Valentine Cookies

Last week we had a fun time at the Gardner's decorating valentine cookies. I put Drake up in the chair, gave him a cookie and a knife with some frosting and demonstrated a little to show him how to frost, turned my head for a second and found Drake eating the whole glob of frosting off of the knife. So needless to say I think he is still a little to young but he very much enjoyed eating the unfrosted cookie and playing with all of his friends! Thanks Cassie!

Neat

I had to go to church early yesterday for a meeting and after it got out there was about 15 minutes before Sacrament meeting was to start. With only a couple people in the chapel I sat in the quiet room and got to experience something that was so neat. One of our young men in our ward, whom I had the privilege of getting to know really well in primary, had recently turned 12 years old, which means he is old enough to receive the Priesthood and start passing the sacrament on Sundays. I looked across the chapel and saw this young man with his young men's leader showing him how to pass the sacrament. They both were holding their invisible sacrament trays and went around the chapel as the young men's leader showed this young man, with love, how to pass the sacrament. He had on a brand new suit and a smile on his face the whole time. When it was time for the sacrament to be passed we were lucky enough to be on the side where he passed the sacrament to us. Still smiling, I knew I was experiencing something very special and couldn't help but think of Drake doing this in 10 short years. I can just imagine preparing him and his excitement to put on his new suit and be taught how to pass the sacrament. Awesome, I can't wait.

UFC 126!

Since I was In Vegas for work last week, I decided to extend my trip and stay through the weekend and attend UFC 126. I talked one of my good friends Mark Allen into meeting me in Vegas later in the week and we would attend the event together.

Before leaving, I warned Marlo that after my conference was over, I was going to be attending fight events for the rest of the week. I don't think she minded at all, Brittney, Brandy, her dad and mom were all there to keep her and Drake company.

On Weds after my conference ended, I jumped in a cab and headed over to the Mandalay Bay, they were having a press conference for the event that I wanted to attend. Coming straight from my three day meeting, I wasn't dressed like your typical MMA fan. I also had a badge around my neck that I had worn all week for work. I decided that I looked the part and so I opened some doors and headed on back to the media room with the fighters and the press. (You may notice in some of my pictures at the end of the post, I have a badge turned backwards around my neck.) On his way out of the media room, I talked to Dana White, the president of UFC, and got real press conference credentials for the night of the fight.

The next day there was an open workout for the fighters and I wanted to check that out. When I have attended fights in the past, I have never been able to attend the pre-fight events, due to work or other obligations. Being that I was off from work for a few days, I wanted to take advantage of it. Again, I used my badge and was able to get front row seats for the workouts and saw all of the fighters up close and personal.

That night Mark arrived and we planned out the next day. We had different autograph signings we wanted to attend and we wanted to go see the weigh-ins.

On Friday, we left early in the morning and we were gone most of the day. We met a ton of fighters and had a great time. (You can see all of my pictures with fighters at the bottom of this post.) We attended at fighter Q&A and I even went up and asked a question to Urijah Faber. The weigh-ins were also real exciting and got us pumped for the fight the next day.

Finally Saturday arrived and we were ready to finish our UFC weekend! Again we left early and met a few fighters before heading over to the event. When we got to our seats we realized that we were pretty high up, but the events center at the Mandalay Bay isn't too big, so we had a decent view. After all the drunk people yelling and screaming at the fighters, we decided that in the future we may need to spend a little more to get better seats so we can enjoy the fight more. It was a great night of fights with some incredible knockouts.

Knockout of the Night! Anderson Silva kicks Vitor Belfort in the face.

After the fight we headed over to the post fight press conference and took our seats. I enjoyed listening to the reporters ask questions of the fighters and we even met Steven Seagal who was credited with teaching Anderson Silva the front kick seen above. After the press conference we headed over to In-n-Out and headed home.

I had a great time in Las Vegas for UFC 126. We couldn't have done it without the Langford's letting us stay at their house and drive Lon's truck around all day.

I had a great week in Vegas, it started out by celebrating my 30th birthday on Saturday. Everyone made it very special, from the shirts with my face on it at the airport, to the trivia game about my life, the Langford's went above and beyond to celebrate. I have a great family and great in-laws. I am looking forward to spending time with both my family and the Langford's this year.

Love This Soundtrack

While I was in Vegas last week Brittney and I went to a movie and oh my gosh I really liked it. It was a little heavy but great acting, GREAT love story, handsome actor (he definately rubs off on you), and such great music. That is if you like country but I love the soundtrack especially this song.
The movie is Country Strong.

"Why I Can't Stop Reading Mormon Housewife Blogs?"

I was forwarded this article by my In-Laws and it put a smile on my face, made me laugh a little, and made me so greatful for what I believe. I may not be one of those blogs that she is referring to but I understand what she is talking about. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I would love to know your thoughts.

Read the article here.

30

The Big 3-O!! Wow I still can't believe it! Jordan was a young 23 when we married and now as the saying goes "time flies" and the 20's are over and here come the 30's. Well as as usual, for the past 5 years, we met all of our friends at PF Changs for a delish dinner and then headed back to our house for some cake and ice cream. I wanted to spice it up a bit since he was turning 30, so I blew up a bunch of pictures of Jordan growing up and put them all around our house and had his baby albums out on my coffee table. I left dinner a little early to set it up to surprise Jordan. I loved every ones reactions to all of the pictures! It was really fun going through his albums while I was preparing since I hardly ever do and I found myself laughing out loud at a bunch of them. I can see where Drake gets his personality!

I had a couple of games to play with everyone and the first was a questioner of "How well do you know Jordan?" and then Jordan answered the questions after everyone was done filling theirs out.

You can see all of the pictures lined up on our entertainment system.

After cake we played a game of darts to my makeshift 30, BUT the catch was you get 2 tries and if you miss you have to put a piece of bubblegum in your mouth. Sounds easy right? Not when there are only a couple left! Needless to say the dollar store gum got real hard real quick and everyone had big wods of gum!

And here is to prove it! To show how hard the gum was, look down at Dom...yes he is pointing to his broken tooth! As he was chewing probably his 5th piece it broke his tooth right off!

I didn't mention this... but this was on the day before his birthday on the 28th because we were flying to Vegas the next day on his actual birthday. It was such a fun night. We were so excited everyone could be there to celebrate with us!

January 29th

We flew into Vegas in the morning and all of my family came in and surprised/embarrassed Jordan by wearing these shirts in to greet us! I had no idea they had this planned so it was such a cute surprise! They even made Drake one that said "My Dad's 30!". It was a start to a fun day all surrounded around Jordan!

My family always makes birthdays special and Jordan's 30th was no exception. When we got home the house was decorated so cute with puff balls, Happy Birthday signs, personalized JOrdan balloons and a cute cake. Brittney made JORDO game boards (instead of BINGO) and had previously asked Jordan questions to put on the boards. They were adorable and so much fun, with prizes and all.

We then went outside and all participated in the 30 pinata. Drake had a ball!

That night we got ready and ate at Outback and then headed down to the strip to take pictures by the Las Vegas sign. The 2o years I lived in Vegas I had never taken pictures by this infamous sign. It was a lot of fun, a little cold, but so glad we got pics! Now JOrdan will always remember his 30th was spent in Las Vegas! What a day, or should I say 2 days! It was so much fun planning and celebrating Jordan's 30th birthday, you have to go big right?!! He deserved it and I know he had so much fun. Happy 30th Babe!