Spring Fever

It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so! ~Mark Twain

I laid in bed last night and listened to the rain as it was pouring down. I usually love everything about rain- the sound, the smell, cooking a big pot of soup and staying cozy inside. But last night I couldn't help but start feeling a little discouraged with crummy weather. I thought "Oh, I can't do this again tomorrow." My mood has been crummy, the kids are tired of being stuck in the house all day. But I laid their in bed and let the sound of the rain put me to sleep. And this morning I woke up to the most fabulous sight. Their was sunlight pouring through my bedroom windows! What a fabulous thing to wake up to in the morning. It gave me an instant boost of energy. I got the house picked up, everybody ready, I went visiting teaching and by the time I got home I felt so good and it felt so good outside! We actually got to play outside for a little while. It is amazing what some fresh air and sunlight will do for you. While we were outside playing we noticed all my little tulips poking through the ground and the buds starting to form on my trees. It gives me hope that spring is just around the corner. I know I am getting a jump start on this and probably getting my hopes up (I'm sure we will have more snow) but we talked about this in Primary on Sunday with our new Primary Chorister. She has been so great (I didn't think it was possible to find one as good as Brandi) but she just got me so excited as she bore testimony of the wonderful things we have been blessed with. I love this time of year and I can't wait to start seeing the flowers start to grow. It reminds me of one of my favorite Primary songs that my mom used to always sing to us and she always sings to my kids;

My Heavenly Father Loves Me

Whenever I hear the song of a bird or look at the blue, blue sky,Whenever I feel the rain on my face or the wind as it rushes by,Whenever I touch a velvet rose or walk by our lilac tree, I’m glad that I live in this beautiful world Heav’nly Father created for me.
He gave me my eyes that I might see the color of butterfly wings. He gave me my ears that I might hear the magical sound of things. He gave me my life, my mind, my heart: I thank him rev’rently for all his creations, of which I’m a part.Yes, I know Heav’nly Father loves me.

I have also been trying to force myself this week to organize closets and go through the kids toys, basically trying to get myself ready for the whole "spring cleaning" thing. But after today I am rejuvenated and I just want my whole house clean and organized (any volunteers? I said I wanted it clean, I didn't say I wanted to do it.) So I guess our winter hibernating is coming to an end and it's time to stop being lazy. Hopefully I can finish my organizing, I'm going to go back to my exercise group since it's been a while, I guess I should pull out my new years resolutions and see how I'm doing. I love today and the beautiful sunshine. I love that my kids could play outside so they could get a break from me. And I love the cute little girl that came and babysat for me so I could go visiting teaching (they couldn't stop talking about her.) She was darling!

Hopefully today will give me the jump start I've been needing!

Bye Bye "Baby." Hello Big Boy!

*Thanks Betsy for the beautiful picture*

April 9, 2006 I was blessed with this beautiful little boy. He has been such a blessing in my life, he is my BABY. Knowing that he is my last I think I have wanted him to stay a baby a little bit longer. I just want to hold him and rock him still, but he wants to run and play. I have done a lot of thinking lately and looking around at kids his age and realized he IS NOT a baby anymore. He is almost 2! I think I need to move on and let him grow up. I decided that the first step in doing this...it's time to give up the bottle. Ok, so it's out in the open. I confess. My almost 2 year old still has a bottle.

We are now on night #2 without a bottle and so far so good. He has had a few meltdowns, mostly yelling at me for a "ba ba." I've tried replacing it for a stuffed animal tonight he promptly threw that at me and told me NO! But I told him he's a big boy now and that the ba ba's have been taken to the babies. He again yelled at me and said NO! But overall I have been very proud of him and the transition he has made. I definitely thought it was going to be worse, I thought that's why I put it off so long. In the end, I know my baby rules me, their is no way I would have let Brayden or Kaylee have had a bottle for so long. But no, I'm not ready to give up the binki yet (He can't grow up that quickly.) So since I have to let my baby grow up, I would love to borrow any of your babies for a little while, I would love it:)

Happy Presidents Day!!!

So this morning Kaylee came running into my room yelling "Happy President's Day, Mom!!" By the enthusiam in her voice you would have thought it was Christmas. I responded kind of laughing, telling her Happy Presidents Day back. She said, "Well, what do we do for President's Day?" She is my holiday girl. She loves any, and all holidays...as you can tell. I said, "We don't really do anything for President's day, we just get the day off." I thought the poor girl was going to cry. Somehow in her mind she had worked up this big elaborate plan of what President's Day was. So as her mother, I had to come up with something. We found out this morning we didn't have to babysit today. And my mom was home today so she said she was willing to watch Kade. Since I was down 2 kids I decided I was brave enough to leave the house. So since we are probably the last people on the planet that haven't seen Enchanted, we went to the movies. Kaylee thought this was the best way to celebrate Presidents day. If you haven't seen this movie yet, you have to, it is sooo cute. Kaylee kept leaning over to me saying "Thanks mom, this is such the cutest movie ever. And not to mention McDreamy's in it. So to everybody Happy President's Day!

Happy Valentines...

I thought for Valentines I would take a walk down memory lane, even though this is a walk I don't necessarily enjoy all aspects of. Therefore I think I will delete some of the questions from the questionaire. So here are a few things about me and my sweetie...


1. Where/How did you meet? We met at Copper Hills High School. We were talking one day in the cafeteria. He casually said to me, "You're probably to good for me. You would never go out with me." And I said, "I guess you'll never know unless you try." And walked away. It's all history from there.

2. How long have you known each other? 10 years

3. How long after you met did you start dating? a week

4. How long did you date before you were engaged? 3 years

5. How long was your engagement? That's a touchy subject. Because I think we were actually engaged 3 different times. I think we were engaged for a month and a half before we were actually married.

6. How long have you been married? 7 years

7. What is your anniversary? November 10 (A Year later sealed in the Salt Lake Temple on December 1)

9. What kind of cake did you serve? I don't remember. I don't think any of it made it in my mouth when Mike fed it to me. I think it went in my face and down my dress and everywhere but my mouth. I don't think we actually served the cake at the reception either.

10. Where was your wedding? At our church

11. What did you serve for your meal?I think we had little sandwiches, maybe a salad, little desserts, and some punch. I'm not sure though. I know I was really hungry and wished I could go get some food but I never got the opportunity.

14. Did your spouse cry during the ceremony? Of course he did. My hubby's a little emotional. I think most people were crying. I'm not sure they were happy tears either. I think most people thought "These poor kids, they will never make it."

15. Most special moment of your wedding day? The whole day was really special. But actually for the first time feeling like I was accepted into Mike's family was a big deal for me. And knowing and truly feeling like I was one of their daughters meant a lot to me.

16. Any funny moments?
17. Any big disasters?
18. Where did you go on your honeymoon? 16, 17, & 18 all go together. We were SO broke. So we really couldn't go on a honeymoon. So we decided to go stay at a motel downtown. But we couldn't stay at any motel, we were on a tight budget! So we laugh to this day about the motel we stayed at. We joke that one day we will go back just for old times sake. We had friends offer to pay for one night at the Little America but we wanted to at least stay away for two nights and we couldn't afford to pay for the other night (how sad is that.) But when we got to the motel we hauled all our luggage up to the door in the freezing cold and they had given us the wrong key! So I had to stand out there for what seemed like forever while Mike went back to the office to switch the keys. Mike offered to pick me up and carry me through the door. I kindly declined.

19. How long were you gone? 2 nights and then we woke up early the last day had breakfast and wanted to come home and open our gifts.

20. If you were to do your wedding over, what would you change? Probably most everything. We had NO money to do anything. I feel like the whole thing was thrown together. I don't even have nice pictures from that day. Being 7 months pregnant I didn't think I would really want pictures, but I was wrong. Their are a lot of things I regret.

21. What side of the bed do you sleep on? The right. Mike would claim I sleep in the middle though.

22. What size is your bed? Queen

23. Greatest strength as a couple? Being respectful of each other's needs.

24. Greatest challenge as a couple? We don't really know how to fight very good. So when an argument comes up we aren't very successful at handleing it.

25. Who literally pays the bills? Mike works to pay the bills. I actually pay them.

26. What is your song? We have had a lot of songs over the years. Right now it's "I need you. " By Tim McGraw and Faith Hill

28. Describe your wedding dress: It was huge! Not like puffy, huge like big and fat 7 months pregnant huge. I just rented it, cause I knew I would never want it or be able to use it again for anything.

29. What kind of flowers did you have at your wedding? I did love my flowers. They were red roses and daisies.

30. Did you pick out your ring or did he surprise you with it? Another sore subject, (refer to question #5) but I think I will choose to answer it. The first time we were engaged I picked out the ring and it was beautiful! Then a week later we took it back. Then later we decided to get married but never actually bought a ring because we were so poor. Then when we actually did decide to get married I just picked out an anniversay band cause we couldn't afford anything else. But when we were at a hotel in Mesquite it was stolen by a maid. So it is now replaced with a $10 band from a silver store in the mall.

One day I will get the ring of my dreams. Right now it's not important. At one time I did think it was so important and if we would have gotten married then, we would have been married for all the wrong reasons. I've learned a lot through the years and I'm so greatful for all the experiences I've been able to share with my sweetheart whether they be good or bad. Because they have made us the couple we are today. I wouldn't trade him for the world, He is the best husband I could ever ask for.

*After much deliberation I decided to add a few photo's from our special day*

My Boozer...

When Brayden started his Jr. Jazz season he was insistent on getting a number of one of the Jazz players. Luckily they had a #5 and he got to be Boozer for the season. This was his first year playing on a team and he had so much fun. He will go outside and shoot hoops all the time. Or he will play with his friend Parker who has taught him a lot about basketball. But he has never played on a team. He did really good for it being his first season. He still has a lot to learn, a lot about being a team player, but through out the season it was fun to see him get better.

Brayden will take a shot any chance he gets. Most of the time he does pretty good. Towards the end of the season we were stressing the importance of PASSING!!!

He would get in their with the ball and actually fake the kids out. I think he has watched one to many Jazz games. Maybe he really thinks he is Boozer?

These pictures were from Brayden's last game and it was such a good game. I was so proud of Brayden, so I'm going to brag for a moment. Usually at this age games aren't that exciting to go to, or watch, but at this game I was actually brought back to my old cheering days. I was up on my feet, jumping up and down, hollering for Brayden. The game was tied 22 to 22 and their was 5 seconds left on the clock. It was our ball and of course Brayden had the ball. For a moment everything froze and I just thought, "Does he know he could make the winning shot right now? Of course he does. What if he doesn't make it? His world will be over if he doesn't make this. Why does my child have to be the one with the ball? Ok, what if he does make it? Calm down, I'm sure we will have more moments like these pay attention to the game." Then I was up on my feet SCREAMING for him! He got the ball faked the kid out took it down the court and BAM right in the hoop! It was SO awesome! Alright, so it was just a 7 year olds basketball game, nothing big and amazing that will go down in the charts of history. But it was so cool, it was my kid. They won the game! And he's still talking about it. He actually thought he would see himself on Sports Center later that night. So good job Brayden.

Brayden also had the chance to play on the same team as his cousin Josh and his coach was his Uncle Chad. They had a good time together and the kids always looked forward to seeing their cousins every Saturday.

Josh is a whole year younger then Brayden do you think my kids are gonna have a height issue?

About Me and Friends

So, I got this email from Betsy. It was a questionaire that you send out and whoever you send it to has to reply back and answer these questions about you. I thought this was kind of fun. It was really fun to hear what people had to say about me. But I thought I would fill out the questionaire for myself for anybody wondering if they got any questions right/wrong, or wondering how I would answer them. Also I thought I would post some of the things people had to say about me. Edited of course. Most of the people I sent it to knew me in highschool and can't seem to forget the past:)

1. Where did we meet? Obviously this question would depend on the person answering the questionaire. Most of the people I sent it to replied back saying they met me my Junior year of high school at cheer tryouts. One friend I met in elementary school, I met Betsy at Church when my Dad moved into her ward in middle school, and I met Brandi through my ward.

2. Take a stab at my middle name: I DO NOT have a middle name. Their were some good guesses though. Dawn, Loo, Ann

3. Color of my eyes: BROWN, and yes Betsy they would and they would love to have the Mac eyeshadow in TRAX on them.

4. Do I have any siblings? Technically nobody got this answer correct, but everybody got really close. I have 3 brothers, 1 half brother, and 1 step sister. (Paul, Ryan, Curtis, Paul and Haley)But since my mom has re-married I now have an additional step sister and step brother (Lauren and Kenney)

5. What's one of my favorite things to do? I'm just going to put some of your answers because you all nailed it on the head. "Hang out with your hubby!" "I think you like massages and pedicures... and you love hanging out with Mike with no kids!" "scrapbooking, shopping" "Layout, girls night outs, blog, watch Gray's with Mike and treats" "SLEEP...THOUGH YOU DON'T GET TO DO THAT MUCH. SPEND TIME WITH MIKE!"

6. What's my favorite type of music? I think overall I listen to country the most but really I think I listen to a little of everything!

7. Am I shy or outgoing? I really didn't know how to answer this one but someone described it really good for me in their reply they said I'm "shy initially, but not once you get to know you outgoing." It takes me a while to warm up to somebody or a situation but I after that I think I'm fine. I know my husband wouldn't put me in the shy category.

8. Am I a rebel or do I follow the rules? Girls, girls, girls can we all forget the past and maybe a few dumb decisions I may have made:) I am TOTALLY a rule follower!!!! Thank you Betsy for giving me props on this one. Just kidding a few of you did say you thought I was a rule follower now, but thought I was a "rebel in disguise" in my past. Someone also said, "I would say Mike's yellow has rubbed off and you’re a little rebel dying to break loose (j/k)" Can I just say I have never even been toilet papering! How's that for a rule follower.

9. Any special talents: I'm gonna leave this question blank. It was so sweet hearing everybody's answers but I feel like if I answer the question I will be boasting and if I post other people's answers I will be doing the same. So thank you for the compliments, I will keep them for myself.

10. What am I most adamant about? I would have to say my kids. Another good one somebody brought up was I CAN'T make a decision. I am so much happier when somebody else is telling me what I am doing when I am doing it, where I need to be, what I need to wear etc, etc. Life is SO stressful when I am faced with a choice.

11. How many children do I have? The best answer that was given to me was 4 (not a typo). Mike pretended to be offended, then he just giggled cause he knows it's true.

12. Thought or memory when hearing my name: More memories that I think I will keep to myself. Thanks for the memories and the fun times. Lindsey, I really am sorry to this day about that incident. Try to erase it from your memory!

13. If you and I were stranded on a desert island,what is one thing that I would bring? I think almost everybody responded with MIKE and a Dr. pepper. I think you're all right.

"A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart, and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words."

"A Friend is someone who knows all about you and loves you anyway!!!"

"A good friend is hard to find, hard to lose, and impossible to forget..."

"I am only as strong as the caffeine I drink, the hairspray I use, and the girlfriends I have!"

*Happy Happy Birthday Lindsay Dear*

Saturday was Lindsay's birthday, so this post is a couple days late. But we had the chance to go out to dinner to The Cheesecake Factory last night for her birthday. I have yet to go there since it's been in Utah because I haven't dared brave the crowds, but fortunately we only had to wait about 15 minutes to get sat. I was actually calling people to tell them to hurry and get there because we were already seated. It is always so much fun getting together with friends, having girl talk, and eating yummy food. Although, people rave about The Cheesecake Factory and I have yet to find something I REALLY love....any suggestions? It is so convenient to go there for a GNO because the mall is so conveniently connected to it:) So afterwards we went over there and did a little shopping.

So thank you Lindsay for getting another year older, so we could have reason so get out of the house and celebrate. Lindsay and I have been good friends for about 10 years now. We met out Junior year of High School, she was the captain of our cheer squad. We had so many FUN memories, that year and the years following it. We did silly stuff like pranking boys and then following them around to see if they would fall for our pranks (we were in High school we had nothing better to do.) We have had a lot of long talks especially on our drive everyday from Riverton to Orem to go to school at UVSC and then back again to go work at 1-800-contacts. She would even feel comfortable to be the third wheel and come on dates with Mike and I. She has been there for me through all of my pregancies and hard times. She was my next door neighbor and the person I could borrow eggs from. I could hook up my baby monitor and just walk next door and scrapbook or go play games or go watch tv. Her kids are my kids best friends and you know they are gonna get married some day. So I guess we have a lot more memories to make in the future...I can't wait!

Happy Birthday Linds!

Dumped On....

I'm pretty sure that's what happened to us last night, we were dumped on. I think it's impossible for tiny little snowflakes to fall one by one and accumulate this much snow in one night. When we woke up this morning we were blown away. Kade just sat at the window yelling "WOW! NO! (snow minus the s.) And it just kept coming. We had stake conference today and I thought I could brave the weather by myself and go. Boy was I wrong. When we opened our garage and saw how much snow I was going to have to get through, it should have been clue #1. Maybe seeing multiple cars in my neighborhood spinning out and stuck, should have been clue #2. The inability to see 15 feet ahead of you, maybe clue #3. But oh no, I was going to stake conference, They were making changes in our ward and I wanted to know what was going on. So I got in the big red beast, kicked in 4 wheel drive and headed down the driveway. I had to stop and wait for a few cars that were stuck, People pushing, tires spinning, the whole works. But I got about a mile down the road and I was scared to death! I couldn't see a thing. I pulled into a neighborhood to turn around, it took me awhile to actually find a driveway to turn around in, and then headed back home. So hopefully Heavenly Father will take into consideration my desire and determination to be there today, and he will forgive me for coming back home and getting back in my jammies!

The kids had a lot of fun on our homemade sledding hill in our front yard "helping" Mike shovel.

Even though I didn't make it to conference, my friend let me in on the changes. I'm so sad because they took a whole street that was in our ward and moved them into a different ward. It will be sad to lose them, one of the boys is Brayden's good friend. I just don't understand why they do things sometimes. We have a hard time week after week in our presidency meetings filling the Primary callings that we are in need of. So why would they make our ward smaller? Now it will a lot harder finding people to fill those callings. I guess that's when you go back and have to rely on faith, and trust things are done for a reason (I have had to do that a lot lately.) But I will miss those people and their sweet kids in primary.

Well it's snowing again, we'll see what the morning brings. If school is canceled, work better be canceled too! Hey, one can dream!

I was trying to change Kades's diaper, but he was SO excited about the snow, the second the front door opened he went running for it! He gave the neighbors a little peep show when they were shoveling.

Before and After...

Before & After

We took the splint off Kaylee's nose today, and I am very pleased with the results. In my mind I had thought of all these weird looking noses, and I couldn't possibly picture what hers was going to look like. Luckily she still looks like Kaylee, just with a skinnier nose now. Hopefully this will be my last post on her nose!

Weekend Fun....

This last weekend we had the chance to get away. We went down to Mesquite and met Becca and Gerry (who came from California) for the weekend. We left on Thursday and drove down to Filmore, where my Grandma just moved to. It was fun seeing them and their new house. The weather started getting really bad so we didn't get to stay as long as we wanted because we needed to get on the road. Then we drove to St. George and met up with Mike's brother and his family. It was fun spending some time with them and we got to go eat at the Pizza Factory...Yum! Brayden was excited because they made him his own pizza in the shape of a 7 for his birthday. Then we went on our way to Mesquite to stay in Betsy's condo. (And sorry Betsy if you recognize the stroller in the above picture, we borrowed it for the day.)
On Friday we went back into St. George for the day so the boys could golf. Mike has been having withdrawls from golfing, so it was good for him to get out. Becca and I braved the outlets and Roberts with all the kids. Everytime we would walk in a store, all eyes would turn to us and our loud kids. It was funny. We didn't last to long shopping, if you can imagine why, so we grabbed some lunch at Cafe Rio and then crashed Mike's brother's house. They were so nice to let us spend a few hours over there. The kids were able to jump on their tramp and play Wii, so they were in heaven.
The next day we all went into Vegas to do a little shopping. I love their outlets! But after a little while there I think Mike understood why I was a little on edge the day before, shopping and kids just don't mix! Then we hit the strip and spent a couple hours there. We tried to go see the tigers and dolphins at the Mirage, but that was closed by the time we got there. So then we walked over to Treasure Island to see the show they do on the ship. Can I just say, it's not so much a show geared towards kids anymore. They had girls in the skimpiest little outfits basically strip dancing. Take note, we are all in coats, it wasn't warm, but hey they looked "hot" so who cares if it's only 45 degrees. So word of warning for anyone going there, it's a little uncomfortable to be standing there with your kids. It's a good thing they had cannon's and fireworks going off and people diving into the water, I don't think they noticed how inappropriate it was. But I won't ever take them back.
It was fun hanging out with the Lind's. They are such good friends and we never get to see them. Brayden and Zac have been friends since they were just tiny, it's been fun seeing them grow up together. They just played, played, played! And they loved the fact that they got to slumber together for 3 nights in a row. We stayed up at night playing Settlers and just talking. But Mike got sick the last day we were there, so sorry guys we were kind of party poopers that last night.
Here's to good friends and time away!