This and That

I haven`t really done anything too exciting lately, but I should probably try to keep my blog up to date!  I am finally back into all my exercising after having to take time off for surgery, and it is SO nice to be back!  It`s amazing how much I miss it now when I don`t go!  Life has felt busy lately, but Lee and I have recommitted to take our kids out on their individual dates!  So I went to the mall with Dakota one night and bought ourselves an outfit and had Cinnabons (she was a sweetheart - so happy to be there with me and so grateful), and I also took Griffin out to Moxies for dinner and dessert one night.  He was very cute too, he just kept saying what a fun date it was and how much he liked to be with just me.  Here`s a picture of him with his `volcano` dessert, although you can`t really see the mist coming off the dry ice in the photo...

I really do believe it`s important to take the kids out on their own - it makes them feel so special, and I really feel like Scarlett keeps me from giving them the attention they deserve most of the time!  So sadly, it`s great to be Scarlett-free now and then!!  She`s a bit of an attention hogger! :)
We also took a trip to Cardston last weekend for a basketball tournament that Lee was in.  I didn`t really want to leave town again, but it turned out to be a really nice visit with my Grandma and Grandpa Cooper.  We always love going to their house, they are just so sweet and make us feel so loved!  My parents came too, so we were able to give their house a bit of a facelift with new curtains and rearranging photos, etc.  And it was nice to visit and talk to them and Debbie and her kids too.  The kids had lots of fun, especially playing with Grandpa - he played tennis with them in the basement, which I think is just so sweet since he`s getting so old and frail but he still wants to bond with them.  Mason sat on the bed with Grandpa for a while too as he told him War stories!  Cute.  My Grandma also bought them all new coloring books, and gave them candy and $5 each!  Talk about spoiling them!!
I watched one of Lee`s games, and it was a very exciting one that went into overtime, and they eventually won.  It was fun to watch.  He lost the other games though, but he sure enjoys playing in these tournaments.
Oh I forgot to mention the ward talent show that we just had as well that I was in charge of planning!  I was worried that it was going to be a complete failure since no one was really that eager to sign up, but it turned out really well in the end!  There were a lot of really funny acts that people did that they got off of Youtube.  Almost every act was humorous instead of serious this year, so their were lots of laughs!  I had Dakota and Mason show off their `bug eating`talents!  Everyone was amazed (or disgusted) but it went over really well!  They ate meal worms, grasshoppers and large superworms that we bought at the Pet Store. I found a really funny website on the benefits of eating bugs so I also said a bunch of the facts while they were preparing, and then at the end, I told them that I found some great recipes that had bugs in them, and that I hoped they enjoyed the chocolate chip cookies that I had set up at the door when they came in!  Everyone was freaking out and wondering if I was serious or kidding, - I actually did put bugs in the cookies, all ground up into flour, but still nasty!  I felt a little bad for some of the older adults that had eaten the cookies, but they seemed to take it pretty well! ha ha.