Salsa

We have a new tradition.  It revolves around food..what a surprise.  We started making salsa.  All the time. The Cruzes make salsa often when we get together to play games and we love it, except for 1 ingredient...avocado.  We finally decided to follow Scott's lead and create our perfect salsa with everything we like in it.  As long as you have the few main ingredients you can throw whatever else you have on hand and it turns out yummy!  Tomatoes, pineapple, mango, any type of onion, cucumber, cilantro, jalapeno, lime juice, green, red, yellow pepper, a dash of salt, a teaspoon of sugar.  I'm anxious to create a non-fruity corn and black bean salsa next.

                                                                                                                      

                                                                                                                  

Nourishment

For a few years Allie and I have had the tradition of making cinnamon rolls the night of the Priesthood session for Sunday morning.  I don't know why, but tasty food just seems to go with conference weekend to me.  We added conference quiche in the last year to give us some salty with the sweet.  This year Allie was doing her lifeguard certification so I didn't have my baking buddy that night.  Instead I made scones for the first time with the new scone pan Julie gave me for my birthday.  YUM!  They were a hit!  I love conference weekend where I am spiritually and physically nourished (:  A few of my of my favorite conference quotes:   "If you've been offended, do a lot of forgiving and a little repenting." - Elder Packer,  "Preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary use words." = Pres. Uchtdorf

Storms

So, east Tennessee is known for having some pretty awesome thunderstorms.  Last night we had a powerful storm that lasted about 5 hours of heavy rain, strong winds and thunder and lightening.  Nothing too out of the ordinary.

The next morning we woke up to find one of the glass panels in our sideboard shattered.  We assume it's related to the storm somehow, as it appeared to happen after we all went to bed.  WEIRD.  Another water related accident?

I'm old

So I recently turned 41.  For about the last year I have noticed that I was having to squint and hold small print a little further back to be able to read it.  I would think "Why is everything looking so blurry and hard to read?  I'm waaay to young to need reading glasses."  Complete denial.  A couple of friends took me out for a birthday lunch and as I was struggling to read what they had written in a card in the dim lighting, I finally said, "oh well I'll read it at home."  My seasoned friend said "here, try these" and handed me her reading glasses.  I burst out laughing with surprise and excitement as I could actually read the words, clearly!!  It's a miracle!  Why had I not gotten some of these a long time ago??  All those nights of reading in bed, squinting in the dim lighting...Needless to say, when I left the restaurant I went straight to the store to pick up a pair for myself.  Even though I feel old.  It's worth it.

Akumal

We decided we wanted to have a memorable vacation in celebration of Trey's last official spring break at home.  After searching around we finally decided on Akumal, Mexico.  It's a very small town about an hour and half south of Cancun.  The kids were so excited to get passports and asked if maybe this might be where Trey goes on his mission.  (who knows? maybe)

Highlights of the trips: XelHa:  An amazing lagoon with snorkling, cliff jumping, zipline, dolphin swim, and more.

This was the kid's first experience with snorkeling.  It took Connor a while to get the hang of it.  Sydney was loving it until she saw a very large barracuda!
  

                                                There were giant lizards everywhere!

 Connor's favorite thing there were the hammocks and all you can eat buffet.

This rope bridge was intense! 

The highlight for Trey, Allie and Sydney was when they swam with the dolphins!

 The Tulum ruins

We had the beach to our selves.  The cousins spent their time running between the beach, pool, and grassy area that they played "world cup" on and chilled in the hammocks.

The kids never did get used to the idea of brushing their teeth with bottled water.  They loved saying Gracias and Hola to everyone.  We enjoyed walking about a mile up the beach to one of the few restaurants in the town. (and were happy we got to see BYU play during one dinner!)  So happy to enjoy this family time together...a trip we'll never forget.

We ♥ Basketball!

The four oldest Sexton's have always loved basketball. The three youngest have been pretty indifferent about the game......until this year.  Something clicked and instead of asking if they can stay home from going to a game of Trey or Allie's, they now get more excited than if they were going to a birthday party.  Between Trey and Allie we sometimes had 3 games a week, so everyday the kids would ask "is there a game today?!?!?!  It didn't stop with watching their siblings.  Tanner, Connor and Sydney are college basketball fans as well.  They have each been to 2 UT games this year and prefer to watch college basketball on tv over pretty much anything else.  Their enthusiasm can be seen in the handmade signs they make to go to games, and in the comments they make to the refs when there is a bad call, i.e.:  "oh, come on ref!  You've got to be kidding me!"  Connor needs to work on not getting upset with a loss, however.

When Connor was the "student of the week" he even answered that shooting hoops was his favorite thing to do.  He goes outside to shoot pretty much every day.

Tanner and Connor like to take turns sitting on the bench with David during Trey's games and being the assistant coach.

Watching Allie play in her church ball games is especially exciting since I help coach and the kids know all the girls playing on the court.

We wish it could be basketball season all year long!

Happy Valentine's Day

We celebrated valentine's day with the kids yesterday with a belgium waffle lunch.  It is so fun to do something festive for them because they are such appreciative kids.

Allie texted me today and said she received a card/balloon/flower at school today...from her dad! And Sydney walked in the door from school beaming, holding a balloon and card she got at school today from daddy as well!

Connor and Tanner said they didn't have a special valentine to give anyone at school because they are still in love with Grace (a friend from swim team).  They each don't understand why the other won't give her up.  So far neither of them are budging.

I'm excited to go to dinner with the love of my life tonight.  Happy Valentine's Day!