February 29th

I know it's exciting that it's leap year and that we are able to have an extra day in February. But to me it also meant while growing up that I needed to wait one additional day for my birthday. I think I can feel the leap year more than other people when their birthdays come around! If this wasn't leap year, than I would be able to celebrate my birthday tomorrow :)

Mouse Party

If you are looking for a good, creative way to talk to your kids about drugs, and what they do to the brain, check out the website Mouse Party. I like this site because it's animated and let's you understand more on what the different drugs do to our brains to allow us to get that "high" feeling.

The Lion Sleeps Tonight

Saturday, I drove up to Sandy, Utah's South Towne Mall to attend a workshop on a new technique for teaching and performing "Vocal Improv." When I got to the site there was a man there on a small stage setting up a sound system, microphones, etc. He asked me if I sang. I told him I sang a little, but I'm more an instrumentalist. He asked if I played the guitar. I told him I did. He asked me to play his guitar on the stage so he could check his mics and the equalizer for the sound. So somehow I ended up sitting on the stage, at the mall, playing the guitar for a little over 1/2 an hour. Towards the end of this time, I began to play "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" on the guitar. He was able to recognize this song through the chord changes and strumming technique I was doing. He asked if that was the song I was playing. Now at this time, he hadn't start turned on the microphones. He was still setting everything up. So I began to sing the song as I played. I began to laugh though as, at the beginning of singing the song, he turned on the microphones. This helped him as he wanted to check the sound on the microphones for the guitar and voice. It was just really weird for me to hear my voice be REALLY loud at the mall. In addition, I was able to attract a pretty small crowd standing around the stage listening to me sing this simple song. Luckily after singing through the song twice, he had been able to get the sound equalized.

Later that evening I had the privilege of taking my grandma out to dinner. I had not been able to do this for several months. It was so much fun just being able to talk to her again. She has some great stories and adventures from her life.

Road trip

Last weekend, I flew down to Arizona for the President's Day holiday. It was nice to get away from the Utah snow for a few days...

During the weekend I was hoping that my brother and his family would be able to come up from Tucson to see us for the weekend. But their daughter wasn't feeling well at that time, so they were not able to come.

Saturday, my parent's and I decided to drive down to Tucson to see them. I have not seen their home since they moved there. The road trip was a lot of fun. It was about a 2 hour drive one way. It was a beautiful drive as we we took the back roads, instead of the interstate. There was so many different cactus's along the highway. I couldn't believe how tall they were. My mom suggested that we stop and take pictures as a visual depiction of how tall they were. I think with me standing there, it makes them look taller as I am not that tall.

Notice the blue sky in the background...We couldn't even get the entire cactus in the picture because it was so tall. I call these trees "Dr Seuss" trees. They look like something he would have had in his stories. I don't know what they are called, but they were everywhere. My brother lives in a pretty, peaceful area of Tucson. I love how their home was decorated. Jessica has a great sense of style. While we were there, you could tell that their daughter, Eden, was not feeling well. After saying hello to her, she was put down for a nap. We had a short visit with them, but it was so nice to just sit and talk. I'm grateful that we had the opportunity to drive down to see them.
Here is a picture of me trying to walk in their apartment parking lot and take a picture at the same time. Notice how their is no snow present. We were told that we needed to walk "across the bridge" to get to their home. "Over the river and through the cactus, to brother's house we go...."
The entrance to my brother' s home. Steven, Jessica and Eden. You can tell that poor Eden is not feeling well. But she looked just as cute as always.
Here my parent's and I are getting ready to do the drive back home. I think one thing I really enjoyed about the trip was just spending time with them in the car. I seriously have some of the "coolest" parent's!!!

Don't Agonize. Organize

Over this past weekend, I had this strong desire and energy to just organize my home. This desire came late Friday night. I spent the majority of the night cleaning and de-cluttering my walk in closet. Saturday I spent the majority of the day working on other areas of my home. It has felt so good this week to not have so much clutter, and to just have my place feeling organized and clean. I was able to organize my closet and other areas in my home so that I now have places to store all of my 3 week food storage my parent's encouraged me to get at Christmas. In fact after cleaning the closet out, I now have more room to store more items if needed. Before this weekend, I thought that would have been the impossible dream.

Did you know...

The Grammy 2008 winner in category of the Best Musical Album for Children was....A Green and Red Christmas" by the Muppets.

Celebration morning!!!

Just so you are aware, I am not celebrating in the sense that my birthday will be in 25 more days.... but in the realization that I had a REALLY good morning. I have been advised to be vague on why I had a good morning, but I just want everyone to know that I had a good morning :) Other fellow Crohnnies, would be celebrating along with me.

I Looked Out the Window and What Did I See...

SNOW, Snow and more snow!!! They say that we have not had this much snow in Utah since 1996. Last week we had 3-4 storms and they are saying we will get more this week. Sunday was the most snow I have ever seen fallen. It was so beautiful! Sometimes I feel like I am living in a black and white movie when the weather is like this. I find it interesting that last winter was the coldest winter Utah had had for awhile, and this winter is one of the most snowiest (is that a word?). I wonder what next winter will bring. It's exciting that although I didn't grow up with winters, I am able to really get to experience it while living in Utah.

Winter wonderland view in front of my home"Max" the Dayton's dog... enjoying the opportunity to be in her own element.Riley and Molly shoveling the driveway to be able to get the van out and go to church.

Riley taking a break and creating a "snow chair" to relax in.

Holly looking "cute" before helping to de-snow the car. Unfortunately she was not able to look like this during church. The hair had to go back in a ponytail.

Molly volunteering to take the snow off of my car because she was already wet.
Feeling like we had to literally "hike" up the driveway to get home.

Results of Groundhog Day

Here are the latest reports one which groundhog saw what during Groundhog Day. I guess by the looks of this report, we really don't know how much longer winter will be. Sounds like Trevor and Lindsay were right on the probability of this fun tradition. I'd be curious regarding what Rattlesnake Day in Arizona is like. If the rattlesnake sees their shadow does this mean 6 more weeks until 100 degrees begins :)

Reports from Groundhog Central:

Chuck Wood - Stickney, Illnois.......NO SHADOW
Punxsutawney Phil - Punxsutawny, Pennsylvania .......SHADOW
Wiarton Willie - South Bruce Peninsula, Ontario........NO SHADOW
General Beauregard Lee - Liburn, Georgia..........NO SHADOW
Pee Wee - Mile Square Farm, Vermont.........SHADOW
Chily Charlie - Woodstock, Ontario.........NO SHADOW
Octoraro Orphie - Quarryville, Pennysylvania..........SHADOW
Metompkin Max - Delmarva Peninsula, Virgina..........SHADOW

Happy Groundhog's Day!!!

Will he or won't he see his shadow?!?
Shadow means 6 more weeks of winter... No shadow means an early Spring

Reports from Groundhog Central:

Chuck Wood - Stickney, Illnois.......SHADOW

Breakfast for Dinner

Our family has a tradition where the family on my mom's side get together for a dinner every 3rd Sunday of the month. We have titled this the "3rd Sunday Dinner." We rotate responsibilities on hosting the dinner, and planning it. My cousin, Holly and I were in charge of it this month. Since we were both out of town this 3rd Sunday, we changed the date for the 4th Sunday this month. The theme for the night was "Breakfast for Dinner." We had scrambled eggs, waffles, sausage, fruit, juice and of course many desserts. This has been a fun tradition I look forward to each month because I know that one night a month I will be able to enjoy good food, fun conversation and get to know my family a bit better. During this dinner we also celebrate all of those who are celebrating a birthday that month. Sometimes it feels like it is just one big party!

Luke, Trevor and Andy celebrated a birthday in January!

After dinner we tend to just sit and talk or play with toys available. At times we are able to be entertained with many of the cool tricks and tumbling gymnastics that the kids have been able to master so far.

At times we find that we need to prepare ourselves for fun with the kids.

Sisters catching up from the past month.