Scouting for Food

Joe spent his Saturday with some guys in his unit at the Utah Food Bank in Provo accepting and sorting canned goods. He said it was a great experience and that he hasn't worked that hard in a really long time (since picking potato leaves in college)! He couldn't believe how much food they brought in - hundreds of these bins were filled!

Lobster Fest

Joe and I went out to eat on Friday with our Bishop and his wife at Red Lobster.

Yes, I am really holding that LIVE lobster, and No, Joe did not actually kiss it!

New Bling!

Today was the big day! For the next 12 months McKayla will be sporting a new look - Braces!

This is the Before picture:

The During pictures:

And the After picture:

Doesn't she look cute?

Her teeth are pretty sore tonight, but she's being tough!

Knowledge Bowl

I just realized that I forgot to blog about McKayla's Knowledge Bowl tournament. It was a couple of Saturdays ago - and the girls did a great job!

The subject was "The Arts" so they had to know information about Music, Composers, Famous musical Compositions, Art History and Styles, Art terms and methods, Famous Artists and masterworks, Musicals, Performing Arts, Dance Styles, Theater terms, Literature, Caldecott and Newbery Award Winners, Fairy Tales, and Famous Authors. They won two games, and lost two games, but I was so proud of how much they knew and how many questions they answered correctly. McKayla was a whiz and was really quick on the buzzers!

It turned out to be a good experience for the girls: they learned a LOT of new information, and they became better friends. Last weekend we had a big slumber party with pizza, ice cream, movies, and hours of 11-year-old giggling!

Kyle will be old enough to do it next year, and he and McKayla both are planning on it. Next years topic: Geography - we should start studying now!

A Picture a Day

So, I started an insane project on January 1st. I decided to take a picture every single day for a year and write a little bit about each one for my scrapbook. I thought it sounded a little bit overwhelming, but it has really been amazingly fun!

Each day I find something new to document about our lives. Sometimes there are events, like birthdays, or visitors. Sometimes I find the kids doing something funny. Sometimes I take of picture of an everyday event - that won't be an everyday event forever (ie. I took a pic of Josh sitting on the counter helping me make muffins. He won't be able to do that very much longer, he is getting too big!). And sometimes I have to really stretch to come up with something for the day.

The actual scrapbook part is super simple. I found pages that hold six 4x6 photos per page, so I just have to print the picture, write a little bit, and stick them all in. I have it all set up and ready for the whole year. Here is a pic of one of the weeks:

I haven't blogged much this month, but I have taken lots of pictures. Here are some of them:

Also, my daily pictures are in an album at Walgreens.com. If any of you are interested in seeing all of the pics let me know and I will send you the link.