Rexburg Temple

On Friday the 15th we were able to go to my friend Jen's sealing. Her and her husband and their little 2 year old boy were able to be sealed together as a family. She is due to have a little girl on March 4th, and this was such an exciting night for them, filled with the spirit. I was so grateful to be able to witness them being sealed together forever. It really was such a great experience. I'd have to say that going to a sealing has got to be one of my favorite things to do in the temple. AND YES!! I did cry. :o)

Gift Certificate Redeemed!

Last week we had a baby shower at my house for one of my friends! A couple days before I had realized that I still had Christmas stuff up on one of my plant shelves. I was in desperate need to take this stuff down before everyone came to my house. The problem was, I didn't want to have nothing up there. I knew that after having christmas stuff up there for 2 months, it would look absolutely naked up there. I then remembered the gift card to Porters that Joni had gotten me for Christmas!!! The night before the party I called up my friend Lynsey and drug her along with me. I love how she decorates, so I knew she would give me great ideas, and I would have no problem listening to her opinions. We weren't gone that long and I came home with the picture and the green leafy garland. I think it turned out pretty nice, and I only went $2 over!! I wanted to send another THANK YOU out to Mother Ducker!!! Thank you so much for doing things for me and my family over, and over and over again! Love you much!!
Thanks to you too Lyns! You were a lifesaver that night.

VALENTINES EVENING

Dorian had to work the morning of Valentine's Day. Luckily he wasn't scheduled to work that evening! I was dying to have a date. It's been so long since the last one. He got home from work and got ready to go out. Our babysitter who we love and adore, Nancy (Carson calls her "FANCY NANCY"), showed up to watch the kids and we were off. We had to drive separate cars, because Dorian had a soccer game at 10:30. Right before we got in our cars Dorian asked, "Where do you want to eat?" I said that I really didn't care. We decided on Plum Loco, a Mexican restaurant. We were excited because we didn't think we'd have a very long wait at a mexican restaurant. Well, I followed Dorian, and we pulled up to Ruby River Steak house. I got out of the car and asked Dorian if he had tricked me, and he said he had. Although I was so happy to be surprised, I had really gotten excited to shovel mexican food into my mouth. Dorian had said that he had to pull a few strings to get us a reservation. I was just happy to only have to wait 10 minutes!!!!

We exchanged cards and gifts while we waited for our food. I got a funny card from Dorian, and it may be my most favorite card yet! He also got me a diamond necklace! What a wonderful surprise!!! I got Dorian a gift card to Sportsman's Warehouse, and he couldn't be happier. He's really looking forward to getting more fly fishing junk! Or at least that's what I like to call it!!

After we ate we stopped at Lowe's. Dorian's friend Tyler works there, and anytime they have damaged drywall they sell it for $1 a sheet, instead of the $8 an sheet. We packed up 17 pieces. We are going to start collecting a bunch of them so when we're ready to finish the basement we won't have to factor in the price for drywall!

Then we were off to the Movies! We went and saw Jumper. I thought it was really great, and I really enjoyed the movie. Dorian gave it a 7.5 or an 8, but it's a movie I would like to own. We stopped by Carino's to kill a little time before Dorian had to be at soccer. Then I went home and let Nancy finally go home! We are so grateful to have a babysitter that WANTS to come watch our kids. And the kids just adore her!

I had a fantastic night!! The best part was, Dorian and I just don't go on enough dates, and it was just so nice to be able to spend some time with the husband! I couldn't ask for more than that!

<3 VALENTINES DAY <3

We started the day out by going to Music Makers. It was a lot of fun and we sang songs about Valentines Day, love and families. We OF COURSE had to be dressed in red! That's the best part of Valentines Day! The boys each got to stand in as "Daddy" for the "I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home" song!




The rest of these picutes are of just random pictures of the boys. The first is of the boys hugging. JD wasn't too into that though. The next is of JD counting on his fingers as we did the little rhyme of "The Five Valentines." The last is just Carson being silly. He's really been into making funny faces and posing for the camera. We love him for it too!

Carson's Sleeping Habit

We always walk in to check on Carson at night and he's naked. Well, he's still wearing his undies, but other than that, he's completely stripped down. He claims he wants to feel his blankie on his tummy. I have to admit they are quite soft!! The only problem:
If we don't re-dress him before we go to bed, he wakes up early wanting his pj's back on because he's cold. That makes for a grumpy Mom!

Island Park Snow

Just a little video of how deep the snow was while we were in Island Park. It was so much fun!

BREAKING DAWN!

The official release date for Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer is....

AUGUST 2ND 2008!!!!!!

I am so excited and can't wait! What a fun summer this will be. I'll probably have a lawn by then, so while the kids are out playing in the yard, I can sit back, relax, work on my tan, drink some lemonade and read about Bella and my Edward! It will be the best!

For those of you who haven't been exposed to the Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer, you should definitely dive into these books. Go to:
www.Amazon.com
to order the 3 books for 32.00 and free shipping! (the best deal by far)
And you can visit her website at
www.stepheniemeyer.com


ENJOY!!!!

Our snow fort!

Our fort is much bigger now. Dorian worked on piling more snow up and making the hole inside much bigger. I couldn't get a good picture of JD in the fort because on his way in snow fell on his face. He didn't appreciate that too much and started backing out. So, you get a butt shot!!! The picture of me....well, SCARY!! It was so bright, and I never got around to putting on make-up that day. Here's a little video of Dorian throwing the kids on top of the fort. We were trying to make the snow more compact.

Just a little bit Gangsta!

I laugh every time I look at this picture. He's even doing the "peace dude" sign. Dorian asked if there were boogers in his nose, and we zoomed in and are happy to announce that all is clean and clear. Just a weird angle I guess. Anyway, I thought you might all enjoy this picture as much as we do!!

MARDI GRAS

Aunt Sarah and Uncle Elroy spoiled my kids and sent a package of stuff from Mardi Gras. I swear it was just like Christmas morning. The box had never ending toys in it for the kids. I could list everything, or you could just examine the first picture!!! So thanks Aunt Sarah and Uncle Elroy!! The kids love their toys, and we're thankful for all that you do for us and the kids. We miss you sooooooo much! We're dying to get our little booties over there to visit! Hopefully it can happen soon. Hugs and kisses!!!!

Weird Positions to watch TV

Although these aren't COMPLETELY bizarre positions to be sitting in to watch TV, I couldn't help but to take a picture and blog about it. I just had to laugh to myself when I saw JD sitting the way he was. :o)

A visit from a friend

My friend Leslie was in town for a quick visit to sign the papers on their home, and she was albe to stop by and see us. Too bad I didn't get a picture of her and I, but at least we got one of the kids watching a show. Carson, Easton, Skylie and James.
It was really great to see her again, and I could never have too many visits! Leslie, I miss you tons!!!

Day TWO at Island Park

Day 2 at the cabin we woke up and played more of Rock Band. The game got turned on at about 10:00am and didn't get shut of until somewhere around 2:00 am. The boys really enjoyed getting a turn at playing the drums. It was a lot of fun for them. They they went out into the snow. Snow shoes were practically required if you wanted to get anywhere before dying of exhaustion! The cabin next door had a little slide and swing set. Dorian and the boys hiked over and played around there for a little bit. Finally the boys came inside. They had snow everywhere there shouldn't have been snow, and they were so cold! WE were able to get them warmed up and feed them lunch. While they were out I had stared making Chocolate gooey butter cookies. We got this recipe from Paula Deen on the Food Network Channel. They are so easy to make and so yummy. All the cookies were gone before I could get the next batch out. Poor Carson and James only got one. But hey....better guaranteed sleep right?!? Who needs all that chocolate?





CHOCOLATE GOOEY BUTTER COOKIES
1 PKG Chocolate cake mix (we like dark)
8 oz PKG crm. Cheese
1 stick butter
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
*Powdered Sugar

Cream together butter and crm cheese. Add egg. Give a quick beat. Add vanilla and Cake mix. Mix together. Refrigerate covered for 2 HOURS! Roll into walnut sized balls. Roll into powdered sugar. Bake @ 350 for about 10 minutes.



Later that night after dinner we had a battle of the bands. There were about 14 people there and we were divided up into 5 bands. For those of you who haven't heard of Rock band we had a singer, guitarist and drummer in each band. In my band there was My friend Becky, Allison and Me. I named our band BAM! Keep in mind these bands were randomly picked. All the bands had 10 minutes to practice whatever song they wanted to play. When Dorian's team practiced they earned a lot more points than all the other teams had earned. At this point I realized that I would be playing more for fun than to actually win. This was a bummer because I am quite competitive. When my team got up to play our song, we actually picked a song that we hadn't played all of the way through. I couldn't pay attention to ANYTHING besides what notes I needed to be playing, and when to use my star power. Half way through the song I started to hear my singer get excited, and then Dorian stated saying, "WOW! You guys have to come check this out!" (to the people who weren't watching). When the song was over I looked up at our score it said 450,000!!!!!! This was 200,000 more than Dorian's band had scored during their practice. Well, my band ended up winning battle of the bands that night. It was a lot of fun, and it's always a little bit more fun for me when I win too! My band played through the song one more time at the end of the night, and that's what the last picture is all about! It's our score the second time playing the song.
It was a fun weekend, and we're hoping to be able to do it again sometime. We'll probably even go at least once in the summer so the guys can go fishing while we enjoy the outdoors. I'm sure Carson and James would love it too, and from what I hear the field outside the cabin is great frog hunting grounds.

Day ONE at Island Park

The weekend of January 10th, the kids and I headed up to Island Park. We were invited by our friends Rocky and Andrea Roman to Celebrate Rocky's 30th birthday. When we arrived a the cabin we quickly ate some dinner and played some games. Shortly before I put the kids to bed we got Rock band out and played a little bit. It was a lot of fun, and for that night I was the best guitarist in the house!! That was fun. Everyone wanted me to play in their band. Unfortunately I know this would be short lived, because Dorian is WAY better than I am on the guitar, and he'd be there the next morning. It was fun while it lasted. I went to bed about 1:00 am, I think. James was having a rough time staying asleep, and would wake up in hysterics because it was so dark and he didn't know where he was. Everyone else went to bed after 3 or somewhere around that time. It was a fun night!!!



Drea watching a movie with Carson and James. They insisted that she do EVERYTHING with them that night.







ME....giving the drums a shot. They were harder than I thought they would be.







My band!








Me rockin' out on the couch.