That's My Boy Playing the Cello!!

Devin had his first Jr. High Orchestra concert last Wednesday night. I was amazed at how good these kids were! I already knew Devin was an awesome cellist, but I had no idea how many kids his age were in the orchestra! I can't think of anyone I knew at that age who played an orchestra instrument. I am so proud of his accomplishments, and I never have to tell him to practice, he loves playing the cello so much! Watch out Yo Yo Ma, here comes Devin Rey Barney!

My Path to Wellness

In case anyone is interested, I have started a new blog about my journey to wellness. It is just about some of the things I have been doing to live a healthier lifestyle, and hopefully it will be helpful to someone else. Feel free to share any experiences you have had as well, we are all on the journey together. I believe we are sent here to help each other learn and grow, and I still have much to learn. However, I feel like I have learned a lot, and I want to share what I have learned in the hopes it may help someone else. Click on the link on my bloglist, or go to http://www.pathtowellness-linda.blogspot.com/.

It's Pumpkin Carving Time!

One of our favorite parts of the Fall season is carving pumpkins as a family. This year we decided to have a musical theme. I did a music note, Devin did a bass cleff and David did a scary singer. We had a great time making our musical jack-o-lanterns!

I Love to Blurb!

I found out about a website called blurb.com where you can make hard copies of your blog. My friend Codi actually talked about it on her blog, which is where I first heard of it. Well, I finally got around to making my first one, and I LOVE it! (Thanks Codi!)

It was actually pretty easy to do, once I figured out how to navigate the site. There is a video tutorial which helped me a lot.

You can be as fancy or generic as you want to be. I just used the autofill and then went back and rearranged the pages how I wanted them later. It was really pretty simple! This is my new favorite way to scrapbook -- so much less time consuming and not as messy! It took me a few hours to make the book online, and about a week for them to ship it to me. How cool is that?!

Nice Day for a Fall Wedding

Saturday, October 10, 2009 was a beautiful fall day, and a big day for our family. My nephew Kenny went to the Salt Lake Temple with his beautiful bride, Megan, and they were married for time and all eternity.

Kenny picked Megan up and carried her across the threshold as they came out of the temple. That boy does everything with style!

Then he gave her a romantic kiss. Is this the same little boy who used to show me how good he was at hopping up and down on one foot? The one who wanted to be a "poirot" (pirate) with "jewlray" (jewelry) for Halloween? Yup, that's him!

It was fun for David and I to reminisce about our own wedding day not too many years ago at this same temple.

Two of my three handsome boys, Jaron and Michael.

My beautiful niece Nikki and her fiance, Stephen. They will be married in January in the Vernal Utah Temple.

Grandma taking a rest with the boys, Devin and Danny. There were 56 marriages taking place that day, so we did a lot of waiting around!

Devin wanted to practice posing for his wedding pictures someday in the future.

As you can see, I am most happy when I have all of my family (especially my boys) with me. We had a wonderful time and we felt blessed to be able to be there for Kenny and Megan's big day.

TV Church

We love Conference weekend, and not just because we get to stay home and watch church on TV in our jammies. We love hearing the words of our prophet, and being together as a family.

David made his famous guacamole and some homemade salsa to go with our dinner. It was a little bit hot for me this time, but the boys loved it!

It's always a treat when Michael can come home and spend some time with the fam. He goes to school at SUU in Cedar City, so he doesn't make the 4 1/2 hour drive more than he has to!

Wake up Devin! It's time to watch conference! He heard that alot this weekend!

Jaron was out too, but he did hear most of the conference talks. I think it just must be the comfort of hearing the voices of our beloved prophets and apostles. It's so soothing and relaxing, that sometimes it puts you right to sleep! We had a wonderful weekend just hanging out, doing a little shopping, eating and being together! Can't wait for the next TV Church day 6 months from now!

3 Clean Rooms

This is my son Michael's room. He is my returned missionary and in his 2nd year at Southern Utah University studying pre-med. When he comes home on weekends and during the summer, his room doesn't look this good.

This is my son Jaron's room. He is at BYU studying musical theater. He loves New York City and his dream is to perform on broadway. When he is home on the weekends his room isn't even recognizable.

This is my son Devin's room. He is in the 8th grade at Syracuse Jr. High. He loves playing the cello and dreams of being the next Yo Yo Ma. I cleaned his room this morning so I could take this picture.

As I was walking through my house today, I noticed these 3 clean rooms and realized that my boys are growing up. The biggest sign of them growing up is seeing fewer signs of them around our home. No dirty clothes on the floor, no candy wrappers under the bed, no fingerprints on the mirrors. I never thought when I was nagging at them to clean their rooms and clean up after themselves that I would miss seeing those signs that they were around. Don't get me wrong, I am a clean fanatic, and I love it when my house is neat and tidy. But it is also just another reminder to me that my children are going to grow up and leave me, get married and have children and lives of their own, and my life will become very different. Most of the time I embrace these changes and look forward to the days when I will have daughters-in-law and cute grand babies running around my house. But sometimes I miss the sound of my own children's feet running around the house and it makes me a little bit sad.

So it's quiet for the most part, and my house will stay clean, at least until Devin gets home from school and starts making a snack so he can do his homework while watching Wizards of Waverly Place, then pulls his cello out of the closet and starts practicing, then gets on the computer and blasts i tunes while chatting on facebook. It will be quiet until Jaron comes home this weekend and starts playing the piano and singing at the top of his lungs (which I love), and then invites about 40 friends over to watch a movie and make a huge mess in my basement. And Michael's room will stay clean until the next weekend he comes home and decides he needs to set up his tent and air it out in his room while spreading his homework out all over his bed and his laundry all over the floor.

Still, if I had to choose, I would choose having them around over having their rooms clean any day.