BIG NEWS!!

My little brother is ENGAGED!! At long last my wonderful, brilliant, handsome, witty, strong, solid brother has found a beautiful girl to spend forever with. Her name is Randi and I just adore her!

Ever since Rich began dating Randi he has been happier than I have ever seen him. Rich is so special to our family, he is the youngest and we all look up to him. He works hard, loves the Gospel and is one of the funniest people I know. We all wanted him to marry a girl who realized how HUGE of a catch he is, who knew how special he is, how rare a find he is. And he has found her!

Rich is radical, but then there is Randi. Ahhh, Randi! She is beyond perfect for him. She is spicy and sassy, ambitious, supportive, beautiful. She will be a great addition to our family! I must admit, I get misty realizing that our family is now complete - we all found our someone. There will now be 10 places at Thanksgiving, 10 Christmas stockings, 10 towels on our Lake Powell trips...She is his match in every way and I am over moon for them both! Cograts, R&R!!

Blogged Down

Ohmygoodness. I have seriously slacked in the posting depot. There are topics I want to post about, truly - however, my family is ill. ALL of us are sick. What are we battling, you may ask? Strep, ear aches (we all have those), pink eye, colds, etc. Every 3 minutes there is a *sniff* or a *cough* or the sound of someone blowing nasty contents into a tissue. Cody doesn't even have a voice. This is my life right now. The good news is that we are all medicated - we are all on antibiotics, eye drops and cough syrup. We are taking it easy, we are mending...slowly but surely.

I promise that when we are mended I will update you on the past week - lots of fun things happened! First BBQ of the year, I read through a movie script up at Cosmic, Vegas trip coming up. Until then, however, I have a nose to blow.

Something New

My beautiful sister-in-law Jess was on TV a few weeks ago talking about her kitchen.  Her friend works for Studio 5 and loved what Jess had done with her many cook books, so she decided to feature her on the show!  Jess did a marvelous job, and how cute is her kitchen?  I'm loving this idea...

My kitchen has retro Coco-Cola art and I like it just fine, but I'm sort of wanting a change.  I love the idea of displaying my cook books and just think of all the color and cool artwork!  I'm sooo tempted...I can already picture it.  Plus, one of my New Year's resolutions is to become a better cook.  Don't I need lots of cook books to get recipes from?  Cook books that adorn my walls?  I think so, too.

Scuba Steve

I made it!  8 days without Cody and I survived.  It's so great to have him home!  Well, he's not really home yet, he's at work today and tomorrow.  The boys missed him, but they stayed busy playing outside and Cache even had a sleepover with Drew!  Those two are becoming inseparable, it's so cute.

Cody said he had an absolute blast diving and even got some pictures!  Yes.  3 pictures.  The second day they were able to swim with some seals, how cool is that?  They dove every day, caught lobster - sounds like a fantastic week to me!  Cody asked if I would ever want to get scuba certified.  I'd like to think that I do, it would be so cool to go scuba diving.  However, I'm sort of a pansy, this is not new information.  Are you certified?  Where have you gone diving?  Cody said that the guys were talking about a Blackbeard's Charter that is in the Caribbean.  You sail out on a HUGE ship (massive sails, the works) and dive in tropical waters.  Swimming in paradise?  I could probably do that...

Now lets talk about the balmyness that is this weather.  Cody and I actually slept with our windows open last night, it felt so good.  And this week is supposed to be pretty warm!  Which I'm stoked about because I have a lot going on!  Tonight the wives from C-shift are coming over, it will be so great to see them.  Wednesday I'm spending the entire day with my Mom and I cannot wait.  We're getting pedicures (yeah, I'm going to try that again) and eating and shopping and eating.   I think I'm going to see 'The Foreigner' this weekend in PG and on Saturday?  Well, that's when 'Twilight' comes out, my friends.  You heard me.

I'm off to accomplish - there's SUNSHINE out there, people!  

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Last night I got to perform a short musical with Hailey and MelB.  It was SO much fun!  Hailey is in my old ward and the Relief Society asked if she would get some Thrillionaires together and perform a musical for a party they were having.  The theme was "Girls just wanna have fun" so naturally we got all gussied up in our 80's garb.  Don't we look fab??  That side ponytail was something else...

with Brigham, he is the greatest.

I have to admit that everything I am wearing is my own.  Even the leg warmers.  It was a fun night!  Brigham played the piano and did a fantastic job, as usual.  Thanks for asking me, Hailey!  You are totally tubular.  It was fun to see some old friends and catch up with everyone. 

So, I am alone again.  Naturally.  Cody left on Monday morning to go surfing and scuba diving in California with a bunch of fireman.  They have chartered a boat and will be diving all week off the coast of Catalina.  He is going to have a blast!  I just hope he doesn't get eaten by a giant squid...I am lonely and I miss him, but I'm excited for him and can't wait to see pictures.  He better take pictures...

I do have some things going on this week which has helped keep me and the boys busy.  Cache and Cole are both enrolled in Kindermusik and they love it.  Cache had a class yesterday and received his official backpack!  He loves this thing, he insisted on wearing it when we went to Costco.

Cole and Graham are in a class together which is a bonus for me because I get to see Jess!   The boys follow each other around, so if Cole tries to escape Graham is right behind him... 

Tanya is coming over tonight and I'm so excited!  Tomorrow Cache and I have dentist appointments and afterwards I'll take Cole to his class.  The Patch Family Lunch is also tomorrow, I hope I can make that.  If I continue to keep myself preoccupied, Cody will be home before I know it!  Hmm, better watch as many musicals as I can... 

Tri-Date

It snowed last night.  SNOWED.  Last night.  Remember how I was all passive about it snowing again in my last post?  Something like, "Oh, I know it's probably going to snow again..."  Yeah, well, sure didn't expect it to snow 8 hours later.  Thbtbtbtptpt.  

Last night Tanya came over and we had a fabulous time!  After the boys went to bed we made French Toast for dinner (yum) and settled in to watch the American Idol results.  Tom showed up and joined us for the last few minutes and we all desserted on some croissants that Tanya had made in her culinary class.  Delish!   

We ended the night by watching "Much Ado About Nothing", one of my favorite movies.  We were all consumed in the glorious, warm Italian countryside that is shown in almost every scene.  Everyone is tan and showered in rose petals...I want to go to there.  My thoughts were lingering somewhere in Tuscany when I walked Tom and Tanya to the door.  We were STUNNED to see hundreds of ginormous snowflakes!  Seriously, they were massive.  PS - I had to brighten up the pics so you could see all the snow...

Here are Tanya and I standing in the snow - I was laughing because I'm standing in the slushy slush in my socks.

Like my Bon Jovi t-shirt?  Bad Medicine, baby.  While I'm sad to see the lovely Spring weather go, the falling snow was really beautiful.  I LOVE how quiet it is when it snows at night...gorgeous.  And I got to watch the snow falling in the streetlight!

Needless to say, another fantastic tri-date was had by all.  I am missing Cody and it was great to have some friends over.  Everyone come over, we'll have a ball!  Of course, now with all this snow I'm not quite sure what to do with my freshly purchased sidewalk chalk... 

Dizzy Sunshine

I cannot get over it - this weather is marvy.  I am LOVING it.  I know that winter isn't over and it's probably going to snow a few more times, but for now?  The sunshine is a welcome sight!  I can't really get overly excited until April - that's when I can hang flowers from my porch and plant my flowerbeds.  I can't wait to see blossoms on the trees, drive with the windows down and BBQ for dinner.  I even turned on the AC in my car.  Radical.  Oooh! It's just around the corner, BC fans!   

Cody left yesterday to go to Wisonsin for the week.  He and the other Captains flew out there with the Fire Chief to approve plans for a new fire engine.  It's primarily a business trip, but since he works with his friends I know he's going to have a great time.  That means 4 full days with just me and the boys.  I hope they don't get sick of me!  Everything that we usually have planned during the week has been canceled - no Kindermusik this week, no family lunch, what's a girl to do?  Luckily the weather has been FABULOUS which means many hours outside.  Cache has also been playing with little Drew (Mari's son) which has been a huge help to me.  Drew came over yesterday to pick up Cache and they drove off on their little scooters...my heart broke a little bit as he rode off.  It's the first time he's really had a friend to go play with, you know?   He gave me a hug and said, "Bye Mom, love you!"  and off he went as I stood there alone in the driveway.  Aw.

Today we are going to purchase sidewalk chalk.  "Brilliant!" I can hear you say, the boys are going to love it.   I have also been promising to make cookies with Cache for the past 5 days...I better own up to that this afternoon.    Oooh, I see some clouds moving in, I better go enjoy the sun while it's out!