Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all!  I hope you all had a great Christmas and are enjoying holiday festivities with your family and loved ones! 

I have not posted in forever, and am very behind....our computer crashed a couple weeks ago (and that's where all the pictures are) and I haven't really had time to sit down at the computer since Thanksgiving (I'm on my husband's laptop right now).  SO, hopefully we can get our computer fixed soon, and I can post some fun pictures from Twilight, Thanksgiving and December activities.

Thank you all for your friendship!  Have a great New Year!!

The Countdown Has Begun!!

Most of you already know that I am a die-hard Twilight fanatic. Kelsey and I are going to the midnight premiere on Thursday night (okay, technically 12:01 am on Friday morning) with 18 of our closest friends (who are also Twilight fans) and I am SO EXCITED! Although I think I'll regret it on Friday morning when I have to wake up for work.....but that's life, I guess!

Follow the Prophet

With all the craziness going on lately, the Primary song comes to mind:

Follow the prophet,
Follow the prophet,
Follow the prophet,
Don't go astray.

Follow the prophet,
Follow the prophet,
Follow the prophet,
He knows the way.

One of my all-time favorite apostles is Neal A. Maxwell. It was brought to my attention this week a quote from a talk he gave at BYU on October 10, 1978. It was published in the Feb 1979 Ensign, and is entitled, "A More Determined Discipleship."

I have already shared this quote with some of you, but felt I needed to share it again. It's amazing. The whole talk is amazing, so I encourage you to go to www.lds.org and read it.

"Make no mistake about it, brothers and sisters, in the months and years ahead, events are likely to require each member to decide whether or not he will follow the First Presidency. Members will find it more difficult to halt longer between two opinions. President Marion G. Romney said, many years ago, that he had 'never hesitated to follow the counsel of the Authorities of the Church even though it crossed my social, professional or political life.'


"This is hard doctrine, but it is particularly vital doctrine in a society which is becoming more wicked. In short, brothers and sisters, not being ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ includes not being ashamed of the prophets of Jesus Christ. . . . Your discipleship may see the time when such religious convictions are discounted. . . . This new irreligious imperialism seeks to disallow certain opinions simply because those opinions grow out of religious convictions.


"Resistance to abortion will be seen as primitive. Concern over the institution of the family will be viewed as untrendy and unenlightened....Before the ultimate victory of the forces of righteousness, some skirmishes will be lost. Even in these, however, let us leave a record so that the choices are clear, letting others do as they will in the face of prophetic counsel. There will also be times, happily, when a minor defeat seems probable, but others will step forward, having been rallied to rightness by what we do. We will know the joy, on occasion, of having awakened a slumbering majority of the decent people of all races and creeds which was, till then, unconscious of itself. Jesus said that when the fig trees put forth their leaves, 'summer is nigh.' Thus warned that summer is upon us, let us not then complain of the heat."

I know that our prophet will never lead us astray, and I hope and pray that I will always have the courage to follow his counsel, no matter what.

My New Favorite CD

The Twilight Soundtrack came out last week, and I just got my copy yesterday. AWESOME! I LOVE IT! I am so excited for the movie next week! Just thought I'd share!

Memory Lane

If you have a few minutes, come stroll memory lane with me....

I recently went through some of my pre-digital camera pictures and scanned them in. I have come to a few conclusions:

1. My children are beautiful.

2. I remember each of these pictures as if it were taken yesterday.

3. Time is quite the phenomenon.

So, I invite you to re-live some of my memories with me. And I apologize for so many photos, but I just couldn't take any out!

Enjoy.

Reminiscing 1A

Reminiscing 1B

Reminiscing 2

Jon Schmidt

Just a quick note. I attended a Jon Schmidt concert with Kelsey tonight. Let me preface....a couple months ago, one of Kelsey's friends came over after school and played part of a song on the piano she had learned. It was amazing! We got the name of it ("Waterfall" by Jon Schmidt) and I bought the music for Kelsey. All the songs in that book are amazing. We found out he would be at the high school tonight for a concert (band fundraiser), so we went. And it was UNBELIEVABLE He is so talented, and such a fantasic pianist. He ranks right up there with my other favorite performer, Jenny Oaks Baker. He's doing a Christmas show at Kingsbury Hall (Salt Lake City) on December 12th and 13th, so if any of you are interested, check out his website (www.jonschmidt.com) or buy a CD. :-)

FINALLY!

We have finally put together the flyer for the Twilight shirts that Victor is going to print for us! SO, for all you Twilight fans, or those who know people who are Twilight fans, if you're interested in any shirts, here's a sample:



See below for an order form! Please email me if you'd rather I email you the pdf file. Thanks!!

Twilight Shirts - Upload a Document to Scribd

Tagged!

I was tagged by my sisters to do the following photo tag:

1. Open my pictures folder.
2. Go to the sixth folder.
3. Open the sixth picture.
4. Import into my blog and tell the story



This is me and my beautiful daughter last year on my birthday. We went to eat at Outback Steakhouse. Very yummy food!!

So, if you'd like to do a quick tag, feel free to play along!

Kent

Kent's class recently did these self-portrait poems. I saw it hanging on the wall outside his classroom, and thought it was awesome. Just thought I'd share!


In case you can't read it too well, here goes:

Kent
Smart, happy, skinny, tall
Sibling of Kelsey
Lover of Star Wars
Who fears thumb strangling
Who needs food, water, and air
Who gives nothing
Who would like to see
A world of peace
Resident of Spanish Fork
Dominguez

Zions National Park

As I said in my last post, on our way home from St. George, we drove through Zions National Park. It is beautiful, and my pictures don't do it justice in the least bit, but here they are. Enjoy!

3:55:32...

...Victor's official time in the St. George Marathon this past Saturday! He did so good! Despite the fact that it rained THE ENTIRE TIME, we had a great, albeit cold, weekend! Thank you to all our family and friends who came down with us and supported Victor, and our other friends who ran (Corom, Sarah, Kymbra).

Here are some pictures.















We drove through Zions National Park on our way home, so I'll hopefully get those pictures up tomorrow. It's just so breathtakingly beautiful, and my pictures did not do it justice, but they're still nice!

And.....we're off (AGAIN!)!!

We are leaving tomorrow for St. George, because Victor is going to run the St. George Marathon on Saturday!!! He's never done a full marathon before, although he has run lots and lots of half-marathons. So, he's a little nervous, but he's trained well and I know he'll do great! Stay tuned next week for pictures and results!

I hope the rest of you enjoy Conference this weekend. I'll hopefully have time to catch up with my DVR next week (or it might just have to wait until the November Ensign). :)

HAPPY RUNNING!!

Brisingr

This is another book that I am VERY excited about! About a month ago, I started re-reading "Eragon" and "Eldest", and I'm still about halfway through "Eldest". I had already pre-ordered my book of "Brisingr" so that should arrive on Monday. I better get moving so I can read it!

I highly recommend these books. I actually saw the movie "Eragon" before I read the books, and I loved the movie. But it's nothing like the books!! SO, you need to read them!!

Yummy New Recipes

Okay, so as a working mother, it's hard for me sometimes (okay, most of the time) to come up with new and creative (and not time-consuming!) dinner recipes for my family. So, I'm always looking for new recipes, and I'm sorry to say that I usually don't even try them. But this week, I was brave, and actually tried 2 new recipes.....and they were both really really good! So I just had to share!

The first one is "Mini Ham & Swiss Cups". See here.

I didn't read all the instructions first (shame on me!) so I actually made them in 24 regular muffin cups as opposed to mini muffin cups. I wondered why the dough wasn't making actual cups.....but they still tasted good! They just weren't as pretty.

The second one is "Saucy Chicken Italiano". See here.

We had this one tonight. Very good!!!

And I have to share another new favorite recipe, which I got from my cousin, Linnie. We had a family get-together last month, and she brought this Bean Salsa. FABULOUS!! I made it for a birthday party we had with friends a couple weeks ago, and it was a hit! SO GOOD!! So, you'll have to try it and let me know how you like it!!

Bean Salsa

1 16 oz. can each of the following, drained and rinsed:
black beans
white beans
garbanzo beans
black eyed peas
corn
1 16 oz. can diced tomatoes with green chilies
1 small red onion diced
1 bunch cilantro chopped
1/2 bottle Italian dressing

Mix everything together and serve with tortilla chips (I also had the Fritos Scoops, which worked great!). Makes a lot - great for potlucks, etc.

Happy cooking!

Mission Accomplished!

We survived our trip to Disneyland, and it was a lot of fun (although I know all the runners are tired). Here are some pictures.

The Runners, BEFORE (at 5:30 am)

Te Runners, AFTERPart of Team KenTZ

Kelsey, with Morgan and Emery waiting for the runners to come by:

Kent and Eldon waiting...

My beautiful Kelsey

One of Kent's favorite places, The LEGO STORE!

Kelsey with her new shirt (Kent got one, too), that says, "My Dad Ran the Disneyland 1/2 Marathon, 2008". They both wore them to school today.

Victor and Kent on Pirates

Some of the kids with their Team KenTZ shirts (it sure makes it easier to find everyone when you have the same bright colored shirts!)

Kelsey in Toontown (we have this identical picture taken 2 years ago when we came)

Our family in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle.

And finally, my darling Kent!

And.....we're off!!

We leave tomorrow (Friday) afternoon after school for Disneyland, and the half-marathon! There is still so much to do!!

THANK YOU to all who have donated to Team KenTZ!!!! We appreciate it so much! Our goal was $8,800, and as of right now, we have $9,400!! AMAZING!! PPMD has told me donations will still be accepted through the weekend, so if you still wanted to donate, click on the link to the right. We will have lots of pictures to share when we get back next week! Thanks, again!!

My Chicago Sisters

Most of you know that I served a mission in Chicago. While there, I met my second family, the Gibsons, and have enjoyed being adopted as one of their own for these past many years (I won't say how many because it will make me feel old). I am blessed to have my 4 "sisters" live in Utah Valley with me. Although I don't see them as often as I should, I was able to see all of them this past Saturday because Ty (Lynn's oldest) was baptized! What a great morning! He was so excited, and it was so fun to hear the talks given by his aunts, Jill and Paige, and to hear his 2 cousins, Scottie and Mason, sing "I Hope They Call Me on a Mission". Priceless. Here are a few pictures.

Here is Ty.

The 5 'sisters': Paige, Jill, Lynn, Kim and me. The scary thing is that when I met them, Paige (the youngest) was 8. That tells you how old I am!

Lynn and her beautiful girl, Karyssa

Paige and her beautiful Natalia

Kim with Ella (I didn't get a picture of Emily, her oldest)

Jill's adorable Tanna

Ty and his best cousin, Scottie (Jill's oldest)

My Kent, doing races around the cultural hall in his wheelchair (he doesn't usually have such open spaces to work with!)

And finally, my Kelsey, with a vase of roses that Lynn graciously gave us for helping, when all I did was play the piano and Kelsey made some cookies. Thank you, Lynn! You are too kind!