Creating the Creation

So, who knew Primary was so fun? Seriously. I was a little scared of it, but it is a blast to be in Primary. The kids are hilarious. We sing songs. The teachers are great. And it turns out that doing Sharing Time is way more fun than teaching a class somewhere else. I've done two sharing times and had a great time. This last one was on the creation. I thought I would snap some pictures of what we did before I toss them.

I got this great idea from my sister-in-law, Rachel. I cut numbers 1 - 7 out of poster paper for each day of the creation. Then, each class in primary got a number and a bag full of crayons, die cuts (of animals, fish, birds, plants, flowers, sun, moon, stars, etc.), glue and instructions. They sat together with their teachers and read the scriptures for their day to learn what happened that day. They then decorated their number for the day. At the end, each class came up and showed us their number, told us what was created and how that creation blesses us. It was great fun and all I had to do was prepare for it. Here are our numbers:

It's 80's Night! Oh, What A Night!

Saturday night was "80's night". Every one looked wicked awesome! It was so fun to get our outfits together. I feel as though Scott's track suit and shoes were a Deseret Industries Miracle sent straight from heaven. Loved it! The hugeness of my hair was something quite miraculous also. At the party we ate dinner, played 80's games, watched a slide show of everyone's pictures from the 80's, danced to classic 80's music and played old school video games. What a blast!

P.S. We even had to show up to Rudy's 50th Birthday party dressed like this because it was RIGHT before. That was a little more awkward.


Couples slow dance.
Girls waiting to be asked to dance.But, their husbands were gathered around the video game machine.This made it oh so real - all the girls gathered in a circle dancing together, while again, the guys were playing video games. I believe Carly's dancing to "Can't Touch This!"
Matt and Clair
The couple that I give the award of "Best Dressed" to, Amber and Jeremy.
Girls just wanting to have fun.
The boys.
And, of course, Brie LOVED, LOVED, LOVED that we were dressing up. She thought it was the coolest thing ever!

Kamber's Visit

Kamber lives in Idaho now!! Yahoo! That means it is a lot easier to just come and visit. Finally, we got a whole four days last week for her to just hang out at our house and let the kids play. It was so fun to be with Kamber and her kiddos.

Brie and Samantha played in the snow (for about 4 minutes).We went swimming at a wonderfully warm indoor pool that everyone loved. They even had a great water slide that the girls could go down by themselves. (This is what two sets of twins would look like. Yikes.)Brie played doctor on Samantha and Samantha played doctor on Brie. Ava dumped out her snacks all over the floor so she could share with Spencer. How sweet.Come back soon Kam! We miss you!

Hearts Galore

Back to Valentine's Day (I was finally able to load pics).

The day before Valentine's day, Scott came home with a bouquet of red roses and took me out to a fabulous dinner at the Market Street Grill. It was wonderful to be with just him.

Valentine's day came and there were hearts, hearts everywhere. The girls woke up to heart balloons, a heart tablecloth, little V-day presents, heart chocolates (that they dove right into) and then heart shaped pancakes.We made heart shaped sugar cookies and decorated them. We had also made heart shaped Valentine's cards. We headed out in the sleet and snow and took cookies and cards to grandma and papa and cousins.Our dinner was red and white heart shaped pasta noodles. So cute. Ava loved 'em.At the end of the day, the girls wore their heart footy pajamas and went to bed. And the grand finale for Valentine's day . . . . . Scott went to clean a DISGUSTING poop covered men's room for the Draper Temple open house. I stayed home and worked on primary hand outs. No hearts involved for either.

Really?

They are trusting the mother of this child to be in charge of the kids at church? Really?

This is the ensemble Brie came out of her room wearing the other morning. She was SO excited about it. I asked if we could take a picture for Daddy to show him just what kind of child he is raising. She was thrilled to pose. This is the least risque.

Primary President

So, last Thursday evening I was asked to be our ward's (congregation at church) Primary President (leader over the children 18 months to 12 years old). I knew it was coming. I just knew, but really didn't want to think about it or admit it. I was so happy being in the Young Women's presidency and REALLY didn't want to leave those girls. He asked me and from that minute on I was so excited!

And a little scared to death. Choosing the other women to work with me was a completely miraculous and amazing experience and I am SO grateful for it. That experience changed me, strengthened me and made me more excited and a little less scared. The reason I am nervous is because I have not set foot in Primary since I left when I was 12 years old. I've never taught a class, never helped a child with a talk, never been in the doors. Seriously. So, I've got a lot to learn.

I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE any and all tips, hints, good ideas, thoughts, tricks that worked that you have. Please share them. I've had a million ideas in my mind since Sunday and I really can't wait to get going on them. I really want to hear from your experiences too. Thanks so much.

Child Play

Well, I haven't been a good blog poster recently. First and foremost because Tawna introduced me to a whole new world out there called Facebook. Amazing! Second, because when I sit down to the computer Ava comes along and knows exactly what button to push to shut the whole thing down. She turns the computer off as soon as I'm not paying attention to her.

Third, I'm a mom. We are out doing a lot of fun little kid things every day. Here are some pics of the girls at play.

We have an annual membership to the aquarium. It's not much, but it's very close to our house and ballet class. We went after ballet class last week and it was just enough for Brie and Ava. They love seeing all the fish, finding Nemo, trying to pet the sting rays, watching the sharks be fed and running around the under the sea climbing area.
Every time I'm in the kitchen, Brie wants to be on a stool "helping". Boy, does she help. She helps get everything everywhere, but it's fun to have her. We made DELICIOUS molasses ginger snap cookies and she got to roll the balls of dough in sugar.
The girlies eating peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches and LOVING them!
Our playgroup with church friends is THE BEST! The kids always have a good time playing and the moms have a great time talking. Last week we had a Safari Day. The kids made binoculars out of toilet paper rolls and then got to decorate cookies.
Ava with the two girls exactly her age. This made me realize how bald she is.Ava LOVES listening to Tawna's iPod. She keeps it in her ear listening and then puts it in her baby's ear to let her have a turn too.
Brie's friend, Daxton, came over to play on Monday. I realized it was Groundhog's day! Yeah! So we made little groundhogs and then we took them in a dark room with a flashlight to see if they saw their shadow. They did. We also watched the real groundhog in PA on the computer.
When the Groundhog's Day celebration was over, Brie decided to change into her "wedding dress" so that she and Daxton could get married. He was very excited about it. The interesting part came when they "went to bed". The layed together on the couch for a long time pretending to have gone to bed. What a wedding night huh?Today was our first day of doing a co-op preschool. It was fun and I think we'll like it. The kids made the coolest craft by sprinkling shaved crayon on paper and then ironing it. Very cool.
That's my life. Me and two little girls. And I love it.

I Heart . . .

There are a few things that I am loving lately.

1. The laser. Thank you to whoever the physicists were that invented the laser and all of it's possibilities (I'm sure Bryce could tell me who they were). Eight years ago I went to New York City and had my eyes lasered (laser eye surgery)! It was a total and complete miracle. Best thing ever! I used to need glasses or contacts, but since that laser day, I have seen perfectly! Awesome.

Now I've experienced the incredible power of the laser again. As you may remember, Scott won me a laser hair removal package for Mother's Day last year. I've had six sessions (that last about 5 minutes each) and now TA DA . . . I never have to shave my armpits again!!! Thank you to the blessed laser for under arm hair removal. Incredible.

2. Central Vacuum. Our house has a central vacuum. I can not express how much I love having a central vacuum. It is the best. I plug it in one spot downstairs and can vacuum the whole entire downstairs. Then I plug it in upstairs and can do the whole upstairs, including the stairs themselves. It works really well, better than any other vacuum I've used. We can also plug it in the garage and vacuum cars.

The very best part though is in the kitchen. I sweep the kitchen, get my pile o' dirt right by the vacuum sucker under the cabinets, flip the kick plate and it all gets sucked right in. No dust pan. Awesome.

3. Dark Chocolate Almonds with Sea Salt & Turbinado Sugar. These are only found at Trader Joe's and it just might be worth a road trip to California to get some more when mine run out (which will be very soon). I love 'em. Seriously. They are so good. Roasted almonds covered in delicious dark chocolate and then sprinkled with sea salt and sugar. What an amazing combination of sweet and a little salty. Yum!

4. Bread Machine. Laura was totally right. I love having a bread machine. Thanks to the Hayes family for giving us their bread machine that they've never used. I haven't used it to bake bread and don't know if I ever will. I like it for the same reason Laura does, it is perfect to dump all your ingredients in for bread or pizza dough and then it mixes it, kneads it and keeps it warm to rise. Last night I made thin wheat crust pizza with mozzarella, tomato and basil. DELICIOUS!

5. Macy's Clearance Sales. Macy's has been having WICKED AWESOME clearance sales. Seriously. Everything is clearanced so low and then you take 20 - 30% off of that. Scott and I both came away with some stylin' new clothes and each item was $4.99. Incredible. We also came away with whining, crying, fit throwing children and huge headaches from keeping them controled in the store too long. I want to go back (without kids), but know I shouldn't step foot in that store. I can't control myself.

What's Up?

1. My dad came to visit!! My dad comes to meetings in Utah every January and it is always exciting and fun to have him visit (although January is not his favorite time to be here). He stayed with us for 4 days. Brie and Ava loved it and got their fill of grandpa style teasing. Bryce came up and stayed the weekend with us. Tawna and dad toured LDS Business College and got all excited about Tawna going there. Everyone had a great time with dad here.

We met Scott for lunch and went to a new Peruvian restaurant. Dad had his Inca Cola and Papa a la Huacaina. A very happy man. We took the girls to Cabelas to see the animals and fish. What a cool store!Tawna and Ava narrowly missed getting eaten by a Polar Bear!And, of course, the grand finale to every Dad visit - Dad's monthly indulgence in a McDonald's breakfast.The perfect eating place for Brie and Ava.
2. Brielle and I made snowmen. I wish I was someone who loved going out to play in the snow, but I just don't work myself up to do it too often. We got dumped on last night, so maybe I'll try to go out in it with Brie today. One thing I do like is popcorn. We made popcorn ball snowmen one afternoon for "Mommy and Brie time" during Ava's nap.
3. More three year old trouble. Brielle "drew me a picture" with a ball point pen on the arm of the couch. She was sent to her room and then had her dress ups taken away, but didn't care much. So, I had her sit in "time out" look at and think about what she had done. We scrubbed it and it came off fairly easy. Thank heaven for microfiber.4. A snow day at playgroup. We really haven't had any snow until today. This was a great snow day. It was sunny and nice, but the kids still had a patch of snow to play with. Jen filled squirt bottles with water and food coloring so the kids could "paint the snow". They loved it! We couldn't pull them away! What a great idea!5. The Draper Temple open house. The new LDS temple in Draper is finished. This will be our temple. Scott, Tawna and I ushered at the open house one day. It was wonderful! Scott and I were each in a sealing room and Tawna got to be in the celestial room. We loved it. Next assignment is to clean the temple all night on Valentine's night. What a romantic date with 50 other people from the ward, huh?

Last Friday we got to go through the tour of the temple with our good friends, the Lopez family. The night before we went, I was telling Brie that we were going to the temple the next day. She got REALLY excited and yelled, "Am I getting married tomorrow?" When I told her no, she started crying and saying, "But I REALLY want to get married to daddy." She is now mad at me that I already married daddy and she can't.It was a neat day with Maritza and her family. Brie liked riding the bus up to the temple with Jazlyn and I liked getting to tell Maritza and Jose about our temple and why it is special and important to us.