2009 Birthday Poem from Elwin

Jennifer here is to you, as cute as you are.
Don't see you much, living away so far.
I thought of writing a poem and making it a joke.
Ha ha ha. But what I am writing, I say is no hoax.
If you blinked your eyes, then ran away,
You would be followed, even all the day.
Now there is that sweet and happy, loving smile.
Very refreshing to be around all the while.
With your beautiful long flowing hair.
Yes, we know, for others you really do care.
Your addition to our family is special, you know.
Our appreciation for you I hope we show.
Chantilly, Charice, Teresa, Christian, Brian too.
We love all your children, we really do.
You have seen my true feelings, you know how I am.
We should show our love when ever we can.
You are so precious to us, now you know,
Around you always there is a happy glow.
Your hugs are always welcome and warm,
We pray you never loose that lovely charm.
You’re like a daughter we never had,
Your part of our family, we are so glad.

(I just ran across this again and was reminded that I wanted to post it. Obviously, it was a year ago! I was so surprised that he would take the time to write a poem about me!)

Birthday Fun

I've been having a great birthday week. My twins actually left for a week long camp just this morning, so we did our playing as a family last week.

On Thursday, we went for a helicopter ride. (It was only a two minute ride, but now we can say we have ridden in a helicopter!) We also went to check out an amusement park in Lehi(Liberty Land) that I could not get updated info on. It turned out that people were there cleaning and said that it had been closed, but was re-opening the next day! (Talk about timing!) Anyway, we met the owner, got a REALLY good deal, and basically got VIP treatment as they had a worker take us to all the rides we could in an hour! We had a blast!

Then on Saturday, we went to another amusement park (Boondocks) and played for eleven hours! It was a fun, exhausting day! I have so been needing it!

On Sunday, we had Jonathan, Rebecca and her kids, and the Montgomery family over for my favorite dessert--grasshopper (with Oreos, mint-n-chip ice cream, whipped topping, and hot fudge), ice cream and other treats and games. Yummy and enjoyable.

So, I've done my playing! Today I vowed that I would relax and read a book. It's nice to give yourself permission once in awhile to do nothing! I do wish I had spent more time reading, but I had lots of people telling me happy birthday on facebook and had fun replying to them.

My Birthday Song by Teresa

Here's the song Teresa and her friend made up and sang for me for my birthday:

My Mom
1. I love my mom I love my mom I love my mom so much.
2. I love her I love her I truly do.
3. It is her home it is her home the world is her home.
4. She loves the world she loves the world she loves the world of peace.
5. She wants more love she wants more love she wants more love at home.
6. This is the end this is the end this is the end of our song.

By: Emily M. and Teresa B.

“Notes on the piano” 123 44 123 44 123 4543 123 44 123 44 123 4543 123 44 123 44 123 4543.

Under Contract

Just letting you know, we are actually, officially "under contract". It has actually been a few days (or a week even?) It is a duplex just two blocks from us, we offered on probably nine months ago. It has five bedrooms (one will be an office) and more square footage than we currently have. It is a "short sale" (an oxymoronic phrase if there ever was one!) We were actually about the third offer, so didn't really expect anything. (They consider the first the one they are first considering and us others were backup offers.) The people in first and us were both calling the selling agent every couple of weeks to find out that nothing was really happening. Finally, on March 9th-- a miserable day, Brian and I had both been up all night with the flu-- the agent called and said that the first place buyers had finally been "bank- approved" but that they had done something else with their money now and were no longer interested! So, since we had been calling, he figured he would see if we were still interested and begin the process with us. Just goes to prove, once again, that the squeaky wheel gets the oil. It is hard to say when moving day will be-- lots more to get through first and with short sales, they ignore any dates you try to give them, they just do there thing and when they get to each point is when they get to it! The bank that is selling it has been notorious for being slow too. Lucky for us, they just recently began using a new system that is bringing hope that things will "only" take two months. That's sounds perfect though. I hope it works out that we can move about the beginning of June. We'll see. I'll have to go get a picture to post, huh?

Parable of Princesses

I highly recommend "The parable of the princesses" by Jenny Phillips.

Also this song "Daughter of a King" by Jenny Phillips. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm8G3wAc3hE

Christmas Concert

I so ache to be keeping you more up to date! I am so busy it makes me sick-- working and looking for a house has been enough and now throw in getting ready for birthdays and Christmas! Our ward was dissolved a few weeks ago. We are now part of the Pioneer 2nd Ward (instead of Rivergrove 3rd Ward.) We were all instantly released from our callings. So, I was actually officially calling free for a couple of weeks. (Ahh, big sigh of relief!) But, as of this last Sunday, I am now 2nd Counselor in the Young Women's organization. (I knew it wouldn't last!) This will be fun, but the Bishop did not encourage me by adding that this women's organization is busier than the last one I was involved in (referring to Relief Society!) Great! :)

Anyways, I wanted to be quick and just put some little video clips on here. Sunday, Dec. 6th my kids did a Christmas concert for our relatives who live close by. I wanted to share some of it with you. (I am sorry the video quality is so terrible, but it gives you an idea of what was going on.) We love you and miss you and hope you have a wonderful Christmas season!











(That was NOT quick to load these, but oh, well! Love ya!)

Summer Happenings Update

We got pre-approved for a house loan, so we are hopeful that we may actually get to move sometime soon. We are seriously house hunting now. It's fun, but hard to have the time for everything.

Let's see, what have we done lately? We read the book "The Giver" as a family and on June 4th, Chantilly and I went to the play at BYU. It was really well done.

In May, I was called to be the 2nd counselor in Relief Society. I am still the Enrichment Leader as well. My committee has dwindled and I actually only have one other sister on the committee with me! We're hoping that a new leader and whole new committee will be called soon! :) In the meantime, we're just not planning a lot. It's okay, our ward has really dwindled for the summer too.

June 11th, we left our house at 7AM and went to do a tree job in Castledale, UT for a friend of Brian's. We enjoyed the day working for and visiting with them. That evening, we went to have dinner, games, and spend the night at my Uncle Leo's house. The next morning, Leo, Geraldine, and Krista showed us some sights close by along the San Rafael River-- some pictographs and petroglyphs, the Swinging Bridge, and the Wedge. We saw lots of lizards, the kids loved trying to catch them, but never succeeded; also lots of noisy cicadas!

Also in June, Chantilly and Charice went camping with the Girl Scouts. Christian went to Scout Camp for a week.

We were in Beaver July 2-4. The better part of the 2-3 were spent helping Brian with a tree job. On the Fourth we got to enjoy the Fourth of July parade and Butch Cassidy Festival.

Chantilly took a fencing class for six weeks-- every Monday May 29th to July 6th. She loved it!

We are having fun reading and participating in our local library's summer reading programs. The twins have really gotten into the Boxcar Children series. They also read some of the Sweet Valley Twins-- Thank goodness I kept my collection! Our library doesn't really have any because they are out of print! I really enjoyed reading "the Host" by Stephenie Meyer. It was really interesting. As a family, we have gotten into the Overlander series (That begins with "Gregor the Overlander"). We love it! We only just started reading the newest Fablehaven book and are excited to finally read that! Of course, we are looking forward to the new Harry Potter movie!

Before we know it school will start again on Aug. 18th!

Enough for now. Hope you are having a great summer!