Family home evening

Dusty and I had a fun date night/ family home evening recently- after a long day of work for both of us, we ate tacos for dinner, painted these darling letters to display on our mantle talked about some Gospel principles, then ate milkshakes :) we had so much fun and loved spending time together! 

I found the wooden letters in the craft section at Walmart for around $1.00 each so "HAWS" was roughly $4.00. 

 I got the craft paint from the same section and it was less than a dollar. We used maybe half the little bottle for all those letters. 

I got the little brushes with the wooden handle and black spongey top part (a pack of 3 or 4) also for under a dollar.  

Anyways,  it was a really fun activity and we love having our name displayed- it helps make our house feel more homey :) 

Organic Chemistry

Some people may ask, what I am doing with my life. As of late I do the same thing from the time I wake up at about 8 a.m.  to the time I go to bed at about 1 a.m.
 Have you ever wondered how medications are made, how certain diseases are cured, why your body does this or that, why some people (like Mary :)) are allergic to everything, how foods react or why cleaners work? Well I can tell you. We all know that God created everything on this earth, but he didn't just throw everything together. He had a very strategic plan. He made everything out of these tiny things called atoms. Atoms work together to form bigger things called molecules and molecules build off of each other into bigger things called molecular compounds.
This is what I study all day everyday. I am getting down to the nit picky details of what this world is made of. It is called Organic Chemistry. Organic chemistry deals with organic compounds made up of carbon atoms. Here is a typical picture of something I study, figure out how it reacts or doesn't react, what it reacts with, how you can change it and even the organic name.
Just to give you a little bit of an insight the real name or IUPAC name of Fructose is  (3S,4R,5R)-1,3,4,5,6-pentahydroxyhexan-2-one. Yes I know how to name this and what that means.  I really find this subject very interesting. Yes, it is incredibly hard and I continue to learn more everyday, I really enjoy the class, it is just extremely difficult and takes a lot of time. I have learned so much, even though I feel like I know nothing. Some examples of things I have learned about are testosterone, estrogen, why people or babies jaundice, different drugs you can buy OTC or  prescriptions and why they work, plus many more things. I have had to dedicate most of my time to this class because it is so much detail and we learn something new every single day, (Except Saturday and Sunday of course) and even with that I am still studying. I have never worked so hard to fail at something so miserably and by that I mean it. Never before have I ever read a text book all the way through each chapter about 3 times doing all the problems and answering all the questions at least twice and I'm still not passing the class. hahah Many of my friends ask me why I study so much, I tell them because even though I study so much I still have so much to learn. The balance is very difficult, but I know I can do it!Not only has this class taught me all about chemistry, but it has taught me to study for something that I want and to never give up. I have broken down crying multiple times over this silly class, and even if I don't pass it this semester I always have next semester. It isn't the end of the world. So just remember, we can do anything we put our minds to. Even in the hardest of days look to the future and you will see that it was all worth it. Keep being fantastic! :)

Best Friends

Max started Kindergarten this year.  The past couple of years I have done "joy school" with Max, where he went a couple days a week to different friend's houses to be taught by other moms.  Sister Linda K. Burton at the last General Women's Conference told the following story that is so applicable to my situation with Max.  She said, "When our youngest daughter returned home after her first day of school, I asked, "How did it go?"  She answered, "It was good."  The next morning, however, when I woke her up for school, she folded her arms and firmly stated, "I already went to school!"  Apparently I had not prepared her or explained that going to school was not a onetime event but that she was expected to go to school five days a week for many, many years."

The first day of school, Max kept it together and was really brave.  The second day did not go nearly as well.  He started to cry and asked me to please hold his hand while he walked into school.  The following day he once again asked me to comfort him as he was walking into school.  Although I love to be a comfort to him, I also had the babies in the stroller and Kate vying for attention.  I quickly thought of an alternative to help Max start school on the right foot, and I decided to ask Kate to hold Max's hand.  Every single day, Max and Kate hold hands on the way in to school.  Kate will usually tease me by telling me, "Have a great day mom!" and pretend to walk in with Max.  The really are best friends.  They give each other hugs and are a great comfort to one another.  Max has actually asked me if he can marry Kate because they are best friends.  I know this phase will not always last, so I am treasuring these moments while I can.

Max typically signs "I love you" to me, Cooper, Brock, and Kate.

Best buddies being eagles at the zoo!

Catching fish at Scheels!

On a different note, I have taken advantage of Mary's amazing photography skills.  After pouring over our Life Planners (erincondren.com- check them out as they are awesome!), we found a window of time to meet and do a quick photo shoot.  I LOVE how the pictures turned out, so I thought I would share them with you!

Max- 5

Kate- 3

Cooper- 10 months

Brock- 10 months

 Brock- flying high!

Cooper- all smiles  :)

Thanks again Sis for such beautiful pics of my kiddos.

Easter

I thought I'd just post a few fun pictures from our Easter egg hunt down at the Bullocks!

ENGAGED!!!

 

Dusty proposed to me on April 18th, 2014 :)

I will post of video telling the story soon! HOORAY! I honestly feel so incredibly blessed and like the luckiest girl in the world- I couldn't be any happier!! :) :) :)

Virtual tour

http://www.BuyChenal.com

1000 Words

Have you heard the saying, "A picture is worth a thousand words?"  I took these pictures of the babies today.  Cooper is in orange.  Brock is in blue.  Both babies are smiling, laughing, and rolling over.  They roll from tummy to back and are very close to going from their back to their tummy.  They like to see what is going on, and are aware if left alone in a room.  Brock likes to grasp things with his arms and legs, while Cooper usually likes to kick his legs while using only his hands to grab.  I moved them to their upstairs bedroom this last week.  They still sleep in the same crib, and usually will snuggle up to each other.  I have not started the babies on any solids yet (it is time consuming and I have been busy getting the house ready for the market).  I am nursing them exclusively.  They bring a lot of joy to our family.

   Cooper and Brock

Brock

(I'm not crazy about the lightening in this picture, but I love the emotion captured!)

Cooper

I took Max and Kate to the symphony a few weeks ago.  We went out to dinner beforehand and had a great time.  We spent a total of 30 minutes at the symphony.  Max and Kate both thought it was boring.  When the drums were played, Max would perk up, but Kate kept asking me where the wolf was (she must equate the intensity of the drums to a sneaky scary wolf.).  It was a fun night.

Potential Reception Area

Good afternoon sisters!

Dusty and I have been talking about potential locations for our reception in San Diego.

Last summer Dusty attended two wedding receptions in this mans backyard- it overlooks a golf course and is simply beautiful. He showed me a video the other night from one of the weddings.

Dusty's Dad knows the man who owns the house and has gotten in contact with him. He said he rents his yard out (and his house for the bathroom and such) to couples who are members and who are married in the temple for FREE! He said that weekend, (August 9th) would be available as well. He also has lists of people who cater and decorate and such and if you go through them, you get a 20% discount or something like that.

Dusty also said you can walk out beyond the pond a little bit. Around 55 seconds on the video it shows the view of how we could potentially set the yard up with tables and such. We could also have dancing on that patio area behind where the boys are dancing.

http://vimeo.com/72918351

I am personally really liking the sound of this place... what are your thoughts/comments/concerns/ideas?? 

Love you all and hoorah to wedding planning! ;) 

Handful

Life with 4 is a lot of fun.  As we go out with all the kids, we hear a lot of the same phrases over and over:

"Are they all yours?"

"Are they twins?"

"Wow!  You have your hands full!"

"Those are all yours?"

"Are they twins too?" (referring to Max and Kate)

Max and Kate have heard these phrases so many times that now when people ask, "Are they all yours?" Max will reply, "Yep! We have our hands full!"  It makes me laugh to hear him say that.

Now for some unsolicited advice: Everyone has a twin story.  When I am out navigating the store with my brood of kids, everyone wants to tell me about their friend/sister/mother/aunt/cousin twice removed/acquaintance/stranger they know that has twins.  The harsh reality is, I simply do not care!  I am doing my best to get in and out of store without any meltdowns!  If you see a mother/father with twins, just smile at them but do not stop them to tell them about how you have a sister with twins (they won't care either!).  I have also been asked repeatedly if it has sunk in that I have twins.  My answer: YES!  It is a daily reality.  It is a ton of fun and I feel extremely blessed to have them.  It is a lot of work, but it is so rewarding as well.  They grow so quickly and it is fun to see their little personalities develop.

My friend sent me this link to an article entitled "25 Practical Tips about the Horrors of Raising Twins that You will Never Learn from Movies or TV."  I think numbers 4 and 6 are applicable to my post:

4. No matter what kind of twins you have, the first thing everyone you encounter will say is "Are those twins?" People will cross the street to say this to you. They will come out from behind store displays, roll car windows down, leave their vehicles at the gas pump. No matter how many advanced degrees they posses, how many children they have of their own, or how intuitive and erudite they may be normally, they will still ask, "Are those twins?"

Just say "Yes," and try not to sound like you're Cher from Clueless. "Um....yeah!"

6. "I knew a twin!" Everyone has a twin story. None of them are interesting. Your cousins are twins?! Wow! Okay! Your mailman's brother had twins and one died. Jeez! Wow! Okay! Your grade-school had seven sets of twins and your mom always said there was something in the water! My goodness. Listen: the only people who have interesting twin stories are parents of twins, and they know you're far too exhausted to hear and/or remember any of them. Older twin parents will smile shyly at you and say "I have twins, too. It gets better. You're doing great." They are like unicorns. Take photos with these people and keep them in your wallet.

(I need to take a picture of all the kids and upload it, but as I am typing this on Sunday night and all the kids are asleep, I will do it at some point tomorrow.)  Have a great week!

Baby Pictures :)

Hello,
I know this is probably a little silly but I thought I'd show you all some pictures of our baby! These are from a little while ago, I may get some more on Monday. Hopefully these are fun to see though.

The above picture is his foot :)

During the ultrasound he moved a whole lot; he flipped from his head being on the left side of my stomach to being up by my ribcage and he kept on tucking his legs into his chest, extending them out above his head, and then kicking. The ultrasound tech was thrilled because she was able to get pictures and video of his entire body pretty easily. Here we have a picture of him with his knees by his head. (I'm not sure how to flip these pictures)

This picture is similiar to the one before but he is in the process of stretching out his legs to go above his head.

Anyway, that's all I've got for today!

Mary has asked that I post some pictures of our house. I will try to do that next week!!!

XOXO

Sheri

Upcoming events in the life of the 16 year old :)

Hello Everyone! I am definitely real bad at posting on the blog and I am very sorry! I usually either forget, or like tonight, have buckets and buckets of homework. I apologize! Well I decided to make this pretty simple! People keep saying they have no idea what is going on in my life so I figured I would tell people what upcoming things I have going on! :)

March 8-16
Cruisin!! I'm sure everybody already knows this but we leave for Florida on the 8th and then our cruse leaves the 9th. We will be going to Haiti, Jamaica, and Mexico! It is the same cruise we went on last year but I'm still super duper excited!!!! I hope I get real tan!! :) our cruise ship docks on the 16th and we fly home that day too! I'm slightly extremely stressed to miss 5 days of school...

March 21 
I have a small dance performance thingy at Herriman High school. We are performing at their dance company's showcase. It's not even a big deal so probably don't come! Everyone will most likely see the dances at a later date anyways! (Except maybe Julie.. sorry sis :)) I was supposed to go to a Youth Camp Leader retreat March 21-22 but because of the performance I can't go and I'm slightly very sad about it....

April 11
Megan Peterson and I are doing a duet and we have our first competition in Roy on this friday!! It's far away so it's not necessary for people to come and it's our first time competing it!!

April 17-21
This is my Spring break and mom and dad will be in China so if anyone wants to get together that could be fun!! We might have to make up the day of school that was cancelled but it would be fun to get together with people as well!

April 25
This is our second duet competition and this one is at Spanish Fork! You could come if you want but don't feel obligated! I won't know when we compete until probably the week of anyways!

May 2 
This competition is at Herriman High school which is quite close so if you had the desire you could come! I'm very scared about hitting my aerial in our duet so I really hope I hit it in all of these!!

May 3, 10, 17
These are the dates of all of our team competitions! On the 3rd it's at Herriman, 10th it's at Kearns, and 17th is at Bonneville. We will be doing our ballet (it's awesome. It is to the Batman theme song and we'll be wearing black tutus and coloring our point shoes black and wearing a mask!! It's pretty much fantastic!!!!!) Jazz (It's super duper fast but very fun and it will be amazing when we finish it and clean it!!) Contemporary (This one is interesting but we've almost got it figured out and it should be cool...!) and Hip hop/character...(the hip hop dance we learned isn't hip hop at all.. it's like a Charlie Chaplin dance and it pretty much character. We might learn a different hip hop but time is running out and Trisha can't find a good hip hop teacher that is available.. who knows!)

May 9
This is the classic piano ensemble!! I love this duet performance and I'm super excited for it! Rachel and Sara I believe are playing in it! And maybe Ben! It's going to be a party! I believe it's at 7:00 P.M. but I'll double check that! You are all invited to come and enjoy the fun music! :)

May 16 
This is our last duet competition in Bonneville! Yup.. I don't know if Trisha is doing a duet/solo showcase but if she does you all are invited!!

May 23-26
This is memorial day and we are going to St. George! Party Pahe! I get to see you! I don't know if other people are going.. I just found out I was going as I looked at my calendar!

May 31
I believe it's at 7 but that's a total guess! We have our final dance showcase!! You all are invited and I would love to have everyone there! We will be doing all the dances we did at competition! 

June 6 
LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!! :) :) :) Then I'm free for summer!!!

So... This is what my life is looking like for the next little while.. I don't know how much everyone cares but that's most of the big stuff! Mostly dance.. :) Oh, and I went to an awesome Cougarette Workshop this past Saturday and I don't know if I'm going to tryout next year but oh man. They are AMAZING!! I just need to get better at picking up choreography faster and I need my left aerial too. They said to make the team you need to have right and left! Oh man..! And scary moment when a girl was trying to do an aerial but she had never done one in her whole life and she snapped her elbow. I decided I could never ever ever do anything medical ever. Kudos to Paige!!
Love you all!! Sorry I've been a slacker :)
Love,
Tiffany!

Lessons Learned :)

This past week has been very interesting for me. I have learned two very important lessons and I decided I could share them. Hopefully it will give you all a good smile as well as fill you in on what has been happening in my life lately.
 The first lesson I learned was, you can accomplish anything you put your mind to. I learned this lesson in a very interesting way. The other night Jadin (One of my best friends down at school.) was at my apartment like always. We are in the same chemistry class so we were doing our homework together. After we finished our homework we started talking about this girl named Addie, he thinks she is so cute! (She's also in our class.) But Jadin just doesn't have guts enough to talk to her. I have tried to set him up multiple times, it just doesn't work. He even knows she thinks he's cute! (I don't understand) Long story short, Jadin and I placed a bet with each other. The bet was if the next day in our bowling class if I beat him he would have to either ask Addie on a date or for her number. If I lost I have to have her come hang out sooner than later. (I only placed this bet because the last two weeks he had struggled in bowling and I had beat him.) So the next day in chemistry I told Jadin I was going to kick his butt and bowl a 180!! He laughed and said, "the day you bowl a 180, I will fall over and die." We go to the bowling alley later that afternoon. I was determined, he was determined. It was a close game!! You'll never believe it, I BOWLED A 190!! I was on his tail the whole time.I even asked him why he hadn't tipped over and died yet. He said he just didn't feel it coming yet. I ended up losing the bet because he bowled a 210, but hey I don't know if I will ever bowl a 190 again. I even have proof! :) I was pretty happy about that.
The Second lesson I learned was, getting in the car with a stranger isn't always bad. Okay, let me explain my self. Last semester there was this boy in my chemistry class. I thought he was so cute!! He is this little cowboy who just seems so nice! My friend Kendal decided that he was going make sure this kid was a good kid and then he was going to try to hook me up with this boy (Rhett). So Kendal being the kind kid that he is decided to befriend Rhett. Before I knew it Kendal said, well Rhett has your number and is going to ask you out on a date. The next week Kendal said I talked to Rhett, he is going to call you, but he has been super busy lately. Well I just let it blow over. He never called, it was around Christmas so it wasn't a big deal. I just kind of forgot about it.
 I have no classes with Rhett, but I will see him once in a blue moon on campus and let's be honest here, I'll check him out. I don't say hi though because we never have talked before and I don't know if he even knows who I am. Fast forward to Last Friday. I was walking home after class around 3. It was a little chilly, but I had my jacket on and I don't live to far from campus. I was just trying to hurry because it looked like it was about to rain. As I was walking home this white truck pulled up to me. Well I only know one person who drives a white truck and I couldn't figure out why he would pick me up randomly. As the truck slowed down next to me and I looked over it was not who I was expecting. It was RHETT! What do you mean, I was so surprised, confused, shocked, you name it... that was what was going through my head. He waved me over to his truck. So I went hahahaha. He then asked me if I wanted a ride home because it was kind of cold. He said, "I promise I'm not creeping on you or anything, you were just in my chemistry class last semester and it is cold outside." I didn't even hesitate, I said sure I'd love a ride and got in the car. (I mean for real, dreams do come true! hahah) I got in the car and he said so you're Paige right and I said yes. We talked all the way to my apartment, life was great. He is so cute, HE KNOWS MY NAME!  I was so flustered I didn't even tell him to come over whenever he pleases or anything good like that once he dropped me off. When I got home and was walking to the door I just prayed I had my keys with me so I wouldn't make a fool of myself and have to break in. Thankfully I had them. After a long long story, I rode home with a stranger and it was fantastic!!

I Hope you all enjoyed my lessons I learned this past week. I apologize my long story shorts aren't so short. It is kind of a problem I have... I love you all!!
Love, Paige Marie

Officer James Banks