Happy, happy Valentine week!

Mark

Heart-Healthy Valentines

A Happy Valentine’s Day!

Aspiring Musicians Competition

This Week’s New Recipes

Sunday

Mark is cuter than ever! His cold developed into a cough this week, and his gums are puffy from incoming teeth, so he was a bit fussier than normal. Still, overall, an amazingly great baby!

Confession: I rarely do teacher gifts for holidays. It’s been one of those “wish I had more time for” items. This year, though, I couldn’t resist giving our school teachers a “heart-healthy” Valentine gift of jumpropes! I emailed all the teachers to find out their height (which made them very curious about this “secret Valentine gift” we were coming up with). You can tell that two of the teachers are much taller than the others! I was so excited to give them something different from sweets and chocolate, which don’t help the heart (or the figure) much. I also ordered ropes for two of my visiting teaching ladies and a few other friends.

I’m lacking in the cute graphics area, but came up with a little label for each of the ropes. I also typed up a little explanation note and attached some basic jumprope skill tips I found on the Internet.

I sent a Valentine package to a far-away family we’re close to. I got a little more liberal on the colors to make it easier for the kids to find their ropes (and to accommodate the boys in the family).

This all started from me wanting to order new ropes for my collection. The last time I bought some was 1994 (19 years ago) when I was at BYU! I buy them from the Work Activity Center in West Valley, UT, which employs handicapped individuals. The ropes are excellent quality, and you can choose from a huge variety of colors in ropes and handles. Back in the day, I drove there since shipping is expensive ($12.95 minimum, plus s/h per rope). But I didn’t have the time or desire to make the trek this year, so wanted to make the postage worth the cost.

Over the years I’ve given away a lot of my smallest ropes, and wanted some new colors of all the sizes. I was so excited to get this package in the mail!

I had my kids and Jon choose the rope and handle colors they wanted (and I got a new one for myself - far left). Jon chose black and black, Natalie the awesome blue and neon green combo, Amy girly pink and white, Adam black and white, Andrew blue and yellow, and Tyler chose his favorite color RED for the rope with orange handles. I love them all!

I hung some Command hooks in the hallway by their lockers. I like seeing them all the time so it reminds us to use them! (The empty one is for Mark, and I hung 2 on the top row for myself since I use 2 different sized ropes for workouts.)

All of this has made me want to teach the kids more skills, and to make instructional videos while I’ve still got it in me. We’ll see if that ever happens!

We didn’t go healthy for all the Valentines. For lack of more time to use all the great non-candy ideas I pinned, I resorted to candy for the kids’ school Valentines. Amy made a cute one with Swedish fish: “Glad we’re in the same school!” She colored in all the fish bowls.

If you didn’t already know, I was on a competitive jumprope team in grades 4-6. It was awesome! (I’m on the far left; Nancy is second from the right. This was a Phoenix Suns half-time show.) I’m grateful for the lifelong skills it gave me. Jumping rope is an excellent workout!

Adam and Natalie both did this easy “You’re a Star!” Valentine with Starburst. Andrew’s was more generic since he had to paste on a label from his class list on his.

Valentine’s Day morning, the kids were all thrilled with their gift bags. I didn’t include any candy this time. Instead, they got jumpropes, books, whistle-lips, and clothes. The girls got some much-needed Sunday tights, and I love the boys’ fuzzy robes!

I made regular old pancakes for breakfast (which was an achievement considering how late I stayed up helping Jon finish Natalie’s Valentine box). Mark ate his first pancake that morning, though I shouldn’t have given it to him due to the milk in it.

Everyone humored me for a wax lip photo. It cracks me up!

Natalie’s iPad-driven Valentine was a big deal (details here). Amy made her castle box all on her own, and Adam used his tank from last year. If 6th grade had a contest (like the other grades do), Natalie’s box definitely would’ve won! Everyone flocked to her desk the whole day. She loved it!

Trying to do a photo shoot with Mark right now is a joke ‘cause he is all over the place!

Giving him props to keep him in one spot wasn’t too helpful either.

I finally caught a decent one and it had to do.

Tyler didn’t like the lips in the morning, but caught on that afternoon.

The after-school spoils.

Valentine’s Evening, Jon and I went to his cousin’s wedding reception in Provo.

Poor Amy had orthodontist visits both Thursday and Friday. The spacers weren’t a huge deal (Thursday), though she took Tylenol that night for pain. The sad part was Friday when she gagged really badly at the nasty goop jammed in her mouth. It was so bad that they had to do the top twice (and numb her throat for the 2nd try). They did their best to make up for it by giving her a helium balloon and a candy bar. She survived!

Beauty Pains

The girls played in their first competition on Saturday. They auditioned to play with the Timpanogos Symphony Orchestra. Since they were both in the 11 and under division, they chose to perform a double concerto so they wouldn’t have to compete against each other.

I was really disappointed with the studio where they performed. I mean look at it! Our accompanist was playing on a keyboard... so lame. The worst part, though, was that it was absolutely freezing inside, so their little fingers were all red, and it was hard to vibrato. The studio they were in had a strong dampening effect, and Natalie came off the stage really frustrated at not being able to project sound like she normally can. They were also both very nervous since they’d never performed for judges before. That was probably the most valuable part -- learning what it is like to play for judges. Well, the preparation was possibly more valuable than that. Both of the winners in their age category were pianists. In the 12-14 division, one pianist and one violinist made it, and for 15-18 the winners were: flute, violin, and piano.

To wish Kevin a Happy Birthday, we tried spelling his name with... the kids.

I’ve been fishing for Conference tickets for a few weeks now. I had put the plug in with my bishop at the beginning, though he didn’t give me much hope. When we ran into him on Sunday, he told us that the tickets had arrived in the stake that day, and asked how many we needed. I was hopeful for five because Amy and Adam have never been, and Natalie’s only time was with Monte, Megan and Brooke a few years ago... we’ve never taken any of our kids! The last time Jon and I went was when we were dating... at the very first session in the brand new Conference center. Later that night, the bishop hand-delivered five tickets and a parking pass! I am so excited!

I tried out this “Fail-Proof Pizza Dough.” The dough felt awesome and tasted great, but I didn’t like how tough the bottom was after baking. (I used a pizza stone.) Still trying to find the perfect pizza dough that Jon will like. (He tolerates all of my cooking, but hasn’t yet loved the pizza I’ve made.)

I have my favorite “Basmati Rice with Curry” recipe which uses store-bought Tikka Masala sauce. I made my regular Basmati rice (yummy), and tried out new recipe for Tikka Masala sauce. Everyone loved this (especially Jon and Gary), though it was super spicy-hot! The chicken was super moist, so I just need to make it a little less spicy.

WOW! These Cinnamon Roll Pancakes were amazing... tasted just like cinnamon rolls, but without the wait. This recipe is a keeper for sure!

Gotta love the scoopy-loop shorts!

I was pretty famous (j/k).

I’m on the left, Nancy’s in the middle.

Our Jump-Its team joined with the Skip-Its team for a tour in Las Vegas where we performed in Caesar’s Palace at a P.E. Convention. Pretty fun! Those were the days! Ahem. Excuse me for reminiscing.

App at the Top

One of Sand Mountain’s apps (Jon’s second company): Travelgram soared to the top of the “free apps” charts (and is still hanging up there). It has a paid upgrade option, so will hopefully start bringing in some cash. It puts a cool banner across your picture of where you are when you are taking the picture (it uses your GPS coordinates).

I found this very thoughtful card from Amy on my pillow.

Falconry Event

Jon took all four boys to a falconry event west of Lehi. (This was especially helpful while I took the girls to their competition.) The boys absolutely loved it!

Gary and Barney also went, so all of the Lund men were out together -- pretty awesome!

Our home teachers are the best! This one, in particular, is just like a grandpa to our kids. He always has really neat stories to share, too. This time, it involved how he, as a young energetic missionary in a hurry ran through some doors at the church and accidentally knocked over Elder Kimball’s wife! At the fireside after the incident, Elder Kimball invited up to the stand “the elder with whom he had the chance to become closely acquainted right before the meeting.” He felt so embarrassed and awful about the accident, and was humbled by the love he felt from Elder Kimball (future President Kimball).