Yada, Yada, Yada...

Sunday 2/13/11

2011-02-18T22:44:00.003-07:00

The kids on Sunday.

During the shooting of that picture,

Jeremy sustained this injury....

I was sitting Ryan up and didn't realize he had come

up behind me with the camera at his eye...

I stood up and

WHAMO!

SORRY JEREMY!

THE BUZZ

2011-02-18T22:34:00.003-07:00

Sunday morning....

Ryan got his 1st BUZZ CUT

He did great.

He hated having to sit still,

but other than that he chewed on my watch and didn't care.

Sorry. I feel like this picture looks that much

grosser (is that a word?) because we have a pink tub.

All done....

BACK BEFORE

BACK AFTER

FRONT BEFORE

FRONT AFTER

I think it makes him look so much older!

Sad to loose the curl, not so sad to loose the knots.

An afternoon at home

2011-02-18T22:25:00.002-07:00

I took these pictures knowing that

RYAN'S FIRST HAIR CUT

would be happening soon after.

OK, this picture just makes me laugh....

doesn't it look like all his proportions are off?

Tiny legs, HUGE head!

E wanted to pose for one.

The reason for a hair cut...

all these cute curls in back would end up

matted in a mess of knots by the end of the day.

SO CUTE!!!

Bug Family

2011-02-18T22:22:00.001-07:00

Tunes

2011-02-18T22:21:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been craving Rock a little more....
I'll be driving along wishing that I had my old Sublime, 311, or rock mix cd's with me,
only I think it's a good thing that I don't because
they probably aren't appropriate for my 3 year old to be listening too.

Anyway - I am currently LOVING
Linkin Park - Waiting for the end
it's been all over the radio lately...

If you know me at all you know I love lyrics, here are a few lines....

With fists flying up in the air
Like we're holding onto something
That's invisible there,
'Cause we're living at the mercy of
The pain and the fear

Waiting for the end to come
Wishing I had strength to stand
This is not what I had planned
It's out of my control....

Clever, clever....

Wouldn't it be fun to hit up a mosh pit at the Huntridge like the good old days...eh Vegas kids?

Lime Tree

2011-02-18T22:07:00.003-07:00

We finally (almost 2 years later)

looked up how to trim our Lime Tree.

Now it is blooming like CRAZY!

It smells DIVINE!

You are lighting up my life during the drab winter days!

Thanks Lime Tree!

V-day & Crayon Melts

2011-02-18T21:39:00.005-07:00

About a year ago I saw this idea for melting crayons on a blog. I would tell you where, but I honestly don't remember. So, a year ago I headed to the dollar store to get 2 hand towels and a cheese grater. I already had a large box of well used broken crayons from my childhood to use.

I finally did the project.

Elizabeth helped me sort the colors ....

And peel all the wrapping off.

(fyi: I didn't even come close to using all of these.)

Then once the kids were in bed (E is too little to handle a grater and an iron)

I set up shop.

If you don't know the next steps... well, just ask I guess. I think most people have done this before.

Then I cut out the shapes I wanted.....

This one shows off the pretty flowers Jer gave me. :)

We had a ROCKIN' VALENTINES' DAY PARTY the on Sat. the 12th. I sadly didn't get any pictures. HOWEVER, rest assured that we had a great time, with TONS of AMAZING food, (my friends are the best cooks!) and GREAT company! It was a BLAST!

Here are some of the decorations that I did with the crayon melts
(that's what I'm naming this project)

And with the rest of the hearts we made E's Valentines for her class.

Strength!

2011-02-18T15:21:00.005-07:00

E has MUSCLES..... and she knows how to show them off!!!

enjoy :)

She uses them to move her brother around the living room.

over, and over, and over, and over again!

He tolerates her at best.

Handsome Boy!

2011-02-18T15:14:00.002-07:00

"Oh, hi mom."

"I'm bored."

" I hear Elizabeth!"

"There she is!!!"

"Now I'm happy!"

Jeremy,

2011-02-14T15:22:00.000-07:00

I love you the most.

Today...

2011-02-09T23:53:00.003-07:00

A Conversation with Elizabeth (totally out of the blue) while on our way home from Target ....

Elizabeth: " I can't tickle, I can't run off, I can't ....(I couldn't hear this one), I don't ever get to do anything I want to do!" (all said totally like a teenager)

Me: "Yes you can, you get to play games that you want to, watch your favorite shows.. you get to do lots of things that you want to do."

Elizabeth: "No! I NEVER get to do anything that I want to do... hrumph(while folding her arms across her chest.)"

Heaven help me.

I love quotes....

2011-02-01T10:59:00.001-07:00

January

2011-01-28T21:56:00.012-07:00

** Formating didn't work, and I'm to tired to fix it. **

January 2011

This is going to be a long, picture overloaded post.

Be warned

NEW YEARS!

Because we had just gotten home from our great Christmas trip out East,

we decided to just stay in this year.

We spent the evening playing with the kids,

then at 11:45pm Jer and I poured our glasses....

and tried our best to stay awake for that ball to drop!

(we made it!)
Instead of doing everything totally in order for the month. I'll just break it down. :)

ELIZABETH

This girl is a FULL time job.

She is funny, spontaneous, and a little sassy.

Jeremy compiled this list two nights ago.

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Rules to being Elizabeth:

1.) Never leave home without a chupie

2.) Always know where the stash of mints or gum is

3.) Say every prayer

4.) If mom leaves, my world falls apart

5.) "chase me"

6.) my daily list of "wants" are Hiking Mountains, Fishing,

Feeding the ducks, Riding the Merry-go-round with friends,

having a picnic, going to the beach.

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This girl is 3 going on 16 most days.

She is constantly calling me into the other room

with this expression on her face

to tell me that Ryan is doing this... (no not crawling, just trying to.)

She is fantastic at helping me "craft".

She L-O-V-E-S Pre-school!!!!

These pictures are from yesterday,

Peter Pan Day

She needed to dress up as a character from PP.

I, being the great mom that I am, forgot until 8:30pm the night before.

Luckily my friend Holly had this mermaid costume.

SO... she is a mermaid from the mermaid lagoon.

Only she is a "nice mermaid", not one of the ones that tried to drown Wendy.

I Love that she has fun posing for pictures now days too!

She really is a great little girl.

She's such a huge helper with her brother,

and for the most part puts up with my overly tired mood swings.

Although sometimes she does her fair share of fake crying

just because she can tell that I'm tired.

I swear it's true. :)

RYAN

This little guy is now 7 months!

He has broken his first tooth, and as far

as I can tell is working on 3 more.

When his teeth aren't hurting he is an angel baby.

He is constantly moving, and prefers to be left on his belly playing

in the middle of all his toys.

He's gotten really good at scooting all over the living room to get to

whatever it is that he wants.

Crawling will be happening soon.

I finally got on the ball and started him on his solids.

He's a big fan of Sweet Potatoes... but who isn't?

He also LOVES graham crackers, and would be happy if that was

all that I ever feed him. He's getting better with holding his own

sippy cup, and is now getting meats and fruits as well.

Another favorite thing of his is standing up next to things....

This was watching our snow storm last Monday.

Yep, here it is... favorite place to be.

I keep thinking that I need to trim up his hair a little bit,

but I'm having a hard time getting rid of any of his curls.

He is getting more and more fun.

You know, past the boring new baby stage

(I hope that doesn't offend anyone, it's just the way we feel around here)
He loves to laugh and talk with his sister,

but that is about it. He's pretty sober to most every one else.

VEGAS!

The second weekend of the month we tagged along with Jeremy

to Vegas. He had his own hotel room at the Wynn.

Super nice, big rooms!

We had so much fun, and I just want to say

THANKS

to everyone who let us play.

Having the nice hotel room was great.

We would wake up in the morning, eat breakfast
(yep, we had a cooler with food and such)

have Ryan take a morning nap,

make quick lunches,

and then head out to play for the rest of the day!

On Monday we hit up the Snavelys.

I wasn't so smart to pulling out my camera.

So these are the shots that I got and I didn't get a picture of cute Ari!

This is Taj kissing E to wake her up.

AWWWW!!!

Me and Nickel

At the end of the day.

Sorry Nickel...:)

Tuesday

Waldrons!

We also went to church with them on Sunday,

but Tues. was the big hang out day!

I was better about pictures here.

The kids had a blast in their blanket fort!

Ryan and Emmy

These two are 6 days apart.

Trish and I.

Again at the end of the day.

We didn't get to see everyone that we had planned,

so I guess we'll just have to tag along again!

THE KIDS!!!

Elizabeth loves for me to take pictures of them

I love to hear them LAUGHING together.

Makes it all worth it.

Hope you all had a Happy January too!

Laugh it up chuckles...

2011-01-19T16:59:00.007-07:00

Yes, yes... we still are alive around here.

Story Time:

I had a real teaching moment today. I messed it up.

WE had a play date and when one of the kids was leaving with her mother she had a melt-down, drag-out, temper tantrum. The poor mother was wrestling her shoes on her and trying to get her out the door, while telling me how embarrassed she was. I kept assuring her that this was not the first kid to throw a tantrum, and that my own sweet daughter has been known to do the same thing. All while I was thinking, this is great! Now I can teach Elizabeth why this is so bad, and why she shouldn't throw the same type of tantrums. HOWEVER, when I shut the door behind them, all I could do was laugh. Laugh hard. Elizabeth just looked at me like I was once again loosing my mind.

Yep, a missed teaching opportunity, but man laughing that hard feels good.

Christmas Cards

2010-11-20T00:05:00.004-07:00

I know, I know, I know....

I have a terrible track record,
of getting addresses and then not ever sending out the Christmas Cards.

However, this year is different.

I have them all ready to be printed,

once I figure out how many to print.

I am also not traveling for Thanksgiving this year,

leaving me the time to address and mail them.

It will happen this time.

And for those of you still waiting on Ryan's birth announcement. It will be included as well. :)

SO.... for all of you who actually look at this from time to time.

Get me your address!

You can e-mail it to me at amandacoon (at) gmail (dot) com.

I know... I know....

2010-11-12T23:20:00.003-07:00

I know that I'm a terrible blogger.
I know that I have great intentions of being better.
I know that may not happen until after the holidays.
I know that I am doing a VERY sorry job at capturing Ryans first months.

BUT

I know I've got the best lookin' family around.
I know that I love them more than anything else!
I know that my time is getting spent (mostly) on them.

(11-12-10)

kids

2010-10-23T22:47:00.003-06:00

taken on Mindy's Phone back in August

A good Cause

2010-10-21T22:09:00.004-06:00

I am really, really bad at asking others to donate.... time, money, well anything.

BUT this one hits home. My brothers family was there when this little boy drowned. Please click on the pledge and read their story.

If you can, spread the word.

Thanks everyone!

Loved this....

2010-10-11T15:21:00.003-06:00

I blinked

2010-10-01T23:17:00.002-06:00

I blinked... and September was gone.

It's now October 1st

(wha wha WHAT??!?!?!?)

Here are the things that I'm excited for.....

THIS .... I look forward to this every 6 months.
The "Conference Issue Challenge" that our ward does.
That our ward is doing a Trunk or Treat this year!
Pumpkin flavored everything
Changing leaves down in the valley
Cooler days spent outside
Big puffy clouds
Fall wardrobe pieces
The building anticipation of the winter holidays
Hot Chocolate
Fires
Warm Fuzzy socks

If I sat here long enough the list would just keep growing and growing.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

{I love the Fall!}

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I love [that I think] that life is going to take a bit of a slower pace so that I can drink it all in.

Thanks Cole!

2010-09-24T14:34:00.001-06:00

So much has happened in the last month, and there are many things that I need to blog (like Ryan's blessing this last weekend). BUT I'm going to share this first...

I still feel like I did in my last post. However, this last month has been very challenging, for a number of reasons. I have had a lot of thoughts along these lines...

"Why did I have kids?"

"I'm failing."

"I don't have any patience left."

"I'm screwing them up, and if I'm not doing it now, then I will screw them up."

ANYWAY- I had a few minutes while shoveling Top Ramen into my mouth to check up on blogs and came across this post by my friend Nicole.

It's just what I needed. I got teary and all.... so thanks Cole. Again!

me

2010-08-21T01:08:00.008-06:00

As I go through the house tonight, turning off the lights, in the peaceful silence, alone. I look around at all the moments of our day played out in the little messes that we've left behind, and I can't help but feel like I've finally made it! I'm finally here. Living out the dream that I've always (for as long as I can remember being asked that "what do you want to be when you grow up? question) wanted. I realize how corny and generic this sounds. I'm not going to pretend that this reality that I'm living doesn't sometimes at the end of the day feel like a never ending job, of the same thing everyday. BUT today... I realize what I really have.

I have my dream!

I realize that to many, this doesn't seem like a big enough dream.

That some may be thinking... that's it? Her big "I've made it moment" is this? Yes, I have other dreams and aspirations, but this... being a wife and a mother... this is the list topper. What else could be so fulfilling, and what other dream wouldn't be made that much sweeter without having this one first?

So, yes, I really feel like..

I have finally made it!

I just want to write this down as I am feeling it.

So that when it does feel like a job, I can remember these moments of complete contentment.

E

2010-08-19T15:29:00.003-06:00

(glasses from A. Jami!)

I just thought I'd do a little update on "the Princess" of the house.

She is getting so big so fast!

Next week she starts PRE-SCHOOL! She couldn't be more excited! The anticipation has been the key to successful potty training. Yes, we might have a little accident here and there, but over all she is "potty trained and able to wipe on her own" - as per the instructions from her teacher.

She is currently loving:

*dance parties

*puzzles

*Peter Pan

(especially singing the songs) - as a result of learning the word crocodile from watching this,

she now uses the work "crockagator" for any alligator or crocodile.

*The Backyardigans

(yup, mom it finally stuck!)

(especially singing the songs to this as well)

*swimming

(as always)

*Playing with friends

*Loving on her little brother!

She really is a great big sister.

*Getting herself dressed

- well actually doing anything she can by herself.

She is now really cracking us up with the little things that she says!

The other day she was playing with Jeremy when all of the sudden she got VERY serious with him. She pointed her finger at him and sternly said,

"3...2....1... , I'm so mad at you, 4....1.....2....3.... okay! Get in time out!"

Apparently this is how I sound to her. :(

It was hilarious though! Jeremy and I started laughing SO, SO, SO hard!

All in all she is a WONDERFUL little/big girl!

We love her so much and L-O-V-E all the { SPICE } she adds to our lives!

For Aimee

2010-08-08T22:43:00.003-06:00

7 Weeks old today!

Can you believe it?!?!?

He now fits into this awesome helicopter outfit from the Tucker Family!

Here he is spending time with his "friends".
He LOVES laying here and kicking around.

Ryan is now:

- gaining weight - note the double chin (I think he weighs around 12lbs now)
-smiling more and more often.
-he is getting better at holding his head up on his own
-he is eating more, and sleeping for longer stretches of time at night.
(sometimes 5 hours!)

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These next two are for my sister Aimee.
You requested a picture of E and Ryan together.....
well, these are the best that I've been able to do so far. :)

It's hard to get both of them to be still.
Most attempts end up with someone blurred.

(this one was taken on Jer's phone so the quality isn't as good)

Laughter

2010-08-03T22:34:00.002-06:00

Today is August 3rd.

Today Jeremy got Ryan to do a little laugh for the first time! :)

I just wanted to remember Today.

Annie's Pictures!

2010-07-22T09:34:00.008-06:00

There are WAY too many pictures that I love

that Annie took of Ryan,

but here are a few favorites....

(maybe a little more than "a few")

(these cars are in his bedroom)

(this hat was my Uncle Randall's)

ALSO:

When I was 38 weeks along

Annie took pregnancy pictures of me,

and 3 year old pictures of Elizabeth.

(this cute dress was made by Katie Atkins!)

Revelation

2010-07-17T14:43:00.002-06:00

Remember { here } when I talked about being excited for 30?
AND
Remember { here } when Lexie came as an early trip for her 30th birthday?

********************************************************************

WELL....

Lexie turned 30 yesterday. July 16th.
Did it bother me when anyone else turned 30? Like, Jeremy?
NO!
Not one bit.
Because they were turning 30 and I am still a safe 21 (in my mind).

********************************************************************

Blame it on just having my second child, or whatever else you want to.
BUT this birthday HIT ME LIKE A TON OF BRICKS!

********************************************************************

Maybe it's because I have known her MY ENTIRE LIFE.
SO... if LEXIE is 30,
that means there is just no way that I'm still 21.

********************************************************************

My mind is still trying to process this.

Picture Time!

2010-07-12T13:47:00.003-06:00

Last week my awesome friend ANNIE came over to take newborn pictures of Ryan.

This is the only one she has edited so far, there will be more to come. ;)

I LOVE IT!

Want to check out more of her stuff????

Click HERE!

Ryan Jeremy

2010-07-07T21:38:00.004-06:00

HI!!! :)
Sorry for the long delay in posting.
I'll be updating on the last 2 weeks soon....

For now though,
you'll need to know that "his" name is
RYAN JEREMY
and we love him!

Ryan had his two week check up on Tuesday.

He now weights in at 7 lbs. 11 ounces

and is 21 inches tall.

Funny story to go along with this picture..

My Mom:"Elizabeth don't kiss Ryan on the lips, just on the top of the head."

Elizabeth: "I'm not kissing him, he's kissing me!"

Another story....

We had a friend in the neighborhood stop by with his daugher tonight to see Ryan. He and his family have been out of town. AFTER visiting with them for awhile and having them leave I realized that I had two (small) ice packs shoved into my sports bra. Did you catch the AFTER!!! Jeremy says he doesn't think he noticed. I hope he's right!

At what point does my brain start to function again?

He's Here!!! / Happy Father's Day

2010-06-20T21:49:00.008-06:00

BABY BOY COON IS HERE!!!!!

No name yet....

Contractions started at midnight and he arrived at 6am.

7 lbs, 7 ounces

18 inches long

We are super excited!

I'll tell more later, but for now here are some pictures.

We are in love!

Bikes

2010-06-18T22:30:00.000-06:00

Elizabeth
LOVES
riding her bike!

Her AWESOME dad has taken her riding nearly everyday.
Some mornings he has even taken her for a little ride before work.

No wonder he is her VERY BEST FRIEND!

May 25th E's 3rd b-day

2010-06-18T22:07:00.015-06:00

ELIZABETH'S 3rd BIRTHDAY!!!!

I've decided to just do big parties on even number birthdays,

so for Elizabeth's birthday we waited until Jeremy got home from work,

opened a few presents, and then headed over to the park to have

cupcakes with a few friends.

Below is a CrAzY amount of pictures.....

Closing her eyes getting ready to see her first presents.

Here is what she saw when she opened her eyes.
the excitement!

Another present....

what was waiting outside.

her reaction.

She had been asking to ride the neighbors bike everyday.

First ride....

don't you love that she has all the safety gear on and no shoes?

She only got to ride for a few minutes before we headed off to the park.

Swinging with Chase.

The cupcakes

blowing out her candles

showing (on her fingers) how old she is now.

digging in

Abraham, Elizabeth, Chase, and Olivia

It wasn't long before all the dads started thinking up things to do.

It started with a race....

(L to R, Jeremy, Dan, Noah, Kenny, and Alan)

running back.

then it was the little kids turn...

On their way back

Now on to the next competition...

a relay race.

Here they are marking out the course.

Jeremy's turn....

Alan's turn...

Kenney...

Next,

on to a jumping competition...

Kenny...

Alan.....

twisting up Chase and Elizabeth...

they loved it!

next competition..

climbing.

Kenny and Alan,

trying to be like this other little kid

that was at the park.

Kenny made it all the way over the top,

ripping his work shirt. :)

And that my friends is the end of the pictures.

Once we got home she opened all her presents from family.

It took quite awhile! I did take pictures of her opening those presents, but really...

how much more do you want to see?

May 24th

2010-06-18T21:58:00.003-06:00

MAY 24th

?!?!?!?!?!?!?SNOW WHAT?!?!??!?!?!?

Yes, you read that right.

This was the snow storm that we woke up to on

MAY 24th

Yup. The day before E's b-day.

May 21st

2010-06-16T23:03:00.003-06:00

May 21st

Jeremy cutting the foundation to make holes

for the bigger windows.

Down in the hole cutting.

He cut about 1/2 way through one night and then did the other 1/2 the next day.

knocking the concrete out from the inside....

leaving this :)

Once that old window frame was out we put in the new windows!

May 19th

2010-06-16T22:53:00.005-06:00

May 19th

Jeremy rented a mini-excavator to dig out the window wells....

Kenny did the 1st one, and then he had to leave and Jer was on his own. :)

watching the entertainment

Jeremy! Lovin it!

E was a little nervous about this....

she's going through a phase where she doesn't like "loud noises"

one more of Jer driving it

aftermath

more aftermath...

May 18th

2010-06-16T22:40:00.004-06:00

MAY 18th....

Bridal Shower for Christina McCarlie

Christina is one of my old Young Women that I've adopted as a younger sister figure. :)

Thankfully my awesome sister-in-law Melissa had all these great

decorations from Sophia's birthday party last year.

All I did was add white roses with limes in the vases.

The "marriage advice" table

Totally dark picture,
This is the spread though!

Ashley and Liz

These girls planned and did the shower with me.

Both of them were Christina's Young Women leaders as well.

Thanks for the yummy food you brought.

Me, Christina, and Ashley.

(as you can see, I didn't have the opportunity to clean

myself up before the party started.... oh well)

Chelsie (another adopted little sister), me, and Christina

This entire group of Young Women have been so fun

to watch grow up into these amazing women!

Opening the presents!

It was a fun night! There are plenty more pictures,

but for the sake of time and not overdoing it I'll leave it at that.

Thanks to everyone who came and everyone who helped!

May 15th

2010-06-16T22:19:00.005-06:00

May 15th...

Well after having the contractor just decide to not show up... Jeremy decided to take it into his own hands to dig the back four windows and get them in before the baby.

I had already planned to be gone with Elizabeth all day this Sat. so that Jeremy could install the windows. By this point the holes should have been dug and the patio should have been gone and hauled away. All that should have been done by the contractor that didn't show.

Before picture of the backyard

Jeremy, hard at work taking out the patio.

A picture to show how little the old window wells were.

All done.

________________________________________________________________

Where did I take Elizabeth?

Up to SLC to see COUSINS!!!

We spent the morning hanging out and playing at Josh and Melissa's.

Then after lunch we packed up and drove the 5 min. to the ZOO!!!

Sophia and E with the giraffes.

They loved watching them eat with their black tongues!

Josh and the kids...

Me and the kids with a monkey,

and apparently something off to our left that I'm missing.

E, me, and Sophia with the Elephants....

can you see the baby elephant in the back? So cute!

I told E to put her arms out.

That's what I got. :)

Walking out of the zoo, I had Jack and E with me.

They both decided that they didn't want to hold my hands anymore and wanted to hold each others. It took twice as long to walk out (Josh came back looking for us) but it was just so cute that I let them take as long as they wanted and snapped a few pictures of them.

I must say, doing a zoo trip when you are 8 months pregnant isn't the smartest thing,

BUT it was really fun, and Elizabeth had a great time!

May 2010

2010-06-10T21:30:00.003-06:00

MAY

is a big month around here.

So I'll update you on what we did in may by what day things happened on. :)

I'll start with Mother's Day -

Nope, no pictures. It was a great day though!

The Sat. before I got a new cell phone!!!!!

I've been needing one for, well, a long, long time.

Then on Sunday, I got a couple of great cards from Elizabeth and Jeremy.

That evening we went to Janice's house for a Watts Family (Jeremy's mom's side) Dinner. Everyone that lives in UT County came. It was really fun to see everyone. Some of Jeremy's cousins have kids that are close in age to Elizabeth so she had a blast with all these "new" cousins to play with!

It was really a wonderful, wonderful, day!

I was thinking (while at Women's Conference) that I LOVE being a mom. It's the best career choice/ life goal that I could have made. Think about it. NO ONE can replace you. EVER. Any other career ends at some point, someone else comes in and takes your spot and that's that. NOT A MOTHER. Nope, you can't just get a new mom.

Preggers

2010-06-02T23:07:00.003-06:00

This post is strictly for me.

I didn't write anything down from my pregnancy with Elizabeth.

I really wish that I had.

So here are some things that I want to remember.

Read on if you want to.....

*I'm now 38 weeks. Only two more weeks... 14 days... to go.
*Zofran worked wonders in my first trimester of pregnancy. Ask for it early next time.
*Braxton Hicks started around the 5 month mark.
*This baby has been a good mover. It's now getting to the point of being more stretching than kicking, but he is still great at letting me know that he's there and alright.
*Acid Reflux started around the 7 month mark. It was manageable for awhile with Pepcid Complete. Around the 8 month mark I had to add Zofran with the Pepcid at night. At 36 weeks I got a prescription that I take twice a day. If I forget to take it at lunch the Acid starts coming up earlier and earlier in the day. If I don't get any sleep, it starts around 9am.
* I am measuring 3 weeks small. It started at 1 week small, then 2, and I've now been measuring 3 weeks small for about 3 weeks. Because of this they did an ultrasound. Everything looks great with the baby. His head is WAY far down on my left side. That might be part of the reason that the measurements were off.
* About two weeks ago sleep started to be a problem. I now sleep in my pillow nest on the day bed in the play room. Because he is so low my hips fall asleep and the pain will wake me up in the night. Or the Acid. Or who on earth knows what. What ever the cause though going back to sleep is always a struggle. Last weekend the migraines started. This means the Pepsi intake has increased. If I can get even a few hours of solid sleep then I don't have a headache. Today I got the okay from the doctor to try Tylenol PM. I hope it helps. Although I also got a message from my mom telling me that Tylenol PM causes her, my brother, and an aunt to have nightmares. Hopefully it doesn't do the same for me. *** UPDATE: Tylenol PM works! YEAH! No nightmares either!****

Wow... that sounds like a huge rant put all together.

I am so happy to be pregnant with this little guy.

I also think that everything that is going on in my pregnancy is so

TOTALLY NORMAL.

Everyone deals with it, so I in now way want this to seem like I'm whining.

I'm not. I just wanted to remember when things started.

Women's Conference

2010-05-29T15:39:00.007-06:00

Women's Conference 2010

BACK STORY:

Close now to 29 years ago, when I was exactly 1 week old, my mother's friend Holly brought her year old little girl Lexie over to meet me. That was the beginning. Lexie and I spent every minute that we could together growing up. Running through fields, making forts in hay lofts, playing house in the pantry, playing in the creek, pretending to be pioneers crossing the plains in the snow, playing barbie and my little ponies, ect., ect., ect. I distinctly remember hating when she was old enough to go to school and having to wait for F-O-R-E-V-E-R until she got home to play. Then, the summer before I turned 9 my family moved from small town Snowflake to big city Las Vegas. You would think that would have been the end of our friendship. NOPE. Not us. We wrote back and forth on our Holly Hobby stationary (we both still have the letters) and saw each other every summer. We were bridesmaids for each other at our weddings, and both have families of our own now. We don't talk as often as either of us would like, but I would say that we are still as close as ever.

So, with Lexie turning the big 3-0 this July,

we had big plans.

We thought we'd take a big trip together some where.

No kids, no husbands.

Just the two of us discovering a new city together.

Then we both got pregnant. :)

Lexie is due with her 4th on July 1st

and I'm due with my 2nd on June 17th.

Both boys! Just two weeks apart!

Our big plans changed into Lexie coming here to Provo for Women's Conference.

We'll try again next year for my 30th. :)

If I were on the ball, I would have figured out how to use the printer/copier's scanner

and could now scan in old incriminating pictures of us during all the awkward stages of life.

Maybe now that I've written that sentence,

it's a good thing that I don't know how.

We both had some rough stages...

and were children in the 80's so that wouldn't help.

___________________________________________________________________

Lexie flew in on Wed. (4/29) night

and we got up to start Women's Conference the next day...

Here we are ready to go Thurs. morning!

Showing off the baby bumps!

It was my first time at WC.

IT IS INSANE!!!
MORMON WOMEN AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE!!!

The classes that we got into were wonderful.

Here we are with E. once we got home that night.

we were beat down. :)

This pic. should have been lower down... oh well.

It is to prove that our bellies do get bigger as the day goes on.

After a little breather we met up with NICOLE

for dinner at Los Hermanos.

(again, if I could work the scanner I could add in pictures of the 3 of us in High School when Lexie came to visit, and again when Nicole and I were college roommates and Lexie came.)

After dinner we headed over to Comedy Sports ...

and laughed harder than any of us had in a long time!

Two of my besties - I got the call from BOTH of them at the same time (one on my cell phone and one on the house phone) to tell me that they were getting married.

At Comedy Sports

Both Nicole and Lexie now have 4 children - all around the same ages.

FRIDAY

Lexie and I had gotten a little smarter with fighting for the classes that we wanted at WC.
We got into all the ones we wanted and it was really such a wonderful uplifting day.

Here we are in line to get into one of the classes.

This picture is at the closing of WC. Elder Oaks spoke.

See what I mean? Crazy amounts of women.

When we got home Jeremy had dinner all ready for us and then we headed off for Pedicures.

SATURDAY = Shopping day!

We spent the day going to lunch at Dear Lizzie's

and then shopping at Old Navy, Target, and the Mall.

(Lexie lives in Snowflake/Taylor still so she doesn't have those stores close)
Dinner at CPK and then off to get

Pregnancy Massages

Trying on a headband at Dear Lizzie's

THANK YOU Lex for such a fun, relaxing, pampered, girls weekend!

Also a big THANKS to Jake and Jeremy for taking the kids so we could make this happen.

Week in Pictures

2010-05-28T08:06:00.007-06:00

I saw this post on a great creative blog that I love...

I thought, "what a fun idea! Especially while I'm

a) pregnant (33 weeks)

and

b) have my best friend who is also pregnant in town."

This is a week in pictures of me....

MONDAY

(4/26)

Shirt: Down East

Pants: Gap Maternity

Shoes: Gold Flats from Target (years ago)

Monday Evening

(this is the night we did the yard work FHE)

Shirt: under shirt - Layers, Tank - Target

Capri's: I've had them so long I don't remember

Flip Flops: I've had them so long I don't remember

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TUESDAY

(4/27)

Shirt: Uniqglow (Don't know if' I'm spelling that right, it's in NYC)

Skirt: Old Navy Maternity

Shoes: Nordstrom Rack

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WEDNESDAY - Cleaning Day

(4/28)

Shirt: Gap Maternity/ Under Shirt: Layers

Pants: Hand-me downs from my mom

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THURSDAY
(4/29)

Lexie is HERE!!!!

(I don't know where her clothes are from:)

Shirt: Down East

Pants: Gap Maternity

Shoes: Keens

Sweater: H&M

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FRIDAY

(4/30)

Shirt: H&M (thanks Mindy!)

Pants: Gap Maternity

Boots: Target

Coat: Old Navy (about 10 years old)

Scarf: was my Grandma Binghams

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SATURDAY

(5/1)

Shirt: H&M Maternity/ Under Shirt: Layers

Pants: Gap Maternity

Shoes: Pumas (Nordstrom Sale a few years ago)

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SUNDAY

(5/2)

Early in the morning before taking Lexie to the airport

Dress: Target
Under Shirt: Layers
Boots: Target

Bland

2010-05-24T18:49:00.003-06:00

Below are 3 post catching up on Easter, April, and March....

I'll be the first to say it,

They are bland, typical mass update posts.

If you don't read them or comment - it won't hurt my feelings. :)

Tonight I'm going to try and finish getting caught up the rest of the way
to avoid anymore bland post.

- Amanda

(did I say tonight? I meant tomorrow:)

Easter!

2010-05-24T16:33:00.006-06:00

Easters!

Easter was really great this year!

It fell on the same weekend as General Conference

(don't know what that is? check this out)

As always Conference was wonderful, but this time

there seemed to be so many talks on

families

parenting

and

the importance of Mothers

Maybe those are just the things that stood out to me,

but either way it left me feeling so :

PRIVILEGED

EXCITED

PROUD
HAPPY

to be a mother!

It really made me feel like I have made the best career choice in the world.

***********************************

On Easter Sunday we started off our day

with having Grandma Janice over for

breakfast and an Easter egg hunt

(in doors, it was way too cold outside!)

followed by the 1st session of conference.

Our baskets

(L to R mine, Grandma Janice's, Jeremy's, E's)

opening the baskets and starting the egg hunt

serious egg hunting
(the three videos below are all from the morning)
_______________________________________

Around 5 o'clock we had an Easter dinner with
Josh's Family
Grandma Janice
and
Denice and Craig.

We all had a great time....
I only got two pictures though,
I'm really not good at being the hostess and photographer

The delicious cake that Melissa made.
It was 3 layers with lemon and raspberry filling.
She also made really yummy deviled eggs with bacon!
SO GOOD!

Denice and Craig brought fruit and fruit dip.
correction, the best fruit dip of all time.

Janice made Jeremy's favorite (and his request) cob salad.

With that we had potatoes and chicken and pulled pork.
It was a great dinner!

Here are the 3 younger kiddos and Melissa watching our neighbor fly his plane.

I really am such a slacker for not getting anymore pictures.
Also the Sunday before E did get all dressed up in her Easter dress....
I have yet to get a picture of it. :)

Here are the videos from the morning egg hunt.

April

2010-05-23T22:00:00.009-06:00

This is a random picture to start April off with...

I needed to put it in for me though,

EVERY Friday this van pulls up in front of my neighbors house across the street,

and EVERY Friday I have this twinge of jealousy!

The owners of the van are cleaners.

For my birthday last year Jeremy hired these same cleaners to clean my house for me.

It was one of THE BEST GIFTS of all time!

I know how good they are.

I wish I could get them every Friday too!

_______________________________________________

Moving on....

This is my 3oth week of pregnancy shot.

Taken on April 8th.

(20 weeks picture)

It also showcases the awesome shirt that my

super sweet sister-in-law Mindy mailed to me "just because".

I love it! It's even from H&M one of my all time favorite stores!

________________________________________________________

So TALENTED!

(April 9th)

this is the only picture, but check out the videos at the bottom of this post

to see E in her very first Talent Show!

The Nursery kids sang

"Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes"

and then marched off the stage to "Follow The Prophet"

She's a star!

___________________________________________________________

Here E is helping Daddy....

She loves to "help" with whatever project daddy is working on.

_______________________________________________________

Swimming Lessons!

(April 16th)

E ready to dive in!

(thanks Sophia for the suit!)

Jeremy chastised me for not taking pictures or video to

show E's progress in her swimming class.

So here you go!

This is "the bubble".... it's how we stay warm in the winter months.

When I try to explain it to people they don't always understand, so here's a picture.

Working on the back stroke technique.

Here she is with her teacher "Miss JoD"
and with her partners in crime,
Abraham and Margo.
_________________________________________________________

Gigi had and AWESOME 1st b-day party!
(April 17th)

She had a clown that did balloon animals (or flowers in this case)
and another clown that did face painting!

All the other pictures are on Jeremy's phone,
but when we got home I took these of E's butterfly face and flower balloon

poser!

still too excited from the party to stay still.

______________________________________________________________

On April 26th

we did a service project FHE with the

Larsen Family

Gehring Family

and Horne Family!

We all went out and did a little yard work for a neighbor,

then came in and frosted sugar cookies.
All the kids (with the moms help) frosting cookies.

All our cookies!

The group of kids hanging out watching a movie after.

(L to R Olivia, Chase, E, Jayden, Daxton, Skylan, and up front Christian)

Alright... here are all the videos!

March

2010-05-23T21:51:00.009-06:00

March 2010

E is now WAY into forts.....

She finds a small space.....

and crams it full of everything that she can find.

it's fun to come upon a "fort" just to see what's in there.

_____________________________________________________________

We started
POTTY TRAINING
(March 6th)

Scary, scary, scary...
she is doing pretty good at it though....
this picture is from the first time that she "earned" a toy!

oh, and she doesn't smile pretty for pictures anymore.
________________________________________________________

On March 20th I went up to SLC
to a book signing....

Who's book you might ask?

Lindsey Taylor aka L Tay :)
She is a friend from High School. Well, more of a friend that I claim.
She was a grade older than I was and sometimes we got to hangout.

ANYWAY - she just got published!
It's a young adult novel called

PRINCESS FOR HIRE

It's really clever and just all around a great read!
I LOVED IT!
It is published by Disney/ Hyperon and is the 1st,
yes, you read that right 1st young adult book that Disney has put their name on.

BIG DEAL.
They also had her make it into a series.
ANOTHER BIG DEAL!
Yeah!!! More books to come!

Here she is all grown up....

She is now Lindsey Leavitt, published author.

Signing for some cute fans of hers!

Signing for me! :)

I'm so happy for her... she is one of those girls from HS that you always

knew would do great and when they do you can't help but be excited for them!

_________________________________________________________________

Jonah Bear turns 2!

(March 21st)

Here he is sporting his new gun...

TOUGH!

This was fun for a few reasons......

we got to hang with family!

we got to hang with an old roommate of mine (Tanya)

and see her cute new baby boy!

we were able to spend Jonah's 1st birthday with him too at the beach last year!

testing the frosting

LOVING the cake!

Happy Birthday cute boy!

** as a side note: I'm loving having Josh's family close. Elizabeth gets so excited when we get to see "cousins"! Jack and Jonah are both getting more and more used to me so they'll let me cuddle them a little more each time I see them.

Oh, and a cute story....

The other day I had french braided E's hair and

when I took it out at night her hair was all wavy,

I told her to go look at it in the mirror and when she saw it she said,

"I have Sophia hair!"

SHE WAS SO PROUD!

She wouldn't let me wash it for two days.

_______________________________________________________

A favorite past-time

(when we actually have nice weather)

around here is playing with chalk.

Jeremy drew E some large animals, AND

taught her how to do chalk outlines of people...

Don't be alarmed if you drive by and see one. :)

(notice in the picture above E's chalk outline under the giraffe)

Finally posting

2010-03-26T17:43:00.002-06:00

Hello all...

I've finally gotten a little caught up.

Below there are two HUGE post catching you up on all of January and February.

If you don't want to look at it all, now worries.....

Daddy Daughter

2010-03-26T11:25:00.005-06:00

L-O-V-E IT!!!!

Growing up I loved dancing with my dad,

I'm so glad that my girl has such a great dancing daddy too!

February

2010-03-26T11:07:00.012-06:00

February 2010

Remember when I got this wonderful Mother's day gift?

Well, we finally got our first lime!

It was delicious!

*************************************************************************

For some reason we really didn't get too many pictures with Uncle Josh while he was here.

Here he is busting a move with E.

As a side note, it is now 2 months since he stayed with us and still
every single day Elizabeth works him into conversation.

She'll be dividing out fake food and say,
"one for me, one for daddy, one for uncle Josh, one for Aba...."

Really EVERY DAY! She loved having him here.
I love having him and his entire family so close now!

***********************************************************************

One thing that is a big hit at our house right now is

BlAnKeT fOrTs!
Also jumping on the top and destroying them when your done.
Check out the

HOT MESS OF HAIR

that E has from crawling around in her fort.

Oh, yeah. It's a good look.

*********************************************************************
Valentines Day
was very good to Elizabeth.
A few days before we got a couple of packages in the mail...

G.G. sent some great dress up dresses
Aunt Aimee sent ME two beautiful bracelets that she
made from my Grandmothers old buttons
(E just got to wear them for a few minutes)
Grandma Suz and Grandpa Rich sent a box full of goodies
that included the smile/frown face that she loves!

Here come the pictures:
This is now the face that she pulls when I ask her to smile.

Have I mentioned before how she is
OBSESSED
with checking her toe jam?

She'll even tell you that's what she's doing.
She'll stop in the middle of whatever she's doing (like twirling in the mirror here)

pull off her socks and check for toe jam.

CRAZY KID!

Just a cute one.

She took a break to "discover"

ALICE IN WONDERLAND

for the first time.

She liked it... for a bit. Here is the Happy/Sad face that she got.

It's so that she can sing that song...

"If you chance to meet a frown, do not let it stay.

Quickly turn it upside down and smile that frown away."

She loves that song!

***********************************************************************

A huge past time that we have taken up is

Sidewalk Chalk

We have some warm beautiful days every now and then,

the first thing we do is
text friends if they want to play outside and then we:

head outside with the chalk.

It makes us SOOOO happy!

*****************************************************************************
The only picture from the real

Valentines Day

She made Jeremy this card.

He got her this flower.

When he handed it to her she smelled it and said,

"MMMMM. No bees, no flys."

She then had to sleep with it for a few weeks. :)

**************************************************************************

Grandpa Richie got to come to town for a weekend!

He had to come to SLC for a meeting and made a long weekend out of it.

This is the only picture that I got.

Sorry.

We had loads of fun with him though.

Elizabeth got to go on a date with him and Uncle Paul one night,

and he took Jeremy and I out to a new restaurant in Provo called

Communal another night. It was delicious. If you haven't been there. go.

Thanks again Grandpa Rich!

**************************************************************************
Here are some updated pictures of the

"TURN THE HOUSE UPSIDE DOWN"

project. You can see some before's here if you want to compare.

We got our new couch!!!!!!

Isn't it great?

We got a great deal over President's Day weekend.

This couch now faces this...

The new projector screen with the new surround sound.

Once the weather gets a little better, Jeremy is going to build in an

entertainment unit to fit below the screen and house all the mess of cords and equipment.

Elizabeth's big girl room is coming along....

Here is the before paint color.

and the after.

It's called Morning Breeze by Olympic Paint

Pretty, no?

Here was my lay out plan to try to decide on pillows and sheets.

I went to Target and Wallmart and got everything

that they had that would match the quilt that I made.

layed it all out...

and decided on these. :)

The fabric pinned up is for me to make a pillow case out of,

and the little patchwork pillow is fabric for me to make a little pillow out of as well.

(* she is now sleeping in her big girl bed, and everything is all made and looks great.

I'll post pictures of that soon)

I've decided that instead of getting rid of Grover,

he will now live in E's room as a reading chair. :O)

He matches perfectly.

A couple of pillows out of the left over fabric from the quilt and he'll be good to go.

January

2010-03-26T10:54:00.013-06:00

January 2010

Future Cheerleader practice to get this party started.

This years snowsuit,

it's only come out a couple of times... not too much snow this year.

******************************
While Jeremy was painting the downstairs living room
he came across a surprise!

(doesn't it look nice? Powder Sand is the perfect whiteish/cream color)

"AMANDA! You've got to come see this!"
When I got to the base of the stairs he was standing there with his smirk...
those of you who know him can picture this right now, can't you?

He starts knocking on the outer wall of our house..
knock, knock, knock, THUD, THUD, THUD

The wall is hollow.

WHAT THE?!?!?!
The smirk is now a full blow smile.

We start throwing out phrases like...
One Eyed Willey
Gold Bars
Old War Bonds
Dead Body

it was a really fun Goonies moment.

"Should I drill into it and see what it is?"
"DUH! You know you can't resist anyway."

With the rod in the hole

How deep the hole is....
WOW!
What did we find?
Nothing. :)
The hollow space goes about a foot from the wall on Jeremy's left

into the room and goes all the way from the ground to the attic.

A big empty, super clean (not even a cobweb) hole.

"They must have measured wrong when the poured the foundation", I say.
"No, Those guys didn't make mistakes back then"
HA!
Anyway, it was a really exciting 20 minutes.
*********************************************************************
Remember this post? Or this one?

About my super sicko kid?
Here is what she looked like during that time...

One of the days that she didn't want to get dressed.

Plus, she only sat still enough for me to braid 1/2 of her head into a french braid.

It was my attempt to try and keep the boogers out of her hair.

Nice!

***************************************************************
We really haven't had a bad winter this year.

Pretty snow.

We woke up to this one Sunday morning.

It was the Sunday that E discovered

MY LITTLE PONIES

for the first time.

She found my old ones that my mom saved.

(Thanks MOM!)

This picture is for Lexie

Remember how excited we were when the very first

boy my little pony came out?

*LUCKY*

My mom surprised us each with our very own one day.

It was awesome!

************************************************************
Prego Shots....

Here I am in all my pregnant glory at 20 weeks

I just love this pose, so I'll copy everyone else and do it.

*********************************************************

At the end of January

**UNCLE JOSH**

came to visit!

We got to have him all to ourselves while he looked for a

home and work up in SLC.

He introduced us to

The Lotty Berk Method

a workout video that is mainly a mix of Pilate's and yoga

He and Jer did it every other day.

It was working too. :)

feel the burn

Elizabeth getting in on it

hold it! hold it!

Hello again..

2010-02-22T22:02:00.011-07:00

This isn't going to be a big important update.

Soon (fingers crossed) I'll be doing
one of those annoying
"this is what we've been up to this last month"
post with tons of actual pictures that I've taken.

BUT that, my friends, is not tonight.

I just thought I'd say "Hello" again.
Sorry that I haven't updated, to those of you who care (MOM:),
and that I'll try to do so soon.

Right now all my nap-times and bed-times are being taken up with....

moving things from room to room in my "turn the house up-side-down project"
binding E's quilt
sewing pillows and curtains
and I'll admit.. sleeping (I am 5 months prego after all)

YES, I am aware that there are plenty of people that do all these things, have more children than I do, keep their houses clean, and still have time to blog.....

I, however, have not mastered that yet.

For now, I'll post some pictures that I've found of pillows that are inspiring what I'm doing right now. When I narrow down exactly what ones I'm going to use, I'll post where I found these pictures and give everyone due credit (I'm just to tired to do so right now).
Here they are.. enjoy!

It's A.....

2010-01-22T19:46:00.012-07:00

Lets see if you can guess.

Our lives will now be filled with more......

Yup... you guessed it.

It's a BOY!!!!

3-0 yup.....

2010-01-19T22:38:00.003-07:00

Remember a few years back (not all that long ago) when I could be heard to say a sentence like this....

"My friend that's older than us, she's like 30

or something like that, she......."?

I totally can't say that anymore,

because somehow I got YEARS older in a matter of MONTHS.

Or at least that's how it feels. :)

<><><><><><><><><><>

I just realized that with my friend Ashley's

{totally rockin' 70's Disco 30th birthday party}

on Friday, it kicked off with a BANG the beginning of

many, many close friends turning 30 this year and next.

I'm now in the age bracket.. I'm now the

"friend who's like, way older than us like, 30 or something."

(okay maybe the valley girl accent was a little much)

I'm really not freaking out about this,

even though I realize that's how this post is going to sound.

I'm more... excited I guess.

I have so many good friends who are already in their

30s, 40s, and on...

that I love and look up too.

It seems like the older you get the better you get...

so BRING IT!

I could be singing a different tune later though,

for now I'm a safe 28 until September.

All I know is that the next few years are going to be FULL of memorable parties! ;)

Sometimes it just hits ya...

2010-01-16T14:24:00.005-07:00

The update is that Elizabeth.....
*is getting two molars at once, and has a runny nose from it....
*the runny nose turned into a cold....
*the cold became an ear infection and double eye infection.
{ AWESOME !!!}
Sleep was scarce this last week for all 3 of us.
BUT, now it's over and we can laugh about it..... HA! HA! HA! HA!

~~~~~

Anyway- on one of the days, following a particularly bad night, by about 9pm I had had it.

I got a little moody and I could tell that Jeremy had gone

to the basement to hide-out until I was over it.

That made me feel worse,

so I went downstairs, and asked him if that is what he was doing.

When he said, "um...sort of" I started to cry.

He came over, hugged me and asked what I needed.

"Do you want to ..

read a book?

blog?

watch Divine Design?

or do you need to just cry on my shoulder for a minute?"

That was it.

Cry for a minute.

While I was taking my 5 minute cry break

he gently got me all curled up on our blue rocker

(lovingly named Grover in HS by Nicole),

tucked a blanket around me and

started to play some relaxing music while he went back to work.

Nice stuff, like:

Coldplay, Jamie Cullum, The Strokes, Aundra Bocelli, etc.

When he played "Hey Jude" by these guys..

a line just hit me.

"And anytime you feel the pain, hey Jude, refrain.

Don't carry the world upon your shoulders."

I know this was a long story to get to this point.....

Don't you just love it when the right phrase comes along

at the right moment and makes it all alright?

Do-Nothing

2010-01-12T20:00:00.003-07:00

Today would be what I would call a

{Do-Nothing Day}

"What is that?", you might ask? (or not, but I'm going to tell you anyway)

A {do-nothing day} follows this pattern:

*It is usually proceeded by a night with little or broken sleep (E has a nasty cold) where you wake up feeling like this...

*Despite the lack of sleep, you usually start out the day thinking of all the great things that you can get done at home today (because clearly it is a Pajama day for you and the kiddo) like organizing a closet, cleaning the bathrooms, etc. (mine was tackling all the laundry, including chair cover, towels, and rugs)

*By about 9:30-10am you are well on your way to accomplishing these things.
(laundry sorted and the first few loads started)

*Then comes the "derailment". Someone calls, stops by, etc.
(the child that was up all night is so tired she has now decided that
she is going down and taking you with her)

*Said derailment takes over until lunch, at which time you start dreaming of

NAP TIME {long sigh}

and all the vigor of the mornings "get-er-done" attitude returns.

*BUT WAIT!!! Derailment you're back? For a second round? WHAT?!?!?!? Followed by:
Round 3 - winner = derailment
Round 4 - winner = derailment
ROUND 5 - NEW DERAILMENT INTRODUCED. The neighbor stopping by, the phone call that you (in all your pj glory) have to go out into the world to do "something" for "some-one" , etc.

*It is now around 4pm. Your loving hubby will be home soon. The only thing you have to show for such a taxing day is a bigger mess created by you only getting 1/2 way into that great cleaning project. Oh.. and dinner-time, that will be coming soon. You now find yourself feeling like this....

THAT my friends is a {Do-Nothing Day}.
One where all the wonderful intentions of a {Do-Something Day} are there,
but never quite make it.

Luckily I'm married to the BEST guy in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD,

who came home from work and took E to play giving me the night off!

He is WONDERFUL and I'm totally glad that he still keeps me around!

Color Correction & E moments

2010-01-10T19:05:00.003-07:00

COLOR CORRECTION:
Provence Creme
Was more like Provence YELLOW!
The color has now been changed to Powder Sand. It's a beautiful creamy color with just a little hint of yellow.

ALSO :
I just wanted to note a few fun things that Elizabeth has been doing lately.....

My daughter has inherited my love of

O-O-reos (what's in the middle?)

Even though I've explained that they are called Oreos she still asks for

"The White Stuff"

She says ChickEE for Chicken.

A phrase I hear very often is, "um...no thank you".

When she pretends to read it goes something like this...

"Sha-ha-ha.. Sha Ha. Sha-ha-ha."

G.G. taught her how to say, "TA DA"

while holding her arms out and pointing one toe. She does it over and over.

Grandma Suz sent her a very LARGE fake spider for Christmas,

She loves it!

She had to take it to swimming the other day to show her friends.

She will also hunch over and sneak up on you with it!

That's all I can remember right now. :)

Decoration Station

2010-01-08T21:36:00.003-07:00

Here is what we are up too....

Before baby #2 comes,

I'd like to move all our bedrooms to the 3 rooms downstairs.

With that comes some work.... :)

During the big update that I will do I'll put in much more about this... but this is a picture of our basement right before we started "the work". See how tiny the windows are? See how dumb it was to cover up the beautiful red brick fireplace with a projector screen? These are things that are getting fixed....

old tiny windows

New, pretty/ let the light shine in / bigger windows

Jeremy has also:
*Changed the lighting from just two fixtures in the long room
to 6 can lights all equipped with dimmer switches.
_________________
*Moved the Projector and Screen to no longer block the fireplace,
but fit perfectly horizontally in the room
_________________
*Wired in a new surround sound system, and all the cords that go with said system,
the TV, the projector, the vhs/dvd player, and Xbox. (As in, all the cords are now hidden BEHIND walls, instead of running along them).
_________________
*Had a dry-waller come and repair holes from said project above.
_________________
*Primed the walls and ceiling and is "as I type" painting the ceiling.

__________________
*Tomorrow will paint the walls in the living room
BEHR Provence Creme
What I am hoping will be a soft creamy, yellow color
to bring out the pretty tones in the red brick fire place
and accentuate the pretty white trim around the new windows.
__________________

QUITE A GUY! NO?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We also found these great dark brown leather club chairs
(for a wonderful price) to flank the fireplace....
No picture yet,
they are buried in a room while the painting is happening.

***
I also saw a great idea in my BHG magazine that Santa gave me,
I couldn't find the picture of the one in the magazine,
but it was something like this...

Only it was hidden storage, behind doors.
WHAT A GREAT IDEA!
I've been wondering about toy storage.
The picture that I liked just had one compartment at the
base of the stairs with a wire basket on wheels.
*********
I am currently trying to talk Jeremy into making this happen.
He agrees it's a great idea,
it all depends on if he wants to put the effort in or not.
*********
(I'll keep looking for a picture of what I'm really thinking,
Or if it comes to it take a picture of the picture in my magazine)
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Also, in the month of FEB. we will start the big search for
a couch, not just any couch...
A couch with a chaise on the left side. :)

*****************************************************
Next room to paint will be Elizabeth's new room.
Only I'm a little stuck on what color to do.

I finished her twin bed quilt....

here it is in progress

here it is with the borders on.

All it needs is to be quilted.

Can you see how many colors are in this thing?

I know that I want to stay with the

light, barely there, color style

that the rest of the house will have.....

but in what color????

Silly Symphonies

2010-01-07T14:00:00.003-07:00

We L-O-V-E YouTube and here is why....

SiLlY sYmPhOnIeS

If you type silly symphonies into the search bar on the home page then you get all these GREAT cartoons from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.

We watch these all the time at our house, mostly during breakfast and lunch. :) It's a great way to get Elizabeth to sit still while I do her hair.

She loves them too, because they have so many that she also has books of, like....

*The three little pigs *The wise little hen *The little house *The Tortoise and the Hare *The ugly duckling *Ferdinand the Bull *Little Toot, etc. etc.

Here are a couple of my favorite... it was really hard to limit it to two, so if you have a second go check out some more. I promise you won't be disappointed.

Every Cowboy Needs A Horse

All The Cats Join In

Some of our other favorites are:

Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed, Pecos Bill, Casey at the Bat, Casey Bats Again, The Brave Engineer, Johnny Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet, Susie the little blue coupe, Lambert the sheepish Lion, The cookie Carnival, Funny Little Bunnies, Morris the Midget Moose, Elmer the Elephant, Tales of Brer Rabbit (Yes this is the "Zippity Do Dah, Zippity A one), All the old Goofy's How To..., All the Old Mickey Cartoons, etc, etc.

You get it!

We are Fans!

2010-01-05T22:57:00.007-07:00

MoVeMeNt

That's right.... there is now movement.
{Everyday} (said like Nacho Libre)
This is MY VERY FAVORITE PART of pregnancy.

******
MMMMM......... Keep Movin' and Shakin' baby Coon, Mama loves it!

Word 'em up....

2010-01-05T21:48:00.002-07:00

I went to Google images to find a good picture with my

{ word of the year }

on it and found these....

HA!

Not exactly what I had in mind,

but I thought they were funny enough to share.

Little girl is getting big

2010-01-05T21:17:00.004-07:00

I signed Elizabeth up for

PRE-SCHOOL

today!

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Yes, my friends you read that right.... pre-school.

It will start in August, but here in the land of many children

you have to sign them up early or you won't get a spot any where.

I know what you are thinking...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

How did she go from this...

to this.....

so fast?

I have no idea.
All I know is that my little girl is growing up a little too fast.

I LOVE my job!

2010-01-04T11:07:00.003-07:00

I realize that the last post may have sounded like I don't like my job...

but that is WrOnG!!!

How could I not love being the mom of this little girl?

dress- up at Grandma Suz's

Don't worry, it's Sprite!

Jeremy's handy-work

cute!

Swimmin'!

At church... during a prayer.

My two favo people!

(all pictures are courtesy of Jeremy's iPhone.

We finally downloaded all the pictures from the year)

I really do love my job!

Privacy 101

2010-01-03T22:17:00.004-07:00

I know it's my fault somehow.

I just can't quite figure out how I could have changed it....

Every time I go to the bathroom,

even for a quicky potty break,

the door ends up open and stays open.

E always picks that time to show me a book, give me a booger she's just picked, etc, etc.

*****

Now I know what you are thinking... lock the door.

Tried that... but is it really worth the

knocking and the yelling "mama?, mommy?, MOM?!?!?!"

or the "where are you mom?"

or the crying at the door,

OR the shoving small things under the door.

*****

I'm not sure when this started, or how to fix it...

I feel though, that now it's how things are going to be.

As soon as I get #1 cured of this and teach her about bathroom privacy,

#2 will be at the follow mom everywhere stage.

*****

It will end sometime though, right?

RIGHT????

*****

(All of this goes for shower time too, normally.

Which results in less leg shaving time.

Oh the joys of Motherhood! )

One Little Word

2010-01-01T13:23:00.002-07:00

HaPpY nEw YeAr !!!!

I hope that you all had a wonderful night last night saying "goodbye" to 2009 and "hello" to 2010.

We spent it in.

Just us 3.

It was wonderful. :)

SO ... I try to not be a "blog-stalker", but there is a blog that I love to read. I don't totally consider it "blog-stalking" because it is the blog of a woman that was in my photography class last year (you can see some about that here and here). She gave us her blog address to K.I.T. and so really, I'm not some stranger who found it. Anyway, her name is Marie and I think she's pretty entertaining. She's strong too, she's got a cute little boy with Autism and seems to be wonderful and dealing with that hurdle.

ANYWAY - this long story does have a point. I saw on her blog (here) about a

[word for the year].

Marie got it from Ali Edwards Blog.

I LOVE this idea

Those of you who have known me for any time at all know how much I love

** WORDS **

So I've decided to do this ...

My word of the year,

the one I will try very hard to incorporate into my everyday life,

is.....

{ Potential }

I used to focus so much on this and I think that is the time in my life that I was the most creative and happy. Realizing my own potential. Only now it takes on more. It's my job to help my little girl (and the new baby when he/she gets here) to realize their potentials, and to help my husband see his.

Hopefully this will help me to not get so stressed out this year and to just focus on the good.

Hopefully.

*** side note : I've also decided to not start the year off 6 months behind on blogging. So I'll fill in that gap as I have time, but I'm just going to start right up and hopefully not get to far behind this year. ***

To Do List

2009-12-29T21:04:00.003-07:00

Hello again...

I realize that I am way behind, so I'm going to make myself a little "To Do" list here so that I don't forget anything as I'm catching up. Also, this will give you an overview of what's been going on with us.

TO DO LIST

JULY

4th of July

Fabric Booth

Demolition Derby

Jeremy and E's camping trip

Payson Canyon family hike

___________________________________________________________________

AUGUST

Ward Campout

Cascade Springs Hike

Water Slide Fun

Swimming Lessons

___________________________________________________________________

SEPTEMBER

My Birthday

Family Pictures

Started Work on the House

____________________________________________________________________

OCTOBER

Denice and Craig's Wedding

Buying our 1st Home

New Windows

10 year High School Reunion

Enrichment Marathon Month

____________________________________________________________________

NOVEMBER

I'm PREGNANT! :) and sick

E's Swine Flu

Papa's Accident

Susan to the Rescue

Thanksgiving in Virginia

____________________________________________________________________

DECEMBER

Christmas in Arizona

____________________________________________________________________

** notes to the "I'm Pregnant" announcement..

Due June 17th

Will find out what we are having at the end of Jan. **

A Post for Mama

2009-10-02T14:52:00.005-06:00

Hi Mama,

Here are the pictures that you wanted. :) It was easiest to post them here.

BBB,

Sood

Finished product - I'm not sure if you can really see the blue paint, but it looks great!

Just being cute with all her babies this morning.
(notice that the bear you gave her is included. He's a "baby" too)

Aunt Karen's Yo-yos.
They are both on their own clip, but I thought it looked
cute with both of them on.

I had her do a little photo shoot for you...

It didn't last long. :)

Hello old friend

2009-09-18T06:47:00.003-06:00

Hello again blogging world.

You probably thought I'd forgotten about you,

or that I just didn't care anymore.

WRONG.

I'm back. Maybe I'll be able to get caught up,

if I try really hard. :)

Two Birds Fabric

2009-09-18T06:14:00.005-06:00

Somewhere during the "dull" months of May and June

we decided to start a small business with our friend Carol-Lyn.

TWO BIRDS FABRIC

You can check it out

here at our etsy site

here on our blog

Father's Day Pictures

2009-09-18T05:21:00.006-06:00

For Father's Day this year I surprised Jeremy

(and our Grandpa's)

with pictures of Elizabeth.

All taken by the talented

Jessie Oneal

We went to a poppy field up in Alpine.

Pretty, Pretty, Pretty

Enjoy!

30 ain't old!

2009-09-18T05:20:00.000-06:00

Jeremy turned the big 3-0 this year.

His birthday was on a Sat.

So this is how his weekend went.......

___________________________________________________________________

Thursday -

I surprised him at the end of his workday

with is best friend Jared Barnhart from Minn.

We went to dinner and when we got home there was a surprise party waiting for him -

complete with about 20 friends crammed into our kitchen waiting to jump out and yell "Surprise!".

___________________________________________________________________

Friday through Sunday -

He headed off to an all expense paid

BOY (notice I didn't say MAN)

weekend in MOAB (his favorite place) with Jared, Kenny, and Alan.

I'd say he was happy with how it went. :)

All shy, at the party.
The rest of these pictures were taken on Jared's Iphone.
I still need to get the ones that Jeremy has on his phone.

with the cake,
apparently when you get this old it's just to hard to blow out the candles.

Jeremy, Kenny, and Al

Stuck

ummm....I'd say they had a good time.

Alan, Kenny, Jeremy, and Jared

(again, BOYS weekend :)

Memorial Day

2009-09-18T05:05:00.004-06:00

Here is Elizabeth with Denice and her boyfriend Craig

(because I am blogging this 4 months late, they are now engaged!)

Us at the American Fork Cemetery,

with Grandma and Grandpa Watts

Just a cute one. :)

Everyone. :)

Howard and Vickie had us all over this night for hamburgers.

It was a blast, we always have fun with the Watts relatives.

The next day we went with Janice up to see the girls.

This is the "namesake" photo.

Us with Kelly and Jennifer.

Grandma and Grandpa Coon

There are SO many bunnies at this cemetery .....

Elizabeth had a BLAST chasing them all down.

2009-09-18T05:03:00.001-06:00

6 years

and still goin' strong!

I don't have any pictures of our anniversary,

it got lost in the shuffle of everything this year.

I do however LOVE my boyfriend,

I'm still SO thankful he picked me.

Elizabeth's 2nd Birthday

2009-09-18T04:44:00.004-06:00

Elizabeth Turns 2

I can hardly believe that 2 years have gone by.

That happened FAST!

What better way to celebrate than to have a swimming party!?

(Margo, Abraham, Emily, Chad, and E)

We pulled out 3 pools, 2 shade tents, and some food and called it good.

(Far pool: Inez and Gwen, White pool: Abraham, Blue pool: Emily, Chad, & E, Standing: Margo)

It was such a nice day out. Perfet day for swimming,
but not to hot to sit outside either.

Here is her M&M cake

Thank heavens for Parents magazine and their great ideas!

Fighting the urge to pick off the m&ms and eat them.

(After she blew out her candles, we let all the kids just pick at this cake

and the adults had peices of the other one.)

Blowing out the candles.

I made this blue skirt for her, and she didn't want anything to do with it. :)

Notice her sitting on Denice's lap.

This is her friend Margo who was head over hills for it.

The best part however was Abraham's reaction to it.....

This picture makes me laugh every time I see it!

I love this kid!

THANK YOU

to everyone who came and

to everyone who called and

to everyone who spoiled her rotten this day!

Wow!

2009-08-17T13:22:00.002-06:00

Alright -

I know that you all haven't heard from me in awhile.....

I'm working on fixing that.

BUT my fabric store is being featured on

Today's Give Away !

So, go check it out and enter to win!

Update

2009-06-15T23:09:00.003-06:00

Alright - Blogger is not letting me post normally tonight. SO, there won't be commentary with all the pictures of the wedding. BUT when I have the time to put the pictures on, I've got to do it. So here you go, all of you (MOM) who have been wanting to see pictures of the wedding. I'll try to come back and clean up these posts when blogger starts acting normal.

Reception

2009-06-15T23:00:00.005-06:00

At the Temple and Central Park

2009-06-15T22:52:00.005-06:00

Day Before the Wedding...

2009-06-15T22:35:00.007-06:00

I can't seem to get my posting to work in a way where I can see the pictures while I'm commenting.... SO I'll just do a summary of what was going on now and let the pictures speak for themselves.

The day before Jami got married, we went to her apartment to help her move the last of her things out. As we were going to leave, her car called it quits. This is the picture of all of us trying to push start her car. We left the car there, pilled everyone and everything into one car and headed over to her new place. From there the girls went to get our nails done, and a few of us got a little massage there. :) Then the rest of the family came and met us at a pizza place, the only picture that I have of that is the one of Mindy with all three girls on her lap. After pizza we loaded up and went to meet the Gordon-Smith family at karoke. There aren't many pictures of this, but the ones that we have are not flattering. It was a blast though!

Great Quote

2009-05-26T15:15:00.003-06:00

I saw this quote on a friends

facebook page.

LOVED IT.

"The homemaker has the ultimate career.

All other careers exist for one purpose only -

and that is to support the ultimate career. "

— C.S. Lewis

Mother's Day

2009-05-13T05:10:00.002-06:00

I am the LUCKIEST girl ever!

I was able to sleep in on Mother's day, that was the gift that I'd asked for.

When I woke up I had this lime tree (!) and a beautiful bouquet of freshly cut lilacs.
for church I decided to try curlers.
I was thinking it might be a great idea for the wedding.

Ha! My little Shirley Temple.

Mother and Daughter before church.

After church. The loves of my life! With the cute lime tree they gave me.

not the best picture of me, but a family shot.

one more cute one of my girl.

I've just got to say that I feel like the luckiest girl in the world. I have the best family a girl could ask for. I also have the best Mother and Mother-in-law in the WORLD!

Happy Mother's Day

to all those wonderful Mothers out there that I look up to.

Paint and Fluffily

2009-05-13T05:05:00.003-06:00

Things to note:

Liz painted Elizabeth's toenails and fingernails for the first time.

SHE LOVES IT!

and... fluffily hair.

When I was little I would beg my mom to do my hair like this.

I called it fluffliy. I wanted it to be like this so that I would look like my

Grandma Bingham's dog Shaps, who was a cocker spanial. :)

Playdate

2009-05-13T04:57:00.002-06:00

Last Friday we got to have both

ABRAHAM and MARGOT

over to play!

I love that Elizabeth has these cute little friends in our ward.
laughing at each other jumping into pillows

With Liz and baby Gigi. Liz is teaching them how to use their harmonicas.

Margot moved too fast for me to get her in this shot.

They are watching a little bit of Little Einsteins.

Thanks for playing! Lets do it again soon!

Elizabeth in AZ

2009-05-13T04:42:00.004-06:00

Thanks to my mom and Aimee sending pictures

I can see just how spoiled Elizabeth was in Arizona

while we were in San Fran.

Her trip started out at the Tuckers. :)

Here she is with Nathan doing one of her favorite things,

getting pushed around in clean laundry.
Another favorite!

and another.

With Jeff and Grant making mud pies.

Another of her favorite things to do. Play in mud!

I don't have any pictures with Nina (their dog),

but I know that is one of her favorite things too!

I couldn't imagine a better day for this little girl. Thanks again Tuckers!

At G.G.'s house she got to see Fuzzy again!

and was spoiled rotten!

playing in the back yard

ha! I love this one.

Swimming at G.G.'s with Nathan, Jeff, and Grant

Celebrating Uncle Bryant's birthday!

THANK YOU everyone for making her visit so much fun!

Strep Throat

2009-05-04T15:24:00.002-06:00

I guess there are some advantages

to having STREP THROAT...

I am finally caught up on blogging.

FINALLY.

This is a great thing because the month of May is packed.

here is what we have comming up....

Jami's Wedding

Elizabeth's 2nd birthday

Our 6th Anniversary

and at the beginning of June

Jeremy's 30th birthday.

Women's Conference 09

2009-05-04T15:07:00.002-06:00

Women's Conference 2009

brought my oldest (as in the friend I've

had the longest, not my 90 year old friend)
Lexie, her sister-in-law Randa, and mother Holly.

It was great to see them. Because I had a RS thing that I couldn't

miss on Thurs. I only had Friday night to hang out with them.

After classes ended on Friday we went to eat and then watched

a movie at the house. After the movie I pulled out old letters and

pictures of us and we all had a good laugh. Like laugh until

you are crying laugh. It was wonderful!

E and I with Lexie.

It was so great to see her!

April Videos!

2009-05-04T14:35:00.005-06:00

Here are some fun videos

of what we've been doing this April.

Fun with Daddy

Her newest trick

The evil laugh...

and last but not least....

Her 2nd birthday present... a little early. :)

Jeremy has already modified the pedal so she

can push it easily.

Thurs. continued

2009-05-04T13:38:00.009-06:00

After we left Alcatraz,

we met up with Carol-Lyn and Mindy at

Ghiridelli (sp?) Square for lunch before they

had to catch their plane.

Then we picked up our rental car

and headed across the....

Golden Gate Bridge!

It was so beautiful! The little towns on the other side

were so, so cute!

Once we got to the Muir Forest, we realized that we

were exhausted. So....

we layed down at took a 1 1/2 hour nap. :)

That was THE SMARTEST thing that we did!

Once we woke up we were ready to hike.

There was a 2 mile hike

mapped out, so we did that one.

It was BEAUTIFUL!

How to tell how old a tree is. :)

Beauty!

The pretty kind of moss on trees.

cool roots!

The bridge with San Fran in the background.

us again.

Then back over the bridge to Golden Gate Park.

This is one of the windmills on the corner of the park.

After riding around by the park

we made our way down to a beach.

Then we just rode around making our way to

Lombard (I think that's right) street.

We drove through some sort of military town,

It was beautiful! The buildings were all very old, but well kept.

It was cool.

This was the best shot of Lombard street.

Sorry it's so dark, I didn't have much time to get the shot.

Can you see how crooked it is!

Crazy!

Our last stop for the day was Coit Tower.

Here is a view of the bridge from up there.

and to finish the trip off...

Jeremy being a warrior! :)

I'm so glad that I got to tag along! It was a great trip!

Alcatraz

2009-05-04T13:00:00.004-06:00

On Thursday Jeremy was done with the conference

so this was our big play day!

We woke up early and headed to

ALCATRAZ!!!

It was SO cool!

This picture was taken on our way there on the ferry.
Here it is. :)

Alcatraz has so much history! It was a ton of fun to read all

about all the buildings on the island.

This cute little door was off to the side of

a building that was used as a school.

The officers that worked at Alcatraz also lived there

with their families. Did you know that?

I didn't!

When we took the tour of the jail one of the narrators was

Darwin Coon :)

A cell. They are SO small.

Really, it looks bigger than it really is in this picture.

In front of the solitary confinement cells.

when both the bars and the large doors are closed it is

pitch black in there. Like, you can't see your hand

in front of your face.

A typical cell, once they got a warden who aloud painting

and musical instruments.

visitation

The view of San Fran from the island.

On the audio tour one of the inmates said that it was

hard to be there because you were only about a mile and 1/2

from the city and there was no way to get to it.

A day never went by when you couldn't see what you were missing.

This is the way that you entered the prison if you were

coming to visit an inmate, or if you were an

officer reporting for duty.

On "Broadway". This was the worst place to have your

cell because you couldn't see any windows,

and you never had any privacy.

Alcatraz the actual jail, was smaller than I had thought.

There was this hall of cells and then the two sides on either side of this one.

One of the rules from the rule book that each inmate was given.

I'm so glad that we went.