Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! Nate was sweet to have flowers delivered two days before, while he was still in Boston. The roses are a deep red and came with a beautiful red vase. I LOVE having flowers delivered to me. It makes me feel so special and loved. They couldn't have come at a better time. I was having a horrible day dealing with the 2 children from H-E-double hockey sticks. ha ha

In the morning Elise and I braved the massive amount of traffic getting to school. Because of the nasty storm the night before, school didn't start till 11:00 am. This only gave morning kindergarten 1 hour of school. We spent it passing out Valentine's. I found it quite comical to see that each Valentine card came with candy too. I remember when I was in elementary school we'd pass out cards and felt lucky if we got 1 or 2 pieces of candy total.

We decided not to get big gifts Valentine's gifts this year. I made a cute candy bar card with poster board for Nate and he asked for a massage. He got me the roses and a box of my favorite chocolates--Mrs. Field's (so yummy!)--plus a crossword puzzle book. For the kids we gave them cards and Nate bought a new family game, Disney's Scene It, 2nd Edition. Elise and Brady received a package from Nana and Papa. They each got a new puzzle, Elise--Disney Fairies (100 piece) and Brady--Disney Cars (24 piece). Amazingly, they both figured out how to put them together on their own! We took pics of them proudly displaying their achievements and emailed the photos along with a pic that had a message to Nana and Papa and their cute, smiling faces.

For dinner, we ventured out to Applebee's (our family's favorite!). We thought we left early enough to beat the crowd's but not so. It was an hour wait! So instead, we went over to IHOP, which wasn't busy at all. (gee, I wonder why? Note the sarcasm.) It was good for what it was.

Anyhoo, now it's time to look forward to my and Nate's 8th anniversary coming on March 10th!

The Storm of the Year!

February 13th--Holy Schnickey's! The storm was INSANE! I drove to work at 4:15 pm and the storm was in full motion. Luckily, I only work about a 1/2 a mile away but still, visibility was maybe 20 feet. Very scary! I went home early because my last massage appointment was still stuck in traffic. Nate was on a business trip and after 2 different delays he landed at around 7:00 pm. He got in his compact car (with no 4WD) and set out to get home. At 10:30 pm, he made it to the round-about in Lehi and called home. I thought it would be best for him to just go the few blocks to his brothers house and spend the night. It's a good thing since the roads up to Eagle Mountain were closed. At 10:00 pm I got a call from a member of the bishopric to start a calling tree in our ward. The Stake President had been receiving calls from members of the stake saying children were still home alone because parents hadn't made it home yet. The calls I made were astonishing, most husbands were still not home. Fortunately, to my knowledge, all made it home safely---it just took a really long time! Nate made it home safely this morning. I gotta admit, I've never seen a storm like this before!

Primary Activity--Part 1

February 9th--Our first Primary activity of the year! As a Primary presidency, my counselors, secretaries and I thought it would be great to start out with a service project. We know how difficult it is to get volunteers to clean the church so we volunteered the Primary to clean two weeks in a row. The first Saturday was all children with the last name starting from A-M. We had a pretty small turnout but plenty of adults came (thanks to my presidency and all the teachers who helped!) and we got the job done. I decided to vacuum and that was quite a chore with all the rock salt everywhere from the sidewalks. Elise helped clean bathrooms (she loved it so much she came home and cleaned her own toilet! WOOHOO!). Brady, Elise and Nate emptied all the garbages from the classrooms. All the children went home with a super yummy Granny B's cookie--complete with the pink frosting and sprinkles. Since there was a small turnout they all got to take 2 home--lucky! I was so touched by all the children and their willingness to serve, they did a great job and worked so hard. Next week the other half of the Primary will come help clean and we're hoping for a much larger turn out!

Operation, anyone?

January 26th--Nate and the kids brought up "Simpsons" Operation, from the basement. Neither of the kids had played before and didn't quite know what to expect. When Nate and I were younger, touching the metal with the tweezers would give you a little jolt--not this one. Perhaps other parents might understand that on rare, occassional moments we parents enjoy being a little evil and because of that we were hoping to capture a reaction from the kids when they got a little jolt. he he he This game just lights up when you don't get the little plastic body part. Even so, when the light came on Brady would dart to the other room in fear. Elise would plug her ears. They were both so incredibly nervous and scared for that light to come on! Hilarious! By the way, Nate and I tied for 1st place. I don't think the kids will pick this game again, anytime soon!

A Perfect Day to Clean the Basement!

January 19th--Today was a great day to clean the family room down in the basement. We discovered a good majority of the toys the kids don't even play with anymore, let alone care about so we got a great big box and filled it full with toys to take to the D.I. Along the way, Elise and Brady found many "surprises", toys they had forgotten about but insisted they must keep them. Among these "beloved", yet forgotten, toys they discovered sunglasses they hadn't played with since the dawn of time. After a few little tantrums we decided to let them keep the sunglasses. They wore them around the house the whole rest of the day. And now, they are, again, no where to be found and our children could care less. Imagine that!

Brady turns 3!

Yes, Brady actually turned 3 on January 11th but I'm playing "catch-up" and I can't figure out how to change dates on this thing. We decided to return to Jungle Jim's Playhouse, in Midvale, for his birthday. He loved it so much last year and we knew he would again. The thing I absolutely love about this place the most is that we would spend as much to have a party at our house plus have to do the setting up and cleaning up. Instead we got pizza, drinks, ride passes, game tokens and some other fun things and I didn't have to lift a finger for much of anything--gotta love that! I recommend this place for anyone. The only downside is the pizza, it was a little on the cardboard-ish side and while the Souper Salad next store does carry-out, you can't bring any food into Jungle Jim's but birthday cake. If you're trying to eat healthy, this is not the place to go. All the adults were craving that delicious salad bar next door! Brady decided he wanted a Tonka truck birthday cake this year. He's really into cars and trucks lately and that's a good majority of what he got for presents too. His favorite gift came from his aunt Alishia. It's a Home Depot truck he can ride on and it comes with an adorable hard-hat plus plenty of buttons that make annoying sounds (she thought of me when she saw all the buttons and how I would "love" hearing all the obnoxious noises over and over again knowing we couldn't make it an outside toy for another 3 or 4 months!).

The men in our large group were pleasantly surprised to see Jazz player, Deron Williams, a few tables over enjoying a birthday party with some friends or family. He was there the whole time we were and none of them had the guts to go over and shake his hand. I think he would have appreciated that more than all of them staring him down every where he went, most of the time. It was adorable to see him enjoying some family time with his wife and cute little girl.

Brady had a great birthday--he is such a blessing to us. He endures so much with Type 1 Diabetes but he's strong and we know Heavenly Father watches over him. Below is some fun photos from Jungle Jim's.

A new year and it's time to join the blog trend!

Okay, so yes, I'm starting this in the middle of February but I'll begin in January. The truth be told, I hate scrapbooking--it frustrates me to no end to work 2 hours and only get 3 pages done!--and the last time I wrote in a journal was when I had a major crush on a missionary serving in my ward and I was 16--wow, he was so gorgeous.........my dad was Ward Mission Leader which meant he and his companion came over to our house A LOT! .........I need a moment.......ahhhhh, memories! Alright, alright, so back to living in the now. I decided to start a blog to be better at keeping up on things. I'm making a fresh start with 2008 and hope I can keep up. If not, maybe I can recruit my husband to help out too. For those of you that read this, perhaps you can help me out by giving me friendly reminders to update if I fall behind. I also accept rude reminders........but that just means I get to be rude back! ha ha