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.

California Trip Part 4: Disneyland

Our final adventure during our California trip was going to Disneyland. We got up and put on our matching t-shirts that "Santa" had brought to us for Christmas. It was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky and temperatures were predicted to be 70. We got to Disney, parked and took the tram to the park. We had to wait a few minutes for Mabel to get there, but once she arrived the adventure began. As soon as we walked through the gates we saw Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter. We stood by as Alice began to flirt with Zack and the Mad Hatter tried to find a partner to dance with. Everyone was pretty shy except for Katie who took his had and began a little "soft shoe" It was too cute. The all began to skip around the square. We took our pictures with Alice and received her autograph and proceed on to Fantasyland, but were side tracked when we found out Snow White was on her way. We lined up to meet Snow White (this is Mommies favorite character) After we did the picture/autograph thing we tried to get into Fantasyland again, but was again hijacked when we saw Cinderella walking by. Becky was anxious to show her the autograph book she had made for the trip. It was covered with stickers of Cinderella. We finally made it into Fantasyland after we left Cinderella and got to ride:Pinocchio, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, and Snow White and then we got to the Dumbo Ride. The kids were in heaven.

Katie said "weeee" as the she made the flying elephant move up and down. I just giggled. The kids were pretty excited to try the TeaCups. We split into groups of who wanted to go FAST (Steve's group) and the ones that wanted to go slowly (my group). Zack, Mabel and I managed to get the gold teacup. This made Becky a little pouty, but OH WELL!!!


After Dumbo and the Teacups we did the Matterhorn and then went onto It's a Small World. I love that one except for the fact that the rest of the day you have that song in your brain. Next we headed to Toon Town and saw Pluto, Goofy and then Minnie Mouse. We took a family picture with Minnie and then Steve had his little flirtation with the pretty mouse. After lunch, which was nothing too exciting, we headed to Splash Mountain and after getting off got a Fast Pass so we could return later and ride again. That was by far the whole families favorite ride.
The best part was getting off the ride and laughing at the funny expressions on everyone's faces. While waiting to ride Splash Mountain a second time we rode The Jungle Cruise. The kids enjoyed that one too. The off to Splash Mountain again. In the evening we did Star Tours. The children were sure that we had actually taken off. That was pretty cool. Then one of my favorites was the Buzz Lightyear ride. I love games!!! By 8:00 we were all pretty tired and the park was going to be closing so we headed out to our car. The was the funniest trip I think we have ever done as a family. The best part for me was looking at the kid's faces as we road these rides. The excitement and twinkle that is in their eyes. I wanted to hold on to that feeling so badly, but before I knew it it was Tuesday morning and we were driving back to Utah. I am so grateful for ALL the pictures we took and that I can go back and see that magical look in the kids eyes anytime I want.

California Trip Part 3: The Tidepools

After lunch at Shin Sun Gumhi, we dropped Uncle Chip off at home and Mabel directed us to some pretty cool tidepools in Corona Del Mar. The tide had been in that day and dropped tons of neat little critters into the pools. Steve and the kids ventured out to find the good stuff. They saw some neat star fish. Zack found a sea slug and was shocked by what it felt like. Steve said there was even a pool with just regular fish in it. There were also tons of hermit crabs and sea aneomes.

Mabel and I stood on the shore and counted children to make sure no one wandered off too far. As the sun began to, engaged couples came out with photographers for photos. It was fun to watch the pictures being taken. The girls tried to make dribble sand castles. Even after being warned not to get all wet, Belle headed right into the water.

Zack spent a lot of his time just peering into the different pools and watching what was happening. He is my little science boy (next to his dad) . He probably could have stayed there all day. It was such a perfect day...Good weather...Great kids...Fabulous tidepools.

The kids began to get cold and needed to go potty so Mabel offered to walk the children back up the hill to go potty as I waited for Steve to work his way back into me. We decided to take some pictures just of us. The last shot was the best one...A silhouette photo of us kissing as the sun is setting into the ocean.

California Trip Part 2:Shin Sun Gumhi

On Sunday we drove to Laguna to pick up my brother Chip and his wife Mabel. They took us to the Swap Meet in Costa Mesa. There was so much STUFF. I bought a cute backpack purse and the kids got some $1.00 toys. It was amazing. Anything you could possibly be in need of was there. Even cars. There was a white truck that Steve would probably have bought if it was 4x4. We had a great time there sampling food in the market area. Once we got a little food into our stomachs we realized just how hungry we were.


Chip wanted to take us to a Japanese Noodle house that he and Mabel frequent often named Shin Sun Gumhi. We had to wait a while to get into the restaurant. We were hoping to get to sit at one of the the traditional Japanese table where you take off your shoes and sit on the pillows on the floor, but there was another large party ahead of us that snagged the table. The noodle come in a bowl with some pork, green onions and ginger on top. All of it sits in a pool of broth. We also had these mini pot stickers that were really yummy. The whole this was kind of fun and exciting. The kids even seemed to enjoy the experience. The most surprising was Steve. He is not one to want to just eat noodles. He has even teased me about wanting to eat at Nothing But Noodles and how silly that sounds. But he was a good sport as we had lunch with Chip and Mabel.

California Trip Part 1: Knott's Berry Farm

We are back from our trip to California...

LET THE BLOGGING BEGIN!!!

We drove all day on Friday. I was suppose to see my friend Shawna and her family, but had learned that her son had the stomach flu and decided it would be best not to risk spreading that around. So we got to Anaheim about 7:00 pm. We ordered a pizza and hung out in our hotel room. The kids and Steve went out to the pool and tried to work out some of the wiggles from being confined in the car for so long.

We woke up on Saturday morning, got dressed and headed out to Knott's Berry Farm. The weather was fabulous: clear skies, 68 degrees. We headed straight to Camp Snoopy. The kids were excited by every ride we went to. The twins and Belle rode a "slow" scrambler and giggled the whole time. Steve decided that he and Zack would go and try to ride a roller coaster while the girls and I hit the more mellow rides. We rode Lucy's Tugboat boat which was fun and then a beginner roller coaster that the girls had a ball on.

Steve and Zack still had not come back so we headed over to the Jaguar Coaster to see if they were there. I just happened to look up at Montezuma's Revenge over my head and saw Steve and Zack on the very top!!! HOLY COW!!!. So we waited as they got off that one and I asked Steve what happened. The whole time Steve and I are talking Zack is going on about how great it was and that he wasn't even scared a bit. So Steve tells me his story that as they got off the Jaguar he saw the top of Montezuma's revenge and it seemed pretty tame. He had no idea what the ride was. So they get into their seat and before he knew it he was upside down.

We rode the log ride 3 times. The kids loved that one and I was determined to get a perfect picture of us all as we headed down the big drop. Steve took Belle and Zack to ride some of the bigger rides while Katie and Becky and I hit the kiddie rides (these are more my speed anyway) As the girls and I wandered around Camp Snoopy we found Snoopy himself and got a photo taken with him.
We had a great time and left the park about 6:00 pm and had dinner at Mrs. Knott's Fried Chicken. When we got back to the hotel Steve and the kids went swimming and I got in my jammies and proceeded to fall asleep. I was completely exhausted.

What's For Dinner?

There was a challenge on the 2 Peas site on what our favorite family meal is. I have so many, my kids are really good eaters:

MEXICAN STIR FRY

1 lb stew meat cut into small pieces.

1 green pepper, diced

1/2 an onion, diced

1 can petite, diced tomatoes

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 can of whole kernel corn

1 zucchini, sliced and halved

1 cup salsa

cook meat, onion and green pepper until meat is brown. Drain grease. Then add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Turn down to low and cook covered for 20 minutes. Can be served on a bed of rice or can be spooned into a tortilla and add cheese and some sour cream to make a tasty burrito.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as my family.

Is It A Store or A Museum?

THE KIDS ARE OFF TRACK!!!

I get so stressed out during these 3 weeks. I want to keep the kids busy, but not wanting to go broke doing it. Monday was also the first day Steve had off and there was no where else either of us needed to be. So after lunch Steve suggested we load the kids up in the car and take a family trip to his favorite place...CABELLA. For those who don't know, Cabellas is an outdoorsman's superstore. Now you probably think hips boots, binos and fishing gear, but OH NO!!

It is like a natural history museum. There is hundreds of animals that are on displayed throughout the store. There is a huge safari display that had warthogs, lions, tigers, etc. Then there was a desert diplay with mountain lions, prairie dogs and such. There was even an artic like display that had a polar bear.

Of course there were moose, deer and bear. The kids were fascinated. Then upstairs there was a shooting gallery. We bought some tokens and let the kids practice their aim. It was a lot of fun. Steve and I even got into it. We thrive on competiton. I think we tied.

Then after we left the shooting gallery we went to the restaurant and bought a boar sandwich and some drinks and let the kids have a chance to try soem thing different. They loved it. We were there for 2 hours and had a fabulous time as a family. Even better I have some more pictures to scrap.