Feeling Tired

It has been a fun week, but for some reason I am just feeling incredibly tired. One of my favorite things I did this week was have a girl night with Brenda. We stayed up till almost 2AM watching Becoming Jane and talking. It was some much needed time together even though we had to pay for the lack of sleep later.

Also this week -I babysat several times
-Did a Pampered Chef Show
-Substituted the ESL class (English Second Language)
-I sub 5th graders tomorrow
-Enjoyed taking and watching Maddie in Ballet, preschool, (Andy took her to gymnastics this week).
-Prepared and did sharing time as well as my Sunbeam lesson.
-And just the normal daily erronds, cleaning, cooking, and so on.

I just have to tell you about Saturday night. I didn't feel to great with this lingering cold. And like I said, I was tired and everything seemed to be taking my 10 times longer to do. I finished my Sunday preparations about 11pm just after Andy got home from work.
I thought to myself, I should really do the dishes and pick up this mess so we can wake up Sunday morning to a more organized house. But the same minute that thought came to me, it left again, and I went to bed.
Andy said he was coming up soon. Of course I zonked out right away and when I woke up in the morning, all the dishes were done, the floor swept, the toys picked up, and even the bathroom and bedroom tidied! It was so much easier to get up and get ready early Sunday morning with a clean start. What a wonderful husband I have!!!

Maddie dressed herself today! Notice the hat, bunny ears, crown, and angel hallow. Behind her is two backpacks and a pear of wings. And the hula skirt gives it just the right touch! What a cutie!

Garen was feeling very lovey towards his sister. He would jump on the bed a few times then land on Maddie and give a nice hug and then repeat the process. This went on for about 30 minutes! I'm glad they like each other, at least during that 30 min. they did-

The Pictures are in!

I got the CD in the mail today from Alisha! And I just can't believe how incredable these pictures are. Troy captured dozens of beautiful shots of both kids-way better then any photo place I have ever taken them too!!! And with the CD I don't have to pay $35 for a copy of the pictures! I can't thank you enought Alisha and Troy! I am so overly joyed with the amazing quality of these pictures. I don't know how I'm going to choose which ones to print!!!
Here are some of the shots-there's a lot because I just can't choose:

President's weekend in Burley

On Friday night Andy, me and the kids headed to Burley! We had such a wonderful weekend with my parents and grandparents.
Saturday morning I got to go to my mom's book club with her and then to A Child's World. All Saturday afternoon was spent doing our taxes-Thanks for all your help dad. This years tax return turned out great for us!!!!

Then Saturday night Maddie and I went out to Alisha's house. There Alisha taught me how to make a super cute tutu for Maddie. Then Troy took some absolutely amazing pictures! I can't wait to show you the beautiful pictures of Maddie and Garen. Thank you so much Alisha and Troy-I am so excited!!! Maddie and Alisha's little girl, Taylor got along great and had fun playing together.

Sunday we went to church, enjoyed a lovely dinner, watched to Allstar basketball game, and my mom helped me plan my primary sharing time and gave me a ton of stuff to use for my upcoming sunbeam lessons.
Later we went to vistit my grandparents (age 89 and 95). They are so fun to be around. Grandma always has something funny to say and grandpa always has a wonderful story to tell. Grandma sat and read story after story to Maddie and she gave each kid a little Valentine bear!

Monday morning we went back out to Alisha's house and they were nice enough to deal with Garen and get some photos of him and a few shots of the kids together.
It was sad to say goodbye Monday evening and come back home. Thanks for letting us stay and for all you did, Mom and Dad-we miss you already!
Maddie and Grandma Dora-

Garen consentrating really hard on his video game-

Garen and Grandma-

This is a picture at Alisha's that I took with my camera, wait till you see what Troy did!-


Maddie and Grandma Sue-

Garen and Grandma Sue-

Maddie and Grandpa Bruce-

Maddie love the attention to the grandparents, they played games, read stories, and as you can see played with dominoes-

Snow Day!!!

So Wednesday I had my friend's kids, Danny and Jacob. The morning went well, we got Maddie to ballet and back, everyone got lunch, and everyone was bundled up and ready to go take Maddie and Jacob to preschool.

It had been lightly snowing all morning and had picked up into large snowflakes just as we were leaving. And in the 20 minutes it took me to get to preschool the storm had come on with a vengance! The wind was blowing like crazy so you couldn't see anything in front of you.

The worst part was that the preschool is on top of a giant hill. I got to the hill and saw about 8 cars attempting to go up it and sliding right back down! I thought I'm not even going to try with these 4 little sweeties in the van.

Just then a plow came through and right up the hill-so then I thought, okay maybe I'll try now. Well, the plow had moved the snow, but that snow was turning into ice the moment it hit something.

I get a good start and head on up the hill. I'm almost to the top and we start spinning out and sliding on backwards! Maddie and Jacob kept saying " I don't want to slide anymore!" Luckily these boys, that had gotten stuck themselves, pushed the front of the van around for us, so we could slide down the hill forward instead of backwards. To wrap it up, we didn't make it to preschool.

So we all went back to my house and had preschool there. The kids didn't seem to mind, plus their teacher said they had so many kids gone they will be repeating the Valentine's party on Friday.

Back at my house we did puzzles, practiced letters and letter sounds, painted, played a game to tell what object was heavy and which one was light, sang songs, read Valentine stories, played Simon Says, made love bugs, and just played. We had a lot of fun, but my house looked like a war zone when the boys left at 5! But hey, a good mess is just a sign of a good time!

Here are some pictures of our day:

puzzles-

Maddie wrote Happy Valentine's Day all by herself-

Danny's beautiful picture-

I did not tell them to pose like this, they did it on their own-

What a cute group-

by the way, HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!!!!!

Abby's Valentine's Party

Yesterday, Maddie and I went to my sisters house for a V-day party. It was so much fun. The gilrs got to decorate cookies, make valentines, and play lots of fun games! After all the other party guests left. Maddie and Abby (and me and Sara) played outside in the snow. It is so nice to have Sara and her family close by again!
Maddie and Abby-

Some of the pary guests-

playing a silly game-

Maddie and Abby playing outside-


Here's a little vidoe of us playing outside. Me and Sara had a good time trying to sled down on our feet. I was trying to figure out how to put all my short clips together. Some of the videos didn't work but I didn't want to waste any more time playing with it, so here it is-

here are some other falls that I couldn't get to go in my youtube video-

Brighter days ahead, At least today

Awww, a nice day! The kids were sooo excited to ride their bikes today. Our driveway and a few of the side walks were the only things cleared of snow, but it was enough to ride thier bikes around. It felt so good to go outside and have the warm sun out. It was about 45 degrees all afternoon, so we took advantage of it.
We used our big pile of shoveled snow as a sledding hill. It was just the right size for the little ones. I hope everyone else enjoyed some sun today too!

Maddie and Avery-


Maddie and Garen ready to go down the hill-

Avery (the girl I babysit)-

Go Garen-

Kids at play

Garen working with his tools-


Garen cleaning up the house-

Blueberry mess-

Cute, grown-up Maddie-

Playing in the Snow

Today we went out to Andy's parents house in Clarkston. We have gotten so much snow, but they have even more! Andy would through Maddie clear up in the air and she would land deep into the snow and be stuck till one of us got her out. The kids had so much fun playing in the snow. Garen didn't make it to long because he was to little and to bundled up to walk around much, and he got cold. Maddie was having so much fun she could have made it for much longer even though her little cheeks were all red.
Andy built a tunnel under the snow drifts and Maddie thought that was pretty cool. We didn't even bring the sleds this time, we'll have to do that next time. Here are some pictures and videos from today.
On a side note-Andy had his 5th basketball game today and they are still undefeated!!!

Andy's face plant, I mean back flip in the snow-

Daddy and Daughter-

I love this vidoe because Maddie falls, followed by Andy looking like an umpa lumpa doing a cartwheel-

Tagged

I got tagged by Jakobi and by Kelsie so I thought I better do it:

A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B. Each player answers the questions for themselves.
C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

10 Years Ago: I was in 9th grade and 14 years old, taking drivers ed. and being immature i'm sure but haveing fun doing it!

5 Things On My To-Do List Today: Laundry, dishes, grocery shopping, take Maddie to preschool, and watch two extra kids.

5Things I Would Do If I Were Suddenly Made A Billionaire: This is something I can't comprehend but I would pay off every stinck'en debt we have, start a college/mission fund for all kids, buy all my friends and family really great stuff, invest a bunch, and get my master's degree.

3 Of My Bad Habits: I'm with Jakobi on the sweets!, not cleaning up after a meal so everything gets stuck to the plates and table and starts to smell, and not shaving my legs.

5 Places I Have Lived: Burley, Idaho for 18 years!, Salt Lake City with Cortney, Oakridge apartments with Cort and Alisha, in a one room bug infested apartment for 1 month when we first got married, A very wet house in Logan that I loved, And now in Smithfield Utah.

5 Jobs I Have Had: Secretary at Goode Motors in Burley, In a Autistic group home in SLC, Walmart cashier, waitress at Juniper inn, and a Special Education teacher.

5Things Most People Don't Know About Me: I got my gallbladder out my Senior year of high school and it happened to be on the day of all school club pictures-so I didn't get to go sneak into every club picture with my friends, I love Jane Austin novels, I held the school record for pole vault and hurdles at one point-neither one was very good, but hey a record non-the-less, I love walking outside as the sun is coming up and the mountains are close by and there are no people around me at all, I love riding horses even though it has been years since i've had the chance to.

Tag: Carrol, Chanc, Sarah, Sara K., Jenny A.

A Day to Remember

What a beautiful funeral service this morning!!! I enjoyed hearing each person speak, as well as the news coverage and the specials on President Hinkley. What a fun and amazing person he was. I've always looked up to him so much and admired all of his accomplishments. And I found many accomplishments of his today that I didn't even know about! What an example he has been.

The passing of President Hinkley gave me an opportunity to sit and talk to Maddie about the plan of salvation (which coincidently we've been learning about in Primary and we just had a family home evening lesson on it). It is so amazing and refreshing to hear the innocence and understanding of a child. I tried to approach the topic gently, but then realized that Maddie understood it much more than I. She kept talking and looking at me like what's the big deal?- People die and live with Heavenly Father and then we see them again. I explained it is only sad because we miss them until we see them again, but once again she replied, "but you don't have to wait very long."

I know Maddie is only 4 but as she sat quietly through the funeral service I hoped that as she gets older she will always remember this day and remember what a wonderful person, and prophet President Hinkley was. I know I will.

Las Vegas Trip

Last night, Andy and I got home from our little vacation in Vegas. We had so much fun! But we decided Las Vegas is not a place we will be vacationing again soon. Although we did so many fun and exciting things, everywhere we went it was full of cigarette smoke, swear words, and mostly naked women. (We got free accomidations for this trip or we wouldn't have gone). I definitely know that we will never be taking our children there!!!

Anyway, we left on Sunday night and stayed at Carrol's house in Porvo (we wanted to get past SLC before the morning traffic and the big storm). It was so fun staying up late laughing with Carrol and Seth! Thanks for letting us stay Carrol!

While on the rode we heard the news of President Hinkley's passing. I was pretty shocked but not sad. What a wonderfully inspiring man he is! So we listened to tributes to him on the radio. That is one thing about Utah that is so warming is to see the respect of all the flags at half mast and to hear all the tributes on every radio station. Once we were out of the Utah border that warming sense was gone.

Monday we drove the rest of the way to Vegas. That night we ate at planet hollywood, walked part of the strip and went to a comedy club. It was fun but some of the comics got a little offensive.

Tuesday we did a lot of site seeing and went to a show called Mystere . It was a fabulous show. So amazing and very funny! We also tried out the food at the House of blues. Wednesday we hit one of their famous buffets and then to the Mac King Comedy magic show. This was so fun. The guy was very funny and did some amazing magic tricks with people from the audiuance.

Some other things we did and saw included:

-the Billogio fountain show

-the Treasure Island outdoor live show (which I have seen before but don't remember so many skimpy costumes. :( Do you remember that boat fight show Alisha?)

-walking out of our hotel, just after someone had been hit by a truck and killed

-learning how to use the Las Vegas bus system so we weren't having to walk 10 miles everyday.

-being stuck on the bus for a very long time because the Strip shut down for the arrival of Pres. Bush.

-meeting some halarious men from London on the bus that told us all kinds of stuff.

-going to the very top of the Stratosphere (no rides because they were shut down due to the high winds)

-telling the comic that we were from Utah and he asked if our bikes were parked outside.

-we definitely felt younger at the end of this trip. We were asked several times if we were old enough to be there and if we had just gotten married. People were comletely shocked when we would tell them we've been married for 5 and 1/2 years. After telling one guy he asked if I got married when I was 14. :)

It was just so wonderful to have some real quality time with Andy and to be able to stay out as late as we wanted and go when we wanted and to sleep in! We owe it all to the Grandmas!!! My mom stayed with the kids from Sun to Wed. Then Andy's mom stayed Wed-Thurs. They took such good care of the kids. They drove Maddie to all her activities, they played with the kids and they left my house cleaner than before!

Thursday morning we enjoyed a beautiful breakfast buffet, then we stopped in St. George on our way home and went to the temple. Neither of us have been in this temple before so we wanted to take this opportunity. It was nice to be in such a peaceful place after leaving Sin City!

The ride home was great until Tremonton. There we hit the bad roads and the snow. It took us awhile to finally get into Logan. What a great trip, but it was good to be home. The kids were in bed but we went in and gave them big hugs anyway. I missed them so much. Garen seemed like he grew up so much just in those five days!

Do you remember this Alisha? I think it's my favorite thing to watch in Vegas.