Gma/Gpa Close Visit, Ward Dance, BYU Friends, YM, B-Ball Game

A bunch of random things in one post :).

The Close's came to visit!!! Cade's dad had some time off work and Grandma is now retired so they came up to visit us for a couple days. They were too excited to give us a couple gifts. Cade got his first gun! He was extremely giddy...like it was "Christmas morning and he had just won a trip to see Star Wars in the making" giddy. It was great. My gift was a necklace made from a diamond watch of Great-grandmas. It is gorgeous and very thoughtful of Tammy. She made identical ones for both Tara and I.

We had fun with them. We took them to the Bean Museum in Provo, got yummy food, and went to "Beauty and the Beast". We love when they come see us.

Our ward had an adult dance in March. Cade was asked to teach hip-hop at it and I'll admit I was pretty smitten all over again. He has got some moves and I loved having him as my date :). Maybe he shouldn't do the worm though if we want more children. :). Everyone was very impressed...espcially with his moon walking.

We had some of our BYU friends over for a Sunday dinner. These girls were all ones that I served with in two different Relief Society presidency's at church. The families were Kjell and JC Crowe, Rachael and Gavin Goodwin, and Ildy and Braden Cline. It was so fun to catch up! 6-7 years later and we have 12 1/2 kids!

Last summer Cade got a different calling with the Young Men- 1st counselor in the presidency- so over the teachers. He has been busy with it but not too bad. He really enjoys it and wants so badly to change lives and really do the best he can (that's kind of a habit of his- doing his best). 

Cade got to go to a March madness play-off game with my dad and brothers. He isn't quite into basketball as the others are but he had lots of fun being with them and seeing their excitement :)!

Easter 2017

Easter- April 16, 2017.
I love our Easter traditions! Of course there is egg dying sometime the week before Easter. The girls are getting better at being able to dye eggs without giving me a heart attack. Then we always do our Easter egg hunt on the day before Easter (Saturday) and the girls really look forward to that! Lucy actually understood that there is something yummy in those eggs and loved having her first jelly beans...couldn't get enough....just like mom. And then we do our traditional waffle breakfast and watch the sunrise on Easter morning. We love this tradition because we really try to talk about and emphasize that Christ is the light of the world and all good things come from Him. And because of His resurrection we can live together forever as a family. It was a great Easter!

Girls Weekend in Park City!

This whole thing started last fall when Cade mentioned about me having a girls trip for my 30th birthday. It was a fabulous idea of course but Lucy was still nursing and I told him I would rather wait until I could go somewhere by myself. Then Kristen and I were talking and she mentioned she really wanted everyone to meet their new baby Eva in case they weren't able to keep her (they are foster parents). So she talked Andrew into letting her come to Utah and we planned a girls trip around it. Thankfully that weekend worked for all of us girls!

Kristen flew in from Santa Barbara on Thursday night. Then Friday all of us girls met up in Park City around noon. We ate at a wonderful healthy place called, "Vessel Kitchen" and it was amazing. Then we did (too much) shopping at the Outlets. I don't normally like shopping all that much but being with my mom and sisters made it really fun!

Then we went to our house and checked in there. We did a VRBO and the place had 4 bedrooms and was very spacious for all of us. After we got settled there we went to Downtown Park City and ate at a Mexican Restaurant called "Baja Cantina". Then we went back to our place and sat in the hot tub for a long while. It was a fabulous first day!

The second day we slept in and made breakfast. Then we all went to a spa and got pedicures. The massage chair was my favorite part :). Afterwards we went and ate at a grill for lunch.

One of the last things we did was go to the Olympic State park and walk around the museums. We were too late to get a tour but the museums were still cool. Then we went back to the house and played games together. I LOVE playing games so that was naturally one of my favorite parts of the weekend :).

Then Stephanie and my Mom when home first before the snow storm was supposed to arrive. Kristen, Jennie, Boose and I went to a pizza place and had dinner. It was so yummy. But then the storm came! We made it to the house safely without me freaking out too bad (I absolutely HATE driving in the snow). Jennie had to drive home through the canyon in the huge snow storm. She said it was pretty bad but made it home safe. Kristen, Boose and I slept over Saturday night and attended a church in Heber City on our way back home. It was SUCH a fun weekend! I hope we can do it more often in the future!

Sisten came over Sunday after church to say hi to the girls and before we took her to Nathan and Steph's to have dinner and sleep over there. My Reesie Roo is completely obsessed with babies and LOVED having Eva over for just a bit to cuddle and hold. It was a wonderful weekend and very needed for bonding time!!! I love the women in my life!

Spring Break Stay-cation!

April 3-7, 2017
We went to Disneyland in February so for spring break we stayed here and planned some fun activities to do! I was very excited to do some activities with my beautiful girls and got a glimpse of the fun we will have this summer.

On Monday we had a "storytelling festival." The girls love to write and illustrate their own books. So we all wrote our own books (or scribbled for some) and then made the bunk bed into a fort. Then we shone a flashlight on the person who was telling their story. Simple activity but we had fun :).

Tuesday we had a makeover! I did the girls nails and make-up and Nora was especially excited about make-up. I love having girly-girls. Then for lunch we had a pizza picnic in the living room. Throw a blanket down and it makes eating a meal more fun!

Wednesday was especially fun! We invited Grandma over for a tea party. So all morning we got ready for our tea party. The day before we had made our hats. But we made fresh lemonade, little sandwiches, cookies, and veggies and fruit. Grandma came and we ate our yummy food and sang songs with her. It was super cute.

Thursday we got on our pants (doesn't happened around here too often) and went up the canyon for a Bear Hunt Scavenger Hunt. I made a checklist of things the girls had to do (i.e. walk across a fallen log, find 3 different kinds of bugs, slide down a rock, etc.). I was reminded how much time we need to spend up the canyon after Reese and Nora FREAKED out overtime they found a bug and especially when one would touch them! We walked through an area that had box elder bugs flying all around us and it was hilarious. SO much screaming and running going on! Ahhhh, yes. Did I mention I love having girly-girls?? But I am also determined to make them love the outdoors and being adventurous :). After the canyon we went to Sodalicious for yummy cookies and popcorn. It was a good day!

I sure love spending time with my girls!!!

Refugee/Humanitarian Involvement

I will be brief, but just wanted to document my starting with some humanitarian work. It's a small beginning, but a beginning nonetheless.

Last October I ran into someone up American Fork Canyon who was also there with her family. Jennifer (her name) was taking pictures of nature for a photography class and asked if she could take pictures of our girls. After she took some pictures of them she asked if she could have my email so she could email me the pictures. On the bottom of the email Jennifer said she was starting a refugee/humanitarian group on FB if I waned to check it out. Ever since the call in April at the LDS General Conference to get involved with refugee work I had the desire to help but didn't know exactly how.

Anyway, now I am a collection point for this humanitarian collections group and I love having a small part in the  big work happening! What happens is we have periodic meetings at Jennifer's house and talk about organizations who need help and how we can help them. We each work with different organizations so we can be involved in many areas. Currently we are working with the IRC (International Rescue Committee), the URC (Utah Refugee Center), Lifting Hands International (helping refugees in other countries), and my group I have been working with is Days for Girls (helping women/girls in Africa and India continue through school on their period with reusable feminine hygiene kits).

People from all over can bring their donations to our homes (the collection points) and we get them to the appropriate organization. We also help get the word out about how others can help. It has been a great way to allow my girls to see how we can have a small part in giving. We receive SO many "gifts" on our porch (AKA Amazon shopping) and we have SO much. I want to always be involved in giving and not just receiving. Our family has been truly blessed and being involved just allows you to see what you have and the amount of blessings in your life. We are BLESSED.

The pictures jennifer took up the canyon :):

First Family ER trip...on Valentines Day :(

Well, this wasn't was we had planned for our Valentine's Celebration...spending if in the ER with Nora Boo. Poor thing! She and Reese were running around the house holding onto a blanket. Reese held onto one end and Nora onto the other and was pulling Nora around and whipping her around. Sounds like a good idea right? Definitely a recipe for a disaster...and no I had no idea this was going on at the time. Emma and I were sitting at the piano for her piano practicing when I heard a HUGE "bang" and Nora start screaming. I turn around and Nora had her hand on her head. I thought "oh, no...I'm afraid to move her hand." And sure enough I moved her hand and blood was gushing out of this huge, extremely deep cut. She had tripped and fell and banged her head on the baseboard really hard. I starting panicking. I didn't really know what to do and I wasn't thinking clearly.

I called my next door neighbor, Jill and she luckily had her head on straight for me! She took the older two to her house, took Lucy to our other neighbor's house and took me and Nora to the ER. I sat in the back seat with Nora and held a cloth on her head the whole time. Jill dropped us off and went back to her house. I am so grateful for her and always dropping everything when she is needed.

Cade came to the ER about 10 minutes after we got there. Nora got some "medicine" that put her in what the doctor called a "twilight stage" so she wouldn't remember everything going on from that horrible experience. She ended up getting 9 stitches and a pretty good bandage.

That was our first experience with stitches. I never had any as a kid but Daddy had to get some in his forehead too when he was 4. Almost the same as Nora. She was definitely a tough little thing. Hopefully there won't be another time!