FFF 3

Saturday we had a Forced Family Fun day... We've been trying to go sledding on  Mt. Charleston all winter... we finally made it on Saturday. The kids moaned and groaned the whole way so we promised them "In and Out Burgers" on the way home if they shut their mouths and just tried to have fun... they did! We had a great time... Here are some fun pictures of our day.

Tanner catching some air!

Mom  having some fun...

Mitchell couldn't decide if he wanted to go down the hill again or not...

He finally went again!

I Love my honey!

Not bad for propping the camera on a pile of snow and gloves and using the timer!

Yum!

We made a fun trail...

Ouch!! Better call the chiropractor... nice form on the legs!

praise the lord

so this is ashley.
FIRST, i was going to write a blog about how ridiculously impossible it is for an average white girl with no disabilities or bizarre talents to get a scholarship. i searched for an hour on tuesday and found NOTHING.
THEN, i was going to write a blog about how i gave blood this morning and almost blacked out. scariest moment of my life. oh and dont forget the cool blood blister that now occupies half of my arm.
THIRD. i was going to write about how i got my precious volvo back today, making this the best day of my life thus far.

but then, something amazing happened that is the only thing i care about right now...

i got accepted to BYU PROVO!!

my first thoughts: shut up.. shut up.. no way!!! oh my gosh. shut up. no! you're kidding.

then i called my dad, and some other relatives. holy crap. i still cant believe it!! this is seriously the biggest thing that has happened in my life.. i have wanted this for so long and now it happened. i cant express the pure joy i am feeling. it's so great to know that pulling all of those ALL NIGHTERS throughout highschool doing stupid projects and endless homework... it was all worth something. this is crazy. now i have to plan housing and what the heck am i going to eat? and i also have to convince my mom that i desperately need a car. dont you guys agree???? i hate mooching off people. i dont think i would be able to live somewhere without a car... these past few weeks have been freaking ridiculous just sharing a car with my mom. so i am trying to brace myself for that. wish me luck :( BUT HOLY CRAP I GOT ACCEPTED!!!!!!!



three words...
best
day
ever

(by the way, these pictures were literally forced on here. they are disgusting, i know. you dont have to tell me)
xoxo, ashley

spur of the moment...

At about 5:00 Friday I decided to plan a spur of the moment night away with John... We were having a hard time making Valentines Day plans because the kids had things planned Saturday night and no one would commit to watching Tanner for us... so at 5:00 Friday night Ashley was taking a nap and Mitchell had no plans for the night, so i thought maybe we should go out that night and beet the crowds at the restaurants... then i thought it would be fun to get away for the night... I got onto Priceline.com and found a nice hotel room for $50. It was so nice to get away for the night!! We went to dinner at one of our favorite places... the Grand Lux in the Venetian. Then we walked around the shops at the new Palazzo tower. (I had never used priceline before... i was nervous we would get a dive, but i learned that you pick how many stars you want the hotel to be and name your price and it worked just fine! My $40 bid got rejected.. I was trying to be real cheap...)

I love my Valentine!! Thanks for being the love of my life!!!

The phrase "spur of the moment" reminds me of a challenge we had early in our marriage... My family was a spur of the moment type of family ( I think its because we lived in Seattle and we always had to plan things quick if the sun was out... you couldn't plan on that in advance. I remember my parents waking us up early in the morning and taking us to the mountains for the day or to the Oregon coast, because the sun was shining that day. That's probably hard for my Vegas friends to comprehend... think of trying to plan an activity for the rain... you never know when it's going to come...) John's family planned everything out... so when we got married, John would want to plan our weekends on like Tuesday and I would want to wait till Friday to see what we felt like doing... It was something that we eventually learned to compromise on. So now sometimes we plan things out way in advance and sometimes we do things spur of the moment!

Teenage stress...

The stresses of high school have gotten to Ashley this week. So, we thought we would take the kids to dinner at Fazoli's (Ashley's favorite) the other night to cheer her up... As we were driving to the restaurant we asked Ashley what was wrong and her response was something like this...

"You don't realize how much pressure I have being in High School, hoping to get accepted to college, worrying about boys, worrying about girl friends, my car is broken and my job and everything. I have WAY more pressure that you guys have."

John and I had a good laugh! Oh to be young again and have the pressures of high school instead of having the stresses of jobs, kids, mortgages, cars, financial security, feeding children, keeping the marriage healthy, sending daughter to college next year, church callings and etc.

We love you Ashley!! We love you more than anything and we want you to be happy!! Everything will work out... college will happen before you know it and Heavenly Father will guide you to the one you should go too. Enjoy your last few months of high school... Remember to ENJOY THE MOMENT!

recipes...

My mom and my sister in law have asked for a few of my recipes... so i scanned them in... click on them to see them bigger. I made the ribs and they were delicious!! I used pork ribs... After they cooked in the crock pot all day I threw them on the BBQ for a few minutes with bbq sauce. So good!! The crock pot chicken is a favorite in our house... shred it and serve over rice. A few of them I haven't made, but had them at the pig out in our ward and they were yummy! Erin said her pizza bread burns... so I changed the temp to 350 instead of 375... see if that works. Maybe cook it a little longer too... The pizza fondue was yummy. I served it with homemade bread sticks... but the kids said it was more of an appetizer than a meal... I was full though.
Good luck and happy cooking.

Bloggers block...

I have been wanting to update my blog but I don't feel like I have anything to say... 

I wanted to post about my niece and her husband coming down for the weekend, but I didn't take any pictures... I hate posting without pictures... I guess that is the scrapbooker in me. We had a fun time with them. But it was so weird to have my niece bring her HUSBAND! How could I be old enough to have 3 nieces married?? They are really cute together. Shawn had a soccer tournament and he had to play his games in the rain! It was cold... I felt bad that we had stuff going most of the weekend, we only got to see half of one game! They played great and made it to the semi finals I think... Spencer (my nephew) came down with them and kept Mitchell happy all weekend! They have been buddies since they were a few months old. We watched some home movies from when they were babies... they were such cute little guys!

Ashley's car is in the shop... so we have been sharing the van. It has been cramping her style a bit! The price you pay for wrecking your car... I have been waking up early to take them to seminary... talk about cramping my style... I'm usually sound asleep. I think I am ready for my afternoon nap! I was just going to write that I could never teach seminary, but I know if I write that then someday it might happen... I am NOT a morning person at all.

I will try to be a better blogger this week... 

February dinner menu...

I must say that January went so smooth because I had my dinner calendar! I only swayed from it a few times... 

Here is my February calendar. (Click on it to see it bigger... Let me know if you want any of the recipes.)

best and worst

Here are the best and worst of last week... (we still do this at dinner every night! The kids complain, but it helps us learn about everyones day)

Best: 

1. Ashley and Mitchell & Amanda Hansen were safe in Ashley's little fender bender.

2. Tanner participated in his last pinewood derby!! He had a sweet looking car!

3. Tanner earned his Arrow of Light in the cub scout program.

4. Ashley was brave in one her classes and expressed her feeling about abortion. The teacher was all for it and she told him that she totally disagreed with him! She is a good little missionary.

5. John found out that he has a business trip in San Diego in March, and I get to go with him!!

6. Sales were up a bit at Sunburst Shutters this week! John is helping them launch a new program where they will now sell all kinds of window treatments. He has been extremely busy with this and its nice to see that it is working!

7. I was able to go to the temple on Wednesday.

8. Learned some great grocery shopping tips.

9. John got to go to a missionary meeting with L. Tom Perry

10. We had a great youth conference pizza planning meeting Friday night.

11. Tanner had his DARE graduation.

12. Church was great today.

13. Mitchell actually invited friends over to the house on Friday night. And they had a good time!

Worst:

1. Ashley was in an accident.

2. My baby is growing up too fast. I can't believe he is in 11 year old scouts. We will miss pack meetings...

3. Ashley is going to be poor after she pays the insurance deductible.

4. John has been pretty stressed out at work. 

5. John and I each had different church meetings this weekend, so we didn't get a date night.

I guess it's a good week when I have more bests than worsts!!