12 years is not long enough

Happy 12 year anniversary to my very best friend.  I love you John!

My new kitchen!

After 6 (too many) years of the horrid white tile on my kitchen countertops and climbing up my wall, I had them replaced.  I added the copper-color  back splash, which took only a few hours to do.  The kitchen gives me the same feel as the cabin, which was not pre-determined!  I love the sink and the faucet.  It's nice to have new things.  Ultimately, I'd like to redo the WHOLE kitchen (cabinets and floor) and blow out the back of the house.  This will buy me some time until I can do just that

I am glad to finally be excited to make breadsticks and sugar cookies--I won't have the daunting task of cleaning the tile and grout from the dough once I am done.

During:

After:

Don't pay too much attention to the nasty chair coverings.  I have some cute new fabric to recover them...it's just getting to it!  It'll pull some new color into the scheme, as well.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss

I am a total dork, but I thought I would start to put more effort into being a good mom.  So much of my days consist of Relief Society activity preparations, helping in classrooms, running errands, girls night out, etc.  I found on a blog an idea to let the kids take a Dr. Seuss cold lunch to school.  It ended up being really fun and I think that Logan got a kick out of it.  I really just want to let my kids know I much I love them, and how much they mean to me!  Hopefully little things like this might help them remember.  As we were making the lunches, Logan was so excited and she said, "I am totally going to do this for my kids when I grow up!"  That made me smile.

John is so good, too, to let me spend the money on these projects.  He laughs and says to me:  "Nerd Alert."  I'm okay with that.  I am a nerd...I totally admit it.

Yes, I decorated the cards and laminated them, too!  I love my laminating machine, I use it all the time.

To top it all off, we braved taking Jensyn, Madden, and Jack to the school to eat with Logan today.  They loved it.

My Relief Society Lesson

" If we will always look for the best in others, in our friends, in our neighbors, in our wife, in our husband, in our children, they will turn out to be the most wonderful people in the world. On the other hand, if we are looking for their weaknesses and faults and enlarge upon them, these same people may become even despicable." (Improvement Era, June 1967, p. 29.)   
~N. Eldon Tanner

Happy Birthday, Jensyn-Bird

What a fun weekend it was for you!  We kicked off your birthday weekend with a friend party over at Young Chef's Academy.  The owners were awesome and so accommodating! The kids loved every second of it--and so did I since I didn't have to do much.  She invited 6 friends from school, Logan and Jack, and cousins Boston and Grace.  Jack was also excited when Kit got to come and stay.  They are quite the buddies these days.  Saturday, I braved taking the (all) the kiddos to the mall.  They were SO good and it was fun to be out with them.  I cannot believe that 6 years has passed since I had sweet Jensyn.  She is a tall girl!  She continues to grow that yellow hair, which makes me wonder which mold she came from!  She is still my sunshine.  Happy Birthday Jensyn.  We love you so much!

Jensyn, Boston, Madden, Jack, and Chelsey

The favors.  

Madden

Logan

The party in action

Jack

Brothers

Jack and Kit

The Birthday Girl!

Ice Parties

One of Madden's favorite activities is an 'Ice Party' with Logan and Jensyn.  Logan came up with the name and Madden is all-attention when Logan talks about it.  Here's the drill:  Logan gets a large cup of crushed ice from the freezer.  She then sits with the Mister and feeds him small pieces of ice.  HE LOVES IT!!  Tonight, we had the awesome pleasure of tending cute Hogan and Hudsen.  Hudsen was a little miffed for 10 minutes after mom and dad left.  Not much would console her.  Logan asked if she wanted to have an ice party, and she perked right up!  Seriously.  Logan sat her on the floor in the hallway and gave her some soft crushed ice from Cafe Rio.  It totally worked!  She loved it.  The whole rest of the night all you would have to say is 'Ice Party' and Hudsen looked around for Logan and the ice.  It was hilarious.  We had so much fun with them tonight!

Betty, the Dog

Have I gone crazy?  What in the heck was I thinking when I searched KSL looking for a dog?  What was I thinking when I found the cutest little puppy that reminded me so much of Baxter?  I remember thinking that I couldn't pick her up from her Orem house quick enough.  I had to 'sleep on it' and then wake up, take the kids to school, and drive that drive to Orem.  She has had lots of accidents in the house, is rambunctious, and fights with Madden like brother/sister.  Jack's latest game with her, which he taught her, is to jump from one leather couch to the coffee table and across to the other couch...all in the living room.  I am not sure what to think still, I was extremely content with not having a dog, but I was completely possessed for a period.  I am now back to my rational ways, but realizing now that I have to stick with it because my family absolutely LOVES her!