A Weekend in Pocatello!

On Friday Jim, Daniel, Tanner and I drove to Pocatello, ID for a lacrosse tournament. Daniel and Tanner each had a game on Friday evening and two on Saturday. They had a great time despite the rain! It rained, and rained, and rained. Jim bought me a new umbrella to use during the games. Isn't it cute!

Tanner's birthday was on Saturday. Yes, he is now fifteen! We decorated his hotel room door on Friday night just so he would know he was loved and then we served birthday cake to all the lacrosse team on Saturday. You might as well celebrate you birthday at what you love the most and for Tanner that is lacrosse! I fixed him a birthday dinner today of roast beef, mashed potatoes with all the trimmings and a chocolate pie. Happy Birthday Tanner!

The Junior Prom

Taylor went to the Junior Prom on Saturday. Early in the morning he and his friends went hiking in the snow and slush up to the Wind Caves. Later that evening he let me take a picture of him in his tux. Doesn't he look great! He had a fun time.

The Biggest Snowflakes Ever!

OK, I'm not just kidding when I say this, but on Saturday we saw the biggest snowflakes you have ever seen. It was like the heavens were dumping down big pieces of fluff. Some of the flakes were over 2 inches in diameter. It was so cool! Daniel and Kristi had fun trying to catch them in their mouth. It only lasted about 10 minutes but it was way fun, especially if we are going to have snow at the end of April! Look at Daniel's picture, the snowflake covers his entire mouth! Then check out his head in the other picture. One snowflake covers the whole side of his head. Isn't nature amazing!

Happy 50th Birthday Jim!

Jim turns 50 tomorrow. What a wonderful husband and father he is. We just want to wish him the best day ever. Chances are he'll be at a bishopric meeting, lacrosse game, soccer game, home teaching, basketball game, doing math homework with the boys, fixing something or working on the house. Even though he is so busy he takes time for us. Happy Birthday Jim!

Kristi wins an Award!

We are so proud of Kristi. She has been working as a peer advisor for the El Ed Department this year at USU. She has worked hard and has helped a lot of freshman students. This week at USU she was awarded the "USU Peer Advisor Award". Two weeks ago Kristi found out that she was nominated and then had to put together a portfolio. There was a committee formed and Kristi was chosen for this award. Way to go Kristi! We Love You!

A Saturday in the Spring!

Saturday was definitely on the top list of crazy (or should I say normal in the Stephenson home.) Jim, my cute husband, always wakes up early even on weekends. Saturday he stayed in bed until about 6:30 so he wouldn’t disturb my slumber. I could tell he was lying there trying to be quite so I told him to go ahead and start his project and so at 7:00 a.m. the jigsaw started. I threw a pillow over my head! The morning had begun!

Everyone got up by 8:00 a.m. and Daniel had a lacrosse game at 9:30 out at Sunrise Elementary school in Smithfield. So before we went to the game Jim was working on the bathroom, I was getting the house in order for the weekend, cleaned my bathroom, got the laundry started and washed a few outside windows (it is supposed to be sunny all week).

Taylor drove Daniel and Brock Halling to the game for me so I could get a few things done, he had to be their 45 minutes early and I didn’t want to go back and forth; the day before I spent 1 ½ hours in the car running kids around to and from practices! We got to the game by 9:30 and they hadn’t even put the lines on the field yet. So we visited with the Halling’s for a ½ hour before the game finally started.

Daniel had a great game. They lost but he got a lot of playing time and seemed to really enjoy playing. After the game we got home about 11:15 and I put together a lunch for Tanner and got him ready to go to his game and Taylor was the man again and drove him out to Sky View so he could catch a ride to his lacrosse game that was at Ogden. We had a bit of lunch and then Jim and I went out in the front yard and finished pruning the apple trees. Jim climbed the tree and I told him what to prune off.

When we were in the middle of doing that a USU student came around and said he was aerating the yards and would we like ours done. I said yes, and then after he left we decided no because we hadn’t picked up any branches and didn’t have time to mark the sprinkler heads. So we were assuming that since we weren’t around to pay him or instruct him he wouldn’t do it. Well we both came home five hours later and it was done and now I don’t know who to pay. I hope that he comes back today or I will feel guilt!

Daniel and I took off at 12:30 to get Daniel to his lacrosse game at Mountain Crest and Jim and Samuel left at 1:00 to go to Ogden to watch Tanner’s game. While I was waiting for Daniel’s game to start I worked on his afghan and called Mom and Dad where in Carson City, NV at the time. They have just started a trip to the Redwoods. At 1:30 Daniel’s game started. While I was watching his game I got a phone call from Jim and he said that he was at the park I instructed him to go to in Ogden and all that was there were some people having a picnic! Where was the game? After doing some checking with other parents I found out that they changed the location of the game and it was at Bonneville Park not Oak Lawn Park. I got the location and told Jim. He spent the next ½ hour looking for Tanner’s lacrosse game and couldn’t ever find the park so he and Sam came home.

After Daniel’s game (they lost again but it was fun to watch) Daniel and I went to the store and bought some groceries. First we went to Sam’s. While there we discovered they had pork loin for really good by so I bought three pork loin’s and had two of them cut in three roasts a piece and the third I got cut in 21 pork chops.

Daniel and I were both glad that they were handing out samples because we were starving! They still didn’t feel us up and so I bought Daniel a hot dog and drink. He love’s Sam’s hot dogs. Then we went to Lee’s because Sam’s didn’t have everything we needed.

We didn’t get home until 5:00 and Jim and Samuel pulled up right after us. About 10 minutes later Taylor and his friends pulled in and they (with Jim’s help) finished the pruning of the apple tree job; just cleaning up all the limbs and mess and Daniel mowed the lawn. I told Taylor I would fix them hamburgers since they were so nice to help Taylor finish his job.

So while the boys were finishing the outside job I put away all the groceries, rewrapped the pork roasts and port chops and put them in the freezer, baked cookies, prepared all the trimmings for a hamburger dinner and made cinnamon rolls (the dough was in the fridge and I had to take it out to make room for the grocery’s. I couldn’t just leave it sitting on the counter because we had to go again at 6:00 to Samuel’s soccer game!) Taylor and his friends finished the pruning job outside and so Taylor cooked the hamburgers. Everyone sat down at 5:45 for dinner. Tanner walked through the door about 10 minutes later. The hamburgers were delicious. We didn’t enjoy our dinner like we should because Jim, Samuel and I had to leave by 6:00 for Samuel’s game at Bear River.

Jim, Samuel and I hopped in the car to go to the Bear River game (with my three cookies because I didn’t have time to eat them at dinner!) Tanner and Daniel stayed back to relax and clean up dinner and cook the cinnamon rolls. Taylor went off with the friends again. As we headed out the door Daniel tried to print off a map so I would know which park we were going to but the printer wouldn’t respond (it never does when you are in a hurry!) So I left without a map and just a vague idea of where the park was.

We headed off to Bear River country. We turned on the wrong road but only went down it a couple of miles before we realized it was the wrong road. We got to the right park and Samuel still had 15 minutes until the game started! Jim set up the chairs to watch the game and I sat in the car for 15 minutes of relaxation. Sam was excited because his team won the game 5 -3. Phew, we made it through the day and were on our way home to relax before bedtime. We pulled in the driveway about 8:40. I took time to clean up the kitchen and the house before the Sabbath and at 9:10 Taylor call’s and said, “Mom, you know how you like 5 minutes notice before I bring friends over at night, well, can I bring a few friends over?” I said, “Sure, how many?” “Oh, about seven.” (By the night was over there were about twelve friends coming in and out.) So I quickly made frosting for the cinnamon rolls, finished loading the dishwasher, pulled out some candy, made some punch and popped three bags of popcorn. While I was doing this Jim quickly put toilet paper on the empty roll in the upstairs bathroom just in case someone needed to use the bathroom!

Daniel and Samuel moved their movie downstairs so that Taylor and his friends could have a party upstairs (The friends were going to have a fire in the fire pit but decided to play games around the kitchen table instead.) After I got the party put together I went downstairs and watched the movie with Daniel and Samuel.

At about 11:00 Taylor and friends went to the school park to play games. I went upstairs and cleaned up the kitchen again and then waited for Taylor to come home. (Jim went to bed about 10:30 because his Sunday’s are crazy and he needs to get a good nights rest.) Taylor finally came home around 11:30 with a smile on his face.

I had a nice long hot shower and at midnight finally rolled into bed. As I lay there I thought of all my many blessings; for children who are active and healthy, for good friends who influence my children for good, for healthy bodies that let us do all we require of them and beyond, for a wonderful home that protects us from the elements, for a good husband who honors his priesthood and for the gospel of Jesus Christ, for a righteous daughter and a missionary son. What a wonderful, busy, crazy day! Thank heavens for Sunday, a day of rest!

Coloring Easter Eggs!

OK, so it is Easter egg coloring time again. The kids and I always have a great time getting together and coloring Easter eggs. Kristi was around on Sunday because of conference and so we had our annual Easter egg coloring day. We colored 4 dozen eggs. (Sherri taught me along time ago not to boil you eggs then you can color as many as you want and you don't have to figure out what to do with all those boiled eggs!) We only broke two--not too bad! They were beautiful. Some were very creative. Jim even put sparkling foil on some of his, OK, his one! It was a fun afternoon. Happy Easter everyone!