February 2016

February started off with birthday celebrations.

The Little Women met at The Twisted Noodle for Kori's birthday celebration.

We had a really fun visit and we decided that we need to do this more often.  We forget until we get together, how much we enjoy being together.  

Our lives are so busy.

 We tried several times to take a picture. 

We asked 4 complete strangers to try their very best to get a good one.  

It must have been bad lighting........

And it turned out that the person who cared the least if she looked good, looked the best

The birthday girl should look the best anyway

The next event was the Superbowl.

We were so excited for Peyton Manning 

It's so much more fun when your team is playing

SO much more fun when they WIN!

We had lots of time to get ready before everyone started showing up for the party

Raleigh helped me by putting some vinyls together for me.

He is the best at it because he puts them on perfectly straight with no ruler

 Then he whipped up some delicious "football treats" with crushed Oreos and cream cheese and white/orange chocolate.  They were 5,000 calories each.  So delish.

And see that crock pot there,  he also made some sick cheesy mess that "supposedly" tasted like something out of heaven, but smelled up the whole house (for lack of a better description, it smelled like barf).  And when he wasn't looking,  I grabbed the pot and stashed the wretchedness in the backyard and totally forgot about it.

And like 10 days later,  I went out there to put a scooter away or something and there was the pot.

And I had no choice but to just throw it away because like I'm going to add hot water to that frozen mess and relive the nightmare. 

 We dusted off the ole projector and hung up a sheet, so that we could watch the game on a big screen

like we used to when we hosted Superbowl parties in Eagle Mountain. 

It wasn't the same, but it was still fun.

And yep, he's drilling that sheet into the wall.

I think we probably could have used that Velveeta Shiz as spackle but unfortunately, it's at the dump.

Peyton and Walt put on their GameDay faces.

She put plastic balls in her shirt, so it would look like she was wearing shoulder pads

She is a little tom-boy.

Kori and Russ

 If she wasn't chasing Kami's dog around she was glued to the TV

 We also celebrated Kori's birthday again as well as Garrett's 18th birthday
I can't believe he's 18

Now that we don't have as many kids living with us as we used to, we have started a couple of new traditions...  "Friday Night Restaurants" is our new fav.

Peyton wanted to bring her "new" camera to take pictures of us eating

 Here are Morgan and I in our usual nighttime positions...

On the couch, with 2 laptops, writing paper after paper

I will have Master's Degree when this is over.

I am so over it.  Right after I finish cleaning up from dinner, I say to her...

What are we working on tonight? 

I pray it's not PE.

Or Spanish.  No me gusta, Espanol.  And it doesn't like me either

 She is literally killing me

Starting with this early graduation idea she has come up with

and all the drama with her little boyfriend and how I have to be involved in every blasted detail,

I don't know if I will survive.  

Saturday night, I thought I might die of heartbreak as I received a 1:00am text with the latest sad boy story and I hardly slept a wink, I was so upset.  I woke up Sunday Morning so sad and I cried in the shower over it.  But then she bounced into the bathroom all dressed and ready for church saying that everything was fixed and all was well with the world and I was so mad at myself that let myself shed  good tears over stuff that isn't mine to cry over.

I'd like to say it'll never happen again, but that would be such a lie.

Sadly, I'm critically enmeshed. 

All of our Northern Utah friends spent the three day weekend in our warm town.

Brian, Raleigh and my dad played 18 on Saturday

 We all got together that night at Anasazi for yummy food

It's a very smoky restaurant.  

We listened to story after story of the good ole days back in Murray.

These guys have been friends for so many years and they are all such good men.

It's fun to see them.  Wish we could do it more.  

We decided to take an impromptu trip to Provo to see the 

Provo City Center Temple open house.

We wanted our little kids to be able to go inside a temple and see what goes on in there since they ask us every time we drive by our temple.

They were so excited to stay in a hotel.

Staying in a hotel is better to them than going to Disneyland.

We made the mistake of telling them we were going the day before we were actually leaving, so we had to endure the "when are we leaving?" question every 20 minutes.

They never made a peep on the trip up...

I love them. 

 Raleigh's very favorite thing about staying in a hotel is the free breakfast.

He bases where we stay, on the quality of the food served for breakfast

We LOVE staying at the Hampton Inn.  We have only had good experiences every time we have stayed here.

Walt spilled KK's breakfast all over the table, but not one drop got on her church clothes.  It was a blessing for sure.

 Not knowing anything about the accommodations at the temple,  I loaded the children up with coats, blankets,  snacks,  iPads, water bottles etc.  I didn't know we'd be underground, with space heaters and a fast moving line.  From beginning to end we were there for one hour.  It was fabulous

 My purse literally weighed 40 pounds, it was so full of goodies that we never used

and my back was killing me by the end of the tour

 Papa and Ryker always accidentally match their clothes

 KK said it was the best day of her whole life and wants to live in Jesus' House if she can bring a bed in there...  because she didn't see any beds anywhere

We ran back to our room and changed our clothes and went to lunch at 

The Cheesecake Factory.

We were starving by the time we finally were seated and we kept ordering and ordering food

Dad, got a large order to share, plus a few side dishes

and I could barely walk out of there, I was so miserably full.

KK tried a lemon for the first time

She wasn't a fan

After Lunch

Mom and Dad stayed at the mall and we took the kids to the Dinosaur Museum since Peyton has been wanting to go there since we lived there.

Stupid Thanksgiving Point.  

Are you kidding me with your prices that do not match the quality of services provided.  You never cease to disappoint the public in this area.

The kids thought it was fabulous....  but we should have just sent them in and waited in the car.

Huge Disappointment: Don't ever go to it unless you have free tickets

We promised we'd take the kids swimming at the Hotel

Actually, I promised that Raleigh would take them while I sat in a chair, fully clothed, next to an open window by the side.

I was a nervous wreck the entire time because they can't swim and they are fearless. that is until they accidentally go under and Raleigh doesn't get to them immediately and they are gulping and thrashing for what seems like 2 minutes but is really only 5 seconds and I am having a heart attack on the side of the pool, but not really, because afterall, I am not willing to jump in and assist him at all....  I'd get my shoes wet and they are my favs.

At the end of the night, he had three children attached to his back and he looked like a wolf spider carrying his babies.  I think he enjoyed every minute of it.  He looked like he was enjoying himself.  

We ended the trip with Breakfast at Mimi's

which I remembered was better than it was.

KK was sick.

Our waitress was on meth.

The manager kept yelling at her staff and making me feel uncomfortable.

So, KK and I left and went and sat in the car

and she threw up on the drive home.  (My worst nightmare=sick kids on a trip)

But,  it's KK and so somehow it's no where near as bad as if it had been Walt.

She even pukes likes a princess.