Found this yummy chocolate-peanut butter cup cake recipe online and we tried it out when I had 6 boys (1 husband, 2 brothers, and 3 cousins) at my house for 2 days and it did not last very long.

Fun times with cousins

Since it was Spring Break in Oregon last week-we had my little brother, Kyle, and some aunts, uncles, and cousins in town. We had a BBQ at the Woodleys where we all played games and the boys had a home run derby. The girls all went shopping while the boys had box seats at the Energy Solutions Arena for the Elite Eight and then we had another fun BBQ at the Parkers. We had a good time with some of our family and a really good time hanging with Kyle-who stayed at our house for a week.
Fun times at the Woodleys: Shawn, Me, Nick, Lisa, Maddie, Brandalyn, Kylie, and Sophie Shawn up to bat for his turn in the home run derby

Brighton, Brock, Shawn, Nick, Brax, John, Bridger, and Loren all loaded in the back of Jason's truck headed out to he ball field for their home run derby

Bridger and Shawn driving around in the Parker's pink go-cart

Shawn and Loren headed out to the race track to drive around their RC cars

We love having family come into town to visit!

Science Boy

Shawn had a long day on campus with class, then a test, and then he had to go into the lab from 6-9:30 to work on his research. I decided to be a good wife and bring him some dinner. I stopped by In&Out and then brought it onto campus to meet Shawn for dinner. Since it was so late and no one was in the lab-I got to get a tour of the lab and got to watch Shawn finish his protein assay.
Shawn in his lab-this lab is soley dedicated to Shawn's research team and their project. I am not completely sure what the project is or what its purpose is-although Shawn has tried to explain it to me many times. I just know that they are doing research on mice and they are trying to find out something about muscles and proteins. There is a freezer in the lab that Shawn opened for me and it is full of dead mice that are wrapped up in bags. They save the mice after they disect them and then they give them to different departments to feed to the snakes. Shawn came home after working in the lab and he said he had just spent the afternoon shaving hair off of a bunch of mice and then he had to give them all shots to put them to sleep so they can disect them...so gross.

I am so proud of Shawn for getting into this research team (he had to send in a resume, then apply, and interview) to get into it and he got accepted into the team last semester and will stay on until he graduates. He has really loved working on his research projects, has learned alot, and it will be such a great thing to put onto his dental application.

Floral Design 101

Shawn is trying to finish up on all of his GE courses within his last 3 semesters at BYU. One of the GEs that he was still in need of was his arts GE, we tried to get him into a sculpter class that was recommended for Dental School-but BYU only offers 1 sculpture class with only 24 students-so we had to look elsewhere for an easy class to fulfill his arts credit. Brock had taken floral design for his arts GE-in search of a class with lots of girls-and it turned out to be such an easy class. So, he talked Shawn into taking floral design to get an easy A and to fulfill his arts GE.
I was excited about it because I wanted Shawn to bring home lots of flower arrangements. So, now my kitchen counter is full of Shawn's flower arrangements that he has put together himself in his class-and I love them!
After Shawn brought home his first arrangement-he said that he was in and out of the lab within minuets, he said all he did was grab a couple flowers, put them together, and put them in a vase! He said he left the lab and most of the people were just getting started- he didnt know how it would take anyone more than a few minuets to put together any flower arrangement.

We love having Brocky living close by-even though he is a busy single college man-we still get to spend sometime with him. Most of the time we see him is when he comes over to eat dinner. Shawn and Brock have gotten to go skiing together a few times this winter-and have loved it.
I also heard that the circus was coming to UVU's Event Center so I bribed both Brock and Shawn into going with me. I had never been to a circus before and had always wanted to go since I was a little girl...so we went and we were not to impressed. Needless to say I finally got to go to a circus-but will probably never need to go again. But we did have a good time together.
Brock, Shawn, and I at the circus


Brock and Shawn getting ready to head to the mountain

Shawn and I at the circus-you have to get cotton candy at the circus

Vernal, Utah

Literally a dream came true this weekend when Shawn and I went to Vernal, Utah. No one will really understand except for my roommates: Cherly, KaLee, and Bethdany. When we were all roommates together we decided we wanted to visit all of the Temples in Utah-we did good and got to all of them but the Vernal and Monticello Temples. Ever since then (2002) I have been wanting to go to the Vernal Temple. 1. because it was one of the 2 Temples in Utah that I have not been to yet and 2. because it is such a cool Temple too. It was originally a tabernacle that was built by the pioneers back in 1907 and then was going to be torn down many years later but President Hinckley went out to visit the old tabernacle and decided to keep it and turn it into a temple. It was then Dedicated as a Temple in 1997.
Although Shawn was not as excited as I was to travel the 2 1/2 hours to get to Vernal-it turned out to be a fun weekend together. We found a nice hotel to stay at, got to do a session, and enjoyed touring the town out in the middle of Eastern Utah.

I was so happy to finally fulfill this dream of going to the Vernal, Utah Temple after 8 years.

Happy Birthday!

Shawn's dad, Eugene, stopped by our house last Sunday on his way back from Central Utah. His birthday was the day before so we made him a birthday dinner and sang Happy Birthday while we had some chocolate pie. We had a fun visit together and we truly do appreciate everything he does for us. He is a great father and could not ask for a better father-in-law!!!