Tagged

I got tagged by Natalie, and am kind of interested in thinking about/reminiscing over this one, so here goes...

10 Years Ago
- I was just starting my junior year of HS at Moon Valley in Phoenix
- I was 16 years and one day old
- I was allowed to 'legally' date my boyfriend Eric
- I hadn't entered the work force yet! Ahhh good times!

5 Years Ago
- Ryan and I had been married almost 2 years and had no kiddies
- I was living in Prescott
- I was just promoted to a Service Manager at Wells Fargo
- I believe I was still driving my little red Mazda Miata convertible
- We were starting the processing of getting qualified to buy our first place- a condo (which we still miss although it would be way too small for our family now!)

5 Months Ago
- I had 2 kids with none on the way
- I was 2nd Counselor in YW
- I was still trying to get rid of my tummy after having Katelyn
- Hailey was starting piano & gymnastics
- We replaced the TV in the family room with a piano (I can't believe it's been that long!)

5 Things to do Today
- Watch the Young and the Restless
- Harass my eye Dr. to see if my contacts came in (they were supposed to be in Tues!)
- Organize my office to get ready to paint next weekend
- Bake the cookie dough in my fridge
- Hopefully do something fun with my honey!

5 Bad Habits
- Watching the Young and the Restless whenever I can (I blame this on my grandpa!)
- Over thinking EVERYTHING
- Being too practical and not spontaneous enough
- Procrastinating
- Not unplugging or turning off the iron (I blame this the auto shut off feature! But it drives Ryan nuts- apparently I'm going to burn our house down or something)

5 Places I've Lived
- Glendale/ Phoenix
- Prescott (at 3 different addresses)
- Yuma
- Chino Valley
- Surprise

I now tag...Dawn, Mindy, Nicole and Zach

I'm crazy, I know!

So for those of you who have been in my house, you know that it's colorful. Too colorful. Every room is painted a different color, or multiple different colors (except for mine which is STILL white and undecorated). Not only do I pick lots of colors, I pick the wrong colors or at least the wrong shades of that color! So I never end up being satisfied with what I've done.

Well good news, for those of you who have been overwhelmed by my kiwi green guest bathroom- the green is gone! Monday Ryan was lazy and didn't want to get up and go to work at 3:30am (I can't say I blame him, but I still give him crap for it) so he used a vacation day, slept in, we dropped off the kids at the babysitter, went to home depot, got our supplies and came home and HE went to work redoing the bathroom. I did help him tape off a lot of the bathroom but that was about the extent that I could help due to the fumes.

The green changed to a very light yellow- much more neutral. Again, I don't feel like I picked quite the right color, but it's a very big improvement. The only problem now is that the bathroom feels very BLAH to me- remember I like color! Everything is either light yellow or white and then there's the maple cabinets. So I've got to go shopping for some new decor to spice things up a bit.

We also bought crown molding for the bathroom and got that up- thanks to the help of a friend in our ward that does carpentry who did the whole bathroom in like 5 minutes! The great news is that he's willing to help with the rest of the house if and when we have the money to do it. We'll probablly just do bedrooms first one by one, then tackle the big expense of the main family area.

I'll get a picture of the bathroom posted once we caulk and paint the crown molding and I get some other color in there.

So now for the rest of the house...

I've extended an invite to my family and a couple of friends to come over Labor Day weekend and just help me repaint or paint several rooms and just get 'er done! I'm going to buy the eco-friendly, low fume paint so that I can be in the house and we can just knock it out! I want to get rid of the yellow in my family room, paint the baby's room (we'll know tomorrow a definite of which color scheme to do!)and I can finally get rid of the 'golden wheat' color my sister had put in here (right now it's the office). Then I want to paint my hallway which has never been painted and maybe, just maybe finally paint my bedroom!!

I realize it's A LOT of work and if it can't all happen, it's all good and we'll just get done what we can. But I thought I would throw the invitation out to anyone else who just loves painting and would like to come help! I am offering free food (BBQ, baked goods etc) to any of my helpers! Also, if you live in the Prescott area and don't want to paint but wouldn't mind watching my kids for part of a day- that would be awesome too! I have some people I may ask, but if anyone wants to volunteer- that would be even better!

I'll make sure to take before and afters of anything that we do!

Some things worth mentioning...

So you all know that I've been really bad at blogging lately, but that doesn't mean that we haven't had anything worth while happen over the last couple of months! So here some things that stand out and are worth making note of...

- Katelyn had her 1st birthday Aug. 3rd. She's walking around the edges of everything now and she'll venture one step away before she dramatically goes down to a crawl with a little squeal. As of this weekend she is also bringing herself up to a standing position without holding on to anything. She finally has two bottom teeth and the top two are coming in along with a side molar (according to her Dr.)and she's been pretty cranky about it so I'm sure the doc is right!

- My brother David's farewell was last Sunday and he reported to the MTC on Weds (the 13th). When he was leaving their house to be set apart and we were leaving to drive back to Prescott- Katelyn said bye and waved to him. This was the first time I'd ever seen/heard her do this and it was priceless timing!

- I've been feeling much better since my week at the hospital. I still haven't lost my cookies a single time! I'm still having issues with insane fatigue (which I do know is just part of being pregnant (and having two kids) but I'm also not really gaining much weight still- despite eating big meals and snacking constantly. I have to write down every single thing I eat and I've been counting calories to make sure that I am eating enough and then turn those into the Dr. until I make some good progress that she's comfortable with. (I'm still not up to my pre-pregnancy weight and at this point in my pregnancy I should have already gained at least 5 pounds minumum.)

-The calorie counting has been very eye opening, I've always been vaguely aware of how many calories are in some prepackaged foods (I like to read lables out of boredom while I'm eating), but writing it all down as shown me just how bad a lot of what we eat is- and not just for me but for Ryan. So once I'm not supposed to be getting all of the calories I can, our eating habits will definitely be changing!

-Having been sick, I've gotten to have a nice break from work. Before I went to the hospital, I had been put on a 4hr/day work schedule by my Dr. but then I went to the hosital 3 days later. Then I was off work the week I was in the hospital and got the next two weeks off as well (last week and this upcoming week). I go into the Dr. again Thursday to check things out (and weigh in) and we'll go from there. Luckily, I have great benefits at my job and all this time off is being paid 100% in addition to really low co-pays for the hospital visits. This has also allowed me to still take the kids to their babysitter so that I can rest without it being a financial strain. We're definitely blessed.

- I also get my ultrasound Thursday to determine our baby's sex. We're pretty sure we know what it is based on the ultrasounds I had while in the hospital, but they wouldn't tell us officially since I was only 16 weeks and they don't normally like that determination until later. I'm sure if it were my Dr. she would have just told me...but it was just the ultrasound techs and they were silly about it.

- I chopped my hair off to chin length in the middle of July and love it. I have been sick of my long hair for a good year now, but like most guys- Ryan liked it long, so I kept it long until I just couldnt take it anymore. No regrets about chopping it at all. P.S. My husband still loves me.

- Ryan got his new work schedule- which goes into effect toward the beginning of Sept. Just as we were dreading, he's working Sundays. He'll have Friday and Saturday off though and be off by 2:30 everyday. If it weren't for the Sundays, it would be a pretty good schedule. Luckily, the shifts will be shuffled in January and we'll pray for Sundays off then.

-We've had a great monsoon season this year. In fact, it's probablly going to rain within the hour. I love rainy Sundays! As wonderful as this has been, it has been one more thing keeping Ryan from being able to work on the backyard since it's always a big muddy mess. The sloping of our yard is off and we end up with a big lake in the yard instead of it draining out. It stays muddy for days after a good rain. This in turn means that the dogs are always a mess and I don't really like them coming into the house.

-The dogs are huge and really good looking labs. But, they drive me nuts. I have too many other concerns with life right now than to have to deal with them as well. Not to mention the barking at 6:30 every morning until I go feed them and refill the water (which no matter what kind of container we put it in, they dump it over within a very short while!) Ryan loves his dogs and him and Hailey take them to the dog park or Watson Lake in Prescott as often as possible- which isn't near as often as Ryan or Hailey would like!

That's all I've got for now. Sorry about the lack of pictures again! We're having massive issues with our desktop PC (which I prefer to use) and Ryan is researching food storage and emergency preparedness on his laptop- so I can't upload the hundreds of pictures on my camera from the last few months. So maybe this week I'll get some uploaded and posted.

My Week

So I had a super boring yet fairly eventful week. I have been at Yavapai Regional Medical Center since Monday around 1pm and just came home at 6:30 tonight. I have/had hyperemisis- which short and sweet means extreme nausea and vomiting, basically resulting in malnutrition and weight loss. Obviously not a good thing for anyone- let alone someone of my size. So after several visits to my doctor and her threatening to hospitalize me multiple times, I took a visit to my OB/GYN Monday morning, I got sent to the hospital.

I had a very small breakfast (which didn't stay down) that morning and no lunch before I went. Then I got put on NPO- which is a legal form of torture where you can't eat or drink and you're surviving off of IVs only. Due to the fact that I was still vomiting despite not eating or drinking, I wasn't allowed to go on liquids until Weds morning. But once again, I got sick and went back NPO until Thursday morning. I then got to have liquids again. It's really sad how excited you can get about drinking broth! Then because I held it down, around 2:30 Thursday I got to have a turkey sandwich. It was amazing! (Actually I don't recommend YRMCs food at all, but when you haven't eaten in days, you think anything tastes amazing!) I've held down food since and was able to come home tonight.

Thank goodness for my AMAZING husband who took care of everything at home without a complaint. He even had the house clean for me when I got home. A thank you to my family and friends (who knew where I was) that called with their well wishes, words of encouragement, empathy, and prayers. And thank you to Ryan's parents who have the girls today and overnight so that I could rest up a little more at home.

I could obviously go into a ton more detail about it all, but I won't. I'm tired. It was a horrible week and I just want to go sleep in my own bed.

Wish me luck that my pregnancy goes better from here out! I could very easily end up going back to the hospital if I get sick again or my weight doesn't pick up at a good rate of speed. Sigh.

80 Things About Us... For Now

Rather than post about myself, I thought should include the whole gang...

1. I am 13 weeks pregnant- due on my BFF Renae's birthday and my Grandpa Alan's birthday- Jan. 17th!

2. This was not planned and took me a little while to build up enthusiasm about- but I'm there and we're very much happy about our new addition!

3. I get really sick when I'm pregnant.

4. Case in point- I took my first ambulance ride (a whole 3/4 mile trip) to a hospital a few weeks ago after a humiliating incident nearly blacking out at Subway on my lunch break. Don't worry, I was release a few hours later after a few bags of fluid.

5. I take antinausia medication to hold down my cookies (and water for that matter) but it doesn't always work.

6. It's really hard to work full time and be absolutely nausious and try to take care of 2 kids- one of which doesn't even walk yet.

7. We don't have a preference as to whether we have a boy or girl next - there would be pros and cons to both.

8. Ryan says he wouldn't mind having another girl, but I know that he secretly would love a little football player.

9. I would like of love to continue on with the girls- I don't think I would know what to do with a boy!

10. And I'd have to buy all new stuff if we had a boy!

11. I also have a girl name already picked out, but no real ideas for boy names yet.

12. We'll definitely find out what we're having as soon as I can.

13. I just got released from the YW presidency today.

14. I got called to be the Home, Family & Personal Enrichment Leader.

15. This will make 3 of my last 4 callings Enrichment Leader, but we've moved the other 2 times and I haven't spent more 6 months in either calling previously. I think Heavenly Father feels like I need to spend a little more time here!

16. I am excited about it. I do enjoy this, but am a little worried because when I had this calling I was also at the end of my pregnancy and trying to plan one of our quarterly activities and it was a lot going on! I was worried I was going to have Katelyn before our activity and not be able to be there!

17. I made it to our quarterly activity, went home at 9:30ish that night and started on my way to the hospital at 12:00am, and delivered Katelyn at 8:30am the following morning.

18. I had a similar timing experience with having Haiely. I think that my body and my mind communicate with eachother and when my mind says that it's ok for my body to go ahead and let go- then I pop out the babies!

19. I am hoping to not plan anything important on or in the week before Jan 17th!

20. Ryan is almost done with all of his training at Lockheed Martin and will soon be on his own and not working with a trainer any longer.

21. This is going to result in a schedule change- I'm praying that he won't have to work Sundays again- but it's pretty likely that he will :-(

22. He is selling security systems on the side now for Secure Home Solutions. He's done this previously and been very successful- so hopefully it can mean big $$ and maybe me not having to work full time. Cross your fingers, and buy a security system!

23. We just got our system installed Friday night.

24. I survived a week of Ryan being gone at Scout Camp in June- but I'm glad it won't happen again until next year!

25. Ryan is also learning about web design and wanting to design a Scouting website.

26. I asked Ryan what else he wanted me to say about him and he said something really inappropriate. So that's all the updates you get about him.

27. Hailey finished her June swim class and we decided to take a break for July and start again in August.

28. On her last day of swim, she got to go down the YMCAs really big twisty slide a few times and thought it was AWESOME! (She was on the lap of her coach)

29. She's still doing gymnastics and on Saturday just did her first flips on the uneven bars (with her coaches help of course). I was so sad that I didn't have my camera! I'll try to catch it next week.

30. She's still taking piano lessons once a week. She can play the first few measures of Mary had a Little Lamb, Beethoven's 5th, and Fur Elise (sp? I've next seen it written).

31. Hailey has decided to throw massive temper tantrums lately. Wen I say massive- I'm not exagerating.

32. We found that the best punishment is to take away her current favorite movie- which is normally which ever Netflix she has at the time.

33. We discovered how well this works on the 4th of July when Ryan walked Barbie Fairytopia: Magic of the Rainbow out to the mailbox and Hailey cried for an additional hour about it.

34. I told her if we could be REALLY good for 3 days, then Barbie Fairytopia: Mermaidia would come. It didn't, Peter Pan came instead. She was mad, but got over it. Now I've still been able to hold Mermaidia over her as incentive to be good. I know, I'm cruel.

35. She got a haircut about a month ago. Actually two. Don't ever just show up at a cheap chain haircut place for a kid haircut unless you know that the stylist is capable. Her hair was still wet and curly when we left- she went to her grandma's house right after and I didn't REALLY look at the cut until late Saturday night. It was the worst haircut I'd ever seen. Super uneven. I took her back on Monday and had it redone. So it was shorter then than I wanted, but looks really cute on her.

36. Hailey is overjoyed that we're having another baby and tells everyone. She is so cute about worrying about me and the baby when I'm sick.

37. She's really excited for when she can feel it kicking.

38. Katelyn got her first tooth- FINALLY. You still can't really see it, but we can feel it.

39. She is no longer the least bit interested in someone else feeding her and only wants to eat things that she can plop in her mouth herself.

40. We don't eat as healthy as we should- especially when I'm sick and exhausted and don't feel like cooking.

41. Katelyn eating what we're eating has made me a lot more conscience of eating well rounded meals and I'll admit- we're not doing so well!

42. She has also finally decided in the last couple of weeks to get up off her tummy and actually crawl.

43. She's been able to crawl for a long time, but hasn't felt the need since she's so efficient at army crawling.

44. She's also pulling herself up and walking around the edges of everything. She's pretty confident up on her feet and I don't anticipate that it will be a super long time until she walks.

45. Her birthday is in less than a month (Aug 3) and I can't believe it's already been a year!

46. She makes me laugh all the time- she has the funniest faces that she'll make at you and I think she actually tries to be funny. I love it!

47. Hailey and her play really well together.

48. Hailey actually really enjoys when Katelyn wakes her up in the morning by crawling on top of her and giving her "kisses". It's one of the best ways to wake Hailey up when she doesn't want to, without her getting grumpy.

49. Another great way to wake Hailey up is to already have cinnamon rolls ready for her.

50. Hailey REALLY wants to be a mommy when she grows up. She talks about it constantly- well getting married in the temple to her prince charming and being a mommy.

51. Right now she calls herself a "little mommy" anytime she helps take care of Katelyn, cook dinner, clean, etc.

52. She became a little less eager to become a "big mommy" when I told her that includes changing diapers.

53. Playing dress up is still one of her favorite things.

54. Another one of her favorite things is having Grandma Barbara come over to play.

55. Grandma Barbara starts working in Phoenix today and will be moving soon.

56. We've tried explaining to Hailey about her moving, but I don't think she really gets it. Nor will she until she keeps asking for Grandma to come over and grandma can't.

57. Hailey already says 'I miss grandma' when it's been like a day since she's seen her- thank goodness for telephones!

58. Ryan and I are REALLY going to miss having Ryan's parents here in town.

59. It's going to be weird being up here by ourselves- they moved up here at the exact same time we did 6.5 years ago.

60. I can keep going about how sad this will all be if it would keep Grandma and Grandpa in Prescott- Barbara just let me know :-)

61. My brother went to the temple for the first time yesterday.

62. It was really awesome being there with my little brother. (He stands almost a foot taller than me.)

63. I really want my sister to be there with us someday.

64. The temple was PACKED yesterday. Every session was running behind the whole day. As much as this delayed the evening and did cause scheduling issues for some people- it was awesome to see.

65. I'm overjoyed that we'll have more temples in AZ soon enough. (Anyone know an actualy timeframe on any of the temples being built?)

66. I love monsoon season!

67. It's been fairly cool here with great afternoon thunderstorms every single day!

68. I'm very senstive to temperature changes (no one is allowed to post a comment about me having no meat on my bones for insulation). Anywho- I dislike being too hot but hate how cold it is in every air conditioned building and feel like I should be taking sweaters with me when I go out in the summer time.

69. Speaking of hating heat- I'm overjoyed to not be in Phoenix this summer with this pregnancy.

70. Although, this one will be due only 2 1/2 weeks after Hailey was due- and I remember feeling so frumpy trying to look cute in layers of winter clothes whilst 9 mo preggo!

71. I'm really racking my brain now on what to write about. I wish someone could offer up some ideas.

72. Hailey is a big fan of the band Weezer- just like her momma and dadda (I converted Ryan after we were married).

73. This happened after Ryan would drive around listening to the blue self titled CD (incase anyone else is a fan) VERY loudly play and singing along to My Name is Jonas and Undone- The Sweater Song.

74. She now knows the majority of the words to My Name is Jonas. It's pretty cute.

75. Hey There Delilah by the Plain White Ts is another favorite of hers.

76. Other than Weezer, Ryan really didn't get into any of my other favorite music from before we got together- of except for Wyclef (edited of course).

77. He was a country boy that went swing dancing on the weekends and I was a punk rock/ska girl that went to "shows" at least a few times a month and 'skanked' (not the meaning you would think) and danced my little heart out in a crowded sweaty loud smokey club.

78. I tried going to an all day Edgefest about 3 or 4 years ago with a friend and realized that I'd just really outgrown that scene in SO many ways.

79. I have great memories of that time in my life, I really did have fun- but I can't say I have any desire to go back and go it again. I do with that I could get some of my hearing back though!

80. I'm glad that I had the gospel and although was in an environment that I probablly shouldn't have been in- that never lead me to make any wrong choices because I knew who I was and what I was doing and had great friendly who supported me in that!

I'm needing to go, for now! I can't take any more time on this for now, but want to finish up later. Post some comments or questions that I can answer with my next 20 random things!!

Hypocrite

So I know that I haven't posted in an extremely long time and as I look back over the last several posts, there have been no pictures of the girls in months and you all are very deserving of the opportunity to see my beautiful children. However, I've been in a blogging funk if you will and have lacked the motivation to write a post that has some cute story, attach cute pictures, etc etc. Yet, I read other people's blogs still and get annoyed when they go a couple days without posting something. I know, I know. I identified myself in the title.

But here's the thing, Ryan has my camera at Camp Geronimo this week. And if I'm going to blog a worthwhile post, then it would require updated pictures of the girls- henceforth, I'm off the hook until this weekend. But it's going to be a really busy week- celebrating Ryan's 31st birthday (tomorrow), Super Saturday which I am teaching a craft at and still have to prepare everything for, potentially a trip to Phoenix to see My Fair Lady at Gammage (if I feel like it by the time Saturday night rolls around), etc etc. So we'll see. No promises.

In the meantime, know that we are all alive and well and we haven't dropped off the face of the earth. Thanks for still dropping by and checking in on us and we'll update soon. Maybe.

My Other Soul Mate

I think this is great news! We'd get along just fine...


Take the Quiz

Tag!

So here's another tag where I get to try to come up with things that you'll find interesting about me, and then hope that at the end you don't think...wow, thats the best she could come up with? So, I'm just going to write random thought. Here goes...

This tag is just 8 random things about myself. First the rules,

The Rules: 1. Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves. 2. People that are tagged write a blog post about their own 8 random things and post these rules. 3. At the end of your post tag 8 people and include their names. Don't forget to leave them a comment on their blog to tell them they've been tagged, and to comment back and read your blog for the whole story.

1. I got a new EnV cell phone, kind of for mother's day, last Thursday. I really like it, but can't figure out how to make it compatible with Rhapsody (where I download my music from) and it's making me very frustrated and I feel very technology illiterate!

2. Our family recently decided to remove our entertainment unit/TV out of the family room (and into our really small office)and cancel cable. We only have one main family area and the TV was just controlling too much of our family's time and there was always NOISE! We also thought that if we can keep it from being a major part of our kids's lives now it won't be a problem when they're older. Instead of all of the electronic media, we really want to focus on the extra curricular activities, playing outdoors, and family time, etc etc. We already feel a better spirit in our home!

2. I have a very passionate dislike of doing dishes in a soapy sink. I will load and unload the dishwasher a billion times if I can avoid doing dishes in the sink. I've always had dry hands, and washing dishes makes them so much worse that I avoid it at all costs :-) Unfortunately, I just did a big sinkful of dishes...

3. I shave my arms and legs every single day. I started shaving my arms in High School because I get cold easily and I had A LOT of long (for arm hair) blonde hair that would stand straight up everytime I was cold and I was always really embarassed. As much as it's a pain to maintain, I don't regret it in the least. But I can not stand to not shave every day and start getting prickly....yuck!

4. Ryan and I have moved 9 times in the past 7 years (including moving into our first apartment together). I pretty much consider myself a pro at it at this point. However, I do NOT want to do it again soon unless I am able to upgrade into a significantly bigger house- in which case I would move in a heartbeat!

5. Taking my kids to childcare and having to find good childcare on what feels like a very regular basis is a massive stressor for me. And just to set the record straight for the fairly frequent misjudgements that seem to occur...if I could be at home with my kids and not working 40 hours a week, I would be all over it. At this point, it's not an option so I make the best of working and have been decently successful in my career with my employer.

6. I'm totally ok about going to the one grocery store in my little town even when I'm looking pretty tired/lazy/homely. Anywhere else, I like to be wearing something somewhat cute, my hair and makeup would need to be looking alright, etc. But here...eh...it's just such a different laid back environment and I just allowed myself to conform right to it! If I drive into Prescott though, that's a whole other story...

7. I just finished The Host by Stephenie Meyer today. If you're at all curious, it started out really weird and was hard for me to get my brain around and get into (but I kind of expected that when I initally heard what it was about). But I got pretty into it and it was an ok book. She's just a good author so it doesn't really matter what she writes about (vampires, aliens, etc.) her stories suck you in and despite my ridiculously busy schedule the last two weeks, I finished the 600+ page book in 11 days. It was a lot longer of a read than the Twilight series books, and I was really wanting to get it finished so I could get my life back. But now that it's over, I'm kind of sad and want more.

8. I wanted Amanda, not Parvarti, to win Survivor! And I'm totally rooting for Amanda and Ozzie! I was kind of hoping for a Rob and Amber type proposal at the finale episode! I'm just a hopeless romantic I guess....

Now I tag Dawn, Shiela & Mindy.

Called to Serve Him

I am beaming with pride as a big sister! My little brother (who is actually much bigger than me) received his mission call last night!

New York, New York South Mission- Spanish Speaking !

For anyone who knows my little bro, you know that when he was younger he was a royal pain in the rear- even moreso than other little boys are to their 2 older sisters! But I've been so impressed with him as he's grown up into a man...which is really weird for me to say!

He has really made the decision to serve a mission all on his own and not been pushed into it or "expected" to go. When I think about the other youth from my home ward, even over the years since I was still at home, very few have served missions and a lot are inactive. But David and his friends all decided a couple years ago about the path they wanted to take and they're all going to be leaving on missions around the same time. In fact his best friend got his mission call yesterday too (to Eugene, OR) and reports to the MTC a week after David! It hasn't been the easist road for him to take and he's had challenges to overcome and the criticism of those who don't understand why he would PAY money to go give up two years of his life, but he's held his head high and worked through those things and stuck to his commitment to himself.

I remember a day when I stopped by my parents house on a weekday around 4:00 in the afternoon after school got out and no one else was home except my brother and one of his friends who were sitting in the living room reading the Book of Mormon together until they had to leave to go to work. I was quite taken back and really impressed to see two teenage boys spending the afternoon studying the gospel.

David has worked hard the last few years at QT (the convenience store) and has saved enough to pay for his whole mission on his own and even some extra to buy some of the things he'll need to go out. No offense to my little bro, but 5 years ago I would have bet you money that he would never hold a job- let alone be Employee of the Month and get recognized for going above and beyond on a regular basis.

I know he's going to be an awesome missionary because he has a strong testimony that the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is true and wants to share that knowledge with others so that it can bless them in their lives.

I know that you don't hear me say it enough, but I really do love you Dave!

Twilight

For those of you who don't already know this about me (in case there are any of you out there...), I am a very big fan of the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. Now I'm not a hardcore Twilight fan, but a fan nonetheless. At least fan enough to be reading the books for a second time in anticipation of book four- Breaking Dawn, which comes out in August (and, yes, mine has been pre-ordered). And at least a big enough fan to have checked www.stepheniemeyer.com on a very regular basis to watch for updates. And at least a big enough fan to have seen all of the mtv.com videos about the movie Twilight coming out in December.

But in my Twilight wonderings online, I have run into some Twilight fans that are FAR beyond the norm. I recently saw an "official" Bella braclet that had a crystal heart and a wolf head that cost $90. Really? Are you kidding? And would anyone really wear that? The T-shirts and baby bibs and all that are one thing...but $90 for a bracelt with a wolf head? Anyone who hadn't read the books would think you were insane- although even if you had read the books and wore that I would think that you were insane. Maybe it's just because I'm not a Jacob fan...

Anywho, for the benefit of anyone who hasn't already seen these videos, or at least for my mom's sake (I finally got her to read the books!), here is a video from the MTV.com Twilight video site. This isn't my favorite of the videos, but it's the only one that would load directly to this post. Go to http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?id=1585900&vid=226476 (sorry it wouldn't create the hyperlink for me) to see all of the videos. The first one "we killin some people today" is the best and my most recommended if you're only going to watch one.

• MTV
• Music Videos
• MTV Shows
• Entertainment News

I will admit that because I am such a fan of these books, I'm really concerned that the movie will suck, that's what everyone who hasn't read the books will see and the whole series will be put to shame by this one movie. So I really hope that instead, this movie is really well made and creates quite the buzz and they continue to make movies for each book. Although I hate that I would have to wait that long

Thank you AGAIN Uncle Sam!!

So I'm super duper stoked to wake up this morning, check my online banking and BAM! a triple payday plus! I got paid, Ryan got paid and we got our economic stimulous check- or whatever it's called! Too bad this doesn't happen every week! :-)

Tomorrow we're going to go order our block to make a retaining wall across our backyard, which will take up pretty much all of our IRS check ::sigh:: but then we can have our back yard leveled out, then Ryan can do our sprinklers, then within a month or so I should have GRASS!!! Wahoo!!

We have a 10x10 dog run that the puppies live in for the most part, but the rest of our backyard is just dirt, dusty dry dirt. And between the dogs coming inside the house and us going in and out of the backyard taking care of the dogs, my house is now dry dusty dirt and I'm pretty over it! I want my grass! :-)

I would post pictures of the mess our backyard is currently, but it's pretty ghetto- so I'll wait until we have "after" pictures too! We had to rip apart the siding on our hot tub to fix a leak and put new siding on that we still haven't painted, We have piles of landscape materials all over, we have many many of those blue water storage containers in our side yard, our flagstone patio to the hot tub is only 1/3 of the way done. The list goes on and on!

I feel blessed on a regular basis to have a husband who is so amazingly handy at so many different things. In this case his landscaping skills are going to pay off for us HUGE! He's done our front yard landscaping (including the drip/water systems) and his parent's front yard in Surprise- and now he gets to do our backyard! The money that we're saving on having the know how and ability to do it ourselves is awesome! I guess the year and a half of landscaping for a living has paid off (even though it didn't really at the time)!!

Speaking of, Ryan is really wanting to get a side business of landscaping going to bring in some extra dough. If anyone in the Prescott Tri-Cities needs ANY kind of work done...give us a buzz! Or please if you hear of anyone needing work done- give them our info! I promise that he knows his stuff!

Meet Lexi and Beamer

More pics to come...they're a little hard to get to sit still at this point. Hopefully the excitement of being at our house will wear off and then I can get more shots! :-)

They're both awesome, but Beamer is beautiful! He's going to be a BIG dog!

Personality Test Results

My Personality

Neuroticism	39
Extraversion	36
Openness to Experience	1
Agreeableness	63
Conscientiousness	73

You do not experience strong, irresistible cravings and consequently do not find yourself tempted to overindulge, however you are sensitive about what others think of you. Your concern about rejection and ridicule cause you to feel shy and uncomfortable around others. You are easily embarrassed and often feel ashamed. Your fears that others will criticize or make fun of you are exaggerated and unrealistic, but your awkwardness and discomfort may make these fears a self-fulfilling prophecy. You are not prone to spells of energetic high spirits. You prefer facts over fantasy and are more interested in what is happening in the real word. You dislike confrontations and are perfectly willing to compromise or to deny your own needs in order to get along with others, however you are willing to take credit for good things that you do but you don't often talk yourself up much. You take your time when making decisions and will deliberate on all the possible consequences and alternatives.

Personality Test now or view the full Personality Report. The best Buying Pet Gifts.

SSSHHHH!!! It's a Secret!!

So tomorrow evening I'll have the happiest 3 year old in the whole wide world!! We're finally getting the puppies that we've been wanting for the past 6 months (actually since we had to give away our dog Charlie 3 years ago). Hailey has known that we've been on the prowl for puppies for quite some time and is VERY eager to have her very own dog. She'll carry around a little pillow she has and pretend that it's a puppy because she wants one SO bad...it's really sad!

But tomorrow that will all change! We will be getting not one, but TWO lab puppies! (Yes, I do know that we're insane having an 8 mo old that's just learning to crawl and just started sleeping through the night, and now we're getting 2- 10 week old puppies!) We have a white male and a chocolate female on their way from breeders in Missouri. My grandpa in Missouri transports puppies from breeders to pet stores across the country. So he's hooking us up with two papered labs from different breeders that we can breed...eventually. And I won't mention the cost, but it is a truly amazing deal!

Ryan also has plans for these to be the best trained bird/hunting dogs ever. Ryan LOVED training Charlie who was also a chocolate lab and was super smart and learned so easily. Ryan took him to the lake near our house on a nearly daily basis and reminded me of a little boy with his dog. They had so much fun together. We've missed him sooo much- but last I heard he was living with a good family on several acres and runs around with a race horse...so I'm sure that he's happy!

We've joked (or half-joked) that we would name our next chocolate male Charlie as well...just because it's so natural for us to want to call a dog Charlie. However, we're now getting a white male and a chocolate female....so it's just not the same. So we're trying to come up with names now. I've got a couple of names floating around in my head (such as Lexi and Dax)...but nothing decided.

I'd love to hear your suggestions!! I was thinking it would be cute to have them named after a famous couple or something to do with the white and brown, etc etc. (Just for the record Twilight fans, Ryan has nixed Edward and Bella :-) I was thinking Jasper might work though....)

Let me know your ideas and if I choose names you suggest, there may be prizes involved!!

I l-o-v-e IKEA!

So I'm in Phoenix this weekend and today took a little trip to IKEA- one of my very favorite places. I got to go roam around for a couple of hours with actual money to spend! (Thank you Uncle Sam for giving me my $$ back and making this trip possible!)

My goal over the next month is to get my bedroom decorated into the romantic get-a-way I've been wanting since we bought the house 2 years ago! I've run into several road blocks on getting this done sooner: lack of funds, spending $$ in the more visible rooms of the house, TIME, and then just not knowing exactlly what I've wanted to do (Ryan doesn't really care what I do. He trusts me with whatever I do, isn't that great?!)

I'm now at a place where I've worked many of these things out...I've got a little bit of cash (although I'm still super budget conscience), I've made my room my biggest decorating priority, I've got my friend Hilary on the project of helping me plan things out (she's even going to bed at night thinking about ideas- she's so committed!) and I'm just going to make the time- no matter what!!

So getting back to today, I bought a really cool canvas photograph from IKEA that perfectly matches my bedding. It's 3ft x 4ft and will look great over my bed. I also got a nice mirror and floating shelves that I can now buy accessories for. And Hilary is on the hunt to help me find the curtains I want. Once we find the right color of curtains- I can get the right paint colors and get some color on the wall! My room is seriously a big ugly white blank canvas with zero decor- so I'm really excited about this- if you can't tell!

(It's more blue than grey in real life.)

I'll post pictures of our projects and progress as we go!

Our Weekend Accomplishment

The following post is really for the benefit of those who have seen the state of chaos that our garage has been in since we moved into our house two years ago. Even when we had moved to Surprise we had left the garage here in Chino as is. We've been frustrated with it for a very long time, but this weekend we had had enough. We spent at least 8hours (well Ryan spent 8 hours, I probablly spent 2) cleaning up and organizing and throwing out junk, etc etc. We also bought more shelving which really helped!

Look mom and dad- both cars are in our garage!!

It's kind of fitting for a Easter weekend project- we gave our garage new life!

MUST See Movie: August Rush

If you haven't heard of it. watch the trailor here:

http://www.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK//video/trailer/me60688448/

Pictures That Make Me Happy

Since I haven't posted much (or at all) over the last few months, there are too many things that have taken place for me to go back and tell of the stories. So instead, as I was looking through my pictures trying to decide what I really wanted to share- I decided just to post all of the pictures that show you what makes me happy to be a mom and a wife and a daughter...

This is my mom & my mom's mom with Katelyn.

This picture of the girls makes me smile because it's such an everyday thing for Hailey to be laying on the floor with Katelyn.

Hailey LOVES to help me cook. Here we are making chocolate chip cookies- a favorite weekend thing for us.

The picture with Hailey in front of the pink quilt is special because my mom made this quilt for Hailey and gave it to her for her third birthday. She spent SOOO much time on this quilt! I wish you could see the star quilting on each of the squares and in the borders.


Even though it was obviously a cold wet gray day, I love this picture because of what it represents to me. This is the spot in front of the Salt Lake Temple where Ryan proprosed to me! At the time I couldn't have pictured where we would be in our lives together 6 years and two kids later! Unfortunately there was no one around to take the picture so that I could be in it as well.

I also like this one from our visit to Temple Square. I'm holding my little girl and it looks like Christ is ready to pull us into an embrace as well.

The is the girls with my grandpa- their great grandpa in Salt Lake.

And finally, here's my beautiful happy baby!

New Addition to Our Family

So a week ago today we bought a piano. No one in our family currently plays the piano, but Hailey is learning and because Ryan gets to take her to her lessons, he is learning in the process. I'm totally jealous! I can't say that I've always wanted to learn, but now that I have a piano I REALLY want to learn! Ryan wants real lessons as well, but unfortunately we can't afford for all of us to be taking lessons at the same time. So we bought a teach yourself book and we'll see how that goes.

I'm a visual learner and do so much better with someone showing me how to do it. Example: I have had a sewing machine for 2 years that has only been used once- when Ryan's mom borrowed it. I have no idea how to use a sewing machine. I would love to use it, but I absolutely hate the idea of having to get the book out and teach myself. I want someone to show me how to do it and then I know that I'll do great with it.

So if someone is looking for a service project- teach me how to use my sewing machine! And if someone wants a really big service project- teach me how to play the piano!! :-)

Isn't she cute?

Long Awaited Updates

Hailey is a very busy girl lately. Ryan has Thursday and Friday off every week, so Hailey is now taking piano lessons and gymnastics once a week and in April she'll be taking swim lessons as well. She loves having so many fun things to do! Her favorite thing to do right now though is to make her Grandma Barbara play puppets for hours on end!

Katelyn is such a happy baby! She is 7 1/2 months on now and weighs 17 1/2 lbs and is 27" tall. She drools like you've never seen, but there's still no sign of teeth yet! She is rolling all over the place and has just started scooting herself forward in the last couple of days, I'm still working on getting good video of it!

Ryan just got called as our ward's Scout Master and he's excited but overwhelmed by the challenge. He has big shoes to fill of our previous scout master who was in that position for about 5 years. Luckily scouting runs in the Lowry blood and he'll have lots of help from his dad!

I have to run, but will try to post more soon- thanks for everyone who keeps coming back waiting for more!