Grandkids....

I am in love with Picassa right now... I was playing around with the kids today and took a few pictures, nevermind their classy attire! I was looking for a way to make a collage instead of a slideshow and downloaded Picassa 3 from Google for free. So far I love it....hopefully our love affair will last. Sometimes these programs get boring after a while. I'll let you know....

Goodbye Friends....

Well, we have had such a fun time with Kevin and Angie this weekend. They are really wonderful people and a lot of fun to be around. Oh and I was wrong...Kevin is Denver's 3rd cousin. I can never keep his family straight. Today we drove around SLC and showed them a couple of places they would be interested in. We would really love to see them move here someday....I think it would be a lot of fun for everyone! They have 3 daughters....Hannah who is 14 and Savannah who is 12 and Reannah who is 8. We were so happy to have them stay with us and hope that they come again really soon. They are talking about coming back out this summer and we will surely look forward to it. I didnt take anymore pictures but I did high-jack this one off of Angies Facebook! She took a bunch of pictures and will email them to me so I may post more later.... Addie really took to Angie. I wasnt sure how she would react having strangers in the house but it only took a few minutes to realize that these strangers were special!

In other news, I received word from the Veterans Administration that I am still eligilbe to recieve GI Bill education benefits! Apparently they have extended those benefits to 10 years after an honorable discharge so guess who will be enrolling in school this fall!? Me! Im very excited about it.... I help Denver type his papers for school all the time and it makes me want to go back. Denver graduates in May of next year. What a great year that will be!

General Conference for our church is next weekend. There are many people that we know coming into town for it. It looks like we will be receiving a visit from our Kentucky Bishop - Ken Carriere and his daughter Staci which we are looking forward to. Also my little cousin Sarah who I havent seen since she was just a little girl has mentioned possibly getting together for lunch on Friday so hopefully she will have the time for it. I would sure love to see her again! Lots of visits and reconnecting going on in our lives this past year....I have Facebook to thank for it! In fact I think I will end this post and logon to Facebook right now! Goodnight all!

Spring is Never Coming....

Okay...now I'm almost convinced that Spring is not ever going to be here. We are being hit with back to back snowstorms! According to the weather it is supposed to snow for the next 3 days. We received 3 inches just today. It made for a really sad site down at Temple Square today. We have visitors in town staying with us and spent the day driving them around and showing them the place. Kevin and Angie are here from Kentucky. Kevin is Denver's 2nd cousin but they are the same age so they are good friends too. They had been here once before but it was 8 years ago! We are hoping they will relocate eventually ;) I'll introduce them more in a later post.

So we get to Temple Square and get out to walk around so Angie could take pictures and it was FREEZING! Not only was there snow everywhere but the wind was blowing and it was just almost unbearable! All the flora on the square had been starting to bloom from the warm weather last week so everywhere you looked were colorful flowers peeping out from under the white blanket of snow. I sure hope they survive the week! Poor Addison had to go to the bathroom desperately...we tried to walk into the Joseph Smith building but it was locked and so when I turned around to tell her, she was already going....right there all over herself. We had to run to the car before she froze to death because she was soaked. We went home and changed her and then drove around some more. We went up to the Salt Lake Cemetary to see President Hinkley's grave and also to show off the gorgeous view of the Salt Lake valley. It is truly beautiful and I love living here...in spite of the awful snow.... Then we drove them out to see the Great Salt Lake. I found out today that the Great Salt Lake has enough salt in it to supply the ENTIRE world for 1000 years. Can you believe that? We ended the day at Tres Hermanos for dinner....mmmm Mexican food. Cant beat it. So, all in all is was a great day....cold, but really nice to be out with great company! I will post more pictures later but here is a quick slide show of our day today.....

Another Fun Performance....

So today was Evan's turn! His class put on a literacy fair today. They have been working on this for a while and for at least 2 months Evan has come home every day saying "Mom are you coming to my literacy fair tomorrow?!".....and then I would find out that it wasnt even scheduled yet. So finally....after months of anticipation, I got to attend it! Evan was so cute, when he walked into the auditorium and saw me and Addison and Soren....he was BEAMING. There is no other way to describe it. He loves to have his parents' adoration and attention and I just get all choked up seeing his smiling face and knowing how happy inside he is.

Anyway, whats a literacy fair you are asking? The kids have been really ramping up their reading over the past few months and they had prepared skits to go along with their favorite books. They sang Songs that they made up and helped compose. And then, all around the auditorium were displays of the artwork and different projects they had done with regard to reading. For example...they made books in a box which was really clever and too difficult to explain here. They also made self portraits of themselves reading a book which was a story that they made up. They designed their own T-shirts based on their favorite book....And my favorite project was their actual book that they wrote. Evan's was titled "My Trip to Kentucky" and he wrote about our trip to Kentucky last summer for a family reunion. It was pretty focused on his cousins and all the love that they have for each other. It was so sweet. The last page was the author description page and it had an actual picture of him on it with facts about him..... "Evan is thoughtful" "Evan is 6" "Evan is Kind"......oh and his favorite snack.... "A Doughnut".

Thanks for inviting me Evan...it was awesome and I love you so much! Here is a little clip of one of their songs.....

The Piano Man....

Yesterday was Ian's piano receital at his school. Their music program provides actual piano lessons for each student beginning in the 2nd grade. It is really awesome because we are one of the only schools in the state that has the funding for it. Anyway, Ian already had piano lessons last year from someone in our church and I know he could have played a more difficult piece but they try to keep the kids on similar levels....he did great though. Notice his head.....its the human metronome! Even the girl in the front row gets her head going....too funny!

Spring! Is not here yet......

Well, Im up this morning getting the kids off to school and guess what? Its snowing! Ugh...March/April are the worst months of the year in my opinion because they tease you with warm weather but wont hesitate to throw a snowstorm in to keep you on your toes....or in your boots! 70 degrees on Saturday, snowing this morning. Oh well..the good news is that the temps today should be warm enough to melt it all away and Spring is truly just around the corner. Even though Fall is really my favorite season, I love Spring too. The smell of fresh cut grass and fertilizer....the new blossoms on the trees and the birds seem to chirp more than in the summer. Its just a renewing of life and that part is so cool. Denver complains about the snow a lot and when we lived in Arizona we both complained about the heat a lot. But you know, I just dont think I could stand living somewhere that you didnt have all 4 seasons. Ok, maybe Monterey, California...but even then I think I would miss the snow. If only the snow season could be a little shorter :)

We are excited at the prospect of going to Reno over Easter weekend to see my parents new house and to celebrate Easter and Addison and Evan's birthdays with them. Addie's actually falls on Easter Sunday this year. We are going to drive and it should take about 7 hours...it will be a fun experience.

Ian is about to start his spring break...2 weeks off school. And just when his ends, Evan's begins! Although his is only 1 week long. Sure would be nice if they were at the same time. Ive got to figure out something for them to do the whole time so we can avoid the "youve been on the Wii for too long" fight. Since I have been off of work I have been trying to organize my files and get our house in better order. So far I have been successful enough to get our taxes filed, sortof...there are some issues. And, file for review of a debt that Denver owes which should save us about $6000! As nice as it has been though, Im going to have to find another job soon. Unemployment is treating me kindly for now but it will run out eventually.

We are bringing Denvers mom out here this summer to stay for a little while...she says 6 weeks and Denver wants 6 months....I am happy to have her for as long as she wants to be here. The kids will love it and hopefully she will enjoy it too. We love her and know that she is going through a lot without Don. Alec may or may not be here also. This changes daily and although Denver has tried to get to the bottom of it, there are no conclusions other than Alec is angry and is under the impression that his dad has never tried to see him all these years. Isnt that crazy! I have the pictures to prove that Alec has been with us every year... sometimes twice a year! He doesnt remember the fact that he spent months at a time with us before he started school...one month at our house one month at his moms... not to mention the summers that he spent at least 2 months with us. He was young of course and so he doesnt remember. You'd think his mom would help him remember and not let him believe such a thing... that his dad didnt try to see him! But I guess that really wasnt her agenda. She seems to spend so much time concentrating on what Denver HASNT done that the stuff he has done is like dust in the wind. All Alec is left with is the impression he gets from her, combined with his desire to see his dad more often and it ends up leaving him feeling empty. But what it doesnt mean is that his dad hasnt wanted to see him! He thought he was doing a good thing by letting Alec live his life...not interfering....letting Alec come when he wanted or leave when he wanted. All it has done is backfire on him. She always made it clear from the beginning that she would never support me as Alec's stepmom and she has certainly held true to her word there but thats really OK. His anger is misdirected right now but he is only 14...teenage hormones and all...one day he will realize whats been going on. I have pulled out all the pictures we have from every visit he has ever made to our house. If he does end up coming this summer, I believe we will have a little history lesson. I wonder what he did with all the pictures I sent him home with year after year.... I was hoping to get him here this year because I wanted a new picture of the kids done. Addie was little the last time and it is time for a new one. Hopefully he will decide to come and work things out with his dad and I. If his mom will stay out of it and let him work things out with Denver on his own that would the best thing. We had to block her email....and drop her blog which does nothing but cut Denver down on almost every post. Alec is old enough now that Denver will just go through him alone from now on.

Well, Im being summoned for dinner...I'll end this long post now. Hope everyone has had a nice Monday in spite of the snow. And if you didnt have snow today, well Lucky You!