Monday, November 2

My week has been spent gathering and placing around $500 in Scentsy orders! We are going to have an amazing month and I attribute a lot of that to this gorgeous winter warmer! It is the warmer of the month and I love it!! I think it will sell out so I have pushed it and sold 4 of them!

 

Tuesday, November 3

Jada was at our house playing when her dad came down and said they had to go to Lexy's soccer practice. The girls weren't done playing so we said that she could stay late at our house until her dad and sister got home. We don't normally do late nights with friends on school nights so these girls were so excited! They had a lot of fun until almost 9:30!

 

Wednesday, November 4

Winter is on it's way. The snow has not stuck to the ground too much but it was whipping us in the face on our run. It was a little miserable but I did take a moment to enjoy the beauty of this season when I was out. I enjoy the fresh cool air in my lungs early in the morning. It helps to clear my head!

 

Thursday, November 5

How cute are these kids!?!? I did a comparison from last year's pictures to this year's. I can't get over how much Nick has grown in a year. He no longer looks like a little boy. I love these sweet faces!

Friday, November 6

Girl's Trip! Wahoo!! We drove to St. George on Thursday then went for a little hike Friday. I just absolutely love St. George! It is so beautiful!! Meanwhile, Simon was at home having his own fun. He got to meet and spend some time with Mark Eaton, a famous Jazz basketball player. I can't get over how tall he is! Mountain America rocks!

 

Saturday, November 7

This day ruled! It started out with mom, Jenni, and I heading to Time Out For Women. We got great seats and were able to save some for Marisa and her mom and sister. Aside from a very embarrassing Diet Coke spill, it was a great morning. At 9:40, I left the conference and headed to the finish line of the Snow Canyon Half where Gary, Ashley, and Ryan were all about to finish the race. They did amazing! They all finished between 1:30-1:40! So amazed!! I also ran into my ward friend Amy Earnest whose husband was running as well. I went back and finished the day at the conference. It was inspiring, uplifting, and made me feel refreshed in my role as wife, mother, and member of the church.  Later, we did a little shopping then I was able to have dinner with the Pearson clan. To cap the day off right, us gals got shakes from Arctic Circle, crafted, then played cards until 1:00 am. Girl's trip is my favorite time of year!

Sunday, November 8

The perfect end to the perfect weekend. We finished out our girl's trip with a very humorous breakfast and ride home! When we got home, Jenni, our husbands, and I got the privilege of visiting Kenny in rehab. He seems to be doing very well and has put a lot of weight back on...thank heaven! Afterward, we all joined up at Grandma and Jim's for a yummy Sunday dinner surrounded by family. It really was the best weekend ever!!

Monday, October 26

I was invited to do a step challenge. I have done several of these and never come close to winning. However, today was an awesome day! I ran in the morning then spent my day cleaning the house, doing laundry, etc. I never sat down during the day! I was SO happy when I got the notification that I had won the step challenge! Yay!! 

 

 

Tuesday, October 27

It was an interesting day... I got visiting with Jenni on the phone while Zack was in preschool and lost sight of Ricki for a minute. When I finally found her, I found a lovely piece of artwork on the wall in her room! At least it was pencil and came off really easily! We had fun going and picking Eva up from preschool then having an afternoon play date with her. She and Zack have been friends since the day Eva was born! :)

 

Wednesday, October 28

I went to church volleyball then over to Marisa's to work on crafts later in the evening. Simon texted me around 11:30 to let me know that Kendra was still up (she had missed school because of a stomach bug) and that Zack had just thrown up. Great! We kicked daddy out of bed and sent him downstairs to get some sleep, made a bed on the floor for sister, then Zack and I had a barf party in my bed (I felt fine, he did all the barfing). After about 2:00 am, his tummy settled down and we were able to sleep until morning.

 

Thursday, October 29

Since I was hanging out all day with sick kiddos, I decided to finish up my Halloween craft (not a moment too soon)! The upper pic is the idea photo, the lower is my finished craft. It was so fun!

 

Friday, October 30

Simon joined us this morning at the kids' Halloween parade at school. After the parade, I headed to Kendra's class to do the Halloween party. I am the room mom so this party was lots of stress leading up to it but SO much fun once we were there! In the evening, Simon and I were supposed to go to an adult Halloween party but as we were getting ready to walk out the door, Ricki started throwing up! All over the kitchen floor!! (I was thankful she did it on the tile and not the carpet!) So...I ran my dessert over to the party, said hi to everyone, then came home, jammied up, and watched "Pixels" with my family. It was a nice evening, even though it didn't go the way I wanted it to.

 

Saturday, October 31

Happy Halloween! Love, The Gru Family

(The cast of Despicable Me 2)

 

Sunday, November 1

We haven't had any communication with Kenny since he went to rehab 3 weeks ago. Mom, Dad, Grandma Sharon, Grandpa Jim, and Jenni were able to go visit him. He looks SOOOO much better! He's finally put some weight on and looks great!

Monday, October 19

I subbed at bowling but didn't want to have to chase Ricki all around so I stuck her in the pack-n-play. It wasn't long until Baby K joined her, followed by Brielle, and even Zack later on! Silly kids!

 

Tuesday, October 20

Simon called from work and said that he got tickets to the Real game! I didn't join him because Nick had Pack Meeting but he and his dad went to the game and had a great time.

 

Wednesday, October 21

Mountain America did a flu shot clinic at the corporate offices for adults. I like to get my flu shot so I met Simon there and we got them. Simon already had plans with his friends for lunch so they invited me to join them. We actually talked about getting a group photo but it never ended up happening so here is my resolution: borrow pictures from Facebook! :) We had a nice lunch with Dori Malmstrom, Lisa Shortino, and Jared Bryner at La Luna in Jordan Landing.

 

 

Thursday, October 22

Believe it or not, this was actually Zack's homework assignment! It was shaving cream, the kitchen counter, messy, and fun! Tonight, Simon had a team-building activity with work so I had to take the kids to parent-teacher conference alone. I was so amazed and pleased with what my kids' teachers had to say, I couldn't help but stop and buy them Wendy's Frosties. They are both just doing so awesome, I could cry! They both (yes BOTH!!!!) are reading at the next grade level and they're not even through half of the year! Nick is still way ahead in math, reading, communication, etc. His teacher went on and on about how intelligent and mature he is. Kendra's teacher said that she adores her. She's a great kid to have in class, is always respectful, helpful, and becomes friends with everyone. Mrs. Eastman said she is a pleasure to have in class. I am blessed to have such great kids! Yes, Frosties were definitely in order!

 Friday, October 23

Well, Zack would have felt all alone if he was the only kid in the family to get hand, foot, and mouth disease. Poor Rix got is so bad! Especially on her little hands and in her diaper area. It looks so incredibly painful! Poor girl!

Saturday, October 24

We met my family (minus dad) at the Mabey's Pumpkin Patch. We walked all around the field, picked our pumpkins, and took our annual traditional pictures on the old baler. I tried to keep Ricki away from everyone. Don't want to contaminate anyone else! 

 

Sunday, October 25

Ricki wasn't feeling great but we decided to take her to Sunday dinner. She ended up eating a cupcake in her high chair and was a huge mess! We had to take her home in nothing but her diaper. It looks like we'll have a few more days at home before this sickness is over.

Monday, October 12

Tonight was Zack's last soccer game. I am so sad. He did awesome and it was so much fun watching him play! He'll have to play again in the spring.

Tuesday, October 13

Zack's preschool took a field trip to the pumpkin patch. It was really fun! We picked out pumpkins, went on a hay ride, and even got to put stickers and pipe cleaners on the pumpkins to decorate them. Ms. Angie does such a cute job with these kids!

Wednesday, October 14

I wish I had taken any other picture this day but alas, I did not. Since I got home from boot camp, things have been crazy for me. I'm trying to implement some of things they taught us about being a leader. That meant that my house took a back-burner for about a week. I took this picture because I have a goal to see my kitchen table again soon! It may not look like it but it's organized chaos!

Thursday, October 15

Some days I just feel this way!

 

Friday, October 16

Tonight was a kickoff to a very fun weekend. Jenni and I finally cashed in on our Mother's Day gifts from our husbands. We started off at Painter's Palette and painted a Halloween picture (so fun!) then headed over to Cold Stone. It was a fun evening. Jenni and I rarely get to hang out one-on-one so we really enjoyed it!

Saturday, October 17

The only way to describe our day is "Comedy of Errors"! First of all, John Paras gave us a delivery window of 9-1 to deliver our replacement pieces for our new sectional. They showed up at 1:30. To make matters worse, they were here forever because we were not happy (at all) with the new pieces they brought out. They ended up taking back not only the two older ones but also the two new ones. Grrrr! By the time they left, we gathered our things, and took the kids to Dave & Viv's to be babysat, it was after 3:30 when we finally hit the road to our anniversary weekend. We were cruising up I-15, just approaching the 5300 South exit when all of a sudden, Simon lost power to his car. We coasted to the side of the road and Simon got out to see if he could find a problem. Nope. The car was just dead! At this point, Simon is getting super frustrated and saying that we just need to go. A super awesome Highway Patrolman pulled up and told us that if we leave the car on the freeway pavement, they only allow 2 hours to have it towed. However, if we could get it off to the side on the dirt (a ways ahead of where we were), they would leave it for 2 days. Simon asked if he could push us and the officer agreed so he pushed us with his patrol car over to the side of the road and into the dirt. From there, dad came and rescued us, took us to his house, and let us borrow his Honda for the night. Simon was in a hurry. We had to go check in at our hotel then go straight to dinner. We didn't even go to our room first! He surprised me with dinner at The Roof. The reason we were in such a hurry was that we had reservations for 5:30 and you are only allotted a 90-minute time frame to be in the restaurant. We got there at 5:39. Dinner was SOOOO good! I enjoyed every last bite of it! Not to mention the view and the company I was with. :) After dinner, we headed back to our hotel. Simon booked us at Anniversary Inn. I had never been there before. We got the "Forty Niner" room which was a log cabin with the bathroom in a cave. Basically a miner room. It would have been perfect....if the ceiling wasn't leaking water that was dripping in a puddle on the carpet. As I sat and listened to the click, click, click of the water hitting the floor I thought, "Wow, what a day"! An employee came in to check it out and I told her I was worried that the bathtub upstairs was overflowing. She ran out of the room and sure enough, 10 minutes later a manager came in and said that the upstairs people were indeed overflowing their tub. They couldn't move us because there were no open rooms available but they offered us a free bath bomb and a free movie package, which included popcorn, drinks, and candy. It turned out to be a really nice evening but I couldn't help but laugh at all of our crazy mishaps!

Sunday, October 18

If you take a close look at the pictures from Saturday, you can see that our windows were fake. They are just painted to look like windows. Therefore, our room was pitch-black! It was wonderful!! Simon set an alarm for 10:00 because we had breakfast in bed scheduled at 10:15. They brought us this yummy breakfast that we really did eat sitting in bed! Very fun weekend babe! Wish we could do it more often!

Monday, October 5

Welcome to Boot Camp! Today was a fabulous day with classes on how to be an effective leader and help your team succeed. We got to meet Orville and Heidi Thompson, our company's CEO and President respectively. I met a bunch of fun and sweet ladies that took me under their wings and made me feel comfortable being here alone. It was a wonderful day!

 

Tuesday, October 6

Our day at Boot Camp was SO FUN! We got to take tours of the home office, the manufacturing and distributing plants, the original Scentsy "office" - an ocean container they bought in the beginning days of Scentsy and keep on a small farm, and even Orville and Heidi's offices. It was seriously amazing! We also had a graduating dinner and ceremony. It seems crazy that we "graduated" after only 2 days but they were LONG and jam-packed days. They crammed so much in our minds in those 2 days, I'm still spinning from it! This experience has been simply amazing!

Wednesday, October 7

I went to the beginning session of Boot Camp that took place at the company's gym then hit the road to make it back. Simon met me at Grandma and Jim's and I quickly threw some curls in my hair and headed out the door. We went to the annual Sandy Chamber of Commerce Titan Awards dinner. This year, among the three honorees of the award was President Uchtdorf. It was surreal being able to shake this wonderful man's hand and stand there visiting with his sweet wife. It was an honor and privilege to be there and we will miss this terribly now that Simon will no longer be affiliated with the Sandy Chamber. What an amazing week!

Thursday, October 8

Our appointment finally rolled around to take Kendra to a very specialized Allergist. We are trying to get her in a food allergy program where they basically cure you of food born allergies. However, before she can be considered for the trial, she has to begin a series of shots to get her allergies under control. They tested her for a panel of 20 allergens, none being food-related. She tested positive for 16 of the 20! She's allergic to dogs, cats, grass, trees, dust...the Allergist said she's basically allergic to being alive. He was also very concerned about her asthma and recommended that we start her on a daily treatment for that. The next move for us is to have her begin an immunosuppressant shot series that will get her other allergies into a normal range. Once that happens, we will be on the waiting list to get into the program that should cure her of her peanut allergy. This is going to be a long road.

Friday, October 9

We just can't stay away from the doctor's office! We had Ricki's 15-month well-check. She weighs 22 lbs and is 65% for height and 60% for weight. She is happy and healthy and doing very well! Dr. J was pleased to hear her talk and interact with her siblings. Poor sweetie, she got shot. Twice!!

Saturday, October 10

On Friday night, I looked out my front window and saw my neighbors in their garage obviously getting ready for a yard sale. I made Simon walk over and ask if they would mind if we piggy-backed on their sale. I have been collecting things for a couple of months now to sell and this would be perfect! They were more than happy to have us join them. We got up early and set everything up by 8:00. It was slow at first but we figured out that it was because Herriman City went around and took all of our signs down! Once we got new signs back up, it got really busy! I am usually happy if we make $30 at a yard sale so you can imagine my joy when we counted it and had made almost $200! Totally worth the time it took to quick throw it together!

Sunday, October 11

Okay, Simon didn't actually install this on Sunday but we got all of the stuff that goes under our sink put back in today so it totally counts. Right?!?! I have been begging since we moved in to get a reverse osmosis system. I finally hired a plumber to come do it but Simon started doing some research and cancelled him. His research concluded that a water filter was better for our situation and he purchased and installed this one. Here's to hoping that we get water that I can actually stand to drink! We'll see...