Who's the Smokin' Hot Couple?

I was the lucky winner of a free photo shoot by a darling girl who wants to start a photography business. Yahoo. Because we had just taken family pictures a few months ago, we decided to just have them taken of Steve and me. Yahoo! I thought they turned out great! Steve and I have different favorites. What do you think?

Look What I Found

I guess when the cat's away, the mouse will play.

In Whose World Does This Make Sense?

If you aren't in the mood to read a few rantings, just skip this post. I won't mind.

What a sense of entitlement!

Seriously, how can they even justify this!

I'm not really late to the party, I've just finally had all I can take.

I can not believe that executives from those companies who received the federal government's money --oops, I mean my money--oops, I mean the federal government's money had the audacity to pay themselves huge bonuses. No wait; I mean ridiculously obnoxious bonuses to themselves.

Now correct me if I am wrong, but on the planet called Earth, where I live, a bonus, especially from an employer is: a sum of money granted or given to an employee in addition to regular pay, usually in appreciation for good work performed.

Umm...in case they missed....their companies are sinking! They are in real financial trouble! Show me the good work! How can they in good conscience take those bonuses?

Okay, enough said. I have better things to go focus on.

OMGosh! Here is something presented in the news this morning (2/11/09). UGH!!!!

One company may have secretly moved up its plan to pay its top 14 executives 250, 000, 000 (two hundred fifty million) in bonuses just before it announced a 15 billion dollar 4th quarter loss, and then asked tax payers for an additional 20 billion dollars to help with a deal!

I think the CFO ought to be given a pink slip instead of a bonus. When has spending money you don't have ever been a good idea. In case he missed the point, that is called DEBT.

On a positive side, I love Dave Ramsey. He knows that it's the American people with the American spirit who are going to fix our current situation (because guess what, there isn't enough money in Washington to fix this). It's going to be Americans with the with the entreprenureal (sp?) spirit that are going to make America strong again.

Tyler's Baptism

What a truly special day this was for our family.

What a busy day for our family.

The day started with our tradition of eating out at breakfast time to finish our celebration of Ethan's birthday. Although this time he changed it up a bit and wanted donuts. So, he and Steve went to Smith's and came home with yummy donuts and delicious chocolate milk.

Next was Tyler and Ethan's basketball game at 11:00. Tyler made two baskets this time. And, Ethan, well, he had to guard a guy "twice as tall" as him. What good sport.

Finally time for Steve and Tyler to head over to the church at 2:10. Tyler was so excited to have new church clothes with a tie. He has wanted a tie for a long time now. Steve keeps telling him to enjoy the time he doesn't have to wear one, but to no avail.

The actual baptism was short, but very powerful. Tyler did a great job and thought it was so fast. "I thought I would be under the water so much longer. But it was like 1, 2, 3, and I was out!" Uncle Scott did a great job on his talk about baptism. Tyler was baptized with my friend's son, Joshua. Joshua's grandmother gave the talk on receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost. She also did a great job and gave Tyler a flashlight that she had used in a object lesson during her talk.


Two things to note about the baptism:

• The actual service started about 20 minutes late. After waiting for 10 minutes, Tyler leaned over to Joshua and said, "We should have started 10 minutes ago." That's my boy. Tyler more then Ethan seems to be aware of time when we are going places and will often ask if we are going to be on time. So cute! I can not stand being late. It drives me crazy and stresses me out. In fact, I count being on time as being late. I always try to arrive places at least 5 to 10 minutes early.
• Steve said when he went to say the words for the actual baptism his mind went blank. Ever the calm one, he reasonably tried to remember the words. Yahoo, he did....in SPANISH. From there he was able to remember the English words and off he went. So funny. Steve did a really great job.
  

Afterwards, we had everyone back to our house for a yummy lunch. Thanks for sharing in our day.

Ethan is Seven

I can't believe my Ethan is seven years old. When did that happen?

He is such a cutie pie and I really wanted to make his birthday special for him. I started off by asking him what he wanted for his birthday breakfast. I could tell he was a little hesitant to ask, but with a little encouragement, he asked for a smiley face pancake; along with the words: I know Dad makes it better.

Ouch!

So, what's a mother to do? Of course I set out to make a smiley face pancake that could compete with Dad's. (I usually don't, but couldn't resist on this day.) It was easy, I just used CANDY.

We had a great party that evening with Grandma, Grandpa, and Uncle Scott. A few days before Ethan had asked for a Spongebob cake. Knowing that Steve is better at this kind of thing, I asked him to decorate the cake that I had made during the day. I think Steve did and awesome job and Ethan loved it. His smile was gratitude enough when he saw the cake.

Happy Birthday my cuddle bear. I love you!

We Rumbled...Came in Third

Here's a little background on my experience with the Pine Wood Derby.

When I first moved to Utah in January of 1995, I worked in an office where our desks were in groupings. Suffice it to say that I could sometimes hear the person 6 desks away talking. One day I heard him talking about the Pine Wood Derby. I had no clue what he was talking about. I also, in said conversation, heard him talking about making the car this weekend. Now I know what most of you are thinking: Of course you make a car for the Pine Wood Derby. So, I am thinking: Wow, you're making a car. Really? (In my mind, I am picturing some sort of go-cartish car. You must be really talented. Obviously, the joke was on me.

Flash forward 12 years, and now it's our first Pine Wood Derby.

It started out like this:
And ended up like this:


The Pine Wood Derby was fun and Tyler loved it. He was recognized for earning his Bobcat badge and for wearing his scout uniform every time. (Yay me!) It was very endearing for me to see Steve and Tyler engaged in the creating of his derby car. In the end, Tyler's car was red with gold accents carved in the shape of a lightening bolt. (Maybe he's still a little obsessed with Harry Potter.) Ty consistently came in third every time and I am pleased to say that he handled that very well.

This is Tyler's rank advancement to Bobcat (the pics are in reverse order, sorry):

It's His Golden Birthday

So did you know that if you google the term "golden birthday" it is an actual term. It is defined as the day when your ages matches your birth date. Well this year Tyler's golden birthday was on January 8th.

And what a golden birthday it was.

Being eight means two things to Tyler: getting baptized and starting scouts.