Spring BREAK!!! AKA the BEST 24 Hours!

First of all, I am a slacker for not blogging for a few weeks. I know that life gets busy, but at least I am finally back at the computer. So a week ago, Courtney's cute room mate that we call "Life Size Bridget" called to say that she was on "Spring Break" and wanted to come to stay with us for a few days. So we planned a day to spend together and had such a wonderful time. Cute Bridget showed up at my door at 8 AM Thursday morning, just as I was putting on my weeding shoes to go out and weed for a minute. She offered to help me weed and plant some blubs that I didn't get in last fall. We worked in the dirt for about an hour. Then we decided to take a bike ride. Since I have been training for my first TRI for the last 3-months, I try to go on a 10-12 mile bike ride on my day off. My great friend Margaret let me borrow a bike, and off we went on our bike ride. We had a great time and got some serious exercise. I can't wait for it to get warmer so we can get some more rides in. When we got back from our bike ride, we did the Jillian "30-day Shred", another thing I have done everyday for the last couple of months. Yes, after these activities we were stinky and tired. So we both hopped in the shower, had lunch and headed out shopping to get a couple of more goodies to send a package to Sister Leavitt for Easter. ( Don't worry Elder Leavitt, I have your back too!)

Our goal for the day was to have Courtney's package in the mail before the post office closed. We DID IT!!! Everything we got actually fit in the package. That was a miracle too! So reaching our goal of getting Court's package off, which was just .03 oz shy of the 4 lb limit, we were able to come home and PLAY!!!!

We had to make TACO's for dinner, in Courtney's honor. They were sooooo GOOD!

Here's Bridget and Tasha showing off their taco's...YUM....YUM! After dinner we sat down to watch a chick flick, when Bridget suddenly had this crazy notion that we should make cookies. So we stopped the movie and made cookie dough, watched for a few more minutes. stopped again to bake the cookies.....and.......

Bridget making "Andes Mint" cookies.

On the cookie baking break we also had Tasha put on a "Brother McDonald" piano concert. Yes, I was totally spoiled by Courtney's great friends. As I sat and listened to Tasha play I was kinda sad for a minute, because we were doing everything that Courtney would be doing.....but it was nice to know that her wonderful friends take care of us.

Tasha playing the piano and Bridget, the professional "Page Turner"! The concert went for about an hour...a whole hour of Heaven on Earth! It was so relaxing.

Kandace and Bridget.....what cuties!

Mamm K and Bridget, I LOVE this girl! We did finally finish watching our Chick Flick, but after that I had to head to bed, to be able to get up for work a 3:30 AM. We had the BEST 24- hours together. Bridget had to leave early the next morning, as she was heading back to Cedar City. I loved spending "Spring Break" with Bridget! In fact, I have signed us up for the "Great Urban RACE" in August, just so she will come and spend time with us again. Of course, she will be stopping in on Mother's Day....Right Bridget? Thanks for the fun day.

Just for kicks....more pictures from Elder Leavitt

Elder Leavitt sent these pictures home last week. There are some fun ones. It made me think of when my brother David went on his mission to Argentina, we would only hear from him about once a month and maybe every six months get a picture or two. I think we are soo lucky to be able to hear from Cameron every week, and get so many pictures of what he us doing every couple of weeks. Enjoy the pictures, and Elder Leavitt...keep them coming for us to enjoy! I guess this is the entrance to the cave they went to.
Elder Leavitt on a cool bridge by the cave.

At the cave....you can totally tell his mother did not dress him. Where are his hiking shoes????

Okay....a face that makes Mom SMILE! I Love this picture!

I guess he had to do some push-ups to get ready for his next picture.....

Wow....such BIG Muscles! He sure is getting stronger, he didn't use to hold up boulders with a single hand!

I am sure that he is selling the GOSPEL! I tried the number...but no one answered. They must be soo busy with this new sign, the calls are rolling in!

A handsome group of young men. Not sure if this is his branch or what.

Elder Leavitt having fun with the kids again. I looked at the old tire for a while and thought that this little boy probably spends hours having great enjoyment with it, I loved that thought!

Elder Leavitt said this is a road they walk down everyday. Such a beautiful sight!

And this last one is Elder Leavitt crashing on his bed after a long day. He is so blessed to have a bed. We know he is working hard, and also having a little fun. We are so lucky to have such great kids. Hopefully Courtney will be able to send some pictures home soon. I do post her email weekly on her blog, check it out if you haven't read her emails! Have a great week everyone! :)

Double the Leavitt's, Double the FUN!

This weekend we had a special treat...Austin and Cody with their four beautiful girls came to stay for a couple of days. Cody's Grandpa Okuda had his retirement party on Friday, so they came Friday night and left on Sunday morning. We all had a great time and it was so nice to just have some noise in the house again. I talked Austin into going to my TRI training class on Saturday morning. I had asked Kandace that if the girls woke up to make "Mickey Mouse" wafffels for the girls, something that Courtney normally does for us. When we walked in from our workout, we could smell WAFFLES!
So I have to tell the funniest story. Everyone is eating waffles and visiting. And I hear "Ouch, Ouch, Ouch, Ouch....." I look over and Elynn is cutting up her Mickey Mouse waffle and everytime she cuts his ears, eyes, nose, she is saying "OUCH". Yes, we all started laughing. I so miss little kids around the house. They always make you laugh!

After Kandace had finished making the kids waffles, she stole Macee. Macee is the best baby ever. She loves everyone and is so easy going. It was just so awesome to have these girls around. Saturday durung the day, Austin and Cody and the girls went to Coalsville to visit Cody's 91 year old Grandma. His parents and siblings all met there to. There was alot of snow up north and the girls had a blast playing in the snow. (Austin, get your pictures posted on your blog!) We planned for a dinner together after they were done. We had Casey and Tineke and Grandma and Grandpa Haupt come too for dinner.

While we were waiting for Austin and Cody to arrive, Steve and Casey showed Grandpa how to go online and watch movies on Netflex. they made him do everything on his own. Now Grandpa is ready to cut loose, and watch movies.

When the girls arrived, they were all wet and cold from playing in the snow. I suggested putting them all in the tub before we ate so they could get warm. So I ran the jacuzzi and they were so happy to have bubbles and warm!

Kennedy even put on goggles to swim under water.

They had way too much fun blowing bubbles. Cute Leah had a wash cloth and cleaned up their mess as they made it. She is a good helper.

Kandace and Austin had fun snapping shots of everyone all night. Here I am smiling for Kandace.

And Kandace and Austin took pictures of each other taking pictures. We just had a nice night at home and hanging out. I made pulled pork. Cameron's recipe. I was nervoust to make it, since Cameron is a PRO, and I had alot to live up to. All in all, everything was yummy. We are enjoying the leftovers today! Nice!

I did get to take a few pictures, here is Kandace and cute Macee.

Grandma Haupt and Macee. Macee loved snuggling with Grandma.

After dinner the girls made us cookies. I had promised Courtney that we would make cookies with the girls. She always does this with them when they come. So we did our best to keep that tradition going. Steve actually took over the cooking with the girls. Elynn was the first to dive in, she knew that she was going to make cookies, and all through dinner asked if it was time to make cookies yet?

Elynn is ready to go...she washed her hands and put on her apron before making cookies!

All three girls going to town rolling cookie dough balls. After the first batch went in the oven Steve showed them his favorite thing to do with cookie dough....eat it. Elynn loved that idea! You should have seen her cheek full of cookie dough.

We are soo glad that Austin Cody and their cute girls came to entertain us and have fun for the weekend. We hope they come back again soon!!!

The Exciting Adventures of Elder Leavitt

Elder Leavitt sent a few pictures home the past few weeks, so I wanted to post them for all to enjoy. He is down to only 8 months left on his mission, and the time is flying by. We enjoy hearing from him and especially seeing where he is and what he is up to. Here Elder Leavitt is retreating to his secluded reading room. He said he really enjoys going out to the hammock relaxing while he does his scripture study.
Goofy Missionaries with the kids.

A beautiful rice field. Ohh.... to see GREEN again!

Elder Leavitt with his first companion just before he headed home.

Who are the kids and who is the missionary? Cameron loves being with the kids.

Not sure what this picture is. I am just glad he still has his camera. A few days before Christmas he and his companion were taken to a dark alley and robbed. He had just opened his new camera for his Christmas gift and almost took it with him that day. Thank goodness their guardian angel was with them and no one got hurt and the person that did rob them only got a backpack full of church literature and about $1.50 in cash.

This week Elder Leavitt and his district went on a hike to a waterfall. These are the pictures he sent of his hike.

The waterfall

Just a beautiful picture of the scenery from the top.

More scenery.

And here is Elder Leavitt cooling off in the stream. Notice all the other missionaries in the background. Nice to see that they do get to have some down time to enjoy the country side. Hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we do.

Happy Valentines!

Nothing say's its' Valentines like Conversation Hearts! Kandace and our little friend James had some fun with my new camera and so I thought I would share with you.
TRUE LOVE...Baby I Love you!!!

I think they were taking these fun pictures for Courtney....but I loved them and wanted to post them.

Yep, they were totally being SILLY WILLIES!

Life is never boring around here....well then again when no one is here, it is totally BORING!

Doesn't Kandace look so HOT! She should totally put this as her FB profile picture!

James LOVES to play games whenever he comes over. When I walked in from work he was sitting at the table playing "Go Fish" with Kandace. When he saw me he looked up and said "Mamma K! Did you miss me so bad you couldn't stand it?" Yes, we do miss our Jamies E Buckets (AKA James) when he isn't around. Thank goodness we have him to make us all smile while Courtney is away. Oh course he also had to tease me about that too. He said "My Courtney..." Edging me to say "Oh no....she's MY COURTNEY" Then with that cute grin he said "Remember we Share!" We wish you all a "HAPPY VALENTINES" And remember

"We Love You"!!!