Sweet Conversations

I haven't blogged much lately, (obviously) or even read others blogs. Things have just been really busy here the last couple of months. I was asked to be a representative for a company that I had ties to before, they were branching into Utah and basically offered me the job. With this economy, who could say no to that right? It is a nice blessing to be able to do this job and not have it interrupt life with my kids, thankfully! So now I guess I am a WAHM instead of a SAHM. :)
It has been really busy getting all ramped up on subjects I don't have a lot of knowledge with, and juggling all the different jobs at home and with the kids, but most days I get it figured out. I do understand more now the phrase, "Stop and Smell the Roses." Things have been so busy that I have really tried to make my time with my kids count. Sometimes that is really hard with life whirling around you like a tornado. Today I was talking with Jantz and Abby and having a fun little conversation. At one point Abby said to me, "Mom. why didn't you put that you can bring presents on my baptism invitation?" She is getting baptized next Saturday, which also happens to be her birthday so she is kinda having a hard time figuring out how to blend the two together. I proceeded to tell her that we weren't celebrating her birthday that day, just her baptism. And that some people may bring her a baptism gift, and some may not, but we don't ask them to. It doesn't really matter because it isn't what is important. And Jantz interjects..." Yeah Abby because you are getting the greatest gift you could ever get anyway, the Holy Ghost." He is going to go in you and tell you what to do. Abby doesn't like to be "outdone" by Jantz so she says back a little sassy like "Jantz did you ever see a ghost some down to Josh's baptism and give him a gift?" He says no. I say, "you know that the Holy Ghost is just a spirit that dwells inside of you - you can't see it, but you can feel it and you can hear it...right?" Thankfully she knew this, whew! But Jantz likes to be the know-it-all which irritates Abby more, so he says, " Yeah, like he will talk to you, like if you someone was flipping a coin and you had to choose the wight one and you went to choose one and the Holy Ghost will whisper no, not that one, choose the other one and then you will and it will be the wight one!" How much do I love this kid!! I just hope he doesn't think he can use the Holy Ghost in Vegas or something!

Here is a copy of her baptism invitation. My neighbor next door helped me with it. I absolutely LOVE it, I can't stop looking at it! The pictures are most fab!!
Thanks so much AMY!!
(I scanned it but didn't crop it, I don't think I have a program on this computer to do that!)

SHOUT OUT!!!

Here is a shout out to my neighbor and photographer extraordinaire Amy......
THANK YOU!!
She braved the frigid weather to take pictures of my sweet little Abby so I could get a baptism announcement ready for the big day!! (next Saturday) WAHOO!
Abby was freezing, literally shaking, and after a short time she was done. It didn't go as well as I had planned so I was really worried that we weren't able to get anything that would work. I need not worry, Amy is amazing and had plenty of pics for me to choose from! Thank heavens!!
Bless you Amy! :)

Check it out:
http://amynfarrphotography.blogspot.com/

This one is for you Ashley Q

2010 YW Theme Poster

I was telling Melanie H about how much I love this poster and that I wanted to buy it for Abby's room and she told me that you (Ashley) are always looking for things like this for the YW room.
I bought some of these posters awhile back and they are so beautiful! The website is www.realheroposters.com but the pictures there just don't do the posters justice...they are so much better than I thought. I have 5 of them (Joshua, Samuel, Joseph, Esther and Mary) and they are all amazing. The prices are great too. I know he is offering a discount to church groups as well. Sorry for posting this...I guess I need to get your email because I keep forgetting to mention it to you when I see you at church. I am soooo much better at the email thing because it seems like I remember to do things at 11 at night when it is too late to call but not too late to email! :)

Sitting here just enjoying the holiday, the PEACE of knowing that I am pretty much done shopping, the JOY of no homework this week, loving the snow outside and loving that my kids have been playing in it NONSTOP for days now. Enjoying all the sweet people out there taking their time and putting forth their efforts to bring me holiday goodies even though I don't send any out myself. I am warm inside sitting by my fireplace, loving the glow of the garland and the twinkle of the tree. But most of all, I am LOVING my Christmas music....one of the BEST things about Christmas! I LOVE Christmas music. Holiday Traditions on XM has been playing pretty much 24/7 at my house. Today I threw in a family favorite....Peter Breinholt's Christmas Album - NOEL. One of my favorite Christmas albums ever. It makes me think of our Savior. It is beautiful. If you don't have it, you should!

Seriously? I am so disappointed!

I get all excited for the Van Halen Rockband edition to come out, and even more excited to see that they have special guest acts from some REALLY good bands like the Foo's, Blink 182, The Offspring, along with some other really cool songs. AND THEN....I look at the set list and realize that we are talking about the David Lee Roth days....I mean SERIOUSLY...David Lee Roth. He is so old school, everyone knows that Sammy is where it's at! Van Halen isn't really Van Halen without Sammy! 5150 - um, one of the best albums ever and I can't even sing DREAM - I was going to put that song on my wedding video!! So sad.
Here is the lame website in case anyone else is feeling like they want to be depressed today.

http://vanhalen.guitarhero.com/

Aliens or Criminals....

So last night just after midnight and just after we had turned out the lights to go to bed there was this slightly greenish blueish really bright light shining in our window. It was so weird I was quiet. Dayt said what the heck was that? I told him to hurry to the window to check it out. He said, nah, you do it. I was too freaked out and I was a little nervous to open the blinds so I made him get out of bed. He couldn't see anything and I told him it was because he didn't get out of bed fast enough. Typical right? So I was a little freaked out because I knew it wasn't a car or anything even though Dayt repeatedly tried to tell me it was. But the light didn't "roll" across the windows so I knew it wasn't a car turning around in the circle. He told me it was no big deal - but I was SURE that it was a police spotlight from a helicopter above trying to chase down a criminal running through my backyard. It could happen! He said it was just aliens. Seriously, are you kidding! I am not going to be able to go to sleep. I am thinking about the escaped convict in the basement! I am only half kidding about that people! He kept on with the whole aliens story. I said he was so LAME! He thought it was weird that I didn't believe in aliens. I said, oh yeah right, on the 8th day God made aliens. I was not finding it amusing. Anyway, I made him get up and turn on the outside lights to discourage the criminal from hiding away in the unfinished basement - much to his dismay! I finally fell asleep. This morning on the news there was all this talk about a meteor that fell from the sky. Apparently it is a once in a lifetime experience. The meteor that fell through space was about the size of an oven or a refrigerator, 10 miles high in the sky and could be seen ias far away as AZ, CA, MT and ID. The videos they have on this thing on the news are pretty crazy. Go to www.KSL.com. for some great shots. So now Dayt thinks that because aliens are from space, and meteors are from space that he was the closest in determining the source of the light last night. Oh whatever! My theory was so much more realistic than aliens!! Happy Wednesday y'all!

FYI * Swine Flu Clinic

Just wanted to let everyone know there is a H1N1 clinic again tomorrow at the Dee Events Center in Ogden. Starts at 8am. I heard it through the grapevine this afternoon and my kids needed to get their second dose of it so I cruised up after school to check it out. There was no waiting at all. We were in and out in 15 minutes. The one lady told me they were giving 3000 doses out each day but their website just says 3000 between both days. http://www.webermorganhealth.org/ We got there just before 4:30 and they were giving out tickets that had been originally scheduled for 1pm this afternoon so I am assuming they didn't get as many people as they planned on.

Shout out for London!

Ok still trying to catch up from my pneumonia coma in October. I am so far behind on blogging and everything else for that matter! It will happen, soon...soon.

For now, check out a friend of mines cute scarves. They were shown on Studio 5 yesterday....

www.lalalovelyyou.blogspot.com

"...When ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God."

My heart has been deeply touched.

Thank you!!

Sport it Mom

Hey guys a friend of mine has started a little fitness group for kids ages 3 - 5 boys and girls at the sportsplex. Each session they learn and play a different sport. She has classes on Mon/Wed and Tues/Thurs from 10:00am - 11:00am. The cost is $30 a month - so right around $3.75 each session - that's a great deal! Your first class is free so check it out! She used to be Josh's rec soccer coach and she is really awesome with the kids. I am putting Jantz in the Mon/Wed if anyone is interested in carpooling!
You can find more info at www.sportitmom.com or call Amy at 801-593-5855

Some Love for this week...

Some things I am way excited about this week....HALLOWEEN being the first! I can't wait - I love halloween! (more on that later) Haunted corn mazes - YES I GO! I can almost smell the gas from the chainsaws as we speak! Although I haven't been to the Castle of Chaos, they have a pretty wicked video intro on their website this year. May feel to much like I was in the middle of a horror movie, not so sure I am going to venture to that one this year.
You can check it out here!

The rest - in no particular order:

Finding costumes for the kids. I love when they start talking about what they want to dress up like. They always think of the most interesting things and they always go back and forth a couple of times. Remember when it used to be this simple just a plastic mask and a vinyl outfit....I swear I actually WORE this costume one year!

It is upon us, I can feel it...FALL - my most FaVoRiTe time of year!! The world is at it's most beautiful and the air is crisp and clean!

Talking with Anita Stansfield yesterday...really cool!

Abby making LeMoNaDe out of LeMoNs - I wish we could put the yard in this year, but it looks like that may not happen now. Love this economy! :) We are all jealous of the Farr's next door who are putting in theirs tomorrow! Abby decided to make designs in the dirt with the rake. How funny is that?! Here is a flower I took a picture of before it got too dark.

Josh had his 2nd game of the regular season last night. This is his first year playing comp soccer for Wasatch. I think it has been a little intimidating thus far and I can tell he doesn't have the confidence he had playing rec soccer. He used to score several goals in each game last year and this year it is a whole different ballgame! We have seen him be really tentative and afraid to take the ball down - just kinda unsure of himself. We have been talking with him about it and each preseason game he has made some improvement. He scored his first goal of the season last night - YEA! He was a bit more aggressive and more confident. I think he is coming around. I am excited to see him play with his full potential.
Check out his eyes/eyelashes - so handsome!


I LOVE soccer season. This year is fun because I don't have to wait all week to watch them play again. Josh plays on Mondays and Thursdays and the little kids play on Saturdays so I get to enjoy soccer games all week long - and I DO REALLY ENJOY IT!

We have been able to spend a little time extra time with Phoebe this week. BOY do my kids LOVE her! She is treated like a princess when she is here! Everyone wants to help. They fight over who gets to sit by her car seat in the car, and who gets to feed her and everything else. Abby wouldn't even let me help her change her diaper. She said she needed practice for when she becomes a mom. How sweet is that! We love you Pheeeeb!!!

The challenge our sweet dear RS Pres TIFF gave us - to read the Book of Mormon by Thanksgiving. Scripture reading has become more of a priority lately because I don't want to be left behind. I can't ever say no to a good challenge! (personality thing) But what a good thing - the TV is off more and the scriptures are open more! I know my days have been better because of it, and I know I am receiving blessings.

Being able to look forward to something. With everything that has happened over the last couple of years we haven't had as many opportunities to go away like we have in the past. Next week we get to sneak away for a couple of days during fall recess and stay with Dayt's brother in Denver. We are ALL very excited to see the twins and have some fun. Of course, no trip to Denver would be complete without a Rockies game! I haven't seen one in years and we are lucky enough to be able to catch their last season game next Thursday - YES!!!


Have I forgotten anything....mmmm probably. But oh well.
There is always room for happy posts!

Who Is Your Hero Posters

A couple of you out of there have asked me where I got the posters for my kids' rooms. You can find them at RealHeroPosters.com
They look great on the website but they are even more BEAUTIFUL than they appear online. There are so many great choices I had a hard time choosing which ones I wanted. They all have such great messages. Because they are relatively inexpensive I am going to swap them out every couple of months. Buy some!! You won't be disappointed!
Here are some images of a couple of the prints for those of you who don't know what I am talking about. They have a scripture reference on each one. They have a bible series as well as a Book of Mormon series.

I Heart Jack Sparrow!

Pirates of the Caribbean 4 - On Stranger Tides - it's official!
More pirates, more Johnny, mmmm yes!!

Read about it HERE

Goldfish!

I love my little Jantzen! Things have been a little quiet around here when everyone is at school. At least I have Jantz for 1/2 the day - and at very least - he LOVES to chat! I get to sit and talk with him, which, if you know Jantz AT ALL - you know it's good conversation! Here are some funny things he said this week. I want to write them down because I have already forgot the other 8 things that made me laugh this week!

We played "Goldfish" for hours this week. You may know it by it's original name - "Go Fish" but Jantz gives everything a little twist because he can't remember what things are called. I would ask him for a particular fish and he would say
"no - goldfish" or he would say " I believe I do" It was sooo funny! Then as he was about to ask me for the same fish for the 3rd time he would stop and pause remembering that he had already asked and say "mom, did you just "goldfish" or in other words, have you picked up a new card recently.

He was watching Shrek the third - something he hadn't seen for several years and made the comment (as Shrek was getting into bed) that Shrek had forgotten to put on his garments!

We were playing the blinking game and I said playing around with him, ha you blinked...why do you keep blinking. He said, I just blink - that's what I do. I said, why and he said, there is just something inside me that makes me blink, I don't know. I said, well what is it. He said my lungs or something!

And as for APRIL...

We started off with Dayt's 35th birthday! I was catching an early plane to Denver to do some business at Bella during the day so we opened some really quick gifts with the kids that morning. One of which was a book written as a tribute to the author's child using a Bob Dylan song "Forever Young". Cute book! Great songwriter, voice...not so great. Dayt loves him though!

Dayt met me later that night in Denver and we dropped by the hospital to see the new Donahoe twins. That was REALLY fun! You can see those pics HERE
The next day - his brother Derek took him to the Bruce Springsteen concert for his birthday - what is with this guy - his favorite singers are all actually crappy singers but good songwriters...he he he
It was super nice of Derek and they had a great time. I had an even better time in the NICU holding those sweet little babies - all night long! The next morning we took a really early flight (sorry again Derek!) to make it home for my mom's easter egg hunt.
It was a really quick trip but totally worth it!
Here is a pic of us eating lunch in Denver with Derek and Mandi - Dayt gave this pepper a go just for fun.....it was soooo much FUN for us, not so much him. We laughed so hard! His mouth was burning and his eyes were watering as his face went bright red and his tongue went numb!
Good times!
Later on the next week we had a couple of get together's for his birthday with family.
Dayt LOVES musicals! These were two he didn't have. Can you believe neither of us have seen West Side Story. We both can't wait to watch it and see what all the hype is about.

One of Dayt's other fav things - pork rinds! Random I know! Gross!!

Another fav - coconut cream pie, he chooses it every year! This isn't the coconut pie in the picture, but rather one of the other pies from the counter, we had several yummy ones!

Then we move on to.......

Easter

Dayt was in charge of still pictures while I was taking video...there is nothing more that needs to be said. Hope you enjoy the plethora of pictures!

The day before at my mom's Easter egg hunt he took a "few" more!
The pictures have crappy clarity - but I am not blaming THAT ONE on him.
:)

Here is one I snapped quickly so we wouldn't be late to church.
9am is hard on a holiday sunday! They sure look cute though!

The weather was kinda warming up come the end of April so Jantz and I spent one of our special Friday's together at Swan Lakes. I took him last year and he loved it, so we went again this year as soon as weather would allow. It was fun to spend Friday's with him this year, he didn't have preschool and the kids were still in school. We had some fun. I will always remember this day especially because who knows....maybe one day this will be plastered all over ESPN. :)
K - maybe not this one...keep scrolling!


On this hole - #3 Jantz scored a HOLE IN ONE!
Pretty amazing right! Keep scrolling.....

On this hole - # 6 he scored a HOLE IN ONE!
REPEAT! WOW - and this hole wasn't all that easy - he made it up onto the hill and right into the top - nice and easy.
Who can believe that a 4 year old can do that.....keep scrolling!

TRIPLE - HAT TRICK - whatever you want to call it - he did it again at HOLE # 18! I couldn't take a picture because there were people right behind us waiting - but here is the scorecard to prove it! THREE hole in ones! I guess he gets it from me????
He was a little embarrassed I think because every time he scored a hole in one I started shrieking and yelling and jumping up and down hugging him. We had so much fun!

Maybe it was beginners luck, or maybe he is the next Tiger Woods.


April update - CHECK!

MARCH MADNESS
March was crazy, although I don't have all the pictures to prove it. We started off the month with Abby's birthday. Then we had a wedding later that day and night and a late night b-day party. The next week we started off with Jantz's Star of the Week, followed by skiing and several other birthday parties. St. Patricks Day and Grandma G's birthday the following week, another wedding, some field trips and dad's and doughnuts at the school. We wrapped up the month with Kindergarten shots and registration, Rylee's baptism and started spring soccer. Whew! It was a BUSY BUSY month! Here are some pics....

Abby was pretty excited about her new bedside table, oh did I forget to mention a trip to IKEA! Gotta love it! She loved the lava lamp, the zebra phone and the i-home to play her new i-pod with. Everything you need to top a table!

She invited some friends over that night for a late night get-together.

We had some orange chicken for dinner - Ab's favorite!

Then each girl decorated their own cupcakes for dessert!

Females only, but how could I deny this cute face a cupcake....

Then we had a Spa moment

PEDI'S

and MANI'S

Opened some presents

Goofed around....all hail to the birthday queen!

And watched a girly show....The Lizzie McGuire Movie. Even though it is several years old the girls loved it and noone had seen it, so that was good! Who doesn't love Duff?

They trashed the place!

Here's Natalie trying to find her "ZEN" in all the chaos!

Later that weekend we had some family parties.
Cami and Abby share the same birthday.

If you are a first grader you gotta have Junie B Jones in your library!


Grandpa D got Abby her very own ice cream cake!! Luuucky!

More money at Grandma Macs - she asked for moolah to buy an i-pod nano

Jantz - STAR of the WEEK!
Jantz had to wait all the way until MARCH for his VIP moment - it was very very tough!! Here he is with the famous Miss Tiffany!

Then on to St. Patty's Day

Color hair GREEN - check!

Put on festive clothing - check!

Have a GREEN breakfast - check!

Eat lots of GREEN things all day - check!
Here is some of Abby's treats that she collected at school that day. Each kid picked their favorite green food to sample. Abby and several others chose green grapes. By the time she got home I was dying that she was going to eat them warm and mushy, but I didn't say anything!

Josh and his friends had some Leprechaun near misses in the field at the school. :)
What a fun day. Then we had a fab green dinner to end it...no pics unfortunately.
We like to party at the Donahoe's. It's good to be Irish!

March update - check!