Taking a moment to express gratitude.

It's 3:20am and I haven't been able to sleep for over and hour so I thougt I'd make my time more productive.
Last night we went to an Christmas Open House at Dave's second cousin's house (Kandis Orchard). On the way home it had just started snowing a little and as we were driving down I-15 we hit some ice and the suburban went out of control and ended up facing the opposite direction and hitting the cement divider. We turned around to make sure the kids were okay and besides most of them being in shock we all, thankfully, were okay. No other cars were involved with ours but there were (by the time we pulled out an hour later) 6 other wrecks within a football fields distance away from us around us.
What happens next makes me so very grateful.
The kids were very shaken up and very unconsolable (actually, Tyler was handling it really well). I could not get the girls especially to calm down. I just kept saying, "It's okay. See, everyone is fine" but they just were too hysterical. Finally after a few minutes I suggested that we pray and thank Heavenly Father for keeping us safe. Crying they said, "Yes, mom. Oh yes. Let's pray!" so Dave led us in a prayer of gratitude. After we were done they were considerably better but still a little shaken up. I crawled in the back to be with the girls while we waited for the police to arrive. Ryan (my 13 yr. old-this Dec 8th) was in the seat behind me and as I looked back I saw that he had his blackberry out with his scriptures on and was reading them silently to himself. Then a couple minutes later the girl asked if we could sing church songs to help calm them down a little more.
As I reflect on the time we spent wating for the police and tow truck to come I realized what every religious mom desires; that my kids walk in righteousness. That they first turned to the Lord for comfort in a difficult situation. That they have felt the spirit and don't hesitate to turn to their Heavenly Father for comfort through the Spirit. That is my greatest desire in life and it makes my heart happy and gives me a sense of peace to know, through this experience (and others), that the gospel is where they turned and that they are building their own testimonies of it.
Lastly, I want to say how GRATEFUL I am for the most AWESOME friends in the world. Brady and CeCe Kimball have ALWAYS been there for us in our time of need. They are the best friends anyone could have. Their service to others is seen daily and we are so blessed to have them as friends. Thank you for coming out and "rescueing" us by giving us your car so that we could make it home. I love you....we love you. Thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Thanksgiving Day!

 
So this is the second year in a row that we didn't go anywhere for Thanksgiving and we didn't have anybody over (not that we didn't ask but apparently everyone else had family and/or somewhere to go). Not again. Next year we WILL be with family on Thanksgiving.
Anyway, it was a relaxing day that started with me sleeping in until nearly 9 am :). I got up and made an apple pie and a pumkin pie then a sweet potatoe casserole and homemade rolls. After all that was cooked we stuck the 13 lb. turkey in and left to go see a movie with the kids called "Hugo". When we got back the girls made name place cards and the boys...probably played the Wii.


 
Turkey was done around 4 and we let the eating commence!


 
Yes, since there was no company I used paper plates:)

 

I am Thankful to be around my favorite people in the ENITRE world on this Thanksgiving day. I am also grateful to be able to say that I AM NOW ALL CAUGHT UP IN MY BLOG JOURNAL! (and just in time for one of the busiest times of the year)

proud of my kids....

 
Produd of Ryan for getting his "Life"!

 
Proud of Tyler for getting all his merit badges done. Now on to his Eagle Project...which he is currently working on:-)

 
Proud of Jenna for her talent on the piano that she spends time developing each day.

 

Proud of my trio for being creative and building snow chairs instead of a snowman.
Wish I had been home to take a picture when one of my neighbors texted me and told me she just drove by my house and saw Chase out on his chair reading a book.:-)

Saying good-bye is hard to do:(

The visit from Nate and Amy had to end but it was too soon! I wish we had at least 2 more days with them!
 
Of coarse I had to make this YUMMY cake on the last night they were here. It is even more yummy than it looks too. I got the recipe from the new Lion House Recipe Book that came out. My cake doesn't look as pretty as theirs because I didn't shave chocolate and put mint leaves on top but like I said...Y-U-M!

 











Being the mean mom that I am I made the kids go to school on the last day the they were here. They had already missed 2 days and I just felt like they needed to go and not miss anymore.
Callie, Connor and Caylyn made a big sign for the kids and hung it up for when they got home (gave them something to do while they were "bored cuz our cousins aren't here")


 



 

We enjoyed having family here and cousins to play with. We REALLY do wish that we lived closer to family and HOPE that we will soon:-) We miss you Nate and family! ALOT!

HALLOWEEN!!!

Halloween night we had (in order of appearance); Connor as a black eyed pea, Ryan as a Ninja, Chase as "deatheater", Jenna as a fifties girl, Caylyn as a witch, Meagan as Half devil and half angel, Tyler as a motorcyle dude, and Callie as Katniss from the book "The Hunger Games". I am proud to boast the these seven costumes were under $15 cuz I either recycled, borrowed, used what we had or shopped after Halloween sales last year and got good deals:-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let the trading and tummy aches begin!

Old friend, practical jokes and more halloween fun!

 







Years ago, in 1987, I became friends with a girl named Amy Respess. We actually became best friends. Then she went to a church fireside with me on Temples and afterwards said that she wanted to be married in a Temple. The rest is history, as they say. She took the missionary discussions, got baptized (along with her mom), married my brother (in the Atlanta Temple ) thus becoming my sister-in-law , produced some dang cute nieces for me and one handsome nephews, and is still one of my bestest friends.
While she was here we got together with one of the missionaries that helped teach her whom she has kept in contact with over the years; Dale Diamond. They were nice enough to invite us all (all 12 of us) over to their house for dinner. We got to meet his sweet wife, Holly, and his 3 kids...whose names (all but Mason's) I have forgotten (that's why I really should keep up with this journaling better).

 



These next few pictures are pictures of a prank the girls played on the boys. They waited till the boys were alseep and then snuck downstairs and put bows in their hair and all over their room.

 


 

 

 

On Halloween morning I got up and make Halloween pancakes for the kids. I had received these cut-outs from Carolyn the year before and used them. Well, I don't remember them being such a pain to use last year but they were! I tried 2 or three different ways of using them and it just was a mess. Each kid only got one halloween pancake and the rest were regular cuz I wan't gunna make any more. Note to self: find another halloween breakfast next year:-)

Which witch is which?

 
Later that same day we went up to Park City we went to a place called Gardner Village. This is a quaint little shopping village that is fun to go with your girlfriends too but is especially poplular around Halloween becuase they put on a huge production. The kids did a scavanger hunt to find all the witches that were there.....and there were alot of cute, fun witches. Here the boys are reading what they need to look for next. The girls had already taken off and so began a contest.

 
Cheatin' on Dave:-)

 

In the end the boys won and the girls weren't very happy (mostly because the boys were rubbing it in) but eeryone still got a free cookie, I found my camera that I had put down somewhere and lost and we found Chase safe and sound after noticing he was missing and looking for about 15 minutes. So, the day ended well:-)

Park City and Olympic Park

 
One day while Nate and Amy and kids were here visiting I thought it would be fun to go up to Park City and the Olympic Park area. I had seen on TV that there was this halloween trail with a bunch of mannequins dressed up to be scarecrows and witches and halloween character kind of stuff and that at the end they had a hay ride or something. They said it was up by "the white barn" which everyone knows where that is if you've ever been up to Park City. Weeeelllll, We get up there and can't find it any where. I mean the mannequins not the trail or barn. I think they shut the "display" down early for some reason which is really weird because it was 2 days before Halloween.
SO, we diecided to take them up to this fun place by one of the ski resorts that has ziplines and roller coaster and other fun things. This picture is of the kids at the outdoor ice skating rink....which was closed.

 
In fact, everything up there was closed. It was like a ghost town practically. The kids were excited still because there was (fake)snow but mom was frustrated and disappointed.

 
I wish I could be more like the kids in this instance. They were disappointed but still made the best. Mom was just annoyed because we had just driven all the way up there to have something to do for the day and it was all closed. Ok, fine. Let's go to the Olympic Park then....

 
Yes! It's open! and free to the public. We like free:-) Here is Nate and his cute family.

 
Bobsledding anyone?

 
They had games the kids could play and displays you could interact with.

 

Upstairs they had a bunch of memorablilia from when the Olympics was here in 2002. It was neat for the kids to be able to see all that.

Peter, peter...pumpkin eater

 
NATE, AMY, CALLIE, CONNOR AND CAYLYN CAME TO VISIT US FROM NORTH CAROLINA!!!!! They were here for nearly a week and it just so happen to be over Halloween so we got to trick or treat with cousins this year! The day that they got here we took the kids to a pumpkin patch and they all picked out a pumkin. Let the carving begin!

 
Chase's

 
Ryan's

 
Bec's/Caylyn's :)

 
Meagan's

 
Callie's

 
Jenna's

 
Tyler's


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