My Funny Valentine

Okay, so I got the most exciting thing this Valentine's Day. A secret card appeared on my desk at work. I can't believe it! It says it's from ?????. It's hand made and someone must really care about me....


Besides the exciting "secret" valentine, I took my valentine to Tepanyaki. For those of you who haven't been there, it's much like Benihana. We had never been there and it was so much fun.
The best part of the night was when the chef threw a piece of shrimp into each of our mouths (I use the term mouth loosely....). Let's just say Boyd was the only one who caught the shrimp in his mouth. Logan was lucky though, his landed right on his eye! It was hilarious! He just picked it off and popped it in his mouth! We all laughed, even the chef.
You may have noticed that Bryant wasn't present for the night's festivities. That's because he was at Young Mens and had what he described was "pretty much a date". Apparently, the boys were assigned to certain girls in the ward, who they had to pick them up from their home and escort them, on their elbow, to the church. Once there, they then opened all of the doors for the girls, pulled out their "date's" chair, and ate a spaghetti meal together, using what manners a 12 year old boy has. Apparently, Bryant has such fine manners that he came home covered in sweat. I'm sure the night involved jumping, running, and probably throwing rolls in the basketball hoopes. At the close of the evening they then escorted the girls home, and much to Bryant's dismay,it didn't end with a smooch (He's going to kill me for saying that!). However, I am proud of the boy, some of the boys refused to get the girls so the Young Men's President counted on Bryant to do the "dirty work". Ahhh, young romance....

I finally found a secret to help me loose weight...

Brace Face

Well, my little boy is now officially a brace face, or as he prefers to be called, "Metal Mouth" or "Iron Mouth". Apparently, he has some missing permanent teeth and the braces will bring his teeth together and we'll never know he was deformed - lol. He has also just corrected me in letting me know he's not little. Okay, so he'll always be little to me, even if his feet are size 12!

Our Wintery Wonderland

With the help of my lovely sister-in-law we were able to get away for the weekend. We stayed in a condo at Wolfcreek resort. It's a beautiful place up Ogden canyon. We had such a great and relaxing time. We watched President Hinckley's funeral beside a crackling fire with no distractions. It was peaceful, serene and our view was spectacular to say the least!
When we woke up Sunday morning, it had snowed at least a foot and a half from between ten pm and eight am! I have never seen so much snow accumulate so fast! I was really worried - we were skipping church to be at the condo and we had to drive through a canyon in some of the worst weather I've ever been in. Heavenly Father forgave us and watched over and protected us on our trip home.
I love a good snow storm - just ask anyone I work with. Anytime it snows when we are at work I cheer while everyone else complains about driving home. Luckily I have a short commute home, and with a little common sense, most people are okay. Rules to live by: keep an extra safe distance from any car in front of you, don't speed up fast or try to stop fast. If you start to slip, don't brake! Now, that I say this, I'll probably get in an accident!
My theory is this: if everything is going to be gray, brown, and dead, let's cover it up with some beautiful snow!




The snow behind these pictures is not snow on a hill - it is the actual shoveled snow off the sidewalk! It was so crazy deep!

My north star - President Hinckley

Wow - what a spiritual week it has been. Saturday was so amazing. I cried and cried, but not really because I was sad, but because I will miss our prophet terribly. In a world of constant change and uncertainty, he was truly my "north star". Testimonies are built line upon line, precept upon precept and I feel my testimony of President Hinckley is one of the cornerstones or foundations of my overall testimony. Through times of trouble and turmoil I have always been comforted by him and his counsel. I am so happy for him to be reuinted with his sweet wife, his mother who died when he was nine, and his father and many others who went before him. I envision our Heavenly Father and our Brother welcoming him into their arms and saying "Well done my good and faithful servant". I truly hope I will get the chance to put my arms around him as well and thank him for his testimony and the way in which he lived his life which allowed him to receive direction and guidance from our Father in Heaven, which in turn, he gave to us.
Many of you probably don't know that Bryant was named for President Hinckley's father. When I was pregnant with Bry, President Hunter passed away and President Hinckely was sustained as prophet. I was sitting on our bed reading an Ensign article about President Hinckely's life when I learned his father's name was Bryant. What a wonderful man he must of been to raise a future prophet! I thought the name was strong and traditional yet not common and that my son would live up to the legacy that has been left to his name.
Logan once asked me how I knew the prophet was a prophet of God. I thought about it and told him that whenever I followed his counsel, I became closer to the Lord and happier. How could he not be a true servant of the Lord if he brings us closer to Him? By their fruits, ye shall know them...

Go Greenbay Go!

Spencer LOVES the Packers - this is not something we taught him. I went to Wisconsin a few years ago and brought him back a little bear that had the Packers insignia on it. Ever since then he has loved the Packers. Well, Boyd took him and bought him a jersey to wear during the big game last Sunday. We were all sad that they lost (we all now like the Packers because of Spencer). It was a bummer but a great game. A few days later, Spencer came downstairs in his jersey and was giving the peace sign with both hands saying "PACKERS!". Well, I laughed my head off at what I saw....
Now, you can't laugh at Spencer, which I couldn't help but do. I wasn't trying to be mean, it was just hilarious. This picture is so sad, because he felt so bad he had put the "G" on backwards.
After talking to him he finally settled down. He still loves them Packers!

Most memorable moments - Christmas at the White House 2007

Wow, this Christmas was a great one! We started it off right at my Aunt Diane's and Uncle Kent's. What was really nice this year, is that we got home before 1:00 in the morning! That's a new one! We were able to get home, the boys got Santa his treats, we then tracked Santa on the Internet (when we checked he was in the Gallapagos Islands and had already delivered presents to the Eastern side of the US - the boys were freaking), read Luke chapter 2, laugh our butts off at Spencer, and finally put the boys down.
We had opened our traditional Christmas Eve pj's - you can tell the boys knew what to expect on Christmas Eve because Logan stripped down to his boxers and said "are there any presents for us to open?", hence the photo of him opening his pj's and it looks like he's naked...

The best is we found Logan feet pajamas - now we haven't had these in our house for at least 5 years. They were so cute and he was so excited. He was the designated person who ran boxes out to the garage because "my feet don't even get cold outside!". He was in 7th heaven.

After we finished reading the scriptures, we always discuss what we've read. Spencer is ALWAYS the first to point out what he understood. We then ask Logan, who says, "I didn't understand" and then we ask Bryant who says "Spencer already said mine". It's become somewhat of a joke at our house. Anyway, Christmas Eve was no different. Spencer started by saying "An angel named Lo come down and told the shepherds not to be afraid". Boyd and I looked at each other puzzled, I turned back in the chapter to see where he got that and saw the verse that started "And Lo, the angel". We laughed so hard (of course Spencer wasn't meaning to be funny so he didn't appreciate us laughing).

I've been telling the boys about Christmas at my house growing up and how excited my brothers and sisters and I always were. We always got up at least 2 times during the night to peek at the presents - my mom and dad never put their presents for us under the tree before Christmas, so Christmas morning was a huge surprise! Well, Boyd and I finally finished and went to bed around 2:00. Not even 30 seconds later we heard someone in the front room. This is the first year our boys have ever done this - we usually get home too late and they are OUT and don't wake up until 7 in the morning. Needless to say, it's always been a dissapointment to me because I want them as excited as I was when I was young. Anyway, Boyd and I sat there and listened and heard it was Bryant. We heard him try to wake up Spencer (he couldn't) and then he woke up Logan. We sat and listened to both of them - it was so fun. Boyd and I finally decided to take a peek at the boys. It was the sweetest sight I've ever seen. I hope it's one that I don't ever forget. Logan and Bry had drug out a blanket and a pillow and were both sitting next to to each other not saying a word and looking at the tree. We were able to catch a photo:
Bry and Logan begged us to start the unwrapping of the gifts, but Boyd, always the thinker, said no. They then asked if they could sleep on the floor in the front room. We said sure so they dragged more blankets and pillows in. Spencer finally woke up around 3 and was trying to tell his brothers about all of the presents - but of couse, they already knew.
Santa had left a note with the leftover treats he wasn't able to eat (he always leaves the boys a note)and Logan freaked because Santa changed our countdown to Christmas to 0 days. He thought that was way cool.
And of course, since the boys were tiny, Rudolph came in their rooms and gave them kisses. It's great because they clean their rooms really good because as you all know, Rudolph won't go in a messy room.



I think my favorite part of Christmas day is when Boyd opened his BYU stuff. He was raised as a BYU fan, I married a BYU fan, but over the last few years, he now owns so much U stuff it's crazy. It drives me crazy because he switched! I didn't sign up for a traitor! I always give him a hard time and he always says he still likes BYU, he just likes the U better. He finally said he doesn't have anything BYU because I haven't bought anything for him (great excuse), so I took care of that. Boyd collects jerseys (hockey, basketball, football - you name it), so I bought him a BYU football jersey and a Cougars hat. Here's his reaction when he opened them:

Okay, I have two other favorite parts. Nat gave me a GI Joe doll just like the one we played with when we were kids (we named him John and he was missing his forearm). We were too poor and didn't have Ken dolls so he had to do. Of course, Natalie only played with John. Her tag on the gift said " To Angie From Natalie Thanks for the memories". She also gave me a pack of candy cigarettes. If any of you know me, I have always been obsessed with smoking. Mom always told us it was bad to buy the candy ones because pretending was almost as bad as doing. So we always had Becky B. buy the cigarettes for us. I'm having a hard time not opening the pack Nat gave me. After I saw her gifts, I started to cry because there are very few people in this world that know me as good as Natalie and I'm thankful for our relationship. I don't have a memory of being a kid that doesn't involve Natalie in some way - and all of my memories are good!

Then, Laurel gave Boyd and I the most precious, tender gift with a card that, per Boyd, will always be saved. Which, I agree with, it was just funny on how he insisted that we save the card forever. We both sat there and cried after we read her card and saw her gift. She gave us a statuette of a couple embracing. The boys weren't quite sure what to do so they all stood their holding their next gift quietly. Logan finally said: "Can I open my next present now?" We shook it off, but Boyd said that hands down, Laurel made his Christmas. Laurel has always been the sweetest and most kind hearted person I have ever known, and she lived up to her reputation on Christmas. I love her so much and am so thankful for her love and support. I have the BEST family!

Then, my two last favorite quotes of Christmas:

I gave Boyd some Titleist golf balls for Christmas. They were the most expensive so I guessed they were good. When I asked Boyd if they were after he opened them he said: "Oh yeah, Titleist are good. My two balls are Nike and Titleist". We ALL laughed at that one!

Spencer LOVES black people. He wishes we could adopt a black little brother for him. He always comments on how cool black guys are. I asked him the day after Christmas if he wished he was black and he said he did. The funny thing is, Boyd and I always see little black boys that remind us of Spencer and when we did Spencer's look-a-like on myheritage.com, half of his look-a-like's were black, one of them being Oprah! Anway, after he said he wished he was black he said: "I can even talk like I'm black". Then he proceeded to say "Yo baby, what's up?". We laughed our heads off. Again, Spencer didn't think he was being funny, just serious, and he didn't appreciate us all laughing at him.

Okay, so finally, that's it. Our Christmas. It was great!