Monthly Update!

Here we are a month later trying to catch up on blogging! I apologize for the long post! I have been very SICK and haven't been able to keep up with things around here! Dishes, laundry, cleaning, blogging, project life and many other things have suffered because of it! In between and during sicknesses, we did manage to do a few things around here! We had our Young Women's New Beginnings the beginning of March. The weeks leading up to it I was busy making invites, programs, a gift for the girls and yummy food! I found some frames that my friend and fellow counselor Sheena spray painted for me. Then I printed out the mutual theme for this year and made some flowers to decorate the frame. I think they turned out really cute! We had a short program that night including a skit, 'Virtue Academy' and spotlights on our two new beehives this year. The young women did a great job! I made cupcakes, little layered cakes, cake pops, chocolate covered oreos and pretzels. Everyone loved the food!

Frame before (I don't know why it's sideways)

After Sheena's amazing spray painting skillzzz! Much better!

All the circles (105 to be exact) I cut out to make the flowers to put on the frames

I saw this idea on a blog. You take address labels, stamp them and wrap them around Hershey's Nuggets. We had to have some gold for virtue, right? They were so cute!

I forgot to take a picture of the table spread before everyone dug in! Then we shared with the young men! There were a few cupcakes left and one cake pop so I snapped this pic before Tim ate it!

Two of our young women with their finished framed themes

Sheena brought this frame for the skit, love her!

Mar 3: So we have a new fish! We took Parker to the pet store and let him pick one. Then we let him name him! The list of names was long and hilarious! Some of the suggestions were: Twist, Star Fish, Nemo, Popcorn, Bubbles, Pimple (because he has a black head get it?) Bluey and the winner is SWIMMY! Parker loves him and talks to him all the time, it's really cute!


Mar 9: Our stake put on another amazing camp kickoff! It was weird being on the audience side of camp kickoff. I've been on the stake side for the last three years! We played minute to win it games for the chance to pick which value we wanted for our theme for camp. It was a blast! Then they announced the camp theme which is 'Your Path to Your Happily Ever After' every value had a princess to go with it and we got Good Works and Tiana from The Princess and the Frog. The girls are so excited for camp!

Terri had to swing this orange in the leg of pantyhose to knock over the water bottles

They were trying to grab a penny at the bottom of the pantyhose


Wiggle your face and try to get the oreo into your mouth, then chew and swallow

Our princess Tiana a.k.a. Malorie

Mar 16: I got to go on a field trip with Parker's preschool class to Sweets Candy factory. It was really cool to see how they make and package the candy and of course they give you a few samples along the way! Parker LOVES the taffy!

Parker's buddy Micah rode with us, they talked the entire ride!

They don't allow cameras inside the factory, but I took this one after the tour in the store

Here's the whole group which includes both the morning and afternoon classes

3-17 & 18 My friend Amanda invited us to attend her sealing in the Logan temple. We decided to get a hotel room and make it a little family mini vacation/getaway. We went to dinner at Fire House, went swimming and stayed up way too late! It was a lot of fun and Parker's first time staying in a hotel. He LOVED it! It was so great to see Amanda, Barry and the kids! They are getting so big! Of course I didn't get a pic with them! UGH!

MMMMMMM Diet Coke!

Parker got pizza with mac and cheese on it!

Of course we had to get dessert! It's called a zzookie and it's delicious!

After dinner the boys played in the pool

Treats and a movie before bed

Finally crashed in his own queen size bed

I don't know what he liked more, the pool or riding on the luggage cart

Apparently my iPod was a big hit with the kids in the temple waiting room

The boys outside the temple

What We've Been Up To!

Well, the last month has flown by and we've been pretty busy! We had a fun Valentine's Day full of presents, treats, going out to lunch, homemade chicken cordon bleu and of course a four year old with a mustache!

These are the presents Parker and I gave Bryan and a yummy cookie my friend Marci made me!
Parker's treats from some of his friends

Shopping for a dress for Kansas City so funny!

I made Bryan his favorite Chicken Cordon Bleu for dinner

That weekend we were headed to Kansas City for our annual Awards Night. We were packing the night before we left when Heather discovered Parker's fish Finnegan had died. It was a very sad scene as Bryan told Parker what had happened and took him into the kitchen because Parker wanted to see Finn. He sunk to the floor and started crying. He got over it pretty quickly and declared he wanted a new green fish named Twist. Then he decided he wanted a baby octopus instead. After saying goodbye to Finnegan, Parker did a couple puzzles almost totally by himself! Then he came to 'help' me pack.

Daddy and Parker flushing Finnegan (horrible I know)

My big boy working on puzzles while I was trying to pack for our trip

My packing helper made sure we had Valentine treats to take with us!

Kansas City was so much fun as always! I got to hold Roy and Megan's sweet baby girl on the plane ride there! It was the first time in my life I wished the flight was longer! We enjoyed lots of yummy food, great company and the guys and gals won Agency of The Year for the second year in a row! WOOT! WOOT! We had a great time dancing the night away and had some extra excitement when Abe and Jerika's room had a plumbing issue that resulted in flooding the fourth floor and everything below it in the hotel! It was quite an event filled trip!

Who wouldn't want to just hold her forever!?

There was an awesome magician at dinner the first night! Look at Er's reaction, I'm telling you, AWESOME!

Enjoying KC BBQ at Jack Stacks

On the big awards night! I'm sporting the dress I scored on a screamin' deal! ($11.99) Thanks to Megan for doing my hair!

Agency of the Year! Way to go!

Lou up on stage with the band

Poor Jerika and Abe!

Bryan got a picture of the flood! Look at the reflection on the floor!

All Parker wanted us to bring him was a Microraptor, we could only find a Velociraptor! I think he was ok with it!

On President's Day we went bowling with Bryan's family. Parker was so excited! He loves bowling and spending time with his cousins was just icing on the cake! We bowled three games and the first one Parker kicked everyone's trash! (Uncle Tracy ended up beating him by one pin!) Then after we surprised Mom by meeting at Red Robin to celebrate her birthday!

Parker's dinosaur helped him bowl his awesome game!

Yep my kid bowled a 143!

Matt thought toweling off his ball might help his game

Parker wanted to sit by Jake at Red Robin, he loves his cousins!

Project Life is in the House!

I was so excited to receive my Project Life kits last week! I was obsessively tracking it online several times a day to see when it would arrive! Finally it came! I have been busying trying to catch up on Jan and I am just waiting for the pictures from last week to come in the mail so I can add those to the albums! Here are a few pics of what I have so far!

Parker helping me open the box!

Gloria brought Matson over at the same time the UPS man came! The boys had lots of fun playing with the packing paper that was in the box!

It's tradition to take a picture when you receive your white box

Inside the white boxes, all the goodies!

My work area I've set up in the living room

These are some of the pages from Parker's album.

These are a couple pages from our family album. I didn't have a ton of pics from the first part of Jan, so I've been filling in the picture spaces with some of the coordinating paper that comes with the kit.

I'm really enjoying this process! I'm a little intimidated by the picture a day concept, but I'm trying to capture the every day moments as well as the big events. It's been fun to see Parker get so excited to look at 'his scrapbook' and he asks me almost every day if there are any new pictures to look at! I'm glad to see his interest!

The Joy Of Love!

In addition to participating in Project Life I have signed up for a FREE online class here. It is called:

I am excited to check my email every day and get a new 'assignment'. I want to improved my photography skills, as well as focus more on those I love! I can't wait to get started! Oh, and my Project Life kits shipped finally! They are supposed to be here Wednesday! The UPS man has no idea the kind of crazy woman is going to greet him when he brings me my two white boxes! And you know I'll be taking a picture because it is tradition when you order Project Life! ; )

A shout out!

To my amazing husband! He works so hard to provide for our family. He puts up with some not so nice people on almost a daily basis. He is a faithful home teacher and serves in the Elder's Quorum Presidency in our ward as well. He is being very patient with me these days, which isn't easy! He drives a beat up older car (he practically lives in it) and let's me drive the new nicer one! I love him and appreciate everything he does for me and for Parker. He got me an early anniversary present yesterday and I am so excited!

I've discovered Project Life by Becky Higgins! I've been reading a lot about it and think it might be the answer to not being 'caught up' all the time with my scrapbooking. You can find out more about it here. You can also do a search on Becky's blog on the right side bar for Project Life. Bryan bought me both the Amber and Turquoise editions for our anniversary! I can't wait for them to come so I can get started! I think I might do a family album and also an album for Parker. We'll see how it goes!

Christmas etc...

So I can't stand looking at the depressing post anymore! Here are some pictures from December and we've been up to! Parker made a couple ornaments at school and he took a picture of his frosty the snowman hanging on the tree. We went to Idaho for a family Christmas party. It was fun for the kids to run around and play at the church. We ate and made gingerbread houses. It was a lot of fun! I made neighbor gifts this year and we also made sugar cookies (not my favorite thing to make and I was reminded why we only make them maybe twice a year!) For Bryan's Christmas present I sent him with my brother Dustin to the Las Vegas Bowl! Dustin is a Boise State fan and of course Bryan was cheering for the Utes. Bryan had a great time, except for the Utes losing part! We spent Christmas Eve and Bryan's Aunt Pam's house with the Allen side of the family. We ate and sang and did our traditional acting out the Nativity song and opening new pajamas! Parker got a TON of hotwheels racetracks for Christmas from us and from his birth family! The living room is frequently taken over by race tracks and cars as Bryan and Parker try to build different tracks. It's so fun to watch them play together!
Dustin, Lindsey and Rylee came for New Years and we had so much fun! We took the kids to the Discovery Gateway because we had a free pass we got from the Adoption Walk. They had fun playing with all the different exhibits! Then Dustin took us to Joe's Crab Shack for lunch. Parker loves going there because there is a huge shark hanging from the ceiling and when you got there for dinner, they play fun music and the kids love to get up and dance with the staff. We spent the rest of the night eating, playing games and the kids watched movies. They had fun throwing popcorn all over Parker's room. Then we rang in the new year with noise makers and party hats!

Parker's Frosty

Parker with my cousin's cute little girl Ashlyn

My neighbor gifts

All wrapped and ready to deliver

Making Christmas sugar cookies

The boys at the bowl game!

Bryan had to get a picture of Swoop for Parker

Our little shepherd!

Opening his hotwheels racetrack!

The boys building a track

Of course he found a shark in the water table at Discovery Gateway

Rylee and Parker with their popcorn mess!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

January Blahs?

I don't know for sure what is going on right now. Maybe it's the January blahs, maybe it's PMS, for sure throw in some infertility blues...maybe I just need an attitude adjustment! It might be a combination of all of them! All I know is I am having a hard time right now! We had Stake Conf this weekend. It was a tough one for me. I was released from my calling as the 1st counselor in the Stake YW Presidency, more on that later. One of the hymns was "Count Your Blessings" "When upon life's billows you are tempest-tossed, When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost, Count your many blessings; name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord has done." Then a friend posted this scripture on fb this morning: "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." (Isa 41:10) So today as I try to catch up on all the things around here I have been slacking on, I will be counting my many blessings (one of whom is sitting on my lap right now) and keeping a prayer in my heart that Heavenly Father will help strengthen and uphold me while I try to muddle though this difficult time. So bare with me as I try to get my act together as I start a new year! (I know I'm a little late, but I am an habitual procrastinator!) I may blog less, maybe more, I don't know. We'll see what happens!