Egg Roll Anyone?

No...not that kind! The Knudsen's family tradition...An EASTER Egg roll competition. Yesterday we had the Knudsen's (my mom's family) Easter party. Complete with an egg hunt, dinner, and an egg roll tournament. It was very fun. Erik and i were put in charge of the egg roll this year which meant we had to dye over 2 dozen eggs. This task seemed a little too daunting to do ourselves so we solicited our dinner club friends to help us out on Friday night. We had tons of fun. After dinner we had this cute Easter treat. ( no bake cookies with whopper robin eggs inside-classic)

Then we started dying our eggs! The Lattin's introduced us to using crayons on our eggs, wow we got some fancy eggs this year!

Then we each picked a hard boiled egg to call our own and started the competition. We flipped over our rug and faced off first as couples. The egg roll goes as follows: On the count of 3 both players release their eggs at one another and whoever's egg cracks is out and whoever's egg comes out untarnished moves on to the next round. (as demonstrated below-haha)

Ironically all the girls got out first which left just the guys to battle it out. Later we found out some of the guys had some scientific strategies on picking out there eggs. Us girls just picked the eggs that we thought were the cutest-so i guess not so ironic.

These are our sad faces (well some of us-others were happy they got out?)

I cant even remember who won i just remember it ended with eggs being thrown at other eggs and shells flying everywhere! It was a pretty fun night. We love hanging with our awesome neighbors!

Rejuvenation

So, this post that i am about to make i have been delaying because it's a little personal, but hey that's what a blog is for right? I think it will be good to write my thoughts down, hear other's advice and maybe share a good idea with some one in need. Sorry this is so long, i added cheesy visuals for those who needed them! :)

Lately, i have been really depressed and frustrated with our struggles to get Pregnant. Sometimes i wonder how these teenage girls get prego, because WE cannot make things happen! It has been very frustrating playing this emotional waiting game each month wondering and hoping that this will be "the month." I feel like all my dreams, goals, desires and talents are all hinging on this idea of being a mother. It is something i have wanted to be my whole life and now that i am married and have prayed and feel ready, and am trying to be obedient i wonder why the Lord will not, or should i say has not given me a child yet. And i know i am young, and i have plenty of years, and i should enjoy the time i have just with Erik, but it's hard when this is what i feel is my purpose and will bring ultimate joy to our little family and for heaven sakes it's a commandment! Come on we are trying to be good here.

Well anyway, these have been my thoughts and frustrations for the past year and after talking to my amazing Mother i realized i need to take a different outlook on life. All i can think about and live for is having a baby, and since this is not happening right now in the time that i would like it to and instead (like all things) is going to happen in the Lords timing when he KNOWS it is best, i have found i need to now put it aside and start working on some goals for myself. Yes, we are going to continue to try to have a baby, but i will try to not have that as my main focus, like a life or death situation. There is so much more to love in life and so much more for me to do in preparing myself to be a great mother and wife.

So here is what i have come up with. I nanny and don't have to be at the house until noon to get the kindergartner off the bus. So up until now i usually just sleep in until 11:00 or so. I know, shameful, you are all thinking "and she wants a baby where she will have to get up at 2:00 AM?" My excuse has always been, what am i going to get up to do? And of course my husband raddles off a bunch of lame things like cleaning the house, doing the laundry etc. Which does not motivate anyone who is not a morning person to get up. This also causes a problem at night with a husband who gets up at 7:00am each morning and so is tired around 10:00pm and i am wired because i slept until 11:00am so i am not ready for bed until 1:00am. This makes for a very tired husband who tries to stay up with me so we can go to bed together or a really grumpy Nikki who cant fall asleep at 10:00pm and is bored lying in bed. So the solution for this and my baby woo's is the following.

I have made a "Bucket List." A list of all the things i want to do before i "kick the bucket" and have children. I talked to my mother and there is so much she wishes she had time for, but 6 kids later she cant find the time for. When i look at my life i realize i have tons of time i am sleeping away. So now each morning i get up a few hours earlier than before and i have my "Bucket List" items on a calendar, already scheduled out for me and i work on that thing for an hour or so that morning. For example, a craft, writing in my journal, organizing stuff, teaching myself piano again, service etc. Each day a new thing that is planned out. I also start my day with reading my scriptures and end the activity with going to the gym for an hour before work.

I cant tell you how wonderful this is. I have only been doing this for a few days but i can't tell you what a difference it has made in my life in so many aspects. I read my Scriptures more diligently, i go to bed earlier with my husband at night, I exercise which gives me more energy, and best of all i feel accomplished. I have goals that i work on. I get items off my to-do list and work towards more things than just trying to get pregnant. Things that i can control better. Things that will make me a better person, wife and someday a mother. I am so grateful for this new perspective and this chance to do these things for myself. I know someday i will look back at this time in my life and value it so much and wish i could go back. I know that Heavenly Father loves me and my family and has a plan for us. I feel rejuvenated and redetermined to better myself and enjoy life now in the present.

Joys of the Symphony

Last Saturday night we were invited to the Utah Symphony by some friends, the Young's. It was actually Erik and Dave who were communicating, making plans etc. So, naturally i really had no idea what we were going to. Erik couldn't remember what symphony it was, where it was, what they were playing, nothing. So i thought who knew i could be going to a high school symphony concert!? So it started snowing and instead of riding up with our friends we had to meet them there and i had not dressed warm enough so i was freezing and my shoes were giving me a blister...needless to say i was very grumpy and not excited at all about whatever this symphony thing was we were going to see.

Well we walked into Abravanel Hall and things immediately starting looking up. First of all that is the most beautiful concert hall i have ever been in, and secondly we were greeted by our wonderful friends the Young's. (we were so late i was worried we were not even going to end up sitting by them.) Then i look at my ticket and see that it says Broadway music night, that immediately cheered me up. I thought i can make it through 20 orchestra pieces if they are fun Broadway music. Then i noticed on the program that there were vocalists. I cannot even start to describe how much i loved this performance. We got to listen to the beautiful Utah Symphony as they accompanied vocalists that at actually been on BROADWAY!!! They were so amazing.

First there was Melissa Errico who starred in My Fair Lady and Sound of Music. (she will also be on the Martha Stewart show performing and cooking on May 9th-don't miss it!) Then there was Debbie Gravitte who has won a Tony Award for best featured actress in a musical. And last was Marc Kudisch who has starred and nominated for 2 Tony awards in Thoroughly Modern Millie, and Chitty, Chitty Bang, Bang. He was also Chauvelin in The Scarlett Pimpernel and Gaston in Beauty and the Beast. This performance was amazing and so exciting. I felt like i got to see little snippets of 20 different Broadway shows. They even acted out some songs. It was so fun! Erik looked over at me after the first few numbers and was laughing at me because i had this huge choir/theatre dork grin on my face. It was all i could do not to start singing along with them!

So yes there is more. I am the nerd that made my friends wait in line after the show to meet these stars. I am serious. I was so excited, i was shaking when i met them. I even said the cheesy line "i want to be you when i grow up" come on who says that! So here is my signed program and picture with them as proof of either my coolness or insanity! But regardless they made that a fantastic night. It made me rethink my career as a nanny...i think i want to be in show business. haha. Anyways, so now i am kinda embarrassed this is what my first post is about, but i had a great night at the Utah Symphony and now i am going to go rent a bunch of musicals and watch them all weekend! :)

Here goes Nothing!

Hello all! Here is the Fox's attempt at a blog. However complicated and strange this is we are excited to get to stay in touch with more of you. I feel old now that i have a blog and it's no longer all about Facebook/Myspace. I suppose this is a monumental step in my life. Well i would give you an update on our lives but i guess you can read that in the "About us" section above. I am very excited about this blog and hopefully i will soon post the adventures of our lives up and i look forward to reading about the updates in your lives.