Last night we had our quarterly ward enrichment. Since I'm the enrichment leader it was my duty along with my committee to find something to do. Well I have a great friend whom I used to visit teach clear back when I was 19 or so. She's about 12 years older than me, but somehow we clicked. She was there for me when Cam was on a mission and when he got back. We hung out with them quite a bit during our early years and although we don't see much of each other we still keep in touch. Her name is Heidi and she has an amazing voice and because of her talent has been able to be a part of something for the last 9 years called "Women at the Well." It's a musical presentation about the Savior.

I was so nervous about having a big attendance that I didn't get to prepare myself in the way I wish I could've. But when that first song was sung I was touched. Our Savior is truly amazing and loves me. Why do I have to make life so difficult, why do I complain so much, why do I always want more. I realized last night how blessed I truly am. I have a husband who loves me and is perfect in every way for me. I have 3 adorable children who bring such light to my life that I can't imagine life without them. I have this new little baby growing inside me and I get to share in the excitement with my children as they come up with names for this little surprise, and nicknames. Alina has chosen to call the baby "sparkles" if it's a girl. All these little things make life great.

The Savior was spit upon, hated and hung on a cross to die, but he never complained or spoke ill of others. How sweet would life be if everyone could accept each other, and truly learn to love one another. My heart has been changed, I'm motivated to be a better person and to ALWAYS be grateful for what I have. Even if it's that I get to have lemon cake because I'm craving it (thanks Peggy and April), it's the little things that count. It's the little things I'll do to make my family and others lives better. For then I will truly be happy and in the service of God.

Student of the Week, Kittens, and St. George

We have had a very busy weekend. It all started Friday with Austin receiving the "Student of the Week" award. The girls and I went to the school for a special assembly they had for him. He won a certificate for his own pizza and a student of the week award certificate, and a bookmark. He's on a 3rd grade reading level and is reading "Indian in the Cupboard." He's also very good at math which is his favorite subject, his teacher has to give him extra math homework to keep him challenged. He's also very helpful in his classroom and kind to all his classmates. His dad and I are very proud of him.

After Austin got home from school there was some more excitement. We have a cat named Taboo whom we thought was a boy. We got him last summer after Tinkerbell died. Well a couple weeks ago I noticed that Taboo was getting fat. She ran into the house where she isn't allowed and I picked her up to put her back outside and I felt her stomach and realized that He was a SHE and was pregnant. My heart went out to her since I too am pregnant so we let her in every now and then. Last week she really started to waddle with her big stomach and last Friday as I was getting clothes out of my closet for our trip to St. George I heard Taboo purring in my closet. I moved my clothes to the side and this is what I found. Five little kittens as cute as can be. I had all the neighborhood kids up in my room checking them out. Poor Taboo just layed there and nursed them and she looked so tired. We were glad she didn't have them out in the cold. We just didn't realize it would be so soon we just found out she was a girl and pregnant about 2 weeks ago.



After getting the cats taken care of and asking Sammie our neighbor to watch them for me we finally got on the road to St. George with Trent and Jamie. We ran into some bad weather and didn't get there until 1am. The kids were so excited to be there though. The first day we went to the visitor center at the temple and here the kids are on the temple steps.

Then here they are trying to run as fast as they can to leave the temple. Apparently that was boring to them.



Then here they are at Brigham Young's home. There was a big pecan tree and the kids spent their time trying to find as many nuts as they could. Later that night I heard Greta and Hannah talking about how boring it was to just sit and listen to people talk. All they wanted to do was play. The adults enjoyed it though.



Greta brought Her Bella Dancerella DVD and mats so they could practice dancing. Alina brough 2 princess dresses and they just played and played.



We stayed at Trent's parents home while they were gone and they had this awesome playroom up in the attic. The kids loved it, we hardly ever saw Alina, it was her favorite part of the whole trip.



Have you seen these off an infomercial. They had another one in blue and they were really comfy. Jamie and I thought Cameron looked like a monk.



They also had this amazing back yard with tons of trees and a playground for the kids. Greta learned how to do the monkey bars and insisted on showing all of us at least 5 times.



Austin looooved the palm trees.

This game was the kids favorite. I have no idea what it's called but it's fun. Just for the record I beat Cam by ONE point, it was awesome. He was later seen crying like a baby.

Here Cam is making Austin cry after beating him.

They had massage chairs everywhere and the kids were always sitting in one of them.

It was Trent and Jamie's 7th anniversary. I was craving Costco cake so we went and got one and we watched Jamie and Trent's wedding video. They didn't throw cake on one another like Cam and I did so I just mentioned that they could now since we had cake and Trent took me seriously.

On the last day we went to the dinosaur museum and out for frozen custard, it was good! These dinosaur track were found in 2000, they were really cool.

It was hard to leave the warm weather especially when we got to Spanish Fork and it was snowing! We had a great time. We even tried to go to church but missed it because of daylight savings. Trent and Jamie were a lot of fun to hang out with. When we got back we hung out that night and had pizza and watched a movie. Thanks for a great weekend guys!!

We had fun Valentine's Day activities. Our ward put on a fabulous Big Band dance for all our families. We got to dance to great songs and have punch and cookies. The kids were so excited and had such a fun time.

Alina danced all over the place. We would often times see her falling to floor in a dance move and posing like she did here.

Alina and Reagan Johnson.

Cameron and Greta

Austin and Greta had a really fun time dancing together and were laughing about it the whole time.

The Friday before V-day we had Jen and Greg over for dinner with their kids. Our kids spent the afternoon making Valentine decorations for the party. We ate steak and potatoes, salad and homemade rolls. The kids dined on corndogs and mac-n-cheese. I also attempted a cheesecake made by our neighbor. Mine didn't turn out just like his, but it still tasted gooood! The kids frosted cookies and the adults played games.

For Valentines Day Cam sent me 2 dozen roses and they were beautiful. Shelley watched our kids for us and we went shopping. Cam has lost some weight so he went clothes shopping and since I just continue to gain I just helped him shop:) It was nice to get out without our kids. Then we got home and Trent and Jamie invited us over for games and a movie.

Our New Dining Room

We finally got our dining room done! Here is a picture of our dining room before we remodeled it....






Now here is the after pictures....... Cameron did such a great job on the painting and the chair rail. We also got a used light and spray painted it black and I made some curtains. We got 2 inch blinds instead of the ugly vertical ones we had. We also had Cameron's grandparents dresser that we painted black and use as a buffet. We love our new dining room. Now it's time for the living room.

Fatty

Greta every day tells me how big my tummy is getting (I am pregnant) and here is her latest on that....

Greta: mom, so I guess when you have a baby in your tummy everything gets bigger. Look at how big your legs and butt are.

Mom: Thanks Greta.

Our Little Sunbeam

Alina had her first day of Sunbeams yesterday (we were out of town last week) and she was so excited. She picked out her favorite dress and she said to me, "mom if my new class doesn't like my dress I promise I won't kick their butts." I don't think her new teachers have any idea what they are getting themselves into!

Santa came and I have proof!!

This year was our very first Christmas in our own home and we absolutely loved it. We did Christmas Eve with my family this year and the kids participated in acting out the Christmas story and we played games, ate lots of food and had a great time.





We went home and got ready for Santa. The kids saw Santa's sleigh the whole way home and Rudolph's nose. We were in a race to beat them to our house. The kids frantically got carrots for the reindeer and 3 cookies for Santa and we couldn't forget milk. Alina had to count the carrots to make sure nobody was sneaking them before we went to bed.

They opened their Christmas Eve pj's and Alina was ecstatic with her new pj's, Austin and Greta were hoping for something else.

As we were getting ready we had a knock on our door and the kids ran to get it and on our doorstep was this.....

Our friends Jamie and Trent think they are pretty funny. Inside the box of the potato heads was a Christmas towel they won as a white elephant gift. They left the towel on our car after they left the party and we returned it to their doorstep. Now that we have it back we'll have to think of a clever way to return it to them. The war is on! Our kids love the potato heads, Alina carries hers around with her everywhere and Cam's even comes complete with a pocket protector.

After the excitement Austin told us he didn't care about the presents we had to wrap for them, he just wanted us to go to sleep so Santa could come. There was so much excitment in our house, it was so fun! The kids layed out their stockings and name tags we had made earlier in the week and they were off to bed. Cam went to check on them and they were looking out Greta's window to see if Santa was on Braden's roof (friends behind us) yet. Then they aksed if they thought Santa could leave a picture of himself. I told them we could write a letter and ask, Austin wanted to leave the video camera on all night to catch him. Here they are pretending to sleep.







Austin was the first one to wake up at 6:30 and we had to get the girls up and they were not happy. Then they remembered it was Christmas and ran down quickly. In my family we had a tradition of getting your favorite treat, food or whatever edible item to eat on the table. Alina requested gummi bears and Austin and Greta got their own donuts. Cam got a ginormous can of hot chocolate and I got fancy syrup for our french toast that morning.

Before we opened presents we had a prayer and laid baby Jesus in his manger and reminded the kids what Christmas is all about. The kids did a lot of service this past month and the bed was very soft. Next year they want to do even more.

Unfortunately we didn't take a single picture of Christmas morning, we only video taped it. But Santa did leave a picture of himself at our house along with a letter to the kids. They were so excited, it was the hit of the day.





Santa brought Austin and Greta the digital camera they wanted and Alina got her bike. He also brought them a personalized book. It's a story about them and their friends. The kids were happy and enjoyed all their new gifts. Cam surprised me with an Ipod and a sewing machine. I got him a golf caddy, and a gift certificate to get the book The Jospeph Smith Papers when they have more in stock, and 2 booster decks to Killer Bunnies.

I made art kits for the kids and put them inside boxes from Costco. Alina's was in a box of stuffing, when she opened it she said "yeah I get my own stuffing!!" That's how excited she was the whole day, she hugged us every time she opened something and was happy with everything. All 3 of them were, it was a great Christmas and the kids are already counting down for next year.