BREEZY FIELDS

We had a back to school sleep over for the girls up at Spencer Ranch. This is me giving a wise and knowledgeable lesson on the Gospel being like archery. Aiming for the target, faith that the arrow will reach its target, practice, standing firm, etc... Really, I was amazing. This is me being Katniss Everdeen. Don't know who Katniss is? Read Hunger Games. Amanda Traywick The end of game night. Edie and Jane making s'mores. Amy Traywick Xochitl Ruiz Our girls being Katniss. Stephanie Snyder, our lovely president. I stole these pics from her blog. Jane and I were bow and arrow challenged, but we made progress. POSTED BY Stephanie Snyder

Jane and Xochitl, love those smiles! Jane didn't want me to take this picture without her make-up. Danna Eady and her friend, Julie, took the girls to the dance and did "smokey eyes" and treated the girls to dinner before the dance. What a great YW we have! It just doesn't seem that long ago....

The other day I was up really early, I can't remember why. I was in the kitchen and Jane walked in and gave me a hug. She was smiling and kind of laughing. I asked her what was up and why she was awake. She said that Sadie kept laughing in her sleep and it woke her up. Then she heard Sadie giggle and say (in her sleep mind you), "I don't think blue hair was a good idea." Last night was our ward Christmas party. Jane played a solo on her flute, "The First Noel." She did a beautiful job, so calm playing for over 200 people. I am so excited with her progress and love of the flute. We played little Christmas duets (me on the piano) for about 40 minutes yesterday afternoon. Ellyn was watching a movie, but she kept coming over and pulling my head toward her and giving me big smooches right on the mouth. It was so cute and I loved it, but I also knew after a few such kisses that she had a motive. Ellyn gives kisses when she doesn't want you doing w...

A while back I had to find a home for our trusty, solid, black stool from Ikea. Sawyer was taking advantage of the places he could go when it was left helpfully resting near "the canee cupboard." It is now tucked under my desk in the little office area outside my kitchen. I pull it out and put it back as needed. Sawyer can scooch it once it is out, he can however, only pull it out with great difficulty and only starts the pull to show me that he wants to help wash dishes. Unfortunately, Sawyer has discovered the lightweight footstool in the bathroom. He is also rapidly expounding on its many uses. Day 1-3, used to look into the kitchen sink. Today, set against the counter below the "canee cupboard," THEN Soy Boy proceeded to stand on the stool and then use the door handles on all of the drawers (nice and sturdy old drawers and handles) to scale his way up and onto the counter, open the cupboard and dive into the dried mango. So... I did not return the stoo...

This year I am going to try to record all of my children's birth stories on or around their birthday. Hopefully I will get them all down. It was always one of the best parts of my birthday, when mom would tell my birth story. I haven't been as consistent, but at least now it will be in print right? Blog Readers, please don't feel obligated to read I can remember the day I found out I was pregnant with Jane. It was December 11th, 1995. I had found a pregnancy test in my medicine cabinet, but it didn't have the box (I don't remember why). I took the test before I went to work that night at Brick Oven. I was pretty sure it indicated I was pregnant but I wanted to be positive so I drove to Smith's and read the back of the pregnancy test box. It indicated that it was indeed positive and I was thrilled. I started to walk away and then I just had to be really sure, I turned back and read it again. I did the same thing again, walking away and coming back, two...