30th Birthday

Met my awesome sister for a girls weekend at her cabin in Pine Valley to celebrate our birthdays. Had 8 hours in the car by myself and got two of my favorite things-a frozen hot chocolate from Dairy Queen and un-interrupting listening to my audio book.  Amber got me a loaded bucket with a bunch of my favorites and a new bucket list to fill out. We watched a bunch of chick flicks and I worked on my cross-stitching.  Dad and Amy came up for a few hours and brought card games, jambalaya and creme brule. 

So relaxing, fun and delicious.

 

1.Run a race

2. Learn Spanish

3. Go to Europe

4. Read Bible

5. Read Jesus the Christ

6. Get Bachelors Degree

7. Go to a Drive-in Movie

8. Go on a Train Ride Trip

9.  Write a Book

10. See a Broadway Musical

11. Fish and Eat your catch

12. Go to Harry Potter World

13. Eat at a Fancy Restaurant

14. River Rafting

15. Try Sushi

16. Learn How to Use Chopsticks

17. Visit Arches National Park

18. Learn how to do my hair

19. Find the perfect apple and pumpkin pie recipe

20. Make homemade donuts

21. Pick apples at an orchard 

22. Make homemade bread

23. Sew a Quilt

24. Go snow shoeing

25. Be able to do 5 real pushups

26. Plant a garden

27. Helicoptor

28. Take a name to the temple

29. Start indexing

30. Declutter

31. Get a passport

32. Have 3 months of savings

33. Go to a gymnastics meat

34. Finish all my children's stockings

35. Plant a lilac bush and roses

36.Furnish and decorate my whole house

37. Make homemade granola bars

38. Host a neighborhood Kid party

39. Take up a new hobby

40. Digitize all my photos

 Came home to a clean house, happy kids and Steve bought me a gigantic chocolate cake and two new shirts he picked out himself. This birthday is going to be hard to beat.

Countdown to 30

On my 29th birthday my life flashed before my eyes. Ok, not really, but it did hit me that I'm getting older and I still felt like I hadn't done a lot of things I always said I would do but still hadn't (some things I knew I wouldn't want to/be able to do when I'm older). So I decided to do a countdown to my 30th birthday. I picked 13 things I wanted to get done the year leading up to my 30th birthday. I got all but one of them done. There was a scheduling conflict, but I'm still planning on getting it done in the next couple months.

Take a Dance Class:

Dragged Steve to ballroom dance class. We learned the Cha-Cha (which was way out of Steve's comfort zone) and a little bit of the Fox-trot. This is one I might make him do again. It was so fun to get dressed up, get close and have fun together.

 

 Sing Karaoke in Public:
This was the one I was probably most scared about. I've done Karaoke in people's house before, but doing it in public was WAAAAY out of my comfort zone. This one took me almost the full year to get done because I did not want to go by myself and I was having a hard time finding friends to go with me. Luckily my awesome, and adventurous friend Brenna said she would go with me and meant it. We both invited the hubbies and made it a double date. Steve and JP were very supportive and Brenna wanted to go up too so I said I'd do a duet with her. I sang "You're So Vain" by Carly Simon and Brenna and I sang "Hands Down" by Dashboard Confessional.

Hike Angel's Landing:

The hike was hard, but Jamen and Daniel were both awesome and very encouraging. The view at the top and feeling of accomplishment was totally worth it. Another one I want to do again.

 

Learn to Sew:

Steve bought me an awesome sewing machine for Christmas and I signed up for a beginning sewing class through UVU community classes. It was an awesome 6 week course where I learned how to use my machine, and we made a pillow case, pajama pants and an apron. I've done a few other projects since then. Here's Rod showing off a cute little apron I made for Ever.

 

Rock Climbing:

Learn How to French Braid and Read Les Miserables:

This one was hard. This one was hard to learn and to maintain. Amber's girls were awesome models, my boys...not so much.

Host a Girls Night:

I attending and put together a lot of girl nights. But the cherry on top was the Christmas one I did. I hosted a Mrs Claus night. Had a bunch of friends over and we ate junk food, wrapped presents and worked on crafts.

 Go Indoor Surfing:

This one worked out perfectly. We met Jamen's family for Spring Break at an indoor water park and they had indoor surfing. Did this only 3 months after having Jeffrey, yeah I'm a rock star. :)

Posted this on Facebook the day before my birthday on my way to meet Amber in Pine Valley for the weekend:

"Peace out 20's! Tomorrow I'm turning 30 and I'm finishing off my bucket list. Countdown to 30 #12- go on a trip BY MYSELF- WOOT WOOT! I put 13 things on my bucket list and I got 12 done. There was a scheduling conflict with paintballing but I'm still planning on getting it done in the next couple months. This last year has been a blast- I'm so glad I did the list. It pushed me to get out of my comfort zone and I've learned 4 things. Comfort zones are overrated. Life is way too short to worry about what other people think about you. I'm braver than I thought. Life is fun!"

Karate

Steve and I decided we'd let Spencer try a few new extra curricular activities every year while he's young so he can decide what he likes the best and then can focus on that when he gets older. He decided for his spring activity to try out Karate. It was a learning experience for both of us. I just figured we would pay about $50 a month and let him do it for a couple months and then quit. But they had us come in for 2 private lessons first "So he can earn his white belt and we can determine which class to put him in". The 2 private lessons were awesome but then after the teacher sat us down to "go over options" and we found out it was a year commitment and $1500. Yeah...we didn't sign him up. He wasn't really that disappointed though. He got a kimono and white belt and he was happy enough with that. And we have some cute pictures for souvenirs. :)

January and first part of February 2017

 Dad went on a work trip to Texas. Took a picture to say hi.

 Boys went from playing in cold wet white stuff to playing in warm, wet white stuff.

 Preschool Letter Ii Ice Cream Party

Funny side story: I wanted to make ice cream in a bag for the ice cream party. So I got a recipe and some rock salt from a friend and tried it out with Spencer and Rod the night before to make sure it would work. We put all the ingredients together and then started shaking the bag inside a bigger bag with rock salt. The recipe said to shake up to 10 minutes. We had been shaking for about 15 minutes and the ingredients were still completely liquid. Robin came up at the that moment and I said, "What is going wrong, we are shaking and shaking and nothing is happening? Are we doing it wrong?" She looks at the bags and says, "Where's the ice?" I had totally forgotten to add ice to the big bag (which is what makes the cream cold so it can turn to ice cream) We had been shaking a bag full of salt for 15 minutes, duh!!! I'm so glad I tested it before and Robin was there to point out how dumb I was. :) The next day it turned out perfectly.

 Made a plaque for the front door for February.

 One of Jeffrey's cute new things is he goes on his tummy and peeks under doors.

 Happy Sunday!

 Came in to check on Jeffrey and he was cuddling with his Curious George- My heart!

 My cousin Adam's wife had a new baby so I picked up her two older boys and we went to the Children's Curiosity museum at Thanksgiving Point for a couple hours so they could have some quiet time at home.

 I swear I spend half the day just putting things back where they belong. While Jeffrey is napping I make a pile outside his and Rod's room so I can put them away when he wakes up. It piles up quickly.

 Cooking class at the library.

 Rod making a bird house at Colin's house for preschool.

 My handsome boy

Spencer having a movie night at his friend Tristan's house. One of his BFF's here in Spanish Fork.