A Visit From Uncle Art

First let me start with:

TEACHER APPRECIATION DAYS ARE OVER!!!

It was so much fun being busy and helping coordinate all the activities, but I am so glad it is over. I for sure would not have been able to survive these last few weeks if there were not such incredible room mothers in our school. Also Wendy and Cyndi really stepped up and helped tons. I am so looking forward to working with both of them again next year. I am learning a lot from both of them.

Well, after a weekend of the stomach flu in our house we started this week off going to visit Steve's Uncle Art. He called us durign the week and said he was in the area and would like to visit. We decided to meet up at a local park. He had brought his grandson, Quincy along on the trip and thought it would be a neat opportunity for all the kids to meet. We explained to the kids that this was their "great-uncle" which means he is Grandpa Weber's brother. There were very excited to meet another cousin.
Art is quite a nice man. We sat and learned a little about him, his family and his interest and we shared with him some of our story. It was quite interesting. I think Steve was thrilled to spend some time with his uncle and hear any stories he had to share about the Weber's.

When we returned home, we ate lunch, did some yard work, BUT the best part was Steve and Zack made me a birthday cake. YEP...I am having a birthday tomorrow. I will be celebrating the 5th anniversary of my 29th birthday. I actually have not minded being in my 30's. Steve has gotten me a present and it is wrapped sitting on the china cabinet...just taunting me. I hate waiting.

Back to the cake. It was fun watching Steve and Zack working their way around the kitchen. They would read the directions and if the did not understand something they would say,

Aw...skip that part...what's next?

They still need to frost the whole thing, but what a treat to get to watch the two guys in my life working together to help make me a yummy "CHOCOLATE" cake.
I have the best family!!!
That is the best gift any girl could get from her family!!!

Busy Weekend

This past week was Teacher Appreciation at our elementary school. This has been one of my responsibilities in PTA. It all went pretty smoothly. I will have to do everything again this week for tracks A & C, hopefully it will all go off without a hitch. Friday, the PTA board for next year headed off to BYU for convention. We were there all day. I took classes on being President-Elect, which is kind of interesting. You have no specific responsibilities other than shadowing the President. I am sure Wendy will come up with plenty for me to do. I definitely got an idea of what a HUGE responsibility it is to be President. We made it home by 6:00 pm and even stopped at the Sinclair station near the freeway to get a REAL diet coke. (thanks Wendy!!) Once I got home I got Katie and Becky into their dance clothes and headed out for their final dance recital of the year. HOLY COW!!! This was a marathon of dance recitals. It began at 7:00pm. The program listed 39 routines with an award ceremony in the middle. We finally saw the girls perform their 1st dance after being there for an hour and then saw the 2nd routine an hour later. We did not stay for the end of the recital. Steve went and bought roses for both girls and presented the bouquets to the girls as we left. They were so tickled to get their first bouquets of flowers. It was so cute.

PTA Convention was suppose to continue through Saturday, but I decided Saturday morning that I would skip convention and go on the ward hike that Steve had planned. We met up with about 20 other people in the ward and hiked in Herriman. It was actually quite a good time. Steve had a list with pictures of the trees and flowers that would be on the trail and handed these out to the other hikers. Nanette, the activities chairperson, promised prizes for those people that could find all the items on the list. I did not concentrate on the treasure hunt. I put on my iPod and focused on getting up the hill. When the walk was all over it appeared most people had found all the items and had enjoyed the whole experience.


We spent the remainder of our day in the backyard. The kids swam, I laid out and Steve split his day between doing chores and playing with the kids in the pool. It was a fun day. Our neighbors called and invited to their home once it got dark to watch a movie outside on their projector. The kids were so excited. We packed up our popcorn and blankets and headed over at 8:45 pm and joined a few other families. We settled into our perspective blankets and JJ turned on the movie "Doogal". I will say that my kids LOVED this movie. The adults on the other hand were not impressed. It had an all star cast of voices, if I had seen it on the shelf in a rental store, I probably would have rented it. BUT, it was ODD!! It tried too hard to appeal to adults and still be a kids movie. But as I said before, the kids really did love it and that is what is important and the adults ALL got a good laugh. We are so grateful for this awesome neighborhood we live in. We seem to get along with our neighbors and I am really enjoying the opportunities to get together we these really cool families.

Finally our day ended and the kids went to bed. I love being busy, but it sure is nice when the end of the day comes and I can put on my jammies and snuggle into my bed with a book and the 10:00 o'clock news!!!

Mother's Day

Usually I totally enjoy my Mother's Day, but unfortunately this year I was sick. Friday I awoke with some "creeping-crud" and it stuck with me through the weekend.

Steve got up and made me breakfast in bed. My favorite omelet and a cup of hot cocoa. He brought it on a try with the Sunday paper. A little while later Steve returned with the kids in tow to deliver my Mother's Day goodies.

He had gotten together with the kids and made these cute butterflies. (A little background...Last year he made a wooden flower using the kids hands as the different petals and then his own hand as the leaves on the stem.) So this year he used the kids feet which were traced to make up the wings. Then added headshots of each child and then the cut and decorated everything. I thought they were so stinkin' cute.

The Steve brought me a new cushion for my chaise lounge outside. The dog ripped my old one. And he also got me another Michael Buble CD.

I missed church that day, but sent the kids. I spent most of the day napping and trying to get over my cold. Once Steve got home he made dinner for all of us.

I feel so incredibly blessed to have such a thoughtful husband that makes me feel so appreciated and loved...Not just on Mother's Day, but every day.

Scrapbook USA Expo

This weekend was Scrapbook USA Expo in Sandy. I love doing this so much. Friday was "EARLY BIRD". Dayna and I head to South Towne Center at 7:45 am and got in line with the rest of the scrapbook enthusiast. Suzanne joined us before the doors officially opened. The doors opened at 9:00 am and we found a table, parked our croppers and began seeking out the bargains. My favorite vendor was Lil' Davis. Everything in their booth was $1.00. OH MAN!!! That rocked my world. Scrapworks had some pretty cool bargains on some of their older lines. The I found the Fancy Pants store. I actually had never even heard of Fancy Pants until I signed up for classes. They have some of the coolest chipboard and their ribbons and rubons are beautiful. They did not have any HUGE bargains, but I did stock up on the chipboard. I took two classes on Friday: SEI-Album in a Box using the Twitterpated line and FANCY PANTS-Chipboard Album. Jill and Tiffany joined us. It was a fun evening. We cropped and shopped until midnight and then headed home.

Saturday morning I got up and showered and then got Steve and the kids off on their camping trip. Dayna came and picked me up at 8:15 am and we were off for round two. It was a little more mellow, but still just as fun. I took two more classes on Saturday: REFLECTIONS-Paper Bag Travel Album and SCENIC ROUTE-Card holder and 4 cards (this was my favorite class. I {heart}Scenic Route)

I did a little cropping and got to say hi to Stacy Julian. She was there teaching a Make & Take. I just totally dig her. I love her whole philosophy on scrapbooking. She is also just a totally neat lady. I have met her a handful of times, even got to share a shuttle with her to the airport last year, but she actually remembered who I was. That made me feel so good. Before long 6:00 pm had arrived I had to go home. It was nice and quiet and I spent most of the night trying to get all my goodies put away.

I highly recommend the is show to anyone that feel like coming. It is a BLAST. The next one is in September.

Pinewood Derby 2006

RACERS!!
START YOU ENGINES!!!

Tuesday night was the cub scouts Pinewood Derby. Zachary and Steve started to work on their car about a month ago. Steve went on the internet first and they spent one evening just looking at different cool designs. Steve asked Zack if he wanted a cool looking car or a fast one. Zack wanted a cool car. So, as many of you who know Zack might expect, he made a Bionicle Car. Zack was pretty proud of his creation.

The races began. The kids were pretty excited and cheered for eachother. I think the best part was watching the Dads watch as the cars came down the track. You could see the little boy in many of them coming out. Unfortunately because of Zack's car was so cool with all its parts, it had a little drag and was one of the slowest cars, but it sure did look cool coming down the track.

There was a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners and then there was a vote by the scouts for who they thought had the "coolest" car. There was a tie between two brothers. Then the rest of the boys. Zachary won "MOST FUTURISTIC " He plans on putting his car in a case on putting it on his self with last years car.


He already has plans for next year's car. Let me just say,
"F-A-S-T!!!!"

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Zack is playing baseball this year. He played two years ago, but did not seem to be very enthusiastic about playing so we took off last year. This year when we heard about the registrations we asked Zack if he was interested in playing this year. He is a little more interested in playing this year, but we are not expecting him to have the major league scouts watching him.

He had a game on Thursday. Papa and Grandma were there to watch. Steve was helping the team by keeping score. His first time up he was a little scared of the ball (he had been hitting during the practice before the game) But when he was up to bat his second time....

HE ACTUALLY HIT IT!!!

He made it to first and it was overthrown to the 1st baseman and he got to steal to 2nd. Then after the next batter hit he got to score. Not only did he score...he slid. It was too cool. The look on his face is one that I cannot even begin to describe. This was the first time I had seen absolute JOY and PRIDE in my son's face. It was one of the neatest moments that I have had as a parent.

He walked his 3rd time up and was able to score also. He was proud for scoring again, but it doesn't compare to the look he had on his face that first time he scored.

A Cowboy's Sweetheart

I was sitting outside the other day and Belle came and sat infront of me on this old rocking horse with a cowboy hat on. I got some great pictures for a layout. This is my favorite.

ENJOY!!

Belle's Baptism

Ysabelle was baptized on Saturday.

We got to the building at 12:30 pm. It was a little early, but we would have the opportunity to take pictures (I am all about the scrapbook moment). Belle was already in her jumper and Steve changed into his once we got there. My mom and dad came up for the occasion. Bro. Duve, who is on the bishopric, arrived only to find that his key could not open the doors that enclosed the baptismal font. I began to freak out, but tried to stay calm. I knew eventually he would get the correct key. People began to arrive and take their seats.

Finally Bro. Duve got the key and opened the doors only to find that the font had been drained since the baptism a few hours before our own. YIKES!!!! He came to me at 1:00 pm, the time that the programs was suppose to start and informed me of our predicament and that it would take about 25 minutes to fill the font enough for Belle to baptized in. Everyone was quite patient as we waited and listened to the water fill the font. Finally about 1:20 we began the program. Zachary read a scripture, my father presented a talk about baptism and then Zachary, Katie and Becky sang, "I Am A Child of God" to Belle. The she and Steve entered the baptismal waters. Even with only a little water in the font, it only took one dunk. She got out and I assisted her in getting into her pure white dress and helped dry out her hair. Then came back into the Relief Society Room and listened to my mom's talk on the Holy Ghost and then Steve confirmed her and said a sweet blessing.


This was such a beautiful baptism. I don't think I have ever felt the spirit as strongly at a baptism as I did at Belle's. It was quite incredible. It was kind of funny...Later in the day, when I looked at her she even looked a little different to me. More confident, mature, she was beautiful.

Belle's Ear Piercing

As I was planning for this crazy weekend last week, Belle came to me and said, "I can't wait until Saturday, I get to have my ears pierced."

HOLY HANNAH!!!!

I had forgotten I had told her when she turned 8 she could get her ears pierced. But we had planned a neighborhood Easter Egg hunt for the morning, I needed to pick up the birthday cake, go and get the pictures developed from the Primary Activity the day before, clean up my house, get the kids washed and dressed for the baptism and actually get over to the church. When was I gonna do this or even have the energy.

I told told my friend Wendy about my predicament and she reminded me that our neighbor Lindsi pierces ears and that Wendy actually had a set of studs we could borrow.

So Saturday morning I was on the phone with Lindsi and determined I had a half hour window to come over and have this done. Wendy, bless her heart, could not find the studs and remembered that she had lent them to her sister in law, who lives in the next town over. So she drove over there and met me at Lindsi's for "THE PIERCING". Belle had no idea what we were doing. We pulled up in front of Lindsi's and I said, "okay Belle...Let's get those ears pierced." She was a ball of excitement and nervousness all rolled in one. We had a good audience: Lindsi's daughter's Bailey and Emily, a neighbor Mackenzie and Wendy and her daughter Kayla.

Lindsi got the first earring in without much resistance, but Belle was a little hesitant to have it done again. Everyone in the group reassured her it would be okay and that she was being so brave. I worried about the time. We still had so much to do. Finally Lindsi said, "Do you want your mom to hold your hand?" I did and she seemed to relax a little.

She does look really pretty with the new earrings and has shown everyone that she now has pierced ears. I can't believe how mature she looks.

Madam Crane's Wax Museum

Friday Morning the D Track 4th Grade put on a Wax Museum. The kids had to read a biography, write a 1 page report, make a poster with pictures and facts, BUT the best part was that they got to dress up as the person the read about. Zachary had read a book about Abraham Lincoln. We had fun coming up with his costume. Steve went to a party store and found he top hat and then went to DI (a thrift store) and found a black bow tie. Then using a piece of felt Steve made a beard that attached to his glasses. He did not have a black suit jacket, but wore ablack one of mine that had been hanging in my closet. He looked so cute. We arrived at Mrs. Crane's room at 10:00 am to find all sorts of great characters: John Muir, a few Helen Kellers, Frida Kahlo, a couple of Tiger Woods, Babe Ruth, Mia Hamm. On the cout of 3 all the students had to hold their poses as the parents proceeded to walk through. We also visited the other 4th grade class rooms. Some of our friend's were in those classrooms and were George Washington, Venus Williams and Albert Einstein.

Making Memories Warehouse Sale!!!

So today Suzanne and I finally made it to the Making Memories Warehouse Sale. We have not gone for about a year, which I am sure made our husbands happy. We weren't there for the 1st day of the sale and am pretty sure we missed out on some cool stuff, but we did manage to pick up some goodies.

• The Ribbonrie Book
• 4 sheets of Wordfetti
• different kinds of rub ons
• paints
• Foam Stamps
• Eyelet phrases
• Label holders
• Gem Stickers
• Metal Signage
• Book Binding Tape
• Fabric and Leather embellishments

I love the shopping, but it was fun to get away with a friend and just chat and not have my kidlets with me.

I made it to the library today. I brought Zack and the twins with me while Steve and Belle were off having some daddy/daughter time. I honestly could spend hours just wandering around there. I love just picking a section and looking at the different titles. I always seem to find at least a dozen books I want to read. I just finished reading A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks. It is the selection for this month's book club. It is the second time I have read it and still enjoyed it just as much. Suzanne was talking about a Dr. Laura book that she has been reading, The Proper Care and Feed of Husbands. It is her selection for August. I am interested to read it and see what it is about, but they did not have any copies at the library. I'll just have to wait.

Been thinking a lot about my little brother. He is not little anymore, he is 28 years old. This past weekend my mom called and told me that Chip, that is what his family calls him-to the rest of the world he is Vito, had a heart attack. I guess he was feeling the symptoms on Friday night and just took a sleeping pill and went to bed. When he woke up the next morning he was still having the pressure on his chest. He decided he might be a good idea to goto the hospital. The EKG showed not signs of a heart attack, went he results of his blood test came back the enzymes from a heart attack were there. He had angioplasty later that afternoon and a shunt was placed somewhere in there. It was quite scary. Sure, Pop has had a few heart attacks and even a bypass surgery, but I had never thought of something like that happening to Chip. It has been cute listening to my kids say their prayers, they keep asking Heavenly Father to help "Uncle Chip" get better. We all hope Chip gets better soon.

MICHAEL BUBLE!!!!

After we finished at The Melting Pot, Steve and I had 8 minutes to get to Abravanel Hall for the Michael Buble concert. We were going to take the Trax, but there was not one to be seen, so we opted to walk there. Luckily it had stopped raining. We raced in and found our seats. There was a funny comedian that opened the show and that lasted for about half an hour and then finally the curtain opened...and there he was. He has such an incredible voice. He sang all of my favorites. The best was watching him sing HOME. I just love that one. Steve is not as big a fan of Michael Buble as I am. Actually he refers to him as "Michael Bubblehead", but I think he was even a little surprise to have enjoyed the concert. It was a fabulous evening. I have the most incredible husband...I am truly blessed.


After leaving our seat there was a large poster of Michael Buble and Steve took a picture of me next to it. I know it is kind of a goofy thing to do, but oh well...Then I am a bit goofy.

The Melting Pot

Last night Steve and I finally had our HUGE date night. My parents came up from Ferron to watch the chidlren and Steve and I snuck off to Salt Lake to have dinner at The Melting Pot. I had never been there before, but was very excited to eat somewhere that did not had out crayons and placements with cartoon characters on it. We started off with cheese fondue and breads, apples and veggies to dip in. Then we had a yummy salad and following that we had our main course a broth with garlic and citrus flavors to dip our meats into. The meats come RAW on a plate and you skewer them on a stick and place them in the pot to cook for about 3 minutes. We had different cuts of beef, some chicken and a lobster tail. Then finally the best part arrived CHOCOLATE!!! We had caramel and nuts swirled in the milk chocolate and then we proceeded to dip our strawberries, bananas, chocolate cake, cheesecake and pineapple into the fondue. It was such a neat experience. Steve was not extremely excited about eating there, I think he thought it would be too Foofy. BUT once we were done (2 hours later) and waiting for our check it admitted it was better than he was expecting.

I highly recommend it to anyone wanting a quiet, relaxing, romantic meal...

A Night to Remember

The day before spring and we got nailed with 4 inches of Snow. Steve got home from work at 6:00 pm and ate dinner. After dinner he headed out to do a snow sculpture. After a quick brainstorming session (I suggested the Easter Bunny, Zack's input was a moose) he decided to make the Titanic. He and the kids were out until 9:00 pm working in the dark on their creation. I have already gotten phone calls from neighbors saying how cool it is.
Wish you all could see it in person. The photo, just doesn't do it justice.

Busy Friday

I was all over the place on Friday...

I woke up jumped in the shower, typed up my handouts for the PTA meeting, went grocery shopping with Steve. Once we got home from shopping I feed the girls their lunch and tried to get the food put away.

We took the girls to school and went to the school for Katie's VIK (Very Important Kindergartener). We walked in the classroom and she was just tickled. She put a crown on and stood in front of the classroom as she waited for the rest of the students to come in. She knew it was here day and was going to enjoy every second of it. Steve and I had to tell the class and little bit about Katie. She would point to the pictures that I had put on the poster board that was about her and I would explain why that was significant to her. Then she got to call on different people in the class to ask her questions:

What is you favorite movie? My Little Pony,

What is your favorite toy? My Little Pet Shop,

What is your favorite color? Pink,

Who is your favorite friend? Madison.

Then Steve and I left to go and eat our lunch and have our daily Settlers game. I did not get to relax for very long before I was off to the school yet again for the PTA meeting. We met for about an hour and then I was off to do my carpool and pick up kids.

I ran to the library later in the day and dropped off a bunch of movies and books that we had checked out. I was nice to meander in the quiet library for a few minutes before returning home. We had a pretty great evening together. The kids watched a movie and Steve and I spent sometime in our bedroom. We watched tv, read and just talked. It was quite pleasant. An ideal way to end a busy day.

Going Nuts

Last fall we went on a vacation to Rhode Island to visit Steve's family. One afternoon Grandma Weber had the kids go into the back yard and gather the black walnuts that had dropped off of their tree. There were tons. For those who have never seen them, they have a green husk on them and are the size of an orange. If you step on that and twist you can tear the husk. They you are left with a shell and lots of natural Walnut Ink. That was very cool. I have used walnut ink in my scrapbooking, but it was cool to see it in its natural form. Well, Steve's mom told me we could dry those out and then be able to open them in the spring and eat the nuts. We came home from our trip and left the in the garage and forgot all about it...
UNTIL last week when we cleaned out our garage and found them again. Dried out as Mom Weber had said they would be. We pulled out Steve's hammer and went to town breaking the walnuts out of their shells. They were pretty tasty too.


Speaking of going nuts...I am having a bit of Spring fever. We had a few warmer days last week and then woke up to snow on the weekend.

YIKES!!!
SNOW!!!

There are more snow/rain coming our way and pretty chilly temps. Back into the closet go the capris. I am so ready to see some tulips and daffodils. I am looking forward to days of sitting in the front yard watching the kids ride their bikes and scooters. Visit with neighbors as they walk around in the evenings. I know it is coming. I just need to be a little more patient.

Checking In

I got an email from my mom today expressing her disappointment in not seeing some updates on my blog. I have just been a bit busy lately. I actually have a bunch of pictures on my camera that I need to put up here too.

As you might have guessed...I have been busy scrapbooking. I finished this one today from Katie and Becky's 1st Day of Kindergarten.

I have been reading quite a bit. Last weekend I spent all of Saturday reading the "DaVinci Code" by Dan Brown. All I can say is, "WOW". That was a good book. I seriously could not put it down. Now I am reading "A Walk to Remember" by Nicholas Sparks. I actually have read this once before, but now I am refresing my memory because it is my book club's selection.

Steve's New Truck

Today, after Katie and Becky got picked up for school, Steve and I went to lunch at Mimi's Cafe. We have enjoyed have the afternoons to sneak off and have lunch and good conversation (essentially a date) together and not having to pay for a babysitter. After we were through with lunch we asked eachother what we should do next. I gave him 2 possibilities:

1. We could goto Target (my fav store) to walk around
2. We could go and buy
a truck (and I only said this half joking)

He chose to go and look for a truck. We have done this several times and just not found what we wanted at the price we were willing to pay. And then we went to Riverton Motors and fond the truck. This turned out to be an expensive lunch, but I am glad Steve finally got his new truck. Now we want to go on a trip so we can use it. An new problem is where will we park the vehicles in the garage?

Happy Valentine's Day!!

This morning the kidlets woke up to little stuffed animals and candy hearts lined up in the kitchen. They were tickled. I enjoy doing something special for the kids on Valentine's Day. I think it is something I remember from when I was a little girl. My mom would have a card or a small figurine set out on the counter for us to find before we left for school. I had the best of intentions to make a big breakfast this morning, but decided I wanted to sleep in a little bit. I'll have to make it up to the family at dinner time. My first Valentine was a homemade card from Ysabelle. It was cute: construction paper and hearts cut out by hand and then lace glued around the edge. The Steve came down and gave me a card. My big gift for Valentine Day is tickets to the Michael Buble concert in March. I am just tickled more than I can say. I love his voice and the fact that Steve is willing to sit through this concert all night is one of the sweetest things he has ever done for me. I did not buy antigen quite so nice for Steve, just a reader for his laptop. I am hoping tomight Steve and I will have some alone time later on and be able to have our "romantic time" then.

7 Days of Valentines

For 12 years Steve and I have done the "14 Days of Valentines". It starts on the 1st of February and then ends on Valentine's Day. It has been so much fun. Steve usually comes up with some fun theme to make all of his Valentines. We have done something as simple as the children's Valentines that you buy at the drugstore to wooden hearts that he had cut out and painted and drilled holes in so they could be hung from a rope. Last year he had built me a desk to keep bills and such in for my main gift and gave me different office supplies that had a cute message attached. Well, this year because we had been so busy in January our planning and prepping for the 14 Days got put on the back burner. This year we are doing the "7 Days of Valentines" I got some fortune cookies and took out the standard message and put ones that I wrote for Steve and then dipped them in chocolate and added heart sprinkles. Then I put one out every night so Steve will find it in the morning when he sits down to read his newspaper. I love this time of the year. I think it is kind of neat for the kids to see mommy and daddy doing these special things for eachother.