Ho Jo

I recognize this is ancient news, but I've been ill this past week, so it is coming now. We went to the Howard Jones concert last Saturday. It was tons of fun. We went with our friends Brian and Steph and it was great to catch up with them. We are super excited they are building a home nearby us and we can see them more often.
The concert was exceptionally entertaining. Howard played all his old classics (which sound very modern when played acoustic) and threw in some awesome new stuff. I guess we'll have to purchase the next CD when it comes out. And, as Steph said, he'd make a great dinner guest. He was very witty and interesting.

Something that we noticed is that there were all ages at his concert. We sat next to seniors and in front of high school students. Gotta love it when music reaches that great a variety of people!

Girls Night

Last night we had our bimonthly girls night. Oh my goodness do we ever have fun! Thank you to Jason for being supportive and hibernating upstairs with the Jazz game. (Which the Jazz won! Hooray! That makes us 8-1 on the season! But I digress.)

We played a game and ate food. But mostly we just talked and laughed. (Only until 2:00 am this time.) It is good for my soul to talk and laugh with such intelligent, spiritual and fun women. I am so blessed to have all of them in my life.
Clockwise from bottom: Emily, Kate, Julie, Heather, Deborah, Christy, Melanie, Me, Becky, Andrea B., Andrea M., and Karyn

Joy School

Today was Laura's first day of Joy School. She packed her pencil box with care, collected her "Show and Tell" item and ran straight into school at Melanie's. I was thrilled that there were no tears and no anxiety. She really is growing up.I just feel like the luckiest woman in the world that my neighborhood friends were so happy to include Laura and I in their already running Joy School. I felt super loved on Sunday when I got home from dinner at my parents to 3 messages on my machine about it. Yep, we are lucky to be surrounded by such neat women and their kids. Thanks ladies!

Princess Playing

Laura and I have had so much fun the past couple of days that we have been home together. We've gotten into a lovely routine and are super comfy. In the morning we have breakfast, get ready and pick up the house. Then we do an art project until it's time for lunch. After lunch we have quiet time for about an hour and a half. (Yes, Laura has given up her nap and we've moved to "quiet time".) Following quiet time we play like crazy until it's time to get dinner ready. On Monday we spent hours outside running, swinging and sliding. We had an absolute blast, despite the cold weather.
Yesterday, Laura called her best friend Lily to come over and play princesses. They both got dressed up and were adorable. They danced and sang to one of those princess karaoke/dance along movies and then they just played together. I just couldn't stop staring at them all dressed up and imagining. Oh, how I love my girly girl. And, I had a marvelous time chatting and laughing with one of my best friends, Karyn, while our daughters were playing.

Bad Cold

Laura has had a hideous cold since Friday. Yep, the cold made us miss out on our friday night plans. So, we spend most of our Saturday and today watching movies. She has taken to watching them (particularly her current favorite; Dumbo) with her umbrella. Whenever it rains in the movie, or a character cries, she puts up the umbrella. It's totally darling. But, make sure to watch your eyes if she's doing this while sitting on your lap.Jason got the doors re-hung (with some help from Dad) and all the new hardware on. It looks so good. It's wonderful to have the house all updated.

Out Doors

Jason stayed home yesterday so we could get one of our most annoying things about our house fixed. Some of the doors in our house were new and still just primed (in the laundry/mud room) and not really white and others were just filthy despite repeated attacks with a Magic Eraser.So, we painted them ALL. Yes, we painted all the doors in our house. Jason became a whiz with the paint sprayer and they look gorgeous. It's nice to know that every bit of our house has now been painted by us. It feels much cleaner. Now all we have to do is get the rest of them hung with the new hardware.Dad and Mom came over to help b/c Dad has done this process before. And Mom watched the Boo while I picked bugs that had become stuck in the wet paint off the doors. Thanks again, guys!

Activity Ideas

I typed up the list of brainstormed ideas our girls came up with for youth night. Since I am sure some of you out there are in charge of either YW Activities or activities for Activity Day girls, I thought I would share the pretty great list. I have also found some amazing ideas in this book.

1. Date Night
2. Sledding
3. Daddy/Daughter Dodgeball
4. Ice Cream Sculpting
5. Mothers Day Gift
6. Fathers Day Gift
7. Family Heritage Dress-up
8. Scripture Theater on Video
9. Life Sized Battleship
10. Human Fooseball
11. Veterans Dinner
12. Choir Concert
13. Caroling
14. Tacky Night
15. Mystery Dinner
16. $5 Dinner
17. Make Scarves/Hats
18. Frilly Flip Flops
19. Scriptionary with Pudding
20. Trek Craft – Bloomers/Bonnet
21. Practical Skills Relay
22. “Fries With That” Cars
23. Video: For The Strength of Youth Man
24. Modesty Fashion Show
25. Time Capsule
26. Visit Art Gallery
27. Attend Show/Play
28. Bigger/Better Scavenger Hunt
29. MTC Experience
30. Mini-Missions
31. Board Games
32. Babysitting Kit
33. Quality Night/Individual Worth
34. YW-opoly
35. Fear Factor
36. 72 hr kit
37. Car Maintenance
38. Popcorn for Ward Christmas Party
39. Book of Mormon Read-a-thon
40. Parent Modeling
41. Pajama Party
42. Rest Home
43. Service Auction
44. Car Wash
45. LDS Motion Picture Studio Tour
46. Book of Mormon Testimonies to Missionaries
47. Spring Yard Cleanup
48. New Baby Gifts
49. Cleaning Door to Door
50. Amazing Race
51. Meteor Shower in Canyon
52. White Elephant
53. Junk Swap
54. Beauty Night
55. Project Runway – Duct Tape or Paper
56. Duct Tape Wallets
57. Home-Made Purses
58. Sound Scavenger Hunt
59. Voice Lesson (bring in a pro)
    
60. Patriarchal Blessing Instruction from Stake Patriarch
61. Make Your Own Beauty Products
62. FHE Packet
63. Game Night
64. Movie Night
65. Recipe Swap/Meal Planning
    
66. Carve Pumpkins and Deliver
67. Sport Night at Local Rec Center
    
68. Unbirthday Party
69. Scrapbook Night
70. Make Jewelry
71. Night Games
72. Secret Sister
73. Get to Know You Games
74. Scripture Puppet Show
75. Unity Challenge
76. International Night
77. Standards Night -- Spiritual $ vs Material $
    

Mommy

My job title has changed. It is now back to the best job title in the whole wide world "Mommy!"

In a previous post I talked about how excited I am to stay home with my girl. However, I was still frustrated and hurt by how things happened and I said some things I probably shouldn't have. I'm sorry that I initially did not take the high road.

But, I am still absolutely thrilled to look at this little face every day, all day long. Wouldn't you be?

Bishops "Snorehouse"

Last night at dinner I was explaining to Laura that the mutual activity I was going to was at the Bishops Storehouse. She checked out the map I was looking at in order to help me find it. She immediately pointed out the location of the "Snorehouse" to me. And then asked me why I had to go to the "Bishops Snorehouse" instead of playing with her. Needless to say, Jason and I had a great time laughing about the place Bishops go to be trained on how to sleep on the stand: the "Bishops Snorehouse."Unfortunately, the activity really was a snore. Somehow things didn't get coordinated correctly (please note that the Young Men were in charge of this activity) and we never did anything at the Storehouse except wait. After waiting over an hour, filling the time with laughter and riddles, we went to Macey's and got ice cream. It was good to have time to chat with the girls.

Friends and Fun

Laura has been having piles of fun playing with friends lately. She got to spend an entire morning with one of her favorite friends, Lily. They watched movies, took care of dollies and played with stickers. Aren’t they darling?!

We also just dropped by another friend’s house to play. Okay, so maybe I wanted to talk to Emily and it was just convenient that her daughter Ellie and Laura are friends also. But they had a grand time playing with Polly Pockets, riding on the horsey and making faces. What silly girls!She also has gotten to play with both sets of grandparents lately. They are definitely some of her favorite friends. Jason’s parents watched her while we were at the Jazz game and my parents played with her last night when we invited them over for dinner.

Finally, she has played a lot with Mommy and Daddy. Here she is after making a trek with us to Burger King for lunch last Friday. She LOVED the crown and being a princess.

4 Years and a Great Game

Our Jazz are 4 - 0! Isn't that awesome?! We had an amazing time at the game last night. We screamed our lungs out and enjoyed watching the Jazz work hard. It was a great and close game, and we had great seats. Therefore, we had a blast. It sure is wonderful to have Derek Fisher on the team and to have a healthy team. Here are some pictures of us after the game enjoying the new statues of Karl Malone and John Stockton (*sigh*). Those are Jason's feet (a size 11) next to Karl's footprint, my hand next to John's, and us in front of the Stockton statue.
Finally, I just have to say what a wonderful husband I have in Jason. Thank you for the last 4 years, baby! I can't wait to see what the next 50+ bring!

How 'Bout Them Jazz!

One of our favorite times of year is basketball season when we get to watch our Utah Jazz. We even upgrade to the "sports" package on dish so we can watch all the games.

The last few seasons have been fun to watch, but it's been hard to not even make it to the playoffs. But not this year! Our Jazz are looking great. I know it's an early season, but they have started off 3-0 and that's against Houston and Phoenix.

We have had an absolute blast hooting and hollering at the TV for these last 3 games and are ecstatic to be able to see them play Detroit tonight in person for our anniversary. That's right, my wife wanted to go to dinner and a Jazz game for our anniversary. What can I say? I'm the luckiest man alive!

Go Jazz!!

Let There be Light

The ceiling fan we had been lusting after for ages went on sale. We couldn't help ourselves, so we bought it for the family room. Naturally, we figured while all in stock ceiling fans were on sale, we might as well replace the hideous one in our Master Bedroom as well with this one. So, after a long battle, Jason got them installed. Thank you, honey. Here he is showing off some of his handiwork.I have spent a great deal of time getting ready for Evening of Excellence and focusing on our theme "Arise and shine forth, that thy light may be a standard for the nations." D&C 115:5. (Yep I'm tying these two things together with that weak of a link). I made a video with all the pictures we've taken at activities, camp, etc. throughout the year. And, after stalking some girls houses, I was able to get an individual picture of each of our girls for it. It was a HUGE project and thank you to everyone (Karyn, Andrea and Jason) who helped me with it. At least I was able to count it for one of my 10 hour projects. We leaders are doing Personal Progress along with the girls in the new Presidency.

Anyway, Evening of Excellence went really well. Karyn gave a great talk. The video was well received. The treats were yummy. And, the girls were darling. I just wish we could've gotten more of them out.

It felt weird to take pictures of this rather spiritual event. So, instead I'll make you all laugh with a hilarious song I found about Testimony Meetings. Note: this will probably only be funny to you if you are LDS or have attended an LDS fast and testimony meeting lately. To hear it, click HERE.

Halloween

There is so much to write about last night with Laura. She had so much fun she didn't want it to stop. She wore her Cinderella dress ALL day and we still had a hard time getting it off her so she could go to bed. She really was a princess for the day.
The night started with the annual ward "Trunk-or-Treat". Laura had a ball going from car to car, getting candy, and checking out all of the scary costumes. Her favorite part was getting the fresh popcorn!

Then it was off to each of the grandma's houses for a fun visit. She was a doll and shared her popcorn with Great-Grandma Jo and dined on grapes. Yep, she wanted grapes, not candy. Laura had a ball handing out the candy at Grandma Linda's house. I think she almost enjoyed it as much as trick-or-treating!
(Click here or the picture above for the movie)

(Click here or the picture above for the movie)
Then she was off to Grandma Garna's house where she went trick-or-treating in the neighborhood, handed out even more candy, and played "Cinderella" with all of us for hours! Her favorite game being getting dressed by her fairy godmother (Melinda) and riding in the carriage (me) and dancing with the prince (Grandpa).