New Camera!!

Besides my kids having fever's all week, having meetings every night, getting blood drawn yesterday, and my rhogam--I'm so excited, the camera I ordered from ebay has FINALLY gotten here!! Yippee! I have to say, it is so much more fun to take pictures with than my old camera! I watched Carla's boys for a little bit the other day--the weather has been so nice, so they played outside on the trampoline and I just took a bunch of pictures! Here's a couple of my favorite!

Rainy Sunday

Today was a pretty nice day all in all, we had our Ward Conference and the speakers and lessons were so nice. Pres. Judd gave a great talk that seemed like was just for me! My visiting teachers came by and it was just what I needed to sit and chat for awhile, talk about girl stuff and see how other people are doing!
This picture is of Maddie after church we were changing her out of her dress and Dave thought it would be funny to pull her tights up as high as they could go! She thought it was pretty funny too!

This picture is from Friday, I got home from work and found David sleeping and the girls on the couch like this, thought it was pretty cute!

Potty Training

Well, its been a crazy week--as always! Besides having New Beginnings on Tuesday, we've been starting to potty train Maddie. Someone just shoot me! I'm not really being strict about it because she just turned two three months ago, and there's plenty of time, but if she's interested than I want her to stay interested. The problem is, she likes to wear the underwear but she doesn't care to actually potty on the potty! I can't be too upset, because just a minute ago I was ranting at her and Bethany for being naughty to eachother and in the middle of it she says: "Mommy?" - "WHAT?!" - "I love you." Sheesh, I love her so much!

(just a couple extras: We got the girls some new toothpaste that has a picture of Spongebob on it, as soon as we got home Bethany ran into the bathroom yelling "I'm gonna brush my teeth so my breath will smell like Spongebob!!" What a weirdo! And Maddie's walking around making a screeching sound and I asked her what she was being and she said "I am a baby!" haha And I just showed her the picture on here and asked her who that was and she said "my underwear--its falling off...my bum bum!" she cracks me up!)

My Princess Girls

Our ward doesn't start now until 11:00, so we have a little more time to do whatever before we go. This morning our girls had their pretty dresses on and decided that they were princesses and all morning long we had to call them "Belle" or "Cinderella" or whatever other princess they were at the moment. Maddie was especially funny, she would just say over and over "I am Cinderella" in her nasal voice (she has a stuffy nose), so whatever I did I'd have to say "Come here Cinderella, let's brush your hair." in my princess voice, she loved it! So here they are being princesses together, I'm sure Dave's really excited to have a boy and not so much girly stuff going on around here! (just a side note, Bethany's in her room right now screaming her head off because she has a sliver and won't let anyone touch it, I have to say i'm just as excited to have a boy around here!)



One more thing, this is mostly for my sister, I promised her a picture of my hair--I chopped it pretty short. And then for all of you who aren't close by, you can see me at about six months. (sorry the pic isn't that great, hopefully not too dark)

Valentine's Day

Darn I always forget my camera, it seems like I took a lot more pictures when I only had one kid! :) Valentine's Day was fun, it was the first time Bethany really got to do anything because they had a party at the daycare. Bethany loved the Valentine cards, she kept saying "everyone loves me! Look at all the hearts, they love me so much!" It was pretty funny! So they stuffed themselves with candy, and I did too! :D We were gonna all go out to dinner, but Dave's aunt (who lives next door) had her grandkids and they came and kidnapped our kids, which they loved. So we went out to dinner by ourselves!! What a concept huh?! It was fun for the girls, they played and made cookies and got hot dogs for dinner, it was great! Other than the hour wait at Chilli's, we had a great time too! Hope everyone else had a great Valentine's too!

Flip Side of Every Coin

I've been thinking a lot lately of our situation and the situations that everyone comes across in their lives, and why some people choose to say 'its so hard' and 'poor me' and why some people can be happy no matter what. Whats the difference between the two? And how do we get to the point where we're happy with what we have and with ourselves no matter what? I've come up with one idea, I really think is a big part of it. Besides living the way we should, doing all the things we're supposed to, I think a big part of being happy is just in our thinking. I'm sure everyone's thinking--DUH! But really, I think it all comes down to choosing if we're going to be happy or not. I knew a lady who would come to work and say "I can't be happy, my daughter's doing this and I'm having problems with my house and this and that....so don't bother me today, I'm not in a good mood and I can act however I want." And just about every day she would come in and say how hard her life was and she couldn't be happy. This was a great example to me that we should focus on the good things in life and not all the bad things. Really, I could say 'I work at a daycare picking up seven babies all the time, changing stinky diapers, while I'm pregnant and the Young Women's president which takes a ton of my time and energy, on top of living in an old run down house that needs tons of work, my husband's been in school for as long as we've been married and there's no end in sight (atleast not close) and I don't have any money because my husband doesn't work so I can't do all the things I would like to do......' I could go on, but I'm sure you get the point! But I really don't want anyone to think thats how I feel (although there are days....) How I really feel is: I am so BLESSED! I have a wonderful family who I love and we have so much fun together, even if we're not out spending money on stuff! And even though I'd rather be a stay at home mom, the job I do have allows me to bring my kids and Bethany goes to preschool and has learned so much and loves it! And Young Women's does take a lot of time, but is so rewarding! I get to have fun with a lot of great women and girls and we get to learn about spiritual things that mean so much more when you're telling them to a teenager! And my husband works really hard at home and at school, he never complains about doing laundry or the dishes! He would do whatever it took to make his family happy! So anyway, I hope this doesn't sound weird or cheesy, just something I felt I needed to get out! I really do feel lucky, even though I do complain; more than not, I really do get it!

Maddie lately has been actually "watching" tv, instead of playing toys while the tv is on, and as she's hanging out she'll lay on the floor and just fall asleep. She does it every other day or so, I don't know why but its still super cute to me every time she does it!

Pictures from Bethany's B-day

I finally got Bethany's birthday pictures on the computer, so thought I'd add them! Hope you enjoy--can you tell she loved everything?!

Wednesday

Wednesday's aren't usually that exciting, but it was a good Wednesday yesterday! I got off work at 9:30-ish, and came home to clean up before our new dishwasher got here! Yippee, I'm so excited its here! Just that in itself would make it a good day but I also went to girls' night last night, I haven't been in like a year I think! It was a lot of fun, I'm really glad I went! I was supposed to go to a Lia Sophia party, but I got to look at the catalog and I'll order something in the next couple days, so it all works out-new jewelry, how exciting! I didn't even realize how much I needed to get out and just chat and not worry about anything, I guess I forget how much stuff is on my mind with work and church and another baby coming, so thanks to all the women who made it so nice last night! (Especially after the drama at mutual Tuesday, we did a lip sync and some people took it a little too seriously, although my girls didn't take it seriously at all! Where's the love?! But we did get Dave to dress up as a woman, so it must've been worth it!) Well, here's a picture of the dishwasher, so happy!

Crazy Life

I swear, I don't know why, but my life is crazy! :) This whole weekend through today is just not stop crazy! I worked all day friday, 6:45 in the morning, until 5:30 at night (I did have a break somewhere in there, but it sounds a lot more crazy without it!haha) So Friday night we went out to Wingers, yippee! It was fun because we ran into Mark and Carla and their Friday night buddies and got to say hello! (By the way, the manager there was quite rude, they told us there was a half hour wait, so we went out to the van since it was amazingly crowded, for ten minutes and by the time we came back in he's all, 'sorry, we tell people not to leave, we already called your name' I was super annoyed...) So anyway, Saturday is a blur, but I know somewhere in there we went to Home Depot and got a portable dishwasher!!! I'm SOOO excited, after almost four years of handwashing dishes, by Wednesday we won't have to anymore! (we sure aren't very smart if its taken us four years to figure this out, huh?) So I'm skipping yesterday, because this is taking forever, and todays what I really want to talk about!;)I know a lot of snow, Stake Conference and the Super Bowl are in there somewhere! So I get up for work this morning, and its been snowing here like crazy lately (I swear like a foot yesterday), I get the van going so it can defrost, get ready, and head out. Well, I get to the end of the driveway and spin, spin, spin. I'm completely stuck! I try backing up, I try turning this way and that, I try a lower gear, anything--nothing! I run back inside, get Dave and he's out there at 6:40, digging and pushing, for 20 minutes!! I'm crying, David's probably swearing (I could tell he was frustrated, as he was shoveling very furiously!), and I don't know what to do because I'm the one that gets to the daycare first to open everything up and I'm so afraid someone's there waiting to get in and I'm not there. Finally I have to call my boss, she comes to get me and I have to leave Dave to figure it out! (Also, I lost my shoe in the snow and my sock was all wet, part of the reason I was crying) So get to work, start setting everything up as fast as I can, luckily no one was there waiting, and I have a new girl to train which just means I do more work showing her what to do! On top of that we're supposed to do a fire drill once a month and we're a little late but it has to get done, so we get ready. We have six infants (don't worry they're all over one and can walk) to take out in the snow, usually we have a wagon to pull them in, but its full of snow, not that it would've mattered since none of the sidewalks were shoveled, so we're draggin these poor kids through the snow, and Sapphire (who's almost two) just collapses every time, we're like "get up and WALK!!" and she just falls on her face! It was so darn frustrating! One of the little girls is "sensitive" and just refused to go in the snow at all so we had to carry her, it was incredible! I could go on about how crazy it was, but you get the point! The rest of the day goes like this: I made an appointment to get my hair cut forgetting that I have a dr.'s appointment an hour later, so I have to reschedule the hair appt. :( for tomorrow. On the upside, the dr.'s appointment went well, its always fun to hear the heartbeat; but I had to make appointments for both the glucose test and the rhogam (sp?), which I'm not so excited about! Aaah, such is life--crazy life!

Tag Your It!

A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B. Each player answers the questions about themselves
C. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5 people and posts their names and then goes to their blogs and leaves a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and that they should read your blog.

10 years ago... really, does this have to be the very first question?! I already get enough grief about my age....but 10 years ago I was 14 almost 15, in the 9th grade. Life was a LOT different, quite an understatement, but was still really good. I was a really innocent teenager, and about 9th grade was when I started caring about what I wore and how I did my hair and wearing makeup. I had a lot of really great friends that year, and a lot of good experiences. I went to Jr. High so you go from 7-9th grade, so we were the big stuff and it was mostly a lot of fun. Its weird to think back at how naive and just different things were then!

5 Things on my to do list today... (I'll do tomorrow, since there's not much left of today!) 1) clean the house 2) go shopping 3) organize the girls' room 4) clean the house again 5) take down the Christmas decorations on the porch (we're so white trash!)

Snacks that I enjoy... oh way too many, I love soft serve ice cream, especially in the form of a Blizzard. I like chocolate in so many different forms, but especially paired with peanut butter!! mmmmm Not along the lines of sweets, I like pickled asparagus wrapped in ham as a snack, or just plain pickles are good too! And really I know that drinks are drinks, but I LOVE drinks! Soda, lemonade, horchata, juice, milk, hot chocolate... I could go on and on, but I'll stop there!

What I would do if I were suddenly a billionaire... Oh man, WHY? I shouldn't even think about this, it will only cause me pain and sadness for my own life! :) I would DEFINITELY buy a house and decorate it however I wanted, and do all the other wonderful things everyone would think of, like go on some vacations (we never went on a honeymoon), buy my parents and Dave's a house, do all the nice things for my family I've always wanted to, I would buy my kids the cutest clothes you've ever seen, save money for all my family's futures (college, missions, etc.), there's so many different things, I should really stop! yikes...

3 of my bad habits... 1) I spend too much time on the computer, or in front of the TV, just generally wasting good time 2) I yell at my family too much! 3) I'm messy

5 places I have lived...1) American Fork, UT 2) Tacoma, WA 3) Long Beach, CA 4) Springville, UT 5) Puyallup, WA

5 jobs that I have had... 1) courtesy clerk at a grocery store 2) nanny for my sister-in-law 3) worked at the Bumblebee Cottage for a little bit 4) took photos for Everysinglehome.com 5) currently at a daycare

5 things people don't know about me... 1) when I was six I was in a car accident where I fell out of the car pretty much onto my face, I had about 15 stitches, 8 on the inside of my forehead, then a tube so it can drain, and 7 on the outside of that. I had a huge fat lip and bruises and scratches all over (I was on my way to gymnastics so I was only in a leotard), it was quite an ordeal! 2) I have "little man syndrome" I'm a small person that thinks she's tough (on the inside), but on the outside I'm the one peeing on the floor because I'm so nervous! 3) Deep down I really wish I could be on tv, and when I sing to songs on the radio I wonder if I sang it for American Idol what they would say to me! haha 4) I've always wanted to write children's books 5) I want to design clothes, and be an interior decorator, and be an artist, and cut hair, I still can't decide what I want to be when I grow up! Too many things I'm interested in! :)

Tag, You're It... Shannon, Julie