talk

Gage gave his first talk in Primary (the children's portion of church) this past weekend. He did a great job. Public speaking doesn't even phase him, he enjoys it! I hope he never out grows this. This is a video of him practicing on Sunday morning.




I made a page and inserted it behind the picture that had words and pictures so he could "read" his talk. He actually memorized it. He wanted to talk about Prophets - particularly, Joseph Smith and the Articles of Faith.
(If you have questions about this feel free to email me about this anytime, or click here.)

Week

Where has the week gone?

It's Friday already and I'm thinking about the fun weekend we have planned. Today Wade is off and we have some things planned for this afternoon as well as some movies for tonight. Tomorrow Gage has a Primary activity, Wade and I have a date planned, and I have a scrapbook night. Sunday Gage gives his first talk in Primary - he's been practicing.

We've had great weather this week. This is what has been keeping us busy:

Noah ate his first marker. (It was washable)

We've played outside at parks or playgrounds every day this week.





I've started to pack. I'm leaving in 3 weeks and I know I'll be back for a few weeks in July, but I don't want to be left with it everything to do myself when Wade isn't here with us.

I also finished and posted about The Other Boleyn Girl on My Reading Spot.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Reading Spot

After a month, I finally decided to play catch up and update My Reading Spot. I added the final reviews for all the Harry Potter series as well as a new book I just finished this week, The Pemberley Chronicles. I highly recommend it. I am also almost finished with the book I am currently reading and will hope to add it by the end of tomorrow. Happy Reading Everyone!

Twilight movie

• MTV
• Music Videos
• MTV Shows
• Entertainment News

I can't wait for both of these movies to come out in December. I think both will be winners by far in my book. The last line of this whole clip cracks me up!

Noah's trick

My silly Noah is such a funny boy to watch sometimes. He has picked up a few strange habits in the past few weeks -all to do with his mouth.

He loves to bite! He has drawn blood on Wade and myself and just this morning gave Gage and pretty nasty bruise. Gage never bit so I am not sure what to do, I just hope he will out grow it soon. (He does get his feelings hurt and starts to cry when we give him a stern NO, so I'm hoping that is the way to go.)

He licks strange things. I remember telling Gage a few times to not lick the TV, but Noah is worse than that - he licks each stair when he goes upstairs, he licks all of us, he laughs and laughs when we tell him no!

My favorite thing he has picked up is picking objects up with his mouth - not using any hands. His favorite is food. I tried to capture a series of pictures, but a movie was much better. In this particular clip there are two fruit snacks he had thrown on the floor - if you watch close he throws one and gets an orange one in his mouth.

I love my silly Noah!

Monday Moments revisited

Hope everyone had a great weekend. Wade was asked to attend the second year Rite of Passage and Recognition Ceremony for the second year class. (If you ask him he will only tell you it was just for a 'club' that he is in, which is true...but I can brag for just a moment and say it is the honors club that he was invited to join! He hates people knowing and is such a humble guy - he almost didn't even join because people would find out. I think he has really been blessed and worked hard.) Congratulations to all those second years. It seems like yesterday that Wade was at his ceremony and now in just in 5 short weeks we will be considered fourth year students and moving from Iowa as we start our 4th year rotations! Wow!

I've been reading through a lot of talks that were given at my Church's world wide conference last weekend. I loved this story shared by Elaine S. Dalton during a meeting for all the youth age young women. What an inspiration! So here is my Monday Moments revisited thought:

"Several years ago, I had the opportunity to run the Boston Marathon. I had trained hard and felt I was prepared, but at mile 20 there are hills. The locals call the steepest and longest hill Heartbreak Hill. When I reached that point, I was physically spent. The hill was long, and because I was a novice, I allowed myself to do something no seasoned runner ever does—I started to think negatively. This slowed my pace, so I tried to think positively and visualize the finish line. But as I did this, I suddenly realized that I was in a big city, there were thousands of people lining the route, and I had not made any arrangements to locate my husband at the end of the marathon. I felt lost and alone, and I started to cry. I was wearing a big red T-shirt with the word Utah printed on the front in big block letters. As the spectators saw that I was crying, they would yell, “Keep going, Utah.” “Don’t cry, Utah.” “You’re almost finished, Utah.” But I knew I wasn’t, and I was lost. I also knew that even if I stopped running and dropped out of the race, I would still be lost.
Do any of you ever feel like you’re running up Heartbreak Hill and that even though there are people lining the route, you are alone? That’s how I felt. So I did what every one of you would do—I began to pray right there on that marathon route. I told Heavenly Father that I was alone and that I was on a hill. I told Him that I was discouraged and afraid and that I felt lost. I asked for help and strength to be steadfast and to finish the race. As I continued to run, these words came into my mind:

Fear not, I am with thee;
oh, be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid.
I’ll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.(“How Firm a Foundation,” Hymns, no. 85)
That sweet answer to my prayer gave me the strength to continue on until I crossed the finish line. And despite my fears, my husband was right there and all was well.

That day I experienced more than a marathon. I learned some important lessons. First of all, never wear a big red shirt with the word Utah printed on it. Second, I learned that no matter how well prepared you think you are, there are hills on the course. I learned that people cheering for you along the way are absolutely essential. I learned again that day that we are never alone. Our Heavenly Father is only a prayer away, and the Holy Ghost is within whispering distance."

Happy Monday - you can read her entire talk by clicking HERE.

Ridiculous

Things are getting seriously a little out of hand.

Canstruction

We visited the Science Center this week because I really wanted to see a special event that they had - Canstruction. Wade was really sad that he couldn't go but we couldn't go on a day that he could go with us, so here are some of the highlights just for him!

Look close - there is a plunger, a roll of paper and even newspaper for reading!

The Icee (look at the white cans and it spells Icee) and the toilet were my personal favorite, but they also had a castle, an elephant from Whorton hears a Who, a vacuum, and bowl of soup and Gage's favorite - a rocket. All the cans and food is going to be donated to the Iowa food bank at the end of the event.

Hope you all have a great weekend! We have a busy one scheduled!

bathtime

I was gone last night for an hour or so and Wade was in charge of getting the boys ready for bed. When I returned Wade showed me some "not so typical" bath time pictures. He said they had a blast but the clean up was a lot of work!







Also I have to add a special a Happy Birthday to my sister Jenny today! She is always requesting more videos, so here are two in two days! Also her husband and her are meeting some birth parents on Friday so let's hope she gets the best birthday present in June - a new baby!

Update

I'm trying it again, I posted this video yesterday but then it had problems and so I pulled the post. I thought I would give it another try - so if you left a comment yesterday, you really don't have to leave another one!

News from this weekend:

We enjoyed a good General Conference Weekend.(A world wide conference my church holds every six months.) It included a date out Friday night and having Wade home all day Saturday with us! I loved a lot of the talks, I will post more in the next few weeks as the text version comes out.

It also means that this week I am now changing out our 72 hour emergency kits (a pack of things that could sustain us for 72 hours if there were an emergency) and tornado closet kit (a pack of things such as flashlights, toys and snacks that would entertain us during a tornado). I do it every six months so that the clothes stay close to the size we are in and are the right season. It also keeps fresh snacks and toys in our tornado closet kit. I think doing it the week of conference really helps me remember to do it.

I sadly finished the Harry Potter series again last night. I almost picked it up and started it all over again today. I love the series. I can't say that enough.

I think I'm going to take a break from books to catch up on some scrapbooking. We'll see how it goes. My sister in law took a break from sewing last month and caught up her scrapbooks - she did 69 pages in on month! She's totally inspired me to take a break and catch up. I made a hand full of cards this afternoon. I really wish I could read and scrap at the same time...I might have to take a hint from my friend Kim and listen to audio books. Next up - conquer my 2007 family album and start my 12 picture a month 2008 album.

Trick and a Shiner

So I thought I would post my April Fool's dinner picture. My cupcake "frosting" didn't turn out the colors I was to happy about but Gage thought they looked great. I had to go and buy instant mash potatoes since I usually make my mash potatoes homemade and I wasn't sure I could get them smooth enough. Apparently butter flavored ones turn orange so when you add food coloring they turn even odder colors. I am also not that great at taking pictures of our food. Wade always complains when I post our food.

Gage was in on the joke and he liked eating the "frosting." Wade said he didn't like them because in his mind the potatoes were already mixed with the meatloaf. He usually doesn't like things like casseroles or food that is "mixed together."

One of my sisters sent me this picture! She did this April fools joke on her 4 kids and I think hers turned out WAY better than mine. They are actually sugar cookies and peppermint patties. She said her 9 year old boys (triplets!) didn't fall for it...mostly because she never feeds them hamburgers for an after school snack and that their 5 year old sisters told them to come see mom's April fools snack!

Other news this week: Noah got his first black eye. Gage admitted to us that he pushed him and this was the outcome:

Sunday:

Tuesday:

Wednesday: (enjoying reading time with his buddy Mason)

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Scrapbook Page

I love the feel of paper and creating something, so there is no way I would ever switch to digital scrapbooking entirely, but I was bored last night and didn't want to get everything out. This is my first attempt at a digital page. I admit it was nice to not have to clean up.

Waterloo

So it's official, Wade will be spending his July rotation in Waterloo, Iowa. That means that me and the boys won't move from Iowa until after July. I have mixed feelings about this.

Good:
1. We are going to fly to Utah for May and June, since I don't want to live here by myself for those months. Plus my best friend, in Utah, Stephanie is having her baby in June, I can't wait!

2. Waterloo is a small town and that is something we have always liked and looked for in a residency program

3. We get to see Wade in July! Waterloo is only about an hour and half from here and we will get to see him way more than if he would have been in Greely, CO and us in SLC.

4. The Waterloo program also provides housing and all his food for the month! WOO HOO for that!

5. IF we end up there for residency we could probably afford a much nicer house than any of our other places.

Bad:
1. I never EVER thought 10 years ago that I would be saying a town of 70,000 is too small for me, but I think it is! (the town in Arkansas where I lived had only 7,000!)

2. We won't have our own car when we are in SLC. Wade family is always so nice and let's us drive theirs, but it's always nice to have your own.

3. IF we end up there for residency (we don't have to but it is in the mix now) it is not by a major airport....and I thought the Des Moines airport was bad. This would also mean I would have to put up with more Iowa winters!

4. We will have to do something different for our move then first planned. ABF will probably be driving our stuff to Washington for us because Wade will have to be in Albuquerque. I was planning on flying to Albuquerque to spend the month with him there, but I don't think I will be able to now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I did a little playing around on Mapquest this morning and during all of this I just feel bad for my poor Wade. He will be driving from Iowa, to SLC, to Tuscon, to Waterloo, to Albuquerque, to Portland, to Tacoma! It's roughly 6000 miles and over 91 hours in the car!

PS - In case anyone really was wondering, I am NOT pregnant. August would be a horrible time to have a baby since Wade and I will be living in two different states.

Spring

We've been waiting and have decided it's the best time to tell everyone:
I'm pregnant with twins - I'm due in August.


Wade has had car troubles and we finally decided that for his fourth year he would need something more reliable. We bought this this weekend.
The best news is that this past week Gage and Noah have been perfect angels. They have promised me that they will no longer cry, whine or complain. They take 4 hour naps twice daily. They go to bed at 7pm and sleep peacefully until 8am. They eat anything we put on their plates and always ask for more vegetables. We do at least 3 homemade crafts a day. I am now teaching them their 4th language...English, Spanish, and French are their first 3. They have known American Sign language since age 6 months.

Noah has successfully been dry and potty trained now for one month!

Gage can now read on a 4th grade level.

But of course, the best April Fool's Joke came from Mother Nature. When I was up and outside going to workout at 6am there wasn't any snow....Wade came downstairs at 7 and told me he couldn't believe it. Can't it just be spring?




I'll be making these yummy treats for dinner tonight! They aren't as sweet as you think...think more along the lines of meatloaf and mash potatoes!