Day 3: Hollywood Studios

Hollywood studios was fun..

Top memories made:
1. Watching Tanner eat his Turkey leg and try not to get all greasy (see his disgust in the 2nd picture when he realizes he is going to get messy)
2. Going on the Aerosmith rollercoaster several times.  Loved the loud music right in my ears and laughed the entire way through the ride.
3. Tower of Terror is always a thrill.  We always have to go on that one lots too.
4. Indiana Jones stunt show was very entertaining.

We ended this night with another "dinner and a movie".  This night we watched the latest X-Men movie, which I was not expecting to enjoy, but again, I DID!  Maybe I am more man than woman! I mean, I actually think I would rather watch a BOY movie than another Twilight movie!

Day 2: Animal Kingdom

Loved loved loved it.  We enjoyed the safari ride and Everest Expedition.  We also went on a dinosaur ride and a river rapids ride.  It was a fun day.

 The safari ride was very cool! I took this picture of the white rhinos and they were probably 10 feet away from Todd.







I loved Simba and his cute wife too.

This was the ride that we loved at Animal Kingdom.  It is called Everest Expedition and we laughed and laughed.  I love when you get on a ride not knowing what it is.  We thought this was going to be like the Matterhorn in Disneyland, but it was WAY funner (funner is to a word!)!

I took this picture in the middle of the ride when it was pitch dark.  I was hoping to get the shadow of the Yeti and Tanner's face, but I couldn't believe I actually did it! In the yellow light at the top right corner is the shadow of the scary yeti who ripped up the track.  Such a fun ride.  I think we rode it 4 or 5 times.


We ended the day with a trip to Outback Steakhouse.  Always a treat for me-not so much Todd.  Every time we go there they mess up his order.  Do you have a restaurant like that?  Anywho.. because of the mix up on Todd's dinner, his was free and we got a free dessert-all's well that end's well, I guess!  We went back home and watched "5th Quarter" on DVD.  It is a fun BOY movie that is a motivational football movie.  Gotta love it!

Tanner's 15th Birthday Extravaganza

Day 1

Beautiful Florida.

It was a little bit cooler than we thought it would be, but still we had a fun few hours at Cocoa Beach.  You can see in the pictures that Todd and Tanner were pounding the energy drinks (I know.. they are poison).  We allowed ourselves to get bumped by Delta ($1200 dollars worth of free travel in our future) and we had to take a red-eye flight to New York (JFK airport = nightmare!) and then from NYC we flew to Orlando.  Got to Orlando around 11:00 a.m. so we decided to head to the beach.  As you can see from the pictures, hardly any waves and almost no people.  It was awesome!  Had ourselves some snacks and energy drinks and chilled for a bit and then we went back to our house, ate some take-out chinese (very yummy) and watched a movie (Hanna-very gory and violent-right up a 15 year old boys alley!).

These individual trips are something I highly recommend to all my parent friends.  It is fun to allow the kids to make the plans and just hang out with one of them.  Tanner is alot like Maddie in that he doesn't like to make plans or decisions.  It makes them uncomfortable, but we make them do it and it is good for them.

Or course, you have to be willing to live with the decisions they make.. me? I had to live with watching Hanna and many other Boy movies this trip.

Tanner.. you are the teen son of my dreams! I love you and had so much fun with you!

He is my sunshine

Yes.  I know.

Luke is a handsome dude.

What a joy to raise him.

Truly a joy.

A ray of sunshine.

From the time he was a small little baby

I would sing to him.

And the song that naturally came out of me was

"You are my sunshine"

I think he could sing it back to me

word for word 

by the time he was 18 months or so.

He is full of life 

and mischief

and energy

and love

and an extremely sweet spirit.

We waited for him for a very long time

and he was worth the wait.

Every day, every kiss, every hug,

every bit of naughtiness 

is a blessing that I cherish

Luke, I love you so much.

I can't believe you are 6 years old.

I can't imagine you have only been here 6 years.

I can't imagine my life before you.

You will always be my sunshine.
I will always love you.
No matter what.


I love you..
Mom

My prayer

My prayer goes something like this..

Please help me not fall off this roller coaster that is my life


Please help me not to have road rage today as I do my 40th errand of the day on the roads of Utah (or in other words, roads of Hell with drivers from Hell- I SWEAR, SATAN WAS TAILGATING ME TODAY!


Please help me to act excited when Luke asks me to read his same dinosaur book for the 19th time in a row


Please bless me to smile when all I want to do is cry


Please strengthen my back as I bend to pick up the nerf gun and bullets that I just picked up and put away 15 minutes ago


Please bless my husband with ALIVENESS so I don't have to be a single parent


Please magnify the strength of my Midol and Aleve as well as the healing properties of my Diet Coke


Please give me strength to deal with not only my hormonal imbalances, but Maddie's and Sadie's as well.


Please forgive me for wanting to crawl in bed, lock my door and watch reruns of "Real Housewives of New Jersey" for an entire day


Please instill in me some understanding as to why teenagers have to be so moody and sullen and help me to smile in the face of their "teen spirit"


Please bless me with some creativity and energy for the sake of my dinner preparations- I think my family is sick of waffles and eggs & bacon and quesadillas


Please help me to be the mother that my kids deserve and the wife that my husband dreams of (unless the wife of his dream looks like Rihanna or acts like Brittney Spears...)

AND..


Thank you for helping me survive the last couple of busy weeks.

AMEN.


We made it through...

• a trip to Neola without Todd
• a baptism (loved it!)
• several birthday parties for Luke 
• 2 menstrual cycles at the same time
• Maddie getting a speeding ticket (her 2nd) and losing her car privileges--indefinitely
• Maddie's senior pictures
• Tanner going to football, but still not feeling well enough to play
• Physical therapy conference in Layton (13 hours of pure lecture fun!!)
• Todd being hit by a stupid drunk person and thus sustaining several thousand dollars damage to his BMW, which I like to call his "mistress" (serves her right for being so sleek and sexy..)
• Luke and Sadie dentist appointment, where we were informed of Luke's first 2 cavities :(

and many more adventures!

We are blessed beyond measure that we are all alive and happy.  Todd got minor whiplash, but could have been much more hurt.  We are getting to spend more time with Maddie as we run her around to work and different activities.  I keep expecting my life to calm down a bit because I feel like it can't possibly get busier.

I go now to perfect my Relief Society Lesson and start my packing list for our Orlando trip that is in 4 days... But all that will have to wait as I have just been informed that I must go to the store for milk because it is Saturday night and that is when we always run out of milk.  And we always run out of milk on Saturday nights when Todd is not here to go get the milk for me.  And we always discover the absence of milk at about 9 o'clock at night on Saturday night.  (sigh)

Please help me to understand the importance of milk on the Sabbath day and not be bitter that I have to be the provider of that said milk...

AMEN and AMEN.

Oh yes, and thank you for Pinterest...

Lettuce Wraps

• Head of Butter lettuce
• Garlic-Soy Chicken (recipe below)
• Peanut sauce (recipe below)
• Assorted veggies diced

Garlic Soy Chicken
1 small onion, sliced (i don't like onion so I substitute dehydrated onion & onion salt/powder)
2 tsp garlic powder
3/4 low-sodium soy sauce
1/2 cup vinegar
3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Mix all ingredients and pour over chicken breasts in crock pot.  Cook on low heat 6-8 hours

Peanut Sauce
1/4 cup lime juice
3 tablespoons peanut butter
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons honey
1 T chili paste with garlic (didn't have so I didn't use)
4 garlic cloves, minced

Can be used as a dipping sauce or poured over the contents of your wrap.

I sauteed diced carrots, zucchini and mushrooms in a saucepan and added to my chicken right before serving.