spring break.

brayden said, "hey, that mannequin looks just like daddy when he goes to work!" Totally does.

fun with the 'chubby mirror'

My favorite days with my boys are the days where there isn't a care in the world, no school, no appts, no where we need to be in any amount of time. We sleep in, eat a late breakfast, and go do something in the afternoon. We spent 6 hours at the mall one day during break. And could've spent longer. We don't really shop, at all, but peruse as slowly as we want to. We usually spend about an hour at  the lego store, get pretzels, hit Barnes and Noble, play at the game store, try out every massage/anti gravity chair and gadget at Brookstone, laugh at ourselves for a long time in the "chubby mirror" at Nordstrom, and always go to See's to get lollipops and samples. 

I've been trying to be better about establishing scripture reading habits for all of us before we go do anything for the day. Uncle Zach sent us a challenge from his mission president where you highlight in certain colors names of the Lord (yellow), times he is speaking (blue), gospel principles (red). Anyway, I totally owe it to this, but the boys (mostly Kosty) have been reading every day since. Kosty loves to highlight and it just melted my heard when I walked in the kitchen one night and he was reading for the second time that day. He may be tough, but that kid has some serious self discipline. 

Another day they decided they wanted to make Spongebob crafts. They gave me the list of supplies and we spent an entire day gathering supplies (rode our bikes to dollar store) and then coming home and watching the 'how to' on an old episode of Spongebob. They played with them for about 10 minutes after that and never again. Awesome.

We had a our radiator hose break on our (new!) van and spent a lot of time at the dealership eating donuts and drinking hot chocolate and playing on the pirate ship next door (thanks Jamie!) We also got a brand new VW bug as a rental car and it was a fun little perk. (I've always listed it as my "dream" car). 

We rode bikes to Subway and had plenty of Wii dance parties.

We finally tried out the pedal boats at Tempe Town Lakes. It was a fun afternoon and a whole lot of pedaling that didn't take us very far from the dock before we had to turn around and not pay for another hour. But, super fun for that one hour ;) 

Kosty has been drawing pictures of my brace face every week in Sacrament. He even remembers to make the tops clear and the bottoms silver. I also love the four buttons on my shirt. 

Oh, speaking of church, I got called to be the Primary President in February. Just a few weeks before girls camp. Talk about a shocker. Never saw it coming and still have to wonder if I have what it takes. Leadership and communication skills, not my thing. There are so many women better suited for the calling. I just know that its to force me to grow. There is so much growth I need. Dang it. Every calling is right outside my comfort zone. However, I want to include this: two weeks before my "call", I was in line at Someburros on a Saturday night with Jer. I saw a phone number I didn't recognize and put it back in my purse but then randomly decided to pick it up. It was the Sunbeams teacher and he needed a sub. Sure I could. The next day as I was sitting in sharing time, I must have looked ridiculous, because I could not stop the smile that was ear to ear on my face. I kept looking around at all the kids, thinking how great it felt to be in their  presence. I almost felt like my heart could explode with the love I felt in the primary room. When I walked out of sharing time that day, I thought, wow, that was odd...but no doubt in my mind, my next calling will be in primary. As a teacher. After girls camp. 

Right. Wrong. Wrong. 

There is much I should record about my feelings since the change, but mostly I want to always remember that special confirmation I received that day. SO grateful for it. Although I OFTEN doubt my abilities, I never wonder if I'm where I'm supposed to be. These (150) kids have my heart completely. I feel honored to be around their sweet spirits every Sunday. I am so very happy/cheesy/in love with being in Primary. What a special place to be.