Birthdays, Babies and Updates

I appologize now for the lack of pictures but I'm at work and will put pictures up later.



Yesterday was my birthday. I didn't get to spend it how I would have liked, but it was my birthday nonetheless. Honestly who really likes to work at 0530 on their birthday??? Not me. I have now reached the ripe old age of 24, which only means that my parents are practically ancient ;)...hehe!
Mike planned a trip home to Colorado for us to take, he bought two tickets and Lilly was to be a lap infant (still under 2). He planned the trip a couple of months in advance because there was a good deal on flights. As the trip got closer he was trying to get his old job as a bellman up at the Lodge @ Snowbird. He decided to quit Texas Roadhouse after he'd had enough and still hadn't heard from Snowbird. With about a week or two before the trip he finally made contact and the head bellman told him he wanted to have him on the team this season. Mike loved working up at Snowbird, not to mention the added bonus of a free season pass. There was supposed to be start of season meeting/get stuff ready on Wed, 12/1.....well that got changed to Sat 12/4. We were supposed to fly to Colorado on 12/3 to celebrate my birthday early and actually get to spend time together and see each other except for in passing. No Go! I wasn't very happy that he couldn't get out of it and I actually cried on the way to and at the airport. Luckily my brother Chase was flying there with us, but I was alone to fly back with Lilly....you'd think an hour would be easy....she's so active/busy...luckily she did pretty well and I only almost wanted to pull my hair out. While we were there we of course celebrated my birthday....Austin, my youngest bro who is 16, made me the the BEST cake you've ever had that I found on a random blog here. He is quite the chef!

One of our family traditions is to take a bite out of the cake after you blow out the candles....Lilly was sooooo shocked when I did it. The look on her face was priceless. I'll have to get the picture my dad took.



Lilly and I just kinda relaxed and hung out with my family in Colorado. No huge plans, just relaxing. We did get to see the Creche exhibit that my mom headed up, I think she said there were over 400 nativities in the exhibit, including a live Nativity that had a donkey, alpaca and a sheep. It was gorgeous! It's amazing how many different Nativities there are, some more on the light side and some stunningly beautiful.

In Lilly news.....Lilly has been talking in complete sentences since the summer. She's a crack up. The other day she touched Mike's face and said "I luzh (love) you....i promise". She's so funny! She has her own words for a few things which may be permanent name changes at our house for example : Heaband = Bandaid Otadon = Octopus (i think because Mickey does shapes and she thinks octagon???)...She's so funny. Her hair is finally growing and I was able to do a full-on ponytail the other day, thanks to lots of gel and hair spray for the little pieces. She's been potty trained since around Thanksgiving, except for the last two weeks she is scared to death to poop in the potty....So yesterday she pooped in her panties 5 times, including once at dinner at a fancy steakhouse (we won't be going back...long story...nothing to do with lilly though). I'm at a loss for what to do....she really wants the rewards from going in the potty but she's freaked out...she actually had a come apart when I put her back on the potty after she tried to climb into my lap and I noticed she was starting to poop (sorry about all the potty language). I know she's still young, not even two yet, but we're going nuts. She doesn't have pee-pee accidents anymore, maybe a few drops in her panties as she gets distracted on her way to the potty or somehow shooting over the toilet or between the basin and the seat which gets her clothes...but she's doing great! I love when she looks directly at a stranger in the store and tells them she needs to go potty or needs to go poop (everything she says or wants right now she uses "i need") which means she already pooped her pants....LOVELY! haha....oh the things we go through with our kids.

In other kid news.....In case you haven't heard .......I'M PREGNANT again. I am 15w5d. Yesterday I had a Dr. appt and because it was my birthday I asked him for a little present.....I asked if he'd do an ultrasound to see if he could tell what we were having. He was able to finally get a pretty good shot that was clearly not showing, as my mom put it, a "stem on the apple".....so for now we are having a GIRL ! My 20 week ultrasound is on Jan 18, the day after we get back from our upcoming HUGE, much anticipated , over the top excited for trip. Then we can confirm with the bigger ultrasound maching....We're excited to have another little princess despite hoping for a boy this time around to atleast guarantee having one of each. Mike is still convinced there will be a Pee-Pee in January....We'll see I guess....If it is in fact another girl, it's too bad the clothes we have for the same ages will be opposite seasons from what we'll need...oh well.

Halloweenie - late as usual

I finally have 2 seconds to sit down and blog.

Halloween has come and gone and now it's o

nto the next holiday. My cousin Amand

a is here from Germany where her husband is stationed. Lilly and her son Bentley are only 3 weeks apart in age so we decided to do Halloween with them. Friday night we took all the kids to my Aunt Raylene's Ward party. Lilly had a blast getting to do the cake walk and the little "haunted" walk through on the stage. It was geared completely to little kids which meant that lilly thought it

was fun to take off running, leaving daddy trailing behind as he tried to climb over things. All of the pictures below are from Raylene's party. Mike took the camera with him t

o work on Saturday which meant I could

n't take pictures of our own kid, but now we have pictures of people we don't really care about. Anyway....Lilly was a little kitty...cutest little kitty ever!

It took hitting a few cars but Lilly is officially a pro at trunk-or-treating....she says "trit o treat" and thankyou to each car and she is not shy about just grabbing the candy if you are taking to long to give it to her. She was pretty funny to take around. She kept getting confused about where to go after each car though.

Cake Walk

Fishing a the fish pond.

Posing with mommy and daddy

Spiderman (Rykkar), Mickey (Bentley), Uncle Andrew, Lilly

CHEESE!

And finally.....this is my awesome dancer that we have raised.

The Ball is rollin! ! !

The door took Mike and Brent two days to finish. It looks awesome! We even have two little steps. Lilly has mastered opening and even remember to close the screen door when she goes outside. She lets Rocky in all the time, only to yell at him to go back out. Silly girl! We finally even went and bought some vertical blinds today to go in the kitchen! Hooray! Having the door in makes the house feel so much bigger, especially the kitchen...and it makes the kitchen and living room so much lighter and brighter, especially since the kitchen was recently changed from dark red to bright yellow paint....(more pics will come of the inside)

Mike and Uncle Joe finally were able to get together and this is their progress on the trusses. The last pic shows the white that they were before and is the side that Mike is working on at this very second before he goes to work. The wood shingles make it feel so much cuter and cottage-y. We're pretty pleased with how all of this is turning out.

Hopefully we'll be able to get all the outside painted in the next couple of weeks, once all the trusses are finished. We're excited for the change and are hoping this will give some nice curb appeal as we get ready to sell the house next year.

I attempted to pull the ridiculous weeds in the weed, i mean flower, garden in front of the house. I made a little dent (you'd understand if you saw it). Today i'm tackling the kitchen and living room. Lilly and I put up a few Halloween decorations and I think that's about as far as I'll go with that part. We don't have much room for decorations, so we didn't put very many up.

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FINALLY SOME RENOVATIONS PROGRESS!

Alright,

I know I know we have not posted in forever.

I am so happy to post this time. Today my uncle brent came over and we started overhauling the kitchen wall to make room for access to the backyard YEAH! ! ! So here is a picture of what it looked like before and here are some progress pics of what we did in just ONE day. I was so so happy things went smooth.

Getting to take a sledgehammer to our house that has been such a stress was AWESOME. And things look great so far. I'll add pics when we get the cosmetic work done and the step.

Keen For Keen's

As you can see, we like Keens. I got a pretty good discount when I worked at Cabela's so we got some for us and Lilly. Plus we have chosen some unisex colors so that we can pass them down through all the kiddies.

Reasons Keens are Awesome:

1. They are incredibly comfortable (long days on vacation and no sore feet. . . yeah)

2. They are Hybrid, Great for hiking and any water activity.

3. You can wash them in the washer.

4. Keen focuses on the environment, using recycled packing materials and reusing the leftover pieces of cork and rubber. Go KEEN

They are on the pricey side but well worth it, they last and last.

ART CITY DAYS

The Parade was fun.

Lilly Loved the candy

Lilly and Sage rode together

They Loved the train.

I swear Lilly had fun, Even without smiling.

She did the duck pond.

This is her crown

And her great smile! What a picture.

Oh Lilly

I took this yesterday I just love it.

I am trying to hack away at 15 credits this summer and it is a very difficult task. Today I was looking down at the computer typing a paper and in only takes a min and this is what I lifted my head to see.

1. Foot stuck in a tissue box.

2. she decided to put on some Desitin base.

What a little stinker!

CARNIVALS ARE SCUMMY!

Lilly thinks she's a big kid!

Our Little Lilly is getting so big I cant believe it!

Not long ago she was super tiny and not running full blast every day.

She Loves to color, preferably with marker and not on paper, on her desk her face etc...

Today she brought her moms earrings to me and wanted to wear them so I let her.

The last picture is great this is her smile when you ask her to, it classic Stewart from Mad TV.

How well do you know us?

Last night I got a little buzzed and how did it happen you say?

Did we:

1. go to the bar down the street and enjoy a crazy night of karaoke.

2. Enjoy a bottle of champagne and a romantic evening.

3. Take 2 shots of Nyquil and feel like our heads were exploding.

If you picked 3 you guessed right. Maddie and I have twin sinus/head colds that are terrible and we don't feel to well. I think we got it through daycare. Lille had it first and now its our turn to bask in the coughing slimy nastiness of the cold.

Dr Doofenshmirtz

So the Doctor told us that when Lilly play's with her food that it is a good thing. "it builds her creative skills" I am not too happy about that cause all it has lead to was todays disaster! Do I really need to narrate this picture? Have you ever tried to get Vaseline off of your hands? how about the whole Damn container of it? And your couch? Yeah so much fun . . . . . . . . . . Oh and Thanks Doc!

Date Night

Last night Mads and I went on a fun date. But to make things even better I borrowed a Porsche 911 from a dear friend for the night. So we ruled the town going to Cafe Rio YUM and then went to Iron Man 2, AWESOME. Ya know I felt kinda like Tony Stark coming out of the theater and climbing into the Porsche. It was fun and fast we grabbed some RED MANGO and then went back to GIGI's to pick up Lilly. It was a very fun date.

In over my head.

I felt the title to this one might be appropriate. We have lived in our home for just over 3 years and we are feeling a little cramped and also a bit tired of some things about the house. I admit at times we have just complained, well Instead of complain anymore I felt like doing something about it. First we looked at what we could do on the inside and have done a few little things, Bathroom upgrades, ceiling fans, carpet etc. and then thinking of some big things it just looks as if we would be spending 20-25K on the house. So I have come up with a much better alternative to liven up our home and make it more livable for a lot less money. So here we go with some Original pictures.

As you can see the house was built in the 40's and probably hasn't changed a whole lot since.

THE PLAN

Here are my ever so awesome renovation plans. I want to cover the ugly rod iron pillars in the front with cedar planks and maybe add some fake stone on the bottom. I plan to raise the garden in front to make it cleaner and separate from the lawn. I want to sand all the red pillars and the garage doors and stain them to match the front pillars. A natural wood color. I want the house to have the craftsman style so we are going to paint it a tanish brown and accent with a darker green. The backyard needs help. The door out the back that is now two windows is a must and I want to make it more of a nice space that we can hang out in and enjoy. I don't know how to do all of what I want so I hope to get help along the way. But I just hope that I don't get "in over my head" with something I can't finish.

To show that I am motivated I have posted two pictures of what I have done in just over a week. I have sanded the pillars and now today started on the garage doors. I am very excited and like this because everyday I do more and can see my progress. I figure that posting it now instead of a before and after will keep me motivated while I update the blog with new additions to the renovation.

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She Likes Her Dad (Halloween 2009)

Today I woke up with Maddie at 4:45 because the alarm (set to the radio) went off so loud I thought I had crapped myself even if it was Celine Dion it was scary. Then after Mads left I couldn't go back to sleep. I kept having anxiety about Maddie and worrying, so I came out to the computer and read the Nie Nie Dialogues, she is so funny. I am reading the old blogs from 2005 and she puts some great stories on. Well I made it back to sleep for 15 min and then Lilly woke up. Luckily for me one of our newer traditions is to snuggle on the couch together and watch Mickey Mouse. She is such an angel. So we are pals for the summer while I am doing summer online classes and not working. I am going to see if I can get some more work on the house done. More about that later

A while back we went to Discovery Gateway because they have an incredible military discount. Lilly had a blast, she started with the balls where you could send them flying up tubes and arounds this huge room or you could send down

tube slides. She was having so much fun. Next she found a

house that was

tiny, she loved the chairs and the little kitchen complete with tiny plastic food.

Her favorite part by far was the water, they had a section for little

kids and older kids, she didn't care and played

in both. and unlike the other kids she didn't

have an apron so she got soaked and just kept playing. It

was a great

and she really loved it.