Some more pictures from Temple Square (and my last post today I promise)

Young Women's General Confrence

The young women in my ward met me in Utah on Friday night. We spent the night at Nate's parents house. It was so fun. We played games and If laughed so hard that I got in trouble with Nate. Nate wasn't feeling very well and he thought that we were up too late (11:40, which I thought was still pretty early considering I had 9 girls under 17 there). We all got up pretty early got ready and headed over to my parent's house to have breakfast. My parents made us pancakes (with an option of nuts, jelly beans, and gummy bears to go inside), sausage, and eggs. It was yummy. Then we headed up to SLC. We got up there around 11:15 and our first stop was the visitor center. We only had a few minutes to walk around there.

Then we headed over to the tabernacle. They had a sound test where they ripped up paper and dropped straight pens and nails onto the floor. It was awesome to hear that because it was like I was standing right there.

If you look closely you can see a face carved into the woodwork. The tabernacle was so much smaller then I thought that it was. It looks so much bigger on tv.

This is the old assembly hall on temple square.

Then we went to the Art and History museum. That was fun to look around too. It had some cool stuff that came from the pioneers.

Everyone got to participate in the Nativity in the I am a Child of God exhibit.

Isn't this stained glass so beautiful. The detail was amazing

This is a cabin built like a cabin was back then. After we went to the art museum we went to eat lunch at The Gardens on the top of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. Then we went to the Beehive house which is were Brigham Young lived and conducted business. After that we had to rush over to the conference center

Our last stop in our SLC trip was to go to YWGC. It was so amazing to be in the same room as a prophet. I really enjoyed all of the people that spoke and I got to learn a lot of new things. I am so glad that I got to go with the YW to SLC. I had a blast and got to know the girls so much better.

Spring break? More like winter break.

The majority of the time I spent in Utah it was cold, gloomy and either raining or snowing. What a great spring break. It was pretty but it was cold and wet and nasty and well cold.

Craft Day with Mom and Joy

My mom decided that instead of spending the day shopping we should spend a day crafting. It was so much fun to just sit around visiting and crafting. We made this Halloween decoration.

And this Easter craft. They both turned out soooo cute. It was so fun too.

Otis' first trip back to Utah

Once again all of my pictures are out of order. I was curious to see how Otis was going to react to being back with his mom Roxy and aunt Ash. They were all so funny together. It was like Otis never left Ash. He bit on her ears and jumped all over her like he did when they were together. Roxy wasn't fond of having Otis around. She would run away from him. Of course I would too if Otis was running around me trying to nurse. Joy gave the dog's peanut butter and some of it was stuck on Otis nose so Ash helped get it off
eww isn't her tongue long and yucky!!!

Otis with the peanut butter on his nose

Otis loved the tread mill. It took him a little while to get used to it. But he had to work off that peanut butter some how.

Hanging out with friends

On Tuesday I took Meagan and Rocky out to lunch for their birthday's. We went to Red Robin. I had a great time hanging out with Meagan and Rocky. I wish that I could live in Utah so I don't have to miss so many things.

I also got to see my friend Mindy while I was there. She is so nice. She drove down from Salt Lake City to come and see me and I only got to see her for 30 minutes.

Dog rides - $1.00

Sunday night I spent the night at my sister's house with Ella and Nichole. We had a great time. We played the wii and ate yummy peach pie. The next day I got to hang out with my sister all day long. We went to the mall, Old Navy, and Goodwood BBQ. After all of that shopping we went to Joy's house to hang out for a little bit. While there Ella finally got to ride Ash. She has been trying to ride Ash for about a year now. After that every time we went to Joy's house she would ride Ash around.

The video is a little slow going sorry.

Tyler who hates shopping was lucky enough to go to work with Grandpa. I wish that I would of been able to get a picture of him helping Grandpa at work it just didn't happen. He got to go to lunch with Grandpa. He loves it when he gets to go to work with Grandpa. He cheered when I told him he got to go.

Some Catching up to do

The Elder's Quorum went up to a cabin a couple of weekends ago and spent the night with their families up there. It was a lot of fun. I was surprised to see that there was still a ton of snow up there. When we got there we let the kids run around outside and explore. We brought up our dog and let her play outside too. The roof at the back of the house is level with the ground. Pretzel got super excited and went running onto the roof and jumped off of it and fell the story down unto the ground. She whined and whined but got over it pretty quickly. We has some great food up there too. The next morning we all just lounged around the house. The adults played fooze ball and ping pong both of which I had only played one time. I didn't do as well as I had hoped but had a lot of fun playing anyway.

waiting oh so patiently for dessert

This is part of the bottom level. There is a kitchen, family room, dining room, bedroom and bathroom down there.

Tyler is waiting for his turn on the wii

Anna playing with Kendra

The cabin was 3 stories tall. This is the very top story. It is like a loft with 6 beds up there.

Nate was so nice and took the kids outside to play. Notice that he is outside in the snow with shorts and a short sleeve shirt.

Utah here I come

Nate and I had planned on going to Utah for spring break like we do every year. I was so looking forward to it, The kids were looking forward to it, and Nate was looking forward to it. We were supposed to be leaving last Saturday but Thursday Nate called me on his way home from work and told me that he was not able to go on leave because 3 of his coworkers were having babies. I had to break the news to all of the kids. Some took it well (It's okay mom it's not your fault) while others did not (I don't want to live here anymore, I want to live with Aunt Joy). It was so hard to tell them the news. Then I had to tell my mom which was nice enough to call everyone else and tell them for me. I just couldn't stand giving more bad news to anyone else.

I tossed around the idea of driving to Utah myself. It is after all only 5 hours away. But I wasn't sure if the weather would hold up for me and if I was in the mood to drive with 4 kids and a dog all the way to my parents house. It is 5 hours after all. But I did it anyway. I got up Sunday morning and took to the road about 9 a.m. I went about 30 minutes and it started raining on me. No big deal I can handle the rain. About a hour later it started to snow. I hate driving in snow. I didn't used to be like that. I used to be able to drive in snow just fine. I know all of the precautions. Drive slow. Pump your breaks (unless you have anti lock breaks of course). Until last year and now I have a hard time thinking of driving in snow. I called my mom and asked her what the weather was like telling myself that if it was bad there then I would go home and if it was good weather there then the snow wouldn't last forever and I could make it. All signs pointed to good weather. It wasn't even snowing that bad and the roads were fine. So I continued on my merry way. Then it really started snowing. The roads got worse and worse but they were still manageable. All of the cars were driving 45 mph. At one point a huge diesel decided to pass about 4 cars. While it was passing me I couldn't see out my window at all for several seconds Ella asked why we were driving backwards while it was passing. Finally about 90 minutes later I was out of the snow. Yay. It was still raining but I can handle the rain. I tried to speed out of the storm and race it home. I did hit snow in Ogden again and them some more rain. I made it to about an hour away from my parents house and the wind started. If you have ever lived in Mountain Home you would know all about driving in the wind. As I was driving down the freeway you could see all of the cars getting pushed all over the road. A huge van in front of me was swaying because of the wind. I finally made it to my parents house and it only took me about 6 hours to get there. All in all the drive wasn't that bad. The kids were good. And I made it driving on the freeway in snow. I am glad that I get to spend the week with my family. And I will be even happier when Nate gets here on Friday to drive back with me.

If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular? ~Source Unknown

Today Nate and I celebrated out 12Th anniversary. We went to Boise and had lunch at Macaroni Grill. I love that place to eat. I decided to go there because it is neutral territory. We both like it. There are only a select few restaurants that we both like. After the grill we went to the mall to pick up some baby presents (sorry Mindi and Carolyn they will be there shortly), and then we went to Deseret Book. The best part was we were gone for 5 hours and didn't have to pay a babysitter. My big girls are old enough to watch the other 2 kids. It is so nice. On our way home Nate and I stopped to pick up a movie to watch together tonight.

I am so lucky to have found this amazing man. He is my best friend. I love you Babe. You mean the world to me.

Happy Birthday Babe!!!

Today my honey turned 30!!!! Which is half dead according to him. I can't believe that he is 30 already. It seems like only yesterday when we were 16 year olds that couldn't go the day without seeing each other. He is an amazing man and such an inspiration to me.

Because Nate is working Nights tonight we went out Monday night to celebrate his birthday. We went to his favorite restaurant, Tucano's. Which opened up here in Boise about a month ago. It was the first time that the kids have gone and they really liked it. The waitress also had everyone sing to Nate. Which he was not happy about but the kids and I loved. We then went to Best Buy and bought me a wii fit (i love it). I know it doesn't seem right that I got a present when we were celebrating his birthday but in my defense it is my anniversary in 2 days. We were just killing two birds with one stone.

We didn't get to celebrate much today because of him working so late. We just went to lunch. He got a garden book from the kids, and a hiking backpack from me.

I love you babe!!! I promise that you are not old. Oh and quit telling everyone that I am older then you.

Girls Night

Friday night was supposed to me just Ella and I home. Nate was going to the temple, the big girls were babysitting while someone went to the temple, and Tyler was going to go to a birthday party. So what do we do... just Ella and I... We go to the movie of course. But things change. The babysitting got cancelled so the big girls were going to be staying home instead of babysitting. No problem I will just invite them to go with me but they decided that they didn't want to go to the movie . It was just Ella and I again. I got Ella all dressed up so that we could go to the movie. We had so much fun. My friend JoHanna came with us. And Ella sat through the whole movie (Confessions of a Shopaholic, I know total kids movie right) She only had to go to the bathroom once. It was funny because she kept shhhing the people behind us. They weren't being very quite. They would try to reason with the characters in the movie. I guess it finally got to Ella. We had a great time. Ella loved that she got her own popcorn which I ended up throwing over half of it away anyway. But it was worth it. I am with Ella all of the time and it was really nice to have a break and be able to do something really fun together. Ella was pretending to be a dog
Yeah that one.

She is doing tricks like a dog too

Otis really just wants to escape. He is running away from her all of the time

Ella has a cool new trick

Usually she does it to both eyes but they just wouldn't both stay up.

Sassy Ella

Smiley Ella