A sad day

Last night on the news I heard that the baby giraffe that was born at Hogle Zoo last summer died. I was so sad, we had just seen it last Saturday when we were at the zoo. We were there to see it when it was only one day old, and have loved visiting it every time we go to the zoo. We will really miss you little Jamar!!!!
 

Spring is in the air!!!

Last weekend, after Morgan's bridal shower, I invited Hailey and Libbie for a sleepover. (Molly was having a cousin sleepover at her Grandma Joanie's house, so she wasn't available.) Saturday was a nice day, so we bundled up and headed to the zoo. I thought the girls were big enough to walk, but they REALLY wanted to ride in the stroller, so we took it along. I can't believe how big they have gotten, it's quite a job to push the two of them in it!

Little Zuri is still pretty small, compared to her mom!

There were lots of fun things to see.

The baby giraffe has really grown since our last visit!

About the only way we can get them to leave, is to promise them a ride on the Merry go Round. They always love that!!!

Yesterday, Jamie and his girls came to play at our house while Emily went to a soccer practice. I took the girls to the park to play, while Jamie helped Mike put up our trampoline.

Molly loves to jump!

Our trampoline does CRAZY things to her hair!!!!
 

Preschool at Grammy's school again!

It's preschool time at Bonneville Jr. High again, and it is so much fun that my 3 oldest granddaughters could join us. One day, Hailey, Libbie and her cousin Alissa came, and the other day, Hailey and Molly came. They loved playing play dough.

Some of my students made cookies for them to frost.

Lots of sprinkles make a yummy cookie!

Yum, yum, yum!!!

Two cute cousins

They had fun finding the Easter eggs the kids had hidden

One of the kids brought a pinata and they sure had fun trying to break it open

Hailey was quick to get some of the treats

Libbie got lots of treats too

They made some cute little bunnies

Molly and Hailey came to preschool on Wednesday. They sang songs and played ring around the rosies.

Rain, rain go away!

Molly is good at gluing.

They had fun playing Spring Bingo

I loved having my sweet granddaughters come to my preschool!!!!
 

Our best week!

The weather this week has been BEAUTIFUL!!!! Monday, on my way home from school, I called Krista to see what she was doing. She was on her way home from Preschool, and then had to go run several errands after she picked up her girls. I volunteered to take her girls to the park while she ran her errands. Mike met me over at her house and we loaded the girls up in the stroller and walked to the park. We had such a fun time!!!! We called Grandma Cline and she came over to the park, since it was right by her house. Tuesday, Jamie called to see if we could watch his girls while he surprised Emily and took her on a date for her birthday. We had so much fun with them. Then Wednesday is our night to tend Libbie and Katie, so it made for a great week with the granddaughters!!!!
Here's cute little Aida

Hailey still likes to swing in the baby swing sometimes.

Tiny Abbie is a sitting girl, (you still have to keep a close eye on her, she does tip over)

Molly loves to build with our GIANT LEGOS!

Oh little Katie, please don't learn to climb out of your crib!!!!!

Libbie always needs a little snack before bedtime.
 

Young Women's Winter Retreat!

Can I just say, I was NOT excited when our Young Women started begging that we do a winter retreat again this year. It sounded like a LOT of work and time that I could be spending doing something else. However, I am so glad they talked us into it. It was WONDERFUL!!! I had such a great time. Our YW president works for Wasatch state park and has a great job there. She was able to get us a cabin that they use up there, free of charge, We all enjoyed being together and being up in the mountains. I can't wait to do it again next year!!!!!

We had LOTS of good food. They made their own pizzas on pita bread that were amazing for dinner Friday night. We had just had a workshop on some of the values we need to incorporate into our lives, so we had service sausage, charity cheese, honest olives, patient pepperoni, sacred sauce and modest mushrooms. Then after dinner we had a short workshop on Sabbath day observance and had ice cream Sundaes for dessert. We had French toast and scrambled eggs for breakfast and sloppy joes for lunch right before we left.

I was in charge of the craft project, Lani found this fun idea that she did with her girls. It is this years Mutual theme cut in vinyl and put on wood. The girls had a fun time doing them.

The finished product! They all turned out GREAT!!!! (Thanks Lani for the fun idea)

There was a fun hill right outside our cabin, that the girls went sledding on.

We played lots of games. We played, Uno, Pig Mania, Apples to Apples,
"I have never," and Pit. It was so much fun!!!

We ended the day, with a team building activity, where each group was given tinker toys, and they were to build the tallest free standing tower that they could. Then we talked about how important it was to have a strong foundation for their tower in order for it to stand. We related it to testimonies, and what you can do to build a strong foundation for your testimony.
 

March Birthday Celebration!

We have lots of Springtime babies in our family! Mackenzie, me, Emily, Ric, Chandler, and Ricky. We try to get together, on the months that we have birthdays, to celebrate them with a birthday dinner. Our "Big family" has gotten so BIG, that we no longer fit in my kitchen, even though I thought it was fairly large when we bought this house. Now, we have to eat in my family room when we have the Big family over for dinner. I had two 6 ft banquet tables, and would have to borrow 2 every time we got together. It got to be kind of a pain, so I decided to spend our Christmas money from mom and buy 2 more. I started setting up for our March birthday celebration, and realized that we still needed one for the food. Holy cow, how many banquet tables does one family REALLY need. I thought that I must have something else I could use. I then remembered that I have a ping pong table, that the boys had just been playing with last weekend after dinner. I keep it in our utility closet downstairs. I brought that out and WALAHHHHH, we could fit 14 around it. I felt like Robynn with her table top that she can fit a ton of people around. It worked perfectly!!! I was so excited. 2 twin sheets fit just right for table cloths and we were all set.


We had 30 people here, I think the only one missing from our Utah Birks group, was Cierra, who has a calling in her ward that she needs to be there Sunday evenings. Here are a few shots of those who were here.
Mom and Dad

Chandler

Aida, Krista and Matt

Jeff and Ric (Sorry I didn't remember to say "smile")

Kathy, Chip Elycia and Lani
3 goofy girls, Libbie, Hailey, and Molly

Josh, Merijane, and Katie

Jamie, Emily and Abbie

Mike and Laurie

Chip and Elycia

Stacy and Pierce

Jamie and Jordan

Our final cute couple, Chase and Morgan,will be married in about 2 1/2 weeks!!!! So exciting!

Last week, I had a day off, and went over to mom and dad's to help them go through some of their decorations in their storage room. Ric, Kathy, Chandler, and Carissa, had been over on Monday and brought them some awesome shelves to organize their storage room. Mom had lots of fun decorations, that she made years ago, and hasn't used for a long time, and wanted to get rid of. I knew we were having a family party that weekend, so I loaded them up and we had a Garage giveaway after dinner.

More fun stuff! Some of the kids, (mainly the ones with more room for storage) went home with quite a few treasures, and others with just one or two things. It was lots of fun, and I hope they will enjoy having something that mom made in their home.