May 3, Our 7th Anniversary!

Stephen and I are happy to be celebrating our 7 years of marriage.  This year, we decided to postpone celebration until school gets out in June and then go for an anniversary vacation in Park City.  Although we had agreed to celebrate later, Stephen came home from work and surprised me with a romantic bouquet of gerber daisies that he had put together and delectable Lindt chocolate truffles.  Gerber daisies are special to us because it was the first flower Steve ever gave to me.  He was so thoughtful and the flowers he picks out are always so beautiful.

We are looking forward to our anniversary celebration in Park City.  We got a good deal at a nice hotel.  It will be the first hotel room we've ever had that actually has a flat screen TV in the bedroom and the bathroom.  Here's a picture of the lobby.  It looks so fancy.  A big thank you goes to Steve's mom for helping us with our kids, thus allowing us to go here.  The countdown is on!

What Lily Would Do With Gold...

We've been teaching Lily to read using the book "Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons" by Siegfried Engelmann, Phyllis Haddox, and Elaine Bruner.  She is doing an awesome job and we finished lesson 86 yesterday.  The story was about a dog that dug up yards, but it ended up being a good thing because in the bottom of the holes was gold!  Well, I prompted Lily with the question, "What would you do if you had a bunch of gold?"

Lily:  "Well, first I would go to the grocery store and buy all the healthy and nutritious things like blueberries and strawberries!  Then I would go to the check stand and buy some toys and candy... like PEZ."
Me:  "Wow.  That sounds good.  If you still had some gold left, what else would you buy?"
Lily:  "Probably... a house!"
Me:  "Oh, really?  What would the house be like?"
Lily:  "Well, I would buy this house, because it is so beautiful!"

Ah, we must be doing something right if she would spend her gold on healthy food, a few fun things, and our house!  Lily is so precious and she makes me smile!

A Dragon Bedtime Story

Brought to us by our bright and imaginative 2 year old, Amara...

(In a sweet voice) Once upon a time there lived a princess.
And the dragon (switch to low and scary voice here) LOCKED her in the CASTLE!
Then!  He blew fire at her!  (switch to calm voice here) And he made (switch to scary voice) a CAMPFIRE!
Then! (switch to calm voice) the dragon died.  And he never came alive again.
Then the princess (switch to scary voice) BROKE the CASTLE!
(switch to calm voice)  Then the prince telled her how to count to 3 in Spanish.
Then the princess didn't never die.

The End.

A Class Act! Go CTR 7!

This free digital slideshow created with Smilebox

This past Sunday I taught my primary class (CTR 7) about the power of the priesthood and the miracle of Jesus calming the water.  After the lesson, I whipped out a few props and a camera and let them act out the story they learned about.  The majority of the class was reluctant to participate at first, but when I told them we had to use their chairs as walls of the ship, they stood up and played along.  I filmed the chaos, I mean action, and I thought that it wasn't too bad for a 5 minute production.  Maybe you'll notice in the video that there is a flickering light (lightning)- one of my class members didn't want to participate, so I gave him the job of creating lightning with the lamp I had brought.  It all worked out in the end.