BOYS!

Connor got this silly knife from the dollar store. It did not come like this. It only lasted a few days and then broke. Paul being funny held it up to his head like he had been stabbed through the brain, and without thinking I said "Connor I can try to make it like that if you would like. All we need to get is a headband." The very next day when Connor got home from school he asked me if I had gotten the headband. Well, I had forgotten about the little project just as quickly as I had told him about it. The following day I happen to be at the dollar store again. I purchased a headband and made my boy a new toy out of his old toy. We all now if you spend your money on toys at the dollar store they are NOT going to last for very long, but one thing I can say I will never stop loving that feeling you get when your kids think you did something SO GREAT just for them!

Looking back over the last 10 years

20 years old. I had the wonderful opportunity to be crowned Miss West ValleyWhile 2o years old I agreed to take on a new name of Ashby

While 21 I took on the name of Mother.

22 years old. I graduated with an associate degree

23 years old. I became a mother to a son.

24 years old. I took my first trip to Disneyland.

25 years old. I had the privilege of having another beautiful girl.

My little potato girl, born while living in Idaho.
26 years old. I had the opportunity to be with family back in Utah. Paul and I learned new skills while moving into our home. After only a short three months of living in our new home I was called to serve as Relief Society President.

27 years old. I got involved in the Lehi Art Center Community Theater. With the production of Oklahoma. I loved that Hannah got to be in the show also.

While 27 I got to with my husband to Hawaii while he attended a conference for work.

28 years old. I began teaching gymnastics.

At 28 I was in Once On This Island with the Lehi Art Center

29 years Old. I got to go with my kids and Paul's parents to Disneyland.

I learned a little bit of tap dancing while being involved in the production of Singing In The Rain.

I have been so excited the last few months as I have had the opportunity to get involved in film.

I can honestly say that I have never been more excited for a new year. As I look back at the last 10 years of my life. One thing that is certain is that I have been very blessed. I am blessed to have a very hard working husband. Who also is very supportive. I have been given three wonderful children. I have been blessed with health. As I looked over pictures it is crazy the many different shapes and sizes my body has been over the last 10 years. It will never be what it was, but thanks to the insanity program my pants are fitting, and that would put a smile on any girls face.

I know if I continue to work hard and most importantly make an effort to follow promptings from the spirit. The next year, five years, or even 10 years will be just as good as the last ten!

October

October, a month full of Costumes, Candy and FUN FUN FUN! I decided that it is very easy to tell when my life gets a bit too busy. I have no time to post anything on my blog. November has begun and life has slowed down a little. Our family had a very busy October, but I think for the most part we all really enjoyed it. I believe some of the best activities for the kids were dressing up for the school parade and again the next day for Halloween. The kids were also very lucky to be involved in the children's musical "The Jungle Book" at the Lehi Art Center

Hannah was a red Fairy
Connor was a Bakugan Master

Bonnie was a CAT

I was very pleased to be asked to help out with the choreography. It has been so much fun for me to have the chance to have my kids be involved in things that I love. Connor got to play the part of a monkey.

He also got to part of the snake. Connor had so much fun learning the songs for this musical.

Hannah got to be and elephant. I had the opportunity to improve on my sewing skills. I ended up making six of these elephant heads. I can not express how happy I was to have them all done.

Hannah was also very pleased to get the part of Shanti.

Being involved in the play made October a bit more busy, but I know it gave the kids a memory that they will never forget. They will probably not remember what their jack-o-lantern looked like, but they will remember preforming Jungle Book.

Egg Drop

At our Elementary school they do an egg drop in third grade. The kids can use any method they want to try to protect their egg from cracking being dropped off the roof of the school building. The principle gets to do the honor of dropping each kids carefully protected egg off the roof.

Hannah worked with her Dad to come up with an idea of how to best protect her egg from being cracked. Actually I mentioned the project to Paul, and that I thought this was probably something he would enjoy working with Hannah on. He quickly stated his idea and was off looking around the house to get all the supplies he needed to prove to me that it would work. When he told me the idea I had a bit of doubts that the egg would not hold up.
Hannah's teacher works very hard to make sure that the kids are listening and doing what they are suppose to be doing.

I was very sad that I didn't take a picture when they dropped her egg, but here is Hannah retrieving her well packaged egg. I think she was pleased that it survived the drop.

If you can not tell very well the egg is placed between three balloons, and the balloons are held together by tape. Paul put one together the week prior to the egg drop to show me that it would work. He took it outside and simply tossed it in the air. The kids thought it was to much fun to each take a turn and through it around. It held up really well until Connor through it and it landed in the grass the balloons popped, but the egg still held together. At that point I told Paul, "well, I guess this should work as long as the surface it is landing on is not grass."

I guess the kids were suppose to learn about disappointment, but lets be honest we all know that life is so much nicer when you don't have to be disappointed. I am sure that Hannah will have plenty of opportunities in life to learn about disappointment. I was pleased to see a smile on her face and a proud Dad who helped make that possible.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

I had really considered doing the square foot gardening this year. I am one of those individuals that really does NOT care much for gardening. I am sure I have mentioned this before. I don't care that much about food. I realize that my body needs to eat, but I have NO problem with slim fast or drinking a whey protein shake. It is fast and NO clean up. I do try to be healthy. I make sure to take vitamins. Simply because I am sure my body is in need of more nutrients that what I probably give it. I would not say that I am an unhealthy eater, but food is NOT a priority in my life. I am pretty lucky to have married someone that likes good food, but again it is not a priority. So, when we decided to put our house up for sale. There was NO way I was going to invest my money and time into a garden. However, I thought it would be fun to try to grow something, so I decided to grow some flowers. I gave them extra attention. To make sure they got the water they needed. My kids were very excited to see little buds finally growing. With the direction of our house. Our flowers come out latter than the flowers on the opposite side of the street. For a lot of the summer. We had a very pretty green flower bed. We were all very happy to finally have flowers. I worried about my flowers during the crazy wind and rain storm, but they survived. I realized that the flowers I started outside seamed to be stronger and grow straighter than the flowers that I started inside and then planted outside. I feel like a learned a little and more than anything I feel like I accomplished something. Best of all. It didn't cost me very much, so it was a good way for me to get started growing something.

Looking at my flowers it often reminds me of my Grandma Bonnie. When she would visit my family she enjoyed driving around Salt Lake looking at all the flowers around people's homes. I can not say that I will ever be some lover of gardening, But I did enjoy having flowers outside our house. Who knows maybe one of these years we just might enjoy a vegetable garden to along with our flowers.

One Crazy BUG!

The kids are busy learning another play. They are in the Jungle Book. They have been having such a fun time learning the songs and their parts for this production. One day this last week as we came out of play practice we had a big bug on our windshield. We needed to stop at the store, so I told the kids "Hey, lets see if this bug wants a ride." As we started driving it walked up to the top of the car. At this point we all decided that we would look and see if it was still on the top when we arrived at Walmart. This is a short maybe two minute drive going about 40 mph. When we arrived sure enough the bug was still on top of the car. We only had a couple things to pick up, so we were not very long in the store and sure enough the bug was waiting for us. We drove over to Costco. I quickly little drive across the street probably only like 34 mph. When we arrived at Costco he was still their. Our stay at Costco was a bit longer. Paul decided to meet up with us and get pizza for dinner, but when we went back out that crazy little bug was still waiting for us. I wasn't sure if the bug would make it home, but again I talked with the kids. "Let's see if this bug wants a ride to our house. The drive is probably about a 10 minutes drive going around 70 mph. I will be honest I always go over 65, but I try to keep my speed no faster than 75. When we got home that CRAZY bug was still on top of the car. I guess he just needed to do something a little different today.

Stickng with Insanity.

I am very happy to have finally made it through four weeks of the insanity program. My knees are hanging in there. I am very sure this is not the best program for anyone with bad knees, but I also must say that I am very happy with the results I am getting. My body is getting tighter and my pants are getting looser. I have been working out for a month and half. It feels good to finally be able to watch a movie and not think man I should really be exercising. It is surprising how many movies they have some scene of someone out jogging. It has been so much easier to avoid sweets, and I am sleeping better. More than anything it is becoming more of a routine. This upcoming week is the recover week. I did the workout this morning and was not too excited. You do the same workout all week long and there is one part that I am all ready so NOT looking forward to. I honestly wasn't sure if my legs were going to work the rest of the day. I have been fine, but usually you really feel it the next day. Just thinking about it I really have not been to sore besides the very first week.

I am pleased that I can finally start to feel a difference it makes it easier to keep it up. During the first couple weeks it is a lot of work and the results are so minimal. I had to keep reminding myself that it took more than two weeks to put on the extra weight it is going to take more than two weeks to take it off. Life is good if the only INSANE thing in your life is your workout!