Flashback Friday - Could Those Glasses Be Any Bigger?

Camping In St. George With The Maldonado's

Allyson and Farrah

Steve, Zac & Allyson

Farrah and Bart

Bart and Farrah were living in Provo going to BYU. We went to St. George one weekend and went camping. Guessing by the size of Zac it was probably in 1998. I really think y'all should move back up here. We used to have so much fun. You can't possibly be having that much fun now.

If The Shoe Fits

Apparently you just have to find the right shoes.

Remember the little problem I was having with Addison and her shoes? Well I am here to say PROBLEM SOLVED! She got these shoes for her birthday and she LOVES LOVES LOVES them. She has been wearing them ALL day long and she hasn't taken them off once. If you say to her, "Addy, you have such pretty shoes on", she will look at them and smile and touch them, but she will not take them off.

Birthday Baby

It is hard to believe that a whole year has gone by. On the other hand it seems like Addison has always been a part of our family. She turned one today. We had a little family party for her. I took full advantage of the whole first birthday, don't know what's goin' on thing, and bought her a new high chair that she can't climb out of. I just put the hyper little thing in bed a few minutes ago. She was still on her sugar high. I am sure she is in her bed right now doing flips. You should have seen her. It was pretty funny.

Y'all Better Sit Down For This One

If you have been to my house anytime in the last, oh - 5 years or so, you know that my fireplace has pretty much looked like this:

Only the first 4 years it was minus the hearth. Sometimes there was a sheet hanging over it's ugliness. Sometimes the sheet came down because the fireplace was being "worked on". But now, ladies and gentlemen, hold on to your socks because I am about to unveil my brand new most fabulous, beautiful, complete (except for caulking)(let's not get carried away now) FIREPLACE:

TA DA!

Thank you to Scott and my dear, sweet, wonderful, loving, and very busy, providing, house building husband.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

OK. So here are the promised pictures. Sorry if anyone lost any sleep waiting. Please ignore the fact that some of my children look like orphans. And please ignore the blue painters tape near the ceiling. There is a good reason it is there. We are all decorated and I even got the lights on the bushes outside right before it started snowing. I guess it decided to be winter after all. Just 2 weeks ago I was wearing capris and flip flops. I had to drive to the store this morning in the snow and I remembered how much I do not like it. It made me very grateful that we have been having such nice weather for so long.

Over The Shoulder Boulder Holder

So last night as I was getting ready for bed, I had a great realization. Addison, my sweet little baby would be turning one the next day. That is the day I have been waiting for. I said I was going to nurse her until she was one and then I was done. WOO HOO! She's one and I'm done. I was so excited. I get to wear a normal bra! I started making plans for my nursing bra burning ceremony, after which I would scatter the ashes into the four winds and be free at last. As I was thinking of all the new freedoms I would be enjoying, I realized one luxury I would be giving up. All my shows I record on my DVR, when will I watch them? I watch them when I am feeding Addison. That is the only time I get to sit down and do nothing (kind of) and watch TV. Then this morning in the shower as I was doing my deep thinking (that is the only place that happens because it is the only time I am alone and it is quiet, except for the occasional bursting out into song) and it hit me like a chunk of chewy chocolate brownie that when I stop nursing Addison I lose 10 points. I'm not so excited anymore.

Mini Me X 3

Yesterday before the kids left for school:


Emily: (singing) You say it's your birthday, It's my birthday too yeah. You say it's your birthday, It's my birthday too yeah.


Zac: (singing) You say it's your birthday, It's my birthday too yeah.


Yesterday after school:


Emily & Zac: (singing) You say it's your birthday, It's my birthday too yeah.


Emily: ARRGHHHH! That song is making me crazy I have been singing it all day. And I only know this one part. Someone please tell me the rest of the words!


Zac: Me too. I can't get it out of my head.


Allyson: Do you know who sings that song?


Zac & Emily: (shoulder shrug) No.


Aubrey: It's the Beatles!!!


Score! One point for Aubrey!

Monday Morning Musings

Current Song Stuck In My Head:

WHY??? Why, you wanna know, is that song stuck in my head? This morning when I woke up to feed Addy, Emily woke up too and we watched the Oprah from last week with Hannah Montana and her daddy Billy Ray and they played this song. Heaven help me before I lose my mind. MAKE IT STOP! PLEASE!

My kids wanted to know if they had school today. Heck yes they have school. I can see where they would be confused. It having been so long since we have had a normal week of school and all.

We finally decorated for Christmas for real this time and I was going to post pictures of the kids decorating the tree but someone took my camera with them today. I also have another picture to post of something totally unbelievable and completely mind blowing but you will have to wait for that too. How are you going to make it through the day now?

We cleaned the play room on Friday. You couldn't even walk through it before. It is so nice. For the first few days it really confused me. I would walk out of my craft room/office and think I was in the wrong house.

Steve watched Transformers last night. I watched 1/2 and then naturally fell asleep for the rest. I don't know if I will finish it or not. You know what it's like when something gets built up in your mind and you expect something fabulous and it is just ok? Everyone I know told me how good it was and so I was expecting greatness. I think everyone that told me that was just shocked that it was a watchable movie??? Maybe? I dunno.

I was really bugged by the movie last night because it was like they just threw in all this trash that was so totally unnecessary for the plot and they didn't even do it smoothly, it was very obvious. And it wasn't even funny. I hate that when people do that to books and movies. If your gonna fill my mind with filth I want it to be done casually, not blatantly. OK, I was just kidding. But seriously, that movie was made for teenagers and I think they have enough to deal with they don't need more crap piled on their plate. I just worry because I have a son who will be a teenager soon and I freak out daily about the things he will have to deal with.

Check back later for pictures. I know you are going to be on the edge of your seat all day.

Flashback Friday - Hawked

YIKES! I forgot it was Friday. Here is a picture of my little brother Sam who is in Mexico on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Poor boy had 4 older sisters. We were always fixin' him up somehow.

Elfin Magic

Click HERE to see my little cuties wish you a

Merry Christmas

in their own special way.

Giving Thanks

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. ~John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Mind Your Own D*** Business

OK. So I know there are people who get really upset when total strangers BUTT into their lives and try and tell them how to raise their children. I am not one of those people. I usually just let it go in one ear and out the other. It is a waste of my time and energy to get mad at people such as that. But lately, I have been having a very hard time controlling my emotions over one particular matter.

I have an 11 month old who refuses to have anything on her feet. I could put her socks on 265 times a day and she would pull them off 265 times. Same with her shoes. I can't even begin to tell you how many socks I have lost and how many hours of my life I have spent searching aisles of stores for her shoes. She just takes them off and drops them wherever. And if I don't happened to notice the drop, well, bye-bye shoe.

So when we are at a store (which now that it is the season to be jolly we are finding ourselves at stores more and more often) and she takes her shoes and socks off, I just put them in my purse so that they don't get lost. Most stores that we frequent are heated. I don't feel like there is any imminent danger of frost bite or anything.

Well, I'm abouts to make myself a big ole sign to hang around my neck that says:

"HER SOCKS AND SHOES ARE IN MY PURSE-SHE WON'T KEEP THEM ON-MOVE ALONG AND MIND YOUR OWN

_ _ _ _ BUSINESS!!!"

Because I can't make it through one store without someone stopping me and telling me that I need to put some shoes on my poor baby's freezing feet. And it's really starting to piss me off!

Monday Morning Musings - Every Other Day Of The Week Is Fine

The song that gets stuck in my head everytime I do my Monday Morning Musings:

It's not exactly morning. I spent the morning in Zac's class. They are about to learn about the Colonial period so they were doing activities that had to do with that. I got to help them make candles. It was so very fun and now I feel like I had a paraffin hand treatment at the spa.

Addison is congested and she coughed and tossed and turned all night last night. The baby monitor is right by my head so she kept me awake all night. Then she woke up at 5am to eat (she usually waked up at 8) and I had so much to do I just stayed up after I fed her. If I don't make much sense, sorry.

At some point last night, I believe it was 2 or 3ish, I remembered that Zac's entry in the Reflections contest was due this morning and we were going to do it over the weekend but totally forgot. I woke him up early to race through it.

Addison is turning into quite the daddy's girl. I will say to her, "Addy, say MaMa" and she says "DA DA!"

Everything Addison picks up now she holds up to her ear and jabbers. I wonder where she picked that up from?

2 weeks ago I bought a new pair of very cute shoes. They killed my feet so I took them back last week. I spent forever picking out a new pair. They killed my feet. In between that I bought another pair then decided I didn't like them so I am taking them back tomorrow. That still leaves me with the other pair that I am also taking back. I am thinking my feet grew and I need to go up 1/2 a size. I already had to go up 1/2 a size a couple of years ago and I am trying to pretend like I don't need to go up again but I think I am going to have to deal with it now.

Addison has this fun new thing she does. She stands up in her high chair and climbs onto the tray. CONSTANTLY. It makes me crazy. Anyway, she fell out of it on Saturday. Just what a baby with a skull fracture needs, right?

I cleaned out my kitchen drawer that holds all my big stuff like spoons, whisk, spatula. I put in nice drawer organizers. Now nothing fits. And I threw half of it away. So much for being organized.

So honey, I knew we said we weren't going to tell anyone this, but I think I should just share it with a few people. Steve and I went out on a date Friday night. We went out to eat and then to a movie. When the movie ended it was 9:00. I didn't want to go home because Aubrey was at a party that ended at 9 and I told the babysitter the rest of the kids could stay up until Aubrey got home. I didn't want to go home and put kids in bed. So we decided we would go to Marie Calendars and have pie. We both sat down, looked at our menu. Looked at each other. Knew what the other was thinking. Wrinkled our foreheads. Looked back at the menu. Looked at each other again. And then we ordered...dinner. Again. We did have Chinese the first time around, so you know how filling that is. We took a whole pie home.

Shake Some Booty And Turn Around

My dear father bought tickets for Lauren, Emily, Aubrey, Zac and me to go to "High School Musical On Ice" today. We went and had a "Fabulous" time. (And just when I thought I had all the HSM songs out of my head.) On the word Fabulous I put the quotes because that is a song from HSM2 not because we had a fabulous (air quote, sarcastic) time. Just thought I should clear that up. We LOVED it. And we had "Fabulous" seats on the 4th row. Zac refused to be photographed at such and event, I am sure that makes his father proud. Emily begged and begged all week to make a poster to take. Hence the "I ♥ Troy" sign she and Lauren and Aubrey have.

Flashback Friday - Insane In The Membrane

I have talked before about how my parents allowed our house to be the hang out house. It wasn't something that started when we were teenagers. It was always the hang out house from the very beginning. We used to have slumber parties galore. This is a picture from one such slumber party. I cannot imagine. I honestly would go crazy if I had 12 wild SCREAMING (because that's what girls do when they are together) girls at my house. ALL NIGHT. Once again, thank you mom and dad for allowing us to have so much fun and make so many fun memories. Can you pick us out? I am on the back row sporting the ever so "stylish" rose colored glasses. Kristy is on the front row in the hot pink shirt and Farrah is in front in the light pink striped shirt.

Repeat After Me, "There's No Such Thing As Vampires"

I just had to share because I know there are some of you who will find this rather amusing. I am reading a book for my book club right now. It is a true story about a woman pioneer who became a doctor. I just read a part of the book that talked about how she spent some time in Mexico teaching people about medicine. This was my thought for about a second and a half, "Oh my gosh! She was in Mexico around the time of the vampire wars! She is lucky she didn't get.....WOAH! Back up the bus! Did I just think what I think I thought?". Ok Allyson. Vampires are fictional characters. That means they are just pretend. The book you are reading now is a Biography. That means the stuff in there- it really happened. In for real life.

Wednesday Morning Musings? What? I Can Muse On A Wednesday Too.

Steve took this picture with his phone yesterday. This is the very beginning of the HOUSE building. I am so excited!!!!

So the votes are in. Thank you to those 11 of you who participated. The rest of you - I know you're there! Anyway. Steve is the WINNER. 7 people voted saying Addison looks like him. 4 voted saying she looks like both of us. And I got ZERO votes. I don't know why that makes me so mad because I know she looks like Steve. I have seen the pictures, I'm tho one that put them up there for Pete's sake (whoever Pete is). I just feel like at least one person could have voted for me. I feel like such a loser.

Some friends of ours came over last night to look at our fireplace. Or should I say the hole where our fireplace used to be. Apparently he ripped theirs out when they moved in too and just left it. I told them that was the in thing. Just tear it up and leave it for....years...(I won't say how many) (in my husbands defence, our new one is finished, it's just not installed) (so then what difference does it make if it's finished, right?) But I digress. Anyway, when they were here they told us about their nice new TV they bought but can't open yet. I asked why they couldn't open it yet. She said there are conditions that must be met around the house before it can be opened. CONDITIONS! I have been married for over 12 years and how come I have never thought about conditions! CONDITIONS! Here I have just been letting Steve walk around doing whatever in the heck he wants to. Let me just tell you. We are going to be getting all kinds of conditions up in here. (SNAP)

For those of you living in Arizona, I saw your governor on TV today. Urging the government to look into the ALIEN sightings 10 years ago. Must make you proud. And secure in you state leadership.

Aubrey and her Friend Austin are PLAYING chess right now. Only they are calling it checkers. And they are rolling dice to see how many spaces they get to move. And they keep saying to the other that they don't know how to play it right.

Current Song Stuck In My Head

i hope you don't mind

i hope you don't mind

that i put down in words

how wonderful life is

while you're in the world

Monday Morning Musings

OK! I have NOT put up my Christmas tree! The picture I put on my Monday Morning Musings last week is very old. Aubrey is like 2 in the picture. The kids begged me again yesterday to let them put it up. I told them we will do it next Sunday.

I came up with a fabulous way to get my girls to clean their room. I swept everything into little piles and said in 5 minutes everything that is still in this pile is going into the trash. We moved from pile to pile that way. Their room has never been cleaner than it is now. And I got to throw a bunch of stuff away too.

Are accents genetic? I think they are because Emily has a definite Texas twang and Zac and Aubrey have St. Louis accents.

It was really foggy this morning. Aubrey looked out the window and said, "It's so DUSTY outside".

I finally took down my Halloween decorations on Saturday, it being 10 days after Halloween and all. I remember a few years back when I had to take down the Halloween decorations in order to put the Christmas ones up. That's sad.

It is 10 more days until Thanksgiving!

Flashback Friday - Comparison

Steve has always said that Addison looks like me in this picture:

Then the other day I found this picture of Steve:

I think she looks just like him. But then I look at the picture of me and I can see so much of her in it. Then I look at the picture of him again and I can see so much of her in that one. I think she is a good mixture of both of us. What do you think? Take the poll to the right.

We've Come A Long Way Baby

Yowser Dowsers!

This post, this very post you are reading right now, just so happens to be my.....

Drum roll please.

Ahgmhmmm, I said

DRUM ROLL PLEASE!

HEY YOU!

I seriously want you to stop what you're doing and give me a drum roll........

BARUMTHMTHMTHMTHMTHM

(my text version of a drum roll since you won't cooperate)

Ladies and Gentleman,

Presenting my

200th post!
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

(that should have been read with an Angel chorus from Heaven type ahhhhhhh)

This here blog had some pretty humble beginnings. I had heard of blogs before but I had never really seen one. Then my sister Kristy sent me a link to her blog with pictures of her kids on it. I thought, hummmm. That is a good way to share pictures with friends and family since our friends and family are spread out all over the continental United States (and Meh-hee-co, I didn't forget you Sam). So after Addison was born and I needed a way to share the pictures, my blog was birthed. Click here to see my very first post.

We've gone through lots of changes, this blog page and me. We have redecorated several times. Changed names. I actually learned how to use this here fandangled computer to do all sorts of tricks. And now it is just a part of me. I walk through everyday life noticing little things that would make fabulous posts. If you look around my house you will find little pieces of scratch paper everywhere with thoughts or ideas scribbled on them. My children say, "Mom, you have GOT to put this on your blog!" several times a week. I go up to someone and they start talking to me about things going on in my life and I'm like, "Say what? How'd you know that?". And they say, "Duh! 'cause I read your blog." I guess if I'm gonna put it out there for the whole world to see, people are gonna know about it.

So now I guess I need to explain the picture. I knew this whole 200th post thing was commin'. And for a week now I have been trying to come up with something GREAT to commemorate it. I thought and I thought and I googled. And then I decided that I am just too busy to put that much effort into it. So I thought I would have my kids make the number 200. You can see how great that worked. It is funny. No one questions the picture thing anymore. When I say I need a picture of something people just know. And amazingly they do. Like my dear old hubby. Before this whole blog thing if I would say I needed the kids to get on the floor in the shape of 200 he would have looked at me like I was insane and I would have had to explain why and then he would have looked at me like I was insane again. I didn't even have to tell anyone why. I just said, "Kids, before you get ready for bed I need you to get on the floor and make 200 with your bodies, Steve you help them and I will stand on the bed and take the picture." And they all did it right then, no questions asked. I guess they figured they'd read about it tomorrow.....

A Love/Hate Relationship

Warning:

If you are in the midst of reading the Twilight series do not read beyond this point. It includes major plot spoilers. I take no blame for any damage done to your reading experiences if you choose to continue past this point.

(and by the way, thanks Kristy for the handy mosaic of Twilight book covers)

Huhhmmmph. I don't know what to say. Then why, you ask am I posting. Because normally people who post have something to say. But if you have been reading my blog for any length of time now, you know that that is not always the case.

I just finished reading Eclipse, the third book in the Twilight series. When I started reading the series I fell in love. I fell in love with a vampire. I fell in love with the story. The whole shabang. Then it really started to get irritating. I now hate the before mentioned vampire. He gets on my nerves like nothin' else before. I think it is the sappiest love story ever written. It makes me want to vomit sometimes. I have to keep reminding myself that it was written for geeky little teenage girls with thick glasses and acne who dream of having someone love them in the same way Edward loves Bella.

Don't even get me started on Bella. Has there ever been a more annoying, stupid, idiotic main character in the history of literature? I would just love to slap some sense into that girl. I don't even want to wast anymore of my time on her.

The story line in the last book was so obvious. Oh, my! Jacob gets hurt so Bella can realize she really does love him. Oh, my! Bella gets to see a newborn vampire in action so she can have a little doubt cast about weather or not she wants to join the ranks of the undead. What a surprise!

All that being said, I loved the books. As much as I wanted to throw them up against the wall at times, I couldn't stop reading them. And now that I am finished, I can't wait for the next one to be published. It sounds to me like the next one will be through the eyes of Jacob, maybe, from what I gathered from the epilogue. Good. Jacob is the only redeeming character in the whole series. I've dropped the fascination with the vampire and I am now in love with a werewolf. Go figure.

I started reading the new book for my book club this month and I am so bored with it. I want so much to return to the small town of Forks and all its magical mystical creatures of the night. Why? When it so bugged the heck of me? I don't know. There is just something about it that pulls you in and keeps you trapped there. Like I said, I have a

LOVE/HATE



relationship with this series.

I was just doing a little blog hopping and I happened upon these:

Monday Morning Musings - Deck The Halls

Woo Hoo for me! All my kids are home SICK today. And it is the kind of sick that requires a lot of cleaning up after. Double Woo Hoo for me!

Do you remember when HALLOWEEN was a one day holiday? I feel like it was a whole month long celebration this year.

In case you didn't know, it is November 5th. It wasn't that long ago that it was October 5th. It is going to be DECEMBER 5th before we know it.

Yesterday when we were eating lunch and trying to decide how to go about entertaining ourselves, I said, "Hey! I know, let's put up the CHRISTMAS TREE!" My kids got so excited. I really wanted to put it up too. I told them we HAD to wait though. Maybe in another week or two. Now they are going to bug me and bug me until we finally do put it up.

When I started thinking about putting up the tree I REMEMBERED taking it down last year and it seems like that just happened.

Steve was watching Tombstone the other night on TV and lookie look lookie who was on it. John Locke. If any of the rest of you think it has been a RIDICULOUSLY long time since the season finale of Lost I found this counter on the internet:
Countdown to LOST: The Season 4 Opener 93 days 8 hours 20 minutes left

How ridiculous is that?

We were eating this yummy Rosemary bread with dinner last night and it smelled like the spa to me. I really want a MASSAGE right now.

I have this little teeny tiny pinpoint of a bump on my leg. About 3 weeks ago I cut it while shaving (I was not aware of it's existence at that time). It bled and bled these great big huge drops of BLOOD for days and it would not stop. It finally stopped but now whenever the tiny little scab gets rubbed off, which happens on a daily basis, it starts bleeding again. You wouldn't think that much blood could come from a minuscule little hole like that, but it does. And like I said, it makes these HUGE drops of blood. I have to wear a band aid all the time now because when my pants brush up against it, it starts to bleed and after a few minutes my pants will be soaked in blood. And I am always having to change the band aid because it becomes saturated with blood. Any suggestions? Before I bleed to death through a tiny opening in my leg.

My Wasted Hour

The alarm on my cell phone went off at 6:40 this morning, just like it does every other morning. I turned it off and laid in bed for a few minutes, just like I do every morning. Then I got up and started getting ready for church. As I was getting ready, I was keeping time by my DVR in my bedroom. That's how I knew when it was time to leave for church. We went to church, came home at 12:00, changed clothes, ate lunch. While in the middle of eating lunch, I looked over at the clock on the oven. It said 2:09. I freaked out for a minute. I'm thinking it took us 2 hours to change and start eating lunch??? Really? That's when I realized that my most favorite day of the whole entire year passed me by without my even knowing it. My cell phone and DVR automatically updated and.....I didn't even know! I am still mourning the loss of my extra hour. Steve keeps telling me that I didn't miss the extra hour, I still got an extra hour of sleep. But it's just not the same.

My Own Louisville Slugger

Current song stuck in my head:

It was on the radio today, and when I realized it was stuck up there I was so SOOOOOO happy. Imagine has been driving me insane. I was at the craft store tonight and all of a sudden Imagine came on the radio. I panicked. But even though it has tried several times to take over, "Before He Cheats" has held on strong. I just might even forgive Carrie for stealing the title of American Idol from Bo.

Flashback Friday - I-D-A-H-O Idaho, Idaho, GO GO GO!

Scott, Kristy and Kay

Zac and Emily

The year was 2002. Mom came from Dallas for a visit. She and I took Zac and Emily and drove up to Idaho to visit Scott and Kristy who were going to BYU Idaho at the time. It was a fun trip. I wish you two, or four at the present time, still lived "close" so we could see you more often.

BOO!