This is the Place

So last weekend, I won a HUGE prize from KUTV 2News and This is the Place Heritage Park!

:D :D :D :D :D :D

I wasn't able to go pick up the prize until Tuesday, so we headed to the Heritage Park Gift Shop that day! I was impressed from the moment I walked in. So many things caught my eye right off the bat. Jewelry, home decor, shoes, books, etc! The lady at the front desk said, "Can I help anyone?" I answered, but right at that moment, Seth decided he needed a bathroom. So we wandered downstairs. There were some awesome displays down there that we weren't able to explore right at that moment. I will definitely be going back to find out what is downstairs. Anyway, when we made our way back to that front desk, the lady there was so sweet. When I mentioned my name, it was like a buzz filled the room. That was a cool feeling! Evidently, they had been waiting for me. I had won a much bigger prize than I had first been lead to believe. You ready for this???

Here's the list. It's long:

Easter Weekend

Happy Easter! I hope you felt the Savior's love during this special holiday.

I forgot to dye Easter eggs on Wednesday night, Jason's only night off from the play, so we had to do them Thursday night without him. :( The hole left in our family from his absence was so obvious, and he was really missed. Despite that, we had fun, and the boys loved it. They always do.

Happy Easter!

I know I haven't posted a lot lately, but it's been Easter week, and we've made the most of it. I've been so very busy, and it's been fun. And exhausting. And very good. I will get back to posting and let you know all of our Easter traditions, etc. Today, I will be spending time with my family, but I just wanted to say 

Happy Easter!

 

I'm so grateful for my Savior. He is the only one who knows my heartache. He's the only one who could possibly understand all I've been through, and because of this, he is the only one who can love me perfectly. He gave everything for me. He died so I don't have to, and he rose again  so I may also.

Back in action

After having spring break last week, it feels strange to be back into a routine now: school, soccer, gymnastics, etc. I talked to Seth's soccer coach because we have a game on Saturday and I hadn't heard anything about practices. Well, she's super bogged down right now, so I'm the new coach! It's pretty strange to be the actual coach (and not just helping out,) but it will be a blast also. We had our first practice today, and those littlies were adorable.

Kai was super sick this morning.

Be our Guest!

My parents were here again this weekend. Aunt A had a basketball game for a specialized team she's on now, so they were down here and took the opportunity to go to Jason's play! It was fun having them down here.
Grandpa is teaching the kids tetherball. I can't say I was disappointed that both boys were wearing their bike helmets, though it was totally coincidental.

 Grandpa also played Monster Truck Wii with Seth. I thought Seth was going to jump out of his socks with excitement when Grandpa said he wanted to play. (And yes, Kai is on the computer. Lol!)

The Garden

We have started putting our garden together for the season! We got this picture by handing the camera to Seth, who is 5 years old. I took a few practice shots, then posed. Didn't he do a great job?! :D We got SOOOOO much done Saturday morning. We sprayed the weeds in our yard, pulled a lot of weeds out of the garden area, picked up some trash that had blown out of our garbage cans, picked up a whole wheelbarrow full of rocks out of the garden, designed the fence that is going to go around the garden, removed the fence that was there before, removed the poles that held the old fence, and finished by letting the kids play with the neighbors' dog. They stopped by to say hi and the kids were way excited to have a pet for a little bit!

Crazy fun finish to Spring Break

Thursday the 10th
We were going to feed the ducks, Seth, Kai, and I. But Seth was having a hard day listening, so he wasn't ready to go in time. I made him a lunch and let him eat in Daddy's home office while Kai and I went. It was great to get away just the two of us. Ducks and birds are all within walking distance, so we didn't have to go far from home today, and I was able to ride my bike with the bike seat on it for Kai. We found two ducks pretty close to the shore and started throwing out scraps of bread I've been saving for a while just for this excursion. When those two ducks were wondering away, having had their fill, a goose wandered up. It ate quite a bit of bread also. We got back on our bikes, ready to find another partaker. There was a little path leading to an island that looked like the perfect place to toss a few scraps of bread. Unfortunately, we stumbled upon a nesting goose! If you don't know, geese are MEAN. I was afraid when we came upon this goose sitting on its eggs, but we were able to distract it with bread and back away slowly. We had fun riding home, just the two of us.

Friday the 11th
We met up with some friends at an amazing park about 5 minutes from our home. I'm great friends with the mom, and they have kids that are very similar ages to our kids, so it works out great! We actually started getting to know one another because our younger boys both had to wear the helmets that reshape a baby's head if they have a flat spot. Anyway, we brought a picnic lunch and had a blast!

Dispelling Satan's Darkness

This morning, we did something different for our scripture reading. Seth asked if we could read a book I made for him when he was little. I simply bought pictures at Deseret Book, looked up scriptures to go with each picture and wrote them on the corresponding picture, laminated the pictures, then put them on the rings in chronological order. The book is pretty beat up now since about 4 years have passed since I made it, but it's still holding together. Anyway, we got to this page:

We read the scriptures about the resurrection. We talked about the time that passed between the resurrection and Joseph Smith's first vision. Then, we read the scriptures for the first vision, including the parts where Satan tried to stop Joseph from praying. If you don't know, here's Satan's efforts in this moment as quoted by Joseph himself:

Spring Break

It has officially begun! Wait... It's half over. It goes so fast!

We did some cleaning on Monday but mostly just hung around. It was nice to start off the week with a restful day.

♪♫ I'm on FIRE! ♪♫

So we mostly cleaned, fixed things, and played. Then a firetruck pulled up in front of our house. :o It was so smoky, and the ash was falling on us. The fire was obviously close. Apparently, some kids, about 10 years old, ran away when some teenagers walked by, so the teenagers checked it out and there was a fire in the brush behind our house. They called the fire department and the firemen put out the fire really quickly, but then it smelled like wet ash in our house. I'm sure this will be a great impression on the RFC coming to our house to meet us tomorrow. Lol!

This picture was taken from our backyard.

General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Hey this is Jason.  So we spent the weekend with Ashley's parents and sister.  It was a great weekend.  They came down to watch the Annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with us and, unfortunately, I was gone for much of it as I had tech rehearsal for the musical I am in.  If you know much about musicals/plays then you know this is an extremely long day where you work through all of the audio and light cues in the show.  We ran through every scene and worked with the crew to help them understand when the music needs to kick in for each song and where we will each enter and where we move to on the stage for proper lighting.  This is a lot of work.  I'm on the stage about 60% of the time and it is really hot working under the bright lights.  It's crazy how tired and sore you can get when you are lugging around a huge backpack the entire time  while trying to be hunched over.  Oh, and I learned how to tap for this part as well. It's seriously been a lot of work but has been so much fun and very rewarding.  Tech rehearsal made for a long and fun day, but I would've liked to have spent more time with the family.

The kids had a blast rough-housing with Grandpa and Aunt A and loved cuddling with Grandma.  They are never disappointed until they leave.  It's pretty much a guarantee. :)  We had some fun after conference sessions playing games and watching Les Mis.  It was great. 

The things our kids say...

I've been writing down some funny things the kids have said the last 4 or 5 days. On this gray, dull day, I thought I would post some happy, sunshiny sayings from my boys. In no particular order...
----
While I was running carpool the other day, a boy strapped himself in to his seat all by himself. Usually he needs help. I said, "Good boy!" And Seth said, "I didn't know you could say, 'Good boy' to kids and dogs!"
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We were all hanging out in the living room together when, out of the blue, Seth says, "I try to concentrate when we do sheet work in my class, but I just get distracted because the girls look so pretty in their clothes!" (His teacher later told me that they do 'seat' work, not 'sheet' work!)
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Seth put his hands on my neck and they were so cold!
Me: Harry, your hands are freezing!
(Seth looks at me funny.)
Me: Why is your name Harry?
Seth: My name is not Harry! You have to have a lot of hair to be named Harry! ... So I guess daddy is Harry!

Les Miserables! :D

Les Mis was FANTASTIC! Did you expect anything less? I didn't. I was crying within the first 10 minutes of the show and it didn't stop until they were bringing up the lights at the end and I knew I was about to make a fool of myself. Lol! I even caught one of the actors staring at me in the closing scene, and I knew it was because I was wearing my emotion on my face. But that's who I am. My mom always says that I'm a terrible liar, and it's because my face just shows what I'm feeling no matter what. Jason fully admitted that he cried too, so I wasn't alone! But with a storyline like that, who wouldn't cry? If you don't know, it's about a man that gives everything he has for others. And I mean EVERYTHING. It starts with his sister, then it goes to a factory-working girl, then her daughter. He even gives for the man that has hunted him his whole life. He is who I want to be. I want to finish this life being able to say that I gave everything I could for those around me. A couple months ago, a friend of ours said that she couldn't imagine me disliking anyone, and it was one of the best compliments I have received in a while. Funny enough, Jason turned right around when she said it and exclaimed, "See? I told you so!" I love that man.

Here we are with the Les Mis set in the background.

UACs Adoption Conference, part 3 (Day 2)

Class #4: Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders
We have a nephew with FAS, so this class was very interesting. The lady went over some basics of what the cause is, the symptoms, the span it can take, etc. Jason asked a question, so the lady gave him some book beads while she said, "I know no one reads actual books anymore, but..." Before she finished her sentence, I had pulled out my book and replaced the band-aid I was using as a book mark with my adorable new book beads! 

Out of all the disorders we had to say yes or no to while filling out paperwork for adoption and foster care, this is one that we really talked about a lot. Filling out those papers was so difficult. How do you say no to any child in need? On the other hand, we have two sons at home, so anything that would hurt them (communicable diseases, violence, etc.) had to be out of the question. There were so many things to consider.

Class #5: Ethics and Post-Placement Agreements
This class was controversial, but I didn't know that until we were at lunch. I thought it was great.  We talked about sticking to your word, more or less. Who would argue that? With Jason and I being incredibly honest people, I saw this class as a simple reminder of what we should ALL be doing--being honest with each other before and after placement. I would never want to get a baby by lying. Jason and I really want to have a good relationship with the Birth Parents of our future child, and that can't start with a lie.