What do I think about the Mosque in NYC?

"We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men that same privilege, let them worship how, WHERE, or what they may."

The 11th Article of Faith of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

Another Visit To Idaho Falls

We decided to head up to Idaho Falls again for our last hurrah before Matt starts the MBA program. Which by the way, I have to brag about my husband graduating from Utah State University with a BA in History, Summa Cum Laude! YAY MATT! :D

.....anyway....

To prepare to leave we washed the car, only so it could get covered with bug juice all over again.

The boys enjoyed washing the car though, and I enjoyed seeing it sparkle for a day.

(We've had a lot of dirty rains this summer)

At one point, James went inside, grabbed his toy cars and put them in the soapy water.

So cute! Why I didn't take a picture I'll never know.

Idaho was spent visiting family, and celebrating our 4th anniversary. We kept it simple being poor college student-and-family, went to Jonny Carinos fun lunch -yum!- and saw Dinner for Smucks after.

I laughed pretty hard. Of course that was the same day BYU announced it would be going independent, leading the MWC to invited San Jose and Nevada, screwing over the WAC. Needless to say us Aggies were pretty depressed. Crossing our fingers we'll still have football in two years.

Friday I went to lunch with one of my best friends Melissa. We hadn't seen each other in three years but it was like it had only been a day :) Her son Trey is only 2 months older than James, and What a Cutie! Our boys could be cousin's they look so similar.

After lunch we took James and Trey to the Tauphaus Park Zoo. 

Getting 1-year-olds to look at the camera when there are goats and puddles around is pretty much impossible.

I should have had someone take a picture of all of us, but spaced it. So here's a picture of the ugliest pig I've ever seen.

 LOL pretty gross huh?

Thanks Melissa! It was great to see you!

That night Matt walked across the street from his parents house to Dairy Queen with James, when we got back  this is what we saw.

While walking back Matt noticed his spoon was missing, then he saw it come down, scoop up some ice cream, and dissapear again. Apparently James is smarter than we thought!

Well that's all I've got. We've got a busy week preparing for Matt to start school again, ward activities and a 12 hour work day for me on saturday.

Californiaaaaaaaa Here we Cooooooooooome

Californiaaaaaaaa Californiaaaaaa

 (that's the Phantom Planet song in case you didn't know)

So after I threw a marvelous baby shower, i literally got in my mom's car and drove through the night to get to California!

Our first few days were hectic, helping set up for my childhood friend Paige's wedding reception, driving out to my grandparents, Paige's wedding in Newport Beach, (Congrats Paige and Joe) driving to Lake Matthews for the reception, and then finally dragging my mom away from attempting to help clean up and getting back to Fullerton late friday night.

Here's some pictures Mady took at the temple while my mom and I were in the sealing.

Saturday was my birthday, and when asked what I wanted to do, my reply was to simply relax. So we took it easy and played in the pool all day. I got a nasty sunburn on my back but oh it was so worth it.

The rest of the week was full of visiting family.

Mady turned 16 while we were there, so we went to the beach that day.

After the beach we all went to Ruby's on the Oceanside pier

Happy Sweet 16 Madeline!

The rest of my time there was filled with more pool time and window shopping.

This is a picture of myself, my mom and my grandma, the reason I tell you is because someone asked me if it was a picture of me, my SISTER and my Mom hehe

 James took his first airplane ride and did awesome! We flew out of Long Beach at night, the coast was all lit up, it was beautiful. 

We had an awesome trip, loved every minute of it.

We got home around midnight, happy to be reunited with Matt. For some reason James called his daddy Matt for a few days after that lol. Saturday I washed all my clothes and then placed them right back in a suitcase. Sunday we went up to Star Valley Wyoming to spend time with the Morrissey's. It was a fun weekend, but I didn't take any pictures because James, Matt and I came down with a 24 hour flu : (

So when we finally went home tuesday, I had been gone for about two weeks and I was so ready to be home.

Kiera's Baby Shower

Disclaimer: Ignore the dates on my pictures, James likes to mess it up.

A few weeks ago my friend Karen and I threw a surprise baby shower for our friend and co-worker Kiera who's due with twins, a boy and a girl, any day now!

She didn't have a clue!

We invited all the ladies from the salon to join us, and it was lots of fun. None of us are very frilly froo froo kind of gals so we kept it very low key and relaxed.

Our menu consisted of Sliders, Prosciutto Asparagus Spirals

 and Fruit Salad.

For Dessert I made some yummy Black and White Run Cupcakes, with a

Butter Rum Frosting

• 1/2 cup butter
• 4oz cream cheese softened
• 2 TBSP Rum OR 2 TSP Rum Extract + 4 TSP milk
• 4 cups powdered sugar

to make the footprints I just added enough cocoa powder to my taste preference and piped the little feet, yes it was tedious , but mmm they were good!

We kept it simple with only one game, which was a hit! Thanks Mindee!

All in all we had a great time! Can't wait to meet those little ones Kiera!