Momma Turns 35!

Its so funny that my kids call me Momma. I thought I was a city girl, growing up in bustling Clearwater, FL- never expected to have kids that would call me "Momma". My kids rock! My family rocks! All I wanted to do for my birthday was spend the day with them. I got spoiled in lots of ways: Friday night went to dinner with Tim & Desi, Sara & Brett, Andi & Jared. They are such a fun group, we are lucky to have only been in this neighborhood a little over a year and have already found a great gang to hang with! We had a ball, went to Samuri 21 Japanese restaurant and sat at a hibachi table where they cooked in front of us. We had the most obnoxious cook, he really enjoyed making fun of all of us! After dinner Andi suprised me with a delicious lemon cake that she made for my BD! We sat outside & enjoyed it in the perfect 70 degrees St. George weather. Andi is SOO thoughtful! Then Sat. I got up and ran 19 miles (I needed over 17 for the day to complete my goal of running 35 miles last week for my 35th BD). Had a ball with Heather & the Eschlers on my birthday morning as we all groaned & sweated out 19 miles together! Next, got to watch my athletic son play a wonderful soccer game where he made some SWEET passes. (Meanwhile Arielle was at a "makeover" birthday party, getting all dolled up.) As I already mentioned the weather was PERFECT this weekend, so we spent some time Sat. afternoon in the yard just watching the kids do tricks on the tramp (Arielle likes to perform her gymnastics moves for us & Toby has taken up "tramp boarding"). Lastly, I cozied up on the couch with my fam Sat. night to watch THE JAZZ beat Houston. Perfect ending to a perfect day! I am so blessed!

"Hinckley Challenge"

A couple months ago I took on the "Hinckley Challenge" to attempt to read the Book of Mormon in 97 days to honor Pres. Hinckley's life. Well, its been a great experience- however, I'm not going to finish on time! I'm glad I took the challenge, it got me opening my scriptures more frequently and actually getting PAST 2nd Nephi, which I can't say I've done by reading straight through in years (*blush*). So I'm thoroughly enjoying Mosiah and I'm confident I will finish reading the entire Book of Mormon this year- although not in 97 days! But whoever came up with this challenge (that over 32,000 people are doing) THANK YOU!

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Taking the "Babies" For A Spin

As I glanced out the window a few days ago, I couldn't help but chuckle to myself. Then I grabbed the camera and made a run for it. I had to get Arielle & Stella on film. Stella is Arielle's good friend who lives next door. They like to play barbies, jump on the trampoline & climb trees. But on this day, they were getting pretty creative- taking their babies for a spin! They had baby doll strollers (will dolls in tow of course) roped to the back of their bikes and were riding around the culdasac. It was cute!

1st Track Meet of the Season

Today was Bloomington Hills Elementary's annual Track Meet. Toby was so excited for it. He's a good runner & confident in this area. Even though he's only 10, this year he ran against 11 & 12 yr. olds (because he'll be 11 by the end of the year) and he still took : 2nd place in 100 meter, 2nd place in 200 meter, 1st place for 100x4 relay and we think 2nd place in long jump (awaiting results on long jump). Yes, I'm being a braggy mom! Jim & I were able to go help with the timing of all the events. It was a super fun meet! (Toby is in the red sleeveless shirt w/ silver shorts. By the next track meet my goal is to figure out how to zoom in on the pics and crop them! If you want to see them larger I think you can double click on them to enlarge. When you're finished looking at them larger hit back not x or it will close the blog- I speak from experience!)In the pic of Jim & me- if you strain your eyes- you can see the St. George Temple to the left and St. George City Pool hydroslide to the right.

Race For Kids 5k & 1k

Today was a fun race day! Run For Kids is an annual 1k, 5k & 10k race in Hurricane that benefits The Learning Center. TLC helps kids with special needs & their families- it feels good to run races like these where you know you money goes to do so much good! Toby & Arielle ran the 1k, they had a blast. (Yes, Arielle's hair is out of control in the pic, she's not a morning person & WOULD NOT let me do her hair- "pick your battles" right?) Anyway- Toby & Arielle ran really fast and were awarded with a bouncy ball (big one, like a playground, 4 square ball) and a medal. Then I ran the 5k. I was a bit disappointed that I didn't beat last year's time for this race. I really wanted to place, but came in 5th- oh well. I got to see some friends from my running blog and also celebrated with Sara & Andi. Andi was running her 1st ever 5k and Sara was doing her 2nd. They both finished strong! It was a fun day (Thanks Jim for letting me drag you to all these races! we had to get up before 6am, not so easy for a guy who works night shifts and is used to sleeping half the day!)

Big Night for Toby

Tonight was Toby's school Science Fair and Pinewood Derby- big night! First we went to the Science Fair to walk around and check out all the great projects. We were really excited to see that Toby had been awarded 2nd Place for 5th grade! He did an interesting project about skateboard wheels. He tested the speed of 3 size wheels to see which would go furthest. He learned the biggest wheels would go furthest- good lesson in physics and he got some good math practice measuring and calculating means, etc. After the Science Fair we went to the Pinewood Derby. Toby & Jim had made their car in a hurry, so weren't expecting great results. Toby's car wasn't fast (came in 2nd to last in most runs) BUT it was COOL looking! He ended up with the prize for Most Unique car and because his car was so special looking, he was awarded 1 of only 10 golden tickets to compete at the S. Utah Pinewood Derby this Saturday. WOW- it pays to be creative! Toby's car was a futuristic/ high tech car, silver in color w/ computer chips and machine type parts fixed onto it. Toby was thrilled with his awards tonight because his hard work paid off. (Big hand goes to his Dad who was kept very busy the past couple days working side by side w/ Toby on these projects!)

General Conference Weekend

I love General Conference weekends! Its so nice to stay in PJs most of the day and just CHILL! The kids did a great job of listening to conference this year. I bribed them, of course! If they wrote down a sentence from each talk, they got a prize (breakfast of their choice- krispie cremes- was the prize for listening well to Sat. Conference. Sunday's prize was $1 that they could spend at the dollar store on Monday). Sat. morning conference worked the best for the kids 'cause we were all fresh, and it was neat to be part of the Solemn Assembly when we all sustained Pres. Monson! The kids had a "sleepover" Sat. night in the living room & enjoyed their donuts Sunday morning while watching conference. Sunday we went to Scott & Crystals for a BBQ between sessions. It was a beautiful weekend too, Crystal & I snuck out for a walk after the Sun. afternoon sessions.

Arielle's Baptism Weekend

My baby was baptized this past weekend! Can't believe she's that old! We had a very nice weekend. Grandmom & Granddad Lovelace came down from South Jordan and our dear friends Brent, Julie & Anna Titcomb came all the way from Heber for Arielle's special day. Arielle & Anna are the best of friends, true soul sisters- even the move across the state can't seperate them- they played just like old times. Saturday we went to the new splash park by the library downtown. Scott, Crystal & Mylie joined us there. The kids had a blast playing in the "river" especially. Then onto the baptism. It was a BIG stake baptism, 9 kids! Jim gave an excellent talk on the Holy Ghost (and compared it to an IPOD) great object lesson. I was suprised, when we walked into the baptism room we had some good friends there that I didn't even know were coming like Dave, Martha & Lauryn Kinzie, Heather & Jocelynn Green and Arielle's primary teacher Sister Harney & Arielle's friend from Primary Megan Sparks. The baptism went really smooth, then we went into a church classroom for the confirmation. Our Bishop (Bishop Daniels) did a great job conducting that little meeting. We had all the priesthood holders in the room come up and help with the confirmation. Jim did a beautiful job again. Then the Bishop asked "Grandma" to give her testimony. Boy - he doesn't know my mom & the water works! She did a GREAT job keeing herself composed and gave a beautiful testimony which contained our family's conversion story. After the meeting we went back to the house for pizza (Arielle's choice of course), salad & cheesecake. It was a VERY nice weekend. Missed Ash & Jules' families though! Sunday Arielle wore her baptism dress to church & received recognition in sacrament as the bishopric presented her with a nice BOM with a note from them in in. She was also recognized in Primary with a song "I Like to Look for Rainbows". I think it was a very special occasion for her and we're very proud of her!