Good Week

It's always nice to have a memorable week for all the right reasons. This week was one of those. Monday I took the kids to the Draper Temple open house with my mom and dad, Alisa and Kaisa. It was beautiful! The kids loved it and were surprisingly reverent through the whole tour. As we were walking in they handed us a little brochure and Garrett opened it up to find a picture of Jesus. He pointed it out to me and I reminded him that the temple was His home. He looked at me and asked, "Are we going to see Him?" I said, "probably not, but we'll see his pictures and feel His spirit." He seemed pretty satisfied with that answer and was quick to point out every picture of Christ in the temple. It was pretty sweet! After that we headed to IKEA for some shopping and lunch. I LOVE IKEA! I love that we can eat a yummy lunch, my kid gets to play in a great playplace for FREE while I find cheap things I never knew I needed. It's GREAT!!! Tuesday we hosted a dinner group with some couples in our ward. I was intrigued by an article that one of our guests was reading that I forgot about the garlic bread on broil in the oven until there was smoke rolling out. Other than that, we had great food, great conversation and enjoyed getting to know each other better. Wednesday I was able to have lunch with a former coworker and friend, Rachael. No kids, even better, thus able to actually catch up. Thursday was nice enough to take the kids to the park for a picnic with our friends Cami, Justin and Hannah. I CAN'T WAIT FOR SPRING!!! I so enjoyed the 50 degree weather and sunshine on my face. Oh how I've missed you! That night I got my haircut - verdict is still out on that one. Hint = bangs! Then off to the Blue and Gold Banquet for Scouts which was pretty fun. Friday I got to catch up on a bunch of things I wanted to get done around the house and make cards. Some days it's just nice not having to be anywhere. Saturday we headed to Payson for my sweet niece's baptism. They moved to Montana last November but came back here just for this. We haven't seen Madi and Jaden since their move so it was great to see their cute little faces and give them loves. Madi looked so darling and was incredibly excited for her big day. A fabulous way to end a fabulous week!

Logan or Bust (I still don't get that expression)

So what if my friend Kim took an impulsive weekend trip to Rome with her hubby...the Gray's just got back from a rather exotic trip to Logan, Utah. Okay I may be slightly jealous but we still managed to have fun on our getaway to good old Cache Valley. We went to Hardware Ranch which feeds 500-600 elk during the winter months. It was so cool to see these huge animals up close - and so many of them. They took us out on sleighs which the kids thought was just great! The sky was blue without a cloud to be seen and it was a balmy 45 degrees - we couldn't ask for better weather.

We went to eat at Firehouse Pizzeria and the food was fabulous. My friends rave about the FHzookie and it definitely met my expectations. YUMMY!

(Garrett took this picture for us - not bad for a 4 year old)

That night we took the kids swimming and they had a ball! They just think staying in a hotel is the coolest thing ever and would squeal and clap their hands everytime we'd ask if they wanted to back to the HOTEL!!! It's great that they can be entertained by so little! This morning we had a tasty breakfast at the hotel, loafed around the room and then headed to Willow Park Zoo before heading home. It was only about 25 degrees at the zoo so we didn't stay long but Garrett remembered it from when we visited in October and couldn't wait to see the coyote and the owl. Good times!

Valentines

I'd rather pluck every nose hair I have then go out to eat on Valentines night, thus Jon and I had a lovely lunch and hit a matinee. We saw He's Just Not That Into You. Eh! Although I liked Jennifer Aniston & Ben Affleck's characters story line - I have to say I wanted to punch Drew's character for offering this fabulous advice "just because he's married doesn't mean he's not the man of your dreams - go after him." Okay those may not be the exact words but pretty close. That attitude is one of the biggest problems in our society. Arrrgh! My advice: if you're going to watch it - REDBOX.

That night we had a Valentine party with Shellie and Jordan, complete with a heart decorated table (nice plates & glasses even) a heart shaped pizza, heart shaped jello jigglers, Valentines punch, Valentines placecards & goodies. It was a great night and the kids thought it was pretty fun - what more could you ask for!

My cute little Valentines!

Almost 2!

I can't believe my little Rylee is going to be 2 in just twelve days! She definitely has her own opinions, which can often be seen in her desire to pick her clothes and dress herself.

Although she loves to play with Garrett's dinosaurs I think she's a girly girl at heart, thus the boa & hat (above) and the high heels (below). That's my girl!




When showing her several options for her swimsuit she nearly ripped this one out of my hands. The cherries are mighty cute but I'm sure the bow (which she is nicely showing off) was the selling point.

For Love

Our Relief Society lesson on Sunday was about LOVE (great job Tiff!). She asked "what does love motivate you to do?" Many answers were given...laundry, serve, dinner, cleaning up vomit, etc. So Rylee and I have been sick the last couple days with the congested head cold crud. Monday night we were eating dinner and Rylee was sitting on my lap when she started to gag and consequently vomited a good half days worth of curdled milk all over me, the chair and floor. She, however, came away unscathed. As I was cleaning up the mess all I could think of was how much I must (and DO) love that little girl! All for love!!!
SIDE NOTE: This experience has brought me no closer to trying to overcome my aversion to drinking milk!

Highlights

1/18/2009-1/31/2009

• We celebrated Jon's 31st birthday on the 18th with lots of yummy dinners with family, a special birthday breakfast, and the kids made daddy homemade cards which they thought was fabulous.

• Watched the Presidential Inauguration and got a little teary simply because it's amazing to live in a country where we have the right to vote and choose our leaders. I didn't vote for Obama for several reasons but I do hope that he lives up to the old adage "ACTIONS speak louder than WORDS".
  
• Went to lunch with my gals from college Alli and Chanel. Despite the craziness of having our children running amok (and possibly discouraging Alli from ever wanting any) we had a great time and got to "catch up" a bit - it's been too long.


• Had a date night with Jon. We attempted to go to Outback...90 minute wait...what the??? Spaghetti Factory made a great alternative and let's be honest - dinner anywhere without kids is pleasant!


• Had a "Miss America Party" with Mom, Alisa, Malin, Kaisa, Amy and my kids (Garrett didn't seem to mind - he just played with his dinosaurs). Okay, I could care less about the pageant but Jon was gone for the night so why not have a girly party. We had goodies, chatted, painted toenails...the works. Miss Indiana won in case you wanted to know.


• Garrett went to Doug's birthday party and was so excited. He had a great time and didn't seem upset that all the presents were NOT for him! Making progress.


• Garrett got his cast removed after only two weeks. Good healing boy!


• I found Rylee like this after getting out of the shower. It was too cute and at least it wasn't lipstick this time.

• Had book club with friends from my previous ward - POPE JOAN! I already blogged about this book so if you haven't started it - do so! Everyone (and we have varying interests!!!) loved it. After our discussion we had a surprise shower for Robyn who is pregnant with baby #6...she deserves a shower don't ya think?!?


• Went to the Dino Museum with Mom and Kaisa. Three hours later we made it back home. They had great fun as always! Thanks for going with us Mommy!



• Our ward has started doing dinner groups so we went to ours this weekend. It was fun to get to know more people we may not have otherwise. After dinner we played a round of pool...sad, sad, sad. It lasted 45 minutes. I did however get a few balls in and Jon was the star on his team.
• Rylee Marie won't stop crawling out of her crib throughout the night. She usually ends up sleeping on the floor so I converted her crib to a toddler day bed in hopes that: 1-she won't break her neck while diving over the top rail 2-she'll think her "big girl" bed is so cool she'll stay in and 3-if she does get out she'll be more likely to get back in and not stay on the floor.

She's so proud of her new bed! However, after one night the magic wore off and she cried herself to sleep on the floor at 2 am. Better luck tonight!