Second Chance Prom

I can honestly say that I never thought I would be returning to high school to attend PROM! Apparently our local high school has an annual "second chance" prom so our group of friends decided... oh, why not! We even sprung for the limo! We went out to dinner...

We stopped downtown to get some pictures taken...

Then we danced, danced, danced.... Looks like we are all havin' a good time!

Yea... we are totally crazy! I promise the only thing in those glasses is Sparkling Cider, but I'm pretty sure the limo driver thought there was a lot more than that! He even said- if you ever need another limo, please request me to be your driver. I'm not sure if that means he thought we were funny or what! I thought it would be a ridiculous way to spend the evening but I was floored when we saw about 500 or more people there. Apparently there were lots of other couples wanting to have a "second chance" at prom too! I'm grateful for good, fun friends and the chance to laugh 'til my belly hurt!

Thirty-Two.... What????

Yea- I'm officially old! My birthday was awesome though. My family took me to Red Robin for dinner where the kids got their faces painted- kinda freaky looking right? My darling kids are SO sweet- they secretly made a banner for my birthday and hung it up in the doorway and they wrote all kinds of nice things on it. Wow! They really do love me!
I got to spend my birthday with 4 of the most handsome men I know and one adorable little baby. Lucky me!!! Oh yea- I got spoiled as usual too. I got a new elliptical! I've been begging for one forever!

Girls Getaway!

I went with my in-laws on our 2nd annual girls weekend! It was so fun and relaxing. We played a ton of games, watched movies, ate a ton of food! laughed a lot and best of all relaxed! Don't ask what we were doing in all these pictures... we are crazy- that's all I can say :)

Can't wait for next year!!!!

Yikes I'm OLD!!

Another year older and wiser too... Isn't that how the primary birthday song goes? Well- I'm not sure if I'm any wiser but I'm definitely older- bummer! The boys gave me a great present- they did not fight with each other ALL day! It was a birthday miracle! I went out to dinner with my family and my parents. Since Ed is NOT a baker he bought a yummy ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins. Do you think the boys were just dying to blow out the candles for me?
Yea- it looked like we were going to burn the house down with that many candles!

Ed bought me a new video camera so I can take it to the hospital when we have the baby. He was so sweet and kept telling me happy birthday and wouldn't let me do anything. I think that's the best part of a birthday- being pampered 'cause it only happens ONCE a year :) Just kidding- Ed takes care of me all year long!

Girls Get-a-Way Weekend!

I went away last weekend to a cabin with all of Ed's sisters, mom, and sis-in-law. It was heavenly! We didn't do anything but laugh and play all weekend! Ressha and Meisha climbed up the wall.

They played a game called Flippin' Frogs. You have to flip frogs and make them land on a tree that rotates and a timer goes off and some of the frogs flip off. You'd have thought we brought the kids with us- he he!

We did nails...

Learned to make watches and jewelry...

Here's the finished product...

We ate constantly! Look at what all that food did to my belly. Ha ha! Actually, Cassi and I are due within a couple of weeks of eachother. Please excuse the no-make up, sweatpant look (hey we didn't have to try to impress anyone there- you better believe we stayed in sweats ALL day!)

A picture of all of us who was there: Shanda, Cassi, Jarae, Meisha, me, Varleen and Ressha.

Another picture...

Yea- there they were climbing again! What crazy girls. As for me- I kept my two feet firmly planted on the ground!

I seriously don't think I've laughed that hard in a LONG time. We played games all weekend and laughed and laughed! And sang "Relax... don't do it..." (Inside joke!) Did I mention that we ate.. a lot? It was a true girly weekend and I loved it! Can't wait for next year!!!

Lagoon!

Our company has an annual company party at LAGOON! We have so much fun every year. The kids are finally getting big enough to ride the rides so this year was especially fun!
All my handsome boys!

Ha ha ha ha!!! I took this picture because Ed got SO scared on one of the kiddie rides that he took Talen on that he wet his pants. Just kidding!!! That would be funny though- it just looks like he wet his pants. He actually took Talen on a ride that happened to splash water right on that particular spot on his pants. You better believe that I teased him about "wetting his pants!"

Look at that face! He wasn't too sure about MOST of the rides. He didn't even like very many of the kiddie rides but the slow moving ones were okay. He isn't quite the dare devil like his big brothers are. He gets it from his dad. Ed hates all rides. He only rides the sky ride (Talen's favorite ride) which is just like a going on a ski lift. BORING!!! Actually Ed gets really motion sick so he has to steer clear of anything that spins or moves fast- which pretty much rules out every big ride!

They are too funny! Look at those expressions. They had so much fun!

Talen was such a trooper- he stood by and watch while we went on rides all day without complaining even once. The only thing he asked for all day was some cotton candy. Sure- why not- what's Lagoon without the accompanying sugar high you get from all the junk food?

Me and Tegen went on EVERY fast roller coaster there was. I'm so happy to have a great little riding buddy. He didn't even get too scared.

We had so much fun and can't wait for next year! Tray is hoping to grow about 6 inches so that he can ride all the big roller coasters. I'm not sure if I should break the news now or later that a growth spurt like that is highly unlikely!

Our Ten Year Anniversary... Woo Hoo!

Wow! Time sure flies! I married my best friend on February 20, 1999. I feel so blessed to be married to such a wonderful person. He is truly an amazing father and husband and I feel so lucky to be married to him. He does so much for me and our family!

I scanned some of our wedding pictures in. I can't believe how young we both look- does that mean we look old now?

For our anniversary Ed's sister watched our boys... again... thanks Triska! and we went on a date. Originally we had planned to go on a cruise or other fun trip for our ten year but we decided to keep the money in the bank and do something here in town. We went out to eat and then went and stayed at a themed hotel room downtown. It was gorgeous. And guess what- yep, I forgot my camera. The room was so pretty if you want to see it go here. We stayed in the Rome room. When we arrived we had chilled sparkling cider and cheesecake to eat. There was a 8 foot projection t.v. that came down from the ceiling, there was a chromalighting tub (fancy name for jetted tub that has lots of different lights in it), and a huge steam shower room. It was such a gorgeous room. It was very elegant which is different than other times we have stayed at themed rooms. In the past we've done jungle type rooms so it was something different to not have the rain forest sounds and monkeys ooh ooh ahh ahhing over our heads. In the morning they brought us some juices, hot chocolate, cinnamon rolls, and fruit, granola and yogurt parfaits. It was such a relaxing fun night- and a bit cheaper than a cruise :)

Well we had a blast that night. And I am still completely in love with my hubby and can't wait to see what the next ten years brings us... I see visions of teenagers and consumption of tons of food since we have 3 boys, but it ought to be interesting anyway!

Yikes! The big 3-0...

Well, last Sunday I officially turned... gulp... 30! Yikes, that seems so old to me. I still can remember being in high school and it seemed that 30 year-old's were ancient. Now I'm one of them and I don't really feel a day over 18. Okay- maybe my maturity level has risen a bit, then again maybe not- but I really don't feel old at all!

My weekend started out fabulous! One of my best friends in the whole world, SueAnn, took me to the sneak peek at Red Robin for lunch. I had a delicious guacamole burger and onion rings and yummy pomegranite blueberry lemonade. Yummy! This was the first time I've ever been to a restaurant before it is open to the public. Fun!! Thanks again SueAnn!

On Saturday I decided that it's been a while since I've done a project in our home so I decided to paint my master bathroom and put up beadboard/wainscoating. I love how it turned out! Thanks to my hubby for always helping me out when I decide on a whim to tackle a project!

On Saturday night my sis-in-law, Triska, offered to watch our kids overnight so we could go on a date. So we loaded them up with their church clothes in tow and took off for a fun-filled night. We went to Pocatello and ate at Buddy's Italian restaurant. Yummy! Then we went to Lava Hot Springs and sat in the hot pools... Ah it was heavenly!

On Sunday we went to church, picked up our kids, then headed to my mom's for dinner. It was delicious! I was spoiled too! I got a new Ipod touch. It is SO much fun!!! A Shiatsu mat that you put in a chair and it massages your back. I love it! And I got an indoor electric grill from my parents. I can't wait to try it out. Grilling inside in the winter- what could be better than that?

Sorry there are no pictures of my fun times, but I think I was thinking... Do I really want to remember the day I turned 30??? Oh well! There will always be memories!

The Rainbow at the end of a storm!

I was able to capture this beautiful rainbow the other day. It was just a good reminder for me to remember that even though life may have storms and trials there is usually a "rainbow" at the end! Heavenly Father has blessed us with so many wonderful things in life that I tend to take for granted that I just wanted to stop for a minute and enjoy the rainbow!!

Our Mommy Vacation

It has taken me a while to post about our girls trip because I am having some computer/camera issues. I had to get these pictures from SueAnn because my camera decided to stop talking to computer! Oh well- I guess technology doesn't last forever- it looks like it's time to get a new camera. We had so much fun! I went with Mindy Smith, Katie Dennett, Misty Cooper and SueAnn Dabell. We went to Logan and ate at our friend from high school's restaurant called Hamilton's. If any of you ever make it down to Logan I definitely recommend eating there. It's awesome!

After eating at Hamilton's we headed down to Salt Lake. I apologize to my family and friends who I didn't get a chance to visit while we were there. We shopped and ate on Saturday and it was quite relaxing. We stayed up until 4:00 in the morning talking so we didn't really get our much needed sleep, but it was worth it!
On Sunday we went to the Little America Sunday Brunch. It was amazing! There was more food than you can even imagine... and every type of food that you can imagine. We ate for 2 hours! Then sadly our little vacation had to come to an end and we came home. It was so nice to get a way and relax for a couple of days. I must say thanks to my cute husband. When I got home the house was clean, he had dinner done and he was taking care of a sick kid. Tegen started throwing up on Sunday and Ed did a great job of taking care of him. I am so lucky!

The Cookin' Mama's!

Yea! Girls night out! Some new friends and I decided to start a recipe group. It was so much fun. Everybody brings enough of an assigned item of food such as drink, appetizer, main dish, side item or dessert to share. We ended up with a bunch of really good food and even better conversation. I know that cooking is not on everyone's priority list, but this is a really fun way to try to some new foods! I highly recommend getting a recipe group together because it is such a fun way to do a girls night out! We will be doing a recipe blog so check it out to see all the yummy things that we ate - the cookin' mama's

My Dinner Disaster!

Okay, so yesterday I worked really hard on a dinner for my family. I made cafe rio chicken and for a part of the recipe I needed to blend some ingredients which would later go into the rice. So I was blending away and suddenly I heard a clanking noise and I hurried and turned off the blender to see what was going on- oh no!!! The little plastic thing on the lid that is removable fell through- great! So I hurried and dumped all the contents out of the blender and tried to remove all of the plastic. Yea- I got it all- or so I thought.... We sat down to eat and Tray kept saying my rice is hard and Ed said it's just pieces of rice so keep eating. I took a bite- yep you guessed it- there was shards of plastic in our rice. My family thought I was trying to kill them. I was so sad because I had worked really hard on dinner and everything tasted so good- well... except for the plastic! I highly recommend this dinner. It is one of my favorites, but if you make it I recommend leaving OUT the plastic pieces! OOPS!!!!!!

MOTHERHOOD!

This was an email that I got today and thought that it was a great reminder of how important motherhood is and what a blessing it is to be trusted by Heavenly Father to raise sons and daughters of God and be able to teach them and love them while we are here on this earth!

This is a little reminder, of what a special job we all have!

A baby asked God, 'They tell me you are sending me to earth tomorrow, but how am I going to live there being so small and helpless?' God said, 'Your angel will be waiting for you and will take care of you.

'The child further inquired, 'But tell me, here in heaven I don't have to do anything but sing and smile to be happy.' God said, 'Your angel will sing for you and will also smile for you. And you will feel your angel's love and be very happy.'

Again the child asked, 'And how am I going to be able to understand when people talk to me if I don't know the language?' God said, 'Your angel will tell you the most beautiful and sweet words you will ever hear, and with much patience and care, your angel will teach you how to speak.'

'And what am I going to do when I want to talk to you?' God said, 'Your angel will place your hands together and will teach you how to pray.

''Who will protect me?' God said, 'Your angel will defend you even if it means risking its life.

''But I will always be sad because I will not see you anymore.' God said, 'Your angel will always talk to you about Me and will teach you the way to come back to Me, even though I will always be next to you.

'At that moment there was much peace in Heaven, but voices from Earth could be heard and the child hurriedly asked, 'God, if I am to leave now, please tell me my angel's name.'God said, 'You will simply call her, 'Mom.'

Girls Day!

Does anybody else ever feel like they need a day off? I love being a mom believe me, but there are days when I feel like putting myself in a timeout. Since last Sunday I have been dealing with 2 very sick little boys and it has not been fun! I am watching my sister-in-laws 3 kids who are (fortunately for me very good). I have not been out of my house in 6 days (unless you count our doctors office visit). I think I finally broke down yesterday when Talen was screaming and bit me on the neck so hard that it drew blood. I knew at that point that I was going to have a nervous breakdown if I didn't get out of the house- soon!!! My friend, SueAnn, has been dealing with a sick child too so we decided to run away- at least for lunch! So finally.... I got to leave my house. This was a major accomplishment for me this week. My sweet husband played with all 6 kids all day and I got to go to lunch and go shopping. And boy oh boy can I tell you what a treat it was just to eat a meal all by myself! I think I now have some fresh perspective and I can do this for a few more days.

Our Scary PINK Wall!

I just got a wild hair one day and decided to re-do my bedroom. I thought that it would be really pretty to have 3 brown walls and 1 red wall. Well.... my red wasn't so red it was PINK! More like fuschia! Ed called it lipstick!




Ed said that he is so sick of painting that it would be at least 2 years before he would touch another gallon of paint (he has repainted our whole house little by little since November). So while he was in Moab I decided to repaint by myself. This red seems to be MUCH better!!!! Although I can't tell you what exact color this is because the people at Lowe's had to keep adding little bits of color to make it the right color.




This picture is kind of dark, but I do love my room now!










Yea- it's done!!!! Now comes the fun part- decorations!!!