Such is life...

[ turning 5 ]

2011-05-11T21:11:00.000-07:00

It's Angie's birthday today and she's now 5- Wow! How is it that I have a five year old? It's a little surreal!

I remember well the day she was born and I swear it wasn't 5 years ago... time flies!

We started the day out with some presents from Aunt Lauren, Nana, Poppa and Lee! The Fairy wings were a HUGE hit! They came with a fun flower clip too, which she also got for Jenny so she wouldn't feel left out! (such a thoughtful Aunt.... that makes it so much easier on me!)

After opening a few presents we headed to Bell Square and went to the re-opening of the Disney store. She got a fun surprise when the employees put on a fun birthday surprise complete with a firework and lights display on their new screens, complete with her name! Angie thought it was really cool!

Next we headed up to the play area and met up with some friends from church,

then headed home for some lunch and a nap for Jenny! (Birthday hug from Jenny)

While Jenny was napping, Angie and I made her a bracelet complete with her name on it! She's been helping me make them for all her friend's birthdays.... so she was excited that it was her turn!

Then we met up with Grandma, Aunt Lena, Aunt Kali and Daddy at the Pinkabella Cupcake shop for a treat! She picked the chocolate cupcake with pink frosting of course!

(Notice we've changed fairy wings and flower since this morning. I'm pretty sure she changed because these ones matched perfectly, unlike the pink and yellow combination...... so Angie! Gotta love this girl!)

Grandma and Jenny picking out cupcakes. Jenny got a taste of Daddy's: Chocolate with salted caramel frosting, and mine: White chocolate raspberry- tasty!

Lastly, we finished off the night with Pancakes, Eggs and Bacon for dinner- Angie's choice!

(It was a toss up between that and Salmon and Potatoes, her other favorite meal)

Poppa and Uncle Lee came over to celebrate and have a home cooked meal,

since Nana just left this morning to Utah for a week! ;)

She opened her gifts from Mom and Dad and the last one was her favorite.... Tangled! We watched it as we ate dinner.... what a perfect day! (Well, the only thing that would have made it more perfect would have been some sunshine today, but she didn't seem to notice!)

Happy Birthday Angeline! We love you!

[ it's time... ]

2011-04-26T21:49:00.000-07:00

for me to finally post again! What a great Easter weekend we had! Beautiful weather, egg hunts, car washing, pretty dresses, Stake Conference, egg dying and most importantly.... family! I'm so grateful for my Savior and his amazing sacrifice for each one of us. I hope each of you had a wonderful Easter!

[ Lucky Day ]

2011-03-17T21:40:00.000-07:00

What a fun St. Patrick's Day we had! My sister-in-law, Krystal's second favorite holiday is St. Patrick's Day and went all out last year to show us how it really should be celebrated. So this year my Mom and I didn't want to disappoint and made sure that our houses were decorated with lots of green and that we carried on the tradition of an authentic Irish dinner, etc. And I figure since we've got two redheads that means we've got Irish somewhere in our genes right? :) Here are the highlights from our lucky day....

green pancakes and strawberries for breakfast
lucky Owl shirts {made by Nana}
mint ice cream cones w/rainbow sprinkles {thanks Cheryl}
wagon rides in the SUNSHINE!
Angie and Luke's wrestling match {typical Angie}
corned beef and cabbage soup for dinner... yum!
chocolate and mint ice cream with mint Oreos for dessert!
homemade rainbow {made by Angie}
BYU basketball game
cute green decorations {check out my creative blog here}

[ Keeping busy... ]

2011-01-21T21:29:00.000-08:00

As I've been browsing blogs lately I keep wondering why it is I can't seem to keep up with mine! Then as I start to sift through pictures I've uploaded recently, I'm reminded why it is I'm not accomplishing much in the blogging world.... I'm keeping busy in my own little part of the world with my little girls. (Who won't be little forever!)

So instead of worrying about how many holidays I've missed posting on my blog, I'm going to worry about trying to remember all the little stuff (which of course is the big stuff after all), like the funny things my girls said and did today and just call it good! And instead of trying to post the last 4 1/2 months that I've missed, I'm just going to focus on the present!

My new year's resolution.... live each day to it's fullest! Relax more, laugh more, worry less, stress less, love more, serve more, etc.... I need to also remember to be true to myself and be more accepting of me! Sounds silly, but it's true!

They are what's keeping me busy..... and they are totally worth it! :) I am so thankful to my Heavenly Father for sending me such amazing little girls! They definitely add spice to my life and dance to their own beat and I wouldn't have it any other way! I'm proud of them and all that they are and all that they'll become!

[ Polka Dot Party ]

2010-09-02T23:19:00.000-07:00

Jenny's birthday party was a success! It all came together exactly as I had pictured it in my head which doesn't always happen! :) So I was very pleased with it to say the least! Here a few photos of the evening that Lauren took for us- thanks Lauren!Jenny loved the chocolate frosting and had fun opening up her presents! Thanks everyone for coming to celebrate with us- we had a blast! Here's a sneak peek...

[ Silhouette Giveaway! ]

2010-08-26T10:02:00.000-07:00

To all of you ladies that love to create.... this post is for you! I just recently heard about this new product called the Silhouette and I'm soooooo excited about all the things it can do! So excited that I'm trying to win one! Go here to check it out and to learn more about all the amazing things you can create! Go here to enter to win! Good luck!

[ my jenny ]

2010-08-12T09:41:00.000-07:00

My sweet Jenny will be one year old on Sunday and I just can't believe how big she is! I absolutely love the pictures Lauren took- she perfectly captured Jenny's little personality. I'm feel so blessed to have such a talented sister and such a beautiful daughter! Who would have thought I'd get another red-head? She is such a feisty, determined, snugly, happy, persistent, inquisitive and funny little girl! We are so happy she's a part of our family!

It's amazing to see how much she's changed in a year... what a sweetheart we have! Happy Birthday sweet Jenny!

[ Catching up... ]

2010-07-01T00:33:00.000-07:00

Lots of catching up to do!

I realized I hadn't posted in over a month...I've been slacking!
(I'll start with the most recent events and go backwards)
So be prepared for LOTS of pictures!

Since I neglected to take any photos of Johnny for Father's day, here's the most recent one of him and the girls! (Thanks Lauren!) Angie and I got up early to make him a big breakfast and Angie made him a beautiful card. We didn't have any presents for him to open since he ordered it, but he didn't care, he was excited because he got to add to his collection! (As a combined Father's day/Birthday present he chose to get a gun, he's a collector of WWII guns, etc.) I am so grateful for the amazing father that John is to our beautiful girls. He's such a softy when it comes to his girls! He is so proud of everything they do and is always sure to show them how much he loves them. He loves coming home everyday and having Angie running to get a hug and to hear Jenny say "Da-dee" as she crawls as fast as she can trying to follow Angie! I'm so blessed to have him as my husband and as an amazing father to our girls! I LOVE YOU JOHNNY!

Later we went to my parent's house and John's Mom and sister came over to have dinner with us. It was delicious! Here's the one picture I did take... Dad getting the photo booth all of us kids made for him. We all included our favorite memories, funny stories and pictures of course-it turned out great and he really enjoyed it! Thanks for being the World's Greatest Dad- I know, very cliche but VERY TRUE! I love you DAD!

Enjoying the very much needed sunshine at the park. Angie thought it was so cool that she's big enough now to push Jenny on the swings. I love this moment where they are both smiling and enjoying each other!

I love seeing them get along! :)

This is the only picture I have of Jenny's tooth! What a goof she is! :) We call her the one-tooth wonder!

Taking a drink break together in the pool at Nana's house- playing is such hard work!

And a quick snap shot with Mommy!

Since I couldn't get these pictures to go where I want them to go, you'll just have to figure it out! :) Poppa with the girls for a Father's day photo (it was actually one I took a week before so I could use it in his photo book). John and Dad cooking up something tasty at the grill- where they do most of their bonding! :) Jenny enjoying playing in Angie's "dog bed" one morning before Angie got up- you can tell by the look on her face she knows Angie would be upset if she caught her in there! Sneaky girl! Angie feeding the chickens and roosters at Flower World- she loved every minute of it! Jenny relaxing with Daddy... I love that her legs are crossed- such a lady!

Enjoying some snuggle time with Nana as she sings Christmas songs to try and get Jenny to fall asleep. And yes, I did say Christmas songs! She and Angie listen to it as they make their monsters too! I think it's crazy, but they LOVE it! So I say, whatever makes you happy! Jenny is snuggling her very first monster! Nana and Angie made matching sister monsters one night and Jenny absolutely loved it and kept hugging it and "talking" to it! She doesn't get to play with Angie's monsters (sister is a little protective of her stuff, if you haven't noticed) so she thought it was great that it was hers!

Angie is ALMOST completely potty trained! I seriously never thought I'd see the day! We've tried so many times, but thankfully it finally clicked! I didn't really want to post about it until we really stared making progress because otherwise I felt like I would be eating my words! (Been there done that!)We started making her "garden" and every time she went #1 on the potty she got to put up a flower (with a jewel- very important!) and then got a treat! She was so excited when she got to put up another flower! She's going potty at the store no problem and pretty much anywhere.... we are soooooo excited! Now if we can just get #2 down! We're not complaining though, it'll come in time! We're just thankful she's not going to kindergarten in diapers! (We really were worried there for a while!) Oh the things you go through as parents!

Finishing her first ever 100 piece puzzle!

Creating a masterpiece at the Children's Museum with our new friends- she loved it!!!

Enjoying the view at Snoqualmie Falls. We needed to get out of the house one afternoon and decided to take a small road trip up to the falls! It's such a beautiful sight!

A few pictures of my birthday- 27 years old!

John made a fabulous chocolate cake because he knows I LOVE CHOCOLATE!

As you can see Angie was just as excited as I was to eat it! I was so impressed, John really did a great job! Who knew he could bake? I'm a very lucky lady!

We celebrated Memorial day with both of our families and had another cake to celebrate both me and my Dad's birthday (his is on the May 27th, mine is the 30th, so we usually celebrate together).

If you look closely you can see the cake has an 81- our combined age! My Mom got creative because that's the only candles she had and luckily it worked! :)

Jenny's 8, 9 and 10 month pictures...

It's amazing to see how much she's changed over the past 3 months!

I can't believe she'll be a year in August!!!! Time is just flying by!

I love the two photos because Lauren took them when she came to visit! She did a great job (as usual) and she actually caught Jenny sitting still! Now that she's moving even more it's gotten tougher as you can see in her 10 month photo- (that was the best one we took) I swear she's ALWAYS moving!

8 months
9 months

10 months

I LOVE THESE SWEET FACES!

Well, I've got to get to bed now because it's after midnight! I hope what I wrote makes sense in the morning- I'm too tired to edit at this point... I hope everything is spelled correctly too!

Anyway, good night and Enjoy!

[ 4 years old! ]

2010-05-12T15:26:00.000-07:00

Angie officially turned 4 yesterday! I know everyone says this, but I can't believe my little girl is 4 years old! How time flies!

We waited to give her our present since she had a lot going on at her party and we still wanted to make sure her real birthday was special.

So I said I would never get one because it encouraged her to pretend to be a dog (which she does constantly anyway) and I want her to act like a girl! But I did it anyway... we got her a dog bed!

I've learned my lesson... You can NEVER say NEVER right? She is constantly pulling out blankets and pillows to make a dog bed or a nest somewhere, so we gave in and got her the only thing she's been wanting for weeks now ever since she saw one at John's cousin's house for her dog, Ruby. Such is life!

We had big plans yesterday to go to the park since it was such a pretty day, but that all changed when Jenny woke up with her ears bothering her, a runny nose and diarrhea because she's teething!

Poor thing, she whined constantly all day except when she was being held or sleeping. It was an extremely long day to say the least! She is chewing on everything which is nothing new, but today she's fascinated with this bracelet and crawls around with it in her mouth, like a little puppy! What is it with my girls? WHY do they want to be PUPPIES!?! Hopefully it's just a phase!

Anyway... we stayed home and snuggled a lot yesterday and then went to Grandma's house for dinner. She made Angie's favorite... Spaghetti (because the noodles look like snakes of course!) and then a tasty cake for dessert! Thanks Grandma for making Angie's birthday so special!

[ Angie's Birthday Party & Mother's Day ]

2010-05-12T12:55:00.000-07:00

What a great weekend! We celebrated Angie's birthday with friends and family on Saturday at the park, It was the PERFECT day! The sun was shining, it was warm and absolutely beautiful! I actually got some sun on my white arms too! Both of John's grandmothers were able to make it, so that made it even more special! Angie had fun playing with all her friends and having "dirt cups" (chocolate pudding, Oreo cookie crumbs, gummy worms and gumdrop flowers) for dessert since it was a Garden party! :) We also had a cake too, but it was a little breezy, so Angie had to pretend to blow out her candle because it wouldn't stay lit! The best part of the whole day was that she found a huge earth worm! If anyone knows Angie, they know that she loves bugs, dirt and especially worms! We actually found her at the end of the party playing in the only patch of dirt in the whole park, where she was making mud with a cup of water and a stick! That's my girl! She was completely happy playing in the mud... the icing to her cake! Thanks everyone for coming and celebrating with us!

Mother's day was great! We went to my parent's ward to hear Lee give a talk...what an amazing brother he is! He did a wonderful job and even got me all teary-eyed! Being a Mom will do that to ya! :) Love these photos with my girls! Oh how I love being a Mom! Even though it's the toughest thing I've ever done and even though I still have lots to learn, I enjoy it so much and there's no place I'd rather be than at home!

After Church Angie got her birthday present from Nana and Poppa. Her very own monster bed! Notice how I didn't say DOLL bed, but MONSTER bed! My Dad made the bed and my Mom sewed the pillows and quilts to match her room! ANGIE LOVED IT! She loves putting her animals and monsters to sleep with their pillows and blankets.... so right when we got home in the monsters went! Lizzy and Cassie on the top and all the babies on the bottom! Thanks a million Nana and Poppa!

[ King Pong, Lee's Birthday and more! ]

2010-05-12T11:42:00.000-07:00

While Brad and Krystal were here for their internships, Lee and Brad started a ping pong tournament. I don't even know how many games they played to determine the winner, but it was a lot! The deal was, whoever won got a gold trophy that stated they were "KING PONG of the Woodard Brothers!" that was made by the one who lost. The winner was Brad, so Lee and my Dad got to work making this awesome trophy! We had extra spray paint so Lee decided to spruce up some old tennis shoes and wah-lah.... gold running shoes!

Lee was so excited about these shoes! Like I've said before, it's the little things in life! :)

Lee had his 17th birthday on April 23rd, but we celebrated early since the whole family was together! I decorated the cake and Angie of course enjoyed helping blow out the candles! A few pictures with Brad and Krystal and Lauren before they headed back to BYU-Idaho Lauren came home to visit for a few days after finishing her first semester! She did great and loves being there! It was so fun being together, but we'll miss them tremendously! We love you guys!

[ Grandma's Birthday and random-ness ]

2010-05-07T11:26:00.000-07:00

We celebrated Grandma's birthday on April 8th by going out to eat at Red Robin, then came home for some yummy strawberry cake! Angie and I had a lot of fun making a cute birthday box for Grandma's present! Angie loves helping everyone blow out her candles!

The rest of the photos are pretty random...

The girl's tackling Daddy after work
Jenny's crazy bed-head hair- love it!
Angie giving her beloved lizard a piggie-back ride
Jenny and I on Easter at Nana & Poppa's house
Jenny playing in her crib
Jenny has been pulling herself on everything for a while now and loves to cruise! She wants to walk so badly, so it won't be long!
Angie pretending to be a puppy- gotta love that face, what a funny girl!
And lastly Jenny with her Easter basket (Daddy and Angie spent Easter at his Grandma's house)

[ Friends and Airplanes ]

2010-05-07T09:39:00.000-07:00

I'm very behind on posting so I'll just do a few at a time so I don't get overwhelmed! We went to the Museum of Flight on April 1st with some new friends of ours. It was so fun and interesting to see all these amazing planes and the best part about it was it was free! Every 1st Thursday of the month is free- so we took advantage of a fun and inexpensive family night! Unfortunately we didn't get pictures with our friends, the Wilsons, maybe next time! Oh and did I mention John was in heaven! He LOVES airplanes and basically anything that has to do with aviation! He was like a kid in a candy store.... what a fun treat for him!

The last week in March we hung out with our girl friends Sarah, Lily and Ivy. We had fun going to the park and the little girls LOVED riding in the wagon! You can tell Lily and Angie are best buds!

[ Fun in the Sun! ]

2010-04-13T23:41:00.000-07:00

Isn't it amazing how a little sunshine can just make your day? John got home from work early today and so we decided to go to the park to enjoy the beautiful weather! It felt great to get some fresh air and play with the girls! Angie was so excited to finally try out her new kite and ball. Jenny loved watching Angie running around and especially all the dogs that went by. I really believe it's true that all the little things we do everyday are the most important things in life!

[ Cutie Patootie Contest! ]

2010-03-29T10:48:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone! Angie and Jenny have been entered into the Cutie Patootie Photo Contest and they need your votes to win! Both pictures of the girls are super cute, but we've decided to consolidate our votes and vote for Angie. That way if she wins, Jenny can also use the cute clothes and goodies later too! (Gotta love hand-me-downs right? Especially if they're super cute and stylish clothes!)

If you have a Facebook account you can go HERE and make sure to become a fan of TraLa Studios, then just leave a comment under Angie's picture that says "Vote". You can vote only once a day starting today until Easter and then Monday they will announce the winner! Help Angie get the most votes this week so she can win! Thanks for your support!

[ All moved in! ]

2010-03-23T11:27:00.000-07:00

Wow! A lot has happened since I last posted.... so it's time to do some catching up! We moved to our new apartment on March 6th while all of us were battling colds- no fun! But everything went smoothly thanks to the help of our family and friends! Our new apartment is so nice and light- the difference is amazing! Here are a few snapshots of what we've been up to.

Here's some captions for some of the pictures. Sorry it's not right next to the picture, but it's just a little faster this way! Daddy got a "money tree" for Valentine's day that Angie thought was so cool because we now have a tree in our house! Angie and Jenny having fun at Pump it Up in their matching Valentine's outfits (that I forgot to take pictures of on Valentine's day, oh well). Angie's "egg" she found at the park all nestled up in it's cozy nest she made for it. Angie sporting her new green dress that Great Aunt Eileen made for her. Daddy and Jenny having fun on the new computer, Jenny is in "awe" of the colors and big screen! Jenny having fun with Uncle Robby who came up to visit. (We miss you Aunt Kali and hope to see you soon!) Angie wanted me to take pictures of her drawing of "Mommy and Daddy" and her puppy, which looks like she was making sure he wasn't going to run away. :) She also wanted me to take pictures of her "spider" which is her hand and he does all sorts of stuff with her throughout the day! Funny girl! (She really does love bugs!) Lastly we had to take a picture of her Dragon that she had so much fun painting. She's pretty meticulous when it comes to detail! (We forgot to put the wings on for the picture- oops!)

So that about sums it up for the time being.... hope all is going well for everyone! More pictures to come once I upload the last week or so! Take care and enjoy! Oh and I almost forgot, Angie and Jenny are in a "Cutie Patootie Photo Contest" that will be starting on March 29th. It would be so fun to win and we would love it if all of our friends and family could vote for them! So I'll keep you posted on where you can see their pictures as soon as I get more info! Thanks everyone!

[ Crochet Flower Clips ]

2010-03-02T15:49:00.000-08:00

My Mom and I are making and selling these cute crochet flower hair clips, so go check them out on my blog: Creative Optimism and tell us what you think!

[ Moving.... again! ]

2010-02-26T08:57:00.000-08:00

So I've been promising Lauren I would post new pictures of the girls and some videos of Jenny because she's changing so much! Things are pretty hectic around here as usual, but it's a good hectic if that's possible! We just found out a couple of days ago that we'll be moving to a new apartment next Saturday! We're so excited because it's a 3 bedroom and 2 bathroom 1150 sq feet apartment which is quite a bit bigger than what we've got now and we desperately need the space! Jenny will then be out of our bedroom! Hallelujah!!! We're so excited to have more space, but I'm not looking forward to moving though! This will make our 8th time moving since we've been married- crazy huh? Anyway, here's what we've been up to lately. I had captions to all the pictures, but blogger just deleted them, so here they are, I'm sure you can figure out what's going on! AHHH.... that's so frustrating! Anyway, gotta run... until next time! Enjoy!

[ pictures galore! ]

2010-01-21T10:43:00.000-08:00

Things have been so crazy lately that I haven't had time to blog, but I've been trying to remember to keep taking pictures! It's funny when you have your first baby you take pictures of every little detail and now that I have two kids it's hard to remember to do that! Life is full of a lot more laundry, dishes and dirty diapers now, so it's tough to stop and grab the camera!

Jenny is 5 months old now, she rolls over both ways(front to back, back to front), says "Dada", almost sits up on her own and wants to crawl so badly! She actually gets up on her hands and toes and tries to move forward but ends up pushing herself backwards! She's even started pulling her knees up underneath her, but can't quite make them move like she wants to! It's only a matter of time now, I think she'll be a lot happier when she can keep up with Angie!

Angie is finally starting to show interest in getting potty trained! YAY! So the last few days have been filled with Tinkerbell panties, treats and prizes in order to entice her to keep trying! :) However today I asked her if she'd like to go to the potty and she said, "No... I'm okay!" What a funny girl! She's starting to say really funny one-liners lately. We really have to watch what we say because she is aware of everything we say and do!

Angie loves to do anything crafty with me and will sit forever and cut paper or draw! She also loves to play with her new tool set she got for Christmas. She'll run and grab her tools whenever she sees Daddy pull out a screw driver or anything that resembles a tool! So John and I really have the best of both worlds, she loves to be girlie with me and a tom boy with Daddy! She's a sweetheart and loves being a big sister!

Well I've gotta run, so until next time(which hopefully will be sooner than later), enjoy these fun photos!

[ Merry Christmas! ]

2009-12-24T09:05:00.000-08:00

I've been so behind on blogging because we've been so busy with family this Christmas season. So here are a few new pictures of what we've been up to! Hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas!

[ focus on the positive... ]

2009-11-20T14:47:00.000-08:00

Alright here are new pictures that I've been trying to post for a few days now and I'm finally able to get around to it. The past two weeks have been so incredibly challenging with both Angie and Jenny sick with colds and Jenny has an ear infection and is teething. Needless to say I haven't gotten very much sleep lately! However on the flip side, trying to focus on the positive... I didn't get sick and have received tons of help from my family while John has been at work. That has definitely kept me going. So here are a few pictures of the happy, relaxing moments that have happened in the midst of all the craziness!

Jenny at 3 months old... 14 pounds 8 ounces!

Angie trying on her Christmas dress from Grandma!

A few days ago I came in to Angie's room (where I had laid Jenny down for a minute to switch the laundry) and found this scene. Jenny had been crying and I started to come get her when I heard her stop crying and heard Angie talking to her. Angie had cheered her up by sharing her animals, what a great big sister!

Laughing with Daddy!

My happy girls, cozy in their pajamas!

Such a wonderful sight! Especially since she hasn't been sleeping very well lately! I savored the moment!

So today I've been thinking about all these happy moments because that's definitely what gets me through those crazy days when you don't get out of the house, don't take a shower and just end up having a movie day because everyone is feeling yucky! It's the little things in life! :)

[ 2 months ]

2009-11-05T09:36:00.000-08:00

Here's little Miss Jenny at 2 months! She weighed 13 pounds 12 ounces at her 2 month check up and measured 24 inches long! She's in the 95th percentile for everything and definitely is a chunk! :)During the last couple of weeks she has really started cooing and almost giggling too! She also is grabbing at her toys now and keeping herself occupied for much longer than she used to, so less fussing- Hurray!

So I know you can tell by the pictures, but Jenny's hair sticks straight up in the front and also curls too, so it looks like a wave because of her crazy cowlick!!! And it totally cracks me up because it just does whatever it wants too! No matter how I try to comb it, it just goes everywhere! Well, John was looking at her hair the other night and asked me if I brush her hair like that or dry it like that to make it stand up, he actually thought I was trying to spike it up or something! If it weren't for the little bows and clips in her hair you'd think she was a boy! Unfortunately in half of the pictures I take, you can't see the bows and hair clips because her "wave" sticks up in front of it! :) So until her hair calms down I guess I'll just have to make sure she's always wearing lots of pink to make sure they know she's a she! :)

Oh and here are some close ups of Jenny on Halloween that I forgot to add with my last post. What a cute little giraffe she was! She did really well going trick-or-treating with us, in fact so well that she fell asleep! :) I'm sure next year she'll have more fun!

[ Happy Halloween! ]

2009-10-31T20:47:00.000-07:00

Here's our cute little Witch and Giraffe for Halloween! We had a fun time trick-or-treating tonight with Grandma and hanging out with Nana and Poppa! What a fun day and we're so glad the weather was good except for a little sprinkling! Pretty good for Seattle! :) Anyway, hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween!

[ Harvest Festival! ]

2009-10-12T09:52:00.000-07:00

Saturday we decided to get out and enjoy the beautiful fall weather while it's still nice and not yet raining! So we drove out to Remlinger Farms to pick out some pumpkins and have fun at the Harvest Festival! It was so fun because they had all sorts of rides and things to do for young families. Angie had a blast riding a pony, going on the "whirly-bird" ride, petting a goat, riding on the carousel, going for a train ride and more! When it came time to pick out a pumpkin Angie looked and looked for the perfect one and I swear ended up picking the smallest one! Go figure! John on the other had really wanted to find a big one and I'm pretty darn sure the one he got was the largest one there! It was so huge he had to get someone else to help him get it in the jeep! He's very excited about carving it for Halloween! More pictures to come after we carve it! So it was a great day! Jenny slept the entire time in her sling, so that made things a lot easier and it was so nice for me to be able to enjoy everything with Angie and John. What a fabulous way to start the fall season!

[ For Uncle Brad & Aunt Krystal ]

2009-10-05T09:33:00.000-07:00

Alright here are new pictures and a couple of videos that I promised Brad and Krystal I would post. I know they really have been wanting to see Jenny in action, so I got the camera out and was lucky enough to catch her at just the right moment! The other short video was by accident because I meant to take a picture and instead still had it on video mode. But it was so cute with both girls smiling that I decided to keep it! Jenny is getting so big already... at her 1 month appointment she weighed 11 lbs 8 oz and measured 23 inches long! She's in the 95% for her height and weight- crazy! I can't believe she's almost 2 months old too- time sure does fly! So here are some new pictures from the past couple weeks. Hope you enjoy Uncle Brad and Aunt Krystal! We miss you guys and can't wait to see you for Christmas!

Angie's new smile apparently! Silly girl!

Feeling refreshed after bath time! What a chunk she is- look at those rolls! :)

Uncle Lee helping feed Jenny!

Jenny loves being in the sling! Especially when Aunt Lauren is holding her!

I asked Angie if she would help Daddy take out the garbage the other night and I told her to put on her shoes and this was the outcome! :) She could only find her flip flops and it was cold outside, so here was her solution! Only in Seattle do you see flip flops with socks! :) Funny girl!

[ 1 month old ]

2009-09-21T23:23:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm finally getting around to updating with new pictures! Let's just say that trying to juggle two kids is a huge change and definitely takes some getting used to. So here are a few pictures of what we've been up to lately. We've been hanging out at Nana and Poppa's house a lot lately, which has been a huge help to me to give me a bit of a break to get a nap or catch up on housework. Angie's been having so much fun watching the pumpkins grow and corn too! She was so excited about the pumpkins that were just her size. Also, we loved having Aunt Shirley and Uncle Neal come to visit, Angie and Jenny especially loved all the attention! We were so glad they could be here for Jenny's blessing. It was a great day because we had both of our families there, even though not everyone could make it, they were there in spirit! :) What a crazy, sleepless, exciting, and exhausting month this has been! But I wouldn't change it for the world! Here's Jenny's picture at 1 month old, which was this past Tuesday... it's so much fun seeing her smile and start responding to us! She's been smiling for a few weeks now, which is really early I've been told- it's so amazing to be able to see her little personality already starting to show! We love you Jenny!

[ more pictures ]

2009-08-20T21:17:00.000-07:00

I might as well post the rest of the pics before I forget and while Jenny is sleeping! Everyone taking turns holding Jenny! And our first family photo! Enjoy!

[ Big Sister ]

2009-08-20T21:03:00.000-07:00

So Angie is pretty excited about being a big sister and has been very sweet with Jenny! Here are a few pictures of her helping out! Anytime Jenny cries, Angie always runs and gets a blanket for her, apparently that's what Jenny needs to calm down in Angie's eyes- blankets make everything all better! I took this first picture today when Nana was helping her hold Jenny and Angie thought it was great that she could put her finger in Jenny's pacifier and that it she could feel her mouth move and that it kept her from crying.

We're starting to settle in a little bit, last night was so nice because Jenny only woke up once to eat! It was so great to catch up on some much needed sleep! We'll see if this becomes a trend!

Both our families have been a huge help right now as we figure out our new life with Jenny added to our family! She is such a sweetheart already and we are so thrilled to have another beautiful girl to make our family complete!

[ She's Here! ]

2009-08-18T16:39:00.000-07:00

Our little Jennifer Paige finally arrived early Saturday morning weighing in at 9 pounds even and measuring 21 1/4 inches long. She's completely healthy and doing great and we're so excited she's here safe and sound! Here are a few pictures of her...(courtesy of her Aunt Lauren of course) and check out her red hair! Who would have thought we'd have two red-headed little girls!

[ Mom's 50th Birthday ]

2009-08-13T22:48:00.000-07:00

We celebrated my Mom's 50th birthday with a picnic in the park the day after John's birthday. It was a fun day even though it was blazing hot! I was so excited to give her my gift which was a photo book I made from Shutterfly of inspirational letters from all her friends and family members. I worked on it for about 2 weeks and had it shipped just in time for her birthday! She was so surprised and very excited when she realized what it was and how many people wrote her so many wonderful letters! She started reading it right away too! So thanks to those of you who added to her special day! Hope you had a fabulous birthday Mom... because you deserve it!

[ Having fun! ]

2009-08-13T22:20:00.000-07:00

Alright, since I've been so bad at updating our blog lately, here are some random pictures of Angie and what we've been up to. Having fun with friends and enjoying the sunshine, although I don't have many outside pictures because I kept forgetting my camera! We went to a concert in the park with friend Avery! We enjoyed some fun music and tasty snacks!

Just snuggled up after a nice bubble bath!

Visiting a good family friend who also used to be my babysitter! She now has two beautiful girls and It was so fun to meet the newest addition to their family! Great to see you Kandi!

Playing in the dirt at the park! It's amazing how quickly kids can get dirty! She probably could have played there all day if we let her! She's such a girly-girl, and yet a tom-boy all at the same time (if that's possible!)

Angie started drawing smiley faces and the letters "A" and "H"! It's so fun to be able to recognize some of the things that she draws! Especially without any help! We're so proud of you Angie!

Story time with Dad... she loves reading with her Dad every night before she goes to bed! She's learned to say just the right words to get Daddy to read one more book... "Just one more, last one Dad!"

[ John's Birthday! ]

2009-08-13T22:06:00.000-07:00

On July 10th we celebrated John's birthday, the big 2-9! We went to Kidd Valley for dinner, because that's John's favorite place to get burgers and Root beer milkshakes! YUM! Then we took a walk along the beach across the street- what a beautiful summer evening! Lastly we went home to open presents and eat some grasshopper pie! Happy Birthday Johnny!

[ 4th of July ]

2009-08-12T09:01:00.000-07:00

For the 4th of July we went to Port Townsend with my family for the weekend to do some camping. It was quite the experience with me being 7 1/2 months pregnant and Angie coming down with a cold the day before we left. So we only ended up staying for one night, but still had fun getting together with some family friends of ours and when we got back home we set off some fire works with John's parents. John's favorite holiday is the 4th of July because of all the fireworks, so he lit off his own stash, which was quite the show! Angie loved the ferry ride and beach and thought the fireworks were great, just a little bit noisy! Oh and we also celebrated my father-in-law's 60th birthday on the 5th, what a fun weekend!

[ Milan Maternity ]

2009-07-14T11:06:00.000-07:00

Hi Ladies! My friend just started up her own maternity clothing line and I wanted to tell all about it because we all know how hard it can be to find cute maternity clothes! They have sassy, trendy and affordable clothes! So go check it out and see what you think and spread the word! Here's the site: http://milanmaternity.com/maternity-clothes/ I've got a little over a month left, so I'm excited that I'll be able to look even more trendy during this last month after I purchase one of these cute tops!

[ Angie's talent! ]

2009-07-08T10:40:00.000-07:00

So I forgot that I had uploaded a bunch of pictures when I posted last, so don't forget to look at the other two posts underneath the last one! Anyway, I've got lots of catching up to do! So for starters... here's a video of Angie on Father's day. We were hanging out at my parent's house on their deck just chatting and telling stories and being silly. And my Mom was trying to show us how she can flare her nose and we were laughing so hard because every other muscle on her face was moving but her nose! So then we tell Angie to do it and she did! So here's a little video clip of Angie's talent! She can flare her nose and raise her eyebrows at the same time and separately too! Unfortunately we didn't get a video of Nana, which is a bummer because it was hilarious! But here is Angie instead- Enjoy! Funny the things kids can do!

[ Angie- through Lauren's eyes ]

2009-06-26T20:31:00.000-07:00

I was on my parent's computer tonight and found these photos of Angie that Lauren took recently while she was babysitting for me. They are such fun photos that I had to share! She just got some "twirl dresses" (aka: dress up clothes) from a friend of ours who was getting rid of them, so she's been super excited to dress up everyday! So excited that she wore it over to Nana's house! This white one is her favorite and we thought she looked like Wendy from Peter Pan- so cute! The last picture is so perfectly candid! It reminds me to be grateful for all the little things in life, because that's what life is all about... being happy! All those fun little moments! Thanks Lauren for capturing them for us! You're amazing!

[ keeping busy at Nana & Poppa's ]

2009-06-26T20:27:00.000-07:00

A few pictures of the latest happenings at Nana and Poppa's house... Lauren all dressed up and ready for Prom!

Angie had to get her toenails painted purple too of course to match Aunt Lauren!

Angie watering the pumpkin plants in Nana and Poppa's garden!

Nana planted pumpkin seeds so that Angie and Jenny can have pumpkins for this coming Halloween, so Angie and Poppa have been making sure they get watered so they grow really big! Angie talks about the pumpkins every day!

Lastly, Angie helping Poppa with the chores around the house! Who knew cleaning could be so much fun- she didn't want to stop! :)

[ Congrats Lauren! ]

2009-06-26T20:18:00.000-07:00

It's official... Lauren has graduated! I'm so very proud of her and can't believe that she'll be heading off to college in January! It'll be lonely around here without her! We'll miss you Lauren!

[ My Birthday! ]

2009-06-03T09:12:00.000-07:00

So I've been playing catch up on all our pictures the last couple of days, hence the reason for sooooo many posts! Hope you've enjoyed them though! And now I'm finally getting to my birthday pictures! I turned 26 on Saturday and it was a fantastic day! The weather was beautiful and we got to spend the whole day together as a family! John started the day off right by letting me sleep in and then we got ready and went to the park to play for a little bit. After that we went to my parent's house and celebrated with some lunch and a tasty mousse fruit cake! YUM! After that we went to the pool to soak up some rays and then I got to talk to some of my friends who called to wish me happy birthday while while Angie and John took a nap. Then we went over to John's parent's house to have a BBQ and some super delicious chocolate lover's cake! My favorite! (I forgot to have someone take pictures while we were at my in-laws house, I'll have to see if my sister-in-law took some!) And then to finish the night off, Lauren came over to watch Angie while John and I went to see Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. We both really liked the movie and definitely enjoyed getting out by ourselves for the evening! What an amazing day!

I got so many wonderful gifts for my birthday from both our families and from my friends, but I have to say my favorite gift was from John! He gave me the Cricut Expression!!!! For those of you who don't know what it is, it's an electronic die cut machine. It cuts paper into all different shapes and sizes depending on the cartridges you have. Mine came with the two shown below and I am so excited!!!!!! It's definitely a dream to have for someone who loves to scrapbook and make cards like me! I've been thinking about the Cricut for a long time now, but always tried to talk myself out of needing it, but I've always secretly wanted it! So thank you Johnny for pampering me with such a fabulous gift! I've already used it for a few projects! And then to top it off John got me a very sentimental and sweet card to go with it! I don't get sentimental cards very often so I definitely am treasuring it! Thanks Johnny! And thanks to everyone for making my birthday so special!

[ Happy Brithday DAD! ]

2009-06-02T08:57:00.000-07:00

It was my Dad's birthday on Wednesday, so we brought over some Marionberry/Apple pie to help celebrate! My Mom was in Utah until last night, so it was weird celebrating without her there, but I think we did a pretty good job anyway! Happy Birthday Dad!

So I was trying to get some updated pictures of Angie and her Poppa and thought, what better time to do it than on his birthday! Well, here's the outcome! She's such a ham!

[ Train Ride ]

2009-06-01T22:48:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went on a drive for Memorial day and ended up deciding to go to Snoqualmie Falls. Well before we got there we decided to stop and show Angie all the trains they have on display. However we never left the trains! Angie was enthralled, especially when she saw all these people taking a train ride! So we decided we would too! Angie was sooooo excited and couldn't wait to get on! She was dancing around showing us her ticket and giving us the "thumbs up" as you can see in the picture.

Once we got on the train she had her head out the window the whole time taking it all in. It was about an hour ride and the train actually went right next to Snoqualmie Falls, so we got a great view! I tried getting a picture of it through the trees, but could only get the river instead as you can see below. What a fun family activity it was and Angie still talks about riding the train at "Sno-call-me" as she says it! :) Oh and that last picture is hilarious... Angie sulking because she had to get off the train with shoulders slumped and a frown and everything! She was definitely milking it! Thankfully she gets over things quickly!

[ Aqua Girl ]

2009-06-01T22:06:00.000-07:00

The weather has been so nice lately that we've definitely been taking advantage of it! We went to the park the other day and had fun skipping rocks, enjoying the beautiful view and it didn't take long for Angie to get completely drenched! We were not at all surprised though, she's definitely our aqua girl! We also took Angie to the pool for the first time this summer last weekend and this past weekend and she's been talking about going back ever since! Yay! We're so glad it's summer!

[ Angie's bug party! ]

2009-06-01T17:24:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pictures from Angie's friend party at the park. It was a bug theme because that's Angie's new favorite thing, besides snakes of course! It was a perfect day to be at the park... we lucked out on having beautiful weather! Angie had so much fun playing with all her friends! It was a great party and we're so glad that everyone could come and celebrate with us!

[ Angie's 3rd Birthday! ]

2009-05-12T11:01:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that I now have a 3 year old! It's crazy how time goes by so quickly! Angie turned 3 yesterday and we had a family party for her at my parents house which was a lot of fun! With the help of my friend I made a snake cake that Angie couldn't wait to eat! She talked about it all day and was so excited when it was finally time to sing and blow out the candles! It's funny because most of her little girl friends are into princess stuff, but not our Angie! She loves snakes, bugs and anything to do with animals! So hence the snake cake! It was definitely worth all the hard work, because she loved it so much, but I'm not sure I'll do it again! We'll see! This coming Saturday Angie will have her friend party and we're doing a bug theme, so it should be fun, but I just hope her friends don't get scared off by the bugs! :)

Singing her own birthday song! When she blew out the candles though her hair fell into one of the candles and actually caught on fire! Luckily Nana was right beside her to put it out! Angie was fine, just a little shaken up!

Angie wanted me to take a picture of the balloons that she lined up before the party. She kept saying, "Take a camera of the balloons Mommy!"

Waiting to open her presents! It was so cute because she kept saying "WOW!" every time she opened something, even when she didn't know what it was at first! :)

Testing out her new bike from Grandma and Grandpa!

Carrying her new baby doll from Nana and Poppa! We named her baby Ashley!

A big THANK YOU to both our families for helping make Angie's 3rd Birthday so special! We love you!

[ Amazing! ]

2009-05-06T09:59:00.000-07:00

One of my friends just posted this on her blog and I loved it so much I thought I would post it on mine too! It's an arrangement by Jon Schmidt of "Love Story" by Taylor Swift meets "Viva La Vida" by Coldplay. Wow! It's truly amazing, which isn't a surprise because everything he does is AMAZING! It totally gave me chills as I listen to it! Hope you enjoy! Have a fabulous day!

[ a beautiful wedding ]

2009-04-28T16:03:00.000-07:00

So my brother-in-law Rob was married to his beautiful bride, Kali last weekend and John and I had the privilege of being at their sealing in the Seattle temple. It was a wonderful ceremony and they got very lucky with perfect weather! My sister, Lauren was their photographer and since this was her very first wedding, I was her assistant for the day. Actually I'm going to be working with and for Lauren from now on, so I'm very excited that this was our first job together! I'll be doing mostly the paperwork and business aspect, but I'm also her assistant whenever she needs help. She is such an amazingly talented photographer, which I know I always say, but after you see the pictures, I know you'll agree with me, if you haven't already! So go check out Rob and Kali's wedding pictures here: http://www.robandkaliwedding.blogspot.com/ and be sure to leave comments for Lauren if you love them as much as I do! Fabulous job Lauren! Congratulations Rob and Kali!

[ Easter ]

2009-04-23T09:27:00.000-07:00

Well, I'm a little behind getting these Easter pictures up, but I thought I'd share them anyway...

Here's John and Angie after the Easter Egg hunt at my parent's house. Lauren, Lee and John had fun hiding them around the living room!
Here are her spoils...

Angie in her Easter dress after church, my Mom got her two "baby" guinea pigs for Easter since she lost her other ones. She also Needless to say, she loves them and carries them around everywhere! This is Angie's new camera smile...

Our Easter egg creations...

Angie's friend Mackenzie coloring eggs...

Having fun coloring eggs at Mackenzie's house...

And finally here's a "belly shot" for Alisha who's been bugging me to post one.
In this picture I'm about 22 weeks along...

Angie saying "Oh cute!"

I took this the other day when I was getting ready for the day, Angie was being way too quite, so I went to go find her and found this...

She had opened the fridge and got a hold of a block of cheese and started helping herself! There were huge bite marks out of it, who knows how much she had eaten! Crazy girl!

Angie's Easter Egg Hunt at Nana and Poppa's house...

[ Angie's Studio Shoot ]

2009-04-08T17:38:00.000-07:00

Today my sister Lauren did a studio photo shoot of Angie for an assignment. Here are a few pictures that she's finished so far and I just couldn't wait to show them to everyone! Isn't Lauren fabulous? We did two backgrounds and two outfits and here are the results! She had a blast dancing around the room and having her "treats"! The first picture captured her sweeter side and the last picture captured her inner rock star! So funny and so very Angie! So which one is your favorite? I love them all!

[ beautiful sunshine! ]

2009-04-06T16:39:00.000-07:00

Today Angie and I decided to get out and enjoy the beautiful sunshine! We took a trip to the temple and walked around for a while to enjoy the view and soak up some much needed rays! I couldn't think of a better place to be on such a wonderful day. One of Angie's favorite primary songs is "I love to see the temple", however even though she knows all the words, I don't think she understood exactly what a temple was until she saw it today. It was really fun going to see the temple with her and even more importantly be reminded of it's great importance!

[ It's a.... ]

2009-04-02T14:27:00.000-07:00

We found out this morning that it's a GIRL! I thought for sure we were having a boy, so it definitely was a shock! We of course are still very excited, although John made sure to mention that this solidifies his need to have more "manly" toys to make up for all the estrogen that will be in the house! :) So now we don't have to buy as much stuff of course, which will save money, but we definitely need to start thinking of a name! So here are a couple new pictures from the ultrasound. She was face down so we couldn't get a good profile of her, so this is as good as it gets! This view looks a little scary just because it's her skull of course! The other picture is my favorite, isn't that a cute little foot? Well, she's a healthy little girl, all 13 ounces of her and that's what's important! Hurray for another girl!

[ one more day... ]

2009-04-01T11:51:00.000-07:00

My appointment for the ultrasound today has been rescheduled! I am so bummed, but they are doing some work on the ultrasound machine and so I had no choice but to change the appointment! So the waiting game continues for one more day! And no, this is not a joke for April Fools day! Tomorrow morning at 8:00 am we'll find out the good news and I'll be sure to post immediately after! So stay tuned for one more day!

[ blog update ]

2009-03-23T09:50:00.001-07:00

Alright, I know I've been slacking a little bit lately with posting on my other blog, Creative Optimism but I just updated so don't forget to check it out and tell me what you think! I probably won't be updating as much for the next week or so because we're in the process of moving again! The house that we've been so fortunate to rent just sold and we'll be out by this coming Saturday!

We found an apartment that's in my parent's ward and is also close to the hospital, so just in case we're still there when the baby comes we'll be around the corner instead of 20 minutes away! The great thing about these apartments is that they rent on a monthly basis, so we'll continue our house search without feeling like we can't get out of our contract! We're planning on this move being temporary so we'll see how everything goes. I'm excited though that we'll be close to both our parents without having to live with them, because that just makes things a little harder on everyone. This way we'll be able to spend time with them more often which Angie definitely enjoys! Although we will definitely miss having all the room we've had in this house and the great people we've met in this ward!

Oh and one more thing, for all of you who are wondering when we're going to find out what we're having... at my next appointment we'll be doing the ultrasound which is on April 1st, so only a week and a half to go! I'll be sure to blog that night, so stay tuned!

[ fresh air ]

2009-03-19T09:17:00.000-07:00

After church last Sunday we decided to get out of the house and get some fresh air at the beach! We're only a few minutes away from the water, but haven't really been able to go and enjoy it because it's been so cold! Here are a few pictures from our little outing. Angie loved everything about the beach, the water, the birds, the rocks, the ferry and the whales! She kept looking for whales the whole time we were there, so she was pretty excited when we found the piece of drift wood painted like an Orca! I'm so glad we remembered to bring our camera because I love being able to remember fun outings like this and all the little moments! We also hadn't taken any pictures recently together, so it was perfect! We love living in the Northwest!

[ Hospital trip with Nana ]

2009-03-12T09:26:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday Angie and I took my Mom to the hospital for one of her last radiation treatments. She's been pretty sore due to the burns and hasn't been able to drive, so we came over to help out and decided to make it a fun outing since we had Angie with us. My Mom and I also decided that we were going to document her experience by making
a photo book. That way she can hopefully in the future help others who are going through this whole process, which is the reason why I had my camera on me in the hospital, in case anyone was wondering! :) So here are a couple of pictures of Angie having a blast at the hospital! Who knew a hospital could be so exciting?

Riding up the escalator with Nana! She would probably go up and down all day if you let her! Definitely one of her favorite things! And anything she's doing with Nana is also her favorite, so she was having a blast!

Here she is getting her "strawberry shake". Which really is strawberry Ensure! They have a fridge full of juice and Ensures along with hot chocolate, coffee and tea in the waiting room for patients and family members to enjoy while they are waiting for treatment. So every time we went to the hospital Angie wouldn't let us forget her "strawberry shake"!

Angie found this frog statue by a fountain near the waiting room and fell in love with it! She is definitely an animal lover just like her Dad!

Here she is with her favorite stuffed animals of the day... her hound dog and snake! She is always carrying around some sort of animal with her, it just varies from day to day depending on her mood I guess!

Oh and lastly, I forgot to show off a couple of new friends: Spike and Ramseys, which I'm not quite sure how to spell, but it's from Nacho Libre! John thinks that movie is hilarious and is always quoting it, so hence the name! Both John and Angie had so much fun picking out the fish and the names, it was fun to watch both of their excited faces as we set up the tank when we got home! Oh the simple joys in life!

[ Pay it forward! ]

2009-02-27T10:27:00.000-08:00

I saw this on my friends blog and thought it would be a fun game, so let me know if you're in...

"The first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive a handmade (or possibly store-bought) gift from me during this year. When and what will be a surprise. There's a small catch though...Post this same thing on your own blog and then come back and leave a comment telling me you're in. Remember, only the first 3 comments receive the gift!"

I thought it would be fun to exchange gifts with some of my friends, because doing something for someone else always makes me happy! So join in the fun and see what happens when you pay it forward!

Oh and here's a random picture of Angie and I, because I hate posting without a picture! I was doing some yoga moves on my sister-in-law's Wii the other night and Angie wanted to join in of course, so she ran into the bathroom and comes back out carrying my scale! It looked just like the Wii fit board, so she set it up next to me and started doing yoga moves too! She loves to do everything we do and it's fun to see how her little mind works! :)

[ angie's quilt!!! ]

2009-02-19T15:05:00.001-08:00

Alright, I promised I would post pictures of Angie's quilt once it was complete, so here it is!!!! I am so unbelievably excited about accomplishing this! I had my mind set that I would finish it yesterday and I did at 10pm! Whew! Thanks to a ton of help from my wonderful Mom, otherwise I never would have finished it! This is my first ever quilt and she taught me every little step of the way! THANKS MOM FOR ALL YOUR HELP!

I've been working on this project for a few months now, so I'm sure my Mom is just as excited as I am that I got it done! Here are just a couple of pictures, I posted a few more on my other blog (Creative Optimism- there's a link on the right side of the page for those of you who haven't seen it yet) and gave a little more detail for those who want more.

I'm so excited that Angie finally gets to use her blanket, which is much better than the Christmas one she's been using because that's the only one that we had that fit her bed! But not anymore! It made me so happy to see how excited she was when she saw it this morning, she rolled all over it and couldn't wait to use it for her nap! So sweet dreams Angie, hope you enjoy!

[ our little sweetheart ]

2009-02-17T13:40:00.000-08:00

Here's our little sweetheart being a "ham" for the camera! She luckily wanted to cooperate with me... otherwise I wouldn't have gotten such fun pictures! You can definitely see how much personality is in that little body of hers! That is, when she wants to!

Angie was really getting into the pictures at this point because she wanted me to take a picture of her pink toes and her butt! I laughed out loud when she said "Take picture my butt!" then she turned around a stuck it right in front of the camera! We try to say "bottom" but apparently she's overheard us when we slipped up and said "butt"! We'll obviously have to keep working on that! I was excited about painting her toenails though... that's the first time I've had the guts to do it! I always had these nightmares of getting fingernail polish everywhere! But it was fine and she thinks it's great!

This table runner and matching coasters were a gift from my Mom... can you believe it? She's in the middle of her radiation treatments and she still manages to make beautiful gifts! She actually didn't quite finish the table runner because she's been so extremely tired from the radiation. So she took this opportunity to teach me how to finish it off. She sewed the blocks of fabric together and then showed me how to do the border, the quilting ("stitching in the ditch") and lastly the binding! It was so fun to learn and now I feel like I can consider myself a quilter since I know how to complete a project! I was even more excited that I finished the project for the holiday! I know some of you are laughing right now, but it happens! I get a project started and then get so many other things going on that I usually don't finish it in time to enjoy it for that holiday! Not this time! So now that I know how to quilt, I'm working on finishing up Angie's comforter which has been a work in progress for a long time! Thanks to my Mom... I should be finishing it by tomorrow! YAY! I'm finally excited about sewing enough to not be intimidated by a project so that I can finish it! So be looking for Angie's quilt! :)

Here's John's gift from Angie and I. Inside the bag is a heart-shaped paperweight that you can put a picture in. I didn't think to take a picture of it, oh well. We thought it would be perfect for him to take to work to have a picture of us and be useful at the same time! Angie and I had fun making our card for John and he loved his gift so it was a success!

And here are the beautiful roses John got me along with a very sweet note! I'm always so excited when I get flowers, as I'm sure most women are! John always remembers them for those special occasions... my birthday, Mother's day, our Anniversary and Valentine's day! Thanks for the beautiful roses Babe!Oh how I love special occasions! We ended the evening with dinner at The Olive Garden- YUM! Thanks to Nana and Poppa for watching Angie! HAPPY BELATED VALENTINE'S DAY!

[Angie's "Sparkle Song" ]

2009-02-12T08:58:00.000-08:00

I've been trying to get a video of Angie's "Sparkle Song" for a while now and finally got it! She's not as into it in this video as she usually is, (maybe the lollipop she had was distracting her!) but it's the best we've got right now! Angie asks us at least once a day to play this song, and then just like you see at the end of the video, she says "One more time Mommy!" after every time! We usually end up playing it a couple more times and then finally have to say "That's it until tomorrow!"
We first heard this song on: "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium" which is a really cute family movie for those of you who haven't seen it. Angie liked it because of all the toys and animals of course and because of this final song. In the movie, Natalie Portman who is a pianist and manager of the store is conducting this song that she created and that's why Angie conducts it! :) It's so funny to watch her because she's always moves right to the beat of the song! Maybe she'll be a musician someday, who knows? Hopefully we'll get a better video of her doing more dancing to her precious "Sparkle Song" as she calls it. The song sounds so magical, especially the end sounds like glitter or sparkles... so hence the name we came up with and the reason she loves it so much! She's such a girl that way! So as usual, hope you Enjoy!

[ Baby #2 Preview! ]

2009-02-05T08:36:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had an appointment for what they call a combined screening, which means that they do an ultrasound and take your blood to test for any birth defects or chromosomal disorders your baby might have. Everything with the baby looks great, so we're just waiting to hear back about the blood test, and we should hear back in about a week. So... here's the first picture of our new addition! I did get to see the baby on my first doctor visit last month, but they weren't able to give me a copy of our little "gummy bear"(that's totally what the baby looks like the first time you see them) because they used a hand-held ultrasound device which didn't print pictures. But now our baby really looks like a baby...YAY!

Anyway, I'm excited that we finally have some pictures of our baby! I also got a copy of the whole ultrasound on DVD and it's about 15 minutes long! They were obviously very thorough with the exam, but I'm not complaining because it's great to have so much footage! With Angie we only got a 2 second clip of her moving, so this is a treat! John wasn't able to go to the appointment with me because of work, so he was of course excited that there was so much to watch! It's fun to see John be just as excited with this baby as he was with Angie! Now we can hardly wait to find out if it's a boy or girl! We'll see!
What do you think we're having?

[ new pics by Lauren of course! ]

2009-02-02T09:23:00.000-08:00

I love these pictures Lauren took of our family and have wanted to post them for a while now, but am just now getting around to it. I kept forgetting to get them off of her computer, but finally remembered this weekend. My sister is becoming quite the photographer! She keeps getting better and better each time I see her photographs! Thank you so much Lauren for your amazing talent and for being so willing to share it with us!

I love pictures! They capture those wonderful little moments that would otherwise be quickly forgotten. These photos remind me of what's most important in life... family! When life gets overwhelming and crazy... all I have to do is look at my husband and daughter and I'm reminded how blessed I truly am to have them in my life. That's when all those things that I was worried about that I thought were too big to deal with, really are small in comparison.

I am so thankful for the knowledge of the gospel that helps me to keep things in perspective. With Heavenly Father's help I know that I can make it through anything. I guess this is taking a little twist from what I started to post about, but I've been thinking a lot about this lately since I've been feeling so sick with this pregnancy. I'm realizing that Heavenly Father knows that I'm trying to do my best in spite of feeling so awful and that He'll make up for where I fall short.

Well, I hope you enjoy the photos! I also hope all is going well for you and your families! Until next time... have a wonderful day!

[ Very Belated Posts! ]

2009-01-21T22:16:00.000-08:00

Alright, so I'm making up for lost time with all these posts! I've been feeling so yucky with this pregnancy that I really haven't done a whole lot, which you can tell by my lack of blogging. The last few days have been much better though, so I hope I'm over the worst of it! My house is now put back together, I've been taking pictures and cooking and sewing and scrap-booking again, so I'm feeling much more normal! Thank heavens for that! But I'm not sure who came up with the term "morning sickness" because it's more like "anytime of the day sickness" which is not fun! But anyway, here are some pictures of what we've been up to lately, so I hope you enjoy!

[ Angie the Artist ]

2009-01-21T21:55:00.000-08:00

At least we think so! Here are a few pictures of Angie with her new art easel. Anything that has to do with creativity Angie loves! She thought it was so cool that she could erase on the wipe off board... hours of enjoyment! She drew some pretty cool pictures that were very different than her usual circles and lines, she now puts them together and drew things that actually looked like something! The second picture is her version of the sun... not too bad huh? And the last picture was our favorite because it was a person, her version of course, but pretty cool! You can see the eyes, nose, mouth, legs, curly hair and many arms! :) It looks more like a little monster, but still is very cool! Enjoy!

[ Wedding Reception ]

2009-01-21T21:29:00.000-08:00

Brad and Krystal's wedding reception was beautiful! It was so great to see so many of our family's friends and of course the happy couple! Here are a few pictures of our new family! Unfortunately Angie wasn't feeling good that night so we only got a couple good pictures of her. She's always happy when she's with her Nana of course! Congrats Brad and Krystal... you two look great together!

[ Happy New Year! ]

2009-01-21T21:05:00.000-08:00

Here's a video clip of our exciting New Year's celebration! This took place just before 8pm which is Angie's bedtime, not at Midnight! I don't think John and I even made it to Midnight! That's what happens when you get older and you have a kid! Oh well, it was fun to relax and throw some pop-its with Angie! Yahoo! Hope everyone had a Happy New Year

[ special present... special news! ]

2009-01-21T20:44:00.000-08:00

The most exciting present for us to give our parents for Christmas this year was our "special news" of baby #2. Here is the look of shock, surprise and excitement on our Mother's faces! Classic! I'm so glad I had my camera ready! They were very pleasantly surprised to say the least!

[ Christmas Morning! ]

2009-01-21T20:30:00.000-08:00

So this year was the first year we were able to do our very own Christmas morning as a family. Since both our families are only 20 minutes away, we could do our own thing in the morning and also see our families later in the day! It was so fun to start our own family traditions with Angie. She's just now starting to understand everything about Christmas, so that made it even more fun! Her two big gifts from Santa were a tent with a tunnels, (if you look closely you can see Angie's head at the top of the tent!) and her train set. She loved both of them and didn't know what to play with first! It was great to watch the look of excitement on her face... it was priceless! Oh how I love Christmas!

[ Christmas Cookies ]

2009-01-21T20:15:00.000-08:00

Angie had so much fun with her Aunt Lauren making Christmas sugar cookies! She especially liked putting on the sprinkles, or "sparkles" as she called them. They did a great job because the cookies tasted so good! Thanks Aunt Lauren for all the baking fun!

[ good news! ]

2008-12-30T13:15:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's really been a long time since I've posted, so I thought instead of doing a lot of back-tracking at this point, I thought I would start with the most exciting news first...

Can you tell what the poster says that Angie is holding in the picture? It says "I'm going to be a big sister!" This is the picture we gave to our parents for Christmas to let them know another grand-baby is on the way. They were extremely excited and overjoyed as we are of course! I'm 7 weeks along, so we just found out the news fairly recently. Our new addition is due August 14th. Unfortunately I haven't been as lucky with this pregnancy and have been sick, I wish that I could call it "morning sickness", but instead I would call it "anytime-of-the-day" or sometimes "all-day sickness". Not fun! I'm just hopeful that it'll only last the 1st trimester!

So other than that we're doing really well. We were fortunate to enjoy a white Christmas this year, which was very exciting for Seattle! We actually got so much snow that we even got to do bit of sledding! We got to spend a lot of time with our families for Christmas and I flew out with my family last Friday for the weekend to go to Brad's wedding in Salt Lake. I got to spend time with my cousins, who I hadn't seen in a year while John and Angie had some great daddy-daughter bonding time at home.

All in all it's been a crazy month for my family with Christmas and Brad's wedding and my Mom still recovering from her surgery, but it was very rewarding. My Mom is doing much better, especially now that she knows she's going to be a Nana again, we're happy that we don't have to keep our secret any longer and most importantly, I now officially have a new sister! Congrats Brad and Krystal! We love you guys! I'll have to post those pictures later!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

[ Cousins ]

2008-12-02T07:32:00.000-08:00

So I feel pretty terrible about not posting in so long! I'm feeling overwhelmed lately because so much has been going on. But that shouldn't be any excuse, if anything I should be posting more because of all the excitement! Well, since it takes me forever to post pictures, I figured I'll just post a few at a time over the next few posts and hopefully I can catch up with myself.

John's older brother Mike and his wife Megan and their two kids, Taylor and Caden came to visit for Thanksgiving! They stayed with us almost 2 weeks, so we had lots of time to catch up since none of us had seen each other since last Christmas! Long time! (May I also remind you that John's sister Cristina is also staying with us! So we were very grateful for all the spare bedrooms that we have downstairs! The space was perfect for everyone!)

Here are the kids having fun in the tub together! Everyday they would get so excited for bath time and sometimes we could hardly get them out! :) I was impressed at how well the three of them played together! Especially Angie and Taylor... they were holding hands and playing almost instantly! What a fun time Angie had with her cousins! They flew home on Monday and we definitely miss them, but were so glad we had the room so they could stay with us! We love you guys!

[ success! ]

2008-11-13T08:26:00.000-08:00

Everything went well with my Mom's surgery yesterday... so it was a success! She will be discharged from the hospital at about 11 am today. Now she'll be able to rest and recover at home with the help of my family and Aunt Shirley. We're all so glad that my Aunt is able to be here to help out- what a blessing! I want to thank everyone for the thoughts and prayers in my family's behalf, they were very much needed and appreciated tremendously!

[ a special favor to ask... ]

2008-11-12T09:09:00.000-08:00

One of my Mom's dear friends sent this poem to her this morning to help remind her what cancer cannot do! I think it's a great reminder for my Mom and the rest of us to not let cancer pull us down and dampen our spirits. It's especially important today since my Mom will be going in for surgery at about noon.

So I have a special favor to ask all of you... will you please where something pink today in honor of my Mom and also more importantly please keep her in your prayers today. Thanks for your support and kindness everyone and I'll be sure to update as soon as I get any information.

WHAT CANCER CANNOT DO

Cancer is so limited.

It can not cripple love.

It can not shatter hope.

It can not corrupt faith.

It can not destroy friendship.

It can not suppress memories.

It can not silence courage.

It can not invade the soul.

It can not steal eternal life.

It can not conquer the spirit!

[ a few new pics ]

2008-11-11T14:31:00.001-08:00

I realized that I hadn't posted any new pictures lately, so here's a few to show you what we've been up to. We see all sorts of animals in our backyard, but this was a first! Today we saw raccoons in our backyard! Usually we see squirrels, birds and cats, but not today! There were two, but by the time I got my camera the other one was gone! Crazy!

This is a picture of a squirrel if you can't tell. We've been hearing all sorts of weird noises in the ceiling of the kitchen and dining room and finally figured out that the squirrels are getting up inside the eaves of the roof and making all sorts of noises! Here he is caught in the act! Angie thought it was great of course! This is right outside the kitchen window!

Angie and I decided to make popcorn the other day, she was so fascinated by the whole process and couldn't wait to eat it! We like the real popcorn instead of the microwave kind... as you can tell Angie was super excited about it!

Play Doh creations... We made some of Angie's favorite things... or the only things I could actually make! :) That play doh is harder to work with than you think! There's a butterfly, snake, ice cream cone, 2 pumpkins, flag, flower, baby wrapped in a blanket, bottle and a house, in case you couldn't tell what they were! Oh and I almost forgot about Frosty the Snowman! My greatest creation! :) Don't laugh too hard, it was a fun rainy day activity!

Oh and these are my favorite pictures of them all! Saved the best for last! My family came over for Family Home Evening last week and my youngest brother, Lee had fun helping Angie get all dressed up and decided to join in too! :) If you know Lee, he's not usually the one to like the lime light... but he sure didn't have any problem letting me take pictures of him! :) He's 15, but it didn't seem to bother him one bit to dress up and have fun with his little niece! Lauren made Angie her "castle" and all three of them had fun playing together! Thanks Uncle Lee and Aunt Lauren for a fun night!

[ an update... ]

2008-11-11T08:22:00.001-08:00

Alright, here's a much needed update about my Mom, I wanted to wait to post about it until we had all the information and now we do, so here it is... The two tumors that were found ended up being smaller than they had originally thought and the rate at which they are growing is fairly slow, so it's not an aggressive type of cancer, it's actually the most common type, which is a good thing! We also found out that the lymph node that looked suspicious was not cancerous, which means it hasn't spread. Lastly... yesterday my Mom got the results back from the CT scan that they did to see if it was anywhere else in her body and the results were negative! The cancer has not spread... GREAT NEWS! My Mom will be going in for surgery tomorrow and the bad news is that she'll have to have a mastectomy. So there are more positive things than negative, however having a mastectomy is obviously a big deal, so all we can do at this point is be supportive and helpful in any way we can and focus on the positive.

However there are moments every day, I find that the world seems to stop as my heart truly aches for my Mom. What she is going through and will have to face tomorrow is something no woman should ever have to do. I am grateful that she is a fighter which means that she WILL get through this! Although, it's so hard to hear someone talk about their experience fighting breast cancer, but your emotions are definitely amplified and different when it comes to talking about your own Mom having to fight this horrible monster of a disease. Luckily we're all fighting it together as a family and WE WILL CONQUER IT! Thanks again for all your support, I have definitely felt the peace and calming influence of your thoughts and prayers this past week.

[ unexpected emotions ]

2008-11-03T08:31:00.000-08:00

I'm not even sure how to explain what I'm feeling today after such an emotionally exhausting weekend. I have felt everything from frustration, disbelief, sadness, fear, sorrow and humility. For those of you who don't know, my Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer on Saturday for the second time. It's been 7 years since she was first diagnosed, however the emotions I felt then have come rushing back all too quickly as if it had happened yesterday. My Mom has had way more than her share of trials throughout her life, so I guess we were all hoping that when it came to cancer she was finished with it. We don't know all of the details yet about the two tumors that were found and are waiting for the results to come back in order for decisions to be made as to what needs to be done.

Right now I feel so overwhelmed. I feel like if I just keep moving and keep going on with life that maybe all of this is just a bad dream and will go away. Although I also feel that if I keep going and don't think about it that I'm being insensitive, so it's kind of a catch. Definitely weird not knowing what is going to happen and still being in shock at the same time. I feel like I have to be strong for my siblings and supportive for my Mom by holding back the tears. Then I find myself having moments where I can't pretend anymore that it's all going to be okay and thankfully John is the amazing husband that he is and picks up the pieces when the tears come. He has been so encouraging and uplifting since we've found out the news, so that's helped out tremendously. It probably sounds like I'm the one who has cancer by the way I'm talking, but at this point each member of my family feels like we have it because we know we're all in this together, if that makes sense.

However, after saying all of that... I do know that my Mom can get through this, and I know that my family can do this again because we've done it before. I also know that Heavenly Father is aware of my family's situation and is watching over us. I know that power of prayer is real and that through faith and with hope prayers are answered. I know that it doesn't necessarily mean that everything will go the way we want them to, but it means that we will be able to get through this together and that Heavenly Father won't give us anything we can't handle. It's hard to say that even though I know it's true because I know it's going to be hard on everyone before it gets easier.

Well, I'll be sure to update as soon as we get more information. I think I should probably stop here before I start rambling on. Thanks for listening and for those of you who have called me, I truly appreciate it!

[ trunk-or-treating and pumpkin carving! ]

2008-10-31T10:09:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we had our ward Halloween party, which John and I were in charge of helping out with. It was a success! We had hot dogs, chips and homemade root beer for dinner and then went trunk-or-treating in the parking lot afterwards. We were trying to help Angie with saying "trick-or-treat" and every time we'd come to the next car we would say, "What do you say?" and she replied, "Help please?" which is what she usually says at home when she wants something. So we had to re-train her! After the fifth car she was opening up her back and saying "trick-or-treat" like a pro! We were so proud! The only thing is that she wanted to start eating the treats right then of course! We then had to stop for a minute to enjoy some of her treats, so I think now that she'll be really ready for tonight!

We had lots of fun carving pumpkins with John's family on Sunday night. Here they are all lit up! Mine is the silly face, John's is the scary face and Angie's is the spider of course! John has a tradition of carving intricate designs in his pumpkin every year, this year wasn't as extravagant, but still turned out great! John is so fast at it that he was able to carve his and Angie's in the same amount of time I carved mine! I'm a bit of a perfectionist though, so maybe that's why it took so long! :) Angie didn't care to help out on the carving, but thought the outcome was great and of course gave the pumpkin a kiss! Seems to be Angie's new thing! :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

[ cookies for daddy ]

2008-10-30T09:25:00.000-07:00

This is Angie's first time helping me bake cookies, or do any baking for that matter! We decided to bake Daddy's favorite cookies... white chocolate chip! She did a great job pouring and stirring the ingredients in without a huge mess! :) Here's a couple of pictures and a video clip of Angie helping out. My favorite picture is the one with the egg... she has a kissing fetish right now and apparently that was the thing to kiss! Funny kid! I'm not sure where she gets her ideas from but they keep us entertained!

[ what these daisies say about me... ]

2008-10-29T14:42:00.000-07:00

What These Daisies Say About You

You have a spirt of pure optimism. Your view of the world is eternally cheerful.

You are bold and vibrant. Incredibly striking, you always stand out in a crowd.

You are adaptable and flexible. You can thrive in almost any situation.

You are often under estimated. Your critics and enemies are in for a surprise.

What Do The Flowers You Pick Say About You?

[ what color crayon are you? ]

2008-10-29T14:40:00.000-07:00

You Are a Yellow Crayon

Your world is colored with happy, warm, fun colors.

You have a thoughtful and wise way about you. Some people might even consider you a genius.

Charming and eloquent, you are able to get people to do things your way.

While you seem spontaneous and free wheeling, you are calculating to the extreme.

Your color wheel opposite is purple. You both are charismatic leaders, but purple people act like you have no depth.

What Color Crayon Are You?

[ it's official... ]

2008-10-21T08:54:00.001-07:00

John has officially graduated! He got his diploma in the mail a few weeks ago, but I kept forgetting to take a picture of him with it... so here it is! I'm so incredibly proud of him! It was a long haul, but we made it! I know there were many times that we both thought we'd never see this day... but now it's here and we couldn't be happier! All of his hard work has paid off and now we're ready for the next adventure, whatever that may be. I'm sure we'll find out soon enough, but for the moment we're content with working hard towards our next goal! Congrats Johnny, Angie and I are so very proud!

[ "ti-ee-pigs" ]

2008-10-21T08:22:00.000-07:00

Angie always has some kind of stuffed animal in each one of her hands everywhere she goes! These are her new favorites... guinea pigs that her aunt and uncle let her have. Although Angie calls them "ti-ee-pigs" instead, which is really quite amusing to hear her say! The other night just after dinner she was playing with them at the table and were making them kiss! This is also something that she's discovered lately. I wonder where she got that from? :)

Here she is making her guinea pigs kiss and showing us how it's done, complete with a hug too... the picture of her closing her eyes with her lips puckered is her "kissing face". You can see just how animated she is in these pictures! We love our quirky little red-head!

[ so glad when Daddy comes home! ]

2008-10-15T21:02:00.000-07:00

I realized the other day that I haven't taken any recent pictures of Angie and I. This one turned out pretty good considering I was taking it too! It's funny though how Angie is so much more excited in the picture of her and her Daddy! She's always glad when John comes home as you can see! She is definitely a Daddy's girl!

Also here are a couple of videos that I took the other day when I was trying to get her to sing some songs for me. We ended up with bits and pieces of "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" while she's winding herself in the drapes... she's a funny one! Spiders are her new favorite thing recently, every morning she looks out the window for spiders and says "Oh Scary Spider!" as she shakes like she's scared and then smiles ear to ear! Also every time she goes over to Nana's house she finds all the plastic spiders that my Mom has out for Halloween decorations and then wants us to hide them again so she can find them again!

The last video is a new obsession of Angie's... she loves to just flip through books, particularly "grown up" books of course instead of her books. We have to really watch her though because she has found our scriptures lately. So we decided to give her an older copy of her very own so that she can learn how to gently flip through the pages without damaging ours. She's doing pretty well as you can see in the video, it's funny though because she just gets in her zone and that's all she focuses on and completely tunes me out of course! Just more of Angie's little quirks that we love!

[ etsy shop ]

2008-10-09T08:29:00.000-07:00

These pictures turned out so cute I had to post them! I took them a couple of weeks ago for my Mom's good friend Chris who is getting her business going on Etsy. Her business name is "Oh sew much" and she is an unbelievable seamstress! I have posted about this before but I don't think the link worked, so I thought I would share the pictures instead. She makes lots of cute kid stuff, like this art apron (which Angie obviously loved) and the Halloween tote, which she will love even more when it comes to trick-or-treating! Anyway, I would love it if everyone would go check out her stuff on Etsy and tell me what you think about prices and everything. Just look up her business name and it should come right up. She'll be adding more items soon, but just needs some input on what people think and especially moms since she makes a lot of children's items. Thanks everyone!

[ just to clarify... ]

2008-10-08T08:23:00.000-07:00

So as I have been reading the comments everyone has left about the vintage house that we're in and I realized that some of you think that it's ours! Unfortunately it's not! We are getting an unbelievably great deal to rent it until it sells. It's on the market right now, but because of the economy I think we'll be here for a while! So, I just wanted to clarify and make sure everyone knows we're renting, although we can't wait until we can get something to call our own. Hopefully while we're here in this house we can save up a bunch so we can own much sooner than we hoped, but we'll see! Sorry for the confusion! :)

[ project completion! ]

2008-10-05T11:03:00.000-07:00

I wanted to show everyone the side project that John has been working on. He was so excited to be using his talent and skills again since he hasn't been doing a lot of hands-on work since we were in Rexburg. So I had write a blurb about it to show my admiration for his great work of art! John has been helping my Dad do some remodeling in my parent's bathroom and here is the finished product! Doesn't it look fabulous? You should have seen it before, there was white tile from the 70's that had been collecting a lot of mold and mildew! And to top it off, the tile didn't even go as high as the shower, so this is a major improvement! I have never seen the whole tiling process before so it was interesting to see all the steps required to complete the job. I found that there definitely is a talent to laying tile and it takes a skilled craftsman to make the job look professional! I know I'm biased when I say this but John definitely is a skilled craftsman in my opinion! Great work Babe! I can't wait until you can create great works of art in our own house someday!

[ time for potty training! ]

2008-10-03T23:04:00.000-07:00

So today I started the process of trying to potty train Angie! She's been dealing with constipation for a few months now and we have yet to find the cause of it. At first we thought she was allergic to dairy, but ruled that out, so we're thinking at this point she knows what she's doing and might just need to be retrained to go to the bathroom so it doesn't become a problem again. I know that every time she has been constipated that she's been in quite a bit of pain, so we're thinking that she relates going to the bathroom with pain of course and is now holding it for that reason. We're crossing our fingers that this will be the answer, because if not we test to see if she's allergic to wheat, which will be so hard to do, but worth it! Anyway, I'm sure that's probably enough information on that subject! I just thought I would take a picture of all the "gear" we have to potty train our sweet but stubborn red-head! The potty of course, a timer (so that she's only on the potty for a couple of minutes as to not get overwhelmed!), the potty chart with stickers and lastly glow sticks! Angie's new favorite thing is glow sticks, so it's the perfect prize if she goes! Notice there is already one sticker on the chart! She went once today without a fuss, so I'd say we're already making progress! YAY!

[ "The Vintage House" ]

2008-10-03T21:28:00.000-07:00

Alright, here are the long awaited pictures of our "vintage" house! Now you can see for yourself just how "vintage" it really is! We start out with a close up of the blue shag carpet that's in our room- lucky us! :)

Here's a view from the carport:

The living room:

The front of the house, I couldn't get a clear shot in front because there are 3 big cherry trees out front, so this will have to do:

View from the front porch:

The Dining room:

The wall of windows... I love this during the day because it's so light! Follow this around and you're in the living room:

The view of the backyard... it's huge!

The front door, it's a split level and we never go downstairs, hence the gate to keep Angie upstairs too! We use the side entrance off the kitchen which takes us right out to the carport. I'll be sure to get pictures of the downstairs another day!

The kitchen of course:

Angie's room, I swear it's bigger than ours, which is technically the master bedroom! As you can tell she loves her room and feels right at home!

Another view of the dining room from the side door in the kitchen:

View of the side door to the carport and the kitchen bar:

Our "master" bedroom with the shag carpet:

Matching tiny blue bathroom, especially the shower! John has to duck his head in order to get his hair wet! Also to put it in perspective... I can't even stretch out my leg to shave because it's so small! It's crazy!

The hallway with lots of storage as you can see!

Last but certainly not least... the orange, tan and brown bathroom with everything matching and I mean everything!

So that's it! Hope you enjoyed the grand tour! I'll be sure to get the rest of the downstairs soon! We don't hardly ever go down there because we have so much space upstairs! There are 4 more bedrooms down there, a small family room, a bathroom and 3 different storage closets! Crazy how big this house is! Please feel free to leave comments, I'd love to hear what you guys think! This house definitely has character, wouldn't you agree?

[ it's been a while... ]

2008-09-27T23:50:00.000-07:00

I've been feeling so out of the loop lately with blogging because we just moved into a house that we're renting and our Internet hasn't been very reliable lately. Although I think we've finally worked out all the kinks! I'll be posting pictures really soon. We've had so much going on the last few weeks, for starters... John was laid of from his job with Quadrant Homes last Thursday, but was fortunate to be offered a job this Monday and started on Thursday with Charter Construction. We feel so very blessed to have been watched over and taken care of and that it happened so quickly. Angie has been talking more and more sentences by the day and has learned quite a few songs from beginning to end! I'll have to catch that on video soon too. I've been busy learning how to sew, taking senior pictures for my sister and making new friends in our new ward. I also have been taking pictures for my Mom's friend Chris who is an unbelievable seamstress and is just getting her business started on Etsy. Here is where you can check out her super cute items and the pictures I took. http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6061565 Angie obviously was our model and I think the pictures turned out great. She'll be adding more items a little bit at a time, so keep checking up on her shop, and as always let me know what you think. I've gotta get to bed, but I promise to post pictures ASAP!

[ shake those hips! ]

2008-09-13T16:10:00.000-07:00

We were finally able to get Angie's little hip shake on camera! She is so funny when she dances! Anytime she hears some good music she starts to dance! I realized halfway through the video that I was dancing too, I then stopped so that the camera wouldn't shake so much! Sorry about that! We were watching "Blue Man Group" and she dedided to break out the moves!

[ coloring, singing and more! ]

2008-09-07T16:35:00.000-07:00

Angie is such a girl already because she can multi-task! In this video she does two things that she loves the most... coloring and singing! We might have an artist on our hands! Here are some other pictures of what she's been up to lately.

[ more paintings ]

2008-09-05T13:47:00.000-07:00

Here are two more paintings Brad finished recently... the first is obviously Christ and the second John Wayne. Brad is truly amazing, extremely talented! I wish I were more like him! One of these days I'll have him make something for me... whenever we get settled into our own place. Until then I'll just have to dream!