Be an Optimist.

My job did a Development week. Where we can sign up for a class that interests us. I choose to go to "Initiative starts with me."

The speaker shared an awesome story. This isn't a true story, but I loved the story so much I wanted to document it so I could go back and read it.

This is a story about two twin boys. One was a pessimist, the other an optimist. The father of the twin boys put the two boys into two separate rooms. The pessimist was put into a room full of electronic toys. He had tons of toys that he easily could be excited about and have fun with for a long time. The optimist twin was put into a room with a wheel barrel piled high with horse manure. The boy smiled when he saw what his father brought him.

A couple hours later, the pessimist twin comes crying to his father "I can't play with my toys, there is no batteries. My friends won't want to play with me now.." He kept finding fault in everything.

The father then also heard the optimist son. He was yelling excitedly "woohoo"! The father runs into the room and sees the optimist son throwing the manure everywhere. The father asks what he is doing? The optimist says "I know there's gotta be a horse in here somewhere!"

I thought the story was awesome. Its a great eye opener. It's easy to be like the pessimist when things go wrong in my life. But if I have an optimistic view, my life will be happier.

Love this girl.

She seriously makes my day every time I see her.

She calls me and asks if she can come over.

She gives me lessons from the "Friend" magazine.

Brings treats.

One for me and one for Steve.

She's my "mini' visiting teacher-so she says.

She literally runs to my house to greet me.

She laughs at everything I say, even if it's not funny.

She loves to do crafts with me.

If I don't like something, she doesn't.

I'm really so grateful for her.

She's one of my Beehives.

She says I always give her the best lessons. But really, she's giving me mine.

She makes me want to be better.

Love this girl.

Trip to Sweden

Steve has been wanting to go on a vacation so bad! Me too actually. But, with work, school and church callings we haven't had anytime to have a getaway. So, I planned a surprise trip to Sweden for Steve on Saturday night. Unfortunatley, we really aren't going to Sweden. I WISH. But, I made a "pretend" vacation get away right in our own home. Steve went on his mission to Sweden, and has been wanting to go back ever since. So, with the help of midgey (Kjersti) and Christina I made our Sweden trip possible. :)

I didn't let Steve come home from mom and dad Ford's until 6pm, so I could decorate and get dinner ready. When he came home I handed him these pretend airplane tickets...

Our airline tickets

It showed our destination would be SWEDEN. He was really surprised! Our "airplane" was our living room. And so we watched a movie on our flight. We managed to get first class on our flight, and we had the famous Swedish meatballs, gravy and lingon berry sauce. ( Compliments from Ikea.) With Sparkling Pear cider to wash it all down.

The movie was great, and the flight was perfect. Before we knew it, we were in Sweden. (If only it really took 2 hrs to get to Sweden..)

Kj and Christina helped me make Swedish signs around the house, we even made a Swedish flag out of streamers. So when you go through the streamers (in the hallway) we were in Sweden. (ha. I know, a little corny. But I thought it turned out great.)

"I love you" in Swedish

"Welcome to Sweden"

We found our B&B in no time. I had fun decorating our room. I put up "twinkle lights" around our window, so when we walked in the room, the room light up with the lights. I think it turned out pretty awesome!

"Welcome to Sweden"

Bed and Breakfast in Swedish

Steve loved it! And to end our Sweden vacation, the next morning we had HUGE cinnamon rolls and a Swedish Juice.

It was a fun little get-away! (Even if in reality, we were home the entire time) I hope someday we can really travel back to Sweden, and see where he went on his mission. But for now, I think he liked it. Actually, I know he did.

Encore 2010

Friday we went to ENCORE with Bob, Ellen and Whit. I seriously was counting down the days until we could see this! Encore is BYU's Ballroom dance team. I've been wanting to go this for FOREVER!! I absolutely love ballroom dance. I love the movements, the music and the costumes! I was in HEAVEN!! Steve told me that we could take a ballroom dance class together. I'm thinking we need to do this before we start having kiddos. :)

The performance lasted 2 hours. I wish it was longer! It was seriously SO good, and it went by way too fast.

We of course had a blast with Steve's fam too! I just love them to pieces! What a fun night. I can't wait for next year's performance.

Can't wait.

"Hoppy" Easter!

I L*O*V*E the Holidays!! I loved that it was Easter, and General Conference.

This weekend we started off the week by going to lunch with cute Grandma Anderson. We spent the afternoon with her on Friday, and then Steve and I cleaned the house, the cars, the Ford office building, and I did I mention we cleaned??? That's seriously ALL we did on Friday. We had fun with Grandma just visiting with her and it was a nice break from all the cleaning. (Hence the fact I look like ahem, poo. Seriously.) No make up, a hat..blah. But, we sure love Grandma Anderson! I'm glad that she doesn't live too far away.

Steve

Grandma Anderson and I

Saturday we had our annual tradition of DECORATING EASTER EGGS with our great friends, The Rappleye's. We seriously love these guys! We always have such a blast!

Our Easter eggs turned out AWESOME this year! Look at the colors!!

Steve and I

Cute lil' Deni
Tim, Deni and Marie

We had lunch, ($5 Little Cesar's Pizza, with crazy bread-SOO good) watched some conference, decorated our eggs, and of course just had a fun time hanging out. Time always goes by way too fast when we are with these guys. Because before we knew it, Steve and I had to be in Bountiful by 5:00 to meet up with Grandpa and Grandma Ford.

We met up with Grandpa and Grandma. Steve went to priesthood session with Grandpa, and I went with Grandma and met up with all the girls on Steve's side of the fam. We ate at "El Matador" a Mexican restaurant, which was really good. Then headed over to Sherrie's (Steve's aunt) for cake and some time to just hang out! I'm so happy that I was able to a girls night with everyone. Steve and Grandpa got home, so we went back to grandma's house and played games and ate WAY too much food. (I always eat so much at grandma and grandpa Ford's, it almost makes me sick!) We stayed up late just talking and enjoying each other's company.

Grandma and Grandpa Ford playing cards with us

Aunt Sherrie
Aunt Kathy

Keira and Shannon

Breanna, Brooke and Amanda (cousins)

Sunday morning came quick. Why do the weekends ALWAYS go by so much quicker than the weekdays?

Steve and I woke up to Grandma making pancakes for us. She's such a sweetheart. After breakfast, we watched conference and then I helped grandma with the Easter egg hunt.

Around noon, everyone started coming to grandma's for lunch. We had TONS of food! We all ate, talked, laughed, and enjoyed more of conference.

I love how every time I watch conference I feel so uplifted. It's amazing that each time, I always hear exactly what I needed to hear. It's like the talks were meant just for me. :)

After conference, Steve and I headed over to my parent's house. We also ate food, talked and then my mom did the Easter story with the Easter Eggs. We had a fun time with my family too!

Steve, Keira, Mom and Grandma


Dad reading

Tina, Kris, Kj, Dad
Steve!Steve and I are so blessed to have so many awesome family members and friends. We had a super fun Easter weekend! I'm so grateful to my savior and for the atonement, everything I have is because of him.

Happy Easter!

Magic Easter Beans

I saw this on my friends blog, who saw this at: http://cjaneblog.blogspot.com/ (which now I LOVE this blog) Anyway...

This is such a cute idea if you have little one's! Since Steve and I are still in the process, and don't have any kiddo's yet- I still had to post this so that when we do, I'll remember this idea!

1. Buy "Magic Jelly Beans"

2. Plant the magic beans the night before easter (they only work the night before easter)

3. The next morning go outside and see what grew.

Cutest Easter idea EVER!!!