Friday night

So I'm a few days late in posting this, but whatever... My friend Jessica called and asked if I wanted to go to Salt Lake for the opening of the Twilight movie. Wouldn't have dreamed going otherwise, but Hey, girls night out? SURE! So we all went out to dinner and then over to the Walmart in Riverton. Whoa... Talk about a lot of people. The "line" started at the front door and weaved through the prescription aisle, then to the end of the garden section, all the way up to the back of the store, through sporting goods, and started weaving down through the electronics. And that was from where we were standing. I'm sure by the end it was snaked around the entire store. Thousands of people... But for good reason. There had been rumors that a 'celebrity' would be showing up. We decided there was no need for autographs (not THAT big of a need) so we just stood in the mass and waited to get a picture. Not that we had any idea who would actually make an appearance. Well, here is the first picture of us when we arrived. I'm not in it, but these are a few of the girls I went with.

Then finally Victoria (Rachelle Lefevre) came. We didn't meet her or anything, but took a few pictures from a distance. Then we got out of the massive crowd and got some snacks and met another one of the characters....

EDWARD!! Seriously - right?? No, he is not a cardboard cut-out, he is a real life person. There was a costume contest. This kid had red eyes, the hair... we got our books signed by him and gave him a few votes for the contest. (ok, so we gave him as many as we could before the lady behind the counter said - ONLY ONE PER PERSON) :) Not sure if he won or not, but he should of.


Chris doesn't like this picture.

And the Bad Mommy Award...

...goes to...? ME! Yep! Forgot the sunscreen. Darn it if that wasn't the last thing on my mind when we went to the park today. It was great fun actually. I hadn't ever been to this particular park, but Sara invited us for a picnic. It was like a big castle... it had sandboxes and a closed in area for the littler ones... we're definitely going to have to go back. Of course no pictures actually AT the park having fun (or the pile of rocks the boys collected saying they were dinosaur teeth) No, I had to take them after we got home and realized their faces were bright red. oops!

This picture was to show off his sunburn, but I think the chocolate face mask is the more prominent feature. Ice cream for dessert! YUM!


My poor fair skinned children. 3 hours in the sun just isn't a good thing for them. The good news is that it'll be gone (or at least better) by this time tomorrow night and even at the expense of their skin, they had a blast today. :) Thanks Sara!!

7 months... I lasted 7 months

But the drive to work was just too great. ;) I actually don't know what is possessing me to go through with this, but I am going to go back to work. Just temporarily and just at night. I'll go in after Chris gets home from work - not doing the daycare thing anymore! My office is probably the only place in the country that has too much work and I offered to help them out during their 'crisis'.

My boss called me up just to make sure I still wanted to do it, and he said they have a project working out of our Kaysville office that I can just run with. Its sick, but hearing about working in Inroads and Microstation... doing vertical alignments, plans, estimates, it makes me want to be involved. I don't miss the work when I compare it to taking care of my kids but if I get to be with my kids all day and then do that as well? I don't know, its hard to say no. Plus I've spent 6 years with this company and feel a sense of loyalty or something with them. I just want to help out any way I can. Anyway, it'll still be a couple weeks before I go back in, but I am excited!!!!

Reaper is BACK baby!!!

Ok, so this may be the longest clip on youtube about Reaper, but its funny, and I love this show - and you just can't have a clip thats too long. Plus it'll catch you up as to who he is and what he does. :) Tomorrow night, CW 30, 7pm. OH YEAH!!!! (you ready Carrie????)

Sunday night

Well we had a fun night at our house last night. Chris was busy making a lemon pound cake and talking to his parents while I was in the living room reading. Eli was twirling in the living room with this paper thing he made in church. So we have Eli... in the living room... with the paper 'thingy' twirling around. Any guesses??
Here is the paper 'thingy'

The wall in the living room...

Crack. He tripped and split his head on the corner of the wall. And of course its a head wound so - BLEEDER!

Chris took him to a after hours clinic because (of course) its 7:30pm on a Sunday. Why do accidents NEVER happen during business hours? I'll never understand it. Anyway, a lot of crying and 4 staples later my baby is fine. Chris said he actually didn't cry during the numbing shots they gave him or the staples. Just right when it happened and he was seeing all that blood. He slept all night and when he woke up said only that his head a little. Well I gave him some medicine anyway but he is running around the house perfectly fine. You'd never guess. And his hair is long enough that you can barely see the staples today. Now what to do about preschool tomorrow. Am I a freak to be worried that he might get paint on his fingers and then scratch his head? or some other kid with their dirty hands get near it? I don't know. I'm sure he'll be fine. Maybe I'll throw a big bandage over it or something. Anyway, this is our first (of I'm sure many) trips for stiches/staples, casts or other such emergencys. Fun times... fun times...

Love and Randomness

Well, my Mom left on Tuesday and the kids are sad. We miss you already Mom!!! and Happy (belated) Birthday to my Dad. He turned a young 71 yesterday. :) I also wanted to give a shout out to my sister Erin. Her hubby comes home today from Iraq. YEAH!!! Welcome Home Caleb!! We Love You!!!!

So whats been going on with us... not a whole lot. Chris installed new can lights in our living room because the builders of our neighborhood figured we didn't need light in our front rooms... literally there is not a house on this block (that I've been in) with overhead lighting in their front room. Stupid.
We had our ward playgroup over here yesterday. Fun, Fun. I finished my laundry this morning and put it away, reorganized my husbands shirts, filed our taxes, filled out Eli's kindergarten forms (sob!) and we're supposed to get new insulation put in this afternoon. That makes me SO happy. I'm hoping its going to help with our bills - but if not at least help with the ice on our roof. One can dream...

The boys are great. Nathan is walking just about everywhere now. He falls a lot, but is doing so well! Only 6 short weeks and he'll be in nursery! I finally turned him forward facing in his car seat. He seems to like it, but he never really complained either way - hence why I've waited a few more months than necessary. Now he just wants to be like his brother. Although his brother also wants him to grow up and be big like him... I guess its inevidable that Nathan will grow up too fast.
Here are my superheros...

And this picture was from a couple weeks ago. Nathan had been sick or something. I almost enjoy my kids being sick. They're so cuddly... :) but ugh - that picture doesn't even look like me. yikes!

And I think Eli took this picture. What a cute husband I got. Love you babe!

Gaithersburg High 1997

Fill this out about your SENIOR year of high school! The longer ago it was, the more fun the answers will be!!Post as the name of your high school and graduating year.


1.Did you date someone from your school?•No
2.Did you marry someone from your high school?• No
3. Did you car pool to school?• Yes in the morning from seminary and the afternoon home from lax
4.What kind of car did you have?• borrowed Moms (red Aerostar)
5. What kind of car do you have now?• Hyundai Elantra
6. Friday nights...where are you now?• LOL! probably home with the kids
7. It is Friday night...where were you then?• out with my friends
8.What kind of job did you have in high school?• daycare worker at the local gym
9.What kind of job do you do now?• SAHM
10. Were you a party animal?• No
11. Were you considered a flirt?• No - that came later
12. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir?• NO
13.Were you a nerd?• YES
14.Did you get suspended or expelled?• No
15. Can you sing the fight song?• Did we have a fight song?
16. Who was/were your favorite teacher(s)?• Mr. Schultz
17.Where did you sit during lunch?• With friends either in the cafeteria or library
18. What was your school's full name?• Gaithersburg High School
19. When did you graduate?• 1997
20. What was your school mascot?• Trojan
21. If you could go back and do it again, would you?• Not a chance
22. Did you have fun at Prom?• yes - came to Utah for prom
23. Do you still talk to the person you went to Prom with?• Nope
24. Are you planning on going to your next reunion?• No
25. Do you still talk to people from school?• Yes on Facebook
26. School Colors?• Blue and Gold
27. Did you enjoy High School?• Not really

Sickness is FUN!

We're fine now, but over the weekend the kids had a bit of the runs. So much fun - let me tell you. Nathan with his red bottom that was so raw it was bleeding 1/2 the time... but I just set out the other 1/2 of a ream of diapers realizing that we went through about 75 diapers since Friday night. 4 days - 75 diapers. And yesterday hardly counts because he was already starting to get better. How much do diapers cost again...??? Well looks like I'll be headed to Costco this weekend. (sob)

Barbershop

An old friend from college is in Spin Magazine! How cool is that? Here is their article.
http://digital.spin.com/spin/200902/?pg=64&pm=2&u1=friend
I haven't had too much experience with OC Times because back when I knew Sean he was in a different group called Trademark. Oh, those were the days - being a Trademark groupie. ;) I did see OC Times perform a few years ago at the annual Barbershop competition and let me tell you... it was insane!! There were screaming girls everywhere. LOL! But the article was pretty good and Sean is labeled as a heartthrob. That just made me laugh. Anyway, its fun to see him doing well for himself. As you're looking on stage he is the 2nd from the left with the dark brown hair (with the crazy facials).


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc2AceONsc8

Attempt #2

So a couple years ago I made an attempt at taking the PE test. I did not do well... And even though I have quit my job, I'm still going to try and become a (licensed) professional civil engineer. I went down to Salt Lake tonight to study with a couple guys I used to work with who are taking it as well. Hello! Can we say LOST?? I haven't even thought about engineering since I quit and I'm trying to conjure up coefficients and density constants and equations that I used to have memorized. Man do I have a long way to go. So if I disappear for the next 3 months, I do apologize. I have to relearn 4 years each of school and work experience to pass this test. This agonizing 8 hour test that is the bane of my existence. Oh man, what am I getting myself into? Anyone want to offer to watch my kids starting at 6:30am on April 24th? LOL!

Made me laugh

So how many 1 yr olds do you know who just sit and look at family pictures? This is how I found Nathan the other day. He was just laughing and talking to the pictures... At one point, he had his knees bent and his feet in the air. :) Sweet boy

Walking

My little "tiny" baby is starting to walk. Ok, so this has been a month and a half process, but we're making progress!! Back in December he would do a step - fall, step - fall... I am claiming his first steps were Jan 2 when he actually walked 3-4 steps in a row and then fell. Am I wrong in this? Should I count Dec? Well he is doing better now, but he still won't walk but once or twice a day and usually not till after Daddy comes home. Maybe next month he'll try walking a little more often. He SERIOUSLY prefers to crawl and when you try to stand him up he refuses. He is such a man that way. ;) If you try to make him do something (ie. stand up, fold his arms, etc) he freaks out. I'm already strategically planning how to survive his teenage years. Anyway, so here is a video of our almost 16 month old walking. ::sniff:: ::sniff:: (and in case you're curious Eli started walking about this same age)

I want to cry

This was Nathan after dinner tonight...



Hmm.... any guesses? How about a peanut allergy? I had my suspicions from a few months ago when I was making peanut butter bon-bons and he was wheezing after I gave him a little taste. I didn't let it bother me because it could have been the sawdust that he started crawling in right after so I figured I would try again later. Tonight I made pad thai for dinner with crushed peanuts and didn't even think twice about it. I just gave him a little and he ate some, and threw some just like normal until he started itching his eye. And then he didn't stop itching his eye. He quickly developed this beautiful rash and though you can't see it in the picture there were white spots in the rash too... SO much fun. I'm just going to hope and pray that its not severe.

BUSY!!!

So the last few weeks have been a little busy for us, but definitely this last week. My sister Erin was in town with Cecelia (who is Nathans age) and their dog Vicar. It was so fun to see them and spend some time with them. We tried to get out of the house and do things. Some days we succeeded better than others. We went down to the aquarium in Sandy which was fun and up to the Hill Airforce museum in Roy. Lots of big airplanes. Sorry, no pictures. All I have is this one from the aquarium day. Problem was once I took it, the batteries died... stupid camera.
Then over the weekend, we were watching our friends dog as well. So we had 2 extra humans and 2 extra dogs. :) Actually not as scary as it sounds, but it was hectic. Well Erin had to get back and so we traded her and her daughter for three large males. Chris had a few of his mission buddies come and stay with us for a night as they headed up to Logan for a little day o' fun. They met a few other guys from their mission up there too so it was a mini-reunion. Me and the kids spent the day down in SL at Meres house and then went to Bretts parents house to hang out with his family for the rest of the afternoon (Brett was one of Chris' mission friends). Turns out Nathan doesn't love me as much as I thought. He took right to Bretts dad and seemed to prefer him to me. Oh well. I also found some more people who love the Biggest Loser as much as I do! So after that fun night my kids have inherited another set of Grandparents. :) As for our house, we've lost all our boarders, but our days will remain fun filled until after Tuesday. When is the next girls night out? I'm going to need it. LOL!

Chris made bread!!!

Look at my fabulous husband. He is always making fun things, and since we got a wheat grinder for Christmas - Chris tried it out! This was his first attempt at wheat bread. It was actually very good. We still have tons to learn about wheat and gluten and all that fun stuff... but we're getting there!! I guess I should try next. (we'll see)

A learning experience

Oh my, I have so much stuff that I need to blog... But I don't feel like downloading the pictures right now - so you just get my rambling thoughts. Maybe tomorrow I'll find a few minutes.

So today was quite the learning experience for me. We had my classical education book club on Thursday and went off on a tangent about food. There were a couple of us that were much more ignorant than others and wanted to learn more. Field trip!! They took us to Good Earth and gave us a little tour of the health food that they use and what they use it in. Ok, I have things in my pantry now that I have literally never heard of. Quinoa and Millet were the two I'd never heard of, but stuff like barley and flaxseed and mung beans... who would have thought they had practical purposes?? Not I. I haven't tried anything yet, but I'll let you know how it goes when I do. I'm curious to see barley and lentils become ground beef or millet turned into a fruit salad (frog eye type salad). I don't think I'll ever be at the point where I'm going to make my own butter and cheese and milk like these other girls but if I can use some new things that will get my family healthier - thats all I want. I have so much to learn and I'm at the overwhelming point where I just want to cry. I'll get it though. One step at a time. I realize this is a lifetime thing not an overnight thing but I'm trying to get the lifetimes worth of information overnight... not good.

So on to a lighter subject... Anyone excited about this new season of tv?? Biggest Loser is turning out to be my FAVORITE show on television (besides Eli Stone). And yes, I am the type to curl up with my favorite bowl of ice cream to watch it. ;) They've only had one episode so far and I am already getting attached to some of these people! There is this 19 yr old kid who started off as 450 lbs and these polynesian guys that are going to be fun... and I want to see the old guy get healthy since he passed out on the first show. Unfortunately Reaper doesn't start until March. Whats that all about?? I really need to watch some of these shows that I have been taping. I don't even know whats on my DVR at the moment I just know that my # of hours available is quickly dwindling. Some of it might be the 4 hours of Superstars of Dance that I am yet to watch. ::sigh:: I guess thats the good thing about DVR is you can fast forward through all the stuff you don't want. I remember during Dancing with the Stars - I could watch the 2 hour program in 30 min or less. Anyway, well I'm off to give my kids a bath.

Christmas #2

So I got a message this morning on the answering machine... (guess I had that music turned up a little too loud) Anyway it was from my next door neighbor asking if I wanted to buy 1/2 a pig!! We had already talked to him about 1/2 a cow which will come in a couple more weeks but his other guy bailed on him so he called me! He is headed down to the farm right now to pick it up and I am so excited!! Pork, sausage, ham, bacon... 80 lbs of meat at a fraction of the price. Fresh! Oh my goodness its like Christmas all over again. Jumping up and down over here! YEAH!!!!!

Merry (belated) Christmas

So I'm a few days late. I'm enjoying my vacation - alright?? Christmas was great. As you can see we have a white Christmas. It was just the 4 of us and I enjoyed every minute of it. The boys loved their toys and are playing with them even as I sit here typing. Eli got a remote control car from us, a dinosaur and sticky hands from Santa, and a scooter (similar to a Razor) from Grandma. He is in heaven. And Mom and Matt - yes those are the same Superman pajamas he got last year from you guys. He still wears them ALL the time.

Nathan got this ball twirling thing that is actually kind of cute and some magnet blocks. He didn't get into the whole tearing the wrapping paper, but once the toys were out of the box, he was having a great time. I guess he had fun pounding on the boxes too which was what he was doing in this picture.

And I got a wheat grinder!!! I'm so excited, but I'll admit I'm a little scared. Now I have no excuse not to make my own bread. I want to talk to some girls in my ward before I get too carried away and maybe have them come over and do it with me. I need a little hand holding... I also got my Veronica Mars seasons 1&2. YEAH!!! Here is our little mess when we were through with presents. I'd say we made out pretty good!

The rest of the day was made up of me cooking spinach triangles, pie, ham and sweet potatoes... etc while Chris and Eli were making this snowman. Unfortunately it started to snow the next day and the face got covered up. Oh well. I have to laugh, the mouth is a green bean from dinner...


Anyway, overall we had a great time. Merry Christmas everyone and I hope you had as good a holiday as we did. (and Kyle, yes those bacon mints were BY FAR the worst part of my holiday) ...thanks...

6 days and counting!!

I can't wait for Christmas!! The holidays always make me happy and it'll be especially nice this year because my sister will be here and it'll definitely be a WHITE Christmas. I don't mind it when its not, but when it is it just feels right. you know? I think I finally got my shopping done and now I need to wrap. I SERIOUSLY need to wrap. Actually I take that back. Shopping for presents is done. I still need to grocery shop for Christmas dinner and a few other essentials while Erin is in town. I guess grocery shopping doesn't really count, but I swear to you those stores seem to be more crowded than Walmart at this time of year. Understandable, but it makes me dread going. Maybe I'll go tonight to avoid the Saturday rush...

Things with us are good. We are all happy and healthy and doing well. Eli has been obsessed with counting the days till Christmas and asks over and over and over when it'll be here. He is going to be bored to tears though because school is out for the next 2 weeks. Guess I'll actually have to entertain him... hmm... Nathan is doing good as well. I've found his aversion to milk was merely a temperature thing (thanks to a conversation with Erin) so I think we have a way to finally get him off formula when he is ready. yeah!! He isn't walking yet, but he can balance when he stands up by himself. I'm not ready for him to walk. It almost makes me sad. He is still such a baby to me. I'm not ready!!! I actually meant to do this back when Nathan turned one, but I never did. I was going to compare my two boys at the same age. Well this is both of them at (or around give or take a month) a year old.

Eli


Nathan
Hmmm.... are they brothers?? I love that. I'm just looking through some of Elis old pictures and its not that they look exactly alike or anything, but looking at the pictures of Eli remind me of Nathan. I don't know. I'll have to take some of Nathan wearing Elis old Christmas outfit and compare those two pictures. :) I actually forgot I had his old Christmas outfit. Good thing I found it so I could take the one I bought this year back. Is it sad that Nathan is going to wear the same outfit Eli did while Eli was only 6 months old and Nathan is 14 months? I'm sure it won't fit exactly the same, but nevertheless... I'm almost positive it'll fit. Whatever am I going to do with him... My 22 lb chunker baby who is painfully short. I just love him. :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!! We love you and we hope you enjoy your holiday.

Giggle monster

When people ask me if I'm liking being a stay at home mom, I always answer yes. Its true. My life has changed since I've gotten to spend this extra time with my kids. My house still isn't where I would like it to be, but they have been so much fun to be with. Little moments like yesterday (in this video) are the main reason for my answer in the affirmative. Nathan was supposed to be eating his lunch, but I guess he was done because he started throwing food over the side for the dog to eat. Usually I try to tell him to stop, but he was laughing so hard I figured a video would be better. ;) Unfortunately about 4 hours later he had a temp of 102° and was feeling a little less happy.