i'm here....

What a week. Not only did I have card group....which everyone who knows me knows I wait until the last minute to finish them. Then my sweet little Ellie has picked "something" up...she woke up Tuesday, at midnight, and she & I were up all night with a fever and her feeling awful...it then continued all day Tuesday, and into yesterday. Luckily her fever broke, although we are still having diaper issues....which translates as nasty stuff issuing into her diaper. But the best part was that she went to bed last night at 6 pm, and slept soundly all night! Oh the joy of uninterrupted sleep! I may actually get a shower today, without a 2 yr old following me and demanding to be constantly held! What a fantastic thought! So, I'm off to do that, and catch up on all the other stuff that fell by the way for the last two days...more later!

The end of an Era...

For any of you not in Utah, I thought I'd share the news that the beloved President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Gordon B. Hinckley, passed away tonight. What a fantastic man of God that taught us much and set a fantastic example. He will be greatly missed.

We will mourn his passing, but are confident that he has returned to our Heavenly Father, with a big pat on the back for a job "well done!" He spent most of his life serving the Church, and is loved by all. I'm just so happy he's back with his sweet wife!

HERE is the official announcement of the Church. Also interesting is the article about the succession of the next president HERE.


It will be interesting to hear how Ron's day is tomorrow at work.

Happy Birthday Riley!

Riley and cousin Connor enjoying the 4-wheeler!

Miss Riley is FOURTEEN years old today!

Whoa! It really seems like just yesterday that she was turning 6...

(I can't say it seems like yesterday that she was born, because I wasn't around then!)

Riley really is becoming all grown up though. Going through all the fun moodiness of teenagehood. But thankfully it is getting better! She is very excited to move into the "MiaMaids" group at church since her closest friend in the ward is already 14. She gets her braces off in a month and couldn't be more thrilled. She is a tall darling girl, and her dad is going to start building a moat around her soon!

She has chosen sushi for dinner tonight....so she and her dad are happy about that....the rest of us will have something else since our opinion of sushi is a big fat "BLECH!", and since she doesn't read my blog, I can say that she's getting clothes for her BDay! Sunday outfits, shoes, some other shirts for every day, and some really cute black and leopard print converse lowtops. Hope she likes them!

Please say it isn't so.....

For the second time in as many days, this one:
is refusing to go to sleep!

NOOOOOOO!!!!!

Please, someone make my two year old take a nap!

Her somewhat insane mommy IS NOT ready for napless days with a two year old. She has been my best sleeper....how could she be doing this to me?!

Good thing she's still in a crib and hasn't a clue how to get out....good way to enforce "quiet time" at least.

Problem is I just typed that...same thing as saying it out loud...I've just cursed myself and she will figure out how to get out of her crib tomorrow.

Good thing she's freaking adorable.

it's snowing....

...again.



According to the forecast it wasn't supposed to snow today.

But I guess the actual weather didn't listen to the forecast.

Stupid weatherman.

I know, I know....I live in Utah, and it's January....therefore, we will have snow. I could just really use a look at the beautiful blue sky and sunshine for a day or two.

That or I just really need to suck it up and go do something really fun in all this snow...like cross-country skiing. I haven't done that since high school, and it is really FUN! I wish my kids were big enough to do it. Maybe I'll see if we can find some snow-shoes for us all and go hiking.

MLK Day fun

Well, after Jared only throwing up once more last night, he slept soundly and feels much better today! Hooray! And so far (knocking frantically on wood,) no one else seems to be feeling bad.

Fun part of the night was that he really wanted me to sleep with him. So I curled up at the bottom of his twin size bed, with a little blanket covering me...that I think was actually a towel. I woke up freezing a couple hours later, and since Jared was sound asleep, I went back to my bed. I'm so glad my husband is his own furnace, so that I could cuddle up to him and warm up quick!

Boy, I heard it this morning though when Jared came in. He wasn't too happy that I left him in there alone!

We woke up to a nice surprise this morning. Eight more inches of snow! And it is still coming down. We have received at least 12" now, and it's coming down pretty hard again. So what else is there to do with all that new snow, and everyone home from work or school? Yep! Break out the 4-wheelers and pull the kids around in the field on sleds! It was mucho fun. The snow was deep enough though, that our smaller 4-wheeler had some difficulty unless it was already in established tracks...I've now nick-named it "The Little 4-wheeler That Really Tries"...maybe I'll call it "putt-putt" for short!

So that's our day...hope everyone else had a great MLK Day!

Blessings abound....

Today when we came home from church, Jared complained of not feeling well and his stomach hurting. He kept going back and forth between seeming fine, and complaining of a stomach-ache. Since that was his only complaint, and he would eat and/or play, I didn't think much of it.

During dinner, Ron and I were trying to decide who was going to accompany Riley to the Stake Fireside. Neither of us particularly wanted to get back into Sunday clothes and go, but in the end, I went.

Good thing!

While I was gone, Jared came into the kitchen complaining about his stomach again....then he lost it into the kitchen sink. Hmmm.....going to the fireside really WAS a good choice! :0)

He is now in bed on a towel sleeping by the puke bucket. No other symptoms, poor kid. Hopefully this was an isolated incident...but I've been a mother long enough to know that is a fat chance!

The Bridesmaid

Today my mom came over to visit the kiddos. She also showed up with an armload of dresses from a few years ago...high school. Lame that I never got rid of them, but they included bridesmaid dresses from my siblings weddings, high school graduation, and a couple that I made myself. My mom figures I could decide what to do with them...like stick them in the dress-up box! Ron saw them and bet me that I could still wear them.

Here you go...

Here we have Andrea, modeling the lovely teal green satin bridesmaid dress worn at age 16! I may be able to still fit into the same size dress, but man how I wish I still had the non-existent wrinkles from age 16...sigh!

Hey Beth, do you still have yours?! Take a picture and show us!


Beth, my dear sister, whom I love...If it makes you feel any better...

if you are still reading...

I tried the one on from your wedding, and apparently three pregnancies spread my ribcage a bit too much to zip it up! Ron tried on his tux from our wedding, but it was too obscene to post...the pants looked like socks.

(he made me type that last part about him...it isn't true!)

Lots o' Luv!

Even though I just changed my template...I decided to go with a Valentine theme for the next month...hope the pink isn't too killer for y'all!

It is COLD!

No pictures today.....too overcast to take anything in my house....not enough light...and there is no way I am going outside again except for the absolute essential things(like pick up from school.) It is freaking eighteen degrees outside, 18!!!! Fahrenheit! This stinks. I want to crank my furnace up to 75, and turn the fire on. But I don't want to pay the gas bill if I do that. So I'll just turn the fire on and drink some hot cocoa.

Ron wanted to go "somewhere" this weekend. He was talking St. George, because it would be warmer...yes, 45 is warmer than 18, but it's certainly not warm! We also discussed Colorado...yes cold, but we thought there would be some fun stuff to do...but there was nowhere to stay in Ouray due to an Ice Climbing Festival. We even thought about Arizona.....but 20+ hours in the car with our kids?! For only 2 days there? We decided no....sorry sis!

So, we'll stay here and find some fun(?) winter stuff to do. And clean and organize the playroom. Now THAT sounds like fun!