I am a member....

I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. There is not a day that goes by that being a member of this church has not impacted my life for the good. There is not a day that goes by that I am not proud of belonging to this church. Every day I learn that family is the most important thing, that you should always look for ways to serve others, that you are never alone. The church is perfect, the people in it are not. We are taught to forgive, to give 2nd chances, to be humble, not to judge.

A dear, dear friend of mine invited me to go to the Relief Society Broadcast tonight. I usually don't go to these things. Sometimes the thought of another meeting wears me out. But I said yes. And it was a beautiful meeting. Full of inspiring words that bring hope and peace. What mother doesn't want to feel those things?? 

We have amazing people in our church. 

And I am so grateful that she invited me and that I chose to go. I was sitting by one of those amazing people. 

I feel so blessed to be a member of this church. I will never be ashamed or not stand up for what I believe in. It has made me who I am today and it is helping me raise my children to be the best that they can be.

My heart is so full.

countdown:

9 days til our family reunion at the Happiest Place on earth( or to kaleb, the most miserable place on earth:) DISNEYLAND!!!

17 days til Aliah turns NINE.

37 days til the UTAH JAZZ season starts! 

93 days til christmas.

100 days til the end of the year.

144 days til Celine turns SIXTEEN!

188 days til Tage turns TWELVE!

never a dull moment.

this goes beyond scary.....

i even scare myself. my husband has been gone way to much in the last few months.

The husband pact

12. Make a husband pact with your friends.(and your sisters)The husband pact says this: I promise to listen to you complain about your husband even in the most dire terms, without it affecting my good opinion of him. I will agree with your harshest criticism, accept your gloomiest predictions. I will nod and furrow my brow and sigh when you describe him as a hideous ogre. Then when your fight is over and love shines again like a beautiful sunbeam in your life, I promise to forget everything you said and regard him as the most charming of princes once more. The husband pact is very useful because you want to be able to vent to your friend without having her actually start hating your husband. Because you don’t really mean all those things you say. And she, the swearer of the pact, knows this.

best tip ever?? I think so. To all my friends (and sisters) I swear to make the husband pact with you! :)

a new look....

for my blog that is. I don't know how this happened! My blog suddenly went haywire and everything was all messed up! I couldn't figure out how to fix it. This is so stressful for me, once I get to know something the way it is, you can't go and suddenly change it on me!!! So, I am totally trying to figure out my blog again and get used to a different look. Maybe its time though, change can be good, right?? Its been almost two weeks since my last post. Life has been....content. The kids are enjoying school, celine is busy being a teenager and is busier than ever with her social life. Aliah just started dance this week where I used to take and I am so excited about it. She is dancing two days a week. Tage is in the middle of his soccer season. Kaleb has been busy getting ready for hunting, packing, buying new guns and scopes and shooting his gun. Me...well, I still do crossfit three days a week. I read. I clean. I do laundry. I see my friends. I sit outside and soak up the sun. Today was the most beautiful, perfect day. I just wanted to be outside in it forever. I am sad that summer is leaving us, but I sure love the beginning of fall.  I am trying to enjoy one day at a time and not think to much about all of the tomorrows.  

Here we had a awesome rainbow after a rain storm. Most perfect rainbow I have ever seen.

 Tage got to babysit his class turtles for the weekend. Him and Aliah had so much fun playing with squirt, Mt. Dew and Pepsi all weekend. They were pretty interesting little creatures.

 I can't believe I forgot to blog about this. My mia maids threw me a surprise birthday party for mutual the day before my birthday!! I lovelovelovelove all of these young woman, and Cali who is my partner. They are such a blessing in my life and I am so grateful for this calling. I felt so loved!!!

Huh. Nothing much interesting going on in my life. Thats ok, sometimes the quietness of life is a nice change from the craziness!!

Celebrating 33 years of life.

I had such a wonderful birthday. Turning 33 wasn't hard at all. It was such a nice day, and such a great week, full of so many people that I love. I started out my birthday with a good crossfit workout! Camie compiled a workout for my birthday of some of my favorite crossfit workouts. 

Here was the workout:

1 min rounds of the following exercises

Wall Balls

Row

Sit ups

Burpees

Squats

Push Press

Rest 1 min Repeat

Happy Birthday to Meg!!!!

This is my before pix of crossfit....

and here is my after. It was a great way to start my day!!!

 After crossfit I ran home to get ready. Me and april ( my little sis and best friend) were going to go to the temple. I decided it was the perfect way to spend my bday. I love being at the temple. I don't get there as much as I would like, but when I do I am always so happy to be there. After our session at the temple we went out to lunch at Zupas, my favorite place. Thanks to my mom for watching aprils kids so she could come out with me on my bday, and thanks april for coming with me!!!

 After the temple I went and did a little birthday shopping and then I came home to get ready to go out with Kaleb. Kaleb never ever ceases to make my birthday special.  I think he knows how much it means to me. 

 We ended up going up to Salt Lake to Benihanas for dinner. It was really good and yummy food and we sat at a table with some really nice people.  Like our shoe picture?? I love that kaleb wears color shoes just like me. :)

 Here we are waiting to be seated.

 Isn't this a great picture?? If you know kaleb at all, you know that getting a normal picture of him is rare!!!

 After dinner kaleb told me he wanted to take me to city creek mall. If you know kaleb, you know shopping is his worst nightmare. But thats just how much he loves me. :) It was only going to be opened for about 20 more minutes when we got there, so we went to H&M and kaleb suffered through 20 minutes of me shopping, what a great guy. :)

 I told him the only other thing I really wanted to do for my bday is go to The Melting Pot for dessert. So after the mall, thats exactly what we did. Oh man, their dessert is heavenly. 

 Marshmellow dipped in oreo crumbs. oh yum.

What a great birthday. I felt so loved. So many people reached out to wish me a happy birthday and when I went to bed that night my heart was so full. I am so blessed with the people in my life. 

 Here is the day after my bday. I got to go out to lunch with my besties(minus val who was at school). I just love these girls. We have celebrated SO many birthdays together. I am so grateful for their friendship. 

 Friday I met some of my bunko girls at the park for a picnic. I totally forgot to take a picture, darnit. You all know how much I love the bunko girls. We have so much fun together always. The weekend before some of us went to park city together, which reminds me, I need to steal pictures of that from the other girls!! Greatest group of woman.

Which brings me to this group of woman. We all worked in primary together a few years ago and ended up becoming such great friends. These are some of the most amazing woman I know.  Me, lara and christine all have birthdays within a week of eachother so we always make sure to go out to lunch for our bdays. We went to Red Robin(yum!) today and sat for 3 hours and just laughed and talked. I am so grateful for my friendship with these women. 

I realize that I was thoroughly spoiled for my birthday week, and I am just feeling so blessed. Tomorrow is dinner with Kalebs family and then my birthday week will officially be over. :) I really do love my birthdays each year, even if getting older sucks. But its the people in my life who make getting older bearable. Thank you to EVERYONE who made my birthday the best ever.