Things I Really, Really Want To Do This Week....

...but probably won't get around to doing because {let's be honest} I can barely waddle my pregnant self to work, dance rehearsals, birthday parties, and everything else that I HAVE to do this week.

1. Make this "sushi" for April Fool's Day

2. Hot Cross Buns

3. Add these eggs to our traditional egg-dying techniques

A few things that I will DEFINITELY be doing this week:

1. Pondering This:

2. Listening to the Prophet


3. Doing the Easter Cookie Story with the kids & spending lots of time with family

These three things are much more important to me than the previous things, anyway.....

maybe next year I'll have time to do it all.

Gourmet Night

March was my month to host Gourmet night. "Gourmet" is such a subjective term, don't you think? I would never think of my meals as gourmet, but someone could bring me a pizza and a pre-packaged salad and I would consider it gourmet as long as I didn't have to cook it.

It was a great night, and I'm still recovering! Go here to see what I made...

Some things {for me} to remember when hosting dinner group:

1. Try to host in April or May. That way it is still light out when guests arrive {they won't get lost}, and there hopefully won't be a snow storm.
   
2. Try not to host when you are a huge 7-month pregnant person, although it is preferable to being a not so huge 8 week nauseous pregnant person. Or having a newborn.
3. Allow your children to play the Wii and watch movies all day so you don't have to clean up after them {or yell at them} 500 times.
4. The food will never be as good as the company. Deal with it and move on. {This only applies to me, of course.}
5. Using a new recipe without testing it out first sometimes works, but can be disastrous.
6. Get a double oven.
7. Relax and enjoy yourself. No one will know that hours before they arrived your kitchen was filled with smoke, that you couldn't get the stain out of the carpet, or that most of your recipes didn't quite turn out how you'd have liked them to.
   

Erin Go Braugh

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Kensie built a tremendous Leprechaun Hotel in hopes of catching the little fellow, but had no luck. It was a 4 star establishment complete with a couch, big screen t.v., and a sign that said "There is gold here". I would have stayed there.....

We've been enjoying St. Patrick's Day by making treats:

Rainbow Cupcakes from Family Fun

Chocolate Mint Brownies for my YW activity tonight. I'm secretly hoping not many girls show up so there are some left over!

Good Times

Matt's been traveling a lot for work lately. Since December I feel like I've only seen him a handful of times.....

On the days he's actually been home we've been too exhausted to even try to have a conversation, let alone do anything fun. Luckily those days are over {knock on wood} and we've had some great opportunities {thanks to family} to make up for lost time.


Matt's parent's took us to the Desert Star Theatre to see Twi-lite. Oh my, how I've missed the Desert Star. I'd forgotten how fun it is, though too much laughing and a full pregnant bladder are not always a good thing!



My parent's got us tickets to see Brian Regan at Abravanel Hall. I laughed & laughed {see bladder reference above}; at one point I was crying- I do that when I laugh. The one annoying thing about going to a comedy show is having to listen to other peoples' laughs. Some people come so eager to laugh that they begin before the joke's even over...



*this "good time" was while Matt was traveling, but I had to include it

My friend Amy's dad opened a Corner Bakery near the U of U and we had a fabulous night there! We were treated like royalty with a reserved table, delicious food, more desserts than we could eat {we managed to} and a loaf of bread to take home.

We learned that we've still got it at ages 32 & 33 when we were warned that one of the workers in back wanted to come out and meet the table of "beautiful ladies"! It was a great night.

Matt, are you watching this?

Pregnancy Musings

I'm now at 30 weeks. I'm not feeling miserable yet, but it's only a matter of time!

Sometimes I wonder if:

• I will ever know what this child's name is supposed to be
• I will ever get a good night's sleep again {my prediction is no}
• I will be able to pick up and carry the kids at the gym without paying for it later. I can't NOT pick up the cute things when they're crying {and even when they're not!}, but for the rest of the day I'm useless! I think they should provide free massages to pregnant employees. Are you reading this, Harlene? hehe!
• I will ever sleep on my stomach again
• I will always waddle
• My wedding ring will ever fit again
• Men will ever realize how hard it all is {once again, I predict NO}
• I will ever have a clean house again
• My body will ever not feel swollen
• My neighbors are really moving tomorrow. This has nothing to do with pregnancy, but I'm just dying to find out if the rumor is true!!

just for fun

We're loving this video lately! The kids beg to watch it....

Things I Am Loving About The Kids Lately

#1- That Kensie is old enough to prepare and give the FHE lesson, and young enough to still be excited about it.

#2- Sleep overs. Kensie and Lincoln look forward to Friday and Saturday nights every week so that they can have sleep overs in Kensie's room. Jackson used to attend but realized that his bed is much more comfortable than Kensie's floor, so he opted out. Lincoln always ends up in Kensie's bed and they have fun talking and reading to each other.

#3- This kid:

He is such a crack up! He is by far my most mischievous child, but no matter what naughty thing he's done I can't help but laugh and give him a hug when he says "Oh, sorry mom. I really am."


#4- Jackson's recent obsession with the baby. He's constantly asking me questions like "mom, how do they cut the baby out with scissors?", "is the baby naked in there?", and "he loves me, huh?"
He loves jiggling my stomach to make the baby move and shouts "he wiggled on me!". He also loves to tell the baby stories by talking into my bellybutton. Most of his stories go something like this- "Once upon a time there was a baby in mommy's tummy. He was naked. He liked to sleep...."

#5- That the boys have insisted on wearing their swimming suits for two days in a row. Luckily I can convince Lincoln to wear regular clothes to school, but he changes as soon as he gets home. They wear their sunglasses indoors and Jackson refuses to wear his "gym shoes" and opts for sandals. They've got some serious spring fever!

Baby Will

Congrats, Danny & Leah!

William James Young was born February 12th at 5:01 pm, weighing 6 lbs 11 oz and 21 inches.
We were all so excited to meet him! The kids could not believe how tiny he is. I couldn't either! Jackson was a tank compared to him.

He is such a cute kid, and we're so happy to have another cousin/nephew....even if he is a boy (as Kensie would say!).

A Conversation With Jackson