YW Cupcake Decorating

Tonight for our Young Women's activity Karen Phillips and her daughter, Brandi, were teaching us how to decorate cupcakes. They had four different designs -- a beach theme, rainbow, unicorn, and one where you made a design in chocolate to top off the cupcake. They were super organized and so we finished the whole activity in under an hour. The cupcakes turned out really cute and the girls had a great time!

Janelle had a "whirlpool in the sky." The girls were giving me a bad time because I put my little bear in his tube and a fish on the beach instead of the water and the bear on his towel in the water instead of on the beach. Oh well, I wasn't really paying attention to that. I was just proud of myself for my cute cupcakes, ha ha!

Jenna: SEP and Music Performance

This morning I went to Jenna's SEP. She had great reviews, as always, and it is always fun listening to her have a conversation in Chinese with her teachers. I stayed at the school since her music program was in a half hour. I enjoyed visiting with some of the other moms while we waited. That program was good too -- they actually did pretty well with their recorders! Jenna gave me a big hug and said that she was so happy that I came.

Madrigal and Band Concert

Tonight Josh and I went to Janelle's Madrigal Concert at the high school. I was surprised that Josh wanted to come but I was glad for his company. Jenna wanted to come also but she had fallen off the William's hover board and had hurt her tail bone and was dirty and scratched up and so I suggested that she stay home and take a nice bath and go to bed early. I really enjoyed the concert. Rick would have liked it too. Both the Madrigals and the Band are very good and the band played a lot of popular 40's songs like those Rick performed to in his Sunburst days at USU.

Colonoscopy

So, I finally bit the bullet and scheduled an appointment for my colonoscopy and today was the big day! I will spare you all of the dirty details from the cleanse but included it all in my journal for future reference. It is a good thing that I went in because they found five polyps and one of them was a big one -- 2 cm. Luckily it was on a stock and easy to remove. They sent them all in for biopsies and I will get the results next week. The colonoscopy itself was no big deal at all (I was asleep and so I don't remember anything). The cleanse was a bit of a pain, but worth it in order to catch problems early before they become cancerous. So if you are fifty or over and haven't gotten a colonoscopy yet, go and do it!

 

More Snow!!!

The kids were so excited at the prospect that school might be cancelled due to snow today. Well, it wasn't cancelled, but it was delayed by two hours. So we still got to sleep in and the kids still got to play in the snow. My job, however, was cancelled. I was very relieved because it was at Dixie Tech up a big hill on the side of a cliff. Normally it isn't any problem, but I was nervous about driving up it in a snowstorm!

 

 

 

Jenna's coat was too soaked to wear it to school and so I was looking for another coat and found this fun jacket that was given to us years ago. I thought she might have fun wearing it this cold snowy day!

President's Day SNOW!!

We woke up to a couple of inches of snow this morning!! Snow is always a rare and exciting event in  St. George! The girls and I helped put up flags for President's Day and then the kids had a ball playing in the snow! Notice Josh still wearing shorts!!

 

Josh's tournament soccer game was cancelled (sort of). They decided to do Penalty Kicks to decide the winning team. Josh's team won but he was very disappointed that he didn't get a chance to kick.

Rick and I went out to lunch at the Pizza Factory Express with Janika and Brandon and Jenna and Anna worked on making a snow man. By this time the sun had come out and was quickly melting the snow. Jenna moved her snowman to the shade to keep it a little longer!

Then we got to skype with Jared!! All in all, this was a fantastic day!! 

Preference (Janelle)

This year I went to Preference with Seth Compas. It was super fun and I'm glad I went! For the day date we went hiking and then got into groups to make cookies without using a recipe. Ours weren't actually that bad! We used KitKat pieces instead of chocolate chips. Then we picked up lunch from Jimmy Johns and went to a park to meet back with our group. We played a whole bunch of games there and then went home to get ready for the dance. Janika was in town and so she did my hair and makeup!

Later that day we did pictures and had dinner at my friend, Trina Lang's house. We played some games and then headed to the dance! The dance was held at the Gardner Ballroom at DSU. It was a lot of fun. After the dance we went back to our house and hung out for a little bit and then dropped everyone off! It was really fun. We had a big group, ten couples. Although not all of them were able to go to everything, so it wasn't too crazy. It was super fun and we had a great time and I'm really glad I went!

 "My dress matches your plates!"

 

Geography Challenge (Jenna)

Jenna participated in the Fourth/Fifth Grade Geography Bee today and did an awesome job! She ended up getting third place in the Fourth grade! She decided to sign up a couple of weeks ago and we got busy practicing! She and I studied together for at least 15 hours in the past week! So she got LOTS of Mommy time!! It was a LOT to remember for anyone -- let alone a ten year old! We mostly studied at home, but one night I took her to Yogurtland while we were waiting for Jaiden at tumbling (Jenna had a coupon for a free frozen yogurt) and I quizzed her for while we were there. 

Jenna was nervous because she knew that Jase, Jared, and Janelle were all winners in previous Geography Challenges and she said that she didn't want to ruin the legacy, ha ha! (Janika, Jaiden, and Josh didn't do the Geography Challenge). But she studied hard and kept up the legacy!

Here are the levels:

Level 1:  150 Geography Questions
Level 2:  Landforms and Geography Terms
Level 3:  Political Maps (Fourth grade was Utah Counties)
Level 4:  U.S. Mountain Ranges, Rivers, Lakes, and Bodies of Water (for fifth grade)
Level 5:  Championship Round of various Geography Questions.

It took many many hours to memorize all of the answers to level 1and level 2 and so we didn't even touch level 3. They asked everyone ONE question from level 1 and then recognized and excused those who missed their question (which was the majority) and then moved on to level 2. They asked everyone ONE question from level 2 and then recognized and excused those who missed their question and then moved on to level 3.

A teacher then passed out blank maps for level 3 and 4 that they were supposed to fill out. Jenna looked at me with panic and signed "You didn't teach me!" I told her to just fill out which she knew (which wasn't much, but most of the other kids hadn't studied level 3 or 4 either and so they were all in the same boat!) But she must have gotten at least a few right!

I went to the dollar store and got her some balloons and treats and wrote her a note saying how proud I was of her! She was very appreciative and excited and kept exclaiming how much she LOVED Geography!! (She also won a Geography Book, but they didn't order enough and so she will get that later.)

Valentine's Day

Valentines Day was rainy and cold! Rick woke up at 5:00 to make his traditional Valentine's family breakfast. He made muffins, bacon, eggs, and hashbrowns! He also wrote everyone a very sweet love letter! I sure do love being married to Rick!

Janelle spent the day doing singing valentines with the Madrigals. The rain made it cold and difficult to get around around! Someone rear ended the car that Janelle was in. The girl driving the car that Janelle was in didn't see any damage and was late and in a hurry and so she said it was fine and left. But the other driver must have reported it because the police called the girl later and she got a citation for leaving. While they were running around singing I went to Jenna's Valentine's Day party. These two cuties are both Gluten Free and so they decorated rice krispie treats instead of cupcakes!

Jenna and Clarissa are not in the same class this year but made matching Valentine's Day boxes one evening when Jenna was over at her house. I was so grateful because I somehow missed the memo that they were supposed to make their own boxes this year!

Family Week

It was Family Week at the elementary school this week! It was also Jenna's turn to lunch work. Jenna went with Clarissa and Audrey and their Dad to "Dads and Donuts" since Rick has to teach classes at that time. I was glad that Allison had texted me the night before asking if Jenna wanted to go with them or I might have forgotten! I rushed over to the store at 10:00 p.m. looking for some gluten free donuts for her to bring! #celiacdilemmas

Thursday I cooked up a gluten free Papa Murphy's pizza and brought it to the school to eat lunch with Jenna. Since she was lunch working she ate lunch an hour earlier than usual.

 
Finally, Friday morning I went to "Moms in the Morning" with Jenna bringing in (expensive) gluten free muffins. It used to be "Moms and Muffins" but now it is "Moms in the Morning" and they bring donuts instead of muffins. I think the muffins were too expensive. Too bad I had forgotten this. I could have had Jenna bring the some of her gluten free donuts from Wednesday instead of buying the muffins. Oh well! She loves it when I come in and I enjoy socializing with her friend's moms!

Of course she has to add the bunny ears!! 

Before we left for the school Jenna left me these sweet notes. Love this girl!!