How to Post a Comment

I've decided to write instructions for leaving a comment on my blog for those who do not yet know how easy it is and might want to leave one. I am no expert in this area, but I'm pretty sure these instructions will give you the information you need.

It should be noted that I really like to get comments! Even if you're writing a (polite) conflicting opinion, I like to hear from you (unless you're disputing the cuteness of my children or other such sensitive issues)! Judging from comments I've read, one can post really, really long comments, so don't hold back!

Posting a Comment on My Blog

Step 1: Click on the words below the posting, "# Comments"
Step 2: Write your comment in the box that pops up.
Step 3: Write the verification word as you see it. If you get it wrong, they'll give you another one to try, so don't stress out. This is not a test.
Step 4: Choose an identity. Click on the radial button beside "anonymous" or "Google Account"

Note - If you choose to leave an anonymous comment, please put your name in the comment box so I know who commented. If you post anonymously, skip step 5.

Step 5: Sign in to your Google or Blogger account (either one works) with your user name and password. (To set up your user name and password, see instructions below.) If you have a secure computer from which you'll be commenting, you can stay signed in much of the time, but you will occasionally have to sign back in so you should remember your login info.
Step 6: Click on the "Publish Your Comment" button.

A message will appear that says "Your comment has been saved and will be visible after blog owner approval". If this message does not show up (it's small & centered, in green lettering), your comment has not been posted, so go back and try again.

To Set Up Your Google Account

Step 1: Below the radial button that says, "Google account", it says, "No Google Account? Sign Up Here." Click on the words, "Sign Up Here".
Step 2: Enter your email address twice.
Step 3: Enter your chosen password twice.
Step 4: Enter the name you would like displayed next to your comment.
Step 5: Enter the word verification, just like in step 3 of "Posting a Comment on My Blog" above.
Step 6: Click on the "Acceptance of Terms" box.

Now remember the username and password. There you go! Post some comments now!!!

Video Clips

Here are some super-cute video clips of my baby! Enjoy! Watch them over and over if you like! This is probably going to totally make you want to kidnap my kid, but since I use these clever cyber-names, I'm sure you'll never track us down! Ha ha.


Avery said "Mom" for about a week, then abruptly stopped saying it. I'm so glad I got it on video! Hopefully he'll learn to say it again eventually! He has done the same (refusing to perform) with waving, clicking his tongue, and other "tricks".



Isn't this cute? He doesn't actually know that this is kissing, but it's cute nonetheless.

Spiritual Heritage Resolution

"be it Resolved, That the United States House of Representatives--

(1) affirms the rich spiritual and diverse religious history of our Nation's founding and subsequent history, including up to the current day;

(2) recognizes that the religious foundations of faith on which America was built are critical underpinnings of our Nation's most valuable institutions and form the inseparable foundation for America's representative processes, legal systems, and societal structures;

(3) rejects, in the strongest possible terms, any effort to remove, obscure, or purposely omit such history from our Nation's public buildings and educational resources; and

(4) expresses support for designation of a `America's Spiritual Heritage Week' every year for the appreciation of and education on America's history of religious faith."

In Case You Were Wondering...

If you've been tagged or you are reading this, you have the honor of copying all these goofy questions, writing your own response, and tagging other victims. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you - but not in a creepy stalker kind of way.

1. What time did you get up this morning? 8:00; I'm trying to enjoy the last few weeks of summer vacation by sleeping in as late as Cutesome will let me!

2. How do you like your steak? Medium. Mmmm...I LOVE steak! Now I want steak.

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? I honestly can't remember.

4. What is your favorite TV show? I love the old episodes of The Office. Seasons 1 and 2 were the best!

5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? UTAH! I love it here!

6. What did you have for breakfast? Blueberry muffins.

7. What is your favorite cuisine? Is Ice cream a cuisine? Of course it is!

8. What foods do you dislike? Just looking at cole slaw makes me gag (almost).

9. Favorite Place to Eat? Olive Garden and Texas Roadhouse.

10. Favorite dressing? Poppyseed or honey mustard, probably.

11.What kind of vehicle do you drive? White Dodge Caravan Sport

12. What are your favorite clothes? Comfort trumps style every time! I love to wear jeans and a loose t-shirt. Even better: workout clothes minus the workout.

13. Where would you visit if you had the chance? I'd go everywhere! I would love to cruise to Italy. I also really want to do service in poverty-stricken countries. Better start saving my pennies now.

14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? I really try to look at the bright side and make a conscious choice to enjoy life, but I'm probably a recovering 1/2 emptier.

15. Where would you want to retire? Near my kids. I hope they stay in Utah. But I would love to spend a couple of months each year doing service in other countries.

16. Favorite time of day? 1) Anytime I can squeeze a nap in! I can never get enough sleep! 2) When Cutesome first wakes up in the morning; he is so happy and just wants to play. 3) After the kids are all in bed at night and I head to my bedroom to work on things I want to do (i.e. blogging, downloading pictures and videos from my cameras,

17. Where were you born? LDS Hospital in SLC, Utah.

18. What is your favorite sport to watch? Swimming and track.

19. Who do you think will not tag you back? This is a stupid question.

20. Person you expect to tag you back first? Why would I get tagged back, I've already done the survey?

21. Who are you most curious about their responses to this? Everyone - I love to read things like this about other people. If you don't have a blog or Facebook, send it back to me in an email.

22. Bird watcher? Nope. I have a hard time sitting still without doing something that feels like I'm accomplishing something. For example, I could enjoy the birds if I were also reading a book outside or holding the baby or doing yard work. I'm a multi-tasker (which drives Dreamer crazy).

23. Are you a morning person or a night person? These days I'm neither! I used to be a morning person, but over the years since I've been married and have had kids, it has become hard to go to bed when I want to, so I stay up too late and then have trouble getting up in the morning joyfully. My days go so much better when I get to bed by 10:30 and wake up by 7:30. Yep, a good 9 hours of sleep is just about right for me (and a nap in the afternoon makes things even better).

24. Do you have any pets? I wish we didn't. We have fish. I make Dreamer keep most of them at the shop, but we do have some at the house as well (am I a nice wife, or what?).

25. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? Can't think of anything right now.

26. What did you want to be when you were little? I've wanted to be a mom for as long as I can remember. Even while getting my degree, I always said it was my "back up degree", just in case something happened to Dreamer and I couldn't stay home with the kids. I worked for 5 years in Human Resource Management prior to finally revamping our lifestyle so I could stay home.

27. What is your best childhood memory? I have so few memories of my childhood. Probably my sister Jenny and I singing and dancing in our bedroom to the record, Annie. Or giggling in bed when we were supposed to be asleep.

28. Are you a cat or dog person? If I had to have one or the other, I'd choose a dog. An outside dog. I will never - I repeat NEVER - have an inside dog. I do think dogs are good for kids, especially for little boys, so I'll probably give in to an outside dog in a few years.

29. Are you married? Yep. 11 1/2 years.

30. Always wear your seat belt? Duh.

31. Been in a car accident? Yes. I rear-ended someone when I was 16, I backed into another car (actually we both backed into each other) in a parking lot when I was in college, and I rolled a rental car when I was on a business trip. Luckily I only had a little whiplash, which went away entirely with one chiropractic appointment.

32. Any pet peeves? People that chew with their mouths open or speak while chewing. Although I'm sure I do this on occasion, it drives me crazy when other people do - particularly when it's habitual. I also really hate it when people say "irregardless" or pronounce "realtor" as "reel-a-tor".

33. Favorite Pizza Toppings? I love veggie pizza, but I can never have that because my family doesn't like it. I usually settle with pineapple

34. Favorite Flower? Easter lilies and calla lillies

35. Favorite ice cream? Burnt Almond Fudge and Cherry Chocolate Bordeaux (Blue Bunny)

36. Favorite fast food restaurant? Arby's

37. How many times did you fail your driver's test? Zero

38. From whom did you get your last email? The "Lazy Organizer"

39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? No store is worth maxing out my credit card. Talk about slavery.

40. Do anything spontaneous lately? I made blueberry muffins this morning - does that count?

41. Like your job? There is nothing I want to do more than be a stay-at-home-mom. It is extremely rewarding, but also difficult.

42. Broccoli? Uncooked with Ranch.

43. What was your favorite vacation? Favorite with the kids: Oceanside, California to see my sister and her family and go to Disneyland. Favorite without the kids: Western Caribbean cruise.

44. Last person you went out to dinner with? I'm sure it was Dreamer, but I can't think where or when. Probably a month ago when we went to the temple and ate in the cafeteria.

45. What are you listening to right now? My nephew Adam explaining his every move to Vivacious while playing Tetris. Song "Bad Day" in the background. Lots of kids running through my house (I've got my sister's kids today, so there are 7 kids here).

46. What is your favorite color? Navy blue or chocolate brown.

47. How many tattoos do you have? None.

48. How many are you tagging for this quiz? I'm not tagging, just posting on my blog. I'd love it if you sent it back to me with your answers, though!

49. What time did you finish this quiz? 1:33 p.m.

50. Coffee Drinker? Um, no. What kind of dumb final question is this?

Submit to God's Will for Peace

"In those crucial moments
of pivotal personal history
we must submit ourselves to God
even when all our hopes and fears
may tempt us otherwise.
We must be willing to place all we have -
not just our possessions -
but also our
ambition
and pride
and stubbornness
and vanity
on the alter of God,
kneel their in silent submission
and
willingly walk away."

- Jeffrey R. Holland, On Earth As It Is In Heaven, 128

Brother Brigham's Pioneer Ball

Saturday night my sister Jenny, my mom and I took Dynamite, Confidence and Vivacious and their cousin, Emma, to Brother Brigham's Pioneer Ball, a re-enactment of old Pioneer dances in Brigham Young's time (the pioneers entered the Salt Lake Valley in 1847). The kids had a blast, dancing and running around like crazy people. My mom loves to dance, so she was in her element. Here are some pictures so even if you missed it you can feel like you were there. Plan now to come next year; it was so much fun!

Full pioneer dress was encouraged, but not required, so people came in a wide variety of styles. Some were in modern-day casual or church clothes, others in pioneer-era attire and some in Civil War period dress. One lady even came in a dress that her husband's ancestor brought with them in a wagon across the plains (see below)! It was fun to see everyone's costumes; it was the only kind of costume party I'm interested in dressing up for!

Vivacious and Grandma dancing.

Dynamite, driving the train (above). Confidence & Vivacious, as riders (below).

My sister, Jenny, and her daughter, Emma.

Vivacious, Emma and Confidence.

Vivacious and Dynamite, trying to follow the "caller's" instructions.

Emma and Vivacious. My camera has a really long delay between when you push the button and when the picture actually takes. It also seems to be having flash problems. My sister's camera was also malfunctioning, so most of the pictures we took weren't great.

This is Dynamite, posing by the horse coral (sp?). Cute, huh? Dreamer brought this cute bowler hat home for Dynamite when he went to Las Vegas for a conference and Dynamite wears it all the time now. You'll also want to notice his Sheriff badge and cowboy boots. He enjoyed getting dressed up. This is the pose I asked him to do for the camera.

This is the pose Dynamite wanted to do for the camera. Unfortunately, as soon as I snapped the picture, he fell backwards into the coral and landed directly on his head. The fence was about 4 feet high, so I think his head fell about 5 feet onto the hard dirt. In retrospect, I think he got a concussion because when he got up he was dizzy and he was crying harder than ever (he's a very tough little boy). Once I got him back over the fence he started asking what happened and when I said that he fell he asked where. I said, "Remember, you fell off the fence?" To that he would reply, "What fence?" He asked these same questions over and over. The remainder of the evening he was extremely clingy and just wanted to lean on me or be held. He continued to ask those questions off and on all evening. He said his head hurt, then it got better for a while, then worse again. He also seemed to be more clumsy with bouts of dizziness. The next morning he said when he tried to get out of bed his leg didn't work and the top of his head felt "funny", so he scratched it, and then something about scratching his head affected his foot. I know, it sounds odd. He then said his head hurt when he was washing his hair. Probably just a bruise, but today I'm taking him in to the doctor, just to be sure there isn't anything more serious, although he's acting normal now.

Here are Emma and Vivacious outside the child-size village. Don't they look sweet?

Dancing in the child-size village, where they didn't have to share floor space.

Dancing is more fun when you have your own stage! (It's 3 picnic tables scrunched together.)

By this time, the crowd had thinned a bit and most of the children were gone. It also seemed to me that the best dancers were the ones that were still there -- either that or they became the best dancers because they had been there, practicing, the longest. The woman pictured at the far right is the one with the authentic pioneer dress. Isn't it beautiful? She was about 6' tall, so it is remarkable that a pioneer's dress fits her, since people were shorter back then than they are now.

A blurry picture of my oldest 3 kids and I. I'll need to get a better copy from my mom's camera.

I wish I had thought to have someone take a picture of my mom, my sister and I. Maybe next year. Oh yah, and we need to start working on our costumes for next year so they won't be so thrown together! I always feel like sewing in the fall, so maybe that will be my project. Then again, maybe I'll just find someone who's been on Trek and borrow their clothes. Who doesn't want their very own pioneer costume and matching bonnet, though???