What the. . .

"What is this? A picture from early April?" You might be asking yourself. Well my friends that is from this very moment in time. 6:30 on this morning, the 24th day of May. Yes also the last week of school. . . dance festival practice is today. How am I suppose to finish that up in this? Tomorrow is the actual dance festival, then on to the Lindon pool on Wed. Yes that's right folks I said the pool. {I think I'm taking my space heater and ice skates.} However this is Utah and who know by then I might be complaining that it's 104. But for now I'm going back to bed and hiding my head in the covers.

****UPDATED****

In our back yard we have a group of scrub oak which we refer to as "our forest". It is now 11:00 and our forest is crying. I even sent Mr. Magoo out with a broom to knock off some of the snow. To late. trees are bending to the point the tops are touching the ground. We have two that have snapped at the base. Good buy dear friends who have provided a magical place for my monkeys. We will miss you dearly.

Lauren Has Done it AGAIN!

Mrs. Lauren Jones Spencer has done it again! She is wonderful! We took family pix to update before my parents left. These are a few that she posted on her web pages {here & here}last night. She is truly amazing! I can't wait to see the rest.

{a few jumping pictures}

{this one made me cry. my mom and dad are the best grandparents ever! we will miss them terribly!}

So if you need family pix. Get a hold of Lauren. . . she is fab!

And They're Off!

We finished our Craft Hope Bean Bags for LOEP. We had a fabulous FHE night! McKay showed us on the globe where Liberia was, Craig briefly taught about the unrest and touch on the blood diamonds, and i taught how educating can give them more freedoms and opportunities.

{"We are tired of fighting. We want to trade our guns for pencil and paper." ~Liberian Child Soldier}

Then we were off and running.

{our photographer via the trusty phone}

The finished project!

When we were finished Josie summed it up beautifully

"My heart feels happy".

Pix from my Phone

Things that make me smile:

McKay and me on our "date night".

We had a great time at Comedy Sportz.

The kids doing PX90 Yoga with Cyd & Whit. How cute are they?!

Craig's dream. His book on the bookshelf at a national bookstore. Not only is it in our local Barns and Noble but is on the shelf in EVERY Barns and Noble across the country!

SO AWESOME!!

St. Patty's Day. Wearin' of the Green and our Green lunch.

While enjoying the a little bit of spring.

Ab's "strike a pose". In her new St. Patty's dud's. Grammie buys the kids new shirts for every fun holiday. This has been a supper fun thing for the kids, and I know it will be something that we'll all miss. This year she even gave green fingernail polish!

Kimball's shirt. It makes me laugh.

Does that Grammie know Bug-a-lugs or what!

Enjoying our tennis lessons, from the greatest coach on earth!

How funny are these kids?!

Spring Break: The boys enjoyed a football game preview with Great Grandpa Baird and the girls got glitter toes. So cute!

These two need explaining. It was cleaning day and Kimball had been in and out to ride his bike in the driveway. It was time to pick up Josie from school, so I went through the house and no Kimball looked out front, no Kimball, looked in the sandbox, no Kimball, not in the back yard. I couldn't find him anywhere. Some at this point {and myself 3 1/2 years ago} would be freaking out about now. Me no this was the 3rd time on this day! I was more bugged because I was going to be late to get Josie. Something that you just don't do. Finally I went on the hunt I knew I was going to have to take inventory of the bikes see which one he took and calculate how fast and in which direction he could have taken. Bike were all there. Great, he's on foot, that opens a lot more directions, and homes.

So as I walked to the front sidewalk,

I found him. . .

He was on the grass in front of the garage. He had decided he and I were going to play a little horse shoe. {Do you think the kid was wanting us to spend a little quality time together or what?} I don't know how he carried that heavy box out and I'm scared to even imagine how he got into the shed, into the tool box and then pulled out the mallet.

Teacher appreciation week, done!

I think the doors turned out pretty fun

& matched their personalities.

So there you have it. Some of the pix from the last little bit saved by my lifeline, my phone.

{I think it deserves a real name. . .

hum, I'll have to ponder over it.}

Tagged!

The MTC minute countdown was today! We started off with an amazingly home cooked meal of Honey Nut Cheerios. Craig took him down to Walkers and showed him the amazing world of cheap big soft drinks. The ladies there are wonderful, I'm not sure how it all happened but they ended up taking him in the back and showing him all the carbonation & drink tanks. Dude I've been going there for 8 years and haven't gotten to see that. After it was off to outfit him with some duds to handle this fabulous spring weather we are enjoying.

{new waterproof coat with zip out fleece liner. accessorized with a little reflector bling.

perfect for biking on the wet roads of Japan.}

{Kimball's photog skills at Missionary Mall}

{A real american meal! IN AND OUT!

He must have a little American in him because he loved it!}

{The absolute must for a missionary: pix in front of the MTC sign!}

{TAG + a dork dot. a dork dot is the orange dot showing everyone it's your first day! This way everyone can help you and love you. Definition given from my sister who works at the MTC. I love it, leave it to a bunch of 19 year olds who name it "dork dot" to show "love"!}

A Day in Salt Lake

We have had a wonderful day in Salt Lake with Elder Allan. We were lucky enough to meet Elder Allan in Australia while were there at Christmas. He was preparing to serve a mission. While meeting with him, he expressed his hope to be called to Japan. If he did get called to Japan he would be sent to the Provo MTC to prepare. We made plans that if he did come here we would pick him up and show him some of the Church sights. When he got his call we received an email that he had indeed been called to Tokyo Japan! How awesome! And even more awesome that mom and dad were called a few weeks later to Nagoya!

Today was the day! We picked him up from the airport and the adventure started. {I am laughing already.} One bag didn't make on a plane-somewhere. You gotta love it "somewhere". Of course it had all of his suits. The poor missionary! So after a 14 hour flight he was starving obviously we headed to a sandwich shop which once we found had been closed. Change of plans, we headed to the ZCMI Center which is no longer the ZCMI Center, to eat there. Can you tell how long it's been since I've been downtown? We did find the "food court". Found the parking garage, and headed up. Oh my goodness. If you're hungry please don't try the Phillie Cheese Steak Sandwich. YUCK! They put the nacho cheese sauce on it instead. Have you ever. Elder Allan was such a good sport. {Still laughing to myself}.

After our fabulous gourmet meal we headed to Temple Square. We stopped first at the Joseph Smith Memorial building to get a birds eye view. I am always amazed. It is simply stunning.

As we entered Temple Square two fabulous sister missionaries met up with us and took us through the North Visitor Center. The spirit is always so strong, and that last min. presentation in front of the Christus is always so powerful.

After visiting Temple Square we dashed over to Desert Book. While we were there it started to snow! It's always fun to see someone in the snow for the first time.

As we walked back to the parking garage it was CLOSED!!! Don't forget it's snowing, and now the wind is picking up. It took us about thirty min. to get into the car. Which was a tender mercy from the Lord. A lady who was visiting her husband, who was working late, needed to get something from her car. Tender Mercy!

When we got home mom, dad, whit & kat were there to teach us the 1st lesson from Preach My Gospel. Which was AWESOME! It has been an amazing weekend, with conference, a family fireside, missionary pick up, temple square, and to end the day with the first lesson was unbelievable. Mom told about the reason they will be going to Japan and leaving everyone, they love the Lord. They want others to know how they can have an eternal family as well. Elder Allan came prepared with tissues and we will need to repay him with a new pack. I was overwhelmed by the Spirit. I was touched that here sat not one missionary but three, almost four {whit}. And how Elder Allans family is feeling the same. We have had a wonderful day.

I am grateful families can be forever and not just for this lifetime. I am grateful for a living prophet Pres. Monson. I am grateful for the joy the gospel brings to our lives everyday. I am grateful that the Church is the same all around the globe, and that it helps bind us to each other. I am grateful for my Savior and sacrifice he paid for me. I know He lives and loves everyone of us.

It has been an amazing few days.

Project 7 has been launched!

I have so much I want to share and update, but I'll do that later this week. Right now I want to pass along the project 7 from Craft Hope!

This project seems pretty fun and a little bit easy. In fact I'm going to enlist my children to help for an upcoming FHE.

"This time we have partnered with the Liberia Orphan Education Project (LEOP) to provide school supplies to orphan schools in Liberia, West Africa. The LEOP started out seven years ago simply by sending crayons to Liberia and they now currently provide school supplies, teaching instructional supplies, and teacher training to these schools. The founder, Beth, sent me a sweet email asking if we could make bean bags to send to the schools. Heck ya we can!"

They are needing a specific types of bean bags. She has examples linked in the content on the post. But if any one else close by is wanting to make them as well contact me and lets ship them together! Or we can even split a set, we could even make the same set and share the fabric, anything. This is going to be a fabulous project. I'm so excited!