Cupcakes!

Ethan had to make a solar system model for school.
He decided to make his out of cupcakes. Of course he didn't tell me about MY little homework assignment until the day before it was due. Okay, he helped a little but you know how these projects go. We could have had a better presentation than just sticking them on a cookie sheet, but when the clock struck eleven o'clock I was done! Ethan was most proud of the planet Saturn. Saturn's rings are made out of a few sticks of gum. His project was completely edible!

Have you ever seen the show, Iron Chef?
They has a secret ingredient that they reveal at the beginning of each show. The chefs then battle it out in the kitchen making a full course meal using the secret ingredient in all their dishes.
There is a group of us girls in my neighborhood who get together once a month and battle it out at our own Iron Chef party. Whoever hosts the party announces the secret ingredient and then we all come to the party with something to share using that secret ingredient. This last months ingredient was sour cream. I made cupcakes. For Christmas my friend got me a cupcake book with some of the cutest cupcake decorating ideas. I just had to test it out!

I think they turned out cute!
They would be perfect for a pool playing party.
They were really quite easy to make too! Well truth be told that's why I picked these, they were super easy! And look at the little chalks. Aren't they cute?

I wasn't anywhere close to being the winner of the party but it sure was fun learning a new fun way of decorating a cupcake!

Our STAR student!

Reagan is the STAR student in her class this week!
I love how this picture really shows her size.
That poster board looks HUGE!

Reagan has been telling me since the beginning of the school year that I needed to make her star student poster because I had forgotten to do it the week she was the star student. This conversation usually took place while Reagan was looking at Carsten's old star student poster. I would tell Reagan that we hadn't missed her week and that her week would some day come. It's hard to wait for something so exciting! I hadn't received anything in her backpack about the star student and figured that when it was her week I would know, something would be sent home. In years past my kids have been star students around their birthday. Reagan's birthday isn't until May.

Last week I finally decided that I would go to the teacher and ask her about the "STAR STUDENT" thing. You know so I could give Reagan an exact date and then she could quit bugging me about it. Mrs. Barns said, "Well I'm not sure when Reagan's week is, let's go look." We walk over to the star student schedule and she looked and looked. "Well I don't see Reagan's name. Oh here it is, Reagan was the star student on October 19th. She was the first star student of the year!"

Yet another reason someone should nominate me to be
The Mother of the Year!
The reasons just keep staking up!

Poor little girl! She has a looser as a mother who refuses to listen to her. She knew what she was talking about and I.... well, what can I say. Nothing but, SORRY REAGAN!

Luckily Mrs. Barns said that Reagan could be the star student this week if she wanted to. I raced to the store and then made her star student poster. She was so thrilled to see it that she giggled with excitement!

As I took pictures Reagan decided that it would be fun to take a picture with her lying on the ground in front of her poster. I think she had a pretty good idea. Cute girl!

Knowledge Bowl 2010

Another year of Knowledge Bowl has come and gone.
Ethan has had so much fun competing in the Knowledge Bowl over the past 3 years. This years subject was Geography!

Apparently this years team was a little sassy. Ethan said that during practices if one kid would get a question wrong then everyone else would jump down their throat! Funny thing is that when watching them compete you could tell that this was true. At one point they all questioned the moderator, "Where is that?" When he told them it was in South America the whole team turned to Dakota and said,"That was your continent, you should have known that!" I think this was a sign that they all felt pretty comfortable with one another and liked each other.

Oh and look! A picture of Ethan with his #1 fans!

In ready position! Go get em tiger!

Dakota, Chandler, Dalton, Hunter, and Ethan.

Game #1 vs Foothill 3. We lost 100 to 140.
Game#2 vs Foothill 1. We lost 115 to 170.
Game #3 vs Foothill 2. We won 140 to 55.
Game #4 vs Northridge 3. We won 135 to 0.

Total points earned = 490
Plus a 25 point bonus per win = 50
Grand total = 540

Ethan felt pretty good because he was the captain for all the games they won. Ethan did a great job. David and I were very proud of him.
Way to go Freedom 3!

"It's snowing, it's snowing!"

I have to admit, for a second I had to ask myself, "How old are you?" Jeannine may be 78 years old, but when it snows she sure doesn't act it! I haven't ever seen someone so excited to see snow flakes fall from the sky before. Now I know that there was a time when snow falling from the sky was VERY exciting for me. I mean there is just something about snow falling that is awesomely beautiful! And I'm sure that at some point in my life I probably reacted in a similar like fashion as Jeannine did. But I guess what I'm trying to say is that I was very surprised by Jeannine's reaction. Jeannine grew up in Red Mesa, Colorado. She has seen her share of snow in her days. But what I hadn't realize is that it has been a VERY LONG TIME since she has seen snow, especially snow that was falling from the sky!

She was sitting on the couch reading a book and I was walking around the house doing who knows what. I noticed it has started to snow outside but I didn't say anything. A few minutes later she stood up and looked out the window. She began to scream, "It's snowing, it's snowing!" In that moment she transformed into a little girl. She was so giddy prancing around the house! She stood by the window and just watched as the snow fell.

The next morning we woke up to quite a bit of snow. Jeannine was thrilled! She opened the back door and scooped up some fresh snow and ate it. We all looked at her a little puzzled. She said,
"I love to eat snow!"
She told me,"I'm going to shovel that snow." And then threatened, "Don't you shovel that snow without me!" Well don't you worry, because shovel that snow she did!
She started off in her sweatshirt and then soon realized she needed something with a hood. She got David's big winter coat and then went back to work. It did wonders for her hair doo but she didn't care because she was shoveling snow!

Reagan and Talan got in on the action as well. Wearing their pajamas and snow boots they had a great time!

Talan hasn't seen too much snow yet. It was fun to watch him check it out. And of course he was a really good shoveling helper too!

And then it was time to skateboard!

WEEEEE!!!

You've got to love it!

Names in the sands of Florida

While on our vacation it was the one year anniversary of our neighbor and good friends little girl Gracie's death. David and I knew that we wanted to write Gracie's name in the sand for them. After we got done doing this we thought it would be neat to write all of our own children's names in the sand too. It was fun! It had just rained and the clouds still looked a little stormy. You can see the sunset vaguely through the clouds in the distance.
The kids were pretty excited to see their names written
in the sands of Florida.
However, Reagan is very envious of Carsten's name because, "he got a bird in his!" Every time she sees the pictures she says, "I want a bird with my name!" Too bad so sad! Apparently Carsten is our favorite this time!

President's Circle

President's Circle is the highest award one can receive working at Fidelity. David won it in 2008 but due to the poor economy they chose not to have a reward trip. Instead they gave out cash to all the winners. David put his cash toward his new red truck. In 2009 David won President's Circle again. At the end of January we found out that we would be going to The Ritz Carlton in Naples, Florida. David and I (just the two of us) haven't been on a vacation since... since...
since our honeymoon!
Wow! This was a well needed trip if you ask me!

We flew David's mom Jeannine to Utah to watch the kids. Bless her heart! She had her work cut out for her. Taking care of 5 kids including a curiously active 2 year old boy isn't always an easy task!
We jumped on a plane, met some interesting/weird people, had a lay over in Atlanta, Georgia and then arrived safely in Fort Meyers, Florida and then finally on to The Ritz Carlton where we were treated like royalty!

That first night we went down for dinner and they snapped this photo of the two of us. We each got to pick out a new pair of Maui Jim sunglasses that we later found out cost about $200.00 each.
And the spoiling fest began!

This is the view outside our room window.

Lunch on the beach was beautiful!

And a view of the hotel from that beach.

We took a sight seeing cruise of Naples Bay and The Backwaters of Keeywadin Island.

We cruised by the famous homes of Port Royal.
This one we were told was the winter home of Martina McBride.

And a little picture of
Mr. President's Circle award winner himself.
If you look closely you can see me taking his picture in his sunglasses. The weather was nice. The sun was shinning yet it was a little bit chilly!

That night when we got back from cruising we got ready and went to the fancy awards dinner. They took this cute picture of us.

I really probably should have placed a warning at the beginning of this post... Warning! Nothing but pictures of David and Stephanie!

The awards dinner was nothing less than fabulous! The tables were gorgeous, the food was almost too pretty to eat, I was greeted at my place setting with a blue box from Tiffany and Co. with a anchor charmed necklace in it. We were seated at a table with 4 other couples from Salt Lake City, Utah. None of us drank and we all managed to have a wonderfully fun evening!

The next morning we woke up to it raining cats and dogs. We thought that for sure they would be canceling our golf outing. I went to change our activity to something "less outside" and they told me that I was welcome to change my activity but golfing had not been canceled. I looked outside and then took another look at the lady with a very puzzeled confussed look about my face and she said, "The radar says it will stop raining at 11:00 and the sun will shine." And what do you know, at 11:00 it stopped raining and the sun shone!

We had a great time golfing. We golfed the PGA gold course at Tiburon. The weather was perfect. I wish I could say the same about my golf but it was anything but. I was so glad that the weather cooperated with us because golfing was what David had been really looking forward to. David unlike me, golfed a pretty darn good game of golf.

When we got back from our 18 holes of fun we ran out to the beach to write a few names in the sand as the sun was setting. It was absolutely beautiful!

A man walking along the beach snapped this picture of the two of us.

We really couldn't have asked for a better getaway. It was just what the doctor ordered! We were spoiled like no tomorrow. Yummy all you could eat food, gifts brought to our room each night, turn down service with chocolates upon our pillows, fun activities, good speakers, good entertainment, fun people to meet and mingle with, beautiful breathtaking scenery, Oh and did I forget to mention ping pong? All this without paying for a thing!

But best of all, David for the first time since being with Fidelity felt validated! He has been the #1 sales guy in his department for 9 quarters in a row now and hasn't had as much as a little "Way to go David!" But President's Circle, that's a whole different ball of wax. Over and over again they were praised for their good work. They were appreciated for what they have done for the company. They were recognized in a way that will hopefully carry them through until next year! I'm so proud of David and his accomplishments. He is such a hard worker. I've never met a better multitasker than David. He is able to get so much done in such a short amount of time. He is very focused and self driven. I don't think there is anything he's unable to do. And not just do, but he finds away to excel at and be the best and "do" to the best of his ability! He's an overachiever! And I don't think you can find a finer quality than that! I know that he doesn't just work hard for himself either. He works hard to provide for us here at home. He loves us and it shows!

CONGRATULATIONS DAVID, I LOVE YOU!

Thank You!

David and I are really quite touched.
We belong to one of the greatest wards ever. So thoughtful and kind. I can remember after Talan was born David and I were amazed at the number of people who came to our home to congratulate us, give us gifts and dinners. It was then that I realized that we had some pretty darn good cooks in the ward, and that I needed to step it up a notch. But it was also then that I began to understand Christlike service. These people weren't asked to do this for us, they chose to. They did it out of the goodness of their hearts. They did it out of love for their neighbor and fellow being. They did it because they love their Savior and want to be like him.
A few weeks ago we received this beautiful picture of the Savior and a book from 16 different families in our ward. It was a gift to show their love for us after David's dad passed away. So touching, so kind. We are so grateful to be apart of such a great ward. We are surrounded by Christlike people who make us want to become better. We just want to say thank you. Thank you for setting such a good example to us of Christlike love and service.

That's NOT right!

The other day Bradon and his friend Max went to the Legacy Center to swim. When David got there to pick them up they weren't quite ready to go so David went out to the lobby to wait for them. While he waited for the boys he watched the winter Olympics that was playing on T.V.
Pretty soon Bradon walked up ready to go.
Bradon looked at the T.V. and asked, "What's that?"
David told him that it was men's figure skating.
Bradon said, "That's NOT right! That's wrong!"

Could that be any funnier?
Later I heard him telling his friend that he thought figure skating for boys was okay if they were skating with a girl, but to skate alone, that was just wrong!

David's 40th birthday bash!

David's turning 40 -
Oh how his world's going to change!
Never again in his 30's,
forever OLD he'll remain!

So come and party like a rockstar,
show this boy how to stay young.
Show him that life's not over just yet,
his OLDNESS has just begun!

For David's 40th birthday we partied like Rockstars!

Lance and Michelle Rich
We sent out evites and told everyone that a prize would be awarded for the best rockstar get up. We had a few couples really turn the rockstar on!

Mike and Keri Eagar
I love the rockstar get ups!
And even more, I love the willingness to put themselves out there all in the name of FUN! Thanks a lot guys, you made the night!

Lara Mortensen and Michele Gledhill.

David, Tom Gledhill, Carsten and Ethan.
We served a yummy dinner.
Lasagna, garlic cheesy bread, and Caesar salad.

Shari Iverson and Lauri Harley
When I decided to go with the rockstar theme I went to party land and they had NOTHING rockstar except some blow up electric guitars. I bought all the colors they had and that determined the party colors. NEON! It was like a flash back to the 80's!

Aunt Vicky, Keri Eagar, Mike Eagar, Uncle Jay, Lee Booth, and Dayna Booth.

Rockin out with Rock Band!
Lance Rich on vocals, Jennifer Winder on drums, and MK Mortensen on guitar.

These guys were on fire!
MK Mortensen, Tom Gledhill and Ivan Winder on drums.

Speaking of FIRE!
40 candles puts off some good flames!
Notice David's King of Pop shirt and my odd neon colored dress thing. This was our attempt at dressing like rockstars. The dress was $3.00 and went with all the party colors... I just had to get it!

40 candles puts off some even better smoke!
I seriously thought the smoke alarm was going to go off!

I put together this little book that was filled with pictures of David throughout the years. Everyone had a good time looking through the book, laughing, and writing birthday messages to David.

I don't know what it is about 40, but 40 just seems old! I remember my mom turning 40 and I thought that she was SOOOOOO OLD! And now just a blink of an eye later and I'm married to a 40 year old! I can hardly believe that I'm old enough to be married to someone so old! 3 more years and I'm going to be joining the exclusive 40 year old club too. Oh my GOSH!!! Today several times I looked over at David and said, "You're 40!"
Happy Birthday Babe!
You wear it well. You don't look a day over 39!
I love you! I hope your birthday bash was all you wished it would be and that you will have many many more to come! I look forward to at least spending the next 40 or more with you!
Bring it on!