Cottage Meetings

 Every 5th Sunday in a month our Ward holds a cottage meeting at the Bishops home that evening. He prepares a lesson, which usually includes some kind of video or fun game. His lessons are ALWAYS amazing and as a leader in the YW I even come away from them learning as well.

 I am always thrilled to see our youth come out to these meetings. Pretty much ALL of them show up to each meeting. We have an amazing Ward and our youth are good friends.

How grateful I am for these meetings and for a Ward and Bishopric that sees the importance of making our youth a priority! I look forward to them as much a the youth do! (And not just because there is treats! :)

Hitting the lanes!

 For Christmas this past year Annie and Gerardo said they were going to take the whole family bowling for a gift! We were super excited! But the year got going and I thought maybe it wasn't going to happen because we all got busy doing our own families activities.

 But thankfully Annie reached out through a group text to start picking a date and it wasn't long that we were all hooking up at the lanes to have some fun!

 There's something about bowling with fun music and black lighting that brings out the fun in people!

 We all had a blast bowling and munching on some food!

 It's crazy how quickly time flies and I'm glad that the cousins were able to spend some time together outside of a holiday!

Thanks Annie and Gerardo! That was a SUPER fun and special gift!

The big 4-0

 On March 27th this year I turned 40..... wow....that really weird to say much less write! But I have to say it was a VERY eventful birthday! LOTS of people were involved in making it truly special! Starting with the wonderfully decorated kitchen with some of my favorite treats!

 My family knows me well and knows that chocolate is a sure fire way to my heart! And Dr Pepper and Oreo's just made it even sweeter!

 I had to work on my actual birthday and my co-workers sang to me and gave me a Olive Garden gift card! Super sweet! And when I came out to my car in the parking lot this is what I found! Some of my besties had decided that car decoration were in order! I loved the frame & mustache on the driver window! So clever!

 Yes I had to drive around this way for a couple days until I could get to a car wash to get it cleaned off! It was funny!

 This was so funny! And I only had two people honk- one was Carter (not a surprise there) and the other was my friend DM. She caught me the next day leaving school and was ever so happy to oblige!

 Lisa sent me these beautiful flowers! It was such a big surprise- she doesn't usually do things like that!

 Then the Friday after my BDay we had a dinner party here at my house. I invited over a lovely group of ladies that are truly amazing friends. They insisted I put 40 candles on the cake! It looked hilarious! It was literally ON FIRE! HAHAHA! During the party Kelly handed me a large gift and when I opened it I discovered it was a scrapbook that my Mom had reached out to have made. She contacted all my close friends and had them make pages! Even my family-including my boys- made pages! I couldn't read it until after everyone had left. The messages were so sweet and made me cry! My Mom's pages were truly incredible! Pictures of me from all stages in my life and quotes she had gathered from family. It was priceless! What a wonderful and thoughtful gift! I will cherish it!

I am so grateful for an amazing family and thoughtful and dear friends! My life wouldn't be the same without them in it! Thanks to everyone for making my 40th birthday memorable in such a positive way!

Will is 15!!

 Will turned 15 on March 25th this year! Wow- another driver in the works! Yay! We did our usual birthday morning surprises and they certainly get easier as they get older since the gifts just turn into cash! And the treats are easy too- right now the kids LOVE the Arizona punch drinks and of course candy is an easy choice as well! Once special treat was the Dunkin Donuts for breakfast- we just barely got one by our house! But our location wasn't open yet for his birthday so Chan and I drove all the way to South Jordan for there so he could try them out! Personalyl I think they are the BEST!

 He was excited to spend his money on what ever he wanted! And as it turns out he wanted some really nice Beats headphones, so with our money and some from others he was able to get them :)

 He had a fun day! And we opted for 5 candles instead of the full 15! Hahaha! This past week he finally passed his drivers permit test (after only 3 attempts.... just like his brother!) and as of this Monday after we pay the fee and get his photo taken- he can officially hit the road! I am excited to get him out there learning! :)

The night of his birthday we went out to dinner to a place called Brio. It's an Italian place- the same one Carter went to for Prom- we had never been there and thought it would be fun to try out! It was a bit pricey, but very good! I insisted on taking a "birthday selfie" after dinner and boy am I glad I did! I LOVE this picture! Happy Birthday Will!!!

Senior Prom

I still can't believe Carter is a senior and he's almost to the point of graduation! Anyway, he had Senior Prom in March and went with a good friend named Isabelle that they call "ipod". They have been friends for a while and have a great time together so he knew they would have a blast! They started their day out doing a free trial Yoga class! They had a small group of kids (about 8) and they were all excited to try it, and Carter said it was super fun! After their Yoga they brought their dates home to get ready. Carter and his best friend Tanner met up here at the house to head out and I snapped a quick picture! They looked awesome!!

Then they jumped into Tanners truck and were off to pick up their dates!

They picked up their dates and went to a yummy Italian place called Brio at Fashion Place. They had a yummy dinner and then they were off to Prom! The dance was at a different location this year. They decided to have it at the Salt Lake City Library! I think it's a fun place! Carter said the DJ was great and they had fun!

After the dance they went to one of his friends homes to "hang out"! I think this was a great way to end his Prom experiences! He had an awesome time! And looked GREAT!

 He was down there somewhere! I stole this photo from the school website! That's a LOT of kids!

I would say that Carter's whole high school experience has been a "Once in a Lifetime"! I'm glad he had fun! :)

Brianne made honor roll!

Each Trimester at the Middle School they do honor roll and the first trimester Brianne made it on there! I was so proud of her and had to take a picture of the display in the hall!

She is in 6th Grade but the 7th grade logo just happened to be right under the honor roll sign. But you can see her name listed on the 6th grade page! Way to go Brianne keep up the great work!! :)

Carter's working! :)

In November last year Carter got his first "official" job working for a local photography company called Fotofly. They take amazing pictures and they do Santa photos over the holidays. I managed to get Carter an interview to help with the holiday photos since the owner is an old friend of Chan's (and I knew him as well from when I was on the PTA board at Sunrise). He LOVED that job and made great money, but it was a seasonal position, so when January rolled around it was time to job hunt again! He went out an applied at several places but with no calls. Finally in February he got a call from Pizza Hut and he got started! He's been working there for a while now and is enjoying it. He certainly doesn't make the money he was, but at least it's something to help put gas in his car and get him out having fun on the weekends! We ordered some pizzas from there a few weeks back and I managed to snap a few pictures! :)

Way to go Carter! Glad your out in the big world making some "dough"! Haha!!