Warmed by the Spirit!

On Friday night at the temple, I snapped this picture of Meagan and I just love how her spirit shines in this picture! To me it just looks like she's saying "hey everyone- look at me, I am a child of God!"

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and we wish you a wonderful New Year!

Baby it's cold outside!

Our friends the Douglas's were in town from sunny Arizona this week and we were lucky to be able to spend some time with them. We had fun taking Cole sledding at Flatiron and everyone just about froze.. especially those warm weather friends!

You may remember from our October blog, Jay was a good friend of Kenyon's way back in Texas about 25 years ago. They lost touch for many years, but recently re-connected and it has been so fun getting reacquinted! I can't even begin to tell you how many things we have in common! Kenyon and Jay have so many great memories of their time together in Houston. They spent most of the time just talking, laughing and reminiscing.

They also brought Meagan and Cole along with them, so it was fun getting to know the entire family! Here is a list of our action packed 22 hour visit...

Noon - Douglas Family arrives

1:00 - 3:00 p.m. hit the slopes (with the sleds)

3:30 p.m.- Scoopology

4:00 - 5:30 Guitar Hero and good long talks

6:00 - 8:00 Dinner at Buca

8:00 - 10:00 Lights at temple square

10:30 - midnight - more talking and laughing

8:00 a.m. Kenyon and Cole hit the boards again
10:00 departure back to Arizona

As you can see - we didn't waste a moment, and had tons of fun! This visit went by WAY to fast! We love you guys and can't wait for our next visit!

Gingerbread House?

If you've ever been to my sister-in-law Amy's blog, you've seen her amazing gingerbread houses.. Well, I've got some competition for her!

Last Sunday evening, some of my YW had a stayover at one of the girls houses, so they could all attend an early morning devotional on Christmas eve! To keep busy and out of trouble, they made ME a gingerbread house. See my ginger bread house below... hmmmm?!??!



Click here to see Amy's gingerbread house! http://tannerjia.blogspot.com/

They almost look identical, don't they? Yes, this is the "finished product" exactly how they delivered it to me..

Christmas with Cousin Eddy!

Remember that movie Christmas Vacation, when cousin Eddy shows up at Clarks in what looks similar to a motor home? Well - this year, he showed up at our house!

On Christmas morning, we had a serious case of mis-matching going on... you've got your red and green Christmas pj's (no it is not knickers, or a kilt like skirt) with snow boots, vikings hat's and a U of U Hoodie! The only thing missing from this photo is one of those cool "dickies" that Eddy wore when Christmas shopping with Clark.

Prepare your eyes for our Christmas morning... your fashion sense may never be the same!

Strangely Similar!

Baby Alex

As the days get closer to Al P. leaving, I keep thinking about baby Alex, big boy Alex and not as much about grown-up Alex. Maybe it's because I miss him already! He's so busy and the days are counting down - according to his mission website, as of today, he has 60 days until he leaves for the MTC. I guess in some ways it's a good thing I never see him, maybe it helps me prepare?!??! Plus - when I do see him - he's so nice to me! On Tuesday night he was here for about 15 minutes and our paths crossed in the hallway, and he grabbed me and gave me the biggest hug ever! As I was enjoying - a thought came to my mind... I wish he were a brat- then maybe I'd be glad to see him "git". Not the case though - I still cling to every moment...

I love this picture of Baby Alex at Christmas. He was probably around 3 or 4.

An overwhelming urge to iron!

Tonight Alex came home and he had purchased a giant, enormous Mexican Flag to hang in our house! Where, you ask? In our dining room of course!

So - He gets it home, and takes it out of the package and it is folded into a million parts, so it's pretty wrinkly. He said - "i'm going to go iron this" and headed upstairs! First of all - I was shocked that he headed in the right direction - I didn't know he even knew where the iron was kept! When he got upstairs - I remembered that I had put the ironing board and the iron away for the housekeeper, so I said "I'll come up and set it up in just a minute", to which he replied... "can't I just set it up?" I was like "ummm sure". So he set up the ironing board, and even plugged the iron in! He turned the temperature to synthetics and was on his way to his first "ironing event". I should have taken a picture. Anyway - as he was ironing, I was thinking "I should be ironing it for him!" Can you believe that? I'm still over-indulging and he leaves in only 72 days. He was almost done, when he dropped the water bottle on the floor - he looked at me and said "I guess I'm still a rookie". I'll have you know that I resisted the urge to take over and I let him finish the entire job all by himself! I'm such a proud Ma!

Soy un hijo de Dios

Be prepared.. this story is both sad AND pathetic.
On Saturday, I went to Missionary Emporium. I needed to pick up some "flags" for the cool little flag stand that Alex has all of his friends state and country flags in. 7 of his 10 friends have their calls so this is our little way of paying tribute and remembering where they are.

Anway - I went into the store, sort of browsed through some Christmas books and then was walking toward the "flag section" of the store, when a plaque caught my eye. This was a painted wooden plaque with vinyl lettering on it. The lettering said "Soy un Hijo de Dios". I, of course, had no idea what it said, but earlier in the day - I rememberd that I had seen the word Hijo and I thought I remembered it meant "son" or something. So I walked up to the clerk at the store and pointed at it and said "what does that say?" She looked at it and said "it says I am a Child of God". In my head I was like "oh my gosh, oh my gosh, here come the tears" but my mouth just said "ok thanks" and I walked away. By the time I turned around I was bawling - you know - the type of tears that just pour and get your shirt and coat all wet in like 30 seconds!

I walked toward the back of the store without making direct eye contact with anything in the store, for fear of making it worse. Which, was a bad idea - the entire back of the store is where the keep all the mission stuff - the "Mexico Flags", "Mexico Shirts", "Mexico Key Chains", "Mexico tie tacks", the Spanish Hymnal... well you get my point.

I basically went running out of the store - crying for my big sister - I called her when I got to the car, and we agreed that me going into those stores unsupervised for the next 6 months is probably not a good idea!

Kenyon gave me a big hug (and condolences) when I got home and when Alex came home 1/2 hour later -he was none the wiser! I'm so brave!

Billy the Kid

Kenyon, Alex and I went to the Billy Joel concert on Thursday, November 29th. It was so good! Alex got a ticket to the concert for his birthday, so his seats were on the floor, but we didn't get tickets in time to go - but luckily, the day of the show, Kenyon got an e-mail from someone on his Porcurpine Cycling team asking if anyone was interested in the tickets. The guy that bought them had to work that night, and he was selling them buy one, get one free! Our seats were great!

The first hour of the concert, he played some of his more obscure hits, going way, way back, but the last 90 minutes of the show - he seriously just rocked out with all of his big hits! He ended the show with both mine and Kenyon's favorites.. "Only The Good Die Young" and "Piano Man".

Mission Call Details...

We are now home from St. George and can provide a little more detail on the opening of Alex's mission call. We had about 40 people in our family / kitchen area for the opening of Alex's mission call.

I sort of interevened a little in this entire process.. here is why! We had heard that the call could come as early as Wednesday, November 21st which was a surprise, because the papers were only delivered to Church Headquarters on Tuesday, November 13th - so we sort of expected the call to come on Wednesday, November 28th. Because we were planning our thanksgiving trip to St. George, our Bishop was kind enough to call the Missionary office and ask if Alex's papers were in process. He found out that they were being mailed. Wow - that was the first rush of adrenaline for all of us.

On Wednesday morning, around 9:15 a.m. I headed to the Midvale post office to check and see if they had arrived - luckily our postman is late to get on the road (we generally get our mail delivered between 4-5 in the afternoon). Sure enough, a kindly gentleman in the post office walked to the back room and walked back out with our daily mail. He looked me in the eye and said "fun times ahead"... there it was - a 9x11 envelope from "The Office of the First Presidency" addressed to Elder Alex Todd Petersen. Holy cow! It was real!

We made phone calls and were able to get most of our loved ones together for the opening. We had lots of interesting guesses from Zimbabwe, to Belize.. 2 friends in the group guessed Mexico. I didn't even end up guessing.... it was just way to stressful for me!

Anyway - it was a great night, and so much fun to see so many people gather around with love and support for Alex. Feel free to check out Al's Mission website at: http://www.missionsite.net/elderpetersen

We have much to be thankful for!

Drum Roll Please...

Elder Alex Todd Petersen has been called to serve in the Mexico City, Mexico Mission. (Spanish speaking.. not Mandarin - Sorry Trav!)

He will report to the MTC on February 20, 2007.

Mexico City Temple

We are so happy for him!

Alex's friend Chris Warden also received his call today! He will be serving in the Oakland California Mission - spanish speaking. Chris enters the MTC on January 9th..

We had about 50 people in our family room / kitchen area! It was so much fun to see all the love and support of Alex's friends and family!

What are you Thankful for?

Besides shoes and lipstick, here is my list... in no particular order..
- my son and husband
- the gospel
- my sister (you know who you are)
- my in-laws
- my extended family
- my BFF's (you know who you are)
- my other friends
- my skin (it's waterproof)
- make-up
- my girls, my calling, my presidency
- hand sanitizer
- my dryer
- laughter
- people who make me laugh (you know who you are)
- prayer
- distractions
- my job
- photographs
- grandma's
- eyesite
- ability to read
- music
- baby fat
- chips and salsa
- grass (fresh cut)
- heat
- massage therapy
- blue eyes (not mine) but I love looking at them
- outside & shelter

What are you thankful for?

I'm all grow'd up!

Yes sir... that's my baby!

19 years and 1 day ago, was the happiest day of my life! That is when I recieved the best give I've ever been given. Alex celebrated his 19th birthday yesterday and I wanted to share some photo's of him growing up! Awwww... Isn't he cute? Alex was born at 1:23 a.m. on "Election Day" 1988. He was born at Cottonwood Hospital and weigh 8 lbs 1 oz. He was such a good baby - happy from the moment he was born.

For his birthday, we had a surprise visit from Grandpa and Grandma Munson, and Aunt Karel and Uncle Gary Robinson who live in Nevada. We went to dinner, with all of them AND of course his "other parent" Deb to the new Cheesecake Factory. A dream dinner! It was so much fun!
Then Deb, Kenyon, Alex and I went to see "The Bee Movie". It's a cute animated film. We liked it! It's actually an animated film with an actual story line.. go figure!

I'll share a couple of my favorite Alex stories...
First, on a warm summers day when Alex was about 2 years old - I told him to go get his clothes, so that he could get dressed. He went into his room, and came back with a turtleneck shirt and a pair of shorts. I took the shirt from him and said "no, you can't wear this!" Of course, his response was "why?", to which I replied "it's too hot!". Alex looked at me confused for a minute, and then walked over to me and held his pointer finger out to the shirt I was holding in my hand and touched it with one tiny finger and said "it's not hot!". It made me realize how literal children are. It was one of the cutest days ever!

Second - when Alex was about 4 years old - a couple of weeks before Halloween, I asked him what he wanted to be for Halloween. He said he wanted to be a "spatula". I was completely confused and could not figure out how in the world I was going to pull that off. I asked him to tell me about the spatula costume.. like "what does it look like?" His response was "you know, like a spatula with sharp fangs and a cape". I then replied "oh, Dracula?" and he said "yeah, Dracula". He knew all along exactly what he was talking about.. I was the one with the problem. He was a cute little "spatula" that year, and by the way, he still has cousins that always call him "spatch" whenever he see's them!

A final story was just a year or so ago. Alex decided that he was going to save time in his life and rather than calling me "mom" he was going to shave some time off his communication timing and shorten me to just "Ma". He was sure that if he did this consistently for the rest of his life, he'd probably shave a good 8 minutes or so off of his "talk time".

I love that boy! Happy birfday Al P. Thanks for being my best gift ever!
Love,
"Ma"

Daffodil Girls

Yesterday we went to "Fiddlefest" at the Tahitian Noni in Provo. Two of my young women - Lauren and Lex are in a Bluegrass band - Daffodil Ridge, and they performed at this festival. There are three of them in the band, Lauren, Lex and their friend Hannah. All are in their junior year at Hillcrest, and all play more than one instrument. Although they were nervous, they did so good - in their first ever public performance. They also have a great manager.. one of the best girls, I've ever met.. Kim - I hope your reading this and weeping a tiny bit... You know it's true - I love you! We all know how amazing you are!

Anyway - check out their website at www.daffodilridge.com
Coming soon to a city near you!

P.S. My favorite song that they sing is "I'll Fly Away". Nice job girls! Al P. Melisa and I are your biggest fans!

Halloween Punkin's

Monday night for FHE was our annual (ok, we've only done it twice) Halloween Pumpkin carving night at the Forrests! I just love this family! We have such a great time with them and I get to hang out with their kids, Andrew (could not care less), Erin (loves me), Duncan (loves everything) and Claire (shy, but loves me too!). We ended up with some rather cool pumpkins - I wish I had gotten a shot of all the pumpkins we did - we had all shapes, sizes and colors.

Kenyon and Erin both did that creepy skeleton face from "Nightmare before Christmas" (I hate that movie). Andrew did a cool "Super Mario", Alex did a "jason mask" Ian / Claire did a cute tigger, Wendy did some cool artsy / lights pumpkin and I did a cute pirate chick pumpkin. Duncan did his own very weird and scary frankenstein pumpkin head!

Good times with our good friends! Love you guys!

Poor Alex is just wasting away!

LOL!! Cool photo, huh?

Alex finally.. (it only took him 3 months to get the courage to do it) asked Lu on an "official date" like... not a hanging out thing, but a real date. They went to Frightmares on a double date with Dustin and Mac on Saturday, then dinner, then went to Andy's "farewell open house" and finally, they went to a movie! Yep - it was like an 11 hour date or something crazy like that!

He said that had a great time and they took these photo's at Lagoon! My other favorite photo is the one of Alex and Lauren in the bottom left had corner of the frame. Clearly, there was no photographer, but they set the camera on the jeep, set the timer and this is what it snapped! It's by far my favorite picture of them, and he said that they laughed so hard at it! They tried again and did much better on the 2nd snapshot!

For those of you with inquiring minds.. He didn't even hold her hand! When I asked him about it - he said "no way, I'm way to scared". Haha..

Nice Chaps!

The people in the left photo and the people in the right photo ARE the same people.

Our friends Ian and Wendy went to a Halloween Party! In the left photo, they are dressed up as a couple in their ward. It's hard to believe that it's the same couple! I love this picture of Ian tho... way to let your hair down Ian! And Wendy, you are one sizzling brunette... but your true colors are my favorite.. blond hair and those sparking blue eyes!

Bye, Bye Jeep!

I'm sort of officially freaking out, which could be why it's 2:30 a.m. on Sunday, October 28th and I'm blogging!

We said good-bye to Alex's jeep on Friday. He sold it to a buddy of his from High School. This is sort of the first "official" mission step and... today - in about 10 hours, he has an appointment with the Bishop to turn in his papers.

We've had the jeep for 10 years - Kenyon bought it new when Alex was 8 and made him a promise, that when he got his drivers license - the jeep would be his. BTW - from a mom's perspective- NEVER.. make that promise unless you really intend to keep it! 4 years ago, Alex held Kenyon to that promise. The deal was that Alex would drive the jeep until he left for his mission, at which time, he would sell the jeep and use the money to pay for his mission!

I must say, what an awesome "Dad" Kenyon is to make that committment and then follow-through. I'm so lucky to be married to such a great guy and lucky to have a son that is pursuing his goal of a mission. Wish us luck! (sniff, sniff).

Official photo of the Mission Papers! (sorry Al)

Boo!

Alex's friend Chelsea is dancing with the Odessey Dance Theatre this year at the University of Utah. They are currently performing "Thriller"! Alex and I went on a double date with Chris and his mom Leela and we had a blast! Here is Chelsea in full thriller mode! Scary girl..

Don't worry - Al really isn't scared!

Do you wanna see what she really looks like? Ready? Get Set... Scroll!!!

Not so scary girl!

Nice Job Chels... we loved watching you perform! Keep it up!

Are "BF's" really "F"?

I guess Best Friends really are Forever!

About 6 months or so ago Kenyon got a call from Jay D. Jay and his brother Brooke had been friends with Kenyon when he lived in Houston his senior year in High School. Once the three of them met, they became great friends, and not only did they play together "mostly church ball" but they worked together too! Well - once Kenyon graduated and went on his mission, although they kept in touch for awhile - they ended up sort of losing touch with each other. Jay said that he's been looking for Kenyon for 20 years. Well - you guessed it - he found him! Jay found Kenyon a few months ago and they have kept in touch since then. Brooke came to Utah a few months ago for a celebration in his brothers family and so Kenyon and I hopped on the motorcycle and rode to Richfield to see him. It was so fun - I got to meet Brooke and his girlfriend Yvonne and her two boys.

Well - when we threw this trip to Arizona together at the last minute - Kenyon talked to Jay and we decided it would be great to finally get together, as they live just outside of Phx.

It was amazing to watch these guys see each other for the first time in 25 years was so fun! Jay, Pam, Meagan and Cole have a beautiful home and invited us over - they were so welcoming and hospitable, it honestly felt like they were just friends we hadn't seen for awhile. We got together for lunch with Brooke and his boys and Jay, Pam and Cole on Saturday. You won't believe this, but Brooke actually named his son after Kenyon. Isn't that cool? These boys were so fun to meet! They are remarkably talented musicians and they brought their guitars with them so they could share their talent. Brooke sang along while they played and we just had such an enjoyable time with them that afternoon!

We were lucky enough to get together for another brief visit on Sunday night before catching our plane - we already miss them and can't wait for another visit!

Thanks for everything you guys.. let's make sure it's not another 25 years before we get together again...

XOXO to our reacquainted BFF's!