cousins.

Jean Hopkinson (23 months) - Enoch Hopkinson (4) - Truman Simons (22 months)

Truman and I spent some time with my sister Tiffany and her kids today.  While she was checking out at a store I took the kids outside to wait - I grabbed my camera and though I would take a 'cute' picture of the three cousins hanging out.  

I was trying so hard to get Jean and Truman to both look at the camera at the same time that I didn't realize that Enoch was making faces the entire time.  I didn't get the 'perfect' picture I was hoping to get -  but these pictures totally reflect Enoch's personality!

valentines.

Truman working on his Valentine's today.

happy birthday gregg.

Gregg turned 33 today.  We celebrated with some friends last night.  He wanted me to make a basketball cake for practice for Truman's birthday.  I definitely need some more practice!  I used a new cake pan and a new 'spray paint' icing.

Truman knew that it was suppose to be a basketball!

friday flashbacks.

I have been so inconsistent with my friday flashbacks.  I want to be better.

This is a silhouette of me in 1992 (11 years old) that was done at Dinsey World.

handcuff dinner.

Tonight for our combined Young Men / Young Woman activity we had a 'Handcuff Dinner'

We tied all the kids hands together and served them a spaghetti dinner with salad, rolls and brownies for dessert. We had about 55 youth there.

   

Laurels and Priest came early to set up and decorate the tables.  My Mia Maids made name cards for everyone.  We made sure to really mix up the age groups (Laurel next to a Deacon, etc).

This is one of my favorite pictures - Brandon is buttering Anne's roll for her!  Team work!

Bishop and Patsy are such great sports to come and participate with us!

After dessert we had one of our teachers lead a discussion about how this dinner experience applied to the gospel and our lives {I think at first the kids were thinking, what, this has gospel implications?!}

She started by talking about how the kids were all handcuffed {tied} together and how they had to work together like a team to eat.  Then she asked, 'How many of you have ever been on a sports team?'  Lots of hands went up.  Then she asked 'What other kind of teams are you on?'  Some of the answers included a family team, a ward team, a young womans/young men's team and of course the gospel team.  We talked about who some of their captain's on these teams are; parents, bishop, church leaders, Jesus Christ, etc. 

She talked about how we always need to make sure the Lord is on our team and that we are never alone.  She told a few personal experience with this that were great for the kids to hear.
She ended by sharing Doctrine and Covenants 82:10

"I, the Lord am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise."

Inviting all to come unto Christ: Sharing the gospel

The General Young Men's Presidency has set a goal of having this video clip reach 100,00 hits in the next 2 1/2 weeks.

It is about Junior Reyes, from Florida, who was the only young man in his branch. He decided he needed to "open his mouth" and start inviting his friends to church. That friend told a friend, who told a friend and the group grew rapidly and these young men are on fire with sharing the gospel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynVgDWKWHtU

PS- as a return missionary myself, I have to say these boys are all going to be remarkable missionaries.

New Beginnings.

We had our New Beginnings program last night for the Young Woman in our ward.  I wanted to share a few highlights.  We had each of the Laurels and Mia Maids spotlight a Beehive - they did such a great job.  Our Personal Progress advisors put together a really great presentation on our 2011 Mutual Theme which is the 13th Article of Faith.  We decorated in black and white and all wore black and white to represent the difference between right and wrong.

The old YW presidency gave the girls a necklace {pictured below} for Christmas.  Tonight we gave the girls two charms to wear on the necklace.  One is a '13' for the 13th Article of Faith and one says "believe"
I made the boxes pictured above which we put the charms in.

We served homemade 'oreo' cookies and cupcakes with chocolate '13' on them.

book club.

Saturday morning Tara hosted book club at her house.  We read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.  I really liked this book.  It's about a young shepherd boy who is in search of a treasure that he learns about from a recurring dream.  He meets several different characters along the way that each teach him an important lesson about life.  The main motto of the book is "When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it"  The young boy faces lots of challenges but he never seems to let them get him down.

I give this book four and a half stars out of five.

Thanks Tara for a good breakfast, good food and good girl time!

Next we are reading Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford.

I don't know anything about the book!

When I first found out I was pregnant I bought this book You: Having a baby.  I have been casually reading it but I decided since I am on the count down to baby #2 being born I would read it more seriously.  It has some very interesting and good information in it.  So far I really like it.

Christine.

My aunt Christine did this pencil drawing of Truman for me.  I just got it back from the framers today and wanted to show off her amazing talent.

Our fireplace mantel is not normally a shrine of Truman but it is for now until I get these pictures hung in Trumans' room.

Here are the photos I took that my aunt drew from.

Amazing.

Thank you Christine!!!

idaho.

This weekend we took a trip to Idaho to visit family.  We took our 'other' son McKay with us {because technically we were suppose to be in Park City 'babysitting' him while my parents were out of town}.
Some of my cousins from out of town where in town for the weekend so we went to see them.  We also had a baby shower for Molly {and soon to be baby William}.  I took the most random pictures this weekend.  I was most bummed I didn't take a picture of Molly at her shower {although I did take pictures of the food!} and I really wished I would have taken a picture of the little kids, Truman, Dallin and Crew playing together.  Bummer.
During the shower the 'boys' went bowling.  Thanks Joel!
Above is a picture of the most delicious lemon cake my aunt Ilene made for the shower and below is a picture of the baby shower party favors.

Cute baby Crew..almost one!

We can't go anywhere without a basketball hoop!  This was well worth the $1.00 I spent at Wal-Mart.  Truman played ball during the shower - and all weekend for that matter {until he formed a random but serious phobia of the carpet...}

Truman must be hungry he is eating food off Dallin's tray.  Thanks for sharing Dallin!

Cute Crew again.

Thanks Trents for letting us crash your family party.  We had a great weekend.