The Hall House

When I say she kicks, I mean it. :)

2012-02-12T23:36:00.001-07:00

Wait for it.....about 30 seconds it starts to get crazy. :)
And don't mind the stretch marks, they are a gift from Lincoln.

26 Weeks

2011-12-31T15:41:00.000-07:00

My babies just stick straight out. I'm enormous, but I know its going to get worse. But it is to the part that I hate. I hate having the hear the same joke over and over, "you sure there is only one in there?" I hate walking through walmart (or anywhere) and having people give me sympathy glances. I hate going to church and having everyone ask when I'm due, and then hearing, "Wow, I thought it was any day." The ambien is needed now as is the daily tums.

Ya, I don't love being pregnant. But to long time readers this isn't new news. What is new is that Alice is doing great. We went to the Long Ultra Sound and the tech was amazed that her feet were "actually" in my ribs. I could have told her that. We also wowed the tech by the power of Alice's kicks. She was just dying at how hard they were. It was a good validation day for me. But really doesn't change anything. But in three months we should have a teeny tiny bundle of joy. :) Well, a bundle that will keep us up at night and beat my body up in other ways. ;) I hope you are looking forward to next months where I will wow and amaze you even more at the ginormous size of my growing belly. As for now, I'll go enjoy my braxton hicks. :)

NINE

2011-12-28T22:27:00.002-07:00

Well, I hate to make you all jealous, but I just can't believe how lucky I am. :)

Jared and I hit our 9 year mark today. In celebration we went shopping, (didn't find anything) went to a movie (Sherlock Holmes) stayed at a Hotel last night. We slept in, hung out in our jammies and didn't do much of anything. Then today we went to an excellent Mexican restaurant for lunch and then I got an HOUR massage. HEAVEN. The guy had one of the special pregnancy belly support things so I got to lay on my stomach. (it's been at least two months since I've been able to do that!!!) He was feeling sorry for me and all my knots all over me, but I just loved every second of that hour. Jared's sister and husband made it all possible. They came to our house, played with our kids and even put up with a sad baby girl who missed her parents. :) (We may or may not have missed them) And just to let you know the kind of man I married, I didn't sleep well in the hotel last night. (I forgot my sleeping pills) He took the kids swimming tonight while I was ordered to take a nap.....I love that man!!
We like to celebrate. If its your birthday you get a party, food and presents. If its an anniversary you at least get food. We try and go out of town at least every other year. Its so rejuvenating. I love my husband more, I love my children more and I even love myself more. I know weird. :) It's hard to have an anniversary over christmas, but it is also good because it's easier to find help. We used coupons for everything, and gift cards. I'm very grateful that I have a husband that when I tell him I don't want to do anything, he just takes care of it. I really am amazed at how amazing he is. So grateful.

As for christmas....we'll see if I get around to posting it....and I know I'm behind on my monthly belly shot...Just imagine last months belly DOUBLED! :)

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-23T14:21:00.001-07:00

Pretty cute eh? Check her brother at the same age and same song HERE

:)

Ruby's 3

2011-11-20T22:15:00.001-07:00

(Sorry I am late)
Ruby Ann is 3. Ruby Ann is crazy, & Ruby Ann makes her mother crazy!

She is the busiest, wiggliest, climbingyist little 3 year old I have met (and I have met a lot, I teach them!). Ruby usually has a fat lip of some kind because she is always climbing and jumping off of things. Just the other day she slipped and landed flat on her face. The blood doesn't even faze us anymore. It usually happens seconds after we ask her to, "get down so you don't get hurt".

Ruby's favorite color is blue, but on her birthday she decided she would change it to red. :) She forgets and asks for blue things though, then laughs and says, "oh wait, I need the red one, I forgot my favorite color is red now because I am three". :) Ruby is not the best eater but she loves love, loves her breakfast. She usually wakes me up at 6:30 most mornings with, "Mom, I need breakfast!" She'll repeat this over and over and over until I talk her into snuggling for a few minutes (but it usually doesn't work). Ruby can eat a bowl of cereal, a bowl of oatmeal, toast and a yogurt for breakfast (and anything Lincoln leaves over). But as for lunch, it is peanut-butter and honey or ... peanut-butter and honey. Dinner? Maybe one bite if we bribe her, but she usually makes up for it with her breakfast. :)

Ruby and Lincoln play really well together, she is excited when he leaves and excited when he gets home. They of course fight some, but mostly they play and work really well together.

Ruby is excited for baby "Alice" to come. She kisses my belly and when/if she wants to share a treat she'll give me a big bite and then a tiny bite for baby Alice. It's pretty dang cute.

Ruby is very much into dressing herself and picking out her own clothes. Sometimes I can persuade her into switching but most the time, "no thank you". Lucky for me she likes things to match and does pretty good that way.

We got her ears pierced for her birthday, she did really well. She was really excited and didn't cry very long at all. The cleaning them 3 times a day is not her favorite thing, but she will twist them anytime we ask her to so that is a plus. I absolutely LOVE them, I love them with her short hair. So cute!

Ruby loves her nursery teacher and gives them kisses and hugs. The teacher pulled me aside one day and asked if it's ok if she kisses Ruby on the lips. She was concerned and said she always tries to get Ruby to kiss her on the cheek but Ruby's not having it and will grab her face and plant them on her lips or say, "No the Lips, Lips!!" I told her it was ok. :)

Ruby is pretty dang smart, too smart if you ask me. She knows all her letters and sounds, colors and shapes. She's pretty good with her numbers and she is WAY too observant when it comes to adult conversations. She catches things Lincoln never does. (not that Lincoln is known for his observance)

Ruby is also very stubborn, she is in a wonderful whine, cry, fall on the ground and have a screaming fit stage. :) We had to take her out of sacrament 4 times today (twice during the stake pres. talk, awesome!). I know it's the age and it's okay, and it's nice that we've been through it once already. Her little life is much easier than her brother's was at this age (although her brother didn't have to share anything with anyone). It will be very interesting to see how she adjusts to having a baby sister.

As for her stats, we took her in and she isn't as tall on the charts anymore (75th percentile) and her weight was a nice healthy 65th percentile (32 pounds). The doctor said her tonsils are really big for a healthy girl and one more strep episode and they are coming out.

Ruby is just like her daddy, bosses everyone around and wants to be in charge. At preschool I'll catch her telling the kids what to do and where to go. She wants to tell me what to wear and how to do my hair. She wants to tell you the story to tell her, how to tell it, and who is in it and so on. Super hard for someone like me who is so passive and easy going. ;)

I love my Ruby Ann. I love, love, love her. I love how when she's teasing she calls me "momma girl" or how she'll smack my bum (anywhere, anytime) and yell, "Tag you're it!". I love how she is "too busy" for anything. Jared and I have decided she means "too lazy". I love how she loves to draw, how she loves to make her own decisions (drinks with no ice, only forks with mac and cheese, and only spoons with ramen noodle soup). How she wakes up every morning with her pants off, even though she goes to sleep with them on. I love how if I make it a competition she'll do it, although reverse psychology doesn't work like it did with Lincoln. I love this little soul I get to raise. I know she is going to be an amazing woman and I just get to guide her on her way (not that she listens to me much anyway). I love her and am so grateful we have her.

Half Way

2011-11-20T21:05:00.000-07:00

You don't think I carry high do you? ;)
My body itches, every inch!!! I've gained more with
this pregnancy than with the others.
I'm not dying anymore. And I'm actually doing pretty good.
Stairs are my nemisis, I can't breathe at all when I do stairs
and it hurts!!! But I've been walking at nights and feeling so
much better!!! Half way baby!
(I know I need to do Ruby's birthday post, I'm working on it)

Halloween!!!!

2011-11-02T18:00:00.000-06:00

Our beautiful Cinderella and our very serious Obi-wan Kenobi

Our Fun decorations. Jared and Lincoln came up with the corn stalks idea last minute. They were awesome.

Jared ran the trick or treating, Lincoln lasted a little over a half an hour. Ruby went for over an hour. She loved every minute of it. I ran a very busy door. We ran out of candy at 8:00!! I had 500 pieces! I didn't even get to sit down really. It was crazy. My sister let me have her shirt she used when she was pregnant, This shirt was a HIT!!!! Thanks Shell.

and what would you give for these lashes?!?!?! As I put the mascara on I had to clean her eyebrows off because they kept smudging on them. I decided she can't wear make up again til she's 12.

Beautiful!!!!

Lincoln's Halloween Program

2011-11-01T22:51:00.002-06:00

I know bragging is bad, but my little man was the kid picked to introduce his Halloween program (and the only one with his own speaking part). :) He had to memorize 8 long spanish lines. (as did his mother). And He did it. Good Job Lincoln!!!!! He's amazing with his spanish, they love his accent. He is always so annoyed with me when I try to help with homework because if I say it "NOT EVEN CLOSE MOM!" :)

He was the first part and I missed a little bit, and you have to turn it up. He was so nervous though, he finally loosened up for the very last line. :) My favorite word I learned: murciélago = bat :)

And of course it was red ribbon week and HAT day. So all the kids have awesome hair, but at least the teachers wouldn't let them wear their hats for the program. :)

It was adorable though, he has amazing teachers. Only sad part is Jared got stuck at work and missed his part by two minutes. :(

16 weeks

2011-10-23T20:24:00.001-06:00

16 weeks

I know it's kinda weird I take pregnancy photos on my third child, but pregnancy really does amaze me.

It's amazing to watch the body change. Where the heck do all the organs go? How does everything fit? It's amazing. And I like to look at other peoples pictures. And my sister lives in Michigan and she likes the pictures too. :)

So there is my justification for putting fat picture of me on here. :) And on that note, don't you think I am HUGE for 16 weeks. seriously!

As for me, I'm starting to come out of the fog I've been in. Slowly but surely. I hope I will have at least one or two months of functioning before it gets bad like it usually does. Pregnancy is not for wimps. Either that or I'm just a wimp, ya that could be it.

We tried to find out what we were having last time but the cord was in the way. So the next appt. is wed. We should know then. It'll be the latest we've ever found out. :)

So Random

2011-10-10T21:47:00.000-06:00

Jared had a birthday. :) He received his once a year cherry chocolate black forest cake.

I am still dying. (As you can tell by my beauty in this photo). This pic is 2 weeks old. I need to take another one. Maybe when I feel like it. :) I've run into a small hic-cup with the pregnancy. I've had some complications and am on "couch rest" for a week. I need to let my body heal. I can't do much and can't pick anything up over 20 pounds. (Yes Miss Ruby is a healthy 32 pounds) I have neighbors and family helping out, so that is awesome. I even had to cancel preschool, which makes me very sad. But if I can make it one good week than I can be all the stronger to make it the rest of the way.

As a sick and tired pregnant person my patience is pretty thin. And I have absolutely none left for my dog. Who has decided the trampoline is the coolest thing in the world. Good for her, because I'm not letting her annoying little self in my house. ;)

Ruby and Lincoln are getting more creative while their mother lays around and does nothing.

They are playing together better and Lincoln even gets Ruby food without being told. Poor thing is growing

up way too fast. :)

As for Jared, he's amazing as usual. But he really has kicked it in high gear for this pregnancy. It's almost embarrassing for him and me to tell you how he is cleaning, parenting and cooking. And he's still being nice to me. I don't think I could take care of someone that long and that much and still be nice. He is amazing and I am so grateful and happy I have him. :)

Ruby started Preschool

2011-09-23T14:20:00.000-06:00

Ruby started Preschool the day after Labor Day. She has an excellent teacher that just loves her like her own. :)
She is pretty dang smart and is doing excellent.
I don't know when all the wrinkles showed up, I look so old!!!

what may come...

2011-09-21T16:41:00.000-06:00

I came across this photo the other day.

Scared the crap out of me. I forget how big I get. Seriously, this third time around I feel so in denial.

I've been so sick, nauseous and stomach problems and no energy. I'm trying to just stay a float. My stomach is starting to poke out, and I'm in total denial. My sister michelle keeps saying,

UM...YOU ARE PREGNANT!

The story: the story is so simple it's crazy, and I think part of the reason why I'm in denial. Most of you know it takes us a long time to get pregnant. Lincoln took almost a year and Ruby took a year and a half.

Baby number three: first try. Really? Really! We are in shock. I do believe you appreciate a plus sign so much more when you have seen a negative so many times. It's so odd to see a plus sign the very first time. When we went to the Dr. he told us he thinks the biggest reason why we were able to get pregnant so fast: weight loss. I'm 40lbs lighter and jared's 35lb! I doubt it's the only reason but I believe it's part of it. But because of my weight loss it's been really hard to see the scale move up (just a little) but even harder to have my clothes get tight and have nothing to wear. And hard to not feel the pull of dieting, but I am eating whatever doesn't make me sick. Currently spaghetti and pot pies. :) Awesome I know.

I love having a 7 year old. Lincoln kept our secret for almost 6 weeks! He was worried his mom was going to die that we had to tell him. But he wasn't allowed to tell anyone. He may have dropped a couple hints but he did great! He loves learning about the baby growing inside and wants a baby brother soooooo bad. I really think he might be angry if it's not a boy. He wants to share a room so bad. :)

We should find out what we are having on the 5th. I am leaning towards boy just because the nausea isn't quite as bad as it was with lincoln, but time will tell.

Perks about being pregnant:eat whatever the H*** I want. not that it is much or that it doesn't make me sick. But I did buy candy corn for the first time in two years. (seriously).

Saddest part: My beloved coke tastes like sh**!!! I feel like screaming "someone has poised the water hole!" It has a nasty salty taste. As does any soda. I had major caffeine withdrawal for the first few weeks. But I'm saving about $20 a month. :)

Another perk about being pregnant. A sweet baby is on the way. I keep forgetting this, but when I came across the horrific picture above I also found this sweet video:

http://littlelincolnmanandentourage.blogspot.com/2008/11/siblings.html

gets me a little excited. Although I really have a hard time imaging a baby inside me when I am so sick. Because it's super hard to have pleasant nice thoughts when I feel as if I am dying. But those thoughts will come in about a month.

Well, now I am just rambling and have given way too much information.

Coming soon...

2011-09-17T11:56:00.000-06:00

April 6th these shoes will be filled.
We are excited.
I am so sick.
That is all for now. :)

Back Yard Adventure

2011-09-12T19:37:00.000-06:00

I will miss summer so bad. :)

This little adventure took place totally under Jared & I's noses. We were in the kitchen and they would have had to have passed us, but we didn't see them taking ANYTHING out. Even the huge toy!

So funny. :)

Best soccer game

2011-09-11T10:59:00.004-06:00

Last sunday Jared and the kids were playing soccer in our front yard. So adorable and so fun. Lincoln made everyone get a jersey on. Ruby was very serious and did a very good job. :)

It was fun to watch and Jared as usual is awesome. :)

Best soccer game I've seen in a while. :)

And here is a long clip to demonstrate how a 7 year old's mind thinks. :) He's nuts, and obviously listens to his parents very well.

4 wheeling

2011-09-04T22:33:00.003-06:00

Ruby and Lincoln got to go 4wheeling with their daddy at my Uncle carl's cabin.

They loved it and it was relaxing.

First Day of School! First Day of School!!!

2011-09-04T22:19:00.003-06:00

Second Grade? Second Grade!!!

He was nervous, but as soon as he walked in all his friends yelled, "LINCOLN" Then he remembered that he has friends. :) and barely had time to tell me good bye. He said it went great. His only complaint is that school takes ALL day and there isn't enough time for his computer. :)

Ruby had to take her back pack too. She was happy to leave though and even happier to have her mother all to herself all day! :)

Work Party

2011-09-04T22:05:00.003-06:00

Jared's work has started a new tradition of having a work party. This was only the 2nd annual. But they had face painting, blow up slides and a 5K. Jared did the 5K so we were there early and had the blow up slides to ourselves. :)

Super spoiled kids.

Such cute Kids

2011-09-04T21:49:00.002-06:00

We always take advantage of Amy and her kids anytime they are in town. We got to go swimming, which was so nice. After the Lava fiasco with Ruby she has wanted to do nothing but swim. So it was so good that she could go, and they had a waterslide which she LOVED. Lincoln, on the other hand....still chicken. :)
But everyone was little fishes. Loving being in the water. Super cute. :)

The Zoo.....

2011-09-04T21:30:00.005-06:00

Aunt Janay invited us to go to the Zoo. (I'm not a fan, walking, people, heat what not...I mustered up the courage though) The kids loved it of course. It was Ruby's first time since she was a baby. I love watching her discover things and think them through. The kids did great.The bird show impressed me. I like birds though. :)

After a long day at the zoo who can make dinner? Not me. :)

Lincoln took this picture of himself at the restaurant. He's so handsome. :)

A momentous occasion

2011-09-04T21:25:00.003-06:00

On Aug. 8th Miss Ruby gave all her binkies to the neighbor baby. She no longer needs them as she is a BIG girl. :)

It was hard, but not as hard as just going cold turkey like we did with Lincoln. She only cried for them that day, and then has asked a couple times. But it was great and she is doing great without them. :)

Such a big girl!

Our Bed

2011-08-07T00:08:00.003-06:00

My kids.....right now....Ruby was crying and saying "I'm not tired...I'm not tired" We ignored her and it became quiet after a few minutes. I chuckled to myself...not tired. Silly girl. But then when I came up she wasn't in her bed anywhere. Lo and behold, her and her blanket were sleeping in my bed.

Lincoln was still awake, I told him to go to bed, "I'm not tired...whine ..cry....I'm not tired" He heard me laughing at Ruby and said, "no fair I want to sleep in your bed!" I say, go ahead, it's dark in there and absolutely no talking. He was out in five minutes in my bed.

spoiled kids. :)

baby girl

2011-08-06T22:46:00.004-06:00

It's blurry because she didn't want me to take a picture of her awesome outfit. :) She's just super cool. :)

Baby girl has had a really rough week and a half. She started out whining and clingy. I thought maybe she was getting teeth or something. Then she got one weird sore on her chin just below her lip. I thought it was maybe a cold sore. Then the next day she had three. We went up to lava anyway. She ended up with a fever and my cousin (Kim, who I am so grateful for ) recognized it as impetigo. (impe...what?) We took her home. (because the kid who was taking care of our dog informed us we had a broken sprinkler that filled up our window well and flooded my preschool) and took her to the dr. They gave us a cream.

Next day it looks worse and her fever isn't going away. Come Sunday it looks like it's tripled and her fever still isn't going away. She's stopped eating and even drinking. :( They add oral antibiotics to it. Monday isn't better but I decide to give the medicine some time. Tuesday if possible it looks worse. And she's lethargic and isn't even interested in ice cream. :(

We take her in again. This time the dr. is concerned because she's lost 3 pounds since sunday. (10%) He wants bloodwork to check for dehydration, switches the antibiotics we are one.

Wed. it starts to look better. She passes her morning weight check (stayed the same, but didn't lose any additional). Ruby had two things going on. The impetigo plus some crazy virus that gave her cankers all over her mouth. (the dr. said they call it the cobblestone look because the gums are so swollen) She would just moan and whimper most of the night......

Well, the impetigo is all but gone. She's got a couple of scabby scabs but doesn't cry or moan at the slightest bump. We can brush her teeth again, and hallelujah she's eating again!!!!!

I don't have any idea what it is like to have a child with a terminal illness, or even one that lasts for a few months or a year. This week and a half almost killed me. She was so miserable, so sad and just wanted to go swimming and play! (we had to miss two family vacations. :( ) There are so many people in this world stronger than me.

I love this sweet child of mine and I've got some major de-spoiling to do. But for now I'll take the spoiled little girl over the miserable one that just laid on my couch for days.

TRON

2011-07-27T12:04:00.004-06:00

Well the birthday party request was ridiculous this year, and I of course went way too overboard. Lincoln has been in love with the new TRON movie for about 6 months now. We had redboxed it several times and if anyone was willing to listen he was willing to talk your ear off. And his favorite part: Big sigh, oh the whole thing!!!"

I searched and begged my sister to search the internet for ideas. We found some good stuff and it is basically a glow in the dark kind of thing.

I blackened my basement and tried to turn it into "the grid" (go watch the show, it's cute) The whole party was done under black lights.

The kids came in and decorated (with highlighters, because they glow under black light) their individual shirts that I had ironed on their names and a tron symbol (I know so nuts). Each shirt had a spray painted paperplate on the back of it that was their disk. (only two boys had seen the movie, the rest were pretty lost) :)

After the shirts were done I outfitted each with a glowstick bracelet for each hand. Next was disk war training with CLUE aka Jared. He dressed up and came and taught them how to fight with their glow disks. They had tron music going the whole time. Then they practiced with each other. Then we had targets they had to try and hit and finally they fought jared/Clue to finish their training. It was fun. The kids seemed to love it. One little boy as soon as he saw his mom said, That was so AWESOME!!! That made me feel better about the craziness of my work. :)

He's 7!!!!

2011-07-27T11:40:00.004-06:00

Lincoln had been growing his hair out since about march. He wanted it LONG!!! Well it started bugging him but he wanted to make it til his birthday and then he wanted it BALD!!! He wasn't happy with my Mohawk joke and then was kinda sad it wasn't bald bald, but I told him I was not going to get a razor out because I could cut him and that's when he said it would do. :) He is practicing his wink. He almost has it down. :)

Well it happened, He turned 7! He's going into 2nd grade, he can make his own sandwich, tie his shoes, brush his teeth and shower himself (especially with the new hair)! He loves Legos, his sister, his momma and being the center of attention! Lincoln has never and I guess will never be shy, he loves to talk and especially to adults. He is still super chicken of most movies and most roller coasters. Although uncle matt got him to ride bomb bora and the tidal wave!!! Which now he loves. :)

He loves to do things on his own and he loves to be the boss. If you give him and inch he'll take over the whole operation. He believes he is the smartest person alive and that he knows everything. :)

At his 7 year checkup he weighed 59 pounds and 48.2 inches tall. putting him in the 70th percentile for his height and 55 percentile for his weight. Pretty much just average. :)

He is a sweetie and loves to cuddle, loves to negotiate and still can throw a fit with the best of them.

I love that he is Lincoln, his little personality came packaged inside of him when he was born. The more I get to know him and see him come out the more I am in love. (and the more crazy he makes me). :)

Love my little man.

I love this little man, and what he is teaching me and am so happy I get to be his mom. Sometimes at my most frazzled moments he'll look at me and say, "Is it hard to be you?" I'll usually give out a sigh in defeat and say, "Yes, it's very hard" and he'll crawl up and kiss me, and say sorry. Then go right back to making me crazy. His little sweet moments are adorable. :)

Beautiful Red

2011-07-12T17:40:00.000-06:00

She's adorable, and I think she did a pretty good job for on her own, "Mom, don't tell me no, Don't tell me!"

July Birthdays on my side.

2011-07-12T16:05:00.001-06:00

Spoiled as usual! :)

I love how crowded this picture is. It's fun to have the whole family at our house.

There are so many kids!!! (missed you michelle)

Hair Cut Finally!

2011-07-12T15:53:00.001-06:00

He was trying to make it to his birthday with his super long hair. But it was making him crazy to have it combed and washed. :) I think the last straw was when he got ice cream stuck in it and it hurt so bad to get it combed out. :)

He still wants it shaved bald on his birthday....we will see. :)

Last Baseball Game

2011-07-12T15:45:00.003-06:00

Had a super crappy season. Our coach really didn't want to be the coach, he only had one practice and because of the rain we had a lot of canceled games. And our coach was so on the ball we didn't even get the professional pictures you get. :(

We'll see if we are brave enough to try again.

BUT, isn't he adorable? He loved to play catcher (I think because he didn't have to run, but was given lots of attention).

Trampoline Fun

2011-07-12T14:48:00.003-06:00

I slipped on this one and he ended up landing right on me. Poor thing found out why it's hard for a boy to get hit in the groin. :) But everyone survived.
Love the light on this one.
So Fun!!!
I love our trampoline! I love the exercise it provides and it also works as a water toy if you put a sprinkler underneath. We were lucky and got Amy and her Kids for a day. Amy got some awesome pic's with her nice camera. :)

Last day of school!

2011-07-12T13:12:00.005-06:00

June 3, 2011

He was actually really sad to see school end. :) He came in and snuggled with me for a while saying how much he was going to miss it. :)

Does he look like he changed much? I don't see a big difference, but I know 1st grade was lots harder on him than kindergarten. He grew socially a lot. It's hard to figure out how to be nice and stand up for yourself. I love this little man so much. He is growing and changing and I love that I get to be a part of it.

We'll see if I can do some catch up. Even if it's in the wrong order. :)

Baseball

2011-06-03T10:35:00.000-06:00

After 4 or 5 cancelled games (due to our awesome spring) baseball finally started. Poor Lincoln has never played, and hasn't really practiced. But he's getting it. And it's always nice to see other peoples children acting just as poorly as yours does on the sidelines.

Miss Ruby as usual is a handful at the game. I've had to take her on my own and I don't even get to watch the game. Tonight she even slipped on the bleacher and cut her lip so bad there was blood everywhere. I looked away for seriously 2 seconds because Lincoln was up. :(

I don't think she's invited anymore. Bleachers are not for 2 year olds. Especially ones who love to climb, jump and scream cannonball!!!!

super cool part

2011-06-02T09:05:00.000-06:00

We got to meet up with my 2nd cousin (Eve, Greg, Wren and Van) with whom I've come acquainted with via Facebook. We talk trash about games she beats me at, and notice a lot of similar sarcastic comments. I decided it'd be awesome to see them for a couple days. We got to go to dinner, church and hang out for two days. Her mother (Pat) graciously allowed us to chill at their house for that. So spoiled, I know. It was so nice and relaxing.

Eve and I even stayed up til 2am one day just chatting. Love when you click with people that you don't even notice what time it is.

Sadly we didn't take a ton of pictures, I'm horrible at getting group shots or even remembering the camera at all.

This was our last time together and it basically was just wrestling with the kids to get them all worn out for bed.

It was awesome to hang out, but I don't know how to convince them to come to Utah to do it again. Utah really doesn't have anything cool, well except me, I'm pretty cool right?

Disneyland, the happiest place on earth?

2011-05-31T12:43:00.006-06:00

Happy Families, off for excitement.

Lots of excitement to be had. Miss Ruby liked the tea cups. That is all. :)

Not once did any of them complain to having four kids in one bed. And how my friends do you know if your Best Friend is REALLY your best friend? When you can share a hotel room for 5 days with your beds this close and it was fine. :) Really really. Everyone told me, no way, you guys are going to regret sharing a room. I'd do it again. :) Love them! It might help that our husbands are really laid back and go with the flow kind of people. And Amy and I are similar enough that we talked and talked. and our kids love each other, but that my friends is what best friends are made of. Now if only we can get them to move back to Utah. :)

I love the beach. I love how you just can't help but feel relaxed at the beach. Ruby enjoyed the sand, but wouldn't go near the water. Lincoln loved both, and wanted to go farther and farther out in the ice cold water. So nice and relaxing. I could do a whole vacation just at the beach. :)

Disneyland. Lincoln's favorite was buzz lightyear. His least favorite was when his mom bribed him to go on Screaming California. :) He still has not forgiven me and claims he will never NEVER ride another roller coaster EVER again. :)
I love my son, I love that he loves princesses and star wars. He was able to get picked in the star wars training and loved it. :) Miss Ruby wanted to see Belle. She was there when we got in line and then was gone. If you ask her about Disneyland she will tell you "I liked the tea cups, and I didn't get to see belle"

We waited in line for the #$%* princesses for almost 2 hours, and we got to see TWO princesses. Amy and I tried so hard not to be fuming mad, and smile for the kids. We both wanted to give them the bird on the way out. (again why she is my best friend)

This was Lincoln most of the time. Happy to be there, but super chicken to go on any rides.

This was ruby the whole time, really ticked at the world for sending her to this horrible place. Where crazy characters want to talk to her, and she has to sit in a stroller and wait in lines and ride rides she hated! Every 7-10 minutes Ruby would say, "I want to go home!"

One super cute thing was how excited the kids were to see Lexi and Kenny. It was a total shock. Poor Lexi had Strep, so she had been told not to hug anyone. Lincoln didn't know what to do when he couldn't hug Lexi. Now he has whispered to me quite a few times that Lexi is his girlfriend. :)

All in all we survived. I did learn a few things. I do know myself. I knew it would be hard for me, I knew I wouldn't love it, but tricked myself into believing it would be great. I learned I have more of an anxiety/phobia of crowds than I thought. I thought I just didn't like them, but may or may not have had a panic attack heading into disneyland when the fireworks had just ended.

I learned I love my kids, even sick, tired and ornery. Just like they love me sick, tired and ornery.

Maybe it would have been better had we not all been sick, but I don't think I'm signing up to find out anytime soon. :)

We finally told them

2011-05-08T22:31:00.002-06:00

it was a little anti-climatic to me. I think I was expecting screaming and total disbelief. I think he was in shock a little. But he also knew I had a little $5 lego set for him to play with in the car. I find it interesting that at the end he was like, k can I play with my legos now......nice.

and this gives everyone a sweet insight into miss ruby. She knew what it said but wanted to let you know she could be

Well it finally happened

2011-04-19T12:28:00.002-06:00

Lincoln takes a lot of videos. A LOT. I erase a lot, he cries a lot. and He wants everyone to see his movies. He wants to be a director when he gets big and as much as I don't love the aspiration I think he's been dying to do it forever. So I'm being a supportive mom. :)

And He's pretty dang awesome and funny.

Introducing Lincoln's Blog:

http://lincolnthemovieman.blogspot.com/

I'm sure there will be new movies everyday for a while. I taught him how to upload them and how to edit. He's pretty amazing when it comes to technology. (helps that we let him break, I mean use our things. :)

Enjoy, and if you want to show him love become a follower.

Easy lazy DIY cabinet painting. :)

2011-04-07T18:40:00.007-06:00

So I've wanted to paint my cabinets for a year or more, and I knew I wanted green, but it had to be the perfect green. I looked, and looked. Listened to a ton of criticism about how green would NOT look good. :) It's ok, I can handle it. I had lots of people helping me look at colors, I just couldn't find the color I wanted. I decided to try a paint shop one day (after a year of looking!!) looking at all their samples, I bought a couple tester colors thinking, maybe this will work. On the way out I saw the mis-tint pile, I sorted through it thinking I could paint frames or something and found my GREEN!!! I was ecstatic. :) But was unsure, I'd been fooled before. So I bought some mis-tint and came home to try it.

Well, I loved it, others agreed that it was the one for me. With confidence in the color I started looking into how to paint your cabinets on youtube and tons of DIY blogs.

I decided I was too lazy for the sand, prime, sand, paint, sand method. :)

But I didn't want brush strokes on the doors. My VT told me about this website:http://sassystyleredesign.blogspot.com/2010/07/kitchen-101-how-to-paint-your-ugly.html and I had my answer. (BE LAZY)

In my search I didn't find anyone that had good step by step pictures. So I thought I'd try and give you some to help if you want to try it. :)

Here's my attempt at a tutorial for the lazy:

1: Find your perfect Color (try not to take a year)

2: LABELED ALL MY DOORS

3: Scrub your cabinets down with TSP (wear gloves)

4: Rise and dry cabinets

5: I had walmart match my paint,

(it had just a hair more green in it than my sample but I decided I liked it better than my original and went with it.)

My paint was Glidden with paint+primer (remember, lazy)

6: Take a big breath, and begin. We painted the inside frames and drawers with sponge brushes (I really didn't want brush strokes. ) We also used a foam roller. This took maybe an hour.

Don't take stuff out of your cupboards, you don't need to. As I type this I realized we didn't wipe down the frames or drawers with the TSP, oh well they seem fine. :) But maybe when you do it you can.

7. Laid down a drop cloth and set the doors up on my food storage and my precious diet coke. :)

The one that is already kinda painted is where I tried all my different colors. Pretty cool huh. Lincoln was really hopeful I was going to do camouflage. :)

7. This handy attachment goes to a compressor, my dad has one I borrowed.

The attchment was $15 at harbor freight. I had originally bought one at home depot for $50 and my dad thought he could get one cheaper at his favorite store. He was correct. http://www.harborfreight.com/20-oz-8-cfm-gravity-feed-spray-gun-67181.html

This baby worked like a charm, I will never spray paint from a can again. I'm planning on painting furniture and accents and everything in the world with this thing. Easy, less fumes and cheaper than individual cans. So happy with this. We sprayed one side, we went top, bottom, side, side and middle.

I didn't want to get paint on my shoes, and I'm lazy enough I just did it bare feet. :) It wiped off eventually. :) Systematically. all tops, all bottoms, ect. This seemed to work faster, we just needed to make sure we got in all the little grooves evenly.

9. Paint the backside first, so if you make mistakes by time you do the front you'll be a pro. While the doors dry do another coat on the inside frames.

10. Decide the doors need a day to dry because it's snowing in April and your garage is so dang cold.

11. Next day borrow space heaters to warm up your garage. Don't think about the hike in your electricity bill.

12. Two days later decide you'll do the other side of the doors.

(I didn't want to take any chances on it not being dry.

13. Now I had read that spraying the doors saved time and to spray so your job is faster. I don't think it's faster to spray.

It took a while to make sure I was getting it right and I wanted to do it right. I

believe it would have been faster to just brush the paint on. BUT by spraying I was able to get in all the grooves and not have to do coat after coat. And to me the texture was more important than the time it took.

14.Let dry at least 24 hours.

15. Put the doors back on and then try not to brag to everyone you know that you absolutely love your cabinets and you now have to decorate everything else in your house because they make the rest of your house look drab. :)

http://johnnyinadress.blogspot.com/

Archiving Quotes

2011-04-04T21:10:00.000-06:00

too early for me:

Baby girl: mommmm where daddy?

Anna: He went to work.

Baby girl: AGAIN????

Anna: yes, sorry he'll be back later

Baby girl: Why not???

Anna: Good job going potty

Baby Girl: That poopie for you mommy. :) Your welcome.

Lincoln heard Queens: Fat Bottomed Girls

"Hey mom that's like you!!!"

Lincoln took a pita to school for lunch. He was so excited to make his friends guess what it was, he was sure they'd never seen it. I told him they used to eat Pita's in the bible:

"I had my teacher guess what it was, I told her it was in the book of mormon. I couldn't remember what it was called though" (makes me giggle to imagine the whole guessing game)

‎(while we are out to eat) My crazy son: "Mom, why can't we burp or toot when we are eating?"
Because it's gross and people don't like gross things while they eat.
"Well at school my friends and I laugh so hard at toots and burps, even when we're eating"

"you remember how I told you I didn't like the dinner last night, mom never make it again. it was so bad"

small whisper as just being told to be quiet and not rude

"so bad"

Ruby and I picked out a pink potty seat for Ruby today. Lincoln goes in to go to the bathroom, "Oh, that is so cute! so cute!" Love my little man.

Lincoln: Mom, check this out! I just made Lego buzz, even though it's supposed to be for 7 year olds. (says my 6 1/2 year old)

Ruby came to me with a glue gun, pointed it at me: FREEZE MOM!

If anyone is in the way of a plane with a propeller, they are in for a breeze......

Pretty dang cute

2011-03-27T21:58:00.005-06:00

I walked into the kitchen and found her doing this. She's so cute. Even if her hair is crazy and her face is a mess. :)

Practical Joke

2011-03-26T23:08:00.003-06:00

I'm not much of a prankster (I had my fun in my day) but tonight Lincoln and I teamed up and got Jared good. If anyone knows my husband they know he likes soccer. (and If you know me you know I don't care about sports. :) )But Jared and Lincoln were watching the RSL game tonight and loving it. Ruby needs some water, Jared tries to talk Lincoln into getting it for her. I tell him it's a daddy's job and daddy needs to go get her some water.

While he's gone I get Lincoln to conspire with me to trick Jared. I tell him to start jumping up and down and scream GOAL! (like they do everytime there is a goal) and then start dancing and singing OLE OLE OLE like they do. And it was awesome, we hear Jared yell from downstairs, "did they get another one?" Hear him run up the stairs, see excitement and slight anger (happy they made a goal and mad he missed it) on his face. He comes in and Lincoln and I start laughing and he sees the score hasn't changed. Lincoln is so proud of himself because he tricked his dad. I laugh so hard I cry.

Maybe I need to become a trickster more often. So fun. :)

Oh and in case you missed my awesome photo. :) The man of steel himself, flying over our trampoline. :)

I'm pretty proud I got this shot on the first try, Lincoln even more proud that now everyone knows he really can fly. :) As for Miss Ruby, she holds her own so well on the tramp, I forget she is two. :)

My AHA moment.....

2011-03-17T23:37:00.004-06:00

I used to hate to be around people who were losing weight. They talk about calories and exercise and can't believe you can eat "all of that" So annoying. I've tried not to be that person but when you are counting calories and working so hard it is really hard not to be that way. Whenever I watched Biggest Loser I was always so put off by the amount of pride the people had on their weight loss. "I am so proud of myself, I'm amazing!" This sounded so cocky and selfish "I'm doing this for me, it's about me" I didn't understand that. Until the other day.

I've had a weird body image since I've lost weight (forty pounds :) ) I'm still surprised everytime I see pictures of myself or catch a glimpse in the mirror. I've been more unhappy about my body than before I lost the weight. I didn't mind being bigger and I didn't worry about it. But I still feel like the fat girl in the room. I'm afraid I have a lot of small skinny friends, who i love, but I'm still the fat girl in the room. :) Anyway, I am getting to my point.... eventually.

Jared jumps on the trampoline with the kids, always has. It gives me a moment and usually it helps while I make dinner. I didn't like to because it made me sweat and was hard work and I just didn't want to.

The other day Ruby was screaming for me to come jump, I ignored it and ignored it than thought oh, I'll just jump a little. The sun was shining just right that I could see my reflection on the windows as I jumped. And just so happened that I had on my "jeggings" that day. (you know the super tight ones the skinny girls are afraid to wear. :) Anyway.... As I jumped I caught a glimpse of my legs and ass. I couldn't stop looking. I was so surprised those were my legs. I kept double checking to see if maybe the window was distorting my image, but the kids looked normal. I was jumping, not sweating, and really enjoying playing with my kids. I wasn't getting tired. This was an AHA moment for me. I was thinking, "I'm not that big, I look good"

It was a wake up call. It's been weird, I've been more concerned about my body image, my weight and my calories than I ever had in my life. I've been so sad over my flabby skin and working so hard I haven't been able to enjoy the fact that I'm forty pounds smaller!!!! :)

I'm going to throw my shoulders back, hold my head high and be happy with me. And I'm going to eat that cake with out the guilt!!! I'm going to try harder to not think negative thoughts, and to not worry about the weight (I'm always thinking, five more pounds and I'll be happy). I'm going to try really hard to be happy. REALLY REALLY.

And all of you people who are smaller than me, it's ok. :) I forgive you.

Really weird picture of me playing with my preschool kids. but the only one I have that's recent. I need to take more pictures of me. :)

Lincoln's Reflections Journey

2011-03-11T21:37:00.004-07:00

(doesn't he look like he's getting too big to you)

My son is pretty amazing, but I'm just his mom.

The school announced in the fall they were doing Reflections, they told him about all the categories. He came home and told me he could make a movie. I tried to tell him that would be hard and maybe we could draw a picture. He kept bringing it up so I tried to just ignore it. One day he came home from school with the entry papers and all the information and rules about making a movie. He told me his teacher had to take him to the office so they could figure it out. (can't you imagine him just pestering her until she was like, "Alright lets figure this out" I'm sure she even told him to ask his mom a bunch. :) ) Anyway when he showed me the papers I told him he had to do it all on his own, I couldn't help him at all. I reiterated my idea about drawing a picture. He was still gung ho about making a movie. :) May I present Lincoln's Reflection video. I love how it totally looks and feels like a first grader made it. :) He totally directed us, and it took every fiber of our beins to be good actors and not get upset. He'd make us do it over and over and get upset that we weren't doing it the right way. Punk.....

He received an award of excellence in his school and up to region. He did not for state (which I am so happy we don't have to go to nationals) But he's pretty dang cute, and the poor kid doesn't have a humble bone in his body. "So I beat a lot of kids right mom, like kids that are older than me and stuff huh?" I'm pretty sure there weren't any other videos from first graders, that may of helped his winnings. :)

But he's still pretty dang adorable.

here's the deal

2011-03-10T14:06:00.003-07:00

*I sit on my butt....thinking of all the things I need to do. Thinking of everything I'm supposed to be doing but my butt wins. .....

*people who talk to be heard annoy me to no end!!!!

*I am a Hypocrite

*Modern family makes me laugh

*I watch american idol but pretend i don't. a lot. :)

*Sometimes I run to the other room when my husband gets home just so I look like I'm doing something. :)

*Sometimes I'm so on top of my cleaning and laundry and cooking, and sometimes I downright suck. I guess you call it a funk. I'm in a funk now.

*I love teaching preschool. Really. Really.

*I'm probably one of the most unorganized preschool teachers ever. But I'm getting better.

*I want to be cute, but I don't. I want my house to be cute, but not like everyone else's cute homes but all the stuff they sell is just like everyone elses. So I have an ugly house. :)

*My husband is amazing...really really.

*I know I could be amazing out in the workforce (I'd totally be that hard a%$ boss) and sometimes I really miss the power and the recognition. But I'm too much of a control freak to allow others to take my kids.

*I have so many soapboxes; so many. :) And slowly slowly I'm getting over them. :)

*I wonder what it's like to be sweet and nice. Well not really. :)

*I really am a homebody. I don't like to go out. I don't like to do stuff. I love to be home.

*I don't know how to be anyone else. I only know how to be me. It's really hard for me to understand why people try to be who they are not.

*and yet I'm a hypocrite;

*sometimes I think back to myself two years ago, four years ago and more. I cringe at the conversations and the things that came out of my mouth. Everyday I try to make my present not be a cringe for the future.

*women are crazy. WE ARE CRAZY!!! I love observing and watching women. So worried about everyone else, if we're doing or saying what we need to. If we are giving off the right impression. I heard women totally trying to one up each other about house work, mother hood and shopping the other day. AND I JOINED IN. I got home and was like, WHAT? Why did I even do that. What just happened. Women are crazy. I'm so happy I'm not a man and don't have to live with a woman. :)

*there is so much more I could be doing, sometimes I see people and think about everything they do and wonder how can I do more. But then I say, five years, I'll do more in five years. :)

*Lincoln's little reflection's movie won at region and is headed to state. Love that little man.

alright I'm going to go do something. :)

We'll see if I delete this post. :)

Archiving Quotes

2011-02-28T20:48:00.001-07:00

L: Mom quick come look! It's a blister outside!!!!

(blizzard) :)

I'm making a rubbing noise on the bed with my foot.

L: What is that, is that you foot. Oh I thought it was a wort hog. :)

A: Lincoln that shirt is too wrinkled to wear

L: Will you just laminate it for me?

L:Do you know what Urine is?

A: Yes, why

L: We just call it pee huh?

A: ya

L: Who do you think calls it Urine? The President?

A: Probably :)

M: Lincoln, do you want Milk or water?

L: Milk, with ice.

M: ok

L: C'mon, Mom, you know how I roll.

L: Boom ya!!!

(instead of bouya)

Big crack of thunder

L: Woah!!! I think Jesus just got a strike!

All about Lincoln

2011-02-13T16:04:00.005-07:00

Well I've been promising some Love for my little man and here it comes. Lincoln's pretty awesome, and if you ask him he's really awesome.

He's pretty much a ninja and a Kung fu master at all times. And yet if you need him to be he's
a make up artist too. He's the worlds best Mathematican. He can school anyone when it comes to wii, or stratego or dad's old school nintendo games. He has one of the highest self esteems I've ever seen. (we're working on that) If he's going to give you a hug it usually involves his entire body with his legs wrapped around your legs, (even if he doesn't know you that well). He's very comfortable sitting on your lap, or patting your back, stomach or buttocks. Even maybe rubbing your bald head (ask our home teachers). Pretty much if you take the time to talk to Lincoln he'll have no problem becoming very close and personal with you.

He is a sweet boy right now. He thinks everyone and everything is cute. Ruby got a new pink potty and he walked in to use the restroom, "Oh mom, this potty is so cute! I just think it is so cute!!!"

and he's pretty much a great older brother. There is still some fighting but I love how sweet he is when he does play nice. :)

Love my little man.

For fear of exposing the truth...

2011-02-08T23:27:00.001-07:00

It's scary to show off my dirty kitchen and dirty kids. But I'm in love with their new song and the dance moves can't get much better. :)

I don't know how or why they came up with this song but they sing it all the time. Top of their little lungs with the tushy shaking always. :) (oh, and don't worry, Ruby never wears pants anymore. I force them on her tooth and nail to leave the house.)

What???

2011-01-20T09:45:00.000-07:00

Ruby's Potty Trained...... What, ya.

Ruby's mom is crazy, she doesn't think things through. Friday morning we were bored and I asked Ruby if she wanted to go buy some panties. Ruby, "What, What Panties?"

I took her to walmart and we tried to pick out panties. Problem was they didn't have panties in the sesame street ones she wanted, so Ruby is strutting her stuff in boys briefs. :) But they are adorable. :)

We got home, I really thought I was going to just put them over her diaper and talk about potty training for a week or so. Just to get her interested. She picked one out and there was no turning back. I didn't think about it being a weekend, I didn't think about charts and stickers, I didn't think about her surgery the following monday. I just thought it would be something fun to do. (sometimes I am so awesome)

But Miss Ruby put on her grover pants and sat on the potty and went. I gave her extra juice and we played. I tried to have her sit on the potty every ten minutes and talk about how cool it is like I had with Lincoln but she wasn't interested in that. Mom, I no need go.

So I figured I'd wait for an accident so she'd know what it feels like to go in your pants. Nope, she just told me she needed to go and we went. :)

I hovered over her all day. We painted, played kitchen and just hung out. She loved the one on one attention, and I realized I need to play more. :)

She wouldn't even put a diaper on for her nap. she's just got it. 1 & 2.

We've had an accident here or there, but always she's trying to hold it and then goes in the potty.

So world's easiest potty training. If you need help call Ruby, because I assure I didn't have anything to do with it. I even tried to reward her with m&m's or cashews(her favorite) for going. She'd look at me like I was crazy, mom I go potty. (Like it's not a big deal mom)

So because I thought things through I have a huge box of diapers with only a week taken out. :)

But baby girl's got this down. Naps and bedtime too.

And I'm in heaven with these, look! It's getting so long. :)

Miss Ruby....:)

2011-01-19T09:29:00.003-07:00

I know we've had a lot about Miss Ruby lately. I'll do one on Lincoln soon (maybe when he isn't driving me crazy).

First: Ruby is doing great!

The Dr. was sure there was a hole in her ear drum because it was still draining three weeks later, she still cried in pain everytime we did the ear drops and he could not get to it because of all the dried blood.

When Ruby was under he was able to clean out all the blood, dirt and scab and found a very very bruised ear drum, but no hole! This is fantastic news for her chances of hearing not being affected.

It is so hard to send your

baby away with Dr.'s and nurses promising to take good care of her. It's even harder when they take her kicking and screaming. (when Lincoln had his tounge clipped he walked with them and even pulled the wagon himself) The surgery was only 25 minutes and it really went pretty fast. They warned us that Ruby would be "out of it" when she awoke and would possibly scream and kick. I was ready. When they brought her to us she was cuddly but not crying. She sat with us, drank her juice and didn't cry. They said we needed to stay for 30 minutes then she could go. She hung out and didn't complain. We took her home and she played and played like nothing was going on. She even had Lincoln home to play with because it was MLK day. She's amazing. :)

I'm very grateful for all the prayers that were uddered for my baby. Thank you.

Oh and look, her nose is almost better. :) Now if we can just get her to slow down. :)

Update on Baby Girl

2011-01-12T21:40:00.001-07:00

Well...Good news, her nose isn't broken. What, oh you didn't hear how exactly one week after the Q-tip incident she fell off of a stair lift onto the track and down thirty stairs where she lay and her mother knew KNEW they would be going to the hospital any second when she saw her. She smacked her nose and head and legs and arms and ribs all really well. I cried as she cried. One day I might get this parenting thing down, but baby girl could make it a little easier on me, honestly this child is going to be the death of me.

(see the swelling)

We knew even if she broke her nose that they couldn't do anything, we were worried about a concussion and woke her every 3 hours that night. She woke up fine so no emergency room visit.:)

But I had too much pride to take my broken nosed baby to church (the swelling and the forming black eyes were too much for me)

I dreaded taking her to the ENT for her follow up to her EAR issue. I knew the ENT was going to call me into family services. Added to my fun Lincoln developed a fever sunday.

Monday came, we went to the ancient ENT and they were kind and didn't judge. But checked her nose and confirmed it wasn't broken. Also gave me the same long lecture on Q-tips while we tried to check Ruby's ear. Two nurses, one dr. and one sad momma held her down trying to check and clean out her ear while she screamed "Oweee Ochie Ochie" Second time I cried as she cried.

They determined she needs to be put to sleep to clean her ear and possible repair the hole on her ear drum. We will do this on MLK day. Small surgery he kept saying, I said, like 15 minutes. He says Maybe an hour because of all the build up. :( My laperscopics are only 45 min!!! Needless to say I am sad, and this is becoming a very expensive Q-tip!

As I had Lincoln with me I had the Dr. check him because of his fever and his sore throat. They don't have the rapid strep test, just the wait 24 hr test. He said if the fever's gone and he's feeling better send him to school. Next day I sent him to school. They called me around 3pm to confirm he in fact DID have strep. So sorry I just infected his whole class. Another point for mother of the year. Kept him home today more out of guilt than anything.

As they were home today they were being so cute playing and Lincoln even taught Ruby how to play football, well almost. Except the tackle part. She bit him, HARD to try and get the ball away. When I asked her if she bit him she gave me the proudest look and said, "Uh Huh" and showed me she got the ball. Her brother was wadded up in the fetal position screaming that Ruby had bit him. I smirked as I put her in time out. :) The fleeting half of a second was gone and the fighting lasted the rest of the day.

Ruby has been very ornery ever since the Ear incident and I don't blame her. She has to take meds twice and day ear drops twice a day all of which are huge tantrums to make happen. she's not sleeping well, so I'm not sleeping well. Damn Q-tip!

We'll make it and pray I survive the "little surgery" on monday. I told Jared I'm not going alone. I'm not that Brave girl I used to be. maybe I never was.......

Christmas

2011-01-05T15:11:00.000-07:00

I love how happy Lincoln was this year. He was sooooo excited about everything. I didn't hear any complaining about the lack of DS or Leapsters which I thought for sure he'd be sad about. :) Made me happy. Miss Ruby didn't really care about anything. But is in love with her sesame street Dr. Kit. :) Super cuteand my very favorite part about christmas.....relaxing. Here is where you could find Ruby and I at least once a day. Movie time. :)

Christmas was fun. :)

My Baby Girl

2011-01-03T21:26:00.004-07:00

Miss Ruby was messing around with Q-tips on Saturday, She had one in each ear and was so proud. I smiled and told Jared to look at how cute our baby girl was. We both smiled. She ran up to me full bore and slammed into my leg. Thus impaling the Q-tip in her ear. I pulled it out (there was blood) and told Jared it went in too far and to call Wee Care and see what we needed to do. Ruby was screaming like I had never heard. I heard the lectures of never letting your children play with Q-tips running through my head instantly. INSTANTLY!

While Jared was on the phone I tried to calm Miss Ruby. 40 minutes of screaming later she'd cried herself to sleep. We had an appointment to have it checked out. I tried to google everything I could, but everything was very vague.

We got her in, received a nice lecture on how stupid we were and were told she'd popped her ear drum and get her into an ent to see if her hearing is damaged.

So sad, lots of blood draining from her ear.

I get her into a very OLD man ENT today (graduated Med School in 1965!) I wanted to take a picture of his awesome reflective head thing that Dr.'s used to use, but he had such a poor idea of my parenting abilities I didn't dare. I received and even longer meaner lecture on Q-tips from the ENT. Did you know they aren't even supposed to be used for the ears EVER. You probably did, you're probably a better parent than I am. The amount of blood in her ear canal is too backed up and the bruising and swelling is too sever to see how bad her ear drum is. So he gave me drops, drugs and another lecture and we have to come back in a week to see if they can get a better peek. IF it's burst she has a 50% chance of having hearing loss (He told me he thinks it is

burst) and IF it's burst she has a 50% of it not repairing on it's own and needing surgery. IF it is still not cleared out enough to get a good look by Monday we'll have to put her to sleep and get it cleaned out that way. Poor Baby girl......poor bad mom.

I'm ok, I just feel horrible. She cries that her ear hurts, and wakes up with a lot of discharge after naps and in the morning.

After the horrible appointment today, we had to hold her down to check it out. She got to pick ice cream or donuts. She was adorable weighing her options, going back or forth. She finally went for the donut. Good choice baby girl.

Little stinker during

FHE

This is how I just found her. I don't know if she fell out or if she just never laid in bed and played until she fell asleep. Either way she's pretty cute. :)

Happy New Year! :)

2010-12-31T22:10:00.003-07:00

Love my man

2010-12-28T16:02:00.003-07:00

8 years. Some have sucked, some have been fantastic and some I can't remember. :) But I love my man, love the lows, love the highs and have zero regrets. :)

stupid sideways picture. :)

It was so cold the day we got married. I remember the wind was blowing and blew my veil off a couple times. I don't have very many pictures because I told the photographer it was too cold and I didn't want to be cold. :) That's what I get for getting married in December. :)

Here's to 8 more. :)

Lincoln' Thanksgiving break

2010-12-27T10:30:00.000-07:00

Lincoln was very busy, I had him cleaning and helping. But then thats only the first three hours, than he was busy building and imaging as usual. :) You can thank his Uncle David for the gun shop, he's always talking guns now. Maybe one day when he doesn't live at my house he might get to have one. :)

We had thanksgiving at our house this year with some of Jared's family, Lincoln took pictures unbeknownst to me. But I loved his point of view, and the only person who was in any of the pictures. Uncle Nate. :) Pretty funny to me.

Hall-Hansen-Hestness Chrstmas Party

2010-12-26T19:53:00.004-07:00

The tradition lives on. It's our fourth(??I think) annual Christmas party. And this year lucky Mike was added to the mix. He of course was inducted by Mr. Lincoln who talked his ear off about star wars, planes, cars and transformers. Mike listened like a pro though, (not that he is a pro at all things little boys love. :) )
We were so happy they were able to come and play for christmas, we miss them terribly all the way in texas. :(

Adorable kids

2010-12-26T19:10:00.004-07:00

Sometimes they are so cute they get away with anything. :)

Sesame Street Live

2010-12-26T18:42:00.003-07:00

For Ruby's birthday Jared had bought he and her tickets to Sesame Street Live. :) I'm always happy not to go to an event, as I do not enjoy crowds or events. :) (I'm awesome, I know).

We decided to make dates out of it, Jared took Ruby out to dinner and then to her show.

Then Lincoln and I went to dinner and a movie as well. It was so much fun I think we'll try to make it a regular event. Each kid got lots of attention and it was so fun for me to listen to Lincoln at the restaurant talk to me over and over and over about different sports teams and players and jerseys. He knows lots more than I realized, and I also realized that there is nothing I can do boys like to watch, think and talk about sports. :)

Jared said Ruby loved her mac and cheese at Ruby Tuesday's and that she danced and sang with all the characters. He said it was also fun to have the one on one relationship. Funny note: I had done her hair so cute, lots of elastics, lots of hairspray. Jared said when they pulled into the restaurant he went to get her out and she had taken her hair all out. It was crazy sticking everywhere. He found a hat in the car and called it good. Then at the show he tried to put a couple ponytails in. :)

Lincoln and I watched Tangled, poor boy is still working on his phobia of previews and movie theaters. He watched the "very scary princess show" on my lap with his hands over his ears and trying to see it through squinted eyes. Oh well......if you ask he'll tell you it was awesome and he can't wait to see it again. :)

Her first real snowman

2010-11-22T21:59:00.000-07:00

You don't get cuter than this. All ready to go. She was confused at what we were doing at first. But once she saw I was making balls she understood. I need to get her snowman song on video for you. She's non-stop adorable!

Split Pea Soup

2010-11-07T21:34:00.005-07:00

http://www.skinnytaste.com/2008/03/split-peas-soup-with-ham-2-points.html

It's yummy. I didn't take pictures. Sorry. But we had a crazy birthday party for three beautiful girls. We had fun and the soups were so yummy.

If you think you would hate this soup try it. The hammhock makes it though. Go to your

butcher, they're like $2 - $3.

Try something new.

This week was fun to try new things.

I Have no idea what I'll cook next week. But five nights of cooking was a lot for me. Maybe I'll rest. :)

And just because sometimes you really have to try new things, I was brave and bought skinny jeans. I was nervous to wear them and worried about my ass sticking out like a truck, but they were surprisingly comfortable and I think I'd wear them again. So my challenge to you is to try something new and then blog about it so I can see. :)

Day 4 + Birthday Fun! :)

2010-11-04T20:29:00.004-06:00

Shrimp, Spinach Linguine! :)

Recipe

1. ingredients

2. heat up skillet with oil and garlic

3. take tails off shrimp

4. dump spinach in

5. dump shrimp in

6. add cooked noodles

7. eat with sweet potatoes and coldslaw

8. bribe parents to babysit birthday girl while you take son to awards night. :)

kids hate this dish; don't they look cute though. I don't love it. I would have added a more creamy sauce to it, but again, that's too many calories, and we're staying healthy. I did add Parmesan cheese on it. But it was lacking some flavors for me. I'll keep looking for a good recipe on this, because I really like shrimp and spinach together. I think I need a good white wine sauce. :)

Miss Ruby is as adorable as ever for her 2nd birthday. Lincoln was just as excited as she was. He woke her up early and wanted her to have her presents first thing. Jared took the day off and Ruby was significantly spoiled all day. By the end Lincoln was having a hard time with it. "why is everything about Ruby? why is she so special?"

My response was easy, it's her birthday, she gets whatever she wants alllllllll day. Get over it. :)

Loves her new laptop from mom and dad. (I made my first iron on shirt, she loves elmo)She was so adorable, when we sang to her she thought it was prayer time. :)
I don't know if she can really get any cuter!Lincoln gave her shoes, tiara, and wand. She is in heaven over all three. The princess's begin. :)Tonight Lincoln had a Reflections recognition awards thing. I will show you the movie he made soon. The rules were very strict, he had to do everything himself. I can see why other kids did not do the movies section. Yes Lincoln was the only student from his whole school that did the video category. Somehow he got first place. :) he was so proud. I love the next picture. He was so proud, and almost embarrassed, which isn't like him. You can see him trying not to smile. Love this little boy. :)

Oh, and what the hell is this? Oh I know, my COLLARBONE!!!!

It's been missing for 20 years, but all this calorie counting crap is paying off, maybe I'll find my ribs and hip bone next, I'm not holding my breathe. :)

What do you do when you find your collarbone? Oh me, I just gorge myself on yummy banana split! :) Oh well, I can Rollerblade tomorrow! :) Last day of cooking. I haven't decided for sure what I'm doing. Sleep well blog friends, I'm off to contemplate life's mystery's....or play bejeweled. whatever. :)

Day Three

2010-11-03T22:39:00.005-06:00

Chicken Marsala :)

Recipe here

Really easy. Basically,

Flour

Garlic

Oregano

pepper

salt

batter the chicken.

Fry it up in the skillet. 2 min on each side. Then smother with mushrooms, add a cup of wine. :)

Does it scare you I said wine? It's cooking Marsala wine. Simmer for 10 minutes! EASY!!!

This is in the same isle as pasta sauce. It was $2.25 at walmart. :)

Proof the kids ate it! (This is Jared's plate, he puts mayo on Broccoli, I do not, I'm not crazy)

This was a yummy dish. I think I would have added a little more garlic (but I love garlic) and some Parmesan cheese. The sauce is very nice and makes a very tender chicken. It was so easy though I could do this anytime I need a fast meal. 226 calories per breast. Some of the other recipes called for heavy whipping cream to make a creamy sauce but that is way too many calories for this momma. :) Enjoy

Want to know why I need a diet coke with my dinner?

Because this is what dinner really looks like. Baby girl on my lap otherwise she's crying and complaining. Lincoln always leaning on me, touching me or wishing he was on my lap. Jared documented the chaos we call dinner. My super disgusted look is because Miss Ruby had just wiped her broccoli covered hands all over my face and neck, She didn't know what else to do with broccoli covered hands! Honestly. I think I need to start getting stronger drinks than diet coke. I wonder if that cooking wine would do anything for me. :)Oh, and we may or may not had to bribe Ruby with sips of my coke to eat the chicken. Punk little girl. She's lucky her birthday is tomorrow and she will be spoiled and spoiled and spoiled.

And because it's her birthday I don't know if I will be making the shrimp linguine tomorrow. We'll have to see how the day goes. :) But I am cooking. :)

Day Two

2010-11-02T20:35:00.007-06:00

Well, I lazied out today and made Turkey Meatballs and Spaghetti. Chicken Marsala tomorrow I promise!!! :)But I don't do meatballs that often and I do have a good recipe that lots of people love(one of my few recipes that really is mine that I made up)

Turkey Meatballs (obviously you don't have to use turkey, I just do because we've been doing turkey for over a year now and we can't tell the difference)

2lbs Ground Turkey

1 egg

1/4-1/3 cup Italian bread crumbs

half a handful of Oatmeal

3 Tbl minced onions

1 1/2 Tbl garlic powder

1/4 shredded Parmesan cheese

1/3 can tomato soup

1 Tbls Worcestershire sauce

Mix together

Take pictures of your cute kids through the window thinking how adorable and sweet they are playing. :)

With a small ice cream scoop put balls on very well greased pan. Remember these shrink so you can do a ton on one pan. I had two cookie sheets stuffed.

Notice said cute daughter is covered in water/mud/dog food from playing in dogs water dish. Do a quick impromptu bath. While bathing said daughter, said cute son steals your camera and takes millions of pictures/videos of this kid.......

Cook Meatballs for ten to 12 minutes at 425. I do 7 then rotate top to bottom and another 5. Because i don't like to do two shifts. I made spaghetti with Prego (my favorite sauce) for Jared and the kids and spaghetti squash for me. My family enjoys spaghetti squash I just didn't have enough for all of them. :)

Ruby & Lincoln showing me they love eating meatballs.

My Plate: 250 Calories

and my current favorite drink. :)

We used half the meatballs and still had enough for two lunches. Then I froze the other half. You just put them straight in the freezer still on the cookie sheet for a quick freeze (like 20 minutes) Then put them in a gallon size bag and you have them for whenever you need a couple. We use them for sandwiches, quick lunch, add BBQ sauce. They are nice to have around.

Hope you're not bored with my cooking challenge. :)

And just for fun if you are still with me, in preschool today we did the letter H and one kid brought in HAIR. So fun. We all took pictures, and now you all know how hot I would look as a platinum blonde with long awesome curls. :)

Challenge for the Week:

2010-11-01T21:38:00.003-06:00

Cook!

I get in major cooking slumps, where I just despise dinner time and cooking all together. So I decided to add some spice to our life and make 5 meals this week, not usual on our rotation meals! :) I'm excited to try new recipes and actually cook. My plan is to be healthy and creative. (and to let you see how white trash of a cook I am you'll be impressed at what I deem as creative you would deem as very boring. :)

Day One:

Homemade pizzas

450 calories, give or take 50 depending on your topping.

1 large frozen roll dough

1 T pizza sauce from jar

toppings: Cheese, mushrooms, olives, Canadian bacon and pineapple.

Baby girl even made her own (ate a ton of cheese in the process).

This was fast and easy. I set the dough out to thaw and rise around 1ish.

They only take 10 min. to cook on 425! :)

The kids loved helping and having their own pizza. They even ate them all.

They were yummy and I think we'll add this to our food rotation!

As for the creative artichokes were on sale so I thought, why not? I looked up how to cook them and it said trim, put garlic and lemon and bay leaves in the water and steam 25-45 minutes. Until the leaves will tug off. 1 1/2 hours later it was ready! So after we ate the pizzas Jared took the kids for a walk and let me work on Preschool. :) Love him.

Way too much work for the little amount of food is actually in an Artichoke. But we learned and amazing thing. My kids LOVE them!!!!! I was bugged it took so long so I didn't take anymore pictures of the actual finished product and the consuming. But know it was yummy. But probably will not make the rotation. :)

Up for tomorrow, I haven't decided if it'll be chicken Marsala or shrimp & spinach linguine :)

Exciting stuff for our house.

13 kids? Sure why not!!

2010-10-24T21:11:00.004-06:00

Halloween Party

Lincoln had his friend Halloween party this weekend. If you didn't make the cut please blame me. Lincoln's mother had to keep her sanity! 13 kids, and two didn't show up!

We love Halloween but a little less social son would make it a little easier. Actually it was pretty laid back, I had all the mom's bring a treat to share with each kid, and we just played games. The kids did great!

If you are looking for fun games I found most of mine HERE

But what was there favorite game you ask? Just the one Jared made up when we ran out of stuff to do in the last 15 minutes. He called it Hide and Spook! two kids counted to 20 (one spooky spooky, two spooky spooky...) then they would have to go find the hiding (giggling kids). But the object was for the hiding kids to jump out and scare the seekers. They laughed and giggled and screamed! It was hilarious. He's so annoyingly smart sometimes. :)

I love my bats! I stole them from this blog

Is your house fun? Because ours is! :)

2010-10-16T23:41:00.003-06:00

My house might not be clean, and it sure isn't as organized as I would like it. And I could tell you all the furniture and decorations that I absolutely hate (so many) BUT our house is fun!

Anyone else got a daddy who when he walks in from work and sees his son barreling his daughter across the floor in a laundry hamper runs upstairs to "change" into his racing gear and join the fun.

I love the play that is part of my home. I'm usually not as good at participating and need to do better. So Fun!

**Disclaimer, our home is not non-stop fun. there is yelling, fighting and crazy just like everyone elses home. :) We just have fun sometimes. ***

I just can't get over her...so adorable.

2010-10-16T23:17:00.003-06:00

People tell me all that time how cute they think she is, and I always say the same thing, "I know, this girl gets away with murder because she's so stinking adorable."

She's been in a good mood all week. She's silly, funny and just plain adorable. I love her. I love her pizazz. :) How just to walk to the kitchen she does a little dance/scoot. Everything is awesome about her. :)

Soccer has come and gone

2010-10-16T23:02:00.002-06:00

We had our last game this week. :)

Soccer is a lot of work, and very interesting. I'm the first to admit I don't understand/care about sports. So it is hard for me to care. But I try. I'm very grateful Jared is the coach and takes care of all that stuff. :)

Lincoln, well Lincoln is Lincoln. During most games I caught him telling all the other players how many goals the other team had, doing math and just chatting with them. Once I looked over and he was kissing his arms telling someone that he had his guns right here. Most of the time I'm running after Ruby so much, trying to keep her off the field that I really don't know what is going on with the game.

We were beat all the games but one (not that we keep score). One game Lincoln said, "It was like 200 to 1 mom!!!" Poor kid. The team isn't that great. The kids don't come to practice and barely show up for the games. Makes for a rough team. Hopefully it'll be better in the spring.

Super funny kids

2010-10-09T08:31:00.003-06:00

These kids are making me laugh so much lately!

Ruby: Mom, I take pillow for walk.

Ruby: Oh, mom dinner is ready! (she is talking so much, it's so cute)

Lincoln, smelling my arm.

A:Lincoln, why do you always smell me.

L:I like how you smell.

A:What do I smell like.

L: hmmmm, beef burritos.

A: ???????????????????????

Ruby: dubbbllwhooo = w

Ruby: Hooooooppp = soup

Ruby: eeeemeal = oatmeal (took me forever to figure out)

Ruby: neeneekn = Lincoln

Ruby: chochoate = chocolate

She want's to be potty trained, but her momma is lazy. She walks up to me the other day and says:

"Mom, I poopy, right here!!" (points to her bum)

I love there guts. There are thousands of other funny things they have said that I have already forgotten. But just know I am laughing at them all day long. Except when they are naughty, then I try not to laugh. :)

My Life in pictures

2010-09-21T11:49:00.001-06:00

33, not bad. :)
My two nieces. They love their girls night. :) Spoiled rotten, and I love them.

Cousin Brei, They loved the pizza

She's too grown up. She was so proud of her accomplishment.

Non stop actor/director

Ya, half the dog. She's massive, and in love with the neighbors dog.

Help my friend

2010-09-14T12:22:00.002-06:00

Many of you know my sweet Amazing friend Hillari lost her husband on Saturday, right before he was to baptize their third child. It is a very sad and tragic loss. They had recently just adopted their children and it had only been legal a couple of days. If you would like to contribute to the fund to help it is at America First under Mark Cragun. http://obitsutah.com/show_obit.php?id=2017

Otherwise I know prayers help. :)
I love you Hillari!

Lincoln's Room

2010-08-30T14:31:00.005-06:00

Finally!!!

What could possible take me almost a month to finish painting a little boys room. Oh I don't know maybe a massive Jet!

He loves it, its in his room so I don't see it that much which helps with my nit picking eyes. :) He's so happy to have new stuff. We painted all the walls (even the ceiling) got some orange accents (I'm still looking for more) and little man has himself a new place. He loves playing in there and I love him playing in there. :)

I'm looking for the perfect quote to put above the plane. Something about soaring high or being amazing motivational type of quote. :) If you know any please share.

Did you win?

2010-08-29T15:29:00.001-06:00

Congratulations!!

Hey Chandie Email me and I'll send you your code!!! :)

Swimming Lessons

2010-08-27T12:00:00.000-06:00

Lincoln was enrolled at Surf n swim for a week.

Mr. Alex and his seven students were great. Mr. Alex was nice, but Lincoln wasn't learning anything. Just how to play games and stand against the wall. So I pulled him and put him in with a private teacher.

(ruby liked surf n swim. lots of strolling room. :) )

Lincoln was swimming the first day!!!! Lincoln doesn't like water, diving boards or putting his face in the water.Meet Mr. Chris. :) He is not that nice nor does he have any games. But he doesn't care if the kids whine or cry. He just makes them do it! It was hard for me to see him crying on the diving board, but Mr. Chris just says, on the count of three you will jump in.

:) Lincoln jumped in and was so proud of himself. I'm so happy I switched him, and I didn't get involved when the crying was taking place. By the end of class he was a little fish and doing strokes and keeping his face in. Swimming better than I ever did. :)

So proud of my little man. :)

Miss Ruby doesn't miss Lincoln at all. :)

2010-08-26T10:07:00.004-06:00

First Tea Party

(give-a-way below)

She is loving the one on one. Loving playing by herself. and loving having him out of her hair. :)

Super long video, but I was so in love I couldn't edit and cut it. :) She's adorable. Don't mind the laundry. I'd just folded, alright that's a lie. Jared had folded it the night before and I hadn't put it away yet. Hmmm, maybe I'll go do that now. :)

Give-a-way...what $40? why not....

2010-08-25T22:29:00.008-06:00

I've been redecorating and painting Lincoln's room. In the process it made me look at the rest of my house and want all new things. :) I was surfing the web, aka avoiding my chores, when I found the website Bedroom vanity. I could just picture sweet miss Ruby adoring herself sitting at this http://www.csnstores.com/KidKraft-13018-KK1543.html after she sneaks my make-up. :) (Punk is always getting into it)

(lipstick all over her proud little face)

I'm almost done with Lincoln's room, and I'll give you a hint on what I would love to put in it! http://www.csnstores.com/Lambs-and-Ivy-6644-LAI1557.html

But why am I rambling when I have a GIVE-A-WAY to announce!!!!!

Would you enjoy $40 to anything on CSNstores.com? CSNSTORES.com is like Amazon, but on steroids. I am happy to give you a gift card (if you live in Canada you'll have to pay shipping :))

Leave a comment and I'll randomly pick someone. But with your comment I would like you to share a story of either the worst thing you or your child has ruined or gotten into. :)

If you do not know how to leave a comment email me @ annablairhall@gmail.com

Good Luck!!!!!!!

Comments must be in by Saturday August 28th, Midnight!!!! :)

First Day of School! First Day of School!!! (must be spoken like on Nemo)

2010-08-25T20:00:00.000-06:00

WHAT??? First Grade??? I can't believe he keeps growing and growing. :) He was very excited. Very happy to go. I was sad to let him go for so long. But we'll both survive. :)

Drum-roll please......

2010-08-24T21:30:00.006-06:00

Lincoln has been dying to lose a tooth. This one has been loose since May. One day He showed me his dangling tooth. I told him that I knew a trick for getting teeth out. We tied dental floss to it, tied the other end to the door and he had to slam it shut. He was so nervous. But when he finally did it he didn't even feel it come out. :) He was soooooooooo excited.The tooth fairy came that night, in the morning he came in to my bed sorta sad. I asked what was up. He said the tooth fairy had come. Showed me his awesome note and coin (his tooth fairy is pretty cool) I told him it was a cool dollar coin. He perked right up and said, "Oh, I thought she gave me a penny!"

;)

This was on Aug. 10th

He's adorable. And I only have cell phone pictures because someone broke my camera. Someone who loves taking videos of himself all day. :(

we went camping

2010-08-17T15:07:00.003-06:00

A couple weeks ago we went up to Moosehorn. It was a lot of fun. I was pleasantly surprised how much we enjoyed ourselves. It was so nice to just chill as a family, to not have any phones or internet and to just get to know each other better.Our self timed picture. We didn't want to do it again, so you get what you get. :)
Ruby is the worst to hike with, with no warning she'll throw herself back and just hang. You have to always be ready to save her life. :) The fire was Lincoln's favorite part by far. He was in heaven playing and helping. :)
I was really surprised they did so well together. They played and slept together great. :) I was worried Ruby wouldn't know what to do without her crib but she was so excited to sleep with her brother she didn't mind at all. :)

Nala did fabulous and Ruby and Lincoln were wonderful. It was great. :)

Tresure of a Find

2010-08-11T11:11:00.003-06:00

I seriously don't look at all the videos Lincoln takes of himself with my camera. Usually five a day. But I'm getting ready to do our camping post and I accidentally clicked on this one. :) Made me laugh all day. :)

He's hilarious.

Lincoln's Aunt Melanie Rocks!!!

2010-08-05T14:44:00.006-06:00

ZOO

Melanie called the other day and asked if she could take Lincoln to the zoo for the day. After I pondered for oh maybe a half of a sec. I said YES! He was so excited. I sent him with a camera and told him to take lots of pictures. It was so fun to find all his pictures. :)

Melanie being the cool Aunt she is let him do what ever he wanted, and choose where to go. She is one patient woman!

Thanks Melanie!

And check out how shy Lincoln is when he was picked to be a volunteer! It's funny to see him speechless. :)

Oh and if you thought Melanie was the only cool one, check out Uncle Matt!!! He stopped by just to give Lincoln a ride around the block (or two) !
Daddy might have enjoyed the surprise a little too! :)

Lucky little guy! Thanks guys you are awesome!

Archiving Quotes

2010-08-02T08:12:00.000-06:00

Riding in the car listening to the radio:

Mom, quick help me memorize that number. and when I get old enough I'm going to call them for my free laptop!

Driving in the car looking out the window:

L:Why are they always cleaning their grass?

A:What do you mean?

L:Their sprinklers are always on, why are they always cleaning their grass?

in the middle of the airport museum, very loudly.

L: F U. F U mom. FU, what does that mean. FU, Mom, Mom, What is FU? (over and over, I couldn't even get him to stop)

A:Lincoln, what kind of cake do you want for your birthday?

L: Just make one I can't resist!

I tripped and fell (I know I am amazing)

L: Gosh mom, you should really look where you are going!

(same thing he hears every time he falls, I'm not going to say it anymore. )

L: If I'm grounded from the computer than you are grounded from the computer, that way I'll stop begging to use it if no one else uses it.

From the bathroom, where he never closes the door:

L: Mom, my chesthairs are tingling....somethings wrong!!!!

(think he's seen cloudy with a chance of meatballs a little too much) :)

imagine the whiniest crying voice:

L:Mom! Everyone has a motorcycle but us! I want one so bad!!!

A: Everyone Lincoln, really, everyone?

L: Well, not everyone, but everytime I see one I want one and it's not fair other people have them and we don't!!! (crying whining) (if he only knew what I thought when I see well behaved children. :) )

giving YW a ride home in Jared's car

L: "Ya this is my dad's car, he toots in it a lot. Because it's his car."

I opened some crackers before we bought them at Wal-Mart to help Ruby survive the 2 hour shopping trip.

L:Mom you are not supposed to do that

A: It's ok because I will pay for them.

L: Mom Grandma and Grandpa said it's wrong.

A: Lincoln, it is fine.

L: (very concerned) Mom, it is against the law!!!

What if you were to turn 6?

2010-07-19T16:14:00.005-06:00

What would you want for your birthday?

We told Lincoln he could have a friend party or have a vacation with his family this year. Luckily he chose vacation. We had a blast, we haven't gone on a vacation just us since he was 9 months old! We headed to St. George. It took us FOREVER! But we all survived.

There was a splash pad close by and we loved hanging out there and just being silly.
On his birthday Jared made a treasure map for Lincoln (because a pirate had stolen his treasure aka presents, and Lincoln needed to find them). The map was a little hard but eventually all presents were found. :) Mom is already having major remorse with the birthday presents. Two nerf guns.....sigh.....I think they will "get lost" very soon. But don't worry I gave sunday clothes. If you ask him what he got for his birthday he says, "Well my mom gave me sunday clothes, BUT MY DAD GAVE ME GUNS!!!!"
In St. George there was a huge tub, the kids took baths everynight and Loved it. It was really fun!
On his actual birthday we put him in charge. We asked what he wanted to eat, and what he wanted to do. He's easy to please. Video, Wii, play games (uno) eat mac and cheese. :)
We all had belly aches from the very non-nutritious day. And his sister is so adorable she takes all the attention, but we tried hard to remember it was his special day and play what he wanted and not let Ruby boss us around. :) Sometimes it's hard to have the cutest sister on the planet.

And things only a mother could know.... :)

1. He talks into the doorknobs because he can see himself, so he'll be walking and just pause to act something out in a doorknob.

2. He wears his Sunday socks all day to help him remember it's Sunday. (his idea)

3. A clean room to him is making the bed. If the bed is made it's clean enough.

4. He's still pretty traumatized over the youtube michael jackson thing, and if you open youtube he usually "needs to go potty".

5. He doesn't like fruit; apples are pretty much the only exception. But will try most veggies. :)

6. Asks for Mac n cheese everyday, could eat a whole box if I let him. But his mean mom has a once a week rule.

7. Climbs the tree and hides when he's mad.

8. His testimony is so strong it gives me faith. He loves to give it at sacrament, but we have a every other month rule...he still begs every month.

9. He has pretend friends, they come to play when he is bored. Anty has been around since he was 3. He's a little ant, perfect for travel. ;)

10. He'll shower until the water goes cold, he's doing informercials in there. He'll stop if he sees me. But sometimes I love to just listen at the door. He's got some pretty cool stuff he's selling. :)

11. He says things under his breathe. Usually about me and how I'm crazy. I secretly love it.

And Last but not least, I love this poem I stole from my sister-in-law.

Now We Are Six - A.A. Milne

When I was one
I had just begun
When I was two
I was nearly new
When I was three
I was hardly me
When I was four
I was not much more
When I was five
I was just alive
But now I am six,
I'm as clever as clever;
so I think I'll be six now
for ever and ever

My Son.....6

2010-07-18T22:14:00.003-06:00

Six? Are you kidding me? Six? It seems like just the other day I was crying to Jared because I didn’t know if you were eating enough or if I was feeding you right or why you weren’t sleeping. Then came the sweet sweet giggles and the endless tantrums. You yelling “ ‘mere” every five seconds because you wanted me to come see your newest creation. The sweet proud smile after you colored all over yourself and the walls. My big boy going to preschool, so happy and excited…..never looking back. That’s always been your way, you live life to the fullest, never cautious never wary(unless there are previews, watch out for the previews). I’m always happy to hang on and enjoy the ride with you. We’ve moved from Elmo and tellatubbies to Ruff Ruff man and Electric company. First grade is screaming around the corner on it’s way and I keep thinking where’d my baby go. Your starting to understand and use sarcasm (I try not to be proud). After every hug and kiss I wonder how long is this going to last? When are you going to be too cool for your Mom? I think it’s coming…

You have taught me so much and I’m excited to learn more, thank you for being my son.

Rock on, buddy. Rock on!

Massive Update

2010-07-06T10:17:00.000-06:00

Sit back relax and enjoy learning about what we've been up to. :)

First, I survived girls camp. It's nice to be a leader, you don't have to follow all the rules. :) Three cokes a day and my new itouch helped me survive. :) The girls were cute, we had 24 girls and our theme was 2 nephi 2:22 so we had tu tus. :) And thought about what we wanted to BECOME. :) Girls camp is a very spiritual thing, I was talking to Jared and he said scout camp has about 1 hour of spirituality a day. We were well over the three hour limit a day.Remember Nala our sweet tiny puppy. She is 15 weeks and no long tiny, sweet or innocent. She's pushing 3o pounds and I think she is going to be taller than meesia ever was. Jared gets up early and takes her on a walk every morning, I'm supposed to do one during the day and he does one again at night. She is nuts when she misses a walk. She's worming her way into our hearts though. Although there were a couple of weeks I was willing to give her away. A lot of work, a lot of work. But she is heeling really well, sits well and the biting is almost gone. almost.......This is the evidence of a big mud hole she dug in the grass.

Father's day: Lincoln was adorable on fathers day and took lots of pictures, and he wanted to do a surprise party for jared. So he went in the other room and put together a "party"made him a sign and had games and balloons and partied. :) It was cute

At church Lincoln's teacher sent home a lesson plan for Lincoln to do at FHE, he practiced and worked hard and loved being in charge of the lesson. We loved that it was on reverence (I don't think the teacher did that on accident).You can see just how reverent he is. I thought you would all enjoy how spiritual and awesome our fhe's are. :) I heard a talk once that said five minutes if perfectly fine for a young family. That is our goal, five minutes. :)

On June 18th Jared got braces. He's trying to have a good attitude and be happy but they suck. :) On the good side (if you are Jared, not if you are his wife) He's lost ten pounds since they have been put on. They are saying they'll be on about 2 years,
Plus other good news on Jared he did get the position at work he was hoping for. He gets to teach and train people all day long, he's in heaven. :) (bad timing for the braces though.)
Baby girl is non stop adorable, sometimes I just love to watch her. This age is so much fun because she's just thinking. Like earlier when I watched her try to figure out how to clean up her spilled milk. She got a towel, moved the milk around, licked the milk, pushed the milk just kept trying and trying. Her little brain was just working though. I love it.Oh and check out these ab's. She's got her brother's sweet stomach muscles, I think they get them from screaming and yelling so much. Plus she has become a very picky eater. She wakes up and says "Cooooookkkkkkiiiiiieeeeee" and then nothing satisfies her because she wants the "cooooooooookkkkkkkkkkkiiiiiiieeeeeeee!!!!!" Ya, it's pretty long days until mom just sits down with her and we eat cookies. :) I'm finding everyone of Jared's lost pounds.....sigh.....

The fourth of July was fun and relaxing this year. We headed to Kaysville for the parade, after that we headed to Logan for some yummy ribs with Jared's mother's side (sadly no pictures of the fun had by all) but know you would be very jealous of the ribs.

We didn't go to any fireworks this year. It was kinda nice to just do a few little ones and call it a night. Nate and Melanie were able to stop by and watch the small, and by small I mean tiny show of fireworks. again, no pictures of the fun had by all. :)

The party poopers. We didn't go fight for the free giveaways. :)
Part of the Blair Crew. So fun to play with everyone. Love the cousins.

Yes, mittens. He was freezing and found some in the car. :)

I love this video of lincoln at the parade because it shows his personality so much. shows him bossing people around, getting distracted by candy and trees. I love it. :)

Happy 4th, Lincoln style

2010-07-03T08:33:00.003-06:00

Dad Life (Father's Day Opening 2010)

2010-06-30T21:41:00.000-06:00

My favorite so far....

2010-06-26T12:37:00.001-06:00

Archiving Quotes

2010-06-17T21:21:00.002-06:00

Squeezing past me,

L: Mom your butt is too fat for me to fit

A: Lincoln that isn't nice to say

L: (while patting my butt) but mom I like your fat bum

(nice......sigh.....)

L:Mom, you smell nice. sniff...really nice

A: Thank you Lincoln

L: Ya, you smell better than you did yesterday.

A: thank you lincoln

A: Lincoln, how does my hair look?

L: hmmmm, I think it looks good...but it would be better if this side was red and that side was blue.

I was talking chores with Lincoln, he needed to decide on two chores to do something.

L: I know I know, (puts a finger to his lips) QUIETNESS! (whispers) quietness will be my chore. I'll be quiet for the morning.

I couldn't argue, I thought it was a great chore.

Had lunch at Zuppa's

L: I just can't stop eating, this food is soooooo good. Mom, this food is so good it fills me with Joy!

some unknown person burped;

L: Woah, that was so loud you ripped your pants!

(he doesn't quite know what expression goes with what bodily noise)

L:"Why do some people stay up past eight o'clock, (we're driving in the car explaining that he is past bedtime) I see all these people watching TV! "

A:"those are the adults, all the kids are in bed"

L: "I'm pretty sure I saw some kid shows"

My Best Friends Wedding

2010-06-14T10:45:00.005-06:00

My best friend got married over the weekend. It was fabulous and she looked gorgeous! The rain didn't put a damper on anyone's spirits and we were able to come inside the house and be fine. :)

Everything was so nice and wonderful. I'm so excited for her to start her new adventure and even more excited to hear about the stories as Mike figures out the Dad thing. :)

Jared had one job for the entire day: Kenny. Kenny will be three this week, he is a handful but a sweet little guy that had to do a wedding all day. Kenny did excellent but Jared won the prize for hardest worker! It was so fun and so exciting! :)

FOUR BOWLS

2010-06-12T10:59:00.003-06:00

Cauliflower Soup

That is correct, Miss Ruby had four bowls, I can't tell you how wonderful it felt to see my children devouring this soup, and asking for more. Ruby even tried to eat mine. It was so cute. Next time I will make a double batch. It was fairly easy, and tasted soooooo good.

Here is the link I used: http://just-cook-already.blogspot.com/2009/10/zupas-wisconsin-cauliflower-soup.html

and this is what I did different.

I doubled the butter

used 2 tbls dried onions

I used colby jack cheese

and a small handful of Parmesan cheese

we dipped it with old hot dog buns, because we are that cool.

Book Review

2010-06-04T16:51:00.003-06:00

The Help

I know I don't do book reviews, mostly because I don't read very interesting books, a lot of anita stansfield, which I find very lame....yet I read them. I read the twilight series, again, a little on the lame side (I know I'm offending some, but I promise I don't mean too). I did like the host, I thought it was awesome. I read the Hunger games recently and will read the third one when it comes out, but when I say this is a wonderful book, know I mean it.

It is a book based off of three different southern women from the 1960's point of view, and you don't miss a beat as she switches from one to another. I went to bed at three one night, two the next and one thirty the last. Took me three days to read 446 pages, and all day long I was trying to get my chores done so I could read, but I really only was able to after ten pm. :)

I knew I would enjoy the book because it has to do with civil rights, but I have read a lot of civil rights books that I have had to push my way through. It was really good, and the best part really funny. I don't laugh out loud, but I did. And I was even caught gasping and freaking out a little. I really like it. I fell in love with these women, you are fighting for them and loving them. And as you read you will understand why Minny is my favorite character EVER! :) I was really sad to see it end. (I'm sure my husband was very glad to get his wife back, as were the children. :) ) (don't you hate it when people say "the children" like they don't even know their own kids, to call them by name....gosh)

Read it, you may borrow my copy (After Amy). Sam's club has it, as does walmart.

Now, someone else tell me another really good book to read please. ;)

kindergarten's over and it's time to go

2010-06-03T15:18:00.001-06:00

The program was adorable. I teared up for the very first song, but after that I did good. Baby girl was in heaven watching her brother sing and dance. Lincoln did excellent, he loves the stage. :) He is in the Spanish immersion program at his school and his little Spanish is coming along so good. He gets his accent just right and loves to speak it. Loves it even more that mom and dad have no idea what he is talking about. :)

I still had technical difficulties that makes me so sad I could cry, but I try not to think about it. In erasing and getting my memory card ready for the program somehow I left it in the computer so I had only the internal memory. And that holds oh, maybe six pictures. :( . And the video camera worked, but the tape only had five minutes left on it. :( . But it was nice to just watch and listen and not worry about getting the right shot.

His teacher is amazing. She works those little kindergartners to the bone. She is pretty strict for kindergarten, but she gets amazing results. Lincoln wanted her to come to his house. He had been asking all year. She talked to me about it, and I said, Oh don't worry about it. She approached me again and said, "He asks everyday, how about I come over. " :) She came and looked at his stuff, watched his pretend movie (hot wheels crashing into things) checked out his back yard, his room. She stayed over an hour, he was in heaven. She is very kind. And we are very lucky to have her.

It is so sad to see him graduate and be done with half days. I think it'll be pretty hard to let him go all day in the fall. I think that is why they give you summers, so you can realize if they were here all the time you'd go crazy.

Montessori Preschool

2010-06-02T08:17:00.008-06:00

Lincoln has been going to the local Montessori preschool for three years. When you think about it he'll never have the same teacher that long. They were crying on the last day, and crying at the program, and I was crying because I don't want my little boy to keep growing. He laughed at us all crying and took advantage of me and made me get him ice cream. :)His Montessori preschool has 45 kids in his class, they range from 3 to 6. When he started he was the littlest guy, because he had only been 3 for a couple months. I remember being confused why he wasn't bringing home as much work as some of the other kids, or wasn't doing as many things. They reassured me he was little, and doing great. (I didn't understand how little he was) But as the years have gone by I love that he has grown up in this environment, the Montessori program is to make independent creative thinking children (have you met my son). It's to teach them they can make their own decisions and can teach themselves and others. With this being his last year he was able to be a teacher to the little ones. He has grown and changed so much. I'm so proud of him.

Sad story, the night before the program I charged the video camera and checked the regular camera, it said fully charged.

As the program was starting I pulled out the video camera (I had front row seats because I've always had crappy seats and got there extra early this time) it said "dirty head, need cleaning"

I try to fiddle with it, blow in it like it's an old Nintendo, try again, this time it says "moisture detected" (apparently I spit in it) and it won't work at all. I'm sad, because Jared isn't there and we were going to video it for him. I take out my camera, it says memory full. I find over 100 shots of Lincolns hot wheels and various videos of them crashing. I delete delete delete. Then I get a few shots in and the camera says "Low battery" shuts down. I wasn't angry, I was just sad. I got a few pic's but they are not good. But just know he was adorable and it was awesome. :)

(all except the first five minutes when he and two other boys were making toot noises and waving their butts to the audience, such a proud moment).

The other sad part is somehow a tall boy was placed in front of him, so even on the front row this is what I was able to see. :(

But no more preschool, no more driving him back and forth, and no more tuition ":) at least for two more years then baby girl will get her turn. :)

Tonight is the kindergarten program, I've got the camera charging and have tested the video camera, it seems to be working, just pray I don't spit in it again. :)

2008

2009

Archiving Quotes

2010-05-27T23:58:00.002-06:00

Jared may or may not have tooted, I said, "with that you are not invited into my bed!"

Lincoln says: "Dad you are invited into my bed, I toot in there all the time!"

Finger down his throat, "Yep, my tonsils are full, time to go potty" ???????????????

"Mom, what balls is your favorite?"

(talking about sport balls, but still funny)

....and please bless Meeshia in Heaven.

(tonights prayer)

Lincoln overheard Jared and I talking about going to the stake center. We were headed over and Lincoln said, "I know where it's at, the Satan Center." We helped him to say it correctly, but not with out a giggle first.

We were watching Jared play basketball up on the stage (at the satan center) and all of a sudden it stunk, bad! Lincoln wided eyed looked at me and looked ashamed. I said (very quietly) Lincoln, hold those in! He said, (not quietly)

"But mom, I got The Gas!" as he waved his hand behind his bum. My life as a mother is never dull, as other mothers looked at me with sympathy.

after michelle left one day:

Big sigh, "I love aunt michelle.....I love her alllllll the way to the moon....(leans into me) But I love you all the way to pluto"

(sweet smart boy)

From the bathroom:

Mom! Get me a book, this might take a while!!!! :)

Lincoln talking to Jared.

"this is such a great idea. I love exercising while I watch tv, I mean if I were just laying there like you are my brain would turn to mush. But because I'm exercising and watching tv I'm going to be healthy." :)

Hall house update....

2010-05-21T15:00:00.003-06:00

First off Nala is adorable, but oh so much work. We knew this, but you can't really know. Last night was the first night she slept through the night! Yeah! Her biting is so hard to deal with, she thinks any toddler is a chew toy, especially running crying ones. Thus...Ruby hates her more than ever. :) But she's coming along, we haven't had too many accidents in the house, she comes when we call and is learning to stop. The chewing is non stop, she's not really interested in any of the toys we got her, just wants shoes, clothes, and children. Oh and chairs, stools and tables. Pretty much anything she can reach she wants to chew, besides her chew toys. :) The whining is going so much better, when we put her to bed last night she didn't whine at all. So there is light

at the end of that tunnel. We did what the books told us, ignore it. So hard to do, but after a night of hours of whining I think she got the message.

Lincoln is almost done with kindergarten, he's a reading machine now, it's so fun to see this skill evolve. I love watching him change and grow. He'll have his kindergarten program and Montessori ones the same week. He's memorized his parts and is so excited for summer. I think I'm going to have to be on my A game to survive summer. Lincoln received a reward for getting all his reading in for the year. (kinda, Jared let a few just go) We've never had a gaming system, and frankly I hate them and planned on never having one. When they invented the Wii I said,

"If we ever got one, that is the one I would get." Jared made it a personal goal to make it come to past. I couldn't argue when he started saving his gift cards he earned at work. I'll admit I tried a few games too, I like archery, it's my favorite. :)

Ruby is well.....besides spoiled and knocked off her high horse with the adorable puppy stealing a lot of her attention, she has decided she is five years old. She wants to do everything Lincoln does, wants to sit on the big chairs, play with his toys, read with him, even tries to play the wii. Although she found his rock collection and threw a few at him, I was trying to explain to him that she is too little to mean to hurt him and she is sorry, then she found a very large rock and chucked it right at his face and laughed when he cried. (I was really worried he was going to have a black eye.) Miss Ruby had her very first time out after that. It was pretty funny, she was

really ticked off, I kept putting her back and she kept getting up. It was nice to just laugh about it. I was looking at Lincoln's old journal and when he was 18months he'd been going to time out long enough to have it down. Made me realize I am a much easier parent on Ruby, which in my opinion is fine. I have heard a lot of people say they want to have all their kids by time they are thirty. I'm constantly surprised how much I grow and change year over year. How much I learn and evolve. I'm very grateful I'm a little older having my kids, I think I would have been horrible having kids at 21. I took a long time to mature (I'm still working on it too).

My sweet preschool only has one week left. We've been working so hard on our little program. I really really love being a preschool teacher and love these kids, it's going to be hard to say good bye. My best friend is leaving me in a little less than a month, it's getting harder and harder to ignore the situation. I'm doing my best to ignore it though. I'm still working with the beehives, I'm slowing slowly slowly melting the chip on my shoulder with young womens. It's probably only a pack of graham crackers instead of a cinder block. I can't imagine how many of my leaders hated me as a youth. I'm sure so many rejoiced when I didn't show up to an activity or class. It's really hard for me to see so many girls like I was, I just want to smack them and say wake up!!! But it doesn't work, as it wouldn't have worked with me. :) I'm going to camp......I'm dreading that. I know I know. But really, I'm dreading it. I was really hoping I wouldn't find a sitter, and then I was willing to go for a day, possible two. But my mom (the sweet righteous woman she is) offered to take them the whole time. She's crazy, and I told her so, but she (as she always is) is more worried about my salvation then a week with my kids. and you and I all know I would go to hell if I didn't go to camp. :) You might want to pray she survives miss ruby for a week, plus to add insult to injury she'll have to have Nala too. (It's not too late to back out mom)

Jared is Sunday school president, I think this is the most thankless job in the church. I've never known who the Sunday school president is, I've never really thought about it. (I'm kinda sad ruby's doing nursery, i need a new excuse to miss Sunday school) But have you ever wondered who keeps the library stocked, or who fills in when a teacher doesn't show up, or who goes to all the ward council meetings, when they really don't need to be there. Who makes sure all the roles are turned in and all the teachers are where they need to be. Really, it's a weird calling. But it doesn't take a lot of time away from the family, which is nice. And Jared is always happy and willing to take the kids when I'm gone with my calling. He's trying for a new position at work that would fit his personality and goals to a T. I would love to see him get it, but there is a lot of competition, cross your fingers for us, his interview is Monday.

Well there you have it, whether you wanted it or not. :)

Introducing Nala....

2010-05-14T21:00:00.004-06:00

Nala is the newest member of the household. She is 8 weeks old. She is a foo foo labradoodle(1/2 yellow lab 1/2 standard poodle), which really means Mutt. :) But I'm excited to not have dog hair all over and Jared is excited to have a running partner (eventually).

I'm afraid she's as adorable as she is sweet, the worst part is she is partial to me. Follows me around, falls asleep on my shoes. And if you get close you will see she had beautiful green eyes. Loves to cuddle. All those horrible things that make me fall in love. :)

As for the kids you can see Lincoln is in love. But she had him at hello. :) And yet Miss Ruby would really rather Nala go back to where ever she came from because she is stealing all her lime light and she is rather happy being the cutest thing in the house and does not enjoy the competition. Grandma and Grandpa even came over to see Nala, not just Ruby. She's not happy.

Nala is adorable, I love how sweet she is and soft and small. Don't you worry, she'll be huge in no time. Ya, we like big dogs. :) But if you could see the pile of dog books we've been ready you'd be proud. So as you watch her grow, pray for us that we can work so hard that our sweet puppy becomes a sweet lovable doggy.

So Fun

2010-05-13T17:23:00.003-06:00

We did this http://www.themotherhuddle.com/marble-painting/ in preschool today. It was so fun and so easy. And if you are looking for a quick craft with little mess this is perfect. When Lincoln got home from school I even did it with him. It was awesome. :)

My little preschoolers looooooooooved it.

(that sounded very valley girl, sorry)

Humpty Dumpty Lincoln?

2010-05-11T20:36:00.002-06:00

In Lincoln's class they did a dress up like your favorite nursery rhyme day. Lincoln wanted Humpty Dumpty, I thought, too much work pick something else. But it wasn't that much work and he looked awesome. :) Doesn't he look like he's getting so much older? My goal is to do my best to enjoy him this summer. :)
Love my little man.

Ruby's Stats

2010-05-07T21:08:00.003-06:00

Baby girl is a big girl, I knew she was tall but I guess I didn't realize how tall. :)

34.2 inches (off the percentile chart)

25.3 pounds (70th percentile)

18.7 inches (75th percentile)

and just an update, she's over the stool thing. two weeks is pretty good. And here is a picture of her with a huge juice/crystal light mustache because she got into my drink when I wasn't looking. She did great with her appointment , the Dr. said he thinks she'll be our little athlete, I told him I'm already aware of her athletic abilities (as I watched her jump from the table to the chair today)

Baby Girl is 18 Months!!

2010-05-05T21:53:00.006-06:00

My cousin took all these pictures, don't you love them. She defiantly earned her money that day, Miss Ruby is not a friendly person to cameras!I can't believe it, everyone that sees her can't believe it. But it is true. She is adorable, she is fun, she is spunky and she's a pain. :) I'm head over hills. She loves to scowl right now, if you tell her no or even talk to her in a firm voice she'll scowl at you. Then she laughs because it makes you laugh. Her laugh is a very contagious belly laugh. I love this baby girl. She is an excellent sleeper, excellent napper and a very poor eater. She would really be happy if we would just give her junk food, she eats that great. :) But she will eat broccoli and green beans, but pretty much anything else that is somewhat healthy she won't touch, well that's a lie, she will throw. :)

Ruby is becoming more social, she loves to wave and say Hi! She'll give anyone a kiss good-bye (sometimes prematurely if you are bothering her). She loves to annoy her brother, loves to make messes, loves to get into anything she's not supposed to get into and loves to go outside. All day she is begging for her coat to go outside. If she sees you put your coat on she giggles and runs to the coats and waits for hers.

Ruby is a little athlete, she can jump on the trampoline really well, climb well and can take a good fall without complaining because she loves the thrill of the fall. Don't be surprised if you see her with a cast soon. She is very adventurous and very daring. We have been counting down the weeks until she could go to nursery, we are ecstatic to not spend church in the hall. Here's to hoping and praying she goes!!! Otherwise I'm going inactive.

We love her and don't know what we would do without her.

She has her appt in a couple days, I'll post her stats then.