Oh I am so sick.

But I CAN'T be sick.

I leave for Cancun in six days!

(ok, Kamille, 

PLAYA DEL CARMEN!!)

Same deal.....

anyway..

I have way too much to do to

get ready.

AND I DON'T WANT

TO FEEL YUCKY

ON VACATION!

Not sure what's going on.

I'm thinking a sinus infection.

yuck.

Between feeling gross,

and having a "to-do-list"

a mile long, this post will be a

little jumbled.

But it's important to post this.

See, I have a couple new people waiting....

patiently.....

to see......

if I'll put up pictures......

of their missionary!

hahhaha!!!!

(hang tight Kaysville crew!

I'll get there!)

We've been having the Elder's over quite a bit lately.

And it just so happened, that I connected with 

one of their 'friends'

on facebook.

Gosh I love facebook.

Mmmmwwuhahaha......

(it is an evil little website!)

i.love.it.

(like his pink lips?  Yup. Every time. He likes Crystal Light.)

So, Since one of the Elders isn't doing his job,

and sending enough photos home,

I just HAVE to oblige.

(hee hee)

hahahah!!!

Oh, I love blogging too!

Alright, let me explain....

Good ole Elder 'S' loves to steal my camera when he's here.

He's pretty close to going home.

Like,

REALLY CLOSE.

And the

OTHER ONE....

Elder 'W',

well, he's just getting started.

sortof.

Anyway,

we LOVE having them over.

They goof around with my kids.

they goof around with my CAMERA.....

grrr.....

they DID make me a sweet desert for Mother's Day!

(funny thing about this one, none of them knew the others were making faces! haha!)

they generally just goof around my house.....

But I have to say,

having these Young Men in our home,

(at LEAST once a week)

has been a true joy for our family.

They have taught us lessons.

(we enjoy when our kids ask them hard questions,

and get them a little flustered...

it's just preparation, right?)

They do sharing time for me in Primary

whenever I ask them to.

They come do service hours for us..

(yay!)

They are wonderful examples for our kids.

They challenge us.

*sigh*

It has been a good reminder for our family

what Grandma and Grandpa Cook will be heading out to do...

And we hope that there will be cool families in California,

that will feed all the missionaries that

Grandma & Grandpa are in charge of.

Mother's Day, overall, was a good day.

Miraculously,

I only had to accompany the primary kids

during Sacrament meeting....

AND I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING ELSE!

It was awesome to go to church and

kind-of have a break!

We came home,

and all the kids looked so good -

AND THE SUN WAS SHINING-

so we took advantage,

*blush*

oh my man is such a stud.

It was a big weekend for Brinlee too -

Her first

SLEEPOVER!

Sweetie little six year old girls.

They had SO much fun!

And.....

I guess I'll end with that.

Probably won't post again.

Until I have photos from

MEXICO!!

hahahah!!

This is a shot out my 

side window the afternoon 

of the snow storm, as it 

moved out.

D-U-M-B.

The DATE

What a crazy day.

So many comments on Facebook

have warned about late night drama

and the constant state of worry that is

about to ensue - now that

Miss Maranda is 16 and

eligible to date.

Gotta remember people...

THIS IS MARANDA!

Of all the stresses that THIS

child puts me through, I am

pretty sure that dating will not make me worry.

Especially if she continues to go out

with good kids.

(and the fact that there's NO WHERE to go

here in Thermop!)

Her sweet friend, Cameron, and his 'wing man' Matt,

and her friend here in Thermop - Miss Ultra Cool Baylee -

have been planning to come surprise

Maranda for quite some time.

BUT-

then one of Taylor & Randa's other good friends

Jon, 

(without knowing of the secret surprise plans, of course)

planned his baptism.

We are SO excited for Jon!

Our whole family wanted to be supportive

for Jon, however,

nothing like putting a kink in a surprise?

Cameron was a good sport.

He also agreed that Jon's event

was extremely important.

(Did I mention Maranda was part of a

musical number at the baptism?)

hmmmm......

So the afternoon went like this:

picking up Randa from school,

she spilled water ALL over her, 

from the flowers

she got at school-

  Dang, needed to change, but oops, 

no clean jeans? 

Hurry and buy a new outfit -

mislead that it was a birthday gift -

Run to pick out the details

for her REAL gift,

her letterman's jacket-

(trying to keep her busy until he get's here!)

running a little late,

hurry home, tell Randa to get ready for the baptism-

ok, let's run through the number and warm up -

oh hey! someone's at the door!

HOLY CRAP-

MARANDA COMES UNGLUED....

It was CAMERON!

(way awesome surprise!)

After the kids left,

they met us at the baptism, 

then they took off and went to dinner.

Later, they came back, and had cake and ice cream.

 

We ended up having the Elder's over as well.

 

 

It was good.

She had a lot of fun.

It was so great to surprise her!

 

I'm not very good at blogging anymore.

But, then again,

no one else seems to be either?

A couple of months ago,

I looked into archiving

my blog into

a soft cover book.

It turned out so good!

And man it makes journaling for our family

a whole lot easier!

In the process, though,

Bryan stated his expectation

that I should be blogging a lot more now

if this was going to be our family's way of

keeping our history.

barf.

Way to take the fun out of it......

So, anyway,

here's an update...

This last week, has been District Festival for Band.

After all the Flute 'stuff' that we've done the last couple of months,

I really wasn't looking forward to another stressful 'opportunity'

to accompany Maranda.

However, I really do enjoy playing with her.

So, here we did it again.

This time, though, it was on a much smaller scale.
She was nervous and shy, and played a bit
quiet, but still received a Superior for her solo.
(whew!)

Her school band

did very well - 

 (isn't their band tiny? haha!)

They received a superior. Yay!

Randa had a solo part, which she did GREAT!

Then it was off to Choir.
Again, job well done.

 (She was avoiding looking at me and the camera AGAIN...)

silly girl.

She also got to see one of her friends
that she hasn't seen in a while....

 Cameron's Choir did FABULOUS too!

EASTER

Yay!

We love coloring eggs.

well,

Maranda would rather do homework with dad.

HAHAHAHHAHAHAH!!!

Ok, not really.

But it needed to be done.

The younger three enjoyed themselves though.

I'm not sure though, why the goal is to make the

goofiest looking egg possible?

 and then,

we do have to have the

"loving"

of the egg - 

that we are about to eat....

My sweet baby.

doesn't matter what kind of animal,

she loves them all equally.

Yes.  The "babies" have grown.

I'm honestly just glad they survived.

I put in a

LOT 

of hard work on these

stinkers!

It would have ticked me off to just have them die?!!

But they are growing

and the kids are enjoying them as much as the "babies" are enjoying the kids...

 This is "LaFonda"

This is - "Tina! You fat Lard!"

And this is "Chancho"

(Notice a theme? hmmm)

After winning the local Stars of Tomorrow talent show,

Maranda went to Buffalo, Wyoming to compete

in the district competition.

She did VERY well.

We were both a little on edge when we first got there.

Listening to others musical talents, it got a little intimidating.

Then, throughout  the day, I was feeling much better about her chances,

until we couldn't get her flute to tune correctly.

We were warming up in another room,

and getting quite annoyed about the flute.

I have to admit, I was in a bit of a panic.

Then it was time to get backstage-

on our way, we ducked into the bathroom

to have a quick, (and very pleading) word of prayer.

(mainly to calm my nerves!)

How can one pray to win?

I mean really?

We had practiced.

We were prepared.

We had done our part.

We just needed comfort,

and a little help to do our best.

We headed backstage,

got situated,

and as they announced her, I quickly asked her to tune.

The curtain was opening,

and she shook her head 

'nope'-

gave a huge grin,

took her step forward to the mike-

(and at this point, I literally almost threw up)

I was begging a prayer in my head to PLEASE

make this situation go well......

As we began,

and my daughter was playing....

I was literally taken back.

It was beautiful.

She did a fantastic job.

She is so talented.

She is so blessed with faith.

As we concluded,

my daughter was thrilled 

and full of confidence over 

her performance.

What more could I want?

She did not win.

And that was ok.

She did wonderful, and I was proud.

AND,

I was VERY

grateful,

that as selfish as a 

mother's prayer

can be sometimes,

that my

Father

was so kind

to my daughter.