March Madness Interrupted

Family dinner Sunday. Look how cute the hostess is holding baby Madison.

Nani got a chance at holding the baby girl.

 Of course Maggie was anxious for her turn.

 Dad was wearing the lei he got from his recent trip to Hawaii.

Samantha doesn't look like such a little baby now with Madison half her size.

Look who decided to show up this month...Ben Thomas!! What a treat!! He is usually hanging out in Provo and doesn't make the trek up. This time he was in town.

He had been in town all weekend. Getting his car inspected (and then fixed because it failed) and going to a job interview were his main reasons. He just decided to stay an extra couple of days so he could enjoy the many games of March Madness with his dad.

After our soup dinner, Spencer was very eager for the candle-topped desserts to appear. After all, March is his birth month and he was anxious to get sung to and to blow out his candles. Rachel took good care of him while they were waiting.

Eli is making his move to try and get closer to the frosting on the brownies.

All the children migrated toward the the end of the table where the action would be.

Eli wanted his chance at the lighter.

Carson is pretty intent on blowing out Spencer's candles.

Next it was Wes's turn to light the candles for his mom. Happy birthday to the other March birthdays who were not there: Hailey, Abe and Zack. 

Take a last look at Ben. He quickly got a brownie to go so he and Glen could leave as quickly as possible to get home to watch March Madness games. Sheesh!! When will this madness ever end??!!??

Caroline ate her brownie in the kitchen all by herself. She had decorated herself all up with the headband and necklaces she found in the toy box.

It was a great night for Glen to leave early. I stayed for a long time after most everyone had left so I could look at the pictures Nani and Dad took of their trip to Hawaii. The scenery looked so beautiful and they (along with Mom) had a great time on their trip. ALOHA!!!

Four Golden Children

Rebecca seems to be coping with four little darling Golden children quite well. She has made it out of the house with all of them on several occasions.

This particular day the children were having an especially good time while they were here. They loved it when I pulled out some party horns. They blew with all their might, but could never get a sound out of them.

Synchronization of their party horns.

Spencer got a kick out of his strawberry nose.

Brooke gave herself marshmallow spots.

Cute kids. Fun day at their grandma's house.

Quotes of the Week

"Confidence sells -- people believe in those who believe in themselves. No one wants to be stuck in a room with other people who feel like they don't deserve to be there. Stop wondering if you're good enough. Know you are, and start acting like it."  

-- Simon Black 

"You must believe that your past is not your future. You are not stuck or defined by tradition and you don't have to listen to what others tell you to do. Focus on the bright things, the ones that bring a smile to your face. Find that passion and focus."  

-- Gayle Carson 

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind." 

-- Bernard M. Baruch 

Birds of a Feather

We had a really fun adult dinner at the church last month. Clever theme "Birds of a Feather." This post is dedicated to my sister Nani because she loves decorations and I thought she would enjoy seeing how this party was decorated.

In the hallway as we walked in was a welcome birdhouse and a table set up for us to get our name tags.

Kathy Jacketta is so kindly doing our name tags. Which bird name tag we chose decided which table we would sit at for the opening salad course of the meal.

The tables were all decorated so cute and so unique from each other. The peacocks on the food table made for a very beautiful, impressive, eye-catching centerpiece. A woman in our ward works for O.C. Tanner and these were used as a display in their store.

There were tables in all four corners for water pitchers.

All the organizations were given assignments for decorating the tables in the bird theme. Jamie Jensen took care of the YW table decorations and I helped her by setting our table.

Don't know who did this table. After the salad course, they used the birds on the name tags to determine which table you needed to go to next for the soup part of the meal.

Primary decorated this table. The primary presidency all wore incredibly long fake eyelashes and their faces were all made up to look like beautiful birds.

Of course there had to be a decoration for the partition.

Don't know who did this table.

Or this table. When we finished with soup, again we were instructed to stand up and move to a different table with all different people to have dessert.

A corner water table.

This long-legged bird table was done by the elders quorum.

YM were in charge of this table.

Corner water table.

Ward missionaries decorated this table.

This is the bishopric's table. Turkey pictures of Bishop Cowley...

 counselor Gordon Pope...

executive secretary Scott McNair and counselor Larry Fisher were on the centerpiece.

It was a very clever and cute way to have a mix and mingle kind of dinner party.