The most random post in the whole wide world

1. Last spring, Scott was lifting a heavy railroad tie in our backyard, when POP! (not usually a good thing) He found out soon after that he had a hernia but we decided to wait it out a little bit. Well after my lovely hospital stay, we decided to take care of it this year (insurance reasons). So last Friday Scott went in for surgery. It went great, and his recovery has been fine.

Scott curses the garden that we were building when he got the hernia, because not only did he get a hernia because of it, we also broke his sister's windshield, and the corn we grew in it tasted terrible! Blasted. We are getting rid of that garden...

2. Well, besides the corn garden, our other garden has been lovely this year. Our best plants have been our peas, squash, zucchini, tomatoes, carrots, and cucumbers. Not so good- onions, green beans, peppers (only 2 the whole summer!), and corn.

Before

after

Yummm those carrots were so good!

3. So we are realllllly careful about locking up our house/car ever since we had my car's window broken and stuff stolen from it, and Scott's car had things stolen from it, and then ultimately the whole thing stolen. Plus lately I have heard of a few instances around the neighborhood of robberies so I am EXTRA careful!! So you can imagine I was SICK this morning when Scott told me I forgot to shut the garage door last night and it had been wide open ALL night!! I seriously felt so sick and could not believe that everything was right where it was supposed to be! Wow, makes me feel like I live in Leave it to Beaver's neighborhood all of a sudden! Don't worry, I'm not fooled.

4. We also woke up today to NO sunshine. This is a rare thing here to not have the sun shining in the morning. It has been raining allll day- also rare. It's kind of weird! I feel like some of the happiness has been sucked out of me. I definitely could not live in Forks.

5. Makenna had her 4 year-old check up today. Everything went great! They did some new tests today such as a vision test and hearing test and they went very well. She was also very brave when she got her immunizations and didn't cry. That makes me feel so much better because I hate feeling like she thinks it's my fault that they are hurting her. But nope, she just shook it off like nothing. Love that. Stats: height 41 1/2 (85 percentile), weight 38 lbs (75 percentile).

6. Favorite Costco item of the month- mickey mouse chicken nuggets!! Holy cow those things are so good and they are made with decent ingredients too. yummmmmmmm

7. Callings. I think I forgot to mention on here that Scott began his seminary calling a few weeks ago. It has been crazy to get used to since we are late night people, but I have already seen how it has blessed our lives. I have actually found that I am enjoying going to bed early and getting up early! Now who would have thought?! I also got a little calling change last week from YW counselor to YW adviser. I am really grateful to have the opportunity to teach the awesome girls in my ward! I am definitely feeling a little inadequacy/nervousness because I remember what an impact my advisers had on me when I was in YW. I think it will be really great though.

8. I wish I could have been at the 9/12 March on Washington. It feels good to know that even though I don't feel Washington represents me, I feel represented by all those millions of people who marched that day. Our government has got to stop the over-spending. They need to stop trying to control everything and let the people do it for themselves. I love this quotation by Abraham Lincoln...

"You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift.
You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away people's initiative and independence.
You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, what they could and should do for themselves."
I wish we could get back to the roots of our Constitution and the beliefs that those amazing men had for our country. It is scary where it is going now...

Makenna's Four!

The night before Makenna's birthday I reminded her that when she woke up it would be her birthday... bad idea!! She could not sleep! She even came out and said "I can't sleep mom!!! I'm SOOOO excited!!!!!" She was up till about 10:00! (We put her down at 7:30) It was so cute though. So on her birthday morning she got to open her Ariel outfit that she really really wanted and I let her wear it for her party which was "under the sea" theme. We even did her hair "just like Ariel." :)

After I took pictures of Makenna, Jace came over and started saying "cheese!" so I had to take a picture of him too! Did I mention he is obsessed with balloons?

So at the party we played musical chairs (to little mermaid music), fishing for magnet fish, crab races, threw water balloons at a shark, and fish fish crab (duck duck goose).

Then we had cake and ice cream with her Flounder cake.


Then she opened her presents which were so much fun! She looooved them and wanted to play with them as she opened them!

We finished the partay with a little treasure hunt where we found a treasure chest full of all the kids' party favor bags. They LOVED that. It was so much fun and such a fun party. I'm such a sucker for parties that I start out doing something little, and it ends up a whole fiasco. It's so much fun for Makenna though so it makes it worth it!

She also got to go to her cousin Brody's birthday party which was really fun. When she got home, we surprised her with this!

She looks so big on that bike! I can't believe how big she is!

Here she is on her birthday last year on the bike she outgrew!

I love that little girl to pieces. She is seriously my best bud and we have so much fun together. I love her cute, fun personality. I am soooo lucky that I get to be her mom! Happy 4th birthday Ken!

Can you top this?

I loooove to think about the future and what kinds of things will change. Sometimes I have a hard time thinking how certain things could possibly be improved upon! I specifically remember back in the 90's thinking that the styles and everything were so cool and advanced that they could not be topped! I thought it would be funny to list what I think those things are right now, and it will be funny to look back at what I wrote! (or maybe I'll be right!)

MP3 players!

I mean how much better and more convenient can listening to music get? I cannot fathom a better idea than this...

TV's
Yes, that is a TV! It displays a picture when the TV isn't on! AMAZING! Seriously, how much better can that get??! I guess the only problem is, where is the DVD player?!

The spikey do:
Guys have been wearing their hair like this for a while now, and I just can't see this going out of style!

Cars
This is definitely not the coolest car out there, but it is our car that we recently got. For a plain ol' ford car, I'm thinking cars are looking pretty good these days! The front grills and headlights look awesome on all the new cars and the paint jobs look really pretty. Can't really see cars looking much prettier??

longer shirts
I just can't imagine now going back to those shorter shirts- awful!! (BTW isn't this Anthropologie shirt cute?!)

This style of jeans
I think no matter what may be the fad of the time, women will always go back to the slight flare jean because I think it is the most flattering! Perhaps someday our children will call these "mom jeans." hahaha, you have to see this SNL skit if you haven't... :)



A few things I think will change fo sho:
DVD's- can't stand them (my kids ruin them)
Telephone lines- I'm sure there's a better, prettier way!
All the mystery ingredients in our food
self-cleaning toilets? a girl can dream...

Joy school!

Makenna was so excited for her first day of Joy school! Mom is excited too because I have been CRAVING a routine lately! I love routines!



So here it is! The Routine:
6:00 AM wake up/scriptures/clean
7:00 kids wake up/clothed/fed
7:30 running
9:00 Joy school/mommy and Jace time
11:30 Pick up Makenna
12:00 lunch
12:30 Jace nap/quiet time/mom and Makenna time
3:30 Jace up/play time till dad comes home/prepare for dinner
5:00 dad's home/ make dinner
6:00 dinner
6:30 family walk
7:30 kids to bed
8:00 kids are finally in bed/ mom and dad time!
9:30 mom and dad to bed!

Probably won't happen perfectly, but c'est la vie!

Hiking the Sandias

We went for a little hike last weekend in the Sandias. I was pleasantly surprised how much the kids loved it, which made me think "why have I not been doing this?!" I want to go every week now! It reminded me of when we used to live up in that area and would go hiking up there- such a pretty part of Albuquerque. Pretty you ask? Well it's all relative I guess!


little hiker

this picture kills me


our view


Jace LOVED running down the mountain


...until he fell... about 20 times
Then poor Jace face was walking right in front of me and I saw a cactus next to him, but thought he missed it... nope! The poor kid got cactusized. He had about 20 needles sticking out all over his hand! it looked disgusting! Luckily they came out really easily and were smaller than a pin, so it didn't hurt too bad, and 2 minutes later he was loving it again!


Makenna running down the mountain

6 years!

When I was younger I always hoped I would marry someone that could give me butterflies years after the wedding ceremony. Someone that would balance out the dumb things I do. Someone that could make me laugh at myself and everything else too! Of course I wanted someone charming and, (uh-hem) hot. I always wanted a man that was strong in the gospel and that I knew would help me get the forever family I really wanted. I hoped I would be able to find someone that would be understanding when I cried for no reason at all! I wanted a man that would be the kind of dad that plays with his kids and reads them bedtime stories. I wanted a man that would make me want to be better and that was worth improving myself for. When I first started dating Scott, I was amazed and surprised that I was able to check all those things off my "list" so quickly. Did I really hit the jackpot with this one?? I was willing to find out! Now, 6 years later, he has still lived up to all those things I thought he was back then. I feel so lucky that I found such a good match for me.

One of our first dates! Sweethearts dance.

7 months later!

Nowadays

D-R-A-M-A

This girl is all about the drama. Sometimes I even call her drama. She is so cute and funny. Today at the grocery store she was telling everyone (in a very loud excited voice) that her birthday was in two weeks and she is three but she's turning four on her birthday and she's going to have a party and she's going to invite her friends. I had to write it like that because when she said it, it was like one long sentence. The funny thing is, her birthday is in 3 weeks, but she insists that it is not in 3 weeks mom, it's in 2 weeks. Everything she wants to do is very dramatic too. She needs to have her friends come over to play. She has to go outside and ride her bike. She has to have a snack right now! Or she just might keel over. At least that's what it seems like. drama. Let me just say I get a lot of laughs out of that little girl and the funny things she says.

This picture reminds me of her dad.

18 month- stats

Height 34.5 inches (95%)
Weight 29.5 lbs. (85%)
Head: 85 %

I need a boost

I mentioned in the last post that Jace scoots chairs around the house for a boost... hahaha well here's a great example of that! He pushed this chair all the way out to the garage from the kitchen (they are not close in proximity) so that he could get to the juice boxes! I could not stop laughing when I caught him!

18

Sweet baby Jace Face
You are a big 18 month old now! It doesn't seem that long ago I looked into that cute face of yours for the first time with your beautiful dark eyes and the little cleft in your chin. You have brought so much love and joy to our family. We love your big chubby smile, and your sweet chubby-boy laugh. You have a fascination with life, and we love to watch you explore the world around you. You are cautious yet open to the people around you. You have so much fun with your big sis. I often see you two laughing so hard you are sprawled across the floor! You are my active little boy: running all around, climbing on everything, and throwing anything even remotely ball-shaped as far as you can. You are my little talker these days, and although there are still only a handful of words you use, some days you surprise us by blurting out sentences like "Where did it go?" and "I want some." You amaze us all the time by your smart little mind. You are such a funny little boy too. We giggle to ourselves when we see you move the chair around the house for a little boost, pick all the fruit and veggies from our garden and eat them raw, dump everything out all over the floor, and obsess over carrying around toothpaste and toothbrushes. Best of all, mom loves the time she spends with you at night exploring through books together and rubbing our noses together. You are the little boy I never knew I always wanted.
We love you Jacey!