When Did This Happen?

When did my little girl grow up?

How did it happen so fast?

Where have I been while she has been turning into a woman, and a really beautiful one, no less?

Being the youngest in my family, my nieces and nephews have always been such an important part of my life. They are the little siblings that I never had and I am closer in age to many of them than I am my older siblings. I have always felt very lucky and blessed to sort of be the link between the 2 generations. Today was my sweet, little niece's Junior Prom and I was lucky enough to be there for the all of the primping and excitement...

Mom and Big Sis

I seriously could not love this girl any more. She has kept me laughing in even my toughest times! Oh how I love her!

Holy Smokes (as Grandpa would say)...she's beautiful!

T and her oh so cute date, as they do the bouttenier/corsage exchange.

I still can't believe it's time for her Jr Prom...

It literally seems like it was just yesterday that I was changing her diaper and babysitting her before getting ready to go to my own Jr Prom...

Oh my, how the time really does fly.

I love you girl! Thanks for letting me be there today!

Just what I needed...

I had the incredible opportunity to attend Womens Conference at BYU this week. It was two jam packed days filled with encouragement, love, laughter, tears, pedicures, dinner with the girls, Brick Oven rootbeer, lots of needed time with Jill, ice cream from the creamery (of course), a sleepover at my parents, beautiful messages from Sister Beck, Elder Perry, Camille Fronk Olson (our Israel guide from last year) as well as timely and appropriate workshops and messages that seemed to be directed right to me. Although, I intended to and thought about taking pictures many times...I just never actually did it. It was such a great experience and it really was just what I needed.

and i thought that i liked it alot...

this hyundai driving, self proclaimed "theatre geek" seems to clearly have me beat.

i don't even like rocky road!

hmmm... profound statement of the obvious from a little weekend fortune cookie:

Family Night - and a win

Last night, we were lucky enough to have tickets for the last Jazz home game of the regular season with our good friends Danni and Dylan. I'm pretty sure that Dylan's Jazz jersey (Harpring, no less. Last night was his first start in over 2 years. Coincidence? I think not.) and the banner that he waved madly like any 8 year old would was just the good luck charm that they needed to end the crappy streak they've had these last several games and come away with the "W".

(Clearly CJ and I don't both look our best in the same photo. He hates the top one and the double chin that it looks like he has, but I like it better of me. I'm not crazy about the bottom one and think the angle is wierd. We compromised and I posted them both. If only I knew how to do a "head swap")

It just so happens that in addition to Danni being one of my dear friends and Young Women's pals, CJ is also lucky enough to be their hometeacher.

I believe this counts, CJ. Nice Work. I wish I could tag along and that every monthly "visit" was this much fun.

It's Glinda...the G-A is silent.

YEP... I loved it just as much the 2nd time as I did the first time!

CJ and I went to Chicago to see Wicked for my birthday 2 years ago. We loved it so much that I wanted to see it again the following night, but we already had too much packed into our short weekend away. I've been dying to see it again ever since.

It finally came to SLC and it did not disappoint!

Once again...I came home wishing I could see it again every night this week.

I'm so glad some of my girls came along this time.

Such a fun night. Thanks Ladies!

An Apostle's Easter Thoughts on Christ

I have always loved Jeffrey R Holland, but this was one of my favorite talks of all time. I am humbled to think that it was nearly a year ago that CJ and I had the incredible opportunity to go to the Holy Land and walk in the literal footsteps of Jesus Christ. I cherish those memories, thoughts and feelings as I contemplate this Easter weekend.






Have a wonderful holiday!

Pretty Please...

Dear Mr. Easter Bunny:

Please, please, please bring us a new camera this year. I know that I've been careless and ruined 2 cameras in less than 8 months, but I've changed...I promise.

Really. I have.

Love,
The C*K*J's


PS...Would it be too much to ask for some peeps in my Easter Basket, too? I really, really love them...especially once they're about 4 days stale. Yum! Disgustingly Delicious.

camera phone pictures suck...but it's still worth the post!

Imagine my delight to find a lovely little package, perfectly wrapped with a happy spring ribbon, sitting on my porch this morning!

As if the pretty little package hadn't brightened my day enough already....what was INSIDE the pretty little package was sure to do the trick.

Oh my heavenly, homemade, rich, chocolately oreo truffles, hand-dipped in my favorite chocolate.

Although she had told me about these little truffles...never could I have imagined just how incredible they really are. Quite possibly my new favorite guilty pleasure.

How did I get so lucky?

AND, to top it off... can you believe that I am supposed to be HER visiting teacher.

Ha! Man, did she get the short end of the stick!

thanks g!

***

(Poor CJ...if it wasn't for this blog post, he may never have even known that these little lovelies ever even existed. I can't make any promises that there will be anything but crumbs left by the time he rolls in tonight! Sorry Love!)

April Fools Day

We have been conspiring with our young women on a little trick that we could play on the boys ever since we learned that April Fools Day would fall on a Wednesday, our regular youth activity night. Actually, truth be known, we'd been conspiring for longer than that...we've been plotting ever since the YM lost a friendly competition several months ago and had to bring cinnamon rolls and milk for the YW the following week. They were apparently not too hip on losing (especially to a bunch of girls) and decided to make cinnamon rolls with cayenne pepper, chili powder and salt instead of cinnamon and sugar. We graciously (of course) laughed it off knowing that we would get them back at some point. Well, April Fools seemed like our perfect opportunity. As we discussed plans for our activity with the YM leaders, I quickly volunteered that the YW would provide treats to enjoy as we gathered together before going to tour the Utah Food Bank....

Homemade Oreos, the PERFECT treat...

ESPECIALLY when we filled them with the nastiest, pastiest toothpaste we could find!

We strategically made a big platter full and placed just enough of the good ones (yummy, cream cheese frosting filled) on top for the YW to take, eat and enjoy. Ladies first, remember? The girls then continued to pass the plate around to the rest of the YM and even a few members of our bishopric who also happened to be around. Classic! Several of the boys took 2 and 3 cookies, but unfortunately caught on before consuming very much of their first one. Sadly, one of the bishopric members (kind of an older gentleman) seemed a little confused and maybe not wanting to hurt our feelings, continued to take eat it... all the while, the look on his face clearly expressed what he must have been thinking...

"This is the strangest cookie I have ever eaten"

...look perplexed, check out the cookie again...take another bite

"I wonder what is making it taste so minty"

...wheels are turning, still trying to figure out that familiar taste... take another bite

"The frosting sure is sticky and I kind of feel like I might gag...but the chocolate cookie is just good enough to warrant yet another bite of this strange tasting cookie"

Oh my was it funny. It was just what we had hoped for.

Once they all figured it out, they were very good sports (even the bishopric) and just for that... we shared some yummy, toothpaste-free cookies with them and all had a good laugh.

***

However, I am now thinking that we need to be watching our backs. I'm not quite sure what these people are capable of.