Kangaroo Zoo with the cousins!

On Saturday, we enjoyed a super fun day with our cousins!  We met up with Papa Bear, Gma Karen, Uncle Jerid, and his three youngest kids in Utah County.  We first had lunch at Carl's Jr. then headed off for some jumpin' around at Kangaroo Zoo in Pleasant Grove.  The kids LOVED it!  It was a great way to spend the afternoon.  We enjoyed visiting with the grandparents and the kids get along so well with their cousins!  Here are some fun pictures of our day!

We finished the afternoon off with some frosty's at Wendy's.  It was so yummy!  Thanks to Gma & Papa for such a fun afternoon!  We can't wait to do it again soon!

Thirty One

On Thursday I turned Thirty One.  I am now IN my thirties....crazy!  I enjoyed going out to lunch with two of my really good friends Jen and Jana.  We enjoyed eating at Paradise Bakery and especially liked the cookie that comes with your lunch part!  It was fun to spend time without any kids and just chatting!  For dinner that night we went to Apollo Burger.  It was nice to NOT have to make or clean up dinner and I was really wanting some fries and fry sauce!  The kids enjoyed it....other than the part when Carson dumped Aj Jus all over his lap.  Oh, well.  Life happens, right?!  

 Overall it was a pretty simple day, but it was fun to spend it with my family!!  On Friday, we got together with my Mom (My dad was working in California) and Matt's cute family and celebrated with a lasagna dinner and some yummy pudding cake!  It was a great evening!

Isn't Gracie so cute!!! 

After dinner, my mom watched our kids while Nick and I went to a play at the Off Broadway Theater in SLC.  We saw "Gleek School Musical".  Which is a play making fun of Glee and High School Musical. It was pretty good!  We used to always go to the OBT before we had kids and always enjoyed it, so it was fun to go back!  It was a fun way to end my Birthday Celebration!  Here is to another fun year of getting old!

Can you say...CHEESE??

Last week Natalie called me and told me she found a great deal on cheese at Macy's.  2 lbs for only $3.99!!!  So I told her to buy me a bunch!  We got three kids, colby jack, cheddar, and mozzarella.  We spent Wednesday night shredding it all up so we could freeze it.  The kids were excited to help!   

By the time we were done, we had 34 bags of cheese and a messy messy floor and kitchen!  But it was fun and now we are set for at least another 6 months in our cheese supply!  Yum!

Happy 100th Birthday Oreo!

We have been having a pretty low key week.  When we get bored we do a lot of baking and cooking, which means a lot of eating!  We made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies on Saturday and we all enjoyed them, including Livy.  She wouldn't smile for a picture, but believe me she was enjoying every bit of that cookie!

I think Carson has been getting up too early in the mornings.  It tempts me to put him to bed later than our normal 8 PM, but I don't think I can give that up, so if that means, he needs to take a nap once in awhile, I guess it will have to work.  This was him Saturday afternoon.  Not even a school day!!!  But he is up usually between 6 and 7 every morning.  So it makes for a long day!

After dinner last night, Kaylee offered to help me with the dishes.  I think she spent about 20 minutes on the same cup.  Go figure. :)

 Then while Nick was at scouts last night, we enjoyed Oreos for dessert.  We normally don't buy oreos, simply because it is very hard to stick to just eating a few, but since it WAS the Oreo's 100th Birthday, we just had to celebrate!  The kids didn't seem to mind!

Okay, and I didn't mind eating a few myself!  I think if I could only eat one food on this earth...it would be Oreos.  Double Stuf, of course.  Or Thin mints.....or Peanut M&M's.....I may have to get back to you on that!

Sunday Evening....

Here it is Sunday evening...and so I am trying to catch up on my blogging.  I don't have any pictures for this post, but I just wanted to write this down so I could remember our day today.  It was a typical rush this morning to get to church at 9 AM, but we made it in time.  Every week, they get the program handout and they like me to read the names of the upcoming Birthdays.  This week my name was on the program since my birthday is this Thursday, and they picked out my name without my help, it was cute.  Once the testimony meeting started, Carson came over to me and asked if we could practice his testimony so he could do it next time, and so I said we could. (Now, we have practiced and talked about it before at FHE in the past, and many times I have heard both Carson and Kaylee say their testimony while playing 'church' downstairs, using my treadmill as the podium, so this isn't totally new to him).  A few minutes later, he came over to me and asked if he could go up and bare his testimony.  I told him he could, and he asked what he should say.  I told him that is up to him and that a testimony is what he believes.  So he bravely went up to the podium and said "I want to share my testimony, I know this church is true....and I know we have great prophets on the earth today.  I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen".  It was short but so awesome!!  I was so proud of my little 6 year old who I sometimes things knows way more than he should and feels so much more than I could imagine he could.  I love to hear him pray at night and the things he prays for.  It is sweet and he just melts my heart.  When he got back to the bench, he came over and hugged me and told me what he said and told me that he kinda got nervous when he got up there and saw all those people.  I just smiled and told him I was so proud of him. After church, he told me he wants to do it again next time.  Him baring his testimony made me so happy and I also had to share my testimony with our ward.  I feel so blessed to be a mom and to  have such wonderful children.  They are far from perfect and they try my patience every day, but I adore them and I am so grateful for them and the things they teach me.

After Sacrament, I went to Jr Primary to help Kaylee give a talk about "Living prophets help us choose the right".  She did a great job.  Then I headed super fast over to Sunday school, where I was asked to give the finance lesson for the Marriage and Family Relations class.  Then I went back to Sr. Primary to play the piano.  It was a busy church day, but it was just what I needed.

After church we had lunch, Nick and Livy took a nap, and the kids played with toys and I watched the final episode, season 2, of my new favorite show "Downton Abbey".  It is a PBS masterpiece classic show and I can't wait for season 3 to start soon!  Then we headed to Ogden to have dinner with Matt & Natalie's family.  They made a yummy turkey dinner....and it was SOOOO good.  We enjoyed visiting with them, and now we are home, the kids are in bed, Nick is already asleep and I have been trying to get caught up on the blog and sending out emails to my family for the week, including Elder Brower, who comes home in less than 4 months!  We can't wait!  I love Sundays....and I am sad when they are over.  But another week...and this week is my birthday....so it should be fun!

Art Night

Thursday Night, the elementary held an Art Night for everyone to attend.  There would be a display of all the kids' artwork and some art activities for the kids to do.  I stayed home with Alivia, she was a bit fussy and I was tired, so Nick took the two older kids.  They got to see a few of Carson's art work in his class room and also hanging in the hall.  

 Then they got to make a few art projects.  They used a straw for one creation then made another creation by melting crayons.  They really enjoyed the evening!

It is fun that the school does fun activities like this throughout the year.  It is great for the kids and for the families too.

Natural History Museum Field Trip

On Thursday, the 1st, Carson's first grade class went on a field trip to the Natural History Museum up at the U.  Nick was able to take the day off and go as a chaperone.  I heard they had a great time!  Nick had four kids in his group, Carson, Connor (Carson's good friend), Natalie, and Avery.  Here are some pictures from the trip.

Carson was so excited to tell me all about it when he got home.  I was glad Nick took some pictures so I could see how fun it was.  

Drawing Fun!

We had a really fun FHE Monday.  We sang Nephi's Courage, read out of 2 Nephi, learned the 4 Article of Faith, and then played pictionary for our activity.  The kids absolutely loved it!  It was girls vs. boys and the kids did all the drawing for us.  I wrote down a whole bunch of simple objects on pieces of paper and then they took turns drawing them.  I was impressed how well they could draw for their age.  Some were easier than others, but the kids would get so excited when we would guess them right.  I have it on video and it is so funny to watch!  The first picture is Kaylee's version of "The Book of Mormon"....the Carson drew a backpack.  Then I think the last picture is of Kaylee drawing "Alivia".  

We played it once, then they begged to play again, so I came up with some more items and we played another round of the game.  The next night, while Nick was at scouts, the kids asked if we could play it again, so we did.  It was a great way to spend our evening!

Library Field Trip

I am so behind on blogging, but it's only because we have been so busy!!  We haven't done anything major exciting around our house, but we have stayed plenty busy with work and lots of school activities.  Last Thursday, Kaylee had a field trip for her preschool.  They went to the library.  We got a fun tour of the different books they had and even got to see how the book drop worked.  That was a cool thing to see!  Then we stayed for storytime!  Kaylee had a blast!

They read a whole bunch of books written by Mem Fox.  After storytime we picked out some books to check out and take home with us.  It was such a fun day, that this past Wednesday, we went to storytime and got even more books to take home.  They did stories about pigs, it was cute!  Then on Saturday, I took Carson and Kaylee to the library to get more books.  Carson loves reading new books and I think this will be a weekly thing from now on since I realize how much my kids love the library.  I used to go to the library all the time when they were smaller, but we just got out of the habit.  But with Carson now reading it makes it so much fun to go!