Olive Garden Dinner

Okay, I have to tell my wife how much I love and appreciate her! She made one of the best home made meals I have had in just a couple of days! Ha ha "She always makes great dinners"!! Anyways, I have never been a rabbit food eater i.e. Salad Eater, but I have fallen in love with the olive garden house salad, last night when I got home she had the salad, the soup I love and some breadsticks. It was seriously one of the best meals I have had. And it made me think about how grateful I am to have a wife who loves to cook, and who is always making me try new things. I just wanted to let her know how grateful I am for such a great wife, who takes the time to prepare such great meals.

Madi's cute prayers

Lately Madi wants to say the prayer every time i ask, and they are so funny and cute and sweet... and kind of long too. The other night we were getting ready to eat and sydney started crying in the middle of the prayer because she was so hungry and Madi wanted to just keep praying. It is so cute though. I wish i could remember everything she said last night, well i wish i would have had it recorded because hearing it in her cute little voice just makes it all better. She prayed for our family, and she said "thanks for Heavenly Father and Jesus, thanks for Grandpa being in heaven with Jesus, thanks for water that we can drink that is like Jesus' blood, and thanks for our food (no it wasn't a dinner prayer, but oh well) thanks for Jesus being on the cross, and then he died..." and then went on for another few minutes. How cute is that though. I guess she is learning something in church. I love that little girl, she is so sweet, and i am sure she has a lot of listeners in heaven too.

Girls night out

Last weekend me and Amber and Shara were able to get together for a little girls night out. We had so much fun talking about old times and laughing. I think these two girls know me better than anyone. We went to chili's and of course we ordered dessert first, then went to a movie, then talked for a bit at shara's house. I forgot how much fun we have together, thanks for a fun night girls!

Vegas, stomach flu and Early Valentines

Last week me and Justin got to go down to Vegas for a few days. He had some training to do down there so we got to go on a free trip! And of course, Sunday night sydney starts throwing up. we were leaving on wednesday morning, but anyone that has kids knows that when one kid is throwing up, the others are not far behind. So monday night- no throw up, tuesday everything seemed fine. We drove up to mom's and stopped to visit Justin's grandpa for a minute, then went to mom's house. We were planning on leaving at five and at three o'clock, Madi starts throwing up- wonderful.... So i spent most the rest of the night laying by her- she only threw up 2 times more and then she seemed to be fine. I told mom to call the family and give them fair warning so i didn't get in trouble for making everyone sick since they would be hanging out the whole week, and then we left. I hate leaving my kids when they are sick but mom said they would be fine with her. So Vegas was great. We did a lot of relaxing and shopping. We went and saw Avatar one night, which was better than I expected. The best part was just getting to hang out with my honey all week. But all good things have to come to an end and we headed back on Saturday. We stopped by and saw Justin's grandpa one more time, he was declining rapidly so we went to say goodbye. He passed away a few days later.
So while we were gone I guess Kyler threw up too, (sorry mom) but I thought we were done with it. Then yesterday at like 2:00 I started feeling a little sick, I had to do enrichment that night and I was just feeling like crap, but you can't really stay home if you are running the whole thing, so I went and just suffered through it. I started feeling a little bit better as the night went on, but all i could think about was going home, getting in the tub, then getting in bed. Usually me and my girlfriends go out after and hang out for a while but I told them I didn't feel up to it. So i get in my car and there is a note from Justin on my window just telling me he loves me, and I thought that was so sweet. Then I get home and the door is locked so i take a minute to find my keys and I come inside and there are flowers on the counter with a card and rose petals to the tub he just filled up for me. I was in heaven, nothing could have made me feel better. He said he wanted to celebrate it early since we will be up at the funeral all weekend. I thought it was so sweet. So yes the stomach flu didn't ruin all of our fun, even though it tried. Happy Valentines Day!

Madi turns 4!

Wow what a day! My little Madi turned 4 today. We decided to have a little party for her and somehow that turned into 16 kids all under the age of 7 (three were mine, but they were the loudest ones). I had a crazy idea to make a fondant cake for her too, and with some tips from my sister in law Joanna, i decided to try it. I thought it turned out good even though I was up all night working on it! Madi had a fun day though even though it was a little crazy with all of the kids it was fun. I had a lot of help from Ali too, she is a good sport to stay and help me. We also had a surprise visit from Grandma and Grandpa Orgill at the end of the party, Madi was so excited that they drove all the way down to see her. It was a lot of work with all those kids but it is all worth it to see how excited they get. When she came home from school and saw the decorations, she yelled "look how beautiful it is!" What a cutie she is, I love you Madi, happy birthday!

Happy New Year

Well since everyone else is listing New year's resolutions, i figure I better go along with the crowd and come up with something. I am not really a big fan of resolutions, so I will just call this my goals for this year.
1- attend the temple at least 6 times this year
2- read scriptures with my family 3-4 times a week, (every night just isn't going to happen, let's be real)
3- Have more money in my savings in december than i do now.
4- Be a more giving person
5- Read more, watch tv less



Well there you have it. Here is to 2010.

Christmas

building Gingerbread houses with the Orth cousin's




Opening presents



Here are some of the aprons i made for christmas



and just in case you didn't get a Christmas card from me, here is the letter I put in it.

CHRISTMAS 2009

Wow another year has flown by! I can’t believe we are at the end of another year.
Justin has been busy again this year working on the house. He did another huge project this summer. With the help of his brothers, he put in our sprinkling system and planted seed in our yard, we live on a half acre so you can imagine how big of a project it was. It was the greatest thing to see those little grass seeds starting to grow, and the dirt slowly disappear. He did such a great job on it and I can’t wait to see it next spring in full bloom. Justin has also been very busy with his job too. He is in his third year of the running the Upward bound program at the college. He does such an awesome job with them and the kids really look up to him. He also is the Scout master in church so he is around teenagers all day every day. He is great with them though.
I have just been enjoying working from home and having space for my kids to run. This summer was so great having a place for the kids to play while I worked. We have the longest driveway in the neighborhood so my house became the official bike riding spot this year for all the neighbor kids. I have been in my calling as the relief society for a year now. I am the Enrichment counselor and what a job that has been! It has really been a challenge for me, but I really have enjoyed the activities and getting to know all the people in the ward on a more personal level. I put on my first super Saturday this year which I thought was a huge success and also did a few fun activities and a few service ones too. It is such a blessing to have a calling like this to give me the opportunity to serve others. Other than church and work I have just been doing my best at being a mom, which of course is the most important of them all, but also the most challenging.
Sydney started school this year. They do all day kindergarten down here and I was a little nervous about it, but she has been doing so well. She is already learning to read and she amazes me every day how much she has learned already. She is in the same class as her cousin Molly and they both love it. Sydney has such a caring personality and is a great helper for me. She has also turned into my little party planner, just say the word and she goes to work planning decorations, food, people to invite, etc. she is just a little social butterfly you could say.
Madison is in her second year of preschool since she got to do half a year last year. She is so smart and loves to do homework anytime Sydney is doing hers. She knows all her letters and shapes and is starting to learn the sounds too. She and Kyler have grown a lot closer with Sydney gone during the days. They love to wrestle and chase each other around, and most days she just loves to be in her pj’s all day long.
And then there is Kyler. Kyler spent most of this year on his hand-me-down purple and pink bike. All I can say is he is such a boy, He loves to ride his bike and get into trouble. Recently he discovered if he walks up the big hill behind our house he can see Ali’s house, so yes- he has made his way there a few times and sits and rings the doorbell until Ali answers. He loves tractors, balls, wrestling with daddy, bikes, motorcycles and bugging his sisters, he is just a boy I guess.
We hope you all have had a wonderful year and wish you the best in the one to come! MERRY CHRISTMAS
Love, The Orth's