Birthday fun all month long!

My family has grown quite a bit through the years and so when birthdays come around, instead of celebrating each one separately, we lump them into one big party. We had such a party last night at my parents house. There were 4 birthdays in the month of October, Kelvin being one of them. This was also his third birthday party!!! Talk about spoiled. But, he loved the party as did the other birthday kids! My dad turned 55, Kelvin 24, Rachel 7, and my grandma just became one year more beautiful! The party was fun and the dinner was wonderful. It was a nice break from my routine. My days are lost in work (it's now full time) and studying. I get up about 6:45 or 7, study during my lunch break, get home about 6:30pm study until about 10:30 with a small break to eat dinner, then go to bed about 11. It's been a long week and I was SO tired. I had a test in Pathophysiology I had to take on Sat morning and only had 1/3rd of the time studying that I normally do. Funny thing though, I did really well! It was a hard test but I had done all I could do and the Lord made up the rest. I almost fell asleep in church today because we are still getting to bed late and getting up early. We had a meeting with a member of the bishopric this morning and Kelvin got a calling! He is now the 2nd counselor in the Sunday School presidency!!! I also got asked to speak in a couple of weeks. Anyway, here are the pictures from the evening!


This picture I just loved! Don't mind the dinner on Sammie's bib.


He was trying to get Sammie to wave to the camera.




Ice Cream and Cake! What more could a boy ask for!



Kelvin has been sick the past few days with a bad cold so I was afraid being around kids wouldn't be a good idea, but come to find out, Sammie has had a cold (Dave and Paula's little girl) and Nathan is just getting over the croup (Dan and Amy's boy). So I got a picture of the sicko's at the party! Yes, all three had a good time.





Poor Matt got his face cut off!





This is the birthday boy with all his cards. Yes, that is a ninja card made especially for him!

Goodies, Games and Friends

So we have decided that we really like playing board games and having fun with friends. Both for my birthday and for our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY we decided to get new board games, and we are really excited about what we got. We got Ticket to Ride Europe a train building game and I got Shadows over Camelot. We borrowed the World of Warcraft game from friends but I thought the picture looked cooler with it added in. We are getting Disney Scene it 2 this week. Most of the games we payed for with rewards from our credit card which is pretty nice. We are planning are getting more throughout the years and seeing how many we end up with.

This is our games corner. We think it looks pretty good.



These are some friends from the ward, we like to have them over for games and treats. They just love Emilee's treats, they are very good after all.



Here's some of the awesome cookies that Emilee makes from scratch!! Mmm, mmm good. I'm starting to gain too much weight!!

General Conference, Happy Birthday, and a Wacked out Movie!

This weekend we went to my parents house for conference and had quite an enjoyable time. It is so nice to spend time with my brothers, their wives, and our beloved nieces and nephews. Krystal (Kelvin's sister) came for a big chunk of it as well. It was fun to have her there! Conference was so good! My favorite session was Saturday morning. While the boys were at priesthood, us girls have a tradition to go to Deseret Book and take advantage of some of the deals, but mostly to enter our names for the drawings! My mom and I won stuff 2 years ago but nothing since, until Saturday night! Paula won the first thing, it was a tie pin, gold, and had CTR on it. Not a very useful thing for her as Dave doesn't like that stuff. Then I heard my name read! Yeah! I was so excited to walk up and find.......A DOG TAG!!! WHAT! It was a dog tag with CTR on it. Now, for those who know me, know that I love to read. With all the books they gave away, I had to get a dog tag. There were probably people there with younger boys who would have thought that was cool. Kelvin shared in my enthusiasm (or rather lack thereof) in the prize. Now, I know I should be greatful, and I am. I just wish I could be greatful with a book!

For those who do not know, it was Kelvin's birthday on Sunday! Since we are in a financial crunch, presents were not really that feasible. But, I was able to sacrifice a few things and save enough money to buy him an Ice Cream Cake from Dairy Queen. I had my dad pick it up so it would be a surprise since we were going to their house for the conference weekend. The Oreo cake is his favorite and I was so excited to give it to him. That night we all started to sing happy birthday and his face lit up when he realized what it was that held the candle! He was so happy and loved it! (Of course I brought the camera to take pictures of the moment, but forgot to do so until after it was all over and the cake was consumed.) My dad then surprised me when I went to pay him back for picking up and paying for the cake, and told me not to worry about it! I love you so much dad! Thanks! A few days later we had an INCREDIBLE dinner by Marta and Ed for Kelvin's birthday and our anniversary. It was steak with crab on top covered in a sauce with asparagus on top. (Once again, the camera eludes me!) It was so yummy! Thanks Marta and Ed! We love you!

With that money I was going to buy the cake with, we were then able to see a movie that I have wanted to see since I watched the preview. It's called "An American Carol" and is a movie making fun of Michael Moore and the crazy liberals in America. Some of the parts looked hilarious! So Monday morning we played hooky from school and homework and went to see a matinee. We had both been working so hard for so long that we needed a day to be together alone and saw an opportunity! The movie started out so funny, but from the first 5 minutes, it was kinda edgy. It was graphic with some of the violence (even though it was so obviously fake, that was the point to make it funny), there were some sexual jokes throughout the movie, and they had kids swearing. I HATE it when they have kids swear. But there were still parts that we laughed so hard at. I think we were the only ones in the theater laughing that hard and some people got up and left early. So, it was worth watching, but not a movie to buy!

And the finale of this long blog, I got a job! Well, another one at least. After getting the job with CNS I was still seeking other opportunities because it is only a temp job that doesn't pay that well. So I had 3 interviews with Zions Bank and one I thought was in the bag, the other I knew I didn't get and the third was just to far away! I finally gave up after being tired of waiting and decided to move forward with this job I already have. Well, today I got a phone call and the one branch that I knew I didn't get the job, was the one that offered me the job! Can we say ironic! It is pretty close to where we live which is a benefit and the hours are decent. They are open from 7 to 7 but have enough part time employees that they cover the late and early morning hours. The job is Full Time much to my dismay, but I still think I can get enough school time in to make it work. I start next week and will be quitting my other job. I am happy about this and we will save more money by not using quite as much gas now. Things seem to be falling into place finally!

Are you ready to RUMBLE.........

So tonight is the big debate with Sarah Palin and Joe Bidden. I am really excited to watch this debate as I missed the presidential one. To start, I am not a republican or democrat. I am a proud independent and plan to stay that way! As far as I'm concerned, the republicans and democrats are both off their rockers (no pun intended to those career senators we have ample supply of, aka: the aged) or on their high horses. No one will work with the opposite party and it is all just a big mess in Washington. I personally have always liked John McCain and what he has done as a senator even though there are things I have not agreed on in the past. And Sarah Palin is a firecracker! I just loved her the minute she opened her mouth and she continues to prove to me that she is not someone who will just say whatever to get elected. This is what is going to make this debate so exciting. I can't wait to see how she is going to put poor Joe in his place and call him out things that he should have been called out on a long time ago. There is a book out there entitled "Crazies to the left of me, Whimps to the right". Sorry to say, but this is our government!

Obviously, as you can deduce from this soap box I am on, that I will be voting for McCain and Palin. Even though I know who it is I will be voting for, I still like to watch debate and keep informed with everything happening. It is important to know why you are voting for the candidate you chose and to stay informed. Personally, I DO NOT buy into the worlds false sence of security with more government control. Thomas Jefferson once said that the more control a government has, the more it can take away. The more government control, the more waste happens with my hard earned tax dollars. I know that that sounds totally republican to a lot of people, but I do my research and I pay attention. This would thrill my Texas dad as he, like me, gets on a soap box about ignorant voters (he is incredibly informed), not to mention my Utah dad who likes to keep me on my toes with debates about issues and candidates. After all those political science classes, it's hard sometimes not to get sucked in.

I guess what it all comes down to is this, know why you are voting for your candidate, know their history as that is not likely to change, and then stand by your decision. I am tired of people just doing what the crowd is doing because it's the in thing to do.

So, time to end my blog, pop some popcorn, and lets get ready to RUMBLE.......

The Good, the Bad, the Chocolate Bandits

On Saturday a good friend of mine got married and we were invited to the sealing. It was a beautiful wedding and the newly weds looked so good together. Right after the ceremony we were waiting for the couple to come out and we got bored. After a few pictures, Kelvin decides to take a video of me (posted just before this blog). I didn't know he was even taking it, but we were having fun while waiting. Right after the appearance of the new couple we went straight to the luncheon. They decided to do pictures after the luncheon much to Kelvin's excitement. We had a great lunch and the best part was the small boxes on each plate! This was the highlight as it was filled with chocolate. There just so happened to be a few extra boxes at our table and with a little slight of hand as we ran out the door, we became the chocolate bandits. It was a great weekend!

One of the random pics


The flowers were beautiful so I made Kelvin take a picture of us with them. Since he hates pictures I had to make it fun.

My Thermo II Test

Well I'm having a good day. I just took my first Thermodynamics II test last week. Today I got back the results. I got a 93% so that's great. It's graded on a curve and the average was a 71% so that's even better. Of course it really helps that I really enjoy the class. It's a lot of fun to learn about practical things. This test dealt with Spark Ignition engines, Diesel Engines, Jet Engines, and many other things. Anyways I love learning about stuff like that which helps a lot when you're taking a class.

How Lucky I Am!

Since I don't get much opportunity to brag about my wonderful wife I decided to show her off. So I took this video of her. Isn't she cute? I sure think so.