Lately...

This winter has been so mild. We have had hardly any snow, and the temperatures have been abnormally high. Still... we all have a bit of the Winter Blues. I think it comes from the fact that it is dark so much. Poor Jonathon leaves for work in the dark and comes home in the dark almost every day. Luckily, we have bright, shiny faces like this one to keep us smiling. (Note: Cousin Carolyn made this hat for Andrew. So Cute!)

To help fight off the cabin fever, we have done some fun things, and I have been working on some more projects. {Surprise, I know.}

BOWLING:
My parents came down for President's Weekend. We had such a great time with them. Usually, we put them to work, but this time it was a nice, relaxing few days full of games, scripture trivia, yummy food, and good conversations.

One of the highlights was bowling. Christian and Andrew haven't been very often, so they were so excited. The place we went was very kid friendly. They had bumpers on the lanes and special things to help kids roll the ball. Christian and Andrew both had a great time. We also got to have pizza between games. How can you get better than that? Thanks Grandpa and Grandma!

 My all-time record bowling score previously was 112 (I never claimed to be any good). My first game, I bowled a 119. I took a picture as proof of my new record. I also love that the picture shows that Jonathon scored the same as Andrew, 88. He had a rough first game, but took it well :)

The second game was even better. I bowled a 151! (Yes, you read that right.... 151!)  It might not sound too impressive, but remember my previous record was 112, so I was pretty amazed.) I wanted to take a picture, but Jonathon threw the next ball too quickly, and started the screen over. At least I had 5 other witnesses! We had such a fun afternoon. We will definitely have to go back again soon.

SWEETHEART'S BALL:

That night, we attended The Sweetheart's Ball at the church. It was a fundraiser for Girl's Camp. It was fun to get all dressed up fancy, dance the night away, and participate in the silent auction. The boys loved that Grandpa and Grandma C. got to babysit them, so everyone was happy.

PROJECTS:

I have also been trying to keep the boys entertained on those cold, windy days that make February so dreary. We finished a cool art project last week: Angry Birds made out of beads. My sister-in-law Kym (and cousins Jadyn and McKay) gave them to the boys for Christmas. They had a great time putting it all together and were actually very patient throughout the whole project.

Last, but not least, I have been crafting away... as usual. I needed a costume for a very special event (awesome post to follow in the next few days), so I whipped up this pioneer bonnet and an apron. I found a tutorial online here and was able to finish it all in a little under 2 hours. {That 2 hours included a call to my Mom to help me figure out part of the sewing. Why, oh why didn't I learn to sew when I lived at home?} It turned out great though and was the perfect touch to the costume.

Fall Favorites

*Beautiful Fall Weather

*Scenic Mountain Views

*Great Friends

*BYU Football

*A WINNING Score

Our friends, Jared and Michelle, found us some extra tickets to Saturday's BYU vs UNLV football game. We jumped on the offer and were lucky enough to have great babysitters already in Provo (Thanks Mom and Dad H). The day was incredibly beautiful with temperatures in the high 70's!

To make it even better, check out the final score...

55-7!

BYU actually had a shutout until 1:30 left in the game. It reminded me of the good old days when we were scoring 55 on a regular basis. Hopefully, this will be a turning point in the season and we can take advantage of the momentum. What a fun day!

A-Rod and me, we're BFF's!

On Wednesday my family and I went to a Yankees game. Among the many star players on the Yankees is Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod and I go way back. When he was young and playing for the Seattle Mariners, my brother and I used to watch him all the time. That was pre-$262 million contract and pre-steroid nastiness. He was just an awesome baseball player back then. Daniel and I loved everything about baseball and were fanatics. For my Senior trip, my mom took Daniel and me to 2 Seattle Mariners baseball games to see A-Rod play.

Back to Wednesday...

A-Rod was approaching a huge baseball milestone. He was about to become only the 7th player to ever hit 600 homeruns and the youngest to ever do it. He was stuck on 599 for a really long time. 12 games, in fact. For over 2 weeks, the sports world was waiting to celebrate the milestone. A-Rod must have known we were going to be at the game because he waited for us. On his first at bat, he smashed a homerun into the bullpen and hit the 600 milestone. We were all screaming and jumping around like crazy fools with 50,000 other Yankee fans. It was sure a fun experience. To top it all off, the Yankees won!

Hannah and me under the "Congratulations Alex, #600" sign

Mom and Christian at Yankee Stadium

Proof of Christian's first cotton candy

 The whole fam on the upper decks

The Yankees Win, THHHEEEE Yankees Win!

On Monday night, we went to our first game at the new Yankee Stadium. 16 of Jonathon's lab-mates got tickets with us. We had a fantastic time! The Yankees played the Baltimore Orioles and ended up beating them 4-1. CC Sabathia was the pitcher, and as usual, Jeter and ARod played.

Leaving the boys was hard because Andrew was screaming as we tried to sneak out the door. He has a history of treating babysitters badly, so I was a little apprehensive at the game. About halfway through we got a text message from our awesome sitters saying he stopped crying 2 minutes after we left and went to bed without a peep. Yay for kind people who are willing to watch our little bugs. The rest of the game was a lot less stressful.

The stadium was beautiful. It was very clean and had a nice open feel. I noticed a huge contrast between it and Fenway Park in Boston. Fenway is small and has so much character, but Yankee stadium was much more "corporate." We were in our usual seats at the top of the stadium, but at least we weren't on the very back row like most events we have attended. Regardless, we had such a nice evening. This might have been our last Yankees game... ever, so we really wanted to enjoy it.

Our view of the field

ARod at bat

After the game

Bracket Fun

Every year Jonathon and I have a friendly March Madness competition. Usually, we give Christian the "no-upsets" bracket, but that fell to Andrew this year. Instead, we thought that Christian was old enough to participate. We decided to set up his bracket by which team he thought had the coolest school mascot. We read each of the match-ups to him and let him choose the name that he liked best as the winner.

Unfortunately for him, the lowest ranked schools have some pretty awesome nicknames. Why would you ever choose the Kansas State Wildcats (#2) when you could pick the North Texas Mean Green (#15)?

I mean, seriously?

Christian liked them so much that the Mean Green are going to the National Championship in his bracket. He also really liked the Siena Saints (#13) and the Maryland Terrapins (#4) when he found out terrapin meant turtle.

But the BIG winner of Christian's bracket is none other than the West Virginia Mountaineers.

Why you ask?

Because he thought they were called "Mountain Ears" and laughed like crazy every time they matched up with another team. So there you have it... the NCAA tournament as called by a 3-year-old.

Go Mountain Ears!

RISE AND SHOUT!

Our BYU cougars beat the mighty, #3 ranked Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday night. It was a nail-biter, but we pulled it out 14-13 in the end. Hopefully, it will be the start of an amazing season!

For the big event, we hosted a football party with lots of Columbia students who had attended the Y. Jonathon must have had a premonition because the subject line for the invitations was "BYU beating Oklahoma Party." It was fun to celebrate with our fellow fanatics. We even had special blue and white BYU cupcakes that I made just for the occasion. The computer connection we were using conked out at the end, so we heard the last quarter on KSL and watched the ESPN GameCast. When the cheering died down at the end of the game, we could hardly believe that we won. We were pretty much in shock!

Over the years, BYU has been unpredictable in big games (to say the least). They have, however, provided many exciting and nail-biting memories throughout my lifetime. I wasn't around or was too young to remember some of the really great highlights (i.e. I remember loving Ty Detmer, but don't really remember any of the games and I was only a year old when they won the National Championship) Here are MY top five BYU football memories...

5. BYU vs UCLA Las Vegas Bowl (2007)- Eathyn Manumaleuna blocks the last minute kick to save the game.

4. BYU vs Kansas State Cotton Bowl (96-97)- Steve Sarkisian to Kealaluhi for the winning touchdown; and a game-saving interception by Morgan. I remember this game so well because we had been watching it at home, but had to go to tithing settlement right at the end. We convinced my dad to let us stay in the car to listen to the ending before going into the church. When we won, the whole van was shaking!

3. Lavell Edwards Final Victory vs Utah (2000)- The season wasn't that great, but there was so much on the line. If we lost, it would have been Lavell's first losing season since 1974. A spectacular drive with 1 minute left won the game 34-27. I wasn't able to watch this game live, so I had my parents tape it for me. I watched it by myself and am pretty sure I cried when they carried Lavell off the field.

2. BYU vs Utah (2001)- Luke Staley and Brandon Doman led the Cougs to a huge come-from-behind victory over the Utes with some last minute heroics. This sticks out in my memory so much because it was my freshman year at BYU and my first Utah game. When we won, I wanted to charge the field like the rest of the crazy fans, but decided to obey the rules... Man, that would have been a cool memory, looking back. Oh well.

1. BYU vs Utah (2006)- "The Answered Prayer" The whole last drive was incredible, but Beck to Harline, who was kneeling in the end-zone, will forever stand out in my mind as one of the greatest moments ever! During the game, we were driving from Utah to Colorado. We were checking the score every time we could get cell phone reception in Wyoming. Then, we ran in to the apartment just in time to see the last drive. The suspense during that long drive made it even better when they won in such dramatic fashion. [A funny sidenote: My dad called us right before the last play to make sure that we were watching the game. Their TV was a little ahead of our cable box, so they started screaming a split-second before we saw Harline catch the ball. It was awesome!]

This game vs OU will definitely be joining the list of great memories (I just have to let it digest for a while to decide where it ranks). I definitely bleed BLUE! I'm sure I have forgotten some of the great games, so I would love to hear what you Cougar fans remember most.

Oh, and this is my favorite article about the win because it also mentions my hometown BSU Broncos. Check it out: Give Them Their Due

*Pic courtesy (AP/ Tony Gutierrez)