Temple Blessings

Thanks to my sister, my whole extended famiy had the wonderful opportunity to go to the Draper Temple Open House this past week. Our group consisted of my grandparents, parents, sisters and their families and our family. There were 22 of us in all. We had such a great time and feel so fortunate to have the opportunity to walk our kids through so they can begin to grasp the importance of temples and how blessed we are to have them. Thanks Julianne!

Big Birthday Month

We celebrated Scott and Shannah's birthday's this month. We always look forward to birthdays at our house and this month was no exception. Among other things, Scott was delighted with his new CTR spinner ring and the new Wii game he got called Boom Blox. (Actually, the whole family was pretty delighted about that last one.) We had a Butter Pecan cake with Cream Cheese frosting. Yum!

Shannah turned "sweet 16" this month. Aghh! The whole dating, driving thing is kind of freaking us out. Not because she isn't ready, because she is really reasponsible and such a great daughter, student and person. But partly because it really puts our age into persective and mostly because this is really the age when we have to start letting go a little. When we start trusting that we've taught her well and have faith that she'll make good choices.

So far, we've had it pretty easy with her. She's a very cautious driver and dating is the last thing on her mind right now. She's really not the typical teenager. As far as gifts go, on the left you'll see her reaction to clothes. On the right you'll see her reaction to books. She has her own organized library in her room. WOW!

We gave her a BIG surprise party this year. My mom got her out of the house and she had 13 friends come over and surprise her. (Above, Shannah is 3rd from the left.) They had such a great time playing games, Guitar Hero Band and eating lots of food including homemade ice cream cake. Thanks you guys for supporting and loving Shannah. You guys are awesome!

New Do

On a whim one night Shannah decided to let me cut her hair. I cut off about 2 inched and layered it so it would flip up. We were going for the Alice Cullen look. I think she looks pretty cute, but I am a little prejudice. Not because I cut it, but because she's my daughter. Thanks for trusting me hun, it was fun and you're beautiful!

Yummy Science Fair

For her Science Fair Project last month, Mandy decided to test different brands of cupcakes to see which one was the best. Yum! We tested Betty Crocker, Duncan Hines, Pillsburry and Jiffy. We made 84 cupcakes in all and had friends and neighbors come over to test them. We had alot of fun, but it didn't help my goal to loose the 10 pounds I've gained over the winter! FYI - Betty Crocker won out.

Our Own Little Rock Band

How about that? Who'd of thought we'd have our own little rock band? We finally broke down and invested in a Wii system for Christmas this year and have loved it! I don't see any need to pay for bowling ever again. (Where else can you bowl in your PJ's and slippers and score over 120 everytime?) We love Wii Sports and Mario Kart, but our favorite has to be Guitar Hero III. We only have 1 guitar, but we borrowed the complete band from Scott's sister and had such a great time we're going to try to get us one with our tax refund. Although we like to switch instruments, pictured above we have Britney on lead guitar, Brandon on the foot pedal, Josh on the drums, Mandy as the lead singer and Shannah on bass guitar. Scott's gotten pretty good on the guitar and I love the drums and the guitar. Fun!