Vegas Tournament

We were in Vegas this last weekend for a soccer tournament for Shawn's U14 team. I was hoping the weather would be awesome and that I could my tan on ... but it wasn't. It was in the low 70's but there was this nasty cold wind the whole weekend. Oh well.

I took this picture on the way down to Vegas...

We checked in to the tournament friday night and then stopped by and surprised the Barnes family. It was fun to see them. Saturday all of the games started. Shawn had just one of his teams in the tournament, but was helping coach a younger team as well so he had 4 games on Saturday. I played with Scott and Jenn for the afternoon. Afton just turned one! She actually let me hold her and play with her this trip. So I was excited.

I gave her a piece of lemon...sour face!

Jenn & Afton with the little swimsuit & jellys we gave her

Jenn.Afton.Scott.

look at those skills!

hi!

Saturday night we went to Red Rock and went bowling with the whole team. It was a good bonding experience for the boys, and it was nice for me to get to know the parents a little bit better.

Sunday the boys had just one game. They ended the tournament with a great win 5-1! I bet Shawn will make them run for letting that 1 slip by though...

Shawn giving some words of wisdom at half time

top row: Dylan, Easton, Matt, Ryan, Nathan, Sam, Kris, Ethan & Shawn
bottom row: Marshall, Aaron, Ivan, Sergio, Sebastion, Erik, Ryan, & Nick

Kevin was supposed to watch Maggie at our house ... but she ended up staying at my parents the whole weekend. When I got home her pony tail was cut off and her face was all trimmed. I was freaking out. I left my mom a note on the fridge telling her I would never forgive her for what she had done!!! The last time she was groomed they cut off her pony tail because I had forgotten to tell them to keep it...and so I've been waiting 3 months for it to grow out long enough to be able to do it again...and then my mom cuts it off. Oh well. It will grow back. She was just trying to be helpful. It better not happen with our future children's hair mom...you promised!

My Dad

My Dad's Birthday was on the 25th.

My Dad and I definitely spent most of my teenage years butting heads. After I graduated something clicked, and we are great friends now. . . as long as his blood sugar is regulated (:

I think the problem is we are too much a like.

Some things that I got from my Dad:

• organized (did not get that from my mom)
• my good looks (ha everyone says I look more like my Dad)
• My Dad's sweet tooth!
• worrying
• stubborness
  
• confidence
• loyalty
• thoughtfulness
• love for music
• love for sports
• love for shoes!!! (yes I believe I got this from my dad)
• grouchiness!
• We both flip out when plans suddenly change...so I guess you could say we don't go with the flow!

My Dad has been the best Dad for me. He loves all of us so much. Since I was very little my Dad has made everything a competition. I think that has instilled a drive with in us...always wanting to do well in high school etc. He has always pushed us to be better. I love that.

He is very patient at teaching us. He has taught me so many things. I have lots and lots of memories of my Dad taking us to parks. Teaching us how to play baseball, tennis, volleyball, EVERYTHING. My dad used to make us memorize all of his favorite songs. He would turn on a song, tell us the words of the first line, we would all sing it, and then we would stop restart the song and keep going further and further in the song until my Dad has made us learn the whole thing. I think that is one my favorite things we did with my Dad. I know we complained about it...but I think we secretly loved it at the time. I don't know anyone else my age that knows so many John Denver, Elton John, Chicago & Carpenters songs!

We had my family over to our apartment on Sunday for Sunday Birthday Dinner. I made parmesan chicken, herb potatoes and cheese cake! We hung out and watched a movie. We all chipped in and got my Dad a Nook. Spencer got my dad this "Shit list". If you know my Dad then you know why. haha.

The most important thing that my Dad always expressed and showed to us was his love for my mom, and his love for the gospel. I am so grateful that we always had the priesthood in my home growing up. It has been such a huge blessing to us. My Dad has always told us how much he loves us and how proud of us he is. There aren't very many dad's out there that are good at expressing that, and I'm so grateful to my Dad for showing us that every single day.

Spencer's Birthday!

I have decided this year to do a tribute to those birthdays that are special to me.

Today is Spencer's Birthday. His 16th!!!

We have a home video where my parents are telling us that my mom was pregnant with Spencer. It is priceless.

Kevin: "can we have another girl? so then it will be 2 against 2 and we can fight!" kevin was 5

Curtis: "how, how, how, how, how the baby get in the tummy mommy?" curtis was 3 1/2 and had a studdering problem

Me: I was just laughing uncontrollably. I was 7

This is my favorite picture of us. I think I was his age in this picture, 16. So he must have been 8. It's sitting in my living room. I just pulled it out yesterday. In my mind he has kind of always stayed around this age.

Us at my wedding...

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So I remember when I got the call at recess that I needed to go to the office. My parents picked me up and we drove to the hospital. Kevin and Curtis had to stay at gma's with my uncles... I think. And I got to stay at the hospital. I was pretty brave for the most part. I really wanted to be there when he was born. We didn't know what my mom was having, and I wanted to be there when the doctor's told me that I was going to finally have a little sister.

I started getting all pale and whoosy when my mom started to push, so she sent me outside. I think Scott was there in the waiting room with me??? Anyways, my dad came out and told me it was a boy... Spencer Ryan Routson.

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I'm getting all teary just thinking about my little brother. He is so special to me. He has always been the most tender hearted kid I know. We used to tease him about it, and try to toughen him up when he was younger. . . but we quit that a long time ago. It's who he is. He is always so worried about everyone. He didn't go to school for a week when Kevin left on his mission. He looks up to his big brother's a lot. For the most part they are great examples to him. When the boys were both on their missions Shawn and I got to have Spencer all to ourselves for a bit. We loved it when he would text us and ask us when we were coming over.

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Spencer is an old soul.

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He by far has the best teenage relationship with my parents.

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I was a b*tch! I cared too much about everything. Kevin gave my parents the silent treatment and never filled them in on anything going in on his life...and Curtis was an air head that didn't care enough about anything...and was beyond sarcastic!

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Spencer is extremely responsible.

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He checks in with my parents constantly. My parents know all of his friends. He is a great student. He takes all of his church/preisthood responsibilites very seriously...with out my dad pushing him. He can totally fend for himself. Recently my parents went to seattle and left him home with Kevin. Pretty sure Spencer watched Kevin. I called to check in on him and this is what he said...

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"I'm fine, but Kevin is driving me nuts. He is such a slob. His dishes are everywhere. He doesn't know how to do anything for himself, I have to do everything for him"

And he is right.

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How many kids do you know that have been doing their own laundry since they were 8 years old?

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Spencer has...

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Spencer is funny.

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He has very mature, simple, humor.

He knows how to make all of us laugh. He is friends with anyone and everyone. I love that about him.

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Even though I was very upset that Spencer wasn't a girl...I'm over it.

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When I was little I used to ask my mom why I didn't have a sister...she would say "honey when you are older you will have sister inlaws...and they will be great and you will have so much fun".

And I would say, " Sister inlaws will not be the same, mom you and your sisters have so much fun together".

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I DREAD sister inlaws. They are going to take my little brothers away from me. . . and I'm going to be forced to be their friends.

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But listen. I'm not worried about Spencer.

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I know I can count on him to give me a nice, cute, fun sister inlaw.

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Spencer is awesome. I love him so much. One day he will be a great uncle to my future kids, an extremely great missionary, and a fabulous husband.

Dear Lyndsey

In response to your recent post

(because we can't leave bloody comments on your blog)

lyndsey

I speak for both Jenny and myself...

We miss you too!

jenny.me...at our favorite place...maggie moos

all of us together

love and miss you both!

Random things...1 scary & 1 fun

My new addiction . . .

One of my sunbeams wanted chocolate chip cookies with frosting on top for his birthday treats. I got this frosting...and fell in love with it. It could be because I'm having ice cream with drawls. I haven't had ice cream for a whole week. But seriously you have to try it. Betty Crocker confetti vanilla frosting. I had a whole can this weekend!
gramma Joy where do you think this is going to go? (She says that all of my ice cream is eventually going to go to my hips...sad thing is that I'm totally seeing it).

K so I almost died. It was traumatizing. I was cleaning out my fridge and set a 9x13 pyrex pan on the stove...to eventually take it to the sink and wash it. I was also trying to start dinner. I turned on a burner to boil some water...but accidentally turned on the wrong burner. I turned on the burner that the pyrex pan was on. It exploded! It sounded like a freaking gun shot. No joke. I was standing right by the fridge with my head down when it happened. I screamed so loud! I was so scared! I was nervous that one of my neighbors was going to come see if everything was okay...but apparently they don't care about me. That's okay.
So I was left with this huge mess. Hundred of pieces everywhere. I thought I cleaned it up really well but I'm still finding glass pieces. There were chunks clear across the room, pieces in my hair...and in my blender...kitchen aid...toaster...everywhere. I'm lucky that I wasn't leaning over the stove.

Anyways...Just a couple of random things this week that I thought were worth documenting.

Old Friends

Jess.Suz.Me.

I love these girls!!!
I don't see them very often, but when I do it's like we had just seen each other yesterday. We have so many fun memories together. We all pretty much reconnected when we all worked together at the Home Depot. We all started out as cashiers together... and then moved to other departments. Seriously I don't know how we all weren't fired from that place. I can probably count on my hand the number of days we actually "worked". We all actually even went to the same high school together...but we were never friends in high school. I actually hated Suzy! We both played soccer. She was a senior when I was a freshman...she doesn't remember but I remember carrying the senior's water and bags off of the bus. They made us do everything. Jess and I took a couple of night classes together. Which were filled with lots of random notes... Anyways this week we met up at our traditional place, Chilis, and talked & laughed lots. They are both getting married soon! I'm so excited! I love you Jess & Suz!

Tyce & Allison came to town

Last weekend my uncle Tyce and his family decided to come up and spend the weekend hanging out with the family. They wanted to see Kevin & the snow! Friday Shawn and I both weren't working so we met Tyce on Temple Square while my mom & Allison were doing some geneology at the family history center. It was such a beautiful day!!!!! The sun was out and so were the flowers!

Keaton.Tyce.Britain.

Britain.Me.Keaton.

I had to take a picture of this Korean Book of Mormon. Can you believe Curtis can read this??? Cuz I can't!!! It totally just looks like little chicken scratches to me.

I wish I had taken a picture, but our good friend Becky Pulham is serving a mission on Temple Square. She is the one who set us up! Whenever we are on the square we try so hard to track her down, but we never can find her so we end up just leaving her notes all over the place. Well this time we finally ran into her!!! It was so fun to see her. I'm sure she is a great missionary.

Keaton.Shawn.

We met up with my mom & Allison around lunch time and walked down to the Blue Iguana for Mexican food. It was really good!

Saturday Tyce went boarding with the boys and then Allison met up with them to go sledding. Saturday was completely opposite from the day before. It was cold and really snowy! We all met up at the Tuscano's in the Gateway for dinner. We love that place.

Kevin insisted on squishing into this chair. He was pretty tired. They snowboarded and played all day.

Spencer.Tyce.Keaton.

Mom.Keaton.Allison.

Allison is pregnant with their 3rd GIRL. So crazy! Tyce says he doesn't know how to make girls...he blames it on all the speedos and is working out more at the gym to try to get more testosterone! It's okay. Their girls are adorable. They LOVED my mom. It was cute to see my mom with them. One day she will be a great grandma...even if she says she isn't ready to be.

Kevin.Shawn.

Dad.Kevin.

Allison.Britain.

Spencer & his friend... I can't remember his name!

Shawn was so stuffed after dinner! He wanted to take a nap!

"You will have significant experiences. I hope that you will write them down and keep a record of them, that you will read them from time to time and refresh your memory of those meaningful and significant things. Some may be funny. Some may be significant only to you. Some of them may be sacred and quietly beautiful. Some may build one upon another until they represent a lifetime of special experience."

Gordon B. Hinckley

This is for all of you haters out there that gave me crap about my last post!

I don't blog for you. I blog for me. I didn't ask you to read my blog. If you don't like it, then don't read it! (:

How thoughtful ...

Dear Husband,

Thank you for surprising me with new running shoes. You are the best. I love them and needed new ones so badly.

Thank you for holding me last night while I had a slight emotional breakdown. You always know the right things to say and do to make me feel so much better.

Thanks for putting up with all my craziness. I know you have been trying extra hard lately to ... make sure your towel is hanging strait and facing mine ... clean up your dishes ... make the bed ... close the shower curtain immediately after you shower ... put my clothes away in their appropriate color scheme.

Don't worry, I've noticed how you ... have been starting and unloading the dishwasher ... take the time to put your shoes away ... put your nasty, sweaty soccer clothes immediately into the washer ... no longer drop all of your clothes that you wore for the day right beside the bed ... never judge me for my nightly bowl of ice cream (even when I complain relentlessly about my chub) ...

have been extremely supportive of me wanting to go back to school.


Thank you for the cute notes you left on the mirror last night. I loved it.

You are the best husband for me & I am so grateful for you.

I LOVE YOU,
your wife

Are You Kidding Me?

Need I say more?

Yes...I always do.

The last two weeks I have enjoyed...

Tucking my boots in the back corner of my closet.

Laughing at the crazy people wearing flip flops.

Not shivering uncontrollably on my way to work.

Wearing sunglasses because it's warm & sunny.

Birds chirping in the morning.

Cracking the window.

Fantasizing over Nordstrom's spring line.

Worrying about shedding the pounds for swimsuit season.

The list goes on and on.

Please go away snow!