Diego, Gail, and Josh

Our friends, Diego, Gail, and Josh are looking for another sweet child to join their family. Diego and Gail are some of the most faithful and selfless people we have ever had the privilege of meeting. They are hard-working, loving, and are wonderful parents to Josh. Please check out their adoption blog here and their adoption profile here. You can also click on the button on my right side-bar.

Last Day of Soccer

Jonah has loved soccer, although it was hard for him to want to finish out the last week. I think he forgot about it during Spring Break, and with only one more week of soccer left, he was just kind of pooped. He was able to hang in there though. The last day was quite exciting.

We took team pictures.We had a yummy breakfast of oranges and muffins, and the kids got their medals. Jonah was thrilled and wore his all day. That's one proud kid!

Last Weekend

I pulled these pictures off my phone from last weekend. On Saturday, we had to go back to Beehive clothing, so Peter took us to Neilsen's on the way back. I love their grinders, onion rings, and concretes! So yummy! The kids were thrilled with their ice cream.When we got home, Peter and I got busy sanding and painting the TV cabinet for downstairs. Poor Levi walked through a trash pile and stepped on a nail. He hung out the rest of the time resting, while the kids drew with chalk all over our driveway. Good thing he's caught up on shots!

Pictures from the Phone

These are from two Saturdays ago.

Looks like someone slept well!We started off the day with a grueling game of soccer...

After soccer, we went down to Beehive clothing. Since it was on a Saturday, as we drove by the temple the kids saw that there were a ton of brides out. They wanted to walk around the temple and look at them, so we did.

We love visiting this rock, because Peter and I took our engagement picture here.

You can't really tell, but it's there behind us!

Five Favorites

1. Okay, I can't resist posting about another perfume. I love Michael Kor's newish scent, Palm Beach . I am not good at describing scents so much ("It smells good!") so I cheated and looked up the description online. Think sunny floral, refreshing and clean, and citrus, jasmine, black tea, and vanilla infusions. It smells GOOD.2. Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. These things are a crack-up. They bring me straight back to Jr. High and the family dynamics are a hoot. I have all five books and laugh out loud when I read these. They are great for a quick pick-me-up. No, I haven't seen the movie.
3. NYPD- I'm talking about New York Pizza Department. Working for The Pizza Factory for 3.5 years made me partial to their pizza, but although I remain loyal to Pizza Factory's awesome ranch and garlic bread, NYPD has better pizza. It's thin crust, greasy, fold-able, cheesy goodness. And I wouldn't go there at all if they didn't have amazing ranch, which they have! You just have to have good ranch with your pizza, says I. Oh, and the best Pizza Factory is at Ancestor Square in St. George.4. While I'm on the subject of food... Salad and Sandwiches. I always love a good sandwich or salad. Check out my post about Disneyland salad here. I feel like Penny on The Big Bang Theory, who describes herself as "vegetarian, except for chicken. Oh yeah, and steak. I LOVE steak!" Ha ha yeah, that pretty much sums it up for me.

5. For all you LDS ladies out there, I have two words: CARINESSA TOPS. Hello, these are like Under Armour! The best thing that ever happened to me! Okay, maybe not EVER, but at least last week :)

One not-so-favorite thing? Sneezing the second after applying my mascara. Ugh, what a mess! Thank goodness for Q-tips.

On Being Ordinary

I stumbled upon this article while browsing (i.e. wasting time) online. And I've been thinking about it since.

For those of you know don't know me well enough, I have been a perfectionist for most of my life. Maybe it's because I'm a first-born, maybe it's because of my personality. Whatever, I like succeeding at things. If I can't be really good at something, it's hard for me to want to do it at all. I don't like being mediocre.

But the sad fact is that most of us are. Most of us are just ordinary people. Everything I do well, someone else does better. That will probably always be the case.

I think that most people, whether they admit it or not, want to be special. Not famous or rich or a member of Mensa per se, but they want to be good at something, maybe even one of the best. It's hard to feel like that's achievable when there are so many great, talented, beautiful people in the world competing against you.

But I believe that ordinary people are special. Maybe they will never win a Grammy or give a great speech, or maybe they will never even travel outside of their hometown. What makes an ordinary person extraordinary?

My mother will never believe it, but I've let some of those perfectionist tendencies go. Trust me, I still feel that way about a lot of aspects of my life, but for sanity's sake, I have toned it down a bit. It hasn't helped me feel more extraordinary, but the interesting thing is that it hasn't made me feel less so. I am okay with what my house looks like (for the most part) and that my kids sometimes go to school looking like they just woke up. I'm okay not being the best cook or seamstress. I am mostly fine with who I am and what I can achieve, because even though someone will always be better and smarter and prettier than I am, I can still do some pretty cool things.

I think what makes an ordinary person extraordinary is living the gospel, serving, being humble, and working hard. Each of the heroes in my life would probably see themselves as regular people. They never made it big, they may have never even been very successful at what they did. They probably didn't fulfill some of their life's dreams. But these are the people I look up to. Hard workers whose lives may seem tedious and boring and simple, but who consistently serve others and try to endure, taking each average day at a time.

From the article: "This is the paradoxical promise of an average-day philosophy: The cumulative effect of a series of average days is actually quite extraordinary."

So true. If I could get through each day with a good attitude and get something accomplished, as little as it may be, that's pretty good. If I had days like that every day for a year, that's pretty extraordinary.

Score!

Today I went to Once Upon a Child, a second-hand clothes store for kids. Thrift shopping can be very fun and rewarding, but sometimes it's a pain. I only go when I have time, because sometimes it takes a while to sift through the crap to get to the good stuff. Once Upon a Child usually has enough good stuff to make it worth a trip. Today was a good one! I was only shopping for Eden this time, and I came away with lots of goodies.

My punch card was full, so I used it today and got 15% off the already cheap stuff I found. Here's the price breakdown. Sorry the pictures are crappy. They don't do this stuff justice!

Yellow dress from Target- $5.52
Blue smocked Ralph Lauren dress (looks brand new!) $8.50
The blue dress will be perfect for Easter.
Minnie Mouse T-shirt- $2.12
Mint green Gap shirt with satin ribbon detail- $3.82
White Candie's hoodie- $2.12
White dog graphic T-shirt- $2.97
Cream Gap long sleeve shirt with beading detail- $5.52
White shirt with lace trim- $2.12
Gray plaid capris/long shorts- $2.97
Blue Old Navy poplin button-up- $3.82

For a grand total of $42.95!

That's pretty good for 10 items of clothing, with a new Easter dress thrown in. I could have easily spent $42 on just an Easter dress for Eden! Yeah for me!

Disneyland

The kids finally earned enough rocks to go to Disneyland! (We have a giant jar and the kids get little rocks each time they do their chores. So we told them as soon as the jar was filled, we'd take them to Disneyland.) The kids worked hard and totally earned it.

We got to California Thursday afternoon and decided to get out at the beach and play for a while before heading to our cousins' house, where we were staying. Levi carried this sponge around for most of the trip. He found a sponge in the garage as we were getting in the car, and wanted to clean stuff with it, but it was filthy, so I gave him a new sponge to bring. This kid sure is quirky! Can't remember why he's so sad here, but there he is with his sponge...
On Thursday evening, we stopped in at Peter's grandma's house to pay a visit. It was great to see her.
On Friday we woke up bright and early to get to Disneyland before too late. We got there at about 8:30, which gave us the chance to get on some rides without even waiting. We went on Dumbo first. The kids loved it, of course. I'm glad we hit Dumbo first. It always seems to have a long line, but we waited maybe 5 minutes. See how Levi is holding the map? He would not let go of it! And I don't mean just holding it. He had to have it unfolded and out in front of him everywhere he went. He ended up walking into a few poles during the day as a result :)

Next we went on the Teacups (which the kids loved) and then on Matterhorn. I thought the kids might be a little freaked out, and boy, were they! They did not like being in the dark or going super fast! We had three crying children after that and decided to scrap Space Mountain for the day, even though I had already secured fast passes.

One thing we had to do was the Jedi Training show. None of the kids wanted to volunteer, but they all loved watching the show, especially Levi. It's probably a good thing Levi didn't volunteer, because he would probably want to join the Dark Side. He was stoked when these Storm Troopers showed up.
And he about died when Darth Vader arrived. He was so excited to see his "hero" onstage!

Darth Maul was in a pretty bad mood.
It was a great show. Funny and entertaining, and these kids fought their hardest! It was really cute. Levi was in heaven.
We spent the rest of the day torturing the kids by forcing them to go on The Haunted Mansion, Thunder Mountain (just Jonah and Eden), and The Buzz Lightyear ride. Only Levi cried on the Buzz ride. They liked Autopia, the rockets in Tomorrowland, the Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Disneyland Railroad, the Carousel, Peter Pan, Storybook Land boats, and Small World. It was a good day to go. We didn't wait for more than 10 minutes for most rides. I think we waited a half hour for Peter Pan and that was the longest. Here is the view from the Tarzan tree house.Actually, the thing we waited the longest for was for Eden to see the Princesses. Eden and I waited for an hour while Peter and the boys explored Toon Town. At first I was wondering if it was going to be worth it. Wow, yes it was! Eden was pretty patient, considering the situation, and she was thrilled when it was finally her turn! I have to say, after all that waiting, even I was thrilled to see the princesses!

First, she got to see Mulan. She was mesmerized. Eden told her, "You are so beautiful!" It was cute. Next, she met Belle. Belle was super friendly and talked with Eden for a few minutes.
Last was Tiana. Tiana talked with Eden for a few minutes as well.
Check out that grin. Eden was so thrilled!

A little bit later, as we were walking by the castle, we spotted the Fairy Godmother, so we stopped to get a picture. Then we saw Ariel, Cinderella, and Prince Charming walk by. Ariel was right in front of these two. They didn't stop, but Eden was so excited to see a few more princesses. We got to see a little show with the cast of Princess and the Frog. Eden noticed that it was a different Tiana and said to me, "Mom, there are TWO Tianas!" Observant little girl!

All in all, we got to do everything we wanted, besides Splash Mountain, which was closed. I think the kids might have liked that one, even though there is the big drop. The kids were mostly freaked out by the fast and dark rides. They had a lot of fun though, and we definitely got it all in in one day. I would not have wanted to go back the next day! We were tired! We wanted to stay for Fantasmic, but Jonah was falling asleep by 8:30, so we decided just to head back.

I asked the kids what their favorite rides were.
Jonah: Pirates of the Caribbean and It's a Small World
Eden: The Princesses and the Teacups
Levi: The Teacups and the Jedi Training

The next day, we went to Grandpa and Grandma Packard's for a quick visit before heading for home. I didn't get any pictures, but the kids had fun seeing their great-grandparents. I just love being at my grandma's house. It almost feels like another home to me.

It was a quick trip, but fun. We played really hard!

Catching Up

These pictures are a few weeks old, but right after we took them, I ended up getting sick. I have been sick for over two weeks now, and even though I can at least get around, I am still not feeling great. I finally got some antibiotics from the doctor, and I am really hoping they work! I'm okay with getting sick every now and then, but not for two weeks! Ugh!

Okay, so a few weeks ago, my mom and Tibi came down for Marcelus' birthday. We went to Jonah's soccer game that morning. Jonah is still loving soccer. We'll all be sad when it's over in a few weeks. Marcelus had a Star Wars birthday party. They played some games, ate cake, and opened presents. The kids had a great time.

And lastly, I finally got rid of this old friend. We inherited this La-Z-Boy recliner when we got married. It had gotten lots of love even before it joined our family. I loved this chair. I nursed the kids in it, took naps in it, and Peter sometimes even worked in it. But she's gone. We rearranged our bedroom and she didn't fit. Plus, she was getting pretty hammered. So off to Goodwill she went, to find a new home.
Oh, and don't you love that mess in the background? Shredder confetti. So fun to clean up!