Family Home Evening

Lately we have been trying to do FHE every Monday. So far we have been doing pretty good. We start off with a song that Emjae sings in Nursery and have opening prayer then go into a short lesson. We finish with another song and then kneel to have closing and family prayer.
Most of the time our songs consist of either Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Monkeys Jumping on the Bed, Monkeys Swinging in a Tree, Popcorn Popping, Itsy Bitsy Spider, and we are trying to introduce Hinges, and Book of Mormon Stories. Because of this, Julie will come running up to any grown person with her pointer and middle fingers together and start trying to make noises so you will start singing Itsy Bitsy Spider. She has most of the hand motions down. If she doesn't do that one she has one finger in the air swinging it side to side for Monkeys Swinging in the Tree and she's good with those motions too :)
Emjae now sees every Church building, even ones that aren't LDS and calls them Temples. At least she has the concept down.
We are enjoying our mini lessons and FHE. This last Monday however we didn't have a lesson. We made BROWNIES!!!!! YUM!!!!
Emjae did most of the mixing,

Julie helped spray the pan

and Julie ate most of the left over batter.


Emjae didn't want anything to do with the left over batter so James decided to put some on her arm which she tried to wipe off on my arm.

Little sneaky girl :)

This was after she tried to wipe it on me and she is laughing.

New Design

So I decided as soon as I found out that my sister in law Kate was pregnant that I was going to do her cake for the baby shower. I really haven't done many different tasting cakes except for my one experiment with making a almond poppyseed cake. It didn't turn out to good and so I was afraid to try and find a new recipe and Lemon, none the less. I am not a lemon cake fan, but this new recipe I found isn't bad at all. Not to Lemony but just a hint. That of course is only from the small taste I took, true judgement will come later.
I didn't want to do a boring circle or square cake and so I pulled out a small purple and blue box that my mom had given me while she was packing some of her things.

Who knew that I could turn these flat tiny sheets of metal into a paisley shape.
I also wanted to try some new fondant recipes. I had seen some recipes for buttercream fondant and I found two different kinds. I did a small batch of both and "Ladies and Gentlemen (in my announcer voice), We have found a winner!" One of them taste so good and I much prefer the taste of it over the marshmallow fondant. However I need to figure out the right consistency. It falls apart very easy. I however am willing to work on that. It also is a more shiny fondant as well, so I can still use the marshmallow fondant for cakes that I don't want glowing :)



You can see the small tear on this bottom picture. But hey, its a practice cake and I enjoyed making it.

Julies Birthday

Our little chunks, isn't to much of a chunks anymore :( Of course we still call her chunks and she is still as gorgeous as ever and is now 1.

Her birthday was during the middle of the week and we wouldn't have been able to have a party with family there on her actual birthday so we waited until the weekend. My Aunt Brenda was kind enough to allow us to use her place for the birthday party. (Its the same spot we did Emjae's first birthday) She was suppose to be in town, but ended up leaving and my Uncle that lives here in Vegas was gone to the beach for a month. Amy and Alex had plans in Utah and purchased tickets that weekend for the rodeo and Erik...well he is poor, paying off debt and unable to come as well. So the only side of my family that was there was my parents, Trevor, his wonderful wife Kate, my brotha from anotha motha Nate, his wife Sarah and that was it. We were so pleased to have Monty and Kristin show up with the boys. They try to make it to as much as they can and we were so glad to see them since they have 5 boys and driving isn't fun and they were moving from California to Colorado on Wednesday. James' Mom also came, she likewise tries to make it to all that she can. We were told earlier in the week that Dad (James' Dad) wasn't going to be able to make it, but apparently plans changed and we were so glad to be able to see him! Helene and TJ and Dora (James' sister and brother) were going to try to make it, but we unable to. Helene was excited to come and planned on it, but a few days before the party informed us she would be unable to. TJ and Dora had told us they were coming and then things happened and well we were hurt that they didn't tell us they could come until the time we were expecting them to already be there.

Here are a few of the memories made that day. It all started with Trevor going to the diving board.

trying to make the biggest splash

Nate tried next

Then Kyle did. So did Tyler, I just wasn't able to get a picture of that fast guy.

Of course Monty couldn't be shown up by his sons :)

He wasn't to great at the splash, but he sure did a great flip!




This cute chunks of a nephew sure enjoyed his time in the water. So much he fell asleep and I am pretty sure he slept almost 90% of the time he was in there.


We truly did feel the love from family members and sure enjoyed spending most of the day in the pool! Some didn't even want to get out to eat cake and ice cream :)


And some didn't want to stop playing in the water even after they had their clothes on.

James

Las Vegas has been great so far except for the amazingly hot heat of summer! UGH Things having been falling into place and we are so grateful that we listened to the spirit and the promptings we had.
After being here for only two weeks James was able to find a job. He started the beginning of our 3rd week here. He is working for a Real Estate Motivational speaker named Mike Ferry. He is at a call center contacting agents to sell tickets to this guys conventions. So far he is enjoying himself. He has been learning tons about sales and how to close on sales and things he feels are important for him to start his own business. He doesn't mind that he has to wear a shirt and tie or the fact that he has to get up at 6. He does however not like the fact that he has to wear church shoes everyday and he is standing the whole day while on the phone, oh, and the fact that he has to be clean shaven.
For those who haven't seen James in awhile, and who have seen him before we moved, he used to have longer hair. He was growing it out but has now cut it, he used to play the xbox at least an hour a day but now hardly turns it on, he used to stay up til past midnight and now tries to be in bed at 10. There are many changes that he has been going through.
We were talking the other night and he asked if he has changed. I said yes, because he has. He was afraid that he was changing his personality. Reassuring him I said no, you aren't changing your personality, you are changing your habits and from my opinion they are changing for the better.
Personally I feel as if my husband is growing closer to the man I know he can be. He has never been a bad guy or not someone that I have admired. We all have potential for growth and can always increase in knowledge and standings. I feel that he is on a forward progression and I grow more and more in love with him each day as he draws closer to God and his full potential.

Father's Day

Father's Day was some what of a sad day for a few of us that lived in Ephraim. It was the last day that Erik would get to see his niece's for a while and for James and I, it was the last time we would see them for a whole week.

On our way up to Spanish Fork for Father's Day Lunch/Dinner we ended up getting pulled over. Where to begin....1. the car is not registered 2. Emjae was not in a car seat 3. Erik and James were not buckled in and 4. we were going 10 over the limit. ARGH!!! Just what we need a lovely huge ticket. Some how we went away with just a warning and a huge relief that we didn't have a huge ticket.
As we got closer to Grandma's to eat I turned around and Erik was crying. It was so touching to see how much he truly loves and cares about our kids and he said "I've been here since the beginning of 'Chunks' (aka Julie). " The sad thing is that he just doesn't know when he will be able to see them. He is unable to leave the state of Utah still and he is trying to join the Marines or Army. Erik is just a big softy!

When we got up there Mom and Dad were already there, Alex's Dad and Step-Mom Barb were there and Grandma and Grandpa were almost home. Amy was in the kitchen slaving away and I was busy decorating the cake. I did most of the decorations because Amy was trying to grill and bake, and put the salad together and get all the food taken care of. She did however write Happy Fathers Day on it, because my writing is not the business.

My Old Man's Cake

For James birthday he wanted a Steeler's helmet cake. It was his challenge to me. I personally think I accomplished it quiet well! I was told that looks aren't everything and that the inside is what matters. Well....It was pretty tasty and all enjoyed!

Sorry

I know that my blog isn't the funniest thing in the world, but for those that like to know what is going on in my families life, sorry! :) I'm sorry it's been about two months since I last posted something, so get ready for overload!

For those of you that don't know Utah or small towns, Summer time is the time for the fairs and parades and the booths and the rodeos and for the carnivals. Each town will have there own celebration. For us, Memorial Weekend started off with the Scandinavian Festival in Ephraim. We were in Ephraim last year at the time of the festival, but we had just moved in and we had gone camping with my family for Memorial Weekend instead. This was going to be our first and last time attending the festival. We didn't make it to the parade, but we did go to the streets where we walked to see all the booths and get some food and even let Emjae play a little.



















































Monday we headed up North and went to the Hogle Zoo. Holy Cow was it packed!!! But we got a great price since the girls are still young enough to be free for almost everything like the carousel and the train. We sure had a great time seeing all the animals, I think however the best part for Emjae was the little play area that they had.



This lovely picture says that our family, including the stroller and everything that we brought with us weighed 442 lbs, just about the same as a new born elephant.


After the Zoo we went to Grandma Greats house and had some bomb skewered food!!

We also played around out side, and well Emjae and Julie LOVE their cousins Bumbo except this time Julie....well.... lets just say the bumbo won the fight.