swimsuit edition....

So, youth conference is this weekend and the theme is SI (Steadfast and Immovable) and the SI is the abbreviation for Sports Illustrated. The whole conference has a sports theme to it. So, Jan Hodson (the wonderful wife of our Stake YM pres.) is making some posters to hang in the gym during the conference. She is making a SI magazine cover of each of the Bishops doing a sport. They totally look like a real magazine cover, she has the right font and it says Steadfast and Immovable across the top, it looks just like a sports illustrated magazine. So, she emailed me yesterday and said that the Stake YW presidency needs to be the swimsuit issue! There is no way we were going to put on swimsuits, so we made it funny! I have the best presidency! Nathell was cracking us up! She wanted to wear the coconut bra and we told her we would get fired! and she said "good, then we don't have to go to girls camp this summer!" So, you can see in the pictures that she wore it, but it was hidden a bit! It was a fun afternoon! here are some pictures of it. I will take some pictures of the posters this weekend and post them next week.

Trying not to laugh to hard!

Nathell trying to act like a real swimsuit model.
Heather with goggles marks on her head!
I have the best counselors ever!! Love them!

Presidents day, family day?? & snow day...

John and I had high hopes for a fun "family day" on Monday. We thought that with no school and no work that we should do some fun family things, since John had been gone for almost 2 weeks. So we thought we would get up and go to breakfast and then head up to Mt. Charleston to play in the snow..... well, we should have known by 10:00 am that things weren't going as planned. We couldn't get Ashley out of bed (thanks to early morning seminary) then when she did get up she was really happy (not! see the look on her face in the picture).





We went to I-Hop and everyone else in Vegas decided to go to breakfast for Presidents day... so there was a 20 minute wait. Then Ashley informs us that she has her personal trainer at 2:00 (that's another story) then Mitchell said he is suppose to go to Guitar Center with the drummer in the school band at 1:00. So it is now 11:30 and we are finally getting our food... then it took forever to get our check, so now there is no way to get to Mt. Charleston and back by 2:00.... hmmm... Dad is sad, he really wanted to spend the day with the whole family. I guess we could have just gone and they could have missed their things, but then you have major grumpy kids to deal with. So we decided to just take Tanner up to the snow. He really wanted to go and we thought he could use some mom and dad attention. We got up there and found a fun place and had a great day!! Ashley and Mitchell missed out! The sky was blue and it was about 50 degrees out! Perfect sledding weather for us Vegas wimps. The snow was a little old and crunchy, but it was very slick for sledding. It didn't turn out how we had planned, but that's how life is sometimes.... especially with teenagers!

Happy Valentines Day!

John is in Orlando at the National Home Builders Show.... bummer. So it hasn't been a normal valentines day. That's why we went away last weekend and we will have to go out to a nice dinner when he gets home.... But I have still been thinking about how much I love him today! He is the best husband. I came downstairs this morning and there was a card on the counter and a dozen roses. He had Ashley go out and buy roses last night and she hid them. I had no idea that she got them. It was a nice surprise. He is one romantic guy. He has never forgotten an anniversary, b-day or valentines day. He always goes above and beyond. I wont go into detail or you will get mad at your husbands. Lets just say that being raised with 5 sisters, he learned how to treat a girl right. He writes poetry, picks a theme for all my Christmas presents to revolve around and all sorts of stuff. I am one lucky lady. It's been a long week and I can't wait for him to get home! I miss you and love you John!

A surprise weekend!

This is John. My turn to write. Work has been exceptionally busy for me lately. After spending 5 days at our store in New Orleans (including Superbowl Sunday), I got home Thursday night late. Friday was crazy at work, not only because it was my first day back in the office all week, but it was the only day I'd be in the office for 2 weeks. On Monday, I'm going to Orlando for 6 days for a trade show and some marketing help for our 9 Florida stores.

So, back to Friday. I wanted to spend time with Allison, but I didn't have time to plan a hot date. Never fear... Allison planned a surprise getaway for us. When I got home, she threw me in the car and we hurried off. I was not told where we were going. Even during dinner, she wouldn't give me clues. I like figuring things out--that's what I do. After dinner she just told me where to drive--north on I-15. The suspense ended when she told me she got us a hotel room in St. George, UT and we were just going to relax for the weekend. What a perfect surprise. I needed alone time with her and we needed a break. It was a wonderful time. Peaceful with nothing scheduled. Let's just say Allison knows me so well and makes me so happy. What a wonderful weekend. JB

Bad Mother Award....

I feel awful! Ashley had the flu real bad about 3 weeks ago... After about a week, she got better as it ran its course. Except for her cough. It has been lingering. She often has allergies and has this obnoxious cough, so the good mother that I am, had her take some old allergy medicine that she got prescribed to her last year. It didn't help any and did I think to take her to the doctor?? NO. The old allergy medicine ran out a few days ago, so I figured that she needed more, so I finally took her in today. I told her in the waiting room "I bet ya 100 bucks that it's just allergies". The doctor comes in as she is coughing and looks concerned. I said it was much worse and it sounds a bit better and she looked at me and said, "she's really had this for 3 weeks? Most people bring their kids in after a few days with a cough like this". oops. I knew I was the bad mom, by the look on the doctors face. Who by the way had to be only about 25 years old... I swear, she was young! Ashley liked her, she was hip. Anyway, after examining her, she told us that she has bronchitis! And has had it for a few weeks and IS contagious. SO if any of you out there have been sick, it could have been passed along by Ashley. The doctor asked if she needed any kind of Dr.'s note for the school that she has missed, she looked a little surprised when I told her that she hasn't missed any.... because the bad mom made her go! good thing I didn't tell her that she was way worse the week of finals! Maybe she could write a Dr.'s note saying she was sick the week of finals and she could retake a few of them! I swear, when I take them in right away, it's just a virus and needs run its course, but when I think it's just a virus and I should save time and money by not going to the Doctor, it is something bad!!! Parenting is tough... we need a medical degree, a psychology degree, teaching degree and so many more!

3rd Place!

This week was spent working on Tanner's pinewood derby car. Growing up, pinewood derby races were a HUGE thing. I think they were more important to my Dad than the boys. He had six boys to get them perfected. The cars were truly pieces of art. I remember the shiny metallic paint, the sanding and hours of work put into it. John gets into the cars, but not like my dad.... probably a good thing. John helped Tanner cut it out and then made Tanner do all the sanding and painting. He worked really hard on it. I took him to the craft store to pick out his paint. I saw the little bottles of model paint and got those... so it was nice and shiny, just like I remember! John ended up having to work late on Thursday, so I had to put the wheels on. I guess I did a good job because he won 3rd place!! Yah Tanner. I think that is the best we have ever done. It was a nice pinewood derby race, very under control. Kids were calm and quiet. Very enjoyable. Our primary is shrinking, we have combined with the Monte Cristo ward. It's fun for Tanner to get to know more boys!

I just got done watching President Hinkley's funeral. It was so nice! I am going to miss him. He has been such and amazing Prophet. I was a bit emotional at the end when they showed a little video of him. What a great example he has been! I hope we can always remember the things he has taught us and stay strong and do a little better!

Tried and failed, big time!

The family talked me into trying the Guitar Hero tonight..... Good thing I never had the intentions of being in a band! I will leave that to Mitchell and my brother Mark. After getting booed off the stage 4 times, I gave up. I've never been very coordinated with musical rhythm... kind of like doing aerobics...I will stick to the Cars racing game on the Wii. Not that I'm real good at that, but it's fun.
I am amazed at how much Ashley and her friends like this game. She was deathly sick this week and I came home to her playing it, and then the next day all the girlfriends were here playing for hours. I expected it from the boys, but not her. John even loves it. Mitchell is an expert and he stands there and makes it look so easy! Since I am becoming my mother, I am having a hard time having hard rock songs being played constantly! We need a basement for this thing!! I can't see! (family joke) My mom always had a fit in the car when the music was too loud, she would say that she couldn't see!

The facts of life...

Tanner is our fainter.... any sight of blood or anything close to it, he turns white as a ghost and faints. Well, he often sees the box of tampons in the bathroom and random tampons around the house and asks what they are for. So, we have been putting off telling him what they are because we know he will pass-out.... but he keeps asking. So today John and Tanner were driving home and Tanner found one in the glove box and insisted on getting an explanation. So John gave him a brief explanation and looked at Tanner and he was White as a ghost and we think he passed-out for a brief minute. They got home and he was still white and he fell asleep on the couch for about an hour. It wore him out. I feel for his wife someday!

Happy Birthday Tanner!!

I can't believe my baby is 10!! How could that be? So crazy how time flies. He had a few friends over on Saturday for a little party. They went to see Alvin and the Chipmunks. I told John it might be a good idea if he took the boys to the movie while I stayed home and got pizza and stuff.... good idea on my part. John says I owe him big time for sitting through that movie! But the boys enjoyed it.

Sunday was his actual birthday, so we made pizza bread and had Scott, Jenn and Joanna over for dinner. It was a fun evening. He was SOO excited to get Guitar Hero for the Wii. The kids have been playing it nonstop! I haven't attempted it yet. I don't want them to see how uncoordinated I am! I was thinking I could practice while they are at school, but I don't even know how to turn the thing on! Oh well, I have better things to do with my time, like laundry and dishes! Fun stuff.

Happy Birthday Tanner!!

Happy New Year, Happy Birthday Ashley

I am sorry I have been away for a while! I got busy with the holidays. We had a great Christmas! We all got some fun things. I would say the highlight of the morning was watching Ashley and Mitchell be so excited for John to open their present. John got a new road bike, so the kids went to target and bought him a little kids bike horn and bell to put on his bike! It was so cute. We spent the morning playing with all the new stuff and then Scott and Jenn came over for dinner and to celebrate Ashley's 17th birthday. Wow... I can't believe she is that old! We had a yummy turkey dinner and her favorite dessert. Her favorite gift was a new curfew. She was sure that she was the only one with a 11:30 curfew. So we broke down and told her she could stay out till midnight. I know, we are wimpy parents. We enjoyed talking to so many family members on Christmas and wish we could have been all together!

Here are some photo's of the day....yes, Tanner is shedding a tear in that picture of him opening the Wii.
Ok, my computer is being a little slow and it is taking forever to upload the pictures. I will add more later.

Westra's visit.... Go BYU!

My brother Todd and his sweet wife Sharolyn and 4 cute kids came to visit this week. They came down to watch the BYU game last night. I feel bad, things were a little crazy while they were here! We had a train party here on Friday night and some friends for breakfast on Saturday morning... so it was nonstop entertaining! Crazy but fun! Ashley and I got to babysit the little girls Saturday night while everyone else went to the BYU game. We were brave and took them out shopping. I am not used to car seats and diaper bags! And we didn't have a stroller. So I let little Emily walk while we were in The Gap and she was reaching for some lotion on a glass shelf and totally fell, sending all the lotions and body sprays to the floor and since the shelf was glass, it sounded awful and she bonked her head on the shelf as she fell!! It was quite the scene!! Not a very good babysitter. I felt SO bad. She was a tough little girl and only cried for a minute. I envisioned us running to the emergency room for stitches! So after that we took them to Jason's Deli for dinner and had some ice cream. That always makes things better! In all of our shopping, we did find a new comforter for Ashley's bed. She wants her room redone for her birthday.

It was so fun to have family here! I miss them all so much, especially this time of year.

3 tired girls after a long night of shopping... watching Finding Nemo.














Cute family!



















(Notice the TP hanging from the tree in the background.... John caught 4 teenage girls tp-ing our house on Friday night. he scared them to death! It was pretty funny, then he invited them in for cookies and to see the train set. the mother who drove them was mortified! Such is the life with a good looking teenaged son!)

Mitchell couldn't stay on his feet!

Mitchell finished up his fall soccer season today. I always enjoy soccer season, but I must admit that I am always happy when it is over. It was pretty cold out there today. Mitchell played good today... he was a bit tired though, 8:00 am is a little early for him. He was become a great soccer player over the years. He is excited to be in high school next year and try out for the school team.


Down he goes one more time!

We are off to the Sunburst Shutters Christmas party. It is a bowling party! We will let you know who wins.
**update** I beat John by one point! Not sure what the kids scored?? But it was fun.

Santa Claus is coming to town!

I took the kids to see Santa for the 17th time yesterday. I just hung the new picture along with the other 16 Santa photo's on the wall. I just stood there and looked at them for like 10 minutes. It is amazing how time flies. It seems like yesterday that I celebrated Christmas by giving birth to our little Ashley. That was an amazing day, one I will never forget. It was snowing like crazy and she was early and I was so scared! But all went well, and I remember so clearly holding my new baby, looking out the hospital window watching the snow fall! Beautiful!!!

I must say that seeing Santa these days isn't quite as exciting as the days where they "believed". No fun! All they want is real expensive things now! I miss the days where they were thrilled with the little Barbie and toy cars.... I guess now it's a new kind of fun! Merry Christmas!

3 more things to cross off my to do list.... YAH!

I am feeling really good! I think this is the earliest that I have ever gotten my Christmas cards done. They are ready to pop in the mail tomorrow. We always do a little collage of photo's with a theme and it usually takes me a long time to remember how to use the Photoshop Elements program to get it done, but this year I remembered the program and I got it done in a week instead of 2. How was that for a long sentence?? I am not a writer, I hated English class! Last years snow globe Christmas card took forever.

And John got the train set done last night. This is definitely the earliest that has gotten done! It looks great. He decided not to do an "I spy" this year, but do a "find what's wrong with this picture" theme. He has a bunch of things wrong, like a lamp post coming out of the sky, and cars going the wrong way and the best thing is that he made a volcano in the middle of a neighborhood. He put's dry ice in it and it looks totally real... very cool. We had our first little train party tonight and had the Jarman's (John's boss) over for dinner. The twins absolutely love it! They ask John all year whenever they see him, if the train is up yet. They were pretty cute. Here are couple of pictures of it...see the KFC bucket rolling down the street??





We also got our Christmas lights up. John taught Mitchell how to do it this year, so hopefully he can do it next year all by himself. So, I am getting closer to being ready for Christmas! I have a lot of shopping to do, but that is fun! Off to the mall!

It's Raining, It's Pouring!!!

Yah, it's raining. It smells so good. I went out for a jog this morning and it looked a bit cloudy, but didn't think the rain would come for a bit... I was about a mile into my run and it started raining. It actually made me really happy. The air was fresh and clean and it smelled so good. I miss the rainy days. I know it sounds crazy, but true. It makes me a little homesick for Seattle! The only bad thing about rain in Vegas, is that people don't know how to drive in it! You would think there was 6 inches of snow on the ground. The roads become very slick because of the oil build up on them and people don't understand that they have to slow down.

We are off to get Mitchell a hair cut! YAH... he looks like an orphan. He finally agreed to it and I didn't have to bribe him with money this time...

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas!

We spent thanksgivving weekend getting the house all decorated! It was a lot of work... but fun. The kids enjoy helping with the tree... and I am one of those mothers that likes to rearrange the tree after they decorate it... you know, they put 5 red balls right next to eachother and clump everything together, so things just need to be moved around a bit.... well, while we were decorating this weekend, Ashley said "Mom, remember when you used to rearrange the tree when we went to bed." I said, "What do you mean I used too?" She got pretty mad at me. Then she was putting some of, shall we say my "not so pretty" ornaments on and I said, "Put the ugly ones down low or in the back." and she said, "Mom, I made this in 2nd grade!" oops. Needless to say, I didn't get much help after that! I felt pretty bad. I'm not always the smartest or best mom, but I try.

I can't believe it is Christmas time! Time sure flies. I am going to do my best to enjoy the season and remember what it's all about!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We have so much to be thankful for! All week I have been feeling so lucky for our good health, great husband, great kids and so much more! We have a lot of people in our ward that are struggeling with health problems and such and I have had the opportunity to provide some service and as I have talked to these sweet sisters I have helped I have felt so greatful for the ability to serve and help them. It's much easier to give then to recieve! I feel so blessed today!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner over at Joanna Jones' home. She is my brother Scott's mother in law. It was fun to get to know Jenn's family better. They made us feel very welcome and everything was so good! We were in charge of bringing some turkey, green bean caserole and yams. Last night I was in the mood to bake, so I made an apple pie too. It was a very relaxing and enjoyable day! We missed being with more family... I hope you all had a good day.

Here are some pictures from the day...
John and I getting the turkey ready to take to Joanna's.

Scott and Jenn






Chris, James & Stephanie











Tanner hanging out after dinner...












John and the kids letting their stomach's settle.












Time for dessert... yum!










Ashley fell in love with the little babies! This is Jenn's cousin little Noah! I think he thought Ashley was cute! He sat with her for a long time.

Happy Thanksgiving! We are greatful for all of you!

Ellen!

Ashley and I LOVE watching Ellen everyday. It's a pretty funny show. 2 years ago I was able to get some tickets to a taping of Ellen and I gave them to Ashley for Christmas, but the show date ended up being during finals, so she wasn't able to go. I went with my good friends Keri and Susan. We had a blast, but I felt guilty the whole time that we were using Ashley's present. So I was so excited that I was able to get tickets again. This time I made sure the date was a day there wasn't school. So, Ashley invited her good friend Kami to come with us and we drove down Monday morning to Burbank, CA.

We found our way to NBC studios and got our passes and then stood in line for 2 hours. While we were in line they asked us to fill out a survey and then came around and asked us questions. they were looking for people who would play an audience game. They called my name 2 times and asked me lots of questions. We really thought that I might get called up to play a game, but I didn't. Bummer! I was actually relieved, the game (celebrity couples) wasn't one of my specialties, so I would have made a fool of myself!

One bummer about the show was that there is a writers strike going on down in Hollywood, so a lot of actors won't cross the picket lines.... so when we got there we aked who was going to be on the show and they didn't know??? That surprised us! So, they played an audience game and a few other things. The main guest that will be shown on the show is Celine Dion, but they filmed her last week!! Big bummer. We were sad that we didn't get to see a big celebrity and no audience prizes... but the main reason we went was to see Ellen and she was great. We sat right behind "Striker" the DJ. Ashley and Kami talked to him during the break and he gave them a hug after the show!! They were so excited. When you see Ellen come in at the very beginning of the show, she pauses and makes a funny face, that is because she was laughing at Ashley. Ashley was screaming and jumping up and down when she walked in and she saw Ashley and paused for a second and gave her a funny look! they totally made eye contact, it was cool! So, look for us in the audience. We are on the far right hand side. We were in this little section that only had 4 chairs. I have no idea if you will be able to see us... but it's worth watching.

After the show we drove up to Hisperia and stayed the night with Edie and Luke and cute little Carter (John's sister). We played a fun game of Phase 10 and stayed up way too late! I still can't believe Edie came from behind and won! She wasn't even cheating like the girls were! Thanks for having us! We got up and left this morning. We stopped in Primm to shop at the outlets for a little while and Ashley is exstatic that there is a new Hollister outlet there. They had some amazing prices.... Just in time for Christmas shopping!

saturday sports

oops, we forgot our camera! Tanner wants me to write about his football game yesterday. I think it was probably the most exciting flag footbal game in history! It is playoffs and the winner of the game plays next week in the "Superbowl". We were playing the only team that beat us and we wern't expecting to win. We had lost 30 to 6 last time. But the boys played hard! The score went back and forth, we missed one extra point and so we were down by one, then we got an interception and got ahead and made a 2 point conversion. Then they scored again and it ended in a tie game! They ref's didn't know what to do, they knew there needed to be a winner, but they usually let the games end in a tie so they didn't know what rules to do for a tie playoff game. So they made some calls and then decided it would be like college. Each team got a chance to score. We went first and scored and made the extra piont. Then the other team scored. Then the center hiked the ball for the extra point and he messed it up and it hit the ground! It was so exciting and yet so sad for that center! If they had made the extra point, they would have called them the winner, because they beat us earlier in the season. So we are off to the Superbowl next week! That means one more week of practices... I was kindof looking forward to being done! Oh well.

Then we ran straight over to Mitchell's soccer game and they were loosing 2-0 at halftime and then Mitchell scored and it change the dynamics of the game. We scored again and played really tough. It ended a tie, but felt like a win because they played so good!

Oh My Gosh...Tanner is so funny. Last week Ashley lost her camera and she told everyone she would pay whoever found it. So Tanner found it for her and everyone was happy! Just now, Ashley came in with another offer because she spent the last half hour looking for the camera, with no luck finding it. Tanner got all excited and ran to a drawer and pulled out the camera, he had hid it from her! She asked why he did that and he said, "I really need some money". It was so funny! maybe you had to be here.

Ashley and I are off to CA in the morning to go see a taping of the Ellen Degeneress show! We will write all about it on Tuesday! I am not sure if it will be aired on Tuesday or Wednesday. So be sure to watch!

Happy Birthday Mitchell!

How could my little boy be 14? I remember the day he was born and it doesn't seem that long ago.... man I'm getting old! He has grown several inches in the last few months and his voice is getting deep and the girls are calling! We got majorly TP'd on Friday night. They used the normal Tp and then put post-it notes with little notes on them all over the house! I didn't get to see it, but they say it was pretty bad. A little old man at church today said his neighbor asked him if he saw the house down the street that got TP'd so bad and he told him he new us and the neighbor was worried that someone hated us. Then he came over to look at it closer and read the post it notes and soon figured we must have a teenage son and there were girls after him!

Mitchell is still very mellow and people don't think he talks much, but we let them know that he does at home! He's a very good boy and we are so happy to have him! He got ordained a Teacher today and that was very neat. He also finished his Deacon's Duty to God. Good Job! Happy Birthday Mitchell! We love you!