Giving Thanks

We are in Denver right now for the Holiday weekend and having a great time. I just wanted to take a time out and give thanks for a few things that mean the most to me.

1. Family - I have been blessed with an amazing husband. He is smart,funny, driven and so kind. AND two beautiful daughters who brighten my life EVERY SINGLE DAY! I also have 2 families (Collin's and my own) full of people that I adore, and that are great examples to me. Sisters, (including sister-in-laws) that are my best friends, and parents that are more generous than anyone I know.

2.The Church- I am so thankful for the gospel and the role it plays in my life. It helps me to become a better wife, mother and friend every day.

3. Education- These last 3 years have been a struggle, but I know they will pay off and be worth every struggle and every penny.

4. Friends- I am a very social person. I am proud to say that I have more good friends than I do fingers and toes. I am thankful for good friends who sometimes know you better than you know yourself, and can call you and talk to you like you just saw each other last night, even if its been a year or two.

The list could go on and on, but these are the things that I thank my heavenly father for on a daily basis. I am so blessed, and SO happy with my life.

I love you all and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Twilight

(In case you can't read them. Most of the shirts say "Blondes may

have more fun, but Edward prefers Brunettes)

Bre,Mariah,Paris,Jenni,Me & Kira

Finally! I am caught up to my Twilight post. I went over the weekend with a group of friends from Vermillion. We made shirts together and everything. I know that is totally dorky, but we had a really good time! We drove down to Sioux Falls together and saw it, then went to a few stores up there and out to dinner. It was a much needed break from the kids and I really enjoyed myself. I have seen a few other posts on family/friends blogs and pretty much agree with what they had to say but here's my take on things. Loved it. I have read all of the books and I think that helped a lot when it came to the movie. They did leave a lot out and changed a few things, but all for the sake of time. Things were a little rushed at times, and could come across a little corny if you didn't read it.
The casting, I thought was pretty good. I am assuming they didn't have a HUGE budget to pay for a bunch of A-List actors, so I think they did pretty good. I thought

Bella- did good. In seeing her picture I wasn't sure, but she grew on me. Edward-His eyes were PERFECT if you ask me, and the close ups were great. His teeth kinda bugged me, but really.....

The Cullens were a LITTLE disappointing.

Esme -was ok, I just think she could have been softer looking.

Carlisle-I wish he would have been a little older looking and softer also. His features were to harsh for me. But I think he did a really good job acting the part.

Emmett-Was probably my favorite of the Cullens. I thought he was funny and well cast. Just how I pictured him.

Rosalie-Played the part well, but kind of looks like a trany. She was a bit masculine looking considering she was supposed to be the most beautiful one of all.

Jasper-Looked constipated the whole movie. Needed to be more handsome.

Alice-Great! Wish her hair was a little more "now", but liked her face and her voice.

Jacob-The hair threw me off. He looks a bit femi, but it is supposed to be long, Indian hair so I get it. His face is handsome and he has a great smile, I am excited to see him in the coming movies.

Charlie-Did a good job. The scene where she leaves him just about broke my heart. I felt SO bad for him.

Over all, I really liked it. It left me wishing the rest of the movies were ready for me to see. I admit it, I got sucked in, and I liked it in Vampire Land.

100 Years Of Disney

On Friday night I took Marlee to Disney's 100 Years of Disney-On Ice. It was awesome. We went with our friends Jessica and Ava. The girls dressed up as Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. They looked so cute and had a blast. I LOVED watching Marlee's face light up every time a new character would come out. For that 2 hours, everything in her world was right, and I loved witnessing it She even talked me in to getting her a Cinderella snow cone (yes, it was a TOTAL rip off! Ringing up at $10...BUT it did have a really cool cup!) Her only real disappointment was that she was patiently waiting...and waiting...and waiting for Sleeping Beauty. Well, she never came. Yes, her favorite Disney Princess (for now anyway) was the ONLY princess NOT to make an appearance. They all did a song together with there princes, but not Princess Aurora or Prince Phillip. She was pretty devastated. The weird thing was they even had the "not so princess" princesses including: Mulan,Nala,and Pocahontas. Anyway, overall it was a great success and we really had a great night together. I love my little princess.

(excuse the pictures, we are leaving Tuesday so I wanted to get them up, and my computer has been acting really stupid so they are not edited.)

Prince Eric getting fresh with Ariel

Snow White and....who is her Prince?Simba and NalaAll the love birdsMarlee and the million dollar snow cone

Washington Pavilion

Two weekends ago we went to the Washington Pavilion in Sioux Falls. It is basically a children's museum. I went with some of my friends who kids are in the Head Start program out here. Marlee had a blast. I think their favorite part was this little water thing where they got to experiment with water flow and building dams and stuff. They could have stayed there all day. By the time we got in the car, drove through Wendy's and headed home, the kids were all POOPED. I tried to take away Marlee's Jr.Bacon Cheeseburger when she fell asleep, but she would have none of it. She woke up and freaked out, grabbed it and fell back asleep. She cuddled it the rest of the way home!

We had a great time, thanks for dragging us down there Brenda!As you can see, not all of the water stayed where it was supposed to.

Digging for Dinosaur bones

Yes, these are REAL bees making honey. Yuck. When Marlee figured this out she ran and SHOVED Annie out of the way trying to save her from the Bees. I must admit, it was kind of funny.

This was pretty funny too. You push the button and this blows a beach ball straight up in the air and keeps it there. Marlee thought is was hilarious!

I think I should have been an astronaut
Pretty sweet tornado

Jacob and Marlee making the train go

Some Early Christmas Spirit

(Just a flashback to our first Christmas as parents...2005)

I know it is a LITTLE early for a Christmas layout, but with all the Christmas stuff out in stores already I can hardly contain myself. Christmas is BY FAR my favorite Holiday. I can't wait to put up my tree and start listening to Christmas music while we make Christmas cookies! Anyone who really knows me, knows this about me. (I know my father in-law will just laugh at this because he is one who has always noticed what I get excited about.) Christmas and Disney Land are about the only 2 things in life that make me feel giddy and like a little kid again! Merry EARLY Christmas everybody!

Jenny Jump UP

I know the quality of this video sucks (it was taken on my cell phone), but I thought it was funny. Kenna LOVES her Jenny Jump Up. She can swing that puppy like nobodies business. I wish I could have caught her REALLY going for it, because you would die laughing. I am going to try and get a crawling video up soon as well. She has been crawling for quite a while now, but none of her extended family has seen it, so that will come soon!

(Please, pay no attention to my messy pantry)

What I LOVE About a Small Town

My Batgirl

Our Walmart has EVERYTHING, even after the holiday has passed. So, I have been waiting patiently for our friendly neighborhood Walmart to put their Halloween stuff on sale, because they still had a TON of costumes after Oct.31.
So, today they were about as low as they could go. When I went to fill my RX ,I saw that ALL kids costumes were $1.00. So, I called my sisters and took their orders. Whether it be for dress up, or next years Halloween, this is what we came up with. I LOVE a good deal!
So, the grand total that it would have been was.........$465.00

What I actually paid was............$29.00

Jenn, here are yours...

Ang...

(I forgot the Hannah Montana in this picture, but I DID get you one!)

Nik...

Hope you guys like them! Your kids are gonna be pumped!

Also, I went BACK to the Doctor today because my sinus infection (now in week 3) still isn't getting any better, and last night there were some weird things happening with me (I won't go into detail!). Anyway, I still have the sinus infection, but now I also have an ear infection. Nice. So here we go on round 3 of a different antibiotic. Hope this kicks it. He said if its not gone by then end of this one, I need to come back in next week for a CT, make sure there is nothing else going on. Wish me luck!

Every Potty Has a Pooper...

I just thought it would be my 3 year old!

*****WARNING:Those with weak stomachs, this is a poo-filled post!****

The Back Story:

Makenna has had some digestive issues since we started her on formula. Every couple of days she gets really "plugged up" if you know what I mean. The poor baby has to work really hard to have a good bowel movement.

So after her bath tonight, Collin left her alone for a minute to go get a diaper. All of a sudden he comes bustin' into the bathroom (where I was bathing Marlee) and sets her on the toilet. I looked at him like he was on crack because I was in shock that he was setting our 10 month old on the toilet. Well, in that minute Collin left, she decided to try and get her 4 days worth of formula out of her system. So he grabbed her, set her up there and sure enough the poor thing cried and pushed til she had her first poop in the potty! I was laughing so hard I was crying. (I know, nice mom huh? Sad baby struggling to relieve herself while I laugh and grab the camera). We all had a good chuckle, Marlee included, until she was done and then wiped her, diapered her and put her to bed for what I am hoping will be a great nights sleep! She should feel better!

Bows,Bows and More Bows

I promised several different people that I would do this after talking to them about learning how to make these bows, so here is my best tutorial for you. If anyone doesn't get it, or has any questions just let me know.

You can get these ruler board things (I don't know what they are called) in the fabric department at Wal-Mart, but there will be a better selection of sizes at a craft store. I think I like a 4" for the bigger bow and a 2-2 1/2 for the smaller bow, but you could probably use whatever size you want!

Start by taping the end of your ribbon to the end of the board. Then wrap it around the board 3 times.

Next, take a needle and thread (fairly heavy duty) and sew a few (2-3) stitches half way down. Flip the board over and do the same to the ribbon on the back of the board. (With the same thread, don't cut it)

Un-tape your ribbon and slide it off the end of the board.

Next, pull the thread and gather the ribbon into a bow.

Wrap the thread around the middle of the bow (I do mine several times) and then tie it off on the side that you want to use as the back of the bow.

Trim the end of the ribbon to the length you want and trim the threads off.

Repeat all these steps on a smaller scale for your center bow.

Tie a knot in the ribbon you want used in the center and hot glue it onto the middle of the small bow, wrapping the end around the small bow and hot glue on the back.

Then, glue the small bow into the middle of your large bow.

Cover your clip by hot gluing your ribbon on and then, glue your bow to the clip!
Wala! A cute little home made bow!

(I made several yesterday for the triplets and Emmy's b-day party and I got 2 yards of each ribbon. I will have enough to make at least 2 of each bow with that much.)

Just a side note: we have also discovered that the Nylon headbands are WAY easy to make, and that knee-high nylons make the perfect size headband for an infant/toddler. You just have to hot glue the ends together and wrap a ribbon around, hot glue it, and you can clip a bow on! That is what Makenna always wears.

Hope this is helpful, and not too confusing! Let me know how it goes!

Venting...

Ok so I am just feeling bugged right now. I haven't gotten much sleep this week due to several different things going on but that is a whole other story. I am tired, I am sick...STILL. I have had a NASTY sinus infection for 2 WEEKS. I am used to them, I always get them, but this one is BAD. Every time I bend over to pick up my baby, my head feels like it is going to EXPLODE right off of my body. I have gone through 2 rounds of antibiotics just to go back to the Doctor (a different one)today and have him say "I don't know why he even prescribed that for you". "I think you need this" and prescribed 3 different meds to take. Uggghhh. Then I get online to look at our bank account and there are charges from fraudulent checks! Checks with our real account numbers but our old Boise address we haven't lived at for almost 4 years!!!!!!!! What the heck? So, we had to close our account and will have to go through and re-do everything that we have for our on-line banking. People are SOOOOO selfish. You don't even want to hear what the charges were for. On top of all this, President Yocky calls late last night and says that our High Council man was supposed to speak on Sunday, but will be unable to make it, can I speak instead. If there is ONE thing I really HATE doing, it is speaking at church! I guess I just need to quit feeling sorry for myself and get in gear. Ok, I am done.

On a high note, I have been experimenting making some bows and they have actually turned out pretty cute (I think). Rachel and I got all the stuff, but then didn't end up having any time to make them. Anyway, I told my sister I would take pictures and put up kind of a step-by-step thing on here. Probably tonight or tomorrow.

Buddies

A few more...

We found these Sleeping Beauty dresses on sale at Wal-Mart after Halloween and the girls immediately came home, stripped down got in them and spent the next 20 minutes singing and dancing with each other in the kitchen. it was AWESOME!

Thanks for e-mailing these Rach, they are priceless!

"I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream"...

Reese was CRACKIN' ME UP! She was singing so high and like opera. I almost peed.

They were so soft with each other.

Since You've Been Gone

I have been bored...

Paisley & Rachel

We were lucky enough to have some of our close friends come and visit us this week. The Howards were some of our first friends when we moved here to Vermillion and sadly enough, they moved to Rapid City over the summer while we were gone. Marlee and Reese have always loved each other (and missed each other!) and we both had our second baby girls a week and a half apart. We've been through a lot together and it was SO good to see them. Marlee was inconsolable when they left tonight. She is such a tender little thing and she just cried and cried as they were pulling away, BEGGING Reese to take her with her. (Am I that bad of a mom?) I am glad our girls love each other as much as we do (I am SO sad we didn't get any pictures together!)We had a great time Rach, hope you'll come back soon!

Play Time:

Bath Time:

Bed Time: