My Books!!

So, finally both of my books are here!! Yippee!! I'm so excited!! (notice the exclamation marks)

They both turned out great, though the next blog book will be much better. The vacation book is huge, almost 200 pages. The blog book ended up being about 170 pages.

As I was reading through each of them it just made me so grateful for the technology that we have now. I'm so grateful that I have the ability to make these books that will hopefully be handed down from generation to generation. It took so much time to make them but they're worth EVERY second of it!

If any of you want to come see them, you're more than welcomed to! :)

Tae Kwon Do

I have always been interested in the martial arts, not the movies by any means, but the actual act of doing them. While in Texas, I got to go to my friend's kid's Tae Kwon Do classes and I just sat there thinking, "I need to do this!" So, once I was home, I thought about it and finally decided that I was serious and that I wanted to take classes (running wasn't "enjoyable" and I needed to find some form of exercise that I'd "want" to do).

Well, last night was my first class. It went really well except for me almost passing out because I was locking my knees..."Keep my knees bent!! Keep my knees bent!!" I kept reminding myself. The instructor was very very positive about my coordination and ability to do the moves on the first day. That made me feel so good!! I have to say that I'm a bit sore today but nothing that I can't handle. In fact, I love this kind of sore...it means I got in some good exercise!! YIPPEE!!!

Here I am in my nice new uniform...I ate a choc. dipped ice cream on the way home from class (I gave myself a reward for getting positive feedback) and if you look really close, you can see it ALL OVER my uniform!!! Not my smartest choice. But I'm glad to say that it came out with a little elbow grease and a cycle in the washing machine. And, for those of you who are knowledgeable in Tae Kwon Do, I know that my fist is in the wrong place in the photo but I was in a hurry to get my chocolate-covered uniform off and into the washer. I was like, "Hurry and take a picture Greg! Hurry!!" I didn't stop to think about where my fist was suppose to be! The next photos I post will be better and maybe I'll be wearing a different belt, as well! :)

"Lego" Fun

When Greg and the kids start playing with Legos, I think Greg gets transported back to his childhood. He absolutley loved Legos as a child and I think it makes him happy to see that his kids love them too. And as usual, I love to see Gregor and the kids bonding as "Father and son/daughter" that means more to me than most anything!

Here are their creations...


Buddy's "helicocker"


Buddy and his fun new flying toys. If you look closely, you can see his little mouth is making the engine noise...too cute!!


Not much gets better than a "helicocker" and a couple of "airpwanes" with wheels!


Hannah and her creation. She made a ship (like the Titanic) and this bus for Buddy to play with. She's such an amazing big sister!

So Excited!!

I just checked and my "vacation book" is going to be delivered tomorrow!! I can't wait!! I hope it turns out as good as I'm envisioning it. Good thing I don't have much longer to wait to find out :)

YIPPEE!!

Surprised?

Ok, so I'm sitting here, in the desert, in the middle of August with rain falling all around me. Am I surprised?!? No, no I'm not! Because today across the complete state of Utah, all LDS church classes have been canceled so that the entire state could watch the Oquirrh Hills Temple dedication in every Stake Center in Utah. It's kind-of like General Conference...almost everyone is accompanied by rain. I love the rain! I love how calming it is and how it makes everything so beautiful and fresh and new! I think it's a loving gift from our Heavenly Father or maybe even the angels crying for joy at the new temple being dedicated! (That's what I would have thought when I was a kid and it still makes me happy inside to think of it that way!)

Greg and Hannah went to the 9am dedication session and I get to go with my mom to the 3pm session. I can't wait! It's so amazing how a simple Stake Center can have the feel of you walking into a temple, when a temple dedication is going on in it! The Spirit is just so strong and so wonderful!!

Have I said lately just how much I love this gospel? And how grateful I am for having it in my life? And how amazing it is that my children are being raised with a righteous father who holds and honors the priesthood? I'm not sure how Greg and I managed to make it to where we are, coming from where we came from, but words can't express how thankful I am!! What a miracle!

Our Mommy-Daughter Date

This month I had the specail opportunity to go on a "Mommy-Daughter Date" with Hannah. It was an activity for her Achievement Days. Hannah was very excited about it because she was going to get to do my hair and my make-up. It was a kind-of pampering activity, focused mainly on the inner beauty but also on having fun with our outer beauty.

I think Hannah did a wonderful job on my make-over, starting with my glitter mascara and ending with my fancy twists in my hair! She was thrilled that I did her make-up and put a braid, with beads on the end of it, in her hair. We also did each other's nails and gave each other foot massages. It was a VERY GIRLY evening, spent with my favorite "girly".

It was a fun bonding activity that I think we may do more often just in our own home.




The "before" picture


Hannah's "after" picture...(I really didn't put tons of make-up on her but she felt so grown up. It was cute to see how confident and beautiful she felt....funny how mak-up and outer beauty stuff can do that to us!)


Hannah applying the "sparkle" mascara! HOT stuff...gotta get me some of that! :)

My fun hair with twists in it! I had a few in the back as well and also my bangs were up in a twist. I was very impressed! I think she did a wonderful job!!

The finished product!

Interesting Day

Ok, so today something happened that never happens! I got Hannah off to school, did the laundry, read Gabe a couple of books, took a shower, laid Gabe down for a nap, and then I found myself....bored!! Literally bored!! I was like..."What do I do now?!?" I thought about taking a nap but I wasn't really tired so that option was out. So instead, I decided, for the first time in I don't know how long, to turn on the TV in the middle of the day! I watched the finals for "So You Think You Can Dance" (had it taped from when I was on vacation). Yes, so I sat on my couch, drinking my Diet Coke (drug-free) and eating whatever thing I felt like and watched my show. Complete couch potato!!

Now, I would like to say that it felt good and that I deserved it but I'm not sure how I feel about it. Actually, I feel like I wasted 2 hrs of precious time but I'm not sure what I "should have" done instead! I mean there's always something, right?!? I had debated on going to my craft room and scrapbooking but our upstairs is too hot for that (I don't have a ceiling fan in my craft room) and I thought about doing some genealogy but opted out of that too because I already have so much to organize. I suppose I could've organized my genealogy but I didn't think of that until just now. I also realized, after the fact, that I could've read more of an interesting book I'm reading but didn't cross my mind.

I think what's happened is for the past 3 weeks I've been working on the "vacation book" and "blog book" and now that they're both done, I feel like I don't have a "project" to focus on, I feel bored. It's a very strange feeling...to feel like you have nothing to do!

Tomorrow better be more interesting because I WILL NOT become a couch potato in the middle of the day again, I'll save that until after the kids are in bed. It's totally a-okay to turn into a couch potato after 8:30pm at night...right?!?