My Brother, The Inventor

I am so proud of my family. They are my best friends. They are all amazingly talented. Here is just one example that I want to brag about:

My brother, Doug was named Top Inventor of the year 2008 in a company called Luminex, which he works for. This is actually the second time that he has received this very prestigious award. He also won it in 2006. He works with genetic testing and this is what he did:

"I invented a new method that allows DNA to be snapped closed so
that it will pop open ONLY when viruses are present in the patient sample – allowing for detection of the specific diseases.This invention brings us closer to the goal of providing tests to doctors that can indicate (within an hour) what disease their patients have.
It seems silly at times to claim these ideas as our own when they are only given to us to benefit mankind. I can personally attest the influence from the source of all knowledge above." -Doug

So Ryan graduated Pre-school.

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It was pretty adorable...

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and kind of a big deal. ;)

Myself and 4 other mothers in my neighborhood/ward got together and did a "Joy school". We rotated weeks (2 days a week) and that way we only had to teach one week out of the month! It was awesome. I highly recommend it but you MUST pick women that are very reliable so you don't end up picking up slack. My friends are awesome, of course, so it wasn't a problem. :) We used the curriculum that my lovely BFF gave me and learned so much. :)

What??

What?? You mean I'm NOT supposed to sit in the sink with my shoes and socks on, let the faucet run free and smear soap everywhere? I don't get it...

Gosh! It's a good thing this kid is cute!

Roller Derby!

So I have this tiny, gorgeous, adorable friend/neighbor...

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She is a Roller Derby Chick...And she KICKS BUTT at it too!

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She is the "Jammer" and the star of the show.

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The 'bout' was SOOO fun to watch. I highly recomend going to one.

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Rock ON, Carrie!

Namma...

Namma came to visit...hence the ice cream from Baskin Robins

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She likes to help us plant our garden...

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Take Lizzy to the bus stop... and things like that.

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We kind of love her.

Meet Paco...

So I finally gave in to Jacob's pleadings to get a puppy... (sigh). Jacob loves dogs so ever since we FINALLY put in a fence (hallelujah!) Jacob's been on the prowl for a dog. We found this little guy on KSL.com for FREE! and just couldn't pass him up. His previous owners paid quite a bit for him so he was quite the deal. He's the perfect size! We've had large dogs before and they were just SO much work-hence the reason that I have not wanted another dog. I didn't realize that small dogs were SO different! And now that we took up all of our carpet and put in concrete floors, I don't stress as much about having a dog in the house. We are currently training him to not step foot on any piece of carpet (in the bedrooms) or rug in the house. :)This little thing is a 15 month old Chihuahua mix (we think mixed with terrier so he's quite a bit bigger and longer than a Chihuahua) and he is so sweet and animated and playful. He's just about fully housebroken and kennel trained. He is very submissive. Anytime he thinks he's in trouble he immediately shows his belly to show that he knows you are the boss. The previous owner's took him through puppy preschool so he comes when you call him and sits when you tell him. He's great with the kids and they just LOVE having a puppy. I'm just excited that now I have a running partner! I forced Jacob to get him some "Bling". He said that boy dogs don't need bling but I insisted and since I have such a wonderful husband, you will notice his pretty sparkly collar. :)

Easter...

...was SO much fun this year! My mamma came up with my brother the night before and spent the night. That night we colored all of our Easter eggs and hid our easter baskets filled with a carrot for the Easter Bunny. The next morning, Grandma got to see the kids wake up, find their Easter baskets and find all of the eggs out in the yard. At our house, the Easter Bunny always hides the eggs that we color plus plastic eggs filled with candy. The funniest part of the Easter egg hunt was that Trevor would ONLY pick up the plastic eggs because those were the ones with candy in them. Every time he picked one up, he would shake it to make sure it had candy, then put it in his basket. If he didn't hear it rattle, he would throw it back on the ground then move on. After all the fun, we had a super yummy breakfast of bacon, eggs and cinnamon rolls (drool). This year was special because I discovered a new talent of mine. My mom bought the kids a package of baloons with instructions in them on how to make balloon animals. I rocked at this! I made a hat with a bunny on top for lizzy, dogs, dinosaurs, swords, flowers and much more. It was SO stinkin fun.

After that, we got all spruced up in our Easter best (I got the boys THE CUTEST matching shirts - Thanks Papa and Grandma Lingy!) and then we all took a walk to church (it's just across the street). After church it was a mad rush to get Easter dinner done. On the menu was herb-crusted lamb, roasted asparagus, fresh rolls, candied yams, and jello salad. We stuffed ourselves full then bid farewell to my Mom and brotha...and Jacob. He had to drive to WY that night for a business trip. It was a great Easter...until everyone left me. :)

Twilight DVD Release

So my girlfriend and I are the ULTIMATE dorks! We thought it would be fun to head over to Wal-mart for the midnight release of Twilight. When we pulled up, it was about 11:30. There was already a huge line! We were just about to turn around and leave when we spotted our friend sitting right in the front of the line. We asked her how she got there and she said that there was a Blood-Donation Van (get it, blood...vampires?! We thought it was pretty hillarious) out in the parking lot and if you gave blood, then you got to go to the front of the line! Well, my friend is prego but we bolted out there anyway. I gave blood and we convinced them to give her a ticket anyway for being my "moral support". We ran straight to the front of the line with 3 seconds to spare and about 1 minute after we got our 2-disc DVD, they announced over the intercom that they would be selling out of the 2-disc DVD's in about 1 min! We totally scored. I felt like the HUGEST dork because after we got our copies, we went to the back of the store to get some grub (the line was wrapped around the store) and then...get this...people started CHEERING at us when they saw that we had our copies! Wow...I've never felt that dorky in my life. We were feeling pretty good about ourselves until we saw a poor little 12 year old crying and her mom consoling her. We almost gave her our copy...almost. Anyway, it was a fun night.

We're so glad when Daddy Comes Home...

We tend to MISS Daddy a whole bunch when he has to go away on business... We love him for working SO hard for our family!