Texas Roadhouse Fieldtrip

Ellie and I got to tag along on Leila's preschool fieldtrip to Texas Roadhouse today.  They got to draw on the floors with chalk, tour the kitchen, and shape some roll dough with cookie cutters.  Such a fun time!

Easter 2016

Our Easter activities this year included dying eggs at my mom's and an egg hunt in the park.  Leila couldn't pick up eggs fast enough while Ellie was perfectly content to just have one in each hand.  

Easter is such a special time of year.  It provides a time to reflect on the marvelous, amazing sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  In the words of Elder Neal A. Maxwell, "Christ's victory over death ended the human predicament.  Now there are only personal predicaments, and from these too we may be rescued by following the teachings of him who rescued us from general extinction."

I am so grateful for the light the Gospel brings to my life.  There is so much uncertainty, depression, anger, and hate in the world today.  And life throws curve balls all the time.  But through it all, the truths of the Gospel remain constant.  And this provides a lifeline for me in the midst of everything else.

Passport to Love: Ireland

This month's passport date took us to Ireland and I introduced the evenings festivities with a traditional Irish blessing laid out along with Jason's airline ticket, passport and stamp, and the flyer for the show we went to.

We drove up to Ogden and had dinner at MacCool's Irish Public House.  We started off with two appetizers: bangers & mash and Finn's skins (fried potato slices covered in cheese, bacon, sour cream, and green onions).  Then we split an order of Guinness beef stew with Irish soda bread.

After dinner, we made our way down the street to the Peery Egyptian theater for a Celtic Celebration.  First, the Wasatch & District Pipe Band entertained us with their bagpipes and drums.  Then, the Celtic Beat dancers mesmerized us with their clogging skills (especially amazing since all of them were under 18).  Finally, the Dunmore Lasses band finished off the evening with Irish songs.

We got home late so part of the date extended until this afternoon when I made Irish lemon pudding for us to try.

Ski Day at Brighton

One of the perks to working at Ancestry is that I can sign up to use their ski passes for a day each year.  This year Jared, Ashley, and Taylor came along with me.  We went to Brighton and had one of the most perfect ski days we could have asked for.  There were no crowds, the snow was pretty good, it was warm but not too warm, and none of us crashed too terribly hard.  Big thanks to Mom and Annie for watching my girls overnight and for the day so that I could run off to play!

Flamboyant February

February 4
Sometimes Leila has a really hard time coming home from preschool.  She's always telling me that she wants to live with Miss Penny and she'll often have a good 20 minute meltdown when we come home.

February 7
These two are my best buds.

February 8
Ellie was super sick today.  Poor girl was up all night long and super lethargic all morning.  She just looked miserable.  We took her into the doctor but its just a viral infection that will had to run its course.  Thankfully her fever broke later that afternoon and she started feeling better.

February 14
Leila's turn to be sick.  She too got to go to the doctor because her ear was hurting.  Poor girl is currently terrified of doctors and got herself worked up pretty good in the waiting room.  She survived through and got some antibiotics for the infection.

Later that night we went over to mom's.  With it being the third anniversary of my dad's death, it was a rough day all around.  But it was nice to be able to get together with my family and just be together.  We even had our first family Valentine's candlelit dinner since he passed.  Traditions is one thing my family doesn't lack and even though its hard to continue with some of them without my dad here, I know he'd want us to keep moving forward and keep making memories.

February 15
Leila finally showed some sign of being sick when she crashed while playing with playdoh this afternoon.

February 17
Ellie still likes to climb on everything and one of her favorite things to climb on is the mommy jungle gym!