Parents, Potatoes, and a Piano

Two weekends ago I went down to California to see my parents and visit my family. I flew out Friday morning on the cheapest flight in the world! Thank you Jet Blue for being awesome. My bro Devo picked me up from the airport and on the way home we stopped to look at the pirate ship in the San Diego Harbor. Friday night was also my cousin's wedding. Congrats Wayne and Brianne. The wedding was really pretty and it was so nice to see so much of my extended family.

While I was gone, Evan was able to see his parents on their way down to Vegas for his cousins wedding. We had a full house; Ev's parents, two sisters, a brother, and a girlfriend were all jam packed in our tiny apartment. So now to the potatoes and piano. Since Evan is from potato country, his parent's brought down a huge box, I would guess 20 pounds, of potatoes. So I will be making lots of freezer meals with potatoes. They also brought a piano down so we can play and I can re-learn.

Thanks for being great parents, all four of you! Love you guys.

Craft Night

This past craft night at Jess' house we made Autumn blocks. I couldn't choose between two papers that I really loved so, why not use both, right? Since both were patterns, I need a solid to break things up. We really haven't decorated for holidays or seasons, so I thought it was a nice change of pace. Can't wait for winter, I have the cutest idea I found in the November Martha Stuart Living magazine.





I also just bought a little table to put in our extra room ( I know more to go in that room!) to reserve as a craft area. Currently I just use the dinning room table, but I feel like I have to finish a project when I start it because it makes the house look messy, which if you have seen my house, know that messes stress me out. I will post pictures when I have everything set up and ready to go.

Catch Up...

Sorry for the massive post; I have a lot to catch up on. I lost my cord for my camera early this summer, and just recently found it when we cleaned out the office/study/craft/closet room (no wonder why it was lost, that room is the multi-purpose room). And what is a post without pictures?

Since we have season tickets to BYU football games, our weekends consist of watching college football in the mornings and going up to campus to watch BYU. I love spending that time with Evan. Sorry Ev for so many questions like why is he running that way? Is Jan really a guy? and many other random things!




A few weekends ago we went to Evan's mission reunion. We had a lot of fun. It was really good to see Evan's mission president and his family.

And last weekend we went to Divine Comedy. They introduced a few new people; we still had a lot of fun.



I also have been going to the gym every night! Thanks Hanna for the motivation and keeping me from flaking. I hope sooner than later I can start seeing some results and looking hot and skinny! If anyone wants to go with us, the more the better.

My handsomely, rugged Dad!

My mom sent me this picture this morning and I couldn't help but share it! My dad is awesome! I can't believe that he is only 17 in this picture. He and his buddies would always trip it up to Alaska from Southern California to go fishing.
(he is the one with the beard)

Princess wands

So for a while now our nursery kids have had nothing to play with after our lesson and before their parents came to pick them up (we don't want them to pull out the toys again for just a few minutes). We have bubbles for them but they need something else. The solution, princess wands for the girls, and manly-man wands for the boys. They were very simple to make. I think I did 14 of them in less than an hour. A blog that I follow posted how to make them, they are super cute.

Our new toy!

So we had the eventful weekend- Saturday night's football game will not be talked about. On Saturday morning we went to our stakes annual Family Expo. I loved it! We were able to chose workshops to attend and we were blessed to hear from out Stake Presidency. They are wonderful men of God and it is such an experience to hear from them and feed off of their words. When we listened to President and Sister Ehat, there were maybe six other couples in the room, so it was such an intimate and personal setting to be able to talk with them. After we had a delicious lunch and enjoyed the company of some close friends and a few new friends.

But back to Friday night, I came home from work with...a DVR! We love it! The best invention ever. Since we are at work all day and have commitments most nights during the week, we miss a lot of our favorite shows- namely PTI for Evan and Judge Judy for me. We also enjoy watching all the movies that they play on TV without the commercials.

My favorite part of the whole DVR, while I was setting it up and reading the instructions, this is what a part said (no joke, this is word for word): "When batteries need replacement, the remote control will stop operating." All I can say about that is WOW and DUH.

As soon as I can find my cord for our camera I will post some pictures from the unmentionable football game.

I love America!

As I was driving to work today, I was reminded of such a great country that we live in. There are flags on people’s lawns and every flag pole has the flags at half mass to honor all the men and women that fell that fateful day of September 11, 2001. I can’t believe that eight years has passed by.

Ten days after 9-11 President Bush gave an amazing, patriotic speech to our country. He said:

"Great harm has been done to us. We have suffered great loss. And in our grief and anger we have found our mission and our moment.
Freedom and fear are at war. The advance of human freedom, the great achievement of our time and the great hope of every time, now depends on us.
Our nation, this generation, will lift the dark threat of violence from our people and our future. We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage. We will not tire, we will not falter and we will not fail."

I love this country! I am pumped up and ready to fight just reading his words from 2001. Thanks to all of those soldiers that have had the guts to fight for my freedoms. I love you little brother you are amazing!

Since our kids and younger siblings are not allowed to share the Pledge of Allegiance in school, I think that sometimes we forget about what this country is based on. As I was reading today about the history of the Pledge of Allegiance, I forgot that it had changed over the years. The Pledge of Allegiance was written in August 1892 by the socialist minister Francis Bellamy. It was originally published in The Youth's Companion on September 8, 1892.

It originally read:
"I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

In 1923, the words, "the Flag of the United States of America" were added. At this time it read:
"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

In 1954, in response to the Communist threat of the times, President Eisenhower encouraged Congress to add the words "under God," creating the 31-word pledge we say today. Bellamy's daughter, the original author, objected to this alteration. Today it reads:

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."