We're Off To See The Wizard!

Ok not really, we already did see the wizard, but what a performance! The truth be told I have see Wicked twice and Ryan has seen it 5 times, so there were no surprises for us. Last Friday we were privileged to enjoy seeing it for our 3 and 6th time with Ryan's family and they had never seen it, so it was fun enjoy it with first timers. We had been invited to go with my family the night before, but with a baby, the Jazz, and our on going house we decided that one time a week was good enough for us, but thank mom and dad, we still love you!

As you can tell we love Wicked and who wouldn't? I basically sang all the song with them...in my head that is because they have MUCH better voices than I do, but you just can help yourself when you know the words. I loved Glenda and how she kept doing these little corky jumps aNd I thought this cast did a great job on their acting rolls along with the singing. In casts past I think they didn't get into their roles as much, but they had fabulous voices so it really didn't matter. I'm sad that it is over, so until next time!

1 down 3 to go

Yes I am talking about the Jazz. Last night Ryan and I were privileged enough to get to go to the game and fortunately see Kobe walk off with his hung head down from a devastating loss. The whole game was a freakin nail biter though! And hello, what came over Boozer last night? Did he finally realize how to play the game of basketball because he was a power man last night! Hope he show up again on Saturday.

Also at the game there is this group of guys that dress up like old school players and one of them dresses up like Jerry Sloan and it is hilarious to watch them throughout the night because they make plays and do dances. They are great, so if you haven't gone to a game you need to go to see them along with the Jazz. Though it may be our last game of the season to go to it was a great one to get to see. We truly were the X Factor last night! Go Jazz!!

I also wanted to give a shout out to P90X. Holy Cow it kicks your butt! I have been doing it for about a month and every time I do it I wake up sore the next day. I now need to focus on my eating habits and the Ab Ripper X so that I can lose the excess baby weight. Any ways, I suggest everyone jump on this train because it will definitely take you somewhere. If you want you can come and work out with me because I am getting a beach body baby!

First Steps!!

It's official, Rylin has just taken her first steps! What a smarty pants. No need to worry she has yet to crawl because that stuff is for beginners and she is advanced. I can't believe it, my little baby is growing up so fast! I am so proud of her. She is very stubborn like her dad and will only do things when she wants to. There is NO forcing this little one, but I tell you when she wants to do something she is as happy as a lark doing it! That one goes out to you Heather! Now I am going to have to find some gates at some garage sales these next couple weeks. For all I know next week she will be driving! AHHHH!

Self Sufficient

Well last night for family night my dad and I decided that with the economy going to pot that we needed to heed the counsel of the brethren and become more self-sufficient so...we planted our garden! Actually we had already planted the beets, carrots, beans, and spinach, but we had our own little green house going in Heather's bedroom with our tomatoes, cucumbers, and squash so that is what we planted. It was a good time, Rylin even came out and helped us. This is what our produce is going to look like once summer comes along. We are going to be eating good this year!

After we were done we were so pumped up that we didn't stop there. My dad earlier that day found strawberries at the special store for a buck! So he picked up 12 packs of them and you know what that meant...Jam time! So we stayed up until 12 o'clock making the prettiest looking bottles of strawberry jam.

(This is actually not our jam, my camera is dead so I found a picture on the internet that best fit. Ours looks soooooooooo much better. There is no separation of the jelly and strawberries like in this photo.)

We actually spent another half hour calculating our labors, the costs, and compared it to how much a bottle of frozen jam at the store costs. We decided that for 4 pints of jam ours cost us about $4.00 and you buy 1 pint at the store for $4-$5! We made 20 bottles meaning that if we were to sell them for 5 bucks we would be making $100. I should start a business baby. Miranda just sat on the couch laughing at us that we actually were spending the time figuring out how much we saved and what not, but she just better watch it when my jam making business starts making me millions! Any who, if any one wants to buy jam off me for 5 bucks a jar let me know and you could be my first customer and maybe I will give you a discount! he he This could be you or your kids reaction to my delicious jam.

Spring is in the Air!

Happy Easter everyone! Hasn't it been an awesome weekend! Ryan and I have been working our butts off up at our house doing some painting so that we can hopefully start living there again. It is fun to do the cosmetic stuff because it makes such a difference. Though I have hated picking out paint colors I think that it is looking pretty darn good. We only have one more coat of paint to go and then we can get our carpet installed and wala we are in!

Yesterday was an awesome Easter! We had to get up extra early because we went to my cousin Katie's church to see her beautiful baby Elsie blessed, it was great. Then after we went to their house for a fun spring breakfast. It was wonderful weather so we enjoyed the out doors as much as possible. Once that was over we jetted off to Ryan's parents. The whole way over we had the windows down and Lilly had her head hanging out as far as I would allow her. At that moment I thought, this is the life...Relaxing on a beautiful spring Sunday with the windows down, all the trees beginning to bloom and there is a invigorating smell that spring brings and I love it! When we arrived we had to take pictures of the kids because they all looked adorable. I went a little Easter picture happy and started walking Rylin to the neighbors houses so that I could get some of her with some flowers behind her. I mean really what is Spring without flowers. I had fun doing it, but since I didn't have my own camera I have to go and retrieve them.

Later that evening my cute nephew Owen was blessed. Dave did a very nice job and Owen slept the whole way through it. Good boy Owen! Then we had a delicious ham and cheesy potato dinner and afterward we watched my nephew Drew get high on chocolate from his Easter egg hunt. It was hilarious. My mother-in-law got each of the kids a beautiful picture of the Salt Lake Temple framed. It is AWESOME and I know just where I'm putting it. We then had to rush over to my parents for the big treasure hunt! We usually do an Easter egg hunt, but seeing that there were only 4 of us this year, my mom changed it up a bit. We went all over little Farmington finding clues, which lead to my dog Jake's grave which had rock band and golf lessons with a pro for each of us. Watch out Tiger! It was a good day. It always amazes me how beautiful a day Easter is, but I guess we can always expect that because it is the day Christ was resurrected and I'm sure he always wants that day to be spectacular. And it was!

Coolest Ghosttown Ever!--Iowa

Well Rylin and I just got back a week ago from Iowa. We, along with my sister Heather, ventured to the land of rolling hills to see our sister Michelle. It was Rylin's first airplane ride so that was a big deal! She did great though...slept on all the take offs and landings. I do have to give a shout out to the Minneapolis Airport for being the nicest and most observant airport I've ever been to. They had a flippin quiet lounge with soft seats and tables to relax in...talk about treating people good! Any who, Heather, Rylin, and I finally arrived to Iowa and the party began. It was sooo much fun seeing my sister and her cute house that she has remodeled. The day we got there we did a little grocery shopping at Hi-vee where we found the best apple cinnamon cheereos made which were supposed to be for Rylin, but by the third day of being there they were gone and I think that Rylin may have had a couple hand fulls of them. Michelle took us to a delicious Thai Restaurant where we treated ourselves good. We asked the cook to make our food a hot level 2 on a 1-5 scale, but I think they wanted to have some fun with us and made it a level 5 because it was HOT! It was hilarious in the middle of dinner I looked over the table and Michelle had taken Rylins apple cinnamon Cheerios and was shoving them in her mouth by the hand fulls to cool her mouth down and all Heather and I could do was laugh. Oh by the way Rylin just got her first tooth!

The next day was considered our Very Funny, but Very Bad Day. It started out when Heather and I took a 3 hour tour of Iowa trying to follow Michelle's directions to Costco. When we arrived home Michelle was supposed to have the homemade bread done, but in fact she was just starting it. We had already gotten ready for the day, but we had decided that we wanted to go shopping, to dinner, and then to a local hair show so we wanted to get dressed up a bit. Let's just say a bit went a little over board and at one point Michelle looked like a drag queen, Heather was trying to look like Melissa off the Bachelor and was having no such luck, and I looked like plain Jane. We then left to go shopping, but as the day was treating us, all the shops had closed at 5 and it was 6, so there was no luck there and we only had an hour before the hair show started so we didn't have time to go sit down for dinner so we had Ted Coney's Island gyros for dinner. We scarfed them down and got to our seats to find that no one else was dressed up like us. Now for the hair show...let's just say that we WAY over paid for a production that 3/4's of it was the staff strutting down the run way in awful black outfit and their hair looked like any Joe off the street. Fortunately the money went to charity or else we may have picketed for our money back. Afterwards we wanted to drown our failures with a treat and Michelle had been ranting and raving about the best raspberry-peach milkshakes she had ever had, so we went to the shake stop and ordered these MARVELOUS shakes that really ended up being nothing but raspberry-peach syrup in milk. To Michelle's defense she did say that the one she had before was a 10 and these were like a 1, so it must have been who was making it that day. That was our day! We ended it in the hot tub where we reminisced about the day and just laughed!

Sunday was fun because we went to church and got to listen to Michelle teach her YW girls a great lesson and afterward we came home relaxed and made ourselves a FABULOUS meal and finished it off with games and dessert crepes that were to die for!

On Monday Heather, Rylin, and I slept in and packed a picnic. When Michelle got home from work that afternoon we went to the lake and ate our picnic. There we soaked in some sun and ended up meeting a random mentally ill man that began talking about things that strangers or anyone for that matter should never discuss. He talked to us for like 20 minutes and we decided that the only way to end the discussion was to leave. We decided that since we didn't get any shopping in on Saturday that we would go during the afternoon to some different shops. This is when Heather and I realized that Iowa at this time of the year is officially a ghost town because the shops were once again closed! There were like 2 stores open. One was a costume type store and we did get some sweet pictures there. That night we went to Centro's and there we ate and talked Heather into missing her flight and going the next day. Good times.

Tuesday was St. Patrick's Day. Michelle, Heather, and Rylin all had green to wear, so I was the odd man out that kept getting pinched. We went to breakfast where we all enjoyed green pancakes, green french toast, eggs, and bacon. It was fun because we sat with some random strangers and had a great time. Heather then had to catch her flight, but Michelle, Rylin, and I got to enjoy the St. Patrick's Day parade. Now that was quite an experience. It was a bunch of Irish Descendant Families that were drinking and throwing out beads like Marty Graw. My favorite float was the one that threw out real potatoes and cabbage at people. Hilarious! I loved people watching there. We were going to leave about half way through it so we could enjoy lunch before I left, but some Handicapped van blocked us in and we began panicking because we didn't know if the parade would end by the time I had to leave for my flight. I did catch my flight in time, but I don't think we will be cutting it close like that ever again.

Thanks Michelle for showing as a great time! We miss you and had a lot of fun. Glad you are home Nick and now we want to come back when we can see you both and it isn't a ghost town! ha ha.