Spring Break - Day 1

We decided to go visit my sister, Erin, for the day. We haven't been to her home in Pleasant Grove yet and decided it would be a great time to go. Her kids weren't out of school, but it was Michael's early out day.

Playing in Erin's backyard.

We just hung out in the morning and then when Michael got out of school we went to BYU to the Bean Life Science Museum. It was a lot larger than we thought. Each of the girls had a paper with a picture of the animals that they had to find and the boys had papers with questions. It was like a scavenger hunt. The kids had a great time!

The kids in front of this huge elephant in the middle of the museum!

I had to get this picture of Chandler in front of a Gaur's head. He had a huge research project on The Gaur. This was really exciting for him to see what one actually looked like.

When we got back from the museum, we went to the park across the street to let the kids play.

Colby & Jacob

The view from the park.

Shyann's New Do

The day after Shelby's haircut, my sister, Stacy, called to see if Shyann wanted her hair cut now. Shy didn't. But then the next day, I was brushing Shy's hair and she told me she wanted her hair cut short. I told her I would cut a few inches off first and then if she wanted it shorter, we would go to Stacy's. She agreed and was very excited. So here is her new 'do.

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The girls with their new styles.

Trying to catch up

So my sister kind of got after me for not updating my blog. So here goes. Yes there will be a few posts, but I can say I will be caught up (for the most part).

A new Hobby

I have found a new "hobby"! Food Storage and grocery shopping deals. I know, it sounds pretty odd. However, my love and joy of digital scrapbooking has taken a back seat to this new found "hobby". I know, I can't believe it either. It is true.

It all started a few months ago. Around the end of Dec. I had this feeling that I needed to work on getting my basement cleaned out and organized. A friend of mine called and asked if I had any baby boy clothes for a neighbor of hers. So while I was at it, I gave away the rest of my baby clothes and baby gear. I was able to clear out three shelves in my storage room and it was such a feeling of a weight being lifted off. That got me in the mode of doing more. So I went through a lot of my scrapbooking stuff. Never thought I'd be able to do that. Paper scrapping is how my love of scrapbooking started. However, since I digital scrapbook, I figured I wouldn't miss it too much. I filled (plus some) a xerox box of old scrapbooking supplies and gave them away. Another feeling of relief! AAAHHH... I'm loving that feeling. About a week later, Casey said he was listening to a conference talk and asked me if I would be willing to work on food storage. FOOD STORAGE? Are you kidding? I have no idea where to even start. Way overwhelming to think about a year's supply of food! That week, our enrichment was on saving money and a 19x19 meal plan. This should be interesting. LOVED IT!

Then in February I attended a Pantry Secrets Enrichment. I learned to make bread. This is the most amazing bread. This bread takes me 1 hour from start to finish! Believe it! Unless I make rolls or a braid it will take a few minutes to shape. What really hit home for me on this was when Chandler came home from school the day after I made it and asked if he could have a piece of bread. Bread? Really? Not something he normally asks for, but ok, there's a loaf on the counter. No, he didn't want the store bought, he wanted the homemade. Needless to say, I haven't bought a loaf of bread since then. This bread dough is more than just bread. I can make braids, breadsticks, cinammon sticks, stuffed crust pizza, and more. Another one that hit me was when Chandler ate two slices of the stuffed crust pizza. He hates when I order stuffed crust from other pizza places, he would not eat the crust, EVER! Now it's his favorite! The only trick is, I haven't been able to make it gluten-free. I even had my sister who has celiac try and she couldn't do it either.

I have found a lot of great websites. I have almost got all of my year supply of food. Yes, it is an overwhelming thought, but trust me, if I can do it, so can anyone else! I didn't enjoy grocery shopping ever! Now it's one of my favorite things to do. I look at my favorite recipes. Then I thought about how I could make some of them non-perishable because that's what I needed for my main year supply food storage. Then, I went and bought the ingredients I would need that were in the caselot sale. Now that my main meals are mostly bought, I need to stock up on items that I go through faster (or the kids). Chandler is going to eat us out of house and home and he's only 9. So I need to stock up on cereals, snacks, toilet paper (it's getting there), quick meals, etc. We go through cereal so quickly, but I'm finally feeling like I'm ahead of the game. I look forward to finding the "great deals" for groceries. I can't believe the amounts of money I am saving now. For example, last night I went and bought 6 boxes of cereal (raisin bran, shredded mini wheat, and honey bunches of oats - no sugar cereals here), 3 boxes of 12-count Pop Tarts, and 18 count eggs for...... are you ready to hear how much I spent..... are you sure? $12. Serious! What a great deal - I saved nearly $30. My favorite was about 3 weeks ago. I bought 10 boxes of 12-count poptarts (they make a great after school snack for Chandler who is always hungry), 6 boxes of cereal, 4 boxes of choc chip cookies for Casey(ok me, too), 2 packages of lettuce, and 2 bags of doritos for..... $38! I saved $66. Yep, amazing isn't it? My sisters now want me to just buy groceries for them. I have had such a great time doing this. I love coming home and showing Casey the amount of food I purchased and then showing him the receipts.

My sister asked me to come down and show her how I do things. That made me feel really good. It made me feel like I actually may have figured out some of this overwhelming idea. By no means have I got it entirerly figured out, but I am so glad that I have been able to figure out a way for us to save money and get out food storage building. Like I said there are a lot of great websites out there that gave me a boost. I've been busy organizing my cold storage room and my pantry. It feels so good! I really feel like I will be blessed for being obedient to what the prophets have asked of us for so long.

A new 'do!

Shelby has been begging me for about 2 or 3 weeks to cut her hair short. I said I wouldn't do it above the shoulders, we would have to ask Aunt Stacy to do it. I was hoping she'd kind of forget about it. But we had a Hansen birthday party for the girls and she mentioned to Stacy that she wanted her hair cut. I had made my appointment, so Stacy said she would fit Shelby in while my color was processing. Shelby was SOOOOO excited! I checked her out of school so that she could go with me. She loved going to the shop. Since my hair was processing, I asked Stacy to take a few photos for me.

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The cut is actually very cute on her. I was most nervous about her having it done because she's always been picky on her hair. However, she knows what she wants and you can't change her mind. Thanks Stacy for the great cut!

Birthday Girls!

I cannot believe my babies have turned 7! It seems so unreal. They are beautiful little girls and bring such joy to our home.

Our blonde haired-blue eyed sweetie. She is such a talented little girl. So many things come naturally for her. She loves piano, singing, dancing, and doing the splits. She has always been one to watch intently and then when she is ready to try something, she does it perfectly. She did that as a baby before crawling or walking. As soon as she was ready, she never fell. Dancing at age 4, she could keep up with her dance teacher. Her piano she has sailed through and even passed up Colby who'd been playing for 8 months with a different teacher. Her latest and greatest accomplishment and successfully wheeling around on "Heelies" without falling.


Our brown-haired, brown-eyed beauty. This little one is going to keep us busy. Casey keeps telling me he is going to take a 6-year sabbatical as soon as she's a teenager. She's a fashion diva. Has to have her clothes just so, has to do her own hair. Has massive attitude that I never thought I'd hear from a 6-7 year old. She is strong willed. If she wants to do something, she'll do it. At 3, she broke her wrist because she was positive she could do the monkey bars. Then 2 weeks after getting her cast off, she went down a slide and had to have stitches from cutting her lip open. She wants to have fun in life and doesn't care about consequences.

Happy Birthday Girls! We are so blessed to have you in our family.

Denise's Update

Denise had her first chemo treatment on Feb. 27. Her husband had to work that night and so she called to see if I would be willing to spend the night with her. When she'd gone through this before, the meds they give her at chemo knock her out so she was afraid she would need help with her kids. Siena had a late night party and Brad's sister took Isaac, so I had Taegan and Kambree to take care of (I picked up Siena around 11 pm). Denise however, did awesome! She was a little tired, but she stayed up for mine and Taegan's "late night" party. We watched a movie and played a little Wii. Kambree only wanted her mommy to take care of her so that was a little hard. On the 28th she was even up to going to two baptisms. Her neighbor's little girl and our niece. By the end of lunch, she was exhausted. So she took home Kambree to get some sleep. Between Michelle and I we took care of Taegan and Siena. I took them home late that night. Monday was a difficult day for her, she was very sick. She started losing her hair about the middle of last week. She called me Monday night and said she'd had enough so she went up to our sister's home to have her head shaved. The kids all got a chance to cut off some hair and shave a little. She'll have her next treatment on the 20th. Hopefully she does just as well. She's eating just about everything, except our beloved chocolate.