Allan Family

Emilee's Butterfly Birthday Party

2011-08-22T09:40:00.000-07:00

Emilee turned 10 and we celebrated with a Butterfly Birthday Party!

Lemonade in Mason Jars with straws plus flags.

Butterflies on Chinese latern.

Butterfly wands were both decor and take home present for girl guests!

Butterfly windchime

Cake balls

Lemon and lime water

Lemon pound cake

Butterfly cupcakes

Lemon pound cake and suckers in jar

Happy Birthday Banner

Take home gift's included large gummy butterflies in take out box and activity books with pencil for boy guest's

More butterfly wands made from garden decoration butterflies hot glued to dowel with ribbon

Butterfly garland

Tissue paper flower garland found at the dollar store

Emilee in her butterfly shirt that changes color in the sun!

Making butterfly craft by painting coffee filter with water colors, folding in the middle and clipping with a clothspin and finished off with pipe cleaner antennas.

Emilee having a great time at her party!

The kids blowing bubbles

Happy 10th Birthday, Emilee!

Grandma Moon

2011-05-17T18:35:00.000-07:00

My Grandma's funeral was yesterday, May 16, 2011, and I was asked to read the Eulogy and then share some special memories I have of her. It really was a great service and even though it's hard to say goodbye I know it's her time. Love you Grandma!

I thought I'd share her obituary followed by my talk.

Elva Moon 1926 ~ 2011 WOODLAND, UT - Elva Utahna Kinsey Moon, age 84, passed away at her home May 6, 2011 surrounded by her loving family. Elva was born on September 20, 1926 in Midway, Utah. She married George Douglas Moon in Santa Barbara, California on August 14, 1945. They were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple on December 17, 1963. He passed away on October 8, 2008. She was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and enjoyed her service in various callings as a Primary teacher, visiting teacher and service in the Relief Society. She loved attending and doing temple work. She enjoyed hunting and camping with her family, baking & candymaking, gardening, handiwork & crafts. She is survived by her sons Kenneth L. (Jolene) Moon, Woodland; Gary G. (Jill) Moon, Heber City; daughter-in-law Linda Moon, Heber City, a brother, Ray (Rose) Kinsey, Heber City, Utah and a sister, Betty Kinsey Guinn, American Fork. Also 14 grandchildren and 24 great-grandchildren She is preceded in death by her husband, George; a daughter, Linda E. Breeden; a son Jesse D. Moon; grandson, Robbie Breeden, and two brothers Ralph and Harold and three sisters Wanda, Eva and Della. Funeral service will be on Monday, May 16, 2011, at 12:00 noon in the Woodland LDS Ward Chapel. Friends may call at the church on Monday 10:30 a.m to 11:45 a.m. prior to the service. Interment will follow in the Woodland Cemetery under the direction of Crandall Funeral Home, Kamas

Although I’m saddened by the passing of Grandma Moon I’m grateful for all of the wonderful memories I have of her.

When we were young Jerel, Tahnie and I would go to her house several times a day. I’m grateful I was able to grow up next door to her and for all of the wonderful times we spent together.

Grandma was one of the best cooks around. Some of the best memories I have of Grandma center's around food. Every Memorial Day we would go and put flowers on the graves at the Woodland Cemetery. Afterwards extended family would gather at my Grandma’s house for an outside picnic complete with fried chicken, potato salad, and a lot of other wonderful food. It was a great family reunion we had every year.

My siblings and I all loved helping Grandma make her homemade Root Beer. All of the ingredients went into an empty glass Apple Cider jug, and was then set out in the sun for what seemed like hours and hours, but after that first sip it was worth the agonizing wait!

Every Thanksgiving Tahnie and I would wake up early and go to my Grandma’s House. We loved watching her cook. We would try and help, but I’m sure we were probably in her way more than we helped. She never made us feel that way though.

My Grandma also used to make homemade chocolates every Christmas. She would make what seemed like hundreds in all different flavors! I think during Dec. I would go to her house even more than usual just to eat those yummy chocolates!

By the time I was 11, I would spent a lot of time with Grandma looking through cookbooks and cooking magazines, like Taste of Home. We would find new recipes to make. She was always sharing great recipes with me to try. One Christmas my Grandma gave all of her Granddaughters a handwritten cookbook that contained some of her favorite recipes. She worked for months and months on those. I remember she was almost always working on them when I would go to her house during the summer. I’m so grateful to have that cookbook written in my Grandma’s own handwriting. A lot of my love of baking comes from her.

My brother, Jerel, remembers going to the mountains with Grandma to gather wild grapes, and Tahnie and I remember helping Grandma gather choke cherries so she could make them into jelly, syrup, and juice. My Dad remembers the house smelling like baking bread and he loved when my Grandma canned chili sauce.

My Grandma and Grandpa always had a good sized garden when we were growing up. Most of the time we weren’t allowed into the garden, but every once in awhile Grandma would let Tahnie and me in to help pick peas. We would then sit on the front porch and help her shell them and talk.

My Grandma didn’t spoil us with a lot of toys, besides at Christmas, but she spoiled us by giving us her love and her time and attention. No matter what she was doing she would make time for us whenever we went over to her house. I know she loved us very much. I look forward to seeing my Grandma again someday. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Family Photo Shoot

2011-02-03T07:55:00.000-08:00

Sterling's friend, Mike Hedge, came to our house to do a little photo shoot with our family. He specializes in Jump Shots!

My Family

Sterling and Aubrie's Jump Shot

Love this one! Christian looks like he has on rocket boots!

Mike, Sterling and me

Sterling jumping off our shed.

Christian

Christian, Hailee and Sterling jumping off our shed. Aren't they crazy?

Aubrie

Christian's Jump Shot

Me with Emilee and Aubrie

Another one of Sterling's Jump Shot's

My Jump Shot

My family in our yard. I love living in the country!

Fence Sitters!

This is harder than it looks!

All the ducks in a row! You can see the side of our house.

Foot Shot!

Thanks for the photo shoot Mike!

My Little Pony Party

2011-01-26T07:45:00.000-08:00

Hailee's 5th Birthday Party!

The cake

Hailee was very excited to get three new ponies!

Rock Candy Suckers

Candy Cane Sticks

Ribbon Candy

Salt Water Taffy

Jolly Rancher Candy Canes

I found Cotton Candy in just the right colors!

Happy Birthday Banner. I found the letters on Martha Stewart.

The kids LOVED filling their plates with whatever treats they wanted! Not sure their Moms loved me for that!

Pinwheel Flowers

Party Favors. It contained a nailpolish, lip gloss and ring pop.

Coloring. More pinwheel flowers in vase and flower pots.

Making beautiful "pearl" braclets. The girls loved it! They also decorated heart foam wands with Jewels. We also played Pin the Tail on The Pony. I had more games planned but we ran out of time because we also had a yummy pizza lunch!

I bought a My Little Pony calendar from the dollar store and cut it apart for the decorations. I glued two calendar pages together and hung them from the ceiling.

Happy Birthday, Hailee!!!!

This is the cheapest party I've ever done. Wanna guess how much it cost me? $20!!!!!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-29T19:39:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas this year! We started off going to a Christmas party on Christmas Eve. It was a lot of fun, though we were too late for the kids to see Santa. Luckily they didn't seem to mind one bit. We got home around 8:30 PM and let the kids open one present. They all got PJ's which is a tradition of ours. They also got a bonus present which was The Nativity Story. We hoped it would make them fall asleep quickly. Too both of our surprise they all stayed awake for the whole thing! It got over about 10:30. They did go right to bed and they fell asleep quickly! The kids woke us up at 7 AM. Not too bad.

Santa made a tunnel for the train going around our tree out of all the presents! The kids loved turning the train on first thing. They loved that they could hear it but couldn't see it!

All of the Stockings and extra presents!

Aubrie wasn't quite sure whether to believe Christian when he says that Santa isn't real. So she decided to write Santa a long note on scrap wrapping paper. She told me if he signed it then he is real. And guess what? He did if fact sign it! She was very happy!

After all the presents are opened! What a mess.

We spent Christmas Day with Sterling's family this year. When we first got there Sterling, Hailee, Christian, and David all went sledding. Well the four wheeler pulled the sled! They had a lot of fun. Then we had dinner, visited and opened presents! Then we spent the night at my Mom's. The next morning we had breakfast at my brother's (and his family) my sister and her family, my step sister and her family and my Mom and Ren. We then headed to my Dad's for lunch and more presents. We then drove all the way home and went to bed! It was a fun but very busy couple of days!

Aubrie's Barbie Party

2010-11-10T21:14:00.000-08:00

Aubrie's 7th Birthday Party!

Opening presents

Barbie Cake

Marshmallows dipped in Pink Chocolate and sprinkles

Flowers in Bloom Box

Golden Oreo's dipped in Pink Chocolate

Popcorn Cones

I made all of the treat stands and candy jars by gluing candle sticks to china plates or glass bowls!

Barbie magnets. One of the party favors.

Tulle Wreath

Party Favors. It contained a ring pop and makeup.

Coloring Barbie pictures and then we made beautiful bead bracelets.

I also painted all of the girls fingernails! It was a fun barbie party for Aubrie's Big Day!

Halloween

2010-11-10T20:15:00.000-08:00


Hailee was a girl pirate!

Emilee was a beautiful bride and Aubrie was a Geisha!

Christian was Spiderman. He has a mask that he wasn't wearing during this picture.

The kids had a great time parading around town with their school. They don't have Halloween parties but they love Trick or Treating at many of the down town businesses!

On Sat. We went to Sandy to take part in the Trunk or Treat in my brother's neighborhood. It got rained out though so we just ended up taking the kids around in the rain. I think a lot of people felt sorry for them and ended up giving them handfuls of candy. We went back to my brother's for dinner and then the kids headed out for more trick or treating. I was worried that they would hardly get any candy but they ended up with more than they've ever gotten!

Family Pictures!

2010-10-18T15:03:00.000-07:00

We all got together on Conference Weekend to get some pictures of all of us. Taking pictures with this many kids wasn't easy but they turned out pretty good!

Alice In Wonderland Party

2010-09-15T09:38:00.000-07:00

Emilee had an Alice in Wonderland party for her 9th Birthday!

They Played Croquet!

I made the croquet sticks out of a pineapple can and the cardboard insert from wrapping paper and a little paint. I also bent hangers and hot glued Alice character pictures for the half circles to hit the ball through.

This is the food table before the treats were set out. They were chocolate and would've melted in the hot sun!

Painting The Roses Red and Playing Card centerpiece. Also the Drink Me! bottles in the back ground!

The Giant Tea Cup centerpiece!

Flowers with eyes in a stack of Tea Cups and a Playing Card Guard!

Eat Me! Cupcakes

Playing Card Banner!

I wish that I got a picture of the Edible Tea Cup's we made. After they made it we filled it with some coconut ice cream and then they ate them! We also played a tea cup relay race and Toss the sugar cube into the tea cup game. It was a really fun party!

White Hill

2010-04-08T14:05:00.000-07:00

We did it! We finally closed on property! We sold our house in Oct. 2009 and have been actively searching for our dream property ever since. Our poor kids are so sick of looking for property! This was our 15th offer (including counter offers). They've all fallen through for different reasons. It's been quite the journey! Now that we have property the real work begins. It's amazing how many different permits we'll need in order to start building. Well, road, building, septic, wilderness interface, fire and on and on. To make it even harder is the fact that we want to do alternative/green building. It's always harder to get things approved when you're one of the first. We bought 90 acres and ended up putting most of the money we got from our home sale into the property. It makes our payments for the ground much lower but now we have no money for actually building our home. We have some things that will hopefully come through for that! I do realize that the journey has just begun. I have no idea how many years it will take to build but I think it will be worth it in the end!

South view from the property.

My step dad, Ren, and Hailee at a rock outcropping.

Some people from Safe Haven testing the soil.

A map of our property.

Founding members of Safe Haven! We're at the "Waterfall". Well it's a waterfall during winter and rain runoff. We plan on making this into a full time waterfall! This picture doesn't do it justice! It's so beautiful.

We plan on first putting in a minor subdivision and then later a major subdivision. Our community is named Safe Haven. We plan on having a green subdivision, community center, and wallapinis (underground green houses for year around growing). We have over 90 people interested in our project. Not all of them will move there but they want to be a part of it in some way. It's exciting that's it's finally all coming together!

Here's a link to the blog my husband is doing about building our home:
http://www.allanssustainablehome.com/2010/04/purchased-white-hills-90-acres-water.html

Guru

2010-01-31T18:28:00.000-08:00

Last night we were having dinner at Guru's (in Provo). We were with most of Sterling's family because we haven't seen each other since Thanksgiving and it's about time we all got together again. Thanks for planning it McKaylee! We always have such a great time and there's always a ton of us! I'm sure every restaurant we go to regrets having us there cuz we have so many kids and we take up sooo much room. Hey at least they get a good tip, right? Anyway I was talking to my sister-in-law and thought I caught a glimse of Milo Ventimiglia. For those of you that are Gilmore Girl fans he plays Jess.

But I was wrong it wasn't Milo it was Mark Ballas

and Derek Hough!

We both were very excited because we love Dancing With The Stars!
We decided to go over and get a picture with them and talk for a little bit! They were both very sweet and let us get a picture with them. They told us that they were doing to show at The Covey in one hour and there were still some tickets! After rearranging our schedules we headed to the Covey to get some tickets. We were happy to get some even if they were back balcony seats. It was such an amazing show! We had such a great time. After the performance we went and got another picture with them and got their autographs.

Chelsie Hightower was also there. It was so much fun to watch such amazing performers dance live.

Mark also played the guitar and he and Derek sang. Those two are entirely too talented!

We had such a great time! It was a night to remember!

Christmas!

2010-01-18T10:14:00.000-08:00

Christmas before opening all the presents! The kids actually got up at 4 AM on Christmas morning, but we were mean and made them go back to bed, "Until you see the sun out your window". They fell back to sleep at about 5 AM and got up at 7:30 AM. Much better!

We let the kids open one present on Christmas Eve and they all got PJ bottoms that I made.
We had a great Christmas morning just taking it easy. I made yummy cinnamon pull apart' s, soy sausages and orange juice. In the late afternoon we headed to my Dad's house and had an enjoyable family dinner. Christmas is so much work but it's all worth it when I watch the kids opening their presents!

Birthdays! Birthdays! Birthdays!

2010-01-18T09:36:00.000-08:00

For Christian's Birthday, on Dec. 7th, we went to Pirate Island Pizza! It's a fun place completely decorated in a Pirate theme. Even the waiters are dressed up and speak in "pirate". We got the kids 100 tokens to split up and play in the arcade with. They had a great time! Christian said it was his best birthday ever! I'm glad he thinks so since we were at Disneyland 2 years ago for his birthday!

The next day, Dec. 8th, was Hailee's 4th Birthday! We opened presents on her birthday, but had her birthday party that weekend, at my Mom's house.

Somehow I managed not to take any pictures of all the cute Strawberry Shortcake decorations. She had a great time playing games, opening presents, and eating her strawberry cupcakes!

The day after Hailee's party my friends threw me a fun 30th Birthday party!

Here's the cute center pieces! They got pictures from my Mom from growing up-present day!

They went to so much work for all of the super cute decorations and making the yummy dinner. Thanks you guys! I had so much fun and it's something I'll never forget.

Peppermintstick Holiday Frock

2009-11-28T08:45:00.000-08:00

You can enter to Win this VERY adorable dress at

http://grosgrainfabulous.blogspot.com/2009/11/peppermint-stick-holiday-frock_26.html

It fit's sizes 2-5! I'm sooo in love with this dress!!!

And you can enter to win this super chic purse at
http://grosgrainfabulous.blogspot.com/2009/11/charm-design-50-gift-card-guest.html

Trick or Treat

2009-11-25T09:24:00.000-08:00

I know I'm really late in posting about Halloween! We moved just a couple days before Halloween so things were kind of crazy! We went to my brother's neighborhood Trunk or Treat. I really love Trunk or Treats! The kids are happy with all the candy and I'm happy with how fast it is!

Christian was Captain Jack Sparrow

Emilee was Sleeping Beauty, Hailee was a Cat, and Aubrie was a Girl Pirate!

After the Trunk or Treat we headed to my Mom's house for some yummy dinner. After which we headed out for some more Trick or Treating. We had a great time and it was a really nice break from the chaos of our house and all the unpacking.

New Moon

2009-11-24T16:46:00.000-08:00

My Mom, Tahnie and I went to see New Moon at the Thursday Midnight showing! It was so much better than Twilight. I'm glad they changed directors! The special effects were better; the actors even seemed better. We had a lot of fun getting to the theater an hour and a half early. We thought we'd get great seats coming that early but no we got to sit 3rd row from the front. Which was a lot better than the front row we got to sit in for Twilight.

Before we left we had a little New Moon dinner party.

The Red Izzy drinks had labels that said, "Type A, Type B, Drink Up, I'm Thirsty" . It's hard to see in this picture, but on the right are white cupcakes that looked like they've been flicked with blood. They also have Forks stuck in each one which is holding a quote from the book. We had Italian, of course.

I also had framed quotes from the movie set around! We got home around 3:30AM, but it was all worth it! I can't wait until I see New Moon again!

Aubrie's 6th Birthday Party!

2009-11-15T09:44:00.000-08:00

Aubrie turned 6 on Nov. 6th! I can't believe how fast she's growing up! We had a Cinderella party at our house to celebrate on Nov. 7th.

I was crazy to have her party at our house since we had just moved 2 weeks before. Luckily I've done quite a few princess parties so I didn't have to do a whole lot to get this party ready. Besides unpacking hundreds of boxes that is!

It's hard to tell from this picture but there are cutouts of Jaq, Gus, a bird, the Fairy Godmother, and Prince Charming on both sides of the "red carpet". There is even a glass slipper on one of the steps.

Aubrie looked at lots of different cakes on the Internet and decided she wanted this Cinderella cake.

For Party favors I made "glass" slippers (http://www.skiptomylou.org/?s=paper+shoe+tutorial) for the girls and little blue Chinese take out boxes with Jaq on the front for the boy!

Present time!

We had dinner and then we played pin the crown on the princess, find the hidden glass slipper, and had a fishing pond. I know a fishing pond doesn't fit into the whole Cinderella theme but it was Aubrie's request that we have one. So I just printed out Cinderella clip art and added it to the fishing pond! We were also going to make bead bracelets but with 16 kids and 10 adults it was just too crazy!

Moon Family Pictures

2009-11-12T08:59:00.000-08:00

My Grandma Moon wanted family pictures with all of her kids, grandkids, and great grandkids. We took them in her front yard in early Oct. Tahnie set it all up with everyone and then she took the pictures! Didn't she do a great job?

Great Grandkids with Grandma Moon

Dad, Grandma Moon, Uncle Kenneth

Grandkids with Grandma Moon

Dad, Jill and Sadie

Jerel, Mike, and Sabrina

My Family

Grandma Moon

Thanks Tahnie they turned out great!

Halloween Treat Bags and Magazine Bows

2009-10-07T08:31:00.001-07:00

I have been busy making cute Halloween treat bags for my kids.

Up close ruffle.

It's kind of hard to see in this picture but this bag has a black tulle ruffle running down the center.

This bag has black tulle ruffles all around the black and white ribbon.

Front

Back

Now I have to buy one more black bag to make Christian one.

I made this bow out of a magazine page! I'm going to be making these for Christmas Presents!

Here's the tutorial:

http://howaboutorange.blogspot.com/2009/10/make-gift-bow-from-magazine-page.html

Ruffles and Stuff

2009-09-15T15:45:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd show a couple of projects I've been working on for the last couple of days. I found a blog that I just love called rufflesandstuff.blogspot.com She is an amazing seamstress that I hope to be like someday! I found a cute pillow on her blog that I knew I just had to make. Here's the picture from her blog:

Here's what I came up with:

I had some leftover Raw Silk from when my Mom and I made these dresses for the girls:

Last night I stayed up until 1 AM to upscale an old, yellow, long sleeved, shapeless T-Shirt I had. I love taking something I never wear and breathing new life into it. It's like getting a new shirt for free!

50th Anniversary

2009-09-11T19:15:00.000-07:00

This February my in-laws celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary! Since it was easier for everyone we decided to celebrate this summer. It's been 10 years since we've all been together and we had a wonderful time!

I was the decorator for the reception. My budget was only $250. It wasn't easy coming up with decorations for 10 tables, the cake table, the book/photo frame table, and an arch for Mom and Dad Allan to stand under on that budget! I did it though and I was happy with the results. I picked the colors yellow, black, and white. I didn't want everyone to have to go and buy new clothes and I figured everyone would have black and white and I chose yellow because it's close to the 50th anniversary color of Gold and it's fun and summery. I had more than one person tell me they didn't think the color scheme would look very good but changed their minds once they saw it and thought it turned out great!

My awesome sister, Tahnie, came and took all the pictures for free! How awesome is she? Thanks so much Tahnie!!! You're the best!

The photo frame signing table! This sort of freaked a lot of people out. They didn't want to sign a photo mat! We actually had to tell people to sign it. I even had a framed sign that said, "Please sign".

The cake. I was dissapointed how this turned out. The bakery did the damask design with a gel and stencil instead of fondant. Oh and there was a big old smear on the back that they didn't bother to fix. Because of this smear they picked up the fondant 50 on top of the cake and turned it but they didn't bother to smooth out the icing on top. On the fondant 50 they didn't kneed the gold color into the fondant and instead painted it on the 50 while it was on the cake resulting in gold paint on the yellow and streaks of white on the 50. Speaking of the yellow; it wasn't stirred in enough and there were a lot of white streaks. I went and talked to the manager who was going to talk to the decorater and get back with me. That never happened. I've been in a couple more times but never when the manager is there. So if you ever need a cake DON'T get it at Flour Girls Dough Boys in American Fork.

The Table Decorations! I made copies of their wedding picture and framed them. All the siblings got to take one home afterwards! All of the candle holders had fake tea light candles in them. It made a beautiful effect.

It was so much work. Just like doing a wedding reception. It was so worth it though to celebrate two of the neatest, caring, generous people I know!

Congrats Mom and Dad Allan! We love you!

School

2009-09-11T08:17:00.000-07:00

My kids are loving going to school. They could hardly wait to wear all of their new clothes and see their friends. I'm lucky that my kids get to ride the bus to school, because only the kids that are in the Life Skills class and their siblings get to in Eagle Mountain. I'm also loving that my kids are on B Track this year. At their school there are two different starting and ending times. A Track starts at 8:15 AM and B track starts at 9:15 AM! We get to wake up a 8 AM which is wonderful for this non morning person mother!

Aubrie was thrilled to start Kindergarten! She was sad that she had to wait a whole week past her siblings to start school though. They test the kindergartner's the first week of school. Which Aubrie wasn't able to go to because she was throwing up the day she was scheduled. Luckily she started feeling better about three days before school started so she didn't miss her first day of school! She's also very happy that her best friend, Gracie, is in her class!

Hailee also started preschool! My baby is growing up! She loves going even though she is the only girl in her class. She goes to a small in home preschool and there are only 5 kids in the class. I love it because it's more one on one time for Hailee. She goes in the morning and Aubrie is in afternoon Kindergarten. So no free time for me yet. That's ok because I now have some one on one time with Hailee and Aubrie.

Sterling was taking first day pictures and somehow didn't get a picture of Christian. It made me so sad! Christian is loving 4th grade and has a wonderful teacher. She's in her 70's and reminds me of Ms. Stacy From Anne of Green Gables!!!

Things I've Made

2009-09-10T20:00:00.000-07:00

Over the summer I've made a couple of things that I thought I'd share. First I made a purse! It's reversible and I was so proud of myself that I didn't have to undo any stitches. I did it all right the first time and a reversible bag is pretty tricky.

I also made myself a shirt by upcycling one of Sterling's size Large T-Shirts! It was a fun way to get a "new" shirt for free! I have plans for some of Sterling's other T's!!!

I also made 25 new hairbows for my girls this week!

Pony Express Days

2009-06-08T10:06:00.000-07:00

We've had a fun week at Pony Express Days. It started off on Sat. May 30th with a pancake breakfast. The kids really look forward to this and we always have a great time!

Then on Monday we went to Family Fun Night. They had booths with free games, pictures with Minnie and Mickey, and free popcorn and cotton candy! Then we got to enjoy a comedy show by Jason Hewlett. He does celebrity impersonations and he's really good at it! He performs in Las Vegas. We thought we'd get rained on but were lucky and it started raining as we were getting in our van to go home.

On Thursday we got to go to the Carnival. The kids wait all year to go to this and were thrilled to go!

The girls loved going on the boat ride!

Christian and his friend Aiden on the Ferriswheel.

Christian, Aiden, and Emilee on the Swings. Emilee was scared at first but then ended up loving this ride.

The mini Train was a big hit with the girls!

Christian and Aiden getting ready to ride the Gravitron!

On Sat. we went to the Pony Express Days Parade. It started almost an hour late, so it was a little hard to keep the kids happy, but they were so excited once it got started and they got plenty of candy. I even got a T-Shirt! It was a busy and fun week for us!

Welcome Summer!

2009-05-29T14:15:00.001-07:00

Emilee's class had an end of the year BBQ and awards ceremony yesterday. It was for the parents and siblings of the kids in the Lifeskills class. Emilee's teacher, Mrs. Cannon, is in the brown behind Emilee. The BBQ was a lot of fun!

Emilee won the award for Best Cheerleader, because she's always cheering on the other students!

To Welcome the kids home on their last day of school I painted them a, "Welcome Summer" banner! I wish this picture showed all of the banner. It has a sun on the left and a red flower on the right. They loved it and it was a great start to the summer!

10th Anniversary!

2009-05-24T21:06:00.000-07:00

Sterling and I had our 10th Wedding Anniversary on Friday, May 22, 2009! My mom was nice enough to watch the kids so we could go to The Anniversary Inn in Logan, UT.

We stayed in a super cute room called Joanie's Diner!

It had a Jukebox full of 50's music!

Here's Sterling behind the counter at the diner!

Me and Betty Boop!

Here I am in the phone booth!

I love the attention to detail in this room!

Ster and I sitting at the booth.

Me behind the counter.

Me on the cute 50's couch!

The Bed. Don't you love that bedspread?

The jetted tub with the two towels folded like kissing swans!

We had a amazing time! We went to see Angels and Demons and we both loved it. 5 stars. We both love Indian Food, so we ate at the Tandoori Oven, since our first choice was booked for a wedding. It wasn't too fancy but the food was wonderful! It was a fun and memorable 10th Anniversary!

The Eagles

2009-05-11T08:14:00.001-07:00

Saturday Sterling and I were able to go to The Eagles concert! We left the house at 4:30 PM so we could go to dinner before. We went to a restaurant we've never been before called the Indian House. I highly recommend it. It's on State St. in Sandy by the Rio Tinto stadium. We started off the meal with Deep Fried Vegetable Balls. They arrived sizzling and were served with two sauces one sweet and one more on the tart and spicy side. Both tasted wonderful and added a lot to the veggie balls. We both ordered the Vegetable Coconut Korma. I ordered mine mild and Sterling got the medium. It was a yummy coconut sauce made of onions, cashews, golden raisins, coconut cream and spices all mixed with cauliflower and carrots over rice. The spices were just right and it tasted wonderful. For Dessert we got the Peshwari Naan which is Indian bread stuffed with coconut, cashew nuts and raisins drizzled with honey. It had some different spices I couldn't identify (sage maybe?) but it was Yummy! We then headed to the Rio Tinto Stadium, found parking, and then our seats. We thought the show started at 7 PM and couldn't believe how sparse the crowd was at 10 to 7. We then took out the tickets and saw the show actually started at 8! Oops! Better to be an hour early than an hour late. So we walked around the stadium for awhile to pass time. The opening act for The Eagles was Michelle Branch! She did a great job. The Eagles took the stage at about 10 to 9 and had fans on their feet for most of the show. They did a great job and had great energy considering their age (in their 60's). Joe Walsh is an amazing guitar player. Very fun to watch. They had a huge arched screen behind them that had cool light effects and graphics and/or video. It was fun to see how many ways they used that.

This is what the screen looked like during Hotel California! They didn't allow camera's inside the stadium so I got the concert pictures off the SL Trib site!

We left during the second song, after they came back on for the encore, to beat traffic. It worked and we got out without having to wait! They performed for almost 2 hours and we got home at 11:30PM. It was a great date and even better because The Salt Lake Tribune gave us the tickets for being in a newspaper advertisement for them (see two posts below)!

50's Sock Hop

2009-04-16T09:48:00.000-07:00

Christian and Emilee's school held a 50's Sock Hop for the students and their families. They encouraged everyone to dress in 50's style. Not very many adults dressed up but Sterling and I did! I think we had more fun than the kids!

Christian and Emilee also just had Spring Pictures taken at their school. I took pictures of them before they left for school!

See You In The Funny Papers!

2009-04-13T10:45:00.000-07:00

The Salt Lake Tribune asked readers to write in about what they like about the paper. Sterling wrote a little essay and sent it off. They liked it and asked our family to come in and do a photo shoot for a SL Trib ad. It took us a little while to find the Trib offices because we thought they were by all the stores in the Gateway but nope it's one block East! It was so freezing cold that day. The girls and I were walking around in our dresses trying to hold them down because it was so windy. Once we finally made to the offices and thawed out and bit they started the photo shoot. Hailee didn't know what to think about that and she wouldn't smile. I don't think they got her to smile even once. And we were there for an hour. They must have taken a hundred photos of us! The ad was published today in the Salt Lake Tribune on page A10!

Surprise!

2009-03-27T20:39:00.000-07:00

My brother in law, Nathan, wanted to throw his wife Natalie a surprise Birthday party for her 30th B-day! I did all of the decorations. This was the fastest I've ever thrown together a party. I started on Friday and the party was on Monday! Nathan bought Rock Band for Natalie's B-Day present and so he wanted a Rock Star themed party. I couldn't find any ideas online so I had to completely come up with everything myself. I thought Leopard print and red would be a fun RockStar like theme.

Here's Natalie when she first walked in. She was completely surprised.

Here's the Buffet table. The party favors were Leopard Print Chinese take-out boxes tied with red ribbon. It had a candle from For Every Body in it.

The Rock Star banner I made.

The Paint can balloon anchor.

30 Banner!

I decoupaged Leopard paper on the bottom of the glasses and added glitter around the edges.

We all played Rock Band and had a great time. Happy 30th Natalie!

Food Storage

2009-03-08T09:40:00.000-07:00

I have been feeling a pull to get more food storage together lately. Food Storage is a good idea because you never know when you might need it. Your husband or yourself could lose their/your job, there could be an earthquake or terrorist attack that would make it impossible to get to the store. Or another Great Depression (many economist's feel it's very likely). I've been trying to think outside the box of things that should be in my food storage. We all know it's a good idea to have wheat, beans, water, and oats. What else would we need if we weren't able to make it to the store for an extended amount of time? What if we didn't have water or power?

How would we do our laundry?

I found the last American company that makes washboards.

http://www.columbuswashboard.com/

I felt it was well built and I was glad I bought one. If you never need it it makes a cute laundry room decoration.

Next on my list is a metal washtub.

I also bought a lot of the Fels-Naptha heavy duty laundry bars. It's a solid laundry soap bar. I found them at Ace Hardware.

Another important thing would be a laundry clothesline and clothespins. I found a retractable clothesline at Ace Hardware. It's called the Handi-Line. And you can get clothespins at the dollar store.

We have one 55 gallon water barrel filled up in our garage. It wouldn't last too long with 6 people so I want to get more. It is a start though.

I want to get a sure water tank ASAP. They have a 250 gallon to over 500 gallon tanks.
https://www.surewatertanks.com/

Another important thing to have is handkerchiefs. You can wash them over and over. A better idea than storing a ton of Kleenex.

Another very important thing I have in my Food Storage is glad rags. http://www.gladrags.com/

Glad Rags are washable maxi pads. You might think that sounds gross but it would be hard to store a lot of maxi pads or tampons. They come in a lot of different sizes. If you couldn't get to a store you'd be very glad you had some of these.

I also have cloth diapers stored. If you don't need them someone else will. It would make a great barter item.

What if you couldn't get to your bank or the banking system was closed down for some reason (For example the government closes it for a "bank holiday" to avoid a run on the bank)?

I plan on getting some silver coins soon. Right now it's hard to find a website that have silver or gold coins in stock. I found one after a lot of searching. http://www.apmex.com/ I feel silver coins are better than gold cuz it would be easier to trade things with silver than gold. I wouldn't store US Dollars because you never know what the value of the dollar is going to be. Gold and silver are always valuable.

Another thing I've stored is bags of hard candy. We are a nation addicted to sugar. If you don't need it it would make a great barter item.

I also keep some clothes, underwear, and shoes a few sizes ahead of what my kids are in right now. During the Great Depression not having these things for kids was a big problem.

Most every time I go grocery shopping I pick up some shampoo, conditioner, soap, deodorant, lotion and/or toothpaste for my food storage. Get the stuff on sale! These would be priceless if you couldn't make it to the store.

I store vinegar and baking soda. You can use these two things for so many cleaning jobs and also you can use it in your cooking.

I have a lot of spices in my food storage. It's a great way to spice up some boring food storage!

Another thing that is hard to store a lot of is Toilet Paper. I have some but it goes pretty fast then what do you do? I have some spray bottles stored for this purpose. You put some liquid soap in it with some water and use it to spray yourself off with.

A sun oven is a great thing is have in case there wasn't any power or gas to run your stove. http://www.energystork.com/

A solar flashlight is another great item to have. http://www.energystork.com/

I hope I don't ever need to use all of this but I feel better knowing I have it just in case. It's better to be safe than sorry! Hope this gave you some ideas about things you've never thought to have with your food storage items.

Pinewood Derby

2009-03-07T08:05:00.001-08:00

Christian participated in the Pinewood Derby with his Scout Troop on March 3, 2009. He worked so hard on his car. Here's a picture of him with his friend's and a picture of him putting his car on the track for his first race.

Christian got 7th place overall.

He won an award for most creative car!

Great Job Christian!

Valentines Day and the Daybreak Prom!

2009-02-26T11:09:00.000-08:00

On Valentines Day Sterling and I ate at The Thai House and then headed to Murray's Art Center for a night of dancing to a live band. They gave a flower to all the women and served refreshments. At intermission some dance students performed three different Salsa dances. Very fun! I'd have to say that this is one of the most fun dates Sterling and I have been on in our 10 years together! I'm sad I don't have a picture with both Sterling and me. We didn't have anyone to take our picture so you'll have to settle for a picture of just me.

Then the next Friday Sterling and I went to Daybreak's Adult Prom! It was fun and made me feel like I was in High School again! It's so fun that we were able to go dancing two weeks in a row. I hadn't been dancing for a few years before this. So it was long overdue!

Karate Kid!

2009-02-09T09:13:00.000-08:00

Christian earned his Brown Belt in Karate last Wed.! We're so proud of him. The picture is at the beginning of his test so he doesn't have his brown belt on. He has been working really hard

twice a week for four years to get to this point.

Way to go Christian!

Christian also earned his wolf and three arrow points in Cub Scouts in December!

Thanksgiving

2008-11-29T19:55:00.000-08:00

Some of Sterling's Family!

We're all trying to recover from two fun filled days spent celebrating Thanksgiving! This year we went down to Sterling's parent's on Thursday and spent the night. The kids had a blast sleeping in the loft with their cousins (from CO so they don't get to see them very often). We had a great time catching up with Sterling's sister, Celeste and her husband Kevn and kids.

Jason, Christian, and Emilee.

In the evening the older kids and Sterling made things out of Popsicle sticks and glue guns. They had a blast making bridges and houses and Sterling made a huge Turkey!

Jason and Raina

Sterling and I got up at 4 AM to hit some black Friday sales. First we went to Wal-Mart. It was pure chaos. We only had to wait in the check out line for 1 hour and 15 min. Then we went to Kohl's. I think I waited about an hour in that line also. It was crazy but I did get some killer deals so to me it was worth it!

Emilee enjoying her pumpkin pie!

Then we went back to Sterling's parents and got Thanksgiving dinner ready again. 5 of Sterling's siblings plus spouses and kids came on Friday. It was so much fun visiting with everyone! When I first married into Sterling's family gatherings like this were sort of overwhelming because I wasn't used to all the chaos and noise. I' m used to it now. It's crazy, fun and very loud! In the evening we all played Balderdash! It was great fun. I then got the kids ready for bed and we headed home. We got home at 10:30 PM and I was beat. I had been up since 4 AM and didn't get a nap. We had a great Thanksgiving and hope you all did as well!

For South Summit Alumni

2008-11-20T14:08:00.000-08:00

I was reading the Salt Lake Tribune yesterday, and came across a weekly article in which people can write recipe requests and The Tribune tries to find it, whether the recipe is from a restaurant or just a long lost favorite recipe. Someone wrote in to get the Almond Cookie Recipe from the South Summit lunch ladies. I've seriously been craving these for 10 years now! I've tried many almond cookie recipes from the internet and none of them come even close. So I was Thrilled that they got the home sized recipe from the lunch ladies! I wanted to post it here in case any of you have been craving them as much as I have!

Almond Cookie

1 Cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
2 1/3 Cups brown sugar (not packed)
2 Eggs
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 3/4 cups Flour
Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and almond extract and mix well. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cream of tartar. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture until combined. Drop by teaspoonful onto a cookie sheet. Press down. Bake 8-10 minutes. Over baking will dry them out.
Servings: 4 dozen

Enjoy!

4th Folder 4th Picture

2008-11-17T18:27:00.000-08:00

I was tagged a long time ago by Beau to go to my Fourth Folder and find my Fourth Picture and describe it. This is Emilee at the Oregon Coast when we were out there for my nieces' wedding! We had so much fun that day. After the coast we went to an Animal Rescue Shelter that rescues hurt sea animals. We got to see baby sea lions playing! It was so cute! Then we went to a local pizza place and had dinner. The next day we headed back home and drove 14 hours straight. Crazy!

I tag Tahnie

One Word Tag!

2008-11-17T09:45:00.000-08:00

One word Tag
You have to stick to one word answers! Here goes...
1. Where is your cell phone? Car
2. Where is your significant other? Computer
3. Your hair color? Brown
4. Your mother? Enlightened
5. Your father? Caring
6. Your favorite thing? Vacation
7. Your dream last night? None
:)8. Your dream/goal? Organized
9. The room you're in? Office
10. Your hobby? Crafts
11. Your fear? Alone
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Away
13. Where were you last night? Home
14. What you're not? Energized
15. One of your wish-list items? Minivan
16. Where you grew up? Utah
17. The last thing you did? Read
18. What are you wearing? Jeans
19. Your TV? Old
20. Your pet? Scared
21. Your computer? Love
22. Your mood? Sick
23. Missing someone? Yes
24. Your car? Old
25. Something you're not wearing? Perfume
26. Favorite store? Costco
27. Your summer? FUN
28. Love someone? Sterling
29. Your favorite color? Red
30. When is the last time you laughed? Today
31. Last time you cried? weeks
I TAG... Tahnie, Alayna, Alisha, Beau, Amanda

I'm A Bella!

2008-11-14T12:44:00.000-08:00

Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

Halloween!

2008-11-10T07:29:00.000-08:00

I know, I know it's been way too long since I've done a post! I've just been really, really busy! So I'm finally getting around to our Halloween post! I decided that I wanted to sew my girls authentic looking Disney Princess costumes this year. Patterns weren't to found anywhere so I finally turned to e-bay to find some out of print patterns. It was quite the ordeal winning the patterns but I finally got them about a month before Halloween. My mom and I started with Emilee's Sleeping Beauty because it looked the hardest. And it was! It took both my mom and I two hours just to cut out all of the pieces for the Sleeping Beauty costume alone. The costume is fully lined and the skirt was much harder than expected. Next we did the Belle costume and finally Jasmine. We spent days and days and many, many hours sewing side by side. I brought my sewing machine to my mom's house. I wouldn't have finished these in time if not for my mom helping me. Thanks Mom you're the best!!!!!!

Here's Emilee as Sleeping Beauty!

Aubrie As Jasmine!

Hailee as Belle!

Christian was already at the Trunk or Treat in our neighborhood with his friends by the time I got the camera out. He was Spiderman. I'll have to get him to put his costume back on so I can get a photo! I was very happy about how the girls costumes turned out and they will be wearing them next year because they were so much work!

I also did the Halloween Party for Emilee's Class. It was a lot of work but tons of fun!

This is Emilee's class.

These are the teachers and the aides for the two Life Skills classes in Emilee's school. Emilee's Teacher and Aides are on the front row and the one in the middle row on the far left. Don't they look awesome?!!

Decorating Foam Pumpkins!

Decorating Sugar Cookies!

Pin The Nose on the Pumpkin.

Fishing Pond.

I was also making Hydrobraclets with the kids but I don't have a photo.

Here's my costume!

We had a great time at our Trunk or Treat and it was a good thing my costume included an umbrella because it rained for about 20 min. while we were out Trick or Treating.

Twilight Countdown

2008-10-15T11:31:00.001-07:00

Saturday

2008-09-06T22:30:00.000-07:00

We were planning on getting together for my mom's b-day last night. An hour or so before we were suppose to be there my mom called and said she thought Ren (my stepdad) had a stoke and they were at the ER. Turns out he had something called Transient Global Amnesia. In a lot of ways it mimics a stroke and the only way they can tell it's not a stroke is by running some tests. Transient Global Amnesia is a short term memory loss (usually around 5 hours) that is usually only seen in 50-60 year olds. After about five hours Ren was just fine. I'd never heard of this condition before yesterday. Needless to say we didn't have the B-day party last night. But we did have it today. It was great to get together with my siblings and my mom. We had dinner, cake and ice cream and my mom opened her presents. I got her a really cute purse from my new favorite store. Bags That Fit.

It's located on Main Street in Lehi! Believe me it's worth the drive (if you're a purse person, which I am)!

After the B-Day party we went to Lehi Legacy Center for some swimming. Our dentist rented out the whole place so we got in for free! They had a drawing and gave away a mountain bike, i-pod, dvd player, and 42" flat screen TV. Too bad I didn't win anything. That's ok cuz we still had a blast. They also had snow cones but I'm glad the kids didn't notice because they'd already had tons of sugar with the cake and ice cream. I forgot my camera but did find this picture of the Legacy Center.

That's a huge bucket that fills up with water and dumps every few minutes. Once Hailee and I were walking right under it when it dumped. I felt so bad for Hailee that I didn't notice it was about to dump out. We were like the people in the right of the picture. So much for trying to keep my hair some what dry.

We were really tired when we got home and the kids went right to bed! It was a great way to spend a Sat.

Our Yard

2008-08-27T15:55:00.000-07:00

Our yard has slowing been going downhill ever since we moved into our house 3 1/2 years ago. When we moved here I was sure I hated gardening. I've since changed my mind! This summer we finally decided to do something about our yard.

Here are a couple of before shots. Don't you love all the weeds? It had so many thistles that the kids couldn't even play on it. Something was also wrong with the sprinklers and you had to manually turn them on (in the basement) when you wanted to water. Such a pain. I don't even have a picture of the backyard. Just imagine knee high weeds.

We hired some landscapers, to come and do all of the dirty work, and it took them about a week. They were amazingly fast!

They...

- Tour up the front and back yard

-Ripped out the old sprinklers and put new sprinklers in the front and back

-Put new wood chips in our flowerbeds

-Put a weed killer mat under all of the wood chips (I don't have any idea what the official name is?)

-Put good top soil in the front and back yard

-Put in a flower bed on the north side of the house and in the backyard

-Planted flowers and plants in the flowerbeds

-Put a drip watering system in all of my flowerbeds

-Planted two big beautiful trees in the front yard

-Laid sod in the front and back yard

-Put gravel and stepping stones on the south side of the house

-Put curbing around all my flowerbeds and the two trees

-Put in a fence with two gates in the back yard

The Front Flower Beds.

One of our Beautiful Trees!

North Flowerbed.

South side gravel.

Back flowerbed.

Our backyard!

It's so nice to have some privacy and it's wonderful to be able to contain the kids!

Twilight Movie News!

2008-08-25T20:48:00.000-07:00

I just found out some exciting news from stepheniemeyer.com!

"The good people at Summit were thrilled to let me know that now Twilight fans are going to get their movie three weeks earlier than scheduled. That's right—Twilight will be released in theaters November 21st! Let the merry-making commence!"

-Stephenie

I just had to pass on the good news!

Welcome To Forks!

2008-08-19T20:59:00.000-07:00

You need to read this post while listening to Starlight By:Muse (on my music player on the right)!!! True fans know what I'm talking about.

So I'm a HUGE Twilight Saga fan and just had to have a party to celebrate the release of Breaking Dawn. I invited some friends over for a fun Girls Night Out!

This is the entrance to the back yard where the party was held. You can't see the white Christmas lights around the "trees" and the swag but it looked awesome when it turned dark.

I had huge red, black and white tissue paper flowers hanging down from the tent ceiling. Which you can't see in this picture but it looked awesome.

These were the centerpieces!

Here is our food buffet. I also made signs of all of my favorite Twilight quotes and stuck them up all over the fence.

We had Sparkling Fruit!!

Blood Red Ice Cold Punch.

We also had Vegetarian Salad!

We finished off dinner with some Dangerous Dessert! Team Edward and Team Jacob Cupcakes.

After Dinner we Played Twilight Jeopardy. It was a lot of fun and Tahnie won by hundreds of points! I was seriously impressed. There were some hard questions in there.

These are the party favors I made for everyone. You can't really see them but in the left back are some Twilight bags and in the red Chinese take out boxes are super cute T-shirts I made. Some of them had a picture of an apple with a bite out of the side and they said,"Bite Me" the other ones had the Twilight movie poster picture on them. We had a great time talking about all the Twilight books and talking about what we thought would happen in the fourth one. I was dying to get the fourth book and didn't get it from Amazon until Tuesday-Aug.12 (It was released on Sat. Aug. 9). It was pure torture waiting for it! I loved reading the fourth book but my favorite is still Twilight, then Eclipse, Breaking Dawn and finally New Moon. If you haven't read these books you're really missing out! I CANNOT wait until Dec. 12 when Twilight the movie hits movie theaters!

High School Tag

2008-08-17T11:46:00.000-07:00

High School Tag
I saw this on Anna's blog and thought it would be a fun one to do.

1. Did you date someone from your school? Yes, Senior Year I had a pretty serious relationship.

2. What kind of car did you drive? A Grandma car. It was some kind of brown Buick. Sweet!

3. Did you pass your driver's license test on the first try? Just barely.

4. Were you a party animal? Nope, I was such a good teen! I never even snuck out of the house.

5. Were you considered a flirt? Nope

6. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? Choir; we called it Tapestry. And we went on an awesome trip to Disney World Junior year. It was the best.

7. Were you a nerd? No

8. Were you on any varsity teams? Drill Team for four years.

9. Did you get suspended/expelled? No

10. Can you still sing the fight song? Um..... nope, sorry. Maybe if I heard the music it would come rushing back to me?

11. Who were your favorite teachers? Mr. Draper and Mrs. Sylvester

12. Where did you sit during lunch? I mostly went and ate at Dick's Drive In, Summit Inn or Kamas Food Town.

13. What was your school's full name? South Summit High School

14. School mascot and colors? Wildcats and our colors were kelly green and white.

15. Did you go to Homecoming and who with? Yes, it was just a casual dance in the gym after the game. (Am I remembering this wrong? Did we have a formal homecoming dance?)

16. If you could go back and do it again, would you? No way. I have some really awesome memories. Especially from Junior and Senior year. But that was the past and I want to live now.

17. What do you remember most about graduation? Staying up all night for our senior party at the high school. It was really fun. I won a huge green bean bag. It was hilarious to try and get that thing stuffed into my grandma car! Also I remember pining for my ex and being so excited when he gave me a hug. Weird, the things we remember, huh?

18. Where did you go senior skip day? Lagoon and Karalee and I were late getting on the bus and everyone was booing at us. In our defense we really had to go to the bathroom, and it was halfway across the park.

19. Were you in any clubs? Governor's Youth Council, Future Business Leaders of America, and Future Homemakers of America

20. Have you gained some weight since then? Nope, I weigh the same as I did in HS after FOUR kids. I'm pretty proud of that fact.

21. Who was your prom date? Junior Prom-Shane Hilton (from rival school North Summit), Junior Prom (when I was a senior)-Rick Shaw, and Senior Ball-Trent Vernon.

22. Are you planning on going to your 10 year reunion? Yep, it was just this month! See a couple of posts below.

23. Did you have a job while in high school? Yes, I was a checker at Kamas Food Town for three years.

I tag Tahnie, Alisha, Alayna, Beau, and Amanda

Emilee's Birthday Party!

2008-08-17T10:23:00.000-07:00

Emilee turned 7 years old yesterday. We had a fun friends birthday party to celebrate. The theme for the party was Princess and Knight's. We had 22 kids there. It was pretty crazy but a lot of fun.

We colored pictures of Disney Princesses and Dragons while we waited for everyone to come.

We then played a few games. First we played Belle's Rose Petal Game. I put some princess stickers on the backs of loose fake rose petals. I mixed those in with lots of other rose petals and then spread them all over the back yard. The kids had to find one with a sticker on the back and bring it too me for a prize (candy bracelets for the girls and a gummy mouse for the boys). We then played pick up the rose petals!

After that we played Pass the Poison Apple!

I told the kids that Ariel had hidden treasure for them under the sea. They had to dig through the "water" (blue balloons in a kiddie pool) to find it. They really enjoyed that. Then they had fun popping all of the balloons.

Then we decorated crowns with jewels and foam stickies.

When we tried the lite the B-day candles the wind keep blowing them out so we just sang Happy Birthday and Emilee "blew" out her candles even they weren't lit. It was really cute. At least she wasn't disappointed that she didn't get to really blow out her birthday candles! After cake we opened presents and passed out gift bags. The boys got shields, helmets, and swords. The girls got a little purse like bag (I ironed a princess picture on it using t-shirt transfer paper) with a crown picture frame, pencil, and two rings.
It was a really fun party!

Here's a video of the Boy's having a sword fight.

10 Year High School Reunion

2008-08-03T13:15:00.001-07:00

Last night was my high school reunion. I'm sad that I forgot my camera though, so I don't have any pictures to post. It was held at The Homestead in Midway. I was surprised that more people didn't end up coming. The class president said that there were about 25 of us plus spouses. We had dinner and then watched a video that was made our Senior year. After our senior video we watched a slide show with pictures from all of our lives since high school.

It was fun to catch up with everyone. I actually had a better time than I thought I would. We headed home through Parley's Canyon and got stuck in awful construction traffic. It took us an hour to get from Lamb's Canyon to the mouth of Parley's Canyon. Which made it really late by the time we picked up our kids from Tahnie's house. Sorry Tahnie! And thanks for watching the kids.

Salt/Sand....What is the Difference?

2008-07-30T18:05:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, Sterling took the kids to a new park near our house, which had a large volley ball sand pit. As we were leaving, Sterling saw Aubrie head for a pile of white sand she saw on the pavement. She scooped it up into her hands, and Sterling didn't see it again until about half an hour later when they finally arrived home, and she was up on a stool in the kitchen with the lid off the salt shaker, just about to pour it in. Good thing he was there to prohibit that little act of supposed brilliance.

Memories

2008-07-12T12:59:00.000-07:00

I got this from Beau's blog! I thought it would be fun! I hope you will play along. Here are the directions:
1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you have of Sterling or I. It doesn't matter if you know us a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you.
It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about us, We'll assume you're playing the game and we'll come to your blog and do the same thing. Thanks for playing!

Fourth of July

2008-07-10T15:21:00.001-07:00

We had a fun and full fourth of July. Since Ster and the kids had just been to a parade a few days before the fourth we skipped an actual parade that morning. Which was fine by me so I'd get to sleep in a little bit! We got up and took our time getting ready and I also made some food for our potluck. We then headed to a park in Lindon to meet up with Sterling's family.

We ate lots of yummy food and the cousins had a blast playing with each other.

The sprinklers in the park turned on for about an hour while we were there. The dads,kids and Aunt Mckaylee had a great time playing frisbee, frisbee golf, chase and other games in the sprinklers! The mom's had a great time visiting.

Then a lot of people played Baseball!

The kids also had a great time playing with squirt guns and swinging on the swings.

After about five hours of playing at the park we headed home. We stopped and got pizza for dinner on the way home so I wouldn't have to cook. We bought a huge pack of fireworks from Costco and had fun watching them go off once it got dark enough. Our next door neighbors joined us which added to the fun. We then went to two different neighbors and watched their fireworks. We finally got the kids to bed around 11 PM. They didn't have a nap that day and were more than ready to call it a day!!!

A Good Day To Be On Time

2008-06-23T18:26:00.000-07:00

This morning as I was taking Christian to Karate (with all the other kids in tow), we passed a car that had been pulled over by three cops. The car was directly to our right so we had to slow down to go around the cops and car. There were three cops and one was at the driver's side door trying to open the door and he looked pretty mad like he was telling her to open her door. Right as I was driving past I looked over and saw the women turn her head and she bent down like she was getting something from between the driver and passenger seat. By the time I got to the stop light I looked back and noticed that they got the passenger door open.

A few minutes after I was at the Karate Studio I heard a ton of sirens from cop cars, fire engines, and ambulances. When Karate was over I was loading the kids in the van and noticed that life flight was flying almost directly over us. When we tried to turn left to get on Lehi Main St. it was completely blocked off so we had to take a detour. When I back on Main St. I looked in my review mirror and saw more cops, fire engines, and ambulances (and news helicopters) then I've ever seen in my whole life.

When I got home I got online to find out what had happened. It turns out that the woman shot the officer while in her car and then got out and the other two cops opened fire and killed her. The situation was "breaking news" all day in Utah.

When I drove by and saw the lady grabbing for something it did cross my mind that she could be grabbing for a gun; and because her door was locked, I didn't think she was reaching for her wallet.

I'm so very grateful that I was on time for Karate today and that we weren't around when the shooting happened. I figure that I was about 30-45 sec. away when the shooting happened. I'm trying not to dwell on what-ifs and just be grateful that I, and more importantly, my kids were out of the line of fire

Environmental Hall Of Fame

2008-06-05T10:54:00.000-07:00

Sterling is in LA today to be given (and also to present) an award from Environmental Hall Of Fame! Here's a little explanation I got from their website-

****
This event will be the inaugural ceremony to launch the Environmental Hall of Fame. The first class of 14+ individuals or environmental groups will be inducted into the Environmental Hall of Fame that day. Full time research was conducted for over one year and is ongoing. Criteria for choosing nominees included recommendations by peers, longevity in the environmental field and overall impact.
The individuals or organizations chosen as nominees have already made some of the greatest contributions to the environment. There will be awards in 12 major fields that encompass approximately 50 categories, including: Awareness, Community, Energy Efficiency, Government, International, Media, Natural Capitalism, Solar Energy, Environmental Stewardship, Sustainability, Transportation and Wind Energy. The 50 categories span the depth and breadth of environmental concerns. This year we will induct approximately 50 individuals, organizations or businesses into the Hall of Fame, generally one for each category. A book and DVD are scheduled to be published in the summer of 2008 under the name “The Environmental Hall of Fame.” Once the inductees are chosen, we will include a profile of them, their contributions and recommendations in the book and DVD, “The Environmental Hall of Fame, 2008 Edition.” This book and DVD will be released to TV, Internet and other media for broadcast and distribution. The book and DVD will also be available to the public through the Environmental Hall of Fame website.
The recognition garnered in receiving a place in the Environmental Hall of Fame is intended to be equivalent to receiving an Academy, Emmy, or Grammy Award in the entertainment industry.
****

Here's a blog with a list of this years nominees http://envirofamenominees.blogspot.com/

Sterling's organization is New Energy Congress, UT listed two after Madonna, England! Some others famous people getting nominated are Al Gore, Leonardo DeCaprio, Tom Hanks, Cameron Diaz, Jack Canfield, Robert Redford, Brad and Angelia, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bill Clinton.

I'm so proud of Sterling! He's worked really, really hard and its nice that he's finally getting recognized for it!

Congratulations Sterling! I hope you have a great time walking the GREEN carpet!!

Anniversary Trip! Part 2

2008-05-30T19:06:00.000-07:00

After our wonderful dinner at TAO we went to our room to change for Phantom of the Opera. I have really been wanting to see this for the last 12 years and was very excited to finally be going! The theater was built just for Phantom of the Opera and it's just stunning.

They don't let you take photos inside the theater so I pulled this picture off the web. I was kind of surprised that people didn't dress up a little more. I mean at the price of the tickets you think they would. There were people there in jeans though. Anyway, we had really great seats. We were in the second row and almost the middle. It's a very exciting show from the very beginning! There are four parts of the chandelier that slowly rise up from different parts of the theater. They slowly circles around above the whole audience (I could not figure out how they kept all the wires from getting crossed) before they all come together and rise up to the top of the ceiling. Here's a couple of interesting facts I found online- the Chandelier weighs 2,100 pounds and cost $4.5 million to create. The shimmering chandelier is comprised of 29,444 individual crystals that were hand strung.

At first I was very distracted by tiny rectangle microphone's that all the actors had taped to their foreheads. At first I didn't know what they were. The mic's and tape are skin colored so I'm sure you wouldn't even see it if you were farther back. Once I figured out what they were I wasn't so distracted by them anymore.

My favorite part of the play starts when Christine sings Angel of Music in her dressing room. You can see her reflected in her mirror and the Phantom appears behind the mirror. You can also see the dungeon behind the Phantom. Then Christine walks into the mirror. They then sing Phantom of the Opera while in a "boat". The floor is covered in fog and is really looks like they're in the water. While they "float" through the fog hundreds of candles pop up and eight 8 foot Candelabras. It was so breath taking that it gave me goose bumps and I think I was even holding my breath!! They have some really amazing special effects including fire works (which by the way were very blinding that close to the stage). It was one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had! If you're going to be in Vegas I'd highly recommend seeing this!

The next morning we ate breakfast at a cute little Italian cafe at the Venetian shopping center. It felt like we were sitting outside but we really weren't. We then went to our room and packed our bags, checked out, and went to the Tropicana. There we went to the Bodies exhibit. I wasn't sure if I would like this or not. It's gross and fascinating all at the same time! It's real humans that have been specially preserved and well (there's no nice way to put this) sliced up all different ways so you can see what a human body is like.

Not something I'd like done to me when I am dead but hey if the people knew what they were getting themselves into then whatever. It gives you a better understanding of your body for sure. One that was very neat was a body of just veins nothing else. I have no idea how they did that. It also had a room with babies. It's amazing how much a baby grows in just two weeks. It had babies from 1-18 weeks old. I thought the exhibit was fascinating but with Sterling's science background he definitely liked it more than I did. He's been wanting to see this ever since it was in Idaho a couple of years ago.

We then went to the Titanic exhibit also at the Tropicana. Something I've wanted to see ever since it was in SLC four years ago. Sadly they won't let you take pictures so I got some from their website.
Upon entering you're given a boarding pass with information on it about a real passenger of Titanic. At the end you get to see it you lived or died. Sterling was a rich man who traveled 3rd class (so no one would know he was rich) with a suitcase full of diamonds. I was a french actress in 2nd class traveling as the mistress of a famous videographer. I'll tell you at the end if we lived or died! They had rooms that were just like the 3rd and 1st class rooms. That was fun to see. They had all kinds of things recovered from the ocean floor like the Titanic dishes and jewelry.
One of my favorite displays was a recreation of the famous Titanic Staircase. It's so beautiful. I want this staircase and glass dome in my dream house!

My other favorite part of this exhibit was the recreation of the Titanic boat deck. You walked through a door and it's like your standing on the deck at night. There are stars, and when you look over the railing it looks like water. It's also cold with a breeze!Another fun part was the room with a huge iceberg you could touch. It was real ice!
In the last room there is a wall with all of the passengers separated by class and alive or dead. It took us quite awhile to find the names on our boarding passes. Sterling and I both died! Sad, huh?

We then went to lunch at the Go Raw Cafe. They make really amazing raw food. I had the veggiecotti and Sterling had the raw enchiladas. We were so stuffed we couldn't eat our raw cheesecake. We saved it and ate it for dinner on the drive home! We had an AMAZING time. The best part was while we were on our trip Sterling's business made more than we spent. That is the great thing about internet business. Making money while you're playing!! It was the perfect Anniversary. It doesn't get much better than that!

Anniversary Trip! Part 1

2008-05-27T09:44:00.000-07:00

Sterling and I went to Las Vegas for a short Anniversary trip on Friday and Saturday. We had such an amazing time. We'd like to thank Mom and Dad Allan for watching the kids for us! We stayed at the Venetian. It's by far the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in! The entrance (in the room) and the bathroom were marble floors. They had robes and slippers for you to use. Our room had three plasma TV's. One in front of the bed, one in the sunken living room, and the other one was in the bathroom. You could watch it while you took a shower in the all glass shower. It also had a buffet table with a marble top that lit up. It was just gorgeous!

After we got checked in and dropped off our luggage we headed over to Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. I was so excited to do this. I've wanted to do this ever since I was a little girl.

After that we went to dinner at the very hip TAO. When you walk into the restaurant there are eight (four on each side) modern, concrete bathtubs filled with water and rose petals with floating candles. The effect is very stunning. I didn't think it could get much cooler than that until we were seated across from a 25 foot Buddha!!
The food was to die for! They make some of the best Vegan Food I've ever had. We told our waitress we were Vegan and she came back with a whole list of things we could have. I've heard this is a big celebrity hang out though we didn't see anyone famous while we were there. Even if we had I doubt I would've barely noticed because it was such a fun, loud, energetic place! The service was also very good. When Sterling left the table for a minute the waitress came and folded his napkin! They even brought us steaming hot rolled napkins after we ate some messy lettuce rolls. After Sterling got back from the bathroom he told me that I HAD to go to the bathroom. I thought what can be so special about it? Well they had people that handed you paper towels and squirted lotion on your hands. How would you like that job? Also the whole back of the counter was lined with perfume, lotion, hair spray, deodorant, tums, breath mints, gum. You name it, it was there.

I'll post part 2 soon!

Happy Anniversary!

2008-05-22T21:24:00.000-07:00

Sterling and I have now been married for nine years. In some ways it feels like it has gone so fast and in other ways it feels like we've been together for a very long time! Marriage has been a journey of ups and downs, tears and laughter. I feel we've both learned a lot and grown in so many different ways. I'm grateful to Sterling for how very hard he works to support our family. I love to watch him rough house and have fun with our kids. It makes me fall in love with him all over again.

Happy Anniversary Sweetheart!

I Love You!

About Us Tag

2008-05-02T11:05:00.000-07:00

#1 FAVORITE FOOD

Cheri

Sterling

#2 MIDDLE NAMES

Cheri

Sterling

#3 FAVORITE HOLIDAY

Cheri and Sterling

#4 FAVORITE PLACE TO BE

Cheri

Sterling

#5 BAD HABIT

Cheri

Sterling

#6 COLLEGE MAJOR

Cheri

Sterling

#7 FAVORITE COLOR

Cheri

Sterling

#8 NAME OF PAST PET

Cheri

Sterling

#9 PLACE I'D LOVE TO VISIT

Cheri

Sterling

#10 AGE I'LL BE ON MY NEXT B-DAY

Cheri

Sterling

We tag Tahnie, Alisha, Amanda, and Beau.

Allan Look-alike Meter

2008-05-01T14:28:00.001-07:00

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celeb - Collage - Morph

Allan Look-alike Meter

2008-05-01T14:23:00.001-07:00

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family search - Genalogy

Allan Look-alike Meter

2008-05-01T14:18:00.001-07:00

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family search - Free family tree maker

Allan Look-alike Meter

2008-05-01T14:09:00.001-07:00

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

Celebrity Morph by MyHeritage

2008-04-30T21:34:00.001-07:00

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph - Blank family tree - Family history

Celebrity Morph by MyHeritage

2008-04-30T21:29:00.001-07:00

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity

Celebrity Morph by MyHeritage

2008-04-30T21:18:00.001-07:00

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph - Family roots - Geneology

Celebrity Morph by MyHeritage

2008-04-30T21:10:00.001-07:00

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity

Celebrity Morph by MyHeritage

2008-04-30T21:02:00.001-07:00

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities

Celebrity Morph by MyHeritage

2008-04-30T20:59:00.001-07:00

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities

The Farmer and the Deli

2008-04-15T11:31:00.001-07:00

On Saturday we took the kids to Baby Animal Days in Wellsville (by Logan). We first stopped at Jason's Deli for lunch. It was really yummy!

Emilee Riding Tinkerbell!

Hailee holding a duckling!

Hailee on the wagon ride.

Christian climbing the greased

pole!

We're going on a Treasure Hunt!

Christian and Aubrie riding ponies!

Aubrie petting a bunny!

Emilee hugging a bunny!

Christian and Aubrie holding

baby turtles!

Christian petting an iguana.

Hailee and Dad checking out a snake.

Aubrie in the Pioneer House.

Hailee trying on a Pioneer hat!

Emilee in a pioneer hat!

Emilee and Aubrie petting a calf!

Emilee wasn't thrilled about

holding a centipede.

It was quite a drive down there but it was worth it! It was a really fun day!

Alvin and The Chipmunks

2008-04-06T14:36:00.000-07:00

On Friday we went to the Alvin and The Chipmunks concert in Provo. My watch was slow so we ended up being late. The kids still had fun though.

On Saturday we spent an enjoyable day visiting with Sterling's family. Sterling's sister, Celeste, and her kids were visiting from Colorado. We all got together at Nate and Natalies' house. They had quite a house full. It was fun for the kids to get to spend time getting to know their cousins better. After our visit we went to a restaurant we've never tried before in American Fork called The Thai House. It's an old house turned into a restaurant. We love Thai food and really enjoyed eating there. Then we went and saw The Waterhorse at the dollar theater. I think Christian was the only one who really enjoyed it. O well at least it was just at the dollar theater!

Amelia Bedelia

2008-04-03T17:43:00.000-07:00

Last Friday we went on a field trip to see the play Amelia Bedelia. It was at the Scera Theater in Orem. I was excited to take the kids because these were some of my favorite books growing up! I wasn't sure if Sterling and I would enjoy it though. It actually was very cute and we all had a great time. When I asked the kids what their favorite part of the play was Christian said the "shower" part. Amelia was suppose to help throw a bridal shower but she sprayed the guests (and the audience) with a hose instead! Aubrie and Emilee liked when Amelia dressed the chicken like a little boy and danced with him. Hailee liked when she drew curtains on the wall with blue paint! They did a really fantastic job! Scera is going to be putting on Footloose and Pride and Prejudice next. I can't wait to see them both!

Cupcakes For Dinner?

2008-04-03T17:22:00.001-07:00

I made my kids cupcakes for dinner on April Fools. They were SO excited to eat cake for dinner! Of course they weren't really cupcakes! They were veggie meatloaf with dyed mashed potatoes on top! I wish I had a video camera to record their reactions! They were priceless! Emilee took a huge bite of what she thought was frosting. She didn't think too much about it until she got to the "meatloaf" part. She then gave me the funniest look like what are you feeding me? I asked Hailee if she liked her cupcakes and she said, "NO"! Christian got really mad because he thought he was going to eat cupcakes for dinner. In fact he was so mad he went to his room and wouldn't eat them. Aubrie just smiled and ate her "cupcake"! It was a fun April Fools prank!

Easter

2008-03-27T16:37:00.000-07:00

We had a busy Easter Weekend. On Friday I did the easter party for Emilee's class. We made bunny door knob hangers, had a easter egg hunt and had some yummy treats. I also had a little Easter Party for Christian, Aubrie and Hailee. On Sat. we woke up and went to the Eagle Mountain City Easter Egg Hunt. I wasn't too excited to go to this because the first year we went my kids didn't even get any candy. There were so many kids and not very much candy. This year they at least got some. Hailee got two whole eggs! Then we called the Animal Shelter to see when they closed. They told us noon. So we hurried to Lindon to pick out an Easter cat for our kids. We kept going to the front asking questions about different cats. We'd let them out one at a time to play with them and see how it reacted to four kids. When it was 10 to 12 we went up front to tell them that we picked out a cat. They then informed up that adoptions close at 11:30AM. Well that would have been nice to know at about 11:25AM! They were a bunch of teenagers that just didn't want to do all the paperwork I think. Did they think we went out of our way so we could play with the cats for fun? I was so mad! So then we had to pry our kids away from the cat and try and get them in the car. They were all thinking we were the most evil parents alive! We then called the Spanish Fork Shelter and they closed at 2 PM with adoptions closing at 1:30PM. So we headed off to Spanish Fork to a MUCH cleaner shelter. They had 60 cats to choose from. It was so hard to pick! We finally picked out an adorable black and white male cat. We are still trying to pick out a name. He won't stand still long enough for me to get a picture. As soon as I get one I'll post it! He's a sweet cat who sleeps with the kids and doesn't scratch or bite them even though Hailee sometimes pulls his tail and whiskers.

Easter morning the kids woke up early and had a fun Easter Egg Hunt around the house. Later that day we went to my mom's and had a nice Easter Dinner with the whole family. After dinner we had another Easter Egg Hunt. It was a busy and fun day!

Sweet Candy Company

2008-03-12T13:37:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went with our homeschool group on a candy factory tour. Too bad I didn't get a picture of us all in our lovely hairnets. I thought Hailee would keep trying to take it off but she did great. She only took it off one time. They had yellow lines painted on the floor that you had to stay between at all times. I felt like we were walking down the yellow brick road! They had 2500 lb bags of sugar that were hooked up to a "Sugar Pipe" which would take it to various places around the factory. They also had Chocolate and Corn Syrup pipes. It sort of felt like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory minus the little orange umpa lumpas!

My kids liked the Taffy Room the best. They roll Taffy into huge 90 lb. cylinders and then put it in a machine that rolls it out like a huge play dough snake. It's then cut and wrapped. We got to try a fresh, still warm watermelon taffy. It was incredible.

It was also fun to see how they make cinnamon bears and orange sticks.

At the end of the tour we all got a free bag of Salt Water Taffy and then we bought some other yummy stuff in their store!

Ballet West Field Trip

2008-02-26T12:14:00.000-08:00

Last wed. we went on a fun field trip with our homeschool group to Ballet West's Cinderella. Hailee and Aubrie weren't old enough to attend. I didn't know that until after I'd arranged for our homeschool group to attend. I was so sad when I found out that Aubrie couldn't go because she was the whole reason I wanted us to go on this field trip. I had also already told her that she was going. I then had to tell her she couldn't go. She took it better than I thought she would. She just said, "O.K. I'll go next year when I'm older". Sterling took Hailee and Aubrie to the Children's museum while we were at the ballet. The Capitol Theater was full of kids and teens from grades K-12. It was really noisy in there. We were so lucky and got a box seat right next to the stage. It was so much fun being that close. We could even hear their shoes squeaking. Emilee LOVED it. Christian on the other hand wanted to leave after they had been dancing for about 10 min. After the ballet Sterling and the two youngest girls picked us up and we went to lunch at Subway. We then all went back to Discovery Gateway. The kids had so much fun there.

Hailee checking out groceries.

The kids driving the farm truck.

Aubrie and Hailee playing house.

The girls putting the groceries away.

Hailee in the Tree House.

Aubrie on the horse.

Hailee, Aubrie, and Emilee driving the car.

Hailee at the Deli.

We were at the Children's Museum for a very long 6 hours. We had dinner with Sterling's family that night at Sage's Cafe (my favorite!) to celebrate my in-laws 49th Anniversary. It was great to see everyone. Wish we could have stayed and visited longer but all of the kids were done. The younger girls didn't have naps that day and to be honest mommy and daddy were exhausted too!

Tagged

2008-02-18T14:47:00.000-08:00

I was tagged by Tahnie.

What were you doing 10 years ago? My alarm would have gone off at 5:30 AM. I would have pushed the snooze button a couple of times until the last possible second and then I would have jumped out of bed, grabbed a cereal bar, scraped off my windshield and hurried to Drill Team practice. I would have been late (was I ever on time?) so I'd have to run extra laps around the gym. We would have been working really hard getting ready for Drill Team State. Half way through practice we'd get a 10 min. breakfast break and I would have headed to the caffeteria and bought a donut with white icing and walnuts for $0.75. We got ready for the day during first period. I hated those showers. You had to push the knob in or it would turn off. Then at lunch my friends and I would have headed to Dick's Drive In, Summit Inn, or Food Town. After school I would have watched about 45 min. of Oprah before going to my job at Food Town. I would have gotten off work at about 9:15 PM and then I'd head home to do my homework until midnight and then I'd go to bed just to start the whole cycle over again the next day.

5 things on my to do list today:

1.Take Christian to Karate

2. Do homeschool with Christian

3. Make dinner

4. Fold Laundry

5. Watch Ocean's 13 while folding laundry

Things I would do if I suddenly became a billionaire: I would travel around the world. Then I would build houses in Oregon (so beautiful!), Hawaii (so warm), Florida (close to DisneyWorld) and Utah (to be close to family). All of my houses would have renewable energy and be a sustainable design. I would get two new hybrid cars. I would also give yearly to charity and to inventors to help get their inventions off the ground. I would pay off my siblings/parents mortgages and car payments. I would pay for my whole family to have a yearly trip together. I would do a lot of shopping and give friends and family presents often. I would have a blast decorating all of my houses. I would hire a gardener because I love being in beautiful gardens I just don't really like to garden. I'd have a raw/vegan chef and maids that live at all my houses.

2 of my bad habits are:Procrastination and always being late. They pretty much tie into one another.

5 places I have lived:

1. Woodland, UT

2. Oakley, UT

3. Manti, UT

4. Ephraim, UT

5. Eagle Mountain, UT

Jobs I have had: I've only had three jobs in my life. Food Town (my teen years), Yardley Inn Bed and Breakfast (college), and homeschool mother!

5 things people don't know about me:

I just posted 100 Cheri Facts now I have to come up with 5 more? Hmmm......lets see.

1. I got my first ticket at 27 years old

2. I've never had a brand new car.

3. I've had a brand new house though!

4. I love using Mr. Sketch scented markers! They just smell so darn yummy!

5. I once thought my contact had slipped to the side of my eyeball. I tried for over an hour to get it out. Sterling finally drove me to an eye doctor (40 min. away) and as it turns out I didn't actually have a contact in my eye. I'd been pinching and scratching my bare eye for over an hour. Gross, I know! When I got home I finally found my lost contact stuck to my bathroom wall.

I tag Alisha, Amanda, and Beau!

Valentines Day

2008-02-15T19:22:00.000-08:00

We had a very busy Valentines Day. I thought I was going to get to sleep in seeing that Emilee's school didn't start until 11 AM (because of the crazy snowstorm we had the night before). I realized at 7:30 AM I didn't have a V-Day present for Emilee's teacher. I got up and scrounged around my craft stuff hoping to be inspired about what to make. Finally I thought of making them (teacher, two aides, and speech therapist) flower pens. I hot glued cute V-Day ribbon and buttons on some terra cotta pots and stuck the flower pens in them. They turned out really cute.

I then made some pancakes from scratch while I helped the kids decorate their V-Day bags to put all of their valentines in. After hurrying the kids through breakfast I got the girls dressed and did their hair. I then jumped in the shower and had a whole 20 minutes to get ready.

I then hurried Emilee out to the car. We pulled on the road right behind Emilee's bus which made me so happy because I was running a little behind. I took her to school that day because I was doing the Valentines party for her class. When we got two blocks from her school we got stuck in rush hour type traffic. I barely left with enough time to get her to school (if I sped) so I knew we'd be late for sure. I was so stressed! It turned out that most of the buses weren't running that day due to weather the night before. Which ment that some 600 students were being dropped off at school. At least hundreds of others were late right along with me and I could just blame the traffic! When we finally got to school we were 20 minutes late. It took me half an hour to get somewhere 10 min. away! I then hurried (do you notice a theme for the day?) and set up the party. First we decorated sugar cookies then we did a treasure hunt. They then exchanged Valentines and it was time to go home. Yes, they went to school that day for one hour just to have a party! Emilee and I went home to eat lunch (that my honey was sweet enough to make).

Then we left (all six of us) to go to Utah Counties Homeschool Valentines Party ( I homeschool Christian and Aubrie). It was at Classic Skating this year. We had close to 200 hundred people there this year! None of the kids had ever been skating before. Classic skating allows strollers on the rink so I planned on just holding on to that seeing I don't know how to actually skate. Yeah, I couldn't even get the (double) stroller to move. It was so sad. I then went and took off my skates and just pushed the stroller while Christian hung on to the side. Sterling would take one kid at a time and skate around with them. If you're wondering if I felt like a complete dork walking around a skating rink the answer is Yes!!! It was better than just standing with my stroller going nowhere though! Poor Emilee was so scared. She would stick both feet out in front of her and she was as stiff as a board (while Sterling held her under her arms and pushed her around the rink). Then all of the kids wanted there skates off. They had their fill (after something like 15 min.). We spent more time getting their skates on and taking their skates off then they actually spent skating. We then went and got snacks from the three tables of food. After that we did the Valentine exchange. We had to leave early so I was glad we were there for the Valentine exchange part of the party. We got home 15 min. before my mom was due to come and baby-sit our kids. I tried cleaning up the huge mess on the kitchen table from the flower pen project. I was torn should I get ready (seeing I'd only had 20 min. to shower and get ready that morning) or should I clean up the craft and lunch mess seeing my mom was coming? I decided to split my time in half and do both. Great plan right? After my cleaning time was up I went to our bathroom and guess what? It was locked. Sterling was in there AHHH!!! I was trying to get him to hurry up but by the time he got out I had 2 min. Which equals some powder and lipstick. I wanted to look better for our V-Day date but we had to leave then. We had bought some theater tickets which were non refundable.

We ran into some rush hour traffic (what was it with traffic that day). We did barely make it to our seats before the show started. Speaking of shows why is that people feel the need to text during a movie? Do they think nobody notices the really bright screen in a pitch black theater? Or do they honestly think that nobody can hear the click, click, click. Is a movie in itself not entertaining enough? If you're wondering, Yes, the person sitting right next to me was texting threw out the whole darn movie. Was she texting someone the whole movie dialog? Soooo Annoying!! My new pet peeve. The movie was cute at least. We saw Definitely, Maybe. Sterling really didn't want to see it but he let me pick cuz V-Day is "my" day! So I made sure I picked a total chickflick! Was that mean of me? Sterling was surprised that he actually liked it! After the movie we went to Yapona-a new Japanese restaurant in American Fork. We had a really long wait of 45 min. of standing room only. When we finally got to sit on the only bench in the waiting room the little kid next to us was loudly telling his mommy that we were crowding him and he wanted us to move (I think I had a whole two inches of bench). Luckily we were seated far from this family! It wasn't so bad though (the waiting) cuz we enjoyed visiting with each other (uninterrupted) for 45 min!!! That NEVER happens. Even if I was practically falling off the bench! The food was yummy and we had a great time! We then headed home and watched the last half of Serendipity with my mom. I LOVE that show! After my mom left Sterling and I exchanged presents. I got Sterling three shirts and he gave me the most beautiful necklace made by our friend-Karen(http://www.oceandreamersjewelry.com/). It was a very busy day but it was tons of fun!