Axis & Allies- snack version

OK, check out Breanna's blog for the game details of the HOURS AND HOURS game played at our house on Friday night!  My part in all of this was helping provide country appropriate snacks for the game players.
Here are the "troops."  

Josh Barton was United States- we chose chili dogs for this country.

Breanna was Great Britain- we had strawberries and cream. (We decided the Boy Scout uniform worked as a costume since Boy Scouts started in England.

Austin was Japan- we went to the international market for some "Pocky" a favorite Japanese treat; chocolate dipped cracker sticks.

Braden was Germany- so we brought out the Gummi Bears; yes they originate in Germany.

Scott was Russia- I made some Russian Peroshki; little potato dumplings served with sour cream on top- yummy!  Hey, what about the cool Russian hat that I saw upstairs???  You know, the fur ones that Austin brought back??
Braden really got into his role as Hitler...I think he liked the idea of having a little mustache thingy.

Anyways, I think good times were had by all and...I do not even know who won this war.  I finally gave up and went to bed!!!

Spring Concert

Braden just finished up his year of being in "Show Choir."  He is the third from the right on the top row of this picture...and very grown up and handsome as he sings.  I went to his concert this week and was impressed with how well his group sounded.  Their director has a knack for getting them to love the songs they sing.  It has been a good year for Braden.  Hope he has time in his schedule for more choir down the road.  He is too shy to really sing out at church, but I know he has a good voice!
Today Braden and his choir group are singing at Lagoon and then they get to play all day!

Next week he goes back to Lagoon with school friends to celebrate graduation from 8th grade!!

Time goes faster and faster the older I get!

'Live long and perspire'

Click here:  http://www.trekyourself.com/?mId=30014875.2

Jenna asked for this: click here

Braden asked for this: click here

I Amaze Myself!

I amaze myself with my mental abilities.  Saturday I was cleaning house to get ready for VT interviews hosted at our home Sunday.  I was admiring the new carpet downstairs and for the hundredth time thinking how similar it looked to the upstairs carpet.  Both are sort of a tan frieze style.  I had wondered how similar the colors were to each other so, I found the sample from downstairs and set it on the upstairs carpet.  Yes, I had done this before I am sure, and thought they were pretty close...but it never occurred to me that maybe they were in fact THE SAME CARPET!!  I pulled out my old bill and my new bill and wonder of wonders, it was the same style number on both of them.

Just set that carpet style aside to line my casket with because obviously I have only one color and style of carpet in my brain...I wonder what color I will choose for the living room in a couple of years????  

Notice any similarities??? Hmmm!  Well, we will get Breanna to blog about her new room.  It is SO CUTE with her new twig headboard from Amish country that turned out so cool.

Here's to OLDER AGE and amazing mental faculty!!  Don't ask me to go with you to choose carpet unless you like THIS STYLE ONLY!!

Yes, I took a wasp to church!!

I entertained myself in church and made myself take myself out of church DURING THE PRAYER...because I brought a wasp with me to church.

Well, I did not know that I brought him...or her...but I figured it out later.  I was sitting by myself because Scott was on the stand and Braden was passing sacrament and I felt something in my hair.  At first I wondered if I had my earring caught or something, then the sensation moved somewhere else and I suspected it was a SPIDER so I started brushing at my head to get it off.  This was probably vastly entertaining to people sitting behind me, which would have been the entire congregation since I was on the front row.  Anyways, finally I brushed my hand and felt something fall down so I looked to find the supposed spider only to find a wasp...actually less terrifying than a spider to me...but a wasp in sacrament meeting nonetheless.  At this point the opening prayer was started and I had a wasp climbing across the top of my church bag.  I knew I did not want it to fly into the congregation so I just got up and left the meeting and no one knew because their EYES WERE SHUT!  I took the wasp towards the outside doors, but before I could get there it flew to the ground so I had no other choice than to SQUISH IT!  

I then went back to the chapel, waited for the prayer to end, and walked back to my seat without anyone knowing what had happened.  Oh, and I do not remember what the prayer-giver said in his prayer.  Sorry!

When I looked at my church bag, I remembered that I had picked up the mail from the mailbox before coming to church and I also remembered that there were wasps trying to build a home in our mailbox...for about the third time this spring...we keep knocking them down and they keep coming back for more.  But, I had squished another wasp in the mailbox door by accident...maybe...so yes, I am sure that this wasp hitched a ride to church with me in my bag with the mail.  Not a very good fellowshipper am I?

HAPPY GRADUATION ETC!

Thursday and Friday April 23-24 were the graduation days for Austin and Laura.  
It was wonderful that her family could come up from California to be with them for the special occasion, and sort of a flashback to last year with her sister and brother-in-law's graduation, Jenna and Ty's graduation, and of course, THEIR WEDDING!  

So, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY...HAPPY GRADUATION...and HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAURA!!!  We love you both so much and are very proud (in a humble way) of all your accomplishments!

EAST COAST IS THE MOST!!

We have started what we hope becomes a family tradition...LADIES WEEK!  Lori and I have traveled with Scott on several trips and really have become good "shopping buddies" among other things :)   So, a trip to visit Jenna was just the thing to get both of us out of town for some much needed girl time with Jenna...oh and some good times with Tyrel too:)

Jenna was the perfect tour guide to take us into the big NYCity for a day full of travel from the bottom to the top of the city...literally...and then to a fantastic broadway play WICKED.  It was Soooo Good!!!  We just loved it!
The next day, Lynette(Jenna's Mother in law, and an amazing person) gave us the royal tour of Pennsylvania Amish country.  We fell in love with it as well!  We saw a covered bridge and the most beautiful country and people.  (See Jenna's blog for more pictures)  I could go back again and again to this part of the country and we really hope Lynette gets her dream of opening a bed and breakfast out there someday!!!
We were put up in style in the mansion Jenna and Tyrel house-sit at.  It was amazing!
We love our Jenna and Tyrel and our little baby grandson that is starting to really make his appearance!!  Jenna is looking SO CUTE!!!

Thank you Lori for being the best traveling, shopping buddy, and to Jenna, Ty and Lynette for hosting us!  We had a wonderful time and can't wait to see you again!

RESUSCI-WHAT???

OK, so you've all heard of "Rescusi-Annie"  You know, the not even lifelike doll they use for teaching "mouth-to mouth" in CPR type classes.

But have you heard of Resusci-Grover?????

Breanna, our swim-teacher, lifeguard daughter was signed up (By Mom) to be a Swimming Merit Badge Counselor for the boy scouts in our ward and she has been working with a high school senior, Austin Holden before he gets his eagle scout rank in a couple weeks. 

I come into the kitchen one day to find Breanna teaching mouth-to-mouth using none other than our stuffed Grover puppet.  She thought it was GENIUS...
I thought it was HILARIOUS!!!  Talk about some creative last minute thinking...it was either Grover or a stuffed puppy puppet...they were the only ones with mouths that opened, although I think Grover's mouth was a little large...try covering a 9 inch spread and sealing off a huge pink nose at the same time!!!  KUDOS to Breanna for creativity at it's finest, and thank goodness we had a puppet she could practice on instead of having to resort to the "real thing!"

Ladies Night April

OK, it was not the same without having Jenna or Amanda here with us, but we celebrated "Ladies Night" with a little bit of style during priesthood session on Saturday.

Breanna, Laura and I started out doing a little taxes (Laura) and painting (Breanna and Mom). 

 Then we got together and dipped some strawberries in chocolate...yes, there HAD TO BE CHOCOLATE somewhere during the evening!!!

Then we put together some lovely French Bread pizzas for dinner, and while they cooked, we finished putting together our cool metal washer/epoxy necklaces that we started at Christmas...OK, we are slow finishing projects...but they really turned out so fun.

We finished the evening by running over to Roberts right before they closed, wearing our painting clothes...to try to find Breanna a husband!  After all, she was Twitchy McTwitchter (see her blog) and looking SO FINE in Braden's old Jr. Jazz shorts and her 10K shirt.  Any eligible, athletic man should have been duly impressed...but alas, there were few males in Roberts at 9:00 p.m. and the one we met was engaged and picking up paper with his fiance.  Oh well, there is always next ladies night!  Cheers!

My Fair Lady

On the "street where we live" a little flower shop appeared this Saturday.  Our "fair lady," Breanna, brought over bunches of flowers to play with during afternoon conference...hopefully she will blog and show her creations.  She made and gave away several beautiful arrangements, including one to her dear mother:)

We are so glad she has flower arranging for a hobby...it could be so much worse, she could be interested in raising tarantulas or something!

Thanks for the flowers Breanna!!!

Checking in

Some random thoughts from Scott ...

• It seems like I haven't posted for a while - but it's not for a lack of trying. Several times during the past 4-5 days, I've tried to post a minute-long video of a Church commercial that's really clever. Even though it's well within the 100MB limit for video posts (only 4-plus MB), it would only play the first 8-10 seconds and then freeze up. So, instead, here's the link to the YouTube video - enjoy. I don't know what is more hilarious - the concise, choice dialogue or the use of hip-waders and wrapping-paper tubes.
• When you watch the above-linked video, can you tell the setting of the swordfights? Hint, these are not the Pirates of the Caribbean, but the Pirates of the Provo. If you're really sharp, you may see backgrounds similar to photo shoots for a) Tyrel and Jenna's engagement photos, b) Laura's bridal photos and c) Breanna's senior photos.
• Want a great read? Check out Breanna's "Happy Burn Day" post on her blog.
• I've joined Facebook (to quote a family-favorite VeggieTale music video: "I can be your friend"). I'll spend a minute or two a couple of times a day to scan the postings and messages. I find it a little too impersonal -- I can only imagine what Twitter is like (don't know if I'm going there). I'll keep the Facebook account for awhile, but I prefer the privacy of emails and the lengthier, meatier posts on a personal blog (like the family Blogspot pages).

Baby Braden

So, we helped Aaron and Michelle for a while Saturday and ended up taking some of their extra "stuff" to DI afterwards.  Well, there is a new policy that DI will not take baby items that they cannot wash...like this cute baby floor toy.  

I asked Michelle about it and she said we could take it to Jenna and Ty if it will fit into a suitcase.  We were trying to figure out what it does...it plays music and has lights and is just cute.  I dared Braden to climb inside and it was pretty funny!  

Maybe Jenna will have a bouncing baby boy like this one!!!

P.S It is snowing like crazy!!!  On my poor little crocuses!!!

Breanna & her dancing exploits

Here's a video of Breanna at a recent dance competiton - back at Provo High, but in the open competition. Video was taken February 2009. Enjoy.

WE ARE THE (STAKE) CHAMPIONS

Hello Everyone, this is Braden and I am sorry I haven't blogged in a really long time but I will be blogging a lot to day so get ready to be reading for a while.

Well the Sunset 11th Ward Deacons team was victorious in the Stake championship against the Spanish Ward and will now be progressing to the regional tournament in March. 

• During and after the game sweat shirts and t-shirts were thrown into the crowd of 50 (refer to picture below). Even though more than half of it was Spanish Ward fans they still kept them and even put them straight on. Even today at school I saw people wearing them they are getting even more popular game after game. Just wait you will be seeing them pretty soon in North Carolina.                                                                            
• Besides the fact that we won Stake I enjoyed whenever I stepped up to the Spanish Ward crowd would start to yell and do this weird "loo" sound.  What really made my day is it was started by the Spanish Ward woman (mostly moms). I can't imagine my Mom starting to scream and make weird sounds when the other team stepped up to the basket. I am just glad that we were able to come off with a win.                                                        
• There is some bad news for the team though. One of the better players turned 14 around the time I did so we were able to stay with the team, as long as we didn't play for the teachers/priests team. Well the dumbest thing happened right after our game the Teachers/Priests had a game, (I think you know what is coming) well he just had the urge to play in their game, so he could be suspended from the team for the remainder of the season.                                                                           
• What I would like to call to attention is that in my Jr. Jazz games the game Austin is gone (out of town) our team wins well it proved itself more than once this week. Wednesday, I had my first Jr. Jazz tournament game, well we won the game when Austin was gone, Laura was there though (I think she is the Good Luck charm) but then Austin came back and we lost the game we played in. Austin and Laura are both in California so it is time to see if Laura is the Good Luck charm and/or if Austin is a Jinx on the team. (Austin please do not hold this against me I do enjoy your booing, if I wasn't playing I would be booing along side with you on most of the calls. I really do enjoy you both coming) 
• Below: My favorite shirt to wear and see everyone else wear. Also there will be a movie clip being posted as soon as my Dad gets to it.                                                                                                                 
  
  

FROM SCOTT: Braden wants all to know that the video was taken by Austin going to the December 2006 BYU-Oregon Las Vegas Bowl. Scott wants all to know that Braden's voice still hasn't changed.

Spring Has Sprung

I saw my first crocus of spring today...and it is only February 27!  

I took a picture I was so excited!

  This winter has seemed so long and cold that it was a delight to see a flower already!

Here's hoping for an early start to SPRING!

Now, a little note about SPRING CLEANING...

something I do not really do.

The other day I had to change a couple of light bulbs in the chandelier in the kitchen and while I was up there, I did some dusting.  I was embarrassed to realize that the outer glass bowls of this particular chandelier that I had begun to think of as "frosted" glass, were in reality clear!  They were so dusty that we had forgotten how they were supposed to look.  Now they are so much more beautiful...let's hope that I do spring cleaning more than once a year!!

Victory is Sweet!

Braden's basketball teams prevailed this week on two separate occasions to win both at ward basketball and at Jr. Jazz(city league) ball. (Braden #22)

Thursday night Braden's deacon team played well against the other team and won.  This gives them the honor of playing in the championship game this coming Thursday! 

(Braden #34- in a previous game)

Saturday Braden's Jr. Jazz team played the best we have seen them play this year and they soundly beat the other team...I think it was the first game they won all season??  They have high hopes for tournament which starts this week as well.

We only hope that the two tournaments do not have conflicting games because that would be a real bummer!!  More details later on BASKETBALL!!

FROM SCOTT: I've added a few extra photos from Braden's game Saturday. I'll be putting another basketball image or two later on "Scott's Pot Shots."

The many faces of a 14-year-old

   It's Braden's birthday Monday (Feb. 9). He turns 14. He's a bona fide teenager.He entertains himself -- obviously.

   Also, if a picture's worth a thousand words - here's 15,000 words worth trying to describe Braden's many personalities.

   Warning: Click on the photo for a larger image -- if you dare!

Post Script: 

   Braden was disappointed that I didn't include his favorite of the 25 images he took. He says he's so happy with it that he wants it on the family Christmas card next year -- don't tempt us. 

  Here it is. Happy birthday, Braden . . . . . and don't get a big head -- ooops, too late!

The Constancy of Change

Just when you think you are comfortably enlisted in the Primary for another 10 years, the Bishop calls you in and rocks your boat!  I have had to rack my brain to remember the last time I was in Relief Society...a good reason in itself that I should be back there, but difficult nonetheless.

At the present moment, I am first counselor in both Primary and Relief Society which means a lot of presidency meetings.  Scott jokingly said that he thinks the Young Women need a new first counselor too...just to make it even more interesting.  

I did some research to figure out that I was RS president from 1991-1993 in our ward...there are only a handful of ladies left that would even remember that, our ward has changed so much.  I was primary president when the ward was formed in 1987 so that is even longer ago.  I have a great picture of me with my big, permed hair, (and I was very young) when I was RS president that I will have to dig out and scan.  But for now, here is one that Scott scanned for something else that would have been that same time period...my kids and many of you will recognize some pretty special people in this picture that are still part of our lives.  This was at Austin's baptism in 1991.

Austin's baptism, March 1991, Provo

Front: Megan Taylor, Jenna Taylor, Jessica Taylor

Middle: Austin Taylor, Ethan Holman, Robbie Stewart,

 Amanda Holman, Breanna Taylor, somebody's knee

Back: Austin Murphy, Jon Bronson, Katie Holman

Any ideas for Relief Society would be appreciated!  I only know how to do games, songs and stories and act out scripture stories...hope the sisters like it!  I really want ideas on how to make lessons fun for younger RS sisters...hint hint Megan, Jessica, Breanna, Jenna, Amanda...

Incidentally, the Primary room is right down the hall from RS so I got to hear the children singing all my favorite songs my first week in RS and I was an emotional basketcase!  I warned the sisters that they will have to be really patient with me while I go through "withdrawal."  

Thoroughly Modern Millie!

Breanna and I had the special treat of going to a play at BYU last week!  

We have always enjoyed the old movie with Julie Andrews and Mary Tyler Moore...and the stage version is a fun twist on that old flick!  We had seen it once before at Hale Center Theatre...but BYU had a lot of fun with it, and an incredible set.

  

Breanna laughed at the comments inside the program at BYU and all the analyzing of the plot and supposed desire for moral values etc. that the play was supposed to purport...her comment about the over-analyzation was "Why can't it just be for fun?"  Yup, that is pretty much the way we saw it!  Good times!!

Fun with "word verification"

   As I have posted comments on blogs the past few days, my attention has been drawn to the "word verification" codes needed to authorize and authenticate the posting. I think maybe this blog might require the same code. You know what I'm talking about, the scrambled letters that at first look like my tray of leftover letter tiles in a game of Scrabble. But if you start to look at them closely, they start to look like real words, funny expressions.

   And so, for the next little while, I'm going to end most of my comments with the "word verification" that I'll need to type in to post the comment. See if you don't think they look and read funny.

   LATE ADDITION (01.23.09): In addition to putting the "verification" at the end of my posted comments, I may add a suggested definition - kind of like a twist on the old "sniglets" game.