Since We've Been Gone

Yes, it's true, we've been gone from the blogging world for far too long.

And now there are a million things to catch up on!

First, I got a new calling.

Let me just tell you, never, and I mean NEVER, go around telling people that you LOVE your calling.

This is what I did.

I was a Relief Society teacher.

Once a month.

Easy.

Can't get any better than that.

LOVED it!

For 4 1/2 years (between 2 wards) I enjoyed this calling. I was expressing my love for it to our Primary President. A couple weeks later they redid the entire Primary Presidency...and who is one of the counselors? That's right. Yours Truly. WOW! Talk about a shift in gears. I have never served in Primary before. Ever. It's been a few weeks. I'm still scared. People have been asking how I'm liking my new calling. I keep telling them to ask me AFTER the Primary program....in November....because who has to write that? Once again, Yours Truly. Did I say WOW?

I think we better move on to some pictures

Lately Kyri has been coming into our room in the mornings with her footy jammies mostly off.

I reckon that's better than naked!

Tanzi has been sick for a while. It all started nearly 4 weeks ago when I left the kids with Gary for the afternoon and when I came home found out Tanzi had thrown up. Gary thought maybe he fed her too much food. Well, a few days later she threw up again. We thought it was maybe the formula we were giving her and took her off that. But she threw up again a couple days after that. She has been throwing up ever since. Not everyday. She has also had a couple colds (or one that is bad, then better, then bad again) in the last few weeks. On this particular day we were at my parents and after her nap Tanzi woke up with a really bad rash on her face. I was trying to capture just how awful it was, but she didn't feel like cooperating (typical Tanzi) At least she's still as cute as ever!! Not sure if the rash was an allergic reaction or what, but we did ask the doctor about her throwing up. We are not to worry unless she starts losing weight, is feverish, or lethargic, or throwing up after every meal.

Fun Dip

COUSINS!!

This was the best shot I could get with Tanzi...once again NOT cooperating :)

Awesomeness!!

Hahahahahaha!!

Actually, the kids and I have all been sick over the last couple weeks. So, what do we do when someone isn't feeling well enough to run around and create chaos?

We make play-dough, of course!!

For Valentine's every year Gary and I go to Jazz Night at the Sky Club up in Logan.

This time around made for 7 years in a row!

It's always the weekend either right before or after Valentine's Day. And since it's kind of pricey we don't really do anything else for each other. Which I'm okay with. Every once in a while Gary will surprise me with a little gift and when that happens it is truly a big surprise because we really always just plan on Jazz Night being our gift to each other. Plus, it's without the kids! Yea!!

A BIG thanks to my sister, Tawn, for watching all 3 of our kids!!

Looking all fancy and ready to go!

At the Sky Club

Joe and Ann Marie

We always look forward to enjoying our evening with these two!!

Not because you all want to hear this long story about how crazy we are, but I'm going to tell a story, simply to have it documented.

This was definitely a night to remember.

(this is long...but you may be able to learn something from someone else's mistake)

After Jazz Night we usually stay the night at Tawn's and come home first thing in the morning. Well, since the kids had been sick we thought we all might sleep better at home, in our own beds. We told Tawn we weren't going to stay, unless the weather was bad. When Jazz Night got over...the weather was bad. It was snowing pretty hard. We decided it hadn't been snowing for very long and we still wanted to go home. So, we piled the kids into the car and took off at 11pm. This is normally only an hour drive. Well, on our way to Sardine Canyon I realize that we are the ONLY car on the road travelling in this direction. Yep, still snowing! When we got to the mouth of the canyon there was a sign that said "Chains or 4x4 REQUIRED"

Great. We had neither. No wonder we were the only car going thata way.

So, I had this great idea that we'll just take that back road and cut over to the highway that goes over to Tremonton. Well, since it was snowing really hard and it was dark then this road seemed to be never ending. I thought we would really never find the highway. And sometime in the middle of this all-too-seemingly-long road we slid on the slick road and did a 360!

Scary!

Luckily, Gary handled it VERY well...and there were no there cars on the road (not even parked), so what could have been really bad was just a little something to get our hearts racing.

Oh, and one thing I failed to mention earlier is that we left our phones at HOME. That's right, no cell phones in this car. So, it was kind of imperative that we get home safe and sound because if something bad did happen we could very likely be stuck til morning.

Anyway, we finally got to the highway and started following a few cars. YEA...CARS! It was nice to not be the only car on the road.

After a few miles the wind picked up, so the snow was coming down sideways. That explains why we were only going about 15-20 mph. We were very grateful to be following another car and felt a little bad for the car in the very front, following no one. Ice started to form on the windshield wipers and Gary couldn't really see out of his side. We didn't want to pull over and lose our guide, or worse get stuck and have no way to call for help. Since we were going so slow we decided it would be easy enough for Gary to just unroll his window and grab the wiper and flick it onto the windshield to get the ice off. You've all done that before, right? Well, he grabbed the wiper, all right. It slid right off....and into the road!! Gone. Forever. We could have stopped to go back and get it. But, once again, we didn't feel like the safest thing to do at this point was pull over. Luckily, the snow let up just at that moment and we figured we could make it to the gas station just a couple miles away. Kyri and I both needed to go potty, so we were also looking forward to the upcoming gas station. It was after midnight and we were expecting to be home by now. The good news is that Gary was able to switch the passenger side wiper over the his side so he would be able to see and he put paper towels around the passenger side one (my idea, thank you very much) so it wouldn't scrape our brand new windshield. The bad news is that the gas station was actually closed. No relief for our small bladders! We went a few miles down the road (now on the Interstate) and stopped at a gas station that was open. It was snowing really hard again. So, after Kyri and I took care of business Gary decided he better just buy a new wiper. After fixing it all we were off again. Kyri and Graysen didn't fall asleep until around Brigham City (2 hours into the trip home) And we finally made it home. Safe and sound.

Moral of the story?

NEVER leave home without your cell phone.

It causes way too much stress in crazy situations.

However, I have to admit it was kind of a fun little adventure :)

(but only because it all ended ok)

Rub-a-dub-dub 3 kids in the tub!!

Tanzi has been really into waving, blowing kisses (just the last couple days) and shaking her head like a crazy woman. I think she was a little distracted in the tub (she LOVES bath time), but this is better than nothing. Hopefully we can get a better video soon. Graysen kinda cracks me up too :)