I found this fun website. See how many of you there are in the US. There are 157 of me. Wow, with that many of me, you would think I could get something accomplished in a day. My name is also the 21st most popular US name.

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 157 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

EVERYONE COME!!!

ASK ME FOR ERIN'S ADDRESS!

EVERYONE's INVITED

On Tuesday, Nov 4, from 6:30 to 8:30 Alyssa and I are hosting a SCENTSY candle open house. Stop by and say hi and have a treat.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HONEY!!!

Today is my sweetheart's birthday. I should have posted this earlier, but better late than never--right. HAPPY BIRTHDAY RICK. I LOVE YOU soooooo very much!

He had been wanting to go to Arches and Canyondlands and so we loaded up the kids and went over the UEA break. We had such a great time. I will post the pictures soon.

I am in desperate need of organizing ALL my recipes. Years and years ago I typed my mom's recipe book using WordPerfect. But, I don't want to do that again, or add to that because it is too time consuming to alphabetize and manage them. Over the years, I have collected many new recipes. Most of these are just written on scraps of paper and stuck inside my binder (what a mess). I want something that I can sort by title and also assign categories for each recipe. SO, if anyone has used a good recipe organizing program, please let me know which one. I would be ever so grateful!


I guess a quick up-date is in order since it has been so long since I posted anything worthwhile. School is going great so far. Dan has the usual 9th grade classes, and he is really enjoying seminary. We measured everyone the week before school started and he was 5'9". We measured him again last week and he was 5'10". Who knows, he is probably even taller than that this week. That boy is growing like a weed. He is going to be in the school play again this Fall. He started guitar lessons and is doing really well. His teacher is amazed at how quickly he is learning.

Alyssa is doing great in 6th grade. She is also taking guitar and doing very well. I REALLY love to hear her practice because she sings along. She has a beautiful voice (she gets that from her dad's side of the family I think). She also is taking a ballroom dance class. They actually needed more girls in the advanced class, and so she jumped in and is doing great! She is still doing gymnastics too. She is quite a busy girl.

Lindsay likes third grade even though they really make them work. They have to do 3 book reports per month. Luckily they are just written pages, not projects that parents have to do. She takes tumbling and just moved up to the intermediate level. And, two weeks ago she started piano lessons. She has been wanting to take piano forever!

I still work at the school. I get to help in the 6th grades and am in Alyssa's class for an hour every day. She says she likes it (weird huh).

Rick just works and works and works, and occasionally golfs, and goes to BYU games with Dan.

Other than that, it is just the same old, same old here.

FYI

I am going to send in an order for MaryKay. If you are interested in anything, let me know by this Friday, Sept. 19. I do NOT have any catalogs, so if you need to look at products, you will have to go to the Marykay.com website. I will try to call those who have ordered before and see if you want anything. Remember - - I don't keep any stock on hand, and will not order again until probably the first of the year, so stock up.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAN my MAN!

HAPPY 14th BIRTHDAY DANIEL!!

Can you believe he is 14 . . . and as tall as me (5'9"). Still as cute as his baby pics. He is such a good boy (I was a little worried considering what a fussy baby he was). I am soooo proud of him. WE LOVE YOU DAN.

We will be having a family party for him on Sunday, July 27 at 7 pm so hopefully you can join us then for cake (chocolate of course) and ice cream.

My vacation is over. Dan and Rick left last Monday for scout camp, and they came home yesterday afternoon. Alyssa left on Monday for Clear Creek camp, and came home on Friday afternoon. That left Lindsay and me by ourselves all week!!! We had a good time. We watched a few movies, and sewed some doll clothes, and shopped a little, but mostly we were just lazy. I cleaned the house on Monday, and after that we just enjoyed!!! But, I have to admit . . . I really did miss my family, and was soo glad they all returned home safely. For me, it was actually a GREAT vacation. The house stayed clean, and I only cooked a few times. While Lindsay went off to play with her friends, I spent my time reading, sewing, and crocheting. (It was a very inexpensive vacation on my part:) Now . . . back to reality. The laundry from three people away at camp is unbelievables!

SLEEPOVER

I know, I know . . three blogs within one week. I think it is amazing too. 1) because I have something to blog about, 2) that I have pictures to post with the words, 3) that I know how to post the pictures with the words, and 4) that I had time!

Our cute cousin, Brock, had a sleepover at our house on Monday night. The kids went to see the movie, Wall-E, and then came home to a lasagna dinner. Brock wanted to go swimming but the pool was closing before we could get there, so they compromised and pulled out the hoses and the water guns. They had a good time! They were a little too wound up to go to sleep, so they watched the Hunchback of Notre Dame and then went to bed. Because I am such a nice mom I made abbelskivers for breakfast (they are little danish pancakes with powdered sugar on them) (YUM). THANKS FOR HANGING OUT WITH US BROCK. We had a great time!

A HIKING WE WILL GO

On Saturday we went for a hike. I had told Rick a while ago that I thought it would be fun to do some hiking as a family, but I am such a slacker I never follow through and make things happen. But, he found this awesome waterfall in Provo Canyon for our first hiking destination. It is called Stewart Falls. We started our hike just above Aspen Grove. It is two miles to the falls. It was a fairly easy hike. The kids thought it was hard at first, but once we got to the falls, it was worth the effort. We were feeling kind of hot and sweaty, but it was cool and misty by the falls. We could have even walked right under the water, but chose not to because we would have gotten pretty wet. We did cross the stream on some logs (Daniel just waded right through). It was such a beautiful place. We had only taken some trail mix and some apples, but it would have been fun to take a picnic and stay a little longer at the falls. We had to hike back out the same way we went in. Unfortunately, the first part of the trail going back was the hardest (for me, probably because it was a little steep, and I had given my muscles just enough of a rest to not want to cooperate anymore). Some people at the falls were hiking down another trail away from the falls and said that it came out at the Sundance Lodge. I would like to try starting at Aspen Grove and ending up at the lodge next time. Let us know if you want to go! We were pretty hot and sweaty and dirty when we got home. And, after sitting around for a while, we were getting a little stiff, so we went to the PG pool to cool off and stretch our tired muscles a bit. THANKS Rick for being such a wonderful hubbie and making my wishes come true!

ONE GREAT WEEKEND!

Last weekend we were going to go camping, but I was a party pooper, and didn't want to deal with hauling the tent, sleeping bags, cooking supplies, etc. So, I rented a two room suite at the Stillwater Lodge at Jordanelle. It was a really nice room, but we did have few issues with the hotel. When we got there to check-in at 4 pm, our room was not ready, so we changed into our swim suits in the bathroom by the pool and swam for a couple of hours. Unfortunately, their heated pool was NOT heated. I told the desk clerk that I didn't mind checking in late as long as it was okay that I checked out late (which they let us do). And, we thought we were going to get a continental breakfast (the desk clerk told us we were and online it said we would) but they stopped serving it a few days before. (so just beware if plan to go there).

Other than those few issues, the weekend was GREAT! Back in February, at a silent auction Rick was helping with, we bought a gift certificate good for the use of two wave runners for a day. We bought it for less than 1/2 price. So, on Saturday morning, Rick drove into Heber and picked up two machines for the day. We headed straight to the lake and spent the entire day racing around on the water. We had a picnic lunch on the beach. Joey, Ted, and their kids joined us in the afternoon for a few hours. We didn't even dump anyone off the wave runners the whole day. Our only casualties were a couple of kids dumped out of the tube (Lindsay was not a happy camper when she fell out of the tube face first). We were sooo exhausted and a little sunburned (Erin and Clay were a lot sunburned). We had to return the wave runners by 6 pm, but we were having so much fun it was hard to stop playing. We pulled into Heber at 5:50, just in time. We got big shakes at the train burger place to refresh us until we could get back to the hotel and get some dinner. After a sloppy joe dinner and some rinsing off, we played a good game of The Great Dalmuti until we were all so tired we could hardly think straight.

SUMMER FUN !?!

okay . . . okay. . . so I have not posted in a while, but i think that as you get older, time speeds up. I remember when I was a kid and sometimes summer days seemed long. But now, they zip by so fast. It is 4 pm before I even blink my eyes . . . and no, I am not sleeping in that long. Actually, I have been getting up fairly early (for me). Dan started out the summer working at the pool cleaning up and getting it ready to open each day so he had to be there by 7 am. He was being so responsible and really liking going to work. So I decided that since I had to get him there, I would jump in and join the 7 am water aerobics. Well, that only happened a couple of times before they figured out that Dan was only 13 and they cannot pay him until he is 14. So with 2 weeks of work behind him, he now gets to sleep in until his birthday and then they will put him back to work. But, my excuse for getting to aerobics is now sleeping in. HMMMM. I think I will still try to motivate myself to go, it will just be a little harder.

Since we don't have any big vacation plans for the summer (who can afford the gas), we decided to take off and go to the Manti pageant on Tuesday night. It was a lot of fun. Erin came with us:] but Clay had to go to school :[ We got home at 1:00 am.

I am going to try to get Alyssa's room painted within the next week. When we switched rooms all around, she took Dan's old room and it is blue with planets. We are going to paint it tan so that she can decorate with lots of colors (sort of a jungle theme). But, between chasing the kids around to swim lessons and to the pool to swim for fun, and to friends houses, it is hard to find a lot of time. The only advantage to all the time at the pool is that I have read a lot of books. I have now finished all 3 of the Twilight books, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIHM (my favorite book from 5th grade), and the first book in the Great and Terrible series (highly recommended by my DAD).

I like the Twilight series of books, but it is really bugging me that she is choosing the vampire and having to give up EVERYTHING that she loves. Isn't that a red flag that even though something seems so wonderful, it has to be bad if it makes you give up all the good things in your life. I think it is well written, but I am just struggling with it a little. I know, I know, I am weird and I should just want the two main characters to fall in love and live happily ever after, but there won't be happily ever after if you have to give up everything good to get it.

It has been a long month! I guess I never really posted anything about how Lindsay broke her arm. On april 23, she was trying out Alyssa's heelies and fell backward onto her elbows, breaking the end of the humerus of her right arm. They just splint these type of breaks for two weeks and then have them wear a sling for another week and TA-da, they are fine. But of course not Lindsay. She had sooo much pain. They are thinking now that when she hit her elbow she really hurt a nerve. After some physical therapy and the use of a TENS unit (that stimulates nerves), and almost FOUR weeks, she is finally using her arm again. But, she also ended up with a high fever and an extremely sore throat which has now been going on for FOUR days. To say the least, we haven't slept through the night since she broke her arm. I am definitely too old for this. I do not know how I managed on little to no sleep when I had little babies. But hopefully, we will be back to sleeping through the night again VERY soon.

Today, since I had to stay home from work with my little feverish sicky, I cleaned out a few cupboards and drawers, and then took some time to finish the book I got for mother's day--Fablehaven 3. I HIGHLY recommend this book. I have never really liked fantasy type books, but read the first one in order to entice Daniel to read more and discuss a book with him to make sure where his comprehension level was. That was two years ago. Book 1 was awesome! Book 2 was not quite as good, and book 3 was great! I am considering reading the Twilight series next.

I know it is late in coming, but a huge THANK YOU to everyone who helped with Lindsay's baptism: Brittney for leading the music, Joey for playing the piano, Jeslie for giving a talk, Alyssa for giving a talk, Grandma and Dan for the prayers, and everyone who came and supported us. And of course, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, to Aunt Debbie for the beautiful princess dress!!! Lindsay was sooo thrilled with the whole day.

But, she has not been thrilled with her broken arm. She is still struggling with how bad her elbow has been hurting. Last week we tried to have an MRI done, but she could not stand to lay on the table the way the wanted her to, let alone be shoved inside that tiny little tube with all the loud noises. So, we have been trying to deal with her pain by distracting her from it because pain meds have not helped either. The doctors have basically just said that they can't understand why it is hurting so bad and according to the x-rays she should be doing fine. (but she is not) They told us our best bet was to take her to Primary Children's ER. So we did. But they were not so helpful either. Anyway, we will see the doctor again tomorrow. I think that it is a nerve that either got bumped or something. Anyway, we have not had a lot of sleep or got much done over the last few weeks.

But I did have a HAPPY MOTHER's DAY. Since I was the one fixing the dinner I splurged on a key lime cheesecake from Costco. (yum)

This is a very busy week for us. Alyssa's school play is Thursday and Friday. She is not in a lead role this year, but is playing several different parts. Daniel has a big choir performance. I am in charge of Enrichment this week, but hopefully my Enrichment leader is doing most of the work.

I NEED YOUR HELP!

I found out last week that my stake primary presidency does NOT put on the baptism program, and that the families of those getting baptized have to do it. I found out today that Lindsay is now the only child being baptized from my ward and I have to pull together the whole thing. So . . . I am looking for a few volunteers to help out :) maybe with a talk or leading music. Let me know if you would be willing to help out. THANKS! Remember, it is only one week away.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to LINDSAY

Lindsay's birthday is on SUNDAY, APRIL 20. I can't believe that she is 8 years old.

Please join us for cake and ice cream at 6:00 pm Sunday!

We will try to get in touch with everyone with info about her baptism, but just in case, it is on May 3 at 9:30 am. We will have a brunch following it.

BOY OH BOY DID WE HAVE FUN!

Yes! We finally got to tend Bridger. What a cutie. We had soooo much fun playing with him. He is so sweet even when he is sick and not feeling so hot. THANKS Ashlie & Kyle for letting us have a turn :)

Well it has been awhile since I posted anything. I knew that would be the problem when I started this. On Saturday, Rick flew to Vegas to help Erin and Clay pack up and then he drove the moving truck home while they drove their cars home. They are officially back! They are going to stay with us for a few weeks. While they were loading up and driving back, Dan and I were trading rooms around here and cleaning up. Dan agreed to move his bed upstairs and let Clay and Erin have the basement in exchange for use of Clay's Xbox 360 and Wii system. So, Dan and I spent the day moving his bed upstairs and the bed from upstairs down to the basement. I was pretty tired by the time we were through moving everything around. Lindsay is sooo excited to have them back.

Alyssa was really glad Erin was here today to help her load her new Ipod that she bought herself (she was glad that she had saved money). Erin taught her how to transfer her CD's to the computer and load them. Now she is walking around with ear plugs in her ears, oblivious to everything. I am not sure I am going to like her having it if she isn't going to listen to anyone. While we were shopping for the Ipod this morning, we also bought one of those Ripstick skateboard things. I am not sure how anyone actually maneuvers those things, but Dan is actually quite good at it. Hopefully it will keep him out of the house a little bit and provide some exercise :)

Well, since there are so many people who live at this house at the moment, I think I will go beg a few to play a game of Settlers or something with me!!

Hopefully this little update will keep Kailey happy (hehe).

I really enjoyed listening to conference. Yesterday I accomplished a lot while I was listening. I needed to re-caulk the downstairs bathtub (because it was really gross) so I sat and scraped off all the old caulking while I was listening. Daniel was helping me. When they asked for all of the Aaronic priesthood holders to stand and sustain the new prophet, Daniel stood up and raised his hand. It brought tears to my eyes to realize that he was actually listening and that he took it seriously. I LOVE you Dan! You are a great example to me.

Poor Lindsay. She felt horrible all day. Her tummy has been rumbly and sick. She hasn't been able to eat anything all day. She was hoping to feel good today considering she has limped around for the past four days because she bruised her knee cap by smacking it on the trampoline. Hopefully she will wake up feeling better.

Well, I just got through cutting Daniel's hair (because I promised him I would do it this weekend, and forgot--so in order to make good on my promise I had to do it at 10 pm Sunday). Now I need to get to bed because I have to be at the elementary school at 7 am to register Alyssa for summer camp. Can you believe she wants to go away from me for five whole days. She said that she won't even get homesick (I wasn't worried about her missing me).

INTRODUCING ----- MR. MAYOR

Tonight was opening night of Seussical jr. at PG Jr. High. Daniel was Mr. Mayor (aka the Who that Horton Heard) and did such a FANTASTIC JOB!!!! He even had a few small solo parts. It was such a great play. They did an awesome job. I only took a few pics tonight, but will take more when I go see the play again tomorrow and then I will post them. WAY TO GO DAN! (just so you know, you can see Dan perform tomorrow and Saturday night at 7 pm at PGJR)

HAPPY EASTER!!!

As we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ this Easter season, you may want to take a minute (about 7 actually) to watch the video clip "The Bread of Life" which can be found at this website:

http://jesuschrist.lds.org/SonOfGod/eng/multimedia

"The Savior's Resurrection assures all of us that someday we, too, will follow Him and experience our own resurrection. What peace, what comfort this great gift is which comes through the loving grace of Jesus Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of all mankind."
(M. Russell Ballard, "The Atonement and the Value of One Soul," Ensign, May 2004, 84)

OUR VEGAS GETAWAY

Sorry it has taken sooo long to post anything about our REALLY fun trip to Vegas to celebrate Erin's birthday. Luckily, Erin has posted most of the pictures and told you about our trip, so check out her blog for the details. We did have such a great time. I really enjoyed just sitting around at her apartment and playing The Great Dalmuti and Loaded Questions (some of our family's favorite games). But, we did have a great time learning how to make chocolate straws at the chocolate factory, and WINNING stuffed animals at Circus Circus, and stuffing ourselves sick at the all you can eat buffet. Oh, and they all had a good time boxing each other on the Wii.

The ride home seemed long, partly because we had to stop a few more times than we wanted too, and because Lindsay was missing Erin so much that she cried all the way to Cedar City (and a few more hours after we got home). We are really looking forward to Erin's visit to PG in May for Lindsay's baptism.

DANIEL'S PLAY "Seusical" is NEXT WEEK (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 7 pm at the Jr. High)

LINDSAY's BAPTISM will be on MAY 3 at 9:30 am. We will have a brunch afterward so plan to join us. (We will get out some invitations next month, but be sure to mark your calendars).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO

ERIN

It is her birthday today, Sunday, March 16. Be sure to comment on her blog and wish her a HAPPY DAY!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ALYSSA

She is officially 11 years old
(as of March 11 at 10:27 pm)

My sweet little "Princess Dolly" is 11. Can you believe it?!? Where does all the time go. She was such a sweet baby . . . so easy going and happy. She is still such a beautiful sweetheart!

This year she decorated her own cake--chocolate with chocolate frosting covered with chocolate candy. Can you guess what her favorite treat is? hmmmm. We have her a big fuzzy GREEN body pillow, and money. She wanted to use all the money she got to buy herself a nintendo DS and a Babyz game. Amazingly, she chose a pink one (not green, go figure). So thanks to all of you who donated to the cause! Now she really is 1happycamper! She is also glad that her stuffed monkey collection is growing. She now has 102 monkeys! I think she is going to turn into a chocolate monkey one of these days!

This is Dan . . .see he does exist

He really did not want his picture taken, but since he missed the bottom step last Thursday and sprained his ankle, he was sort of captive so I could not resist. Anyway, I felt like I had to prove that he still existed since almost everything I post has to do with the girls. And just so you know, we did have the doctor check him out, and it IS just a sprain. He should be fine in few days. But the doctor did comment on his impressive growth plates which probably should help him reach at last 6'2" or 6'3" in her opinion. :-)

OH, and if you didn't know

We are celebrating Alyssa's 11th birthday tomorrow, Sunday March 9 at 6:00 pm at our house. She is decorating her own cake (with lots of chocolate and candy) so this should be great. Please JOIN US if you can. We usually celebrate Erin's birthday with Alyssa's, but since she is Vegas, we are going to go there next weekend and CELEBRATE with HER!

And we are BACK

Thank goodness for System Restore!!! I finally got the box to open, but before I officially did the restore, I checked with my very nice neighbor who said it was probably my best bet. AND HOORAY! We are back. Yes!

But, it is getting late- I know it is only 9:30, but we have to jump our clocks ahead tonight, so it is like 10:30. I think I will go to bed. All this computer stress has really wiped me out.

DON'T FORGET TO SET YOUR CLOCKS AHEAD ONE HOUR!

What to do!?! What to do?!?

Daniel tried to install some wifi program for his nintendo ds on our new computer and now NOTHING works right. I am posting this from my old, stupid, computer. I may have to go to Best Buy and get the geek squad to help me. I think I am stressed.

Itch, Itch, Scratch, Scratch, Golly Gee

It is about 11 pm and I am waiting for Alyssa to finally go to sleep. She went babysitting tonight and got home about 9:45 with a rash/hives up her arm. Anything we did (benadryl cream, hyrocortisone cream, soaking it in baking soda water, etc.) just made it more irritated. I gave her some oral Benadryl, but that wasn't going to help for 20 or 30 minutes. It was hurting her soooo bad that she was in tears. Finally I thought of aloe vera, but I only had some aloe vera juice that we had used for tummy troubles. I soaked a rag in it and wrapped her arm. It started helping so fast. After an hour of trying to figure out what to do, it was as simple as wrapping a rag around her arm. She finally calmed down. I think it was a combination of the oral Benadryl and the aloe vera. When I was growing up, my grandma always had an aloe vera plant that she broke open any time someone had a burn or a bite or a rash. I think I may try growing an aloe vera plant after tonight.

In like a Lion . . .

I KNEW WHEN I started this blog that I wouldn't be very good at posting interesting information. But, it would probably be a good idea to post at least every week or two, so here we go. First of all, I really LOVE reading my wonderful Erin's blog and the blogs of my very cute nieces.
CURRENTLY, some of us are not feeling very well at our house. Daniel and Rick went on a scout camp-out on Friday night, so Lindsay and Alyssa and I went to the MALL! Well, first we went to dinner at Mimi's, and then to the mall. By the end of dinner though, Alyssa was not feeling all that well, and so she wasn't as happy as she wanted to be about walking around the mall. We still had a great time. But, by the time we got home, her head was killing her and the glands in her neck were stiff and swollen. It was all she could do to get to bed. (Lindsay did not have much sympathy since she had complained of a sore neck all week and I told her it was probably just a little stiff from tumbling and to deal with it--occasionally I feel like such a bad mom). Anyway, today my neck and head are not feeling so well. Luckily we do not have to go to school tomorrow so we will have one more day to rest!!!
THE WEATHER turned really cold today. Yesterday, the wind started blowing soooo hard. Rick said when they were packing up from their camp-out the wind blew the tent over, but it didn't start storming here until late in the afternoon.
I CANNOT BELIEVE IT IS MARCH. We have a busy, but very fun month. ALYSSA's birthday is on the 11th. We are going to Las Vegas on the 14th to see Erin. ERIN's birthday is on the 16th. And don't forget Easter this month. ALSO . . . .
DANIEL's musical theatrical production will finish off the month. Seussical Jr.: Oh the Thinks You Can Think! It will be at PGJR March 27, 28, and 29 at 7:00 pm. We are sooo excited to watch his performace as Mr. Mayor. (He will be singing to us!!!)

A Quote for the Day

Rick always reads the Quote of the Day in the newspaper. The other day, the quote was,

"There is nothing more horrifying that stupidity in action."

For some reason (maybe it is the fact that I spend a good part of my days of my days in the sixth grade) I really like this quote.

Lindsay wanted to make sure that I blogged about the fact that she WON the prize for the best Valentine's Box in her class!!! She was very proud of her creation and winning really made her feel GREAT!

WHEW!

Alyssa's 5th grade class was scheduled to leave for Clear Creek on Thursday morning. As we were getting ready to head out the door for school, the phone rang. Because of high winds and bad weather, the highway patrol had closed the road to Clear Creek. So instead of a taking a very excited girl to school, I took a heart-broken one. All the kids were going to hang out at school and play games and watch movies and make the best of the situation. Luckily, by about 10:15 am the roads were cleared and the trip was back on! WHEW! So my baby went off for the night. She came home Friday afternoon after having had an incredibly wonderful time, but feeling totally exhausted.
Lindsay was not thrilled that her sister was gone overnight, let alone on Valentine's Day, but we were able to get all our treats delivered without too much trouble (but we did miss Alyssa).

I feel like this blog is basically "the big adventures of Alyssa and Lindsay" It seems like they are the only ones with anything worthy of being posted. But, just so you know, Daniel does live here and is quite busy doing whatever it is that he does. (Actually tonight he went to the jr. high dance at the rec. center with some friends -- oooooh). And to prove that we do nothing that is blog-worthy, Rick and I just spent the last 90 minutes of our Friday night watching the moving Singles 2nd Ward. Rick laughed so hard through the whole thing, and I am still trying to figure out what was sooo funny (and I'm the one who actually attended a singles ward). hmmmm.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Right now I am really craving See's Red Hots. They are soooo good and I haven't been to the mall to get any. They are only available for Valentine's Day so by the time I get there they will be gone :( Oh well. I will just have to make up for missing out on them by eating lots of chocolate! We haven't had time to go to the mall because we have been making Valentine boxes.

Alyssa was having a hard time deciding what she wanted her box to look like, but we finally decided that her two favorite things were chocolate and monkeys, so TA DA! Her monkey loving chocolate box was chosen as BEST OVERALL for her class. They already had their Valentine party because they will be gone to Clear Creek on Thursday and Friday.

Lindsay knew that she wanted some sort of princess theme, so we turned a shoe box into a castle with lots of pink (of course). As you can see in the picture, Lindsay also lost her tooth on Monday. She had been trying to get this tooth out for a while, and so we were relieved it was finally out!!!

ok, so I actually posted pictures and typed something. You should be totally amazed. (I know I am)

I posted this picture because I wanted to show Erin how much snow we had so that she would wish she were here freezing, shoveling, and sliding off the road. (haha) The kids had fun playing in the snow. We went to church at 9 this morning. There were a few inches already on the ground with more falling. I think that another 4 inches fell while we were at church. The later wards were cancelled, but we got to attend all our meetings and then we headed home to shovel out. I think there is still more on the way. (I think that at this point i could be in favor of global warming--i would just like the temp to be above 30 for a few days in a row).

Oh, and MARK YOUR CALENDARS:

Dan tried out for the jr. high play Suessical, the Musical and he got the part of Mr. Mayor. He actually will be singing to us!!!!! (he has some solo parts). I am so proud of him. His play will be March 27 - 29.

And, Lindsay gets to turn 8 this year. Her baptism will be May 3.

We will send out more info on these amazing events as the dates get closer.

On Thursday, Alyssa participated in her school's wax museum. She wrote a report on someone who is an American Hero. She chose Anne Sullivan (who was Helen Keller's teacher) and then she had to find props and dress like her hero. She did a great job (and thanks to Aunt Jalayne for the great props!).

Thursday was also 50's day at the school so the girls dressed in some poodle skirts.

We have had a fun weekend! Rick was on a committee that organized a fundraising event for the hospice in Heber. We went to a very nice dinner at the Blue Boar Inn in Midway, and then to the town hall where a big band played music from the 20's, 30's, and 40's and everyone danced and had a good time. There was a silent auction for a lot of trips, artwork, lamps, etc. We bid on a gift card to rent a couple of snowmobiles for the day and we WON. So now we will have to go snowmobiling one day soon. (THANKS to Joey and Ted for keeping our kids!)

It is amazing that we actually have a blog. It has taken a long time to get to this point. I think it will take awhile longer to actually post something worthwhile. Check back later to see the amazing things we are doing.