Happy Easter 2009

FINALLY an Easter post! The weather was beautiful for Easter. We started the day with church. Mackenzie and I sang in the choir. We sang "Remember the Lilies" and "God So Loved the World". We have a fantastic choir director who really knows how to pick beautiful music! I also spoke in Sacrament. It was so great to have the week to study the life of Christ as I prepared for my talk. Here the kids are before church. It was recycle year as Meredith wore a dress that Mackenzie wore for a family member's wedding when she was 5 years old and Madalyn wore an old dress of Mackenzie's. Good thing Mackenzie takes good care of her clothes!!! They all look great!
Here are my two favorite (and very handsome) men:


After church we drove up to my Aunt Debbie's house in Long Beach for the annual Easter egg hunt and dinner. There were probably 300+ eggs hidden this year! Most of them had money in them so luckily we were not sent home with too much candy :o)!

The girls still consider themselves young enough to find eggs. Hey who isn't?? I would do it if I could!

We hope you all had a wonderful Easter!

"Stepsisters"

The girls decided to do their first duet for their school performance this year. They sang the song "Stepsisters" from Cinderella the musical. It was so cute to see them compete against eachother (it all came so natural)! ha ha! My pictures are not the greatest as my view was obstructed, but you all get the idea.

Thank you Mackenzie for asking your sister to sing with you. It was very thoughtful and I hope you had as much fun peforming it as we had watching it! Way to go girls!!!!

YW General Conference

This past weekend my mom, Mackenzie, Madalyn and I took a road trip to Utah. It had been over seven years since we had been there so we were excited to go! We are lucky enough to have a YW President who is a personal friend of Sister Dalton (the general YW President). She got us VIP tickets to the YW General Conference! We sat about 10 rows back. It was so great to be able to see the Prophet and feel his spirit during the conference.

We spent Saturday in SLC. We saw the Joseph Smith movie, took a tour of the Beehive house, had lunch at the Lion House, took in the view from the Joseph Smith building and walked around Temple Square. The weather was perfect and so was the company! Here is Madalyn, Mackenzie and Nina Palmer (YW President) before conference started:

Too bad I did not have a zoom lense. President Monson was alot closer than this picture appears:

Here are all of us girls after conference:

Utah highlights

While in Utah we stayed with my mom's best friend and her husband (Susan and Larry). Growing up we would visit them every year and they would visit us. For those of you who have heard my families conversion story this is the Susan that I talk about. She and my mom have been best friends since middle school. Susan and Larry are wonderful people and it was great to be able to spend time with them! We were also able to see two of their five children and had a great time catching up with them. It is fun to remininse old times!

Here is a shot of Susan and my mom:
We had a busy two days in Utah. We were out of the house by 10:00 a.m. and did not get in bed until 1:00 a.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We should have been exhausted, but we had so much fun that it did not faze us that we were sleep deprived!

On Friday we visited BYU. We ate at the creamery, went to the bookstore, library and ate frozen custard. We met up with Mike, Heather and Marissa for dinner at Gateway then went to Marissa's house for a late night of games.

Unfortunately while at BYU I did get one of these (a parking ticket): The Bishop would be proud....
We ate, ate, and ate while in Utah. Why do they have so many good places to eat?!?!?!? Anyway, here are a few highlights of our eating pleasures:

Here we are at Icebergs in St. George. Can you believe that these shakes are mini's???

We finally age at Cafe Rio. I think we were the only ones in our Ward who had never been to one. It was so yummy! And yes, I did confirm that they are coming to Lake Forest....just did not get a date.

Whale Watching

Meredith and I took an outing together last week. We went whale watching with a bunch of friends from church. We took a boat out of Dana Point and it was a two hour trip. The sun was shining and the dolphins, sea lions and one whale were out to entertain us! Within the first ten minutes we saw a large school of black dolphins, then we saw some sea lions swimming, then some black and white stripped dolphins. Lastly we saw a gray whale. He gave us a show by jumping out of the water and showing his tale. It was so spectacular!

Unfortunately my camera battery died before I could even take one picture. Thanks Kristi for sending me these photos! In Meredith's words "this was the best day ever!"

Valentines 2009

For Valentines this year we celebrated with our annual family dinner. About five years ago I started a new family tradition. The kids get a formal invitation to our Valentine dinner on their pillow about a week before with an assignment to make a Valentine for a specific person in the family. This year Mackenzie made the invitations- thanks! We then order Chinese Food take out (so I get to enjoy the evening also), I set a themed table and serve the food with Sparkling Cider. This year Mackenzie sewed Valentine holders for everyone in the family. We turn down the lights and light the candles and enjoy our evening together. It is so fun to visit and read what our Valentine has written to us. A great way to show love for one another!

This year we were also able to go to the cemetary with Grandpa Jones to visit Ryan's mom. She passed away a year ago (2/17/08). While there we also visited Grandpa Wrights parents. Luckily the weather was nice :o)!


We thought it was funny how everyone had a twin in the picture. No it was not planned!

Happy 13th Birthday Mackenzie!!

Wow how time flies! We still remember the years of fertility we went through to try and have you. It was worth all the time and money! You have grown into such a beautiful young woman who is a great big sister!

We hope you have a memorable birthday as you enter your teenage years!

The morning started off right with a few gifts from the family:Perfume from Tilley's from Madalyn, Meredith and Trevor
Isn't she beautiful?!?!?!

The best gift of the day: a cell phone! We hope you were the "envy" of all your friends today!