backtracking for birthdays and such

three birthdays in five days. here we are celebrating on jan. 23 at mom and dad's...julia's golden birthday. i can't believe we're all such oldies! i look pretty excited about blowing out those candles. i really wanted my wish to come true.



a little less bug-eyed in this one

i have had a few surprise birthday parties in my life, and somehow each one has really caught me off guard. this year was maybe the most surprising. part of it was due to it being thrown the weekend AFTER my birthday so i wasn't suspecting it as well as the fact everyone told me such believable lies about what they were doing that night and why they couldn't hang out. nikki's "date" was actually my surprise birthday party at the bombay house. sara said she and arne wouldn't be back down from logan for another month or so when really, julia was sneaking a ride down from logan with them. abi and ammon already had plans. robert told me we were meeting his high school buds there, which i fully believed. when we got inside the door i was looking all over the place for them and turned the corner to see balloons and all my buddies. at first i just thought it was a major coincidence they were there at the same time...duh! then it all came together. it was such a fun night...the second round of indian food for my birthday and i didn't mind a bit. the only thing that irks me is that i have a lot of friends who are good at lying.



didn't get everyone in the first shot so here's a second which is now cutting off the group on the left.



as young women's president i've been trying to plan activities for the girls that they've never done before because africa is quite a different place than salt lake city. a few weeks ago we took rosine and madelaine sledding. it was hilarious! they were SO nervous at first, but by the end they were racing and running up the hill to go down again. it was a lot of fun. i wish we would have taken pictures. a few weeks ago i planned an ice skating activity. i quickly learned ice skating is MUCH more difficult than sledding. rosine was the only one who could come that night but robert tagged along with me because he's a good husband. he couldn't skate because of his knee so he took pictures.



here we begin our way out onto the ice. from the minute we put the skates on rosine suddenly became unsure of herself. i am not the best skater myself so i was already nervous about helping her. the minute she got on the ice she grabbed me and quickly fell to the ground. luckily i managed to stay up the entire time, but only barely. robert didn't capture the many falls but i wish he would have because they were quite the scene. i was never much help to her because every time she started to slip and then flail for me i'd start laughing so hard that i could barley see or even help her steady herself for that matter. each time she felt herself begin to tip backwards she'd yell "i'm going! i'm going!" and then she was on the ground laughing.



here i am trying to tell her to lean forward and glide. she didn't get it but really tried. it's a totally new concept to someone who has never even worn a pair of rollerblades before. it was so hard for her to watch the little 5-year-olds cruise around. if they could do it, she certainly could.



we went around the rink one time. it took about 15 minutes. she let go of the wall a few times but never let go of my hand.



in spite of how hard it was for her she was such a good sport about it. every time we've seen each other since she mentions it and we both start laughing. she wanted her whole family to come try it.

the weather the past 2 or 3 days has been incredible! on sunday we had stake conference and were finished with church by 12 noon. elder christofferson from the quorum of the twelve apostles came and spoke to our stake and was very inspiring. the lamah kids met with him the day before with the stake president and he gave them a blessing that they would be successful and receive the highest blessings the Lord could bestow upon them as they were faithful. such a cool experience! anyhow, robert and i decided to take advantage of our extra time and the beautiful weather and took a walk up city creek canyon. the world is a bit drab right now, but the sun felt so good on my face and it seemed everyone in the area was coming out from a long winter hibernation. unfortunately, i don't think this good weather will last for long.



on our way up we spotted an owl just perched in the hole of a tree on the side of the road. i always thought they tried to be a bit more inconspicuous than this, but it was fun to see one so close.



handsome guy





i knew it. the minute i said i didn't feel like i was getting any bigger i was doomed to pop out fast. i am pushing my stomach out in the picture, but in the last few days my pants have gotten a little snug and there's no way i can suck in to even try and make myself look littler. here comes the little peanut!