Twin Falls Temple Open House

On Friday, July 18th, we took the kids to the Twin Falls Temple open house. They were wonderful on the ride there and loved to see the inside of the temple. Sammi was especially impressed. My mom and Millie and Curtis came also...it was a quick trip, but worth it to see the beautiful temple.

Monkey Dooz

We had two free haircuts and sparkle nails for the girls at Monkey Dooz. So, the girls and I left on our outing while Daddy and Keith stayed home.

They LOVED it at Monkey Dooz. It was decorated so cute and they got to sit in cars to have their haircut as well as watch a movie.

Once their hair was done, they got sparkle nail polish on their hands and feet with a complimentary make-up job too. They had so much fun and their hair turned out adorable!

Introducing...Sammi the Star!!

In May I received a letter from Dunkley Music (a music store here in Boise) letting me know about their competition "Searching For A Star" held during the week of June 23rd-27th. The competition was for either vocal or piano performances with Kids (ages5-12), Teen and Adult categories in each. If you wanted to participate, you call Dunkley's and are assigned a scheduled one-hour block. In this hour, you are taken to a private recording room and are able to record your performance as much as you want in order to get your best performance. Once your hour is up, you select the best track and submit it for the competition. After the week is over, all entries are shipped to a professional judge who selects the winners. First place in each category wins $100 and their performance is then sent on to the National Star Search competition.

Anywho, I thought it sounded perfect: lots of fun, no pressure. So, I entered Sammi in the Vocal kids category. There was no trouble deciding the the song; we chose "Think of Me" from Phantom of the Opera. Sammi has been singing this since she was three and I thought that whether or not she won, it would be the perfect opportunity to get a recording of her singing this special song.

So, we worked on the song and got the lyrics up to snuff. On June 25th we went in (I was ehr accompanist) and after about 30 minutes we had the perfect recording. We did some more simply because it felt weird to leave with 30 minutes still leftover of our time-slot. But, after the hour we still felt that track 6 was the one. So, we submitted it and left with our copy.

A few weeks later we got a letter in the mail from Dunkley's and...Sammi won first place! I was so excited for her. She now has $100 and we're discussing what the best thing to do with it is. (She wants to buy an American Doll) In the letter it also said that her entry was entered in the National Competition but, they don't make a decision until November. I'm not exactly sure what it means at that level but, we're not too concerned about that...it was exciting enough for us to have Sammi win here. :)


We have Sammi's song on our blog if you want to hear it.
To hear her song:
1. Scroll to the bottom of my blog and press the pause button on the playlist to turn it off.
2. Click on "1. Samantha Swenson" on the playlist to the right. It takes about ten seconds to start.

Father's Day

Since Father's Day was during my whole "fix-my-blog" hiatus phase, I didn't post some super-cute photos of Matt and the kids. And so, with no further ado...here they are.

Tag! You're it!

Wohoo! I've been tagged! Here it is...

1. What is his name? Matthew
2. Who eats more? For a long time it was Matt, but ever since he was diagnosed with his "girl disease" (his words, not mine) IBS, I've been able to pack it away more than him. Yes - it makes me feel so feminine. :)
3. Who said, "I love you" first? Matt did, but I was definately right there with my response. (I loved him too)
4. Who is taller? Matt is. It would be pretty hard for someone to be shorter than me. Unless they're in Primary.
5. Who is smarter? I like to think that we both excel in the intelligence category.
6. Who is more sensitive? Matt is in some ways, I am in other ways. One thing that has always stood out to me is how well he and I balance out eachother. We're a perfect match.
7. Who does the laundry? That would be MY glorious blessing...always. I really don't enjoy it, but I hate having piles of dirty laundry more, so I plug on.
8. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I do if you mean stage right.
9. Who pays the bills? That would be me, but Matt and I are together in our budget planning. I joke that he's the CEO and I'm C0-CEO....I run everything by him but we both know it's all a formality. :)
10. Who cooks more? Again, that would be me although Matt loves steak and whenever he gets a hankering (which is often and in any kind of weather) he's out there on the grill.
11. Who is more stubborn? Um....I guess me?
12. Who is the first to admit they are wrong? Matt - he always beats me to it.
13. Who has more siblings? I barely beat him...I have 6, he has 5.
14. Who wears the pants in the relationship? We're equals
15. What do you like to do together? Drink our homemade fruit shakes and watch a movie or one of our "shows", ride the scooter, eat out, and just "hanging out".
16. Who eats more sweets? Me - sweets are my vice.
17. Guilty Pleasures? Matt: Kool-Aid (not sugar-free), tater-tots Mine: chocolate, pudding and chocolate covered strawberries)
18. How did you meet? He served his mission in the Las Vegas West mission and was in our area for about 9 months. I left for San Antonio and then for school about a couple of months after he was transferred there and knew who he was because he and his companion were teaching our next door neighbors the gospel. I was impressed, wrote a letter to him after I moved to Utah and the rest is history. We wrote for 18 months and after his mission he came to Utah to see me. (Like, literally, to "see" me since I was in letter format up until then.) :)
19. Who asked whom out first? It was a mutual understanding that after his mission we'd go on a date. Although, I guess you could say Matt was more proactive about it as he would send me random quarters in the mail and tell me to save them. I had no idea why...but once he was home from his mission I had about $30....he then told me it was for our first date and we went out to Outback. Fun stuff.
20. Who kissed who first? Matt kissed me. It was VERY romantic, overlooking the Manti temple.
21. Who proposed? We talked about getting married after about a week of getting to know eachother in person and it was pretty much just something we both knew. However, Matt wanted to make it official (this after I had my ring and everything) and while we were at my Aunt's house for General Conference weekend, we drove a little ways into the hills behind Spanish Fork and under a gorgeous starry sky, he asked me. It was fun, but very cold and dark, so we hurried back. The next day as he was taking me back to Ephraim we saw the location of our "Proposal" in the daytime and it has to be the ugliest place I have ever seen. I tell him often that I look forward to showing our kids where he proposed to me. They'll see what a class-act their dad was. :)
22. His best features and qualities? I love Matt's voice and his eyes. I love how he always makes me laugh and lightens the mood with his quirky sense of humor. I love how he loves our kids and has the talent of seeing who they are and that they are little people with feelings and personalities. I love how he repects them and at the same time guides them and is a father to them. He has taught me a lot about being a parent. I love how hard he works and how he knows how to do "everything." To be honest, I thought he was just a choir-boy when we were first together but was amazed soon after when he fixed my car, my toaster and a number of things at my aunt's house in a matter of weeks. I've become even more amazed with what he can do in the nine years we've been married. He's amazing.
23. Who do you tag? Amy, Emily, and Sandy.