Today was Fast Sunday in our ward. Next week is stake conference so they moved it up a week.

Usually fast and testimony meeting is difficult for me. Not because of the fasting, or the sometimes odd stories you hear but because I have two little children who depend on the hymn between talks to stay entertained. This week was awesome.

My wonderful three year old Ethan was just begging to go up and bear his testimony. He definitely had ants in his pants. He kept asking after every person if it was his turn yet. It took me a couple of people to day yes just because I was trying to compose myself for going up there.

Finally we made it up there and he whispered every little word that I whispered into his ear.

It was the best Sunday ever.

We are going to Disneyland in May!! I haven't been in so long I can hardly remember it. But, with Disney comes crowds. We have been teaching Ethan what to do and say if he gets lost.

He knows his full name and we are working on where he lives. His address is still too hard but the we are working on the city and state unfortunately our city also has a difficult name!

Today I gave him a whistle (he calls it a "hissle"). And taught him what to do if he gets lost. He blows his whistle and yells for mama and daddy. He is also supposed to find a police man and take off his shoes.

They make these wonderful stickers for kids shoes that go on their insoles. That way their information is readily available but hidden. I highly reccomrnd getting some or just making your own with Avery labels. The Avery ones aren't as sticky and therefore don't last as long but great for a trip or outing.

But the purpose of this post is how upset this whole process is making me. I don't plan on losing any child...ever. But planning for the just in case moments makes my heart ache.

Laundry or Nakedness, and other randomness

I got a new program for Cricut today and I just have to say that I love the guts out of it already. Sure Cuts A Lot is the best program out there. I used to have a die cut machine - you know those ancient things where you had to do it all by hand. I thought that was the best invention ever. Boy was I wrong!! With Sure Cuts A Lot (SCAL) I can cut anything I can find on the internet. Any font, any picture, any thing I want!!! It's possible that I have already gone a little crazy and vinylized (I don't think that's a real word) a few things. I found this for my laundry room and it totally puts into words how I feel about doing laundry

Laundry Today

---------or--------

Naked Tomorrow

Of course, I have it in a much cuter font - but still! Laundry is my nemisis. Every time I try to sit down and fold laundry something more fun beckons me. My scrapbooking, sewing, cleaning fetish, or I simply get too engrossed into my television show. It is possible that there has been a wekk or two where we have lived out of baskets because of my unwillingness to fold laundry.

I had the opportunity last night to referee two YW Girls Basketball games last night. One of them was my own ward's team (two girls showed up so we borrowed a few from the other team) and the next one was another ward where I was friends with the coach. It was horrible. Not in the sense that the girls were bad or anything - but in the sense that it was utter madness. I found myself wondering if that was how I looked back in the day.

I thought we had decent talent in our ward when it came to the sports department in my day. Two of us went on to play High School basketball. Three of us played competitve league softball. And a few of the others weren't so bad either. But then there were a couple of girls last night who definitely thought they were good too. Was that what I looked like?!? Probably. I have been out of Young Womens for almost ten years now. Ten years!!

I still feel like I belong in Young Womens.

My husband's new church calling is Young Men's Basketball. He says they aren't the hot side either. I believe one of the men in our ward said that they it looked as though all our YM had come straight out of Napolean Dynamite. Do people just not play sports anymore! Jacob swears these kids have done nothing but play nintendo their entire lives. How can that be possible?!

Though we do have two gaming consoles in our home they are rarely used. Jacob grew up with nintendo in his home and he had alot of fun playing with his brothers and friends. BUT - he played a ton of sports too. He played basketball, baseball, and biked most days and definitely more than he played nintendo. Something seems a little backwards these days. Is it just me?

Does anybody else out there always have the urge to spend money!! It seems to me that everything I can think of doing, wether it's for me, the kids, or the family, costs money!! Not that we don't have a few dollars to spend but I would really just like to find some fun things to do with my kids and family that cost me precious coins.

Any ideas out there?

On a separate note - Jacob's eye is totally and completely healed.

Ellie is no longer allowed to fly airplanes.

This week I am trying to create a reversible "Happy Birthday" banner with some lovely fabric I have laying around. One side is boy colored and the other side is girl colored. I have everything cut out except my stitch witchery for the letters (hopefully that will get done during nap time). Ethan's birthday is Feb 7th so I need to have it done by then. I hope it turns out!

Jacob and I have had a New Years goal of exercising. We even bought a new treadmill with our Christmas money. We each run or jog (walking briskly counts too) atleast a mile a day. This had been going on for three weeks now. I have lost two pounds. Now I know that losing weight takes time and building up that metabolism will take forever but geesh. I have no patience to begin with!! Let alone when it comes to self improvement!! My butt is no tighter now than when I started. But I must say - I am doing better than my mom

(who I am in competition with). She has lost 0. Then again she is 50.

Not much to brag about - beating a 50 year old when I have only lost 2 pounds!!

It has been slowing like crazy for about the last week. Our house is in the back a cultesac so when they come plow they push all of the snow up onto our front yard. We have a huge mountain of snow about 10 feet high. About a week ago we "made" steps up the side and made into our own personal sledding hill. Now we don't have to go anywhere to go sledding.

Ethan loves it.

Also, it seems that we have lost our camera. I am definitely upset about it but secretly happy as well. I have wanted a new camera ever since my kids started moving. All of my pictures of them are blurs. I am hoping that this will get me that new camera I want! but untill that happens there will be no pictures here!

An Airplane...

Poor Jacob. Really though, poor Jacob. This last Tuesday he was being a good Daddy. Playing with his kid. Being at the bottom of the 'doggie pile' when we had an accident. An actual accident. A plane accident. While at the bottom of the doggie pile, Ellie was off flying a little toy airplane we have. When we got this plane the nose tip was as sharp as sharp could be. I took it outside and promptly rubbed it on the driveway to dull the tip. It was a good thing too! Ellie came closer and closer untill...she flew the airplane right into Jacob's eye. He didn't blink or anything. He never thought she would actually fly into his eye!!

It's possible he swore and then ran into the bathroom to check out his eye. He couldn't even open his eye at all. We ran to the eye doctor's on the other side of town where we were informed that Jacob had three large scratches on the center of his eye. He patched him and sent us home saying that the only thing to do is wait untill it gets better. He had to keep both eyes closed because the light was too much for him to handle. He slept pretty much the rest of the day.

I know it's a horrible picture but I can't find my camera and I had to use my phone!

It took three days before he could open his eye enough to see and even then we kept the lights dim and if we outside he had to wear my sunglasses!

Ellie is no longer allowed to fly airplanes!!

Christmas

I didn't get too many pictures of us actually opening our gifts because we were well...
busy! Both kids a ton of fun and Santa went all out this year.
I love that Ethan is getting old enought to understand Christmas and we tried

very hard to make sure that he knew that Christmas was actually for Jesus.
We'll see how well that indoctrination actually worked when next year rolls around.