Too much time with mom?

So, I was beginning to wonder if it's obvious that my kids' dad works out of town and maybe my boys have been spending a little too much time with their mom??? Taran does make a cute princess though!

puppet show

The other day the kids put on a puppet show for Joe and I, it was so cute. Here they are, they did great letting Kyler try to help also.

Valentines Parties

Somehow, I have ended up as the room mother for both Joely and Taran. For Joely the Halloween party turned out my favorite so far and for Taran it was definatly the Valentines party.

For Tarans class we divided the class into two teams, purple and red. They each had a wrist band that matched there teams color (at the end of each relay they got a sticker to put on there wristband, regardless of winning or loosing)
The first game we played was having two big cutout hearts per team...you place a heart on the ground, step on it and move your other heart in front of you to step on, trying to make it to the other side of the rug. For kindergartners, this took much more coordination then I thought, but they LOVED it.
Next we did my favorite (most of the pictures are of this relay). The night before the party the kids and I cut out millions of little tissue paper hearts. Seriously we spent a couple of hours doing this! For the relay I scattered tissue hearts everywhere in the classroom. Then each kids got a balloon. they had to rub the balloon on there hair to create static electricity, then use their 'charged' up balloons to pick up the hearts. They then brought the hearts over and stacked them in a pile with there teams hearts. This game was SUCH a BLAST! Sure it was totally messy, but man was it fun the kids couldn't contain there excitement! I will remember to do his one again!
We did a couple other relays and made a craft and had a snack, as usual I planned to do too much and we didn't have time to complete everything I wanted too (darn those short days!)
Next I went to Joelys class where we played Bingo, made a magnet out of fun foam, glitter, buttons and other stuff. We played another fast game and had treats....once again not enough time.
The day went great, but I must say I'll never be a room mom for two classes at once again...it's SO much prep work!

'Brace Face' cupcakes

What better way to celebrate new braces then matching cupcakes! Don't they look just like Joely? We made little cupcakes complete with little candy brackets to bring to Joely's 3rd grade class tomorrow. I'm sure her braces will now be a big hit with the whole class.

Joely gets braces!

This morning Joely got braces on! She was pretty excited about it. Two days ago she went in for some spacers, and her mouth has been sore since, so I hope she does well! She was so excited to choose the color of the bands, she new she was going to pick red and pink, and made sure she wore a coordinating shirt to the orthodontist today! Parents aren't allowed in the back area, but I asked if I could sneak back and get some pictures of the big day. Her before picture is right outside of the office, then some of her getting braces, and finally after with her new TIN GRIN!

Yeah for Joely

Joely received a certificate from the Bishop for memorizing all the 13 Articles of Faith! Way to go Joely!

Pine Valley Snow

After going to church and enjoying the best Sunday nap, we took the family up to Pine Valley to check out the snow! There were some really deep spots. The kids were having fun and of course freezing to death, because we surely don't have the right winter stuff for hanging out in the snow! I just love Sunday drives, and spending time with the family.

Tye Dye

Today we had Sarah come over to tye dye some shirts with us, and I must say they turned out awesome. We needed some little elementary hippies ;)

Feeling blessed....

Needless to say, if you read this you'll see why I decided not to post this when it happened. But, as it turned out Joel called me and left me crying thinking about what happened in our family a couple of weeks ago...

A couple weeks ago Joel and I were in SLC with our family to check out the Draper temple open house. On Sunday we went to church with Joels sister, after we came back to her apartment to visit her and later have dinner. As we were getting ready to leave the kids were acting up, begging to stay and play longer. (Lets face it, we were staying in a motel and it was a Sunday, of course they wanted to stay) I on the other hand was ready to get out of my church clothes, we had been there for hours! Well, Cheri starts telling us we should just go to a movie and let the kids play. We said no, but now the kids were all agreeing and Cheri wanted them to stay...so needless to say, we agreed.

Cheri told us she would be gone for a half hour while she went to a baptism fireside, but she has teenage daughters, so it would be no big deal.

We left, drove up to our motel to change (on the other side of the valley) and decided on a movie. We drove to the theater (Yes, I already know it was a Sunday...and I have enough guilt about that) and went in. Joel decided to call and check on the kids while the previews were playing...but no one answered. He continued to call, same thing. Finally Austin (9yr old nephew) calls us back.

Joel asked why they never picked up the phone. Austin casually answers "Because we were looking for Kyler" Joel asked to talk to Kelsy and find out what the heck Austin was talking about. Kelsy gets on the phone and also rather casually mentions that they are looking for Kyler, and the neighbors are helping.

At this point Joel jumps out of his seat, and starts yelling "What the heck is going on" he is also running out of the theater, and I am following him. He starts shouting questions like 'Are you serious, you cant find Kyler' Now we are both running at adrenline pumped speed to our car, which is parked SOOO far away. We get in, and start speeding towards Bangitor highway, running stop lights and anything in our way. At this point I am hysterical.

Joel is on the phone still with Kelsi, and ask's if they have called 911 yet, they say no. I yell at Joel to get there address and phone number so I can call.

As a side note, my car says it is 21 degrees outside, there is snow everywhere, and it's compeletly dark out. Cheri lives way down by the point of the mountain, and we are at least 20 minutes away.

I call 911, and give them the information I have, they ask some questions about the apartment, of course I cant answer anything because I have only been there once. Franticly I just start saying just send police there, we are from out of town, just send the police there now! ( I hope to never hear what I must have sounded like on that call, I know it must have been pretty bad because, they put some councilor on a second line just to try and calm me...fat chance of that happening)

Somehow, and I'm fuzzy on this, I must have been done talking to 911 and had to call them back again, because about 10 minutes later I was back on the phone with them. We were still driving. The police told us they had a little boy in custody, and would stay at the apartments with him. I was realived they got there so fast, but we were still a wreck.

We continue to drive to Cheri's, knowing that the kids must be relived being there with Kyler and the police.

We get to Cheri's and we see people outside walking around and NO POLICE! Instantly I become hysterical again, wondering how there could have been such a huge misunderstanding. Joel runs into Cheri's to ask if they have Kyler yet, and I get on the phone with 911 again. I must have sounded so crazy as I start yelling, 'you said you ahd our boy, you said you would be here, but no body is here. Where is the poilce, why isn't anybody here.' I was completely freaking out!

They told us we needed to go to a certain apartment building and knock on door G101. That's all we know, so we go looking for G101, it's about a 1/2 block to a block away.
We knock on the door and a young family with 3 young boys answer, and there is Kyler. I start crying the mom starts crying, Joel and the other dad start crying. It was so emotional. I was so greatful that he was alive, wondering how long he had been outside..assuming he had been missing for 20-30 minutes.

I ask them what happened, so that we could hear her story, and she starts out with "Well we found him about an hour and a half ago" I didn't think we could break down any more, but we did! I swear my world just came unglued...and hour and a half thats about how long we had been gone! Nobody noticed he was gone until about 5 minutes before we started calling!

They continued with there story, saying how they were all supposed to go somewhere, but the husband decided to go by himself so the rest of the family could stay and watch a movie, however there 3 year old wanted to play in his room (which had the only window in the apartment building that faced where Kyler was found)

The dad left, and a little later, the little boy came out and told his mom that there was a little boy outside crying. The mom goes out and Kyler was at the edge of a parking lot by a little fence (the snow was to the top of it) trying to get over (there is nothing but a straight drop off and snow for along time on the other side, these apartments are in a very rural part of Bluffdale) Kyler was crying and pointing over the little fence yelling for daddy.

The mom picked up Kyler and started walking aroung the apartments, expecting a mom or dad to come running down the road looking for him any moment....but no one comes. So she took Kyler in her house and calls the police department, they come over. Of course someone will call the police station soon, with a report of a lost child...but it never happens. Kyler was still dressed in his church clothes, so they decide to take a chance and call the Bishop to see if he recognizes Kyler, he doesn't. But he then calls the Primary president to come over, who then calls the Nursery leaders to come over. Desperately, they were hopping someone may just recognize him, someone remembers seeing him in church, but doesn't know who he belonged too. (Remember, we went to Cheri's ward that day)

Finally over an hour later 911 gets a fanatic call from me about a lost boy. We arrive an hour and a half after the fact...I don't think I will ever be able to wrap my head around that one.

We figure if Kyler was walking straight to that point, it would have taken him about 15 minutes...in the freezing cold. That's assuming he made a straight walk there, and the little boy instantly saw him outside.

The sickening feeling Joel and I had was unexplainable. As we drove to the motel Joel said I think we need to say a long prayer, because we have surely been blessed tonight! No one can ever say that blessing and miracles don't happen, because we have been at the receiving end! (Hard to type when I'm crying)

Joel and I couldn't sleep that night, one of us would randomly say things like "You know we should be out looking for him right now" or "I can't believe we have our whole family with us!" Joel later told me how all he could think of was the dad who left his 2 year old asleep in the truck while he went hunting and they found him a half a mile away in the snow dead...and that all happened in shorter time then our 1 1/2 hour time. We truly were blessed.

I don't think I can talk much more about our feelings that night. Some of those feelings however were resurfaced tonight as Cheri called Joel to come and fix her car at her apartment. He told her "I just don't think I can go back down there again" But he did, and after he left he told me how he drove to were they found Kyler and just cried because of how lucky we were and what could have been. He told me that he doesn't want to go to Cheri's apartments building again, it was just to hard...I don't think I could go there.

In case I don't say it enough, I love my family. I am grateful for my husband and each one of my children!

Happy Groundhogs Day!

Stress!

I am stressing about Food Storage! I wonder if everybody is feeling the same feeling I am, that the economy is getting worse, and who knows just how bad it's actually going to get. I just can't seem to shake the feeling that I need to collect more food storage, I worry that we will actually be using it soon, not just collecting it, but relying on it! Doesn't that thought just scare you? I know it does me! I hope to be just overly concerned, but then again I think I have talked to 6 people just today about food storage, and I only brought it up to one person, the other 5 times it was brought up to me! Maybe it's on all of our minds right now!

Magnets

So, my grandma goes out to lunch once a month with the girls from her high school graduating class. There are 24 ladies, so I made these cute magnets out of some bright flowers, then I added the word 'friend' under a flat marble. They turned out really cute, then I coordinated a paper that showed where they were meeting for lunch for the year. I hope my grandma's friends think they are as cute as I thought they were!

Taran

Yesterday I was driving and Taran was looking out the window finally he asked me "Mom, do they make those polls and strings (talking about telephone polls and the wires) so that the birds have a place to sit?" Pretty cute question if you ask me!

Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese New Year. Yesterday was officially Chinese New Year, it is the year of the Ox. We celebrated with the Johnson's, which has become a tradition. She made some Chinese and Thai dishes that were super yummy. Then the kids made an Ox magnet and we played charades where the kids took turns acting out animals from the Chinese zodiac. We had a lot of fun and the kids were excited to bring their magnets to school to show them off!

On the Chinese Zodiac, Joel and Joely were both born in the year of the Dragon.
Taran and I were both both in the year of the Goat, and Kyler was born in the year of the Dog, and obviously the new baby will be born in the year of the Ox.

Yipee

Joel got me the Cricut Expression on Saturday! I am SO excited, I think he was just get tired of me always saying how much I wanted it. This is perfect timing because I have to make a bulletin board for the Primary room by next Sunday, and I am in charge of sharing time on Sunday also. My old cricut will be moving to a new home, my friend Amy Johnson has a preschool, so Joel told her she could have the other cricut :)

Muddy Day

I love rainy days! Luckily it was warm enough to enjoy, Kyler was loving the mud, and well let's face it mud is fun! So here is my muddy buddy!

1 Nephi done!

In primary we are reading the Book of Mormon, and we are pleased to say that we have completed 1 Nephi! This is a pretty exciting day for the kids!

Inauguration

Yesterday both kids watch ed the Inauguration in school. Yes, Joel and I also watched it at home. After school Taran was all excited at his Barack Obama flag he made and told me that Barack was just 'over the orange states' I think he meant United States. :)

Hip Hip Hooray for 100 day

It's 100 day in school, so I made some cupcakes to bring into Joely's class. Taran's class is celebrating next week, so I'll be doing this again next week.

Draper Utah Temple

We took our kids up to see the open house of the Draper Utah Temple (actually we just got back about an hour ago) and let me tell you it was so beautiful!

So here's how the day went, we went on Saturday to see it. We got dressed up in our church clothes at the motel around 3pm. Then for some reason Joel calls his sister in SLC, they talk about the temple, and she mentions that most people will probably be in regular clothes, not church clothes....Joel gets off the phone and declares that we should all change our clothes again...and we do.

We then drive to the temple, needless to say we don't have a map or address, but hey it's a huge temple, it cant be too hard to find. True, it wasn't too hard, but we did get a chance to see many houses due to wrong turns.

We then get to the temple and the parking lot isn't too full, naturally we like awesome we totally lucked out, we pull in, where there are two men to great us, the kindly tell us that there is no parking at the temple. They have three stake centers set up for people to park at and get shuttled up to the temple. They give us a map, and we head to one of the stake centers. (Now we notice the hords of busses passing us)

We get to the stake center, finally find a parking spot, and notice that NOBODY not one person is in casual clothes. Dang us for listening to Tawni! Now we have to decide if we want to stay or go back to the motel and change... we opt to drive back and change.

Take two of changing into our church clothes.... and driving back to the stake center.

We decided to call Tample Square on our way back to the Stake Center, to see if they can give us more info....they mention we just need to show up at the designated stake center at the time indicated on our ticket...what a ticket, we don't have a ticket, where do you get a ticket. Now we are stressing about this whole thing, but we do still go to the stake center. We go in, where we notice tons of people sitting on rows of chairs filling the whole cultural hall. They ask us for a ticket, where we explain we are from out of town and don't have a ticket. We were told it was okay and to sit on an assigned row.

They call out about two rows at a time to board the bus, we can tell it's going to be a long wait, we weren't wrong. When we get called, we find out we don't board a bus, but go to another room to watch a movie, then we board the bus.

At the temple we get dropped of at this covered walkway they have set up that leads you to the temple, and it is chuck full of people. More people then could have been imagined, and the line creeps along. All in all it took us three hours to get through the tour....but, it was all worth it!

The Temple was so so so pretty! The kids did great considering it took us such a long time.

This was the first Saturday the tour was opened, so I think others will have an easier time then us, just remember 1.Wear church clothes 2.No parking at the Temple 3. Be prepared to wait

I hope everyone gets a chance to see it, I think the tour is opened until March 14th!