The McKinley Clan

Bittersweet!

2012-01-26T15:29:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago we made a quick weekend trip down to Las Vegas for the funeral of my cousin. He was in the FBI and living in Puerto Rico. He drowned while saving a teenager from drowning in the ocean. Read story here.... "FBI Agent drowns". He was a pretty amazing guy!

All of my sisters but one was able to go.

Two of them who are from out of state were able to drive down with us. It was SO great to be able to connect with them again and talk and visit like old times. I've really missed them a lot! We were sad that our other sister couldn't go, but I was glad that most of them could make it.

The funeral was the best one I've been to! The talks were amazing, and it was really touching to see so many FBI agents there supporting the family (including the Deputy Director of the FBI).

It was great to see my Knapp uncles, aunts and cousin's again. Since my mom died I don't hear from them very often and we don't have the opportunities to connect like we used to, which is sad. After the funeral we went back to the hotel and blew off a little steam posing for silly pictures.

That night the whole extended family got together in a conference room of a hotel and talked for hours which was so great!

Sunday morning we were going to go to Sacrament Meeting and then drive home. Unfortunately I got super sick the night before and had the stomach flu. I was on the bathroom floor most of the night with the most intense stomach pains and I almost threw up several times. In the morning when Todd found out how sick I was he thought it would be best to leave right away to get me home. I didn't know how I was going to survive in the car since I couldn't even get out of bed. We packed everything up and got in the car to drive to another hotel and pick up my uncle so he could drive home with us as well.

Unfortunately on the way there, Emily threw up! Poor Marsha was sitting next to her, but she was a total trooper and remained calm and helped to clean it up. We made an emergency stop at Target to get some clorox wipes and bags for the ride home. If anyone ever needs some good "travel bags" Target bags are the way to go. They are super sturdy and don't leak. And they're free. Marsha was SO cute with the kids all the way home and she made up songs, made up code names for the kids (Andrew's name was Rock, Joseph's was Face, Maria's was Seriously and Emily's was Sass) and played games with them the whole way home. It was so adorable! Talk about a good aunt!! (isn't she a babe?)

It was the longest drive from Las Vegas to Bountiful on record since we stopped in every town from there to here, but no one complained luckily. Todd was a trooper as well and made sure everyone was well taken care of. What would I do without him?

Overall it was such a great weekend. I'm so grateful that I have cousins who are such great examples of Christ like love, and sisters who are as well, and who I love and adore!!

Fun in St. George

2011-12-10T19:10:00.001-08:00

Todd had to go to tax training in St. George last weekend so he suggested that we all come along. We had SO much fun together! In addition to missing the really bad windstorm that was happening here in Bountiful (which we were really grateful for), we went on a few fun hikes, went shopping, out to eat, and enjoyed each others company.

One of the last days we were there Joseph started dancing in Subway as we were eating lunch. That is SO not like him to do that in public. I whipped out my phone and recorded him. Then, he decided that he was going to dance out in the shopping square, in Old Navy (which I didn't get a recording of - bummer!), and even Walmart. He said that because we were 5 hours away he didn't know anyone and wasn't as inhibited. It was really fun to watch him. As you can hear from the video I couldn't stop laughing.

Hiking in Kolob Canyon

Zion National Park

Crazy Lady

2011-10-28T07:05:00.000-07:00

I had a really funny experience the other day. I went to pick up Truman for Joseph's football carpool and as I was flipping a U turn on Bountiful Blvd. in front of Truman's house I honked as usual. I noticed a couple just north of his house walking on the sidewalk towards me. I thought, "oops, they're probably thinking I'm honking at them". Just before I came to a stop in front of his house, I noticed that the couple was President and Sister Uchtdorf! (for those of you who don't know who that is check him out here).

I thought, "Oh great, they probably think I'm some crazy lady who noticed them walking and flipped my car around in front of them to talk to them". He was very friendly and walked up to the car. I rolled down the window and said, "Sorry, I wasn't honking at you. I'm here picking up someone for football. And as I was turning I said to myself "Hey I know who that is". He saw Joseph in the front seat and said, "Hi, what's your name?" and then he shook his hand and asked about Jordan Nellis and Maria in the middle seat. He didn't see Emily in the back seat though. He also introduced us to his wife. As Truman got in the car he said, "Oh you have enough in here for a team". As they walked back to the sidewalk and I was pulling away I yelled out, "I loved your talk" (referring to the Forget Me Not talk he gave at the last R.S. mtg. which I loved). He was probably wondering which one I was talking about since he's given 3 talks in the last few months. :{

Anyway, it was a really funny experience and a really neat one too. They were both so sweet and genuine, and it was neat to know that they live right here in my area. I had to chuckle as I drove away wondering what they must have thought of this crazy lady in a suburban flipping a U-turn and honking in front of them. :) I'm sure they get recognized all of the time!

Lucky Me!!

2011-09-22T22:06:00.000-07:00

Todd and I have been married for 14 years this month!! Am I blessed or what?

4 months later....

2011-09-11T22:04:00.001-07:00

I can't believe it's been 4 months since I've posted something on this blog! Crazy how time flies.

Here are just some pictures that I thought were funny:

The kids love their dog. Notice the gray flower clip on his head and the football pads? It's a good thing he's patient!!

We've had a fun time hanging out at the Bickel's new house (and pool)!

The kids love to be silly when I'm taking their pictures:

Apparently they weren't sure if I knew they had a bum or not!!

Joseph is finally playing football this year. He's waited a long time for this!

The girls patiently waiting on the hood of the car for football practice to be over...

The kids started school! Here are the 3 still in elementary:

Hanging out on our patio:

My "Mini-Healing" Session with Carol

2011-05-12T12:06:00.000-07:00

My eyes have really been opened the last few months to patterns that I've created in my life that have been really unhealthy, both physically and emotionally. I've realized that I do and don't do things so that people won't think that I think I'm better than anyone else.

I guess it started when I was in the 4th grade and moved into a really affluent neighborhood. For the next 10+ years we felt like we were treated like the poor white trash of the neighborhood, with people making comments about our old beat up cars and lack of nice clothes. I wasn't welcomed into the group of girls my age, who were all popular, because I wasn't cute or popular enough.

(Not very cute, but I was a very nice girl!)

My other sisters really felt it as well, and as we've talked about it now that we're adults, we've realized that several of us have taken on the same pattern that I have. We don't blame anyone in the past for their behavior, because it's always up to us to choose how we'll react to things. I certainly didn't need to take that on and feel bad about myself, but I did and so now I have to deal with the consequences of that choice.

For example:

- One of my earlier posts about "The Hostess with the Mostess".... Quite an innocent comment really, but because I don't want anyone to feel like I'm trying to outdo anyone else, I stopped having people over for nice dinners. I really enjoyed doing it too, but completely stopped! Can you believe how ridiculous?!?

- We added on to our house 2 years ago. Whenever anyone comes over to see it and comments on how nice it is, I immediately have to explain that we added an apartment downstairs for Todd's aunt (who died before it was finished) and that she gave us some money to do it. (We would have done it anyway in a few more years, but we did it sooner because of her). I have an element of embarrassment sometimes when people come over to my house because I don't want them to think we're snotty and think that we're better than anyone else.

- Several weeks ago Carol Tuttle, who is the author of "Remembering Wholeness" and "It's Just My Nature" and who developed the Dressing Your Truth program, emailed my sisters and me and said that she'd like us to be a part of a video for her blog. We've become good friends over the last few years and have gone out to dinner with her several times and she has noticed that we each carry physical issues that we've had a hard time getting rid of. She knows that we've struggled with a few things and thought that she could help us get rid of some of the issues we've been having. Mine is my weight.

As she started my "healing session" she picked up on this pattern of my need to make sure other people don't feel bad, which goes along with my Type 2 nature of wanting everyone to be okay and feel comfortable. About the middle of the session I kept seeing myself in a situation that happened when I was about 27 years old when I went to go visit one of my best friends who was living in California. When Carol paused towards the end of the session and asked if I had any questions, I told her about the situation and I started bawling on camera. It was really embarrassing, but watching it back and thinking about it for the last few weeks has really made me realize this limiting belief I've had for so long has carried into so many aspects of my adult life. (It was about that time that I started putting on weight). It was so eye opening!!!

If you want to see anymore of her videos you can go to her blog at "The Carol Blog".

So, I'm now on a quest to love myself more, not put myself down, and not make myself "less than" just so that someone else doesn't feel uncomfortable. It may take me a little while to get rid of all of the old beliefs and programs I've had, but I have felt so much happier and more at peace the last few weeks since filming that than I ever have before.

So, here's to my quest of becoming healthy emotionally and physically!!

Beautiful Easter Message

2011-04-19T09:29:00.000-07:00

We watched this short video last night for family night. It is such a powerful reminder of the loving gift that Jesus Christ gave to each of us. Every time I watch it I can't help but weep. To know that I don't have to go through life alone is such a blessing and a comfort to me. And to know that because of the gift of the Savior, I'll be able to see my beautiful mother again someday is something that words can't even express.

Click here to see the Easter Message

Spring Break

2011-04-16T18:56:00.000-07:00

Usually for Spring Break we don't do much of anything since Todd is never around and I haven't wanted to venture out on my own with 4 little ones in tow. But this year I wanted to change all of that and let the kids have a great week instead of being stuck at home. So I wracked my brain and tried to think of fun things to do. This is what I came up with:

Monday:

Horseback riding.....

lunch at Carl's Jr. (their favorite)

Then a dollar movie.

Tuesday:

Toured the Conference Center which was really neat!

Then, we went to Wheeler Farm where the kids got to milk cows (Emily has been talking about doing it for months now):

Wednesday:

Boondocks all day!!

We were so exhausted by the time we got home!! The kids said on the way home that they just wanted to watch movies for the next 2 days, which was great with me. So Thursday, we hung out, watched movies and ate treats, and then Friday was kind of the same thing, only I went to my aunt's funeral for several hours. It was a very good week and we had a ball together!!

I love General Conference!

2011-04-05T23:02:00.001-07:00

I always look so forward to General Conference when we get to hear the apostles and prophet speak. The talks are always so incredibly powerful and inspirational. I come away feeling so spiritually fed and motivated to be a better person.

One of my all time favorite talks was given by Elder Bruce R. McConkie in 1985 (I had just graduated from high school the year before). He and my grandfather were really close friends so I knew that he was dying and they were afraid that he wouldn't live long enough to be able to give his talk. As I listened to him bear his testimony of the Savior and start weeping at the end, I about lost it. It was one of the most powerful testimonies I had ever heard and it really strengthened my testimony of Jesus Christ. I found this video on youtube and loved how they added the images at the end showing the Savior appearing to the people on the American Continent after his resurrection (taken from 3 Nephi in the Book of Mormon). The video has been edited and isn't the full version, but the ending is still really powerful. Elder McConkie died 13 days after giving this talk. "I am one of his witnesses, and in a coming day I shall feel the nail marks in his hands and in his feet and shall wet his feet with my tears. But I shall not know any better then than I know now that he is God's Almighty Son, that he is our Savior and Redeemer, and that salvation comes in and through his atoning blood and in no other way."

The hostess with the mostess

2011-03-30T19:39:00.000-07:00

When I was a little girl my mom told me that whenever I would get a treat in school or church, I'd save it until I got home so that I could share it with my family. I've always been that way. Whenever I get something good I love to share it. Whether it be food, life changing books I've read, or whatever (except for my favorite chocolate - if I only have a few pieces left, then it's hands off people!)

Years ago, Todd and I were invited to my Mission President's home with a few other couples for dinner. When we got there we were treated like royalty and fed a wonderful dinner. The table was set with their best china, lit candles, beautiful flowers for a centerpiece and name cards and a small gift at each place setting. Sister Turley had gone to such great lengths to make it absolutely perfect!

(Image - google)

On the way home Todd and I talked about how loved and cherished we felt because they had really put a lot of thought into making it such a wonderful night, and commented on how neat it was to have someone show their love for you in that way. I decided that because I love to entertain I was going to invite the people that I loved over for a dinner like that. I started planning and getting excited about it. We invited several of our closest friends over and I took great care in choosing the menu and putting together the prettiest table that I could. I lit candles around the room and had name cards where they were supposed to sit. Everything looked perfect!

(Not my actual table.....)

When the guests started arriving I expected that they would feel of my love for them as they saw what I had spent my time doing for them, just like Todd and I felt. But, when one couple came, the wife looked around the room and saw the table and said, "Well, aren't you the hostess with the mostess?" I'm sure she didn't mean anything by it, but I felt like she didn't understand why I had gone to all of the trouble and was doing it to make myself look good. I haven't invited anyone outside of my family over for a formal dinner since then because I'm afraid of people thinking that I'm trying to outdo them. Dumb, I know. Every time I open my cupboards and see my pretty chargers and china sitting there unused I hear her voice saying, "Well, aren't you the hostess with the mostess" and I shut the cupboards and think, well, maybe someday.

So, if you get an invitation from me in the future and walk in and see candles lit and my table set with my best china, know that I'm doing it out of love for you and not because I want to be the "hostess with the mostess".

No pain, no gain....

2011-03-24T08:52:00.000-07:00

With tax season in full swing I'm feeling like a single mom again for awhile. I've said for years that I really don't know how single mom's do it! At least I get a husband coming home eventually at night, and I have someone to talk to on the phone about what's going on with the kids. But single mom's don't have any of that. They should get some serious brownie points in the hereafter for going it alone.

The boys have been doing Jr. Jazz basketball again this year. Unfortunately both of their teams are terrible, and I think Andrew's team only won one game and Joseph's has lost every time. My boys have improved this year which is fun to see, but for their sakes it would have been nice for them to have won a few more games.

It's so interesting to me to see the difference in my children's personalities. They are all a different type according to Carol Tuttle's Energy Profiling System, which we have all absolutely LOVED learning about and has been life changing for us. For example, Emily is a Type 3, which is more of a fiery, dynamic personality. She had some minor surgery on her mouth last month and she was a little scared for the shots to numb her mouth, but she was a total trooper! She had the skin between her two front teeth lasered off so she has more movement with her lips now. This is what it looked like before (I'll try and take one of the after):

On the flip side, Maria is a Type 2 (like I am). Type 2's are very sensitive to feelings as well as emotions. I had to take her to a special pediatric dentist to get some teeth pulled and some cavities filled because she's not very cooperative at the regular dentist. When we got to the pediatric dentist's office and he gave her 1 shot in her gums she freaked out and started screaming and crying. He couldn't even get near her mouth after that and we had to leave without having any of the work done. We have to go back and have her drink some medicine that will make her sleepy and knock her out so that he can do the work he needs to. I was totally embarrassed!

I don't ever remember being like that as a child, and I think the reason is because my mom would always comment about how wimpy some people were (specifically the women who were giving birth at the same time she was. She would comment about how ridiculous they acted when they'd cry and scream), so I learned that it wasn't acceptable to be wimpy like that and I toughened up fast. I always prided myself on being able to withstand a lot of pain. It will be really interesting to see if Maria gets better over time and what she's like when she gives birth. :) She is such a sweetheart though and I wouldn't change a thing about her for the world. She brings such a calm, sweet energy to our home. She is so sensitive and tender and I see so much of myself in her when I was her age. My heart aches for her when she comes home and tells me some of the mean things that kids say or do to her because I remember feeling the same way and being so hurt that people would treat me that way. I thought it was my fault and that I must be a horrible or stupid person.

It's hard being a mom and wanting to protect your children from all of the bad things that happen. I guess the best thing I can do it to try to help them understand that it's important to think positively and not let others' negativity get them down.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!!

2011-02-20T13:55:00.000-08:00

One of my fondest memories growing up was Sunday evenings spent with my mom and 5 sisters sitting around the living room talking, laughing and bonding together. My mom would make homemade ice cream after dinner, and we always looked SO forward to Sundays. It was the one day that we were all together and could spend time together with our busy schedules, and as we got older, before any of us got married, we were super close. I keep thinking that I should get an ice cream maker so that I can start that tradition with my own family. But, I remember it being quite the production with all of the rock salt, ice, and the noise (we would all breathe a sigh of relief when the machine finally quit so we could hear each other), so I really haven't looked into buying one more seriously.

Well, yesterday as I was checking out this blog, I came across the post about how to make homemade ice cream without an ice cream maker. I couldn't believe it! You just use 2 cups of heavy cream, whip it, and then add it to a can of sweetened condensed milk. If you want to add flavors, then you add it to the condensed milk, mix, and then mix together with the whipped cream, then you freeze it. I checked out all of the comments and everyone was raving about how good it was. So, because ice cream is "my one weakness" (any Lark Rise to Candleford fans will understand that comment :D) I decided to give it a try. I headed to the store and loaded up on different ingredients of things that I wanted to try. I decided on the Nutella and peanut butter chips (the variation that she has on her blog), fresh strawberry, chocolate mint, and I decided to try my own creation of a Girl Scout Somoa cookie.

I halved the recipes so that I could make more kinds. My girls had a lot of fun helping me last night and really got into the mixing and creating. We tried them today after church. Oh my goodness, they were SO good!! I'm totally hooked!! It really is just like regular ice cream (but without all of the preservatives). We all loved them. It was SO easy (only 2 ingredients before you add the flavors), and I don't have to deal with a noisy ice cream maker.

This was the Nutella one. I also added chopped cashews and it was SO good!

I LOVE Girl Scout Samoa cookies. So, I crushed some vanilla sandwich cookies into the mixture, and added coconut, swirls of carmel and chocolate. SO YUMMY!!! Probably my favorite one of the 4.

For this one, I crushed up some dark chocolate mint cups and some of those blue and white York peppermint pieces (that look like m&m's). Then I swirled some chocolate around. It was good, but I need to figure out how to make it more like starlight mint. I think next time I'll add more of the mint cups and not add any of the York pieces.

I love fresh strawberry ice cream, so I just chopped up strawberries into this one. It tasted really good, but it was kind of icy and not as creamy as the others.

I'm excited to start my own tradition of having ice cream on Sundays now, but without all of the fuss and noise. I'm all about making it easy. If anyone has some good recipes to try, let me know.

UPDATE:

I have decided that this ice cream recipe really isn't as good as the regular ice cream maker kind. It's great if you want a quick and easy recipe, but you really do sacrifice the amazing flavor and texture of the regular stuff. My favorites were the ones that I had never tried in regular ice cream before (the nutella and the Samoa cookie one).

Christmas 2010

2010-12-27T22:10:00.001-08:00

We had a visit from Santa a few days before Christmas. We heard later that 6 of his "reindeer" were up the street on our neighbors lawn (we have lots of deer around here in the winter time). Imagine how cool that was for the neighbors kids' that saw it. It totally made their year!! (Santa is the best neighbor on the planet to come and visit the neighbor kids every year)

I came home from errands today and Todd had helped the girls figure out how to bake in their new Easy Bake Oven. What a hunk!

Emily came down the hallway in this outfit. She got the skirt and boots for Christmas and she's modeling it with her thrift store coat that she fell in love with. Hard to believe she's only 5 1/2!!! And boy does she have attitude and spunk!

As you can tell she loves leopard print and chose this dress for her bear for Christmas.

Andrew took this cool picture with his new camera. It's the only thing he's wanted all year long. Thanks to a generous neighbor who paid him to watch their house while they were gone, he was able to pay the extra money to get a better camera, and he's super excited to be able to start taking pictures with his dad downtown.

Maria's new favorite game is Mastermind, which I bought for the kids for Christmas. I used to love playing it when I was younger and bought it hoping that my kids might like it too. Maria has become really good at it. She's also in heaven because she got a cute doll for Christmas.

At our Christmas party with the family. Notice the entertainment center? The sides were from something I bought off of ksl.com. They were oak so I painted them white. I also found the t.v. stand at the D.I. for $30 and painted it to match, so the whole thing cost me just over $200, paint included. It was a lot of blood, sweat and tears, but I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Joseph has loved watching football on his time off with his dad and brother. He's become quite the Ute and Buckeye fan!

It's been so much fun getting together with family. I love this time of year!!

And for those of you who are dark chocolate & mint lovers do I have the cookie for you! It's heaven in a box, seriously!!! It's better than any other cookie I've tried (even girl scout thin mints). It's only available for the holidays I found out, but that's a good thing or I'd eat them every day.

I’m grateful for....

2010-11-01T21:31:00.001-07:00

I’ve wanted to do this for a long time, but another blog I read today inspired me. So, here’s my gratitude list so far..... I am SO blessed, and just thinking about the things I’m grateful for makes me very emotional.

I’m Thankful for:

1. A Loving Heavenly Father

2. The Atonement of Jesus Christ

3. My testimony of the Savior

4. An amazing mother and her example

5. My awesome husband

6. Andrew and his sunny disposition

7. Joseph and his quiet strength

8. Maria and her sweet nature

9. Emily and her spunky side

10. My cute dog

11. My sister Marsha

12. My sister April

13. My sister Carol

14. My sister Heather

15. My new and improved comfortable house

16. My iMac

17. A comfortable bed

18. Good neighbors

19. A great charter school for my kids to attend

20. Amazing teachers for my children

21. My Primary calling at church

22. A healthy body

23. A closet full of clothes that honor who I am

24. Energy Profiling

25. The Dressing Your Truth system

26. Carol Tuttle

27. A great role model in Anne Brown

28. Grandma Knapp

29. Good music

30. My missionary experience

31. My college degree

32. My husband’s job

33. Microwaves

34. Dishwasher

35. Refrigerator

36. Telephones

37. The internet

38. My iphone

39. My sewing machine

40. My car

41. The DVR

42. The Book of Mormon

43. The Bible

44. All that my father taught me

45. Grass

46. My eyesight

47. My ability to hear

48. Washing Machine

49. Dryer

50. Scanner

51. The principle of repentance

52. Forgiveness

53. My brain

54. My trip to China

55. Traveling with the Tabernacle Choir to Japan

56. Traveling with Tab. Choir to Russia, Poland, Germany, Czechoslovakia, etc.

57. Traveling to Europe with my parents

58. Trip to Italy with husband

59. Disneyland & Disneyworld

60. Makeup

61. Grocery Stores

62. Running water

63. Electricity

64. Restaurants so I don’t have to cook

65. Husband’s vacation days

66. Opportunity to be a mother

67. Doctors

68. Green smoothies

69. Sleep

70. My favorite color – purple

71. Garage door openers

72. Double refrigerator/freezer space

73. Aunt Gwen

74. Ancestors

75. Dark chocolate mint cups

76. Spray Paint

77. Temples

78. EFT

79. Chapstick

80. Intimacy with my husband

81. Spending time with my family

82. Contact lenses

83. Telephones

84. My husbands Photography

85. Loving aunts/uncles and cousins

86. Warm showers

87. Date nights with my husband

88. Date nights with my children

89. Funny blogs that lift my spirits

90. Good neighbors

91. Email

92. A great sale

93. Thrift stores

94. Finding pants that fit

95. Glow sticks

96. Flowers

97. Kisses

98. Hugs

99. Snugly babies

100. Club nights

101. So You Think You Can Dance

102. My nieces and nephews

103. Holding hands

104. Contoured pillows

105. Comfortable shoes

106. Ipods

107. Living in America

108. The Founding Fathers

109. Fun campouts

110. This beautiful earth

111. Being able to see our deceased loved ones again someday

112. Medicines

113. Family nights

114. A living prophet

115. Comfy couches

116. Air conditioning/heat

117. Chiropractors

118. Diapers

119. Clean water

120. Being a Type 2

121. The mountains

122. Challenges that show me what I’m made of

123. Primary songs

124. Toilet paper

125. Accountants

126. Money for my wants not just needs

127. Fabric flowers that make me happy

128. Children/husband healthy

129. The commandments

130. Chocolate mint brownies

131. Fake plants

132. Memories of talks with my mom

133. Skype

134. Time outs

135. Family that lives close by

136. My sisters’ new husband

137. Being able to stay home with my children

138. My ability to sew

139. Christmas time

140. Thanksgiving

141. My husbands’ sense of humor

142. Mission reunions

143. Sunsets

144. Brother in law who’s an electrician

145. Waterfalls

146. Pioneers

147. Soap

148. Freedom of speech

149. Freedom to worship

150. Sprinkling system

151. Bedtime

152. Freeways

153. Clean air to breathe

154. Podcasts

155. Good music

156. Garbage pick up

157. Husbands’ massages

158. Always have plenty to eat

159. The ability to laugh

160. My healthy teeth

161. Strong heart

162. Spiritual experiences

163. Warm summer days playing with my children

164. Loving marriage

165. Michelle Lewis

166. Angels

167. Foot rubs

168. Getting together with Rich and Kellie

169. Garden vegetables

170. Creating things

171. Gift cards

172. Finally liking who I am

173. My flexible knees

174. Ear plugs to drown out my husbands’ snoring

175. Jane Austen books

176. Good sound system

177. Cheesecake Factory

178. Orange Leaf

179. Watching my son play football

180. Listening to my children read

181. Warming bags on a cold evening

182. Fabric department at Walmart

183. Flowing skirts

184. Reconnecting with old friends

185. When my children tell me I’m the best mom in the world

186. Big screen TV’s

187. My covered porch

188. The ability to manifest things

189. Tooth brush/paste

190. My dream kitchen

191. Epidurals

192. Digital cameras

193. Good dentists

194. Democracy and elections

195. Airplanes

196. Anesthesia

197. Insurance (health/car)

198. Fire fighters

199. Policemen

200. Service men & women

201. Being able to tell my mother that I loved her before she died

202. Sunglasses

203. Kleenex

204. Candles

205. Receiving thank you notes

206. President & Sister Turley

207. My sisters’ new house

208. A warm fire on a cold night

209. Marsha’s homemade soap

210. Staple guns

211. Hot glue guns

212. My old Young Women’s leaders

213. Scout leaders

214. Carpools

215. Kent Rasmussen, my OB/Gyn who retired :(

216. Crystal chandeliers

217. The RadKids program to help children learn about safety

218. Cindy Powell

219. Marilee Hullinger

220. The little girls that moved up the street for my girls to play with

Picture updates

2010-10-05T22:17:00.000-07:00

I have always been nervous to have my babies play football (and possibly get hurt), but I couldn’t deny Andrew’s pleas anymore. Andrew LOVES football and his coaches keep telling us that he’s doing amazingly well for his first year. He plays the entire game and has gotten some great tackles in (he’s #70, with his shoulder and helmet in the kids chest).

He’s in 6th grade this year, which is in Jr. High at his school, and he really likes it and is doing very well. He’s not only an amazing athlete, but he’s such a good, sweet boy. He always comes up to me and gives me hugs and kisses (as long as we’re not at school) and I adore him!

What a stud...

Joseph is absolutely loving school this year. This is the first year that he’s really been challenged at school, and boy is he eating it up. He has one of the lead parts in his class play, which he’s excited about. That kid can memorize like no other! When he was 3 years old he memorized a whole page talk for Primary in about 15 minutes. Talk about genius. He also is constantly kissing me and hugging me. I’ve got the lovey-est boys and I’m diggin’ it!

He’s a born entertainer....

Maria is my little sweetheart. She loves dressing up in her twirly skirts (a girl after my own heart), she loves school, and her teacher says that she’s the nicest, sweetest girl she’s met. She’s getting one A and the rest A+ in school so we told her that she needs to stop being a slacker and work a little harder. She’s also still very much attached to her blanky.

I still have Emily home in the afternoons after kindergarten (thank heavens or I’d be curled up in the fetal position). She’s so much fun. She loves school, too and is an amazing reader. She acts like she’s 15 instead of 5.

She’s so sassy!

As you can see she loves playing on the computer taking pictures of herself and making videos.

I’ve been keeping busy volunteering at the kids’ school. They go to an amazing charter school. I feel very blessed to have them there because it’s such a wonderful learning environment. They make learning so much fun, but it’s also very disciplined. They are challenged and are in break out groups for math, reading and spelling so that they can advance at their level and not be held back by the slowest in the class. They also have hands on activities about the things that they’re learning about, which is so great for kids to retain information. I would have been a much different student in school if I had gone to a school like that.

Todd still works long hours doing taxes (yuck). I have no idea how he does it. On the side he still loves photography, which is nice that he has a hobby. He got his first check from his very first professional gig. He is now the official photographer for Taubman, who is the leasing company for the retail portion of the City Creek Center downtown. He goes down once a month and takes pictures for them. He was pretty stoked! They were absolutely shocked when they found out that he is an accountant and not a professional photographer. Everyone in their company loves his pictures, so his head is swelling a little bit. :)

This is him holding his check!

Can you tell I adore him? He’s such a great guy!

Because of the tax deadline on Sept. 15th I didn’t see much of him, and didn’t have a chance to give him a haircut, which he was long overdue for. As we were finishing up laying sod on our yard a few weeks ago I looked over at him and burst out laughing. His hair had gotten so long that it was curled up over his ears and was sticking out of his hat. It reminded me of a handlebar mustache. Every time I would look at him I would lose it. He brings me so much needed laughter in my life!

Enjoy!!

Ah, grass, at last!

2010-10-02T16:15:00.000-07:00

We’ve been without a yard (and been the eyesore of the neighborhood) for a year and a half now while we redid our house. We were FINALLY able to put grass down with a new sprinkling system 2 weeks ago. I didn’t realize how much I took grass for granted until I actually didn’t have it. The girls have been begging me to put up their teepee but we had no where to put it until now. They’re loving it!

Quite a change from this, don’t you think? (Our neighbors put the grass strips from their edging on our dirt, and I was loving the green while it lasted - it says :) Grass)

Back to School

2010-09-05T14:08:00.000-07:00

School: The kids started back to school on August 18th. I wasn’t ready for them to go back, but they were, and they’re LOVING school! Emily started kindergarten this year and the first morning she went I got a little emotional (but didn’t show her so she wouldn’t have a hard time). After I waved goodbye as they took off down the street I walked back inside and decided to have a positive attitude about the whole thing. So, I exercised uninterrupted (which I never really did when Emily was around because she wanted my attention), I cleaned my house, showered, and got caught up on a few emails. It was actually really nice!

First Day of School

Football: Andrew has been begging us to let him play football for years, so this year we finally agreed. He’s absolutely loving it, and he’s actually really good. It takes up a ton of time taking him to and from practices 4 times a week, plus games on Saturday, but hopefully he loves it enough to make it worth it. We told Joseph that we’d let him play next year.

Storms: A few weeks ago on Sunday there was a storm so Todd got us all in the car and drove us up to the top of the hill in Bountiful so we could watch it coming in. It was super windy and the kids got out of the car and were running around having the best time. Talk about cheap entertainment. They were adorable!!

And Joseph was so funny. As they were getting back in the car so we could go he said, “Mom, take a picture of me running next to car like you’re leaving me”. So, here you go...

Dogs: Shadow is such a cute little dog. We all love him very much. He follows me everywhere, and I love it every morning when he comes in the house after “going" outside when he runs around the house looking for me to give him loves before he does anything else. The girls love pampering him too. Notice Maria’s blanky tucked up next to him. He got attacked by a big dog tonight on our walk and we were all traumatized by it, but he wasn’t seriously hurt. He’ll be a little sore for a few days though. The poor thing! I’d better not ever see that dog around here again or there will be serious trouble......

Dates: Other than school, football, and Todd’s busy time at work we’ve been squeezing in dates with the kids every Wednesday night. Todd takes a child one week, then I’ll take another the next week, and so on, so that they each get a date every month. They LOVE it!! They come back so happy and excited. They look forward to their special date for weeks. We have a rule that we can only spend $10, so they usually choose something like a hike, or playing at the park, etc. so that we can go get ice cream after. It’s been really great! I highly recommend it.

Bonus shot: Here’s the nerdy couple being very weird. It’s our 13th wedding anniversary on Monday, September 6th. I love you Todd - You’re the BEST!!! There’s no one I’d rather spend my life and eternity with than you.

Our month in pictures

2010-07-26T08:48:00.001-07:00

Went to visit Gwen's grave....

Rich and Kellie came to visit (SUPER FUN!!!!)

Got to spend time with Marsha & Brett for a few hours (totally awesome!)

Camped with the neighbors (and nothing bad happened, finally)

Went to mirror lake for Joseph's birthday....(and Andrew was in heaven)

Todd's awesome photography of Provo Falls

We finally got concrete around our house (now if we could just get a little grass....)

And went to the canyon several times for family night

Sunsets

2010-06-28T18:12:00.001-07:00

On Saturday Todd and I went to dinner and then on a hike up to Ensign Peak to watch the sunset and take pictures. As we were looking over the valley we started talking to a guy from Colorado named Greg Stone who works for AT & T. He was a super nice guy, and as we were talking to him the sun started to set. I told Todd, "Get a picture of this, it's amazing". He got a picture of it, and for the next 10-15 minutes I sat there commenting about how amazing the gorgeous sunset was and I kept telling Todd, "Oh my goodness, this is so amazing. Get another picture." The sky had these brilliant reds and I was blown away with how gorgeous it was.

(This is what I was seeing with the amazing reds. Isn't it incredible?)

Neither Todd nor Greg said much about it, but I thought it was just because they were talking about other things, or that they wanted to be studly and not be overcome with emotion over a sunset like I was doing. A few minutes later I took off my sunglasses for something and looked up at the sunset and realized that what I was seeing with my sunglasses on was NOT the same thing that Todd was seeing. For some reason my sunglasses made the colors so brilliant!

(This is the picture that Todd took of the "amazing" sunset. It's okay, but nothing to get excited over, right?)

I started laughing hysterically because I was embarrassed that I was gushing about this amazing sunset when it was nothing great. I'm sure Greg thought I was completely weird. Todd and I had a good laugh over it, and I realized that even though two people are experiencing the exact same thing, their reaction to it can be so completely different!

I love dressing my truth!!!

2010-06-11T22:27:00.000-07:00

I found out about "Dressing Your Truth" last year and it has been life changing for me. (Check it out at http://McKin.dressingyourtruth.com)

I made this video for the "Give yourself a Dressing Your Truth Makeover" contest, "which is intended to capture both the external and internal transformation that takes place when a woman fully embraces and applies the Beauty Profile and Dressing Your Truth principles".

I was very hesitant about making a video because it seemed very vulnerable for me to have to put myself out there and share myself with people who I don't know, and who may not appreciate or understand the journey that I've been on. I've told several people about it but some don't really get it. They think that it's all about wearing nice clothes and how to dress up because they've said, "Oh, I just like wearing sweats or T-shirts to be comfortable" even though it's SO much more that! But, I thought it was important enough to share in the hopes that other women will be helped by it, and to come to know for themselves who they really are and that we are all beautiful!

So, check out my video and let me know what you think...

"I Finally Found Myself"

My awesome hubby!

2010-05-17T15:09:00.000-07:00

My super talented hubby has been taking pictures now for a couple of years. It started out as just wanting to keep updated on the construction going on downtown (the City Creek Center) because he was so fascinated with the process, so he'd go every Saturday morning and walk the streets getting

shots of all of the construction. Shortly after that he bought a professional camera and then started learning how to use it and do different things with the settings.

He has gotten SO good that he was contacted a few months ago from someone wanting to buy one of his pictures. And, last year the owners of the 222 South Main building that was just completed asked to use his photos for their marketing pamphlets. They even framed one of his pictures and gave it to the mayor and invited us to the opening ceremonies. He's very modest and would never boast about his talents, so I'll do it for him!!

It's been really fun displaying his awesome photography in our house, and to know that it was him that did it!! I'll post just a few of my favorites for all of you to enjoy....(you can tell that I love the temple ones the best)

P.S. Happy Birthday tomorrow, Todd. I love you!!

P.S.S. Todd just got an email today from the architect for the City Creek Center. They said that they were all very impressed with his photos and wanted to use them in their marketing efforts!!! Wow!

Feeling crafty!

2010-05-01T20:07:00.000-07:00

I decided to make some fun, bright flower clips for my fabulous aunt in Chicago who has recently come to realize what an adorable, fun, zippy person she really is (and support that with the way she dresses)! I hope it will be a good reminder for her to remember who she is, and that she doesn't need to act like someone she's not just because the people around her think it's not acceptable. So, "Sybi" keep being the ray of sunshine that we all know and love!! We love you dearly - xoxoxo

These two are my faves....

And I made these for Emily, who is my exotic, rich and dynamic little girl.

"Profesher, professo, ???"

2010-04-03T09:41:00.000-07:00

My kids love to play with the "photo booth" feature on my computer. They come up with some really entertaining things. I saw this video on my computer this morning that I thought was pretty funny. Emily was obviously feeling pretty sassy after she had put lipstick and fingernail polish on. She is quite the character!!!

Here's another one of the boys that I just found....

And Maria's creation....

Our talented dog

2010-02-19T15:47:00.001-08:00

When I leave to go on errands I usually put Shadow in his cage where he sleeps. It's really small and I always feel so bad that he doesn't have room to play so I decided to get him a pen. I got the 24" high one yesterday and put him in it, only to have him greet me at the door a few hours later. I couldn't believe he got out because he's not that big. I went back today and got the 30" one, sure that that would keep him in. Well, I put him in it and then went to the bathroom before I left. Not 2 minutes later he rounded the corner. So, I guess I'll try and get the 48" high one and see how that goes. I had no idea I had such a talented dog on my hands.

Valentine's Day Sadness Update

2009-10-01T15:41:00.000-07:00

I've had several people ask me how my sister is doing and what the latest is after the accident she was involved in on Valentines day (see post). Unfortunately the latest news is that she has to go to trial in December and possibly go to jail.

The highway patrolman that was on duty at the time told everyone that her tires were bald and that she was speeding. When he asked her how fast she was going while she was at the hospital (while she was still in shock) he was very rude to her and angrily asked her, "how fast were you going? 100? 80? How fast?" She said, "I don't know. Not more than 30 or 40". So from that they are charging her with speeding in unsafe conditions. She was going the same as everyone else was going. And the highway patrolman also told everyone (including my brother-in-law and the boys family) that her tires were completely bald. Her tires were worn but not completely bald. Whether you have brand new tires or worn tires, if you hit black ice you're going to slide on it. She never would have driven in a snow storm if she thought that her tires were bald. Her car never slipped even a little bit on the roads coming from Logan Canyon until she hit the exact spot of the accident over an hour later. It is the same spot that the boy who was killed slipped on, as well as the truck in back of him which ended up rear-ending him. There were hundred of accidents that day of people slipping on the ice.

The boy's family is extremely upset with my sister and wants her to suffer consequences and go to trial. They won't drop any of the charges or make them lesser charges unless she pleads guilty, and even if she does she could still go to jail. If nothing else it will go on her record and she won't be able to get a job in her field (in-home care of the elderly and handicapped). After I posted the original post about that Valentine's day, his oldest sister found my blog somehow and left a scathing remark (anonymous of course, but I have something on my blog that shows who's viewing) about how awful my sister was for killing someone and driving when she had bald tires and that she's a brain-washed mormon, etc.. It really made me sick! I promptly deleted it and felt really sorry for the families' anguish, but even more sorry that it's directed at my sweet sister who did nothing wrong that day and has ended up paying dearly already.

It's really a tragic situation because it's not going to bring their son back. It is only punishing my sister for an ACCIDENT that happened. She didn't set out to hurt anyone that morning and she certainly didn't set out that morning thinking that driving down that stretch of road could kill someone. So, now she has that looming over her head. Having her go to jail is not going to solve anything or bring him back. It's going to leave her 2 children without a mother for awhile. She has no money. Her ex-husband has been unemployed for six months now and they're living off of unemployment until next month and then they'll have nothing. The bank took their house. And now she and her kids have had to move in with my father who lives on the other side of the country. It's too bad that people can't be more forgiving. Especially those that profess to be followers of Christ. It really is sad to me. I can understand if she took a gun and shot someone on purpose, or ran her car into someone hoping to cause them harm because she was angry at them, but having your car slip on the ice and not be able to do a thing to control it is hardly a crime. I will never understand that.

So, that's the latest on the horrible Valentine's day accident! Please pray for her that the charges will be dropped and she can try to put it behind her as best as she can, and that his family can forgive her and not try and punish her anymore.

Ramblings

2009-09-08T21:13:00.001-07:00

1. As I sit here alone waiting for Todd to get home from work (10:13 p.m. already) I realize that I waste a lot of time on the computer reading people's blogs (some of them strangers) and facebook posts.

2. I have never been more in love with my husband. He is such a great guy and I am so thankful for him. He is incredibly sweet and funny, and an amazing daddy. The kids just adore him.

3. I am very anxious to get back into my own house. Living here at Gwen's with her gone now is just plain wrong. The kids are freaked out and won't go in any room of the house now without me. I thought I was anxious before but it's gotten bad.

4. I can't believe how many times I've gone over the scene in my mind of finding her in her chair. When will it stop? Todd told me that he replayed the scene over and over for years when he found his dad the same way. Great, I can't wait. :{

5. I never realized just how much we relied on Gwen to be there for us. We all feel very alone without her. It's amazing how even though she didn't have children of her own she was like a mother/grandmother to us. She was an awesome lady.

6. I love my sisters dearly. I don't know what I'd do without them!!

7. I allow my children to say words that other kids aren't allowed to say like butt, fart, suck, etc. Am I a horrible mom, or what?

8. I'm completely addicted to sugar and I hate exercising. No wonder I can't lose these extra 40 pounds. What's wrong with me that I'm such a lazy butt (oops, one of those words again...)?

9. I don't look like I did when I was married. Do you know how depressing it is when someone says that I look completely different? Not fun. But then again, completely my own fault.

10. I really miss watching So You Think You Can Dance and can't wait for it to start up again.

11. I think I've taken on more than I can handle. I'm back doing scouts since my temporary replacement just started back to work. I think I'll have to meet at the church for a few more months. I also signed up to be the room mother for Joseph's 3rd grade class this year. What on earth was I thinking? I guess I figured we'd be back in the house by now..... I'm losing my mind.

12. Today was heavenly. I had from 9:30 (when I dropped Emily off at preschool) until 3:30 alone and uninterrupted. Heather and I are doing a trade once a week and it was the first time I have had time by myself to go to a store without having to hit every restroom and deal with fussy, complaining children. I felt weird, and missed Emily since she's always with me, but I think I could get used to it.

The happenings of the last few weeks

2009-07-13T10:12:00.000-07:00

We've had an eventful few weeks around here. Maria got her tonsils out and was completely miserable for a week. Luckily she's back to her old happy self again.

Todd and I booked the Balsam campground again this year so the sisters (and possibly cousins) could go camping together again. When none of the sisters were available we decided to invite our neighbors to go with us instead (the same group of 6 families that went down to Payson last year and got evacuated in the middle of the night because of a forest fire....)

When we got to Balsam on Thursday the camp director told us that there had been several bear sightings in the area the last few weeks. We made sure that we were really careful cleaning up food and storing it in our bins and putting garbage in cars at night. Well, after dinner on Friday a black bear wondered into our campground. The kids saw it first and started yelling. Joseph thought he saw 2 bears and told me he thought it might be a mother and her cub (it ended up being just one bear that was about 200 pounds). Most of the kids were on the other end of the group site and we all panicked and tried to make sure the kids were okay. I grabbed Joseph and Emily and took them to Todd's car while Todd looked for Maria and Andrew. When I got into the car the camp director came out with his gun to check things out and asked if I would drive down to the Cherry campsites (about 7 miles away) and tell the host there to call the authorities to come up. I raced down the hill thinking it was close, but it ended up taking me 10 minutes to get there and 10 to get back. The whole way there and back I was dying because I had no idea what was happening and if people were okay or not. While I was gone Todd and the other adults rounded up the kids (luckily there was a van down on the other end of the campsite in that little parking area) and crammed them in the mini van. Then they tried to get the bear to leave by yelling, banging pots and pans, etc. It went on for about 10 minutes. It started coming towards the adults and the camp director fired a warning shot but the bear didn't even flinch. It kept coming towards them so he shot it.

It's unfortunate that it had to be killed, but it was definitely the right decision. It bit into someone's cooler too. It was a pretty traumatic experience for everyone. One family left right after but the rest of us stayed and I'm glad we did. We gathered everyone together for a prayer and thanked Heavenly Father that it turned out as well as it did and that none of us got hurt. The ones that were staying further away from the common area moved their tents onto the volleyball area next to the fire pit so that everyone felt more secure. We thought that there was a slight chance that there might be another bear but just praying that it was the only one that was spotted in the area. In the morning we had a couple of people come from the forest service and talk to us about bear safety which was really good for the kids. Then the news came and wanted to talk to us so we had our friend Dave do the interview since he's an HR guy and does stuff like that all the time. (the news also filmed a group that was further down from us for some reason)

Everyone joked that we survived a forest fire the year before, a bear this year, and wondered what would happen next year when we went camping again. What are the odds of 2 things like that happening to the same group of people? And to top it off the wheel on Todd's trailer came apart on the way home. Luckily we pulled off of the exit in time on 90th South and called our neighbors who were pretty close in front of us. We were able to pile all of our stuff (including the folded up trailer) onto their trailer. It was a pretty eventful weekend, and we were exhausted emotionally afterwards. We found out a few days later that a much larger bear was also in the same area that weekend, we we were definitely blessed that we didn't run into that one!

And, for those of you who have been asking, here are a few pictures of the house. We finally have windows and a roof. The progress has been VERY slow, but it's fun to see all of the changes and see how it all comes together.

Rain, Rain, GO AWAY!!!!

2009-06-21T21:12:00.001-07:00

What is the deal with all of this rain? I don't think we've had this wet of a spring/summer ever!! And of all years to start construction on a house, this was not the year to do it. It's probably cost us an extra $4,000 - $5,000 to fix everything that the rain has damaged. Because the framers had to take off part of the existing roof to tie the new roof into, our ceilings were exposed a little bit. And, wouldn't you know it, it rained again pretty heavily yesterday. Last night there were little waterfalls all throughout the house. So, we now have to replace ALL of the ceilings and light fixtures in our house. We went there today after church and this is what it looks like......(notice the canned lights hanging? And the light fixture behind the big beam that's still on the ceiling is filled with water).

On the bright side, I hated the textured ceilings, so at least we can get rid of them and get something else that isn't so gross, right?

We spent the week at April's house in Holladay taking care of Cali while they were on vacation and it was SO awesome!! They've got a gorgeous house and we all love that dog (even Todd admitted that he really liked her, and he doesn't like dogs. I see a dog in our future.... :))

It was kind of hard to be back in the little one bedroom basement apartment at Gwen's tonight, but at least we have a place to stay. It can't be finished too soon for me!!

Demo

2009-06-09T20:50:00.000-07:00

We had another fun evening demolishing the inside of our house. The kids loved it!!

More construction pics

2009-05-18T20:25:00.001-07:00

And, I have a little girl who is very excited about her pierced ears...(her little sister doesn't want hers pierced until "she's a mom")

It's finally started

2009-05-04T19:26:00.001-07:00

After many, many weeks of being postponed (and 9 months in the planning), it has finally begun.....

Valentine's Day sadness.....

2009-02-18T17:02:00.000-08:00

It's been a pretty sad week here at the McKinley household (at least for me. I think my kids have been oblivious to all of the drama).

On Saturday, which was Valentine's Day, it was snowing so hard and I remember looking out the window and thinking, "I'm so glad I'm not going out in this". A few hours later I got a call from Heather, one of my sisters, telling me that my other sister had been in an accident on her way home from Logan visiting a friend. Heather had called to ask her about something and when she answered the phone she was sobbing and rambling on. From what Heather could understand she was okay but it was a bad accident and she hit a patch of ice and her car slid into 2 men who were on the side of the road outside of their cars. Heather said that she was beside herself and not making sense but that her husband was on his way up there to be with her and see what he could do. I was grateful that my sister was okay, but sick for the 2 men that had been hit as well as for their families. All day long we waited for any word of what had happened to them. Finally that night I got ahold of Heather and she told me that one of the men was going to be okay, but the other man had swelling on his brain and that they didn't think he was going to make it. I hung up the phone and burst into tears. I couldn't help but think of that poor man's family and what they must be going through. I know firsthand what it's like to lose a family member and the pain and anguish that you feel. All of the why's and the range of emotions from anger to grief and everything else in between. When my mom died it was so hard to realize that people could still be happy and oblivious to the pain that I was feeling when I would see people going about their lives driving, being happy, having fun and living their life. I felt like the whole world needed to stop and mourn with me that this amazing human being had just been taken from me. The only thing that got me through it was the gospel of Jesus Christ, and knowing that I would see my wonderful mother again someday. And I know that if it was that hard to lose a mother, imagine how hard it would be to lose a son who is so young, and who has so much life to live. Words just can't express how devastating that would be.

On Sunday when my sister called the hospital to find out how he was doing she was told that he had died. We were all devastated. It's so interesting because I never knew him, but I feel so connected to him somehow. I've cried a lot this week over him and prayed so hard that his family would be able to find peace and be able to forgive my sister for the part that she played in his death. Wherever I went I would see people and think, "I wonder if they knew him. I wonder if they're mourning right now." We checked the papers and articles online to see if we could find out his name. A few days later she forwarded me his obituary. I googled his name and saw his facebook page. He was really an amazing young man. He was a returned missionary and was going to BYU Idaho and wanted to be a doctor. He has such a cute family too.

I kept wondering as well why this had to happen to my sweet sister? Why did she have to be at that exact spot at that moment? Why did those 2 men have to stand outside of their cars when the roads were slippery? There were so many accidents on that stretch of road that day, that a car even slid into the ambulance as they were driving the man to the hospital. Why, why, why? Why her? She's probably the safest driver I know. She was going slowly and praying the whole way home that she'd make it home safely in the bad weather conditions. She said that she was in the far left lane (the other cars were parked on the far right shoulder) and as she came over the overpass her car hit a patch of ice and she had absolutely no control of her car. Unfortunately, some of the comments on some online articles about the crash made her out to be a speed demon who has no compassion for anyone. I wanted to post a reply, but felt like it wasn't my place. People will think what they want regardless of whatever I would post. She's probably the sweetest, kindest, most loving person I know and she has been grieving so much. She's the person who all of the children adore, who loves to help the elderly, and when she's having problems, she says, "what can I do to help you?" She's also incredibly spiritual and very close to the spirit. She can't stand people to have bad feelings for each other. She found out that I was sick on that Valentine's day, and on her way home from the hospital that night she called me to see how I was doing because she was worried about me. Who else does that after just being through a traumatic event?

My sister really wanted to go the funeral but didn't want to cause anyone pain by showing up, so she went late and sat in the mother's room. She taped it and we both listened to it last night as we both cried and talked about what an awesome person he is. We talked about life and death and the things that we've learned and how we've grown stronger and gained stronger testimonies of the Savior after our mom died. We talked about what his family must be feeling and how we grieve for them and hope that they can find peace and comfort someday.

The one thing that brings me comfort is a quote by Joseph F. Smith that says, "No righteous man will ever be taken before his time". As my mom was dealing with her breast cancer she was given a blessing by our Stake President and in it he said something to the effect that the Lord knows her days and they will not be numbered less.

Life is ironic sometimes. When my sister was 3 years old and I was 8, she was hit by a truck as she was crossing a small dirt road in front of our church. We were looking at the new horse that had just been born. She was running back to church to tell our mom about it when I turned to look at her and saw her bouncing under a truck that was screeching to a stop. I ran over to her and started crying as I saw her little lifeless body lying there still with blood coming out of her eye. I was in total shock as I stood there. Someone from our ward grabbed me and took me into the church so I didn't have to watch what was going on. We waited in agony as my parents drove her to the hospital which was 20 minutes away. When we got word the next day that she was going to pull through and be okay it was such a relief. The doctors said that it was a miracle that she survived. She had a concussion and broken bones and a scar on her eye that I can see to this day. We never heard from the man that hit her but I've often wondered what he's doing and if he blames himself for what happened that day. After this week my sister has thought about that man as well. She wants to write him a letter and let him know that she forgives him and that she hopes he's happy.

So, why would the Lord allow an amazing young man who still had so much life ahead of him to be taken, and my sweet sister to have to live with that the rest of her life? I can't wait to get to the other side and find out the answers to all of life's questions someday, but until then I know I just have to have faith in Heavenly Father and know that he has a plan for all things, as much as we don't understand all of why's sometimes.

Who is Your Hero?

2009-01-15T11:38:00.000-08:00

I saw this really cool ad in the LDS Living Magazine yesterday as I was waiting for the boys to finish their appointment at the dentist. It was for these posters of Book of Mormon characters. They say, "Who is Your Hero" and lists facts about each one. I got on there today and ordered 4 of them for my boys' room. There are about 12 to choose from. I thought it was such great idea! Here's the link if anyone's interested:

www.realheroposters.com

Cool Disney Pictures

2009-01-11T20:46:00.000-08:00

I saw these pictures done by Disney and Annie Leibovitzs for their Dream Portrait Series, where they've featured celebrities as traditional Disney Characters. I thought they were so amazing! There are a few more that I didn't post that were just okay for me. Here's the web site if you want to check them out for yourself....

www.missgeeky.com/2008/01/29/annie-leibovitzs-disney-dream-portrait-series/.

Where Every Cinderella Story Comes True (Scarlett Johansson)

Where You're the Fairest of Them All (Rachel Weisz)

Where The Magic Begins (Julie Andrews and Abigail Breslin)

Where You Never Have to Grow Up (Gisele Bundchen, Mikhail Baryshnikov)

Where Imagination Saves the Day (David Beckham)

Where Wonderland is Your Destiny (Beyonce, Lyle Lovett, Oliver Platt)

Gotta Love Those Mammograms!

2009-01-05T19:54:00.000-08:00

I had my annual mammogram a few weeks ago. I got a letter in the mail telling me that I needed to go back in for some additional views and an ultrasound on one breast because they found something that wasn't there last year. The letter came a few days before Christmas, so every time I would call to make an appointment no one was there. Talk about torture!! There's nothing like making people wait to find out if there's something seriously wrong with you. Especially since I have a family history of breast cancer and my mom died 4 years ago from it. Not fun!! I finally got ahold of them to make an appointment, but couldn't get in for another week after that.

So, today was the day that I went in for ANOTHER fun office visit. When I got into the room the nurse told me that they found something on the right side that looked like it might be a cyst. I've noticed some pain on that side, and she explained to me what a cyst was. As she was getting ready to get some more shots she told me that she was going to have to press harder on the machine to get a really good view. I was thinking, "Press harder? You've got to be kidding me". So, I manage to put my very warm skin onto the freezing metal plate as she smashes (and smashes, and smashes....) the plate against me. Holy mother of pearl!! It hurt so badly I couldn't even breathe. And, not once, but TWICE!!! It's bad enough when your breasts aren't sore, but add the soreness from a cyst and it was unbearable. At least the ultrasound part didn't hurt. I saw this cartoon and thought it was hilarious. I actually told the nurse today, "I don't think you're helping my saggy boobs one bit. I think it's making them worse".

Here's another funny one. I actually said to Todd today "Just imagine your stuff smashed into that machine as hard as it will go. It's not pleasant".

Just once I'd love for men to experience this, and being pregnant for one day. Wouldn't that be great?

Dog Lover

2009-01-04T13:52:00.000-08:00

We've been watching April's dog again this week while they went to Disneyland. I am such a huge dog lover (small dogs, that is), but Todd - not so much. The kids have been wanting to get one for a long time now but I can't get one without Todd agreeing to it. Maybe we can talk him into it next year when the house is all finished.

The girls have really warmed up to "Cali" this week. They are usually very scared of dogs and weren't looking forward to having to have a dog around again, but for some reason they aren't scared anymore. In fact, they've been quite the opposite. They have been so obsessed with Cali and haven't given her a moments' peace, that I'm sure the poor dog is looking forward to tonight when she gets to go back to her calm family.

I sent them an email a few days ago.....

Dear Family,

HELP ME, PLEASE!!! I am going absolutely crazy at this house that you've left me at because the little girls that live here will NOT leave me alone. From first thing in the morning, to last thing before I go to bed, they are mauling me and petting me and walking me around the house saying "Cali this" and "Cali that". They also like to sit in my pen with me when I'm trying to take a nap and pet me, and ask me all sorts of questions. They keep fighting over me too. It is getting pretty old. I miss you all terribly and can't WAIT for you all to get home so I can have my sweet family back again and get a little peace and quiet.

Hurry back, please!!

Love,

Cali

P.S. Don't I look just miserable?

Happy New Year!

2009-01-02T19:08:00.000-08:00

Happy 2009! It seems like just yesterday that it was Y2K. What happened?

Several eventful things have happened since I posted last......

The first thing that happened is that I got released from my Young Women's calling. I will really miss those girls though. They are really great girls!!

Then, for the next several weeks we all took our turn having the stomach flu except for Todd. There's nothing I hate worse than cleaning up vomit from kids' beds. It seemed like I was constantly doing laundry. I was sick for a few days and on the last night I had such bad stomach pains that I couldn't even sleep. I was up from 1:00 am until 3:00 just holding my stomach and moaning because it hurt so much. I felt like I had to go to the bathroom a little, so I sat there on the toilet (please don't get a visual of this.......) with my head down against my knees rocking back and forth from the pain, and tried to push anything out that I could to try and make myself feel better. Well, I pushed a little too hard because the next thing I knew I had the most intense headache of my life!! It hurt much more than my stomach did at that point, so I dragged myself back to bed and managed to eventually fall asleep. In the morning my head was still pounding so Todd gave me an ibuprofen tablet and took the kids to church while I fell back asleep. When he got home at 2:30 p.m. my head felt a little better from the pain reliever, but it was still intense. I felt really spacey and like something was really wrong with me, so I looked up my symptoms on webmd and it said that I could have an aneurism and to get to the hospital asap. Todd said that his grandfather died of an aneurism, and I was really freaked out. I called Carol and luckily she was home from Sunday School, so she came over and watched the kids while Todd took me to LDS hospital. I cried all the way there thinking about what could happen to me, and thinking about leaving my children without a mother. It was not fun!

When we got to the emergency room I told them my symptoms (including the part where I pushed too hard on the toilet - how embarrassing!!!!!), and they rushed me in to see the doctor without having to wait. They gave me a shot of morphine in my IV (which was horrible - that is the worst feeling, losing control of your body like that) and wheeled me in to get a CAT scan, at which point I started to cry again (I think because the initial rush of the morphine was making me feel really panicky and strange). I haven't been that scared in a long time. I also had to get a spinal tap to check for blood in my spinal fluid. Gotta love those spinals. Todd said it was almost identical to getting an epidural during childbirth (of which I had 6 - I had to get 3 with Emily because the first two didn't work). So, after all of that was over and all of the tests came back negative - THANK HEAVENS!!!!! - we went home. The doctor said that it could have been caused from the virus, and said that if anything got worse to let him know. I felt much better the next day and even better the day after that. So, the big lesson learned from all of this is "Don't push too hard when you're on the toilet". We just got the bill from that little ER visit and it was $2,500. It will cost us $1,000, which is our deductible. That's an expensive lesson to learn, don't you think? But, I'm just glad that I'm okay and that I am alive to see another year.

After that, I concentrated on Christmas stuff. I decided to start scanning my mothers' photo albums that I've had for over 4 years to make a DVD for my sisters for Christmas. I was just going to do a few of them but I kept doing "just one more". I scanned about 11 or 12 albums and made a slide show on a DVD, but I'm just over half way finished. It's nice to be able to have them on disc and I'll be glad to get rid of the 2 huge bins of albums that I've been storing in my garage. Hopefully it won't take me another 4 years to complete. This is a picture I found of us filming "Mr. Krueger's Christmas" with Jimmy Stewart (who's standing up in the sleigh) back in 1979 I think. Heather is in the pink coat, mom, April, Marsha and me in the yellow coat. I don't know where Carol or my dad were. That was a neat experience.

Another fun one with all of us before my mission:

Anyway, to close this VERY long post, we had a wonderful Christmas together, and it's always so much fun having kids around and seeing their excitement. Happy New Year everyone!!

Our month in pictures

2008-11-08T14:20:00.000-08:00

Since I never have anything interesting or witty to blog about, I have a hard time finding things to post. So, I'll just post some pictures to show what's been happening this month....We watched Cali while the Bickels were in California over UEA Break. One afternoon we went to the park for a picnic. We had so much fun running around and taking Cali for runs on the grass.
We took the kids to Cheesecake Factory for lunch, which they've been wanting to do for a long time. It's been nice having a husband around again (at least until the next tax season begins).

Kneeling down for prayers (after putting the girls' hair into rag curls)

Crazy hair day at school

Walking around Temple Square (Maria was trying to block the sun)

I'm glad it wasn't me

2008-10-03T16:51:00.000-07:00

My cute friend Melissa posted this on her blog and I thought it was too funny not to share. I had a good laugh:

http://jordangarn.blogspot.com/2008/10/is-your-sanity-accounted-for-have-you.html

Todd's Fun Day at Work

2008-09-21T16:31:00.000-07:00

This happened to Todd last month and he finally wrote it down for me so I could include it in our blog. Enjoy!!

It was the first of August and work was getting to be very busy with the looming tax deadlines approaching quickly. I got up in the morning and went into work like it was any other day. The day was going along just fine with me preparing tax returns and dealing with other tax issues for clients. The time came for lunch and Scott, Troy and I decided to leave for lunch at around 12:20 PM to go to Costa Vida up in Colonial Square here in Bountiful. We had a normal lunch and then as we returned to the office at around 1:00 PM the fun began.

As we walked in the door to the office, I saw Gail Anger and Wendy Burnett talking at the front desk. Gail turned to me and said that I needed to call officer Miller of the Salt Lake City Police Department in regards to possible Anthrax that I sent to Workforce Solutions. I figured he was just joking because it sounds so ludicrous and we joke around at work all of the time. I said, “Yea, right. You’re joking”. He said no he wasn’t joking and he had the number to call written down on a yellow pad of paper. As I was looking at the phone number on the piece of paper, my cell phone started to ring. As I took it out of my pocket, I saw the phone number on the screen and it happened to coincide with the number on the yellow pad of paper that Gail was holding. My heart immediately began to beat very quickly and I was getting pretty scared at this point believing that what he had said earlier was really true. As I answered the phone and said hello, the voice on the other end of the line said, "Hello Mr. McKinley, this is Officer Miller of the Salt Lake City Police Department." Uh oh, I thought. He proceeded to ask if I mailed anything to Workforce Services. Gail Anger had said Workforce Solutions, which is a client of mine. I had just prepared their payroll reports at zero for the quarter and mailed them directly to the Utah Department of Workforce Services around the 29th of July. So naturally thinking it was my client, I said that I had not mailed anything to them. He said that I had mailed it to them and that some lady had opened the envelope I had sent, and a white powder fell out of it. They thought that it was possibly Anthrax and they had taken every precaution. They had called in the Salt Lake Police Department, the Fire Department, Hazmat and the FBI. Now I was even more nervous, trying to figure out what in the world he was talking about. My mind was racing to figure it out. I kept denying that there was any possible way I could have mailed anything to them. He said that they had the form with my signature on it and that the envelope came from my office here and read me the address. I said to him that it was me but I didn't remember ever mailing anything to my client. I then asked where he was at and when he mentioned that he was downtown at the state offices on 300 South near State Street, I said that I finally understood what was going on and that I had indeed mailed those reports to them. I realized that they were calling from the Department of Workforce Services and not Workforce Solutions like I had thought. I guaranteed him that it was not Anthrax. What it was, I did not know, but Anthrax it was not. He then asked if I had eaten any powdered doughnuts at my desk while preparing those reports. I said that I had not, but then remembered that we had just celebrated Diane’s birthday in our office and that we had a white cake with white frosting on it. I had been eating a piece at my desk while preparing those reports and didn't even think about it. I apologized profusely about it and promised him that I would never eat cake with white frosting at my desk again while preparing those reports. He then took down all of my information for his report. I had a terrible rest of the day thinking that I had the police department, fire department, Hazmat crews and the FBI all looking for me in regards to white cake frosting that they had thought was possibly Anthrax.

I then proceeded to tell everyone about my ordeal. They all couldn’t stop laughing about it. I came home from work later that day and went over to help Augie with his wall on the south side of his home. When I got there, I said to him, “You will never believe what happened to me at work today”. He said, “I have to tell you what happened downtown today”. Before I could tell him what happened, he told me about what happened just around the corner from his office at the state offices. He told me that they were taking off to lunch and noticed police cars, fire engines, FBI guys and even guys in Hazmat suits coming and going from the building with all of their vehicles out in front of the building. I said to Augie, “I know. I caused all of that”. I then told him all about what had happened with my little phone call from Officer Miller of the Salt Lake City Police Department and how they accused me of sending Anthrax in the mail when it was just cake frosting. What a day!

The Magic of Disney

2008-09-15T21:56:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite movies of all time is "Enchanted". One thing I loved about it is the fact that Giselle, the main character in the movie, is so sweet and nice, and has such a positive outlook on life. I think we could all learn a lot from her. She looked for the best in people and wasn't cynical. I also loved the song, "How Does She Know?" about telling the people that you love how much you DO love them and how important it is to do nice things for them. How many marriages and relationships would greatly improve if we would all do that? Can you imagine how happy we would all be?

I've heard some people say that Disney is evil and that parents who call their daughters "princess" and exposing them to movies that are all about "marrying your prince and living happily ever after" is a horrible thing to do for your children because you warp them and make them think that life is all about being beautiful and finding a man to make you happy. What???? I don't get it! We are all born with a desire to marry and have a family. Who dreams of marrying a jerk? Who secretly desires to be ugly? We all want to be loved and to think we're special and beautiful, don't we? Whether we watch Disney movies or not, don't we all want to live happily ever after? My children and I are of royal lineage, so why not treat them like it and call them a princess? Yes, it's important to be smart and realistic about life, but I don't think there is anything wrong with the great movies that Disney produces. They make you feel good and are so magical. How can that be a bad thing?

As for me, I'll keep enjoying the great movies that Disney puts out about beautiful mermaids, sweet girls who dream of finding their prince charming and escaping their life of being a servant, and positive examples like Giselle, who can teach us some good life lessons about how to treat the people in our life. Popcorn anyone?

My Quirks - I've been tagged!

2008-09-15T16:15:00.001-07:00

Kellie tagged me for this post, so here I go.....I'm supposed to list 6 quirks that I have:

Quirk #1: I HAVE to have all of the light switches going the right way. If a light in my house has 2 switches to it, and the light is off but the switches are up, it drives me crazy and I will go out of my way to turn both switches so they are both down. Maybe that doesn't even make sense to anybody else, but trust me, it bugs the snot out of me. Todd just laughs.....The same goes for my new front doors. The guy installed the lock to be the opposite of my other locks, so the front one is verticle when it's locked, and the others are horizontal. Aaaaaagh.

Quirk #2: I have 2 phones in my house and one of them says "upstairs" and the other says "downstairs". If I find that the upstairs one is downstairs I have to switch them around. Weird, I know.....

Quirk #3: Pictures hung on the wall need to be straight. One time Todd and I were in a nice hotel and the mirror that was hung by the elevator was crooked. I walked over there to straighten it out and it was nailed or glued to the wall that way!!!!!! Who does that? We can never stay in that hotel again. :)

Quirk #4: I smell things. Ever since I was a little girl I would smell things and smell my fingers after touching things. I would even grab my mom's feet and smell them. I'm SO weird!!!

Quirk #5: I am a counter. For as long as I can remember I've counted squares, tiles, anything, and then found the middle of the row I'm counting. If I'm watching a movie and there is a line of people, I'll count how many people are in line and then find the middle. If I'm sitting in church and I get bored, I'll count the decorative holes in the brick up on the stand, and then find the middle. I have actually tried really hard not to do that in the last few years just because it seems so OCD, so I don't do it as much, but every once in a while I'll catch myself, "One, two, three, four......"

Quirk #6: I can't think of the 6th thing, but I'm sure if given enough thought I can come up with a few more........

Okay, I just thought of it (several days later). In my head I'll think "Oh Geez" A LOT!! Which is so bizarre, because I don't ever SAY that. And growing up we were never allowed to say words that were slang for Diety like "Oh my gosh...Gee...etc." so thinking that in my mind is just weird!! Especially because I think it all of the time. Oh Geez!!

Family Prayers

2008-08-30T19:38:00.001-07:00

Kids say the funniest things! Tonight during family prayers (someone says the family prayer and then we all say our personal prayers silently after that), Emily was saying her private prayers out loud, which she always does, and she said, "please help us to not have a bad day, taking one down, sing a sad song, turn it around. In the name ......" We all started laughing because the kids love the Daniel Powter song "Bad Day" and they sing it all of the time. Emily usually asks in her prayers that we'll have a good day, but she switched it up tonight. Too funny!!

A Whole New Look!

2008-08-04T23:00:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the great talents of Kellie I have a new header to my blog. Thanks, Kellie!!! You know how I love purple!.

Update on front hall

2008-08-04T13:20:00.001-07:00

It's finally finished! It's not decorated exactly how I want it because I can't find a column or table small enough, but it will have to do for now. It feels so good to finally have it finished. I can rest easy now!!

Our exciting camping trip

2008-08-02T20:50:00.001-07:00

Todd and I went camping this weekend with some other families from our ward. We reserved the Blackhawk campground near Payson and got up there at about 3:30. At about 9:30 the last family in our group came and said that there was a fire down below at the beginning of the canyon, but the fire marshals thought it would be okay for them to come up to Blackhawk. As some of the adults were sitting around the fire at midnight (with most everyone else asleep in the tents), we heard someone honking in the parking lot. After a few minutes our friend went over to investigate and it was the camp manager. She told him that the fire marshals wanted everyone to evacuate the mountain. There were 50 foot flames and the winds were really bad so they were afraid it was going to spread very fast.

So, everyone in the campground started scurrying around trying to take everything down in the dark and get sleeping kids in the car. By the time everyone in our group was ready to go it was 1:00 a.m. and we had to wind down the Nebo Loop over to the Nephi side to evacuate. It took over an hour to get down the mountain to Nephi and then we got home at 3:45. It was quite an eventful night!! But, it was neat to see everyone in our group come together and help each other and make sure every family was taken care of and that their needs were met in order for us to all be able to leave together.

This is where it started (from a downed power line)

Miss Em's

2008-06-20T21:06:00.000-07:00

This is the image that I see every morning when I get out of the shower. Emily is there smiling and waiting for me with towel in hand. How lucky am I? She's such a cutie!!

Jane Clayson Johnson

2008-05-10T16:25:00.000-07:00

For our Young Women's combined lesson tomorrow for Mother's Day we are spotlighting several women in the church that are great examples of motherhood: Lucy Mack Smith, Sister Marjorie Hinckley, Sariah from the Book of Mormon, and I'm doing Jane Clayson Johnson. As I read her book, "I Am A Mother", I learned so much from her and was so impressed with what she had to say. I also found a talk that she gave for the 2006 Conference on the Family that reminded me a lot of the talk I gave in Sacrament Mtg. back in 2004, which I referenced in my earlier post titled "My Strong Opinion" about working mothers. Here's a link to her talk:

http://www.amiutah.org/letsgohome/clayson.html

I love this video!!

2008-04-22T09:08:00.000-07:00

This video is just one example of what a great father my children have. I heard this going on in the next room last year and grabbed the video camera. How fun is that?

Mission Memories

2008-04-08T20:32:00.000-07:00

Last week Sarah flew in from California to stay for a few days and go to our mission reunion. It was SO great to see some of the missionaries again. I wish more of them had come. I've been home for almost 19 years now (gasp! Can I really be that old?). I served with and around some of the greatest people. They are some of my very best friends. We're bonded for life. I even love the spouses that the Elders and Sisters married. They chose well.

After Sarah went home I had a quiet moment to think about my mission and what it meant to me. I ended up crying tears of joy just thinking about it. It really was the greatest 1 1/2 years of my life and the best decision I've ever made, other than marrying Todd. I had a strong testimony before I left, but it became even stronger. I was painfully shy and couldn't talk to anyone I didn't know without dying inside, but I was able to get past it and get more out of my shell and gain a little confidence. I went on a mission to teach people about the gospel of Jesus Christ and to give to others because I felt so blessed, but I ended up getting way more out of the deal than I gave. I am SO grateful that I was blessed with such an amazing experience, and that I met so many wonderful people. I am also incredibly blessed that I was able to serve under such an amazing man as Robert S. Turley. He and Maureen (who died about 12 years ago) were such a wonderful example in my life and I love them both dearly. This is a picture of him with his new wife, Faun, who is a pretty amazing woman herself.

Reflections of Christ

2008-03-31T20:22:00.001-07:00

My sister forwarded me this link today and I was amazed at what I saw. What beautiful pictures!! It really made me emotional. I hope I'll be able to see all of them sometime, since the exhibit is no longer there (and I'm not going to Arizona anytime soon). Check it out.

http://www.reflectionsofchrist.org/index.jsp

Sunrise, Sunset

2008-03-25T11:47:00.000-07:00

My mom could never listen to the song, "Sunrise, Sunset" from Fiddler on the Roof without crying. She never wanted us to grow up and leave her and she felt like the time was passing by too quickly and we were growing up too fast.

(Me as a little girl - I didn't stay little for long)

Well, now that I'm a mother, I know exactly how she feels. I was looking at my pictures and came across these:

Joseph

Andrew

Emily

Maria

Joseph

Maria

Andrew & Joseph

Happy Birthday, Mom!

2008-03-18T13:07:00.000-07:00

My awesome mother would have been 67 years old today. She's been gone for 3 1/2 years now, but I still really miss her. I actually had a dream that she came back to life the other night. It was SO amazing. I wish my children could spend lots of time with their Nana and remember everything about her. Only my boys remember her, but as time passes they remember her less and less, which makes me pretty sad.

Here's to such a fun, loving, kind, smart, beautiful woman!! Happy Birthday, Mom. I love you!!!!

Pretending to be on "Tower of Terror" at Disneyworld

Eleanor as a blond

I have the greatest sisters in the world!!

2008-02-17T15:13:00.001-08:00

We decided for my nieces 16th birthday that we'd get together and have a girls night out and include a makeover for her, with a professional hair cut at a salon. Marsha was planning on coming from Colorado that weekend anyway so we were totally excited. Especially since she's been a makeup artist and she was going to be doing the makeup part of it. Unfortunately, there was a problem with her ticket so they wouldn't let her on the plane. She and April decided that morning to have a "consultation" and makeup class over the internet with our web cams. Well, this is the email that we received earlier that day. Talk about clever!!

Thinking that Utah is a barren wasteland without Marsha?
Miss her artistic ability terribly?

How would you like to participate in the first ever Marsha Bowen Makeup Artistry WEBINAR? Now YOU CAN!!!

Where: McKinley's Design Studio for Hotties in Bountiful, Lower Level
When: Saturday, February 16th ~ 4:00 PM

Be prepared to be dazzled and dazzling!

Isn't that the cutest? Anyway, it turned out really well, even though it was just through the web cam, and we all had a great time. Katherine looked AMAZING with her beautiful hair and gorgeous face, then we went to dinner and did a little shopping. We need to do that more often.

Katherine's haircut Marsha's "Health vs. drama" white board presentation

The finished result! Two beautiful girls!!

abc's.....

2008-02-17T14:47:00.000-08:00

Okay, I've been tagged, so here it goes.....

A-Attached or Single?- Attached... totally! Don't miss those single days.
B-Best Friends?- Todd and my kids, my sisters (and those who are my adopted sisters. You know who you are......)
C-Cake or Pie?- It depends on the kind. I LOVE chocolate, carrot, banana cake (not all together :) ) but I love a really good pie with ice cream. If forced between only the two I'd have to choose cake.
D-Day of Choice?- Saturday if Todd's not working that day. If he does, then Sunday.
E-Essential Item?- Tivo (love that!), and my makeup (I'd be SO scary looking without it!!)
F-Favorite color?- PURPLE!
G-Gummy Bears or Worms? Anything sugar. I'm an addict.
H-Hometown?-San Jose, born, Salt Lake City, raised, but Bountiful is where my heart is!
I-Favorite Indulgence?-Dark chocolate mint truffles. Yum!!
J-January or July?-July totally!!
K-Kids? - Andrew, Joseph, Maria and Emily. Hard to imagine life without them!
L-Life isn't complete without?- my family!!!
M-Marriage Date?- September 6, 1997 (my parents anniversary as well)
N-Number of brothers and sisters?- 4 sisters, 1 sister in law, and 5 brothers in law.
O-Oranges or Apples? - Both - together! There's nothing better than fresh juiced oranges and apples together. Heaven!!
P-Phobia and Fears? - Loved ones dying. I also hate scary movies and haunted houses.
Q-Quote? - “Whenever something hurts us in life, we have a choice to make. We can become bitter or better”
R-Reason to smile?- my children's laughter and the cute things that they say.
S-Season of choice?- Anything but winter.
T-Tag three people?- I don't know anyone else that blogs that hasn't already done this.........
U-Unknown fact about me?- I had my first cavity last year. I am a sugar addict (trying to break that habit). I just asked Todd, and Joseph said, "You smell good".
V-Vegetable?- Love avocados (or is that considered a fruit?).
W-Worst habit?- Andrew just told me it's getting mad at them.
X-X-Ray or Ultrasound?- Ultrasound. When I first saw pictures of my cute little babies. I associate X-Rays with something bad (broken arms, pneumonia, etc.)
Y-Your favorite food?-WAY too hard to just pick one! I love food.
Z-Zodiac Sign?-Scorpio

Boring, I know, but there it is!

Dance Recital

2007-12-22T21:48:00.000-08:00

The kids had a mini dance recital last week. They (Joseph especially) was wanting to quit taking lessons because he said he was getting bored with it. After the recital they had such a good experience performing that they all decided that they wanted to continue. Each class had a different spin on one of the Nutcracker dances. Maria was a chinese doll and the boys were Russians. They were all SO cute!! Maria was pretty shy and after walking out and seeing all of the people just stood there after doing 3 moves. The boys were darling!! I wish our video camera battery hadn't gone out that morning. They were so good and I was so proud of all 3 of them!!

P.S. By the way, the boys' dance teacher is Gev Manoukin who was on "So You Think You Can Dance" Season 4. He missed a ton of lessons because he was trying out for the show and then the boys quit. It was awesome seeing him on TV, though. We were definitely rooting for him.

Super Fun Family Vacation

2007-12-22T21:39:00.000-08:00

So we're back! We had an awesome time in California. It was so great to see the excitement in the kids faces as they saw and experienced things for the first time. Here are a few pictures....

3 more days!!

2007-11-28T16:15:00.000-08:00

We are going on our first ever McKinley family vacation on Sunday!! Woohoo! We are all SO excited. We're going to be going to Disneyland, and the kids keep asking me how many more days until we go. I've been busy trying to get things ready as well as do my regular routine and get some Christmas shopping done before we go. Hopefully we'll be all ready to go by then.

We had a great Thanksgiving and enjoyed spending time together as a family without worrying about the kids going to school or Todd going to work. Todd and Augie are finishing the storage room and building shelves so it can finally be organized. I'm SO excited about it. It seems like the disorganization from that room affects the rest of the house so once that's finished I won't have anymore excuses.

Build A Bear Day

2007-10-23T15:45:00.000-07:00

Today was the day that we finally got to take Emily to Build A Bear. We've been keeping a chart for her and if she kept her pants dry for 2 weeks straight then we told we would take her to Build A Bear. She's been eyeing Maria's "Princess" for awhile now, so we thought that would be a good incentive, and it really was! We picked up Todd from work and drove to The Gateway. Emily chose a bear just like Maria's and named her "Honey". Todd and I got to put a recorded message from both of us inside the bear so when Emily squeezes her hand she'll hear us tell her that we love her. They really go all out there and treat the kids very well. It was a fun experience. It's the first time I've ever been there and actually seen how they build the bear, since Gwen was the one that took Maria for her birthday.

Then we went to lunch at Appleby's. On the way home we stopped by Gwen's to use her bathroom (Emily didn't want to have an accident on the way home - what a big girl!) We checked out her tile and grout since we're going to paint it for her. I found this amazing product called Aqua Mix grout colorant that worked wonders on my bathroom tile. It was looking totally dirty and no matter what I cleaned it with it was still discolored and gross (and it's not even a year old - AND I sealed it after it we put it in). I did a search online and found this product and decided to give it a try. It colors and seals your grout for up to 15 years. I did it last month and it still looks so amazing. It looks like it's brand new and doesn't discolor every time it gets wet. I am LOVING it!!

I'm also really excited about my Young Women's calling. It is SO much more work than Primary ever was, but it's amazing what the program is like now. They didn't have this when I was in "mutual". I guess they totally redid the program in 1985 (just after I graduated) and then made another change in 1991 (or was that 2001?). I love the personal progress program that they do now and I've decided that I'm going to start doing it and setting goals.

Not crazy about the pictures.......

2007-10-14T21:51:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I love my boys and think they are both SO darling, but I got their school pictures back the other day and I had to laugh. Joseph is hilarious and is doing one of the worst fake smiles I think I've ever seen. Andrew's aren't as bad, but he looks like he just ran a marathan and is all hot and sweaty. Needless to say I won't be ordering any of these pictures to hang on my wall. Unfortunately they will be in the boys' year book at the end of the year for all to see.

My new calling

2007-10-14T15:24:00.001-07:00

Today was my last day in Primary as 1st counselor and my first day in Young Women's as 1st counselor. It was a pretty emotional day. I got emotional thinking that I won't be serving in the primary with all of the cute kids (and my own great kids), and the other women that I've grown to love so much. Then, when I went into Relief Society for opening exercises with the young women (which they do once a month) I felt like a fish out of water because I haven't been in there for so long. When the girls stood up and said the Young Women values I got emotional because it's so beautiful and powerful. I've only heard it a few times before and every time I do it makes me want to cry. I'm really excited to be in the Young Women's organization because the other leaders are so great and I'm looking forward to getting to know them better, and the young women are so darling, and it will be fun getting to know them on a more personal level. I have 4 meetings this week though. A planning meeting with the girls today, a stake leadership meeting on Tuesday, an activity on Wednesday, and then a presidency meeting on Thursday. Whew! I think I'm in for a wild ride, and a LOT of work!!!

Almost there.....

2007-10-03T11:41:00.000-07:00

I spent several hours last night trying to get things organized and put away and shampooing the carpets.
The cabinets aren't quite ready yet. Still waiting for Troy to fix the lights and the outlet before we can put everything where it belongs.

New curtains on the windows.

Somebody needs more sleep!

2007-09-15T19:45:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting here and it's only 8:50 and I am SO ready for bed. With Todd working late trying to get all of his taxes done for the deadline we get to bed so late at night and the kids seem to get up earlier every morning. I've decided that I'm one of those people that need at least 9 hours of sleep or I don't function as well. So much for 9 hrs. a night......

Plus, I've had a very stressful day. We went to RC Willey so I could win the $2,500 shopping spree. I dragged Gwen along so she could have a chance to win as well. Unfortunately I kept doubting that I'd win so I obviously didn't (although Andrew was SURE I was going to win - he was devastated when my name wasn't called). I need to watch "The Secret" again and brush up on my "law of attraction" positive thinking. After the drawing we looked around the store for awhile while Gwen looked at some recliners. Emily can sure be a handful when she doesn't have a nap. Oh my goodness!! Everything looked like so much fun that she couldn't sit still and stop touching everything. And, it seems like the minute we step foot into a store the boys like to start a wrestling match. Hello?!? Can you just chill until we get home, and then you can go crazy! I just always have false expectations that they're all going to behave like adults when we go out. Go figure!! They really are good kids though. Much better than most kids I've seen. Andrew was so sweet. As we were leaving the store he said, "Mom, I wish you had won the money, then we could buy a bigger house". I had to explain that we need A LOT more than just $2,500, but it was nice of him.

After that Gwen took us to Chuck-A-Rama for lunch (which is the kids' favorite) and Emily had a tantrum right there by the lasagna because she decided that she didn't want it after all, after I had already put it on her plate. It's too bad that someone doesn't invent a napping machine that you can put your kids into and haul them around with you when you can't be home for nap time. She takes after her mother who gets very cranky on little sleep!

We got home and I then had to figure out the seating chart for the Primary Program for what seemed like the 10th time. There were some complaints about where I had people last week, and then my friend pointed out that you can't see the kids in back of the piano seats and I had some of the smallest kids back there. Duh! I spent hours on that thing. You'd think I'd have thought of that, especially after doing a primary program for the last 5 years now. I should be able to do it all in my sleep. I'm just glad that she pointed it out before our practice tomorrow. She was nice enough to go down to the church and help me figure it all out. I don't know what I'd do without her!! I made the mistake of taking the kids with me (not that I had a choice) and they kept running around the chapel having the time of their lives. Is it bedtime yet? Hopefully this is my last primary program. I think 5 years in a row is plenty to be in charge of, don't you? But I know when I'm released I'll miss being in there with my cute kids.

I keep trying to think of how nice and relaxing last weekend was.......Todd and I celebrated our 10th anniversay last weekend. He made all of the arrangments for us to stay in a B & B in the avenues called the Ellerbeck Mansion.

It was a really neat place. An old home built in the 1890's with a lot of charm. After we dropped the kids off at April's house for the night (aaaaahhhhh - peace and quiet at last!) we went to dinner and then back to the hotel.

This is our room upstairs where all the magic happened (called Autumn leaves).....

That morning after breakfast we went down to the Gateway and walked through a few stores and decided to go into the Apple store to drool over the Mac. I am dying for one of those!!! They are amazing and can do so many things! Then we went to see "The Bourne Ultimatum" because Harry Potter wasn't playing there anymore. I know, I know - sacrifice brings blessings, right? I did like the show, but it was sure violent. I would have preferred Harry Potter but Todd was happy, so that was good. He deserves it!! Then we went to lunch and then back to pick up the kids. I really do miss them when we're not together, but it's SO nice to have a break once in a while. Especially since I'm basically a single mom 6 months out of the year during the busy seasons for tax time. Only one more month until Todd gets to start coming home at normal hours again (for at least a few months anyway).

2007-08-31T21:31:00.000-07:00

Well, the kids had their first dance classes this week and they LOVED them!! Maria liked her creative movement class but didn't really share much about it when we got home becaues she was mad that we didn't walk home like I thought we were going to. Never tell a child that they're going to do something and then not do it. Big mistake!! I didn't realize that the hill down to the class was so steep and didn't have sidewalks, and it was blazing hot outside. Not wanting to walk up the hill with all four kids, I walked over to school and got the boys during her class time and we walked home (the non-steep way) and then picked her up in the car when her class was over. She was not a happy camper (and she can sure scream and slam doors when she's mad - I think she probably gets that from her daddy hehe;) ) Anyway, back to the fun dancing week, the girls and I sat in on the boys' breaking/hip-hop class today. It was so much fun watching them learn new things and copy what the teacher was doing. They were adorable. I would have loved to watch Maria's class too, but maybe I can do it another day. When we got home I downloaded the Usher song (U-turn) that the teacher was dancing to and let the boys practice. They had a lot of fun and are looking forward to next week.

The boys started school on Wednesday and Maria starts pre-school on Tursday of next week. The boys love their teachers and have had a great week. Other than that nothing exciting has been going on here other than Todd is in the middle of another busy season at work. Let the countdown begin......

My kids are growing up on me! :(

2007-08-16T18:18:00.000-07:00

Joseph keeps wanting to mow the lawn just like his big brother, so today I finally decided that he could. Andrew gave him some pointers and helped him along the way, and he did such a great job!! It's been so nice the last 2 summers not worrying about having to mow the lawn (not that I did it anyway - thanks to Todd).

The older three kids are loving their swimming lessons and have really improved in the last week. It's so fun to see them get more confident in the water.

Here are some more fun pictures that I took this week.....

Dance, Dance, Dance

2007-08-12T21:07:00.000-07:00

Because we are such "So You Think You Can Dance" fans and the kids watch it over and over and try to mimic all of the moves, I decided to sign them up for dance classes. Maria will take creative movement and Andrew and Joseph are taking a breaking/hip-hop class starting in a few weeks. They are so excited! So next time you see them, ask them to show you some of their "sweet moves".

Fun Weekend

2007-08-12T20:45:00.000-07:00

We just had a really fun weekend spending time with my sister Heather and her family, who live in North Carolina. We hadn't seen her 2 older boys since my mom's funeral 3 years ago. They've grown so much and are all so darling. My kids loved it and are sad that they won't be seeing their cousins again for a long time.