2008 Highlights

Highlights:
Moving to St. George
Finishing my Masters Degree
Reading books for fun again (specifically the Twilight series)
Making the switch to be a stay-at-home Mom
Meeting some SWEEEEEET new friends (you all know who you are!)
Taking the kids to Disneyland
Our annual pumpkin carving bash
Several special spiritual experiences that helped us make some hard decisions.
Decorating Londyn's Nursery
Having a SKUNK run AT ME inside someone's house in Cedar City.
Getting our pics taken by Justin Bowen (seriously the best pictures we've ever had)
Watching Londyn grow...wow a year later makes a huge difference.
Taking the kids to "the farm" for the annual cattle round up.
Going to the Twilight movie with a bunch of SWEEEEEET girlies.
Starting our Bunko group.

Lowlights: (Per Dan's request)
Dan sold his truck (I'm still hearing about this 11 months later)

All in all, 2008 was a great year. These are all I can think of for now. I'm sure there were other events that I can't think of right now!

Do they look alike?

Dan and his brothers all got a Murray High plaque from their parents for Christmas. They were all highly involved at the school and have a "strange" high school pride. :) (At least I tease him about it!). They all loved Murray High, and when they tore the old school down to build the new one, it was pretty sad for them. So, their parents got a brick for all of them along with a tile from the hallway wall.

So, do you think they look alike? LOL.

Merry Christmas!

A lot has happed this year. Here are some of the highlights to give you a small update.

We moved to St. George in July and it has been great. We love our neighborhood and have felt at home from the very beginning. We accepted a new position within our company and Dan is staying really busy keeping up on all his responsibilities. I get to help him in the office a few hours daily, but most of all, I get to be a mom and stay home with our three beautiful kids. This switch was needed, but a lot of prayer and guidance from the spirit allowed it to take place. I love the chance I get to be at home.

The kids are great. Oaklyn, 5, has definitely calmed down during the past year. She is definitely still a “red-head” but she’s starting to really help me out around the house. She loves to take care of Londyn. She’s growing up! I can’t believe it! She started kindergarten and enjoys her class. She loves her dance class and stays busy pretending almost all day! She loves to color and is very offended if I throw her “art” away.

Connelly, 4, is all-boy. He loves to rough-house and play sword-fighting. He loves to ride his bike, tackle his dad, and throw a ball. He’s in preschool and loves his teacher. Among his top five things he’s grateful for: Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, and The Buzz Light-year Ride. (I couldn’t stop laughing).

Londyn, 1, is such a happy baby. She loves the bathtub and can’t get enough of her daddy. She follows him everywhere. Her hair is blond (which came as a surprise to us since Oaklyn’s hair is red and Connelly’s is dark). Daddy’s nickname for her is “pixie dust” and it seems to fit her perfectly.

I have never been so busy, and not so busy at the same time. I guess what I mean is that I’m used to being busy, but in the professional way. The kind of busy I now experience is more like “Oh shoot, I forgot Connelly’s doctor’s appointment” or “BLAST, the laundry in the washer is sour…I’ll re-start it for the third time!” I’m trying to keep up! I still enjoy decorating when I can!

Dan is doing great. He is great as the manager, and his fix-it skills impress me and others daily. He enjoyed helping carve 55 pumpkins for our annual Halloween bash. He got to water-ski a little less than usual this year, but I have a feeling next year will be a lot better (since we now live 5 minutes from the lake!)

As you can see, this year brought lots of change and blessings for us. We are so grateful. We hope you are all enjoying your holiday season. We hope we can all remember the real meaning for Christmas and celebrate the birth of our Savior. Thank you for enriching our lives. We love each one of you.

Oaklyn Performance

Oaklyn is the one on the far left! Didn't she do great!?!?

Oaklyn loves her dance group. She is a member of On-Stage Dance Studio. In fact, she is on "Tiny Team." The little girls on the team are absolutely darling. It is so much fun watching them improve with each performance. Heather (her teacher) is great. She was Oaklyn's teacher in Cedar City, and we were lucky because she has a studio in St. George too! I was really excited that I didn't have to change her to a different studio when we moved.

Here are a few pictures of her. I am totally a proud mom whenever we go to watch her. Good job honey!

Santa...

The holidays are so much fun with two kids at the perfect age for Santa! They both were so cute with Santa. As you can see by the pictures...this guy is the best Santa I have ever seen. He was great with all the kids, and a real beard, had white eyelashes...WOW...it was so fun. As we left the clubhouse, Oaklyn looked up to the roof and said, "Where is Santa's sleigh?" I told her that he had already left to travel back to the North Pole. :)




Unfortunately, Londyn didn't like Santa. The pictures we took of her were all blurry because she was flailing herself away from him...So, you get to see her new favorite activity....sitting in the car seat in the living room! Her hair is growing so fast...which is a dream come true for me.

Diamond Earrings....WHAT!!?!!!

Ok, so I went to Bunko again this last week, and Liz did a GREAT job with everything. We had the most delicious meal I've had in a LONG time. We had a blast chatting with each other, and then we started playing. I don't know what has gotten into me since I've moved to St. George, but I WON AGAIN!!!! This is the second month in a row. YES! I actually NEVER won in our group in Cedar City. So, as you can see, my prize was SPECTACULAR!!! Oh my gosh...I was so excited. I couldn't stop grinning. Liz's father in law is Vice President at Morgan Jewelers. So...her prizes got to be extravagant because of that. I am so lucky! Thanks Lizzy.

Twilight Bunko more pictures!

I know my Bunko was forever ago, but my friend had a few pictures of the "Welcome to Forks" sign and the table setting. So....I had to post them. My original twilight bunko post can be found here.

Gingerbread Houses with Grandma!

The kids had a great time making gingerbread houses with Grandma Julie while we were visiting for Thanksgiving. It was so fun watching them. Between licking the frosting off their fingers and sneaking a candy here and there, the house actually got built and it turned out darling! Great job kids.

Tagged by Jo

Tagged: Fours

Four things I love about my Hubby:

1. His eyes, you can see into his soul. :) They are so gentle and loving.
2. His craziness. I LOVE that he can be wacky. It makes me smile.
3. His musical talent. He sings all day, and I love it.
4. His ability to see the big picture and not over react about small things.


Four Jobs I've had:

1. Manager of Sunset Ridge Village
2. SUU adjunct Professor (my favorite job yet)
3. Telemarketing Trainer/Supervisor (my least fav job ever)
4. Farm SLAVE :)

Four Movie's Watched More Than Once:

1. 8 seconds...my all time FAVORITE show
2. Sound of Music
3. South Pacific
4. Hatari (John Wayne is the best)

Four TV Shows I Watch:

1. Grey's Anatomy
2. Chuck
3. Life
4. Lost

Four (cool) Places I've visited:

1. Zihuatanejo, Mexico
2. Grand Caymen
3. Cabo
4. Cancun

Four Places I've lived:

1. Holden, UT
2. Murray, UT
3. Cedar City, UT
4. St. George, UT

Four Favorite Foods:

1. Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
2. Fresh garden-grown tomatoes with salt and pepper
3. Mongolian BBQ (at Chinese Gourmet in SLC)
4. Chips and Salsa

Four Places I'd Like to Visit:

1. Hawaii
2. Mediterranean
3. Australia
4. Church sites back East

Four People I Tag:

1. Natalie
2. Adrian
3. Angie
4. Julie


If you don't do this tag...bad things WILL happen to you!
So go.......go post this tag!

Tag from Jamie!

I've been tagged twice lately, and I'm finally getting around to fulfill them! Sorry girls. Here they are:

Here's how to play:
1. Link your tagger (Jamie) and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Here it goes...I'll try to be "random" like the instructions say :).
1. I hate looking for things. My hubby can attest to that! Unfortunately I lose things a lot. If I can't find something, after about 2 minutes, I lose patience and ask Dan to help me find it. Hallelujah for Dan because he helps me find my make-up, my cell phone, my shoes...yada yada on a daily basis.

2. I love gardens. Someday I will have a HUGE garden of my own. My very favorite foods to eat from the garden are yummy tomatoes with salt and pepper on them and peas!

3. I love to create things. I've designed lots of baby announcements, birthday invitations, wedding invitations, blogs :), advertisements, fliers, logos, Christmas cards, graduation announcements, business cards, party invitations...I really enjoy it. It's a fun thing that I like to do for friends and family for FREE! :)

4. I LOVE to decorate. I think I should probably move this one to #1 because this one occupies my brain a lot. I would LOVE to open a children/baby boutique because decorating kids' rooms are the very best thing to decorate! I honestly dream about ideas how to decorate. I'm a freak!

5. I got in a bad car accident 7 1/2 years ago and it changed my life. I broke my leg (compound fracture) and I've never been able to be as active as I'd like ever since. I've had 4 surgeries, and I'm 99% sure I need another one. Only recently have I decided to live through the pain and continue to go to the gym. What a challenge.

6. I grew up on a farm. Most people seem surprised when I tell them this about me. I have operated heavy machinery, tractors, swathers, you name it. It taught me how to work hard, and I'm grateful for it now. At the time though, I loathed every minute of it. I learned how to drive when I was about 13 years old because of the farm.

7. I had my first two kids 12 months apart. Was this on purpose? NO! Lol. I was nursing Oaklyn at the time, and I was taking the "mini" pill. WELL...needless to say, Connelly was a gift from heaven. (That I was pretty upset about for a minute). But, I would never change it now. Oaklyn was a really bad baby, when I say really bad, I mean REALLY BAD. She cried every waking moment of her life until she was around 9 months old. So, I honestly believe that Heavenly Father knew I would be scarred for life and sent me Connelly so that I would keep having babies! :) Imagine finding out that you are PREGNANT when your newborn is 3 MONTHS OLD!....AHHHHH. By the way, this all happened smack dab in the middle of my last year of my Bachelor's degree...I can't imagine how I got through that.

I tag: Jo, and Liz, and Jessica, and Whitney, and Chris or Staci, and Kallie, and Shandie

My baby is growing up.

We took these pictures this morning at my parent's house. I've wanted to make a post about Londyn since her birthday. I can't believe how fast Londyn is growing up. I just wanted to jot down a few things about her. She is in a really fun stage right now!
She is the easiest baby that we've gotten so far. My first two were colicky babies (that is an understatement!)
She doesn't cry unless she is tired or hungry (I'm REALLY lucky).
She absolutely loves otter pops. If she sees one, she will attack whoever has it until she gets a taste!
Her favorite food is diced cooked carrots. She loves them!
She LOVES her binky.
She hates being poopy.
She hates taking most medicine...she spits it all over me.
She is a big time daddy's girl. She follows Dan all over the house. If he goes into another room and closes the door, she gets sad. She calls for him every morning, "Da Da!"
She LOVES to knock over the garbage can in the office and dump out all the papers.
She loves stuffed animals. She hugs them over and over.
She unpacks my diaper bag and my drawers on a daily basis.
She is just barely getting her first two teeth (one on bottom and one on top).
When she gets tired, she gets clumsy and lays on the ground.
She loves anything with buttons...hence why my phone ended up in the tub last week. (It dried out and is fine by the way).
She doesn't like to ride in the car, and very rarely does she sleep in her car seat...darn it!
She can suck from a straw.
She loves to cuddle (I love this!)
Her hair is growing LIKE MAD!!! It's so fun.
She won't leave a headband on for very long. :(

Note to Londyn:
I love you honey. I'm so proud to be your mom. Happy first birthday. I can't believe it was a year ago that I had you. It seriously seems like a few weeks ago. I was pretty mad at your dad for going duck hunting that morning while I was in labor with you. :) I guess he'll never live that down! The nurses in the hospital couldn't believe how fast and easy my labor was with you. They kept saying, "Don't sneeze, or she'll come out before the doctor gets here!" I think I pushed two or three times and you were here. I was so happy to see you. Your brother and sister just adore you. Thank you for being in our family. I love you more than you know. I hope I say it enough.

TWILIGHT!

I had an absolute blast going to Twilight on opening night at midnight!. Yes, I was "ONE OF THOSE." In fact, I went over to the theater at 5:30 (just to check on the status) and the line was forming already. I couldn't believe it. So, I came home to make sure the kids were ok with Daddy and then went to stand in line. Well, I guess I sat in line (with my camp chair and all!) The line went outside pretty early on, and I didn't want to be in the cold, and I wanted everyone who was coming with us to get a good seat. SO...I waited in line for nearly 6 hours. What the....I know....it was actually REALLY fun.


We brought games, treats, and wore our AWESOME t-shirts. I laughed hard and I LOVED the movie.


Some of the girls that were in line got a little CRAZY and started butting. I was laughing at the craziness that I saw. One girl (look at the picture below, she is the one with the pink pants at the bottom left of the picture) started FREAKING out about people saving spots so she butt to almost the front of the line, and as you can imagine people behind her got REALLY mad. I tried to stay out of it, but the people-watching entertainment was PRICELESS!

As for the movie...I really did love it. I wasn't one of those people that got mad at the changes. In fact, I expected them. I honestly LOVED every minute of it. I thought the scenery was beautiful and oh my gosh, Bella's Lullaby was so beautiful. I added the song on a playlist so everyone could hear it. The first song is the one I'm talking about from the movie. The second one is from the soundtrack. I like it too, but I like the movie one better. I really like piano music because my mom plays the piano and I just LOVED it. So, you can make fun of me if you want...but I'm totally going to see it AGAIN!!!

Being a Mom.

My friend Kelly had this on her blog, and I liked it so much that I stole it. Being a mom is the most challenging thing I've ever done, but I know that it's the most important thing for me to be doing. I definitely struggle keeping the kids under control sometimes, but I love them each individually and unconditionally.

Here are a few funny things I have learned lately:

#1 It is NOT worth it to get lettuce on a Taco...Connelly will NOT eat it and I will end up picking every tiny shred out of the middle. I will never forget to tell them "no lettuce" again.

#2 Paper plates cannot run out around here again. I ran out for about a week, and it took me two hours to catch up with the dishes.

#3 Triaminic stains...bad.

#4 Laughing gas is AWESOME for a 5 year old at the dentist. (She only had one cavity, but she is HORRIFIED OF SHOTS!).

#6 The flu mist is SWEEEEET...no pain, but all the benefits (Again...due to Oaklyn's shot terror).

#7 Connelly thinks that long-haired polygamists are actually Rapunzel visiting Wal-Mart.

#8 Oaklyn is reading the "first book" of twilight???? (She actually just carries it around). Then she asked me, "Have you read the second book, the third book, and the fourth book? When I said yes, she said "Way to go, Mom."

My baby is ONE!!!

Ok, so this cake is the CUTEST cake I have ever seen. My sister in law Jessica made it for Londyn. Oh my gosh, I just loved it. It was so dang cute. I hope that the pictures can really do it justice because it was so cute and furry! Great job Jess.


Londyn was so funny with her cute little cake, it took her a few minutes to dig in, but after she tasted the frosting, she started loving it.

My parents came down to Cedar to celebrate my niece Addie's birthday along with Londyn's birthday. It was so fun to get together with family and celebrate. Jess made Addie a Cinderella cake too because Addie just loves Cinderella.


Jess's cake website can be found here.

Twilight BUNKO!

Ok, I can't even begin to tell you how much fun we had tonight. I got to be in charge of our first BUNKO night, and it was an absolute blast. I'm kind of bummed because in all the hustle and bustle, I didn't take ANY pictures of the decor. So...bear with me, I'll just explain it!

I really went ALL OUT...and I mean that literally. It was so much fun for me.

First, I made t-shirts for all the members of the group.






I served Fettuccine Alfredo...and created Bella Italia...the place where Edward and Bella have their first real date in Port Angeles. I created a menu and everything! (Thank you Kallie for the great recipe...it was a HUGE hit.


I served RED punch...and we drank blood...kind of. Lol.

Since the movie is coming out the next week, our prizes were based on the movie.

1st prize: 2 movie tickets, some movie candy, a cute black hat, and a twilight bag.

2nd prize: A cute black purse, 1 movie ticket, and some movie candy

3rd prize: A copy of the Twilight book, 1 movie ticket, and some movie candy

Travelers: Some movie candy

I tried to keep the prizes all black, red, and white...to keep the color of the book. I also made some cool window signs for the door that said "Welcome to Forks" and had a picture of the book cover....I can't believe I didn't take pictures of this...maybe one of the other girls did!

Ok, you all probably think I'm a total freak, but I had so much fun. We are all going to the movie at MIDNIGHT on Thursday. Anyone is invited!!!

OH...........and I WON..........for the FIRST TIME!!!!! So, I got my SWEEEEEEEET first prize. I was pretty excited to say the least! Thanks girls for the FUN!