New little niece

Sunday night we were able to go to the hospital and visit Jana and her new baby girl Aubrey.  She is beautiful and so snuggly!  Gotta love holding a brand new baby!

Me and Aubrey with Scotty looking on.

Fuzzy and Aubrey - it was hard to get her to give anyone else a turn

Alli eating snack Aunt Jana gave her

Me and Scotty

Alli loved holding her and thought she was better than her dolls

She did want to squeeze her a little too tight though

The kids couldn't get enough of her - Jana can't wait for all the babysitters

Scotty - a little awkward, but still wanted to hold her, twice

Missy, sometimes loving being the oldest

Corry, Scotty and Aubrey.  

Snow...again

The view from the backyard again, in the spring, when it is supposed to start being beautiful.  Oh, well, the moisture is good and the snow is beautiful!  

Mom Lets Go of the Apron Strings... just a little

It was the kids school's free skate night a couple of weeks ago.  Corry had Young Men's and I had a meeting, so we couldn't take the kids.  I had promised them that they could go, when my meeting came up, so I decided to trust them a little and let the older three go by themselves with strict instructions to watch out for each other.  As a kid, I remember doing lots of things, going to movies, the mall, and such things with my brothers and sister or friends.  It was no big deal, but as a parent, letting my children go out on their own to these kind of places makes me nervous for them, but I knew it was time to let go a little and let them be a little independent.

Here are the older three, ready to go.  Scotty ended up hanging out with this boy in Missy's class and Missy most of the night.  Fuzzy skated with WAY to many boys, but they did really well and most importantly they watched out for each other.

Scotty and Alli just cute together

The crazy gang

I love when they love each other

At least I still have my little Alli to hold on to for a little bit longer!

Hop on Pop

Some of the greatest memories come from those simple moments of attacking mom or dad.  This particular night, dad happened to be the subject of the kids attack.  Everyone, but Fuzzy who kept her nose in her book the whole time, tried to attack daddy.  It is amazing through all of these attacks that no one tends to get hurt...

especially when heads get sat on....

stomachs get kneed

and heads laid on again.

It is funny Missy's face is not in any of these pictures!  Maybe it tells of who the initiator and the center of the battle usually is!

St. Patrick's Day Food

For St. Patrick's Day, I started turning all the food green a couple of years ago.  The kids love it and we even eat on green plates, with green silverware and green cups.  This year we invited Jana and Joey over for dinner, so there were not as many green utensils to go around, but it is always more fun to share food with others.

For dessert we had this great lime cake (I should have cut it open so you could see how green it is on the inside).  Of course, we had to use the stadium pan to cook it in.

Green salad and avocados - I should have hidden the tomatoes so it looked more green, but not to worry, we covered it all with green ranch dressing.

Green garlic (I got a little carried away with the garlic) mashed potatos

I never got a good picture of the green shamrock biscuits complete with green butter

Miss and Fuzz eating their green food.  By the way, I can't turn the meat green, so it was just plain grilled chicken.

Usually we watch an Irish movie while we eat, but decided to just visit with our company this year instead.  I didn't take nearly enough pictures, but it was a fun night.

Surveys

Apparently my last survey was confusing.  I left it open to check multiple answers so you could choose your favorite get away, family and all vacations.  This time, I made it specific and you can only choose one answer.  

Dreams, the kind you wish for

As long as I have known Corry, he has dreamed of going fishing in Alaska.  Yesterday his dream came true.  He, his brothers and dad are going to fish for halibut and salmon in Alaska for a week later this year.  I am so happy for him that he is getting his chance to fulfill his dream.  It just means I am that much closer to my dream of hiking the Grand Canyon!  :)

Here are some pictures of what it looks like there.

Just 1 Thing to say...

AAAHHHH   SNOW!

Thought provoking show

So Corry and I were watching an episode of "House" a few nights ago.  The show is about a diagnostic doctor who is able to figure out weird patient cases.  This particular show was about a patient who had a neurological problem where he spoke the first things that came into his head.  He was alienating his wife and daughter by saying just horrible things to them.  Even though they knew it was a medical condition that he couldn't help, he was still having those thoughts about them.  

The twist in the story is that House is an atheist and believed that people are all hypocrites for thinking those thoughts and not saying them.  The patient told him that those thoughts are the natural man, but his actions are who he is, not the thoughts that he tries to overcome.  

After watching it, I started paying closer attention to my thoughts.  My initial thoughts and reactions are not necessarily who I want to be.  Sometimes we have to work through our initial thoughts to come to a better conclusion of how we feel.  What a horrible thing to suffer with!  

Surveys

I am a Big Geek!  I know it and I have embraced my geekiness.  I started out a math ed major in college and switch to Sociology my senior year.  Funny!  Anyway, I like numbers and I love surveys!  So, every week I have been and will be posting a new survey on the side of my blog.  Answer the question for me.  I want to know.  Thanks!

The Gullible Gulls

This was my presidency message for Sunday.  The talk I took my thoughts from was:

The Celestial Nature of Self Reliance

As with many of you, I have been very concerned about the world's current economic situation.  The first couple months of this year I was overcome with fear for my family's future.  My husband's company recently laid off 1/4 of it's work force.  Times are HARD for everyone.  Last month when the March Ensign came, I was drawn to an article by President Marion G. Romney called "The Celestial Nature of Self-Reliance."  I have no idea what the future holds for my family or for yours, but I found this article to be comforting and a good reminder to realign my priorities to what the Lord would have me do and that He is in control.  In particular I loved this quote by President Henry D Moyle, "We believe [that] seldom [do circumstances arise in which] men [or women] of rigorous faith, genuine courage, and unfaltering determination, with love of independence burning in their hearts, and pride in their own accomplishments, cannot surmount the obstacles that lie in their paths."  I have watched many friends survive with great faith through economic hardships.  My father-in-law lost everything of earthly value he had 25 years ago.  At the time it was devastating, but now (and even a few years after) the family sees it was a great blessing in their lives.  The Lord is directing us.  I want to choose to continue in faith, courage and with great determination to tackle whatever trials come my way.  I cannot live in fear, instead I hope for a bright future.

The results are in... and the winner is

Finger slice results:

Person:

Merf - 2 votes

Corry - 2 votes

Missy - 2 votes

Weapon:

Tin can

Knife

Revenge of the sweetened and condensed milk can

And the answer is...

Merf did it in the kitchen with a carving knife while trying to cut a watermelon.  I couldn't get the bleeding to stop, so we left for the InstaCare to get stitches, but while we were waiting to talk to someone, the bleeding finally stopped.  We opted to let it heal on it's own and save the $75 copay!

And you are right Jamie, it could have been any of us because we are all clumsy!

Guess Who?

Last night there was a trip too the InstaCare for stitches.  Great family night activity!  Guess Who cut their finger and how?

Draper Temple Open House

Our family (as well as most of the state of Utah and probably all visitors to the state) had the chance to walk through the Draper, Ut Temple on Saturday.  It was a wonderful experience for the kids to get to see what the temple looks like on the inside.  It was beautiful!  I was amazed at the organization for it all.  

First we parked at a church building about 5 miles away, where we sat in the multi-purpose room and listened to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and played quiet games while we waited for almost an hour.  The kids were very good maybe because they could still talk and didn't have to be quiet the whole time.  Oh, I have to mention that we went on the last day and a Saturday - bad combination for anyone in a hurry.  Luckily, we weren't in one!

After waiting there, they took us to a room in the church and showed us a video about temples and about the Draper area.  Then we waited another 15 or so minutes for a bus to come pick us up.  Corry and Scotty on the bus.

Miss and Fuzz on the bus

Me and Alli with a traditional self portrait on the bus!  When we got to the temple, there were tents set up all the way from the bus stop to the temple doors with heaters blowing inside to keep you warm.  Inside we walked through all the rooms and saw Cassie's in-laws who were escorts.  Scotty really liked the sealing room because he said you can look in the mirrors and see how our family will go on forever.   Fuzzy also liked the sealing room because of the mirrors showing no beginning and no end.  Alli loved the Celestial room.  It had maybe a 40 foot ceiling with this amazing chandelier.  She just stared up and said it is so beautiful.  Missy also like that room and asked how we ever leave the temple when we go to that room.  She said she would never want to leave because it is so beautiful and peaceful.  

At the end, they had you walk out through more heated tents to a church building on the same property were they had this amazing reception in the multi purpose room.  It was beautiful in there too!  The gym floors were all covered with beautiful area rugs.  There were gorgeous tables and chairs around the room, water bottles and cookies to eat, and beautiful paintings of the Savior around the room.  That was where we had our family picture taken.  I wonder how to get all that stuff for an Enrichment meeting?

After we left the reception, we went to another tent to wait for our bus to take us to the right parking lot.  After a total of 3 1/2 hours, we made it back to our car, happy and tired.  What a great way to spend an afternoon.  We can't wait to go through the Oquirrh Mountain Temple next!  It was truly amazing to see so many temple from the freeway on our way there.  For more information about Mormon temples, here is a great video about temples:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-x_-TQivCx8&feature=channel_page

Pay it Forward

Ok we're trying something we found on another blog and it sounded like fun. The first three people to comment on this post will receive a gift from me within the next year. You don't get to know when or what it is, but before you comment, you have to do a post like this and offer 3 gifts to the first three comments on your post so we can share the love. What do you think? Hurry, post and then comment!!

Basketball Scotty

Scotty started playing basketball this year in a clinic for Kindergartners and 1st graders.  He is having a great time learning to play ball and hanging out with his friends.

My favorite part is watching these 5-7 year olds stretch!  They are so funny!

Doing drills

Boxing out his friend to get the rebound

For some reason, I started singing the "Basketball John" song to Scotty and Alli.  It is a spoof off the old 70's song "Basketball Jones."  Then we started changing the words to fit Scotty and told him we were going to come sing it to him at his games, he didn't think that was a very good idea.  

Here is the link to the Basketball John song that was played on the radio a few years back about John Stockton.

I took these videos of Scotty and Alli singing "Basketball John" on my regular camera and can't figure out how to rotate them, so enjoy them sideways!

Disney on Ice

For Alli's birthday, Corry and I gave her tickets to see Disney on Ice.  If you have a little princess and and have never done I highly recommend it!  It is so cute to see their little eyes all excited about seeing Mickey and Minnie and all the other characters!  This year we went with Grandma Jane; her cousins, Sophie and Katie, and their mom, Lisa; and her cousin, Anna and her mom, Krista.  There was a lot of excitement in the car on the ride there.  We stopped at Sweet Tomatoes on the way to grab a good dinner the girls would actually eat well!

Me and my little Minnie before the show!

Grandma with all the girls.  This was taken at intermission and they were all so enthralled with the zamboni they didn't want to take a picture!

Grandma and Alli

We had a great time and took home 4 very tired and happy girls!  Alli even slept in until 10:15 AM the next morning!  I wish I were so lucky!

Alli's Birthday

Happy 4th Birthday Alli!

Alli wanted waffles and whipped cream for breakfast

She loves her family

She blew out her candles and giggled all morning.

She loved opening her presents

And Grandma and Grandpa Cloward came over for dinner that night and to play Princess Wii

Alli in her new Sleeping Beauty nightgown

Blowing out her candles on her ice cream cake

Alli at 4

Favorite food - Dessert

Favorite movie - Barbie Christmas Carol

Favorite song - "In the Leafy Tree Tops" dad's version

Favorite color - Pink

Favorite things to do - help people, play games, play princess, jump on the tramp, dance, Joy School, read stories, play Wii

Favorite treat - Banana bread

Favorite TV show - Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

She likes flowers

Favorite breakfast - Waffles

There's a deer in the backyard!

Every year we have had deer in our backyard during the winter.  Sometimes we see them and sometimes we just see what they have left behind!  The other day, we were watching a movie when Corry turned around and saw a deer in the window watching the movie with us! He went to investigate and found a mom and her two babies hanging out in the backyard putting holes in our ground cover and eating our plants.  It was still cool to watch them though.  We never got a picture of the one looking in the window, but here are the ones we did take.