MY SON THE COOK!!!

James is so excited about his cooking competition. Their food looks so good and he says that it tastes good too. He is having so much fun learning how to cook. I have my own personal chef in the house. He isn't at home much to cook but when he does cook, he does an excellent job. Rachel Ray eat your heart out!!!!

KAE LEE IS BEAUTIFUL!!

Kae Lee was so excited for this big day, it was like Christmas for her. She got her braces off today. After 19 months of being very deligent in doing what Dr. Peck told her to do, her efforts paid off and she has a beautiful smile. She just kept feeling her teeth with her tongue and telling me how strange they felt. She smiled all the way back to school and she hasn't stopped smiling since. What a wonderful thing it is to have people who can change your total look by using orthodontics.
Kae Lee is beautiful and it was worth all those thousands of dollars to get her where she is today. She finally loves her smile and so do we.

 

Happy Birthday to my Mom!!!

My Mom will be 74 tomorrow. Just wanted to wish her a wonderful day. This picture was taken at her party on Saturday night. She is not one year's old. She just didn't want to blow out 74 candles. Love you Mom!! Happy Birthday!

What a great weekend!!

We did so much this weekend and it was all so good and so fun. I wish that every weekend could be so full of fun memories to look back on.

Friday afternoon we went to the Draper Temple Open House. What a beautiful Temple that is!! I was just so impressed with the beauty and the Spirit that is in that Holy place even though it has not been dedicated yet. We loved the Celestial Room and also the baptistery. We then made a trip to dinner and then on to Michael's parent's home. Michael's mom has been cleaning out stuff from under her stairs and she had clothes, books, pictures, and blankets all over her floor. Michael and the children decided that they needed to go through all the stuff and find what goods they wanted to keep. James found an old tuxedo that belonged to Grandpa Blair. He tried it on and it fit him like a glove, the pants were another story, they were HUGE on him. Michael wanted to wear his new "smokin'" jacket to church but I refused to let him go to "our" church with that on. The girls found so many treasures that Grandma was just delighted to get rid of all that "stuff".

Saturday found us down in Provo visiting with my parents and Kena Lee. It was great seeing my sister--we don't get to see her very often. It is Mom's birthday tomorrow and we got together for her birthday. Before going to dinner, we stopped in to see that new baby, Quinn. Oh, he is sooooo cute. We just wanted to eat him up. He is so sweet and he is just so new and he smelled so good. I wanted to take him home with me but I don't think Sammie would have beeen too happy about that. It was great seeing Emily. She looks great and seems to be doing well. Congrats to Nathan and Emily for a beautiful baby boy.

We ate at Prestwich Farms with the rest of the family. Mom had all of her children there for her birthday dinner. The food was yummy and the company was great. We went to Karla's house and played games and had cake and ice-cream. We are a loud bunch when we get together and play games. We had a great time and we all laughed at each other. We don't get to be together like that very often. It was great bonding time for all of us. Happy Birthday to my mom who will be 74 tomorrow. Love you Mom---hope this is a great year for you!!

KAE LEE HAS HER PERMIT

We took Kae Lee to get her permit yesterday and she passed with flying colors. It's amazing how well you can do on a test when you study. Her Driver's Ed teacher told the class that if they didn't have their permit, they were failing the class. Kae Lee is so concerned about her grades and that concerned her to think that she was failing a class before it even got started. She was pleased with herself. GO KAE LEE!

James is kind of bummed about his last semester of school. School can be fun if you have a good combination of good teachers and good friends in your class. I think that James is feeling like he has neither of those this semester. He got the Seminary teacher that no one likes and that made him sad. He has had such wonderful Seminary teachers and it's hard when you have one that is not so good. I just can't believe that he will done with High School in just a few short months. He is working so hard on getting his Eagle before he turns the ripe age of 18. We know that he can do it. We are very proud of him. GO JAMES!!!

Brynna stayed home from school yesterday because she had caught a bad cold. I felt bad for her because she had such a struggle on what to do because she had missed school last Thursday due to illness. She is feeling better today and went to school. She is still congested and coughing but I am hoping that the worst is over. She even went and played basketball for our ward YW team. She said that they got beat really bad but she had so much fun playing.
GO BRYNNA!

Life is good and we feel so blessed. Michael and I just look at our children and wonder how and why in the world did we get such awesome kids. We know why----
Heavenly Father spoils us!!!!

CHRISTMAS PRESENT!!!!

Michael, James and I have been working on the shelves in our storage room downstairs. They were finally finished last night and they look fabulous. I can't believe how much storage space I have in that room now. I am so excited to get my food storage off of the floor and put on the shelves. Now I can get things cleaned up and organized down there. Michael is just so smart and so good with engineering something like that to make it fit, make it strong, and give me the maximum use of my space. It was hard work and we had to go and buy some tools that made the work go so much faster. He is such a perfectionist and those shelves look like a true professional put them in there. The shelves were my Christmas present for last year but that is okay---it can be my early Mother's Day present for this year. Thanks Hon!

Our day started early with a trip to Ogden Temple to do baptisms. All of my children and two friends went with us. What a great way to start the day. We like to be the first ones in the baptistery and then we are out of there really quick. Then we came home and I fixed a big breakfast for everyone. These are such great kids and I love taking them to the Temple to do that sacred work. I hope that my children always have a desire to go to the temple whenever they can.

Emily Hollingshead had her baby today and I am so excited to see him. He weighed in at 8lbs. 14ozs and 20" long. He is Quentin N. Hollingshead. Both of them are doing well. The miracle of life----it never gets old.

Kae Lee went to take her written test to get here driving permit today. James and I told her that it isn't hard and that it was an "open book" test. Little did we know that was not the case for when you are taking it to get your permit. She had not studied the driving handbook and was not prepared for the test in the least little bit. Her first try she got 72% and the second time she got 78% and you have to have 80% to pass. She missed it by one question. We both laughed because she did really well even though she had not studied for the test. Now we will have to go back another day and give it another shot. Hopefully she will pass on the third try.
She is by no means ready to drive but she starts Drivers Ed this semester and she has to have it to drive on the road with the instructor. Watch out everyone
Kae Lee will soon be on the roads!!!!

THE SICK HOUSE!!!

It was a week of sickness at our house. Brynna being first with the stomach bug and then Kae Lee followed right behind with the same thing. Kae Lee was more sick than Brynna. Kae Lee is just barely feeling like eating since Friday. She looks like she has lost 5lbs. I just feel so helpless when my children are sick. There just isn't anything you can do for the stomach bug, it just has to run it's coures. But, I saw the misery in the eyes of my daughters as they waited for the nausea to pass and the desire to eat to return. Thank goodness that none of the rest of us have gotten it, so far.

My sister is here from New York, she arrived on Saturday. We are all awaiting the arrival of her new grand son, Quinn. He is coming tomorrow with a scheduled
C-section. We pray for Emily Hollingshead that all goes well with the delivery of this new baby. We are excited to see him, hold him, kiss him, and just smell that sweet "new baby" smell. There is just something so magical and special about new babies. Good Luck Emily.

IN THE STILLNESS OF THE NIGHT

Brynna was not only tired yesterday but she was physically sick. I picked her up from school and she was pretty green. She came home and went straight to bed. As a parent, when my children are sick, I feel so helpless. She slept for quite awhile but didn't feel any better when she woke up. It didn't take long before her body started to reject everything and anything she ate or drank. This continued on for several hours...the misery of that feeling. I stayed on the couch with her during the night while she fittfully tried to sleep. I can't sleep well on the couch, I don't know anyone who can, I missed my bed and my husband. At one point, I just couldn't sleep but I listened to the soft breathing of all the people in my house.
I thought about how still and quiet the night was, I thought about how much I love these people who were so peacefully sleeping---even Brynna was resting peacefully. I thought about a loving Heavenly Father who loves us even more than the love we feel for our own families. It was then, during the stillness of the night, that I felt so much love from my Heavenly Father that I had to utter a prayer of thanks for so many wonderful blessings in my life. It was a short night for sleep but I felt my time was well spent, even in the stillness of the night.

Brynna is feeling better this morning but is still very weak and tired. She will stay home with me today and just try to regain her strength. I am so thankful for the power of the Priesthood in our home. Brynna immediatly wanted a blessing from her Dad as soon as he came home from work. Maybe tonight, we can all get to bed early and have a good nights rest.

LATE NIGHTS!!!!

I want my children to have the best education and I want good teachers to teach them. But, sometimes I feel that teachers just give out "busy work" to give the students something to do. Brynna had a huge project last night that just didn't seem to have anything to do with what she was learning in this class. She was frustrated because it was getting very late and she was tired but she still had so much to do. The assignment was worth 400 points of her grade. I tried my best to encourage, support, comfort, and energize her to finish the assignment. Kae Lee was working on homework that seemed to be appropriate for what she was learning in Health. Michael was helping her and they seemed to be having a great time doing it together. I am so thankful that Michael is so willing to help our children with their homework. Homework was finally finished at 12:30 and everyone was in bed by 1:00am. My mother always tells us to enjoy these times with our children because they will be gone before we know it. We are all very tired this morning, but I think that we learned something from each other last night....With family, you can accomplish just about anything...even homework.

Why does time fly by so quickly? When I was a young girl, I used to think that time moved so slowly. Now that I am older, time seems to fly on wings of lightening. Sometimes it is hard to believe that I am a mother of three teen-agers and that I have been married for over 20 years to by best friend. I have just felt such a great sense of gratitude for my wonderful family. What a joy they are to me. What a great sense of loss I would feel without the lives of these wonderful people so intertwined with mine. They are my life and this life is good.

James is applying to colleges and got accepted to Utah State University. We are still waiting for the news from BYU about his acceptance. I still can't believe that I have a son going to college this fall. Once again I ask---"where does the time go"?