Great Grandparents

We had an awesome surprise Saturday Night. Mike's grandparents from San Diego California were in town doing some family history research so we were able to get together with all of Mike's siblings and kids to have dinner and visit with them. They are Mike's Mom's parents. I think the last time they saw my kids was when Mason was like one week old. They now have 16 great grandchildren and my Miles will make 17. They are so active and healthy and serve in so many positions in the church. You would never guess they are close to 90 years old. They still seem so young and vibrant. I want to be just like them when I am their age. Marcy and Craig Bramwell. (Mitchel's middle name is Craig too)

Pat (my mother-in-law) Marcy, Craig and Max (my father-in-law who my Max is named after)

My family. I hope Mike is as handsome and has as good of hair as his grandpa when he is 90 years old. They have good genes in this family! It was great to see them again and spend time just chatting with them. I am very lucky to be a part of their family.

Spring Break Staycation

I love having this time off school. It reminds me how easily I could get used to just being a "Stay-At-Home" Mom. So I wanted to at least go out and do some fun things with my kids with the time off. On Thursday I took them downtown to the "Discovery Gateway" Children's Museum. That place costs a fortune (I think) but luckily I had 2 buy 1 get 1 free coupons. We played for about three hours. I think my kids are at the perfect age for this place. The Ball Tubes were the biggest hit. We spent a lot of time just putting as many balls as we could in all the different tubes and watching them go.
Mason is going to be a speed demon someday!

This was Mitchel's favorite thing. There are a bunch of pipes with magnets on the back that you hook together on this huge magnetic wall to make a track for your ping-pong ball to go through. Mitchel loves building stuff and seeing how it all fits together so he could have spend forever building different tracks.

Friday, our plan was to go down to Temple Square to take pictures with all the flowers, but the weather wasn't quite as good as I'd hoped and the kids didn't really seem that excited about that activity, so instead we had some neighbor kids come over to ride bikes and do sidewalk chalk. Meanwhile, I cleaned the bathrooms and the kitchen. So fun stuff for me!

Saturday morning was the Taylorsville Easter egg hunt. We rolled out of bed and went in our PJs. All three of my kids had different strategies. Mason just stood there and cried. (He said all the kids running scared him) Mitchel was very selective and only picked up candy bars. Max just wanted the most so he picked up every piece of hard taffy he could find, which was a lot, but when we got home, I just threw it all away.

So even though we didn't get to go on a "vacation" we still enjoyed our time off school! It makes me excited for summer when we can slow down and just enjoy being together.

Awesome Aunt Tracy!

My sister Tracy is a Saint! Friday was one of those days where the kids were bugging each other, I was bugging them, and they were bugging me. At around 2:30 in the afternoon, Tracy calls out of the blue and says, "Would your kids like to sleep over at my house tonight?" "YES, OF COURSE, ARE YOU SURE?!" I responded. How awesome is that of her? Not only did she invite my three boys, but also my brother's three kids. They all absolutely love and adore her. So all six went over and watched movies, ate snacks, and probably tore apart her beautiful home, but she did it because she loves them. Mike and I took advantage of the kid free night and went out to dinner. Then we rented a movie and watched it all cuddled up with each other on the couch, with no child trying to smoosh in between us. It was wonderful. Then we slept in until 9:00 am. Awesome! Thanks Tracy for letting Mike and I have a great date night, and for giving my kids a fun night with their AWESOME Aunt Tracy. We love you!!

Filling Dad's Big Shoes

Wow! Does Dad have big feet or what! Mason loves going stomping around the house in Mike's big shoes. It's way cute! My biggest hope for my boys is that they live their lives following in their father's footsteps. He is such a wonderful husband and father. He honors his priesthood and serves so faithfully in all his callings. He loves his family and works hard to support us. We are so blessed to have him. I hope my boys will look up (way, way up) to his example and do all they can to become the kind of man he is.

-I do hope though that their feet never really get this big because do you know how hard it is to find a decent pair of size 14 shoes!! It's nearly impossible!

Family Home Evening

We had such a spiritual Family Home Evening the other night. Max had been asking me about why people stand up in a "special" Sacrament Meeting and talk in the microphone. I had found a sharing time about Testimony that I had done while I was serving in Primary that I thought would make a perfect Family Home Evening. So I shared with my children the five things that should be included in a testimony
1) Heavenly Father Lives
2) Jesus Christ is the Savior
3) Joseph Smith was a prophet
4) The Book of Mormon is the word of God
5) There is a living Prophet today
We talked about why it is important to know these things and how we could gain a Testimony of them. Then I asked if any of my boys would like to try bearing their Testimony. Max went first and put in all five parts. Then Mitchel stood in front of his brothers and told them his testimony, adding things that he knew were true. After Mitchel, I thought we were done, but little Mason wanted a turn too. He stood up and repeated what I told him, and seriously, I thought my heart was going to burst out of my chest, it was so sweet and cute! Then I bore my Testimony of these things. I don't think I had ever felt the Spirit so strongly at one of our little Family Home Evenings and I think my children felt it too. It was awesome!
Then Max was in charge of the activity, so we each drew a picture to go with the five things we learned should be in a Testimony. They turned out so cute so we hung them up so that Mike could see them (He had to work late that night and wasn't able to be at our Family Home Evening)

I'm so Lucky!

Seriously, every night before I go to bed I think "I'm so LUCKY!" I have three of the most awesome, fun, smartest, cutest, amazing boys in the world. Even if they have driven me absolutely CRAZY that day, I still am amazed at how LUCKY I am to be their Mom. I am having so much fun watching them grow up and learn and be excited about life. They bring me more joy than I ever thought possible. Does every Mom feel like this? I hope so, because it sure it fun!
Here are our St. Patrick's day pictures. We celebrated by eating green blueberry muffins and gold coins. There was also a few little surprises to enjoy as well.

I love you so much Mitchel, Max and Mason! Thanks for making my life so LUCKY!

Basketball Star and Awesome Friends

I usually post stuff that is all about me and my life, but this past week something cool happened to Mike so I thought I would write about it. Mike has been playing on a winter basketball league every Tuesday night for the past three months. At his last game, he was presented a trophy for the leading scorer for the entire league! He out scored everyone by over 40 points. He was as surprised (and embarrassed) as anyone, but at the same time, he was really proud of himself (and so was I) He may be getting older, but he's still got game!

Okay, now back to my life. Saturday was a really fun day for me. I along with 5 of some of my best friends from High School got together for dinner. Some of these ladies I haven't seen for years on account that they moved out of state while their husbands went to school or worked in different areas of the country. Well we're all now back in Utah so we thought it would be a great time to have a reunion. It was so much fun. We sat for over three hours just talking, reminiscing, and enjoying having an evening away from our kids to just be "with the ladies." It was like no time had passed at all. They are just as amazing and fun and talented and beautiful as they all were in High School. I felt a little like Alma the Younger when he meets back up with the sons of Mosiah in the book of Mormon. The thing he was most happy about was that all of his friends were "still his brethren in the Lord; yea they had waxed strong in the knowledge of the truth..." (Alma 17:2) This is just how I felt while I was with these women. They were amazing examples to me back in High School and influenced so much my testimony and wanting to choose the right. And now here we all are as wives and mothers, and the light of Christ just shines through each one of them. It is living proof of what living the gospel can do. They are all happily married to amazing men, they serve faithfully in their callings, and they are teaching their children the gospel. It is these kinds of women that are changing the world for the better! I feel honored to call all of them my friends, even though it has been years since we've been together. They will never know what an influence their examples have been on my life. Not only are they spiritual giants, they are so much fun! So I hope that we don't wait years again to get together again. I love you all!

(Laurie, Kelly, Me, Kali, Jenn, and Kirsti) Thanks guys for such a great evening. Keep in touch -K-!