Good Ridance February

I am so happy today is March because it means it is no longer Februrary. This past month has been a rough one. I felt like I have been sick 20 of the 29 days, didn't run once outside and 12 of the days my husband was out of town. You could say his month was the best of the best and mine was the worst of the worst. Which then my jealously kicks in and then mine gets worse. So good ridance Februrary.
I was thrilled to add my new March picture on my header with a Lebrechaun riding a swan/duck, which seems perfect with Easter being so early this year it is only 6 days after St. Patricks day. April will really miss having a holiday this year - I guess we will have to have a huge April fools day.

yesterday I drove to many mailboxes and passed out our little Lep Day surprise. I even tracked down my maillman so I could give him his in person. I was afraid if I just put in our mailbox he wouldn't know it was for him.
I put the frog and "Extra" gum in a cellophane envelope (the cellophane is so much heavier than on the roll) then tied it with green and while polka dot ribbon. You can buy the envelopes in many sizes at Michaels in the gift wrap section and they are quite reasonable.
The tags I printed about 10 to a page on regular paper and then glued them on to 3x3" chipboard tied with brown and white gingham checked ribbon. (Holly and Emily I knew I find the perfect time to use that ribbon) and wala - little leap day bags were born.
It was a good little project to get my mind off some things this week.

in no particular order some events of the week...
I bought 4 pairs of shoes at Target this week - and 2 were actually for me. I have a hard time spending money on buying quality shoes for myself or anything for myself for that mattter. I even have a hard time buying $12.00 on shoes. I am convinced it is because I am trying so hard to clothe three other people in the cheapest way possible that when gets to me I just would rather not buy anything. since I got rid of 75% of my clothes a few weeks ago,(so much for getting on What not to Wear as they will have nothing to throw away) I do feel like what i have left is kind of dated. I had not bought a black pair of shoes for church in 5 years and they look a bit out of style. I can't stomach buying shoes that cost over $50 and will stick with the $12 special from target.


The good mail Fairy came to Annie Kate this week. I ordered one of Jill's Good Mail kits (personalized stationery, good mail labels, photo stickers, return address labels) from her Etsy Store so Annie Kate would have some stationery to send out. She went through the roof when she found out the good mail on the steps was for her. It is so beyond amazing. I love the photo stickers the best! They are all in her favorite color blue. This is the perfect gift, but especially for girls her age.
Here is the link if you want to order some fabulous items from the Good Mail Queen.

but look how cute the envelope stickers are

"Good mail is Great when it comes from Annie Kate"
charolette surprised me with another CD which was just as good as the first.
Cute packaging of the jelly beans. Thank you! and eat a big pink cookie and mint brownie for me.
carlo sent this note in the midst of my being super sick. she sent a Newspaper article about a new Children's book about Abraham Lincoln.
And Carlo I would have done the same thing of removing the stamp the match the envelope.

Lauralee who is doing an awesome giveway right now(it ends on Monday at noon EST) sent her monogram magic my way for Sally Jane's wipes holder. So if I still have to change diapers (so over it) at least my wipes container will be cute. Thanks girl i love it! you can buy one here.
my neighbor just up and brought me flowers because she heard i was sick - i was shocked. I didn't know we were good enough friends to bring flowers to each other and then I think what does that mean? silly me, you can give flowers to anyone! I am glad she picked me.
I got some great mail on the last day of februrary. It came in a Smuckers Peanut butter and sandwhich box. This is excatly why I love using these boxes and here is my trick. if you can keep the contents under 13 oz then you can send it first class - which is so much cheaper than priority. The box and contents were only $2.15. The food boxes are so thin that you are not paying for a majority of the weight in the box. I loved seeing them on my front porch, but loved what was inside even more. (someone sent me the funniest story about using this box to send mail in and someone put it in the freezer.... who was that?)Jen made a cute pink and white monogrammed tin (you can learn to make one here)with a monogrammed key fob.(you can buy one here) One side says my word of the year and one is my initial K - in a ever so cute curly font. I appreciated any thing monogrammed because for every finished piece you have to account for three where the needle broke, ran out of thread or the hoop moved. Thanks so much this is just awesome.
I got my order from Kramerdrive and just love it. I discovered it from a thank you note that was sent to me and just loved the weight of the paper. I seriously have an addiction for 100 lb paper. It is a great site she is just north of me in Pennsylvania.


Mandy sent me this incredible surprise with a wonderful note on a handmade card. The note was printed on the cute cardstock, which I really loved the look of what she did. She sent flower headbands for my daughters , cute metal buckets sprinkles and even some stuff for Annie Kate. She was thanking me for some ribbon that I sent her but said it was too pretty to use. So I emptied the box, used the same mailing labels that were on the box but just switched them and then filled the box full of ribbon telling her that if the first ribbon box was to look at this one is to use. I hope she uses it all up! Thanks Mandy, you have a good memory about the headbands.
i got some more self induced good mail with my stationery order from Good Things (yea Nashville). I am on a mission to get some Thank You's sent out and this order will help me get that going.

Jen sent me the funniest good mail with some citizen citation's to give to people who ask me when I am due? this was so funny and wished I had had them in my purse the other day at the fabric store. Thanks Jen. Don't you love her stationery custom made by the Good Mail Queen! Shawna B. sent me a thank you for her birthday. It is interesting how different cities totally have a symbol to remind you of where you have lived. there is no who has lived in New Orleans that does remember it there when you see the fleur de lis.

barb sent me this very vintage darling valentine that came out blurry in the photo. but the stamps were just as awesome as the good mail. Seriously the queen in all pink - I will say Canadian stamps are pretty awesome.
very clever idea from my sister in law (spencer W's wife) who used a plastic gift bag as the envelope to send their cute Valentine's card. She used her Pink Christmas labels from Doodlebugs. Thanks Kari the third photo is my favorite!!!

I won a personalized sippy cup for Sally Jane, it is so cute, fro Ellie Bellies. Thanks so much. They have weekly giveaways on their blog so you should check it out. All good things come out of Nashville! I think these monogrammed plates could be my favorite thing in their store!!So just when I thought March would be a turn for the better the first day seemed to follow February style. Annie Kate had her last Basketball game of the season. I have only been to 15 minutes of a game the whole season as SJ and CB can not watch the game with the 6 inches that the parents have to watch the game. Jeff always went as he was the assistant coach. I took a total of 7 photos. I feel like I live in a world not made for kids and while everyone was one, they all seem to drive everyone crazy. Try taking your family to Starbucks to get hot chocolate in the winter. Seriously the door should say no kids allowed, because no one in there wants them. Anyway...
I was fully prepared to go to the game by myself as Jeff is out of town and I even got someone to watch my kids. Annie Kate spent all morning preparing her video camera (yes her video camera she had saved up 2 years to buy it when she was 7) to have me tape the whole game. They had their award ceremony afterwards and I knew I could not handle them by myself. We left the house late and then got lost (I am so tired of still getting lost after two years of living here - GPS failed me today) and could not find the new location of the game (changed because of snow last week) We were so late I didn't have time to drop the kids off and sucked it up to take them in. Annie kate had her heart set on videoing the game in it's entirety.
One of my kids is always crying and I guess i am more used to it than the general public. Sally Jane started crying as soon as we got in the gym and was uncontrollable for a good 10 minutes. One of the refs stuck his fingers in his ears and looked at me to take her out. Even I was amazed by her volume in a screaming gym with basketball game going on. I ignored it the first two times but the third time our eyes met and he knew I saw him. I could not have felt more alone today sitting there out numbered by my two. I tried to video tape by Sally Jane kept hitting the camera. I then felt myself getting ready to lose it (which I totally did 5 mintutes later but at least it was in my car) I got up with tears streaming down my face and went to the other side of they gym and asked one of the Dad's if he would take AK to the awards lunch and home after the game. I could barely talk. I then made the embarrassing walk back to the door to push out my double stroller,that was not made for gym doors, to the car. Sally Jane did not stop until 5 minutes before we got home. She was crying because Caroline was holding one of her yellow wooden fish. I felt horrible leaving and didn't even try to get Annie Kate's attention that i was leaving. I didn't have the heart.
Annie Kate got home and I could tell she was trying to hold it together like I was a few hours before. The mom who dropped her off told me she was a little upset when during the game she looked around and couldn't find me. At the awards lunch the coach had the girls stand on a chair and tell them all the wonderful things about them, rats I would have rather seen that then the game. Then she lost it just like me. "Why did you leave?" You didn't tape the game. She then tells me that during the game she rebounded the ball and dribbled it all the way down the court and made a basket. It was then she looked in the corner and didn't see me. She really started crying at this point. She said she went to the corner of the gym where had been sitting to look for the video camera thinking I would have left it for her to video tape the game. (she is a trusting child) She said, Mom I could have videoed the game when I was on the bench. Her comment Last Sunday about the girls getting all the attention sure made a lot of sense today. And I wonder why she wishes why she wants to be an only child.
oh the joys and pains of parenthood.
To end on a Pink note, Sally Jane got this little poster in Nursery on Sunday that says, "Heavenly Father and Jesus Love me" She carried it with her every where the whole day last week. So I taped it to her bed and every night this week after her prayers she puts her dainty finger under each word and says, "Vevenly Fader and Jesus Wuvs .... (long pause...and then yells) ME!

the Eve of Christmas Eve

(funny after I was looking at this photo, I started to wonder what happened to
all the Christmas plants we had brought in weeks before)

I think I always say, "now this was the best Sunday ever" but really this Sunday was at the tops for the year.
We were exhausted from our deliveries from the day before but still had more Christmas cheer to spread.
One of the real exciting gifts to deliver was from two different families - they were personalized sets of scriptures for EVERY single youth and also for some women in the ward who didn't have their own set of scriptures.
We felt a huge responsibility on how to deliver this items or present them to the youth. Jeff decided to give them to them personally on Sunday instead of having them open them on Christmas Day. We placed a few things in each set of scriptures. there was a wide Christmas ribbon in Chapter 2 of Luke in the New Testament and also a large Ribbon in 3 Nephi chapter 11 in the Book of Mormon, where it talks about Jesus Christ visiting the America's after he was resurrected.

I had taken a photo of some of the youth a few weeks before and printed a small copy of it and laminated it. Each photo was placed in 2Nephi in a scripture talking about friendships.

After the meeting where Jeff had given them to the youth one of the girls said to me, "I never thought I would have scriptures with my name on them" As with any youth group it is hard to really read how it impacted them, but I am so grateful for those generous people who donated these to youth and women they did not know.

Our meeting was INCREDIBLE. Seriously if you ever visit D.C. put visiting this church on your to do list, it is just an amazing experience. We had a young man give a talk who is leaving for his mission to Boise, Idaho (yes my Boise friends get ready for the best missionary you have ever seen!) In the past two years his life had made a dramatic change. It is hands down the best farewell talk I have ever heard. I am torn with how much to share on my blog, so if you ever meet me the first thing you need to ask me is this young mans story! I told him some day his story will sell millions of books.

The two other speakers were from different parts of Africa. It was touching. Amazing. Emotional. Unforgettable.(Annie Kate loves seeing the temple on the way home in the dark each

Sunday and is always trying to take a photo)

We came home so tired. We figured between our two cars that day we picked up 11 people for church. We have such a range of emotions knowing our time downtown could be coming to an end in the future. We don't talk about it too much and are trying our hardest to give it everything we have got while we are there. No regrets, no looking back, no wondering if we could have done more. I promised myself that this year. That I would stretch myself in this aspect as far as I could.


Each of the primary children were given a small envelope by one of the older ladies in our ward. this is the sweet lady I talk of often who brings gifts for the children and passes out fruit roll ups for them to eat on their rides home. She also sings her testimony each month from the pulpit.in each envelope was a $2.00 bill with her name on the outside of the envelope. There was one for EVERY child even the kids in the nursery. She wanted them all to have cash for Christmas. I heard one boy say, "now I have $13.00" Annie Kate was excited and said she will be saving hers. I will put Caroline's and Sally Jane's in their silver D.C. box and it will be a wonderful memory of this woman. Again, I was so amazed at the generosity and will never see a $2.00 bill and not think of her.Even though it was late I was able to get the last few of my neighbor gifts delivered that night. I made the addictive sweet check mix from Aimee and discovered the best way to give it as gifts. I stuffed into the left over waffle cones I had from the cookie exchange. (remember the cute ones with the red and white striped paper from Safeway) Then wrapped up each cone individually and wrapped with cellophane and ribbon. (cellophane and ribbon can make anything a cool gift)I put one on each plate for each member of the family. I slit holes in the toile paper plates and wrapped the ribbon from the bottom to tie up onto a bow on top. Great Santa tags from Target on a little metal hanger and our gifts were ready to deliver.
Two of our lucky neighbors also received one of our re-gifts. Jeff received two really nice bottles of wine from Nappy Valley and since we don't drink, we gave them to our neighbors, fully acknowledging it as a re-gift. They just giggled at us.

Another great, exhausting Sunday. I am not sure what are we going to do when we just go to church for only 3 hours and it takes 2 minutes to get there and back. This year has just been such a gift!

General Conference Kits

This weekend is the bi-annual world wide conference for my church. It is pretty exciting. It is broadcast out of Salt Lake City, Utah into over 78 languages all over the world. Some of the languages are:
Tamil
Apache
Cebuano (my brother speaks this!)
Efik
Hmong
Kekchi
Marshallese
Papiamento
I don't even know where most of these are from but thought it gave a great representation of how worldwide the LDS church is.

It is 6 hours for Saturday and Sunday for all the church members. Some members are able to get it in their homes, but most watch it at a local church where it is broadcast or listen to it on the radio or Internet. Many members also have to wait the following month to have it sent out it print.
This conference will be the first for our new prophet, Thomas S. Monson. The leaders of the church speak on a wide variety of subjects to strengthen the members of our church. Some of the topics from last fall were.

being slow to anger
living by faith not fear
being a mother
service
the power to change
a broken heart

my friend Jill shared this great idea of making kits for the women we visit teach while they watch or listen to General Conference.

I made 7 this year and hope I can get out to deliver them today. Here are a few things I put in them this year.





some yellow note pads tied on with yellow ribbon and a fresh new pen for note taking. I wrote on the cover of each pad,

"did you know that yellow is President Monson's favorite color?

a pack of Kleenex for that talk that really gets to you

a tube of pringles

junior mints

microwave popcorn
Evian Water bottle (they were on sale and oh so cute and pink)

I put a sponge in a little Ziploc and put a note it in that says,

"General Conference - Soak it all in!"

i bought a pack of strip post it notes and put a little tag in a Ziploc that says

"here are some little tabs to mark the scriptures read in conference"

I thought this would be a great way to go back and read some of the scriptures that were used in talks.

and thank goodness for ribbon and cellophane and little cute notes to make it all come together.

Having Easter be after General Conference this year is perfect because I got these awesome felt baskets for 75% off which made each of my basket, with contents just a hair under $5.00! That is a deal. (it helps having the ribbon outlet)

did you make Jill's General conference baskets too?

do you get to sit home and watch it or do you have to go to a building to do so?

some serious blog Catch up

I was already a few days behind once I got violently sick on Monday night so now I have some serious blog catch up. (thanks again denise)
Our #11 had another soccer game after we got home from camping. She played goalie the second half which totally freaked out Jeff and I - she actually did really well and only had one goal scored on her. I must document her number because of the day she got her jersey and found out she was #11. She came home in tears. Jeff had picked her up from practice and threw is hands in the air saying, "I have no idea what is going on" She showed me her jersey and looked at me and I knew right way, she had a odd number. I am sure there is a condition for this but she is a even number freak. She will count her money and if the number is odd she will remove the amount to keep it even and put the extra in a drawer, she collects bouncy balls from our local pizza shop and will only keep an even number in her jar. She loves numbers has always been good at math and gets excited when the time on a digital clock is 2:22 or 4:44 or 12:12. kind of funny. the therapy we gave her to keep the jersey seemed to work as she kept #11.

Saturday night I went to the broadcast for Women's Conference thanks to a kind friends encouragement. (I have underestimated the awesome experience of watching this with a group of women vs. reading it later) It is a worldwide broadcast from the leaders of our church for all the women in our church, over 5 million. Our local women had a dinner before hand where everyone brought "a taste of home" dish. Before the conference our Stake R.S. president talked about the importance of family recipes, cooking for our family, teaching our children to cook. It was pretty amazing and very touching how they brought the theme of the dinner together before the conference even started. She talked about how cooking is a way for women to see a start and a end to their day. In a world of raising children where you don't see results of your hard work for years or ever, doing something as simple as cooking dinner gives you a chance to start and finish something.

This seems like the perfect place to put in Mindy's grandmother's granola recipe that some of you asked for.
A few of my favorite quotes from the broadcast:

I love taking notes in a cute notebook!

Women find true happiness when they understand and delight in their unique role within the plan of salvation. The things women can and should do very best are championed and taught without apology here

Families mean work, but they are our great work—and we are not afraid of work. This is what we do best You are each unique and precious. Each of you has your own burdens and challenges, which give you the blessing of turning to the Lord for help. We also have the opportunity to assist the Lord by providing relief for others, which is the greatest, fastest solution to loneliness and hopelessness and a sure way to obtain the companionship of the Spirit. All we need to do to start offering relief is get on our knees and ask, “Who needs my help?” Every sister—married or single, young or old—is needed in this relief effort, and it is what we should do better than anyone else.

Julie B. Beck
Dear sisters, love and nurture your children. Tell them you love them. Put your arms around them. Appropriate physical affection will accomplish miracles. Express kind words. Show them by example how to work. Remember that it takes a lot of patience to raise a child. As precious as they are, children can be exasperating, frustrating, and sometimes even naughty. It takes a tremendous amount of patience and restraint in order to avoid doing or saying things we will later regret. Sometimes parents need to put themselves in “time-out” in order to avoid making serious mistakes. Removing yourself from the room for a minute in order to regain control is often very helpful. Barbara Thompson do not pray for tasks equal to your abilities, but pray for abilities equal to your tasks. Then the performance of your tasks will be no miracle, but you will be the miracle. Thomas S. Monson

Then on to Sunday...

not matter what happened i knew it would be a good day because Sally Jane made it to church with shoes on, unlike last week. It is so fun pulling out the Halloween dresses.

I have been bringing my camera to church to the get the congregation photo directory in order. Annie Kate grabbed my camera and started taking a bunch of photos, I thought this one of one of her favorite people was so cute.
This was one she took of Jeff driving home on the 495. How could she be taking it while he is driving down the freeway... well we have encountered a new twist to our going to church downtown and that is taking two cars. Jeff had to go down early, which could be happening more frequently. I just keep being grateful we have a car and don't have to walk.
she also took this photo of the Temple coming out of the tree tops. There is another view we see were it looks like it is floating in the sky, but said this is her favorite as you drive around the freeway you can look back and see it in the distance. I was amazed she knew that, it was something i had never noticed before.

I also loved that she took this photo and if I ever wonder if I have an influence on her the answer would be yes!
Sunday was really great today and I could write a million things about Testimony meeting. But just a few things I don't want to forget.

• The man who sang all the verses of How Great thou Art in a way I have never heard before. He sang it as part of his testimony in honor of the missionary couple that had to emergently leave to go home because his wife had a recurrence of cancer. They will be so missed.
• Our bishop takes notes of every testimony meeting, I always watch him smile as he is rapidly writing for each one. One the weeks he conducts he concludes the meeting with mentioning EACH person by name and what he loved hearing. It is very touching.
• Primary was great today and I seriously could just squeeze the guts out of those kids i love them so much.

Then I got sick.
While I was sick and my friend kindly took my kids for the day, I would roll over and read stories from this book. Tell My Story Too. it is a compilation of journal entries from immigrants and pioneers who cam to settle the Salt Lake Valley. Most of the ones I have read so far are from England. It is fascinating! Sure made me lying in big fluffy bed with a down comforter not seem so bad.

If I would have done SPT this week.
challenge "Fall into Autumn"

It would have been me holding one of my many Pumpkin oils you can find burning in my home. I love this stuff and this is when it feels like Fall in our home. It is from Bath and Body and right now on sale for half price!
I also took Jill's wonderful idea of a General Conference basket and made three. I went to Goodwill found the baskets and made it exactly the same way as she had been given last year. A notebook, a pen, a water bottle, licorice and some other treats. It was not much but I am telling you with great ribbon and cellophane wrap anything in a basket looks good.
I made them not knowing who i would take them to, because of our calling downtown I don't have people I visit teach, so it was fun to get up this morning and kid of decide on my way out the door. I decided to take them to our compassionate service leader, R.S. President and Stake R.S. President - people who give so much all the time.

We also made our spooking baskets yesterday. We do 5 of these ever year and it is so fun. You can print all the information I put on last year if you want to do it.
It was really fun and even Jeff said, "I love doing this" We usually know 3 of the people we are going to do but as tradition we pick the last two while we are driving around. I think one year we even did one to someone we don't even know.
We have also had sweet little Claire on our mind as she checked into the hospital and has begun her chemo treatments to prepare for the transplant next week. We love you so much! Thank you to all the Pink Christmas girlfriends who have rallied together for this little girl.