December

In December we had Eddie’s baby blessing, Carrie got a 4.0 in her classes for the semester,


Sent Carrie’s parents on their mission to Mesa Arizona,


Carrie finished a quilt,


And we celebrated Christmas.


It has been a great year for us,
we hope it was for you as well.
Have a great year!
Love,
Karl, Carrie, Kaleb, Von & Eddie Prince

Christmas Cookies

This is one of my favorite Christmas songs this year:

This Year's Quilt

This is the Christmas quilt I made this year, with the help of Mom and Emily.


I did something a little different with the back:

Crazy Semester

This semester of school has been crazy. To start off with I was pregnant. I decided to take classes this semester so I could have next semester off to enjoy my baby. Once that was decided I registered for 2 night classes, that started at 5:30 pm on Monday and Tuesday. Then I found out I only had 5 credits and had to have 6 for student loan reasons, so I added a class. I thought it would be best to add an online class, but I was a little worried about actually doing the work on time (I'm a professional procrastinator).
The first half of the semest went well. I went to class each week and did everything I was supposed to. The second half got a little harder. I was hurting quite a bit and sitting for a 3 hour class 2 nights in a row just wasn't comfortable.
Each night I had class I had to wait for Karl to get home from work so he could watch the boys. Most of the time this wasn't a problem, but occasionally he would get held up at work and I would have to drive fast to get to class on time.
At the end of November I had my baby, following about 2 weeks of contractions every 5 minutes or less. I hadn't been able to focus on homework for that long, so I had to do some the day after Eddie was born and email it in.
I had done projects early for my other class and didn't have to worry about them until finals. For the last few weeks of class I took Eddie with me when I needed to.
After all of this I was hoping for good grades, but I wasn't sure I would get them. But I did. I got an A in each class. Unfortunately that didn't raise my overall GPA, but another semester of having a 4.0 is nice.
Too bad Grandpa isn't around to pay me for my grades... (Actually he never did, I missed out on that. He was always happy to see them though and let me know how proud of me he was.)

Dear Boys...

Dear Boys,
I just want to clear up some mis-understandings:
1. The big bed in the Master Bedroom is for Dad and I, other boys do NOT fit.
2. When making toast, please only take ONE piece of bread out of the bag at a time.
2b. After taking the bread out, please put the bag back in the fridge.
2c. And PLEASE close the fridge when you're done.
3. The cushions were designed to stay ON the couch.
4. The ornaments were designed to stay ON the tree.
5. If you want your diaper off, please have me take it off so I can put a clean one on you.
6. If you spill cereal on the floor, do NOT smash it.
And most importantly:
7. Milk belongs in 3 places: the fridge, in cups and in your tummies. (please notice that the floor was NOT one of the options)
8. Number 7 applies to ALL drinks, including blue punch!
I love you,
Mom
PS. Ignoring #7 and #8 will get you an unhappy Mommy EVERY time!!!

30 Years

Today is my 30th birthday. 2 years ago I wrote a list of things I had accomplished up to that point in my life. I updated it today. The new things, and updated things have a *.
These are some of the things I have done:
-Graduated with Honors from Provo High School
-Graduated from Ricks College with an Associates degree in Fashion Design and Production, with an emphasis in construction.
-Shared the gospel with many people, including 15 who chose to be baptized.
-Taught in the nursery for more than 4 years
-Been the Secretary in my Ward Relief Society* for 8 months
-Visited or participated in the dedication of at least 23 temples
-Done endowments for 61 women*
-Visited at least 29 states
-Visited or lived in 10 countries
-Maintained 30 years of being sober and drug free
-Become a member of Golden Key International Honor Society
-Graduated from UVSC with an Associate of Arts in Behavioral Science with an emphasis in Social Work, and Honors.
-Supported my husband through an Associates and a Bachelors degree.
-Supported my husband through a Masters Degree.*
-Become a home-owner*
-Read my scriptures every day for 13 years*
-Lived to be the kind of person who helps others feel like they are worth knowing.
-Been Sealed in the temple to the man of my dreams, and stayed happy with him for more than 6 years*
-Given birth to 3 wonderful sons and done my best to be a great mother to them.*
These are a few of the things I've done, but the list is in no way complete, and I hope to add to it for the next 72+ years on earth.

Mixed up Christmas Carols

To find the opposite of these Christmas songs, use the exact opposite of what is written.
1. Noisy Day
2. Clarabell The Green Tailed Cow
3. What Adult Was That
4. Disregard, The Unofficial Angels Speak
5. Down On The Ground Floor
6. Go Away All Skeptical
7. Tinkerbell Is Leaving The City
8. Satan Work Us Sad Ladies
9. Running In The Summer Wasteland
10. Dewy The Snowgirl
11. Grief From The Stars
12. Clacking Chains
13. It Went In A Noonday Fog
14. Close, Close Here On Joseph’s Mountain
15. Oh, The Big City Of Jerusalem
16. Here Out Of Bed
17. Grouchy Young Demon
18. Oh Wicked Day
19. Peanuts Burning In A Closed Oven
20. The Last Easter
21. Car Walk
22. Yon Three Peasants Of Utah Were
23. You Saw The Drums On Easter Night
24. Do Not Rain, Do Not Rain, Do Not Rain
25. There They Go Marching
26. Gold Harp
27. You Heard Daddy Slapping Scrooge
28. You’re Experiencing A Black Halloween
29. The Big Clarinet Girl
30. You Wish Us A Sad Halloween
31. You Don’t Want 2 Mice For Halloween

Any guesses?

Blessings

This has been a month of blessings, and I am definitely grateful for them!
The most important thing I am grateful for is my new little boy! Klarence Edward (Eddie) was born on November 20th.
There are a lot of little blessings that added to making this one easier. One is that I had plenty of people willing to watch my older boys when I went to the hospital, because I had the extras it ended up being ok that 3 of them weren't able to (due to sickness and leaking water heaters). My parents watched them. This was good for more than one reason. My parents know the way I do things better than the others who would have watched them. My parents are good at working with their picky diets, and can understand their talking reasonably well. Also, my parents are leaving for a mission soon, and this gave my boys more of a chance to spend time with them.
The second blessing was the labor itself. I kindof went into labor on my own, which hasn't happened before. I was able to deal with pain and discomfort really well, and the labor wasn't really very long. There were no complications with the delivery at all. The closest we got to a complication was that the baby monitor wouldn't pick up the baby's heartrate when I was sitting up, so I had to lay down most of the time. My nurses were wonderful! My doctor was great! Everything went really smoothly. And my baby is healthy!
The third blessing has been my recovery. I was amazed after my second baby how quickly I recovered. It only took me a few weeks to feel good again. This time it only took a few days. While I did have some postpardum depression, it has been very limited and is improving every day. I am also happy that my weight is improving very quickly as well.
The Fourth blessing (and the last one I'll mention) has been my sweet husband. He has been amazing over the last few weeks. He has supported me when I needed it, and when I didn't realize I needed it. He took days off work whenever I needed him to, and gave me flowers while I was in labor. He even went to Papa Johns to get me pizza when the hospital food wasn't good.
These are a just a few of my many blessings that I am grateful for.

Hiding

Von has learned something new: how to hide. This is something that he is very good at, and is getting better at all the time. Usually he hides when he wants to play with something he isn't supposed to play with, like his piggy bank. He quietly goes into my room, takes it off the shelf, goes into the closet and hides behind the door, where he takes the plug out of the tummy and dumps all the coins out. He has done this so many times that I automatically check there first.
Another place he hides is under his bed. I knew he liked playing under beds, and so I left a space big enough to play when I was putting boxes under his bed. The nice thing about this hiding place is that I know to look there.
The next most likely hiding place is in the sewing room. Currently the sewing room isn't very organized, so he crawls under the clothes drying rack, under the quilting frame and puts together puzzles. He loves it under there. I wonder what he'll do when I get the room organized?
A few nights ago I went to check on the boys before I went to bed, and Von wasn't in his bed. So I checked under his bed, and under Kaleb's bed. No Von. I quickly started freaking out and yelled for Karl to come help me. We turned on all the lights and looked everywhere we could think of. Somewhere during the search I realized that the front door was unlocked (which meant someone could have come in and taken him, at least that was possible in my frame of mind at the time). After a good minute or two of searching, and freaking out, and praying, I moved the door to the boy's bedroom, and there was Von, sleeping soundly on the floor behind the door. I almost started crying, I was so thrilled that he was ok.
So now I have a new hiding place to look at when searching for Von...

Small Changes

I've been a little frustrated lately that some of the changes Karl and I are trying to make don't seem to make any difference. On Saturday I got a boost when I realized that they ARE making a difference, I just wasn't recognizing the change.
The big thing we're working on is eating out less. This seems to be one of the biggest struggles we have, we just enjoy eating out. One of our favorite places to get burgers is Red Robin. 6 or 8 months ago this is what we would get when we ate there: a burger for each of us, endless steak fries, sodas or strawberry lemonade to drink, and a shake or piece of pie to share. This would end up costing around $35 when we added the tip, and we would both end up stuffed!
On Saturday we went trick or treating at the mall and one of the last places we went was Red Robin. Instead of candy they were handing out coupons for a free kids meal, so we decided to be done trick or treating and eat dinner. Karl and I each ordered our favorite burger and fries, but we didn't ask for more fries when the ones we had were gone, we drank water instead of soda and we didn't even talk about getting a dessert. With our tip we spent $23, and left feeling satisfied instead of stuffed.
I felt pretty good about the changes we've made, even though they're small, they are significant.
And Karl is loosing weight too.

Dropping the Subject

Lately Kaleb has had a really hard time accepting decisions of authority figures (aka Karl and I). For example: he really likes to be tucked in by Karl and I. So we both tuck him in, then he gets out of bed for some reason, and wants tucked in again. So he'll ask: Tuck me in Mom? and I say: No, I already did. So he repeats: Tuck me in Mom? again and again, for about 5 minutes, until Karl or I get frustrated enough to threaten that he will lose his privileges, at which point he stops, for at least a minute or two before starting again.
I find this really annoying and have been struggling with it, especially for the past week or so. Finally I realized what to do about it. I taught him the skill of "accepting no". This is how I taught him the skill:
1. Ask the question
2. Listen to the answer and accept it.
3. Say Ok.
4. Drop the subject.
Kaleb is doing great with this. He is having a hard time recognizing what the answer is, so I clarify: the answer is no. He says ok, and then holds out a fist, fingers down and opens his hand, so it looks like he's dropping something. I'm not sure where he got this idea from, but it works, and he doesn't bring up the topic again.
Kaleb is getting some awesome benefits from this. The first is that he has happier parents who aren't frustrated all the time, and the second is that I actually say yes more often because I'm not frustrated.
Awesome skill to have.

Gratitude

Last night something sad happened. Our TV broke. Our nice 50" TV. I was really sad, and frustrated until Karl looked up our warranty and found out that it was covered. The TV repairman should be here in a day or two, but we decided to bring our small TV out of our bedroom so we can watch TV until then. So after Karl brought it out and set it up I started watching the TV show I wanted to watch.
At first I was amazed at how small the 26" widescreen TV was. Then my attitude changed. I remembered the 20" TV Karl and I bought when we got married. We used that for 4 years and were happy with it. Even our small TV now is bigger than that one. It just made me grateful for the blessings I have.
What blessings do you take for granted?

Cravings

I think cravings are really interesting. I've heard of people who crave pickles or ice cream while they're pregnant, but I haven't had those cravings. The interesting thing about them is that I always thought that you craved something and then when you had it the craving went away. Maybe that's the case for some people, but not for me.
When I was pregnant with Kaleb I craved steak. I wanted it ALL the time. We would buy roasts and have the butcher cut in into steaks so it wouldn't be very expensive. There was awhile during the pregnancy that I would eat steak 3-4 times each week. The funny thing about this is that I really didn't like steak, either the texture or the taste, but I WANTED it!
Von's pregnancy I craved 2 things. For the first 4-5 months I craved Panda Express Chinese Food. I had some from other places and it didn't satisfy me at all, it had to be theirs. During this pregnancy I was working, so each day I worked I would have Panda Express for lunch. It was delicious. Eventually this craving wore off and I started craving vegetables. I wanted lots of them. The one I wanted the most was carrots, or steamed cauliflower.
So far this pregnancy I have had 2 main cravings as well. The first was fruit. Mostly mangoes, apples, dried apricots and grapes. There are still few things that satisfy me like a big bowl of red grapes. For the last month or so I've gotten a new craving: Water. Not just out of the tap though, it has to be COLD. So I fill up my water mug with filtered water, and put it in the fridge overnight. During the day I put a bunch of ice cubes in and wait for them to make the rest of the water cold.
This craving has a negative side effect, especially since I'm drinking at least a gallon of water everyday, most of which happens to be in the evening. So I wake up a lot in the night too.
At least this craving is inexpensive, all it has cost so far is $1- for the new ice cube trays that actually let the ice cubes out.
What crazy cravings have you had?

Honesty

Karl and I took the boys to get new coats at Sears today. Kaleb's coat from last year had a tear in the lining, so I was planning on taking advantage of their kid-vantage program. This is a program they have that if you buy something and it wears out, you can get another of the same size, for free. I thought it was only valid for the same kid that you bought it for in the first place, but had decided to pretend the coat was for Kaleb, even though it was for Von.
After trying on coats Karl said we really should just buy each of them a coat and forget doing the kid-vantage. I really didn't want to buy 2 new coats, but I thought he was right. So I decided to clarify my understanding of the program.
I asked the cashier if the kid-vantage had to be for the same kid, and she said it only had to be the same size. Hooray!
So both my boys have new winter coats, and we only had to pay for one. I'm glad we were honest about it, and that it worked out to our advantage.

BTW, as we were leaving Sears I saw Melanie Farnsworth. She's in town for her son's wedding next week. How often do you randomly run into someone you know that happens to live in a foreign country?

Learning from Experience

Throughout my life I have learned a lot of things from experience. The first thing that comes to mind is cars. This is what I've learned from my experiences with cars:
-Running out of gas is embarrasing, but causes no damage to the car.
-Running out of oil is NOT like running out of gas. It is not only embarrassing, but it also turns your engine into a really expensive piece of useless metal.
-Running out of transmission fluid is bad for your transmission, if your car isn't shifting gears smoothly, check the transmission fluid.
-Using expensive window cleaner that has a lower freezing temperature is worth the price. It really stinks to have to pull over every five minutes to throw a snowball at your window because your windshield is dirty and your windshield cleaner is frozen.
-If your car is rocking up and down while you drive down the street, you probably have a flat tire.
-It is important to have a jack in your car, and a 4 way lug wrench. The 4 way part is mostly just important if the nuts were put on too tightly.
-Highway patrolmen are really nice about changing your tire for you when you don't have a lug wrench (at least the one that helped me was).
-Having your car looked at occasionally by a good mechanic can save you some serious money and frustration down the road.
-Maintenance is less expensive, and better timed than getting stuff fixed is.

So that is most of what I've learned from experience about driving cars. The important thing about all of these is that I learned from them. I am probably more careful about checking oil than any person I know.
While it's important to learn from your own experiences, there is something more important: learning from other people's experiences. These experiences usually don't have as huge an impact on your own life, and as such they are harder to remember, but if you try, you can learn a lot from other people.

Stress Reduced.

The last 2 days have been crazy! It all started with an email from UVU saying that I owed $150 for tuition. I couldn't figure out why I would owe ANY since I had paid tuition last week and according to my receipt had a zero balance.
After looking at my email more closely I realized that I was only signed up for 5 credits. Apparently one of my classes that I thought was a 3 credit class is only 2 credits. Thanks to student loan rules and grant rules I have to have at least 6 credits each semester I go to school. So I was one credit short. I looked up classes and found what I already knew, there were no classes in my major that were less than 3 credits, (how did I luck out in getting in the one class that is, without knowing it?) The only classes I could find that were possibilities were some type of PE class. If this was next semester I could add an aerobics class and be fine, but I don't think baby Eddie could handle that right now.
I emailed my advisor and asked for ideas. She suggested a class from the college learning success field. I found one I thought would work and got ahold of the teacher. She agreed to let me add, if I promised to be caught up by the 19th. She even said she would take care of the adding so I wouldn't have to deal with getting an add card signed and everything. One headache over.
Once I was successfully added I checked my tuition balance. Now instead of owing $150 I owed about 3x that. ARRRGGGGHHHH!!! Karl wanted me to call the school and find out why it had gone up so much, but I was worn out from everything else and figured no one would be at the school that late anyway.
This morning I was about to call the school and decided to pull up my account so I would have all the information in front of me while I was asking questions. Something had happened to my account overnight. The $150 grant that had been taken off my account was added back on, and my other grant had raised. Apparently adding 2 credits made a difference in how much grant money I could get. So now my account balance was again zero.
I printed it off so I would have proof that I had a zero balance and looked a little mroe closely at the summary. Sometime soon I should get a refund for part of the tuition I already paid!
This is one of those times that while I was frustrated and stressed I know Heavenly Father was taking care of everything. It helps me know that getting this degree is what I'm supposed to be working on right now. And helps me remember that he is in control.

ZZZZ, They fell asleep how?

I have an ability that is quite useful sometimes and really frustrating at others. I can fall asleep anywhere. Church meetings and school are the easiest, but I'm getting better at staying awake at both.
My boys have inherited this ability from me. They have fallen asleep almost everywhere, including the playhouse in the backyard, under the table, on the kitchen floor at my friend's house while we were canning, and quite often on stairs. Here are some pictures of them sleeping:







This one is about 10 minutes later








During a haircut

Where were you?

On September 11, 2001 I was in the MTC. I went to class and everyone was signing really fast, using signs I hadn't learned yet. Finally I found out what was going on. The MTC President got on the loudspeaker and told us that there had been an attack on the WTC.
I heard 2nd hand about the spirit of our nation growing closer to God, but didn't get to see it myself until I left the MTC in October. In fact the first baptism I helped with on my mission was Steve Nagaoka. Because of 9-11 he decided he wanted to be closer to Heavenly Father than he was, and made some great changes in his life.
I am constantly gratful to those who fight for our country. The ones that always come to mind first are Major Mike Hugo and Major Brian Mack, but I'm grateful for all who serve so that we can be free!

Blocks and GeoTrax

Tonight my sister called for help with homework. While I was on the phone with her Karl played with Von. This is what they built:

My Wish

6 years and counting

Wow, I've been married to my best friend for 6 years! It's hard to believe. In some ways it feels like no time at all, and in other ways it feels like it's been forever (in the good way).
A lot has happened in these 6 years.
-3 apartments and 1 house
-A Geo Metro, Bronco II, Saturn, Grand Voyager and Grand Caravan
-An Associates, Bachelors and Masters Degrees+ a bunch of classes for me
-Working at Utah Youth Village, Utah Office Supply, Missionary Mall and AES Systems
-Sunday School teachers, Primary Teachers, Nursery workers, Primary Teacher, Nursery Workers, Membership clerk, Relief Society Secretary, Financial clerk, and of coures Home Teacher and Visiting Teacher
-Karl+Carrie+Kaleb+Von+Baby
and that's just a start. I wonder what I would add to that list if I did this again at our 50th Anniversary, or just in 10 years. I'm amazed at how blessed we are as a family and at how much love we share. It really is wonderful!

3rd Trimester

I was reading my pregnancy book last night and was surprised to discover that 27 weeks is the beginning of the 3rd trimester. It is such a relief to be that far along. This is my profile now:

Washing Sheets

During my mission I was really good about washing sheets on a regular basis. We only did laundry on P-day, and didn't have time for a lot of loads. So I washed my sheets with the towels every other week and my companion did the same on the other week. While I still try to wash sheets regularly, it just doesn't happen. So I have a curiosity question; how often do you think you should wash sheets? And; how often do you wash your sheets?

Awesome Vacation- Part 2

The second day of our vacation was very busy. We started out with breakfast in the restaurant at the hotel. Pretty good food. Kaleb's french toast was made with Cinnamon swirl bread. After breakfast we got in the car and went to the San Diego Temple.
Due to time restraints, and lack of babysitter, we couldn't do any work there, but we took some pictures and walked around. It really is a beautiful temple.


After the temple we went to LegoLand. It was tons of fun! There were lots of things made out of Legos. The boys especially enjoyed this. We had the boys on leashes, which was a great idea because we didn't have to worry about loosing them. I was able to go on most of the rides, which I was happy about because I figured I wouldn't be able to.
Karl was worried about me not being able to handle a long day without a lot of sitting, since that is usually when my stomach pains start. Luckily I was able to take a good break when there were a few roller coasters near each other that Karl wanted to ride.

Kaleb's favorite ride was called Volvo's Jr. Driving School. It had cars that were sized for kids 3-5. The kids got to push the gas pedal and steer the cars by themselves around an oval track. Kaleb loved it. He loved it enough that he talked us into going back and riding it again. They have another Driving School for kids 6-13 that he really wanted to go on and was disappointed that he couldn't. That one had a mini-town for kids to drive through, complete with lines on the roads and stop signs and lights.

Von's favorite ride was a helicopter ride. On this ride you get in a helicopter and can move it up and down and side to side. He couldn't reach the controls, but he liked going up high anyway.

We left LegoLand at closing time and stopped for dinner. I got to have an In-N-Out Cheeseburger, animal style, and Karl had some really good pizza. The boys were exhausted and were asleep before we left the parking lot at LegoLand. Luckily they had a snack a little before, so they weren't hungry.
The next morning we got up, packed up our room and left the hotel. We went to a nearby beach to have breakfast and found a place with a sign that said "Breakfast at the Beach". So we got to eat breakfast outside, about 20 feet from the beach.


After breakfast we had to hurry to the airport to get there on time. Luckily the lines moved fast and we got to our plane on time. The flights back went fine. The flight attendant on one flight even gave me a whole can of Diet Coke for a headache. That was really nice.
My parents picked us up at the airport. We stopped for dinner at Cafe Rio on the way home, which was really nice to not have to worry about dinner when we got home.
Overall it was a wonderful trip. There were quite a few times that it hit me how much fun we were having and how blessed I am to have such a wonderful family. It was definitely a vacation to remember!

Awesome Vacation- Part 1

A few months ago Karl won a trip to San Diego and tickets to see Trace Adkins and Toby Keith in concert. The trip was this last week and it was wonderful! This is what happened the first day.

Thursday:
My mom drove us to the airport. We had to do a layover in Phoenix on the way there, but it was pretty short, so it just gave the boys a chance to get some wiggles out. We arrived in San Diego with no problems at all. Once there we did a bathroom stop. I waited outside the bathroom with the boys. After a few minutes Kaleb decided he needed to go potty too, and couldn't wait. So I took him to the women's bathroom and hoped that Karl didn't come out while we were gone. He did. When Kaleb finished we went back to our waiting spot and waited for another 20 minutes. Finally I asked a man to check for my husband in the bathroom. He did and said no one answered to Karl Prince. I decided to take a chance that he had left and gone past security and that was why he wasn't there. So I took the boys down the escalator and past security. As we were walking I heard my name over the loud speaker: "Carrie Prince, please meet the rest of your party in the baggage claim area." So I walked to baggage claim and Karl was waiting for us with our luggage. He had actually paged me twice, but I hadn't heard the first one. I was so happy to see him!
We went from baggage claim to catch a shuttle to our car rental company. Once there we were a little bummed at our choices of cars. They had 2 midsize cars to choose from; a white 2-door beetle and an orange Dodge 4-door. We were hoping for a bit more of a selection. We chose the orange car and headed to our hotel.

Our hotel was really nice. It included Valet parking which was really nice to take advantage of. When we checked in we were told that Show-dog records (who was paying for our trip) had decided to pay for both nights in the hotel instead of just one night! We were thrilled about that. We were only a block away from Wendys and Quiznos, so we went to dinner and then got ready for the concert.
The drive to the concert was pretty congested and I knew it would be worse afterwards, so we paid a little extra for parking so we could get out faster. That was definitely money well spent.
The concert was really good. I'd never heard of the first opening act, and while his music was ok, it wasn't good enough to remember.
Trace Adkins was next and he was awesome! Karl and I both really enjoy most of his songs. He even sings "our" song: One Hot Mama. Unfortunately we only got to listen to about half of his songs because we had to go get in line for our meet and greet with Toby Keith.

After the meet and greet we went back to our seats. I was pretty surprised at how good our seats were. The ampitheatre was at least double the size of the Usana in SLC. We were in the lower orchestra section, row J. That means that we were 10 rows away from the stage, less than 30 feet. I talked to some people around us and found out our seats were worth $137 each.
When we got back to our seats we decided it was time for a treat so Karl bought a big tub of popcorn and a soda. Kaleb said the popcorn was his favorite part of the concert. Karl and I were surprised at Toby Keith's part of the concert. He added a verse or two to some songs that I think he would leave out if performing it in Utah. After awhile the popcorn was gone and Von fell asleep. We decided that we wanted to beat the rush out of the parking lot and left a little before the end. We were so glad we did. Some other people had the same idea, but not enough to slow down the traffic. We got back to our hotel in about half the time it took to get to the concert.
We were all exhausted and slept well all night (even the boys)!

Facing my fears, aka "Return to Joe's Valley Road"

About 9 years ago I had a really bad driving experience on Joe's Valley Road. I would explain the whole thing but that would take forever. So instead I'll give you the basics. Driving to Ephraim, but missed the turnoff and ended up in Price. Decided to take Joe's Valley Road to get to Ephraim to save some time. Ended up stuck in snow on a deserted road and had to walk 7 miles before someone helped me. Got the car unstuck, then it died. Dad met me a few hours later and we got the car started and got back home.

Awhile ago we found out that Karl's family reunion was going to be at Joe's Valley Reserviour. My initial reaction was "No Way". Since then I changed my mind and we decided to go. Karl found many routes to get there, but only printed the instructions to one, which ended up being Joe's Valley Road. It took awhile to find the road in Ephraim, but eventually we were able to. It took a REALLY long time, but we ended up at the reunion, and were only an hour late. During the drive I was able to point out to Karl where I had gotten stuck and where I walked to.
It sounds silly, but I'm glad that we went that way and were able to make the drive successfully. I feel like that's one thing I can cross off my list of things to be scared of.
Next time I think I'll drive there through Price though.

My Current Frustration

Something that I really enjoy doing is helping other people. I get something from that I don't get any other way. There's something about going over to a friend's house and seeing that she has her hands full and washing dishes, or folding laundry, or even just cuddling her baby. When I can do it I love it. Even if I go home exhausted and drained. It's a great natural high.
However, when I'm pregnant I don't have the energy to do that. I barely have the energy to keep my own house looking decent and take care of my family. As a result I don't get that high, and I get down.
I have one friend in particular that I have been able to help quite a bit. From visits to her house I taught her basics to making it easier to clean, such as wiping down the counters after you wash the dishes. I was able to help her move out of an apartment when she found out 3 hours before midnight that she had to be out by midnight. And I have watched her kids numerous times through the years.
Because of my limited energy I'm trying really hard not to do extra things for people, which is really hard on me. That same friend called me earlier this week and asked for a ride somewhere. It was sooooo frustrating to have to tell her no! I know she didn't mind and found someone else to help, but I really like being the friend that my friends and family can call when they need me.

A Miracle

Today a miracle happened. After church I asked Kaleb what he learned in Primary. He told me he learned about Jesus Christ. He then told me the story of the fish and the bread. I was amazed! Not only did he learn something and remember it, but he was able to communicate what he had learned to me.
Sometimes it is really frustrating to have a four year old who is so hard to communicate with, but that frustration makes days like today absolutely wonderful!

Tan Line

About a month ago I got a really bad sunburn. A couple days later I had recovered, and yesterday morning I put on a different swimsuit (this one is halter style)and looked at my back. I had 2 strap lines of white and the rest of my back was a nice light tan color. I thought: It would be nice if my whole back was the same color, oh well...
Then we went swimming. I used sunblock, but apparently I didn't spray it on my back very well, because I now have a new sunburn. Now my whole back is one color of bright pink, except for two five inch long and 1 inch wide stripes where the tie was hanging from my neck. I guess that's what I get for wishing...

Use for Duct Tape

This is one of the best uses for Duct Tape I've ever seen.

Ultrasound

We went to get an ultrasound this morning. That is one of the coolest things, to be able to see your baby while it's still inside, wow. The hospital has upgraded to DVD now, so we have a DVD of the ultrasound to put with the VHS video's of Kaleb and Von. Here are some of the pictures:
The full body shot:

A foot:

Face:

I've gotten pretty good at ultrasounds and could tell what was on the screen most of the time. I also have a little experience seeing what little boys look like on Ultrasounds. So when it showed up, I knew what it was. We're having a boy!
I want a girl at some point, but apparently she'll need lots of big brothers to take care of her.

Honey Buckets

Over the weekend we went to the 4th of July celebration downtown. Some nieces came too, and I was the lucky one who ended up taking kids to the bathroom. None of the kids I helped had used a porta-potty before, or at least didn't remember it. The first thing I noticed was that the company name for the potties was "Honey Bucket" that made me go hmmmmm. One little boy didn't want to sit down on the seat, so I showed him the urinal, he thought that was great. So great in fact that he wanted to use it on his second trip to the potty when he needed to do more than pee. I finally convinced him to sit down on the seat though.
The girls were a bit hesitant to sit down as well. My favorite comment was: "Someone forgot to flush!"
The joys of little kids...

HOT Days!

Each day this week has seemed extra long. I'll feel like it's about time for Karl to get home, so I check the time and it's only 2 or 3 instead of 5. Yesterday I figured out a very probable reason for this. It is HOT! I don't know what temperature it gets up to, probably only in the low 90's, but there hasn't been a breeze to help cool down my house. I'm planning on getting out my box fans and seeing if that helps cool us down a little.
On the plus side- I'm feeling better! At my doctor appointment on Monday the Dr. said to try doing a little bit more and see if it helps my pain. Although I didn't think it would help I've been doing that, and I haven't been hurting as much. Whoohooo!!!

First Impressions

As many of you are aware, Michael Jackson died recently. My perception of Michael Jackson has always been rather skewed thanks to one of my brothers. The first time I heard the song "Beat it", I thought Michael Jackson copied Weird Al's song "Eat it". I learned that this wasn't true from watching a video of Weird Al's life.
In this video Weird Al goes to Michael Jackson to ask if he can make a parody of one of his songs. I tried to find it on youtube, but didn't have any luck. My memory is that Michael Jackson is sitting on a really nice chair, and dressed up in a sequin suit coat with white gloves on. I don't remember him giving Weird Al an answer, but I do remember his gloves suddenly splitting to show long fingernails and hairy hands, and before Weird Al can do anything Michael Jackson has turned into a Monkey of some kind. This is how I pictured Michael Jackson for years afterward. Thanks for the memories Mike.

Karl is Graduated!!

Yesterday Karl found out that he passed his last class for his Master's Degree (not that we were worried about him passing it). So he now has his degree. I think we'll get his diploma in the mail sometime soon.
Saturday we had an open house to celebrate. I was worried that we either wouldn't have enough food, or would have WAY too much. Around 40 people came, which was close to what I was expecting, so the food came out just right. We had an extra 24" sandwich to eat, which lasted a few meals. And a bunch of brownies which we're still working on, so overall, pretty good planning.
We enjoyed the open house and enjoyed showing off our house. It feels good to have people compliment your taste in furniture and decorating.
So now we're back to regular life, although it's weird to have Karl not needing to study every evening. I think it's spoiling me.

Bumps, Scratches and Cuts

This has been a dangerous weekend, for that reason I'm glad it's over.
On Friday I was cleaning and noticed something sticky on my hand, it was blood. I had cut my finger somehow. It's only about 1/2 inch long, and stopped bleeding without a bandaid.
On Saturday Kaleb went to a parade with his Grandma. During it he walked away from her for a minute to get a free bracelet, and when he turned back around he had a cut above his eye. Luckily the ambulance driver that was called said Grandma should just take him to the doctor. He has a good cut above his eye and a pretty good black eye.
Later on Saturday Von was on a trampoline with some cousins and collided with them. His fat lip only lasted until today.
On Sunday I went visiting with some other Sisters in my ward. One of the ladies we visited lived in the basement. After the visit I was walking up the stairs, and tripped. I scraped my arms and legs up pretty bad. My knee only bled for a few minutes though.
So now we're all recovering, and hopefully will stop hurting ourselves...

The first concert

On Saturday we went to the first concert we won free tickets to. We decided to take the boys to it, and Karl's mom came as well. I was a little nervous taking them because the last concert we went to had a lot of drinking. I shouldn't have worried, it was a very family friendly concert.
The concert was at Silverlake Ampitheatre, which is in Eagle Mountain. It was the culminating event after a week of celebration for our troops. The concert was pretty good, and it was added to by some fun things courtesy of the military. There were 4-5 military vehicles to look at and in, Von gave a hug to the soldier in the tank, which the soldier wasn't expecting. Halfway through the concert there were about 6 people sworn in to the military. I hadn't realized how similar their vow was to the vow the President makes when he is sworn in.
My favorite part was how they started the concert. They said to look at the sky, and a helicopter came out of the clouds, and dropped 2 parachuters. Luckily my boys had found some binoculars earlier in the day and insisted on taking them with us. The first one landed about 30 feet from us. The second was carrying an American Flag and landed right in front of the stage. I didn't know you could be that precise when parachuting. A couple minutes later a plane did a fly-by. It reminded me of the one at the beginning of Top Gun.
Overall it was a good concert. I'm looking forward to Toby Keith and Trace Adkins in August.

Neighborhood Water Supplier

Something interesting has happened since the weather heated up. We live across the street from a soccer field, and most evenings there is at least one team practicing on the field. At some point during the evening we get a knock on the door and at least 1 kid, sometimes 5 or 6 asking if they can fill up their water bottle from our hose.
We think it's cool, definitely not something we thought of happening.

Staying Busy

Well, I'm finally pretty much over the stomach pains. As long as I don't push myself really hard and don't bend over a lot I'm ok. This has enabled me to get my house cleaner again and to go to the park with my boys.
Unfortunately I've had a migraine since Sunday, which has slowed me down again. Hopefully it will go away soon.
My boys have done some fun things lately. We have a bunch of little bears that are used for counting activities. They came in a package of 50, but I'm sure we have less than that now. We also have a bunch of Chevron cars. Kaleb and Von have been cramming as many bears into each car as they can and then driving them around.
Yesterday Kaleb found his matchbox cars and played with them for a couple of hours. When Karl got home he taught Kaleb how to parallel park, which Kaleb can do pretty well. He kept playing and this is what it looked like when he was done:

New Moon 'Trailer' :)

The Twilight Saga: New Moon 'Trailer'

Spelling

I heard something on Uncle Jay Explains the News and I thought it was very smart.
English spelling rules are very simple: Every word has its own rule.
Once you get that down you should be fine...

KBull 93 Rocks!

A few nights ago Karl called in to our radio station and won some tickets to a concert. We were excited because it's a free concert, even though they aren't our favorite singers. However, he also qualified to win tickets to another concert. This one in San Diego.
So this morning at 7:15 we were listening to the radio on the off chance that they would actually say his name. And they did!!!! So we get to go to San Diego and see Toby Keith and Trace Adkins!!!!! We're WAY excited!

Thank You

I was thinking a lot over the weekend about those who have gone before us, especially the veterans. On Saturday I was listening to the radio and they had a tribute to our troops. It talked about the many wars that have happened that involved American soldiers and all those who sacrificed. By the time the tribute was over I was crying and thinking about how grateful I am.
Thank you to all who have served, are serving, or have supported those who serve. I'm very grateful for you! Here are pictures of some of the great soldiers from our country. I only had a picture of 1 in uniform.

My New Toy

I got a new toy! For any of you who don't recognize it by the picture, I'll explain what it is. This is a Machine Quilter. Mom has wanted one of these for a long time, but didn't want one enough to learn how to use it. I learned how to use my friend's and this week she asked if I wanted to buy it.
Mom and Dad picked it up today and reassembled it in my sewing room/baby room. We only have it set up to do quilts up to 60" long, but have the parts to add to the frame when we want to.

I'm very excited about it! Hopefully quilting Mom's quilts this way will end up saving her money because she won't have to send them out to be done.
Thanks Mom and Dad!

Stick Figure Family

Make your Stick Figure Family at FreeFlashToys.com

I found a solution to having little energy!

So I found a solution. If you're tired all the time, all you have to do is get your abdomen to start hurting. This automatically tells you to lay down and when you're laying down instead of being up and doing stuff you end up falling asleep a lot more than you would have before.
There are only a few negatives about this:
Abdomen pains are not good when you're pregnant.
Your house gets really messy (although not as bad as it would be if Jordan hadn't come over to help me)
A lot of worry goes along with that stupid pain, especially for Karl.

I should clarify that I did go see my doctor and he said for now we won't worry. He just gave instructions to lay down as much as possible to reduce the pains. In 2 weeks I'll go in again and we'll see if I need to do an early ultrasound to look for a cause.

What's the deal?

So a few posts ago I talked about how my energy was coming back. I was so excited! Unfortunately it wasn't back for long. I had quite a bit of energy for about a week, then it went down again. So I'm back to my "I need more sleep" thing. For example: on Saturday I woke up feeling great. I went outside and mowed the lawn, which wasn't hard work at all because we have a self-propelled mower, it just took an hour. When I was done mowing I was starting to feel tired. I showered, and then, even though I had been awake less than 2 hours, I took a nap. When I woke up I felt better again, but only for another hour, then I was tired again.
Sunday a similar thing happened. By the time church was over I was exhausted and wanted a nap really bad, but I couldn't take one until about 3:00. When I woke up after 6:00 I felt a lot better though...
Hopefully this is just a short relapse and I'll get energy back again soon....I think I'll go take a nap.

Adventures in Cooking

This week has been an interesting cooking week.
Monday I made Steak and Pasta for dinner, the noodles had a weird texture to them, and I attempted making Pesto sauce. Karl and I each ate a few bites of the noodles before deciding I probably shouldn't make it again. The steak was one of the toughest pieces of meat I've ever eaten. I think I chewed my first piece for 2 minutes before giving up.
So I took Kaleb on a drive with me and got hamburgers from Rocky Mountain.

Tuesday I made a roast in the crockpot. It was ok, but not as tender as I was hoping. Next time I'll put in it a little earlier.

Last night was Enrichment. I had signed up to bring soup. So I made Chicken Noodle soup. My goal was to have it be like Brick Oven's. That didn't happen, but it was pretty good. I even used my Kitchenaid slicer to slice the celery and carrots. The carrots worked fine, the celery, not so much. It was really nice as I was going through the line to hear people say: ohhh that one looks really good and see that they were talking about mine. Karl agreed that it was good and told me to remember how to make it for next time.

Yesterday I finally bought butter so I can make cookies!!!

Mother's Day

This was a pretty good Mother's Day. We did the usual visit everyone that we do on holidays. Yesterday I went shopping with Karl's Mom, while Karl and his brother made the weeds in the backyard shorter and then sprayed them with weed killer. Hopefully we'll get it tilled and some sod in before too much longer.
After the work was done we had a barbecue and just enjoyed being together.
Today after church we went to have lunch with my Mom and Dad, and Emily and girls. Then we went to visit Karl's Step-mom and Grandma.
It made for a long day, but we enjoyed it anyway. And when we got home Karl gave me my Mother's Day gift:

Karl has wanted to get me one for awhile, but we never had enough room for it. Now I finally have room for it, so I got one!! I'm really excited, if I wasn't so tired I'd use it tonight. The question is: Is this just a ploy to get more cookies?

Grades are in

Well, the semester has been over a couple weeks and grades are in. I have an A in my Africa class (whoohoooo!!!) and an A- in my Research Methods class. That gives me a GPA of 3.85 for the term and an overall GPA of 3.74.
We learned about getting rid of negative thoughts at Weight Watchers today so instead of focusing on that stupid little - sign I'll focus on the A's and tell myself that a 3.85 is really good and most people would be thrilled with it.
Hopefully I can keep my grades in that same range for the next year and a half so I can graduate with honors. I think as long as I can call my free tutor (Thanks Drew) whenever I need help I'll be able to do it. :)

Funny Terminology

Here's a copy of an email I got. I thought it was funny. But of couse I would NEVER use these phrases...

(1) Fine: This is the word women use to end an argument when they are right and you need to shut up.

(2) Five Minutes: If she is getting dressed, this means a half an hour. Five minutes is only five minutes if you have just been given five more minutes to watch the
game before helping around the house.

(3) Nothing: This is the calm before the storm. This means something, and you should be on your toes. Arguments that begin with nothing usually end in fine.

(4) Go Ahead: This is a dare, not permission. Don't Do It!

(5) Loud Sigh: This is not actually a word, but is a non-verbal statement often misunderstood by men. A loud sigh means she thinks you are an idiot and wonders why she is wasting her time standing here and arguing with you about nothing. (Refer
back to # 3 for the meaning of nothing.)

(6) That's Okay: This is one of the most dangerous statements a women can make to a man. That's okay means she wants to think long and hard before deciding how and when you will pay for your mistake.

(7) Thanks: A woman is thanking you, do not question, or faint. Just say you're welcome. (I want to add in a clause here - This is true, unless she says 'Thanks a lot' - that is PURE sarcasm and she is not thanking you at all. DO NOT say 'you're
welcome'. that will bring on a 'whatever').

(8) Whatever: Is a woman's way of saying DANG YOU!

(9) Don't worry about it, I got it: Another dangerous statement, meaning this is something that a woman has told a man to do several times, but is now doing it herself. This will later result in a man asking 'What's wrong?' For the woman's response refer to # 3.

Energy

Kaleb wants me to say that Von is silly.
I am finally getting my energy back! I've been slowly feeling better and am slowly getting things done. Karl and I had some really grand plans for our yard, but after pricing them all out we decided not to do them all right now. Instead we're doing the things that really need to get done, and eventually we'll get around to the other stuff.
The first thing to tackle was storage. We were planning on getting a Tuff Shed, but in order to do that we needed to level out a spot big enough, pour concrete and then put up the shed. So instead we decided to buy a cheaper shed that we could put on the level ground next to the carport and that doesn't need concrete underneath. Because of this decision we won't be able to store boxes in the shed, it will only be for garden tools. So I needed shelves to put some of the stuff I was going to put in the shed.
Yesterday Dad and I put up some shelves in my laundry room. That means that I watched him and told him that they were level. There's just not much the second person can do when you only have one drill. I've put some stuff on them already and I'm excited about them.
We also bought the shed, which is waiting in the carport for me to put it together. Hopefully I can have that done by the time Karl gets home today so we can go pick up the lawn mower we bought a week+ ago.
While I was tired last night, I wasn't as exhausted as I have been in the past few weeks. Hopefully this energy sticks around for awhile, I like getting stuff done.

Dr Appointment #1

Yesterday I went to see the doctor for the first time this pregnancy. They did the typical "yearly" tests, answered questions, and of couse, tried to hear the heartbeat. Luckily my uterus is tipped forward, so he was able to find the heartbeat even though I'm only at 10 weeks. It is so awesome to hear that little tiny heart beating. I asked the doctor how big the baby was and he misunderstood and said that the heart is about the size of a grain of rice. That is soooo tiny!!! I found out that the baby is about .9 inches long and that the heart is only 2 chambers now, but it was beating. I think it is incredible that inside my body is a little tiny baby that will grow to be a person. WOW!
As the doctor left the room he told me to go get my blood drawn and then set up my next appointment. I was feeling so good that I forgot about the blood part until I was about 5 minutes away, so I had to drive back and do it. I guess that's the pregnant brain working for me...

Visiting Teaching

I had something wonderful happen yesterday. My Visiting Teacher came over. To some this may not seem like a big deal, but I really like knowing I have a VT who actually cares enough to come every month. I was trying to figure out why it's so important to me, and I realized it was because of Sherri. About a year after Karl and I were married we moved to a new ward. I was having pregnancy problems and had been put on bedrest. I also had gestational diabetes. Karl was home a lot, but I was still bored, and I was feeling very lonely.
About 3 weeks after we moved in I got a call from my VT. She asked if she could come over and meet me. I said sure and she said she would come over later that afternoon. A few minutes later our Home Teacher called and asked if he could come over and meet us. I thought it was funny that we hadn't heard from either until that day and then suddenly they both called. Later I found out why.
My VT showed up and introduced herself, Sherri, and her husband Josh. They had been on a trip to Hawaii and had just gotten back. They had both called their HT and VT families and were planning on dropping by to see them all. As they were walking they discovered that we were on his HT list and I was on her VT list. They even brought us a box of chocolate covered macadamia nuts from Hawaii.
After some talking we realized that Sherri had gone to high school with me, and that Josh had gone to high school with Von (though Josh was older than Von). We hit it off and Sherri offered to bring us dinner some night so Karl wouldn't have to cook. I was amazed that she would be so willing to help us.
Sherri continued to be my VT until a few months later when she was reassigned to teach someone else. I remember getting home and seeing a new VT assignment on my door and being really sad, until I read it and saw that I was now companions with Sherri! She was one of the best companions to do VT with because not only were we friends, but she was proactive, so it wasn't like pulling teeth like it usually is.
When we moved from the ward I was sad to leave her, but I was grateful for the experience of having a VT that cared so much for me.
A few months after we moved I was at the hospital after Von's birth. He was in the NICU and I was having a really tough time. My parents and Emily visited me. Karl came whenever he could, and my brother Von stopped by often since he worked at the hospital. One day I was sitting in the NICU watching my son lay under the biliruben lights. I heard someone say my name and I turned around and saw Sherri. She was a nurse and was working in the NICU that day. She came up and gave me a great big hug.
For the rest of the time in the NICU she came to see me whenever she was working, and did little things for me that meant so much. She got me crushed ice, which only nurses have access to, and bought me a chocolate dipped pretzel and some lotion from the gift shop. I don't think I can really explain how wonderful it was to have someone I wasn't related to come and show me they cared.
Sherri is someone who really showed what a Visiting Teacher can do.

President Hinckley

The Semester is almost over/ an update on us.

This has been one of the longest semesters of my school career. Almost as long as the semester I had to take Statistics. The end is in sight however. Today I did my presentation on my research project. We started the presentation by playing the song "Lets talk about sex" while we handed out "Better than Sex cake". Everyone asked a lot of questions about our project, and it looks like we got full points on it. We did get our paper back- that I wrote most of- and we got 100% on that as well. The final starts next Wednesday and runs for a week. I figured out my grade and right now I have a 93%. In order to keep it there I have to get at least an 84 on the final, which is what I've gotten on the other 3 tests, so I'm not too worried.
My other class had our final today. With a huge amount of luck I'll end up with an A in there as well. Otherwise I'll have an A-, and since "B's get degrees", so do A minuses.
Other than the complete tiredness I'm dealing with I'm doing ok. I got to talk to a good friend today that I haven't talked to since I moved. She's going to help me plant my garden this week. Whoohooo!!!

An update on my family:
Karl has a final next Saturday, then he starts his last class. His commencement ceremony is May 1, but he doesn't finish his last class until June. We're looking forward to it, I miss having my sweetie home on Friday nights.

Kaleb has been talking a lot more. His teachers are doing something right. While he is still hard to understand, the amount he talks has increased, and he is using more words. It's wonderful to have him come ask me for something in a full sentence.

Von started speech therapy and is already showing improvement. I don't think it will take as much to get him caught up. We talked to an occupational therapist about his eating and she gave me some great ideas to get him to eat. So he is eating more variety than he was only 2 or 3 weeks ago. He loves to cuddle and gives me hugs all the time.

So overall we're doing good. I'm so grateful for the blessings in our lives. We have our tough times, but the great times are nice to have inbetween.

The Idiot Box

I grew up with my Dad calling the TV the "Idiot Box". Because of that I really enjoyed this commercial:

I'm SOOO tired of being tired!!

(I usually try not to complain, but this entry is completely complaining, so I don't mind if you don't read it.)
Some people get morning sickness, not me, I get tired. I don't mean just a little tired, I mean exhausted tired. For example: I usually get about 8 hours of sleep at night. When I'm not pregnant this is plenty. Sometimes I can handle less. While I'm pregnant it's not nearly enough.
I usually try to take a nap while Kaleb is at school, but sometimes Von doesn't cooperate by taking one with me, so I turn on a movie in my bedroom, give him a drink and then I fall asleep, after setting my alarm to go off 5 minutes before Kaleb's bus gets here.
This week Mom has been working on my Grandpa's life story book, and she needs me to help her with formatting. So I've gone over 2 times, with the intention of helping her all afternoon. The first time I helped for about 45 minutes before asking for a ride home. The second time I just pushed through, but was exhausted by the time Karl picked me up to go to dinner for his birthday.
I average 10-12 hours of sleeping a day. Do you know how frustrating this is? My house needs to be cleaned, and my kids need attention, and I just dont' have the stinking energy to do to it. Luckily I have the best husband in the world who says he doesn't mind helping.
The good part is this: I am about 8 weeks along, the tired part of pregnancy is the first 12 weeks, so I only have a month left till I get some energy back!!! Wish me luck!

Yummy Recipe

I'm doing a presentation in one of my classes next week and my group decided it would be fun to have a treat to give out that connects to our presentation. One of the other girls is making it, but I figured while I was sending her the recipe I could post it too. It is very delicious.

B.T.S. Chocolate Surprise

Crust:
1 cup flour
1 stick margarine
½ cup finely chopped nuts

Filling, 1st layer:
1 cup powdered sugar
1 8oz pkg. cream cheese
½ of 16oz cool whip

Filling, 2nd Layer:
1 lg pkg instant vanilla pudding
1 lg pkg instant chocolate pudding
3 cups cold milk

Crust: Mix flour and margarine together like pie crust. Add in nuts. Press into a 9x13 inch pan. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Let cool.

1st Layer: Mix together powdered sugar and cream cheese. When smooth add 8 oz. cool whip. Beat until smooth and spread onto cool crumb crust.

2nd Layer: In medium bowl add all ingredients. Beat until smooth and spread over 1st layer.

Top with rest of cool whip. Can sprinkle with pieces of candy bar such as Skor Bar.

A Pat on the Back

I recently signed up Von for PEEP (Provo Early Education Program). Specifically I was worried about his speech, but I asked to have Von's eating habits evaluated so that I could get some ideas on helping him be less picky in his eating as well. After I signed up I started to worry that they might think the reason my boys don't eat is because I'm not a good mom, (yes I realize this probably wouldn't have happened, for many reasons, but I've been a little stressed about it anyway.)
Well, the lady came to observe today, and I was surprised at her visit. She watched for awhile, then gave me tips, and talked to me about reasons for things and gave me tons of information. She also said that she was impressed at how many skills my boys had, things like: that they asked for things politely before doing them, and that they followed instructions well, that they waited for the prayer before eating etc.
She complimented me quite a few times on my patience and skill as a mom. I was surprised that she noticed so many little things that I try to do, but I don't really think anyone, including my kids notice.
So the visit that I was worried about ended up being one of the best I've had from anyone in the Peep program, and instead of being told I wasn't doing well, I was told that I'm a really good mom and to keep up the good work. It felt really good.

Duct Tape Anyone?