A little like his Mom, a little like his Dad...

Landon loves to read! I like to think I have inspired his love of reading.

Landon is fascinated by his Daddy's shoes, especially the cowboy boots. He always races to Eric's side when he is putting his shoes on.

Here's the Answer

I don't think anyone even got close to guessing this! Thanks for playing along!
AND...
Watching this clip gave me an idea. Maybe our next guessing game should be to determine how much our orthodontic bill is going to be. I can't wait to get those teeth straightened out!

Do you think like Allie?

Hi everyone. I thought we'd play a little game. Here's how it works: I'm going to post pictures of what Allie has requested for her birthday gift this year. If you can figure out why she wants these 3 items you're the winner! If you figure it out, you can claim the title of "someone who thinks like Allie", an honor not bestowed on many. Good luck!

A weekend away...

with my 3 favorite people. For Mother's Day this year I told Eric that instead of a gift I would like to have him and the children plan a fun activity that we could do together. I had in mind something along the lines of a picnic or an outing to get an ice cream cone. Maybe I should have elaborated a little because what I got was far beyond my expectations!

Eric booked a condo for us in beautiful Midway for 2 nights. But, it gets even better. Not only did he arrange for a great place for us to stay but he also took it upon himself to call my Primary counselor and asked her to cover Sharing Time for me this week as well as my Ward Council meeting. It doesn't get much better than that. I must give a shout out to Lisa here as she was the one who took on the bulk of my responsibilities yesterday--thanks, Lisa!

Here is a taste of what we did and saw this weekend:

We spent quite a bit of time just hanging out in the condo in our PJ's. It was awesome to just kick back and relax. Landon has developed a fondness for his blue blanket and loves to carry it everywhere with him. He especially loves to drape it on his head and walk around. This has resulted in more than a few bumps and bruises.





I wonder where he learned it from?


The cutest little sad face I've ever seen.

Cascade Springs.




We saw 2 ducks, 2 snakes, and a few fish at Cascade Springs.

Playing their own version of shuffleboard.

And chess.

Playing in the water...always a favorite!

Even dandelions are pretty in Midway.

FHE...Allie Style

Our family was treated to an interesting Family Home Evening lesson and activity tonight courtesy of our sweet little Allie.

We had a schizophrenic lesson given in true 7 year old style. Allie began her lesson with a couple of easy questions followed by one that stumped both Eric and I: "How is our family like a hotel?". Do you think you know? The correct answer, according to Allie of course, is:

• Eric is like the hotel manager. The boss. The one who tells the rest of us what to do.
  
• Yours truly is the maid/room service. Duh. That's what Mom's do...that's why.
• Allie is the one who gives the wake-up calls. (This one really makes no sense as we typically have to work very hard to get her out of bed every single morning. I guess she does get creativity points for this one. Maybe she was trying to do a little reverse psychology on us?)
  
• Landon is the entertainment. The one who makes the rest of us happy. (The only job description that I don't take issue with.)
  

We worked really hard at keeping a straight face while she explained this to us. Following this portion of the lesson Eric and I got to search the house for clues Allie had hidden in her own version of geocaching. It's going to be a while before she gets assigned to give the lesson again.

Why I'm Grateful to Be a Mother

Being a mother means that I have children to make me smile. Allie gave me a flower, a picture frame with a picture of her, and a booklet. The booklet was a compilation of her thoughts about me. It was very sweet. Reading it may lead one to erroneously believe that I am the perfect mother. Thanks for making me feel so good Allie!

My sweet little Landon is always making me smile. I could seriously just sit and watch him all day long. Take a peek at what he spent his morning doing:


Eric (yes, I basically consider him to be one of my children too) gave me a terrific gift. I will write much more about that later this week. All I can say is: THANK YOU. And a big thanks to Lisa, Cindy, and Julianne for making Eric's gift a possibility!

I Loved this Book!

Rules of the Road by Joan Bauer. It is a CLEAN young adult novel about a young girl who excels at selling shoes (random, I know). She becomes the chauffeur for elderly Madeline Gladstone and learns some important lessons for successfully navigating the road of life.

Geocaching!!

Allie and I discovered a great new family activity this last weekend, geocaching. It was a ton of fun, I recommend it to everyone! We went up Provo Canyon's South Fork to Big Springs where I like to ride horses. A couple of guys from work joined us, Todd Jarvis and his family as well as Allen Sproul. Basically what you do is you look up the coordinates of a cache on www.geocaching.com, download or enter them into a GPS and then go find the cache. These caches are usually in a PVC pipe or an ammunition box and are stashed around town or in the mountains. Inside of them are various trinkets that you can trade out for a trinket you brought along, usually there is a logbook that you sign as well. Sometimes the trinkets can be tracked on geocaching.com. One of the trinkets we traded for can be tracked, it started out in Quebec, Canada and has traveled more than 4,000 miles. Tomorrow we are going to go and find two more with Landon and Stacie.

Does anyone else need help sorting out their identity?

I managed to get "permission" for Dad to post on Mom's blog. I must say, it makes things in blogging land easier when everyone posts and comments with their own names and not under an assumed identity. So...with that, I would like to officially welcome Poppy to blogging. LOL, Dad. (For those who are less techno babble savvy, LOL means "Lots of Love"!)

Awake, Arise, and Come Unto Him

This was the theme for this year's BYU Women's Conference. I am so glad that I had the opportunity to go. It was a great experience to be taught, entertained, enriched, and enlightened. It is something that I hope to be able to do each year if my family circumstances allow me to be absent for a couple of days. I thought that I would share a couple of my experiences with you:

*My very first experience was not a good one. I was with my Mother-in-law, Karma, who has a handicapped parking pass thanks to her back surgery. We waited in a very long line to enter into what was designated as the handicapped parking lot. When we had only moved a couple of inches after 20 minutes of waiting I decided to jump out of the car and make sure that we were in the right place. I had seen a traffic officer that I thought I would be able to easily track down. I couldn't find him so I decided to go and ask some ladies that were just getting out of their car. They told me that despite the many empty spaces in this lot they were instructing people to drive down to the Stadium Parking lot and then take a shuttle to the Marriott Center--something that wasn't sitting well with any of the handicapped ladies thus the loooooong wait at the parking lot. I was satisfied with that because as long as they were willing to shuttle us right back here that was a good solution for our parking issue. So I headed back to where I had left Karma (surprisingly enough she hadn't moved at all). On my way some lady started calling out to me. She begged me to move one of the parking barricades for her. When I told her that I couldn't she explained to me that she was the organist for the opening session and that she had been waiting in line for 45 minutes and that she was already very late to check in. She continued to plead with me saying that she would inform the traffic officer of her urgent situation and the reason why she asked me to move the barricade. I stood there for a minute considering my options. I had no way to verify who she was but I felt really bad for her...so I did it. I moved one parking barricade. As soon as she went through I immediately closed the road off much to the annoyance of MANY people who tried to ram their way in before I could seal the entrance off. I even had to physically block one lady from pulling in before the barricade was back in place. She returned my favor by unleashing a torrent of bad words right at me. I apologized, quickly explained why I had moved the barricade for the previous vehicle, and then ran for my life as she continued to holler at me. When I got back in the car Karma said that she had witnessed the whole thing and that she was worried that I was going to be thrown into BYU jail. At that point I was seriously ready to pack up and head home. Thankfully I didn't because the rest of the experience was wonderful. Oh, and by the way, the lady who asked me to move the barricade was in fact the woman who was sitting at the organ through the first session.

*Every one of the classes I attended was very uplifting and inspiring. I don't feel like one single minute of my time was wasted.

*Visiting with other sisters from all over the country was a neat experience. It was fun to compare and contrast our lifestyles with each other.

*I realized that I haven't attended Relief Society for the last 7 years thanks to my callings in Young Women's and Primary. Being taught by other women on an adult level is something that I have missed. I LOVE serving in Primary, but it was a nice change of pace for me for a couple of days.

*It was so nice to spend some quality time with my Mother-in-law, whom I enjoy very much.

*Of the 7 classes I attended, 5 of them referenced a talk given by Elder Dallin H. Oaks entitled Good, Better, Best. I loved this talk when he gave it and it was a good reminder for me that the truths taught in this address have vast application in our lives.

*I came home with several practical ideas for how to strengthen and fortify my home and family.

*I got to have yummy ice cream from the creamery. That might have been worth the whole trip.

*The BEST experience in those two days for me was being able to attend the closing session where the Prophet spoke. His address was nice and well presented but just being there in the same room as he was is what touched my heart the most. It was so amazing to experience the reverence that immediately encompassed the building when the Prophet began to enter the Marriott Center. In that moment the Spirit was so strong and it was confirmed to me once again that this man is the Lord's prophet on the earth today.

In Memory of Grandpa Hudson

I had prepared this a few days ago when I was looking through pictures for my previous post...I think we've all been thinking a lot about Grandpa over the last few days. I can't believe he's already been gone a year. Boy, do we miss him!