Wedding Bells

We have been gone for a week at my sisters wedding. She wasn't too concerned about the details (other than that her groom show up) so she let me take over pretty much everything. This time I got to try my hand at decorating a ballroom and making corsages, boutonnieres, and bouquets. I think everything turned out pretty well. As payment I only ask they name their first born child after me...
My cute kids:

My siblings and parents:

The beautiful bride:

Just for kicks

Here are a few of my art projects from this year (on top of my kids rooms but I have already posted pictures of those. These are my attempts at painting on canvas instead of my kids walls.

This was my first one:

This one was for my dad for Fathers' Day while he was in Baghdad:

This was the one that Avery put her foot through. Notice the scar in the right side. I fixed with duck tape:

I made these for each of the grandparents this Christmas to remember our Colin:

Birthday boy!

As of today, I have two six year olds. For two weeks Shaylee and Bryce are the same age. (You can imagine the looks I get when I say that and follow it with, "No, they aren't twins). It was too bad that Bryce and Shaylee both started throwing up yesterday but they didn't get sick until after the birthday party. In fact they didn't get really sick until they were at their aunt's house and Paxton and I had just started snowboarding. We had done two runs when we go the call that the kids were throwing up. Go figure. This is the cake I made. Bryce requested a petulacasaurus (sp) cake. I don't know what one of those looks like but I did my best anyway.

Bryce Age 2

Happy Birthday to the sweetest, most wonderful boy a mom could ask for!

Pageant tickets

I just got an email from the pageant director saying that tickets will go on sale Feb 1st at 10:00 am. She said that the event will sell out (I don't know how fast). Tickets are $15 and can be bought at www.NampaCivicCenter.com . I would be more than happy to see a few familiar faces (friends, family, in-laws, cousin in-laws)out there if anyone wants to come. I could use the moral support. (However, should I by chance do something totally humiliating you will all be sworn to secrecy and will never be allowed to say a word about it in public!)

I gotta dress!!!!

I am so excited! I finally found a formal dress to wear or the pageant. I didn't really think that after my senior prom I would have to keep worrying about finding modest dresses. YEAH RIGHT! I was so discouraged last weekend when I tried on all my sister-in-laws dresses and none of them worked. I really didn't want to go and spend a bunch of money on a dress that I would only wear once or twice. When many of the other contestants are spending hundreds (300-1,000+) on a dress I know I am cheap but I just didn't feel like I can justify that right now. So, in desperation I went shopping last night and found TWO dresses that would work, both on sale for way less than $100. That was almost as good as finding my interview suit for $10 (originally $75) last week! I am very tempted to post a picture of the dress but I want to surprise my friends that are coming to the pageant. Anyway, one less thing to worry about before standing in front of hundreds of people in spandex (aghh)!

On the Passing of A True Hero

This week marks one year since the passing of our prophet Gordon B. Hinckely, a man I loved and respected. I wrote this the day of his funeral:

It may sound strange to say that the late Gordon B. Hinkley was one of the first men I ever loved but, in purely platonic way, it is true. For most of my conscious life he has stood as the example every thing that is good. In my mind he was the personification of faith, courage, power and absolute love. Though he was not a big man, he carried enormous burdens with humor and grace. One can not be in his presence and not feel goodness radiating from him.

Even as a hard-headed, cynical teenager I could not help but look at President Hinckley with awe and respect. Now that I am grown and married, I feel like he has been a grandfather to me, watching me grow, and offering me invaluable words of wisdom. He was with me when as a teen when I struggled to find myself and when I was homesick at college. He was with me when I got married in the temple and with me when my children were born. He was with me day I buried one of my babies, and his words helped me get back on my feet again. And now that he is gone, I can’t help but feel like I lost a small part of myself. Though the closest I have ever been to him was to watch him in an auditorium with thousands of people, I think that should I be worthy enough to meet him in the next life, he will hug me and welcome me with open arms.

I know that there is no one more deserving than he, to be in the companionship of his eternal sweetheart and bask in the glories of heaven. His life was many times more full than even the best of men and he did his work exceptionally well. I have no doubt that his rewards will be great. But back here, where our perspective is much more limited, he will be sorely missed.

More Weirdness (caution contains minor blood and gore)

So, what began as one mouse in our kitchen has somehow turned into at least six. They must have been breeding in the walls or something. So, we called an all out extermination order and so far have caught five (three of which Paxton caught, not bare-handed but glove-handed). But something happened last night that rivals everything I know about mice. I came down this morning (Paxton had already left for work) to find the stove pushed away from the wall and the broom behind the stove. We have had a mouse explode in a trap before and it was gross, so that was my first fear. I called Paxton to see if I could put the stove back but when I reached him things got even stranger. He asked if I had moved any of the traps last night. I assured him that I hadn't touched any and asked why. He said one of the traps was missing. There was evidence on the baseboard that something had been injured right where the trap was but the trap had disappeared. He had moved the stove to see if a wounded mouse may have dragged the trap in there but there wasn't anything but mouse droppings, lost crayons and hairballs. I'm not squeamish. Even the thought of mice in my kitchen, although unpleasant, doesn't phase me much. But this missing mouse and trap have the thoroughly weirded out. Every unusual noise I hear makes me think there is a mouse, half stuck in a trap, mortally wounded and dying underneath one of my kitchen cabinets. Or I'm going to wake up one morning and step on it coming down the stairs. Seriously gross and seriously weird.