Determination

When Bronson sees something he wants, he goes after it.

He figures out a way to get it.

Even if he has to go all "MacGyver" on us and turn the file cabinet into a ladder.

more fun

For some reason, I can't figure out how to post two collages in the same post, so here are some more of my favorite pics, of some of my favorite people!

birthday highlights

My day started off great. I woke up to Nalani climbing in bed with me and saying sweetly, "Happy birsday, Mamma." I love how she talks! I came down stairs to find some beautiful tulips and card from Kelly and the kids and then we headed out for breakfast. We were pleasantly surprised with some decent weather and decided to finish up prepping the garden plot. Kelly worked hard, and I hardly worked! I did manage to get some plants at the high school plant sale and then went to the local Feed and Seed store for the rest of my needs and some good advice.

It's always fun to have a birthday. I love getting calls and visits throughout the day and getting cards in the mail. My kids even tried to get along. I told them that's all I wanted for my birthday, not to have to listen to them argue over who left the clothes on the floor, or who made what mess!

By the time we finished with the yard we were ready for our dinner and movie plans with friends. When we went to pick them up, my plans were altered. They had planned a little surprise birthday party for me, and boy was I surprised!! I have such wonderful friends! A lot of them traveled quite a ways to be there and it was so much fun to visit with everybody.

Rochelle and Jodi, the master-minds, made the cutest banner, and had the fixings for a yummy taco salad. Nicole made a beautiful cupcake pyramid, and everyone pitched in with the food and drink. I also received some wonderful presents, I got: 2 bottles of hard-to-come-by Postum!, a Utah Jazz jersey that I had to wear all night so they would win (it worked), a hummingbird feeder, candles, Coconut and Lime Verbena lotion and wash, a book store gift card, the cutest ever garden markers, and a 'love fern' to boot! After dinner we played Dance, Dance Revolution for awhile and then some of us night owls went to a late showing of "Baby Mama".

It was such a fun day and so great to get to spend it with some of my friends! The thirties have been good to me so far...thanks to a good husband, kids, family and friends!

Birthday girls

Yesterday my mom and I both celebrated our birthdays. I won't tell you how old she is, but I just turned 32 and we are exactly 20 years apart. I always thought it was pretty cool to share a birthday with my mom. Hopefully in 20 years I can look as good as her!

I love you, Mom! I hope you had a good day...I don't know how you could go wrong with going to the Jazz game and having 7th row seats, and they ended up winning:) I feel lucky to be your daughter! Thanks for sharing your birthday with me for all these years!

"Quiet please! Quiet on the set!"

As I'm sure most of you know, my little town was taken by storm for the last couple of weeks. Taken over by Hollywood. Part of the filming of "Twilight" took place here! It was fun to drive by Bella's house to see if we could see anything. It was fun to see all the trailers, trucks, cars and people it took to make it happen. It was fun to see a book that me, and so many of my friends have read and enjoyed and then some! We all knew what stuff was supposed to look like in our heads, it was fun to see what "they" would do with it! I think everything was pretty good, except I must admit, I was a little disappointed in Edward's car!
Then something really, really good happened. My friend Rochelle won a contest from a local radio station and the prize was VIP treatment on the set of Twilight, with my friend Paige.
That night, me and some of my other friends decided to head downtown to see if we could see anything exciting. We were perched on an ancient fire escape on the side of an ancient building, but hey, we had a good view! Or so we thought.
A friend from our ward who is a local cop, and was hired for extra security on the set came to our ancient fire escape and told us that he'd 'hooked us up'. What?? So we all stealthily climb over the people on the way down the fire escape and start winding our way down to the set. We were getting dirty looks from all the crew, and I felt like we were so lucky, because we were definitely NOT supposed to be there! A guy named T. Coe came over and introduced himself and gave us a play by play of what they were doing. We had a front row view of the action. The scene was when Bella was being attacked by some frat boys in Port Angeles.
After about two hours of being on set with some of my favorite friends, they came and told us they were getting ready to break for lunch (at 12:30 AM), but that we could stay if we wanted, because the next scene was going to be a car chase. Um, thanks, but I had to chaperone a certain little someone on a field trip bright and early the next morning:) Plus, it was starting to snow a little bit and everyone started to worry about frost bitten toes and fingers. We told him thanks for such a wonderful experience, but that we probably wouldn't be back. We were talking to a camera guy and telling him how lucky we felt, and he said we should feel lucky, because he's never seen people let that close to the filming on the set!
We weren't allowed to take pictures, but some of my friends got some great ones! Go to their blogs! For other versions of this story, you can check them out. Jodi, Jenn, and Nicole. That was a fun girl's night out!

Maika's Zoo Field Trip

This past Friday I was able to chaperone Maika's field trip to the zoo with the kindergarten classes. Kelly was able to work from home that day to make it possible for me to go. Thanks babe! Even though it was absolutely freezing, and I was really tired from staying up waaay too late the night before (details about that to come in an upcoming post), I had a ton of fun! It was so much fun to see Maika interact with her classmates. There was a group of about 8 girls that hung out together and begged me to keep taking their pictures:) I finally learned how to make these cool collages, thanks to Gina, so here are some of the fun memories we made! Enjoy!

Me and My (Kelly's) Shadow

A few weeks ago, Logan asked if we could plant a garden this summer. We told her that we could if the kids promised to help weed and take care of it. So, this weekend was beautiful, warm (almost hot), sunny weather. We (mostly me) decided it was a good weekend to get the yard in order, and to get a spot ready to plant a garden. Kelly thought it would have been a good weekend to de-winterize the boat and go out for a ride. He was nice and let me get my way. Especially since he would be doing most of the work.

Kelly did have some good help. Bronson! He would not let Kelly out of his sight. He went on every trip to get a new load of rock, dirt, and Mt. Dew! At times Kelly would ask me to take Bronson in while he moved the truck, or something else he didn't need "help" with. You would've thought Bronson's world ended, having to watch through the window instead of being right by his daddy's side! I've been getting an unsolicited break from Bronson lately. He doesn't want me, so Kelly has to do pretty much everything with/for him:) It's pretty traumatic for Bronson in the mornings when he realizes Kelly is at work and he has to spend the whole day with me!

We got most of the work done. Kelly got the wall built, and boarders put around the flower beds. Jeremy even came and aerated our lawn for us, and the girls and I raked up all the 'poop' from the lawn. We ended the day with a yummy BBQ of burgers, baked beans, and pasta salad. The kids all loved being able to play outside and the new wall made a perfect place to sit while they ate:)

Now all we have to do is actually plant the garden. I don't think this will happen for a couple of weeks since the news said it is supposed to freeze this weekend. I guess that will give us plenty of time to decide what we want and how to do it. We're new at this whole gardening thing!

**The picture of Bronson and Kelly in the little tractor if from when we were in AZ helping Grandma with her rock wall. Our operation didn't warrant a tractor, I just forgot to take a picture of Bronson following Kelly around that day!