A Little Bit Of This; A Little Bit Of That

 Our winter this year has been balmy and warm.  We are talking record temperatures of warmth for February.  The kids and their Dave had so much fun playing steal the flag one Sunday evening.

Alyssa and her creations:  She has done the cutest projects this year in school.  Here are some of my favorites:

Jaxson and I created his Valentine's Day box for school and it turned out oh-so-cute!  His smile melts my heart every day. 

Shaping up our eyebrows:  Taylor had been wanting to get her eyebrows shaped for some time, so we scheduled an evening with Molly.  Both of our eyebrows turned out beautiful!  

First lost tooth (and swallowed):  While Alyssa was in Ephraim with Aunt Cindy, she lost and swallowed her first tooth!  She was so excited!

Baby Love:  Jenny sent this cutest picture of Luke Paul to all of us via text one morning.  He is the sweetest little baby!

"Basketball Is My Girlfriend"

 Austin LOVED this year's jr jazz basketball season.  His wonderful coach, Matt Haney, made it super fun for the boys and they improved a ton.  Austin plays with so much intensity and aggression.  So many mothers on our team commented throughout the season how much fun it was to watch him play.  My favorite was hearing how he gave a chest pump and pointed to Christy Gunther, in honor of her for taking him to a game I couldn't make.  We are grateful for our son and the things that make him happy, like basketball. 

A Visit from Brantly's Family

 When Brantly's wife called to see if they could stay with us for a weekend, we were overjoyed!  Our 24 hours went by super fast but we simply enjoyed doting on their beautiful daughters and getting to know them better.  We had little crafts for them to do and then we went to the Children's Dinosaur Museum in Lehi.  We enjoyed learning about dinosaurs and took lots of pictures of us having a great time.

Valentine's Day Weekend 2015

 When Cindy called me up and invited the kids down to her home for Valentine's Day weekend, I was elated!  It was a dream to be at home, kid-free, for 48 hours.  And on a weekend too! 

Friday night was spent at the movies and out to dinner.  Saturday morning, I had my clips put on my bike and cycling shoes so I can go harder and faster.  Wow- what a difference they made!  Dave and I went for a bike ride into Orem.  We soon found ourselves biking in the neighborhood of his youth.  It was a surreal experience for him.  After circling around the neighborhood, Dave said, "Jody, can we just go biking down the street again.  It just feels so strange to be 42 riding a bike down the street like I did when I was 7."  A sweet neighbor brought out her ward list and let us look at it so Dave could see if he recognized names of families he knew in the 1970s.  There were many.  
From there, we biked into Lindon to catch a bite to eat.  We ended up at Magelby's Fresh for some salad and sandwiches.  Delicious!
For our Valentine's Day dinner, we did take out from Olive Garden and enjoyed our meal in front of our fire place.  It was romantic and simply perfect!
Aunt Cindy kept sending us pictures of the memories they were creating with her in Ephraim.  We were grateful for some time alone and for the fun the kids had.

A Night With Family

After many, many years of missing the Utah Foreign Language Conference, I was asked to co-present with Professor Bell at BYU at one of the break-out sessions.  I was flattered and excited to attend the conference.  

Since the 2015 conference was at Weber State and began at 8:00am, I decided it would be fun to spend the night at my brother's house since he lives less than 10 minutes from campus.  The kids were so excited to see Aunt Jody!  I arrived around 7:30pm and got to hold and read to the twins, play with Brinlee, watch Kaden's first night as a scout, hear stories and see videos from Madison and Jessica.  I loved it.  I really, really did.  I love being with family and I certainly enjoyed being with Justin's family.  I snapped pictures the entire evening: