Another fun weekend!!!

TJ's husband and I planned a surprise weekend getaway (small, but tons of fun) for TJ! She has been long overdue for a break, and how could I pass up another trip to see Wicked again!! I was pretty proud of myself navigating around Chicago like I had lived there forever! We did a little window shopping, ate at a yummy Italian restaurant, saw the show, and then drove back home! We got home about 4 in the morning!!! So fun!

But then.....I got to get up a couple hours later and take a small number of my Young Women (and YM) down to the temple in Louisville, KY to do baptisms. Luckily, my home teacher offered to drive my van home! I was more exhausted that I have felt in a long, long time!!! But the entire weekend was worth it!
Just a handful of my girls....

Most of the other girls had school functions and couldn't make it. We still had a good time though!

And the 3rd place goes to.....

Zachary!!! Fabulous job!!!

Welcome to the world!!!

Everyone please welcome the newest addition to the Clay family! My sister, Julianne and husband, Ryan, just gave birth to their first baby on March 12th! He weighed 8 lb. 15 oz and was 21 inches long and is absoluetly adorable!

Here are the proud parents!!! Good job, guys! He is beautiful!!!

The New Boss!!!

Well - all of Chris's co-workers have a new boss! Yep - HIM!!! Chris got a promotion to be the Implementation Manager at work! He is still fazing out of his old job and doing the new one on top of it. He is completely swamped and totally stressed! I wish I could help take some of it for him and make things easier on him. I am grateful for his hard work and for all he does to take care of his family! He is wonderful! I will try to get a picture of him up soon.....that is, if he is ever around to get one taken!!!

B-ball teams looses - Family wins!!!

So, tonight Zach's basketball team lost to one of the hardest teams on the league. They did a great job and Zach scored one point! But I could really tell that Zach has had enough by this....

His team was running down for defense.....that is....all except Zach! He was drugingly dragging his feet as he WALKED down to the other end of the court - complete with the eyes rolling back in his head. The expression on his face was....."aren't we done yet?!?!" That was all until his coach yelled out to him to run and get to the other end and help his team. Totally funny! Then, his coach had him sit out for the last quarter and he wanted to come and put his coat on before the game was even over! In fact - he asked for his coat right at the beginning of the 4th quarter! Being the totally mean mom I am, I made him go sit back on the sidelines and finish the game out.

Well - so much for that experience! He totally wanted to do basketball when we signed up and in the beginning of the season. I guess he is feeling like it is just not his thing! That's fine with me. We just want him to get some exposure to different activities. He totally loved wrestling, so we might just stick with that.

I have been feeling pretty frazzled the last two and a half months! Basketball started in January and wrestling started in February. I know there needs to be a balance in everything and I really tried hard to keep things together while we were so busy with Zach's sports. I have realized that these are not that important in the long scheme of things. I think Zach even has noticed that too. Tonight when he offered the blessing on the food for dinner, he thanked Heavenly Father that we will now have more time to spend together as a family. Such a sweet boy. He is a great kid and I am excited to just relax at home more in the evenings with my darling kids!

In church, the talk given at General Conference by Elder Dallin H. Oaks (Good, Better, Best) has been talked about quite a lot. I think it is for very obvious reasons. I just re-read it last night and encourage you all to read it. Here is the link.... http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-775-38,00.html Hopefully that will work. If not, go to www.lds.org and look up the Oct. 2007 Sunday afternoon session and it will be in there. He talks about how there are many good things we can be doing with our time. But we need to make sure we are doing the best things, not just the good things. We have to choose wisely what things our family will participate in, making sure that we give highest priority to what the family needs. We also need to be making sure we are teaching our kids how to be strong in the gospel by what we spend our time doing.

Anyway - I am grateful for a break in sports and for the time that I now have to sit and teach to and learn from my kids and hubby. Hopefully now, dinners will be more healthy and not a quick PB&J! I just want so badly to do what is best for my kids and to raise them to know that they are loved more than anything and that they are special! My family is the most important thing to me and I love being a mom!!!