Dear Friends and Family,

My hair reeks of smoke from our first weekend of spring celebrations. Girls broke out their summer clothes and the fire circle was resurrected. The first s'mores of the season tasted so good especially since we used Symphony bars with toffee pieces in them! Jeremy gave Spencer an entertaining lesson on how to use an ax. Robyn told Spencer when he hit accidentally hit a bush that "You're not listening to Jesus" which made us all crack up. She has a really good Sunbeams teacher this year and the lessons are sinking in. We have our idealistic family moments such as when Allison washes the dinner dishes and Spencer runs to get a football so he and Allison can play catch. And then reality catches up as Spencer tries to "instruct" Allison no the correct playing of volleyball. But it was a great family night together as we play catch up from this week.




This was the week of Jeremy's photo camp. So he spent time in pre-meetings, getting supplies. I spent time getting supplies for him. And then he had meetings late Wednesday night. He had a mixer Thursday night. Then he had a photo class to attend all day and evening Friday. And then photo camp was all day Saturday. I would wake up at midnight and say hi and then say good-bye again before the sun was up. So he is happy but fried right now. He is busy reading all the follow-up comments and pictures of the event, enjoying the good ones and worrying a bit about the few bad ones out there. He had 330 people attending Saturday with hundreds watching online so it was a bit of pressure.
Robyn went with me to get gift cards for the volunteers from Coldstone. She thought all the errand running was great!

Spencer had a great birthday. I was feeling really on top of his birthday for once. Made him breakfast, got doughnuts for his class, balloons for his chair at home. Jeremy took him out per tradition for his lunch with Dad at Chinese Gourmet. I made his favorite dinner - brats, tater tots and fruit salad. His new boyscout uniform fit. He was all excited about his new wii game and books from my parents. Then we packed everyone up to head to Costco to buy his bike that I had pre-shopped for. Evidently I am not the person to do bike shopping with! So...few tears at the lack of instant gratification. Solved by ice cream for everyone at home and looking online to find the right bike. So he is stoked to try out Walmart tomorrow with the correct person to go bike shopping with...his dad.

Spencer had his maturation night this week. Jeremy had his photo stuff so Meredith came over to hold the fort and Spencer and I went to listen. Actually was not bad at all and am glad we went. The health teacher who talked to just the boy group did a great job of not really focusing on the birds and bees portion but more on the physical changes that goes along with puberty. He shared a bunch of really funny stories that kept the boys interested and from getting embarrassed.

Allison continues to love her guinea pig. Notice in the picture how she helps her finish her lunch:


She was able to go to a cooking class at the rec center this week with a friend. They made banana split cupcakes and mashed potato stuffed hot dogs. She thought it was wonderful - I wasn't tempted to even taste them! St. Patrick's day Allison and her friend Andra spent the afternoon making leprechaun traps. Friday morning (her leprechaun was running a bit late) she found a bouquet of flower suckers inside her trap. Although Spencer scoffed that I lied about not putting them there - she has the heart of a true believer.

Robyn was so beat by Spencer's birthday festivities that she just decided to lay down and fall asleep one afternoon. I was busy devouring 'The Help' a book I highly recommend, that I didn't notice till she was out. She was battling her cough till halfway through this week which tired her out too.

I had a neat experience this week. On Tuesday the Stake Relief Society got to feed the Provo missionaries for a zone conference at our stake center. So I got to make a bunch of brownies and serve up pulled pork sandwiches. Afterward they had us come out, stood around us and sang "Called to Serve" and then each one shook our hands and said thank-you. It was pretty inspiring. They seemed so young and came from all over the world. They were pretty pumped though to be all together and seemed to be having a great time.

Lastly my big news for the week is that a short story I wrote about Taylor last year was published in April's Ensign. It was truly a little thing that I feel ridiculously happy about. But it makes me happy that hopefully my small experience could be of some benefit to someone else.

love to you all and happy spring, Heather

p.s. just a side note that all the good pictures are from Jeremy and were taken with his PHONE - I think my snap and shoot camera should at least be able to beat a phone, don't you?