3 Men and a Lady

Valentine's Day

2012-02-14T19:19:00.000-08:00

Today was Valentine's Day. Andy and I don't really do anything for this holiday, so I don't have much to say about that. He did buy me a Diet Mt. Dew this morning and him and the boys made some chocolate dipped raspberries last night, Yum! However, the neighbor across the street invited us over for a litte party that she likes to put on for her kiddos. Pretty much my kids are her kids, they are there a lot of the time since she watches them for me while I work 2 days a week. We started the night off playing a little game of BINGO. Next, heart shaped pizza. Followed by cookie decorating. It was pretty fun. I think I need to start doing more fun things for my kids. I forget sometimes that holidays are for the kids and not for me. I did manage to pick up these cute litte bug pouch things that I threw in a couple little toys in. They loved them.

Update....Finally

2012-01-23T20:01:00.000-08:00

So I am not so good at this blogging stuff. It has been over 2 months since I have added anything. OOPS!
I am going to try to remember everything since my last post...wish me luck :) Well, we had Thanksgiving. Followed by late night/early morning shopping with my mom, I had to work that day so we didn't stay out as long as we normally would but we got a lot done anyway. Brandon even got involved, we went to Toys-R-Us at 9:00 on Thanksgiving night and stood outside waiting to get in.
Wait....the week before Thanksgiving Andy and I went with my mom and dad to Vegas. We met my sister from California there. My other sister and her husband came as well. It was nice to go somewhere for a couple days. Of course we missed our boys. While we were there we went to see the Blue Man Group. Andy was part of the show! One of the Men was in the corner eating a bowl of Captin Crunch and "got caught" he handed it to Andy to make it look like he was the one that was eating it. It was the funniest thing! For those of you who know Andy know that he isn't one to get involved in anything, yet alone a show in Vegas. He just sat there holding the bowl cause he didn't know whatelse to do with it.
On the 2nd of December my baby boy turned 3! We did a Toy Story cake (not as cool as Brandon's) poor kid gets jipped sometimes :) He didn't seem to mind though. It was filled with lots and lots of Monster Trucks since that is what he wanted.
Next we have the month of December...full of holiday parties and treats! Yum! I wasn't really in the Christmas mood this year so we didn't get a tree until around the 10th of the month. Then it took about a week for it to be decorated. We didn't even put up any of our decorations. We put lights in the windows but that was about it. I felt really bad for my kids, of course too late to fix it. Next year will rock!
As part of Andy's Christmas everyone pitched in and sent him to the Bears VS Broncos game with his brother Troy. He had tons of fun! Lucky for him he likes both teams so he wasn't really disappointed in the game at all. The Broncos came from behind to win, but overall the game was good.
On Christmas Eve we were able to take an adventure to the IMC emergency room. Ty decided that breaking his arm would be a good idea. He was dancing around and fell funny and that was all it took. Here I thought his broken bones would come from jumping off the couch, stairs, slides, or porch. But now he breaks it just walking around. :) Two weeks later we went in to get it casted and he wanted a Buzz cast. Disappointed to find out there is no such thing...he went with green instead (like Buzz). He only had the cast on for 2 weeks and it never slowed him down at all. Still jumping and running everywhere.
After Christmas comes Andy and I's anniversary....11 years! Hard to believe it has been that long. This year the weather was nice and sunny...complete contrast to the year we got married, foggy and cold.
Jan 9th leads us to Andy's birthday. Brandon picked out a Broncos cake for him. We were just glad they won the day before so the cake was still a good idea :) I invited his friend Dan and his wife Crystal over for dinner. It was a fun little party.
Another fun thing that happend in the first part of January...I was able to go get an ultrasound of our new addition! That is right folks...we have #3 coming in August. We found out the week before Christmas but waited until the 13th of January to tell the family. It was hard to keep in. I had my cousin Staci make some t-shirts to help us spread the word. They turned out awesome! We are all excited, especially the boys. They both keep rubbing my stomach and looking at the little ultrasound pics of the kidney bean with arms. :)
Well, I think that about sums up the last couple months. Hopefully I don't wait another 2 months to update again. I didn't put pictures on this post, but they are all on my FB profile so feel free to go there and check them out.

Monticello Trip

2011-11-11T11:32:00.000-08:00

The weekend before Halloween we drove down to Monticello to see my cousins that live there. It is always nice to go see family and just chill. While we were there we went to Grandma Hansen's house and raked leaves. Of course you can't rake leaves without jumping in them.

Everyone got involved. It was way fun! The kids had a blast and were upset when we started bagging them up. Tyler even went as far to jump in the bag as we were putting the leaves in there. It was way funny!
Thanks Hoggards for letting us come and see you guys and stay at your nice new house! We love you all!

CEO Breakfast

2011-11-11T09:38:00.000-08:00

We were able to attend a breakfast at Brandon's school this morning. His teacher nominated him to recieve the award called a CEO (Chief Example to Others) at Northlake. Brandon is doing so well in school he makes me so proud. His teachers have all always had such great things to say about him. He is currently carrying a straight A report card (minus a couple A+) :) I am so glad that he is a much better student than I was at that age....sorry mom! He is such a sweetheart to everyone. Just one example that I can think of that I wanna make sure gets written down somewhere is...One day he was ridding his bike to school with a group of kids from the neighborhood and one of the girls in the group had her tire go flat. Brandon stayed back with her and walked to and from school that day so she wouldn't be alone. What a GREAT kid I have been blessed with. LOVE YOU BUDDY! I can't get the video to upload :( I hope one day I can figure it out and post it someday.

Our Summer in a nutshell

2011-08-25T22:36:00.000-07:00

So I decided that since the summer is over I will try to roll it all into one post. We did a lot of fun things this summer, I am sure I will forget most of them but here we go....
We started the summer off by moving to Tooele from Logan. That has been an adjustment for all of us. Being landlords has been good so far, I am sure glad we found good renters. The rest of June was spent trying to organize the new house (although it still isn't done). In July we had the Meadows reunion up in Joe's Valley. It is always a blast to see everyone. I spent the time visiting with everyone and jumping off of the rock into the water. After the reunion was the glorious occasion also known as my birthday. Of course July consists of the two "firework holidays". We love fireworks! Next comes August, nothing too exciting went on in August. I decided to go FT at my new job of 2 months at Chase bank...still deciding if it was the right choice, but there is no turning back now. It will be another adjustment for us all as I haven't worked FT time in about 2 and a half years (since I had Ty).

Brandon started 3rd grade at his new school called Northlake Elementary. He has enjoyed it so far...he was so excited to go and make some more friends. The only thing I have found humorous so far is he was glad to sit in the front of the class (he has been in the back the last 2 years) but on day 2 the teacher switched him to the back cause a kid was talking too much so he had to be moved. I guess that is a good thing...that he was moved because he was the good kid in class not the talker (at least not yet). I hope it stays that way.

I guess it is time

2011-06-27T14:11:00.000-07:00

So we have lived in Tooele now for 3 weeks and I am still working on adjusting to the new place. We love the house but I miss Logan and the people there still. I also hate driving by the lights at the ballpark and not being able to stop and play. Andy is able to come home every other night, but it usually ends up being between 3-4 in the morning so we really don't see him any more than we did before. I am missing my yard too. We fixed the fence right before we moved so the boys were able to go out and play without me worrying about where they were. We have a fence here but no grass. One day we might...probably when it is too cold to play outside. I will take some pics once I get all the pictures hung up on the walls. I have started my new job at Chase, so far all I have done is computer training and a little shadowing. This upcoming week I will be training in Salt Lake for 3 days. The following week I will finally be able to sign on to a computer and help some people with their transactions. I think I am going to like it there once I get on and running. The people I work with are really nice. The only thing I am not excited about is the fact that they have a dress code which consists of black pants and blue or black shirts. That is going to get old fast! :) It will be good though.

I have also decided that I can't look at other people's blogs anymore. Everyone else is having so much fun and we have just sat around doing nothing for the begining of the summer. Now that July is here we will have so much going on that I will have something to post. I am also wanting to get some family pictures done sometime soon. So I will be putting them on here too.

Until Next Time...

One more day....

2011-05-26T23:00:00.000-07:00

I decided to go ahead and write this up now, since it is now technically Friday and we are on our last day here in the beautiful city of Logan, Utah. We are all going to miss this place. It is a good thing it is only 1 hour and 42 minutes away. (Yes I clocked it on Wednesday) I went down for an interview. Anyway....I am going to miss all the wonderful people I have met while here these last 10 years. Many, many friends have been made. Also, many good things have happened to our family while we have been here. First off...when we moved here it was just the two of us, who knew starting out up here we would have 2 little boys in the time that we were here.

What a joy they are in my life! I love them so very much!
As we move on in our journey together we will continue to be blessed, I know we will. Change is always hard, but in the end...it all works out the way it is supposed to.

You can never beat the beauty that is up in the Cache Valley, but this picture of Tooele doesn't look to shabby either.
Stay tuned as we go about this change in our life, as always...I am sure it will delight those who follow along. :)

Week in Review....

2011-05-21T22:16:00.000-07:00

SORRY...IT IS A LONG ONE...

Okay everyone, I have decided to write (type) down how I have been feeling this week. Started off the week with a last minute trip down to SL so I could have an interview with a branch down there, felt like it was a wasted trip the minute I got back in the car....leading to frustration that they wouldn't just do a phone interview first then a face to face, saving me the 3 hour trip. Turns out my suspicions were right, received a call on Wednesday that I did not receive the job. On Monday night the ladies I bowled with on Wednesday nights took me to dinner at Aggie's. I was bummed about the interview but they cheered me up really fast, I love them all. I was also able to ride the motorcycle to dinner so it was awesome! Of course at the end of dinner I went to being sad cause I realized it was the last time I would see them before I moved.
Tuesday was pretty uneventful, I worked all day so not much time for anything to happen. Got to watch Biggest Loser so that is always a good day. :)
Wednesday was disappointing with the phone call I received. Plus trying to figure out which mortgage company we were going with was starting to really grind on me. I turned it over to Andy and then stressed about what he was doing about it. I can't remember much about Wednesday so it must not have been too exciting either. Went and walked by the Logan river and saw how full it was. Tyler fell down a little bank and got his arm in the water, scared us both more than anything.
Next...Thursday...once again I worked all day, but that evening I went to Zumba and then some ladies in my ward threw a "going away" ice cream trip. I sat there in the little ice cream shop and took in all the people who loved me. Making me go through a whole slew of emotion in about one hour. I am going to miss everyone up here in Logan. I stayed out until 12:00 talking to 2 of the ladies that came, I think we were all just glad to get a break. We were standing in the rain for about 30 minutes of it.
Friday brought some packing, not very much is done. Everyone keeps asking me why I don't have much packed, all I can tell them is I have had to open the boxes I do have packed at least 4 times to look for something I didn't think I would need. But I did pack up a few things on Friday. Then that night we went to a ward dinner and then to get some more ice cream. Staying out until 10:30 with one of the same ladies I was out with the night before. Her name is Ashley and we became instant friends, making it even more hard to leave.
Now we are onto today (Saturday), once again I filled my day with activities to help me avoid packing and making it all come to an end. Three of my high school friends came up and we did lunch, then one hung out for a few hours then another one of my friends came over with her boys and we decided to go get more ice cream! In case you don't know this about me....I LOVE ICE CREAM!!! I did go to three different places so it is completely different, right?
The whole week was filled with the stress about the mortgage, finally on Friday we made a decision and we are now hoping to close by the 26th so we can move in on the 28th...that's right folks that is next Saturday! Only 7 more days! I better get moving on the packing thing. I pack when I am okay with the move and then when I start getting sad about the whole thing I stop. I do have some ladies from the ward coming over on Wednesday morning to help, but I don't want to have too much left for them to do. Of course by Wednesday I will be okay with everything being packed up, cause I really won't need any of it but some clothes and toiletries. I have such wonderful friends up here that they have invited us over for dinners Wed-Fri of next week so I won't have to worry about that. I just hope that one day I can be as great as everyone has been up here. Everyone sure is making it that much harder to leave!

Myspace Quotes Graphics

It is official!!

2011-05-08T20:28:00.000-07:00

After about 10 months of saving chore money, birthday money, and any left out change Brandon is the official owner of a Lagoon season passport.

I decided after I finished my bowling tournament yesterday that I would surprise him with a trip to Lagoon. He was so excited he couldn't stop talking about it the moment he found out we were going.

He was a couple dollars short to pay for the whole thing so I told him the night before that I was planning on taking him but he didn't have enough money. We decided he could do some chores for the grandparents. He didn't have enough time to do them all that night so he had to write up a "contract" with Grandma Hadlock so he could come to her house and work off the money she gave him.
(sorry it is sideways) It was written on a lid from Cafe Rio. So funny!
Then we were off to Grandma Anderson's where he volunteered to clean her toilets and she said that was worth the rest of the money he needed, so we were off.
Before hand Brandon and I had made a deal...if he would go on the Wicked

then I would "buck up" and go on the Wild Mouse with him

So that is the deal for the whole summer, every time he goes on the Wicked with me I have to go on the Wild Mouse with him. I am sure hoping that he won't hold me to that. He really liked the Wicked....my opinion of the Wild Mouse didn't change (still scares the crap out of me)!
I was so proud of him being so big and riding on all of the big rides. He had been on most of them last year, but fell short on height for some, but he rode them this year with no problem. One of his big accomplishments was he opened his eyes in the loops of the Colossus

He was so excited when he did that. He says next time he will tip his head back and look for the track. He is so funny.
One interesting thing happened to us while on the Tidal Wave...

there are quite a bit of birds that like to fly around this particular ride, some small, some big. Well, we were just ending our ride when a big ole goose flew over it almost hitting us in the head. We screamed and ducked, meanwhile, the goose got the crap scared out of him too...literally! Brandon ended up with some of the evidence on his hands, arm, shirt, and shorts. GROSS! Not as gross as the poor kid a couple rows in front of us, he got it right in the face. Next time I will be wearing a poncho :)
It was way fun to go and enjoy the excitement he had the whole time we were there. Of course we rode the classics like the white roller coaster, musik express, jetstar 2, and the sky scrapper. At every turn there was a huge smile on his face! I am so proud of him saving up his money to get his passport. He decided last year that he wanted to do it and then did it.

Our New House

2011-04-27T08:55:00.000-07:00

I was trying to think of a way I could show you all our new house, well the house website took it off because it is under contract so I was able to go and save the pictures they had on it and make a slide show with them. I wish I would have taken my camera and taken some pictures of some of the other things that they didn't. Oh well, I will next time we are out there. Some of the things that are not shown are...bathroom upstairs, one of the bedrooms (probably cause it is kind of small)and the backyard. It is spacious but doesn't have any grass. Neither does the front yard. Both of the rooms upstairs have walk in closets, the one downstairs isn't walk in but good sized. So added all together there is 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 family/living rooms, a 2 car garage, and a fenced backyard with a deck out of dinning room. It is located in Tooele which is about 30 minutes west of Salt Lake but puts us only 20 minutes from Andy's work which will be so much nicer for all of us. I am still sad to leave Logan but I know as it gets closer then I will be able to become more excited. I have just been in Logan for a lot of years and I have some really good friends here that I will miss. But I am looking forward to making new ones and making a better life for my family, which this move will do for us. I will make another post once I get some more pictures taken. Until then...

The Explanation

2011-04-25T20:26:00.000-07:00

Ok so a lot of you are confused by my Facebook posts so I am going to do my best to explain them....
We have been trying to figure out a lot of stuff so we could move closer to Andy's job. WELL, the loan officer told me (or so I thought) that I would have to have my employment verified 2-3 weeks after we closed on our new house. We had originally thought that I would quit with the bank and find a job somewhere else in Tooele if there wasn't an opening for me to transfer too. But I couldn't be in "new hire status" when they came to verify my employment. That kind of stressed me out knowing how far away that meant I could be working from my house, since I would have to transfer to some random branch just so I had the same job. I wasn't happy about that at all, I knew that if it was too far away I would be quitting it and I didn't want to quit a job shortly after I was given it. That just isn't the right thing to do in my book...thus making it so I would be farther than I wanted to be once Brandon started school again.
We are currently under contract for a house in Tooele and there aren't any jobs in Tooele or in Magna (about 20 min away) so I went and talked to the mortgage rep today and asked him if they would frown upon me just staying at the Logan branch until they verified my employment then I would quit the bank and find a new job. Well, he informed me that could work since I only have to be employed until we close (sign the papers). I was greatly relieved to find that out. Huge relief! I wasn't planning on quitting until after we move anyway, we obviously be closed before that happens.
I am currently looking for an opening to become available in the next 3-5 weeks as we wait to close, but I know now that if nothing does open then I can just hang out here in Logan and it will be okay. I hope this clears up a few things...of course it probably doesn't, since it doesn't even make sense to me half the time.

Finally

2011-04-13T12:47:00.000-07:00

So on Monday we finally got the answer we had been watiting for...we were approved to go ahead and purchase a home down in the Salt Lake area somewhere (most likely Tooele). Of course we also found out that the house we have had our eye on since we turned in our application 3 weeks ago was sold Monday morning. That is just our luck! So now we need to go through lists and lists of houses trying to find another one. We were able to go looking at about 5 on Monday afternoon, none of which really struck our fancy. There is one that MIGHT be a possibility, but we are still looking. Of course Andy and I are on opposite schedules...He can go Tues and Thurs mornings and those are the only two days I work. So Andy will probably do the priminary scouting then I will be called in for back-up or final decision. Oh of course I go through all the listings on the computer and send my favorites to the realtor so he can show them to Andy, so I guess Andy is the middle man. I sure hope we can find something quick...June 1st is coming and it is coming FAST!! We have told my parents we will be staying in their basement, but I think after this weekend (we were there for 4 whole days) my dad is having second thoughts about that. LOL

No News = Frustration!

2011-04-03T14:41:00.000-07:00

So we turned in all of our "required" paperwork into our mortgage rep on Thursday two weeks ago. Well, Friday at 3:30 comes around and he needs some more information from me. Knowing that it wouldn't really make a difference if I took it on Friday afternoon or Monday morning, I chose Monday morning. Well, I dropped of the remaining information and he informs me that we need to come up with some more, REALLY!!! So I go back home and we get what is needed. He sends off the info to the underwriters on Tuesday at 5:00. Yes that is 5 days later, I understand that mortgage people are extremely overwhelmed right now, all I ask is that they ask for ALL of the information so we don't get delayed another 5 days. Anyway, meanwhile we are working with a realtor in Bountiful and he can't actually show us anything until we have a nice little piece of paper in our hand saying it is okay for us to do so. Also, I understand that...why show houses to people if they can't even buy one. We made an appointment with the realtor for this coming Monday because Brandon is out of school and we wouldn't have to worry about what to do with him while we went and looked. But we have not heard back from the mortgage company yet, so we can not go look as planned. We are still "penciled in" just in case by some miracle we hear from mortgage company tomorrow morning. Highly doubt that will happen! I am sorry this is so negative, but I am feeling a little overwhelmed since we have renters moving in and no where to go. Plus a job and daycare to find in the meantime. Of course I could quit and eliminate all of those problems, but then what...a whole new ball of problems would arise for sure.

We Have a Renter!

2011-03-30T12:38:00.000-07:00

So I guess we better get moving on making our decisions....
I called someone up to give me a bid to trim our apple tree in the backyard and mentioned we wanted to make it safe so we couldn't get sued if a branch broke and hit one of our renters in the head. The guy that bidding asked if we were going to be renting. He asked if he could take a look. After we walked through he asked if he could bring his wife by to take a look, so two days later him and his wife returned. She loved it! So they returned on Monday and signed a rental agreement with Andy and I. We are to be out by the first of June so they can move in. We currently have no idea where we will be going but I do know it will be in the Salt Lake area. We are trying to purchase a second home where prices are so cheap right now. Some are in Tooele so we could end up there. That is all I know for know. Hopefully in the next week or so we might know more. If not then we could be needing to stay with someone while we figure it out. We figured we couldn't pass up having a renter. People usually don't "fall into your lap" like that.

TO BE CONTINUED.....

Hello Everyone

2011-03-25T14:39:00.000-07:00

So here we are the 25th of March and I am watching the snow fall. I guess that is what happens in Utah during the Spring. So far I am okay with it cause softball hasn't started so it can rain all it wants. We are ALL waiting for baseball to start. Brandon has been saving himself for baseball all year. I think he is more excited then me. I hope we are able to get him signed up somewhere. In case you don't know or haven't heard...we are moving so Salt Lake, or at least somewhere in the valley, when school gets out. We have been doing a lot of little stuff to the house to make it look nice so we can rent it out. I don't know much of the details right now, as we are not sure how long the whole process is going to take and we don't want it to be too soon. That is why I am not sure if we will be doing baseball this year. I did call down there and they have some leagues that start in the summer too so we will definetly get him in one of those. I was hoping to get him in, what they call the Pony League. It is more involved I think so he would have learned more. But anything is better than nothing. Next year we will put him in that one for sure. As for me...I don't know what I will be doing. It might be time for me to stop playing and just focus more on him. If I happen to find some team to play on that would be awesome but I will be okay if I don't (At least I think). I will keep you all posted as details come in. I have to admit...I am a little nervous about moving. I have gotten REALLY comfortable up here in Logan. I know that it will all work out, but I am still nervous. I am also very excited at the same time. It is weird to think that I could actually have Andy home for more than a couple hours here and there and one day a week. I just hope everything works out. I am secretly hoping I am able to quit working all together, that would take care of a lot of my worries in moving. But we will have to see what happens there. I guess I will stop now, like I said I will keep you posted. Until then....GO BRAVES!!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

2011-03-02T12:30:00.000-08:00

To "celebrate" Dr. Seuss's birthday Brandon's school has crazy hair day. I had no idea what to do since he doesn't have much hair to make crazy. My friend Trina offered up some hair color spray. I told Brandon that was what we were going to do so he went to town coming up with an idea of how he wanted to spray it...

When he woke up this morning we went to town working on his masterpiece....

As you can see, he decided to do all three color polka dots instead of just green on top and orange on the bottom. I think it turned out pretty cool, if I don't say myself. Next year after Halloween I am definetly snatching me up some colored spray so I don't even have to worry about it when Crazy Hair Day rolls around again. Thanks Trina for hooking us up.

Brandon is 7 continued

2011-03-02T12:11:00.000-08:00

So to finish up Brandon's birthday we spent the night home as a family. We had pizza with cinnamon rolls (like they do at school) and opened a couple presents and watched Megamind (for the 5th time...at least). Here are some picutres from the evening....enjoy!

Oh yes, how could I forget...he lost his first tooth at school that day too. It was the highlight of his day. He made the box for the tooth fairy to "deposit" his money into. He wrote the tooth fairy a letter asking her to leave the tooth, not sure what happened to it though. I didn't get a picture of it before she took it I guess.
We also went to school and gave some cupcakes to his classmates. They were bright colored with Oreo sprinkles. I should have taken the picture before we gave them all away, but oh well. Andy and Brandon also went outside and built a "seven layer snowman" (Andy's idea). Andy was too cold to stay outside and build an actual snowman...he has shorts on.

Brandon is 7!!

2011-02-27T21:20:00.000-08:00

Holy cow, I can't even believe it....Brandon is 7! It is just nuts to think that it was that long ago that I became a mother for the first time. I never knew that I could love someone so much. In one little instant the love in my heart exploded. Ever since then he as been a blessing in my life. He is doing so well in school and loving every minute of it. I am so proud of him. He is getting so big and growing up everyday. I keep telling him to stop but he just won't listen =)

Toy Story 3 cake. Isn't it awesome! Thanks to Uncle Troy for pointing us to his friend so she could make it for us.

He was so excited to get a "big" mit so he could move on to "big kid" baseball. I am sooooooo glad that he loves baseball! He has been waiting all year for the season to come. We are almost there buddy!

We went to Sizzler when we were down in Salt Lake on the Monday before his birthday. It is always a blast to get together with the family and making my little boy feel like it is totally his day.

We spent the day before dinner at a place in VF Factory in Draper called "Planet Play". It was lots of fun! Go Karts, mini-golf, mini-bowling, lazer tag, of course an arcade. Way fun!
We will top it all off with taking cupcakes to his class tomorrow on his actual birthday. He is so excited to give his class cupcakes with colored sprinkles and oreos. He is the best big brother Ty could ask for. We all love him and are extremely blessed to have him in our lives. Love ya~

THANK YOU

2011-01-30T08:12:00.000-08:00

I am thankful for my parents. They came up on Friday night so they could come to Brandon's basketball game on Saturday morning. Well, in the meantime I decided it would be fun to somehow pinch my syatic nerve. They stayed all day Saturday and let me just relax and take it easy. They even bought us dinner at Chili's (yum). My dad made dinner for us on Friday and my mom did my dishes and laundry that had been neglected since Thursday when my back went out. I just wanted to let everyone know that I love them, and are very grateful for all they do for us. I am sure that I don't tell them enough. But I really do love them, and so do the boys. I know that they do everything that they can for me, being so far away.

2 Months in...Not What I Was Hoping For

2011-01-11T21:31:00.000-08:00

So it has been 2 months since I made my goals on here. I am sad to report that I am not doing so well at it. I even gave me extra time because of holidays. I could still make up the lost time. I was going to try to get the Book of Mormon done by the 22nd of Feburary, but I am about 12 chapters behind. Which is like 6 days. I also missed going to the temple in December. I was going to go but I called to make the appoinment to do baptisms for the family names I have recieved and they informed me that they were closing until the 26th of January for cleaning. I am scheduled to go then...I guess that is better than nothing. I might have to revamp the goal and make it again. I have been working really hard on reading every night just not the amount needed to finish in the 100 days. I have to give myself credit though...this is the farthest I have ever gotten in the Book of Mormon in a long time. Hopefully next time I'll have better news to share with all of you. Until next time!

10 Wonderful Years!

2010-12-30T06:29:00.000-08:00

It was 10 years ago today that we knelt across the alter in the House of the Lord and said yes to the question that sealed us together for time and all eternity. I love him as much now as I did then.
It is crazy how fast time flies by. It feels like it was just yesterday we were standing there in the foggy morning taking these pictures. For those of you that were there, I'm sorry to remind you of the chill in the air that day.
In these 10 years we have added 2 wonderful additions to our little family, we have purchased a house and what feels like a million cars. But over it all we are still madly in love as we were then. All I can hope for is that we have many many more years together. Not so much for more cars! I love you Andy, thanks for giving me the best 10 years of my life and for those cute little additions. I couldn't have done it without you!

Thanks to all the people in these picture who supported us and continue to do so. We love you all.

Here's to another 10!

Christmas is coming...

2010-12-22T14:05:00.000-08:00

I don't know what it is about this year, but I am having a really hard time getting into the Christmas spirit this year. I have still got some stuff to go and get, but I don't really want to. I don't know what it is. My kids are so cute about everything it should make me excited about it all. My kids shouldn't have to suffer because I am feeling scroogish. Hopefull in the next day or two I can shake it, of course by then I won't want to go fight everyone else to get what I need.

Christmas Parties

2010-12-14T14:02:00.000-08:00

This past weekend we were able to have 3 Christmas parties to go to, the first one was our ward Christmas party at the church. We took our cute little neighbor boy with us. The boys had so much fun there. They even got to see Santa, I guess we can check that of the list now. I have decided that all the boys either have the Christmas spirit or they are little devil children...I haven't had a red eye photo for a very long time, and they all three have some in these pics.

Tyler did so well, he walked right up and jumped on his lap, but was still a little nervous, you can tell...he wouldn't even smile at the camera.

Brandon asked for 3 Wii Remotes so his whole family could play the Wii at the same time. How thoughtful of him.

This is the little neighbor boy his name is Tristan, him and Brandon are best buds...not bad for only being moved in for about a month.
The second one was at my mom and dad's house. They did an open house for some of our friends and family. There was a really good turnout, she was happy about that. Always good to see long lost family members ;) I forgot to take my camera out and take pictures until it was almost over so I guess I won't be doing much with those. Hey at least I took some, I'm not sure my mom even did.
The next party was the Hadlock side party, held at Andy's brother's house. It is always fun to see the joy on the kids faces when they open presents from their cousins. Brandon just loves to give presents to his cousins as well. Tyler was a little overwhelmed with all that was going on, paper flying everywhere and kids wanting to play with their newly opened gifts. He was so excited every time he was handed a new present to open. Again, not the best pics but here are a few for your enjoyment.

Uncle Troy gave Brandon Operation, we have already played it. He loves it.

What boy doesn't need his own dirt truck?

Brandon got a cool new camo coat from his grandma and grandpa Hadlock.

Tyler thought it would be fun to climb in the empty boxes.

My Baby Boy is 2!

2010-12-01T07:37:00.000-08:00

Wow how time flies! My cute little baby boy in now in the terrible 2's! Silly me thinking he was already there. He is such a joy in our lives. We all just love him! He definetly keeps me moving. We had his 2 year check up a couple days ago, he is 31 lbs and 34 inches long. That is a far cry from 8 lbs 7 oz and 19 inches. HAPPY BIRTHDAY Ty-monster...we all love you lots!
From This.....

To this...

Thanksgiving (I'm Still Full!)

2010-12-01T07:08:00.000-08:00

This year for Thanksgiving we were able to see the Hadlock side, it has been a long time. It was held in North Salt Lake at a clubhouse...It was really nice and big, needs to be to hold that many people. Andy was able to make it after a week of not thinking he would. He chose to come so he would be able to see his extended family. He left from there and me and the boys continued on to my mom's. I am so glad that we were able to see Andy's grandparents and cousins. Like I said it had been a long time.

I would like to say that I am greatfull for Andy and all the sacrifices he has had to make in the last year and a half due to his job. No it isn't the ideal job for a guy who has a young family at home, but we know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. We know that he loves us and would rather be here but sometimes that just isn't possible. I am also greatful for my family and friends who help me out with my boys whenever they can. I know that I could not do it without them. I often feel bad when I go to Salt Lake and my mom becomes their "mom" while I run around town with friends or do whatever. She loves it I know, that is what grandma's do, right? But I still can't help feel a little guilty. Speaking of my boys...I am thankful that they are both happy and healthy. There are a lot of people in my life that have either had sick babies who are no longer with us, or they can't have them at all, and I am so glad that I got them. Even though sometimes Tyler makes me wonder :) He is definetly a boy! He is so rough and tumble already, I fear as though I am in trouble. Brandon he is still my very smart and calm (most of the time). He puts me back where I need to be anytime I forget. I love them both dearly. Anyway, that is my rant again...sorry! Here are some pictures from our Thanksgiving adventures, I hope you enjoy.

Yes I still have a husband...here is my proof!

The layout of the tables, not really important, but it has some people in it too.

Andy's grandparents, aren't they the cutest!

Love ya grandma!

This is a picture of Tyler's food hut. He decided instead of eating his food he was going to stack them all up. It was very cleaver of him, and of course cute! When it would fall over he said uh-oh and stacked it back up.

Setting Goals!

2010-11-15T20:55:00.001-08:00

So I have learned that it is always good to write down your goals. In my case I feel like I need to write them down where others can see them, that way others can help me stick to them, and if I don't...then I have everyone else to answer to. So I have decided to set 2 separate goals for myself.

GOAL #1...Go to the temple at least once a month. I was able to go this past weekend and remember the joy and peace I feel while in it's holy walls. I am able to go there and when I walk out I feel ready to take on the world. Now in my life I could definitely use that feeling more often. I am not to the point in which I can say what day I will be going for sure, as I will need to work on sitters and whatnot for the boys. BUT it will be done.

GOAL #2...read the Book of Mormon in 90 days. Now this one is going to be extra hard with the holidays coming up. I found a fun tracking sheet and a guide to tell me what chapters I need to read everyday to help keep me on track. I am going to give myself a few extra days, just in case I can't read as long or far as the tracking sheet says, so I am going for 100 days. I feel that every goal needs to be "realistic" or it will fail in the first few days.

I know that as I strive to do just these two things it will not only benefit me personally but everyone around me. Especially my immediate family, and that is what is important.

So there you have it folks, now that it is written for all to see. I expect those of you who keep in touch through Facebook to occasionally ask me how I am doing to help push me along. Of course, not too pushy, but a little nudge here and there would be greatly appreciated. Of course if anyone would like to join me you are more than welcome.

http://lds.about.com/od/bookofmormon/a/bk_bom_reading.htm
http://goodkoppbadkopp.typepad.com/files/bofm_chart_8.5x11.pdf

These are the two links that I found my helps from. I am not sure if they will work, you will have to let me know.

Thanks for bearing with me while I lay down my goals for myself. Not sure if this is the proper place but I figured as good a place as any since I kind of look to this as my personal journal anyway.

Halloween Happenings

2010-11-03T13:39:00.000-07:00

Halloween was a ton of fun for all of us. It started with the Logan City annual pumpkin walk. For those of you who have never been there, you definetly should. It is always fun for all of us. Then on Saturday the 23rd we had 2 halloween parties. One with the Hansen Family and one with the Anderson Family. Needless to say we spent the whole day in our halloween costumes, which was nice to get our money's worth. This year, Brandon was Bumble Bee from Transformers, Tyler was a Monkey, and I made my own costume and wa a Mummy. Brandon decided what I was this year, it was fun to make my costume. The next week was the week of halloween so it was full of fun activities. Wednesday Tyler had a little party that he wore his costume to. Brandon had his parade at school of Friday followed by a trip back to school for the spook alley later that night. Saturday was full of trick-or-treating and visiting friends. Sunday which was actually halloween of course no halloween activities were to be had, as we live in Utah, but Brandon did have his primary program. He did awesome! My mom was able to come spend the weekend with us as well. Way fun to have her come visit us. There are too many pictures for me to post some on here, but if you check out my Facebook page they are all there for you to see. I have a hard time just picking out my favorites to put on here and it is hard to have a lot of pictures on one post. Trust me, you will thank me for not putting them on here :) Now it is time to move on to Thanksgiving and then Christmas...wow this year is just flying by...oh yea...we have a Birthday in the middle of it all too.

Halloween Parade

2010-10-29T14:27:00.000-07:00

Today was Brandon's halloween parade. I had to work so I was running to even make it there. To add stress to my day, my grandma was taken to the hospital this morning with an infection and so my mother stayed there with her...she was supposed to be bringing my camera that my sister had borrowed last weekend. So I spent the morning looking for a camera and waiting to hear about my grandma. I found one at the last second. Tyler was able to walk around with Brandon, he didn't get a nap so he was really tired.By the end of the walk around the school he was a little upset, Brandon enjoyed showing off his brother to all his friends, when all the other classes were walking through his classroom he kept saying "Look at my baby" "Look at my baby" it was really cute. My boys make me so happy and I love them tons.

As far as my grandma goes...she is getting some tests ran to see why she keeps getting infections. She is also suffering from encephalitis (swelling of the brain) due to the fever she is having with the infections. They are hoping she will be home in a few days.

We Love Halloween!

2010-10-18T14:39:00.000-07:00

Brandon and I both had some time off of school and work last week for UEA. I decided to do some fun Halloween crafts that I had seen in a magazine. For those of you who don't know...Halloween is my favorite holiday. I love to decorate and make scary foods, I usually don't have the time to do all that I would like to do, due to the fact that I am at work most of the time. It was pretty fun doing these crafts with Brandon. It made it even more fun knowing that he was having a good time as well. Tyler was asleep during most of it, not quite ready to have both helping me. :) We made little pumpkins out of and egg carton, ty-dyed some t-shirts, and I made half of my mummy costume. The burn on my arm was from the pan that I cooked the sheet pieces for my costume on. Go figure the one time I decide to be crafty I get burned. Oh well, probably my own fault...next time I will have Tyler around to help remind me that it is hot, as that is one of the few words he knows.

This is becoming a trend....sorry

2010-10-14T08:29:00.000-07:00

So I need to either choose Facebook or Blog, I obviously can't do both :) I am struggling with the blog updates. I am not sure what I can say we have been doing though.

Brandon has started the 2nd grade and is doing AWESOME!!! He loves school and even his homework. I really hope it stays that way forever. He is getting so big and independent, kind of sad for a mom.

Tyler is also getting so big and independent. He runs and destroys faster than I can keep up sometimes. He still thinks everything is a either a bat or a ball. Mostly a ball...the kid throws EVERYTHING!! His allergies are getting a little bit better. I don't worry so much about corn syrup, corn starch, and other corn made products. I just make sure he doesn't get the actual vegetable also same with eggs. They are a little more tricky though. Even if they are baked in he sometimes has trouble with them. Gets conjested is all but still no fun for him. I believe he has become addicted to Benedryl, probably because it makes him feel better. I try really hard to keep him away from the stuff that would conjest him but sometimes it is hard and I need to call in the Benedryl for relief.

Andy is still driving truck, but he does have a dedicated route to Denver and back to Salt Lake. He has been trying to get up to Logan when he gets in to SL every other night. With lack of sleep and cold weather, riding the motorcycle wasn't so fun for him, causing him to not want to come as often as we would like. We tried to remedy that situation by purchasing a car from an auction, that almost worked out for us. One week after we bought it the transmission went out. We just got that fixed so he has a car to drive back and forth now, definetly won't be as cold, but lack of sleep is still a problem. He does have Mondays off so we get to see him at least one day a week, which is better than what we used to have. We are working on ways to make that more, but we will have to see what happens with that.

As for me, I am still working at Wells Fargo but I have recently been transfered to a different branch. At first I have to admit I was not happy about it, but now that I am there it isn't so bad. Amazing how life works out. The new branch isn't as busy so it is kind of my relaxing time. When I get home I don't feel so stressed that I don't feel like I can deal with all the home stuff. Not that I am doing any better at the organization or cleaning, but I am trying. It has only been about 3 weeks so I'm getting there.

That is what has been happing with us the last little while. I know I always say this...but...I am going to try to be better at this. Maybe I need to do more exciting stuff so I have something to post. :) The holidays are coming up so we should have something, right?

Update....I know, I know, it's about time!

2010-08-28T14:25:00.000-07:00

Due to the fact that it has been FOREVER since I posted I decided to make a slide show with some pictures of what we have done this summer....To start out we went to my sister's house in California for my nephew's graduation party. While there we went to the beach which is always fun. They were doing a volleyball tournament down the beach so the goodyear blimp was flying around...my family (being from Utah) thought it was pretty cool to be that close to the blimp. To us, that is something you see on TV. On the way home we stopped in Las Vegas. I had never been to Fremont street in all the times I have been to Vegas, it is pretty awesome I recommend you go check it out.
Of course we have all the usuals...t-ball, softball, 4th of July breakfast, and of course lots and lots of water and watermelon. We were also able to squeeze in a Lagoon trip. Tyler and Brandon both had tons of fun there.
I hope this makes up for my lack of "postage". I hope you enjoy the slideshow.

I'm Such a Slacker!

2010-05-27T20:14:00.000-07:00

So I guess I should post at least once this month. Since I found Facebook I have been a serious slacker on the blog. I am going to try to remember what has happened since my last post...let's see....
We struggled to find food for Tyler since he was allergy tested. His favorites in the last month have included, Spaghetti, Mac&Cheese, Hot ham & cheese sandwiches, cinnamon sugar toast, and lots and lots of fruit. Since then we have found some other things that he likes to eat as well.
Bowling ended and softball started...well it is supposed to anyway. With the crazy spring weather AKA snow!! there hasn't been much in the way of softball going on. This year has been crazy as far as the weather goes. Of course it doesn't keep the kiddos from wanting to play outside on the swing set, I think the little neighbor boy, Chet, has wanted to come over and play at least a couple times a week. It is has been fun for Brandon to have a friend come play.
Tyler is running all over the place. Also growing like a weed. I have been more than a slacker on blogging, I have also slacked on getting his pictures taken. I will also blame that on the snow as well where I wanted them to be outside.
Mother's day came and went. I spent some time with both Andy and I's mothers (as Andy was out of town) Brandon gave me a hanging plant, which I put outside before I should have so it is no longer with us...also the weathers fault :)
Andy was in Atlanta around mothers day so he totally hooked me and the boys up with some Braves stuff. Which was good because shortly there after he was offered the long awaited dedicated route to Denver and back. He has been doing that for a week and we have seen him more in that week then we did some months without the dedicated route. Brandon loves that! Yes Tyler and I do too, but more Brandon...he sure does miss his daddy. The set schedule of it all is better for all of us as well, we know exactly what days he will be here and that works well for Brandon the Planner.
About a week ago Brandon was playing with Tyler's Epi pen while I was doing my hair for church and he came up to me with blood coming out of both hands...you guessed it...he had shot himself with it. It went completely through one of his fingers into another one. For those of you who don't know what an Epi pen does, it is a vein restricter so his finger lost circulation for a slight moment, causing it to turn white. We also spent the day on the phone with poison control and a heating pad on his finger. No worries all is well. He learned his lesson the hard way, I did have him worried at one point...I told him we were going to have to chop his finger off. Don't worry I only let him believe it for about 5 minutes.
Last but not least....my sweet little Brandon is one week away from ending his first year of school! I can't believe that he will be in 2ND grade in 3 months! He has had the best time in school and loves it and his teacher...she will be hard to beat! He has blown me away with all the stuff he has learned. I am so proud of him.

Tyler....I love you!

2010-04-22T21:06:00.000-07:00

So I went and got Tyler allergy tested today. Turns out we were right about the peanut allergy...almost too right. He tested over 2 times higher on peanuts than anything else! So bad that they prescribed him an epi-pin, that means he could possibly die if we don't have that on hand and he ingests a peanut of any kind. We also found out that he has an allergy to corn and eggs. I was hoping they would just tell me to avoid just that, but they said to avoid any form of the two I.E. corn syrup (found in EVERYTHING), corn starch, corn flower, and anything containing eggs of any sort. They want me to be very strict about it for the next month then bring him back in and see if his congestion has gone away at all. If not, maybe we won't have to be sooooo picky about the corn and eggs. He has been good enough so far, other than the fact he sounds like he has a hair ball in his throat constantly. I guess this means I get to become a "Betty Crocker" whether I want to or not. Since every single thing that is processed contains some form of corn in it. Did you know baking powder falls under the corn allergy as well. That might explain why he can do better with some cookies compared to others. Poor kid! I hope we can get him figured out so he doesn't sound like Buckles (my pug puppy) much longer.
If by chance this doesn't solve the "hair ball" issue, they are going to look at removing his adenoids, I hope they decide to take out his tonsils at the same time...might as well while they are in there, don't want those to flare up later in life and have to do it all again.
Wish us both luck for the next month....Him so this makes him better and Me so I know what the kid can and cannot eat! And that I can find recipes that he will eat, he is a very picky eater! Staci...I can hear you laughing from here =)

Finally we have a swingset!

2010-04-18T19:01:00.000-07:00

Today we put up the swingset I bought for the boys. My mom and dad picked it up from Salt Lake for me and brought it up. I invited some people over to help us put it together....as it turns out it only took my dad and grandpa to put it together. I still made dinner for everyone anyway. So as Andy's brother put it....we had a "swingset warming" party. It was fun, we had 5 kids playing on it and it stayed standing. That is a good sign! Brandon likes it so much, he is outside in his jammies playing on it all by himself.

Don't those smiles say it all!

Moki Camping Trip

2010-04-18T18:54:00.000-07:00

We went down to Southeastern Utah to go camping the weekend after Easter. We went with my cousins and aunt from Monticello. This is the first year I have joined them for their annual camping trip, it was way fun. My aunt let me and the boys stay in the trailer with her...Thanks Denise! We were able to ride the 4-wheelers, play in the sand, and just hang out. We took a wheeler trip down to a huge sand hill, the kids loved slidding down not only on their bums but their stomachs and their feet, getting sand in all their pockets and other places I can not mention. =) I have compiled pictures of our trip in the slideshow there is quite a few so take the time to watch the whole thing. I hope you enjoy! Thanks again Hoggards for the invite, we loved every minute of it.

Easter 2010

2010-04-18T18:31:00.000-07:00

My mom went all out for Easter this year, lots and lots of eggs for kids to hunt and lots of eggs to dye. That is okay though, she likes doing it and spoiling my kids. Tyler thought it was fun to try to put the eggs we were dying in his mouth, I think everyone put the egg in their mouth when they were young, or drank the dye. Good thing it isn't toxic!

Happy Birthday Dr. Suess!

2010-03-02T20:39:00.001-08:00

Today Brandon's school celebrated Dr. Suess' birthday. In celebration they had crazy hair day. We decided to put gel in his hair and spiked it all the way around, when we were doing it we couldn't stop laughing. I was going to shave his head this past weekend and I didn't so we could do something crazy with his hair, I'm glad I didn't...it was way fun!

He Is 6!

2010-02-28T07:47:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday Brandon! We all love you soooooo much! You are the best big brother Tyler could ask for, AND the best buddy mommy and daddy could ask for. Thanks for the 6 years of laughter. You are so funny! I hope you have the bestest birthday EVER! Love you, Mommy!

Yet another moment to remember...

2010-02-07T18:54:00.000-08:00

Brandon and I were watching the commercials for the Super Bowl and there was a bigdaddy.com commercial with Danika Patrick, she was getting a massage and the massouse stopped and asked her if she could become a bigdaddy model...anyway....after the commercial was over Brandon says, "I want a massage" I say "Me too." Then here comes the best part...Brandon "We would have to get cucumbers on our eyes if we got a massage." I busted up laughing, where does he come up with this stuff? Funny, funny kid!

This is why I love him

2010-02-04T13:27:00.000-08:00

Brandon's class is celebrating the 100th day of school tomorrow. They were sent home with a flyer asking us to send 100 items to school that day with them so they can practice sorting and counting. Brandon and I were discussing what items he would like to take....he got all excited and said, "I know!" He runs to his room, meanwhile I am sitting here wondering what he was going to get...He comes walking out with 5 of the biggest toys he can find and says, "We only need 95 more!" He was a little disapointed that he couldn't take 100 toys to school. We are still wondering what he is going to take...he always wants it to be the best! The things he comes up with. Hopefully I can come up with something that will make him happy.

Happy 75th Grandma!

2010-01-25T13:43:00.000-08:00

Today is my grandma's 75th birthday. She is the best! She is always making us laugh and is so loving. We did a birthday party for her over the weekend, lots of family and friends came to show their love for her. She enjoyed herself...the smile never left her face. This is the princess crown and birthday button we gave her. Happy Birthday "old" Grandma, We Love You!

***I should probably explain the "old" part of that comment***
My sister Big Angela has 5 boys and they have a million different grandma's from so they made up nicknames for all of them. One of her boys were helping with the nicknames and she was telling him that my mom's mom was his great-grandma and showed him a picture and he just started calling her old grandma...now my kids do the same. No she doesn't mind...she loves it.

2009-12-30T15:25:00.000-08:00

Brandon and I decided today to open on of his Christmas presents...Sand art! It was pretty fun and quick...yes a little messy, but fun. We made 3 bottles and one necklace. He had fun doing it, I am glad we did them.

Lights at Temple Square

2009-12-30T15:10:00.000-08:00

Holy cow the lights were awesome this year. It was freezing and foggy but it made for some really cool pictures....

Does he not look like he would like to jump out of that stroller and strangle me?

Christmas 2009

2009-12-30T14:53:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pics from Christmas at our house.

We started at the end...Look at the major haul once again this year. Spoiled Boy!

Can you see Brandon behind all of that wrapping paper?

Tyler...Don't get in the box! Take the presents out!

Every kid needs Christmas Jammies!

Gotta go see santa! It is very important, or he won't know what you want!

When all is said and done...Even the tree was tired! I am just glad it was halfway standing on Christmas morning. I think next year I might have to go a little bit bigget so the stand will acutally touch the trunk!

Wii Fit Plus...Fun for whole family!

2009-12-30T14:16:00.000-08:00

So as you know we got the Wii for Christmas. As a part of that gift I got the Wii Fit Plus for myself, or so I thought. Brandon loves it! He plays with it more than I do. I think that the hoola hoop challenge is the funniest to watch, so I made Brandon do it and let me video him. Way funny! I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do.....

Happy Anniversary!

2009-12-29T21:12:00.000-08:00

So I tried to scan a picture from our wedding, since we got married before they put pictures onto discs, and my scanner decided to stop working. So no picture today. ;0(
We are celebrating 9 years today (30th) and I can hardly believe it. I was able to go see the lights at the temple a couple weeks ago and it was foggy, it totally took me back to all the emotions of the day we were married forever in the temple 9 years ago at who knows early in the morning. Yes folks...It was EARLY! So foggy, I might add that we couldn't even see where we were going on the freeway on the way there. Who knew then that we would be so blessed to have our 2 little boys and have a family! I am glad for everything we have been through, good and bad, hard and easy...through it all we are still so much in love 9 years later. It is a little sad this year as this is the first time we have not been together to think back on all of the wonderful times we have had together as a couple. Good thing there are telephones :0)
I love you honey! Thanks for the memories and laughter...and many more to come! Love ya!

Pumkin walk 2009

2009-12-17T11:24:00.001-08:00

I know a little late, but here are some pictures from the pumpkin walk. Enjoy!

Letter To Santa...

2009-12-17T10:50:00.000-08:00

We were at my mom's this past weekend and Brandon was entertaining himself while we were getting everything ready for my mom's open house. He came up to me and said he had written a letter so I asked him to read it. It is so cute that I just had to get it on video. I couldn't believe that he wrote it all by himself. Ill have to get some pics of the actual letter and post them. It is cute to see how everything was spelled and written...it was 3 pages long! He wrote one at school yesterday too. It wasn't as long but he said he has been on the good list because he has helped his brother learn to walk. So cute the things kids come up with! By the way..Tyler is not walking yet! I just love him soooooo much! He is my sunshine, he brings a smile to my face daily! I hope he does the same for you!

Christmas Concert #3

2009-12-17T10:27:00.000-08:00

Here is just a fun clip of Brandon's school Christmas concert. I appoligize for the craziness at the end. My arm was getting tired, plus I tried to zoom in and that was a bad idea for sure. Still cute none-the-less.

Tis the Season!

2009-12-07T20:05:00.000-08:00

So Brandon will have a total of 4 Christmas programs with school this year. Two with after school club and two with his class. The first ASC I missed any photo ops because the camera wasn't with us. I made sure we had it today. All of the 1st grade classes sang at a local Zion's bank branch. The school makes ornaments for their Christmas tree, and the 1st grade sings at the lighting cermony. It was fun to see him sing all of the songs, the did a total of 6 of them. We are so proud of him. This is just one little clip that I took. It isn't the best. I was toward the back of the room wrestling Tyler. But it is cute none the less. Hey at least I get 2 more shots at it, right? I have included a couple still shots. One of them is really good, someone else must have taken a picture at the same time so I was able to use their flash to get a not so dark pic.

My Baby is ONE!

2009-12-01T21:38:00.001-08:00

Happy Birthday Tyler!

2009-12-01T21:08:00.000-08:00

That is right folks...my baby boy is one! My how this year has flown by, it seems like just about a couple months ago when we called into the hospital and they told me to come up. He was born 8lbs 3oz, currently he is 21.5lbs of joy. We love him so much! Brandon I think loves him more than any of us...if that is possible :0)

So I lied....

2009-11-29T19:11:00.001-08:00

First of all I lied about doing this Friday night. Andy ended up coming home so I spent time with him instead. I apologize. Second, I said that I would have pictures...I can't find my camera cord to load them on, so no dice. Sorry!
If I ever do find it I will make one of those slide shows, if I can figure out how, and put all pics in one post.
Anywho....what have we been up to....Brandon finished football, he loved it! He became the official center of the team, he loved being apart of every play. His coach really taught him a lot about the game. We can hardly wait for next season to start.
We were able to go to the annual Pumpkin Walk. That is always fun. This year's theme was different products. The displays were scenes from commercials. It is always amazing to me how creative people can be with pumpkins. Brandon went with his school and with me, he enjoyed it too. We went with our friends Serena and her boys. She has a boy Brandon's age, they are good friends. I love hanging out with them because I can have interaction while they play.
Of course we had Halloween, I posted some pics from a couple parties we went to. They were fun. On Halloween my friend Miranda and I decided to take our boys back to the neighborhood where we grew up. It was fun to see all of the people and changes that have happened since our parents left. Of course the boys got more candy then they could ever hope for. It is slowly finding its way to the trash one handful at a time. Just in time to get more in the stocking.
Andy is still on the road most of the time, but I have a lot of family and friends that all help to keep me sane. Thanks everyone!
That is about all I can remember for now. I hope that I can find my cord soon so I can post some fun pictures for all of you to enjoy.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-24T21:31:00.001-08:00

OK so I am way behind on the blog updating! I apologize, I will do it with pictures and everything on Friday I promise...but this post is to wish you all a happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone takes time to think of what they are most grateful for. As for me, I am thankful for my beautiful little boys. Both of them bring me much joy on a daily basis. Brandon helps me put things in perspective, he always helps me to see the good in all situations. I am thankful for a husband that is sacrificing watching his boys grow up so he can provide for them. He also constantly is fighting to be able to spend time with us whenever he is close, even if it is for only a day here and there on top of his scheduled time off. He also puts up with a lot of grief from me when I am yelling at him to figure out the impossible, like when he will be home next. I am thankful for all the friends and family that have been willing to help me out whenever they can with whatever I need. I am glad that I have a job to go to, and that it provides my family with health insurance and money for the necessities in life. I am also grateful for my calling in church, it has helped me learn the things that I need to do better in my life so me and my boys and be happier in our lives. I hope that all of you take the time to realize just how lucky you are, and take the time to thank Him for all of it!
Love you all...Happy Thanksgiving! Don't eat too much turkey...remember it makes you tired!

Halloween Partays!

2009-10-25T20:48:00.000-07:00

So we were at it again....Andy came home for a couple days this weekend and of course it was filled with parties and lots and lots of driving. Next trip home I will not plan anything. Of course he was supposed to be home and gone by the time the weekend got here, not that I am complaining...I'll take him anytime I can get him. ANYWHO.......
As mentioned, we did some Partaying, the first party we went to was on Friday night at Andy's aunts house in West Jordan. They have an annual Halloween Party there, we always try to make it. It is always fun to see everyone all dressed up. Brandon of course loves to play with his cousins. The second party we went to was at our friend's house in Pocatello. It was fun to go there too. I actually got Andy to dress up! He actually found his costume before I found mine. I was having a hard time trying to figure out what I was going to be. I always try to get us all matching somehow. This year with the boys not the same theme, I was having a hard time. Then Andy came home so we were trying to just match as a couple, and that didn't work either. Thanks to everyone who planned parties and invited us, I love Halloween. It always brings a smile to my face to see the costumes everyone comes up with. I hope you enjoy the following pictures, they are backwards (Pocatello party is first)

"No Problem Mon"

I just love me some witch!

Brandon the Ham. Always willing to pose for a picture!

The Rasta, Supergirl, and of course the Chicken.

Andy's cousin as Star Trekie

Brandon with cousins, Adam the Tomato, and Katrina the Pumpkin.

Tomato and Dino

Scrapbooking!

2009-10-04T21:18:00.000-07:00

My sister-in-law and I have decided to make Conference weekend our scrapbooking weekend. Me and my boys were able to go to her house this weekend and let the boys play while we sit and scrapbook. I am so excited to be almost caught up, well at least our family book. I haven't started Tyler's yet, but I can't be perfect...Right? Thanks Bridgette for letting us come hang out for the weekend, and for staying up until 3:00 with me. We will definitely have to do it again in 6 months! if not before :)

Winter Or Fall?

2009-09-30T13:52:00.001-07:00

We just got home from driving down to Salt Lake, to take Andy back down to work. And this is what the canyon had to offer. The first picture was on the way home...a little more snow to be found falling at least. On the way down there were some pretty awesome pictures to be had, if I felt like stopping and actually taking some good ones. I pulled off the side of the road and Andy shot some out the car window. The one on the top we were stopped because of a crash so I was able to get a good snow with the leaves in the background. Pretty awesome if you ask me. Of course the crash reminded me that even if the snow isn't sticking to highway it still can be slick. I guess I better prepare myself for the snow. It is coming!

Let the games begin...

2009-09-02T08:44:00.000-07:00

Brandon started flag football yesterday. We (by we I mean Andy) was excited, they do flag football by grade, not age, like everything else and since he in now in First Grade he can play. I double checked with the Rec Center when I signed him up to make sure because he is only 5 not 6 like most First Grader, she said that they go by grade and not age. SWEET! So of course I had to jump on the chance to get him in the coveted sport of football.

I tried to get some good pictures of the game, but with Tyler and the game being on the other side of field most of the time. I only got a few. But they are cute non-the-less. They had a practice on Monday night and when we first got there he was a little scared, this was a new thing for me he has always been the kid to just jump in and do anything. After talking to him for a minute I found out that he thought it was the same football that daddy plays and that he sees on TV, the see if you can knock the teeth out of the other guy kind of football. I explained to him that he was just going to have some flags hanging from his waist and that he was only going to be touched, he was okay with the whole football idea. He seems like he is having a lot of fun.

Huddle Up! As you can see he is scoping out his target early!

They gave everyone a shot to play everywhere. He was the ball handler on this play. He decided to run the wrong way but he learned that was an oops pretty fast.

For most of the game he played Center, or hiker, as he likes to call it. That was okay with him because that is what daddy plays too.

Here is a video of him at practice on Monday. It is way cute! Again running wrong way, but figuring it out soon enough. Good Job Buddy!

Thanks Amber!

2009-08-29T20:31:00.000-07:00

My friend Amber is taking a Photography class and she needed some "practice", so what do I do...offer my boys as models. It was way fun to go around Richmond today and take some pics of the boys, mostly Brandon, Tyler wasn't really up to it. She is really good and has a lot of fun taking them. If anyone needs pics taken you should go to her. Thanks again Amber!

P.S. If anyone wants to see some of them go to her blog page (www.ambersphotoplace.blogspot.com) or you can wait until I get the CD from her and I will post some here too.

1st Day of School=1st Grade?

2009-08-27T07:58:00.000-07:00

Normally the first day of school does not equal 1st grade, but I guess when the school tells you that your kid will not learn anything in Kindergarten then you bump him up. I think I was more worried about it than he is. He at first was not excited to not be going to Kindergarten, since that is what we had been counting down for the last 3 months, but he got over it when he found out he was going to eat lunch there.
The school called me yesterday and said that he more than passed his Kindergarten assesment and we should seriously consider moving him to 1st grade. Well, after about an hour of Andy and I talking on phone, we came to the conclussion that moving him up was the best option for him. Especially since the principle suggested it, we figured she knows best what is taught in each classroom. So yesterday I spent the day convienceing him that he was going to school today even though it wasn't the 31st today. I was able to get him to believe me when I took him to the school to meet his teacher. After that he didn't stop talking about it, he also wanted me to go buy every single thing that was on the teachers list for us to get. We got about half and he reminded me this morning that we didn't have it all. It was really cute, he didn't think he could go if he didn't have it all. I hope we made the right choice for him.

Good Job Buddy! Mom and Dad Love You! Have fun in the 1st grade!

The big boy waiting so "paitently" for us to leave.

The cool Transformer backpack.

We walked in the front door without any hesitation, he was more like running.

He walked right in and sat down, what a big boy I have!

I have to admit...I got a little teary eyed when I got back to car, but not the wave of tears I thought would come. I am proud of myself. He wanted to ride the bus to school, but I told him that I was taking him. He gets to ride the bus home.

What A Mess!

2009-08-23T19:39:00.000-07:00

Today was a good day for Tyler....he was given some watermelon to munch on. Of course he had crackers to go along with that. Usually I just give him one at a time but this time I decided to load up the tray and let him go at it. He LOVED it! (As you can see) We have now entered the "remove clothes before eating" phase of life.

This was round one outfit. We took that one off and then we did it again for dinner. Oh well, it is a good thing he is cute!

Ogden Dinosaur Park

2009-08-23T19:30:00.000-07:00

Lisa and I decided to take her brothers, her niece, and my boys to the dinosaur park in Ogden. Neither of us had ever been there. It was cool to see some dinos made from bones and to let Brandon dig in the dirt for fossils. I told Brandon it was like the movie "Night at the Museum". That was a bad idea, he thought the dinosaur was going to come to life and start chasing us. I put him at ease though once we got there.

County Fair

2009-08-23T19:19:00.001-07:00

We took the opportunity to go to the fair this year. I have never been to a County Fair before, been to State fair, but of course when Brandon saw the rides being put up he just HAD to go. I figured if we were there we might as well go see the animals too. We ran into our old neighbors, Lance and his parents. I had tried to call them before we went and didn't get a hold of them so I was glad when we saw them. Brandon and Lance had fun ridding a few rides together and looking at the animals.

The boy with the cows.

Don't fall in boys! They loved "tormenting" the poor little lambs.

Tyler just chillin' in the stroller while Brandon rode the rides. Some day buddy, some day.

Smile boys! Lance and Brandon always have fun when they are together.

What are boys made of?

2009-08-04T12:13:00.000-07:00

I was mowing the lawn this morning and out came this snake. As you can see from picture it was a pretty big one. It scurried across my sidewalk into my "flower garden AKA weed patch" in front of my house. I left it alone for a while but then I decided to catch it and show it to Brandon who was across the street playing. I gathered it up in his bucket and took it over, the snake kept trying to jump out of bucket which made the two boys scream like girls, but as you can see Brandon became very comfortable with it in no time. I had to grab the camera to catch this occasion. He decided to bring it home and keep it in his bucket with a piece of cardboard over the top with holes in it. I highly doubt it will last long, because he played with it for like an hour and when we put it on ground it didn't even try to leave. Poor snake! My neightbor informed me that I shouldn't be too upset about it, I guess she has plenty in her yard so it isn't a big loss.

Brandon's T-ball Picture.....Finally

2009-08-04T12:09:00.000-07:00

I finally got picture scanned into computer. I blew it up so it looks a little distorted, but you get the idea.

LAGOON!

2009-08-03T13:10:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went to Lagoon for my dad (and Andy) work day. It was really fun! Brandon was sooooo excited that he grew up to 46" so he was able to ride all of the big rides. He was barely 46" so on the Spider the worker said he wasn't tall enough and couldn't ride, funny since he had just gotten off of the Colossus. Oh well, next time he will be plenty tall. He decided his favorite ride was the Wild Mouse which he went on with his dad. I will have to say that the new ride for this year was way lame. It is called the Jumping Dragon and it is just like the Musical Express, except it goes backwards too. I was hoping it would be another roller coaster, maybe next time. The Wicked of course is awesome! For those of you who haven't been on it yet, the line is long but it is definitely worth the wait. We also went to Lagoon-A-Beach, I haven't been in there for a few years, it was pretty cool, it was extra nice to cool off on a hot day. Thanks again dad for buying our tickets to get in. It was fun to get the fam together to do something fun.

Summer Fun!

2009-07-26T20:43:00.000-07:00

So I finally got my internet up and running smoothly again, so because it has been so long I have a few posts coming all at once. I was scanning through my camera today and found these cute pictures of Brandon doing some of his favorite summer activities.

This one was actually taken tonight. I decided that I was going to try to save my very dead lawn. As you can see it is a lovely yellowish brown color, so I turned on the water and Brandon decided he was going to run through the sprinkler. He would live in the water if I would let him.

I found this "action shot" of Brandon swinging the bat for T-ball, it is a shame that I chopped off his head. I was really impressed with his form. Good job Buddy!

These 3 pictures are from a primary activity they had the begining of July. They put down a huge slip n slide AKA tarp, the kids loved it. I think they played on it for at least 3 hours, until we finally said it was time to go. The second picture is Brandon playing one of the relay games they had, the kids had to put on that silly outfit and kick a ball around a chair and come back. It was way fun to see all of the kids try to run in that thing.

I thought this picture was way cute, look at his "concentration tongue" He enjoyed playing T-ball, we will have to do it again next year.

Happy Birthday to me!

2009-07-26T20:40:00.000-07:00

My birthday was on the 17th, it went very quite considering it was just me and Tyler. My In-Laws took me to dinner at Chili's (yum) Thanks! Below are pictures of the flowers sent to me from my dad and Andy (and the boys). The first ones were from my dad, he sends me flowers every year on my birthday. Thanks Dad! The roses were from Andy, I will have to say I am impressed that he remembered...as some of you know, last year he forgot my birthday. This year I was for sure he would forget without Brandon here to remind him of how many days were left before it got here. Thanks honey for thinking of me even when you were thousands of miles away. We love you!

Reunion Pictures

2009-07-26T20:36:00.000-07:00

With the reunion being at Joe's Valley, we spent a lot of time in the water. It is a good thing my boys like the water. I was suprised that Tyler stayed in as long as he did, the water was pretty chilly. Staci and Jer brought their boat and we got to take a little spin. It was way fun!

Here are the 2 boys getting ready for a ride in the tube. Brandon loved riding with Breckyn in the tube. Hold on tight!

Tyler loves to be outside, even if it is in the sand. He is ready to catch, just throw the ball already!

This is Aspen, she always keeps us intertained. She got the snorkle from the store but wasn't quite sure what to do with it. This was the second time she had it on, I wish I could get the picture of day one, it was a classic. She only put her face in the water maybe three times, I don't think she knows how to breathe out of her mouth. Thanks Aspen for the laughs.

Aspen and Brandon also got a ride in the tube. This face of Brandon's is great! He is ready for any water that might hit him in the face. He is such a brave boy! Love him!

Thanks to everyone that was there, it was way fun to hang out for a couple days with everyone. See ya next year, of course we will before that too!

Reunion Time!

2009-07-14T13:49:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we had the Meadow's Reunion...this year we went to Joe's Valley. It was way fun to get together with those who were there. We missed those who weren't. It was 3 days in the sun and water, I think I wore out poor little Tyler. He loves swimming so we spent a lot of time in the lake. Brandon, Tyler and I drove up a day early with Angie & Trevor. It was nice to have an extra up in the mountains away from the world. Andy wasn't able to join us for the reunion as he was home on the 4th of July weekend. The first night we slept in Angie's trailor but the next 2 nights we slept in our tent. It was fun! Of course we had to get rained on, I swear no matter what weekend we choose we will ALWAYS have rain. This year it wasn't so bad though, only a little rain. Not so much that we felt like we were going to float away.
My cousin Jeremy recently bought a boat so that was fun. We were able to take a ride on it on Saturday afternoon right before the storm came. Jeremy tried to get me to fall of the tube but I held on for about 15 min (so they say...I didn't have a watch on me) until he flipped me off. Thanks guys for the fun ride. Brandon was able to also have a ride on the tube with Breckyn. I will have to post pictures later, having a hard time finding camera at the moment.
Staci and Jeremy also decided to take Brandon home with them. I personally think it was an evil ploy to get me to come down to their neck of the woods. I will be going to get him on Saturday after work, unless of course I decide to leave him there. HA HA! Of course you never know. Now it is just me and Tyler hanging out at home, so far not so bad. Tyler was feeling a little under the weather yesterday so it was nice to not have to worry about that and Brandon at the same time. I just hope Brandon isn't driving them nuts, it is hard to add another child to the mix sometimes, maybe not for them...heck what's one more!

I DID IT!

2009-06-29T21:47:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have known me for basically all my life know that I can not get in front of a group of people without crying even before I get up. Well, I would like to have you know that I didn't even cry until at least 5 min into my lesson yesterday. Of course I was still majorly stressed out about it but for some miracle I was able to "keep it together". I know that I am "tooting my own horn" but I am pretty impressed with myself. I am sure it was just a fluke and will never happen again but hey at least I did it once. I also used up all of the time in the class, last time I ended with like 15-20 minutes left in class...NOT GOOD!! I thought for sure I was going to run out again...it is amazing how fast time flies when people comment in class. Ok I am done now.

Does anyone think it would be a copywrite no no if I scanned Brandon's T-ball pic and put it on here? It is way cute and I want you all to see it.

Family pics

2009-06-24T16:15:00.000-07:00

I decided that this year I wanted to do family pictures in the spring with all the colorful flowers, well, as you see in these pics....not too many flowers. I think we were a couple weeks late, I ended up getting some more shots of the boys a couple weeks later and there were a little bit more flowers poping out. Maybe next year! Here are some of my favorites.

Ty man sitting so big and tall.

My grandpa likes to call this one "smiley" can you see why? Always smiling! Love you Brandon

My cute boys, what a good big brother to hold him so tight so he doesn't fall.

The whole fam. We had to take pictures while Andy was home for 4 days a couple weeks ago. Thank goodness we got some good weather for a bout 3 hours during picture time. Andy's family likes to make fun of him in this shirt they say he looks like "Where's Waldo?" Of course it didn't take long for his brothers to say, he isn't hard to spot because he is much bigger than Waldo. Brothers can be so loving, I guess I have that to look forward to. Can't wait!

A Day at the Pool!

2009-06-24T16:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to the Logan Aquatic Center with some friends. We spent about 4 hours there. We had lots of fun. We love being in the sun and playing in the water. Thanks to everyone who came with us it was a blast! We will do it again.

Brandon is all decked out in his goggles. Ready for anything.

Isn't he the cutest little water boy ever!

This is Brandon and 2 of his friends...Carter and Braxton.

This is my poor little baby's bottom. His shirt hiked up while he was floating around in his crab. I have decided that baby swim shirts should be onsies. I put sunblock on after I noticed that his shirt was up, but I guess I didn't get to it soon enough. I am sorry Tyler, please forgive me. I also appoligize for the moon, hey at least it is a cute one.

Happy Fathers Day!

2009-06-21T17:27:00.000-07:00

I would like to give a shout out to all the dads out there. Even those who are currently driving from NY to Tampa. We love you all! My dad stopped by today on his way home from Idaho, it was good to see him on dad's day. I didn't think I was going to see any of the dads in my life today, thanks for stopping by. (Thanks mom for making them stop) You are a great papa, my boys just love you! Thanks to old papa for figuring out the issue with the lawn mower....of course now I have to use it. That is okay though I have been wanting to get the lawn mowed for a week now. Of course I need to say we love you to the man of the house, we love and miss him! We are awaiting July 5th when we will get to see him again. Thanks Andy for being a great dad to our two little boys, even though one isn't so little anymore. We love you!

This Sucks!

2009-06-19T20:54:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I was..I wouldn't say enjoying...but not hateing Andy being gone, but now I think it is getting very boring. It is hard to come home from work and try to feed the boys and keep Tyler happy at the same time, plus when they go to bed I have no one to talk to, except on the phone, which is hard to concentrate on sometimes. So I guess it is fair to say that I miss the companionship. I have been trying to come up with things for me and the boys to do, but everything costs money and that we don't have. Plus, it takes a lot of time sometimes, and I am trying to keep them on a regular bedtime of 9:00 which is late for some but for us it feels like it comes way too quickly some days. Considering I have to start bedtime at 8:00 to get them there by 9:00. I am really glad that Brandon gets dinner at his sitters house on Friday's or I don't know if/when he would get dinner. Anyway, I am sorry this is a very depressing post but I didn't to do something with my time. :)
I should be working on my lesson since I only have 1 week to get it all together. I am the 4th Sunday lesson teacher (Conference Talks). I have decided that my Bishop must hate me because the talk he chose for this month is only 2 pages! Now I would like someone to tell me how I am supposed to prepare a 45 min lesson with only 2 pages!?! I have got somemore talks about the same topic but it is kind of hard to mesh them all together....hence the reason I am posting instead of working on it. I guess I am out of things to say though so I will go....wish me luck.

Rain Rain Go Away!

2009-06-10T19:24:00.000-07:00

Ok so I have to admit....I like the cooler weather but I am getting really sick of the wet stuff. We are in softball/t-ball season and we are having a really hard time not playing when we are supposed to. Andy has been home this week and he was excited to come watch us play and he won't be able to because of the rain. I wish he was able to, but oh well. It has also made it hard for me to get Brandon out of the house to run off some of his energy.
As I have mentioned, Andy is home this week! It has been nice to have him home. We have missed him. We met at Red Robin in Layton on Friday night and Brandon was sooooo excited to see him that he ran up to him and jumped on him and didn't let go for a good 10 minutes, it was way cute. Of course I had to wait my turn, but that was okay. He has had the opportunity to stay home with the boys while I worked and he has a greater respect for what I do, I come home and he looked very frazzled. It is kind of funny, I have to admit. He is leaving again tomorrow, we don't know when he will be back. That is one thing about this job that I HATE, we never know when he will be back or where he is headed until he is on his way. I have learned that I need to find some paitence with this or I will drive myself crazy worrying about it.

It's Finally Here!

2009-06-02T21:01:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have talked to Brandon in the last 3 months, since we signed him up for T-Ball knew that today was his first game. I was trying to do both video camera and other camera at the same time, so Andy could watch when he gets home. This is his first at bat, he did pretty good if you ask me. I will post more as the season goes on. He has a game every Tuesday and Thursday for 5 weeks, so I am sure we will have lots to share.

Of course not only do you have to hit the ball, you need to field the ball too. Doesn't he look ready for anything? He said he had fun, but he doesn't like waiting his turn to bat. His team is the A's, next week he will have the right hat on. For those of you who know me, I am really glad he wasn't on the Yankees.

Good Job Buddy! We love you!

Happy 6 Months Tyler!

2009-06-02T20:51:00.000-07:00

My how time flies. It seems like just yesterday that we were headed to the hospital to have our little guy, and now he is 6 months old. He has been such a joy to all of us. Especially his Big Brother Brandon. I am so happy that we have them in our lives.

Here he is day one all 8lbs 3 oz of him.

This picture was taken today. He is practicing his new skills. He recently learned to roll all the way over and now we are working on sitting up. What a big boy!

My Little Fish....#2

2009-06-01T21:45:00.000-07:00

While in Reno I decided to test out Tyler in the pool, and might I say.....He Loved it! He really likes his baths so I thought he might like swimming too, but I was afraid he might not because pool water usually isn't as warm as bath water. But he just sat there in his little crab and watched all the crazy kids around us. He even got splashed right in the face and didn't even cry. I can't believe how big he is getting.

What you looking at!

Reno Continued...

2009-06-01T21:31:00.000-07:00

So as I promised...here are some pics from Reno. I must apologize for them, I am not the camera man. Most of the ones I have are blurry but these are the best I have.

This first one is of the actual bowling center. No it is not a bowling alley, it is a National Bowling Stadium. It was way cool! There are 78 lanes in all, and a walk way in the middle that for team event they have you come walking in like the Olympics. Way cool experience! I definitely wish I could have bowled better. Maybe next time.

My mom and I did doubles and singles together. I would like to thank Jeremy for the shirts. We got lots of comments on them. Everyone liked them a lot. We will have to go again so we can use them more than once...right mom? Once again apologies for the blurriness.

This is me and my mom in our team competition. I should try to scan our team photo in and see if it will work. I will try that later. Thanks to Jeannine, Shar, and Kathryn for coming with us too. I hope you all enjoyed yourselves enough to join us again in 3 years.

Cute Brandon!

2009-05-29T21:19:00.000-07:00

I had a softball game last night and afterward the umpire gave Brandon the game ball. He was so very excited about it. He said we had to get his mit out so he could practice pitching. I asked him what he was going to pitch for, he stated, "T-Ball". I explained to him that there isn't a pitcher in T-Ball, and after that there is coach pitch so he was going to be really good by the time he needed to start pitching. He was excited to be that good by then. I am glad that he wants to play like his mom. He also wants to bowl like his mom and grandmas. Hopefully, he wants to play football like daddy when he gets old enough. He might have to toughen up a little bit before he will like to play that, but we will work on that by the time he is big enough, I am sure. He starts t-ball on Tuesday so you can look for pics after that.

Bowling Report..

2009-05-26T13:22:00.000-07:00

So we competed in the National Women's Bowling Tournament in Reno this past weekend. It was really cool. They have a special bowling complex that is just for bowling in the middle of downtown Reno. It is way cool. I will put some pictures on later. We all kind of struggled a little bit in the bowling department, but I think we all had fun anyway. My cousin Jamee came with us to help with Tyler, thanks for coming. I hope she had fun hanging out with us. I think she did. I did have a couple good games....one of which was a 200! I got a cool pin for that game. We won't know if we won anything until it is all over in July. But I am definetly not holding my breath. Brandon had fun camping with Angie and my dad. Thanks guys for taking him with you, thanks Trevor for catching him before he decided to tip over the 4-wheeler. I hear he tried to take it for a ride by himself. I must be off, Tyler is calling. I will post some pictures later when I have the camera out of the car.

We are off!

2009-05-20T20:50:00.000-07:00

So the long awaited Reno trip is here. I am leaving Friday morning to go to Reno to bowl in a national tournament with my mom and Andy's mom and aunts. I am way excited! I don''t really expect to win a darn thing, I just hope we have fun. That is really all that matters, right? I will post when I get back and let you all know how it goes. We bowl Saturday @ 7 and Sunday @ 11. So you can think of us at those time and send us good luck!

My Mama!

2009-05-10T14:43:00.000-07:00

Hey mom, thanks for everything you have done for both me and Andy this last couple weeks. Sorry I didn't come down today to see you on Mama's Day. I hope you know that I love you even though sometimes I don't say or even show it. I am amazed everyday how you were able to handle everything when we were growing up. Now that I am trying it for myself. Thanks for everything. Sorry, I am not the best at this mushy stuff. But hopefully you know what I am trying to say. As the BoyzIIMen song says...You were there for me to love and care for me when skies were grey, whenever I was down you were always there to comfort me. No one else can be what you have been to me...Mama, mama you know I love you.

2009-05-10T14:14:00.000-07:00

Ok so there has been a lot going on since I wrote last so this post might be a little or a lot long. You don't have to read it if you don't want to :)

First of all...Andy waited as long as he could for his boss to call him back and he didn't so we decided that he should go out and get his CDL so he could drive truck. There are always jobs in that field. So he started driving school on April, 20th. He was in the classroom for 2 weeks down in Salt Lake and now he is with a trainer on the road. As of right now he is somewhere between Indianapolis and St. Louis. He will be on the road for 26 days. As for now I am doing alright without him, I am sure it will get worse as the days wear on. We talk everyday so that is nice. To make things even more interesting his boss called him on Friday and told him he had work for him, but we decided just to stick with this job at least a year and maybe everything in the construction field will pick up by then.

Next...We threw a suprise birthday party for my dad last week. That was way fun to see the suprise on his face when he showed up and everyone was there. Even my sister from California came in with her whole family (minus one...we missed you Matt). It was a lot of work but I think it was worth it. I think the hardest part was keeping him entertained the day of without having him pick up on what was going on. He was supposed to go golfing but of course it rained making it difficult to do so. Thanks Frank for being in charge of distracting dad for us. His birthday is tomorrow....HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! We love ya!

Also...they have decided to give me a new church calling about a month ago. They obviously don't know what they are doing...Just Kidding! I am a teacher in RS, as if I didn't have enough stress! For those of you who don't know me so well....not really good in front of crowds...all I have to do is think about being in front of them and I start crying. I have decided that it doesn't matter what I plan to say because they can't understand me anyway...plus I can't read it through the water in my eyes. I have my dad to thank for the tearworks. He is the same way...very emotional! My first lesson was 2 weeks ago and I ended with about 20 min left in class. I think I talked really fast because I had 4 pages prepared, next time I guess I better have 8. I get to teach on the Conference Talks on the 4th Sundays. I guess that is one way to get me to read and study them. :) So if every 4th Sunday you could all pray for me to make it through at least 5 min without crying that would be great! I get to be off the hook this month because I will be out of town, and boy am I glad about that I found out it is Ward Conference which means the stake presidency will be there. No thank you!

Finally....the reason I will be out of town is because my mother, my mother-in-law, Kathryn and Shar (Andy's Aunts), and myself are heading to Reno on the 22nd to bowl in a national tournament. We are all way excited to be going. Andy's uncle Chris told his wife Kathryn "Don't you have to be good to bowl in that tournament" the answer to that is nope, if we were that good we would be on TV. We are going to go and do our best and most importantly HAVE FUN! Tyler will be going with us and Brandon is going to go camping with my dad and sister.

Well, thanks for listening to me as I rambled on about the happenings of our little life. I will try to be more dilligent in updating.

4 Months!!

2009-04-14T12:43:00.000-07:00

I took Tyler to his 4 month check up today. He is just right for his age at 15lbs 14oz and 25 1/2 inches long. Of course he wasn't so excited about the shots, it is always sad when he is talking and smiling at me then they stick needles into his legs and he gets that sad look on his face and starts crying. He did pretty good with them though. Last time they didn't really effect him, I hope this time is the same. Right now he is sleeping, of course he has some Tylenol in his system so I hope he wakes up happy.
Brandon came with us and told Tyler he needed to be as tough as he was when he got his kindergarten shots. Tyler sure tried. I thought that was really cute of big brother Brandon. He also plugged his ears because he didn't want to hear Tyler cry when he got poked. He is such a good big brother. We love all of his help and love he shows to Tyler.
That is all I have for now, there will be more to come after I work out the details of our next big step in life.
TO BE CONTINUED........

We Love Spring!

2009-04-07T15:17:00.000-07:00

We finally had a good weather day! We all have been waiting sooooo long. We decided to take a walk to the park. The boys got to enjoy the swings and we even "made some hoops" AKA played basketball. We are all excited to have at least one day of spring...to make it even better baseball season kicked off on Sunday.....

GO BRAVES!!!

Tyler loved the swings

WHEE....or as it is spelled by Brandon WII...silly boy!

Isn't he just the cutest Tyler?

The cutest Brandon, don't you agree?

Tyler's "Little Blankie"

2009-04-04T21:34:00.001-07:00

For those of you who know Brandon at all, you know he has a Braves blanket that I made out of the scraps from a quilt I made for him, he calls it his little blankie and of course it is beat up and he has definetly gotten his use out of it. He informed me that I had to make Tyler his own becasue he wasn't going to give Tyler his, so I finally got Tyler's Blanket made for him this week. I decided to do the other thing that I love (other than the Braves)....you guessed it....MONKEYS! I found this way cute material one day at Joanns Fabrics. I couldn't pass it up. I was going to make his out of Chicago Bears, so we could support Andy's team too but I make them so I get to decide...just kidding, he just doesn't care so I made it out of this. I hope you can tell how cute it is from the picture. If not, don't worry I am sure if he is anything like Brandon you will see it at one time or another as he drags it around with him everywhere he goes.

I also decided to make him a vallance (not sure on spelling). It was actually Andy's idea because I had purchased too much material for just a blanket but not enough to make a quilt. I think it turned out pretty good too. Goes perfect with the jungle theme. I'll become a "Martha" yet!

Twins!?!

2009-04-04T21:21:00.000-07:00

So we were going through some pictures at my mom's house a couple weeks ago and we came across a picture of my nephew Josh when he was little. I asked my mom who it was and she said Brandon...I told her that it couldn't be Brandon because it wouldn't be in the bottom of a box of old pictures. I thought the it looked a lot like Tyler, what do you think? It is crazy how much they look alike. Especially in these two pictures, they are both looking the same direction.

My little monsters...

2009-04-04T21:15:00.001-07:00

We decided to have a little fun with the "scary teeth" that Brandon got from the FunPark a couple weeks ago while Aspen was here. We couldn't get over how funny Tyler looks! It gave us all a chuckle. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did. Too bad we didn't have 2 pairs so we could have taken a picture of both of them at the same time. I sure do love my monsters!

Need a little help

2009-03-13T07:02:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone...I am looking for a ticker that has to do with bowling. If you find one will you please leave me the link in my comments. I found the one ticker website but there wasn't anything to do with bowling. I thought I would ask around since there are sooooo many more people out there that know tons more about blogging than myself. Thanks!

Andy and his projects

2009-03-12T17:13:00.000-07:00

So Andy has some time on his hands now that he is without job. He painted the whole house, well, almost. Now he has decided to learn how to use Adobe Photoshop, we have had the program for quite some time and we have done some little things with it. Well, he found a couple books on EBAY that explains to us what we can do with this program. Here are some projects that Andy has done in his efforts to understand and use it. They are pretty cool I think.

This is 2 seperate photos that we took while we were in San Fransico that he mirrored on one another. The other little boy is Andy's sister, Kim, little boy Benjamin.

In case you can't tell this is Brandon the Thomas Train.

This one is kind of hard to see what is going on but he has his dad sledding down the pyramids and "super Tyler" flying through the sky. We call him that because, I would say 95% of the time his bib is turned around like a cape.

This one is Brandon escaping from Alcatraz. Andy and Brandon had fun with the program while I was at bowling last night. They did this one and the Thomas the train pic. I thought this one was way funny. Who knew they did swimming lessons in the ocean.

Kindergarten Is Coming...

2009-03-12T17:00:00.000-07:00

That is right folks! My baby boy is going to kindergarten. We went today to register him. He passed the little assesment with flying colors. I was really proud of him. It took FOREVER! We were there for like 4 hours. I felt like it was never going to end. I think the reason it took so long was because it took them a while to figure out what school he will be going to. I didn't think we had that many options but it looks like we live on the boarder of 2 different schools. One of which is only a few blocks away and the other is clear up by the university. The people who live on the South side of the road go to the one by the university. Now why we even have that school as an option is way beyond me. I assumed for the longest time he would be going to the school that is about 10 blocks west of our house. Not the case, if we lived west of the church we would border all 3 schools. How confusing! So we figured it out eventually, after someone called to make sure. Funny thing is we were at the district office, if they don't know....who does?
So we went and did the assesment and they said he is ready to go, maybe a little too well. We now have to just worry about how to get him there on the 2 days a week that I work. At least it is only 2 days. They offer an after school club in which he will be signed up for, which is way cheaper than daycare. Yahoo!
Now we just need to wait for more information to come in the mail to help us know when school starts for sure and when to sign him up for the after school club. He is really excited to start, I hope he enjoys himself.
By the way can anyone tell me why it is only 2 and 1/2 hours long? I thought it was longer than that like 4 hours. Like half the school day.

I am still alive....

2009-03-01T18:01:00.000-08:00

Okay so it has been a very long time since I have put anything on here so you are going to get an eye full all at once. One thing I don't like about the blog is that it posts backwards, so I tried to post all of the happenings in order, but I had to start at the most recent and head back. It was not as easy (for me at least) to do so. The order in which all of the events happens isn't as important as getting them on here I guess, but I wanted them to be in order. I guess this will teach me a lesson in waiting so long. I hope you enjoy my posts, and I am really hoping they make sense. I think in the future I will just post them and not worry about order. Or I could just keep up on it...right? So here they are....good luck and enjoy! :)
PS....you will have to look at older posts to see all of the new ones....that makes total sense I know.

The Bowling Queens!

2009-03-01T17:50:00.000-08:00

We went bowling with Jeannine and Bridgette. They go all the time and we like to try to make it, but it is hard to get there all of the time. We are glad that we are able to make it some of the time. It is always fun to bowl, just ask Brandon. I like it too, we are still working on Andy though.

Who's kids are those!?! That is one thing you can do with a gutter!
This is Jayden and Katrina (Brandon's cousins). They are getting broke in early on the ways of the bowling land.

Andy bowling with his family and loving every minute of it. He is starting to like it better now that Brandon loves it sooooo much.

Isn't he so cute. Look at his form...perfect! :)

That is right folks...Brandon won his daddy at bowling! He was pretty excited about it.

Valentine's Day

2009-03-01T17:38:00.000-08:00

For Valentine's Day we we were up in Idaho spending the weekend with our friends Miranda and Jeff and their 2 boys. Miranda and I decided to make some heart shaped pancakes for the men in our life...both big and small. Making pancakes in a heart isn't as easy as one would think. It took me a few tries to get them, most of mine ended up looking like butterflies, but it is the thought that counts right. It was fun to be up there and let our little munchkins play together. We spent 2 nights there, Miranda and I scrapbooked...that is always fun, and the boys all went to "the spaceship place" to play. It is always fun when we can get together with our friends and hang out for a few. Thanks for the bed you two!

Miranda making the perfect pancake mix.

Miranda's perfect heart pancakes.

Mine....not so perfect!

They got a little better....right?

My cute boy enjoying his heart pancakes!

One Last Hurrah

2009-03-01T17:22:00.000-08:00

So over the 19th-23rd of February I decided to take a trip south to Monticello and Green River to see my cousins. I decided I better get down there before I head back to work, which I am sad to report is this coming Wednesday (March 4th). It was really fun. I headed down to Salt Lake for the night on the 18th and the next morning I went to Monticello, where I was able to see my cousin Jeremy and Staci and their 3 kids. We played at the office, Brandon now owns his own scooter because he has so much fun on Breckyn's. We also made some decorations for Tyler's room, Brandon's room, and our room. Of course we couldn't leave without getting some "gecko shirts". Thanks for all of the fun stuff you guys made for us while we were there.
We also were able to take a trip down to a part of canyonlands called "Hamburger Rock". It was really nice to get away from the cold weather into the sun even if it was for only a few hours. I was supprised how different the temp was just about 45 min away. How nice would that be to have that so close. Just to get away for the day and remember how nice SPRING feels.
I hung out in Monticello until the 22nd when I headed to Green River to see the cousins that live there. Thanks Bryan and Bridget for letting me and my boys stay at your house. Bryan did a really good job redoing it. Thanks for the dinner that you provided as well, Loni. We were going to head to lunch before I headed home on Monday but the power went out right when we were getting ready to go. That is the thing with a small town, the power goes out-the town shuts down. I wish we could have done lunch, maybe next time guys.
It was definetly nice to get down to see everyone before I will be "strapped to my house", I will be working all Saturdays, kind of makes it hard to go out of town. Oh well, that is a small price to pay to work PT and still save $$ on daycare.

Wall Decorations

2009-03-01T17:11:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of the wall decorations that my cousins Jeremy and Staci made for us while I was down there. Thanks a lot guys...they really make Tyler's room complete. They are really cute! I hope I did you proud with the way I set them up.

The picture doesn't really do these justice...the lighting is horrible. The sun coming in from the window is adding a nice glare.

These wall decorations add sooooo much to this once plain room.

Staci and I found this quote on the internet and just had to make it. Tyler has the cutest smile. It just makes you melt.

They made this one for Brandon's room. To complete the McQueen motif. Thanks again you guys. Love you!

Canyonlands and the falls

2009-03-01T16:06:00.000-08:00

The kids climbing on "Hamburger Rock"

Stike a pose

Staci and Tyler basking in the sunlight

Playing in the water....I mean mud

Playing continued....

New Bed

2009-03-01T15:53:00.000-08:00

For part of Brandon's birthday we decided to get him a new bed. We found one on sale at Shopko (plus I used my mother for her age to get even more of a discount). It was one of the beds with drawers underneath it...we got the footboard and headboard basically for free so we couldn't pass it up. Well, Brandon's room is not the biggest so we turned the footboard into just a storage thingy.

Brandon helped Andy put his bed together, that was interesting to say the least. It took a little bit longer but Brandon enjoyed building with his daddy.

They both got their tool sets out and away they went.

We found this cool lamp at Shopko too, it was on the clearance rack for $6 bucks! You got to love the clearance rack!

This is supposed to be the footboard, but as I mentioned before there is not enough room in his little space to have it attached to his bed. We found these baskets online at IKEA and then my friend Miranda picked them up for us.

Brandon in his new bed. He loves it. We had to put items in his drawers the first thing, right after Andy put it together while I was putting the sheets on.