Reunions

Can I just say that I love the blogging world? I wonder why I was so hesitant to start one...it must be because I'm a little bit rebellious and like to go against the flow instead of with it. That said, I'm so happy I started one. Although I love keeping in touch with my local friends, I get to see and talk to you on a pretty regular basis. In the past few weeks I feel like I've had a mini high school reunion and a mini family reunion. It is so much fun to get reconnected to these friends and stay close with my family since we don't live near them any longer!

FAMILY REUNION:

My little sister, Melanie started a blog a few weeks ago, then Kelly's little sister, Nani started one, and then my long-lost cousin, Jenni found my blog and we get to keep in touch now. There is a funny story about how I met Jenni...Last year when Kelly and I went to Arizona to watch the Fiesta Bowl, we knew we were staying at our brother-in-law's cousin's house. I felt a little weird about it because I'd never met them, but decided to make the best of it. At breakfast the first morning I noticed Jenni's maiden name on a piece of paper. I told her that my mom had relatives with that last name and then told her some of the last names that I was related to. She told me that her grandma's maiden name was the same as my grandparents last name. Then I said that my grandpa had a sister named Mary. Long story short, we figured out that her grandma and my grandpa are brother and sister, that our parents went to high school together and that our moms were in the homecoming court together, and to top it off she married my brother-in-law's cousin. Needless to say, it was so much fun to find out that we were related, and I didn't feel one bit weird about staying at a stranger's house after that:) It was really fun to get to meet her parents and get everyone caught up on everyone else's lives!

HIGH SCHOOL/COLLEGE REUNION:

Now, on to my high school reunion. I've known Autumn has had a blog for awhile, but now Jenny, KerrieLeigh, Kayela, and Lisa all have one. We all grew up in good ol' Blanding, Utah. It is a very small town in the south east corner of Utah. When I say small town I mean small! When I lived there, the population was probably 4500 people or so, no stop lights (just one 4-way stop sign on Main street), one grocery store, no fast-food chains...you get the picture. That said, I loved growing up there! We had so much fun figuring out ways to get into trouble, and entertain ourselves. I have fun memories of each of these girls. My freshman year in college I roomed with Kayela and Lisa, it was a blast! We had Tetris tournaments on GameBoys just to make one of our other (clogging on the entry-way, speaks in sign language when she isn't deaf and expects you to understand her, tantrum throwing) roommates mad (hopefully she doesn't come across this post!), we also scared the you-know-what out of this same roommate one night when she was walking home from a neighbor's house and we were hiding in the bed of a truck in the parking lot. We jumped out and she got so scared, she ran into the house and locked us all out for a LONG time. It was snowing outside, but we kept warm because we were laughing our butts off about the look on her face...it still makes me giggle even as I'm typing this!

It's also fun to see what time has brought to each of our lives. Where we live, who we married, how many kids we have, what we look like, etc. My favorite part of getting reconnected is that we are all grown-ups now. There is none of the high school drama and we still pick up like we've been talking to each other for years. So if there are any "lurkers" out there who went to high school with me (Candace, Stephanie, Storm, and anyone else) leave a message on my blog and start a blog of your own! They are so much fun and a great way to keep in touch!

Late Start

Our snowy road on the way to take the kids to school.


I thought my friends and family from Utah or people who have ever lived in Utah would get a kick out of these pictures. This little skiff of snow means that "they" delay the starting of school for 2 hours! I'll give "them" that the roads were a little slick, but when I was in high school I remember school being canceled once and that's because it snowed about 3 feet in one day! I always get a little giggle out of these late starts or cancellations. Heaven help us if we ever move back to Utah...we are turning into big wusses out here!

Our snowy backyard.

Sunday-time

This past week seemed to drag in some ways and fly by in others. Does that ever happen to any of you? It seemed to drag as far as school days, I kept thinking, "aren't we to Friday yet?" When dinner time rolled around I was like, "oh yeah, I have a family to feed, what should we have?" Thankfully at Enrichment, I got a lot of really good tips on menu planning and grocery shopping. I'll have to pull out my papers and give that a try this week.

The week flew by as far as, "Oh my goodness, it's almost Sunday again, I should really be working on my lesson!" And, "oh my goodness, I'm having Bunco at my house this month, maybe I should get my prizes and food together!" Again, thankfully, I went into the city this weekend with Rochelle and got that out of the way.

This week I get to look forward to an OBGYN appointment:( Needing that yearly exam already! Again, I was thinking, "Didn't I just have that??" But, that was another thing we learned about at Enrichment...the importance of taking care of yourself and all the preventative measures we can take with ourselves. Definitely not fun, but definitely necessary!

So, like all of you other moms out there...the craziness starts again tomorrow! That's why I'm so excited to have Sunday. I get to go to church at 9 o'clock and we are home by noon. We have an easy lunch and then it is nap time(or reading time, or guitar hero time, or blogging time, the point is we have time) after everyone gets a rest I still have time to prepare a nice dinner and we get to spend the evening as a family as well. I remember not liking Sundays when I was younger, but boy do I love them now!

Aaaand, next subject PLEASE!

I'm trying to escape the controversy of my last post discussion, so I will tell you how I spent my day...I woke up and exercised, then I ate breakfast, then I got my kids dressed and ready for the day, then I put Bronson down for a nap because he thought he needed to get up at 4 in the AM!, then I took a shower and got ready, then I took the kids to playgroup at the church, then I took Maika to school, then I came home and fed the babies lunch, then I put Bronson down for another nap and turned on Nick Jr. for Nalani, then I spent the next 5 hours cleaning out and organizing the toys and getting rid of the junk, then I cooked dinner, then I vacuumed and my vacuum broke so I had to borrow Rochelle's, then we ate dinner, then I cleaned the kitchen, then I typed this post:) Now I'm ready to go fold Mt. St. Helens of laundry while I watch "Grey's Anatomy" Then I will start my new book and fall asleep in the middle of the third page...Goodnight! (I think I might've set the world record for the longest sentence ever, I apologize to all you English majors out there!)

New look(s)

This picture is of Bronson before his new look.

This is Bronson during the process of getting his new look.

This is Bronson with his new look. Isn't he handsome?

And, this is Bronson this morning after he got into the box of Bisquick. I ended up having to vacuum his head before he got into the bath so I wouldn't end up with biscuit dough in my bathtub. He is one crazy kid! And we love every inch of him:)

Sad, but true.

This is a sad post...because I'm writing about two TV shows that I'm excited for their new episodes to start next Friday. "Monk" and "Psych" these shows are so funny! During Christmas break USA has had both of these shows on marathons and I've folded many a load of laundry to them:) So check them out, you won't be disappointed (unless you don't have a sense of humor!).

2007: A year in review...

I'm going to try and remember something from every month in 2007, but since I didn't start my blog until August it might be hard, we'll see how it goes...

January: Kelly and I started the new year in Phoenix at the Fiesta Bowl watching our Sooners get beaten by the Boise State Broncos. Oh well, it was still tons of fun! Thanks Grandma for coming to watch the kids!

February: I got a new calling to teach the Laurels in Young Women at church. It was, and still is very scary for me to teach, but I really enjoy the girls, and getting to know them.

March: We traveled to Utah and Arizona for Spring Break in our new Suburban! We got to see most of our family, and had a great time! And, I couldn't find one picture of our Suburban or our trip!

April: I celebrated my birthday with a much-needed trip to the beach with Uncle Jesse, Jeremy and Rochelle and all our kids! While at dinner one night, Kelly ordered a 32 oz. cut of Prime Rib! I don't have a picture of it, but it looked like his own Sunday Roast, so disgusting!

May: Kelly starts his new position at work full-force, he was traveling every week! Bronson, Kelly and I took a quick trip to Hawaii for his Auntie's and Uncle's surprise birthday Luau. So much fun packed in to so little time! We got to see Grandma and Auntie Jennie over there too. Thanks Auntie Rachel for coming to watch the girls! We also went on a camping trip with Jamie and Jodi, and Spencer and Nicole and families. We came back from that trip and bought our boat the very last day of May! I also had a fun visit from high school friends Kayela and J.J. along with their son Asa, while they were in the area for a family reunion.

June: Kelly and I celebrate our 11th anniversary! We traveled to Wyoming for my family reunion. While there we went to Yellowstone, went rafting on the Snake River, and had lots of fun swimming at the pool!

July: We spent lots of time on our boat and got really tan this summer! Kelly and I enjoyed an all-expenses paid trip to Chicago. We got spa treatments, dinners out, had our first Nascar experience, and got to stay in the Ritz-Carlton! Thanks to Nicole and Spencer for watching all of our kids and keeping them so entertained while we were gone! They took their family plus our kids to the ward camp out, Chuck-E-Cheese's, a fair, and fireworks! Our kids thought we were soooo boring when we got home! We try to space things like that out over many months:) Bronson also turned one in July.

August: The biggest event of this month was Bronson's 1st birthday luau! We had lots of friends and family come to visit for the party! Everyone from Kelly's family was here except for one brother and one sister and their families. We had a full house, but it was sure fun! Thanks to everyone for coming and traveling so far to see us! September: Logan started 4th grade in Ms. Penn's class and Maika started kindergarten in Mrs. Hansen's class! We had lots of fun on our boat with Jared and Chelsea over Labor Day. We tried to get back into the swing of things after a long, active summer!

October: Marks the last day it was warm enough to take our boat out. It's now winterized and tucked safely away into storage waiting for it to get warm enough to bring out and have fun with us again. The most exciting thing to happen in October for me was that Nalani got potty-trained! A close second was my trip to Las Vegas with my sister, Melanie and my mom. We had a great time! The kids also had fun on Halloween getting all their candy:)

November: We took another road trip to Utah and Arizona for Thanksgiving. Kelly enjoyed helping his mom get her yard ready after moving in to a new house, the kids had so much fun playing with all of their cousins, and it was so nice to see all of my mom's family and my cousins again after so long! We had a memorable trip to Temple Square, and got some Christmas shopping done too:)

December: Well, you just read about our December! We are looking forward to a hootin'-hollerin' party tonight to ring in the New Year, with lots of Guitar Hero to be played, I'm sure!

We had a great 2007 and we look forward to a great year of 2008! I hope to be a little more patient, more understanding, smaller, more kind, more spiritual, and more dedicated to serving my family! I have a lot of work to do!! Seriously! So I guess I better get busy! Happy New Year, everybody!