Another wintery day

So I stole these pictures off my friend Melanie's blog (thanks Mel, hope that was okay) so you who don't live here can be thankful that you don't have this much snow. If you do have this much snow, I'm assuming you're used to it, and you can then be thankful for all the moisture that you are going to recieve from the white fluffy stuff. These pictures are of Dan and Issac trying to dig Issac's 4-wheel drive vehicle out of the parking lot this morning. Once the guys got to school they learned that they were closing the campus after 10. Which, how smart was that? Make everyone come in the bad weather, then send them home in worse weather. Anyway, school is cancelled again tomorrow. I think it's interesting that they are cancelling everything. Even a lot of the roads were closed. I heard that if we had wanted to go to Moscow today we wouldn't have been able to because of road closures. I was supposed to have a primary meeting tomorrow, but I cancelled it because everything else was cancelled. I even only watched Maeli this morning for an hour. When her dad came by to pick her up he said that Beth got sent home from work because of the snow. Gotta love the snow.

I love Caden hugs. They are the best thing in the world. He snuggles up tight and then pats you on the back. He's really getting fun because he can understand what you are saying now, so he follows (mostly) directions like, "go get a book" "let's take a nap" and my favorite is after we read scriptures and pray he heads straight for the bathroom without us even saying "let's brush teeth". He loves to brush his teeth. He has just learned to nod his head yes, and his grin gets cheesier every time. Oh, and he's learned a new word "shoes" which mostly sounds like it's supposed to.

I made the best soup tonight for dinner (yes, you may all applaude now...it doesn't happen often, just ask Dan). It was a cheese and broccoli soup. I got the recipe off of some primary website (weird, but whatever works, right?) I didn't have everything so I called mom to see if I could substitube some stuff. Mom, afterall, is the substitute queen of cooking. Anyway, it was delicious and I'm extremely proud of myself.

Grrrr...

So, in my ice-skating blog I was complaining about how my camera took fuzzy pictures and died at random times and how it was time to start thinking about getting a new one. Well, instead of just thinking about getting a new one, now we have to. I accidently dropped it today. Dropping sometimes isn't all that bad (mind you it's never good to drop electronic equiptment, but sometimes they still work), but dropping it from our third floor apartment concrete stairs and having it fall to the bottom concrete floor it didn't survive. It stayed all together, just the batteries popped out so I had hope for it, but it won't turn on...I hope I downloaded all the pictures off it. Sigh, we just aren't having good luck with pictures are we? And for those of you who are wondering, no, I did not drop it on purpose. It fell out of my pocket, and I was quite upset by it. So, no pictures for a while. Grrrrr...

I took the kids sledding today. It was good to get out of the house. I called my friend Melanie and she brought out her daughter Kaycee to play with Kember. Kaycee sure is a lot more daring than Kember. She didn't think much of sledding, but her feet stayed warm this time. However, her hands did not. She decided that she wanted to swing instead of sled (which doesn't work so well in the snow, so she went down the slide instead). Caden was just bundled up so much he couldn't do anything. He's a good natured kid though, so he put up with everything I made him do. It helped to get out of the house and I need to do it more often with the kids.

Dan made dinner again tonight...it's he the greatest? He was probably so thrilled with the fact that I was in a good mood (I've been cranky lately) that he ... well, I don't know why, he just did. Did I mention he bought me flowers Monday night? He and Kember went grocery shopping and he came home with potted Calla-lillies (which was our wedding flower by the way). Awesome isn't he?

Maybe we can go look at cameras tonight. Any suggestions on brands and stuff?

Mini Stars

I'm having a lot of fun with this, and just thought I'd share. As always, let me know what you think.

Alright, alright, I'll answer some questions. I didn't want to since I really don't know what I'm doing, I'm just messing around, but I'm doing this on Adobe Photoshop, I downloaded free stuff from some different websites, and it's a 12x12 that I think I can get printed at Costco...although, the quality of these pictures aren't good enough to print, so I don't know what I'll do...

What do you think?

So this is my first time digital scrapbooking (with all the fun embellishments and stuff). Tell me what you think and give me some suggestions.

Relief? Joy? Happiness?

Dare I admit it? I think I do. The 2nd and 3rd blocks of church today were cancelled, and I felt...relieved. Don't get me wrong. I love church and I look forward to going each week. Today was my day for Sharing Time in primary. I love primary, and I love doing Sharing Time. It's fun for me to figure out different ideas to teach the kids about gospel topics. Today the topic was on the Creation. I planned ahead, and I thought about this lesson all week (didn't prepare it until the night before, but I researched and outlined everything before hand). So I get to church planning on going to the library to get my needed materials and....they don't have them; for two of my activities. Great! What was I supposed to do? They can only color for so long. Good thing I brought the play-doh as a "just in case". I had been praying and praying that this lesson would come together, and during sacrament meeting I find out that I don't have to worry about it because the weather is so bad that they are sending us home! Whew. Talk about relief. The bishop found me afterwards and asked me why I was smiling so big when he made the announcement. I told him that Sharing Time just wasn't coming together and this was an answer to a prayer (Okay, so I really don't think God sent bad weather just so I could get out of teaching Sharing Time, but I felt blessed anyway). The bishop just laughed and said he was glad he could accomodate me.

I can't believe how hard it's snowing outside. Last night it rained and was rather warm and I was expecting that again. Nope. I realize we probably don't have as much snow as our parents in Utah, but boy...I was looking forward to Spring. I don't know, maybe winter wouldn't be so bad here if they would plow or salt the roads, but since that's a bad topic I'll just let it go.

Ice Skating

After wasting most of the day we decided to go to the Stake Ice Skating Social. We invited our friends Heidi, Justin, and Colbie and saw a lot of other people we knew there. It was a lot of fun, but cold. In fact, I think it was colder inside the building than outside. Things are starting to warm up here a little bit. Coming home it was a whopping 35 degrees. Not bad...not bad at all.


So I took this picture of Kember right before we left and bundled her up. I didn't think she'd enjoy this outing so I wanted a happy picture of her. She ended up loving it and didn't mind the cold until we were finished skating and just standing around talking.



The reason Dan looks a little funny here is because he was stopping to talk to some people. I have no idea why the picture is so bad. Our camera is dying a slow death and it's time to start thinking about a new one.

These little things are the greatest. Colbie and Kember just had a blast pushing it around the ice rink. They are really good there to let you push your stroller on the ice too. We buckled Caden in some random persons (a friend of a friend) stroller and everyone took turns pushing the babies around. We didn't skate long...maybe a half hour, and I skated even less, but it was a lot of fun, and I'm glad the stake takes the time and effort to put activities like this on.
So I'm ashamed to admit it, but I'm getting more addicted to Dan's gamecube than he is. We went over to a friends house for dinner and they had a game called Donkey Konga. It's like Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero only with drums (bongos). Anyway, I was hooked, and so with my Christmas money I bought the game and two sets of bongos. It finally came in the mail yesterday (took long enough...I've been waiting and waiting and telling my friends all about it) and it's a blast. We even let Kember and Caden bang on the bongos. I plan on bringing it to the Linford family reunion this summer to see how coordiated everyone is. That should be funny. Dan beats me every time! It's pretty sad that I have no rhythm, but it's still fun to play.

Vanilla Flavored

Grandpa Linford would be so disappointed. "Vanilla is not a flavor!" he used to say. I wonder what that says about me...even if it isn't exactly accurate.

So, I was going to complain all about my day and tell you all how rotten it was, but since that's no fun to read, and since in the long run it really isn't important, let me just say that Daniel Johnson is the sweetest, bestest, husband in the world, and he was my life-savor today. Not only did he watch the kids immediately when he got home from work and let me hide in the bedroom, but he made dinner and let me eat it while still hiding in the bedroom. Yes, he is my hero, and I love him dearly.