Woohoo I'm 32!

My husband surprised me with a trip to Utah to celebrate my birthday with my twin. Luckily my birthday always falls during spring break, so the kids had the week off. Lindsey's kids didn't but we managed to play hard and even had them play hooky. We went to a Farm where they kids of course loved it.



















Parkin hanging upside down on the fence rail.



















Holman looking very Zen as he hangs.



















Simon looking all Simon cute.


















Our beautiful girls.




















We also went to the Sweets candy shop where we got to tour the factory and because it was our birthday we were allowed to choose anything that we wanted fromt the store, anything. There were some big ticket items in there to choose from, but in the end I chose dark chocolate covered raspberry sticks. Lindsey chose chocolate covered orange sticks. We also bought a boat load of salt water taffy, I loved the popcorn flavored the best.



Fun fact: They spend over $145,000 dollars in sugar ever two days, yikes! Now you can't say this blog doesn't teach you anything!

























I do not pull off the hair net very well I look like I am 400 pounds. I will have to scratch cafeteria worker of the list of future employment opportunities.


















This is a random picture of my little Dutch girl. Why do I do this??





















The trip was great the drive was long! We got to see Crystal's family and Benjamin was in heaven with her home made sugar cookies. Ryan got Lou and I manicures we chose black nail polish because we are very hip.

We even got to go to the Bountiful temple why were there, the Smiths live so close we didn't even come to one traffic light getting there.





The kids were so happy that for there spring break they got to dance in the falling snow, such Arizona kids.

Help Friends!

For those of you who do not have a Facebook account (and haven’t gotten this plea), I am asking for your help in filling out a survey about your relationship with your mother-in-law. If you don’t have a mother-in-law then you are off the hook :) My two sisters and I are writing a book on this important relationship and your responses which are entirely confidential will greatly improve our research! By participating, you agree to allow us to use your responses for data, and others may be included as a vignette, to illustrate points in the text. So please take time to fill out the survey and forward it on to your friends and relatives who have a mother-in-law!

Mother-in-Law Survey

As a side note, I have a fantastic mother-in-law and when I was telling her about this project we had a very interesting conversation about the mother-in-law / daughter-in-law relationship. I think this topic brings to light some very interesting interpersonal relationships :)

Thank you so much!

Loser

As I was pondering the many things that I would love to change about myself, one that is at the top of the list is how I am a loser. I lose my cell phone regularly, my poor husband is very use to me IMing him to call my phone. But at the top of the list is my keys, many a morning has started with a frantic search for the car keys so that we can rush to the bus stop. I had prayed on occasion to overcome this weakness, I was complaining to my sister that I still struggled with constantly losing the keys then it hit me. I cannot pray just once to overcome this, it must be a daily prayer.


27 And if men come unto me I will show unto them their ^aweakness. I ^bgive unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my ^cgrace is sufficient for all men that ^dhumble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make ^eweak things become strong unto them.

I have always loved this passage Moroni a prophet of God struggled with his ability to write and was worried that people would dismiss the importance of the Lords words because of his weakness in writing. The Lords response to Moroni is beautiful, if we humble ourselves He will make our weakness strong. I didn't need any help in identifying a weakness (I think most of us are painfully aware of our shortcomings) but I did need help in overcoming it.

So one day when I was reading my scriptures, I was pondering this promise of weak things becoming strong, I had a thought come to me. I hardly ever lose my purse, so maybe if my keys were tied to my purse I would never lose my keys. Personal revelation. So I tied my keys with string to my bright lime green purse, I love that color. Than my husband noticed my contraption and he thought he could "help" me. So for Christmas he upgraded my ribbon tethers to a retractable key chain, who knew they made those.

I love hearing how this passage of scripture has helped others. I have a friend who has a weakness for over eating, she says she has a prayer in her heart morning, nightly and at every meal to not over eat. She told me once she realized that this promise could apply to her, she has relied on it.



As for me, one weakness greatly strengthened now on to the next one.....

Doppelganger

I walked by the dinning room the other day and this is what I saw, Holman just talking to his girl. He was saying, "Adrianna I have been waiting for you for over two years." This is a common phrase he tells her, it is uncanny how much they look a like.
















Holman's pictures are on the top, Adrianna's are second. It is funny they are both wearing yellow. They are my twins that are 5 years apart. She was almost born on his birthday, they both had the same due date.











Look how similar their hair is. Sometime I will have to post Olivia and Parkin's similarities :)

Santa versus Mom

Yesterday I was talking to Holman about someone who was all powerful and all knowing, I was hoping that he was understanding the character and nature of God. But he interrupts me with Mom that is not Heavenly Father that is Santa Claus.

I am not a Santa Claus hater, if kids choose to dream of sugar plum fairies who am I to stop them? But I will not lie or play along if they ask me a direct question. When the girls were younger we were preparing to give gifts for Christmas to individuals and family's who might need a little help for the Holidays. They were very distraught with the need to help others when there was a Santa Claus who would take care of them. We told them that Santa doesn't go to every house, and then the constant question, why? For family home home evening I bought Santa hats that said "Santa's Little Helper," I explained that there was no Santa Claus. That if flying reindeer really existed we would save up money to buy one. I told them that loved ones were the real Santas, I let them in on the secret and told them now that they knew they could be a Santa to someone. They could be angels here on earth, helping others. They were actually very excited and couldn't wait to surprise people with gifts. The family night was a success.

Well yesterday when Holman was telling me that Santa was the most powerful being, I thought maybe it was his turn to be let in on the secret. I gave him the speech. He thought about what I told him and then he said, "When I am a parent, I will wait to see if my kids get anything on Christmas, if they do he is real, if they don't then I will believe you." Now that is a scientific approach.

Lemons are Lame but Add Sugar...Ahh Lemonade

"One's life....cannot be both faith-filled and stress-free...Therefore, how can you and I really expect to glide naively through life, as if to say, 'Lord, give me experience, but not grief, not sorrow, not pain, not opposition, not betrayal, and certainly not to be forsaken. Keep from me, Lord, all those experiences which made Thee what Thou art! Then let me come and dwell with Thee and fully share Thy joy!'... Real faith...is required to endure this necessary but painful developmental process."

Elder Neal A. Maxwell (1926-2004) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

I love that our Heavenly Father has restored His church on the earth and just like anciently we have Prophets and Apostles. Elder Maxwell has been one of my favorite apostles he taught with authenticity as he struggled with severe health problems while walking in faith. This quote from him has become a favorite of mine, I think of it when things haven't gone the way I had hoped or even prayed for. This quote was taken from an article he wrote entitled "The Growth Required to Return Home." We lived before we came to earth and we will all live again because Heavenly Father sent His son, our Savior. We can make our individual experiences work for our good if we seek guidance from Him.

Confection Creations

When I had Adrianna a friend from the church made us dinner. For dessert she made these yummy cupcakes.
The drumsticks were made with a spice cake, she put a donut hole on top then frosted it with vanilla icing and then rolled them in crushed cereal. She made the drumstick bone out of melted white chocolate. As you can see in the picture someone took a bite out of one.
The cupcake that I ate was the mashed potato. the mashed potato was made out of a generous amount of icing, then she drizzled the potatoes with caramel sauce and the tab of butter was a lemon Starburst. The peas and carrots were made from lime runts and a cut up orange Starburst.
Then the dessert was a chocolate sprinkle cupcake.

I just thought this was so creative I had to share. What kid (or adult) wouldn't want to sit down to a meal like this. Thanks Mindy!