Happy Birthday to the greatest mom in the world!!

Today was my mom's birthday and this evening we went up to my parents house to celebrate her being born and awesome! We played games and enjoyed lots of laughs. There's a game called Scribblish, that, if you haven't played, you should. It is like the game "Telephone" but with drawing. Some of the things people come up with are pretty dang funny.

This is the cake my brother made for my mom. Yes, please go ahead and have a good laugh. We all did. He took it out and it just started falling all sorts of apart from the second he started frosting it. Rather than let it be a bother, he just kept frosting all the little crumbles saying "It's going to taste even better than it looks!!" haha

                                        This would be lane blocking the camera. Party pooper.

Here's the boys prepping for the competitive games. Funny story about the headphones Jayce is wearing...My mom bought a house down the street to fix up and sell and ther other week she walked into her house and it appeared that a bunch of kids had broken in just to hang out. There were pop tart wrappers all over and those headphones, along with a phone charger, were left in a drawer. She politely left a note on the door that read "I'm sorry I made it so easy for you to get it. I'll be better next time. If you'd like your stuff back, just give me a call and I'd be more than happy to return it to you. Thanks" hahaha I thought it was hilarious. But they are really nice headphones. Skull Candy noise reduction bass boost headphones. I'm in love with their sound. It's great.

Taylor bought a Kobe Bryant jersey and my family is not his biggest fan so my dad put it on and walked around mocking him. Good times.

I love my mom and I'm so grateful for her life and the goodness she's dedicated it to. One year older and wiser too, happy birthday to you!

Had a fun opportunity tonight. Lane's brother and sister in law are moving to Oregon (this is a sad fact), and last night they headed up there to look for houses. Peggy and Gary were watching their boy, Colt, who is just shy of year. Well, come to find out they didn't communicate plans very well and Peg and Gary had plans they couldn't break Friday night leaving Colt without a sitter. They asked Lane if he could watch him, but he had work. So I volunteered for the job. Colt is such a doll. The amount of slobber that comes out that boy is astonishing though!! He's such a happy kid. We just played with him for a few hours prior to bedtime. At one point Lane was holding him and I accidentally switched on the ceiling fan above the kitchen table for a second...Colt was hooked! He LOVED the combination of the lights and the spinning. Lane held him there, every once and a while reaching up to spin the fan around, and Colt just stared and pointed and grunted in amazement. It was fun.

Soon it was time for bed so I gave Colt his bottle and rocked him while Lane took a shower. He didn't even finish the whole thing before he was down for the count. I laid him in his crib and shut the door. Monitor on, I went into the kitchen, peeled an orange and waited for Lane. He came back upstairs right around the same time his brother Clark got home. Lane and I were hungry and were deciding what to eat for dinner. Clark volunteered to sit with Colt for a minute while we ran to grab dinner, but right when we decided what to eat, Colt woke up. He was fussy for a second but calmed right back down when I went in the room. I tried just stroking his head for a minute to see if he's fall back to sleep but no luck. That's when the real adventure began.

Two hours of hyper gibberish Colt later, he finally went down again. He just wasn't tired! I'd rock him and he'd doze, but the second I put him down he'd open his eyes right back up and be WIDE awake. It was actually amusing more than frustrating because for a baby his age that was that tired, I just couldn't believe he was so darn happy! He's adorable.

Sleep finally overcame him and Lane and I ordered pizza and spent the rest of the evening pondering what children will really be like. I'm grateful for family and for the Boyer's allowing me to be an unofficial part of theirs.

I haven't been attending the temple for the last several months and it has been a  rough road. But today was a very special occasion. I was able to return to the temple with my dear friend Tawny and do baptisms for the dead for the first time in lots of months. It was such an amazing feeling. Every aspect of the beauty found at the temple engulfed me as I sat in white and listened to the ordinances being performed. I was so happy to be there. I'm very grateful for Heavenly Fathers plan for each of us and for my Saviors atoning sacrifice that aloud me to be there this night. I'm grateful for the trials I face and the lessons I have learned. I'm grateful for the journey I've been on and continue to live in. Life is beautiful and a very special blessing. I couldn't be who I am without where I've been and I'm grateful for every obstacle and thick patch of fog I've been through. I can't wait to enter the temple someday soon to learn so much more and strive for exaltation in the eternities to come. I'm grateful to my dear friend for supporting me and helping me through difficult times and being there with me when I was able to return to the house of the Lord and feel the love and spirit there. Love you Tawny.

Went on a group date tonight down to Salt Lake. I've been craving Crown Burger the last week or so and when I mentioned it to Lane he joined me in my craving. So in planning the date, Crown Burger was definitely the dining pick. It was Lane and I, his friend Brody and his "confusing " date, and David Clark and his date. We drove down with Brody, who's comment was "I feel like the chauffeur", as his date lived in Salt Lake. When we picked her up we went straight to dinner (thank goodness! my tummy was rumbling). We walked in and prepped to order our delicious food. Once we ordered, they gave Lane a number and I said, "Hey, what's our lucky number?" this is what he showed me

Not the luck I was hoping for, but it was funny. After a good laugh, we got our food and enjoyed ourselves...maybe a little too much for the amount of grease we consumed.

After dinner we met up with David and date and went to Fat Cats to do a little "non competitive" bowling. Right. After the scores were applauded by some and scorned by others, we went to 7-11 to grab some hot chocolate for the drive home. 7-11 hot chocolate is tasty! And it's never just grabbing a hot chocolate. Making it is an adventure in its self. What to put in, who over did it, who burns their tongue first...it's fun.

With the nights adventure on the downward slope, I was tired and ready for the evening to be over with. But it was a great evening. The best part was the guy by my side :) 

Lane came and kidnapped me for lunch today. It was the greatest midday relief. He's so great. As new as the whole "girlfriend" scene is to him, he sure does a heck of a job being good at it. We went to PX (aka Panda Express) and had some food suffering from serious heat lamp over exposure. It was definitely not the greatest PX experience. However, it was a pretty dang good lunch date in every other aspect.

Later on after work, I had to hurry over to the church to meet with Cindy to re-vamp some visiting teaching business. She was a little late, which ended up working out perfectly because Lane showed up with a smoothie for me. Some tropical something or other. Delicious, but mostly because of his thoughtfulness. He had meetings at the church too, and even though his meetings finished long before mine, he hung around until I was finished to make sure I didn't need anything and just to be with me. He gets better and better every day :)

Finished my Tuesday with some cuddling...doesn't get better than that.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I believe this year holds many changes and happening for me and I figured I may as well start now in documenting them. I ended the year with lots of struggle and heartache. All unexpected but all what needed to be. I found many lessons being taught to me by my Father in Heaven about trying to do the right thing even when it is very difficult. I hope to use that and many other lessons to carry me through this new year.

I rang in the new year with my boyfriend...yes, boyfriend. Count the letters and no, he is not just a boy that is a friend. His name is Lane Boyer. He was my biggest (and best) surprise of 2010 and I'm planning to keep him through 2011 and as long as he'll keep me after that.
He's wonderful. (no ring...yet... tee hee)

Some of his friends got together and we all went to dinner at The Pie then went back to Lane's house to play games and watch the ball drop. It was fun being with some new people this year and feeling apart of something good. Here's pics from the night.