may in a nutshell

I apologize to anyone who actually views my blog for the amount of time that has passed since my last post. I've been busy.

So if you forgive me, read on. If not, I guess we probably weren't that close of friends anyway, so bye, it was nice knowing you.

For Mother's Day, I was fortunate enough to actually get to spend the day with my mother! And my dad and 2 of my 3 sisters. It was a good day.

Ronda, Mom, me, Leesa

Me and my happy little family. Well, mostly happy.

The reason I love Mother's Day....

Papa was playing horsie with Sam and Cassidee. They loved it....


I stayed at my sister's from Saturday until my dad needed to fly out on Monday. Since Sam loves trains so much, we rode Front Runner from Clearfield to SLC and Trax from SLC to Sandy to meet up with Jason Monday night. The kids loved the ride!

Here we are waiting for the train. (My nieces Kylee and Addison came along too.)


Sam really loved seeing the train with Papa.






A few days later, in Young Women's we had a fun little movie theme night. My table was "The Incredibles." I was told that since I am evil I had to be Syndrome. So I was.



Here are the other leaders.
Obviously we were all from different tables. (Wizard of Oz, Fairytopia, Up, Alice in Wonderland, Fairytopia, Incredibles, Wizard of Oz)


Now that Livia's hair is getting longer, we are having a little more fun with it. Is she not the cutest little Pippi in all the land?




Well, so far it has been a busy month, mostly with it being Sam's birthday. A post will soon be forthcoming to show you what fun we've had with that! So stay tuned!

bountiful baskets

Today I finally got my first Bountiful basket! Ronda has been doing this for the last month and I have been so excited to try it out! You pay $15 to a coop, then they buy produce in bulk and then split it up between everyone who donated.
This is what my $15 got me today:

Veggies:
-head of Romaine
-spinach
-8 tomatoes
-4 artichokes
-6 oz radish
-3 cucumbers

Fruit:
-10 bananas
-9 apples
-7 kiwis
-cantaloupe
-honey dew
-3 containers blackberries


Sam is so excited to see all this fruit... I feel like I don't buy much fresh produce because of the cost... but I can do $15! I'm hoping to do this every other week, since my family is only so big and can only eat so much fruit and vegetables!

I'm hoping this encourages healthy snacking..... apples vs. Easter candy... I think the chance is high!

birthday lessons

Top ten things I have learned since I turned 29.

1. April 23rd is too early in the year to go up to the cabin.
2. When driving on muddy and snowy roads, do not attempt to turn the car around.
3. Don't allow strong friends to push on your car. Or parts may fall off. Yes, there used to be a spoiler on that baby.

4. And they can dent in the side too. (Look towards the back.)

5. Even though your car gets trashed, it's still so much fun to have a sleepover with friends up in the mountains. (I can't believe I didn't take a single picture.)
6. It's great to know the Young Women in the area that are willing to watch your kids so you can go on a date with your husband.
7. Jason can handle baking a cake. (Yes, this looks more like it is Liv's 2nd b-day, but it's not.)

8. It's not worth buying a second box of candles for an adult.
9. Jason is actually willing to get me another game that I force him to play with me. (At least this is one he likes!)

10. Jason is so great and makes sure my birthdays are always special. I'm so lucky to have such a loving and caring husband who does all he can so that I have a great birthday! (He got me several other gifts as well along with the game, I just didn't take pictures.)

Thanks Jason!! I love you!

dirty oatmeal

Sam likes to make his own breakfast. He usually does great. However, today, he did not.

He came and told me that his oatmeal had turned to dirt.

I guess he got a little button-pushing happy on the microwave.

The green bowl used to be just as big as the yellow bowl.

I concur... his oatmeal had indeed turned to dirt.

For a more complete story... tune into Sam's blog.

the craziness results

For those of you who didn't know, the last several months I have dedicated a lot of time to plan a week long mission reunion. We gathered donations from former missionaries from my mission to be able to fly our president and his wife here to SLC over Conference weekend. We raised over $3500 for this week. The response from so many people was so wonderful. But with this week, came a lot of stress! There were 4 of us that planned it, and me and one other sister were in charge of the big Friday event for the family. I did a lot with finding former missionaries and with the food for the reunion.

And now, the week is over. It's sad since I don't know when I'll get to see President and Hermana Vazquez again, but it is a relief that it is in the past and that it went really well. Here is a brief recap of the week:

Wednesday: They flew into SLC and I was able to see them at the airport.
Thursday: We did a session at the Jordan River Temple.
Friday: This was the big event of the week. It was a dinner for the whole family. We had probably more than 200 people there.... yet I still had ordered way too much food! But better too much than not enough!
Here are a few of the awesome sister missionaries I was able to get to know as a missionary. Only the second from the left was my actual companion though.
Kara (Belt) Kearsley, Katie Lundquist, Erika Jensen, Cassurie (Gines) McCairns, me. They are all so beautiful!


We had a pinata for the kids, then took them to their own room to watch The Princess and the Frog. We gave them little treat bags that my neighbor helped me put together a couple days before. Thank goodness for big vacuums... but they loved them!


Saturday: During the Priesthood session, the sisters all got together with our children and chatted it up for hours. Again we put some movies on for the kids. I guess Sam was tired... (at this point most of the kids were running around the gym)
La Hermana Vazquez with Livia

My dear friend, Erika. She's the best. I love her. I wish she lived in Utah.

My mission trainer's little girl, Sophia, was trying to put a bow on Livia's head. She chased her all over the gym trying to put it on her.

After the Priesthood session, Presidente came over to the church where we were to say hi to us all again. He loved all the kids and always wanted to be hugging and holding them. Livia was usually fine with him, but she had just been hurt and was crying for me.

Lots of the hermanas with Presidente and Hermana.

Hna V, Livia, me, Sam, Pres. V

Sunday: We enjoyed a Fireside given by Los Vazquez and had lots of cookies to eat after that. (Yet again, I overbought by a long shot.)
Monday: Each day we had someone different drive them where they needed to be. Monday was my day. It was so great to have so much one-on-one time with them. But they probably think I am the worst driver ever! I almost ran a red light and I back tracked all over the place! They were patient with me though. Luckily I had Erika most of the day to help me with the navigating!
We went to Deseret Book so they could buy some books in Spanish. I sat down with President and he drilled me for a while about my life.... but it was good! I hope I passed!

We went to Rodizio Grill for lunch, thanks to Shad Feild for paying for us all! It was delicious! And I was super stuffed when we left....
We visited a friend of theirs from years back that lives in SLC. Then for Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening) we went to a bowling alley where a few former missionaries and their families joined us. I didn't stay to bowl since I had very tired children waiting for me to take them home and put them to bed. I would have loved to see them bowl... when I asked if that's what they wanted to do they just laughed, so I'm guessing they didn't have much experience with it! But my family needed me more than I needed to see them bowl.
So I said my final goodbyes. It was hard to walk away knowing that it could very well be the last time I see them. I'm hoping to some day in the near future visit them in Mexico. We can always use a vacation, right?

They were still here all day Tuesday, but I didn't think my kids would appreciate me driving them all the way to Sandy again. Our whole family has been pretty exhausted this week with being away from home so much and getting to bed really late every night.
They flew out this morning and will be home in Mexico tonight around dinner time.

I was so blessed to have been able to help plan and bring about this reunion. I learned so much from this experience and I feel so blessed to have been a part of giving them this opportunity. The whole time they were here, they expressed so much gratitude and love for being able to come. They just wanted to be where any of their missionaries were. I'm grateful they could come and that I've had the chance to learn from them again.

Now.... I just don't know what to do with myself.

the hermana semana

So if you just happen to be wondering... "Will Sally be busy at all this week?" I am about to answer your question.

Yes.

I will be busy, very busy. But also very excitedly busy.

This is why:

As you can probably guess, that is a picture of my mission president. Please ignore the visible 7 extra pounds in my cheeks. (And don't try to imagine the non-visible poundage either.)

This is Presidente Vazquez. And below is a picture with him and his wife, Hermana Vazquez. (Now do you see why I was considered a tall missionary?)


This week is very special. It has been in the making since last summer. As a mission, we pulled together to finance a trip for them to come here to Utah this week over General Conference. They will be here until next week Wednesday.

They flew in from Mexico tonight. It was so wonderful to meet them at the airport and to see them again... and to actually be able to give Presidente a hug! A real hug! (Not so allowed on the mission!) It was so great to hear their voices again after not seeing them for almost 6 1/2 years.... even though I couldn't understand some of what they were saying... the Spanish is coming back a little though!

I am so blessed to have had such a great couple serving as my mission president, and I honestly didn't know if I would ever get to see them again... and here they are... in Utah! I am so happy that they were able to make the trip. And I hope this week is as special and memorable for them as it will be for me.

Almost Easter

Happy Sunday-before-Easter Sunday!
Due to General Conference taking place next Sunday, we did the annual Easter-wear a week early. Here are my little darlings....

Anyone who has TRIED to take pictures of my kids will know that it is an exceptionally trying task. So basically... I'm shocked they are both looking... AND both smiling in this picture!

And here are a few others I thought were worth sharing.

Handsome Sam:

Lovely Livi:

Sammy and his favorite pal:

Livia showing off her chewed up cheese. Yummy, I know.

My luck ran out... no more pictures with 2 focused and happy kids.

At least Sam was still having fun.

Happy week leading to Easter!!

It pays to Discover

My sister Ronda had 6 passes to the Discovery Museum at the Gateway. But she only needed 4. So she asked if we'd like to join her. Obviously I said, "YES!"

I still needed to buy one more pass since anyone between the ages of 1 and 65 cost $8.50. But as I was about to buy my pass, a nice lady asked me if I would like her extra pass. I smiled and said, "YES!" So with only having to pay $2 for parking... it turned out to be a pretty cheap day. (Other than my brief visit to the gift shop on behalf of the Easter Bunny. But Jason doesn't need to know that.)

We were there from 10 am until almost 5 pm. Let's just say Sam and Livia had a blast! It is such a cool place! I was tempted to play too! But I didn't want to look like the 5 year old I felt inside....

This place is basically a glorified playroom. A very large one. Very cute too.

I took about 130 pictures and videos, so even though this post is long and has lots of photos, it actually IS the edited version! For some reason I'm having trouble with some of the videos, so there's only two. I will probably put some more on the kids' blogs later.

In the meanwhile, feel free to take a lookie at my kiddos loving life as a child.




















This is my niece Brynja. As you can see, she loves the water area!!




Livia pulled her pig tails out. But at least she waited until we got to the car.

Sam showing off his new train toy.

And this would be Sam tickling Livia's head. Don't ask me why. But she thought he was funny so it works!


Here is a video of Livia in the ball area.




Sam never has been much for grocery shopping.