A Moment of Silence

I would just like to take a moment to appreciate the fact that I have survived this semester!! 

30 seconds please.....

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Ok I'm done:) 

Oh my goodness!  I have taken hard semesters before but never have I been a mom and and wife at the same time.  What a challenge!  This semester was especially challenging because for some reason I decided to do math as my minor (don't ask) and I had three very time consuming math courses. 

I've cried, (several times), with frustration and concern, but I did it!  I feel very proud of myself and can not tell you how excited I am for this next month.  Targhee and I will both be out of school and just be able to enjoy each other and the Christmas season with all of its craziness.

Time to whip out that Christmas want list and get crackin.

well, maybe in a second....

Right now I just want to sit and enjoy the feeling of not having to do anything:)    

Teaser

Thanksgiving is such a tease.  You get all into the holiday mood.  Lots of yummy food, lots of family, warm wishes and warm feelings everywhere.  And then it's like, "whoops, sorry, just kidding you have to go back to school and work.  Come back in a month."  OH MAN!!  Well, I don't wanna!  Homework is the last thing on my to do list right now (and yet it is the most prevalent). 

I want to decorate my house and tree in red and green. 

I want to make yummy treats and dip my finger in the chocolate while I cover delicious things with it and then take the delicious things to neighbors to see them smile.

I want to snuggle up with my hubby and little one to a Christmas movie and a cup of hot chocolate.

I want to go caroling.

I want to make blankets to give away.

I want to wrap presents and put them under the tree.

Ok, you get the point. 

But instead I have to study for lots and lots and lots of math.

All three of my math finals are comprehensive. 

So in a nutshell I have to try and remember EVERYTHING I've ever been taught in the past 4 months.

HA! Ya right! 

Nevertheless, my holiday want list will have to wait. 

By the way, Leilani thoroughly enjoyed her first Thanksgiving.  She knew exactly what it was all about!  EATING! 

And she ate and ate and ate and ate.  While all the rest of us were stuffed to the brim she was still stuffing her little face with yams.  It was very cute.  We had lots of family around so she had lots of cousins to keep her busy, which she loves.  I'm excited to celebrate Christmas with her.   

I wish...

I wish I understood my daughter better.

I wish I knew what made her happy.

I wish I knew what made her sad.

I wish I knew why when she is crying she doesn’t want me to hold and cuddle her but she doesn’t want me to put her down.

I wish I knew what pains she feels and how to ease them.

I wish I knew what food she likes and when she is full.

I wish I knew what thoughts she has when she stops and looks off in the distance for a period of time.

I wish I knew the special gifts she’s been given and how to help her develop them.

I wish I knew if she remembers her Heavenly Father and how much He loves her.

I wish I knew if she knows how much I love her.

I wish I knew if she knows I am doing the best that I can.

I wish I knew how to teach her all the things that Heavenly Father wants me to teach her.

I wish I had known the love of a mother before…

A bathtub and a tooth

What do a bathtub and a tooth have in common? 
They both cause grumpiness.

Leilani is getting her fourth tooth so she has been a little under the weather lately and she doesn't like to do it quietly.  I can't really blame her.  I'm a complainer too.  She must have got it from her mom.  I've been letting her suck on ice cubes and Tylenol doesn't seem to be doing much.  Does anyone have any suggestions that worked for their kiddos?

This was at the grocery store today.  She was a beast the whole time.  People were choosing different aisles to go down just so they wouldn't have to listen to her scream.  She has a problem sitting in the cart the correct way anyway.  Even with the belt on she will still wiggle her way out and stand up.  A lady even had the audacity to say, "Oh are you not happy? (to Leilani)  She's trying to climb out of the cart. (to me)"  I gave her a half hearted smile and said, "Yup! She sure is."  Anyway, I finally gave in to the bad Mom side and let her get in the back of the cart.  People were looking at my strangely but whatever. 

 This is her tonight.  (p.s. she never cuddles!)  My life saver at the moment is her favorite movie (she claps and does a dance every time I turn it on)

Yup, Baby Einstein Day on the Farm

So, what does a bathtub have to do with grumpiness, you ask?  Usually it doesn't.  Usually it's a place of serenity and quiet peace after a long day.  In fact, soaking in a long hot bath sounds heavenly right now, but yesterday right before church our drain clogged.  Fantastic...  Targhee worked on it the best he could but to no avail.  Luckily we are renters so all we have to do is call our maintenance guy and over he comes, but after lots of banging and clanging he called me into the bathroom with bad news.  He's going to have to cut in from the ceiling of our downstairs neighbors and reach the pipe from there.  He said, "It shouldn't take more than a day", but I know better than to believe the estimated fix it time from a fix it man.  I've been around my mom's remodeling enough to know that these things always take longer than suspected.  So we'll see how we do without a bathtub for a while... if you pass us in the next few days, just ignore the smell.

This picture cracks me up.  "Hey Dad!  Whatcha doin?  Can I help?"

Birthday! Birthday! Who had a birthday?

I DID!!

And it was fantastic.  When birthdays are on Monday that means you get to spend the whole weekend partying:)  Targhee took me out to dinner Friday night to an "authentic" Italian restaraunt called Zucca's.  It had gotten the best resaurant of Northern Utah award so I wanted to try it.  I'm sorry to say I was disappointed.  I guess I'm not a true Italian because the food didn't hit my "oh yummy" spot and and service was less than par.  My water cup never got filled, our bread was burnt on the bottom, and we didn't get our main dish for over an hour which means we missed our reservations for a play at a local playhouse, and my desert wasn't even sweet!  Who wants a nonsweet desert for their birthday?  Not me!  But, in comparison to the food my company was wonderful.   I always love spending a night out just Targhee and me every once in a while. 

My sister and her husband came in from Sacramento for the weekend which made it even more wonderful.  And on top of all that, she came with news....she's pregnant!  Whoo hoo:)  We're so excited for her. 

I went over to my parents on Saturday and we all played games and then went to eat at Cafe Rio. Then later that night they came to my house for even more games.  Ya we know how to have fun!

Sunday was the BIG family party where me and my brother in law, Aaron, have shared our birthdays for many many years.  Natalie and Tif and their families came to my parents and we played MORE games and had yummy lemon poppyseed cake. Mmmm! 

Monday I of course had to go to school but when I got home Targhee suprised me with presents and more sweet deserts (which don't count on birthdays). 

Please excuse the mop on top of my head.  My hair was all curly and cute that morning but it was snowing pretty bad up on campas and I got caught without a hood or umbrella.  So this is what you get.

 Later that night we all went to the Brick Oven (yes my weekend was filled with lots of food.  My family knows the way to my heart) 

Leilani was so saturated with sugar from the weekend's events she was beyond hyper Monday night, but because of her excessive energy she did  THIS!

Anyway, my 25th year started off pretty good so hopefully that's a foreshadowing for the next 12 months. 

Thanks everyone for making it a great day!

Free? I'm totally there!

I used to work in the fabric department of a craft store and fell in love with minki while I was there, so if I get to get a free minki blanket, I post this:)

Happy Halloween!

We had a pretty fun Halloween this year.  I think holidays have cycles.  When you are a kid holidays are magical and looked forward to with endless excitement, but the older you get the more the excitement lessens.  And then as a missionary the holidays are like, "Huh?  Today's the Fourth of July?  Ya missed that!"  BUT then you get to have your own kids and the holidays start to be exciting again.

We decided to be the Flinstones this year simply because of this...

How could I pass up such an opportunity?

I made a simple little costume from my mom's scaps and searched all of Ogden for a bone, finally finding the perfect one at Fun Daze.  Frew! 

We got our money's worth out of the costume (which ended up being a grand total of $2 for the bone:) because pebbles got to dress up FIVE times.  That's right!  We were party animals this year.  Last Friday my friend Sierra had a dinner party, then Tuesday our ward had their Trunk or Treat, Wednesday RC Willey (Targhee's work) had their Trunk of Treat, Friday my Mom had her Halloween party and my friend Michelle had her party, and finally Saturday was Targhee's parent's Trunk or Treat.  If I had taken full advantage of the candy offered we could have been set for a year!  But, I decided it was best to be comsumed by other children whose metabolism is much better than mine:)

Here are some pictures of our Halloween fun

 

Fred, Wilma, and Pebbles Flintstone



 Pumpkin Carving.  Can you guess which one belongs to who?





My Mom's party complete with dracula fangs, zombie eyeballs, and a triffle with death



Playing Minute to Win it at Michelle's party





Leilani got a little too into her oreo




Cousins, Kopper as Spiderman and Gaige as Bateman

At 9 months

I can't believe how fast babies change.  You wouldn't think there would be a lot of difference in just two months, but she just keeps getting bigger and cuter each day. Here are some of her latest... 

• plays pattie-cake and claps every time you say "yeah!"
• Throws hands in the air when you say "BIG Girl!" or "TOSS it in the oven"
• Says, "Da Da," "Ma Ma," "ba ba," "Hi" and "Mooo"
• Waves bye-bye
• Will eat an entire banana if I let her
• has two bottom teeth
• Can let go and stand on her own for a few seconds
• takes two, 2 hour naps and still sleeps through the night!  (that's my girl:)
• weighs 17.5 lbs (25%)
• 28 inches tall (70%)
• TERRIFIED of the vacuum
• Hates getting dressed
• loves splashing in the bathtub
• favorite place to play... the couch
• loves story time and to turn the pages of the book 

 9 months birthday = new toy!

Cheerleader for her cousin's football game

 playing at the park

 Our little copy cat

 Can't get enough!

Halloween Wreath

 My friend Brittany and I made these adorable candy corn wreaths last week.  We got the idea from my favorite website, of course:) She has a tutorial on the site.  I added the little sign.  Painted it myself.  I'm getting so into this crafty thing you should just call me Martha.

I love the Fall right now.  It's still warm but the leaves are changing.  So enjoy it while it lasts!  Let the Holiday seasons begin!

After 6th months of wishing

 I was introduced to this website (http://www.allthingsthrifty.com/) about six months ago and have wanted to do this project ever since.  Because of other priorities and obligations I didn't get to it as fast as I wanted to, BUT I finally finished it!   

My dad has stacks of unused scraps of wood tucked in his garage and I asked if I could sift through them to find a piece to paint.  I found the perfect one and had him cut it into three equal peices.  I primed them, picked out the colors I wanted to match my bedroom, and used the template from the website and a projector to trace the image on the boards. 

I couldn't get a very good "whole" view of my bedroom and I'm not quite finished decorating the room the way I would like it, so here are the important pieces.  I made the curtains when we first moved into our apartment and then when I saw this project on the website I new I had to make it. The pattern is almost identical to the fabric in my curtains!  The best part is, the whole thing cost be about 6 bucks!  All I did was buy the sample sized paint from Lowes and a paint brush.  The rest was FREE:)  You could probably pay hundreds of dollars for something like that in a home decor store, so I'm pretty pleased:)  

Bring on the projects!