La Caille

Sorry, no pictures on this one, I wished I did!
Since Jared is on the Governing Board of our children's school we were invited to the 9th grade graduation dinner and dance held at La Caille last night. The kids were dressed to the 'T' in there gowns and tuxedos. It is a very formal night as they have been taking an etiquette course over the last 3 years (if they have attended the school that long). Upon arrival, we were cordially met by the school directors line and then ascending upstairs we were greeted with a boutonniere for Jared and a wrist corsage for me and a glass of lemonade! Entering the banquet room an instrumental quintet played beautifully while we mingled with the teacher's FSO Board and students. We had a lovely dinner where we even tried escargot, I tried it, I just didn't chew it, swallow and drink! We then got sorbet to cleanse our pallet in preparation for the 3 course meal! After dinner the students danced dances they had learned in their class. In keeping to my 'have more fun in life' Jared and I had a good time dancing with the kids, but off to the side a bit as to not get in the way! Although for one waltz they some how were short a girl and I got to dance with one of the 9th grade boys, I am sure he wasn't to impressed to dance with an 'old lady'. Jared says, he should have, he got the 'girl of the room'! What else is a husband to say, but I do enjoy the compliment none the less! We were the only adults who danced and it wasn't out of lack of trying to get others to join in! I don't know what it is, but I cannot get the slower dances figured out as I always step on Jared's feet! However, we do have a good time doing the swing! It was so much fun. After the dance we watched a short slide show and had an ice cream crepe and a big chocolate dipped strawberry! Yum! Yum! And I wonder why my hips won't go down!
I am so glad Jared and I got to go out for a fun night. You would have thought it was my graduation as I was in such a fun & happy mood when we left!
I am so grateful for such a great, hard working husband. I am also grateful for his parents who so willingly and often take our kids for us so we are able to have these opportunities. I am also grateful for the opportunity my kids have to go to such a great and inspiring school. It is so worth the 7 minute each way drive every morning. The directors and teachers are amazing and I love that they know my kids and us and our concerns intimately (marked by very close association, contact, or familiarity)!!!!! I love our school!

Birthday Fun

Anika's 3rd birthday party was at The Kid Barn
which is a 5000 sq. ft. warehouse with bounce houses.
We invited 3 of Anika's little friends, but only one was able to make it, (Ya Boston!)
but that's okay. Side Note- Parents, I know it is easy to threaten your kids of a punishment of "you better be nice or you can't go to your friends party today" Yes, I have even threatened it, but be careful because you may have to follow through...! And are you punishing your child or the birthday child and the hard work the parents went through to pay and get it ready?! That is all I will say about that! :)
So, like my friend Ali said in her latest blog, she is trying to find more joy in life. I recently had been thinking about that as well, and I decided that we, as the adults would not be able to sit on the side lines watching, but we all needed to bounce and jump and play as well! What fun it was. Although I do have to admit this morning I am a little stiff from climbing the rope to the top of the slide and I slept in until 9am-sad, but true!:( Thank goodness for 1 o'clock church! Even Grandpa Allen (B.A.) climbed the slide, although he did did fall into a smoldering heap at the bottom of the ladder, but in his defense it was 5 steps quite steep!!! With Kennedy's

help grabbing his hand at the top he was able to make it over! ;) Watch out Grandma Allen (Velene) no excuses of teeth or socks, next time we will bring advil and socks for you! As always, Chantel and Kennedy were a great help
with entertaining the kids. The kids ran from one to the next,


never missing a beat. Alex loved racing through the obstacle course as he was beating everyone. I was the last he challenged, and it was a pretty smug challenge as his confidence was up as he had even won all the adults he had raced. Being the competitive person I am, (especially with a smug 7 year old, well almost 8 who thinks by the time he is done, maybe his mom would be through the first part!) I took him on! So, when I was ahead and he had to turn to cheating by pulling and jumping on my legs all it took was one good kick to the chest to pop him off and I still came out victoriously! Aubrey and Andrew were cute to help push Anika
and Boston's little bums up on the bounce slides as a few of them were a little high or slippery for them to climb! Anika and Boston had fun together climbing up
the slides (they probably aren't sore!)and are cute little buddies
hopefully, they will get more playing in over the summer months.
The birthday fun went to our house were Anika opened presents
and had yummy Princess Cake
(thanks Costco). I would have to say this was my least stressed birthday party and it was still a great success! Happy Birthday Anika! We Love You.

Happy 3rd Birthday Rocket Monkey

Happy Birthday to my youngest child who is now 3! Time please slow down...This morning she woke up and has her perfect personality pajamas on, spazzy monkey's wearing tutu's. This is our little girl, a little spazzy, a lot spunky keep up and get dirty and yet very girly who loves dress-up and dolls. She brings so many smiles into our home and we all love her.

A Love/Hate Relationship

Okay, so I like to watch the tv show Lost, and it is driving me crazy! All these theories, which I know nothing about, except that you watch it and then are on a cliff hanger until the next week! Yes, it is true I have watched it from the beginning, so for a few years now! Now in the middle of the season finale, the boat blows up and they (who are on the helicpoter are headed back to the island, except we know they make it home form flash forwards!!! Every time I say that is it I am not watching any more, I am always here Thursday nights watching to find out what the heck a the so called 'theories is/are! Therefore my love/hate relationship off the show! Got to go it is back on!!!!!!!

Zoo Day

We have had a busy week with the end of school funs! Andrew had kindergarten
Zoo Day and Jared and I went with the kids
(sorry again to Alex who was in school!!) We did buy an annual pass so anyone who wants to go...I can get in 1 guest and 3 extra kids....! It started off a little on the chilly side, but keeping up with kids keeps one warm! Our good friend Jennifer Hilbig (my marathon partner!) and her kids hung out with us for most of the day which made it fun for me! A lot of the animals were up and moving around, it was fun to see
them up close. The funniest part was going in the giraffe building, where the odor isn't the most pleasant to the human noise, and all the kids plugging their nose
and poor Andrew had to leave or "I am going to puke!" the poor thing had to go back in to use the bathroom...to pee!
Everyone enjoyed the bird show.
I have seen this a few times now, but still enjoy seeing these great birds up close and swooping over our heads. I just hope I don't get whacked with a wing like the guy in front of us did! Well, I guess it could be worse, it could poop! We had a fun time seeing all the animals, but the highlight of the day was the Harry
Potter snake, the park
and the kettle corn-go figure!

How time flies

Another school year is about to close-how does time go by so fast? Aubrey just had her preschool graduation,
I can hardly believe it! It was so cute. She went to the Alta High School preschool program where she had Becky
as her teacher. What a cute girl Becky is. Thanks for all the help and things you taught her little mind to help her with her future adventures. The high school kids (can I call them that?!) do such an amazing job with their one on one preschool student. At the end of the program they gave each of the kids their own digital scrapbook personalized to them, with tons of pictures of the different activities they did throughout the year.

So Cute! Tradition is we take the kids out for lunch/dinner, wherever they choose after they graduate their grade (it will be nice when they all get out on the same day!;))so Aubrey, following suit of her brothers, chose Godfather's Pizza.
They had a great time and unfortunely we had to go for lunch while Alex was still in school, but we assured him there will be plenty of lunches/dinners in his future! I brought him home a refill of fruit punch to soften the blow-does that count for any thing?!! Not my favorite place to go, but maybe one day I will graduate another grade and then I will get to pick!
I can't believe in the fall I will have three kids in elementary school and possibly Anika in preschool. (haven't quite decided yet!) It will be nice to have the little bit of time, but it does make me sad as well. My kids are growing up and going into the scary, yet great world of the unknown. Where does the time go? And, how time flies.
Enjoy your little ones.

Marathon Running!

I have decided to write out of chronological order and not worry about!!! I have wanted to blog my marathon, but just have never gotten around to it! Actually, I did start and saved it, but it just got away from me! I ran my first marathon in May of 2007 in Ogden. It was one of the greatest things I have done and I felt so good after, and just knew I would be running another one sometime! Well, that sometime was this past April, Salt Lake City Marathon. This year instead of training by myself I recruited two other ladies, Jennifer Hilbig and Kelly Engstrom. It was a lot of hard work and cold early mornings, but we made it to our date. Well, this was Not my best run in fact, I think it was the worst run I had ever run in the past 3 years if not ever! I don't know what happened, around mile 20 I realized I had forgotten to take my IBU which is what really gets one through the last 5 miles or so! I forgot my gum, which I need to keep my mouth from getting dry and it was hot, so it was dry and I forgot to change my batteries, so I had no music! Around this same time, I wondered if I would make it, I told the other two to go ahead because I would if I were them! The race is an individual thing, train together, but get your own best time race day. It was bad, and since I did finish that mean I ultimately did not hit the wall, and I felt bad, so I would never want to know what the actually wall feels like! They say once you feel it you never want to feel it again and this is so true! I finished in a longer time then last year, 4 hours: and I think it was 43 minutes.
See, I don't even remember it was such a bad experience, some coach I was! I remember the good experience one, 4:33:00! So, I am not a rocket, I am hitting the half way point as the Kenyans are finishing the race, but that is okay, I am just glad I have been able to run them. Good job to my friends who finished Jen 4:33 and Kelly I believe was 4:30. Well, until next year...who is in with me? Do you want Ogden or SLC? Let me know and we will get a schedule together!!! I perfer to train through the winter and not summer, that is why I am not suggesting St. George, but I could maybe be convinced...!

Aubrey

Aubrey is our blond haired, big brown-eyed little girl-although she is not so little any more *sigh* I can't believe how fast they grow. She has been a very kind and pleasant girl who loves pretty much anyone. She is quiet and talks when she decides she wants to and when she decides to, she can be pretty silly! She is tender hearted and therfore can get her feelings hurt when others are not so nice to her. This can be a good quality and yet, it is something she will have to learn to toughen up a bit. As her mom and a woman who has and is trying to over come the same thing of taking things to personally, it is something I hope she can overcome much sooner than me! She loves to hug and has been a really big help to me lately. She loves to help with most things unless there are friends to play with! This year she started ballet lessons and I can't blieve it is over for the year already. She is for the most part quite greaceful. She enjoyed going until the weather got warmer and then we had a few tears as she wanted to stay and play, but she always came out happy and glad that she went. Miss Jana was her cute teacher who worked so hard with the girls. Oh shoot, I just remembered we never got a picture with Miss Jana.....
The dance, ironically enough was to Brown-Eyed Girl-they were very cute. Aubrey's cute preschool teacher, Becky even came to watch her dance! and of course Grandma Allen
and Chan
came too!
Poor Jared was out of town, but enjoyed it from the camera view!

Rocket Monkey con't

Yesterday while we drove past the sheep farm Anika asked, "Where the big bad woof? Oh, he is Mean! He got a Biiig tail! He going to get Me! He blow My house down!"
"Kids come here! 1-2-3, come here right now, I count to 3, 1-2-3-7-8-11!"
"You go bed!"
"You in Big trouble!"
"in my pretty garden the flowers are naughty"
"come on poopies, get out, it stuck, come on, get out Right now!"
"oh look mommy, there a frog in the toilet!"
Oh No, there a snake in the toilet, flush it!"
"I DO IT!"
"head squeeze, hug, kiss"
"I hide, hehehehe!" And she does, not always easy to find either ie. the clothes racks at the stores!
"I walk!" No riding in baskets for this girl!
"What stinks?!" as she plugs or holds her arm up to her nose with the most grotesque look on her face
"You run mom?, you win?"
"I a Princess"

"I have princess hair?"
"Daddy, you got fuzzy hair!, It tickles"
"I run, I got to hurry" usually outside trying to keep up with the "kids"
"Where the kids?" as she puts her 2 fingers to her mouth and makes a high pitch whistle noise
mimicks pretty much any noise she hears, even in church the baby that has a loud hideous cry!
"kids dinner, come eat!"
"kids, you come in!"
Loves to burp as loud as she can, if it is not natural she makes the sound as loud as she can after each meal/drink-hey, it's a complement in some parts of the world
"ahhhh, look mommy a witch, she a witch!" about the East Indian lady in her dark East Indian outfit, we were behind her in line at the store last week!
Depending on the day, very adamently, "I Anika" another day, "No, I Not Anika, I Rocket Monkey!"
Are you starting to understand her nickname yet?!!


Don't worry, I am not favoring, I will post about my other kids as well!!! I Love Them All :)

Food Storage

all chocolate chips in these boxes, plus another one that I found after!
okay, so my friend introduced me to a new blog called http://www.myfoodstoragedeals.blogspot.com/ and the pictures of her food storage room have inspired me to get mine cleaned out and organized again! So, I spent the last few days reorganizing and taking out any storage that is not food. (now I need to find a new home/spot for then!) I have discovered some interesting facts...I have 52 cake mixes and 15 brownie mixes-My year supply!!!!



I have a ton of chocolate chips, marshmallows, pudding snack packs, and 9 Costco boxes of popcorn, so you can tell what I am worried about in case of disaster...my desserts! I do have a lot of other stuff as well and added more today by visiting the cannery and buying in bulk!

I wondered why my cc bill has been so high on groceries the past year, but as I look at what I have accumulated in food storage by buying the sales I understand and remember why! So, if you haven't started your food storage, be inspired and start a week at a time and in a year you too may be surprised at how full your room has become.

So check out her blog and click on her link to see her website info on how she compares and watches grocery sale prices for you! I already go through my adds, but if you don't like to this is a sure way to save money, my friend swears by it.

Rocket Monkey

Jared has come up with a nickname for Anika, Rocky Monkey. Anika is our spunky little girl that is always making us laugh by the things that she says. The latest episode was last Sunday. The kids sang in sacrament for Easter and of course she wanted to go up too (although she is only in nursery) so I let her. First, she is so excited, beaming as she waves and doing the "hi mommy, hi" thing and I of course I wave back. Then, the kids start singing, she is fine and as happy as can be to stand at the very front smiling and looking around until the second song when she starts to feel a little crowded by all the kids. (don't forget we have about a 100 primary kids) Now instead of the sweet smiles and waves it turns to desperation, "get me out of here, get me out of here!" I put my finger to my lips, "shhh" and she stops, but still has a concerned look on her face, and once again, "get me out of here, where's my mommy?, get me out of here!" The song soon ended and she was glad to come and sit back down!!! She is something else! This is another reason why we call her Rocket Monkey and another reason I wish we could video record when the primary sings, especially when it is the Primary Program!

I must confess...

...that I cheated on my Hinckley Challenge! For all those who are on task with their reading Good Job. I fell behind, to put it nicely and decided that I would finish reading the Book of Mormon were I already was when the challenge started! For me this will still be a great accomplishment. I am trying harder to read each day, and what I do is a great improvement from where I once was. I figure if I can just finish what I stared about 21/2 years ago (sad, but true) I can say I read the whole Book of Mormon again! Does this include the Doctrine and Covenant?! I have had to have some life altaring thinking the last few months and then had two profound dreams this last month and decided that I really need to get more serious with my life and where it is headed. So I did this time (or I am trying harder)! I need to get closer to what is really important in life and leave behind what (or maybe just not worry about it as much) is not. I don't know what the future holds, but perhaps these experiences are leading me to future things or problems. Well, whatever it is I figure I can't go wrong if I am making myself a better me, especially with the spiritual part. So, while I am not perfect at these things and I have a long ways to go, I am trying harder to follow 'the list' as we use to call it in teenage Sunday School! 'The List' is the simple things we should be doing each day- and I ask."Why is 'The List' so hard to do when they are supppose to be the simple things?!"
So, again Good Job to all those who really are up to date with the reading challenge and if you are not, don't feel bad just keep doing the best you can and recommit yourself today.