New friends and Roommate Reunion

Life is good in our hood. We found a new granola recipe that we can't get enough of! We went for Sushi to celebrate love (was that two weeks ago now?) and we are making new friends. I visit teach Danielle and she is not active (but pays tithing :), her husband is not a member. We’ve had dinner with them twice now and played board games twice. They are very fun, friendly and genuine people. I had the idea last week to have Danielle be an assistant YW camp director. It felt like inspiration so if the Bishop thinks it's a good idea I'll be really excited! 

Habitica is helping me to slay my daily tasks. It's fun to be playing the piano more regularly and to be exercising regularly with our workout program. :D 

I've almost finished with the Anatomy of Peace. It’s just soooo good. Everyone should read this book. 

 Heather and I just spent the most wonderful weekend with our Birch Plaza roommates from almost 9 years ago! We had lots of yummy food, made some friendship bracelets and went to see Cache Valley’s production of “My Fair Lady”. And we had LOTS of conversation which was my favorite part. These ladies are amazing! Alyssa (polka dots) flew from Pennsylvania to be with us! the others are from Idaho (near Rexburg) and Arizona. 

Yes, this is a cookie monster/pazookie aka GIANT cookie straight out of the oven with ice cream, whipped cream, caramel and chocolate on top. 

Our Valentines Day sugar cookies! 

St. George Trip

Dad and I spent the week (Mon-Fri) in Saint George. In my mind it was going to be warm in Saint George, but most of the time we spent trying to get warm. We didn't pack quite enough heavy warm clothing!  But the views were still beautiful and we enjoyed great company, great food and fun games in the evening!  Here's a few of my favorite pics.

Here's our party

We're at the tri-corner of Utah, Nevada and Arizona!

Dinosaur tracks

February Family Photo

February Family Photo

Not much has gone on this week. I guess the highlighlight was Valentine's Day. I got to spend the day with the girls at Heather's making cookies. We weren't as professional as Jill, but they were pretty tasty.

Last Sunday Hunter got his Patriarchal Blessing. That was a special occasion. President Allred is our Patriarch, and he gave Hunter a very special blessing. He said it would be appropriate for me to have all of my children's patriarchal blessings to keep in a family history. I thought that was a great idea, so I'd like each of you to send me a copy of your patriarchal blessings if you would.

Dad and I are getting ready to leave in the morning for some ATV riding in Saint George. We're looking forward to returning to some warmer weather.  So better pictures will follow next week.

Love you all!

Happy Valentine's Day

One of my friends posted this on Facebook and I really appreciated it... couldn't stop smiling :) Enjoy!

Fun in the Caribbean and Puerto Rico

We had a wonderful time on our Southern Caribbean Cruise as well as the time spent in Vieques and Puerto Rico. Islands visited were St. Thomas, St. John, Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, & St. Maarten.

Here are a few of my favorite pics.

This is a picture with Victor on Vieques. He picked us up at the airport and was a favorite of ours. He took us to his farm and showed us all the work he has gone to to make a living. He's awesome!

The above picture is in Puerto Rico in the Yunque Forest. We took a nice Sunday hike to this waterfall.

Then we made it to the port and boarded the Carnival Fascination Ship.

 Here is a picture of it in the daylight at a different port.

The next few pictures are taken at Hunte's Botanical Garden on Barbados. We thought it well-represented the Garden of Eden. It was so beautiful!

On the way to the botanical garden, our driver took us to a place where he held a banana out of the window and monkeys came right to us and let us feed them. It was pretty awesome!

Another beautiful picture stop on Barbados

The next pictures were taken in St. Lucia - a very mountainous, beautiful island.

The volcanic, sulfuric, mud bath here is adding 10 years to our lives. Woohoo!

This is Diamond Waterfall in the Botanical Garden we toured in St. Lucia

The Pitons are famous here.

Not a favorite picture, but this represents the snorkeling trips we took - four or five of them. I'm not raving about the coral or large amounts of colorful fish, but it was still fun.  We saw a turtle or two.

Our fun table each night for dinner with our helpers. We loved all the different food selections and often chose two or three appetizers and maybe 2 main dishes. Yes, we were pigs.

All too soon it was time to leave the fun ship. The waiters and waitresses always entertained us during dinner time. This is part of their farewell song to us. If it won't play, try hitting the youtube icon.  I agree that we need to go "again, again, again!"

Workout Incentive Program

Hello,

I'm looking for a few people to join me in this new workout incentive program. As many people as want can participate, and if nobody is interested then I'll just have to do it with Dad. Here is how it works:

• Everyone is required to workout 5 days a week. 
• Each workout must be at least 20 minutes long.
• At the end of each week, you donate a dollar to the pool for every workout you missed.
• The donated money is then split between everyone who hit their 5 workouts.
• If everyone misses, the money carries over into the next week.

Pretty simple right? Obviously nobody is going to get rich or lose a lot of money; However, if you commit to playing, you are not allowed to drop out for six months. Let me know if you want in. We will start next week.

Photo Credit - Heather DeLong

We are boring, but I take lots of pictures

Not much new in life here. Below is a selection of photos of my phone. 

Lovely.  I find lots of shots like this on my phone. I'm lucky. The ones of Chris are the best but I'll spare you #noseboogers

Chris and I are done with our whole 30 this week.  YAY! I made a chicken veggie soup tonight that I didn't think the kids wold like because it was super spicy so I made them chicken cheese broccoli nachos.  Kaden approved. 

Beckham uses a lot of purple and pink things. The bumbo, the bouncer, the play mat. He's cool with it.  

More fun selfies.

I like him.  A lot. 

We've started feeding Beckham cereal at night.  It has made us all happier.  He sleeps about 10 consecutive hours at night now.  And hooray his belly issues are slowly getting better.  

Brielle LOVES makeup.  She is always extra happy when she gets to wear it and walks around the house saying random things like "I am beautiful" and  "This is perfect!"

When I saw this outfit I had to have it Beckham is called "little dude" the majority of the time at our house.

That's all from us.  

XOXOXO