Will and June

Jameson loves it when cousins come to town.

 

Will and June came on Friday and stayed at our house for a few hours while their parents went on a bike ride in our awesome weather.  The kids spent a lot of time running around and around while laughing and giggling. Jameson was in heaven.

After my babysitting stint Taylor and Jen took me to Great Harvest to get a sandwich for lunch.  Yummy.  It was fun to be able to talk to them for a few minutes since we  won't see them very much during this visit to the States.

Taylor and Jen hung out with Adam that night but I was off to a Relief Society retreat at a cabin about an hour away.  "What? A Relief Society retreat? I didn't know they did those". Well, they generally don't, but our Relief Society does. Our R.S. presidency is all about party planning and one of the first things our new President did when she was called several months back was ask Adam (the Bishop) if they could do one. She wanted the sisters in our ward to really get to know each other.  Our ward was sliced and diced about 2 years go and she could sense their was still somewhat of a division between the older members of the old ward and the younger members that came in as part of the boundary realignment.  About 45 women ranging in ages from 20 something to 70 years old were there for all or part of the 24 hour event and it was a great success.  We even had 3 women that weren't members of the church come with us.  There were a few members of the ward that had cabins close by so everyone who wanted a bed, had one.  I was asked to give a little class on Saturday and came home a bit tired, but was very glad I went.  It was a nice break.

Adam, Jen and Taylor took the kids to a place in the mall that just opened and had blow up stuff indoors for kids to play on.  They said it was fun, but a little redneck.

Note the DI stuffed animals. Hey, rednecks needs indoor playgrounds in the winter, too.

 

On Sunday we got to see Taylor and Jen for a bit before Taylor flew out on Monday morning and Jen went back to her sister's house. 

Jameson will probably keep asking about Will and June for another week or two.  He really misses his cousins when they leave.

Dreams Come True

There are few things that Britton, Jenna and Korinne love more than Studio C.  In fact I would say they don't just love Studio C, they are obsessed with Studio C.  A few months ago I had already planned on taking Britton, Jenna and Korinne with me to the Saturday "Family Discovery Day" of the Roots Tech 2015 conference in SLC.  When Roots Tech announced that the cast of Studio C was going to be a part of their closing social my kids went crazy.  It was too good to be true.  Then we found out that they were going to have a "meet and greet" a few hours before the show.  Knowing several thousand other adoring fans would also be trying to meet the cast I made sure I went and got in line early while the kids went to the opening session of the Family Discovery Day.  What can I say? I'm a genius. Planning ahead helped us get through the line and still have time to go to the classes, which was why we were there in the first place. If we had waited we may not have had the opportunity. They limited the line to 3,000 and I can't tell you how many people they had to turn away.  Utah kids love them some Studio C.

Waiting in line for Studio C.  Note the Studio C inspired T-shirts.

 

 

Having the opportunity to meet the cast and get their autographs made Jenna say, "Mom, this is the best day of my life!"

 

 

 Jenna and the Cast of Studio C

 

The kids were delighted to see that the cast were very personable and friendly and funny.  They are exactly how they appear on the show.  Here is a clip of Matt commenting on the kids' shirts.

As if that wasn't enough David Archuleta was also there to give autographs as he was also part of the closing social.

 

I went to the conference on Thursday and Friday, too, and was thrilled that my sister-in-law Tricia flew out from Pennsylvania to be my Roots Tech buddy.

I was definitely in my element.  I loved the Keynote speakers each day, which included Laura Bush, Jenna Bush Hagger and Donny Osmond, I loved the classes and the new information, I loved walking through all of the vendor booths and getting new ideas, I loved it all. It didn't hurt that the weather was awesome either, I didn't even need a jacket!

In lieu of buying lunch each day we just snacked on trail mix, bagels, and other such things we brought from home, but on Friday night we did treat ourselves to dinner at the Blue Lemon restaurant in City Creek.  It was yummy.

Roots Tech just keeps getting bigger every year and this year I think they had over 7,000 attend the conference.  On the free family discovery day another 10,000+ people were added to the mix.  That's a lot of people, just in case you were wondering.

The kids and Tricia ready for the closing session.

 

Let the show begin!

The Studio C cast came out and answered questions and had a lip sinc-off that was pretty funny, then David Archuleta came out and sang a few songs.  Boy, he can sing. He sounded great live.

I'm guessing there were about 10,000 people in attendance for the show.  The hall was bigger than a football field with 12 large screens allowing everyone to see what was going on on the stage.  It was absolutely huge and very full.

It ended at about 6:30 p.m. which gave us plenty of time to get home.  I had planned an exit strategy and we were out of there in no time at all missing the traffic.  I love it when a plan comes together! It was fun to see Tricia and we are really glad her whole family will be coming out for a visit this summer.

Since Jameson wasn't old enough to go to the conference on Saturday he got to have Adam to himself for an entire day.  This was also a dream come true for him so it all worked out. :-) A shout out to Grandma and Grandpa P who watched him on Thursday and to Adam who stayed home to watch him on Friday.  I'm not sure who had more fun, Jameson or me.  Sometimes it's nice to shake things up a little bit.



"You should have seen the other guy!"

Ok, I kind of wanted to teach Jameson to say this if anyone asked him about his black eye, but I refrained.  Mostly I just stayed home so no one would call family services on us if they saw him with his eye all swollen and black and blue.

I didn't see it happen, but apparently he was on the counter and fell off. He must have hit his eye on something because it started swelling almost immediately.  This was the morning after the incident and before the swelling started to go down.  He wouldn't let us touch it after it happened, not even to provide first aid or wipe a little of the blood away.

The way he climbs all over everything all of the time something like this should have happened a long time ago, but somehow Jameson always manages to come away from everything unscathed. . .except for this time, of course.

I'm kind of glad fate finally caught up to him because he hasn't been crawling on the counter nearly as much now and that makes me happy.

One day last week Jameson was trying to put butter on a bagel. I usually toast a bagel before giving it to him with some butter so when he put butter on an untoasted bagel and it didn't melt right away he was concerned.  "My bagel isn't working!"  Yeah, I really hate it when my bagels don't work right. That had us laughing for quite awhile.

Every once in awhile Jameson will decide to help me clean something.

In true Jameson fashion he usually messes it up a little while cleaning. Note the hand on the window as he is wiping with the other hand.

O' well, it's the thought that counts, right?

There is no snow in the background of these pictures.  It has been a very mild winter and this week the kids were running around outside without jackets.  Sunny and in the 50's and 60's at the beginning of February!? Awesome. This is kind of like our opportunity to have a St. George winter without actually having to go to St. George. :-)

Good Times

I know I blogged about Britton and Jenna's "Beat the Teach" reading competition at the middle school a few months ago.  It ended sometime in January but they finally got around to giving out the prizes to the winners this week. Last year Britton won the whole thing with about 13,000 pages, but this year he had to "up the program" because he had a lot of kids trying to beat him.  He read over 17,500 pages to win for the 2nd year in a row. Crazy. I can't say I loved the competition because Britton was so focused on reading he couldn't do anything else, but when he came home with the grand prize of 4 season passes to the Aquatic Center for this summer (worth $275.00) I decided it was all worth it. :-) Jenna also picked up a free pizza and an awesome necklace set. Sweet. Good job, kids!

Sometimes Jameson has a hard time going to bed at night.  One night this week Adam told him that if he came downstairs he was going to have to sleep in his own room by himself (instead of being able to sleep in Jenna's room).  Adam could hear him on the stairs and waited for him to turn the corner into his office, but he never did. Before long Adam heard deep breathing and found Jameson asleep on the stairs.

Looks super comfy, doesn't it?  He is in that dreaded stage where 1 nap a day is too much, but not having a nap is too little.   It makes it hard to avoid meltdowns.

Friday night we had a surprise retirement party for my Dad.  My Dad has talked about retiring for about 10 years and I can't even count how many times his retirement date has been pushed back, but he FINALLY did it. . .well, kind of.  He accepted another job that will start on Wednesday, but it is supposed to be very flexible and he'll only have to work when he wants. . .which may be a lot, knowing my Dad. (Ha!)  When it comes to my parents and their plans I have adopted a "I'll believe it when I see it" attitude, but I'm definitely not opposed to celebrating a retirement, whenever it may be!

 

Surprise! Heather and 3 of her 6 kids made the quick trip to celebrate.

Britton held down the fort while my parents, Heather and her oldest son Tanner, and Adam and I went to Elements.

At the restaurant we took so many selfies and food pictures it was kind of embarrassing.  Obviously I don't get out much. :-)

Bacon wrapped turkey with sweet potatoes and beans. Yes, please!

The kids were more than happy to continue the party back at the house with some pies from Marie Calendars.

Hopefully my Dad will enjoy this new phase of his life. We certainly enjoyed celebrating its arrival with him.

Sunday we celebrated the start of Grandma's birthday month.

Why only celebrate on one day when you can party for a month? That's my Mom's philosophy.  We were happy to be the first installment of birthday cheer.  Jameson was adamant about wrapping up his favorite toy and giving it to her.  She got all excited and they posed for a picture and then he promptly took his toy back.  It's all in the thought at his age but it sure made the rest of us smile.

Happy February!