Trunk or Treat

I have never been more nervous for a Halloween than I am this year. Tony and I are the activities committee chairmans for our ward and are in charge of the trunk or treat. We have heard raving reviews about Trunk or Treats but I have never seen one before. I am not sure why I am so nervous about this party, I plan events everyday for a living this should be a breeze!

We are having a chili cookoff for the first hour. Of course we volunteered to bring chili but here is the catch. Being budget conscious we bought black, pinto, and kidney beans the kind you have to soak. We soaked them and made the chili last night. It cooked on low in the crockpot all night and the beans are so crunchy!! I am hoping a few more hours today will do the beans some good.

The second hour is the trunk or treat. The third hour we are doing a cake walk. Of course we will have prizes for costumes, chili, trunks etc. It really should be a fun night. I think I am more excited to see all the kids in their costumes.

Wish us luck and a Happy Halloween to everyone! I'll post some pictures next week.

I love my Family!

A few weeks ago Renn and Kristina blessed their newest daughter Elizabeth in my parent's ward. It was so fun to have the whole family together. We took this cute picture of us all that day. Boy has our family grown!!! I sure do love them all.

"Four Tag"

For this tag, I am supposed to post my fourth photo in my fourth photo file, and then tag four people.

What a fun tag. This is the cutest picture of my oldest nephew Abram. This picture was taken right before Chad and Ashley's wedding reception. Doesn't he look so handsome? Abram just turned 7 a few weeks ago and is still the most handsome little boy. I can't believe how much he has grown in the past couple of years. What a fun memory.

I tag Misty, Ashley, Megan, and Stephanie Pope.

I love my sweetie!!!

I have the best husband in the world. I am just so lucky to have someone is attentive and so thoughtful. He planned a surprise date for us on Saturday night. He told me on Friday to be in church clothes and ready to leave the house at 5 pm on Saturday. Of course I was intrigued but figured out where we were going. OC Tanner was sponsering a concert with the Utah Symphony and Mormon Tabernacle Choir and guest performers. I had seen the advertisement for it and thought it sounded wonderful but didn't think of seeing if we wanted to go. Luckily my sweet husband thought of it too.

The night started out with dinner at the Lion House pantry. You may ask why this restaurant? This is where we ate right before Tony proposed to me at Temple Square so it has a lot of sentimental meaning. I love the food there, so filling and homeade. Delicious!!! The concert was themed with Americana songs and broadway styled music. They had 2 guest performers, Denyce Graves an opera singer and then there was this gentleman name Brian Stokes Mitchell. He was so incredible. Check out his website and listen to some of the songs or go to itunes and listen to his broadway songs.

All I can say is people miss out by not going these events especially when they are free! Thanks my love for such a wonderful date and for always being so thoughtful!!!

Financial Peace University

Has anyone heard of Dave Ramsey? Well, if you haven't you should check out what he is all about. Tony and I's stake is sponsoring this wonderful financial program called "Financial Peace University" which Dave Ramsey created. The LDS church is not anyway affiliated with this program but our stake felt so strongly about this program they are sponsering it through Zion's bank.

Tony and I are so excited about it. We are excited to learn more about creating wealth and getting rid of debt. The first step is creating a $1000 emergency fund. We are on our way!!!What a great peace of mind and blessing it is to be on our way to financial freedom.

If anyone wants to hear more about this wonderful class let me know!

Feed Station #7

Tony and the kids have been volunteering for the Lotoja bike race for the past 4 years. The bike race is 200 miles and starts in Logan and ends up in Jackson Hole. I was lucky enough to be able to volunteer with them this year. They are always assigned to Feedstation #7 which is the last station before the riders go into Jackson Hole. It is such a beautiful area and so exciting to see them riding up the hill, what an accomplishment. Here are a few pictures:

Our feed station

My cute husband setting up

The bikers riding up the hill

Handing out water to the first sets of bikers that don't want to stop for food

The cute kids

We had such a great time and can't wait to do it all again next year!!!!!

What we have been up to!

It's a long time coming I know but boy has it been a busy last couple of months. Here are a few things we have been up to:

1. Stake Float

Tony and I are the Activity Chairman's for our ward. Since we have that calling we were asked to participate in helping create our stake float. For anyone that has been involved in a float before it's a big job, bigger than anyone thought. With only 2 months to get it done, we put many hours into our part.

The theme was "Still putting our Shoulder to the Wheel" We had a pioneer side with a handcart, and dirt. There was a picket fence in the middle with a Book of Mormon signifying a door to the other side which was our side. Our side contained our missionaries assigned to our stake, a show on the go board with the plan of salvation on it, and the Ogden temple. We thought the Ogden temple would be an easy project, boy were we wrong. I have to say Tony is so talented and was the main brain in creating this project.

We made the Ogden temple out of wood, chicken wire, burlap, styrofoam, and lots of comparing to pictures. The best part of the whole project was Tony's mother had an Angel Moroni tree topper that we put on top of the temple. It looked awesome. Here are a few pictures:

Temple with frame and part of the styrofoam

The finished temple

The steeple with Angel Moroni and alShow on the go board for the missionaries to hold onto

We even made it on the front page of the Standard Examiner which is Ogden's paper. The got the greatest shot of our steeple matching up with the Ogden Temple's steeple, it really made us feel great. Here is the picture:

2. I had my biggest event of the year. There were about 5700 attendees. Here is a great shot of all the ladies we plan for.3. The kids started school. Boy has this been an experience, it takes a lot of time and planning to get kids ready for school. School shopping, hair cutting, school supplies- good grief is all I have to say. I appreciate all our parents did to get us ready for school. I am a bad parent because I only took a picture of Amber's hair, we cut it short. I'll take more soon.

4. Chelsie heads off to college. Chelsie headed off to Utah State 2 sundays ago. We sure are excited for her, but miss her terribly. She started school this week and is doing great. She got a job at Staples, yah for Staples.

5. Tony has surgery. Tony had hernia surgery this past week. He is recovering well but boy is it painful. I sure hope he gets feeling better soon, I hate to see him in pain.

There we go, I think that is enough for today. :)