Good friends

I'm so grateful for good friends. Darcy, Michelle, Sherri and I served in primary together for years and have had such a close connection since I moved here 5 years ago. Since I had lived in St. George my whole life, I had a hard time moving away, so it meant a lot to me that these 3 girls made me feel so welcome in the neighborhood. I love our regular girl time together. My favorite is when we have girls night out sans kids, but for Michelle's birthday, we met for lunch at Costa Vida and brought the kiddos along.
They had crazy fun together as usual! Here's Salote, Em, Zack, Jonny, Lacey, and Niki. They lined up against the wall on their own, so I snapped a quick picture, and it turned out pretty cute. I'm glad they have each other as friends just like their moms have each other. Because friends are pretty special.

PS) Of course I'm crying right now because my closest friends mean the world to me AND because of pregnancy hormones. Man, I cry a lot these days. ;)

Jonathan turns 3!

How did my baby boy get to be 3 years old? I made Jonny some Prince Phillip cupcakes just as he requested and served them to his preschool class. It was much easier than throwing a big neighborhood party with a dozen 3 year-olds. Although his Thomas the Train Party last year was a blast, I decided to just do a friends party ever other year to keep life simple.

Wade and I gave him a homemade sword and shield...

...and a homemade superhero cape that my friend, Traci, sewed together. My mom was in town the weekend of Jon's birthday to help my sister move, and my dad suprised us all and joined in on the fun. Here's Jonny excited about the train quilt my mom made him as well as some Rieces Pieces candy. :)

Uncle Austin teaching the nieces and nephews how to use the golf set he and Ruthanne and Jason and Margaret gave Jonny for his birthday.

Golfer Jonny walking off into the sunset or something like that...lol

Shivers

I'm amazed that we have lived in Salt Lake for 5 years, yet are still discovering hidden treasures in our area. I think it's because we've had to be disciplined on a student's income and haven't spent a lot of money on dining out or children's museums and play areas. We adore the wide array of city parks, Wheeler Farm, and other places that are FREE, and have been grateful for our family pass to Hogle Zoo because let's be honest, it's nice to GET OUT OF THE HOUSE and PLAY! I think we just enjoy it more when we're not spending money doing it.

Last month, we found a true treasure that we're all crazy about. It's this little local restaurant called Shivers, 10 minutes away from our house. There's a huge train in the middle of the restaurant that the kids can play on while I enjoy my $2 fruit smoothie. It's awesome. And because we're pretty heathly eaters and rarely have fried food, we'll go and just get a fruit smoothie to share or a 30 cent kiddy cone. I am especially excited to have found Shivers because my kids don't throw tantrums when we leave like they do at McDonalds. I usually DESPISE McDonald's, but we've gone there several times with friends this winter after storytime at the library so I could have some mommy time while the kiddos played. I always bought a snack wrap for me and one for Emily and Jon to share and spent just $3. With Wade and I both starting new careers this year, we chose to limit our spending as much as we could. During lunch, Jon and Em seemed okay with not getting the happy meal because they love the grilled chicken snack wraps. But each time as we would leave, they would recognize that they never got a happy meal toy like their friends did. And then the tantrums would start. And they were ugly tantrums. I know you've dealt with it, too, so you know what I'm talking about. They're not fun.

So I have this love/hate relationship with McD's because it's nice to have a free, warm place for the kids to play in the winter while I enjoy some mommy time with friends. But I have never liked the food there, the fact that even with the healthier options, I'm still TEMPTED to get a root beer and fries, and then there's the germs on the playplace I don't want to think about, how busy it always is, etc, etc. But now, I can ban McD's from our vocabulary and choose Shivers instead when we want to get out of the house and have a little ice-cream.

Have YOU had some interesting experiences at restaurants? Please share. I would love to hear about it!

Wheeler Farm

Wheeler Farm is just about my favorite place in Salt Lake. I never get sick of this place, and neither do my kids. I'm such a small town, country girl that SLC just seems so big at times. So this is my escape...the open spaces, the farm animals, the barns, the tractors, the smell, the fact that I get John Denver songs stuck in my head whenever I go there. Bring it all on! The best part is that it's free. We've already been two other times since these pics were taken.

These are Jon's "Farmer Jed" overalls he insists on wearing whenever we go to Wheeler Farm. He got the name "Farmer Jed" from the DVD that came with his Fisher Price Barn. Anyone familiar with that?

It was fun to meet up with a few friends there as always. Good times.

I Could Have Danced All Night

Emily absolutely adores the show, High School Musical

(confession: so does her mom)

She likes to sing and dance along with Troy and Gabriella as she watches the movie. And she often convinces her little brother to dance with her. It's pretty cute to see them dancing together rather than wrestling/body slaming one another. They're truly typical siblings, best friends one minute...fighting partners the next. Such is life. ;)

Retreat

I love being the young women's leader with the cool red van. The girls all want me to drive them home after activities and turn up the music on my stereo. It's a good thing most of them like country because you know I enjoy my Carrie, JoDee, and Martina! The cool red van was especially useful last month when we drove up to Heber to stay at the Rasmussen's cabin for a weekend retreat because we could fit so many of us in it. Yeah!

Apples to Apples, always a fav (still laughing about the time we played with the young men...they were so immature!)

Our morning devotional was amazing! Marianne Jones showed us a homemade quilt, explaining that each quilt piece represented a part of her life. She pointed to a beautiful purple and blue square that represented the time she slapped her younger sister when they were kids. She said, "You would think that piece would be dark and ugly because it was such a dark and ugly experience. But that's the the wonder of the atonement. I went to my Savior and he helped me feel true sorrow and make amends with my sister. So that piece is as beautiful as it is because of all I learned from it." So powerful! Zoe, Allie, Melanie, and Sage getting ready to go sledding

Crazy Sister Reed racing down the hill on the little black sled

PS) I don't miss Primary as much anymore...this is way too much fun!

Seriously though, this retreat was exactly what I needed. I had some really good time to think and mediate and figure things out spiritually. And while I was away, Wade made the kids Mickey Mouse pancakes for breakfast and took them to the Zoo. He really enjoyed his daddy time with them. We're both already looking forward to my next weekend retreat, BYU Women's Conference next month!

Memoires of a Happy Husband

So, I've been thinking about how lucky I am to be married to Catherine. It is no secret that she is an amazing woman, right! Well, in case you didn't know it, she is! I have had the privilege of knowing her for over 7 years now. During that time she has never ceased to inspire me by the way that she opens her heart and hands to all who cross her path. She makes friends with just about everyone she meets instantly, and is willing to do anything to make their lives better. So, when you have the privilege of being her best friend, you can only imagine how great life is.

I have no idea how many of you know, but when we met it was quite literally "love at first sight." It was crazy! I mean, I had only been home from my mission 3 weeks when we first met. As I was in missionary mode still, I followed an investigator up to the Gospel Principles class. Catherine happened to be teaching that day. I immediately knew that she was someone that I wanted to get to know. Two days later, we met again at a "meet and greet" activity at the Institute. From that day on we were inseparable!! We not only hung out, but we started running into each other all over the place. I made her lunch AND dinner most days of the week so she wouldn't have to drive the 15 minutes back to her house in Santa Clara in between classes and evening activities. We had a blast together.

One day, while we were at my place for lunch, she was sitting on the couch while I was cooking…she did that a lot (love ya babe)…I asked her if she wanted an orange. Well, without making sure she had heard me, I tossed the orange to her. I lobed it just perfectly…and wham! It smacked her in the heard. That was the first of many memories like that for us. Others include oreos and cake being smashed up my nose.

Some of my favorite memories include our casual walks on campus, around our neighborhood, or to a park. We like to go on "dream drives" where we drive around in neighborhoods where we would like to live one day and look for houses that we would like to live in. We are huge fans of the old European architecture of Harvard/Yale, as well as in Holladay and some other Sugarhouse surroundings.

Catherine, I love you! Thanks for being my best friend, wife, and the perfect mother for our children.