Funny Landon Moment

Yesterday Landon's class was out in the hallway waiting to go into another classroom because they were doing afternoon "trades." Landon chose that moment to fart, then Mrs. Whaley came out into the hall and asked what that horrible smell was! Landon pointed to Javier, a heavy Mexican boy in his class who keeps pieces of cheese in his pocket to snack on throughout the day. Made me laugh.

Lake Titty-Caca

We had about 4-6 inches of snow over the weekend and last night it all melted. Landon looked outside this morning and said, "Whoa! Lake Titty-Caca!" Check out our very own lake front property:

Emma's 13th Birthday

Emma started the birthday festivities by inviting 3 friends over to spend the night, Friday night. They ate pizza, did makeovers and took lots of pictures of each other. Monday night (the 13th) we had her favorite dinner, which is homemade barbecue chicken pizzas. She requested a Suzy-Q, ice cream cake that is in our cookbook (Jane's recipe). It was delicious!!Emma had a hard time deciding what she wanted for her birthday this year, so I suggested figuring out a way to put a desk in her room. She's always wanted a desk, but didn't know how it would fit with her full-size bed in her small room. We removed the headboard and pushed her bed up against the wall, put her bookshelf in Lauren's room, put Lauren's bookshelf in the hallway (because Lauren's was shorter and fit in the hall better), and made enough room for a desk! Emma was so excited, so Monday night Landon and I assembled a cute desk we bought at Walmart, and wrapped her presents.Between all her family members, Emma got some new bedding (last year's was falling apart), a white-board calendar, a water bottle, money, 2 magazine subscriptions, jewelry, odds and ends and a really pretty framed picture of the Rexburg temple with the words, "If this isn't your castle, then you aren't my prince." She was happy!Tuesday was her actual birthday, but Tuesdays are the biggest nightmare at our house. She had to go to ballroom right after school, Lauren was sick, and Landon had drivers' ed until 8:00 p.m. I picked her up from ballroom and we bought Jimmy John's to take home for dinner on the couch in front of the TV in our pajamas, one of our favorite things to do.
After spending some birthday money on a mirror (that she craftily glued a flower on) and some desk supplies, this is what Emma's room looks like now:Emma is experimenting with using her desk as both a homework space and a vanity. She likes to get ready in the morning in her room, listening to her music.

Artichokes, New Beginnings

If all I have to blog about after 3 weeks is that we ate artichokes, I guess we're living a boring life right now.Lauren begged me to buy some artichokes because we saw them on sale at Broulims. I cooked them, we each ate one and it was a good Sunday meal. Landon dipped his in spicy mayonnaise, Emma and I preferred ranch dressing and Lauren went au naturel. Good times.Emma had New Beginnings last week. She had several opportunities to speak and perform in a skit in front of everyone and I was amazed at how confident she has become over the last year when she first started the YW program. She stood up straight, spoke clearly and acted like she was in charge of everyone. She loves the girls in our ward and feels really comfortable with all of them. It's such a huge blessing to be in a group of YW where you feel accepted and loved. There are so many groups that have cliques, or snotty girls that make you feel like you don't want to be there. We're counting our blessings that Emma is so happy right now. She's been reading her Book of Mormon and writing in her journal everyday since the new year started. I'm glad she's so self-motivated, because otherwise we'd ruin her! She keeps us from falling too far off the straight and narrow.

17 years of good eating is evident by this awful picture. We celebrated our anniversary on Saturday by going to Stockman's and window shopping around Idaho Falls. The girls stayed home (I love that they can do that!!) and we really enjoyed the time together. Stockman's is far and away our favorite steak restaurant.

My @#$% calling is keeping me super busy these first two months of the year. I think it might ease up a little after mid-March. We have 9 ward conferences, individual meetings with each ward YW presidency prior to ward conferences, 9 New Beginnings, our regular meetings plus extra meetings and firesides and trainings because our stake is doing the @#$% Martin's Cove pioneer trek in August. I'm in charge of the music committee for the trek, of all things. Landon's doing driver's ed now in addition to whatever extra jobs the school district can think to make him do for free, so I guess we've been busier than normal. Above all, we're all super excited about the upcoming baby LeFevre. The underlying excitement and anticipation makes all this other crap doable.