Long time no post...

I have been terrible at keeping up with my blog these past few months!

~Zack has been busy with baseball practices, school, the science fair (he was disappointed to only get a participation ribbon for his science fair project. You win some, you lose some I say...), band and band concerts, student council, peak, debates, cooking, reading books, and scouts. He's loving life! Last semester he wasn't doing so well at keeping it all organized and we told him he had to bring his grades up or something had to go. This semester he has really improved his grades and got a wonderful report from his teacher. He brought home his 7th grade registration paper yesterday. I almost cried. He'll be 12 years old at the end of April and will even be a Deacon. The time is flying by so quickly! He's such a great kid!

~Matthew had his first ever Pinewood Derby last night. He has looked forward to this moment ever since Zack's first Pinewood Derby. He won 1st prize last night! He was SOOO excited!!! I was at Zack's baseball practice and his science fair with Zack and Gracie so I missed the whole thing but I got a very detailed play by play of the whole thing. Matthew, Brian, and Max were so happy! Apparently Matty's car was about a foot to a foot and a half behind on the final race when all of a sudden it just took off and left the other car in it's dust. They said it looked like it had a motor and they suddenly floored it or something. I'll try to post a picture of it but Brian learned after Zack's first derby that the cars that are a simple wedge seem to win more than the ones that are intricately carved like Zack's was that day. He's also loving school and doing so well! He has lots of cute little friends. I was able to go on his class field trip with him last week. It was really fun and very informative. I learned lots! We walked from his school to the radio station on the corner on main street, the bank, and the post office and were taken on tours of each place before walking to a park and eating our sack lunches. I'll admit it sounded kind of lame to me but it was actually very cool and they even recorded his class for a commercially type spot on the radio that played that afternoon. Matthew was so excited to hear it! My favorite part (besides visiting with Tamra and Mysti and getting to hold cute little, chubby, 4 month old Landon) was learning all about the radio station and how it works. It was really cool!

~Max and Matthew will hopefully be on the same baseball team this year. They had tryouts last Saturday. Max LIVES for baseball so he is beyond thrilled to get to start practices. He is doing so well in school and is so happy! His teacher loves him. She said he'll finish his work super fast and then he'll help the other kids or she'll let him play with a dry erase board thing. She said she has to find something to keep him busy all the time. He's passed off more sight words than anyone else. He's well into the 200's. He wants to finish them all since Matthew did that in kindergarten and Max is Mr. Competitive!! He is such a sweet boy and I just love him so much!

~Gracie is still cracking us up with her 2 year old speak. The other day she fell down and said,"Ouch, that hurt my nuggets." We all died laughing but none of us broke the news to her that, unlike her 2 big brothers, she does not have nuggets. She has grown so much! People always thinks she's 4 years old instead of 2. She loves nursery finally and looks so forward to going to church each week. And she LOVES playing outside. We have to be much more careful lately about always closing the door tight so she doesn't escape. There was a cute little 1st grade girl from my kids' school, who was hit by a car around the corner from us on the highway a couple of weeks ago. Poor little girl! She is at Primary Children's in a medically induced coma while her poor little body recovers from all of her many injuries. That has always been my biggest nightmare about living here!



We've also started having a treasure chest for the kids. If they do the chores we ask of them they get a check mark by their name on the chore chart. Once they get 3 checks they get to get something out of the treasure box. So far it has been WONDERFUL! The treasures are just silly little trinkets from the $ store and Walmart but they are the coolest things ever to them! We put a $5 item in their also and they have to do more chores to be able to earn it. It has made things so much calmer around here and they have even stopped fighting as much ever since my last lecture.  LOL They still fight but just not so much. Life is good. Hard, but good. Our sweet little kids sure make life worth living!! :)

~Now, a couple of Facebook posts I planned to post on here but never did.

March 19: So, tomorrow is picture day at our kids' school. Tonight Matthew decided it would be so super cool to partially shave his eyebrows off with Brian's beard trimmer...oy vey! Oh, Brian just told me it was his razor not his beard trimmer. Greaaaat!

March 25: Debbie Gibson's makeup looks like my cosmetology mannequin's makeup looked. That's not a good thing. I'm just sayin'... :~)

And by the way, I still LOVE Pinterest! I won't see the Y.W until after Easter so I made this little treat that I found on Pinterest. When we were Christmas Caroling in December one of the girls asked what "kin" means in We Wish You a Merry Christmas. They were explaining it to her and I said, they're you peeps. :) After that they started singing it, "Good tidings to you and all of your peeps."  So the idea I found on Pinterest was perfect! You dip a normal size pretzel (not the mini ones) in chocolate. I used pink Wilton's chocolate. Then you dip the bottom of a marshmallow Peep in chocolate and set it on the pretzel. Then you can sprinkle some cute little sprinkles on the chocolate. Then I placed them in individual clear treat bags that I got in the party section at Walmart for a buck. Then I tied a bow with a ribbon and curled the ends. Then I made a little tag that I attached to the ribbon that said, "Happy Easter to one of my favorite "Peeps"!"

Brian has made some of the dinners that are on Pinterest and made buffalo wings using one of the recipes. I love the ideas for conference for the kids! I want to try some of the Easter ideas also.

Please ignore any mistakes. I'll read it later and fix them.

Easter clothes, girl's day out, and cute stuff my kids did...

I've been thinking lately about how much I hate to move. Today, though, I have been thinking of all of the different people I have met over the years, in all of the different places we have lived. We have truly been blessed. We have lived in some of the best wards in the whole wide world. Some weren't so great but they have just helped us to realize how wonderful it is to live in great wards. I am so grateful for Facebook and blogs! My wonderful friends are just amazing and I still can have them in my life, even though we've moved away. I have also been so blessed to be able to see Heavenly Father's wisdom in sending my children to me when he did, instead of when I WANTED him too!!! They are wonderful kids and I'm so blessed to be their mother! I know, without a doubt, that if I didn't have my children to care for each day, I would have just stayed in bed when I was in so much pain, instead of getting up and doing what needed to be done.

~I couldn't wait all the way until Easter for my kids to wear their new church clothes! They all look so nice! I don't know why Max's tie is so small, but whatev'. It's really hard to take pictures of 4 kids at the same time! I am so proud of Gracie's dress! I don't think the pictures does it justice. It.is.beautiful! Every bit as lovely and well made as any I have ever had for her from The Children's Place. And can you believe it...I got it from KMART! AND, they had so many pretty dresses to choose from that it was kind of tough to choose which one to get! I got the cute little knit shrug at The Children's Place. It was so much fun buying her pretty little Easter outfit. Gracie and I went to Spanish Fork on Friday night for Steph's daughter's 2nd bday party. The boys all had other things going on. Saturday, we just had a wonderful time. Just the 2 of us. We went to lunch with my parents and then she and I went to the mall and had so much fun buying her little earrings, shrug, and pretty pink bracelet. We needed some girl time! I just love her! Max broke her little bracelet right after church today. I was NOT happy! When I was in the kitchen I heard Gracie say to him, "It's ok buddy! (She got the buddy part from Steph's son, Josh. He's SO cute!) It was an accident. Just say, I sorry, DeeDee." She calls herself DeeDee still sometimes cause that's how she pronounced Gracie for the longest time. When Max said he was sorry, she said, "It's ok buddy." She is THE sweetest little girl! Yes, I'm biased, but she melts my heart.

~Max cracked me up on Friday. I noticed his shirt was on backwards and I told him he needed to spin his shirt around. He said, "I'm wearing it like this because the other side is dirty." I guess he figures that if HE can't see it, NO ONE can. LOL!!! I just love each of my kids so much! I don't know what I would do without them!

Twilight?! LOL!!

Really?! Seriously?! Matthew lost his retainer....AGAIN!!!

 

On a good note, Brian's interview went well Tuesday. He'll know in about 2 weeks if they are hiring him or not.  

 

And, I know this is totally random, but I've been wondering if I'm the only person that thinks that parts of Twilight are inappropriate for the young teenagers who are so into it. I think of my little 12-13 year old girls at church and I would not want them to see it. I probably shouldn't either if I want to be an example to them I guess. And honestly, the movies are pretty much exactly like the books. It just seems to me that it all seemed so much less cheesy and ridiculous when I was reading the books than when I watch the movies. At least they give me a good laugh. Everyone can stand to laugh more! :)

Isn't life a crazy ride!

On Sunday night we had our Young Women's New Beginnings at church. Each of the leaders read a part of the book (which is actually taken from a talk) called Your Happily Ever After by Dieter F. Uchtdorf. It's really a wonderful book. My favorite part of the talk is,"Once upon a time. Aren't those wonderful words to begin a story of adventure and romance, a story of princesses and princes. It may include tales of courage, hope, and everlasting love. In many of these stories, nice overcomes mean and good overcomes evil. But perhaps most of all, I love it when we turn to the last page and our eyes reach the final lines and we see the enchanting words "And they lived happily ever after.""
"Isn't that what we all desire: to be the heroes and heroines of our own stories to triumph over adversity; to experience life in all its beauty; and, in the end, to live happily ever after?"
Sisters, those words are true! They are not made up in a fairy tale! Isn't it remarkable to know that our eternal Heavenly Father knows you, hears you, watches over you, and loves you with an infinite love? In fact, His love for you is so great that He has granted you this earthly life as a precious gift of "once upon a time," complete with your own true story of adventure, trial, and opportunities for greatness, nobility, courage, and love. And, most glorious of all, He offers you a gift beyond price and comprehension. Heavenly Father offers to you the greatest gift of all-eternal life-and the opportunity and infinite blessing of your own "happily ever after."
It goes on to talk about how each of us has a journey in between our "once upon a time" and our "happily ever after". And he talked about how our journey, like the princes and princesses in the fairy tales, will have adversity, challenges, sadness and, at times, despair. But we know that if we can endure them well, over come those difficult times, by doing all we need to do to stay close to our Heavenly Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ, and ask for their help and the companionship of The Holy Ghost and if we do all we know they would have us do, then we can achieve our "happily ever after" which is essentially, eternal life, returning to Heaven to live with Heavenly Father, Jesus, and our loving families. He also said,\

 "It is your reaction to adversity, not the adversity itself, that determines how your life's story will develop."

Later that night, after I had come home and changed into my nice comfy sweats and cuddled up to my Facebook phone ap, I read about things like...my cousin, John, who lives in Paris, France, was celebrating his 40th birthday. My friend, Emily, had celebrated her 35th birthday by going on a week long cruise with her husband. My friend, Cindy, welcomed her sweet baby boy, Tanner, into the world. Then my mom texted me and told me that my sister, Stephanie's, friend, Dr. Greg Nielsen, had passed away. When he opened his pediatric practice, Steph was his first nurse. She loved him and his wife and children. When she was blessed with her first child, she left her job so that she could raise her son. Of course, Dr. Nielsen became her trusted pediatrician. I remember how much I loved my doctor and his nurse when I had my Zacky and how sad I was when his nurse passed away. There is a bond between you and your children's Dr. and nurses when you have those precious little babies to care for! I understand that Dr. Nielsen had a staff infection which caused sepsis. His fever got so high that he had a stroke and later passed away. This is such a sad thing! I just feel so bad for his wife and children. What a loved man! What a great loss!!!
I had been so spiritually fed at church and, later, at New Beginnings. I felt joy for the people I know who had reason to celebrate. I felt sadness, and cried for Steph and all of the people who knew and loved Dr. Nielsen. It all felt kind of surreal. I was thinking about how life is going on all around us. All around the world. How many people all over the world happily celebrated birthdays that day? How many people all over the world were born that day? How many people all over the world died that day? How many people all over the world experienced the devastating loss of a loved one that day? The circle of life. Life is so incredibly sad and difficult at times and so beautiful and lovely at other times. Sometimes both extremes are experience at the same time. I am so very grateful to my Heavenly Father and to His Son, Jesus Christ, and to The Holy Ghost!!! They are always there for me to help me through whatever pain or suffering I experience. I know they are there for all the people who are mourning the loss of loved ones and any other sad, horrible, tragic thing they might be experiencing. They are also there to rejoice with us when great things happen. I am so grateful for the knowledge and testimony I have of them. I am so grateful for missionaries of all faiths who preach and teach of the love and support God and Jesus give us in our lives. Everyone should know that they have wonderful Father in Heaven who loves them. Everyone should know what their Savior, Jesus Christ, did for them and for all of us. Everyone should know that The Holy Ghost is there for us to comfort us, to guide us, and to help us through this earthly life. Everyone should know that there is a plan and a reason for us to be here in the first place, to have an understanding of their very existence! I cannot fathom how difficult life must be when you don't know these things! How lonely and lost they must feel. I feel so blessed! You know, for a while there I was feeling really down. My health problems are frustrating (I am grateful my pain is helped so much by medication, I just wish sometimes that I didn't have to worry about it in the first place. That I wouldn't have to take stupid medication. That I could be out in the cold without having pain. I could go on and on but I wont (o: ). Brian is out of work and has been since November. That brings so much anxiety, frustration, and difficulty to our lives as well as to our marriage. My house and yard are total disaster areas because we are too big for it and for a while there, I was gone a lot, working. The pay checks have been wonderful but our family has definitely been affected by my absence, and so has the house! I was just really not a happy camper. Until, I started thinking about one of my all time favorite pictures of Jesus that hung in our little chapel in Dodge City, KS when I was a little girl. You know, the one where he's standing at the door, knocking, and the door has no knob. He's waiting for us to let him in our lives. I feel really humbled! Our problems are NOTHING compared to so many other people's problems. We have been blessed in so many ways it's unbelievable. We need to be more grateful!!! We need to be more diligent in doing the things we know we need to do to bring Him in our lives more, which ultimately leads us to the greatest joy we can possibly feel as human beings!!!

I can't find the one that hung in our chapel but this is lovely too!