Molly Mormon I'm NOT!

I attempted to make some whole wheat bread today and totally ruined it! Not sure why I am admitting this to the world... I guess it's because I wrote a post once about needing to post the good and the bad... so here is the bad. I used my wheat grinder to grind some wheat today and made the dough and had it in the loaf pans rising and totally forgot about it! I was busy balancing my checkbook, which took way too long and I suddenly remembered my bread and it was flowing over in the pans!! Since I am not a bread expert I didn't know what to do. I decided to try to bake 2 loaves as is and that obviously didn't work... the other two loaves I smashed down and reformed them in the loaf pans and that didn't work either... Good thing i am planning on going to Great Harvest for lunch tomorrow after the temple. I will pick up a loaf there!

Happy Birthday Johnny!

My little brother John would be 38 years old today. I miss him so much. He died in a car accident when he was 25. Johnny was such a fun little brother. He was always the life of the party, always happy! My friends would come over and and up playing with him. He and my brother David were very close in age so they were always together, doing silly things. Dave always tried to keep him in line. John took a lot of pottery classes in high school and I think of him every time i use my gravy bowl he made me.

I found some fun pictures of him this morning...

I loved my little brothers!

I often wonder what Greg and John are up too in Heaven...

One of the last Westra family pictures taken before Greg and John passed away.

This is one of my favorite pictures of Johnny... We went to Santa Cruz, CA with my family the summer before John died and he had so much fun playing with Mitchell at the beach. He was a great uncle!

I love you and miss you Johnny!!

It's time to wake up!

My turtles woke up on Thursday! Wouldn't it be nice to sleep all winter long? Its funny to watch them... they are still very sluggish and have hardly eaten a thing.... I guess they need a few days to fully wake up. The big one has gone to his favorite hiding place... and I'm wondering if he went back to sleep... silly little creatures. I have missed watching them all winter. 

Baby girl is here!

My sister in law, Jenn had her baby early this morning! Her name is Afton Joy Westra, (Afton is her great grandma's name and Joy is my mom's name) she was 7 lbs 2 oz, 18 inches long. We are so happy for Scott and Jenn... they tried a long time to get pregnant, so she is our little miracle baby! 

She was a few weeks early, she was due on April 3rd. I had just talked to Scott yesterday and he said the baby was very low and doctor had told them it could be any day... sure enough I got a text from Scott at 12:48am last night saying they were at the hospital dialated to a 4. Then I got another text at 3:40am saying that the epidural was working and she was already pushing. Then at 5:15 I got a text saying she was here and all was well!! We are so happy to be living near them! Ashley and I headed over to the hospital as soon as visiting hours were open! Then we went back with the boys this evening. SHe is SOOOO cute. She has lots of dark hair and she's just adorable. Jenn looks great and Scott was all smiles. Hopefully they will get some rest tonight!

The nurse asked Scott if he had been around very many babies and being the youngest of 9 kids he said that he had like 21 or 22 nieces and nephews and the nurse was shocked! 





Tanner was pretty cute with her! He is very sensitive and wanted to learn all about her. Being the youngest child he knew nothing about nursing... it came up and he asked what it was... you have to be careful explaining things to Tanner in fear of him fainting, but he took it pretty well. And he asked all sorts of funny questions.... like "if Jenn gets thirsty can she just drink from them too?" Oh we love our Tanner.

Volleyball time

Mitchell made the freshman volleyball team!!! good job Mitch!! He worked really hard for this. He has been going to intramural practices for a few months getting ready for tryouts. He had his first game against Valley High School yesterday.... he started the game and played  great! He had a block in the last game that scored our winning point! Go Bengals! 

I need Linda to give me some volleyball mom lessons... I don't know all the rules and felt pretty stupid asking the guy next to me what all the calls were... I thought I knew volleyball pretty good... but it's been a long time since I played with rules.

My camera didn't like the gym... the pics are a little blurry.

Mitch and Bennett celebrating the win...

A funny side note to remember... Mitchell played the whole game against one of his former soccer teammates (Andrew) and didn't even notice him on the other side of the net. I saw his mom first thing and chatted with her, but the boys didn't recognize each other. I guess they were focusing on the game. Mitch was shocked when I pointed him out after the game! 

Relaxing day...

John has meetings all weekend in San Diego, so I came along with him. We spent 2 nights at Dix's beach house in Oceanside and now we are at the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego...

I woke up yesterday and lazied around the house... went for a long walk on the beach down to the pier.... walked down the pier and watched the fisherman... watched a seal play in the water for a while... went back to the beach and read a book for a few hours... then went for a bike ride and explored Oceanside... stopped for lunch... had a delicious milkshake at the Highway 101 cafe... went back to the beach and read some more... watched the sunset... picked John up at the train station around 6:00 and then we had a delicious dinner at a little baja mexican place down by the harbor... it was a wonderful day... aren't you all jealous??

Fun with Grandma and Grandpa Westra

My parents came down for my sister in laws baby shower on Saturday.... We had a fun time having them here. The shower was great. Jenn got tons of stuff for "baby girl" (she won't let us use her name yet). I can believe how many new gadgets there are for babies now a days... wow. 

The rest of the weekend we just relaxed.... Sunday after church we sat in the backyard and enjoyed the sunshine. It was so nice out! We played this silly game, I'm not sure what it is called, but you throw these golf ball things onto these bars... it's really fun! 

My dad became addicted to the Wii! Seriously, the kids played with him a few times over the weekend and then on Monday while they were at school he bowled and played golf for hours! So cute! I think we might need to get him one! He had a real serious face while he golfed... it was pretty funny. If you know my dad, you know that he is passionate about golfing... I'm not sure if anything makes him more happy than playing golf... well, I suppose his wife and family make him more happy... i hope : ) Just kidding dad, I know you love us more.