A St. George Trip

Yesterday we made a day trip to St. George to visit Rinar's family and my family. It was a lot of fun. Look at who we saw...

These are my uncles from Orem and Provo, Dave and Barry, holding my baby Eli.

Then after we hung out at Grandma's house for a little while, we went to the new park next to the tabernacle and had a picnic with Rinar's family. See how much fun we had?

Brooke, in all her pregnant glory, Grandpa, Jason with his son Cayleb.

This is Grandma and Leilani.

Lyf with Kate.

Brooke, Nordel, Bella, and Jayde. Aislinn is in the back making bunny ears.

Lyf's girls: Mary Jane, Bryn, Bethany, and Lindy in the front.

Zach: You should not go in the library if you look like this!

Zach really, really enjoyed the water. Take a look at his antics.

Monday Night Camping

Rinar really thought of this on his own Shanna, I promise. But I really guess we have to emulate our cool friends...except I am not so cool because I slept in my own bed, thank you very much. What can I say, I have a baby!

Rinar read the boys a story from Stuart Little and they played with the flashlights and giggled and all that good stuff. I think the boys actually went to bed around 10:30.

Eli just posed for the picture but he slept inside with me. It looks like he saw a ghost or something.

Eli's First Swim

We finally put Eli in the pool...don't you love the hat?

A Tender Heart

Raef has the most tender heart I know of. He must have had it before he came to this earth. His sweetness and thoughtfulness are unparalleled for a boy of his age. This is great example of how wonderfully nice he is.

After church today, he came into the Primary room and gave me a cookie. I said thank you and ate the cookie. It was a good cookie. A lot of times the teacher will encourage the kids to give nice things to their parents. Well, I came to find out later that his teacher had given him two cookies to eat and he only ate one. He gave the other one to me. Now, this is a kid who LOVES treats. If it is made of sugar he will eat it. But today, he thought I would like a treat too. Isn't that just soooooo wonderful? Everyday he teaches me how I want to be when I grow up.

Plus, Raef always makes me Valentine's cards. I get one at least once a week. This is his latest one. On the back he signed his name...RAEF.

How To Draw a Prince

You know how you have some kids who have to have it a certain way and that is all there is to it?

Well, in our family, his name is Zach. Every day it becomes more and more clear that there is definitely only one of him in the entire world.





Today during Sacrament meeting Zach asked Rinar to draw a prince so that his princess would have a friend. Rinar did his best and drew a prince... but he didn't realize how much Zach loved the drawing. Later during the day, Rinar was at the church doing clerk stuff and I was at home, sacked out on the couch. Zach called Dad's cell phone and left him a message. It said, "Dad, can you show me how to make a prince? I need the 'structions'. Bye." This message was immediately followed by another message that begged for him to come home as soon as possible and that he wanted the 'structions' again.


So, this might seem like a strange request, right? Well, not in the mind of a 6 year-old boy. He has a book called What Shall I Draw? by Usborne Activities. This has introduced him to drawing and he won't draw anything, pretty much, unless it is in this book. Needless to say, all of his drawings look the same. So, there are instructions for a princess with a castle and everything, but there is no prince! And of course, a princess needs a prince. He has drawn the princess at least 30 times and I guess that today it dawned on him that the princess needed a prince. So, Dad is the go-to art guy. Zach wanted instructions on how to draw a prince. Rinar dutifully got out a piece of paper and started to draw it portrait style, but Zach turned the paper to landscape and then informed Dad that he needed to write at the top of the paper "How to Draw a Prince". So, Rinar did that and then these are the instructions he came up with...

1. Draw his head and hat

2. Draw his body

3. Draw his arms and legs

And this is the result...

Now you all know how to make a prince. Enjoy!

Yeah For Me!

It was a ho-hum day today. I woke up late, which I can do because Eli now sleeps about 10-12 hours straight. Yeah for me!

Then I got around to eating breakfast. I never make breakfast for Zach and Raef anymore. It is one thing they do on their own. Yeah for me!

I actually remembered to sign the kids up for some classes at the City Rec center, so they are now registered for Tae-Kwon-Do and a singing class. Yeah for me!

We practiced the violin today, even though I really didn't want to. Yeah for me! Then we went to the library for story time and so I could get the book I have on hold that is next month's book club selection. I didn't have to sit in the storytime because the kids are old enough for me to have a half hour of free time at the library. Yeah for me!

Then I remembered I wanted a desk calendar to start plotting out the year and so we headed over to Wal-mart. The kids were really good and I only yelled at them a couple of times at the store. Yeah for me!

It was three o'clock when we started for home and I realized that I had not fed the kids any lunch. Since Rinar is out of town, I decided to make the kids lunch...at Wendy's. They ate a lot which enabled me to "make" them a very light dinner consisting of mozzarella sticks and carrots. You can see that I am really into health foods. No clean up, no dirty dishes. You guessed it...

Yeah for me!

My Tears

Well, the nieces are gone now and life is back to normal almost. I had a good day at church today, but I did a lot of crying. Leslie, my second counselor is moving and so today was her last day. She conducted in Primary and announced to everyone of her departure. The children sang her favorite song, "I am a Child of God" and Cheryl, Me, and the Bishop were all crying. I am really going to miss her. She has a such a sweet disposition and a strong testimony. Over two years ago I spoke at her baptism, and then I gave her the new member discussions. Then last year I watched her get sealed to her husband for all time and eternity. After this, she got pregnant at the same time as me. Her beautiful daughter Caleigh is just 3 weeks older than Eli. It has been a wonderful journey together.

In a few weeks, my really close friend Keri is moving also. It is just a few more miles away but it is out of our ward. This makes me sad too. She is my Primary Chorister and really good one too. I don't want to replace her!

I did have a good thing happen this week by way of the mail. I won a Pay It Forward game by my super cool friend Shanna in Atlanta. She sent me a photo box full of yummy treats and goodies: 2 super huge candy bars, an American Flag decor thingey, notecards, brown rice medley for Trader Joe's, and a nice hand-written card. It is so much fun to get surprises like that in the mail.

FYI... I do plan on doing a Pay It Forward game. It is coming soon, and I will have a neat prize to the winner. So, stay tuned!