Valentine's Day-The Rest of the Story

The Food:

Salad Demaison, Asparagus, Chicken Pillows-shaped into hearts, Sparkling Cider and Heart Shaped Fruit Pizza! It was so yummy and pretty too.

The Decorations: Heart Confetti, Curled Ribbon, and Pink, Red & White Candy Corns all complete with our Best Dishes and Candlelight

And the most important part: our family!

We all dressed in our very best. I even did the girls' hair all fancy.

Check out their hands in this photo-so funny!

And the best part: The Dancing!

Thanks Mindi for the fabulous idea!!

Valentine's Day for the Whole Fam

So we decided to make Valentine's Day a family affair. We had these invites for the kids to open this morning for our fancy rendezvous tonight. It's gonna be fun! I also gave them 3 coupons each for one free chore completed by mom or dad. They were really excited about that. I think more excited than for the partay tonight.

10 Years Old

So we have these insanely cheap passes to Trafalga and Seven Peaks. We definitely want to make the most of them. So on Ethan's birthday we took the kids there. Even though everyone in Utah county has bought these passes and it's pretty crowded there, we had a really great time! We went rock climbing, mini golfing, played laser tag and rode some rides.

Check out the pure joy on Canon's face.

Happy Birthday my sweet sweet boy!

Christmas Morning

A Good Christmas!

It always is. I especially loved this one. I was so impressed with the slow laid back pace. After looking through the stockings we fixed breakfast, ate breakfast and then cleaned up breakfast! And then finally got back to it. There was no wining or impatient waiting. They seemed just as happy as we were to take it slow. I mean, is that normal? Does that just happen when they get older? Still, they're all under 10. Not quite the age of maturity.
I love how impatient they get while we take pictures. Here they are waiting at the top of the stairs. I guess this is where they got all their impatient waiting out. We had to take several pictures while waiting for Canon to stop crying. They loved that! This was the best we could do:
Taking turns coming down the stairs to look for stockings.
I love this picture!
Let the frenzy begin!
Sing-a-ma-jigs! These are HILARIOUS! Canon and the girls got these in their stockings and they spent forever just playing with them, not caring when they got to the gift opening.

When Canon got this Logan was a little confused because he had one (that had been run over twice and is no longer usable) and he thought we were giving Canon his. He was a little sad about it until he opened this:
Trust me, he was thrilled.


Jocelyn wanted a Go-Go pet dog. I wanted to get her Heelys (knowing Jocely's love for thrilling adventure). We both got what we wanted. --Grandma Hansbrow got her the dog. Later I asked her, when she was rolling all around the kitchen, what her favorite gift was. You betcha, mother knows best!

Ryen wanted school supplies. I found these great lapboards online at Tag Toys. They are chalkboards on one side and dry erase on the other and the quality is amazing. She of course loved them.
I was the most surprised by her Christmas morning. When we teased her that we took her present back and that she doesn't get a present from mom and dad she took it literally and wonderfully. It was weird! She just sat back and said, "Okay." It was so sweet! You could tell that she was a little disappointed but her response was so mature. I don't think we would have teased her like that if we knew she was going to think we were serious. Mean parents!

This gift was kind of a family/Ethan gift. But Ethan wanted the PS3 in a bad way. Not because he knew all the possiblities a Playstatin could hold but so he could play a video game called Split Second. Yep, the game was his gift from Santa. That would've been a bummer: the PS3 but no game. We're not that mean.

Ethan hugged and kissed his present. His reaction was priceless.
We must not tease very much because he believed us too when Brian said, "Oh no, he's going to know what it is, I just heard it bark." Ethan paused and then carefully unwrapped the present. So funny that he believed it. I wouldn't even buy Jocelyn a pretend dog.

July Top Ten (Top Eight)

8- Ethan was telling Brian how he knew that Mom and Dad are really the Easter Bunny. When Brian asked him about Santa Ethan said that he was real. Then Brian asked him about the tooth fairy. His response, “I’m still working on that.”

7- Logan hates getting stuff stuck in his teeth. When he does he cries and tells me his tongue hurts. It took me the longest time to realize that it wasn’t his tongue that hurt. It was that he couldn’t get that darn food out of his teeth.

6- The kids were crying when we told them we sold our house and were moving. They were so upset. I felt bad and quietly suggested to Brian that we do something fun to cheer them up (I was thinking rent a movie or eat some ice cream). Ryen heard me and being the opportunist that she is she decided to milk this for what it was worth. Pretty soon she and Ethan were trying to get expensive stuff out of us. Ryen wanted to go to the movie theatre and Ethan wanted us to buy him a $20 bionicle.

5- Ryen told Logan the he was a bad boy. I told her that she shouldn’t tell people that. Then Logan said, “Yeah that’s a bad word.”

4- Ethan said to Brian, “Dad, don’t you dare make Mom mad. She’s gonna bust you.”

3- Brian pointed out a homeless man on the side of the road. To which Jocelyn responded, “He gots to find a home that nobody lives in. He can live in our home.”

2- At dinner time Brian was talking about nothing in particular. Logan told him, “You’re talking like a man.” We laughed and Brian said, “I am a man.” “You’re a tall man,” Logan responded.

1- At Wal-Mart Jocelyn wandered off as she frequently does. I grabbed her and asked her, “What did I say about staying by me?” “Uh,” she said concentrating. “Stay by you forever?”
Sure that’ll work.

Baptism Day

January 31, 2009

It was a special day for us and for Ethan! Ethan chose Aunt Erica to play piano and Aunt Jamie to give a talk on Baptism and his sisters and some cousins (the girl ones) to sing "When Jesus Christ was Baptized."

Logan kept asking if he could go in the water. We kept telling him he could when he was eight! He doesn't know how long that is but I'm sure he knew what it meant; "It's gonna be a while." ...He just had a minor tantrum.

I Love To See The Temple

Sorry for all the wordy posts. But here's another one.

I really took a lot from this last Stake Conference. I really needed to learn these things about the temple. My testimony has increased tremendously from what I’ve learned here and from taking President Duffin’s challenge to redouble our efforts. I’m posting this strictly for personal use but anyone is welcome to read. Obviously it is extremely condensed.


Sister Anderson-

The temple is a place to offer our selves, to sacrifice and commune with God.

If ever you have a vexing problem go to the temple. What is not solvable becomes solvable.


Merril J Bateman-

God comes to meet with His children in the temple.

Those who have temple recommends don’t usually need to see bishop. They go to the temple and get help to work things out.

Worship and work has same root. Everyone at the temple serves. Happiness and joy-that’s what work does. The temple helps you become self reliant.

He told a story of a severely handicap woman who finally had the chance to go to the temple. She was overjoyed because her whole life people had served her. For the first time, because of the temple, she could serve others.


President Duffin-

Set specific goals. Do not let anything get in the way. Be like the people who need to travel and plan to get to the temple.

What’s an acceptable offering in temple worship? Is it occasionally rushing in?

The Lord is sending a message. I feel strongly that we need to increase our temple attendance. The Lord may be preparing us for a day when a temple will be in our midst.

Satan will unleash every scheme, evil violation… Evil night darkens-we must come to the temple for safety and light. Membership in the church is not enough.

Vicarious service of the dead=most selfless service. Every time you come to the temple you will leave a better person guaranteed! We need to redouble our efforts.