NewportTrip

Ryan and I just got back from a trip to Newport Beach......I know, I'd hate me too. We went to my friend Amanda's wedding. Amanda was one of my roommates at BYU. So anyway, here's a picture of Amanda and Luke in front of the Newport Temple.Lots of old friends showed up for the big event. Here we all are (Meghan, me, Jamie, Amanda, Britney, Lisa, Amber, and Jayna) Great to see all you, gals!

Amanda designed her dress, by the way, and I must say it was fabulous!

So are you wondering where the kids are?? Well, Ryan and I decided to make it a quick get-a-way for us.

Translation: We left the kids with Aunt Jenni! Thanks again!

See? There we are on the beach. Without kids. Such a novelty. (And if you look close, you can see my arms in Ryan's sunglasses. That's cool too. :)

Here we are at the reception. Ryan missed his babies. Can you tell? This little sweetheart named Avery belonged to Britney, another roomate from college. She loved my necklace so I loaned it to Ryan :) I believe we termed it "Nanny on a Necklace." Seriously. She L-O-V-E-D it.

So, Ryan and I used priceline to get our hotel accomodations. And what accomodations they were! I said I wanted a 3 star room for fifty bucks a night and they gave me a 4-star hotel. We stayed at the Regency Hyatt. Whoo hooo! So here's what the conversation was like between me and Ryan when we arrived. Keep in mind we had just spent the last 7 hours in the car. And two of those hours were getting through LA. Blah.

Me: Oh wow. We got a nice place. Way to go Priceline!

Ryan: This is NOT our hotel.

Me: (Looking at the directions. Seeing the address.) Yes, it is. There are not two Hyatt's next door to each other.

Ryan: We did not get this for fifty bucks. (He drives past the front doors of the hotel. For the second time.)

Me: (Trying to stay patient. It is the "second honeymoon" after all.) Well, this is where our directions took us. (Duh.)

Ryan: There are Bentley's parked here. (So what?) Look, now there's Beyonce getting out of her car! (It wasn't.)

Me: Ryan. This is the address they gave me. Stop the car.

Finally he rolled down the window and verified the address with the valet. As if we needed to. So we finally got checked in. Anyway, we went and ate dinner then did a little shopping at the Spectrum which is a huge outdoor mall. I met up with Amanda and the rest of my friends/roomates for a little get together before the wedding. We had a blast!
Just wish it could've lasted longer!

A Good Woman

We just got back from Stake Conference. We had a very special conference due to a very special guest. Guess who came and spoke??? Elder Holland of the 12 apostles! Pretty cool, huh?

Ryan and I were able to go to the adult session last night (Saturday). We got a baby sitter and went down to Lodi to participate. What a great night! There were several speakers but my two favorite were the first and the last. The first speaker was from our ward and a personal friend who spoke about his conversion to the gospel. He's only been a member of our church for 6 months and he has asked to speak in Stake Conference with Elder Holland present. Yikes! Talk about pressure. And he's also shy. Guess he got over that fast! But he did a great job and it was really neat to hear his detailed road to conversion.

And obviously the last speaker was Elder Holland. He told us he had a whole talk prepared but was changing it all right then and there. And then he went on to talk about hard times. It seems especially useful and appropriate for us here in California! Here are some of my favorite thoughts from his talk.

1. The Lord loves broken things. For instance, fruit must be broken to get the seed. The seed must break open to grow. The ground must be broken for the seed to reach the sun. Application : When we have hardships and believe we are breaking we are really only growing. Believe in Christ. It's okay if our hearts break a little.

2. Don't plan on being a disciple of Christ unless you are willing to walk in his shoes. Walk how he walked, talk how he talked. The road to salvation leads through Gethesemane. Application: In order to be a true disciple of Christ, expect to have hardships. After all why, would the Savior be asked to suffer if we aren't?

3. When difficult times arise, ENDURE AND SAVE YOURSELF FOR DAYS OF HAPPINESS TO COME. Don't turn it into a pity party. We have had more good times than bad. (Elder Holland said he was just in Africa 2 week ago and obviously there is no comparing the circumstances)Count your blessings and show some strength. Because the road you say you can't walk you end up walking.

4. The sun (Son) is the morning star. And the sun will come up. Have faith. The Lord can fix broken things.

And last but definitely not least...

5. He looked right in my eyes and cupped my cheek and said, "You are a good woman." Quoted directly from the apostles lips as I shook his hand.

And I ask you, What more could I want from a Stake Conference?

Snowboarding

Ryan and I managed to sneak in snowboarding trip last weekend. We went to Dodge Ridge. We hadn't been there before but it is fairly close to our house (less than an hour and a half). We went for Ryan's birthday. We got lucky because it snowed two days before we went and seeing as it's March we decided we were really lucky. Because of the big day we got our snowboards waxed and ready to go. I'm sure the guy waxing them thought we must be crazy to be waxing them in March. It's probably something that people do in October. Oh well. Want to know how long it's been since I've been on the mountain? I figured it out and it's actually really sad. I've only been snowboarding twice in 7 years! Ryan and I used to be avid boarders when we lived in Utah. And then the kids started comin'! And for the last 7 winters I've either been pregnant or nursing an infant.....man, that really has been a long time! At any rate I was a little out of practice and with my newly waxed board (aka fast and dangerous board) I was feeling a little rusty.
But overall we had a great day. Ryan's parents watched the kids for us (thanks Gammi and Pa!) and it was nice to have a day by ourselves.

So here's to birthdays and boarding......Happy Birthday Ryan!

Kyson's New 'Do

Kyson just recieved his 2nd official haircut. His hair was getting quite long and raggedy. We finally decided it was time for another couple of snips. He has a "problem area" in the back of his hair (refer to photo below). It never lays down. It was to the point where it looked rather peacock-feather-like. I was hoping as it grew and got a bit heavier it might lay down a little better. No such luck.


This is right before the first cut. Did I mention I cut it? Well, I did. I decided I could do just as well as they did the last time. My "hairstylist" buzzed it. I can do that. But I didn't want to. Just a plain old buzz? Please. We're much more creative than that. ;) So my plan was to buzz the sides and then try to use the scissors on the top. I figured if it got, shall we say, "out of hand" I could always end up buzzing it.

So here we are. I bribed him with goldfish. I was hoping it would keep him still. It didn't work.

This is the final product. I went for the messy look. After all, I never claimed to be a professional. I think it's cute. I was actually feeling quite confident about my hair cutting skills until Sunday. When someone asked if I used the lawn shears on my baby. Lawn shears???? Please.
And may I point out this was a 2-day process. Kyson freaked out over the clippers AND scissors. He didn't want to let me near him. Just imagine Edward Scissorhands without any expertise. I was snipping as fast as I could without losing a finger. After that bit of info you may appreciate the final look :)

And last but not least, I couldn't resist putting a little video in of Kyson. He loves to ride the girl's scooter. Be forewarned......Kendri was holding the camera so it's a little wobbly. Oh, and disregard the "butt shot" at the end. Once I realized what was going on I made sure to stop the camera! Or feel free to enjoy it. Totally up to you.....

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmrUhUST6aY

PS For the record, I have tried for 2 days to upload this video.......you'll just have to be happy with a link. Sorry.

Sugar Madness

I need sugar. Bad. In fact, I sat down to write this post and all I can think of is sugar. Caramel brownies, tapioca, chocolate chip cookies.......excuse the drool. And no, I am not pregnant! I don't know why I need sugar. Well, that's a partial lie. It could do with the fact that I am a self-proclaimed addict. That's right people. No denial here. I love sugar. The sweeter the better. Peeps? I can down a whole box without blinking. Natural talent, I guess. (I know there are some of you totally revolted at this point. I still don't know how some people can't share my same love for Peeps. Thank you, Easter.) So anyhow, here I am with no thoughts other than Why did Ryan use the last of my eggs for his ruined breakfast? (He never got around to actually cooking the eggs after cracking them open and scrambling them.) Now I can't concoct any of my heart's desires. If I were truly desperate I would go wake my sleeping baby and load my 3 kids plus the neighbors kid and drive to the store. Tempting. For now I suppose I will have to be satisfied with eating chocolate chips. Not really doing it for me but desperate times call for desperate measures. The forgotten pixie sticks Lexi got from a birthday party aren't making the cut either. I need sugar heroin. I told you. I'm an addict.

On to a different topic.....has anyone out there read a good book???? I just got a new book from the library. I did what I usually do now-a-days. I randomly picked an interesting title and thought the description sounded decent, "The Piano Tuner." Bad choice. I want to poke my eyeballs out. Which would be decidedly less painful than actually reading anymore about Burma. So after page 62, I took my book mark out, closed the book, and set it down. I won't be opening it again. I've only left maybe 3 books unfinished in my life. I always plough through. But not this one. Almost as tedious as "The Worst Hard Time." (A book about my home town and the Dust Bowl. And although it did have some interesting historical facts, I think it could have been wrapped up by page 30. But I am a die hard Hall. I couldn't let Grandma Lu down because it was her book lent to me over a thousand miles away.) So back to my point. I need a good 4 star book. Anyone? Anyone? If you have a good one, let me know! Now back to daydreaming about devil's food cake....

Daddy Daughter Date

Lexi's school has a tradition......

This year the theme was "Red Carpet". I heard through the grapevine that last year they did a cowboy theme. Anyway, Lexi was really excited about her date night with her daddy. Ryan wasn't too sure about the dancing. (I think he thought he might get out of bustin' a move.)

Lexi had a great time and came home talking about all the balloons and rice krispy treats (yummy!). And unfortunately for Ryan he didn't get to be a wall flower. Lexi wanted to be moovin' and groovin'. And so that's what they did.....they danced the night away!

Happy 6th Birthday, Lexi!

Lexi turned the big six yesterday! She invited her friends over for her first "real" birthday party on Saturday. We had home-made mini pizzas and apples for lunch with cupcakes for dessert. Lexi had a great time. Here's a picture of her on her actual b-day (February 15th). She decided that because she was 6 she needed to practice her jump rope skills.

Here are all of the kids at the party (Minus Anna and Kendri. Apparently they were busy doing something.)

And blowing out the candles. She wouldn't tell me what she wished for.

Overall, it was a great weekend (For Lexi. I was still sick. Go figure.) Some of Lexi's personality traits at this age include being very indepenent and very mature for her age (she talks about how she'll miss me after she moves out of the house. Who talks about moving out at 5????Hmmmm.) She reminds me of a 12 year old half the time. She hates being embarrassed and will roll her eyes and grin if she has a lot of "unwanted" attention. She likes school and wants to be an ice skater. She loves her sister and brother and helps out a ton around the house. She doesn't like to take showers. She prefers the "once-a-week" schedule and isn't keen on mommy's shower schedule. She loves arts and crafts and drawing. She hates to brush her teeth. (I make her, obviously). She's totally into Littlest Pet Shop stuff right now. She is definitely a "people-pleaser". She gets devastated if she thinks she's disappointed anyone. She is fun-loving and very caring. She's been such a gift to our family and we love her to death. Happy Birthday, Lex! We love you!