Family History Layouts

Thanks for all the kind comments everyone, on here and at church today.  It is a great feeling to know that I was missed.  I'll try to not be such a bad blogger anymore.  The family history challenge at our forum this month was a template challenge with photos of  family members.  I think these will go great as the opposite side to the pages I did last month with all the names on them.  I don't think I ever posted them here, so I'll post them both for you now.  These were so fun to put together and I know it doesn't have all the vital information, but I think they turned out cool.

On Sacred Ground

Sean and I were lucky enough to get two of the only 3000 tickets for the Payson Temple groundbreaking.  At least we thought we were lucky....... We were so excited to go and even more excited that our boys made the choice to get up early that Saturday morning to attend the broadcast of the ground breaking at the Stake Center.  Once we got their, we realized they got the good end of the deal.  Not really, it was really neat to be able to be there for this historic event although it was cold and raining and did I mention COLD!  I couldn't feel my toes by the end of it.  We had our two huge soccer shade umbrellas and our Levi quilt in the car luckily, so that helped us survive.  It was worth it to be there to hear Brother Oaks speak and feel of the blessings that we will receive by having a temple here.  It was also fun to learn that he had spent some of his growing up years in Payson and went to the green church that we went to when we were first married.  We thought it would be good to head to McDonalds for some hot chocolate and breakfast when we were done, but apparently, the rest of the 3000 had the same idea and the line was super long, so we headed home and made hot chocolate there.

Music

I love the music that is in our home.  I love it when Sean or the boys play their guitars.  I love it that Trevin's favorite class this year is choir.  I love that Travis is taking a music composition class this year.  I made these layouts about the music that my boys love.

SO busy

...and I mean it this time.  Heidi and I have been working non stop trying to get our store/forum/gallery set up and it has been crazy.  I think we have most of the issues ironed out, it only took us a month........  So, if anyone wants to check it out, here is the link.  It has been a great learning experience and I hope my life will settle down a bit now.  I've been back to designing kits the last few days and it is so nice to be creative in that way again instead of putting out fires.

We have had some fun journaling challenges and I've been able to get a few "ME" layouts done that I thought were really fun.  The people I've shown them to were surprised at the things they have learned about me.

The first one was to create a "never" list

I never had any daughters

I never thought I would

I never felt bad that I didn't (except sometimes when I make a really cute girlie kit)

I never thought my dad would get a brain tumor - he seemed invincible to me

I never get tired of eating at the Mexican restaurant on Fridays with my husband

I never learned to whistle

I never run out of ideas for scrapbook kits to design - so far

I never thought I'd change from paper scrapping to digital scrapping

I never regretted making that change

I never liked onions when I was growing up

I never was a girlie girl

I never thought my favorite football team would be the Steelers

I never stop praying for my children

I've never said “no” to a church calling 

I never really liked boating

I never feel calm when I'm flying

I'll probably never be a size 8 again

I never get tired of playing Dumb Schmuck with my boys

I never was very good at the piano or the violin even though I took years of lessons

I've never really been able to carry a tune

I never get tired of listening to my husband and boys play their guitars

I'll never learn how to text as fast as my kids can

I never eat any kind of condiments on my hamburger

I almost never eat a hamburger without cheese

I never pay attention to how we get to places when I'm a passenger

I never get sick when I read in the car

 I never had morning sickness           

I never took dance lessons, but I ended up on drill team in high school

I never wanted to be a cheerleader because I love to watch the sports instead of have my back to the game

I never got my Bachelor's degree because

I never decided what I wanted to be when I grew up

I never like to exercise alone

I never want to move again

I never like to be late

I never was very good at being spontaneous until after I was married

I never go to the grocery store without a menu and a shopping list

I never like to shop

I never learned to serve a volleyball overhand

I've never doubted my Heavenly Father's love for me 

I never will be able to repay my Savior for the sacrifice He made for me

I almost never get stressed out about anything

I never sing at the top of my lungs when I'm alone in my car

I almost never iron

I'll never forget the feeling I had when each of my boys were born

I never get tired of the fresh smell right after it rains or the smell of freshly mown grass

I never remember how to spell chief or license

I never went to my Junior Prom

I never thought it would still bother me, but for some reason it does

Then, for another challenge we had to do a VS layout, so I copied my friend Amy and did a layout with just a little about me.

Popcorn or Ice Cream - usually popcorn

Digital or Paper - never going back to paper

BYU or Utah - BYU all the way!  Go Cougars!

Dress Up or Casual - jeans and a t-shirt  for sure

Small Town or Big City - small town by a long ways 

Survivor or Amazing Race - I can't decide, I love them both

Sneakers or Flip Flops - definitely something I can slip on quickly

Disneyland or Disneyworld - Disneyworld except for the humidity

Roller Coasters or Kiddie Rides - the more thrilling, the more I love it!

Shoes or Bare Feet - the first thing to come off is always my shoes

Coke or Pepsi - neither, I'd much rather have a Dr. Pepper or a Code Red

Heels or Flats - always flats even though my husband is way taller than me

Home Cooked Meal or Eating Out - almost always would rather cook and eat at home

Babies or Teenagers - I've loved having teenagers, the baby stage was fun, but scary for me

Book or Movie - I'd rather read a book any day.  I don't think I've ever liked the movie better than the book.

Glasses or Contacts - I'd rather have contacts, but I don't need them all the time, so glasses wins this one.

The Mountains or The Lake - I'd prefer the mountains, but if there is a lake in the mountains, that works too.

SUV or Mini Van - my husband says he will never drive a mini van, so SUV, plus we need the 4WD for where we live

IE or Firefox - I've always had IE, but I'm really hating it, so I think I'm switching to either Firefox or Google Chrome

Morning Person or Night Owl - neither, I need at least 8 hours, but I'd rather stay up late than have to get up early

Dancing with the Stars or SYTYCD - I'm a SYTYCD junkie all the way, I can't stand watching Dancing With The Stars

Spring or Summer or Winter or Fall - Spring and Fall, I could live with 1 month of Winter and 1 month of Summer and the rest of the months Spring and Fall

ATV or Jeep - I am a control freak when on rough terrain, so I like to be the driver instead of the passenger so ATV, except when we are driving in the car, then I like my husband to drive and I'd rather be the passenger.

Cursive or Printing - I think it is a waste of time to teach cursive in 3rd grade because that is the only time people use it, teachers after 3rd grade don't care.  I hate writing in cursive and almost always print unless I'm signing my name

Smart Money Smart Women Conference

My sister in law Andrea asked Heidi and I to register and go with her to the Zion's Bank Smart Money Smart Women Conference.  It was free, so we figured why not?!  We registered and drove up together and met up with Andrea, her mom, her sister and her other sister in law.

Amanda from the KSL morning show was the emcee and she is very, what shall we call it, energetic would probably be a good descriptive word.  We had a welcome, they had a speaker and gave out some grant money and then we separated for classes.  I didn't really think any in the first breakout session sounded good, so we ended up in one about Investment Clubs.  Kind of like a book club or a bunco club, where a bunch of women get together once a month, pool their money, play the stock market, and have dinner.  Kind of an interesting concept, but not one I think any of my friends would be interested in.

The 2nd breakout session, Heidi and I split with the rest of our group and went to one on Small Business Sales.  It was AMAZING!  The speaker was great, but he talked way too fast for us to take notes.  Heidi couldn't even focus her camera on the slideshow screens to get the information before he moved on to the next one.  He gave us the 3 laws of sales.  There are actually 10, but he only had time for 3.  A normal speaker probably would have only got through one.  We came away with some awesome information that will hopefully help us with our business.

Then we went back and got FREE LUNCH.  They had wraps (not nearly as good as Jaxies) chips, cake and chocolate.  Then they had the keynote speaker, Geena Davis.  She was a great speaker, very funny and entertaining and informative.  It was a great girls day out.  I think I'll have to get my other sisters in law to register and go with me next year too.  We could take up a whole table ourselves if we all get together.

Father and Sons and McKynlee's Birthday

Sean and the boys headed up to Father and sons up Payson Canyon tonight.  Travis had to work, but Tyrel and Trevin were able to go with him.  Sean was kind of bummed because this was going to be Travis' last Father and Sons before his mission.  Since I was left home alone, I went up to McKynlee's birthday party in Draper.  I didn't want to drive alone, so I begged a ride with Todd and Haylee.   Traffic was HORRIBLE.  It took us pretty close to 2 hours to get from Payson to Draper.  Troy kept calling asking where we were, we told them to just go ahead and start, but when we did finally get there, everyone else was just getting out of their cars too, including the family that just lives a couple blocks away.  It was supposed to be at the park, but the weather didn't cooperate so they moved it to the church.

She was such a cutie and loved all of the commotion and noise.

Onion Day Parade and BBQ

Without Grandpa Nielsen as the announcer at the Onion Days parade, we had to fend for ourselves and find a new spot.  We decided on the Montague’s yard.  Apparently, the rest of the world did too.  We crowded in with the rest and watched the parade without any announcer to be heard from our spot.  The Montagues weren’t there, but we soon found out why, Raymond was the Grand marshall of the parade this year.  The funniest entry was the Spanish Fork High School band.  There were only 7 band members.  It was almost comical.  This picture is the entire band other than the leader, not just a part of it.

I think my favorite parade entry was Tuh-Mater, mainly because I got to make this awesome layout with the pictures I took.  Everyone else loved Cosmo though!

After the Labor Day Parade, the kids went with some of the aunts and uncles to the carnival for some rides and then out for snowcones.  Later that afternoon we met at Todd and Haylee’s for a BBQ.  All of the kids, big and small, had fun playing 500, jumping on the tramp, swinging on the swings, digging in the sand, and trying to avoid getting attacked by Deacon with his lightsaber.  It is so fun to see my big boys playing and enjoying their time with their younger cousins.  I love that they still like to play and hang out with them. 

 It was tons of fun and everyone had a great time.