Well everyone, life here is crazy!! We spent this last weekend having a garage sale and cleaning out my Dad's garage. If you have ever seen his garage, you'll know the kind of effort that would have to go into cleaning it. the result however is very exciting for me, I get to park in the garage! It is the first time in a good 11years that my parents have had a working car in their garage. I know what you're thinking- "well, good for them. " That's right, good for them (us) but not to burst the bubble, they are moving to Arizona! They were pressured a little (by me of course) that if John and I are to rent the house from them when they go, the garage needs to have my mini van in it and dad needs to put on the garage door opener he got last Christmas.

On Monday, I started babysitting two adorable kids. Talin is two and his sister, Zara, is 4 months. They are adorable. So with my three that makes 5. Which is not too bad really except that's 5 kids under the age of 5. It's like having Abbi then two set of twins in a row. Crazy. These kids are good kids, I just have to adjust to it. The past two days, I didn't eat lunch, just an early dinner. I am working on the routine and things are going well.

My father took another trip to the ER last night (that makes 6 trips there in the past year). HE was rear-ended on his way to pick up my Mother in Boulder. He is fine, just a little sore. Before we had to go pick them up last night, John took me to buy new silverware and he also got me a new crock pot. Yeah, new appliances!!

KIDS

The past few days I have had to remind myself several times how much I love my kids. They have been crazy!! I don't know that I mentioned that my daughter is 4 going on 17. I thought the "I know everything" attitude didn't start until a little older. I guess not. My oldest son, Jacob, is 2 going on monster. He is crazy! He is all over and into things and playing too rough with the baby. He is so lightning fast to do things he's not supposed to, but getting in and out of the car takes five years!! Isaac is just so cute. I think this only because he doesn't walk or talk yet. That is to come.

Jake is potty trained. Everyone says that boys are so hard to potty train, not him really. I do have to say that I had it pretty easy with Abbi. I put panties on her one day at two and a half and told her not to go potty in them . . . and she didn't. Jake was a little tougher than that. It took a good two weeks constantly reminding him to use the toilet and quite a few accidents but it went pretty smoothly. We just have to work on the wiping thing-gross!

Abbi is loving preschool. It does cost a lot more money for preschool here than we were planning on spending in KS but I feel it's important. I did do her first year of preschool here at the house and she did great. She has been able to write her name for a year now almost and she knows most of her letters (if she's in the right mood she will grace you with her knowledge). I did feel however that for her pre-K year she should be in an environment with other kids her age and a teacher other than Mommy. She is doing great. Every time I ask her what she did in preschool she says she can't tell me. . . it's a secret. Should I be concerned? I would be except for the fact that she points out everything that every one (adults included) does wrong. I am sure she would be first in line to tattle on her classmates or teachers.

Isaac was sick a few days ago and that was pretty gross. A baby spitting up on me is nothing, but he vomited all the freshly eaten baby food all over me and I made the mistake of putting him directly in the bathtub to clean myself off. This was a mistake because he had also exploded in his diaper. A poopy diaper in water is not a good combo!! Crazy day!! I know this is all gross so I will stop that and tell you that he is so happy all the time. He will smile and laugh at anything and everything. He is sitting up well and rocks back and forth on his hands and knees. He hasn't figured out the coordination to actually crawl but he somehow makes it across the living room floor.

I love my kids!!

Random

Well, I have to say that I am a little disappointed in the participation in the last post!! Don't you all just love to play those little games?! That's all right, I will forgive.

I don't really have anything exciting to report. Abbi started preschool and she really enjoys that and Jake gets sad every time we take her because he can't stay. Isaac is getting big and I love his happy smile- he is always smiling!! I did want to post some pictures. Abbi needed to take a family picture into preschool for an activity and we actually didn't have any of all five of us. Poor Isaac. So we dragged Gram and Gramps on a Sunday drive to the mountains and had them take some pictures of the local wildlife--I mean our kids. I can not describe how frustrating it is to get all three kids to look at the camera at the same time. Getting them all to smile is out of the question. I do have to say that the seven month old cooperated well. The older two, well, I should have left the older two at home but that kind of defeats the 'family picture' purpose. Maybe I should have left them in the mountains. They would be okay, Abbi believes that she can whine her way out of any unpleasant situation and I believe that the bear wouldturn and run after listening to her for a second or two. Despite the struggles, we did get a few cute ones in.tains.

We did just got back from a really quick trip to UT to bless my niece. My bro, Aaron, and his wife, Jessica, had a beautiful little girl, Brooklynn, in July. All the family headed to their house this weekend to be there when they blessed her. It was the first time we (John and I and the kids) had seen her. She is so tiny and cute. Congratulations again to them.

I haven't posted in a while and I don't really have anything to tell you all. My sis-in-law had something on her blog that sounded like fun though, so here goes . . .


1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together, or one of the first memories you have of me. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember
2. If you like the idea of knowing what others remember about you, leave this post on your blog!

(Sounds an awful lot like one of those e-tag things doesn't it?)

Here is Abigail's birthday party. After much debate, I decided to do a low-key birthday party in the back yard. We had just gotten the patio poured before we left for Powell. As sad as I was to see the road base go, it's pretty darn nice. Despite the patio being finished and the 'low key' status of the party, I still worked my butt off. The yard still needed a lot of work done, the food and favors and other stuff still had to get done. Oh yeah, the house needed a good cleaning too.

So we decided to go with 'balloons' instead of the original 'ice cream' theme she had wanted. You will notice the balloons cake (Thanks J!) and the semi-home-made hot air balloon pinata and the balloons every where. We had originally invited three or four families and all but one cancelled last minute. So there was us, Manda and Lin and our friends the Fowers. Awesome!

Abbi and the other kids had a good time and it was really great to get to know the Fowers a little better. They have been kind enough to invite us over once or twice and we finally had the opportunity to return the favor. Abbi got really great gifts and did an excellent job with her thank you cards. The BBQ was on the 22nd, on her actual birthday (21st) John brought her flowers. She said "Thank you Dad. But they're not tulips." What a gracious little girl! Then we went out for dinner. All day Thursday and Friday Jake would go up to her and say "Happy Birthday Abbi" and give her a hug. She did get sick of this by the end of the second day but it was so cute. He's pretty sweet to her sometimes, this might change when he realizes how snotty she is to him most of the time.

tagged...again!?!

I do need to post about Abbi's birthday but I am not going to go downstairs to get the camera. I will tell you that she asked me how old I am and I said, "I'm 26. I will be 27 on my next birthday." Her face and voice got very serious, nearly concerned, and she asked, "And then will you be old and wrinkly?" Well, the bright side is that she doesn't think this of me yet (I have 4 more months) and she was very concerned about me!!

The point is that I was tagged again. List 6 quirky things about me...
1. I hate it when my hands feel dirty. Not particularly when they are actually dirty or the knowing or feeling bacteria or germs abound on them, nope. Just the physical feeling of my hands being dirty.
2. You know when you get a sunburn bad enough that your skin peels- I like to peel it. I know, gross. Now I have to say that only my immediate family will I dare to touch dead skin cells, but it has to be outside or in the bathroom. The thought of dead skin floating around on the couch or in the kitchen makes me gag.
3. I have to take a shower after I take a bath. I am not sure why this is.
4. I have a really hard time putting down a project. I feel like I just have to finish the sewing, scrapbooking or book I am reading and it takes all my will power to put it down for another time.
5. I have three kids, three little kids, but I can not stand noise. Crying I can take, loud music I can take, they have a bazillion toys that make sound and that's not it either, it's just plain noise. Pointless unnecessary noise.
6. I hate the feeling of fabric between my teeth. For some people it's nails on a chalk board, but for me any kind of fabric between my teeth just gives me chills.

A few things have been brought to my attention. I look terrible in that picture to the right here (I was camping, give me a break!) and some of you might be interested in John's smoothness those first couple of days we knew each other.

As for the first, well, like I said, I was camping and hair product and make up were no where to be found, let alone a mirror. I would have to agree that I look like poo but the pictures of me are few and far in between. I am in agree-ance with the friend that mentioned that the darker hair looks better and I am thinking about re-dying it. Anyway, those of you who are deeply concerned about my well being because of this picture-don't worry, I do, on a normal basis, have my hair done up cute with a pound and a half of hair product and my face is graced with mascara at least. I appreciate the concern and I would be deeply concerned as well if a friend of mine posted a picture of this horrific magnitude. Thank you for the concern all.

For the second subject-John. Well, like I said my friend convinced me to go on a date with him (I later found out that all she had to do was tell him that I was cute). Now keep in mind it was Thanksgiving Day, I was planning on staying home with my family. So I show up at Ashley's house and it's all commotion like it always is at her, or my house, and they introduce John and I. I think he may have said "Hi" but, other than that, he didn't say a word to me. I didn't speak to him either, but come on - he's the guy.

So we go to the movie theater (we being John, Ashley, TJ (who is now A's husband) and myself). I actually rode in the back seat with TJ. I don't remember how that worked out by the way, but I do remember them (A and TJ anyway, I don't think John knew me well enough and like I said he didn't speak to me) making fun of my because my coat smelled like Thanksgiving dinner. Actually, I think he may have said something like "I think you smell fine" so that brings the word count up to what? Six, yes, six.

Some of you might be thinking about now "So what? He didn't talk to you because he didn't know you." Well, those of you thinking this obviously don't know John. He could hold a conversation with a bush. Even if he didn't know said bush. Just not me apparently. Also, it might be crossing your minds that we were set up and he just didn't like me so he felt weird talking to me. Once again, remember the bush. On top of that, HELLO, we are married now, so obviously he had to have liked something about me. I now know that he even thought me very attractive, so I don't know. Six words? In what, an hour? Can we say suave?

Well, we made into the movie and we were very early. All four of us go in and sit down with like 45 min til the movie starts. We sit down in this order from left to right- me, Ashley, TJ then John. Ya, not only could he not speak to me but he couldn't sit next to me either. Well, given the extraordinary amount of time we had, Ashely and I start to goof off. We are running around and being silly (there is no one else in the theater, remember-it's Thanksgiving, most people are at home with their families not on a date with some guy snubbing them. I might also mention that at this point I was wishing that I had stuck to my original plans).So anyway, the movie gets ready to start and we all take our seats again, in the 'don't touch me' manner I explained, and Ashley and TJ decide to go get some food. So there we are John and I, all alone, but on opposite sides of the theater. I decided that this arrangement was a little ridiculous so I, yes I, went and sat next to him. Besides the fact that he found Monsters Inc. scary in a part or two, the rest of that evening was fine. I daresay fun.

So there's the first date for you. We went out like three more times that weekend and then he had to go back to KS (we left for college later that day). I walked him out to his car when he was leaving to say goodbye (remember, he had kissed me by this point. Bad boy!!). We are at his car and he gives me a hug and says "I will get your email address from Ashley" and he got in his car and left. Okay. Not very cool. I was pretty sure at that point that he was just a jerk and I was never going to hear from him again.

I realized that was not the case when I got to UT two whole days later (that's another story) and he had called fifty times and left like 10 return numbers. I guess he did like me. Who knew? Then a few short weeks later he tells me he loves me-shock ensues. Then a few short months later he proposes. I must have been in shock, more shock, because I did say yes!