WebCam Wednesday - She Was Givin' Me The Evil Eye

Monday Morning Musings - Warning: Animal Cruelty Photo Included

Some of you might have noticed that I have not been a very diligent blogger lately. This is what is goin' down. See, we thought we had until the end of November before we had to renew our construction loan AGAIN, but we recently found out that it is actually up for renewal on the 4th of November. So we decided to kick it into high gear and run ourselves ragged trying to finish the house by then. The lady in charge of our loan did say she would give us a few extra days if needed. I think we just might make it. We might kill ourselves in the process, but it will be very nice to have it done and to be able to move in! We had about a thousand people working on the house on Saturday and made huge progress.





My sweet little Emily was chosen to be on the student council at school. Each class in the school has 1 representative on the student council. She had to turn in an application along with a conduct form from her teacher. They chose the top 3 students from each class. Then she had to go through and interview process, after which she was chosen to represent her class. Way to go Emily!!! She was also chosen to be in the gifted class which she leaves her regular class for and goes to 3 times a week.





I am really getting irritated at my children. They think it is great fun to click my little blue tool bar along the bottom of the computer screen up on it's side. Then I try for like an hour to flip it back down and only have success 10% of the time. Addison got up on my chair and was playing around on the keyboard the other day and SHE flipped it up. If someone knows an easy way to flip it back down, please share! It makes me crazy to have it up on end.





My "sweet" little Addy who isn't even 2 yet, came to me the other day with all her clothes off and said, "Bathroom". So I took her to the bathroom and put her on the potty. (Hey, I'm a mom. That's what we call it, a POTTY) She did the most amazing thing. She pooped. On the potty. All of her own free will and choice. So I went out that very day and bought her a potty (cause who knows where the one we already have is) and she has gone on it several times since. Yes! I see and end in sight.





You wanna know why I said "sweet" little Addy? I mean she is the sweetest cutest little thing ever, but let me just tell ya. She has taken Monster Baby to a whole new level. Friday I loaded up the girls and made the long trek to Ikea. We were in the store for over 3 hours because I was getting stuff we needed for the house (drawer handles, mirrors, an oven range). Huhhhhh.....It was a pure delight to have that child in the store with me. Pure de-light. By the time we finally had everything we needed (it really is a long drive and I didn't want to have to make it again for something I forgot) I was like, "YES!". I was so ready to strap her in her car seat and go home and put her in bed, and put myself in bed too. I get up to the front register and I am about to pass out right there and what do I find? Only self checkouts open. I was ready to cry. After struggling with Monster Baby for hours in the store my arms felt like they were made out of butter (butta). Then I had to find a way to keep her next to me all while pulling huge heavy mirrors out of my cart so I could get to the 80 some odd drawer handles in the bottom of the cart. We checked out and got everything loaded in the truck and then my sweet little Aubrey decided she wanted to cry the entire way home. Yeah. Sigh. Hooooo.....that was a fun trip right there, let me tell ya.

Hee,hee. The other day I was at Target and they had these doggie shirts on sale for 25 cents. I just couldn't resist. I wanted so bad to put one on my brother's dog, Bean-O. That dog is the bane of my existence. So I put it on him and he hung his head really low. Emily said, "Mom! Take that off, he looks like he is ashamed." Ahhhh, ha ha ha ha. He really did. Next time he makes me mad, I'm pullin it back out.

The kids and I drove up to the new house the other day and we saw that we had a visitor on our scaffolding. Actually Emily saw him and pointed him out to the rest of us. I being so observant would have totally missed him if I had been by myself.

Flashback Friday - Three Little Pumpkins

This picture is from Halloween 2005. We painted faces on our pumpkins that year. I believe Aubrey's pumpkin won a prize at the Halloween party at church. It is funny because it doesn't seem like this was that long ago to me. But Aubrey is the same age (almost) in this picture as Addy is now.

Pure Gold

When I was growing up I was in Brownies and my mom was my brownie leader. Every time we met we would stand in a circle and hold hands and sing this song: "Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other gold." That song has new meaning to me now that we have moved out of the neighborhood we lived in for 12 years. We had the opportunity to get together with our friends from our old neighborhood last week. The plan was to drive up the canyon and have a picnic lunch. We drove up the canyon and found out that all the picnic areas were closed for the winter. So at Julie's insistence (because it IS her favorite place) we went to a local farm and had lunch. The kids loved seeing their friends again. Me too....

Nature Walk

Last Wednesday after the kids got out of school, we decided to take a little drive through our new town and have a look around. We found a fun little walking trail. The reason Emily looks so thrilled in the above picture? She really had to go to the bathroom and I kept stopping to take pictures.

Oops I Did It Again

I guess this is becoming a habit. I ran out of time everyday this week to post so I decided to do a weeks worth of posts today. Read on.....

Flashback Friday - A Little House On Quadrangle Dr.

These are pictures my sister Farrah took of the house we grew up in. My parents moved into this house when I was 2 years old. They lived there and raised their family there until 3 years ago when they decided to take a leap of faith and move out of state. A few years ago Farrah made a BEAUTIFUL album for me with pictures of the house. I found these pictures she scanned on my moms computer. I thought I would share them here. I know there are many of you reading this who have very fond memories of that little house on Quadrangle Drive.

If you are one of those lucky people, I would love for you to share a memory you have in this house in the comment section of this post.

Thinkin' Thursday - A Much Needed Laugh

The other night night I watched the The Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner on TV. It was the best thing I have watched on TV in a long time. I thought it was great to hear McCain and Obama making jokes and laughing at one another. It was a much needed break from all the craziness that surrounds this election year. I think it probably did the two of them a great deal of good to pause for a minute and take time to laugh. I think it was good for the rest of us to see also. Did you miss it? Click here to watch videos of the event.

WebCam Wednesday - The Scary Family

We found out that we literally have a pumpkin patch/corn maze right in our back yard. Earlier this month we took the kids and my sister Lauren there. It was so much fun (except for the mosquitoes) (thanks people for putting the can of bug spray at the ticket counter AFTER we went through). They had a little hay maze for the kids to go through, then at the end you get to pose with the scarecrow family. Then we went through the corn maze. Thankfully Steve was with us because with my sense of direction, we would probably still be wandering around in there today. After finishing the maze we got to take cute little handcarts out into the pumpkin patch to make our selections. I was sad because my camera battery was dead, as I found out after we got there. So I took videos instead. I decided not to bore you with the long videos of us tromping through the corn maze and pumpkin patch.

Elder Snow Returns From Mexico!

My brother Sam just returned last Wednesday from serving a 2 year mission for our church in Mexico City Mexico. We are very proud of him for completing his mission and staying out in spite of personal tragedy and loss. We are very excited to have him home with us now.

He was so excited when he came home that night to share with us some of his favorite candy he brought all the way from Mexico. I think he was probably a little disappointed at our reactions. I wasn't even nice about it. I just started gagging and ran to the trash to spit it out.

He still has some funny missionary habits. He has to ask us regularly how to say something in English. This morning when I woke up I walked past his room and he was still half asleep in bed. He said something and I asked what he had said. He kept repeating it and I kept asking 'what?'. We both finally realized he was speaking to me in Spanish.

I don't want to embarrass him, but he is going on his first date tonight! And she's cute! Way to go Sam!

From Sam Returns

From Sam Returns

Monday Morning Musings - Snow Much Fun

Snow. Snow, snow, snow, snow, snow. It isn't even the middle of October and we have snow! A lot of snow. I am not ready for it. I don't like winter clothes. I don't like wearing close toed shoes.

When we were packing to move out of our house, Steve informed me that I was going to have to be in charge of packing because he was not going to be around much because he was so busy. You know- running a business, building a house kind of busy. So I said, fine. I will be in charge of that. And I was doing a darn fine job of it. Well, it came down to the weekend before we had to be out of the house. The weekend we had to be out was Labor Day Weekend. So I, being in charge of packing, decided that we needed to move as much out as possible the weekend before we had to be out or else everyone would be out of town and we wouldn't have any help. I figured we could move out all the furniture and what boxes we had packed and then that next week I would finish packing and it wouldn't be too bad for me to move those boxes to storage by myself. That's a good plan, right? Except some people (person) decided to mess with my plan.

The day we were moving, we had a bunch of people over to help. While they were moving stuff out I went up to my room to get the clothes out of the dresser so they could move it out. Guess what I found up there. Mister "you are gonna have to be in charge of packing" ,packing. Great, right? WRONG! This is what he was doing. He was yanking all his clothes off the hangers and sticking them in boxes. The problem with this? I had a ton of wardrobe boxes that you can just take your clothes out of the closet and hang them in the box. HELLO! Other problem? He was going to give that box to the people moving our stuff out and have the stick it who knows where in storage. HELLO! When confronted about his actions he said he was just packing his warm clothes, you know, the one's he wouldn't need until we were already settled into our house and all unpacked. "It will be fine honey, I'm just trying to help you by getting as much out as possible." Mmmmmm Hmmmmm. Guess who wishes he would have left the packing up to me right about now, being that we have snow and all.

Another moving/wrong person packing, induced problem? In the process of packing I went to the clothes closet, with a WARDROBE box to put the coats in. My plan, put in in storage LAST so if need be, we could get to it. What did I find when I opened said coat closet? Nothing. Not one thing. I freaked out and asked Steve where all our coats were. He said he packed them. I asked it he put them in a wardrobe box, being that just 10 minutes before I got mad at him for not putting his clothes in a wardrobe box. Ummm, mmmm. Nope. He just pulled those off the hangers and shoved them into a box. I asked the whereabouts of the box. Yeah, he didn't know. But I was again assured that we would be all moved in and unpacked before we would need the coats. Yep. So I had to go out Saturday and buy all the kids new coats. I just love spending unnecessary money on things like that when our economy is about to crash. Sigh, yeah.

I don't really mean to complain so much about my dear husband. I do love him very much. He was very well intentioned. And he is working so very hard for us right now. Trying to finish the house, all while trying to provide the money with which to buy the house. I love you honey.

Since moving, I haven't taken the time to locate a new salon. So in addition to over grown roots and haircut, I also have very very overgrown eyebrows. I had a dream last night that I found a place and I went to get waxed. I was so excited in my dream. Then I woke up and looked in the mirror and was very disappointed. A nice feeling to have when looking in the mirror. This is pretty much what I look like right now:

A Postin' Fool

It has been a very busy week. My brother Sam came home from his mission on Wednesday. We were busy getting ready for his return and have enjoyed spending time with him since he has been back. Being as busy as I have been, I neglected my blog. I have made up for it today. I went ahead and posted a WebCam Wednesday, a Thinkin' Thursday, and a Flashback Friday. So don't stop here. Read on!

Flashback Friday - The Bald Axis

Bart, Farrah, Scott, Kristy

Lauren, Gabe, Kay, Earl, Sam, Destiney

Emily, Allyson, Steve, Zac

This picture was taken about 6 years ago. Kristy and I were both pregnant with Tia and Aubrey, respectively. We made fun of the picture when we first got it back from the photographer because we have this bald axis going right down the center with Scott, my dad, Steve and Zac. An enlargement of this picture hangs in the hall in my moms house and every time I look at it, the axis is the first thing I see.

Anyone wondering who the extra child is? That is my cousin Michelle's daughter, Destiney. She was living with my parents at the time.

Thinkin' Thursday - My View In Lieu

In lieu of a separate Thinkin' Thursday post, I left my opinion on my Tuesday post in the comment section. Click here to read. And for all of you who apologized for your comments being so long......well......no need to apologize.

WebCam Wednesday - And Bean-O Was His Name-O

My brother Sam returned home from his mission in Mexico City on Wednesday. We were all very curious to see how his dog Bean-O would react when seeing him for the first time. So I decided to make a video of the reunion. Here it is for those interested.

We The People

It is only 27 days until our country and it's citizens elect a new president. What a ride it has been to get here. I think the next 27 days will be just as much "fun", if not more so.

I am curious as to who you will vote for, so I thought I would host my own little poll, right here. Who are you going to vote for? Take the poll to the right and let us know.

I am also curious as to why you are voting for the candidate of your choice. So please leave a comment on this post stating at least one reason why you have chosen to vote for your candidate.

I'm really curious and I really want you to be able to express your opinions. And that's all I want. Just your own reason why you have chosen to vote the way you are voting. Please don't comment on other peoples comments. And let's all just be nice. You can comment using your name or if you prefer comment anonymously.

Monday Morning Musings - And Party EV-ER-E-DAY!

I was trying to bribe Emily to do something last week. Nothing was working. So I said, "Fine. Then I won't tell you who the next person in our old neighborhood is that is having twins." Yep. It's true. I just found out last week. Whew! Looks like I escaped just in time. (knock on wood)

The other night I had the TV on and I was listening to the news. They were talking about pirates. Like real, live, actual pirates. I was slipping in and out of consciousness while it was playing in the background. I started dreaming about Johnny Depp. Ya know, pirates. If you're gonna dream about a pirate, you might as well dream about him.

The kids hate it when I sing in the car. Whenever I start to sing, they always say, in exasperated tones, "MOM! QUIT SINGING!!!" The other day I was driving and it was just Addy and me in the car. I started singing and she said, "MOM! QUIT!". My sweet little baby is already turning on me. Stinkin' older siblings.

We were sitting around the dinner table the other night and we were talking about my dad. Aubrey said, "Can we please not talk about Papa?". We asked her why and she said, "Because whenever we talk about him, water starts shooting out of my eyes." Ohhhh.....

We had access to a wii on Saturday. I played Guitar Hero for the first time. I am hooked. Majorly. I need one. But I really shouldn't have one. But I want one.

So while I was playing Guitar Hero on Saturday, I was playing and belting out the song, "I Wanna Rock & Roll All Night". I was really into it. So into it that I had no idea that one of the guys who works for Steve came over to get his paycheck and was standing in the doorway watching/laughing at me. I think it should be a rule that if your wife is doing something that would be embarrassing if an outsider were to see, you should tell her, "Hey, there is an outsider watching you." Steve, on the other hand, doesn't think that would be a very fun rule.

The Building Of A House

Steve and Ashley working in the big hole thingy they dug to put some kind of tube thingy and some wires in.

Zac, Emily and Aubrey reading on the ledge. Luckily no one has fallen off yet. Knock on wood.

Thinkin' Thursday - Sit Right Down On Your FannieMae And Have A Listen

Wow! It has been over a week since I blogged. I have been a very bad, bad blogger. Sorry.

OK, it's like this. I wasn't sure I wanted to continue to be all political with my Thinkin' Thursdays. I am just so sick and tired of it all. I really am. But then I went to church and this letter from the First Presidency of my church was read:

As citizens we have the privilege and duty of electing office holders and influencing public policy. Participation in the political process affects our communities and nation today and in the future.

Latter-day Saints as citizens are to seek out and then uphold leaders who will act with integrity and are wise, good, and honest. Principles compatible with the gospel may be found in various political parties. (emphasis added)

Therefore, in this election year, we urge you to register to vote, to study the issues and candidates carefully and prayerfully, and then to vote for and actively support those you believe will most nearly carry out your ideas of good government.

The Church affirms its neutrality regarding political parties, platforms, and candidates. The Church also affirms its constitutional right of expression on political and social issues.

Sincerely yours,
Thomas S. Monson, Henry B. Eyring, Dieter F. Uchtdorf The First Presidency

So I decided to actively support those I believe will most nearly carry out my ideas of good government.

Right now, I'm real tired. I said it like this "I'm reeel TY-rd" with a thick accent. That's how I say it when I'm really really tired. So to be quick about it, I am just posting this video. Then I am going to bed. For more info about the political neutrality of my church clickity click click right here. I said that like this, "rawt hare". That also means I am TY-rd. I really should just shut up and go now. Enjoy the film!