President Hinckley

My good friend Sandy called last night to let us know that President Hinckley, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints passed away. He was 97 years old. I am very sad to hear this news. Not sad for him because I know he is rejoicing in Heaven to be reunited with his dear wife Marjorie, but sad for me. He is "my prophet", because he is the one who was the prophet for most of my adult life. His words and his works have inspired me so much. He has made me want to be a better person. He's was such a wonderful example to me and to everyone else. I can't express near as eloquently as others about what he has done, but his influence will affect me and my family for the rest of our lives. I love you and will miss you President Hinckley.

Splash Bash

We had Mason's birthday party yesterday at the YMCA. It was fabulous!! All I had to do was bring cupcakes. No stress at all!!! After we had cake and opened presents, all the kids and some lucky parents :) went swimming. They all had a bunch of fun!

Circus

Our good friend Sam (and her grandson Alex) got us tickets to the Ringling Brothers Circus on Thursday. We had the best seats and had a total blast!! Well, all of us except Kannon, he wasn't all that thrilled by the noise and pretty much just nursed the entire time. The theme was "Bello-bration." Bello was a funny dare devil clown that had hair pointing up. He threw some hair into the stand and Chris caught one for Mason. There was a cool lion act, an elephant act, a puppy act, the clowns were really funny (and I hate clowns), there was a tight rope walker, trapeze artists and cool gymnasts. It was awesome! Please excuse the poor quality pictures, I never take my good camera with me any more. It's too much work! So I just use my crappy point and shoot. Oh well, it's the memoreis, right?

Crabby

Boy am I ever today!! I don't really know what's wrong. There isn't anything big, it's just a bunch of little things- the magnet board in my sb room fell down and I can't figure out how to hang it back up, my house is messy, even though I spend about 2 hrs cleaning last night before bed, my baby doesn't know how to sleep unless he is pressed right up against my chest, I have too many projects going on (reorganizing my bedroom and freshening it up a bit, painting and redoing Chris's office) photos to edit and send to the printer, stuff to get ready for Mason's birthday party next Saturday (and I still don't know what to get him) and I have a stinkin' cold that I've had for almost a month! grrrrrrrr!!! And Chris is going to be gone to a few meetings and such this weekend. Boo hoo!! Hopefully I can get on top of things and have a relaxing day tomorrow.

4 months

Kannon's 4 month highlights:

*rolled over back to belly

*chews on his hands constantly

*found his feet

*"talks" all the time

*eats ALL the time

*loves to be talked too

*laughs, deep belly laughs, at his daddy and Addi

*blows spit bubbles and raspberries

*is still a terrible sleeper (wakes up 4-5 times a night) but eats quickly and goes back to sleep easily

*is using his stomach muscles to sit up by himself

Is mommy's best shopping pal and companion during the day!

tagged

I know I am a dork, but I love these things.

A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

10 years ago: I was working at the 'Reg, Ogden Regional Medical Center, in the Pharmacy. Chris and I were dating.

5 things on my to-do list today: (I am going to answer with things I crossed off my to-do list since it's 10:30pm on Saturday night)
1. cleaned all the bathrooms
2. vacuumed
3. picked up a few groceries
4. picked up a prescription
5. read over tomorrow's church lesson

Snacks I enjoy:
1. popcorn
2. Skittles and/or licorice
3. bubble gum
4. Breyers Strawberry Cheesecake ice cream
5. honey wheat pretzel sticks

Things I would do if I were suddenly made a a billionaire:
1. Pay off all our debt
2. Buy a huge house in Utah for my mom that had enough room for all of us to come stay whenever we wanted
3. Buy a new house for us, closer to Chris' work, with a big scrapbook/photo editing/craft room for me, a big fat office for Chris, a big playroom for my kids, 4 bedrooms, so we all can have our own and a little appartment on the side so any family members that want to come visit can stay and have their own space, a big storage area for food storage and all of our extra crap, a rec room that has a big ol' flat to watch DVD's and play video games, a air hockey table, a ping pong table and a snack bar (Can you tell I've thought about his a little bit? Chris and I want to have the "cool house" that our kids and all their friends want to come hang out.)
4. Go on a big vacation with all of our family on both sides
5. Invest (so Chris could retire)

3 of my bad habits:
1. picking my fingernails and cuticles
2. Snacking all the time
3. expecting perfection of myself

5 places I have lived: (ooo, this is a HUGE list)
1. Fielding, UT
2. Garland, UT
3. Tremonton, UT(the above 2 are both bitty cities right off of Tremonton)
4. Ogden, UT
5. Smyrna, TN

5 jobs I have had:
1. babysitter (hated it!!!!!!)
2. icee maker
3. grocery checker
4. Pharmacy Technician
5. Photographer

5 things people don't know about me:
1. I won a handwriting award in the 3rd grade, hehehe!
2. I received a 3.9 gpa my first semester of college and the only A- I got was in a stupid Library Science class that graded on attendance. That semester helped me get a non-traditional student scholarship too. :)
3. I am a control freak-ok, maybe some of you knew that. :)
4. Having a clean house makes me feel that all is right in the world.
5. I do my hair when I am stressed out. Nothing like the powerful anti anxiety properties of hairspray to make a girl feel better. :)

Tagging: Sandy, Joanna, Feather and anyone else who is reading this. And no I didn't leave a comment on your blogs, but if you read this and feel like posting on your blog go right ahead. :)

My favorite places to shop

My faves:

Wal-mart-I'm sure this just makes everyone shudder, but I love it! I can get so much stuff here. Lately I've purchased: a new battery for our cordless telephone, our new printer, some pretty salon quality nail polish, a cargo bag for the top of our van when we went to Florida and new organizing supplies. When we were in FL and needed to buy some shorts, Walmart saved us! All this is in addition to my bi or tri weekly grocery shopping trips.

Target-I can always find so much stuff there, that I didn't even know I needed, but couldn't possibly live without. They have killer clearance sales too. I got some Christmas items for 90% off, and our new vaccuum for 50% off. Just this week I purchased $170 worth of clothes for my kids for the bargain price of $55. The one being built in Smyrna, will be done in March! WOO HOO!!!

Ross-I love to search this store. I can always find inexpensive shirts and dresses for myself and Addi. I've also found some really great and inexpensive stuff for our house here.

For inspiration purposes I love Pottery Barn and Restoration Hardware. I wish I could buy lots of stuff from there. But usually I can just go look, then find like items in a less expensive place.

And of course, my list wouldn't be complete without Hobby Lobby, Joann and Michaels.

More pictures

Please excuse the poor quality of these pictures. I didn't want to have to mess with my good camera, so I just used my point and shoot. I traded quality for convenience and it was worth it to be able to shove my camera in my pocket and not have to worry about messing with my good camera. 1. A picture of Mason and Addi in front of the Orlando Temple. We were going to go to the distribution center to get a few supplies, but it was closed for the holiday. The temple was under a renovation, but was beautiful none-the-less.
2. This is how we cruised around most of the parks. Mason and Addi were total wimps (especially Addi) and rode in the stroller. (we were only about 60 lbs over the weight limit for the stroller) I carried Kannon most of the time in the Snuggli. He loved it and it was nice to have him so close.
3. Me with the kiddos and Stitch at MGM studios.
4. Me and the boys visiting Buzz Lightyear. Addi was bent and pouting in the stroller because she wanted to see Woody instead.
5. The bazillion people at MGM.

It seems like all I've done is complain about our trip. I feel bad about that, because there were parts that were fun. It's just that I worked really hard planning the trip and Chris worked really hard to pay for it and we had really high expectations. So when our kids would misbehave or act ungrateful, which was quite frequent, it really upset both Chris and me. We did have some good times and make some fun family memories. I think part of the fun of our trip is having the inside jokes or funny memories to look back on. Our trip funnies: "Get down!" said by Chris to Mason when Mason freaked out at the sound of the fireworks at Epcot, the "Jill Hennessy" and "K-Fed" sightings along with the Pimp Santa (hahahahah-it was a guy with a pimp looking hat on that was red and white), the parade at Animal Kingdom, the drunk people celebrating New Years at Steak and Shake in Atlanta, the "Beware of Poisonous Snakes" sign at a rest stop in Georgia, the bathroom that Chris took Addi to that had porn sitting right outside the door and a condom machine inside-which Addi threw a fit about because Chris wouldn't give her a quarter to get a "prize", eating yummy Mickey Mouse waffles every morning for breakfast, sitting by the pool while the kids swam at 8:00pm. hahaha-Good times!

Our vacay in pictures

Here are some pictures of our Disney trip. I could only post this many because I can't figure out how to collage yet. I'll post more later. 1. The view of the grounds of our hotel, Disney Pop Century, from our balcony.
2. Mason and me waiting in line (one of the 50 million we endured on our trip) to get into MGM.
3. Another view of the grounds at our hotel.
4. Mason and Addi being chinese in China at Epcot.
5. Sleepy eyed babes-just waking up from a nice sleep.

Home again home again

We are home from our vacay and quite happy to be!! Here is a recap of the last few weeks:

Dec 18 My mamamcita came from Utah
Dec 19 I watched Nate for a little bit then we finished up some Christmas shopping with my mom
Dec 20 Chris's dad and his wife came to Nashville, so we all went out to dinner and then came back here to visit
Dec 21 GOT SEALED!!! :)
Dec 22 I can't remember what we did, but we were busy-I know that!
Dec 23 We went to church and then delivered friend gifts.
Dec 24 I took my mama to the airport and cried my eyes out. Then I hung out with the kids while Chris did his traditional Christmas eve shopping, then we all went to see the movie "Enchanted"
Dec 25 opened gifts-Addi and Mason each got a Nintendo DS and Kannon got an excersaucer. Chris and I weren't going to exchange gifts, but he spoiled me anyway and gave me a flat screen monitor and a Wacom tablet. I did give him a few little things, like a CD, and some fun stuff for his new office, but as usual, he went above and beyond. After gifts we went to Joanna and Jason's for YUMMY breakfast of eibleskeivers and a Phase 10 rematch (I am still the reining champion...hehehe). When we got home, we put all of our Christmas stuff away and packed our bags.
Dec 26 We were going to get up at 3:00am but I messed up the alarm and we got up at 5:00am. We put the last bags in the van and left for Disneyworld. We got there at around 9:30pm. It was a LOOOOOOONG day. We stayed in the Pop Century Hotel-a celebration of pop culture. It was pretty cool with a huge computer, big wheel, a foos ball area, cell phone, walkman, playdough, bowling pins and more. It was a little overwhelming but neat too.
Dec 27 We were totally pooped so we slept in. When we finally got up we took the shuttle to Magic Kingdom. There were a gazillion people there and we arrived right when the parade was going by and Addi couldn't see the princesses so she completely melted down. It was super hot too, and we were all unprepared for the weather and had pants on. So we quickly decided to leave and go to Walmart to get supplies. I am a terrible navigator and what should have been a 20 min drive to walmart ended up taking 1.5 hrs. In my defense, it wasn't just the bad directions I was giving, traffic was terrible too. We got a bunch of shorts and sandals so we could survive the heat and humidity. When we finally got back to our hotel, we just let the kids swim in the hotel pool. It felt so wrong to be sitting beside the pool, in the dark, watching my kids swim with Christmas carols playing. Weird!
Dec 28 We went swimming in the morning to stay cool, then went to Epcot in the afternoon. It was getting dark by the time we got there and I was a little freaked out by the darkness. I think they could use some more lighting there. Anyhoo, we visited the different countries, which was pretty cool. At the end of the night, there was a huge fireworks show that scared the crap out of Mason. It will be a funny inside joke for our family for years to come.
Dec 29 After a morning swim, we went to Animal Kingdom. Once again, there were a million people there and we weren't able to go on the safari. But we did take a train ride to a different area of the park where I swear I saw Jill Hennessey (the lady that plays Jordan on Crossing Jordan on TV) . Chris didn't believe me, but whatever! I'm sure she thought I was stalking her because I kept taking pictures and stuff, but oh well.
Dec 30 We went to MGM. I have 2 words for that day: HOT and CROWDED!! We did manage to see Stich, Buzz, Woody, Kim Possible and a really cool stunt car show.
Dec 31 We checked out (I thought I made the reservations until 1-1 but I made a mistake and we checked out a day early) and went to Downtown Disney. Mason and Chris went to Lego Land, where Mason got some cool Spongebob Legos. Addi and I went to the "Bibbity Bobbity Boutique". Addi was going to get all dolled up there, but it cost a ton of money. So we just bought the stuff and I dolled her up myself. She was so cute with her Belle dress, hair piece, crown, sparkles and lip gloss. Seeing her so happy and feeling so beautiful was worth the money. We left for home around 3:00pm. At midnight we were in Atlanta with all the drunk people and rang in the new year by eating some greasy goodness from Steak and Shake. We got home at 3:30am. It was a long day, but I was so happy to get home! We all were.

I haven't downloaded my 500+ pictures yet, but when I do, I'll post them.