Oquirrh Mountain Temple Celebration

I had the great privilege of going to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Celebration at the Conference Center. It was so good. It was amazing to see the youth of the church excited to celebrate our new temple. It was especially neat to see the Salt Lake Temple all lit up after the event. It was such a pretty night!

Here's a picture of Me & Allison. Allison was a "temple mom" and helped get kids from the ward to practice several times. I was just there for support, and I was so glad to have been there! (I had a pretty depressing summer, and as you can see, I put on a few pounds...BOO HOO!).

This is a picture of some of the cute kids in our ward, and of course...I was trying to be a "teenager" in between Andrea and Meagan.

I'm not sure why Amanda looks so sad in this picture... It was a fun night!

Mothers Day 09

We had our family pictures taken for Mothers Day this year. It's always a little stressful getting together with family, getting organized, looking decent, and getting good pictures. Here are a few snapshots from the event. The actual pictures I will have to post later when I get them, but here's a few from the day.




We had our pictures taken, then we all headed over to Tucano's. Yes, that is my little man, Jaxon eating the Chicken Hearts! Yummm!

Remembering Dad

It was one year ago today that dad passed away. I have needed him so much in my life since he's been gone. I think about him everyday. I was so lucky to have the father that I did in my life. I know he's watching out for me and my family.

I can remember going to my Grandma & Grandpa's graveside with my dad. He would cry, and then I would cry, and he would tell me how much he missed his mom & dad. It wasn't until I went to see him this week that I fully understood how he felt and what he meant. I took Jaxon, and I cried, and then Jaxon cried.

Yummy Delicious Recipes

http://realmomkitchen.blogspot.com/

I came across this website when I was doing some research on coupon clipping (I am working on it...getting a little better). This website has TONS of yummy recipes and lots of shortcuts, so I thought I would share. I am always inspired by real moms who can cook...I am a complete disaster in the kitchen!

I have also been getting some information on the Grocery Smart Stuff...now that is my kind of thinking!!!

Wrapping it all up

The last few days in Florida were spent by the pool, or at the beach. We drove to Cocoa Beach to spend Friday night. They were having an art festival in Melbourne so we stopped there for a little bit. Jaxon loves subway so we grabbed some sandwiches and just hung out watching the last beach sunset of our vacation.

Magic Kindom - All Done....

Spending five days at Disney World was exhausting! We had a blast, but were so tired and just wanted to get the day over with. We had lunch at Pooh's Corner. It was cute, and had all the Winnie the Pooh characters there. The Winnie the Pooh ride is my favorite ride at Disneyland, but the Magic Kingdom ride wasn't the same... boo hoo. Our family favorite was of course, Pirates of the Caribbean! We love Disney, but were glad to finally wrap things up with the fireworks and head home to bed!

Epcot

Epcot was one of Jaxons favorite. John really liked it too. I thought that it was more for the "older crowd" but it was still fun.

And more Epcot...

Disney World ~ Animal Kingdom

Disney Animal Kingdom is really fun. They have the big tree of life that is the center of the park, and it has all kinds of Disney Animal creations inside hidden places. The park breaks out into Camp Mickey, The Safari, Petting Zoo, & Africa. The Lion King show is a must see. We went on Earth Day so that was really fun because they just came out with the Disney Earth movie and everything was hyped about that. It was a very hot day, but so worth it. I liked the Safari, Jaxon loved the talking garbage, and John liked all of it. One of our Favorite days...
Jaxon had his face painted...it was so cute! He wanted an alligator (as we were in Florida!)
We saw some fun stuff on the Safari trip.

The Famous talking garbage ~ Promoting Earth Day

The tree of Life (wow, does that have a few meanings or what?)

Disney Hollywood Studios

The first day at Disney World was spent at Disney Hollywood Studios. Jaxon's favorite ride at Disneyworld/land is the Woody Ride

(and Buzz in Fantasyland).
John loved the Live action car scenes. I liked my FAVORITE bands...Rockin Roller Coaster by Aerosmith!! Yeah, it totally ROCKS!!! And then... We all crashed!

Clearwater Florida 09

We decided to head to the beach the first day we arrived. We had a five day pass to Disney World, but wanted to make sure that we saved time for Jaxon's favorite thing...the beach. We went to Clearwater Beach (which is West of Tampa). Clearwater is a really nice little beach town. The sand on that side of Florida is white and clean. There are shells that run up and down the beach everywhere which makes it fun, and makes you "feel" like you are really at the "beach" (aka..no garbage, sea weed, etc). Jaxon making a run for it!
Seriously this kid is a daredevil!

He loves to go way out deep and ride the waves.
Clearwater Beach...See how far out I am in the water...
Yeah, that is how far Jaxon had gone so I was "watching" him.
Lot's of pretty sea shells.

We all wanted to stay longer, but had to head back to the condo.