matt came up with the idea to frame another guest so they wouldn't guess one of the witches was me. It TOTALLY worked!! Everyone now thought it was Laurie Ridges and her dear sister, Brooke, who did the party last year with me!! It was so perfect and I am so good at lying, no one suspected me anymore.

Here are some pictures at the party after Angee and I identified ourselves. Most of our guests had removed their cute costumes by the end, but some of them kept them on.

Layne as "Little Red Riding Hood" and his cute wife Lorene as "The Wolf"

Ben, Makenzy, Jill, and Laurie--the one who was blamed for being a "witch"

Jill & Randy, and Roger as Mr. Incredible--his wife is Angee, my partner
in crime. She dressed as Elasti-Girl. I feel bad we didn't
pose in a picture together as "Zona & Zelda Witch"

I loved this picture. If you look closely, Lori has a ghost shadow of her face. Jenn is looking at her very strangely. I thought it looked hilarious that maybe Jenn was seeing her ghost. It was a totally random shot. Freaky, nonetheless!

Ann & Mike--the "Loonies" of our Ward, or shall I say Mike is the Loony of our Ward? I love these two. I cannot help but laugh when I am in their presence. Such fun people! Glad you could come and just enjoy it Ann. Ann told me she used to do these parties all the time. It is fun, but such craziness in planning and presenting it.

Brent and Brandon--being manly men and eating donuts

Brooke, my Partner in Crime last year dressed as a detective, "How clever is that?" and Sheron as Red Riding Hood

Julie and Kris enjoying a chat by the fire

Our great friends, Jeff & Julie Limb

Our recently new, cute friends, Dave and Lori Dyer dressed as Scooby and a 70's "Chicky" as I called her.

My big regret last year is I didn't get pictures because I thought it would give my identity away. This year I decided I had an alibi that last year I didn't get pictures so this year I was going to get them for myself and whoever the witches were. They would be thanking me if I got pictures. I'm so glad I did. I wish there would have been time for pictures during the race, but it was chaos and a lot of running most of the time.

I hope you enjoy my short log of our fun night. If any of you want to do something similar to this just ask. Brooke found a website that makes things a lot easier to set up. This year was easier because we already had the stuff to hide, thanks to Brooke, and I had some insight from last year to help me this year. What a great night it was!