Aunt Lydia's Funeral

Back in 1981, I attended a homecoming. This homecoming was the first one that I remember. I was 9 years old. The homecoming wasn't just any old homecoming, it wasn't in my ward and it wasn't a 21 year old young man returning from serving the Lord for two years. This returned missionary was my aunt. Aunt Lydia served a mission after her husband passed away. It wasn't common for seniors to serve a proselyting mission. But, that is exactly what my aunt did. She was companions with young sisters and she went door to door while teaching the gospel in Wisconsin. On that Sunday, I knew that I needed to serve a mission. My decision to serve came from listening to the words that my aunt spoke. She shared her experiences and her testimony and if no one else in the room was touched, at least a 9 year old was.

Later, in 1993, I had my farewell. Aunt Lydia came. She hugged me and said I would be a wonderful missionary. Then, in 1994, she came to my homecoming. We visited and hugged again.

Aunt Lydia has now begun her final mission. She has returned to her husband and most of her family. In all of the years that I knew her, her love for the gospel will be what I remember. That is the impression that she left with me.

Here are some images that I would like to leave with you. There are pictures of her sister, Aunt Alice. There are some of her nephews and nieces. My sweet dad offered the dedication and said a very tender prayer. Her nephews shared stories and laughed about old times.

But in the end, all that was left, was the gentleman from the mortuary. He watched over the grave site and kept the spirit of the sweet afternoon sacred.

Til we meet again...

A day with Grandpa and Grandma

My parents have a membership to the zoo. With that membership, they are notified of special events. This past Saturday the zoo had a story telling time. Although the event itself was very far from superb, they had a great time at the zoo. They were encouraged to dress up like animals. Ivy didn't want to take hers off. I'm guessing she was perfectly warm and cozy. Jade didn't want to put hers on at all. The kids had a wonderful time. Thank you "dampa and Damma" for taking them to the zoo.

Following the zoo, they headed up to Park City to go to my cousin Emily's show. The kids all loved it. The picture Jade is pointed to, the girls insisted that it was me. The kids even struck a pose. They loved going there and I hope it is something they will continue to enjoy as they get older.

Thanks again Grandpa and Grandma for stealing our kids away for a wonderful Saturday.

Jade wanted...

Jade wanted to document some of her art work for the blog. She took my camera and snapped several pictures. Here are two. This first is of Scott and me on a date. Notice the disco ball and Scott's fancy bow tie. We're going to have to find a way to make this date night a reality. The bottom one shows the Christmas tree with all of the presents in front of it. Sadly, that one is pretty accurate.

Melt-in-your-mouth Caramels

Melt in your mouth Caramels

Baked Cajun Shrimp

Baked Cajun Shrimp

Future BYU Gymnast?

Friday night was a very fun night for Jade. Her gymnastics team got to perform at the BYU gymnastics meet. It was so cute. Jade got very excited watching the gymnasts. It refreshed her interest in gymnastics. She kept saying, "That was awesome!"

I was very impressed with how well she did. She had been really sick with a fever and a nasty cough. The doctor said it was just a cold and gave her cough syrup. I tried to get Jade to cancel on the meet, but there was absolutely no way she would miss it. Any time we told her she could stay home she'd say no way. There were a couple times that she was upset about her leo, or her bow and we said that she should stay home. She quickly adjusted her attitude and was ready to go.

Ivy was a crack up during the meet. She took off her shoes, shook her little fanny and enjoyed her candy and root beer.

Learning about the Temple...

When I was younger, we would get together with my cousins at least once a month for Sunday dinner. We gathered for birthdays and holidays. Now, we can go months without seeing them. It makes me very sad, but I guess everyone is just very busy.

A little over a week ago, we decided to gather. My uncle is a very wise man in the lessons of the gospel, so we got together for a Family Home Evening of sorts. The Draper Temple is currently open to visitors for an Open House. For many, if not all of the little kids, this is their first time getting to walk through a temple. So, we wanted to make sure they were prepared.

My mom did a very thoughtful lesson for the little kids and showed them pictures and talked about the sacred ordinances that take place inside the temple walls.

Then uncle shared with us the history of temples and tabernacles. It was a very thought provoking discussion and I greatly enjoyed hearing uncle speak to the family.

There were several members of the family not there, and here's a shout out to all of you that you were missed.

My birthday

Saturday the 21st was my 37th birthday. I can't believe I am getting so old. But, I had a wonderful birthday.

Friday night, Scott and I went to Wise Guys Comedy club with some friends of ours. We were planning on going to just the 8:00 show but they let everyone stay for the 10:00 hypnotist show. We did. It was hilarious. It would have been more fun if someone from our group would have gone up, but oh well.

My parents kept the girls over night. In the morning I went and met Grandma and Ivy at her dance class. Jade hung out a little longer with Grandpa. We spent the morning and afternoon hanging out at Grandpa and Grandma's house.

After a while, Scott, Ivy and I went shopping. Jade wanted to stay longer. I bought a really cute pair of jeans and Scott got several really great shirts. (It was really fun that my jeans are 2 sizes smaller than I used to wear). I love this diet.

In the evening, Grandpa and Grandma came up for some Baked Cajun Shrimp and presents.

The girls have been so excited to give me their presents. They started working on them earlier that week with Miss Kim. They each got me a flower pot and painted them beautifully. Then they filled them with dirt and impatience flowers. I'm so excited for spring so that they can start growing. Aren't they so darn cute!?

Scott gave me a huge surprise. He always does a fantastic job on my birthdays. He alwys comes through with something that I've been wanting but wouldn't ever buy for myself. This year was no different. He got me a sewing machine. (The one on my lap is not the one he got me).

A few days after my birthday, we went over to Nuttall's in American Fork and checked out some brother sewing machines. We were looking at one from Costco and the other from Nuttall's. We went with the one from Nuttall's. It's a bit better machine, works with the Disney embroidary patterns, free classes on how to use my machine, an extra font, a USB connection and a hard carrying case.

Here is my machine...

Jumping Beans

A few weeks ago, Miss Kim took the girls to "Jump On It." They always have such a great time there. Ivy will gradually loosen up and start to jump and then she's in heaven. Jade keeps herself busy doing back flips and back handsprings.

Midway Photo Shoot...

Ivy didn't want to get out of the car, so I got some fun pictures with just Jade. She had a lot of fun running from one place to the next posing.

Escaping Lehi for a day...

Scott and I have spent the past several days trying to decide what would be a fun get away for the holiday weekend. (I took last Friday and Monday off since Jade had both days off school). Everywhere we thought about going didn't seem to work. We thought about St George, but the forecast was cold. Then we considered Phoenix, but the All-Star game was there so that didn't make sense. Then we considered San Francisco, but the flights were expensive. So, on Sunday morning we decided to go to Midway for the day. We made reservations to stay at the Homestead. On Monday morning we went swimming and hung out at the homestead.

We loved our little get away and we are looking forward to the next time.

On Sunday, when we arrived, there was a bright blue sky and hardly a cloud. We almost took pictures in front of the cool ice "thing" and decided we'd wait and take the pictures in the morning. Instead of pretty sunny pictures in just their shirts and jeans, we got pretty shadey pictures in their cute pink coats.

Singing and Spinning has moved....

Hi my dear friends and family. Singing and Spinning has a new home. Please update your subscriptions in Google Reader to this new address...

www.singingandspinning.com

I'm so excited. I've wanted my own domain for quite a while and now I finally have it. Thanks for sticking with me.

PS you are also welcome to become a follower of my blog. Click on the link on the sidebar. Thanks :)

Valentine's Day craft

About three years ago, I was at Michael's or Robert's in Michigan. They had some fun Valentine's activities. One of them was a chocolate sucker kit. I thought it looked like it would be a lot of fun, so I bought it. Finally, 3 years later, I remembered that I had it during the right time of year. As you can tell by the picture, the chocolate has gotten a touch old and had a bit of a funky texture. But, the girls loved doing it and have enjoyed eating them as well. (I couldn't be sure of the taste so we didn't give them as Valentine's).

When we finished with the molds, we still had a lot of chocolate left. If you have extra chocolate after making suckers, what do you do with it? In my house, we put it all over our hands until it dries and then we get to eat funny little pieces of colored chocolate.

My First Touchstone Crystal Party...

Last week I had my first "official" Touchstone Crystal Party. I was really pleased with how my table display turned out. I invited all of the girls from the "GNO" group and also took around invitations to a bunch of the women in the neighborhood. I wasn't sure what to expect. I think that everyone that came thought the jewelry was beautiful. There were a few favorite pieces- the St Petersburg Ensemble, the Purple Twist Bracelet and Gatsby Ensemble.

I had a fun time, learned a few things to do differently and I'm looking forward to the next party. Thank you everyone who came. I really appreciate your support.

The Birthday Girl and her sign

As part of Jade's birthday celebration, I got to take treats to her class and a poster sharing all of the wonderful things about Jade. I let her pick out all of the pictures, she realized that she forgot a picture of her skiing, another of her in a sunset and one in ballet. She was so cute and excited about her poster. You'll notice that it is HUGE!!! That was not on purpose. I had forgotten I needed to make the sign and it was Sunday. Luckily my mom has a year's supply of all arts and crafts supplies. We had planned on cutting it in half or at least making it a little smaller, but all of the pictures Jade picked, fit very nicely on the great big poster board.

So, on Monday I went and met Jade at her school and she got to tell everyone what her favorite things are. It was very cute and she was very excited to give everyone cupcakes.

That wraps up all of the birthday celebrations for our little 6 year old.

The spirit of two little girls...

I took these two pictures a while ago, but I haven't had a chance to post them. I wanted to document just how different these two girls are. They were playing dress up and this is how they played.

A Family First...

Could bowling shoes ever look cuter than they do on those four little feet at the top of the picture?

Last Saturday we took our little family bowling. Yes, for the first time ever. (Okay, Jade's been once before with her friend Bella. Oh and she's been in a bowling ally as an infant).

Ivy was a whiz at pushing the ball down her ramp. She kept yelling "I got the high score" every time it went down the lane. There was so much excitement in her little face that we will have to go bowling more.

Jade took her bowling very seriously. She focused all the way down and tried hard to mimic the three step approach. There were even times she didn't need the bumpers.

After one game, we called it quits. Scott won and Ivy took second.

Fun Saturday afternoon activity...

Saturday afternoon, Scott took the kids out for a quick ride on the 4-wheeler. It was Luke's first time driving it. He was a little hesitant and one time up and down the street was enough for him.

Jade loves riding it and will go up and down and up and down the street as often as Scott will let her. Jade got to give Luke a quick ride. They had a fun time.

Then Ivy got wind of what was going on. She had to get in on the game too. She rode up and down the street and was happily done.

I love that the kids have so much fun with the 4-wheeler. This summer is going to be a lot of fun.