Happy Belated Birthday

I finally gave my mom her birthday present.  I had it finished in January, but couldn't pick it up from the quilter's until yesterday.  I bound it today and took it to her tonight.  I think she liked it, if not she did a good job of making me feel good.  I picked up the fabric in St. George in November on a girls trip and it totally reminded me of my mom.

I really like detail work in the triangles, I'm glad the quilter suggested it.

My Own Personal Maid

Look at those mounds of clean, folded clothes.  My darling Andelin folded 3 loads of laundry for me today.  Not only did she fold the laundry she went on and on about how much fun it was.  If only I could have her attitude.  I love it when she gets on a help mom kick, she cleans my whole house.  She loves to surprise the family: she cleans Cade's room, makes my bed, cleans the basement, organizes the toy closet... She loves the surprise aspect of it "Cade you should go in your room, there's nothing special about it but you should just go see it."  What a girl!

Katie Cupcake

I received these beautiful flowers today from my bff Katie Greenwood.  I went to her house last night in a lovely complaining mood (wrinkles, kids, not being on vacation) and these arrived at my door today with a note that says I'm an awesome friend.  Now lets see who's the awesome friend the whiny complainer or the thoughtful flower sender?

A Week in the Caribbean

Well this week has been a little depressing.  I am no longer being pampered in the Caribbean sun.  Nobody turns my bed down and leaves mints on my pillow.  If I want to eat I have to cook.  My children want me to get up at a reasonable hour and care for them.  Life is rough.

Corby and I had a great time last week on a cruise in the Caribbean with Bud and Katie Greenwood and 12 couples in our ward.  I hear church was a little empty last Sunday:)  We left on February 9 and returned February 16.  Our ports were Roatan Honduras, Belize City, Cozumel and the Bahamas.  

Highlights:

Roatan: We went to Gumbalimba Park and went on a kayaking and snorkeling with Bud and Katie.   The kayaks were clear so we could see the marine life beneath us.  We went for a walk down the beach and checked out some real estate before we had to get back to the ship.  Anybody interested in going in on a condo in a tropical paradise?

Belize: Cave tubing and Rainforest canopy zip line with most of our group.  

Cozumel: Swimming with dolphins with Bud, Katie, Pete and Stefanie.  I don't have any pictures of this yet, but I will post as soon as I get some.  We got to hold onto Marte's (our dolphin) pectoral fin and go for a ride.  He also pushed our feet while we were holding onto a boogie board, no waves necessary.  This was so cool!  

Bahamas:  We went to Norwegian's private island and enjoyed volleyball, snorkeling and a few rounds of cards.  Not a bad way to spend a day.

We enjoyed great food, dancing and serious karaoke.  Corby and Bud were backup dancers for Pete as he sang "Oops I did it Again", I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.

A Huge thanks to Mom, Marianne, Ashlee and the McArthurs for watching the little ones.  Now if I can just get Bergen to stop freaking out everytime I take her from Ashlee.  I know she loves me, she just doesn't remember:)  

Projects

Bergen's Christmas blanket

Sweater for Andelin

Sweater for Bergen

Don't they look lovely

I would like to start documenting my projects.  I made the blanket for Bergen for Christmas 2007.  I used Urban Chicks "Blossom" line.  The sweaters I made in the fall of 2006.  I made the brown one for Andelin and the pink one for Bergen.  Both were made from Debbie Bliss patterns, the brown is made with her cahmerino yarn and the pink is Rowan cotton wool.

The Passing of a Prophet

Last Sunday night our beloved prophet Gordon B Hinckley passed away at 97 years of age.  It has been a very tender week.  I found out just before I went downstairs to snuggle Cade for bedtime.  I told Cade and we started talking about how much we knew the prophet loved us every time we heard him speak.  As we talked about him Cade's eyes started to fill with tears and he turned away from me and had a little cry.  I told him I thought there was probably a celebration in heaven with angels singing welcoming him home.  It was a tender moment for me to see that my little 7 year old had that much love for the prophet.  It made me realize that these little spirits take in and understand more than I give them credit for.  

We watched President Hinckley's funeral broadcast on T.V. yesterday and there were a lot of feelings expressed at church today of love and gratitude for that great man.  It makes me so grateful to be in an organization led by such inspired and good men.  What a great example of Christ like love he was.

Bergen's Birthday

Bergen is now officially a terrible 2.  She has been working up to for a couple of months now.  The week before her birthday she spilled raspberry sauce, baby oil, after shave, chocolate milk and Comet on my carpet is a period of three days.  Of course she picked a time when her dad was out of town just to make it especially enjoyable for me.  She seems to have gotten it out of her system though, we have not had anymore incidents of that nature since then.  

As soon as Cade and Andelin woke up on Bergen's birthday they wanted to make her breakfast in bed.  We made her instant oatmeal and got her a Dora cup of milk and as soon we heard rustling in her room we started singing "Happy Birthday" and took her breakfast in bed.  She thought it was pretty cool to have food in her room! I think Cade and Andelin were even more excited than Bergen.

We celebrated her birthday at Jump On It, which is this huge warehouse filled with trampolines butted up against each other so you can bounce from one to another.  She was so excited, as soon as we got there she started running around yelling "I want to jump on it".  We had a pretty good group there, my whole family, the McArthur's, the Greenwood's and the Jensen's.  I don't know who had more fun, the adults or the kids.  The men and Marianne were showing off some pretty amazing skills.  I thought I had skills until I fell on my face 13 times.  I heard from most of the adults that there were many sore backs the next morning!