KA..for my honey!

Because I wanted to go see KA.. I decided to take James with me for Valentines Day! We have been wanting to see the show for a very long time and this was the perfect opportunity. They had a really good deal going for locals and we took advantage of it. We have seen most of the other Cirque Shows and looked forward to seeing this one. I must say we were NOT disappointed! It was amazing. I leaned over to James during the show and told him I wanted to be a Cirque performer in my next life....they can do amazing things with their bodies! We had a wonderful date night and enjoyed dinner before hand.

Valentines Day

We didn't do much on Valentines Day-- but James did show up with the kids at work and brought me beautiful flowers. He brought me my favorites...Lilies! But it was funny because I was looking at the bouquet when we brought it home and he said "your favorite flowers for my favorite wife" and I was looking and looking and couldn't see my favorite flowers! The lilies hadn't opened up yet ( I guess I've never noticed what they look like closed). He had to point them out to me and remind me that they were my favorite flower! Thanks for looking out for me honey! You are the best Valentine any girl could ask for! We also got up early on Sunday morning and made Belgian waffles for the kids with strawberries and whip cream. We wanted them to know they were special to us on Valentines Day.

Kai's Projects

My favorite thing about Kindergarten is all these fun things that my kids bring home. Kai has so much fun in Mrs. Evans class and he loves to do all the art projects that she presents him with. This one in particular was adorable. It is a cutout of him that his teacher traced and they got to paint. They finished the book, "I Ain't Gonna Paint No More." It is about a kid that pretty much paints everything in sight.... and gets in trouble by his mom. She yells at him, "Ya ain't gonna paint no more!" It is an adorable book with a bad word that we aren't supposed to use but it's okay because it's in the book for a reason.(As Kai notified me.) I had to take a pic so we could remember it because the painted Kai had to go in the trash. He was too big to keep.

Hooray!!

HERE COMES JAMIE!!! HE GOT ACCEPTED TO BYU!!

Marker Mustaches

We sat down on Saturday to draw pictures for Grandma's care package and Kai decided the markers looked better on his face than his paper. He wanted a mustache...and Malak followed suit. I love the picture that shows the admiration Malak has for his brother...so cute!!

All Matching

All the boys got ready for church yesterday and I have to say...looked pretty darned good! Then we realized that they were all matching. When I took this picture I realized I'm not going to get many more of these with all of them in the photo. They are all getting so big and the biggest of all is going to be in college soon.. we are waiting to hear this week so keep your fingers crossed!!

I heart Danny Zuko

Jamie decided to try out for the school play. The audition consisted of about 3 days that he had to do different things. The first day was singing which he loves so that was no big deal. He took his guitar and sang some of his own songs. The second day he had to act and that was the hard part because he didn't have much time to practice his lines. He said he did horrible but that he still had a lot of fun, and the third day was the dancing. My son has absolutely no coordination so I can only imagine how that part went... but he came home saying again how much fun he had. I was just proud of the fact that he was willing to try new things and stretch himself, especially this being his senior year and last chance to do these things in high school.
Well he calls me Friday night and asks me if I know what the guys name is that was the lead in Grease...ummm duh it's only the most sexy guy alive. Danny Zuko had my heart until I turned 14 at least. Then I realized why he was asking...he got the lead role in the school play!! Jamie is going to be Danny Zuko in Grease...ahhhh what a heart throb! I can't wait to watch him sing and dance and KISS a girl on stage.. ha ha ha! What a proud mommy I am. However now he needs to watch the movie and learn all the songs...how does he not understand how amazing this movie was when we were his age?? Time he got schooled...

Master Sergeant Pemberton

My sweet husband has worked so hard to make his next rank of Master Sergeant. He actually tested back in February 2009 and we found out in June 2009, but he wasn't able to be recognized until Friday (the same day we had to leave to Utah to go see JaNae get sealed so I missed it) and we won't actually see any money come through until February 15, 2010. But at least he made it and is now an official MASTER SERGEANT!! I am so proud of his accomplishments and his hard work. He is an amazing husband and a great provider for our family. I am grateful to have married such a wonderful man who is so dedicated to his family and to me... thanks baby!
He also brought to my attention that because he has been in the military for 19 years that his tenure will be up at 24 at the rank of Master Sergeant so if we don't get an assignment soon... we won't be able to go overseas before he has to get out of the military!! I have such mixed feelings about the roller coaster our family has been on with moving. A new assignment sheet will come out Wednesday with all the new possibilities on it and I am just praying that there is something there that will work for our family so we can still travel and take our kids overseas for the experiences that we want them to have. When our orders to Italy got cancelled, I was completely devastated. I know that there was a "reason" but it was still very hard to have that yanked out from under us. I'm still trying to pick up the pieces and figure out what to do...so I'm just praying that the Lord has something else planned for us and it's on that sheet tomorrow!!

JaNae & Jason

We went up to Utah this weekend to spend time with family and be there with Jason and JaNae when they went through the Temple. I drove up with the kids on Friday morning by myself and James flew in later that evening. He had to stay behind because his ceremony for his rank advancement was Friday as well. It was really hard to choose which event to attend, but James made it easy on me and just bought a plane ticket so I didn't have to pick. On Friday night everybody met at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple for Jason and JaNae to take our their endowments. It was such an awesome experience to be there with most of my siblings as well as Jenny, Dorie, Michelle, Marjann, and DeAnn. The session was beautiful and the Temple was absolutely gorgeous. We didn't get out until almost 10 o'clock because we spent so much time in the Celestial Room enjoying the company we were with and reveling in the moment and the accomplishment of the Simpers.
On Saturday we all met at the Draper Temple for the sealing. The Draper Temple is beautiful as well and it was so great to have so many family members there supporting us. Jason's grandpa did the sealing and that was very special. He is 91 years old but didn't miss a beat. He even cracked a few jokes and said many things that were great for us all to hear. He spoke about David O. McKay in 1965 and the 6 things that the Savior will ask you in your personal interview when you meet him. It gave us all many things to think about and allowed us all to recommit to trying harder to meet our Savior with pure hearts.

We went to Mi Ranchito afterwards to eat and celebrate. Mi Ranchito has been a family favorite since I was in high school and the food is still great. We presented JaNae with a picture of the Draper temple that all the siblings got for her family. I can't wait to see it up in her house.

The rest of the day was spent at Hariella's house playing games and hanging out with everybody. We all had a sleepover and stayed up as long as we possibly could. It's so great when we all get together! I love my family!!