Sandling Smiles

Teacher Appreciation

2010-05-21T16:29:00.001-07:00

Emily has loved preschool this year! She went 5 days a week and loved learning and being with all her friends. Emily loved snack time the most though! When I would ask what she did in school that day, she would say "I don't know/I don't remember", but she would always remember in perfect detail who brought the snack and what the snack was! Silly girl!!! Miss Heidi and Miss Sicely have done great things with and for Emily and we will really miss them when Emily starts Kindergarten in August!

Since they have done so many wonderful things for Emily, I wanted to do something great to show how special they are to us. But of course I couldn’t do just one thing…oh no, I had to do several! I just kept finding ideas, and I think I went a little overboard. But the teachers really appreciated all the spoiling and Emily and I had a great time creating them all!

This is a clipboard that I covered with scrapbook paper and then mod podged over. I tied ribbons at the top to add a little flair. I took the scrap paper and covered the top of the pad of paper to match. I also covered the inside of the pen with scrap paper to complete the set. Then I wrote a little thank you note on the first sheet of the pad.
Clipboard and pad of paper: http://www.skiptomylou.org/2009/12/08/decorated-clipboards/
Decorated pen: http://chocolateonmycranium.blogspot.com/2010/04/prettying-up-regular-pens.html

I took Swedish Fish candies and put them in a snack size bag. I then printed out the label “You are o”fish”ally the best!” and tied it on the bag.
Source: http://eighteen25.blogspot.com/2010/04/quick-cheesy-teacher-appreciation-gifts.html

I purchased a large Hershey’s chocolate bar and removed the wrapper and covered it in scrapbook paper and then glued the label on that said “You deserve chocolate!! (Thanks for all you do)”
Source: http://eighteen25.blogspot.com/2010/04/quick-cheesy-teacher-appreciation-gifts.html

I love A&W Rootbeer and thought this idea was so cute! Instead of buying the soda, I found A&W Rootbeer ice pops. So we glued on the label that said “My teacher is AW-esome” and then tied a pretty bow.
Source: http://eighteen25.blogspot.com/2010/04/quick-cheesy-teacher-appreciation-gifts.html

I then put them all together in a cute bag I found at the dollar store.

Emily found this idea in the Friend (children’s church magazine) and insisted on making it for her teachers. She had so much fun painting and really got into her work. We took cardboard egg cartons and cut the individual egg sections out. Then we painted the outside with one color, let it dry, and then painted the inside with a different color. Then we attached pipe cleaners as the stem and put tissue paper on the inside of the “flower” to add more color and dimensions! Emily was so proud of her work! We gave the teachers a bouquet of six flowers, and then Emily made this one for herself.
Source: http://lds.org/Static%20Files/PDF/Magazines/Friend/English/2010/FR_2010_04_09___09264_000_012.pdf

Last, but not least, we took large pretzel sticks, broke them in half and then dipped them into colored white chocolate to make edible crayons. I then covered them in paper to complete the crayon look. The crayon label said “CrayonEatr”. Emily and Nathan got involved and had tons of fun. I had to stop Nathan from helping, because he was helping himself to bites instead of putting them on the wax paper to dry! Then we put them into a pencil container lined with wax paper. Miss Heidi took a bite of her crayons as soon as she opened the box!
Source: http://www.gourmetmomonthego.com/2008/08/runs-with-scissors-and-eats-crayons.html

Amazing Jewely by J Jewels!

2010-04-04T18:51:00.001-07:00

A friend I grew up with makes the most amazing and beautiful jewelry. Jami is having a giveaway on her website that ends tomorrow. But it's not for just one thing: there are 3 prizes! Go over to her blog and look at all of her wonderful pieces! I really want one of the watches! Go on...go look...go on now! :)

http://www.jjewelsbydesign.com/

Great Week!

2010-03-28T20:04:00.000-07:00

It was a great week! I got a lot accomplished even though my house doesn’t look like it! Best of all, my kids were very snuggly this week, so we spent a lot of time sitting together just talking and being together!

Monday March 22
Today Robby FINALLY put my shelves in the hall closet! I’ve had the wood for a year and a half, so I was overjoyed when the task was complete! Then I moved all of our games into the closet and was able to put away both the vacuum and steam cleaner, which I haven’t been able to do for a long time-they have lived in the hallway blocking our way! Then we attacked the toy side of the family room. We have been putting it off until tomorrow, well, today was the day! I promised Emily Cold Stone Creamery if we got it all clean, and that did the trick. She went to work, and it got all clean. Then we had kids over on Tuesday and Thursday and that area is back to where it was! Ug! The mess isn’t supposed to go passed the gate, but it has been creeping out, and so that area will either stay clean or be emptied to the nearest donation center!

Tuesday March 23
Tonight my whole family came over for Hawaiian Haystacks. I watched Allison so Jessica could go to her maternity appointment, mom helped me with a couple of finance questions for the business and Robby helped Kathryn fix her tail light (which only worked while here, and then when she left, it stopped working! Turns out it was a bad connection!). Then after everyone left I had the opportunity to go through Nathan’s 0-6 month clothes to look for a shirt for someone to borrow. Those clothes were so small and cute! Nathan is my monster, and I can hardly remember when he was that small!

Wednesday March 24
Today the kids played all over the house. They ran around and chased each other and got into everything! But it was a monumental day! We finally found the missing sandal! Nathan’s sandal has been missing for at least 6 months, but thankfully I bought the sandals big, because they still fit! Emily grabbed the camera and played photographer! She captured a great picture of Nathan’s eyes and a silly picture of her, but it shows her beautiful eyes as well!

Thursday March 25
We had some friends over today and we made these nests. They are made just like rice krispy treats, but with Chinese noodles. The kids weren’t so sure about getting their hands messy, but loved eating the aftermath!

Friday March 26
Today Gran-Nana came over for lunch and she brought a surprise for Emily and Nathan. Last week she brought over the bunny, so today she brought over the little bear for Nathan. Gran-Nana also brought Emily this basket of eggs. Emily was so excited that she got her own Easter decoration that belonged only to her! Gran-Nana loves to spoil my kids! We found out this morning that Jessica is having a little boy! We are so excited for them! Tonight we went to Costco and I'm ready to purchase someone to come home with me and put everything away!

Saturday March 27
Today we went to a birthday party at Red Mountain Park and we brought the kite. For the entire afternoon I had the song, “Let’s Go Fly A Kite” stuck in my head! I was supposed to go to the Stake Center tonight for the Young Women’s Broadcast, but Robby had a client with an emergency he needed to take care of right away. That left me home with the kids, and I was feeling really disappointed. Then someone reminded me that I could watch it on the internet. I’m so glad that they did, because I really enjoyed the broadcast! I especially loved President Uchtdorf talk. I was grateful to be at home because I was really touched by the Spirit and often cried! Then the kids and I ran over to Fry’s and they talked me into a car cart. They always have so much fun “driving” through the store. Plus, they look really, really cute!

Sunday March 28
Since we picked our oranges last week, our orange tree has really “blossomed”! Now we can sing, “I looked out the window and what did I see? Popcorn popping on the tangelo tree!” I love the smell!

Slacker!

2010-03-21T21:36:00.000-07:00

Another catch up post. Ugh! Why do I let it get away from me? I can think of a few excuses, but they are just excuses! I am on a roll though-Last time was 2 weeks, and this time it’s 3 weeks. But I think I’m going to stop it there, and try (key word there) to only go a week between posts! Too keep a long post short (too late-reference from the movie Clue), I’ll just write a little for each picture. I know what you’re saying…”I’ll believe it when I see it!” hahaha!

Monday March 1
With all the rain yesterday, when the palm tree stumps met the warm sun today, they let off some really cool steam! When I was curling my bangs today, Nathan reached for my curling iron just as I was about to pick it up, said “HOT!” and then grabbed the metal part. He burned his left hand. Thankfully it wasn’t burned too badly, and was only red for today. Then later we got to play with Patrick! Nathan looks so big next to Patrick!

Tuesday March 2
The rain has helped our rose bush produce some huge roses, and the kids picked a few today. Today was a monumental day!!!! Nathan slept in his big boy bed for the first time. We started at nap time and it took him an hour and 45 minutes to go to sleep, but he hasn’t been back to his crib since!

Wednesday March 3
Today I pulled out my crochet project that I’ve been working on for over a year. I made a blanket a long time ago that I wasn’t happy with, so I’m taking it apart, and recrocheting it into the square blanket that I like. It will serve as our picnic/floor blanket.

Thursday March 4
Tonight I walked into Emily’s room to see Emily and Nathan both sitting in the chair playing Leapster together. I love finding the kids like this!

Friday March 5
Tonight we had some friends over for dinner, and Emily and Megan had the best time running around and playing!

Saturday March 6
Lehi Days! We took Nana with us to Lehi Days today and watched the rodeo and my cousin perform on her horse with the Lehi Lariats. We went to the petting zoo and I’m sure the animals are glad we don’t own them! Nathan was so excited to hold a chick that he held it under the feet and around the neck. I quickly took a picture and then saved the chick from sudden Nathan death. Nathan had fun, I’m sure the baby chick did not! Emily was loving being around all the animals. She kept asking if we could buy a baby chick and bring it home. Um….NO! Tonight we made Ratatouille and then watched the movie Ratatouille! My friend Laura and I made these really cool necklaces made with ribbon and washers. I found the idea here http://www.bluecricketdesign.net/2010/01/home-depot-here-we-come.html.

Sunday March 7
Another rainy Sunday with beautiful clouds! We decided to go over to my aunt and uncle’s house and while there, the heaven’s opened and emptied all of the water it had! I had to run to get the van (got soaked), then load the kids in the van (got even more soaked), then buckle the kids in the van (now fully drenched!). My aunt and uncle live in Lehi, and Lehi road was a river, not a road when I was driving home! By the time I got home, my pant legs were soaked for about 12 inches on the bottom! I was very cold and wet, and glad to get home and put warm jammies on!

Monday March 8
Tonight Emily got a hold of the camera and caught Nathan “reading” a book before bed. Then she “read” it to him. I love it when my kids work together!

Tuesday March 9
Cute bathtime pics! Need I say more? Emily’s towel is a duck and Nathan’s towel is a frog. Each time they wear them they make the sounds of that animal all the way to their room and until they are dried off!

Wednesday March 10
Jessica offered to watch the kids today so I could go grocery shopping by myself. Then I made dinner for my family at mom’s house. As a surprise, mom stopped at the store on her way home and got balloons for the kids. Emily was so excited, but refused a picture!

Thursday March 11
Today was a very fun day, but it had an element of sadness also. Today is the day that our really good friend and business partner decided that it would be best if she stepped away from the business to spend more time with her family. We are excited that she wants and is able to be a full stay at home mommy. But we will really miss her as a part of the business! To take my mind off the morning’s news, we attacked our St. Patrick’s Day crafts. We also had Gunner, a friend from preschool, come over to play. The kids and I painted clovers on shirts. I found the idea here http://www.alphamom.com/holiday/2009/03/st_patricks_day_tshirt.php. Then after the kids went to bed, and dipped Mint Oreos in melted white chocolate colored green. I had left over chocolate, so sadly I also dipped strawberries! :-)

Friday March 12
Today I was enveloped in “Holy Cow, Kara is leaving the business…What do we do now?” that I really didn’t get anything productively completed. And with that came no pictures. :(

Saturday March 13
Today was our big St. Patrick’s Day celebration. The whole big family went out to Fountain Hill’s celebration to watch the fountain turn green. We had KFC for our picnic dinner, ate the chocolate dipped oreos and passed out all the fun crafts I make for everyone. My list of crafts for this day are for the boys: bowties and shamrock pins, for the girls: shamrock hair clips and shamrock necklaces, for just our family: the shamrock shirts, and for everyone: candy pillow boxes with Hershey’s golden nuggets inside. I have way too much fun with holidays! The bowtie tutorial: http://somethingaboutkatie.blogspot.com/2010/03/bow-tie-tutorial.html. The shamrock tutorial: http://suzies-yarnie-stuff.blogspot.com/2006/03/my-shamrock-pin-pattern.html. I also made a garland for our home and Emily’s preschool, found here: http://www.skiptomylou.org/2009/03/13/crochet-shamrock-garland/. (On Monday I crocheted 25 shamrocks for all the kids in Emily’s preschool and her teachers made them into pins.)

Sunday March 14
Today was another first for Nathan. We cut his hair! We came home from church and set about the task of defuzzing Nathan. Robby got out the buzzer, and every time it came on Nathan would scrunch down and say “No tickles Daddy!” Even the sucker couldn’t get him to hold still when that buzzer turned on! Robby and I tag-teamed and we were able to get his hair to a semi-presentable state! Joy of having a boy…have to learn to cut hair! He is one handsome little man now. I thought I liked his hair long and scraggly, but I love it even more now! He seemed to lose all his babyness and became a little boy. He’s getting too big too fast! Tonight Jessica made corned beef and cabbage for dinner and it was really good! I made pistachio bars, which were a big hit and very yummy!

Monday March 15
Another day that I didn’t take any pictures. I’m such a slacker! But I attacked the kitchen and Robby cleaned the floors for me!

Tuesday March 16
Today we went to the mall with some friends to play on the little playground and have lunch. While walking to the playground, the kids held hands! What a treasured memory that is for me! On the way out, the kids played on the big tortoise, and had blast!

Wednesday March 17
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! The only thing we did to celebrate the days was make sugar cookies in the shape of heart, and then put them together to make a 4-leaf clover. We delivered a plate to my mom, sister and brother to help them eat their green today! Tonight as I was sitting on the family room floor cutting out fabric for a nursing pillow, and I got poked. So I pull it out. Ok, whatever, it's a sticker from the weeds outside that the kids were playing in today, no big deal. Then my ankle starts itching. 5 mintues later I move my legs to stretch out and what do I find under me?...A BEE! I confess, I let out a bit of a squeak/gasp! Robby came to investigate and disposed of the bee for me. Thankfully I can say I'm not deathly allergic to bees! I don't know who I feel worse for, me because now I have an itchy, red ankle, or the bee for being squished by me!

Thursday March 18
Today I made a nursing pillow with matching shoes for Kara’s mother in law. I have done a lot of sewing lately, but not so much cleaning up after I sew in the craft room. Need to fix that!

Friday March 19
Today is the day that I’ve been dreading for over a week. Kara signed the paperwork today to remove herself from the company. I’m sad to see her go, but I am trying to look for the positive from this situation. I get to learn how to do our company’s finances, and become more involved with our company’s sales and promotions. It will be hard, but I look forward to the challenge and working closer with Robby as we make our company profitable. Tonight I really didn’t want to cook dinner, and then I remembered the gift certificates that mom gave us for Christmas! Yippee! We went to Gecko Grill for dinner and it was a great ending to a stressful day. The kids were great and ate most of their food (they had the rest for breakfast the next morning), and sat still the whole time! Thanks mom for the gift certificate!

Saturday March 20
Today was work outside day! Robby cleaned up the side of the house that likes to collect leaves and garbage, and then mowed the weeds grass. Meanwhile, I picked all the oranges from our tree and then juiced them. It took me most of the afternoon, but the fruits of my labor (haha-nice pun huh?) taste so good! I ended up with 3 ½ gallons of juice from about 2 ½ bags of oranges.

Sunday March 21
Now we are caught up to today! Phew! I let Emily and Nathan play with my camera and all these pictures are courtesy of them! This is me blogging. I have terrible posture, have to fix that! But hey, it’s a picture of me, and that rarely happens on this blog! Emily and Nathan love to sit in Robby’s lap when he’s playing a game! Nathan loves to bring books over to me and have me read them, and for some reason Emily loves to take pictures of that!

Sew Busy

2010-02-28T20:46:00.000-08:00

I have found a new love...no, don't worry, Robby is still here. I have found I LOVE to sew. I took sewing lessons as a teenager and then my Nana bought me a sewing machine, but I have never really enjoyed sewing until I found blogs that have tutorials that include pictures and detailed instructions, and I found out that I really am good at sewing, following directions and creating beautiful things. Trust me, that was a big breakthrough for me!

Sorry for the long post, but since I was "sew busy", I let time get away from me and didn't blog. You all still love me right? :) So this week you get two weeks for the price of one! Also, I'm trying to see if I like having all the pictures for that day grouped together or individually, so let me know which one you like!

Monday Feb. 15
For President’s Day I got to be sick! I didn’t have the flu or any type of bug, but my body decided that I had overloaded it, and shut off. I always have too much fun planning and preparing parties, and I guess my body doesn’t like that much strain! Too bad body…I will plan and party again! The kids let me sleep and Robby was great to herd them for me so I could get some rest. Gran-Nana brought over flowers for Emily. She is so spoiled by Gran-Nana! I woke up early afternoon and put together this wall hanging to hang in our master bedroom. Now there’s something on the wall!

Tuesday Feb. 16
Emily loves building things, especially if it is for Rachel, her baby. So she created this little hammock draped on 2 sticks over the gate for the toy area, and both Emily and Nathan got in on the fun of rocking Rachel on her new bed. The dirty face is a permanent occurrence on Nathan. No matter how many times a day I wipe, it still stays dirty!

Wednesday Feb. 17
We don’t buy soda very often, but when we do, the kids go crazy! A&W is our favorite and both kids love to drink from the can, which I don’t usually let them do. But today I decided to spoil my kids! They LOVED drinking from the can and shared very nicely! Emily lately has an obsession with calling my mom. “I want to call Nana.” is what I hear a million times until I pick up the phone and tell her the numbers to dial. Emily hadn’t been on the phone very long before I hear, “Nana, can you come for dinner?” The response: “When do you want me to come over?” Insert attitude and an eye roll, “Um, tonight Nana!” So mom came over right after work. Nathan found a couple of $1 bills on the counter and was doing I’m not sure what with them. But he was cute while doing it!

Thursday Feb. 18
This morning we got to watch Allison! They are so cute together. Allison had a snack container in her bag with Honey Comb in it. We also have Honey Comb cereal. Well, Nathan would only eat Allison’s cereal and Allison would only eat Nathan’s cereal even though they were the same thing! Crazy kids!

Friday Feb. 19
I have been finding WAY TOO MANY sewing tutorials online as of late. These reversible bags are the first of many projects. I am scared to death to make clothing, but I have found that when it comes to crafts or other items, I really love to sew and if I do say so myself, I’m getting pretty good at it. I really do love sewing because it’s a great outlet, and I can start and finish a project which is something I’ve really needed lately!

Saturday Feb. 20
Today the kids played really well together! Emily had decided that for 95% of the pictures that she is in, she wants to stick her tongue out. Drives me nuts! Tonight when the kids went to bed I made a reversible bag for each of the kids for church with a CTR shield on the front. Then I made me a jean bag out of a pair of shorts that never fit Robby. I love the pink belt and handle with the ruffle! I love all the pockets too.

Sunday Feb. 21
I started a small sewing project before church, and would have been all the way completed if I could just find my pinking shears. But NOOOO, they were nowhere to be found. So, already knowing that I needed to clean my craft room after sewing for a week and having kids dump out most of my bins of organized sewing and craft items, I started cleaning it tonight. It went pretty quickly once I started and I was able to organize even better than I had it the first time. And of course the scissors were all the way in the back of the room in the last place I looked. But the room is now clean, and Robby even hung my new (as of November 2008) peg boards that my neighbor and I painted. I’ve waited so long for them to be hung, and I love the organization and “up of the floor” factor that they give me! Then once I had my pinking shears, I made a business card holder for Kara and me. I seem to like making things in muliples!

Monday Feb. 22
Today I made tissue box holders for my bedside table, my desk and for the van. Tonight we played bingo and ate chocolate pudding with peanut butter chips for Family Home Evening. Emily loves to play Disney Bingo, but I was afraid Nathan’s attention span would be too short or he wouldn’t listen to the rules and mess up the boards. Nathan was amazing!!!!! We played 2 games and he either sat or lay on his tummy the whole time. He was able to find most of the pictures and he put the markers on all by himself. Now that is his favorite game and he wants to play it all the time. My little man is growing up way too fast! I can’t think of him as a baby anymore!

Tuesday Feb. 23
Today we walked down to the retention basin in our neighborhood with some friends. What was the first thing Nathan found? A stick. I got a good workout pushing the double stroller with Emily and Nathan riding. The two of them combined along with the stroller is close to 90-100 pounds!

Wednesday Feb. 24
My poor little miss woke up with a fever this morning and stayed home from school. Nathan on the other hand was as wacky as ever! I finished our operation game for our business presentation tomorrow. Kara drew “Operation Rob” and together we figured out the pictures and then I assembled it all today. Tonight was amazing! My friend Laura and I purchased tickets back in August or September to Mary Poppins and we finally got to go! We treated Laura to dinner at Applebee’s and then Robby dropped us off at Gammage. The show was supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! I am now wanting to purchase the CD to Mary Poppins, so I think that will be my next major purchase! I wished I had that play as a DVD because there was so much to see and hear that I’m sure I missed a ton, but what I saw was amazing! I cried through most of the second act, for what reason I’m not sure, but I really enjoyed this play. Thank you Laura for going with me!!!!!

Thursday Feb. 25
Emily stayed home from school again and even though her fever is gone, she is still coughing really hard. Today is one of those days that I just let Emily have the camera and let her take pictures to her heart’s content. I usually end up deleting 99% of the pictures, but this picture shows the randomness of her pictures…a picture of the TV with a Disney channel show. This morning Kara and I presented our “Operation Rob” game where we were doctors and everyone in the networking group was interns. The interns were given a definition of a term, diagnosis or symptom and they had to come and find the right body part with the computer term. Everyone had lots of fun and we always love playing games to help people remember what our computer service company offers!

Friday Feb. 26
Today I made 2 pairs of baby shoes. They are sooooooo cute! I can’t wait to make more. I know of 6 babies being born within the next 6 months, so I wanted to make something to be ready for all the showers. They are so tiny and it makes me want a little baby with tiny feet! Tonight we went to a friend’s house for dinner and games. We first played Backseat Drawing Game where the director had to describe to the artist how to draw what was on the card the director was holding. You can only describe in terms of shapes, lines and size and of course the girls won the game because we are better communicators! Robby got crazy and drew a smiley face on his glasses with the dry erase marker. Then we played Mousetrap and let the kids play with us. The girls loved watching the trap being put together and then the mice being trapped.

Saturday Feb. 27
Today I went to a friend’s house to borrow her infant car seat for measurements, and she ended up giving me a box full of fabric! JACKPOT!!!! I love fabric and I love it even more when I don’t have to spend grundles of money on cute fabric! More sewing projects here I come!

Sunday Feb. 28
Today it rained most of the day and so I sat at my sewing table and watched the rain from my window and made these cute car seat covers and little knit hats with bear ears. Now I have a complete gift package for baby showers. I will put in the car seat cover, 2 pairs of shoes and a knit hat. I want to do more because I’m having so much fun, but I need to remember to simplify and not go berserk. I really enjoy all this sewing and even better, the kids spend time with me in my craft room. As an added bonus, as long as I make sure the house is clean before I hide in my sewing room, it stays clean because the kids aren’t destroying the house, they’re destroying the craft room which is a much smaller space to keep clean!

Love and Laughter Week

2010-02-14T22:00:00.000-08:00

Make sure you check the post after this one as I didn't get a chance to post last week due to my computer being on the recovery bench, so I did it today, but back dated it. We've definitely had a busy couple of weeks! My love to you all on this Lovely Love Day! We have our doors open and we're enjoying the beautiful weather! Warning: This post is very picture heavy!

Monday Feb. 8
I didn’t get my computer back until late morning, and when it was placed on my desk I cried for joy! Nathan wakes up so early in the morning, so I put him on the couch and stumble over to my computer to finish waking up while checking email and Facebook. This morning was odd because I didn’t get that wake up time, but somehow I survived! Emily wanted to ride her bike to school, and since I had nothing to do without my computer (housework doesn’t count), I said sure. Well, Nathan wanted to get in on the bike riding action too. We got out his tricycle, and he sat down and WALKED not pedaled all the way to school. He can reach the pedals, but his legs aren’t quite long enough to fully pedal. A 5-7 minute walk turned into 15 minutes there and 15 back. I learned patience this morning! Needless to say, I went by myself to pick up Emily when school was done! We made chocolate chip cookies this afternoon and I made a dozen cookies into heart shapes and put one on Robby’s desk for when he got home from his appointment! For Family Home Evening tonight Emily wanted to cut out hearts. So we folded paper long ways and I drew the heart halves and Emily cut them out. Then Emily glued the hearts onto paper and made valentine’s for her preschool teachers.

Tuesday Feb. 9
Today started out by making heart shaped French Toast. The kids loved the shapes and I loved that they wanted to eat with their fingers and I didn’t have to wash forks! (Yes, I’m lazy) I made rice heat bags for the ladies I visit teach and for my family members for when they come over on Sunday for dinner. Then for my valentine’s gift to myself, (Hey, let’s face it. I don’t really get gifts from anyone, so I have to make my own gifts!) I decided we would go to Fuddruckers for dinner tonight. They have a deal where you can feed a family a 4 for $20 with 2 1/3 pound burgers with fries and drinks, and 2 kids meal hamburgers with fries and drinks! It was so good! I put pico de gallo and onion on mine, and I got a burger and Mexican food all at once! I did very well on my gift to myself this year!!!!!!

Wednesday Feb. 10
Today for our “love”, we watched our business partner’s little cutie, so she could get some rest. He took a nap, played with toys, and smiled a whole bunch. Makes be crazy for another little one around my house!

Thursday Feb. 11
Today I purchased all the fun stuff, and food, for the Valentine’s Day dinner on Sunday. I purchased fabric to make a tablecloth and a table runner and glass center piece decorations to be filled with candy that matches the tablecloth! I started making a bingo came for after dinner too!

Friday Feb. 12
Nathan and I have been walking Emily to school all week while she rides her bike, and today I thought I might try my patience again with Nathan’s tricycle. We got half way to school at the maddening pace of .1 miles per hour, and he was done with his bike because he couldn’t go as fast as Emily. So he ended up walking the rest of the way to school. Nathan sees Emily’s preschool as play time with all the toys and he was mad at me for not letting him stay and play. So he threw a tantrum (like that was going to let him have his way) and refused to be consoled. I then proceeded to drag him home, all while carrying his bike. Half way home I started to carry him and his bike-bad idea! So I put him down and just started walking away. He got the idea that I was going home without him and decided to follow! Um yeah, my patience was tested this morning! But I think I passed the test because I didn’t explode or mangle anything! We went to the mall with Nana today and ate at Subway! My favorite! Then Emily and Nathan got to play on the playground inside the mall. We stopped and got Emily 2 new pairs of Sunday shoes because bad mommy me had let her Sunday shoes get too small and they were hurting her feet.

Saturday Feb. 13
The kids and I got all ready and when Robby woke up we went to get in the van to go over to mom’s house to help take down her shed in the backyard. Well, the van reluctantly started, so the only place we went was to Checker Auto to have the battery tested. The test came back that the batter was fine, but that we had a bad alternator. So back home we came and I went back to sewing and preparing for the Valentine’s dinner and Robby proceeded to take apart the van. So out comes the alternator and Robby takes it to Checker to purchase a new one. They test the alternator there, and it works just fine. Come to find out, the battery was the culprit the entire time. A new battery is less expensive than a new alternator, so I’ll take that problem! Good thing Robby found out: he can reach all the spark plugs the next time he has to change them if he takes the alternator out! It was a good thing we stayed home from mom’s because the kids and I got to work on all the party prep. They helped me make jello and little cheesecakes. Then when they went to bed I made rolls, made and rolled out pizza dough and cut it out in the shape of a heart then baked them, used my little cookie cutter to cut the pepperoni into little hearts, and made homemade marshmallows. Robby was wonderful and helped me by sweeping and mopping the kitchen floor!

Sunday Feb. 14

Happy Valentine’s Day! Today was a tricky day to get everything to all in the day! The kids and I went to church alone because Robby had a bad stomach last night and didn’t get to sleep until 4:30. We only went to Sacrament Meeting in our ward, and then I went to opening exercises for Young Women’s and then I took the kids home because mom was speaking in her ward today. When I got home Robby was awake and he had cleaned the family room and was vacuuming it! Mom did an awesome job with her talk. Plus, it was so nice to listen to an entire talk without having to entertain my little ones! Love them dearly, but I miss listening during sacrament meeting. Then I came home and threw the party prep into high gear. I finished all the last minute details and decorated the table. We had so much fun tonight. It was a mystery dinner that I found on this blog http://cutevalentines.blogspot.com/2010/01/mixed-up-valentine-dinner.html. Each person had a plate with their name all around the edge. They had to figure out the code and right down the five things they wanted for each of the 4 courses. Laughs were heard around the table as each person tried to decipher the code with the help of others. I served the first course, and the other 3 courses they got themselves. I had set up and labeled everything on my washer/dryer and a table in my laundry/pantry room. After each course was completed, everything had to be taken away. Nothing was allowed to stay, so if you got a fork at the very beginning, you didn’t get one again. It was fun to see Michael eating his cheesecake with his pickle because he didn’t have any utensils that course, or Robby using his pickle to eat his jell-o. Some people had utensils at all the right times, but others like mom had to eat her cheesecake with her knife. I had to eat my ice cream and cheese cake out of the dish with only my tongue. Not really a pleasant thing! Nana lucked out because she came late and got all of her food and utensils at the same time! This was the menu: 1. Chip Off the Old Block---tooth pick, 2. Manure Spreader---fork, 3. Eve's Delight---apple juice, 4. Jack Frost---ice cream, 5. Drunken Log---large pickle, 6. Good and Plenty---main course (mini pizzas), 7. White Cloud (marshmallow), 8. Greaser (knife), 9. Twiggy (pretzel), 10. Jacob's Well (water), 11. Square (napkin), 12. Sticky Stuff (cheese cake), 13. Underground Icicle (carrot stick), 14. Gold Water (orange juice), 15. Rooster Tail (fruit cocktail), 16. Greenbacks (rolls), 17. Nervous Pudding (jell-o), 18. Lover's Delight (spoon), 19. conglomerate (tossed salad), and 20. Popeye's Friend (olive). Then we played bingo and I gave out the rice heating bags. Of course Nathan gave all his sugar to Gran-Nana! He loves giving kisses almost as much as Gran-Nana loves getting them! Mom brought balloons for the kids and a little chocolate cake for me and Robby and Nana brought me roses. I finished cleaning up after the party, and was in craft withdrawal because I had no projects I was working on! I’ll have to fix that problem…right after I sleep!

Cuteness and Chaos

2010-02-07T18:00:00.000-08:00

I am posting this a week behind because my computer was on the recovery bench trying to get back lost files. But it's here now, so that's all that matters, right?

Monday Feb. 1
Today I was working on thank you cards for work and Nathan was pestering me for one thing or another. Then when I finished the cards I realized it was eerily quiet. I look over at Nathan on the couch and he has fallen asleep and his little head is bobbing all over the place. He was so cute!

Tuesday Feb. 2
Today was a rare day that Robby grabbed the camera and took pictures. He even turned the camera on himself for a self portrait! I love all the funny faces he makes!

Wednesday Feb. 3
Today a special package came for Emily and Nathan from Robby’s parents. In it were these great necklaces with Christmas lights on them that light up and blink. Emily and Nathan wore the necklace literally until they fell apart! Emily even took her necklace for show and tell!

Thursday Feb. 4
Happy Birthday Nana! My wonderful Nana turned 91 today. She is such a blessing to me and I love her so much. We had a big family party for her tonight at my uncle’s house. We were able to see 2 owls up in the trees before the party started. The kids LOVED looking at the birds and Nathan added two new words to his vocabulary: Owl and Hoo! Our present for Nana was an ABC birthday card. Each letter of the alphabet has its own card, and you fill in “is for _________”. My favorite letter was “P is for Papa’s best gal”. The cards made her smile with each and every one she turned to, and that makes me feel great to put a smile on her face. Then we sang to her and had CHOCOLATE (Nana won’t except anything less) cake and ice cream.

Friday Feb. 5
Today started with blueberry muffins. Emily loves to help in the kitchen, and was so proud when her muffins came out of the oven. Today was a vehicle maintenance day. We have a good friend and neighbor that is a mechanic, so we asked him to change the oil in our vehicles. So off went the car, then the van, and he came to our house to change the oil in the truck (gross sludge!) Then he advised we change the serpentine belt in the van before it broke. So we had that replaced too! We are so grateful for talented friends that are able to help us!

Saturday Feb. 6
Emily grabbed my camera this morning and took some pictures of her favorite things. Rachel got to ride on a Barbie Cinderella’s horse, and she caught Nathan doing his favorite thing: reading. Then this afternoon we walked over to Great Clips and Robby and I got our hair cut. I took before and after pictures so that I could see the difference for myself. I cut the layers off and evened everything out so that I can grow my hair out long again.

Sunday Feb. 7
Today was great until tonight. Robby made crepes for breakfast and Emily was playing with the camera and told us to kiss so she could take a picture. Don’t have to tell me twice! Tonight is when the nightmare came to visit me. I was making pizza to take over to my aunt and uncle’s house to share with their family, when I deleted my Documents folder on my desktop. Robby had copied and pasted it (or so he thought), so I was just deleted the copy, right? No, I ended up deleting all of my business documents and some of my pictures. Robby instantly put it on the recovery machine and we left for my aunt and uncle’s home. Robby followed later because the recovery machine was saying it wanted over 6 hours to recover whatever it could. After dinner we roasted s’mores and sat and talked around the fire. The kids were thoroughly sugared up by the time we left! We were up until 12 waiting for it to recover, and then up until 2 starting to go through was it was able to find. I lost most of my Photoshop projects for the business, but was able to recover most of the documents that only I had for the business. The pictures that I lost I thankfully had backed up. I have through June 2009 backed up, and I stopped the deleting process at the beginning of January 2009. What a blessing that I didn’t lose any pictures! I found this cute football and knew I needed to document that we are NOT football watchers, follow it in no way, and were definitely not going to watch the Super Bowl today. So here’s my non-plug for Super Bowl Sunday! :)

Full week of fun!

2010-01-31T18:23:00.000-08:00

What a week this has been! It's had many mood swings, for everyone in the family, 2 birthdays and lots of family time!

Monday Jan. 25

Today I spent the majority of the day deleting files on my computer. My hard drive was over half full, and it was starting to get a little too sluggish for me. So I started early in the morning, and didn't finish until late afternoon. I thought the process would only take an hour or two. WRONG! I had forgotten how many things I keep on my computer "just in case I need it again". My computer is much happier now after the cleaning and defragging! Nathan is really big into movies, mostly Cars and Animusic (I'm ready to throw both of them away at the moment!) This is how I find him most times while watching a movie. He stuck his tongue in right before I took the picture, so I missed the best part!

Tuesday Jan. 26

Today was a full day too! I focused on organizing all the pictures of Emily's birthday party and getting them ready to be printed so that I can send out thank you notes. I had to do it today because there was a promotion at Snapfish that expired the next day that if I bought anything (like a 9 cent 4x6 picture) I would get 100 4x6 pictures for free plus shipping! Score! So I ended up with 101 pictures, all of which I needed to get! I saved $9! Then I decided to make a quick run to the store. However, my quick run turned out to be very slow. I went to Superstition Ranch Market, which is often really busy, but it was so busy that I walked around the store for 5 minutes getting my fruits and veggies, then stood in line for the next 35 minutes. I'm so grateful I didn't bring the kids. Then I made a quick stop at Fry's and headed home. We had friends over for dinner and to fix their laptop. I made yummy homemade pizza (the only kind to have, of course) and then settled the kids in the family for movie time. My cousin posted on Facebook that she was having a S'mores party tonight and invited whoever wanted to come over. I left the kids with Robby and headed out the door. We tried to start a fire, but we only succeeded in making the wood smoke. We had to wait until my uncle came home and he started the fire with gasoline! We talked and laughed and had a great time just being together! I love my cousins!

Wednesday Jan. 27

Today I went over to Jessica’s to pick something up and she told me that Allison decided she wanted to be awake from 2 to 6 in the middle of the night. So needless to say she was exhausted! I offered to pick up Allison after Emily finished preschool and let the kids play at our house. Emily was tickled pink when she found out her cousin was coming over! She was stuck to Allison the whole time she was here!

Thursday Jan. 28

Today Emily found music on the Playhouse Disney website and she and Nathan listened and danced to the music all afternoon long. Emily received some scissors in her Kindergarten packet, so she decided to mutilate a paper on the family room floor. Thankfully she was really good about picking up every little piece! Emily is really good at cutting out shapes and cuts pretty accurately on the lines! She’s amazing!

Friday Jan. 29

Tonight our friends offered to watch the kids and for Robby’s birthday gave us money for a date night! Woohoo! Robby chose Golden Coral because Friday night is Fish Fry! He was hoping for catfish, but he had to settle for all the other kinds of fish they had! For dessert, he chose coconut cream pie…YUCK! I do not care for coconut, not even the smell of it! He also picked up a chocolate chip cookie which looked really good, but I’m trying to stay away from sugar right now, so I refused the cookie when he offered it to me. Then he somehow convinced me to try a bite of his little pie. I almost gagged! So then he offered the cookie again to get rid of the coconut taste. Tricky, tricky man! I wasn’t going to have any dessert, but after that taste I went to the dessert bar and got myself some jell-o, another cookie, a rice krispie treat and some banana pudding. So much for staying away from sugar, right? We picked up the kids and started to head home, and we came across a train! We were the first car in line and the kids were so excited because they have never seen a train moving before! Today was a great day!

Saturday Jan. 30

Happy Birthday Robby! As Robby puts it…he is one year closer to antiquity! Today for Robby’s birthday, he chose to go and help a friend with some plumbing issues they were having. But for Robby, that is the best kind of day when he is helping someone! They were able to finish the project in a manner of hours with only one trip to Home Depot! I was able to purchase 6 packages of chicken breasts today (36 total), so when we got home I stood there and trimmed all the fat and put 2 breasts per labeled bag and put them into my deep freezer. I love having food storage! It makes me feel so much better knowing my family has extra right now that we can share with others or have on hand when we are having financial struggles. We had a birthday party for Robby and Allison, who turned 1 this week, at my mom’s house tonight. Robby got his very own personal carrot cake, and my brother told him to blow out the candles with his nose. I’m so grateful he didn’t because I’m eating a piece now! (Yeah, remember the no sugar thing, I’ve been good today, so I’m having a little piece!-So sue me! LOL)

Sunday Jan. 31
Thankfully today was a relaxing Sunday. We had church and then our home teachers came over this afternoon. Emily and Nathan didn’t want to listen to boring adults talk, so they decided to drive me crazy by playing with and fighting over a balloon. What a great spirit builder-um, NO! Nathan is really big into movies and books, all of which have to happen at the same time. I will be working on something at my desk, and he will bring a book to me and not leave me alone until we have spent a good 10 minutes looking at everything in the book. I’m so grateful that he loves books and he’s really improved his speaking skills because he can now count to 10 and name most of the things in the books. But it hurts when he comes to your chair and turns you around without you realizing what’s happening! I think I’ll take a little pain in return for the love of reading! Yesterday was one of my friend's birthday, and on her blog last week she posted a beautiful poem. I knew the second I read it that I had to make it into a picture and frame it for her. So I gave that to her at church today and she loved it!

Flooding, Tires and Birthday Party

2010-01-24T20:10:00.000-08:00

Another great week here at the Sandling home! Crazy as always, but if it wasn't crazy, we might think something was wrong!

Monday Jan. 18
This morning started out ok, but deteriorated quickly for some reason. I was frustrated at everything, so I decided to do a mindless activity to try and clear my frustration levels. I cut out all the shapes for Emily's party gift bag boots, and then I sewed them all. Good frustration outlet...sewing!

Tuesday Jan. 19
No more frustration, but panic has now set in that Saturday is Emily's party with 20 invited kids and I don't have everything done. So tonight I made the stick horses. They didn't last past the next morning when the kids played with them, so they had to go back to the horse doctor to get re-sticked! I loved listening to the rain and being safe and warm inside!

Wednesday Jan. 20
Today was full of blessings and miracles. While Robby was driving home from an appointment in Phoenix, the Spirit directed him that something was wrong with his driver's side tire. So he said a quick prayer saying "Please get me home safetly." Well, as he was turning onto the off ramp on Gilbert road off of the 60, his driver's side tire blew. The tread came completely off. Robby was prepared for this and he had both hands on the wheel at the time. He was able to bring the car to a stop safely and pull into an apartment complex and change the tire. Then he drove directly to Discount Tire to get the 2 front tires replaced. The business had just recieved a check from a customer that covered the exact amount of the tires. As I ran to the bank to deposit the check, they pulled the car into the bay. I was gone maybe 10-15 minutes and as I was pulling back up, they pulled the completed car out of the bay. They moved the back tires to the front and put the new tires on the back. I am so grateful that Robby is safe and that he was listening to the still small voice guiding him to safety.

Thursday Jan. 21
Today the rains came down and the floods came up. We were all sure that we were going to be washed away. By mid morning the water was halfway up our patio, and by tonight the water was within inches of our back door. A song comes to mind (I changed a few words): "The rains came down and the floods came up, the rains came down and the floods came up, the rains came down and the floods came up and the toys on the porch washed away!" I am so grateful for the new tires on Robby's car because as he was driving around today, he said that he was driving through 3 feet of water at times and he knew that his old tires would have never stuck to the road. Major blessings! Nathan right now is really big into pickles. He wants one 5 minutes after he wakes up in the morning! Tonight was Emily's Kingergarten Preview. We were able go to the school and meet all 4 teachers and go to each of their rooms and see a little about how they teach. Emily flourished and raised her hand to answer questions, and was content to sit with the others kids and not cower with me. That made me really excited that come August she will go to school (hopefully) without a fight or too many tears. I also put names on all the bandanas for the kids at the party. They will color them with crayons at the party.

Friday Jan. 22
Nathan grabbed his hat this morning while we were getting dressed and decided to go all gansta' on us! So cute! I laughed so hard! Isn't that face the greatest? Today was the dreaded doctor's visit that Emily has tried everything to get out of. Both kids had a well check today and needed to get 1 shot each. Nathan must have known something was up because he was a very grumpy boy the entire time we were there. Emily took a great picture of Nathan getting his shot! Emily chose lunch at Taco Bell for our lunch with Gran-Nana. The kids got nachos, and all Nathan wanted to eat was the cheese dip with his finger. Tonight we set up for Emily's party tomorrow. Late night, but everything but the kitchen floor is done for tomorrow.

Saturday Jan. 23
P-Day has arrived-Party Day that is! Nathan was up at 6:30, so I was able to get lots done before the party started at 10 this morning. We had 16 of the 20 invited kids come today and we definitely had a full house! We took pictures of each child with the horse pin-up and then moved onto coloring their bandanas and making necklaces. Then we all moved to the family room where each child signed their name on an autograph horse for Emily. We played Pin the Brand on the Cow, and someone actually got a bullseye! Then we had an obstacle course. We divided into 2 teams and each team had a stick horse. They had to 1. lasso the horse with a wooden ring, 2. throw the horse in the corral, 3. Jump over snakes at Poison Pass, and 4. Shoot the bad guy and then run back and pass off the horse to the next person. They had lots of fun with this. Then we sang to Emily and she got to do the first cut on the cake. My friend Kara made the cake and it was amazing! She does it as a side business: go check out the other cakes she has made http://www.karaskustomkakes.blogspot.com/!

Sunday Jan. 24
Today we had a very relaxing afternoon with me taking a nap, and Robby playing the Wii and with the kids. The kids love to just sit and watch him play, and will do that for hours at a time. Emily even got in on the action of the game by sneaking into Robby's chair when he got up and so Robby sat on her!

Awesome Giveaway

2010-01-20T12:20:00.000-08:00

Julie over at Flitter Bugs http://flitterbugsblog.blogspot.com/ is having an amazing giveaway! All you have to do is leave a comment on her blog http://flitterbugsblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/free-giveaway-just-leave-comment-to.html Plus... you can leave up to 4 extra entries....for a total of 5 chances to win any one garment (any size and fabric) of your choice!

I hope I win!

Whoosh!

2010-01-17T20:43:00.000-08:00

Yes, whoosh! That's what this week felt like! For the past few months, weeks have been taking forever to get from Monday to Sunday. This week flew by so quickly, that I'm amazed that it's Sunday again!

Monday Jan. 11

Is it bad that I can't remember a thing we did today? LOL I do remember Nathan trying to walk around by sliding his feet on the pot holders. I think that must have been the highlight of my day. No wait. I do remember something else. Today is the day my ear clogged in the afternoon. It lasted all week long.

Tuesday Jan. 12

This morning I went to the memorial service for the sweet little baby girl that my friend lost last week. The spirit was very strong and there was a healing feeling also in the room. It helped me remember that everything is eternal and that Heavenly Father knows the beginning to the end, and He knows what's better for me than I know for myself, and He does it all because He loves me. Today was a crazy day for the kids! Nathan woke up crazy from head to toe! Literally!!! His hair was not standing up...it was everywhere! It looks like someone teased his hair, but his hair is to thin and fine (like baby hair should be) to tease!!!! Nothing I did tamed it, so I just let it go! We stopped by to see Gran-Nana, and of course the kids had to see if they could catch one of her 4 fish. Thankfully I can report the fish were faster than my kids and they are all safe! Mom called and said she had a 2 gallons of milk that had expired the day before and needed to be used quickly. She knows we go through almost a gallon a day, so we picked up the milk and made TAPIOCA PUDDING! Emily loves to help cook, and stirring is her favorite thing to do. So I was more than willing to let her stir and I took a break. That's the one thing I don't like about tapioca pudding...you have to stand there for what feels like hours, just stirring. No fun, but the taste afterwards really makes up for it, so I shouldn't complain!

Wednesday Jan. 13

Now don't think badly of me. I really want my home decorated, especially my kids rooms. So when my sister in law gave me these cute frames and my kids initials that she painted to hang on the wall, I was so excited. Now here's the bad part. She gave them to me for Nathan's baby shower.....2 1/2 years ago! I finally put pictures in them tonight and Robby helped me hang them up!!!!! I was so excited! The kids love them and look at me like, "Why didn't you decorate my room earlier?" I'm now motivated to work on more of my home and make it feel more like home with all the items I have purchased to decorate, but have never actually decorated with.

Thursday Jan. 14

This morning Robby shocked me by waking up at 7am. That is big for a guy that never gets out of bed before 9:30 no matter what. So I took advantage of being up early and went to the grocery store for milk and fresh veggies. When I came home, Robby was making crepes. I thought I had died and gone to heaven! I love crepes, and so Robby found a recipe on line, and made a double batch. I had way to many, but I was one happy girl the rest of the day! All except for the earache that started late afternoon! No fun! Tonight Robby and I attacked, yes attacked, the toy area of our family room. 2 hours later we surfaced after finding carpet and reorganizing the toys and furniture. I had put cleaning this part of the room off for too long. The kids had dumped puzzles everywhere and mixed up the pieces, taken most of the toys out of the totes and spread them around, and taken all of the play food out of the bucket. It was a great time spent with Robby, so I'm counting it a sucess.

Friday Jan. 15

Remember my ear problems? Yeah, well I ended up calling the doctor and setting up an appointment for early this morning. I was sure with the pain I was experiencing I had an ear infection. Well, I go in-no temperature. Ok...good sign. The doctor checks my left ear...all looks good (duh, that's the ear that doesn't hurt). The doctor checks my right ear...she can't see into my hear because there's something in the way. She has the nurse come in and flush my ear. Um can we say OUCH?!?! She has a squirt bottle with a hose that goes into my ear. She squirts 3 times then stops. I was still ok at this point. Then she says she going to try again, and try again she did. This lasted for about 2-3 minutes and I thought my right ear drop was going to relocate to my left ear. She finally got the desired result. A piece of wax the size of a small pea comes out. EWWWW! No wonder I hurt and couldn't hear very well. I'm so glad that's out! Emily's preschool teacher had a bench that has a toy compartment that she no longer needed and asked if we would like it. So I brought it home and we love it. Emily likes that she fits inside, I like that all the stuffed animals hide inside. Emily helped me clean it off, and Nathan and Emily use it as a stage to show off their dancing skills.

Saturday Jan. 16

This morning we went to mom's house and Robby rototilled her garden. Funny thing...Robby is the only one that can start mom's rototiller. No joke. Everyone else has tried, begged, pleaded, bribed, and cried. Robby tweaks it with a screw drive, pulls once on the pull-string, and it starts. We all get a good laugh out of that. We can do they same thing Robby does, nope, it still wants him. So this is his yearly garden job. We are having a family garden this year and we are all really excited to have fresh veggies we pick ourselves. Tonight we started our "we will clean the entire family room before we good to bed" routine. It went well, and now I know where all of Emily's shoes were hiding. She decided to stack up all her shoes to carry them to her room. Yes she's a shoe freak.

Sunday Jan. 17

After church I let the kids play with the hand boppers that came yesterday. They had way too much fun punching each other. Nathan picked up another word today too. Punch. Everytime he hit Emily he would say it. However, Nathan would get frustrated because Emily hits harder and can knock him over. He would throw the "gloves" and walk away, then come back and try again.

What a Full Week!

2010-01-10T18:31:00.000-08:00

This week has felt like a roller coaster of ups and downs, loop-dee-loops and way too many upside downs. Thankfully all the downs have ended in ups!

Monday Jan. 4

Today I woke up ready to attack our company website and I thought to myself, "I need to find a certain paper before I can start." Well, needless to say, I spent the ENTIRE day cleaning and organizing and shredding, and never even touched the website. But my desk looks fantastic! I'm glad I didn't take a before picture, it was too embarrassing to show to anyone!

Tuesday Jan. 5

Today was spent working on my menu for the month. Nana offered to take me shopping at Fry's tomorrow, so I needed to have my list ready. So these are all our dinners for the month. They're not in order, or else I feel boxed in, so once I make a meal on the list I cross it off, and go until all the meals have been made.

Wednesday Jan. 6

Today was MAJOR grocery shopping day. Nana is absolutely wonderful and has offered to help us with food the last few months. She tells me to make a list, and she doesn't question anything. I make a menu plan for a month, then make my list, then go through my pantry and frig to see if I am missing anything on my list. My lists are always way too long, and I feel guilty for everything I put in my cart. However I am so very grateful for her help. The menu list makes it so I don't buy excess items that we don't need or candy that we really don't need. The last thing on my list this time was mushrooms and I handed them to Nathan to put in the cart. Well, I turned around for a second, and when I turned back Nathan had opened the package and was eating the mushrooms! After we came home and I put all the food away, we went to the park with some of the ladies and their kids in our ward.

Thursday Jan. 7

Today was definitely a roller coaster day. I received a call at 7:15 that woke me up. It said Maricopa County on the caller id, so I was instantly on the alert that someone in my family was in the hospital. However, I wasn't expecting the voice on the other end. It was a man in our ward telling me that I didn't need to pick up his daughter to take her to preschool today. He then told me his wife had a miscarriage at 21 weeks. I was heartbroken. My mind instantly went to getting a bereavement box to her a soon as possible. My sister Kathryn is part of an organization called Lanee's Legacy that creates boxes for women that lose their babies. http://laneeslegacy.blogspot.com/ I called up Kathryn and she told me where to go and pick up a box. I didn't know if the baby was a girl or boy, so I called back to the hospital and spoke to the husband. I found out that my friend still hadn't delivered the baby, so that made my ergency level go up even further. My friend was having a girl, so I picked up a box and arranged for people to watch Emily and Nathan, and off to the hospital I went. We sat there and cried together. I held her hand and we talked about anything and nothing, and it felt good to be with a friend. I cried most of the day because my heart was hurting for my friend and her family. I'm grateful I was able to be there for a friend, but this day really helped me heal in places I didn't realize were still broken from the time of my miscarriage.

Friday Jan. 8

Today the bugman was scheduled to come and spray the house, so that gave me the extra push to swept and mop my kitchen floor. It was scary! Then I went to Bashas' where they are having a sale that if you buy ground turkey (1.25 lbs. for $5.99-yikes! Can you tell I rarely buy ground turkey?) you get taco seasoning, shredded lettuce, taco shells and cheese for FREE! So we had tacos for dinner tonight! The ground turkey was really good! The whole dinner cost us $6, and we have leftovers for another meal! I like dinners like that!

Saturday Jan. 9

Today was a very full Saturday. I got up and cleaned and vacuumed the family room because we got a new (used) entertainment center from a family in our ward. It was delivered while I was with Mom, Jessica and Kathryn getting a pedicure. Then we went to Paradise Bakery for lunch. That was soooooo good! I loved everything, especially the warm, gooey chocolate chip cookie! There was tons of chocolate-just the way I like them! When I got home the new windshield was being installed on the van. We had a chip on the driver's side that was going to split the window any day. Sure enough, as soon as the repair man touched the window, it split and the windshield was in 4 pieces by the time he got it out of the van. What a blessing we had it fixed today! Then after Nathan's nap, Robby and I dropped the kids off with my mom and went to the mall. Robby received a gift card for Christmas and needed some new Sunday shoes. We had a great time walking around holding hands and talking. It was so nice being able to complete a sentence without a "Mommy?" piping in during the middle of the sentence.

Sunday Jan. 10

Today after church I mentioned to Robby that I had a sweet tooth and then went Visiting Teaching. When I came home, Robby was making a chocolate cake! He even used the heart shaped pans! I have such a wonderful husband! He knows how much I love chocolate cake with chocolate frosting! Well, I love pretty much chocolate anything, but chocolate cake is probably on the top of my list! And I'm not the only one in the family that loves chocolate cake...Look at the chocolate face on my cute boy! You could just eat him up! :)

Another Birthday and Happy New Year!

2010-01-03T18:35:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year y'all! I hope everyone has great resolutions that stick this year, I sure hope mine stick!!! Another Facebook quote: A little humor to start the year - "My Wish for You in 2010 - May peace break into your home and may thieves come to steal your debts. May the pockets of your jeans become a magnet for $100 bills. May love stick to your face like Vaseline and may laughter assault your lips. May happiness slap you across the face and may your tears be that of joy. May the problems you had forget your home address! Happy New Year!!"

Monday Dec. 28
Tonight for Family Home Evening we had a crash course on First Aid. We talked about how to clean and disinfect a wound, and how to dress it and properly take care of the "owie". Then we put together our first aid/medicine containers. The container on the left is for the first aid and mommy/daddy's medicine, and the container on the right is for the kids medicine.

Tuesday Dec. 29
After dinner tonight the kids got ice cream cones. As you can tell from Nathan's expression, they were REALLY excited!

Wednesday Dec. 30
One of my goals for 2010 is to send a birthday card/postcard to all of my family and close friends. I thought, "That will only be a few"...so I designed and ordered 100 postcards. WRONG!!! I am now up to 95 and I still have about 30 more names to go! Family-we need to stop procreating!!! No, just kidding! I love having so many family and friends that I get to wish them a happy birthday. So today I sent out the first batch for all the early January birthdays! This year is going to be so fun! This is my card box of people and their birthdays divided by months. If you think I don't have your birthday, please let me know so I can add your birthday to my file. I don't want to miss your birthday!

Thursday Dec. 31
Happy Birthday to ME! I am now the ripe old age of 29! From now on, I am 29 plus tax! Robby calls me ancient, but I tolerate it because his birthday is 29 days after mine! I get him back when he catches up with me! Today was absolutely awesome!!! I had the best birthday today because, selfishly, I took the stance of, "It's my birthday and I'm going to do what I want to do". My goals for the day: 1. Don't cook any meals (almost got away with this one. I had to make a sandwich for Emily and Nathan for their breakfast), 2. Don't feel guilty if someone asks me to do something and I tell them no because I want to do something else, and 3. Have fun and no worries. All were accomplished! This morning my friend Marianne took me to Crackers & Co. for breakfast. I ordered the New Princess Omlet-So YUMMY!!!! Definitely getting that one again. Marianne mentioned it was my birthday and they brought me out a warm death by chocolate cake! I took one bite and was in sugar shock! I saved it for later and put a candle on top and Emily sang me Happy Birthday! Then I came home and loaded everyone into the van and off we went to see Princess and the Frog with a gift certificate we received for Christmas. Great movie! Nathan cuddled his blanket the whole time and was so cute about it too! The kids did wonderfully through the whole movie. Then after the movie we went to Subway for lunch with yet another Christmas gift certificate. Another absolutely fabulous meal! I could eat Subway everyday! I guess it goes back to the old days when Robby and I worked at Hogi Yogi and I ate sandwiches any time I wanted! We went home and during Nathan's nap Emily and I got gas for the van and picked up some peanut butter M&M's for the Wii party tonight. We stopped by mom's house and their Jessica gave me more movie tickets-YEAH! Now we just have to find another movie! Kathryn gave me a book and a cd I picked out with her on Saturday night AND the new Harry Potter movie (#6)! We went to our friend and business partner's home (the Larkins) for dinner and some crazy Wii partying. I finally learned to play Mario Party and started to enjoy it. Kara gave me a beautiful new complete bedset that even included throw pillows! Her mother-in-law made me homemade salsa and a bag of chips. I was in hog heaven, let me tell you! We were there until 10:30 that night, way to late for the kids, but we all had a lot of fun! My birthday present from Robby was a picture of the 2 of us. Getting that man to take a picture with me is like pulling teeth! Aren't we just the cutest couple? :)

Friday Jan. 1
Happy New Year! Wow, we are already to 2010! As I little girl this year seemed so far away, and now I'm living it. In Back to the Future, they use the date of 2015. That is only 5 years away!!!!! That movie being made in the early 80's and I don't think the world will look the way they projected it in the movie! Every year Uncle Larry and Aunt Susan have a big Pew get together with all of mom's cousins. This year Aunt Susan got a couple of her horses out for the kids to ride. Oh my were they on cloud nine! Emily was able to feed her horse grass and even a carrot. On the way home she asked for a horse of her own for her next birthday. "Do we have enough money to get a horse, or do we need much, much more mom?" I laughed and added about 500 more much's to the list but she wasn't deterred! She is bound and determined to get a horse and keep him in our backyard. Dream big cute girl! Mom gave me some birthday money to buy new king size pillows for our bed, and Robby's parents gave me some money that I put toward new maroon sheets for the bed! When we got home we attacked the Christmas decorations and took them all down and put them away in the attic. Then we rearranged the family and cleaned it really good. Good start for a new year!

Saturday Jan. 2
This morning the kids and I took all 8 of our pillows over to my mom's house to wash them in her front loader machines. So while the pillows washed and dried, I made breakfast and then vacuumed my mom's house in a small payment in return for her water and electricity. Then my friend Sarah treated me to a birthday lunch at Rancho De Tia Rosa. Heaven in my mouth! Sarah mentioned we were celebrating my birthday, and at the end of the meal, they brought me fried ice cream! What a treat! Then we were off to Wal-mart and she got me some more throw pillows for my bed! She purchased 2 maroon ones to match the sheets I bought yesterday and a navy blue one to go with navy blue accent in the room! I have the best friends in the world! I came home and finally put my new completed and washed bed together! Robby says we now have a fancy-shmancy bed! I love it! I'm still working on the arrangement of the throw pillows, but this set is SOOOOOOO much nicer than any of the other bed sets I have owned! Thank you to all who contributed! Kara-bed set, Mom-king size pillows, Sarah/Ben-throw pillows, Bob/Lil-sheets! I am one happy girl every time I walk in my room. Added bonus: I'm actually excited to make my bed each morning so I can doll it up! Tonight we had pizza and let the kids have a "picnic" with homemade pizza in the family room while we watched #6 Harry Potter.

Sunday Jan. 3
This morning when I woke up, no matter how hard I tried to fight it, I had the mood of "Woe is me" all morning. I hate these days! My life truly is a blessing, so I don't know why I get to really discouraged moments. But today at church the testimonies that were born in Sacrament meeting and the lesson that was given in Young Womens was exactly the kick in the behind that I needed to remind me that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ know everything I am going through. I am a daughter of God and he only wants the best for me and blesses me with the things I need in his time, and not the time I think would be best to receive them. That in and of itself is my greatest blessing. I know that I would really mess up my life if me, as a finite person, controlled everything. But God as an infinite person, can see what will benefit me the most and bless my life to the fullest, so much better than I could ever do for myself. My heart was so full that I shared my testimony at the end of Young Womens and cried though the whole thing. I am such a blessed person and I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for how richly he has blessed my life! This afternoon I followed this tutorial http://treyandlucy.blogspot.com/2009/12/hanging-dishtowel.html and sewed potholders onto dishtowels so that they will no longer fall off the oven door handle. Nathan drives me crazy because he will walk by the first time and knock it off, then walk by a second time and stomp on it, then last but not least will come back again and drag it across the floor. You think this is over a period of time...Oh No! It is a matter of a few short seconds. And he thinks I don't notice! Think again boy! It is chaos trying to keep it hanging up!!!! No I have 8 towels and 12 dishtowels that I can change them everyday and avoid the stinky/moldy smell! Then Robby got out his guitar and played some music for the kids and let them play with the strings and make their own music. I love that we have musical kids and they really enjoyed the special time with daddy! Emily got a hold of the camera and took a few self portraits. This is my favorite! She was so proud to show them to me!

Birthday and Christmas Celebrations

2009-12-27T20:22:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to all! I hope everyone had a great Christmas with family and friends. This is always a busy time of year for our family with so many birthdays and holidays with in 2 weeks.

Monday Dec. 21

Today Emily received her birthday package from Nanny and Papa. She got candy, a check for her savings account and a card that sings. She loved the card and I'm surprised that the batteries aren't dead because she's plays it often.

Tuesday Dec. 22

Today it was cloudy most of the day, and early afternoon it started to rain. With the rain we got some hail, and then it turned to snow. It dotted the ground and stayed there for about 10 minutes. Of course I took my dear sweet time and didn't get the camera until it melted! I was too amazed to move!

Wednesday Dec. 23

Happy Birthday Mom! I have been teasing mom for about a week that I had a surprise for her. She tried everything to get it out of me, she even had Kathryn and Jessica try to coax it out of me. We met at Mom's house at 6:30, had pizza from Papa Murphy's, then at 7:30 my cousin Lance pulled up in his LIMO!!! My mom was very surprised and we had the best time driving around looking at Christmas lights. Lance is such a great cousin to treat us to such a great night!

Thursday Dec. 24

The kids and I had last minute errands to run this morning, so we set off early. Nathan got grumpy so I handed him my camera. He took pictures of everything within his sight. So I decided to turn around and have him take a picture of me driving (don't worry, I was stopped). Then that night we went to mom's house and had our annual clam chowder and corn bread Christmas Eve meal. So yummy! Then we let the kids open 1 gift-jammies! We came home and Emily helped me set out chairs for Santa. In our house, Santa doesn't wrap presents, so we label a chair with our name, and that's where Santa puts our gifts. It's a tradition I grew up with. Then Robby and I finished up the preparations for Christmas, and went to bed early so we'd be able to get up with the kids.

Friday Dec. 25

Robby and I were both up around 6am because we had gone to bed so early, so we waited until 7:30am before we couldn't wait any longer and we woke up the kids. Everyone got dressed and we went in the family room to see what Santa brought for us. Then we loaded up in the van and headed to mom's house. We opened up gifts and then started breakfast. Robby made bacon and sausage, mom made holiday (funeral) potatoes, and I made breakfast enchiladas. The sausage smelled funny, but it was maple so we just went on. Robby tasted it, quickly spit it out, and then checked the expiration date. It expired in January of 2008! No wonder it was bad. Robby was the only one that ate any, and he got a little sick, but his iron stomach conquered it. We were very blessed with gifts that were given to us. Our favorites: Robby-money to get new Sunday shoes and pants, Kim-bagless vacuum (So cool!), Emily-Princess scooter, Nathan-Tricycle. Tonight we went to Aunt Linda and Uncle Floyd's home for the Hallsted family Christmas party. We had delicious food and caught up on family stories. Then we did the Nativity story with the kids playing the characters. Emily was Mary (she was a stinker and didn't want to put her costume on), and Nathan was a wiseman. Next we had a white elephant exchange. The theme was candy and Emily got her favorite-Cotton Candy. Then we had dessert and carried on Grandma Hukill's tradition of soaking a sugar cubes in lemon extract and lighting it on fire to see who's cube would burn the longest. So many people blessed our Christmas this year and I can't wait to get started on all the thank you notes! Tonight I vacuumed the family room to see how much my new vacuum could suck up. I just vacuumed last night, so I didn't think it would be much. Holy Yuck! It was so gross! I'm so grateful to have my new vacuum! Thank you mom! I only took 157 pictures today! Haha!

Saturday Dec. 26

I attacked the laundry and cleaned everything but the kitchen today. I was very tired by the end of the day. Mom, Kathryn and Jessica went to see New Moon (I stayed home because those books/movies don't appeal to me) and then I met them at Cafe Rio for dinner. SOOOOOOOO GOOD!!!!!! Kathryn calls it her new Matta's! That's saying something because Matta's has been her favorite restaurant for a long time. Then Kathryn and I headed over to Seagull Book and Deseret Book. I got some Christmas books for next year so I can read a Christmas story each night. We went back to mom's and Allison decided to be really, really cute.

Sunday Dec. 27

Happy Birthday Kathryn! I can't believe my "little" sister is now 25 years old! Today Nathan decided to scream through half of Sacrament meeting and Emily whined at the same time. They got better, but it was still frustrating. In Young Women's today we talked about setting goals, and I got fired up to set some great goals and start accomplishing them. Tonight Robby said he was bored and wanted to see how much he could get out of the carpet in the hallway and the 3 bedrooms. I was just excited to see him vacuum! But he got so much out of the carpet that it made me sick to know what was in my carpet that I vacuum at least once a week. Again, I am sooooooo grateful for this new vacuum. I'm sure it will make my home much cleaner!

Birthday Girl!

2009-12-20T20:11:00.001-08:00

This week has been getting everything finished and ready for Christmas and Emily's Birthday. Emily has been out of school, and the kids have enjoyed having the run of the house. I was feeling better from being sick starting Tuesday, and I think now that is Sunday again, that I am finally feeling better.

Monday Dec. 14
Emily and Nathan took it easy today because I was still feeling yucky and started out by watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory with Johnny Depp-Emily's favorite movie. They decided to empty the toys out of the baskets and sit in them. Then after the movie, Nathan bumped into Emily who had an open bottle of red fingernail polish, and it spilled on the tile. Robby and I quickly got out the nail polish remover, and started wiping it up. We got most of it off, with only a small light pink spot.

Tuesday Dec. 15
Today I ran errands this morning with Emily. Emily and I had a good conversation about death and I was able to talk about the Plan of Salvation and that we can be with the ones we love after we die. She was in tears knowing that she would miss her Gran-Nana, but grateful she could see her again because Jesus was resurrected and then she started crying because she misses Jesus. It was a great conversation that brought us closer together. After the kids went to bed I made Amish Friendship bread. Yummy!

Wednesday Dec. 16
Tonight Robby got his new toy. Intouch Technology now has a UPS battery that is an uninteruptable power supply that will run for an estimated 30 minutes after the power goes out for us to safely shutdown our server farm. It came on it's own pallet, and easily ways over 70 pounds. Robby tried to give himself a hernia trying to pick it up!

Thursday Dec. 17
We ran a major errand run today. We went to the post office, the dollar store, Wal-mart and Fry's. On the way home I treated us to Whopper Jr.'s and onion rings at Burger King. We don't eat at fast food restaurants very often, and the onion rings have been a big craving of mine.

Friday Dec. 18
I had to return something to Wal-mart so I picked up a "birthday surprise" for Emily of Popcorn Shrimp. When I got home she proceeded to take the breading off, eating the breading, then eating the little shrimp. She was so dedicated in her work too!

Saturday Dec. 19
Robby had to wire a new outlet for the UPS battery, so he took down the server farm and went for it. I'm so grateful he is talented in so many ways. Tonight we went to the temple and watched mom and her singing group perform. The temple lights are always so pretty, and even with the large crowds, it was great walking around with my little family and enjoying the Christmas season.

Sunday Dec. 20
Today is Emily's 5th birthday. I can't believe my baby is so big! She got a call during breakfast from my mom who sang her Happy Birthday. Church today was filled with the Spirit of Christmas and I shed many tears as the spirit touched my heart. This afternoon my family came over and we had a little party for Emily. She wanted a candle in her ice cream instead of cake. She was blessed with many wonderful gifts: I Spy Books (Jessica/Michael), Headbands (Nathan), Leapster2 and TinkerBelle game (Kathryn), Color Wonder Fingerpaints (My Mom), Puzzle and Dress Up (Mommy and Daddy), Pretend Hair Dryer, curling iron, hair/beauty stuff (Gran-Nana), 6 $1 bills (Granny Pat) and we're waiting for a package to come from Nanny and Papa. After the party Nanny called and talked to Emily to wish her a happy birthday. We delivered some Christmas gifts and then our Home Teachers came over. Emily was so excited from the day that she didn't want to go to bed!

We took another 4 Generation tonight. This is the first picture we took Christmas Eve 2004, when Emily was 4 days old. Look how little she was!

Whirlwind of a week

2009-12-13T18:51:00.000-08:00

Well, it's Sunday again and life is flying by. I saw a post on Facebook that said "I wish time would drive like an old grandma, not fly." That is exactly how I feel, especially at this time of year.

Sunday Dec. 6

Today we went to mom's house and decorated gingerbread houses. This year mom bought premade gingerbread kits. Mom/Kathryn had a sleigh with Santa and reindeer, Michael/Jessica had a house and our family had a train. Right before we started to decorate, Nathan walked up to me, said mom, and then emptied his stomach of his dinner all over the floor. Thank goodness it was tile! We got that cleaned up and started decorating. We laughed, ate too much candy and just had fun being together. Emily got to feed Allison her bottle which made Emily feel like such a big girl!

Monday Dec. 7
Today it rained most of the day. We stayed inside and enjoyed watching it rain and spent the day trying to stay warm. It definitely felt like winter! The internet/cable/phone went in and out all day, so Robby had Cox come out and fix it. Well, at 11:45pm, the power went out for about 15-20 minutes. That reset all the work Cox had done to make the internet/cable/phone function properly. But it made for a lot of business this week because people needed things fixed because of all the rain! (I forgot to take a picture of the rain Monday, but lucky I found one on the internet somone took that day!-Thank you to whoever you are!) We dealt with internet/cable/phone craziness all week until Cox came back out on Friday.

Tuesday Dec. 8

Today I packaged up all 8 packages to be mailed out. My family room looked like a packaging place blew up in there! I'm glad that's done! Now to mail them!

Wednesday Dec. 9
Today I mailed 7 of the 8 packages. I can now say I have to file bankruptcy! No, I'm just kidding, but it did hit the bank pretty hard. The kids and I met my friend Marianne and her daughters EmmaLee and Maycee at the mall. The kids played on the indoor playground and then we had lunch. We had a great time being with friends and none of us wanted to get back to real life! We have too much fun playing!

Thursday Dec.10
Tonight I worked on our Christmas gifts. This year for our neighbor, friend and family gifts, we are giving them caramel dip. I got the idea from this blog: http://www.browniescraps.com/blog/2009/11/13/friday-freebie-7/. Robby doesn't like that I turn the house into a humidifier every time I do this! I even had the vent on, and we opened the doors for a few minutes too. I finished them completely on Friday during the day so that we could have the doors open. In Sunday's Relief Society lesson they had Gifts for Christ by President Howard W. Hunter on the board, and I knew I wanted to recreate it and give it to our friends. I loved how it is shaped like a Christmas tree, that's what caught my attention. So, for you friends and family that will be getting one, just act surprised when you get it!

Friday Dec. 11
Today was full of cooking and getting ready for the weekend. I finished boiling all the caramel dips, made sugar cookies and frosting for the ward party, and did a bit of house cleaning. Tonight we had our ward Christmas party. The activities committee always does a great job with the program, decorations and refreshments. I got to sing with the Young Men/Young Women choir, Emily sang with the children's choir, Nathan was a grump that didn't want to sit still, and Robby had fun running the ice cream maker with a few of the other men there. The kids were able to sit on Santa's lap, and they actually took good pictures for me! We sat with the Gleasons and found out Shawna is having TWINS!!! I'm so excited for her! We waited in line for ice cream and Santa with them also, and you can tell that Rhett and Emily are good friends. Emily talks of him often because they have preschool together. Nathan has started a funny new habit. He loves to have his picture taken, and then see himself on the little LCD screen on the camera. If pull out the camera, he'll say "Cheese" and hold his hands up near his face. It's rare to catch him with him holding his hands down!

Saturday Dec. 12

I spent the majority of the day getting ready for the Pew family Christmas party we had at our house tonight. I didn't get everything done I wanted, but the party turned out great. I always love getting together with family and catching up with everyone's life. I finally finished decorating the house today (parties are good for that!), and made a texas sheet cake, and chicken enchilada soup. I went to bed with a little bit of a sick stomach, thinking it was because of all the soup I ate. Boy was I wrong!

Sunday Dec. 13
Last night the stomach bug hit me. Knocked me out! I have been achy all day, with fun times spent with the toilet. I have been able to sleep most of the day, and even though it's 9pm, and I don't usually go to sleep till midnight, I'm ready to crawl back in bed and stay there until morning. Robby was awesome today and let me sleep and kept the kids occupied so they wouldn't come in my room and wake me up. I'm praying that I wake up tomorrow feeling better because I don't do the achy/sore/sicky body very well!

Modern Molly Mormon Giveaway

2009-12-10T14:40:00.000-08:00

This is a great giveaway! Modern Molly Mormom (http://modernmollymormon.blogspot.com/) is giving away TWO Food Storage Made Easy binders! What a great way to plan, track and organize your food storage! I want one!!!! :)

Go and post a comment for your chance to win! This contest ends Thursday December 10 and the winner will be randomly chosen on Friday December 11. http://modernmollymormon.blogspot.com/2009/12/food-storage-made-easy-giveaway.html

Christmas Preparations

2009-12-06T20:26:00.000-08:00

I have turned a new leaf in my life and am now perfect! HAHAHAHAHAHA! Now that you've had a good laugh, let me tell you what I've really been up to lately. For Relief Society's Enrichment meeting in November, the theme was "Simplify the Season". That was a real kick in the behind to me. I not only need to simply the holiday season, which I always overdo, but I need to simplify my life in general. The first thing I decided to do was create a task list for me to accomplish my to-do's a little each day. If you want to know all the boring details, let me know. But in general I have a specific load of laundry and two other things to do each day. They range from cleaning to organizing and writing thank you notes and sending out thank you cards. I got the idea from this website: http://sherbetblossom.blogspot.com/2009/10/cleaning-system-explained.html I put my own spin on it, made up some cute cards, printed, laminated, and purchased 3 black wood easles to put them on. The three cards (morning routine, daily task list, night routine) sit on the window sill over my sink to look at each day. I did really well Monday, but went downhill the rest of the week. This is a new week, so I plan to do better!

One of the new things I am doing is each day I will take a picture of what we are doing, big or small. Then on Sundays I will post about each day of the week and what we have been doing. That way I know every Sunday I update, and it's easy to remember and not a stress of "I've forgotten the blog for way to long and there's too much to remember, so I'll just forget it some more." Plus, who doesn't want to see pictures of my cute kids? LOL I'm excited for this because it is also a great way for me to track this as a journal entry of sorts.

Sunday Nov. 29
Today we went to a missionary farewell for one of my Young Women's leaders, Linda Crandall. She and her husband will be serving an 18 month mission in Birmingham, England. Then we came home and Robby set up the tree, with Emily watching with great excitement.

Monday Nov. 30
Today I started my new task list. I finished all my chores, but since it was a 'start from scratch' day and not a maintenance day, it took way too long, and by the end of the day I was major grumpy.

Tuesday Dec. 1
In preparation for Evening in Excellence tomorrow night, I was one of the leaders over Food Group 1. We made sugar cookies and frosted them. I for some reason have always been afraid of making sugar cookies. So I have never made sugar cookies or frosting by myself. But I learned tonight that they are so easy to make!

Wednesday Dec. 2
We had Evening in Excellence for Young Women's tonight. The theme was "Faith of our Father" and we focused on our ancestors and their stories. I was really touched, and I felt a great desire to learn more of the stories behind my ancestor's lives. Today to organize my life better, I created a little folder that has 4 pockets: Calendar, To Do, Projects, Notes. Now I can carry it with me in my purse, and have it at all times if I need to cross something off my to do list, or write down something I don't want to forget. I'm really excited that I created something crafty! :)

Thursday Dec. 3
While playing outside today, Emily fell on the dead grass and and scratched up her face. We put neosporin on it, and it's healing nicely. She looks like she's been scratched by a cat! Tonight we made our first fire of the season. It was more fun to take pictures than to watch daddy try to make the firewood cooperate with him! Emily and I were laughing so hard by the time we finished making faces into the camera. This is one of my favorite pictures of Emily and me.

Friday Dec. 4
Tonight we decorated the tree. Emily was so excited to help decorate our tree because she got to help decorate Nana's tree last Friday with Aunt Kathryn and Nana. Emily did a great job and was sad when we had put all the ornaments on the tree.

Saturday Dec. 5
Today we went to Falcon Field and the Arizona Wing of the Commemorative Air Force Museum. We were able to donate some toys and canned food, take a picture with Santa and Mrs. Claus, climb onto a firetruck and look at all the old war airplanes. The museum had a little airplane that they kids could pedal around. Emily absolutely loved it, and Nathan was frustrated that his legs were too short to reach the pedals. Both never wanted to get out and wished we could take the little airplane home. Then tonight we cleaned up the yard and hung the outside Christmas lights. Emily tried pushing the lawn mower and went about 3 steps before she stopped. Robby was bummed because he's ready for her to take over the lawn care! LOL Last year Robby's parents bought Nathan this Air Force jacket and he wore it for the first time tonight because it was SOOOOOOOOO cold outside and he's finally big enough to wear it! He loved it!

We're Alive!!!!

2009-10-23T20:32:00.000-07:00

I had a friend call and check up on me today because she hadn't seen me in a while and wondered if I had fallen off the face of the earth. So much has happened since July when I posted last, but I'll just fill in the major blanks and not bore you will itty bitty details-You're welcome!

Robby:

-Loves to make the kids laugh. He is so good at changing their moods from grumpy to happy!

-Been up on the roof trying to fix our swamp cooler so that we can turn the air off and save some money.

-Was released from Elder's Quorum Secretary and hasn't received a new calling yet.

-Stays busy with our computer company, and loves to solve odd problems.

Kim:

-Was called in September to be the Young Women's Secretary.

-Found out we were pregnant September 19, but we had a miscarriage on October 12 when I was 7 1/2 weeks along.

-Drove for the first time to drop-off and pick up at the airport this week! Ahhhhhh that Scary!!!

-Made a "Wheel of Intouch" game for our networking group and got to be Vanna Kim!

-Finished all the gifts for the little cousins and friends for Christmas EARLY! Now to start on everyone else's gifts!

Emily:

-Loves preschool. She had a hard time being dropped off in the beginning, but now she goes in without a problem. Thank you Dairy Queen kid sized cones for being a great reward incentive!

-Loves cutting everything with scissors! She cuts so well at preschool on the lines! But right now she's grounded from scissors because she cut her hair again on the right side.

-Is going to be a cowgirl for Halloween and is counting the days.

-Starting to recognize words and might soon start reading!

-Has great hearing-when it's in her favor. She has a great memory and can repeat pretty much everything you tell her, especially if I'm trying to get out of something. We went to Mother Nature's Farm and she told my mom 'The kids cost $7 and the adults cost $3." She said it in her most adult voice with attitude! It made everyone smile! Her hearing goes out the window if you tell her to clean, get jammies on, or do something she's not hip on doing!

Nathan:

-Turned 2 on October 12. We had a construction themed party for him.

-Loves vehicles, mostly trucks (he calls the rucks)

-Loves to play outside with Emily. If we can't find Nathan, we just look outside and there he is covered in dirt!

-Going to be a cowboy for Halloween and got boots for his birthday. He calls them oots and shows everyone that will pay attention!

-Will walk up to anyone, win them over with his cuteness, and get them to do things for him. For example, we were at a park and he walked up to another mom he didn't know, and took her by the hand and took her over to the toy he wanted to play on and pointed that he wanted to be picked up. She did just want he wanted, all while a friend and I were laughing that the lady fell for his big blue eyes!

Our family is doing well and we have received so much love and support recently. We are so grateful for everyone that has thought of us and taken time out of their busy schedules to check on us and let us know they're thinking of us. That means so much to us-Thank you!

Stapley Pool

2009-07-20T22:32:00.000-07:00

July 16th we were invited to a customer appreciate party by JB Water. They fed us subs and rented out the Stapley pool for us! I definitely feel appreciated! They are a great company who takes care of our water distiller.

Our whole family was able to go, and we all got in the water but mom. But that turned out well, because our thin-blooded little man got out to sit with Nana after only 30 minutes in the water. It was 115 degrees that day, probably 100 degrees that night, and he was COLD! Very silly boy!

Cabin Trip July 2009

2009-07-20T15:07:00.000-07:00

We were able to take our friends the Richardsons up to the cabin the 10-12 of July. We had tons of fun with great friends!

I drove our van with Jennifer and the kids up Friday morning. I did so well, not speeding, watching blind spots, cautious of other drivers. I even had water squirted on my leg and feet when Emily's sippy cup of water that had pressurized on the trip up squirted on my foot as I was driving. All was great until I got into Prescott Valley. The speed limit changed from 65 to 55 and then there were the cameras a few seconds later! I was slowing down, but I was going about 67, and I got flashed by the speeding camera. As of yet, I haven't received a ticket, but I know its coming soon. :( The bummer part is I was going with traffic, so either they catch all of us, or none of us, right? We shall see.

Friday we played around the cabin, set stuff up, started the Clam Chowder/Potato Soup, and played with crafts.

The Robs arrived at 9:30 that night, and we sent the kids off to bed. Emily was so tired after playing all day with her friends that she had a fitful night and didn't calm down and really sleep until 2:30. So I was up really late that Friday night. Poor girl, me and Emily.

Saturday we set off for an adventure. We played in the park, walked in the dry creek bed and went looking for pinecones. Then we saw a flyer for Mary Poppins at the Fire House in Groom Creek. I knew the general area of the Fire House, but not the exact location. So on with the adventure! We ended up not finding it, but we decided to go "off roading" and cut through the "wilderness" back to the cabin. It took longer than we expected, and Robby ended up carrying Nathan on his shoulders most of the way, but we had a great time looking at nature up close. That night the Richardsons watched our kids for us so that we could take a walk for a little date. It was wonderful. We walked up Old Miner's road and found the old mine up there. Robby didn't have his flash light, so he was sad he couldn't explore. We saw a deer on the road walking up, and she was beautiful. I was sad because the kids couldn't see it. But the time alone was great, and we were able to enjoy nature at the same time!

Sunday we packed up in the morning and then set off for another adventure. We decided to take the kids up to the mine, and this time Robby remembered his flashlight. He walked in to explore and said the opening goes in about 100 ft. At the very end there was a mail box that had Geo Cash stuff inside, so he put our last name and the date, and that was exciting for Robby to play the "I was here" game. We got lucky and saw a deer on our walk up this time with everyone, and she just stared at us, but then again she was across the creek on the other side far away! In the afternoon it started raining, and so we sent the kids outside to play while we finished getting things cleaned up. I love the smell of rain in the mountains! There is nothing like it. Plus it dropped the temperature by at least 10 degrees, and brought a great breeze into the cabin!

The trip home was great, no incidents! Both kids fell asleep on the way, then slept all night long! We can't wait to go up again in a few weeks with some more friends!

Still here...

2009-07-20T07:21:00.001-07:00

Yes, I'm still here. I have so many things to post about, so now I'm just trying to figure out what to do first! But I hope to post tonight all that's been happening her at the Sandling homestead!

To hold you over until then, here is a picture of the family at Stapley pool the other night. I like this picture because everyone is smiling, and you can't see my pastie white body! (as Robby calls it-LOL)

Funny

2009-07-08T22:11:00.000-07:00

I saw this on a friends blog and laughed my head off (yes, I'm tired!) I had to stay up long enough to say I was STILL on my computer on 7-8-09 at 10:11:12!

Free Book

2009-07-08T21:59:00.000-07:00

I found a site today that offers a FREE 5 x 5 inch hardcover book. http://www.memoryescape.com/. The offer is good until July 19, 2009, so get to it! The promo code is ONPFREEFIVE. Yes, they are small, but they are great for gifts, or just having as a brag book to carry around! I got mine today, and decided to put the pictures that I created for the book here on the blog.

For the 4th we went to a 4th of july breakfast that our ward had. Yummy pancakes, eggs and sausage. Then we vegged all day until 4 when we got ready to go over to Living Word Bible Church. They had an indoor bbq and then fireworks were at 9 that night. They are a client of ours, so we went to make sure all their computer stuff ran without a glitch, but we really just ending up talking and hanging out with the people there! We had lots of fun and the kids loved being so close to the fireworks when they went off. Emily got a little bored with them, and asked for the noise to be turned off. Silly girl, that's not something that's in my power! Nathan just stared at them with wonder. We couldn't figure out if he was amazed by the show, or completely exhausted and trying to fall out of his chair!

Contest Winner

2009-07-08T21:53:00.000-07:00

I entered the layout I posted in my last post on http://grahamlikethecracker.blogspot.com/. Jen had a contest to win a coupon for a free kit of hers in her store. Well, I won! So I was able to choose one of her fabulous kits! It took me forever to decide because I love all of her work, and couldn't decide because I wanted them all!

One Flag

2009-07-05T10:38:00.001-07:00

Here's the first of many pages I plan to do for our 4th of July celebration. I'll let you know more about it later!

Cuteness that is Emily

2009-07-03T22:50:00.000-07:00

Emily wanted me to make her hair like Cinderella in the bath tonight, but we ended up with this. She was ok with it after I showed her the picture, and we both had a good laugh.

We have been going to the library for the summer reading program, and I read a new book to Emily each night and she wants to get into bed early so that she doesn't miss me reading to her. She loves books and loves being read to and looking at the pictures, then making up stories later from that same book. Here is her with one of her new library books that we got yesterday!

Bubbles!

2009-07-03T22:46:00.000-07:00

I love the line from Finding Nemo..."Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles...my bubbles!" Well, tonight, Nathan learned how to say bubbles! He was so cute. He says bub-buzz-so cute!

I usually blow the bubble while they're in the bath, and daddy went and showed me up tonight with the battery operated bubble blower that blows HUGE bubbles! I was able to get some great pictures, and even got Nathan to say bubbles on video! Way too cute!

Rain, Rain Came Today!

2009-07-03T22:32:00.000-07:00

When Nathan woke up from his nap, we ate watermelon, and then it started to rain! So of course, being from Arizona, where it never rains, I sent the kids outside to play in the rain! They had so much fun getting wet and playing in the water! We were out there for more than 30 minutes and it rained and thundered and rained some more! Gotta love monsoons, even small ones!

Juicy Watermelon

2009-07-03T22:12:00.001-07:00

Mom got the kids a watermelon yesterday, and so we cut it open today and let them each have a slice. Then of course I had to take a picture! The kids both love watermelon, so they devour it during the summer!

Old Family Recipe

2009-07-03T19:34:00.000-07:00

We were having a quick bowl of chunky chicken noodle soup (from a can) for dinner tonight, and Emily was listing all the ingredients in the recipe. She started out by saying, "This is an old family recipe...you pour it out of the can, and add milk and all the stuffn after that." Gross on the milk, which we don't do, but everything lately to Emily has milk in it. I didn't even know Emily knew what an old family recipe was, so that's what shocked me!

I had to keep myself from laughing, because it really is an old family recipe...I grew up eating chicken noodle soup from a can!

Emergency Room

2009-07-02T22:14:00.000-07:00

Wednesday night I got a call from Kathryn and she told me they were taking mom to the Emergency Room. Kathryn told me mom was suffering from chest pain and throwing up. I quickly jumped in the van, and off to Banner Gateway I went.

I got there and mom was really restless and uncomfortable. She said her upper stomach hurt and the pain wouldn't go away. I found out that about 9:30 her stomach started hurting, so she just ignored it hoping it would go away. It only got worse, so she decided to go downstairs at work to the potluck to see if food would help. That aggravated it more and she decided to come home from work. As soon as she got home, she threw up. She tried to rest, drink water and take it easy, but the pain only got worse. Jessica called to see how mom was, and notice mom didn't sound well. So Jessica quickly went over to mom's house, and when Kathryn got there later they called Dr. Bair in her ward and he told her to go to the ER. So that's when they called me.

We got there about 6:45, and mom was finally seen about 7:30. In triage they thought it might be her gallbladder, so they started working on getting her a room. Then we got to sit and wait, and wait, and wait for a nurse and the doctor. They finally came in and decided to do an ultrasound, so she got moved to another room. More waiting. Another nurse came in and started pain medicine and mom was able to start to calm down and relax. She was then taken for an ultrasound, and then more waiting for the results. Michael, Jessica and Allison left about 9:30, and Kathryn and I waited for the results and diagnosis. Mom was able to get some sleep, even with them coming in every once in a while to check on her. The results came back at about 11, which said that she has gallbladder disease, which caused gallbladder stones, and that she would need surgery, so the doctor was going to talk to the surgeon and get his opinion if she should have emergency surgery, or do it as an outpatient surgery. More waiting. About 11:45 the doctor came back in to tell mom that the surgeon suggested outpatient surgery, prescribed a pain medicine if the pain came back, and started the release process. We left the hospital about 12:15, and Kathryn drove mom home with me following them. We got mom into bed, got her comfortable and told her I'd be back in the morning.

I got home about 1, and fell into bed about 1:30. Long day, but I was grateful I was there to help mom and be with her. Her consult is set for July 15, and I pray that she doesn't have any more flare ups before she can have her gallbladder taken care of!

Super mom...

2009-06-29T22:12:00.001-07:00

Well, sort of. I finally got around to putting the kids clothes away. I know I'm bad at house work, but I'm TERRIBLE at putting the kids clothes away. I have so many excuses for why I don't put them away each week...they wear so many clothes, they are small and have small hangers, why hang them up when they're going to go through a few changes of clothes a day...you know...all the valid excuses. The kids are always excited when they have clothes in their closets, so that should motivate me more often. I'm usually really good about putting Robby's and my clothes away, but the kids just pile up on Nathan's bed. So, I decided to take a picture and post it to show you one of my many weaknesses. :) Maybe this will convince me to keep it clean now that you know how bad I am. LOL!

Emily

2009-06-24T07:09:00.001-07:00

When Emily fell asleep at 5 last night, I was so afraid that that she would wake up in the middle of the night, and not want to go back to sleep. Well, she woke up at 5 this morning, and got out of bed on her own, went and turned on the tv, and didn't bother me at all. When I got up at 7, Emily was happy and had no attitude, like she's known to have when she wakes up! I think I'll put her to bed at 5 more often!

Going Ons

2009-06-23T20:24:00.000-07:00

Another huge amount of time has passed since I posted, so we get to play catch up...again! :)

Over Memorial Day weekend, we were, with the help of Robby's parents, able to have a new roof put on our home. Now we actually look forward to the reports for rain, and aren't worried if we have enough buckets to catch the water! The roof is the same color as before, so in the before and after pictures it looks the same, but you can see how the house has changed! Thank you so much mom and dad!

On Thursday Emily and Nathan received a package from Nanny and Papa. Emily received a diaper bag and a few changes of clothing (with shoes!) for Rachel, her little baby doll. Nathan got these really cool cars from the movie Cars that you shake to rev them up, then put them down and they go. I thought they were amazing, however Nathan thought differently. He was TERRIFIED! And that is putting is nicely. He was shaken so badly the first time I revved them up and put them down, that he didn't leave my lap for a good 30 minutes, and I mean he was glued to my lap. Then when we finally got off, I tried again, and he ran for the safety of the couch, and won't get down for while. Then Robby put the cars on his lap and he sat there like that for a good 10 minutes without moving, or even touching the cars to get them off. We know it was mean, but it was so funny to sit and watch him and all the emotions running across his face! My mom came over later that night and she finally got him to touch the cars and he would say nice and kiss them, and by the time she left that night, we was playing with them and we wondered if he would take them to bed! Now, anyone that comes to visit, the cars are the first thing he picks up to show them!

Saturday we spent time as a family working, playing and eating, all of our favorite things to do. We started out by making Ants on a Log. This is Emily's favorite thing to make and eat ever since La Fronk on Playhouse Disney showed her how to make it. There is not a day that goes by that she doesn't ask to make them. Now I have to make sure I always have celery on hand. Oh darn, my daughter wants to eat healthy food...whatever will I do? LOL Ants on a Log are made by placing peanut butter on the celery and then putting raisins on top to make them look like ants. They are yummy and surprisingly addictive!

Robby mowed the yard Saturday morning (I know, gasp, shock and horror) and then got out the sprinkler and little pool for the kids to play with, and Robby got his suit on too! Talk about white boy! Emily had a great time, but Nathan really wanted nothing to do with the water. I think it was too close to nap time for him to enjoy himself. The only part he liked was being wrapped in the towel at the very end!

Sunday was a turned out to be a great day! I got up really early and Emily and I went to see my brother Michael sing in church. He was AMAZING! He has the greatest voice and I love to hear him sing! Then off we went to our ward, and we met Robby there. Actually, Robby got there early...without my help! I was so impressed and pleased! Church was great as usual and I loved being able to learn more about the gospel and the principles of Jesus and His church! We talked about forgiveness, and it really struck me that, yes, I need to forgive others, but I also need to forgive myself! That one is really hard for me because I am my worst critic and hold on to bad experiences, supposedly so I won't do them again, but it ends up just eating me alive. So now I am trying to remember to work through the mistakes I make and move on a better person. Well, it's worked for a few days anyway! :)

I took a short nap, and was woken up by Robby and the kids playing "daddy monster" on the bed with me still on it! It was great to watch Robby go into his cave (under the blankets) and the pull the kids into the cave and "attack" them by tickling them and making them laugh until they begged for help from me. I love to see Robby playing with the kids and the love Robby has for them, and the kids for their daddy. I will always treasure the times where we are all playing on the bed and laughing so hard the kids can't stand up anymore! Robby is such a great dad and I am very blessed and grateful to have him as my husband and the father of our children.

The top pictures were from Thursday night, and the bottom picture was Sunday night. Robby was so tired and worn out from playing and grilling, that he couldn't even keep his eyes open for the picture, no matter how much bouncing and sitting on him the kids did!

We got to talk to Robby's parents over Skype on the computer so the kids could see Nanny and Papa. They always love either showing off, or running off and hiding. This time they did a little of both. Our conversation got cut short only because Nathan decided to turn off daddy's computer. That was a very BIG no-no!

Then my family came over for Father's day dinner. We has grilled marinated chicken, corn on the cob, mashed potatoes, chips and salsa, and cesear salad. Then for dessert we had homemade strawberry ice cream! I'm not sure what part of dinner was the best, but I walked away from the table very, very full! Then we played a jib jab game that left us all in stiches trying to figure out the answer from the clues.

We have had a fun couple of days. Get this...we have had people over for dinner the last 4 nights IN A ROW!!!! I know, us anti-social people have a guests over, 2 of which were friends from high school I haven't seen since high school but reconnected with them over Facebook! Isn't that amazing!

We were supposed to have the missionaries over for dinner on Saturday, but they called a little before dinner and said that one of the elders was sick, so they wouldn't be able to make it. I was bummed because I had make Hawaiian Haystacks and now had food for an army with no one to feed but my little family. So I called around and we ended up have Nana over for dinner, and our friends the Rappleyes came over a little later. The Rappleyes ended up staying late and we were able to talk and be with good friends. They always lift us and we were so glad that Heavenly Father knew that even though we wanted to serve the missionaries by feeding them dinner, we were blessed with good friends that lifted our spirits and make us very happy. Thank you Rappleyes!

Sunday night we did the whole Father's day dinner.

Monday night we had the Washburn's over for dinner. James and I knew each other in band when he was a senior and I was a sophmore. It was so great to meet his wife and daughter (also an EmmaLee, just spelled a really cool way!) We talked until about 10, and then realized that the reason the kids were getting grumpy was because it was so late! We are planning to get together again soon, which will be lots of fun!

Tonight I had the Williams over for dinner. Christy and I played clarinet together all through high school. I had posted on Facebook that the missionaries weren't able to come over and I had Hawaiin Haystacks available. She said she had never had them before, and we had recently talked about me giving her my bread machine, so I invited them over for dinner. It was so great to see Christy and meet her husband and son. Nathan and little Daniel were instant friends and preferred playing to eating their dinner. They had so much fun and we had to tear them away from the toys we could put the kids to bed.

And if that is not enough, we have another friend coming over on Thursday for dinner so she can show us the pictures of her trip to a horse ranch! I'm becoming miss social! Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!

Another crazy thing that happened today was Emily taking a nap. That altogether is not the crazy part. The crazy part is she fell asleep in my chair about 5, with her headphones on, and when the Williams got here about 6:15, she didn't want to wake up. So Robby ended up picking her up and putting her on my lap and she just cried and whined. So I went and put her in bed, and she went back to sleep! Now it's 9 at night, and she's still asleep. I'm so afraid she's going to wake up in the middle of the night and be wired for sound! Maybe I should go to bed early tonight! Probably won't happen, but it's a good though! Pray Emily sleeps through the night. She could really use the sleep!

Saturday the Great

2009-06-14T23:45:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we were able to have lots of fun. Saturday morning we went as a big family to see the movie UP. It was wonderful and I recommend all seeing it! It was the first time either Emily or Nathan had been to the theatre, and they both did awesome! Thank you Mom for this wonderful movie! Thanks for taking all of the family! Love you!

Next, Mom, Kathryn, Jessica, Allison and I set out for a spoiling adventure! For our mother's day gift from Kathryn, she treated us to lunch at Cafe Rio and then for a pedicure. Cafe Rio was fabulous, and even as full as I was, I wanted more!

I have never had a pedicure before, so this was really a treat for me. My feet were so bad, and now they feel and look so much better. Plus, I went bold and got red toenail polish painted on my toes. All the while I read my new book Code of Honor by Betsy Brannon Green. Good times! Thank you Kathryn for making me feel like a queen and grateful I'm a mom so I could get spoiled by you! Love you!

While we were out having our girl's day, Robby took the kids to the mall and they had a "Date with Daddy" and ate pizza for lunch. Unfortunately, they were .66 cents short to buy 2 carousel tokens. Oh well, there's always next time! Thank you Robby for allowing me to have so much fun! Love you!

Great Days!

2009-06-07T21:03:00.000-07:00

The past few days have been really good, and something I have needed for a long time.

Yesterday, my friend and business partner Kara and I went clothes shopping for the Women's Expo that is on Thursday. I left the house around 9:30am, and didn't return until 5:15!!!! Robby had the kids, and Kara had her 2 month old, that only wanted me to hold him! That was so much fun!

We went to Ross, and found a few outfits and a pair of shoes there, then to her house so I could watch the baby for about an hour and eat lunch, then we went to Wal-mart. I found another outfit and another pair of shoes at Wal-mart. I love all of them! I bought 3 shirts, and 3 shirts that match! The shoes I bought from Ross are...get this...Guess! I have never owned a name brand shoe before. They were originally $99.00. But they were marked down to.........$8.49! Plus, they are 3 inch heels! I haven't worn heals since before Emily was born, and even then it was rare! But surprisingly they are comfortable, and very cute!

The best part of the whole shopping day...I didn't spend a penny on any of the clothes or shoes I purchased! The business bought them all because we needed a business outfit for the expo, and since the prices were so great, we each ended up with 3 outfits complete with at least one pair of shoes! I love shopping when it's not my money!!!!

Today I got to wear one of the new shirt sets to church and I felt really good! I even curled my hair today! I know, don't fall over! Since today was my first day not in the nursery, I dropped of Nathan without even walking into the nursery. He walked in and didn't even look back. I felt a little hurt, but proud at the same time, that he loves nursery and is ready to be away from me. Robby and I got to be together for Relief Society/Priesthood because the bishop had us watch Elder Bednar's talk that he gave to the Young Adults a few weeks ago. He talked about not becoming addicted to the computer, especially gaming and alternative worlds within the gaming community. Robby and I had a good talk about how I feel when he talks more to his "computer buddies" than to me, and I think it will get better from here. Then I got to participate in Sunday School and not once did we talk about being happy, or thankful for our ears, or since 5 Little Monkeys! As much as I love all that stuff, it was SOOOOOOOO nice to talk big people today, and be taught. I missed being in nursery with all the great people and kids, but I really appreciated being able to listen to a lesson.

I got to take a nap today! After my nap, I cleaned an area in the family room for the new computer Robby built for the kids to keep them off mine. Emily and Nathan were glued to it for the half hour between when it was set up and when we ate dinner. It will be so nice not to have Emily bugging me to use my computer while I'm working on it for the business!

After dinner we went and picked up Jessica and Allison over at my mom's house and we went to the temple. This was Allison's first time walking around the temple. It was fun to watch her look around at all the new things she was experiencing. Plus, of course we got some great pictures of her and my kids. I have decided however that I like taking Nathan to walk around the temple grounds when it is dark outside, because he can't see as much, and isn't always running off to explore something new! Emily and Nathan always love going into the Visitor's Center to watch the presentation with the Christus, and tonight we got to hear it in English and Spanish. I love to watch my kids' faces as they look up to Christ with such love in their eyes. That is a picture that will always stay in my mind, and a camera will never be able to capture.

Scrapbooking Kick

2009-06-06T00:57:00.000-07:00

I have been on a scrapbooking kick the last few days. These are the pages that I have completed.

General Update

2009-06-03T22:37:00.000-07:00

Here is just a bunch of random stuff that I want to record, so read to your hearts content.

I was released from being Nursery Leader on May 24th. It is bittersweet because I loved being in there with all the kids, but I missed being taught and the adult interaction that I miss during the week. Plus, Nathan is in nursery now, and I want him to have is own experience in there without me. I will miss the other leaders, because they are so wonderful to work with! Plus I will miss the kids, and how we would have a new experience and adventure each week!

Emily tested for early kindergarten placement and we got the test results back. The result: "Based on the results of this screening, kindergarten is not the best placement for your child at this time." Oh well, back to preschool. Emily will go to the same preschool for 5 days a week now. Emily loves Sicely and Heidi and all the things they teach her. I know that Emily is academically probably ready for kindergarten, but I really don't think she would have been ok with all day kindergarten yet. Plus, I have to admit that I'm not ready for an all day school day for Emily yet. I like her starting school at 9, going until 11, then having the rest of the day to do what we need to. Well, I got my wish. She keeps telling me, "Mom, I'll go to the big school next year." However, she is so ready to go back to school. She keeps asking if today is a school day. Then I explain all over again that it's summer break, and we don't have school for a while. Silly girl.

Our roof has been in terrible shape for years, and finally decided to completely disintigrate this year. So with the help of Robby's parents (thank you soooooo much), we had a new roof put on over Memorial Day weekend while we were gone. To look at it, its the same color, so nothing looks different, but after that weekend of rain, we came home to a DRY HOUSE!!!! That is something that hasn't happened for a long time!

Nathan has finally decided he wants to talk. But it is only on his time. We call him a lazy talker. He would rather sign the word, like please or eat, then actually say the word. Every once in a while he'll walk up to you and give you 1, 2 or 3 clear words of what is on his mind. For instance, the other day Robby said he was sitting at his desk when Nathan walked in and pointed to Robby's cell phone and said "Phone, Nana". Robby looked at him and tried to get him to say it again, but Nathan just smiled and looked all innocent that he would even say anything like that. Then yesterday we were all in the kitchen and I was trying to get Emily to do something for me. I said "Come on", and Nathan repeated it exactly-in word and tone. Again we tried to repeat it, and he just looked like we were crazy or something. We all just about fell over. But he won't say little words like up, yes, please, eat. Silly boy!

We started Emily on the Mesa Public Library's Summer Reading Program. She loved going to the library for the first time and getting books that were just hers. She kept saying after each book she picked up, "Ok, let's go buy this one." No cute girl, we just borrow the books, read them, then bring them back. :) She loves to be read to, and will make up stories just by looking at the pictures.

Cabin Trip-Memorial Day Weekend

2009-06-03T22:17:00.000-07:00

Our annual wedding anniversary/Memorial day cabin trip weekend was lots of fun! We go up to our family's cabin and spend the weekend doing as little as possible and whatever we want. (Provided the kids are up for it!) This year we got to take up our friend Laura!

It rained Thursday night until early Saturday morning, so the kids were cooped up and going buggy! Emily and Nathan can only take so many movies when they know the park is down the hill waiting for them!

We roasted s'mores, went on walks and had a great time just being together. Here's a few pictures of what we got to experience! But trust me, you have to be there for yourself. If you want to go, let me know and we'll take you up!

Lucky #7

2009-06-03T22:12:00.000-07:00

On Monday May 25th, Robby and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary. So many poeople have asked if we have the 7 year itch. As far as I know, the answer is no! We're looking at it as our lucky #7.

I am so glad I get to share eternity with Robby, because each new day is a new and grand adventure. I love Robby more and more with each passing day.

Just for a good laugh, I'm posting pictures of our wedding day.

Wal-mart

2009-05-19T16:26:00.000-07:00

We're listening to the radio right now and a Wal-mart ad came on. Emily gets all excited, gasps and says:

"Wal-mart...that's where we live in this world!"

Oh my!

Banana Eaters

2009-05-16T22:03:00.000-07:00

Emily and Nathan sat on the kitchen floor this morning and ate a banana for their morning snack. This is the conversation that Emily and I had:

Emily: Mom, did you know gorillas eat bananas too?

Mom: You're right, you're so smart!

Emily: Do you know who else eats bananas Mom?

Mom: Do monkeys eat bananas?

Emily: Yes, but who else?

Mom: Do elephants eat bananas?

Emily: No, there's someone else who eats bananas.

Mom: Well, who else eats bananas?

Emily: Squiggles eat bananas!

Mom: Squiggles, who's that? (big smile)

Emily: I'm a squiggle and I eat bananas! (Radiant smile!)

Emily's nickname that Robby gave her as a baby is Squiggle! She never refers to herself as Squiggle, and will correct you quickly if you try to get her to call herself a squiggle. So to hear her tell me "squiggles eat bananas" was quite a funny moment!

I have such a cute little girl!

Presents from Texas

2009-05-14T21:20:00.000-07:00

Nanny and Poppa sent a package from Texas and it arrived today. In it were movies, cds for Emily's little radio, gummy bears from Germany and new jammies for Emily that my mother-in-law made especially for her. She couldn't wait to put those jammies on tonight! Then of course she wanted a picture, and Nathan had to get in on the action!

I have dare devils! I'm not sure whether to be proud or scared?!?!?!?!?

Preschool

2009-05-14T21:11:00.001-07:00

My little girl graduated from preschool! Wednesday was her last day of class, and Friday they'll have a swim party. Today (Thursday) Emily went over to Field to be tested to see if she can get into Kindergarten next year. We'll get the results back soon I hope.

I'm torn between wanting her in Kindergarten because that's where she is academically, but I'm not sure she'll be fine maturity wise being the youngest in class. Just a mother's fear.

When I asked Emily what the teacher asked her, she walked quickly away from me and said she said nothing to the teacher. "Oh great, you're attitude had to come out this morning" was my thought at that point! She then told me she told the teacher she didn't want to play the game because her whole body hurt, and she can't play if she hurts...Really, child?

These are the pictures I took of Emily on her last day of preschool. Nathan has begun to ham it up for the camera, so after I took the first picture (I love that smile she's giving), Nathan had to run over and get in the picture too!

Stylish Hats

2009-05-14T21:05:00.000-07:00

Emily and Nathan love to stand on the table that is between the wall and the couch and play, dance, sing and model. These are a few pictures I have caught of them recently! Do you think Nathan looks a little girly? LOL We need to fix that soon, but he's so cute right now!!! Plus, these make great blackmail pictures later!

Mother's Day

2009-05-10T23:06:00.000-07:00

Happy mother's day! Today was a good day. I got spoiled by the people I love the most! At church all the ladies received sugar cookies. Emily eyed mine and said, "when we get home you have to share that with me." I turned to her, gave her my meanest look and said back, "This is all mine. I'm not sharing even a little sugar sprinkle. Mine, mine, mine." :) Today is my one day to get to eat ALL of my cookie, and man was it good!

Then I came home and took a nap, from which Robby woke me up by jumping on the bed and scaring me half to death. I'm sure if I didn't love him so much, he would be in big trouble!

Then we got to talk to Robby's parents over the web cam and let them see the kids, and the kids see them! We are going to start doing that more often. Nathan didn't quite know what to do on camera, and it took Emily a while to warm up, but after that they both did fine and enjoyed seeing Nanny and Poppa.

During that conversation, Robby walked in with a cake that he and Emily made while I was asleep. That was sooooo nice of them. Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting...doctored up by Robby of course! It's even heart shaped!

Then we went over to mom's house for a yummy spaghetti dinner. Mom gave me a cookbook I've been eyeing for a while and Kathryn gave each of the moms a "pretend" card that said she was taking us to lunch and to get a pedicure! I'm excited about that! Now we just need to find a time when all of us can go! Then we all piled into the living room and listened to mom and Kathryn playing the piano, and Michael singing. We even listened to an old John Bytheway tape (yes I said tape-told you it was old-LOL). Here's a few pictures of the kids with their Nana and Aunt Kathryn.

I got spoiled even more by holding my neice Allison. She is such a cutie and very sweet. Allison fell asleep in my arms and Robby caught this picture. The picture's caption says it all-I am very, very, VERY baby hungry!

I want to include something special here. My mom has been a mom now for 28 years, and she means so much to me.

So I want to post 28 things that I love about my mom, in no particular order:
1. beautiful singing voice
2. talented piano player
3. hard worker
4. close to the spirit
5. generous with her time and money
6. watches our kids so we can go on dates
7. supportive
8. believes I can do anything
9. encouraging
10. prays from her heart
11. taught me the gospel by her example
12. loves my kids even when they're being stinkers
13. unselfish
14. loving
15. great example
16. emotional
17. tells great stories
18. funny
19. has the best smile
20. her laugh
21. her hugs
22. always tells me she loves me before we part
23. patient
24. slow to anger
25. always there when I need her
26. strong woman
27. great mother
28. she loves me!

I Love You Mom!!!!!

Yard Sale

2009-05-09T21:37:00.000-07:00

Today we had a yard sale! As I was mentally going through the house thinking of things to sell, I thought we had a lot of junk to get rid of, but by the time I set everything up, Robby came out and his comment was, "Wow, I thought we were getting rid of more than is out here". My thoughts exactly. But good news! We made enough money to patch our roof until we can replace it, which is hopefully soon.

I still have a bird cage that I need to sell. This is the picture. I put the ad up on craigs list for $150, but if you give me a good offer, I'll sell it to you first! Let me know! Comment if you want the dimmensions or any other details.

Emily had the hardest time with the first few customers. They kept walking off with her toys. Or so she thought. Of couse they were paying for them, but she just saw her toys leaving. She was in full tears and hysteria! I told her they weren't stealing the stuff, they paid us money. Emily didn't get that concept until I pulled out a dollar and said that the dollar was hers for selling her toys. She was a happy clam for the rest of the day. She was so excited when people came because she thought she was getting more money! She did get 25 cents at the end of the sale for being extra good so she could spend it on the gumball machine at the mall. For being 4 years old, making $1.25 in 4 hours is pretty good! And she didn't have to do any work! LOL

Here are some pictures of what our yard sale looked like! I dun did the signs meself! That's tired talk for I was up until after 1am trying to get together stuff that should have been taken care of over the week and not the night before! Silly me! This being my first yard sale, I learned a lot, but don't plan to do another one for a long, LONG time! :)

Shameless Plug

2009-05-06T22:58:00.000-07:00

Rob and I own Intouch Technology. We are a computer business serving businesses and residential computers across the valley for all their computer needs. Our motto is "We make the impossible possible, for you!" Please let us know if you or anyone you know needs computer work done. Our contact information is 480-272-9889 or you can go to our website http://www.intouchtechllc.com/.

Flying through Life

2009-05-06T22:22:00.000-07:00

Has life been flying by for you too? I have been so busy that looking back nothing stands out in my mind, but we've had lots of fun, and have tried to spend more time as a family. These are some fun and cute pictures from the last few weeks.

This is the kids playing with the wild cat at Aunt Susan's house. It's a wild cat, and let's NO ONE touch her. But every time we are there Emily has been able to hold, love, bully and drag around this cat, and the cat is patient and seems to love the attention.

We got another picture with Nana and the kids. Nana loves these two little ones so much. When we go to Nana's house, they get ANYTHING they want. They just look at Nana and she gives them what they ask for and most of the time it's candy! Nathan has the "point and give the puppy dog eyes" look down to an art! But Nana wouldn't have it any other way!

A couple Saturdays ago we were out back cleaning up the yard and having fun playing in the fantastic weather. Emily can now ride on the dirt and is getting better at riding on the grass. She practices often! Nathan has a talent. He collects dirt. All he has to do is walk outside and the dirt comes running to join him! These are some fun pictures of that Saturday.

For some reason, the screwdriver was a hit with both kids and they wanted their picture taken with it!

Robby played monkey boy and climbed up into the rafters to see what was up there. Nathan thought that was pretty facinating.

This is the first picture I've had with Robby in a long time, and the stinker had to stick his tongue out! Oh well, it's Robby's personality and that's what I love about him!

Look at these blue eyes...They are able to get anything out of you!!!

Then Emily juiced lemons and Robby made the best lemonade!

Remember those beautiful loaves of bread. I took one out of the frig after church, went into the family for a few minutes to let the bread thaw, and I came back to find this...and Nathan with a big grin on his face!

This is just a funny picture of Emily. Emily is our diva princess. She has the attitude to go along with it. But I wouldn't trade that attitude for anything because of great moments like this!

Today Emily wanted pasta, begged and pleaded, then when I finished the pasta, she didn't want to eat. So she threw a fit, and she wasn't allowed to leave the table until she was done. I was at my desk working, and Emily got really quite at the table. When I went in to check on her, I found her asleep on the chair. Needless to say, she got to leave the table before her food was done on account of sleep!

Love to all!

I'm a Homemaker!

2009-04-21T22:20:00.000-07:00

All right, so I know that I'm already a homemaker, but I feel like a better homemaker after tonight. I went to the greatest class at church tonight! I learned how to make bread-FROM SCRATCH! I've made bread in a bread maker, but never in the oven. I learned how to mix, knead and shape the dough, let it rise and then cooked it in my oven. Man alive...my house smells so wonderful right now. Aren't I making you jealous right now? Don't you wish that you're here smelling the yummy bread? I had 2 large pieces with butter and I am in heaven! The recipe made 6 loaves of bread, so I'll freeze the other 5 I haven't cut into yet for later enjoyment. I feel so homemakey! (is that a word?) This is a picture of my loaves of bread! I can't wait to make other things with my new found knowledge of bread making!

Today, Emily decided she wanted her car on anything but it's 4 wheels. So by late afternoon she had put the car on every angle possible, and wanted me to take a picture. Emily called Nathan over and they posed for a great picture!

This afternoon, I decided to attack my desk. For a before and after picture look at the clean picture here, and the dirty one in the last post with me holding Nathan. I even dusted and wiped the desk off! It was so bad I felt like the world was closing in on me. Now I have an open space to work and I can organize my stuff again.

We found out Monday morning that Nathan isn't growing just one tooth in his mouth. He is growing 5!!!!!!! No wonder he is feeling so bad! Last night was the first night in 4 days that he didn't require Motrin to go to sleep. He is finally playing and eating again. Only problem...he figured out that if he doesn't feel well, and gives really big, blue, puppy dog eyes, he will get held and doted on. Now that he's feeling better, he still wants to be picked up and held all the time! No way, hosea! I still try to snuggle and love a lot, but he has toys to occupy his time, not mommy.

Emily the last few days has decided to be a little stinker. Yesterday she went on a destroying ramage. I think she thought she was a tornado/hurricane. She managed to pop my big medicine ball-WITH A PENCIL! That is one determined girl. Her reasoning for breaking it-"I didn't like it anymore. I didn't want it, so I popped it and threw it away." WHAT child? She has ripped workbooks and taken apart things/toys, whether they are hers or not, all because she didn't like them anymore. I'm not sure what's happening with her. I try to spend time with her, let her know that I love her and she can come to me for anything, but she thinks she owns the world and lets you know it. Please tell me this is just a phase and that she will grow out of it in like 5 minutes, right? Emily is so cute and wonderful, and really wants to choose the right and be a good girl, I just have to remember that. Plus, I love her, good or bad!

Blog Worthy

2009-04-19T22:17:00.001-07:00

So many things have happened this week that I think to myself, "This is blog worthy!". See how many times I've posted? Yeah, I didn't do so well on getting everything put on here, so here we go!

I love my kids and am so happy to be their mom, and sometimes my favorite time of the day is to just watch them sleep at night. They are so peaceful and often smile in their sleep. I couldn't help but catch a few cute pics of them sleeping!

On Thursday Nathan's mouth decided to start to grow another tooth. Well, our kids don't do anything little, so his mouth REALLY hurt and he got a fever. He has been living on Motrin a few times a day to help with the pain and fever. It was so bad on Thursday that when I got up from the couch after snuggling him to cook dinner, this is where I found him a few minutes later-ASLEEP! Now that it's Sunday, he finally feels better and is back to his playful, eat everything is sight, self!

Plus, later that night, I got some good snuggles out of Nathan. This is Emily taking the picture. She aims the camera then says, "Where's my smile? Nathy (that's what she calls him), give me a smile. Look here." Who does she sound like? Oh yeah, ME! Man, kids say the darndest things! But I have to admit, there are days she takes better pictures than I do!

Emily has inherited my genes! She loves to build forts. This is Emily's fort, designed, created and built by Emily herself. The building and constructing comes from Daddy's genes! Although my mom will object. My brother and sister and I used to build forts in our living room that had seperate rooms with doors and air conditioning (fans). Emily's a good little architect and builder if I do say so myself! Plus, this is Emily taking the picture of her fort. She was so proud of her buiding skills!

A really good thing happened Thursday. I went to the dentist (that's not the good thing), and I had to sit for about an hour waiting for the hygenist to be ready to clean my teeth. So while I was waiting, I got to talk about my It Works body wraps and other products. They are such cool products. Let me tell you more about them! Get a hold of me, and I'll let you know how you can lose inches in just 45 mintues! I got to talk to about 6 or 7 people in the dentist office! I gave out brochures and I can't wait to go back in and drop off some business cards! That was a big boost to me, and made the start of my day really cool!

A major blessing and miracle happened Thursday morning. Kathryn was driving to work on McKellips and had just gone under the 202 overpass when someone decided to really quickly make a U-turn. Kathryn slammed on her brakes and went to get out of the way but ended up spinning around a few times and going up on her 2 passenger tires, ending up facing the opposite way in the rocks on the side of the road. She was shaken, but there was no damage to her or her vehicle. I am so grateful for that! When I told Emily about the accident, all I said to her was that Aunt Kathryn was almost in a car accident and that her car was spinning around, but she's ok. Emily's instant response was, "That's because Heavenly Father picked up her car and put it down safely." I LOVE that girl!

On Friday Robby and I were able to go to the temple (thanks mom for watching the kids!). It was great to be out and even better to be serving in the temple. We got there early, about 5:15 for the 6:00 session, which is a good thing because it was full! We sat by our good friends the Rappleyes and they were asked to be the Witness couple. However, they were going through the 6:30 session so Brother Rappleye said "We can't do it, but (points to us) they can! His wife laughed and hit him all at the same time! We were very happy to be the Witness couple and it helped us listen a little more to the endowment session! We got to see some friends that used to live in our ward, and I saw Sister Fulkerson, my old stake president's wife, and talked to her for a bit. Then we went over to Gecko Grill for dinner. It was nice eating and not worrying about saying "Emily, stop hugging your brother too much. Nathan, stop throwing food. Eat your dinner, both of you!" We had a great night.

Saturday morning Robby helped a family in our ward move and we was gone from 9 until 2:30. He came and got Emily around 11:30 and took her with him. So I got a treat of being by myself while Nathan took a nap. I read a magazine-dare I admit it was Emily's magazine I bought for her at Costco? It was PEOPLE's collector's edition of Dylan and Cole Sprouse from the Suite Life on Deck from Disney channel. I know, I'm crazy. But what else was I supposed to do, clean my house? Yeah, right! I did end up doing some dishes and get the Costco food put away. Poor Robby came home sunburned to a crisp and is still hurting today. He is my be burnt one day, tanned the next day. I feel so bad for him. He can't even play with the kids or give them hugs because his arms hurt so much.

Then Saturday night we went to a my networking group's social/party (more thanks to mom for watching the kids!). It was lots of fun seeing people in everyday clothes instead of business get-up! We laughed and talked and had a good time. Plus, the bonus thing, it was next door so all I had to do was walk over!

It was just me at church today because Robby was still burnt to a crisp, Nathan was still grumpy from growing a new tooth, and Emily wanted to stay home with daddy. Today I took it easy and got somewhat of a nap before Emily came in to tell me after about 15-20 minutes of laying down that I'd been in bed to long and it was time to get up. I shooed her away and got a little more rest, but mostly just laid in bed and enjoyed horizontal resting time. I don't get enough of that! So that's where I'm off to now!

Little Cowgirl

2009-04-15T23:08:00.000-07:00

I felt like scrapbooking tonight, so I decided to look in my 2005 folder, then randomly clicked on a month. I ended up with June, then randomly clicked on a folder. I clicked on the 18th. I opened the folder to see the pictures and smiled! This was a good folder to click on! This is Emily about 6 months old when she started playing with a horse our friend gave her before she was born. She STILL loves this horse. I can't believe the thighs on that girl! I have to remind myself that Robby and I don't make small babies! It was so fun to look back on my little cutie that is now over 4 years old!

Sibling Love

2009-04-14T23:26:00.001-07:00

This afternoon Emily runs into the office where Robby and I are working and says that Nathan got into the sink in the bathroom. We both thought he was playing in the sink and with the stuff on the counter. We told her that was ok then asked Emily to go get him out of the bathroom and shut the door. Well just then we hear a LARGE crash. We run into the bathroom and find he is really IN the sink. He had somehow crawled from the stepstool Emily uses to wash her hands into the sink and was comfortably sitting in the sink playing with Emily's hair stuff. I laughed so hard, then ran to find my camera!

Tonight we decided to have a picnic on the family room floor. We had hot dogs and fries, jelly beans for dessert, and we turned on the 1st Harry Potter. We played and laughed with the kids which helped release any tension of the day and helped us remember that the kids are the most important things in our life. Emily and Nathan love Robby so much and he loves them back even more. They know that they can wrestle, snuggle, chase, love, torture, kiss up and generally love up on daddy and he will be right there to do all of that stuff back to them and put big smiles on their faces. I even got in on the floor time play and got bounced on one too many times, but what good is laying on the floor if you aren't being smooshed? Actually Nathan will come over and push you down, he's a strong little bugger! Then he quickly crawls on you and starts bouncing. Then he somehow signals Emily over and she joins in on the bouncing fun. Happy kids, squooshed mommy/daddy!

These are some pictures I took back in March of Emily and Nathan snuggling. They love to be together, and most of all they love to give each other hugs. I'm so grateful that they get along!

Easter Sunday

2009-04-12T20:59:00.000-07:00

Today was a great day! We got up early so we could attend Michael and Jessica's ward because Michael was blessing Allison today. Robby was asked to be in the circle which was a wonderful thing to watch because I love it when Robby uses his priesthood to give or help give a blessing. Michael did a great job and Allison was beautiful in her white dress. I didn't get a picture of her, but I have one of her tonight. So cute you could just eat her up!

Tonight we had Easter dinner at mom's house with all of us and Kathryn's friend Nicole, who I love-she is so much fun! After dinner we took family pictures and thankfully Nicole was there to act as official photographer. I think the more pictures we took and the blinder we got from the flash, the crazier each set of pictures turned out! You'll see what I mean when you look at the pictures.

Pictures of the cousins and how inthralled Emily and Nathan are with Allison:

The full family picture:

Our family:

Mom and Kids:

Us Three Kids:

And as a P.S.-Nana came home from the hospital last Tuesday and she is staying at my aunt and uncle's home. They are taking great care of her, for which I am so grateful to them for letting her stay at their home. She is doing much better, but still very weak. When I went to visit her on Friday, a nurse was there that told us that she was very lucky to be alive. When we asked why, he said that Nana really shouldn't be here right now because of how long the kidney infection was in her body and went undetected (2-4 weeks). I said a silent prayer right then and there for how blessed I am to have her in our lives still. She is a fighter, but I know she can't live forever. I love her too much to let her go home to Papa, but I also love her too much to watch her suffer with pain or just the frustration of not being able to move and do the things she wants and needs to do. It's all in Heavenly Father's hands, and I must remember it is His will that I must follow, not my own.

Crazy Kids

2009-04-11T21:54:00.000-07:00

This has been some week! So many ups and downs, but thankfully the ups out way the downs.

Early Wednesday morning, our friend and business partner Kara had her baby! Patrick is such a little cutie! He loves to snuggle, and I am majorly baby hungry after holding him! Congrats to Kara and her family! I love the middle name they chose for him...Danger! Now he can really say his middle name is danger!

After doing so well at keeping my house clean, Nathan decided to have a food fight with the floor. I'm not really sure who won, but I know I lost! But he is always so helpful and loves to use Emily's pretend vacuum!

Emily's Nannie and Poppa gave her a princess CD player for Christmas, and we finally got batteries to put in the player on Thursday. Emily never took the ear phones off all day! She even wanted to go to bed with the player and we had to draw the line there! I love that she sings all the songs and even gets up and dances sometimes. Nathan is so jealous! Whenever Emily actually takes off the headphones and walks away, Nathan will walk over and put them on and try to listen to the music too!

On Friday we had our friends the Richardsons over for dinner which is always TONS of fun! We get to talk and catch up while the kids play. You'll notice that Emily, in the pictures below, has a scab on her nose. She was having so much fun playing that she didn't notice a drawer was open and ran right into it and scratched a part of her nose off. She cried for a few minutes, but was more interesting in playing with friends than being pampered and smothered by mommy!

We had our Easter egg hunt party tonight at our house. We hunted for eggs inside because of the rain outside (we actually had April showers!). The kids got a jackpot when it came to gifts from the Easter Bunny, and Nannie and Poppa got the kids Animusic DVDs which the kids wanted opened right then and there, and they watched and danced, and Nathan did his usual conducting of the music moves. Emily went wild looking for eggs and did really well finding a lot of eggs, even in the hard places that Robby put them. Nathan was so excited every time he found an egg he would almost jump off the ground then run to the egg, pick it up, smile, then drop it in his basket.

Then we had dinner and let the cousins all play together. Well as much as Allison who is 2 months old can play with her cousins who mawl her will love, kisses, snuggles and too much attention! Emily always wants to hold Allison, and most of the time Allison will tolerate it. Nathan has gotten in on the wanting to hold Allison game too. He walks over and tries to take the baby from whoever is holding her. While Jessica was changing Allison's diaper on the floor tonight, both Emily and Nathan got down on the floor with Allison and took turns kissing her. Yes, even Nathan gave kisses. He would lean over and give his wet open mouth kiss and say "mmmmaaaa" when he touched her face! Sooooo cute. Emily even got Allison to smile! I think these kids love their cousin!

Are you sitting down?

2009-04-07T22:48:00.000-07:00

My house has been clean for 2 days! I know...I told you to sit down! I cleaned the kitchen and family room yesterday, and it is still clean today. I have done dishes 2 days in a row. I must be sick. When I was mopping yesterday, Robby came in and jokingly said, "I need the camera, you are mopping". He knows I HATE mopping. To make it more amazing, I was using the big rag mop which is really hard for me to use, so I usually use the sponge mop, which Robby says doesn't clean well. I hadn't vacuumed yet as of tonight, so as a way for Emily to get out of going to bed, she comes to me and says, "You need to vacuum before we go to bed so we can run away from the vacuum and scream". So I even vacuumed! Like I said, I'm sick!

Update on the kids...Emily rode her bike all the way to and from school yesterday. She was so happy to show all her friends that she could ride all by herself. She has been my big helper and wanting to be a part of everything I am doing lately. Nathan is good ol' Nathan. He is so good at giving snuggles. All you have to say is "Nathan, give me snuggles", hold your arms open, and he will run toward you and give you the best hugs. Of course then Emily wants in and we get a good family snuggle going on! Nathan fell off the little chair in the family room and met the side of the kid table and has a nice mark down the side of his face. Robby thinks we should call him Scar (from Lion King) because his scratch is about in the same place.

Beautiful Day in the Backyard

2009-04-04T22:04:00.000-07:00

Today was a relaxing family day. We watched both sessions of General Conference and Robby went to the Priesthood session tonight while the kids and I went to Costco to pick up our easter cards that I created today.

Between the conference sessions, the kids went out back and played like they had never been outside before. Nathan can now say outside, which sounds more like ow-si. Emily has really learned to love her bike and will ride it in circles on the little concrete slab in the backyard. She only turns left, so I think one day she may become a Nascar driver. When I tried to get her to go right, she told me she would make an eight and then go left again. Silly girl!

Nathan has become dirt's best friend. As soon as Nathan goes outside, he and Dirt are glued to each other. He cries when I take him to the kitchen sink to separate him with his friend Dirt. Then he remembers his friend Water, and life is ok again!

Robby filled up the sandbox with more sand today because the kids had succeeded in taking ALL of the sand out of the sandbox, and then turning the sandbox over and dumping any remaining sand out. You'd think Robby had given them gold when he started pouring the sand into the sandbox. Nathan then decided to take a big handfull and pour it on his head. He seems to think that the more sand his can pile on his bald head, the more hair he'll grow or something like that. Park day is terrible! We come home with half the playground's sand, and that's AFTER I rub off as much as I can. He is way too funny!

We went to visit Nana again in the hospital tonight. She is looking better but is still very tired and weak. They just keep running more and more tests, and everyone I talk to has no idea what they're for. I sure hope she gets better soon so she can go home and get some rest. The kids really helped her spirits rise, and I'm so grateful that they have that influence on her, and on me too! Both Emily and Nathan gave her kisses, and you'd think by Nana's smile that they had given her the moon!

Photographic Kids

2009-04-03T18:11:00.001-07:00

Today the wonderful Robin Seger took some pictures of the kids at Lou Coopey Photography. Emily did a great job and loved smiling and posing. She is such a little princess! Nathan on the other hand was a TOAD!!!! He refused to be any where near the camera, and when he did get close enough and smile, Robin would bring the camera up and Nathan would turn around and run away. But we finally got some good pictures of him, and both of the kids together. Enjoy!

Welcome One and All!

2009-04-01T15:51:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the wonderful world of the Sandling family! Enjoy our updates, stories, pictures, and just everyone's craziness!

This is Emily and Nathan playing at the park the other night. They cried when we had to leave because they just love being outside playing and running around!