silliness

Bubble beard is courtesy of Jacob's Salon Stylz, located in the upper bathroom.

valentines day wrap-up

This is the fruit bouquet I created for Mark & the boys for Valentines Day dinner. Not the greatest work of art, but certainly edible and enjoyable! I usually try to come up with something creative for Valentines Day, but mostly I think its a silly "holiday". I did surprise the kids a bit this year when I wrote "Happy Valentines Day" on their bathroom mirrors with lipstick. I have done this every year for Mark, but decided to see what would happen if I did it in the kids bathrooms. They definitely weren't expecting this first thing in the morning so the most popular response to this surprise was, "Is this gonna come off?", followed by, "How did you do that?"

This year I was in charge of Jacob's school class party. I usually offer to help with Valentines Day activities because this holiday tends to lend itself to girly activities and I want my boys (and all the boys) to have fun too and not come home complaining about "dumb parties". This was the first time I've ever been "in charge" though. So anyway, after talking to a couple of moms about ideas, I came up with a Valentine Olympic theme and decided to have the class break into teams and compete for medals (peach rings on gold, silver, or bronze string) I decided that games were more fun for everyone than crafts. The added element of competition usually sparks boys interest as well. One mom led the class in a relay using chopsticks to carry conversation hearts from one end of the room to the other, another mom led a winter clothing relay where they had to put on hats, scarf, and mittens, and then unwrap a candy kiss, and another mom helped them play some valentine pictionary. I asked one other mom to come up with a game. I suggested some team game ideas, but she didn't like them I guess, because she came up with her own -- which would have been fun if only like 5 kids were playing, but with 28 it was mass chaos as it didn't keep their attention and involvement. That was a very LONG 15 minutes. We had fun treats after the medal ceremony -- chocolate fondue with a variety of foods to dip, like pretzels, bananas, strawberries, marshmallows, pinapple, vanilla wafers, and graham crackers with pink lemonade to wash it all down. The kids had a lot of fun except for one poor kid throwing up, and another kid getting a bloody nose. Both incidents were completely random and had nothing to do with the partying. All in all it was a success! Wahoo!

In other valentine day happenings, Jared and his teachers quorum went on a tour of the Sweets Candy factory after school. Jared surprised me with bringing home a couple boxes of orange sticks -- one of my favorites, due to good memories of my grandparents.

dozen roses

Mark brought these beauties home for me yesterday!

winter camp

Ryan & Mark just got back from winter camp. BRRRRR! They had a great time though!
This is the awesome sledding hill.
Here's Ryan blasting down the hill. It should be noted that at one point he got off course and crashed into a tree. He has a very nasty and very large bruise on his thigh to show for it. Soooo glad it wasn't worse!
Warming up and trying to dry out around the fire with his friend Connor.

autograph mania

Jacob's good buddy, Noah, recently went to an autographing night with the Jazz. Jacob asked Noah to get him some autographs on his basketball card and nerf basketball. The card is Al Jefferson and his autograph. The signatures that you can see on this ball are Raja Bell (19) and the assistant coach. The ball also has Paul Milsap and a few other players. This is SOOOO awesome!

white girl

I went to my first ever Zumba class today. It was the first time I've been to a group exercise class since the glory days of college. All I can say is, I'm white, very white -- meaning I ain't got no latin rhythm! And I'm uncoordinated.

jared's eagle court of honor

We finally had a court of honor for Jared to receive his Eagle Scout award!! We held it at the church on New Year's Day. We thought we'd try to get the new year off to a good start. The court of honor also awarded merit badges and rank advancements to other scouts. Ryan received several merit badges and a rank advancement to Star Scout.
Jared received a bunch of awards, including his Varsity letter (being presented by Bro. Yardley)...
an On My Honor scouting award (this is a pin with ribbons attached)...
and a Duty to God award from the Bishopric (this is also a ribbon with a pin). Wow! We didn't realize he was receiving all these awards too! Definitely a nice surprise.
We decided as a family that we would like to present the Eagle Charge to Jared. Mark, Ryan, Jacob & I all took a part and presented an item to Jared to help him remember what is expected of him now that he's an Eagle. The first charge is to have honor. We presented a white shirt to help him remember to have integrity and honor his priesthood.
The next charge was to be loyal. Ryan presented Jared with a BYU tie to help him remember to be loyal to his standards and values.
The next charge was courage. The color of courage is red, so we gave him a red fleece blanket to help him remember to have courage to stand for the right. The blanket is embroidered with his name and the date that he became an eagle scout.
The fourth charge was to be of service to others. We presented him with a pair of gloves to be used in serving others.
The final charge is vision. He received a pair of binoculars to remind him that he is now a leader and that others look to him for guidance.
The Eagle Pledge was presented by one of his scout leaders, Bro. Nield.
Following that, we proceeded to do all the pinning! First, the eagle pin...
then the "scarfing"...
then the mother's pin...
and finally, the father's pin.
Matthew slept through the whole thing, resting his head on Aunt GayLynn's lap!
Here's a fabulous picture of Jared with his proud grandparents.
We had a really nice evening and everything went really well. Several extended family members were able to join us for the occasion, which made it extra special. We are grateful to Bro. Yardley for helping us pull everything together. We are very blessed to have such awesome scout leaders in this ward. I'm proud of Jared and his accomplishment. He truly represents everything I expect of an Eagle Scout. I am blessed to be his mother. Congratulations, Jared!