Finally Updating

The past month has been crazy. I keep thinking life will slow down but truthfully I’m not counting on it. The whole month I have known I was going to have this time to blog so I’ve put off everything until now. Scott has meetings (I’m also attending but….I’m working on the computer while I listen) and my parents have Aubree and Sydney. (Thanks Mom and Dad.) So here’s my change to get caught up on blogging. Just a warning, it may be boring for most readers but this is my journal.

Scott and Becky's Random Things

Well, just for the record....Scott is the Hero!! Church basketball has started up again. In one particular game our ward was down pretty much the entire game until......the final second of the game.....then out of nowhere Scott made the winning shot. I'm sure he could describe how he faked left dribbled through his legs and shot off balance and then SWISH...drilled a 3 pointer. He later said that was the first time he's made a game winning basket. We were all proud to walk out with the hero of the game.

Travis, Stephanie and their girls came and spent a few nights at our house. It was fun to play games with them until late in the evening. Steph even impressed us all by making her sister-in-law's wedding cake. They also just announced they'll be leaving Maryland and coming west to Arizona. Yea!!! We are excited to have them a little closer.

This month has been so busy and crazy for me. Our ward was split the last week of December. We are in the new ward which means we started from nothing. Every person had to be called to their new calling. Thankfully I get to keep serving in the same position as Primary President. I have learned that it is a lot of work to start over. It's been work to get all the teachers ready to teach primary, find people for nursery, get a cub scout program going and activity days going. I have a new presidency and I love them already. I was very sad to see my last presidency be put in the other ward but I felt change was coming.

Scott is still waiting for his call. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks he'll have a new calling. He is itching to get serving somewhere. He keeps saying he's been riding my 'coat tails' long enough.

I was also in charge of our fun little dinner club this month. There are 6 of us that get together and make freezer meals for our families. It's been such a great way for me to be able to make and eat dinner at home every night. It's 80% done and you already have everything so you don't have to go to the store.

When you're in charge you make up the menu, do all the shopping, divide out the food, host the event and just make sure all things are ready to go. It's definitely worth it but a lot of work for one week. I'm glad my friend Jen invited me to join them a year and a half ago.

I also started playing Layton City Rec Volleyball again this month. It's so fun to play. Most of the people I play with are in our ward. It's great to have a night to do something active. We usually laugh through most of the game. I love it.

Since it's a new year I have also set a few goals for myself. Since buying my piano I have been playing it for a few minutes almost every day. It's so much more enjoyable to play now compared to when I was younger. So, my goal for the year is to be able to play the majority of the songs from the primary songbook from the end of the year. I am working on a couple more difficult songs each week.

I also want to take a photography class sometime this year. A local photographer was offering a class but I was too late to sign up. She is going to let me know when she will be offering the class again so hopefully sometime in the next year I'll be able to take that class. I am really excited about this goal. I really enjoy photography and want to learn more.

I want to do better at my personal scripture study this year. I don't know why this is so hard to get to but I want to make a good effort to make this more of a habit.

The last and hardest goal is weight loss. Since joining Crossroads Fitness I have made slow progress but I feel better. My goal is not huge but I think it's attainable. I want to be down 20 pounds by the end of next year. I will have more to go but I think I can actually do this.

Syd's Random Things

For Christmas Sydney got baby accessories. She loves to take care of her babies. Many days I'll go in my room and she'll get mad at me for waking up her baby that is sleeping on my bed. She loves to wrap up the babies and have them take naps. Here are a few pictures of her while she was playing with her 'babies'. Here's Syd feeding her baby. You can see she's concentrating very had because her little tongue is sticking out of her mouth.
Each year for Christmas, Becky (Scott's sister) puts together a family calendar. She wanted to do a page with the younger kids with food all over their mouth. I had a hard time finding a picture where she was completely messy. Then.....we had spaghetti. It was too late for the calendar but not too late for a messy face picture. She chose not to use utensils and she sat in her food.

Here's a few more pics of Syd that I thought were cute. The one is really fuzzy because I stepped outside to take the pic and it was cold. The cold air was affecting my camera.

Just a picture of me and my little Syd.

Aubree's Random Things

Most evenings I have some funny little thing to tell Scott about the girls. Usually it's something they've said to me. This month has been no different.

One morning things were going pretty normal, which means I have to get fairly stern to get the girls to get dressed, get their hair done, clean their room and pick up any toys that are out. As Aubree was talking to me our conversation went something like this:

Aubree: "Mom why are you mad today?"

Becky: "I'm not mad Aubree."

Aubree: "Oh, I mean why are you fired-up?"

I just laughed and realized she really does listen to the things Scott and I say.

American Idol has started again and it's usually a show that I feel comfortable with watching as a family. The other day Simon was telling one of the contestants that he 'hated' everything about the audition.

Aubree has had a small problem with using the word hate. I really don't like the word and have stressed that we don't use that word. As Aub heard Simon say 'hate' she said, "Mom, he shouldn't say the word hate." I told her she was right about that and then she said, "I bet he doesn't believe in Jesus either." I had to let her know that just because people use 'bad' words it doesn't mean they don't believe in Jesus. They are just making poor choices. It made me chuckle though that she correlated the two.

Here are a couple of pictures of Aub as she was all gussied up to go to the temple. She wanted a necklace and lipstick so she could look like me.

Aubree got all shy in front of the camera when Scott got home and started giving her hugs but she couldn't help but love it.

Draper Temple

We were able to attend the Draper Temple Open House this month. It was a great experience to be able to walk through it as a family. It seems whenever we talk about the temple Aubree and Sydney both want to marry their Daddy in the temple. I try to explain that Daddy is taken but they just can't imagine loving anyone else like their Daddy. It is sweet.

We've talked with Aubree about being sealed in the temple to us when she was 6 months old and she refers to that as the time she was married to Mommy and Daddy. It was a great opportunity to talk about the temple and blessings we receive from it. We hope our girls are already setting goals to live as Jesus wants them to so they can one day marry in the temple.

This picture was Syd enjoying her refreshments after the temple.

The Von Darrington Family Singers....

If you haven't read Scott's most recent post on the obsession of the Sound of Music in our house you can learn a few family secrets there. I just wanted to add a few little things the girls have done since learning about this most entertaining film.

Aubree does not want to be called Aubree anymore, she informs me numerous times a day that she is "Griddle" (Gretl). She refers to Scott and I as Father and Mother instead of Dad and Mom. It's just too funny. Sydney has followed Aub's example by saying things such as, "I not Sydney I 'Yee sil' (Leisil), silly mommy".

The other day we were in a dressing room while I was trying on some new pants. Before I knew it "Griddle" and "Yee sil" were standing behind me (as we faced the mirror) and they started poking their little heads out from behind me singing "Coo-Coo, Coo-Coo". They thought they were pretty funny and they could see themselves singing away.

We have also downloaded a few of the songs from the original soundtrack. The Von Darrington Family Singers can do a pretty amazing rendition of "Do Re Mi". It's an especially sweet treat in the car. I've also got "Do Re Mi" down on the piano (half of it's even memorized because I've played it so many times). So if you're looking to be entertained we accept bribes for performances.

Snow Pictures

We actually haven't "played" too much in the snow this year. We haven't even been sledding yet, one of these days we'll get there. Here are a few pics of the girls in the snow.

Here are the girls trying to ride bikes in the snow.....

This picture cracks me up because Aubree is much bigger than the bike. It's her old bike that I'm hoping Syd can use this summer.

Here's Aub hanging out on top of the picnic table.

Scott's new toy

After the first big storm of the year Scott decided it was time to break down and buy a snowblower. We have soo much sidewalk and it seems to get longer everytime we shovel. After shoveling by hand (or looking helpless and neighbors coming to our rescue) for 5 years we decided it's time. Scott now will do all the snow removal without too much grumbling. I am pumped! I thought my driveway was going to be free of the 3 inch sheet of ice it's been the past few years until the last storm and I kept driving on it so it's at least 2 inches thick....Oh well.