M2B =) days 440 - 442.  Wednesday, April 20th - Friday, April 22nd.

I can't believe I am nearly a month behind again!  That is what happens when the month of May is keeping me incredibly busy.  

Wednesday, April 20th happiness:  Zoo field trip.  Woo hoo!  I love the zoo, and it has been a couple of years since I have been.  

I love the tortoises.  We caught them at feeding time.  The little bunnies kept hopping through and stealing their carrots.  This is my photo of the tortoise and the hare:

I love seeing all the animals.


Thursday, April 21st happiness:  Steve and Elise AND Chris and Merilee were visiting this week from out of town.  So, of course, a bunch of us got together and we went to Oregano's.  Then it was back to Sheri's for games.   What a fun night.
Friday, April 22nd happiness:  No School - woo hoo!  Sheri and I got our kids together and colored Easter eggs.  I always boil a bunch of eggs, so I can share.  This is who I shared my eggs with:
He was super excited to be coloring eggs.  Kids make everything more fun.  Josh kept cracking me up.  He would hold the egg up to his nose, close his eyes and then smell the egg.

I asked him, "How does it smell?"

He answered, "Delightful".

Later, he was showing his egg to Sheri.  He was smiling and petting it.  This photo cracks me up.  It makes me think of Golem ..... "my precious".
Joe would rather do this than color eggs this year.  I think he colored maybe 3 of his eggs.  That's ok though.  Josh was more than happy to help us get all of the eggs dyed.
Later on we went to Alex's birthday party.  I loved watching the kids ice block.  Joe is so tall, he had to use 2 blocks of ice.  One for his behind and one for his feet.
They decided they wanted to try doing a train.  It didn't end well, but they sure had fun.

Xander tried it superman style.

Ben went down backwards.

A good time was had by all.

Happy Day.

Books, Burgers and Brownies...

M2B =) days 431 - 439.  Monday, April 11th - Monday, April 18th.

Monday, April 11th happiness:  After watching the movie, I decided I need to go back and read the book again.  So far, so good!

Tuesday, April 12th happiness:  Bubba Burgers, I love you so!
Wednesday, April 13th happiness:  combined activity tonight for mutual.  They played dodgeball.  It was fun to see Joe actually participate in an activity.  He has a great arm!

Thursday, April 14th happiness:  I had a dr. appointment in Scottsdale this afternoon.  No, that was not my happiness for the day.  What was happy was the drive home.  Speeding down the freeway, windows down, radio up - good stuff!  

Friday, April 15th happiness:  Family movie night.  Tonight's movie:
I love it!

Saturday, April 16th happiness:  Today, I re-discovered Old Navy (or "Old Maybe" as Joe used to call it).  I used to shop there all of the time, but I literally haven't been in years.  I had a gift card left over from Christmas, so I decided to use it.  Brian and I went.  They had tons of t-shirts for like $10.00.  Why did I ever stop shopping here?  
Sunday, April 17th happiness:  Joe made dinner tonight.  I helped, but he really did do most of it.
The best part was that it was totally HIS idea.  He volunteered!  

Monday, April 18th happiness:  Joe made dinner AGAIN!  I like this new trend.  Also tonight, we started a new tradition -family fun night!  We usually have our Family Home Evenings on Sunday night, but because we get out of church late, we usually just do song, prayer and a lesson.  So, we (I) decided we needed to have a family fun night.  I picked the activity tonight:  
It was a lot of fun.

Tuesday, April 19th happiness:  I have the best sister ever!
She made these brownies for some friends who were visiting from out of town.  I managed to convince her to make some for me too.  Cream cheese brownies.  Yum!  Thanks Sheri!

That's it for now.  

Happy Day!

Movies, music and family fun

M2B =) days 427 - 430  Thursday, April 7th - Sunday April 10th.  

Thursday, April 7th happiness:  The radio was good to me today.  I guess I should say that the ipod was good to me today.  Every single song that came on was great!  Even though it is my ipod, I share it with Brian and we don't always have the same taste in music, so there is a lot of songs that I have to pass over.  Today I didn't pass any.  It was one great song after another.  It started with The Killers "Read My Mind" - my favorite Killers song.  I also got "Love Song" and "Catch" by the Cure, my favorite Guster song, "Homecoming King", and finally, "Soul Meets Body", by Deathcab for Cutie.  It was a good ipod day!

Friday, April 8th happiness:  A while back, my mom, Sheri and I decided we would form a book club.  We would read 1 book a month and then meet and discuss.  This month we read Princess Academy, by Shannon Hale.  Thanks to me, we had to keep re-scheduling book club.  So, instead, we did a girls night out.  We drove to Scottsdale to see Jane Eyre.  I had read the book in high school, but because that was so so so long ago, I didn't remember much.  

While the movie was just ok, (I love period pieces, but it just moved waaaay too slow.  Too many scenes of her staring off into the distance, with piano music playing in the background) the company was great.  I love my mom and my sister.  I think I'm going to like our new book club.  

Saturday, April 9th happiness:  Rain!
Also, tonight for family movie night:
I love love love this movie.  

Sunday, April 10th happiness:  Family Home Evening.  I know I always choose FHE, but I can't help it.  I love hanging out with my family.  

The kids love grandpa:
I got to hang out with this super hero:
I was taking pictures of Alex, while he was taking them of me!
Tricia and Anna and James entertained us with some fun songs.
Two of my favorite boys:
Ruby knows what's up!  She went straight for the brownies.
I love my family.

Happy Day!

O Happy Days!

M2B =) days 417 - 426.  Monday, March 28th - Wednesday, April 6th.

Monday, March 28th happiness:  Last day of spring break freedom.  Joe wanted to go see Rodrick Rules.  I won't lie.  I was NOT looking forward to this one.  But, I wanted him to have a fun last day of freedom.  We took Max and Ben with us.  I was pleasantly surprised.  I really ended up liking it.

Tuesday, March 29th happiness:  Went to Oregano's tonight with some of the ladies who are in young women's with me.  Any time I get to go to Oregano's is a happy day!  Tonight was great.  Good food, good people, good times.  We hung out in the parking lot afterwards just talking for the longest time.  I love these girls!
Wednesday, March 30th happiness:  Tonight for mutual we had a "P" party.  We worked on personal progress, had pretzels, popcorn, pizza rolls, peanut butter cups (you get the idea).  The best part was that we got to come in our pj's.  I secretly wish that I could just wear my pajama pants all of the time.  If only that were socially acceptable.

Thursday, March 31st happiness:  Tonight was book club.  I haven't been for the last few months.  I actually read the book this month and loved it.  So I went.  I had such a good time.  The character in the book was Italian, so we had yummy Italian food.  The book was about a girl getting her first kiss, so kissing was pretty much the topic all night.  What a fun group of ladies.  Had a fabulous time.

Friday, April 1st happiness:  Let me tell you something about myself.  I hate April fools day.  Actually that is a bit of an understatement.  I LOATHE it.  So I was not looking forward to today.  I just wanted to get it over with.  However, when I got to work, these were on my desk:
Mrs. Johnson had brought me flowers.  She said she saw them and they reminded her of me.  How sweet is that?  Today wasn't so bad after all.

Saturday, April 2nd happiness:  Joe mowed the lawn today!  Yay for having a teenage son to do yard work!

Also, tonight was priesthood session of conference.  Brian and Joe went to conference and then to dinner which meant that I had 4 hours all to myself.  Yay for conference!  Lastly, Brian brought me steak and green beans from Outback.  They have the best green beans ever.  I dream about them!  Yay for Outback!  Today was a good day.

 Sunday, April 3rd happiness:  Conference today.  I love being able to church in my cozy clothes.  I think I stated before that I would wear my pajamas always if I could.  I love Conference.  There is always something to uplift me and make me feel better.  Also today, Brian planted my flowers for me out in the back yard.

Monday, April 4th happiness:  Today was just a lovely breezy day!  How do you take a photo of a nice breeze?  Like this, of course.
Tuesday, April 5th happiness:  I don't know what was up today, but I really didn't feel well at all.  I went to bed early.  Since I have trouble sleeping, a friend told me to try Valerian Root.  It is my new favorite.  I don't feel groggy in the morning like I do with some sleep aids (of course, I only take 1 pill when it says to take 3) , and it helps me sleep great.  Love it.  
Wednesday, April 6th happiness:  Rain.
Happy Day!

Cabin days

M2B =) days 414 - 416.  Friday, March 25th - Sunday, March 27th.

Friday, March 25th happiness:  There is snow at the cabin!

I loved this picture of Michael and Joe.  For some reason, it didn't transfer to the blog well.  It is clearer and has better color in my photos.  Oh well.  It made me laugh.  What you can't see in this photo is how hard the wind was blowing and how freezing cold it was.  Michael is crazy.
So, the ranger was broken =(  We had to find other things to do.  So, we went to the swing.  On the way, we rounded a turn and one of the boys said, "This is where we saw that baby elk that one time."  No sooner had they said it, then I spotted 2 elk.  When we slowed down to get a better look, we realized that there were more like 30 or so.  It was awesome.  I was so enthralled, that I completely forgot to grab my camera.  Oh well.  It was cool.

Michael's first time on the swing:
Joe and Alex decided to try it together (again, I don't know what's up with the photo's coloring, sorry).
So, then Michael and Alex had to take a turn together:
Alex got a little daring with it:

Saturday, March 26th happiness:  Funky clouds!
We took the boys to Greer (of course).  Within 5 minutes of being there, Alex was doing this:
I love Michael's face in this photo

Good times.

Sunday, March 27th happiness:  Even though we had to go home today, any day that I wake up at the cabin is a good day.  We had a fun time, being lazy, watching movies, doing puzzles (me!) playing games and enjoying the beautiful weather.  

I love cabin days.

Happy Day!