One year ago today......

.....David entered the MTC and started his mission. Patrick and I flew out to Utah with him. It was an amazing, spiritual experience taking him to the MTC. I knew it was the right place for him to be. The experience was so sacred to both Patrick and I, we barely spoke the rest of the day... we were both just contemplating and pondering what happened. It was and still is very bittersweet feelings of that day. We were so happy and proud of David making this choice to serve a mission but at the same time so heart wrenching sad because we won't see him for 2 years and can't just pick up and call him when I felt like it. That aching feeling latest for about a month or so... I still miss him and wish I could talk to him but I have come to the realization that I can survive this especially since 1 million other mothers have done this before me. If they all survived so can I! :-)

Extreme Makeover- Beehive Addition

On March 10th... our ward YW had our New Beginnings Program. Ally and her friend Katie wrote a play (& starred in it too!) called "Extreme Makeover- Beehive Addition". It was totally amazing and so cute too. It was about how Beehives (and YW) need to use certain tools (including their personal progress book) to help them throughout their day/life... they had a tool belt and showed a new Beehive how to make good decision using the tool belt. It was really cute and spiritual at the same time. Everyone was very impressed with it. Also pictured below is a Beehive cake that someone in our ward made who is very, very talented (more than most people should be in my opinion!! :-). It was a fun, inspiring night for all the YW.

Our little GIRL....... our only GIRL........ is sweet 16!

Our little girl is now 16 years old! I can hardly believe it! She is a beautiful young women! We can't find too many faults with her except she has the world's messiest bedroom & she won't practice the piano without great persuasion & she makes me late for seminary (and as the teacher that isn't so good!! :-). Other than that she is absolutely the perfect teenager! She totally completed her Personal Progress and was going to the receive her Young Womenhood Recognition Award last November around that time they added the new value "virtue" and she said she wanted to finish that value before she got her medallion. She is also like 18th in her class at school so she is smart too. She really is perfect... she loves being a Laurel too!! She had a fun birthday party. She had a bunch of friends over and we had 2 Wii's on one with Guitar Hero Rock Band and the other with 2 DDR's!! We are very proud of our little girl!! Everyone wonders how we managed to get the perfect daughter. I know Heavenly Father knew what He was doing when He sent her to us because He had to make up for sending us 5 boys so He gave us one perfect girl!! As you can tell we love her a lot!!!

We Surround Them!

As most of you know... I am a huge Glenn Beck fan and avid listener to his radio program! He just simply makes sense plus as an added bonus he is LDS! I hope you all will take the time to watch his show on Fox News on Friday evening at 5 pm EST. I will be posting soon about Ally's 16th birthday, Ward Chili cook off, Brett's trip to the ER, and tonight's YW New Beginnings program!! It's been an incredibly busy week and with the time change now I am getting up at 3 am instead of 4 am and it's been tough to adjust!!
March 13th on FOX News 5pm ET Glenn Beck and others will be speaking! This is from Glenn's website:

Do you watch the direction that America is being taken in and feel powerless to stop it? Do you believe that your voice isn’t loud enough to be heard above the noise anymore? Do you read the headlines everyday and feel an empty pit in your stomach…as if you’re completely alone? If so, then you’ve fallen for the Wizard of Oz lie. While the voices you hear in the distance may sound intimidating, as if they surround us from all sides—the reality is very different. Once you pull the curtain away you realize that there are only a few people pressing the buttons, and their voices are weak. The truth is that they don’t surround us at all. We surround them.

So, how do we show America what’s really behind the curtain? Below are nine simple principles. If you believe in at least seven of them, then we have something in common. I urge you to read the instructions at the end for how to help make your voice heard.

The Nine Principles
1. America is good.
2. I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life.
3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday.
4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government.
5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.
6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results.
7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.
8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion.
9. The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me.

12 Values
Honesty
Reverence
Hope
Thrift
Humility
Charity
Sincerity
Moderation
Hard Work
Courage
Personal Responsibility
Friendship
You Are Not Alone

If you agree with at least seven of those principles, then you are not alone. Please send a digital version of your picture to: wesurroundthem@foxnews.com and then stay tuned to the radio and television shows over the coming weeks to see how we intend to pull back the curtain.

Cow eyes anyone?

Which one is the cow eye??

Be very careful what you are eating when you come to our home... because it might not be a grape...or it could be cow eyes!! Okay... only 1 was a cow eye... see picture below with the flash on and you can easily see which one it is. The boys in our house (including Patrick... I should say mostly Patrick! :-) had so much fun with this cow eye over the weekend. Justin (Kyle's friend who is like a son to us) brought this to our house after dissecting it at school... so everyone that came over to our house this past week was asked if they wanted some grapes and then Patrick would pretend he was accidentally eating the cow eyeball! This was hilariously funny to all the boys in our house but Ally & I wouldn't even come close to touching this thing!!! It was disgusting!