Steve and Julie

Til We Meet Again...

2012-01-21T09:16:00.000-08:00

Austin left on January 18th for two years to serve as a missionary in the China Hong Kong Mission. He will be an awesome missionary. The people of Hong Kong will love him as he will grow to love them. I have no doubt about that! We had an open house on the 15th . It was so crazy I didn't have time to get pictures - about 75 people were in and out during the day.Had to get a picture of Austin with this guy though. Jordan and Austin have been best friends for a few years now. Jordan leaves in May for a mission to Brazil.
Austin with Mom and Dad- now officially empty nesters. I think it's funny that he already had his backpack on- ready to go!
Squishes are the best!
See what I mean? Just brings a smile to your face! Austin loves his sister!
More squishes! Can't ever have too many.
Kyle can stand as tall as he wants but Austin will always be taller. These guys have had some fun times lately playing Xbox games til all hours of the night. My handsome boys!
It will be fun to see before and after pictures of these two together. Jane will be the one who changes the most. Uncle Austin will have to win her over all over again.
May the Lord keep you and watch over you until we meet again!

Christmas 2011

2011-12-31T15:34:00.000-08:00

First let me apologize that there are no pictures to go along with this post. That said, it was a wonderful, relaxing Christmas at our house this year. A bit lacking without Heather and Clint here but we did get to Skype with them!

Steve and I didn't do much for each other this year- we mostly concentrated on Getting everything Austin needs for his mission. Probably not the funnest Christmas for Austin since almost everything he opened was for his mission but he was a good sport about it and even acted like getting sheets for Christmas was awesome!

We opened presents, then went to a wonderful sacrament meeting full of music. There was such a powerful spirit there. What a wonderful way to begin Christmas Day!

Kyle, Han and Jane came around noon and we opened more presents while Skyping with Heather and Clint.

Steve's parents and brother joined us for Christmas dinner.

Jane loved playing with her new toys- she kept us all pretty entertained. What a cutie she is!

The best part of any Holiday is being able to celebrate it with family!

And now, life is about to change greatly for us as Austin leaves in 3 weeks for his mission!

UP House!

2011-12-10T14:27:00.001-08:00

So, you know the movie "UP". Well Bangerter Homes actually built a replica of the house from the movie. It is located in Herriman and you can walk through it and take pictures every day from 12-5 thru December.The house is amazing and is as identical as they could get it including some of the inside.
Even the mailbox!
The chairs were custom made to match as close as possible the ones in the movie- notice the walker and below the fireplace mantle complete with accessories.
Gotta love this kitchen!
Two of the bedrooms were "make a wish" rooms. One a Toy Story theme- complete with all the characters from the movie,
and the other one was a princess room.
Loved these flowers on the nursery wall!

The master bedroom- also very cute...
my favorite thing about this house was this-
Austin's favorite room was the theater room - didn't get a picture sorry and the hidden room (there was a hidden playroom behind bookcases in the upstairs hallway). The house has been sold and the family will be moving in the beginning of next year. So fun to be able to walk through it. It's free to the public!

Baby's 1st Birthday!

2011-12-01T20:03:00.001-08:00

We celebrated Jane's 1st Birthday on Thanksgiving Day while all the family was at our house. She wasn't quite sure what to think of everyone staring at her and of all the presents. This one was a singing cookie jar with shapes that you put in it. I heard the song so much the next day that I quickly memorized it and found myself singing along with it each time it went off.To the tune of London Bridge sing along with me- "Shapes are in my cookie jar, Triangle, heart and star. There's a circle over there, here's a square!" Jane loved her cookie jar and carried it around everywhere the next day!
She also loves books and got a couple that got her attention.
Her first cupcake to eat all by herself. She was very dainty with it at first, just using her finger to get the frosting.
Eventually she dug in a little more but still didn't do too bad.
Time for a bath! Happy birthday to my little baby Jane- growing so fast!

Thanksgiving Fun, Family and Food!

2011-12-01T19:39:00.000-08:00

My sister Kristin and her family came to stay with us for Thanksgiving. Since they were here we had the rest of my sisters who live in Utah and their families join us for Thanksgiving dinner, along with Steve's parents and his brother Brent. 30 of us in all. This is when I love having the layout that we have in our home. Plenty of room for everyone!The younger kids table - complete with silly faces!
Nothing but serious eaters at this table...
I love little Stephen's face in this picture.
And Holly's in this one. Yep they are Mother and Son! Everyone stuffed themselves on yummy food! So fun to have all of us together and especially to have company for a few days.

Happy Birthday Meghan!

2011-10-26T15:00:00.000-07:00

Colorful and beautiful flowers in memory of a colorful and beautiful girl!Happy Birthday Meghan! Love you and miss you!

Kyle and Han Family pics Part1

2011-09-24T13:42:00.000-07:00

Kyle and Han had family pictures taken this week.

These are some of my favorite family pictures! What a cute family!

Kyle and Han family pics Part 2

2011-09-24T13:34:00.000-07:00

What a little doll! Here are some of my favorites of Jane.

He's Going Where?

2011-09-01T12:24:00.001-07:00

As we got Austin's mission papers ready and sent in, everyone was speculating on where they thought he would be going to serve his mission. Right from the beginning my guess was Hong Kong China. There were a few times that I wanted to change my guess but as I thought of where I still came back to Hong Kong every time. Well, the call came yesterday in the mail.Austin patiently waited all day for the appointed opening time- 7:00pm with family and friends that he wanted to invite ( Jason would hate that shot of him in the background).
We're ready!!!! Even Heather and Clint joined us on Skype...
"Dear Elder Passey- You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the China Hong Kong Mission."
Everyone cheered so loud that Jane was frightened and started crying. He will be speaking Cantonese and entering the MTC (Mission Training Center) on January 18th! We are so excited for him and this great opportunity he has to aide in taking the gospel to the people of China. I am still in shock that my guess was actually right!

Someone loves her Grandma!

2011-08-21T13:37:00.000-07:00

For Kyle's birthday , Han arranged for some friends to all go picnicking together and they came to the house after for dessert and some game playing. Steve and I took Jane outside and played with her while they played inside. She thought it was hilarious every time I put my hands in the air and said "HI". Steve took this picture of her laughing at her Grandma.What a cutie! She is a bundle of fun!

Something to write about!

2011-07-17T12:09:00.000-07:00

Heather has been visiting for the last week and a half (the 6th - 16th) and we loved having her here!!!! It was so fun to have her home and to spend time with her. I didn't get a whole lot of pictures taken but she did so you will have to see her blog. She was able to visit with quite a few of her friends while here and we filled the rest of her time with shopping, playing games, visiting with family, eating (Red Mango, Sweet Tooth Fairy, Zuppas!!) at places Iowa doesn't have, swimming at the pool, more game playing and just plain hanging together.

On Thursday we met up with my sister Holly and her daughter Rachel at Thanksgiving Point. We went to see the movie "17 Miracles" which we all highly recommend to everyone. Be sure to bring kleenex though! We ate dinner after and enjoyed visiting and catching up. Not a good hair day for me...I had just gotten it cut. Everyone else looks cute though.

Heather and I sporting our new necklaces from a Paparazzi jewelry party we went to which she won the drawing at...WooWoo! On the way home from our visit with Holly and Rachel, we met up with Jen, a good friend of Heather's and enjoyed catching up and eating Red Mango together.

The time went by so fast and I started missing her as soon as we dropped her off at the airport but hopefully it won't be too long before we can visit again. Maybe this time Steve and I can make it to Iowa! Loved hangin' with (next to Steve) my best friend!!

Janne's 1st Pool Day

2011-06-28T09:15:00.000-07:00

Kyle came early on Monday and we took Jane to the pool before he had to go to work. I bought this little bumble bee tube for Jane to play in at the pool. She was more interested in leaning forward and sucking on the bee's antenna.Her legs were constantly kicking though and she seemed to love being in the water...
Drying off... love these two pictures!

What a cutie!!

2011-06-15T13:20:00.000-07:00

Jane is almost crawling. I tried to catch her on video doing her army crawl but wasn't very successful...still it's a cute video! Enjoy!

Morp- best picture ever!

2011-05-31T16:52:00.000-07:00

Hilarious MORP picture from Austin and his date Kenzie. I laughed so hard!

Graduation thoughts...

2011-05-30T12:09:00.000-07:00

My baby is graduating from high school this week...Graduation is nothing new to me as I have had three others graduate before Austin but this time it is a much more emotional occurrence. I find that everything I do with Austin is that way, because he is the last. For the past 22 years my life has centered around school, PTA, homework, school projects, soccer, dance, piano, basketball, track, cross country, swimming etc. All of that comes to an end on Thursday and before I know it, Austin will be gone on his mission. Besides Steve, my children have been everything to me and letting the last one go is harder than I thought but let him go I will as he soars onward and upward, just as the others have done while we who are left below wonder what to do with this empty nest. We may be sad for a time, but don't worry, we'll think of something to do ;) (wink, wink)!

Remembering Meghan...

2011-05-06T12:58:00.000-07:00

It has been 6 years tomorrow since we said good bye (for now) to our daughter, Meghan. I am grateful for the knowledge I have that we will be reunited with her someday and look forward to that joyous reunion. In the meantime I am so grateful that Heavenly Father allows her to peek back in on us from time to time and even step in and help occasionally. Love you and miss you as always Meghan!

Austin- Senior pictures

2011-04-27T13:28:00.000-07:00

Ryan Thompson ( RLT Photography) came to our house on Monday and took Austin's senior pictures. We decided to do them at our home and I am glad we did. They turned out great and it was hard to pick a few to highlight but here are a few of my favorites...Austin loves his retro sunglasses and I think he is quite handsome in them. Ryan got some awesome shots with them!
Love this orange shirt. Not everyone can wear orange!
The rocks on the porch made for a great backdrop.
Ryan took some shots of Austin in the middle of the road. Who would have thought?

This is Austin's swim hoodie - it says Passey Man on the back in case you can't quite read it.
A swim captain needs a senior picture that represents him and this is it! I love the water drops, too!

Yeah, He cleans up nicely!
Ryan took some missionary photos - just so we will have them when the time comes ( not too far away now!)
I babysit Jane on Mondays and who could resist snapping a few shots of this doll? Not Ryan!

Awesome pictures! If you want to see more go here- http://rltphotography.smugmug.com/SeniorSchool-kids/Austin-Passey/16790651_zjKb8n#1266769864_kV4M3bJ .

Meet the Lander

2011-04-01T15:18:00.000-07:00

We traded our truck in for a Toyota Highlander yesterday. Not that we didn't like the truck - it has been a great vehicle but filling it up was a real hit to our budget and we really never used it much as a truck anyway.The Lander (as I affectionately call her) is big enough to tow something (like a pop-up tent trailer someday) but gets much better gas mileage. She is a Salsa red and I love it!

2 minutes of Fame.

2011-03-29T09:35:00.000-07:00

Austin had his 2 minutes of fame along with these other students on KUTV 2 News this morning. He won an ethics scholarship for Weber State as part of the Ken Garth Keys to Success program. We had to be there by 5:45 am - Brrr! it was cold!

Other students there were in the drawing for the car that is behind Austin. He wasn't a finalist for that but we will take a scholarship any day!

Baby Jane- 4 months

2011-03-25T14:17:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick little video I took the other day while I was watching Jane. She wasn't jabbering as much as she usually does but it is still cute.

Yes, I am lazy...

2011-03-22T09:06:00.000-07:00

I received the pictures from our trip to Minnesota from Heather and posted them on my account on Facebook. Rather than take the time to post them again here I am just referring any who follow my blog to check them out on Facebook. Yes, I am lazy!

Minnesota- eh!

2011-03-15T09:06:00.000-07:00

Just got back from a weekend in Minnesota but unfortunately I forgot my camera so the post for the trip will be late in coming (Heather is sending pictures she took). In the meantime you can see sights from the trip on Heather and Clint's blog.

Spring Anyone?

2011-03-02T11:22:00.000-08:00

I changed my Blog background to what I want most right now...Spring!!

When my friend and I went to the temple this morning, we saw that the grounds keepers had planted all the flower beds with pansies and it was so beautiful and colorful - Spring can't be far away!

Happy Anniversary to US!

2011-02-26T14:52:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Steve and I celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary. We wanted to go overnight somewhere where we hadn't been before and decided to give this place a try-
The Johnson Mills B & B in Midway. We stayed in the Waterfall Terrace room which is the top floor of the Inn. This place was beautiful- very quaint and rustic with gorgeous grounds. Our room ...
very spacious.
To the left of this little table were french doors that opened onto our own little balcony overlooking the grounds below. The view from our balcony...
We walked out to this gazebo and fed the swans who came right up to us.
A view of the waterfall right below our room. We could hear the water flowing even with our door closed. I love falling asleep to the sound of rushing water.
The river runs all through the property which is filled with wildlife. We could have gone snowshoeing along trails but we were not dressed for it. I would love to go back in the summer and walk through it then.
The waterfall again from the first floor deck.

The back of the Inn from the Gazebo. The balcony seen at the top of the Inn was our room.
The breakfast was incredible - my camera died so I didn't get pictures. We had a wonderful stay here and are planning on returning in warmer weather.

Happy Anniversary to my Honey. Thanks for 28 fantastic years! I love you!

Jane's Blessing Day

2011-02-06T11:54:00.001-08:00

Jane was given a name and a blessing today by her Daddy. She looked so pretty all dressed in white...

She was a perfect little angel all through the meeting. By the time we got to picture taking she was a little done with the whole fanfare but we still got some great pictures of her in her blessing dress. Kyle gave her a beautiful blessing!

Ahhh...

2011-01-10T16:32:00.000-08:00

You know what's so nice about this beautiful January sunset tonight?No Inversion!!!!

Christmas Post Part 2

2011-01-04T12:25:00.000-08:00

The best part about this Christmas was that we had a house full and spent time together as a family. We played lots and lots of games and ate lots of food and goodies and enjoyed having this new little one with us-
I am so glad that Heather and Clint were able to come home for the holidays. I dare say no one has as much fun playing "Loaded Questions" as we all do together and "Just Dance 2" was a new fun addition to our gaming. On Heather and Clint's last night here we took them to our favorite Sushi restaurant - "Tsunami". I actually remembered to bring my camera-
Two cute pictures of two cute couples...
and then us with that deer in the headlights look-
This was so worth waiting all week for. The food here is the best Sushi I have had.

Mmmm...good!
Steve and I always like to get a hand roll so we had the kids try one, too.

On New Year's Eve day we had to say good-bye to Clint and Heather and Kyle, Han and Jane left to return to their home shortly after. I spent the day taking down Christmas decor and cleaning the house and it was very quiet. Austin went to a party for the evening and Steve and I watched a few movies before ringing in the new year and hitting the sack. I know this isn't a very detailed post of the holidays at our house but gifts, parties etc really don't matter. The best part was having my family around me. I am grateful for a family that plays together and spends time together and just "hangs out" together. Those are the best times. I love my husband, children and my new granddaughter and feel so blessed to have them all in my life.

Christmas Post Part 1

2011-01-03T15:06:00.000-08:00

The Holidays flew by as they always do. It was so nice to have the kids all here for Christmas, including this little cutie...Here Jane is with her favorite Aunt Heather...
We had our annual Christmas tree cone decorating night . Somehow we have gotten away from actually making them look like christmas trees but it is fun to see what everyone comes up with.
Heather's and mine (right) were of the traditional theme, Steve's was the nose of a clown face and Clint's was a scene from Elf ( cute puffin!)
Austin created a tunnel with his and Kyle came up with a space ship and men landing on the moon- very clever!
We had a new winner this year- Han! She made a flower pot with a beautiful flower.
Next year Jane gets to join...won't that be fun!

Christmas Craft

2010-12-06T16:01:00.001-08:00

Heather sent me a picture and instructions for a craft she did and I loved it so Saturday I made this fun Christmas decoration. It stands about 20 inches high...perfect for a table top. Thanks for the idea Heather!

Baby update

2010-11-28T09:34:00.000-08:00

I thought I would post a few pictures of Jane without the newborn puffiness of the first pictures. This was her first day home from the hospital-
There is another arm in that sleeper somewhere!

We are Grandparents!

2010-11-25T21:06:00.000-08:00

Our Thanksgiving Day was spent at the hospital where my son Kyle and his wife Han delivered our 1st grandchild. Jane Vy was born today at 5:10pm weighing in at 7.9 pounds and 20 1/2" long. Here she is...

Chubby cheeks already! Mom and baby are doing well. Han was very tired when we left the hospital.
Proud Papa! I love this picture of Kyle with Jane.

Even Austin got in on the baby holding action!

It will be so fun having a little one around again. Congrats Kyle and Han...she's a cute one!

Swim Meet Update

2010-11-16T17:18:00.000-08:00

Austin is doing well this year in swim. He is improving his times every meet which is awesome. In the meet today he swam the 100 yd Freestyle coming in 2nd overall with a time of 57:52 beating his old time of 58:34. He swam the 100 yd Breaststroke again coming in second overall with a time of 1:15.33 beating his old time of 1:16.46. He swam in two relays - the 200 yd. Medley ( he swam breast) and the 400 yd. Freestyle and they came in second overall in both. It has been fun to watch his improvement and he is very happy with how well he is improving his times. His races have been very exciting because he is usually in a dead heat with another swimmer either just loosing to them or just beating them by tenths of a second.

Bathroom Redo

2010-11-13T14:15:00.000-08:00

After helping Heather with painting in her new house and returning home to do a suede wall in my neighbor's home, I decided that while I am in the mood I might as well get our upstairs bathroom done. I found a shower curtain and accessories with colors I love on it (on sale of course!) and color matched paint and towels. The end result is...
This wall is actually a light blue but didn't show up that way. I wanted to show this picture. Bought the frame and printed the saying off the computer. It looks really cute! Sorry it's a little blurry.

The first picture shows the actual wall colors the best. I am still looking for a few things to possibly add to the bigger walls but overall I love it! Painting and decorating is fun!

Han's Baby Shower

2010-11-07T16:21:00.000-08:00

This past Saturday we had a baby shower for Han and baby Jane. I started off keeping up with picture taking but then I was sidetracked with writing who gave what and hostessing that I failed to get pictures of everything and anyone except Han- my bad!It was a fun shower though and baby Jane got lots of cute things. Kerri Jo made these cute baby bootie cupcakes-
My sister,Dona, gave Jane this adorable knit dress. Han wished it was big enough for her to wear!
I loved this picture frame from Great Grandma Passey. There is a place for a picture of Jane every month for the first year.
Great Grandma Toothaker made this fleece blanket...
Heather made the car seat cover on the stroller behind my nieces, Erica and Carmen. The car seat/stroller were from Jane's Grandparents ( that's us!)
I made this fun quilt- hopefully Jane will love rubbing the furry edges and it will be her special "blankie".
Thanks to family and friends who came to support Han and baby Jane! Four more weeks till Jane makes her debut!

Iowa Trip

2010-11-07T14:23:00.000-08:00

I left on Wednesday the 4th to visit Heather and Clint in Iowa...to help them paint and move into their new house but we made time for a little site seeing and shopping, too.I came home with 83 pictures...way too many to post. I narrowed it down to these few. I flew into Omaha, Heather picked me up and we headed to the Winter Quarters Temple. It'a a beautiful little temple.
We also visited the Winter Quarters Cemetery. The monuments there are really nice. There aren't as many grave stones as I thought there would be. I'm sure a lot of the graves are unmarked. The ones that are marked are mostly unreadable. We didn't visit the museum but I enjoyed the walk through this place. Such faith these pioneers had!
LeMars, Iowa is the Ice Cream Capitol of the World( in case you didn't know) because it is the home of Well's Dairy also known as Blue Bunny Ice Cream. So, of course we had to go to the Blue Bunny Ice cream parlor/gift shop.
I have been so good about not eating any sugar but you cannot be in the ice cream capitol of the world and not eat ice cream...

Did I mention that there is a Well's Dairy/Blue Bunny Museum? It was closed while we were there and Heather and I had intended to go back but we forgot. This truck is outside the museum.
This is Well's Dairy, where Clint works...
and being the ice cream capitol of the world, one would naturally assume you would have the largest freezer in the world, which LeMars does...
Yes that's right...the entire white building you see is freezer. It is huge!!
Part of the reason for my visit was to help C & H paint and move into this cute little home. Check out Heather's blog for a room by room tour.
LeMars has an awesome memorial park that pays tribute to every war America has been in beginning with the Revolutionary War down to the Present Iraq War. It is very well done and quite impressive.
Another must visit place in LeMars is Habitue. A fun little coffee/crepe house. They have delicious crepe sandwiches...
but the best part is their crepe deserts (again my no sugar rule was abandoned). Heather had this chocolate banana hazelnut crepe,
and I had the apple crumble crepe. Both were sooo good!!
LeMars was a fun little city and I loved seeing where Heather & Clint live and meeting their friends- especially Tiffany and Ryan. It will be fun to go back, hopefully next summer with Steve and Austin and see it when it's green. Thanks for the grand suite room Heather!

Happy Birthday Meghan!

2010-10-26T10:33:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday Meghan! I love you and miss you. It's appropriate that it is snowing today. I can just here her now shouting, "I love the snow!"

Finally Done!

2010-10-22T18:56:00.000-07:00

So do you remember many many months ago when I started making my very first pieced quilt? Well, after all the work it took to piece it together and quilt it, I decided I'd had enough and put it away. Enough time had passed that I felt I could now dig it out and finish it and that's just what I did...Not bad for my first quilt. I am going to hang it downstairs...as soon as I find a shelf with a quilt hanger on it. Click on the picture to see a bigger version of the quilt.

St. George Trip...Again!

2010-10-11T12:39:00.000-07:00

Yes, we made another trip down to St. George - this time with our good friends, LeAnn, Tony, Lanelle and Troy.
We went to see the play "Crazy For You" at Tuacahn on Thursday night. The play was fantastic! They don't allow picture taking but I snuck this one in just before the play started. I love this theartre..1 because it is outdoors and 2 because of the location- the beautiful red rock cliffs in the background.
Friday morning we went to the St. George Temple, such a beautiful temple!
After the temple we drove to the Red Cliffs Recreation area for some hiking. The park caretaker there told us this was a popular hike because of the scenery and she was right...

A few fun nooks and crannys to climb through as Steve is demonstrating above.
The tree behind these guys was so cool- you will have to take my word for it though cause you really can't tell from this picture.

Our destiny on this hike was a waterfall but alas the waterfall was not falling with water. It would have been at the top off the picture below but I guess there is only enough water for it to actually be a waterfall in the spring. Still so pretty though.
To get around the waterfall (or where it should be) we had to climb around this rock ledge using footholds in the rock and holding on to a rope. I don't mind telling you that it was a bit nerve wracking because it was quite a drop but we all made it across and back, though some of us more shakily than others.
That night we went to "Benja's" our new favorite Thai restaurant. The food was to die for..so good. We had some sushi for appetizers ...
and these delicious dishes for the main course. Can't remember their names but oh so good!
This desert was made of sticky rice with fresh sliced mangos and a coconut milk sweet sauce over it. We also had one with a custard instead of the mangos which was my favorite. YUMMY!!!
Friday night it was back to Tuacahn to see "Tarzan" (the 2nd time for Steve and I and it also was a fantastic play! A Very fun trip with some very fun friends!!

Pictures of pictures

2010-09-25T14:24:00.000-07:00

We went to a wedding reception last night that had something I had never seen before. They had a photo both with props that they had everyone stop at first and have their picture taken however they chose to. They printed two copies, one for you to keep and one to stick on a page for the bride and groom next to which you signed your name and/or left a message for them. A very unique guest book, wouldn't you say? Anyway, here is a picture of our pictures...Austin had a great time at Homecoming and I thought I would post a picture of his Homecoming picture since it was so nice

Homecoming Dance

2010-09-19T18:33:00.000-07:00

Austin went to Homecoming this year with Taylor. Here some of the pictures they took...

Austin said they had a great time.

2010-09-17T20:21:00.000-07:00

I have been looking for some new boots for a while now and I finally found just what I was looking for ... I thought they looked cool in sepia-Even better they were on sale and I had a coupon besides ( I love Kohl's!)-
so I got $80 leather boots for $39!! Bargain!!!

It's Homecoming week!

2010-09-13T17:38:00.000-07:00

How does this handsome high school senior ( side note: These pictures were taken by our family photographer - Heather. She did a great job!) go from looking like this...
(Side note#2: I love these two pictures!! These were my favorites.)
To looking like this?

It's Homecoming week, that's how- and today was sidewalk painting. I'm pretty sure they get more paint on each other than on the sidewalks. Looks like Austin is in for a 40 minute shower with lots of soap and scrubbing...hard scrubbing!

A Quick Getaway

2010-08-22T14:13:00.000-07:00

Steve and I try to go to the Shakespearean Festival and a play at Tuachan every summer. This past weekend we headed down to St. George do to just that. We saw "Pride and Prejudice" in Cedar City and "Tarzan" at Tuachan. They were both very good plays but "Tarzan" was my favorite. It was fantastic and very well done. We also did some Hiking in Kolob Canyon which is between St. George and Cedar City and we visited the St. George Temple. It was a nice getaway. We had a wonderful time and the weather was great. Below are pictures of the hike and the temple- Enjoy!
The pictures above and below are of the Double Arch Alcove at the end of the Taylor Creek Trail

The trail follows a creek through a beautiful canyon. I took over 80 pictures throughout the hike. It was so beautiful.
I love these two pictures of the St. George Temple. One with the American Flag that stands out in contrast to the white Temple...
and the other with the sun behind the steeple- as if the steeple were glowing.
And now summer comes to it's close as school starts tomorrow. Our youngest in his last year of high school!! Wow! Where has the time gone?

An Early Birthday Celebration

2010-08-15T20:30:00.000-07:00

Kyle will be turning 24 next week but had plans for the weekend so we celebrated today. the Paul McCartney concert was our gift to him this year but I did take all our pictures and the videos we took on my camera and (now that I have a Mac) I made a movie for him of the concert. Heather and Clint gave him season 7 of Monk. He was oh so thrilled to get a gift as you can clearly see...Kyle and Han brought a new game with them called "The T- Shirt Game" which is similar to Apples to Apples except you play with pictures. We played that game and one of our favorites- "Loaded Questions".
We also enjoyed dinner followed by Kyle's birthday treat request of Banana Cream pie,
and Key Lime pie. Happy Birthday Kyle. We love you!
P.S.- Austin and I had a visit from this Hawk ( or is it an Eagle?)a few days ago. He was quite big and I was able to get a pretty good picture of him sitting on our neighbors roof. He's got his eye on us for sure! What a great looking bird!

San Diego Trip

2010-08-11T15:32:00.000-07:00

Last week we (meaning Steve, Austin and myself) took a quick trip to San Diego. It was a spur of the moment thing resulting from summer boredom. We stayed on Coronado Island at the Marriott Resort.There were ponds running all through the resort, a fantastic pool and hot tub and a walkway following the ocean that led to shops and restaurants.
We visited the Wild Animal Park first. I took about 200 pictures and it is so hard to narrow them down to just a few but this blog would be crazy long otherwise so I am only posting a few of my favorites. This Meercat was adorable and posed so nicely for me.
We were able to feed the deer. This park is a much more hands on place which was so fun.
Lots of birds all around some in enclosed areas like this and some roaming around with you. This guy seemed so like Steve.
One of my favorites was being so close to this beautiful Cheetah. She was a great poser,too.
We took a "Tour of Africa" journey which took us out into the African Tundra where the animals were roaming together. We passed this Rhino on the way who was very protective of her new baby.
We were able to get up close and personal with the giraffes which was so cool! These pics are some of my favorites...
Check out the face of the giraffe in the back!

These baby elephants stole the show. They were so cute playing in the mud.
Our next stop was Sea World and again I have so many great pictures but here are my favorites. The pictures are smaller so just click on them to see them bigger.

We also toured the USS Midway, spent some time shopping at Seaport Village and visited the Mormon Battalion Museum.
Austin's favorite store was the Hat Shop. He must of tried on hats for a good 20 minutes ( you can try on a lot of hats in 20 minutes) making me laugh with his poses.

We had such a good time and it was nice to get away even for a few days. I love San Diego!

Sunset Alert!

2010-08-01T20:16:00.000-07:00

The sunset was absolutely amazing tonight. Thought I would share it with everyone. Enjoy!

BTW we got a new Mac computer that has an amazing photo shop on it so these pics are enhanced!!

Splish Splash!

2010-07-27T12:51:00.000-07:00

My sister Holly came up last week with her kids to swim for the afternoon and, yes, I am just now getting around to posting pictures. These kids were all fearless in the water...it helped that the younger ones had life jackets on. Even I feel fearless in the water with a life jacket on! Little Abby loved climbing out and jumping in and climbing out and jumping in and...you get the picture.

Stephen horse played with Austin most of the time. They sure love their cousin Austin!

Chloe loved having me throw her in the air and then watch her swim back to me with her head in the water. Like this...

When it was time to get out Kieran and Abby decided lying on the hot cement was the quickest way to warm up and dry off. I love little Abby's butt up in the air.

Heather joined us for the fun. She brought her new camera to try out so I am sure her pictures are much better than mine. I'm not sure why Austin looks so miserable...perhaps because he already swam for two hours this morning for swim practice and is only here now because of how disappointed the cousins would be without him. Way to be a good sport Austin!

Rachel had been accidentally kicked a couple of times by other swimmers so by the time I got the camera out this shot was the best I could get from her.

Thanks for coming to swim guys. It was a fun afternoon!

I just noticed I don't have pics of me or Holly but that is Holly's foot on the left side of the picture above...does that count?

2010-07-26T19:08:00.000-07:00

In all fairness to Kyle I feel I must also blog about this movie.... While Steve was out of town this week I went to see Inception with Kyle and Han. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. It is another A movie (though it does have a bit of swearing in it). Kyle would like to insist that it is better than the previous movie I saw (see below) but I have a hard time comparing the two so if you want to be thoroughly entertained and by that I mean just sit back, relax and enjoy a show then see "A Sorcerer's Apprentice". If you want to be fascinated and captivated by a deep movie that requires some thinking then see "Inception".

A 4 Star Movie

2010-07-20T17:54:00.000-07:00

Austin and I went to see "The Sorcerers Apprentice" last night for FHE (Steve was working late) and we both absolutely loved it! It gets a 4 star - an A from both of us. This movie has a little of everything that I love, romance, humor and action/adventure. We were both entertained the whole time by it and it is a very clean movie to boot which is virtually

unheard of these days. The most enjoyable movie I have been to this summer so far! It gets a must see recommendation from both of us!

Oh Woe Is Me!

2010-07-15T14:11:00.000-07:00

Coco had to have a nail removed because she broke it too close to her paw. She has been hobbling along on three feet. Who can resist giving that face some extra loving?

Paul McCartney Concert

2010-07-14T13:27:00.000-07:00

Last night was the much anticipated Paul McCartney Concert. His first time ever in Utah and an opportunity we just couldn't pass up. Knowing how much of a Beatles fan Kyle is(probably the biggest ever!), we bought him a ticket to go with Steve and I as an early birthday present. Waiting for the concert to begin- a very cheesy smile from Kyle. We had great seats on the field. Wish they could have been closer...maybe next time?!!

This was the best concert I have ever been to and I doubt anything could even come close. Paul was amazing from start to finish. He played for two hours straight without so much as a break for a drink of water. Then he came back on for two encores and performed around six more songs. Kyle has a list of all the songs he performed on his blog so check it out. He sings, plays numorous types of guitars, plays the piano, whistles like nothing I have ever heard and has a great sense of humor to boot. An all around fantastic entertainer.

The stage was amazing with two giant screens on either side. You can see we were a ways back but still they were pretty good seats. No opening act to start things off- Paul just came out and started...

The screens got easier to see as the night came on.
I'm not going to comment on the rest of the pictures but here they are...

I wanted to post one of the videos that Kyle shot from my camera but it was taking too long to upload. I will try again tomorrow. I really can't say enough about how great the concert was but if I ever get the chance to go again, you better believe I will be there!

Dinner with C&H

2010-07-10T13:55:00.000-07:00

Steve has been out of town this week and I was bemoaning the fact that I wasn't going to get a night out when Heather suggested I come to their home for dinner. Of course I immediately said "YES!" Austin came along too since he had no plans. We had a delicious dinner of mairnated chicken, corn on the cob, brussel sprouts and a tropical fruit salad after which we played bean bag toss outside. Heather was the star of the night getting 6-7 tosses directly into the hole!!
We returned inside and played a couple games of "Tower of Terror Clue". Surprisingly I won both games- once with just a random guess. I have no pictures of the evening but Heather does so be sure to check out her blog (after she posts about the evening). Thanks C&H for a very fun evening! We will have to do it again soon with Dad this time!!

Girls Camp

2010-07-06T15:20:00.000-07:00

This past week I have been at our Young Women's Girls Camp. We had it at Weber Memorial Park which turned out to be a great camping spot. I had over 80 pictures from camp (way too many to blog) so I chose just a few to put in this post. Our theme was F.R.O.G. (Forever Rely On God) and all the girls and the leaders got a hoodie like this one. The camp had a river flowing through it which was great to fall asleep listening to every night.

You could also be lulled to sleep during the day by its' sounds as were two members of our Bishopric...

Whether we were sitting around the campfire in our P.J.s....

playing games, putting on skits, making crafts...

or just realxing, we had fun and kept busy.

Did I mention eating? There was plenty of good food and snacks. The Hobo dinner was probably one of my favorite. All our leaders are enjoying theirs...

My favorite part of camp (and I am sure I am in the minority for saying this) was the hike on Causey Trail. This is such a pretty hike and we had a nice breeze accompany us. The gang is all ready to go!

Here are some scenes along the way...

I really haven't gone into detail about the camp but all in all it went very well and everyone had a great time- there's just too much to write about in a blog. We were all glad to get home though and shower. We did spend the last day at Pineview boating so that made the drive home not as stinky as it could have been!!! We have some great Young women in our Ward and I have loved getting to know them. This is my 3rd girls camp with this bunch and it was probably the best so far!

A Day Filled with "F"s-

2010-06-27T16:21:00.000-07:00

A day filled with "F"s ( Clint and Heather may be starting to rub off on us!) Farmer's Market- We took a trip to Salt Lake to go to the Farmer's market... not alot of produce yet but we did get some peas, honey butter, hummus and salsa.

Austin, looking cool despite the warm temp. We met up with Kyle and Han there.

Kyle loves having his picture taken as you can see.

Friends- Every summer we get together with a couple families that we have been long time friends with for dinner and games. We enjoyed a great BBQ and got caught up on the doings in our lives Part of the gang hanging out waiting for the games to begin. Zack, Steve and Hunter and Hailey and Amanda. Bridger (below) used to have such a crush on Heather when she was his babysitter. I think he still might.

Tony had set up a croquet game that used three sets of croquet and went from the front of his house to the back. Half of us started in front, half in back. Tony is instructing us on the rules as only Tony can.

Each team began playing in their respective places

meeting in the middle of the side of the yard. Once you reached this part, touched the pole and hit your ball back half way on either side you were poison.

Eventually the teams came together and there were poison members on each team all trying to get each other out. It was very fun and very intense! We also had some basketball playing, badminton and some kind of a tagging game going on at different times. It's always fun when we get together with these guys!

Fireworks- We headed back to our house after and a fireworks show was going on that we had a great view of.

Fire- We watched the fireworks show while we had a fire in our pit and roastd Starbursts and made S'mores.

And that was our day of "F"s- Filled with Fun!

Father's day/Han's birthday

2010-06-21T15:05:00.000-07:00

Father's Day and Han's birthday fell on the same day this year so we had a double celebration!
I took Han shopping last week for her birthday to buy maternity clothes and Clint and Heather bought her the DVD "Mulan". The cute top she has on is one of the shirts I got her.

Steve got a Jazz tee with the new colors from Kyle and Han and an Old Testament study manuel from Clint and Heather. Austin and I gave him a hammock. I was having issues with downloading so couldn't get pics posted of Steve and his gifts. We played games- Dicecapades and Bocce, and had a great Surf and Turf dinner (Steak and Salmon).

Steve wanted me to make him one of his favorite desserts- my homemade from scratch baked chocolate cheesecake...

I toppped it with caramel sauce, nuts and drizzled chocolate sauce. Can you say " unbelievably rich"? Look at this piece with the sauces oozing down the sides!

Happy Father's Day Steve and Happy Birthday Han!

Movie Reviews

2010-06-15T20:22:00.000-07:00

We have seen a couple movies lately and since I have nothing else interesting happening in my life right now I thought I would share my views on a few that I have watched. First, in the theater...The Karate Kid. Jaden Smith is so much like his father in this movie. He does very well and is amazing at karate. It's hard to watch kids getting beat up even though I know it's not real and the movie is a bit long and slow in places but other than that I liked it. Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith play well together. I give it a B+. It is rated PG and has some mild swearing.
The next two are rentals. First is Young Victoria...

Steve watched this with me and we were both pleasantly surprised. The movie left us wanting to know more about Queen Victoria. This movie is about her beginning years as Queen of England and of the love story between her and Prince Albert, whom she marries. It was very well done. Steve gave it a B+. I gave it an A- ( probably because I love period movies). It is rated PG.

Last of all - Hachi...

This a based on a true story of a Japanese professor and his dog but the story has been changed to an american professor and his dog. This Japanese breed of dog is known for it's loyalty and that's what the story is about- the loyalty of a dog to his master. The story is very slow moving but very touching. Warning: I cried...alot! I gave it a B-. It is rated G.

And there you have it...that's what I have been up to on these rainy days.

A Simple Memorial Day project?

2010-06-01T09:09:00.000-07:00

Steve and I thought Monday would be a good time to get our park strip trees planted so off we went to J&J Nursery. We bought (on the advice of out friend Jeff who works there) three Snow Crab Apple Trees. They bear no fruit and have big white blossoms in the spring. Anyway, we thought- "We'll just hurry and plant these before the family gets here for a BBQ." We did get this one planted but the very first whole we dug gave us this nice surprise...

Projects are never as simple as they seem are they? Now we have a leak in our sprinkling system to find and repair. We did get two out of the three trees planted though and left this for the pros to fix. We spent the rest of the day playing yard games but I only got pics of our bean bag tossing skills.

I love some of the facial expressions... such serious players! Heather was our picture taker which is why she is missing from any pictures. After Kyle and Han arrived we had hamburgers on the grill. Hooray for summer barbequing!! Never made it to the pool today- a bit cool and way too crowded!

The day turned out nice in spite of the setbacks. I always love it when we can all get together, eat and play games!

Check out this Restaurant!

2010-05-22T08:13:00.001-07:00

On the recommendation of our friend KaLynne, Steve and I tried a new restaurant (new to us that is) last night. I am sorry - I forgot my camera but wanted to post about it anyway. The name of the place is Jasoh's, located on 195 W 25th Street in Ogden. The food was fantastic!! I had their Salmon special and Steve had their Spicy Sausage Tortellini. They had flavored Olive oils and Balsamic vinegars that are served with bread for dipping that are absolutely yummy! We had a blood orange chocolate one. The waiter was top notch and very friendly. I highly recommend this place! They have a fine dining side and a Pub (casual dining) side to the restaurant. We chose the more casual. Definitely added to our favorite places to eat list!! A must try for sure. Thanks KaLynne!!

Gotta Love That Man Of Mine!

2010-05-09T13:59:00.000-07:00

Steve gave me a card for Mother's Day that I just love cause it kind of says it all. I wanted to share its message with my blogging friends-
"Remember when it all began,
when all we had was each other and that was enough?
But our life is so much richer now.
We have a kind of friendship and trust
that's always helped us through.
We've dreamed together,
worked hard together,
and seen some of our dreams come true.
As parents, we're partners,
with the best family
anyone could ask for.
What we have is so much more
than we started with,
and yet, it's still the same-
we have each other,
we have love,
and that will always be enough for me."
Beautifully said, Honey! Thank you!

He also gave me a Bose CD player - very excited about that! And he cooked one of my favorites- Salmon on the grill!

In Memorium

2010-05-07T13:05:00.000-07:00

It was 5 years ago today that our daughter Meghan left this life to serve a mission in the Spirit World. It amazes me that it has been 5 years already and though I miss her and think of her often, the pain and sorrow has lessened greatly. We continue to recieve letters and stories from friends and are so grateful for those- I like to call them tender mercies from our Heavenly Father. We recieved another letter today from a friend of Meghan's who shared with us an experience she had not long after Meghan died. It was a very personal and sacred event for the friend so I will not share the whole story but I wanted to share a paragraph from it in remembrance of Meghan today-
"By virtue of her life, her example in small and simple choices everyday, she lived ready- ready to share the light at the core of her being, ready to testify of the Savior, ready to serve Him with all her heart, might, mind and strength...and she did!"
I want to live- ready- like Meghan!

A visit w/my newest niece and a Home Makeover

2010-05-04T16:02:00.001-07:00

First of all, my sister, Dona had a baby girl yesterday and Heather and I went to see them today. Little Carmen was not a happy camper when we took her away from Mom to get some pictures. She is a little cutie even when she is crying!

Secondly, I have been a bit busy lately with a little home redecorating which is why I haven't posted a whole lot. You can click on the pictures below to make them bigger and easier to see. I started with the guest bathroom, painting it an olive green to match the guest bedroom.

Next, I wanted an accent wall in our family room upstairs and decided on a dark tan.

Once that was done I thought hmmm.... why not at it in a few more places to compliment my accent wall , so I painted the acloves...

and all the hallways and the garage entrance, which you can see in the picture above. I love how it turned out! My last project was tiling the kitchen backsplash. I have wanted to do this since we moved in but not knowing how to tile made it seem a daunting task. I talked to some neighbors who were willing to let me borrow their tools and show me what to do (thanks Alison and Travis). Heather found a tile pattern that I really liked at Home Depot and Tadaa....

Here is a close up of the tile.

I love it! I keep looking at my kitchen and thinking, "yeah, that's right! I did this!" It is amazing how a little paint here and a little tile there can make such a huge difference. Everything was so tan before- all the walls the same color and now I have color in almost every room. The downstairs Family room is next but I think I am all done for now!

Prom Pictures

2010-04-28T17:52:00.000-07:00

I took pictures of Austin's prom pics so that you could see how cute his date was. He had a great time! You can click on the pictures to enlarge them. In the group picture he and his date were pretending to shoot the others. I love Austin's face in this...

Prom Night

2010-04-18T14:14:00.000-07:00

Last night was Layton High's Prom. Here are a few pictures of Austin in his tux... This is his Men in Black pose as he calls it. Check out his cool shoes!

Not sure what this pose is...what a ham though!

For some reason the tux made him look like he's gained a bit of weight but although he has gained about 10 pounds (which he needed) he is still pretty slim and trim. Lookin' good Austin!

Catch up Time

2010-04-15T16:01:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't posted for a while- it seems like most days I don't have anything all that interesting to post about and then, boom, I'll have a few days of post-worthy events all in a row. Of course, these things may in actuality only be post-worthy in my eyes but hopefully my few faithful followers may find them interesting as well. So here are a bunch of pictures from the weeks activities... First- on Tuesday I drove up to Logan to go to Heather's forever friend Katrina's senior voice recital. I got there early enough that we could play a bit and have dinner before the concert so of course we headed to Sugar and Spice, a fun little home decor store. I was looking to redo my kitchen window shelf. Here is the outcome of that venture- I found the rooster at Sugar and Spice and the topiary plant at Tai Pan ( already had the plate).

The cute striped balls in the tall apothecary jar came from Sugar and spice, the jars, apples and seed balls came from Michaels (already had the chicken).

Cute, Huh? I love how it turned out. Everytime I walk over to the kitchen I take a moment to look at it.

Wednesday for our Young Women's activity I talked to the girls about dressing modestly and then we gave them tissue paper, tape, ribbons and napkins and had them design a modest prom/dance dress. I just had to post these pics-

The Laurels (16-18 yr. olds) came up with this beauty, modeled by Molly.

The Mai Maids (14-16 yr. olds) came up with this superhero type outfit modeled by Emma.

And our little Beehives(12-14 yr. olds) designed this darling striped creation modeled by Abby. They had a little help from their leaders. Here they are all together...

They then paraded down the halls of the Church to show the Young Men, who clapped and cheered for them!
Today I headed down to Orem to have lunch with three of my sisters, which is unfortunately something we don't do very often. Kristin was in town for a couple of days and Dona is about ready to have her baby so we had a little lunch/ shower at Mimi's Cafe.

Kristin, Amy and Holly-

and Dona and me. We had a great time talking and catching up and Dona loved having new clothes for her baby. She got some cute dresses, outfits, onsies, diapers, wipes etc.. I found this cute dress-

I loved this dress that Holly found for her. It's a onsie with pink tulle that says DIVA.

Dona is due in three weeks. Can't wait to see the new little one! Thanks girls for a fun lunch!Well, there you go... all caught up with the happenings of my week.

Easter and a Birthday Celebration!

2010-04-05T13:54:00.000-07:00

This weekend was First of all General Conference for our Church. Sunday meetings are canceled and we stay home and watch a series of conference sessions at which our Prophet and the 12 Apostles among others speak to us. It was wonderful as always and very uplifting. I love listening to our Apostles and our Prophet. It reaffirms my testimony that they are called of God to lead us and guide us in these latter days. It was also Easter Sunday and since everyone would be here for an Easter dinner, we celebrated Heather's birthday,too. We had BBQ chicken, fresh fruit salad, potato salad and rolls and Heather's favorite, BTS cake...not your typical Easter dinner but delicious none the less. After dinner Heather opened her presents. Han and I were the designated picture takers... Han's cousin, My and her husband Ammon were here visiting from Australia for conference and they joined us for dinner. They are newlyweds (4 months) and were so cute together. We really enjoyed getting to know Ammon.

Heather got Sherlock Holmes from Kyle and Han- a great movie! Notice Austin's face in the background-

Grandma and Grandpa Passey gave Heather some $$- always appreciated.

I took Heather out Saturday night for dinner and shopping. She got a cute white skirt and some lotions from Bath and Body. The rest of her gifts were ... this fun little book called "I Will Always Be Your Daughter"- a parable about mothers and daughters. It's the cutest book and fit Heather and I so well. She read it to all of us.

She also got this necklace...

and this sweater and necklace. I bought this necklace for myself as well and she had worn mine the whole day on Saturday, not knowing that she was getting one. The foot is Kyles', he kept trying to sabotage all of my pictures and...well, sometimes it's just bet to let him win.The reading of the book called for a final picture of Mom and Daughter.

Happy Birthday Heather. Hope you have a wonderful day on Wednesday. I'm so glad I will always be your Mother... and your friend!! Love You!!

A tribute to Meghan

2010-03-28T15:40:00.000-07:00

One of Meghan's best friends and former room mate is sending this article that she wrote in to the Ensign ( a magazine published by our Church). I wanted to post it on my blog too just in case it doesn't get published so you could all read it. It's beautifully done. thanks again Tiff!

“We Talk of Christ”
“The Comforting Power of the Atonement”
By Tiffany Jones
In college, I chose to study abroad in Chile during the summer. I had been there two days when I learned my roommate Meghan had passed away from complications in a car accident. I was devastated. I had never known a more valiant, upbeat, thoughtful person. She was enthusiastic about the gospel, eagerly attending church meetings, faithfully praying and reading scriptures daily. When it snowed, instead of grumbling about the cold and wet, she was delighted for beautiful weather. With her contagious energy and vitality, she was rarely without a date. She was cheerful, helpful, and selfless, even staying with another roommate an entire night when the roommate was ill.
Sharing a room together, we became like sisters. “Joined at the hip,” or “two peas in a pod,” people would say. We were so close that often we knew each other’s thoughts. When Meghan turned to me after a church meeting and said, “I just received an answer to prayer,” I immediately knew: “You’re going on a mission!” We planned to live life’s adventures together, teaching at the same school, raising our children side by side.
Hearing of Meghan’s death was the most heart-wrenching news I had ever heard. In my broken Spanish, I mumbled to my host family, “Mi amiga…Ella esta muerta,” and I stumbled into my room, sobbing. My heart hurt. I was in agony. I felt such deep sorrow and loss and pain. Not knowing where else to turn in an unfamiliar country, I knelt and opened my scriptures, soon finding myself reading in Alma: “And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; …and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities” (Alma 7:11-12). Until that moment, I had never understood the depth of the Atonement’s power. The Atonement is not only to heal us from sin but also to relieve us of sorrow. Immediately, the Savior’s peace filled me, and I felt as Lehi, “encircled about eternally in the arms of his love” (2 Nephi 1:15). My pain was eased and my heartache soothed. I was given the peace that only our Savior could give. He knew exactly how to comfort me because “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows” (Isaiah 53: 4).
I still missed my friend, and the sadness still remained, but suddenly, somehow, it was bearable. I was given the strength to endure with hope and peace. I knew Meghan was now serving her life’s mission with God. I am so grateful that during that difficult time I learned of the comforting, fortifying power of the Atonement. When life seems more than I can bear, I don’t have to rely on my own strength to overcome. The Savior is ready to run to my aide and give me of his love, strength, and peace.

Office Redo

2010-03-27T21:56:00.000-07:00

Those of you who know me well know I love to paint and decorate. I make no claims that I am a pro at it...it's just something I like to do. Steve mentioned that he wanted me to come in and paint his office so I went to check it out. He has a huge desk that is rediculously heavy and un movable so he really only wanted one wall painted and a little decorating done. "Something to match this great rug I got" He said. Notice the rug below. Honestly not something I would have picked for an office but that's what I had to work with. That and his Navajo indian statue and vases. So here are the before and after pictures. Before: business awards on top of hutch, football and baseball (signed by I don't know who). Indian stuff and family pics on desk. Nothing on side desk.

After: side desk now has a plant with his awards. I didn't do anything else with this because he is getting another hutch for this too.

After: Picture hung, greenery and indian stuff on top of hutch, plant, clock and family pics on desk. Below is a closer look at the hutch before...

and after. The pictures don't do it justice but it looks really nice!

Again, before....

and after...I also hung his diploma on the back of the desk and got new updated pictures

Here is the wall to be painted to match his awesome rug...before and...

after. I painted it in the suede look so it is a textured wall in a Terra Cotta color which matches the rug and goes with the Navajo stuff. Again the picture doesn't show the true color as well but it looks great! I also added a tree in the corner and found this awesome clock. Still looking for some smaller pics to go on each side of the clock.

A view of the door to his office before....

and after. The wall really looks orange here but trust me, it's not quite that bright.

Here is a close up of the clock. I love this clock! the camera didn't pick up the texture of the wall either.

It really turned out very nice and the office now looks very warm and inviting and classy. The wall matched the rug perfectly. Steve said it's the nicest office he's ever had. By the way, the football and baseball are now IN one of the desks!

Movie Night

2010-03-21T16:29:00.000-07:00

Heather and Clint were down this weekend so we took the opportunity to have a movie night...a girl's night if you will, because the movie we watched was the new BBC remake of Jane Austen's "Emma". I bought the movie after watching it recently on Masterpiece Theatre. It is excellent!! It is much monger (3 1/2 hrs.)than the older version with Gweynth Paltrow but so well done and so worth the time spent watching it! An A+ movie!
P.S. to his credit Steve did attempt to watch the whole movie with us. I believe he only fell alseep for about an hour of it!

Let's Celebrate!

2010-03-14T19:51:00.000-07:00

In honor of Clint's new job offer- see their blog if you don't know what I mean- Steve and I took him and Heather out to dinner Saturday night. Clint got to pick the restaurant and he picked a favorite of ours- Royal India in Bountiful. Here are C & H... and Steve and I, ready for some "Oh so fine" Indian food!

Tonight we had Lamb Coconut Kurma,Chicken Tikki Masala, Palak Paneer and a new try- Chicken Madras. It was delicious as always!

It's hard to pick a favorite dish because I love them all so much. We always order mild seasonings with a side of hot curry spices for Steve- that way everyone is happy. While we were dining Jon Schmidt ( a rather famous piano player in Utah) walked in to dine at a table nearby. I tried nonchallantly to get a picture of him while pretending to be taking a picture of Heather and Clint but he kept moving his head and I could never get a clear shot. I think maybe he was on to us! It was fun trying though. Anyone else need to go out to celebrate anything...let us know, we're always up for that!!

Movie Must See...

2010-03-09T11:20:00.000-08:00

We went to see Alice in Wonderland last night and I have to say I really liked it. It was very entertaining and though I am not Tim Burton's biggest fan, I think he did a great job with this movie. Johnny Depp was fantastic as usual. He played the Mad Hatter and he did it so well! I actually liked all the characters. A much better show than Disney's animated Alice...of course the original is still probably better for younger children. Definitely a must see and remember it is a Tim Burton film so prepare for it to be a bit strange but then again Alice in Wonderland is a strange movie anyway.

Are you coming Spring?

2010-03-08T10:19:00.001-08:00

Our dog Coco has a favorite passtime.... it is sitting in this chair looking out the window. You can find her here most days. She pretty much waits for me to move the chair to the window every morning then takes her place for the day.

If she is anything like me she is waiting for Spring to come and with it, warmer weather. For her I'm sure it's because she knows she gets to go for longer walks in warmer weather. But for me, well, I just love warm weather! Spring is in the air...I can feel it!

Sunday Dinner

2010-03-01T10:33:00.000-08:00

I hadn't seen my sister Dona and her family for quite a while. We finally made contact and planned a family dinner for Sunday. I made Spinach Lasagna Roll ups (thanks for the recipe, Jenny!) Dona's husband Tony made a great salad and Han brought asiago rolls from the cafe she works at. Dinner was delicicous.... and the company was fun, too. Heather was the only one here paying attention to my picture taking. She is always ready to pose!

My niece, Erica and my nephew, Ethan. Poor Austin had to sit at the kids table so of course he wouldn't let me get his picture.

My sister Dona is due in May with their third child...so we had to get a baby pose!

Heather and Clint made this yummy Trifle for desert. I am sure she will post the recipe on her blog. So Good!!!

After dinner and desert, Ethan and Erica got out their violins and played their upcoming recital pieces for us. They did such a great job ( I think Heather recorded some songs for her blog)!

Erica has been playing for about 10 months. Ethan has been playing for two years. Watch out.. he is in karate, too!

They even bowed after each piece. It was so cute! Their Dad, Tony has been playing most of his life and is so good! He neglected to bring his violin though. He tried playing a little on Ethans but it is a bit small for him.

We even got to hear them play a duet! They were not a bit shy about performing in front of us and did so well! It was so fun spending the evening with them.

Happy Anniversary to US!

2010-02-25T15:27:00.000-08:00

We are celebrating our 27th wedding anniversary today! Our trip to San Diego was the real celebration but I just wanted to tell my hubby how much I love him and how grateful I am for the man that he is. He is my best friend and I love the life we have built together. We have been through some hard times and great times together and each have brought us that much closer.
He quite often tells people that I am his queen and he has always treated me much better than I probably have deserved at times. He is amazing and I am so lucky to have him forever as my eternal companion. Love you honey!

Layton High Swim Banquet

2010-02-18T08:51:00.000-08:00

Last night Layton High held their 18th annual swim banquet at the Castle Reception Center. I have to say...dinner was not very good at all but the rest of the evening was fun. There were lots of funny awards handed out to various swimmers by the coaches and then they presented awards that were voted on by the team. Coach B remarked that every year the swimmers tend to vote for the ones he would pick so they do pretty good at giving the awards to the ones who really deserve it. Austin was a little surprised when his name was called to receive one of these awards.... He received the "Most Improved Swimmer" award. He really has improved alot over the year and I think this was a well deserved award for him.

He also lettered in swimming and received this certificate for that. To letter you have to attend more than 80% of the practices and all required meets, earn points for your team at meets , have good grades and place at region. We are proud of his accomplishments this year in swimming. Way to go Austin!!

San Diego Trip Part 3

2010-02-17T13:10:00.001-08:00

We came back to our room Thursday afternoon and found this elephant made from towels on our bed...just like they do on a cruise - love it! A view of the hotel from the beach. This hotel was a little closer to the beach than most of the others along Pacific Beach.

Friday we took a whale watching trip on the Marietta. We stood right at the front that you see in the picture below most of the time that we were out on the ocean.

I would love to have a sailboat like this one. We passed a few that looked like they would be so fun to try out.

Sea Lions soaking up the sun on a buoy. We saw a few swimming along side the boat. We also had some dolphins checking out the boat. They were too fast for me to get pictures of them. We did see a Gray whale and followed it for a while.

The pictures aren't anything like the first whale watching trip we went on last summer but it was fun to be out on the ocean and see these giants in their natural habitat.

We ate at a restaurant called Anthony's - very good - then headed back to the hotel to warm up. It was a bit chilly on the sea. Saturday after having a scrumptious breakfast at Hennessey's Tavern (they had Captain Crunch French Toast. Sounds strange I know but it was sooo good!) some of us wanted to enjoy walking along the ocean and some of us wanted to go on segways so we split up and met back when it was time to go to the airport.

Steve, myself and Lanelle shopped and walked along the beach, watching surfers, gathering shells and getting our feet wet. I may or may not have seen a wave coming and got my pants soaked to the knees. I love taking long walks on the ocean shore!

Troy, Tony and LeAnn took to the segways and enjoyed riding through a park - I'm not sure where they went actually but they had fun.

This was a fun trip but a little short for me. I would love to go back and check out everything we didn't get to this trip. I don't think it will be too hard talking Steve into another trip...maybe this fall?!

San Diego Trip Part 2

2010-02-16T14:39:00.000-08:00

The Sunset view from our room the first night was spectacular. This was the only night we were in our rooms at Sunset so I am glad we saw at least one. So beautiful! Thursday we headed to the San Diego Temple. What a beautiful temple inside and out! It was a picture perfect day,too. I should have reversed these two pictures- the second one is as we were going in...still a little cloudy.. the one right below here was as we were leaving.

After the temple we went to Old Town to check out the new Mormon Batallion Museum.

This is a must see for anyone visiting San Diego. It was amazing and so well done! I learned alot about the Mormon Battalion and what they helped do for San Diego. Here we are inside about to start the tour.

Steve and Troy posing beside a statue of one of the Bataalion members.

The pictures come to life as they tell the story of the Batallion members and their journey. They even walk from picture to picture (just like in Harry Potter)! You move with them from room to room as the story unfolds. It really is quite cool- amazingly well done!

At the end of the tour we had our picture taken and they e-mail it to you.

Then you head outside to pan for gold. This little girl was there visiting and she considered herself quite the expert in finding gold and was more than happy to teach us the right way to pan. She was very cute!

We ate dinner at the "Old Town Mexican Cafe" which was probably the best authentic Mexican food I have had. There were women in a kitchen at the front of the restaurant that you could watch from outside making the flour and corn tortillas. I had a veggie burrito and Steve had spinach enchiladas (see below).

We were entertained by this group while we ate. They were very good even though we didn't understand a word of what they were singing about.

Most of Old Town was closed for the night after dinner so we didn't get to go into too many buildings. There was a band playing at the edge of the town and we listened to them for a bit before heading back to the Hotel for some hot tubbing!!

I might as well spread this out trip out a bit more so tomorrow...San Diego Trip Part 3.

San Diego Trip Part 1

2010-02-15T15:19:00.000-08:00

This past week, Steve and I along with some great friends of ours headed down to San Diego for a little getaway. Since I have lots of pictures I am spreading the blog about the trip out over the next few days. We had a uneventful flight down on Wednesday and arrived to partly sunny 60 degree weather! Tony checks out the map as we head out to pick up our rental car. LeAnn and I...

and Steve, Lanelle and Troy...ready for some relaxing!

We stayed at the Pacific Terrace Hotel on Pacific Beach. This hotel was fantastic! I highly recommend it. The rooms (their Junior suites) were wonderful and nicely decorated.

These beds were amazingly comfortable, too!

From our balcony we could see Tony and LeAnn's room. Troy and Lanelle were on the other side of the building.

Below our room was the pool and just beyond that an awesome view of the Ocean!

We left our balcony door open every night, just closing the plantation shutters and fell asleep each night to the sound of the waves rolling inot shore. Everything about this hotel was excellent. The staff were so friendly and helpful. I definitely will stay there again! After settling in, we headed down the beach for a late lunch/ early dinner at Joe's Crabshack and enjoyed a leisure walk along the sandy beach on the way back. There are few places I love better than being near or on the ocean! More to come tomorrow.

1 down, 11 to go...

2010-02-06T13:51:00.001-08:00

Even though January is a big birthday month with birthdays for my Mother, my sister Holly and myself along with a few others, it is still a month I struggle with. I guess you could call it after Christmas blues but overall it's a kind of depressing month. The winter blues really set in and I usually can't wait til February comes. Okay truth be told, February isn't much better and I really just want Spring to be here...our little groundhog friend says there are 6 more weeks of winter though...Bah!

Happy Birthday to Me!

2010-01-31T14:22:00.001-08:00

This past Friday I celebrated a birthday. The day started off with lots of phone calls from well wishers- thanks to all of you! Lunch was spent (as is tradition) with LeAnn and Lanelle. How lame of me not to bring my camera. I'm just not as good at remembering to do that as so many of you are. Steve took me to Flemmings at the Gateway for dinner and then to the Jazz game! 18th row! I love going to Jazz games and love it even more when they win...which they did, even without Williams and Boozer playing! I'd like to think the game was won in honor of me (hey, a girl can dream can't she?). Steve also brought me this bouquet of flowers...

Thanks, Honey! It was a great evening. Clint and Heather came down tonight to spend the night and on Saturday Heather and I went to a Women's Conference in the morning. Ardith G Kapp was the keynote speaker and she was amazing! What a great lady! Later Kyle and Han joined us and we had a family dinner- homemade Chicken Noodle Soup and Asiago cheese rolls with Chocolate Bundt Cake for Desert. The rolls and the cake were from The Corner Bakery Cafe where Han works and they were delicious.

My Mother sent me a scrapbook that she put together of pictures she thought I might like to have. Some of the pictures I don't even remember ever having done. It was fun to look at them with the kids because they had never seen pictures of me as a child. I really think I was quite a cute little thing but you can judge for yourself...

I'm the one in the middle! What's not to love about that face! This is one of my favorite baby pictures and one of the few I already had. I thought some of you might get a kick out of seeing my senior picture,too so here it is... I think I can here some of you laughing. Sidenote: you could almost call me a redhead. Thanks for the great pictures Mom!

The kids all gave me this picture. It spells our name using pictures...pretty cool ,Huh! I love it!
It now sits above my front door.

Click on the picture to see a bigger view of the individual pictures.

We had a fun game of Loaded Questions before the kids all headed home (except Austin of course). Thanks for a fun couple of days!

Swim update

2010-01-15T14:07:00.001-08:00

Yesterday afternoon Layton had a meet at Bountiful and Austin came in 2nd overall in the 100yd Freestyle beating his old time of 1.01:98 with a new time of 1.00:88. To shave off a second doesn't seem like much but it really is in swimming. Great job Austin!

Young Women Activity

2010-01-15T13:34:00.001-08:00

My calling in our Church is in the Young Women's organization as a Mia Maid (14-15 yr olds) Advisor.The Mia-Maids were in charge of our Young Women's activity this past Wednesday night and we came up with the idea of making sculptures using rice krispie treats. Rebecca (the other leader) and I made the treats and each class got a pan of it to mold. The rule was that it had to have a religious theme. They had so much fun doing these that I had to post them for you all to see. The Beehive class(12-13 yr olds) with their treats ready to go...

My class busily working on theirs. The object was to work together ( cooperation and communication) so first they had to plan what they were going to make and then who would do what.

The Laurel class (16-18 yr olds) hard at work on theirs. It was so fun to watch them create their sculptures. I was taking pictures so didn't help with any but I did manage to snitch a few remants to munch on while they were working.

Katee, a Laurel leader, displaying her rendition of a pig (if you say so Katee!)

The Beehives hard at work on theirs... and below their finished sculpture. Any guesses on this one?

It's sacrament trays of bread and water of course! Cute little Beehives! Michelle, their leader is hiding in the back.

Next we have the Laurels sculpture. Very creative and the winner ( according to the Young Men).

That's right! It's Noah's Ark. It's hard to see but there were giraffes, snakes, penquins, pigs and hippos with Noah standing proudly on top. Notice Noah's hair and beard!

Last but not least, my ambitious Mia maids whose design was quite complicated...

The Salt Lake Temple complete with a bride and groom!
Not sure what that big red arc above the couple is..an attempt at a door perhaps.

They were a little rushed at the end so the finishing touches never quite got finished. Everyone had a great time doing this activity...much more fun than I thought they would have. Most of the sculptures promptly got eaten by a few of the Young men when we were done.

2010-01-08T13:00:00.000-08:00

Kyle and Han came over yesterday afternoon to bring Austin a belated Christmas gift and to tell us that Han got a job! We decided to go out to dinner to celebrate. They also brought this movie... which we watched after we returned from dinner. It was a cute movie- funnier than I thought it would be. Congrats again on your new job,Han!

1st Sunset Alert of the New Year!

2010-01-04T20:40:00.001-08:00

Take a look at these pictures of tonight's sunset...

Have I mentioned how much I love the sunset views we have from our back yard?!

Happy New Year!

2009-12-31T15:50:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to all our family and friends. We love having all of you in our lives and are grateful for the way our lives are enriched because of you. We hope the coming year brings lot of great memory making events!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-29T12:59:00.000-08:00

As is our tradition, we go out to see a movie and then to dinner to start our Christmas eve. Austin, Steve and I went to see Avatar at an Imax theatre in 3D. It was amazing! We thoroughly enjoyed the movie (minus a bit of swearing). The special effects were incredible! We had dinner at Spaghetti Mamas before heading home. Steve read the Christmas story from Luke in the New Testament and then we each wrote down on slips of paper (to be put in a white stocking) what our gift to the Savior was going to be for the coming year. Clint and Heather joined us as we were watching A Christmas Carol (the musical one with Kelsey Grammer).. Austin headed off to bed quite early which made us all suspicious so after he was asleep I went into his room and sure enough, his alarm was set for 6:30am. I turned it off but to no avail- he was up at 5:30 and we were all up by 6:00am.
Coco joined in the festivities with her Christmas sweater...

Don't we all just look so awake and excited?! I didn't take pictures of us opening our presents. I was to busy watching everyone!

Steve got some clothes, a leather laptop briefcase, a socket set a book (the new Joseph Smith Papers), a cool U of U hoodie and slippers among other things.

One of my favorite gifts was the Wii fit Plus and Active programs. I also got some sweaters, a U of U Hoodie, some books and movies( Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion the new versions!)

Another favorite gift was this awesome standing jewelry armoire! Now I have room for more jewelry!!

Austin got some shirts, sweats, the Smallworld game and the best for him were Xbox 360 games!

Which he has played as much as he could for the rest of the day!

Kyle brought his Beatles Rock Band so they played that a bit and we got two new games- Snorta and Curses which we spent time playing also. Both are very fun games!

Part of everyone's gifts were tickets to go see Sherlock Holmes Christmas Night- which we did. Also a fantastic movie!

Everyone stayed over Christmas night and we did a little of everything all over again on Saturday. I love being with family for the holidays and Steve and I had a wonderful time with ours this year.

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas if I didn't take some time to say how grateful I am for our Savior, Jesus Christ and for his great gift to me and to all of us. It all started with His birth. His birth brought about His death and resurrection which allows all of us to be resurrected and if we are worthy, to live with our Heavenly Father and our families for eternity! There can be no greater gift than that! Merry Christmas!

Family Party #2

2009-12-21T12:04:00.000-08:00

Sunday night we picked up Kyle and Han and headed down to my sister, Holly's house in Spanish Fork for a little get together. Not everyone could make it :( but those of us who were there had a good time. Check out these adorable faces... Chloe was not camera shy at all. As soon as I pulled it out she gave me this big smile and said,"Take my picture!"

And who could resist this adorable face? Abby is two years old and quite the smart little kid. She entertained us with her songs and her knowledge of the alphabet AND the sounds they make.

Little Stephen with Steve discussing whether Santa may or may not have time in one night to visit every house in the world. It was a very serious discussion.

Austin is a favorite with the cousins. They are all over him as soon as he walks in and he entertains them quite well.This is Keiran and below is Rachel.

Having them climb on Austin one at a time wasn't fun enough so...

Abby finally started getting a little tired although she insisted she didn't want to go to bed! What a cute picture of Big Stephen and his little girl!

My sister Amy brought some sparkling cider that evryone made short work of. I love the look on little Stephen's face - I had asked them all to smile!

We had fun playing Christmas Bingo again. I brought a whole bunch of gifts for our Bingo winners which ends up being everyone, even if you are the only one who never wins a game (Kyle) you still get a gift just for being a good sport.

Abby especially like opening the presents and wanted to open all of them!

The kids all had a fun time playing. Christmas Bingo is always a big hit. Thanks for inviting us down Holly. We don't get together near enough!

I just realized that I didn't even get one picture of me or Holly. Sorry Holly!

Happy Birthday Austin!

2009-12-18T07:41:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was Austin's 17th birthday. It's hard to believe that my baby is 17 already! We had celebrated on Sunday so no gifts to open but I picked him up from school and we went to Arby's (his choice) for lunch. He had a swim meet after school. I officiated for the first hour but then went home - they had even officials and I have been under the weather this week dealing with a nasty cold.
Austin's times today-
50 Freestyle- 27.43 seconds (personal best is 27.42)
100 Backstroke- 1:14.21 beating his personal best of 1:20.09!
He also swam in two relays but I don't have his personal times for those. The team didn't beat their times. He has for the most part steadily improved all year and is doing great!
After the swim meet he went out to dinner with some team mates and they hung out at the Mall getting their picture taken with Santa and window shopping. He says he had a good day. He is such a wonderful young man and is so fun to be around. Mr. personality- just oozing with it!
Happy Birthday Austin! We love you!

P.S. Austin came home from school today and said they read his name over the intercom today congradulating him because he came in third over all in the 100 Backstroke! That is fantastic!

A Weekend of Festive Fun!

2009-12-14T12:17:00.000-08:00

Our weekend began on Thursady night when Heather, Clint and I (Steve was in NYC on business) went to the Mo-Tab's Christmas concert. Natalie Cole was the guest singer. It was a beautiful performance and we quite enjoyed it even though we were on the very top last row in the Conference Center.
Friday Austin had a swim meet that Heather and I went to and that night Steve (back from NYC) and I took Clint and Heather out to Tepanyaki (love that place!) to celebrate Clint's graduation. You will have to check out Heather's blog for pictures cause I forgot my camera. We got Heather to try some Sushi and she liked it!
Saturday was Christmas cookie making time! Heather and I made the cookies...Heather left me a message in the flour... I love making sugar cookies at Christmas time and it was fun to have Heather helping me.

Clint joined in to help decorate...Thanks for the help!

Since this week is Austin's 17th birthday and everyone was here this weekned he got to celebrate a little early and open his gifts today. Heather and Clint gave him a Cold Play CD and Kyle and Han gave him a CD of the Killers. Steve and I got him an Xbox 360 - and a game to go with it.

Happy Birthday Austin!

It is also Kyle and Han's 1st year wedding Anniversary this coming weekend and again since we were all together we celebrated today. We gave them a gift certificate to go out to dinner and this funny card- Happy Anniversary ...you party animals!

It wouldn't be a proper 1st anniversary without serving the top of the wedding cake. It survived the year well and tasted pretty good,too.

But Saturday isn't over yet... we had our annual cone decorating competition tonight. No extra family this year, just us. This is a very serious competition and everyone gets pretty into it.
Han and Steve in serious concentration....

We had to have two catagories this year for winners because it was just too hard to chose. Heather won for best looking and Kyle won for most creative. Here are the our fine looking creations...

The one above is mine and the one below is Austin's. Mine is a traditional tree, white flocked, Austin's is a creature tree - at least that's what he called it!

Heather's winning tree. I loved the little train and tracks around the base. Cute idea Heather!

Steve's was a volcano tree.

Clint's was calles Hark the Herald Angel Sing. Very cute Clint!

Kyle's Most Creative winner was a view of Australia at Christmas with a surfer...

and a view of Utah at Christmas with a tree about to be cut down by an ax weilding gumdrop man.

And finally we have Han's which was a tribute to their upcoming Anniversary with a bride and groom tree.

These just get funnier every year!

Sunday brought a Christmas party with Steve's side of the family. I love parties at Christmas time! Even Wayne joined us this year. We all enjoyed some great food. I even got a few poses out of some...

like Adam who looks like he had a little too much spiked egg nog and we didn't even have any...

or Heather who can always bring a smile with the faces she pulls...and let's not leave Becca out puffing out her cheeks in the background!

Clint's always up for posing too although I missed this one and unintentionally cut off my husband, sorry honey!

After dinner it was time for some serious Christmas Bingo playing. Always a family favorite-

Seriously we all look like we need to loosen up and have fun but we really were despite what it looks like in the pictures. Grandma brought a bunch of wrapped presents and each time someone won they got to open a gift. There is always enough for everyone to get a gift.
Kyle is hanging his head here because he hadn't won yet ...

After we had our fill of Bingo I brought out my chimes and we all played Christmas songs. No pictures of that though because we were all busy ringing our chimes. It was a fun party.
Did I mention that I love parties at Christmas time?!

Austin beats his times again!

2009-12-05T13:02:00.000-08:00

The Davis District Championship Swim Meet was held this morning at Layton High ( yes, that means I officiated at it...all 5 hours of it!). All of the events Austin swam in today were in Freestyle events. In the 200 yd. (8x the length of the pool) he beat his old time of 2:30.07 by about 6 seconds, getting a new personal best of 2:24.95! In the 100yd. (4x the length of the pool) he beat his old time of 1:02.86 by 1 second getting a new personal best of 1:01.85! Way to go Austin!

A time for decorating...

2009-12-03T11:10:00.000-08:00

I love the Christmas season. It's the only Holiday I decorate for. There is just something so warm and cozy and inviting about Christmas decorations. It takes me a whole day, sometimes longer to put all my decorations up and I thought it would be fun to share a few of them with those of you who are away from us at Christmas time... new to my array this year is this centerpiece on the family room table. I bought everything separate and it all came together like this! I guess you could say we have three trees if you count this little guy. He sits on the landing of our stairs...

The garland and accessories on our upatairs fireplace are also new this year. The picture doesn't do it justice but it is very cute and looks so nice with our family picture.

Okay, back to the trees, this is the tree in our front room- kind of my country Christmas themed tree...

And this is our downstairs tree. Many parts of this are also new this year and I love the way it turned out! Again the pictures don't do them justice. I love to just sit by the tree at night with all the lights out ( except the tree of course) and have Christmas music playing.

Well, that wasn't quite as fun as a virtual tour would be or even an in person tour (even better) but at least you have a glimpse of our home at Christmas! Did I happen to mention how much fun it is to go to Tai Pan for decorating ideas...love that place!

Thanksgiving

2009-11-29T16:19:00.001-08:00

For Thanksgiving this year we had Steve's parents and Austin, Kyle and Han with us. I love to cook Thanksgiving dinner. Largely because I know we will have leftovers!!! I was so busy cooking and getting everything ready that I forgot to take pictures of our delicious feast but I did remember the pies.... Chocolate Cream (brought by Grandma), Pumpkin pie (made by Han) and

Apple pie (made by yours truly). I love making Apple pies. There is just nothing better than homemade pies!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving day... eating, playing games, eating, relaxing, eating, watching a Hallmark movie...ahh! Since it is Thanksgiving, I thought I would share a few things I am Thankful for...

My Husband... he is the love of my life!
My Family...there is nothing better than being with them!
My Friends...you all know who you are. You have been a great blessing in my life over the years!
The Gospel...I know My Heavenly Father lives and I am grateful for His Son, Jesus Christ- for the Atonement- for a living Prophet on the earth today and for the many blessings that have come to me and my family.

Those really are the most important things in my life. There are lots of other things I am grateful for and I could make a list a mile long of what those things are but that would just plain take too long!

Thanksgiving night I started putting up Christmas decorations and finished Friday afternoon (well, mostly finished) just in time to go out with... are you ready for this... Myself, Steve, Kyle, Han, Heather, Clint, Austin, Tony, LeAnn, Amanda, Mark, Halie, Ammon, Hunter, Max, Troy, Lanelle, Zack, Tyson, Kaden and Bridger- whew! That's alot of us! I know, pictures would have been great but you should all know by now how inept I am at that! It's kind of a tradition that we get together with these great friends of ours after Thanksgiving and usually after Christmas,too.We all went to the Pizza Factory then to see the new movie- The Blindside. The movie was very good -definitely a must see.

Good Times with Good Friends!

Saturday we were supposed to go down to my sister, Holly's house to visit with another sister, Kristin and her family who were here for the Holiday but they had some sick kids so we did a little shopping instead and had an afternoon of what I will call retro game playing. We chose games to play that we haven't played in quite a while like, Mad Gab, Outburst Jr., and Taboo. I had forgotten how much fun those games were. We finished off the night watching the Jazz game- Go Jazz! Did I mention how grateful I am for family and friends... you know one of the reasons why? Because they bring so much love and laughter into my life! There's nothing better!

Swim Update

2009-11-20T20:14:00.001-08:00

Austin has had a few more meets but they have been home meets and I am an official for his home meets so I can't watch him as much and keep track of his times. He has been doing good though. Here are a few times from his meet on Thursday-

2:30 minutes in the 200 yd Freestyle (this is the first time he has had in this event).He came in 1st in his heat.
1:02.86 minutes in the 100yd Freestyle beating his previous time and again he came in 1st in his heat.
1:51.76 minutes in the 200 yd Freestyle Relay beating their old time by a couple of seconds which is really good. Austin's individual time in this was 27.42 seconds (for 50yds.)
He also swam in the 400 yd Freestyle Relay but they did not beat their old time.

After a visit to the doctors today we found out that Austin has Bronchitis and so he isn't participating in this weekends' meet and is on Doctors orders to only have light workouts for the next week.:(

A Fun Filled Weekend...

2009-11-15T15:20:00.000-08:00

My sister Holly and I had planned a girls night for Friday and Heather and Han were able to come, too. You would think that out of four of us, one of us would have remembered to bring their camera but no... none of us did. We started our night at the Craft fair in Farmington where I bought this cute christmas wall hanging. The snowflakes are carved into the wood! I love decorating for Christmas. It is pretty much the only Holiday I do decorate for. After the craft fair we headed to the Royal Jade for some Chinese food and then to the mall. We only had about an hour there before everything closed but I was able to get a couple Christmas gifts for Austin and a couple gifts for Steve to give to me - that's kind of how it is with clothes, I find what I like and what fits then buy it and give it to Steve to wrap and put under the tree. It is just easier then returning clothes after Christmas, what can I say!
We came home and decided to watch "Wives and Daughters" which is about a 5 hour movie and yes - we made it all the way through ( although Heather and I may or may not have had a bit of a snooze somewhere along the way). What time did we go to bed? oh, that would be 3am!

Saturday Steve and I had tickets to go see the Utah Symphony in "Bravo Broadway". It just so happened that Holly's husband, Stephen surprised her with tickets to the same show so we met up with them at the show. The show was a tribute to Broadway Musicals and was absolutely fantastic! They did songs from My Fair Lady, Bye Bye Birdie, WEst Side Story, The Music Man, Les Miserables, Wicked, Cats and Phantom of the Opera to name a few. These three were the guest performers who sang the songs...

Stephanie Block who was Elfaba in the 1st National Touring Company of "Wicked".

Debbie Gravitte who has won a Tony Award for best actress in a musical play and has been in numerous plays on Broadway. She was very funny!

And Gary Mauer who has recently playes as the Phanton in "Phantom Of The Opera". He has also played the part or Raoul. He Stole the show as he sang "Bring Him Home" from Les Mis. and "All I Ask Of You" (with Stephanie) and "Music of The Night" from Phantom. He was amazing!!! Completely mesmerizing! What a great evening... What a great weekend!

A New Addition to the Family

2009-11-09T10:06:00.000-08:00

Saturday when Steve and I got home from St. George, Heather and Clint were at the house and they had been searching online for possible dogs for us. Well, when they showed me this one I thought she was so cute that I picked up the phone and called her owner. A big plus for me is that she is 2 years old and already potty trained. We went to see her and ended up bringing her home. Her name is Coco. She is a Shorkie (a shi-zu, yorkie mix). She is a bit hyper but after just a few days here she has settled in and calmed down. She loves to play and would play fetch all day if I would. She even posed for these pictures so well! I love this next one!

Heather and Clint came back down yesterday to see her again and Kyle and Han came. Everyone seems to love her. Austin is thrilled and Coco has taken right to him. They will be best buddies before you know it. Austin calls her Coco Puff and Kyle prefers Coke Zero. Just look at her...what's not to love?

Actually I think this look says "Ha! I have you wrapped around my paw already!"

St. George Meet

2009-11-08T15:33:00.000-08:00

Okay, I lied... no pictures. Mostly because this guy walked in front of me when I was getting ready to take some sports mode shots which takes one picture after another and I ended up missing the chance. Aistin was only in two heats. One on Friday and one on SAturday and there were 800 swimmers which made for a lot of sitting around and waiting and going deaf from all the noise 800 kids can make. His time in the 50 Freestyle was 28.13 seconds and in the 100 Freestyle his time was 1.03. He came in first in his heat for that one. No one was even close to him!
Although he didn't beat any of his previous times he still had fun.
The end.

Swim Meet #2

2009-11-04T12:49:00.001-08:00

I wasn't able to go to this meet because I was working at the polls for voting yesterday but Steve went and because it was at Mt. Crest in Hyrum, Heather and Clint were able to go,too. Austin swam the 100 Freestyle. He was in lane 2 on the board below. So, he came in 3rd in his heat and beat his previous time (done at a mock meet during practice) by 12 seconds which is fantastic!

Steve took these pictures so I am not sure what race this is but he said Austin is in Lane 2 which is the one just above the boys heads.

He is in lane two here also. As you can see his dive was pretty bad. Steve said it was pretty funny but not the worst of the day. Sometimes you just kind of slip off those platforms! Don't worry, Austin laughed about it,too. He is 2nd from the bottom in the next picture getting ready to dive in.

He also swam in the 50 Freestyle again and had a time of 27.98 seconds which beat his last time by about 1 second. He was in the Freestyle relay,too but coach put him in with the C team and while Austin did well, Steve said that his team members were not so good. Austin was anchor and tried valiantly to catch them up passing a few others but still coming in 4th in their heat. We head down to St. George this weekend for a meet down there so more pics to come!

What Have I been up too?

2009-11-04T12:38:00.000-08:00

As some of you know, Austin is in a dancing/singing/acting group called "Show Stoppers". They are getting ready for their first production called "A Musical Mania". They will be performing numbers from 3 different shows, namely, Annie, Newsies and Mama Mia. I have been helping sew costumes for the younger kids which has been taking up most of my time lately. I've done 14 of these night gowns...

and 11 of these skirts- none of which were hard, just time consuming. I can't wait to have grandchildren so that I can make cute little outfits for them! Oh and if any of you are looking for some fun show to go see in December, Show Stoppers will be performing in Ogden at the Egyptian theatre on December 7 & 14...a fun FHE activity. Call me for tickets!

Happy Birthday Meghan!

2009-10-26T11:13:00.001-07:00

Today is our daughter Meghan's birthday. She passed away four years ago. She would have been 25 today. Steve and I took flowers to her grave this morning. It looked so beautiful and I remembered to bring my camera... I thought in honor of her today I would share some thoughts about her from some of her friends.

"She was an amazing person and left an example of kindness and faith to everyone she came in contact with."

"I loved her constant enthusiasm and happiness."

"She was truly a great friend and the love of our Savior radiated in her countenance."

"Meghan had an awesome knowledge of the Gospel, and taught me so much. Her scriptures were never far from her and neither was the Spirit."

"Meghan was an inspiration to me. She was one of the best people I have ever met. Every day as her roommate was the best day ever!"

"She was always a constant, caring, loving, energetic, full of fun and wonderful person. Every good thing that there is in this world, any Christlike attribute, I found it in Meghan."

I couldn't agree more...

Happy Birthday Meghan. I love you!

Swim Time!

2009-10-22T20:40:00.000-07:00

Austin is on the Swim team for his high school (a first for him)and today was their first meet. He was a little nervous and I was nervous for him. He swan in the 50yd. Freestyle(the length of the pool and back) first and got a time of 28.82 seconds. Not bad at all for his first meet! His next event was the 200 Medley Relay. Four team members each swim 50yds. of either the Backstroke, Breaststroke, Butterfly or Freestyle. Austin swam the Butterfly....

On your mark...Go!He's the one in the top of the picture. He swam a great Butterfly, can't remember the time but he had really good form for such a hard stroke.

He is the second swimmer from the bottom in this picture, finishing the butterfly. I promise to be better with the camera next time.

His next race is the hardest race of the meet - the 500yd Freestyle! That's 20 laps or 5 football fields! I couldn't believe his Coach put him in that for his first meet. You can tell from the above picture as he is getting ready how nervous he is.

And he's off! I prayed for him the whole way! He had never swam it before. I may or may not have even gotten a little emotional because I knew how hard this was for him.

He looked so tired toward the end but he made it! His time was 7:48 minutes. Not bad for a first time.

It took him a while to catch his breath and get out of the pool after he finished. His next race was almost right after this one. The 200yd Freestyle Medley - 4 team members each swim 50yds of Freestyle. Here he is waiting for his turn. He swam anchor (last). They placed fouth in their heat.

Over all he had a pretty good first meet and it was fun to watch. His goal now is to beat the times he made today. I like swimming because you are really only in competition with yourself. It's all about improving your personal best each time you swim.

Sunset Alert!

2009-10-12T08:10:00.000-07:00

Just thought I would share some pics from last nights' sunset...after all, sunsets are meant to be shared with those you love. Enjoy!