Speaking at Miss Jacque's Preschool

I just had the opportunity to go and talk to Lincoln and Palmer's preschool classes about what I do as Mrs. Utah. They have a unit the do about community workers and volunteers so I got to share some of the places that I volunteer with them. We honestly LOVE our preschool. It is the greatest. I can only hope that Palmer continues to get as good of an education in Kindergarten.

I love it when I can do Mrs. Utah stuff with my boys! They are the best!!!

Lincoln's class.

Miss Jacque took this cute picture of Hunter while I was speaking. He had a bit of a hard time, but was pretty good.

Kids are the greatest. They just said the cutest things. This age is great because they are genuinely want to be good and do the right thing.

Palmer's class.

Swumin'

Today we woke up to snow...again. I am so ready for spring and warm activities, being outside most of the day, no jackets (or coats for that matter!) I also am ready to go back on adventures with my kids. It feels like it has been too long! I decided that we would go swimming today. We picked Palmer up from preschool and headed to the pool. I am proud to say I did it by myself. I am always nervous taking three wild boys places, but I now know I can do it. They were all very good to follow the rules and stay in the shallow-ish water. We actually had a great time. We also had the pool to ourselves for a while. I was going to let the kids stay as long as they wanted, since Josh has school tonight and we didn't have anything to do today, but after 2 hours I was ready to go. I think they would sleep there if I let them!

For some reason all of my pictures turned out blurry. I think the setting must have changed while it was in my purse (is blurry an actual setter?) Bummer!

Hunter "swimming."

This is how the boys swim right now. They just crawl along the bottom of the pool. I am so sad that we didn't do swim lessons last year. We will be starting up again soon.

Yet another blurry but cute picture...sweet Lincoln.

I know I always rave about the fitness center, but it is honestly so great! This is the cute kids play area at the pool.

The boys were dying to go down this baby, but they are too small.

Mrs. Utah Gala

So of all of the times to not have a camera. I went to an incredible night with the 2009 Mrs. Utah contestants at La Caille. I have the privilege of speaking to them. It was honestly unbelievable to be at...and I forgot to put the memory card back in my camera. Who does that? Sometimes I seriously wonder about myself. The only pictures i have are the ones that people have sent me, or this one above that we took when we got home. Sad! I am hoping to get pictures soon!

This is cute Heather Barber. She is going to compete in the pageant this year.

This is Kelly Anderson who was in the pageant with me last year. She was 1st runner up and is a dynamite business woman!

Take a look at that shiner...

Josh was playing basketball with my brothers last Saturday and came home with this beauty. Poor guy-it is looking much better now, but it was pretty bad for a while there.

Speaking at Granite Peaks ESL Class

I just had the most wonderful experience. I was asked to speak at Granite Peaks English as a Second Language class. I have rarely done my presentation to adults and even then I was worried a little about speaking too fast or not getting my message across. It was so great. The students in the class were literally from all over the world! There were students from Iraq, China, Taiwan, Bosnia, Ukraine, Iran, the Ivory Coast, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Ecuador and the list goes on and on. Every time someone would tell me where they were from I just would think "I want to go there!" The world is so full of beautiful people. This was honestly such an incredible experience.

I shared with them my adversity presentation and they had such insightful things to say. It was fun to sign autographs after and do pictures. I was so impressed with how well they spoke. I would love to know another language. I am so lucky to meet such wonderful people!

Speaking at Copper Hills Elementary

Today I went to Copper Hills Elementary to do part 2 of my speaking there. They are year round so the last time I spoke there I didn't get to talk to everyone. I spoke to the rest of the kids today. They were all so good!! I really love speaking to the kids.

Miss Utah USA/Best Buddies Gala

I am in charge of putting together a fundraiser gala for the Miss Utah USA and Best Buddies of Utah. It is going to be so much fun! We just had a meeting last week and got things going. I am excited to work with Tasha and Laura (Miss Utah Teen and Miss Utah USA). It is going to be for all of the Miss Utah contestants and their sponsors. Proceeds will go to Best Buddies of Utah. So fun!

Speaking at "Your Community in Unity"

Today I had the chance to speak at "Your Community in Unity." It is a program in Brigham City for kids that have made some mistakes in their lives and it was a really good experience.

To be honest, at first I was really worried. I don't know why, but I didn't really think that it would be all guys. It was about 10 guys from the ages of 13 to 18. I walked in and everyone kind of looked at me like I was a joke, well-I was worried.

It turned out so well though. The kids were great. They participated and really listened to what I was saying. I was very impressed with them. This is the sort of group that I really like to talk to. People that it makes a difference what I say. I really hope that they make some better decisions than they have in the past. I believe in kids like this-I really believe they can have good lives. I hope they do too. It was a wonderful experience today.

Speaking at the Volunteer Recruitment Fair

Saturday I had the opportunity to speak at the Volunteer Recruitment Fair at Thanksgiving Point as their "Featured Guest." I was so impressed with all of the people who were there. There are so many people who are constantly giving of their time. I spoke on the value of volunteering. There are so many opportunities to get involved with our communities, and so many people who try very hard to make the world a better place.

Speaking at Relief Society Birthday Activity

The other night I had the opportunity to speak at a Relief Society Birthday Activity in Sandy. It also happened to be the ward of one of my best friend's mothers-Diane Adamson. Kristen, Michelle, Kim and Jody all came to watch, which made me so nervous! It is always hard for me to speak when people I know are there. But it turned out really great. I really was so impressed with their ward. It was such a great experience. I will be so sad when I don't get to speak anymore. I really love it.

Visiting Grandpa at work

March 18th was my cute Dad's 60th birthday! We decided to go visit him at work. The kids have never seen his office. It was so fun. Especially since they have baby chicks every Wednesday. It was a lot of fun. They happened to have bunnies too.

I love that Hunter wore his bike helmet to the store.

They were so soft!

Look at these cute little chickies!

They had bunnies too. The kids kept asking where the rest of the animals were. I think they thought we were at an inside zoo.

New Bikes!

Lincoln finally got his big big boy bike! He was so excited to be big!

the kids have been riding their bikes like crazy with all of the wonderful weather.

Sweet Hunter! He got a new helmet. He was so glad to be passed down Lincolns big boy bike. He is doing really well. He wears the helmet everywhere! I guess it saves me from being worried about him bonking his head.

St. Patrick's Day

I am a big fan of holidays...any holiday. I always sit and try to think of ways that we can celebrate. We set out our shoes the night before and the leprechauns come and fill them. They kids love it. Lincoln was way into it and was sure that they were going to bring chocolate gold. I can't tell you how many places we had to go to find it. I finally found some in the wedding section of Zurchers. I hoped that the kids wouldn't notice the hearts on them. Lincoln came running up to me and showed me that the leprechaun loved him because there were hearts on the gold. I totally agree. That leprechaun does love him :)

Lincoln was determined to stay up and "catch a leprechaun." It is a good thing he didn't!

The boys and their cute St. Patrick's shirts.

Palmer got to be class leader today. How fun on a holiday!

Cute Kristen came to celebrate St. Paddy's with us.

What a hottie!

Our tribute to the Irish-rootBEER.

Our St. Patrick's Day dinner. We had corned beef and cabbage, not my fav...cabbage rolls, Irish soda bread, lime jello, shamrock cookies, and pistachio squares. (Recipes to follow...)

Let's Go Fly a Kite

We flew kites for Family Home Evening tonight at Sugar House Park. It was so much fun. Definitely a perfect day for it.

Lincoln wasn't too into the kites. He didn't feel good today. he just "sat on Dad's head" the whole time.

Hunter did such a great job of flying his kite. He insisted on doing it himself.

I love spring!

Palmer's kite got stuck in a tree. What a good Dad, he climbed the tree and knocked it out and we all chased after the string so it wouldn't blow away. I am sure it looked so funny.

I look like Gumby!

Palmer was so into the kite flying. We had a blast! It is really so much fun when the kids get older.

It was such a wonderful Family Home Evening.

Hunter loved his Mickey kite.