Baptism

A few months ago, Scott was walking into work and asked a co-worker and friend what he was doing as he walked past. The friend answered something like "just getting in some B-O-M time..." Scott walked past him and continued down to his workstation in the ER.  It was then that he stopped dead in his tracks. This friend was not LDS and Scott wasn't sure what else BOM could stand for, besides Book of Mormon. He went back to ask more questions and sure enough, his non-LDS co-worker was reading the Book of Mormon. This instantly grabbed Scott's attention and thus began many conversations and questions answered about the gospel.

A few months later he had a strong desire to be baptized and asked Scott to preform this wonderful ordinance. Of course, Scott agreed and was honored to do so.

It was such a unique experience for me, never meeting this guy before this special day. As I watched him I could tell he was little nervous and excited, like a child. It was powerful to watch a grown man choose the gospel of Jesus Christ in his life. His face lit up as he entered the waters of baptism and continued after the ordinance was performed.

Such a wonderful day! Such a beautiful experience!

St. George

Over spring break I wanted to head somewhere warm. Somewhere we could play outside. Somewhere we could go swimming. We decided to head to St. George for 3 short, wonderful days.

We always stop off in Beaver for some squeaky cheese and a short rest. We arrived in St. George and it was beautiful. The weather was mid 70's and we couldn't change our clothes fast enough to jump into the pool.

Later that evening we headed to Pioneer Park. It was a couple of miles from our timeshare and totally worth the stop. The views were breathtaking. It was so beautiful with the red rock surrounding us. The boys climbed and climbed.

The next day we headed to see the temple close-up and went on a tour of Brigham Young's winter home. It was very interesting, even the boys liked it!

Next we were off to Snow Canyon where we spent most of the day hiking. There are a ton of different hikes, trails and fun things for the boys to do.

Here they all are climbing away.

Will longboarded all the way down, which was super fun for him. At the very bottom a ranger stopped us and said it was illegal to longboard in the park...Oops! We apologized and promised not to ride again! He could have written us a ticket, but thank goodness he didn't!

There is an awesome drink shack called, "Swig". Every time we drove by there was a huge line, so we had to try it. There were sodas, shakes, cookies, iced teas, shaved ice....It was worth the wait!

Right before we headed back to SLC we stopped off at the park again. It was a blast and good for the boys to run around before sitting in the car for 4 straight hours!

Book Reviews

The last time I typed up a book review was back in November 2012. That is way too much time to pass before writing another review. I have read over 40 books since then, and there is no way I'm going to review all of them for you.  But I do want to take the time and let you know the ones I loved and why! There are several Young Adult books I really liked that I will share with you. Scott and I try to read the same books our boys are reading so we can discuss the books with them. It makes for entertaining talks with the boys!

Starting backwards...

• The Candy Shop War by Brandon Mull ****

• The Phantom Tollbooth by Juster Norton **** I read this book a million years ago and was glad to read it again!

• Sarah's Quilt by Nancy Turner ****

• The Good Earth by Pearl Buck **** I wasn't thrilled about the ending of this book, but it goes to show how money and greed can get to you.

• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith **** I loved Francie and was cheering her on the entire time. A good story about hardship and love.

• The Maze Runner by James Dashner **** (finally!!) I read this the same time as one of my boys. It's a creative and interesting story.

• The Glass House by Jeanette Walls **** Loved, loved loved this TRUE story. It's so shocking to me how people live so differently than how I do.

• The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom ****

• The Scorch Trials (Maze Runner #2) by James Dashner **** I kept asking Scott what was going to happen next, but he would never tell me. So I had to just kept reading and reading.

• The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer ****

• The Lost Hero by Rick Riodan **** I don't gravitate to books with mythical creatures, dragons or sci-fi stuff.  BUT, this was a real good book. Even though it's lengthy, it was a quick read!

• The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin **** Scott, Jackson and I all read this at the same time.

• Micheal Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25 by Richard Paul Evans ****

• The Death Cure (The Maze Runner #3) by James Dashner **** A good ending to the series
• The Kill Order (The Maze Runner Prequel) by James Dashner **** A interesting start to it all
• Little Women by Louisa May Alcott **** I've seen several Little Women movies and finally read the book. It was beautifully written.

• The Entitlement Trap by Richard Eyer **** GREAT advice for the family!  In fact, stay tuned on our blog for how we have implemented some of the elements with our family.

• Matched by Ally Condie ****

• Crossed by Ally Condie ****

• Edenbrook by  Julianne Donaldson **** LOVED this book. Loved the story, so cute. I told Scott he needs to read this...it's that good!

As you can tell from all the 4 stars above, those are the really good ones! Are there any YOU have read that I should add to my to-read list??

PLEASE, Please, please join Goodreads and rate the books you have read. I check my account often and will add books my friends have read and rated 5 stars! I want to hear from you! Also, there is a place on your account where it will not only track the books you're reading but you can make a goal for reading a certain number of books for this year.

Swimming

Over Spring Break, we headed to the pool at the Holladay Lions Club. It's huge! There are several pools to play in, a kids area, a diving area, and a tube to slide down. We all had a fun time, especially this cute little guy! He kept splashing around by moving his hands and feet. Preston was like a little fish in the water.

  Here are 2 short video's of our time swimming. The first is of Preston kicking around and splashing the water; and the second is of Brigham on the slide.

Easter 2013

On Easter morning, we ate Ebelskivers with homemade strawberry syrup and looked for our hidden baskets. The little kids took about 10 minutes to find theirs. The middle kids took a little longer, with a few hints and poor Will took over an hour! We, I mean, the Easter Bunny sure hid them well this year!!

That is one of our family traditions, is to have the Easter Bunny hide the actual basket for the kids to find.

I took Will's and Jackson's out of their baskets and put all their treats in a bag. It was much easier to hide that way! Jackson's basket was inside the piano.

The baskets were filled with candy, money and more candy!

Church starts at 1pm, so before we left, I made a batch of delicious Easter sugar cookies. The kids loved helping me cut them out and decorate them. Oh yeah, and eat them!
Scott had to leave shortly after to got to work but the boys and I were joined for dinner by the Boyce cousins. It was a real treat to have them spend the evening with us.

The meal was slightly different than I normally make. I wanted to try a bunch of new recipes this year. Thanks Pinterest!
I made crock pot ham with pineapple and brown sugar, twice baked potatoes, pastel colored deviled eggs (I placed the white part of the egg [after it was hard boiled and de-shelled] in a cup with food coloring. They turned out great! Pink, yellow, green and blue eggs!), Bunny rolls (they really looked like rats, but they tasted delicious!), Asian pasta salad with spinach, jello salad and our new favorite drink, limeade with Canada Dry.

 After we ate dinner, we hid a bunch of eggs all over the yard for the boys to find. I was telling Brynnlee, Kelsey and Aleigh that I use to come to Easter dinner when they were my kids age. Now, they're coming to my house. So cool.

I had a wonderful Easter filled with family, food, fun and of course the spirit.

Bear Award

A few weeks ago Tyler received several awards at the Blue and Gold Banquet... The most important one this year was that he was awarded his Bear!

Great Job Tyler ( and me!)

Fear Factor FHE

A few weeks ago we had Fear Factor Family Home Evening. Scott and I discussed what the game was to the kids and how each of the foods are eaten by many people in different parts of the world. Nothing would make them sick or anything. All the boys were pumped and said they could eat everything. We also told the kids we would pay them $5.00, $3.00, $1.00 to whomever ate the most. Everyone else would receive $0.25 cents for participating.
Scott and I prepared all the food ahead of time and placed them in order from easy (to us) to harder to eat. Each of the boys had a glass of water and a napkin if they needed it, and boy did they!

Let the games begin!!

The very FIRST item to try was a slice of lemon! Lemon! And there were already tears! It was so funny!

 A small glass of tomato juice was apparently not very good for the little ones either!!!

More crying. More tears. Lots of dry-heaving.

 
And with a black olive, Nathan was out of the game!

Hot mustard wasn't a big deal for Jackson, but he didn't seem to like some of the other things...

Will and Papa ate everything! Will won the $5.00. Tyler came in 2nd place and Gavin was 3rd. (You might be wondering about Jackson. He is our pickiest eater and was out shortly after Nathan!!)

It was interesting to see how some boys would down the item fast and another boy wouldn't touch it. Like Vienna Sausage! We learned that looks can be deceiving and how we shouldn't judge anything (or anyone) before we try it (get to know them).

Here is the list of items we offered the boys in the Fear Factor contest:
1. Lemon
2. Tomato Juice
3. Black Olive
4. Vienna Sausage
5. A dot of spicy mustard of their finger
6. Sauerkraut
7. Dates
8. Dried sea weed
9. Clams
10. Sardines

Little Mermaid

Jackson and Tyler were cast in the elementary musical, "The Little Mermaid Jr.". Jackson was the Pilot (he had a solo to start the show off!!) Jackson was also a frog in the song "Kiss the Girl". Tyler was a sailor. They both had a fun time participating in the play with so many of their friends.

The "Little Mermaid Jr." musical ran for 4 evenings, and I was in attendance for each of them. My mom and Bill flew in to support the boys and watch the play too. All the children were great. The musical was really cute. Great job everyone!!