BIG CHANGES

We moved!!!!! We love our new place! We still live with Kallie and her new husband Chris. But we upgraded to a place with a lot more space and a lot more light! It basically has 6 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. Its a condo and its only a few blocks away from our old place. Here are a couple of pictures of the main living space. We were moving things around for Jackson's birthday so the small couch is in the wrong spot. It usually is turned in and splits the room in two separating the living room and dining area. I am going to have to get new pillows for my couch because of the red walls but for now I'm still using the old ones. I will post more pictures of the rest of the house at another time.

Ben got accepted into his program at school!!!

FINALLY!!! We are soooooo excited. Our plans have changed a lot since we moved to Utah. Mostly because we got a big slap in the face. The whole process has been a lot harder then we thought it was going to be. But we feel like we are on the right track now. What a relief! The program is computer science with an emphasis in animation. It is going to be 3 more years and it is going to kick our butts, but it creates a bright light at the end of the tunnel and I really think that this is what we are suppose to be doing. Plus with the great new place and the super friends and family that we have 3 years doesn't sound so bad. Also Ben just got a promotion at work that has a more flexible schedule. Everything just seems to be falling into place! We really feel blessed!!!! Life is good!

Next up Jackson's birthday and an update on Dutch aka snot face

Hey everyone....if anyone still reads my blog

I haven't had access to the Internet in over a month. First my screen went out and then I moved and we just got it up and running. So I am back and I will post soon! And I will be catching up on reading all of your blogs.

They each deserve a post all to themselves but......... they can learn to share

So my little sister got hitched!!!!!!
We like to call it a wedding in a day. They technically decided to get married that day at 1am and by 2pm it was done. It was just going to be a courthouse thing but with the neighbors and all of the talent around it ended up being a wedding. The above picture is the cake that was not planned just made. And not by a professional baker just by a friend and her sister. Isn't it amazing!!!!! I went with the groom to pick out rings and grab some ring sizers for a perfect fit until they have time to go back and get them sized. Don't worry they didn't just meet. They have been dating for awhile and have been talking about marriage. They ended up being married at the LDS church by Kallie's Bishop. It was actually really sweet! They are a very cute couple and I wish them all of the happiness in the world!!!


This bow tie belongs to my neighbor's 4 year old son. We decided it would look good for the reception.

Aren't they cute.

So chronologically this is all backwards. But we have had lots of visitors over the last couple of months. These are pictures of Dutch and Ava (my sister Katie's daughter). They came and stayed with us for 2 weeks. It was a blast and the girls played soooo cute together!

These are pictures of Phoebe and Jackson. My sister Jenny lives in Idaho and she was able to drive over just for one night! It was really fun to have them!

My mom got to come for a week and we had some much needed girl time. My mom got to see both of my sisters that came to visit. But they didn't get to see each other. So we didn't all get a picture together. But we did get one of "the three little girls" with our mom. It was soooooo great to have my mom here. I love her so much and always miss her when she isn't around. To be able to be around her for a whole week was amazing! I LOVE MY MOM!!! We splurged the whole week. Lots of lunches and dinners and trips to the mall just for fun. We played lots of games and even had a breakfast throw down. My kids had a ton of grandma time all to themselves. It was GREAT!

We also got to spend a lot of time with Ben's side of the family. I actually got to spend the whole week up at Ben's brothers house. His parents and brother Aaron and his family were here from out of town. We had a blast. Again lots of girl time and lots of WII time. So between all of us there were 8 kids 8 years and under. Oh man those kids had a blast!!!!!! They got to ride a train and see a 3D imax movie. And they got to play in the biggest, best play room ever. Now I did bring my camera but when I tried to take a picture I found out that my memory was full of all of the pictures from when my mom and sisters were here. After a day or so I decided it would be worth it to go through and erase some of the pictures so that I could get some of these cousins together too. But when I turned it on........... beep, beep, beep, ........low battery......die. So I guess it wasn't meant to be. I'll have to get pictures from someone else.

Last but not least I got to go to Oregon for the weekend to watch the Cheerleading State Championship. And finally my team took 1st. Technically they aren't my team anymore I am just the choreographer. But I love these kids and I am so proud of them. This is a picture of me, Jenna and Julie with the girls that were on the team back when we coached. Most of them are seniors and this is their last year. I am so happy for them that they get to go out with a bang!!! Congratulations Thurston Cheerleaders!

Happy Birthday Dutch!!

My BEAUTIFUL, baby girl turned 1!!! I can't even believe she is already a year old. Though it's hard to think of my life before she was in it. She is such a joy! We are so in love with her!

STATS

height-29.8in-74.5%

weight-21.23lbs-54.41%

head-18.5in-93.28%

She is walking now. She started taking good steps a little before Christmas and she has taken off. It is her first choice but she doesn't usually make it to where she is going before she falls and then crawls the rest of the way. When she does make it she is very PROUD of herself but not as proud as Jackson is of her. He praises her with every step that she takes. He gets very excited and wants to make sure that nobody misses it.

Here are some of the words she is saying

hi

mama

dad

bye bye

uh oh

ow

pampa (grandpa)

ba-ba ba-ba (♫ backpack ♫ backpack)(from Dora)

nana (banana or any food)

tane tyou (thank you)

two - tee (two and three) one time I yelled ONE at Jackson and she finished for me

I'm pretty sure she says Jackson but it sounds nothing like Jackson she just mimics our inflection when she calls for him

This was her adorable cake that my neighbor Drie made for her

Playing patty cake in her birthday dress
(she is marking herself with a D)

Sitting on her presents and eating the wrapping paper

(just like a one year old)

Her first taste of cake

Don't worry she got the hang of it!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DUTCH GIRL!!

New Years Eve!!!

We rang in the New Year with an AWESOME Vegas style masquerade party. It was super fun making the masks. We made like 10 and there were only 4 girls. We used the extras for decor. We played games all night and ate really, really, good food. It was a GREAT night. How did you ring in the new year?

Ben wore his grandpas tux
I have to say my husband is a handsome man!

My camera died right after these pictures I don't have any of the group. I am going to try and get some from someone else and then I will post them. It was a good lookin group!

The Babes First Christmas

Dutch LOVED her new care bear!

On Christmas Eve we had a party with some of our neighbors and Miss Kallie's boyfriend. In the tradition of my family we made chili and sugans (aka fried bread...other people know them as scones and they were called anything from scogies to scooners at our party by people who just couldn't remember what we call them). We also had a white elephant gift exchange where I received glasses that say BLING on them. They are AWESOME! And in the tradition of Ben's family we opened PJ's and spent the rest of the night and the whole next day in them.

Look at how cute my babes hair is!
(Christmas morning)

Jackson's reaction to everything was "What the......Where did this come from?". And then he would literally hold every present over his head so that I could take a picture of it and then he would go ask his dad to open it so that he could play with it. I have about 10 more pictures just like the ones below!

Jack got Ben "Starwars Monockoly". They were both very excited about it! Jackson was so excited that from the time we bought it he asked Ben where it was everyday. Which sort of ruined the surprise. Good thing he was so cute about it!

This Christmas really turned out wonderful! We even had a chance to teach Jackson about giving and about what Jesus would want him to do. Kallie's singles ward last minute adopted a little family that was going to tell there 5 year old twin boys that there was no Santa because they didn't have enough money for Christmas. They announced it at church on the Sunday before Christmas and were collecting things that night at ward prayer. So Ben being the GREAT guy that he is dug into his unopened Starwars collection (which is bigger then even I knew) and found two storm troopers that he was willing to part with. We decided to let Jackson in on it. Luckily the day before we had read an article in the Friend about a secret giver. When we first showed Jackson the toys he really wanted them!!!! We explained what we were going to do with them and why and reminded him of the story. After about 5 minutes he was ready to give up one of the toys........." How about this one stays here and you can take this one." big smile"...and you can take this one too." It was so sweet when he decided to let us take them both. Kallie and I then went to our neighbors who gave away an amazing amount of food and gifts to the family! Apparently Jackson thought that we went to give the little boys the storm troopers because when we got home he was jumping around asking what they said about them. He really is a GREAT kid! Thank you to everyone who helped make this Christmas so special. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas too!

Tagged

So I am not going to update. I just don't want to. And if I wait until I do want to then I will just never post. So There are some cute pictures of the kids on Halloween in my slide show. Check them out. I got tagged forever ago but I'm gonna do it now.

6 random, non important things about me

1- I have turned into a nerd wife. My nerd husband has opened my eyes to certain things and I love them. For example Lord of The Rings, I don't only love it but I quote it. And I always know when Ben quotes it. Also I know the names of way too many super heroes and their villains. Not just the ones in the movies the ones from comic books that aren't all that popular. "You are such a nerd wife, I LOVE YOU!" I hear this way too often from my husband for me to ever be considered cool again.

2-I love to dance! Love it! Mostly just going out and dancing (not that I do anymore but I used to all of the time back in my single days). But I also like to cheer/hip hop dance. Me and my neighbor have started making up dances for exercise after we put the kids to bed. Last time we popped in some Britney Spears and danced for an hour. Made up a pretty cute dance too!

3- I hate being cold. Ben always drives and therefore always has the keys to get back in the house. This is especially a problem in the winter because Ben is a slow mover and a time taker. When we were first married he always thought that I was mad at him because I would raise my voice and talk really fast and bluntly when outside. But really I was just trying to let him know how important it was to hurry and let me in the house!

4- I am obsessive compulsive when it comes to cheerleading. Not anything else. Just cheerleading. I don't currently coach but I do choreograph. I fill notebooks and all kinds of scrap paper with my ideas. The funny part of that is I have it all memorized. But if I make one little change I sit down and rewrite the whole thing because I like to see it written out. I color code everything. And when I put people opposite of each other they not only have to be equal in skill which is normal but I like them to be the same height, build and if at all possible hair color. I know I am crazy!

5- I use cheap shampoo. I am a hair dresser and I know better but I use it anyway. The being poor gets the better of me and I just can't bring myself to buy the good stuff. I used to the good stuff and it was great and someday I will again. But for now my shampoo comes from the grocery store.

6- I am the girl with glasses. In high school I always wore contacts because insurance only paid for glasses or contacts and of course I wasn't going to wear glasses all of the time. After we got married I got a pair of glasses to wear sometimes especially at night when my contacts would get sticky. Well I pretty much wore them all of the time. After awhile I found out that my description at the salon was the girl with the glasses in the back. I had no idea I was the girl with glasses. Now that I have no vision insurance and I already own a pair of glasses I guess I am going to be the girl with glasses for a very long time.