Happy Birthday Mom!

Wednesday was my moms birthday! Anyone who knows my mom knows that she really doesn't like going anywhere during week nights so we ordered in Mexican food and had dinner at their house. My dad made her a cake, decorated it and everything!
Sorry about the picture, I guess I was a little close to her, or I should have had the flash off. But it's still a cute pic of her!

So now in honor of my moms 46th b-day, here are 46 things about her.
1. She is one of my best friends.
2. She loves to shop.
3. She is my favorite shopping partner.
4. Some of my favorite memories are of going shopping with her and my grandma.
3. She always laughs out loud when watching sitcoms(sp) on TV
4. She loves chocolate and other homemade baked goods more then anyone I know.
5. Well, her mom and her sisters may be tied with her in that area. maybe.
6. She bakes really well.
7. She loves going on trips in the motor home.
8. Especially to the Oregon Coast.
9. She is very gullible!
10. She is fun to tease.
11. She is addicted to reality TV
12. She loves to lay on her bed and watch TV
13. We talk on the phone at least once a day every day.
14. She talks to her mom on the phone at least once a day every day.
15. She loves to be with her family.
16. She is going to be an awesome grandma!
17. She loves to sing loudly in her car.
18. She starts listening to Christmas music in October.
19. She loves Christmas time.
20. She loves food!
21. She is very caring.
22. She always made my friends feel very welcome at our home.
23. Everyone loves my mom.
24. She spoils us kids. But we love it :)
25. Her and my dad are a perfect match for each other.
26. She loves her doggies.
27. Sometimes we think shes going a little crazy ;)
28. She loves the gospel.
29. She is becoming quite addicted to Guitar Hero
30. It's obvious to see how much she loves us.
31. Shes a great cook.
32. She loves to sit out in the backyard by the pond.
33. She is the only other person in the family who gets teased just as much as me.
34. I catch myself doing things just like her more and more.
35. I don't mind it at all, though I do hope I get a few of my dads qualities.
36. I hope I'm as good a mom as she is.
37. She has good style.
38. I don't know what shes going to do when my brothers move out of their house.
39. She loves to go on vacation with our family
40. She is an all around fun mom.
41. She is the biggest pack rat I know!
42. She says she is trying to be better about getting rid of things.
43. She is very dependable.
44. She is not a slow driver and does not like to get behind other slow drivers.
45. She is fun to laugh with.
46. She is the best mom ever!

Happy Birthday Dad!

I know I'm a little late getting to this post....Last Saturday was my dads birthday. We all went out to dinner at his favorite Chinese Buffet place that our family calls China Dinah....I don't even know what the actual name of the restaurant is?? It's one of my dads favs though. After dinner we went back to my parents house and played some Guitar Hero, my mom is becoming very addicted!! Here are a few pictures from the night.

She's gonna hate me for posting this! :)

So in honor of my dads 46th b-day, here are 46 random things about him...

1. He loves to play jokes/tricks on people

2. He has no fashion sense at all.

3. He loves to go fishing with my brothers and my grandpa and whoever else will go.

4. He can fix anything (at least that's what it seems like to me)

5. He is easy to talk to.

6. He is a big softy, though he likes to act like he's tough.

7. He has good taste in music.

8. He has a good judge of character.

9. He loves to be with his family.

10. He can't wait to be a grandpa.

11. He loves to work on "projects" with my brothers.

12. These "projects" usually involve a motor in some way.

13. He is a great motorcycle mechanic.

14. He loves to be at the races.

15. He loves taking trips in the motor home.

16. Especially to the Oregon Coast.

17. He loves seafood.

18. He has always been able to make me laugh when I'm mad or sad.

19. He loves to tease.

20. He loves to "hook us"

21. He is more of a romantic then my mom is.

22. My boyfriends were always scared of him...and I never understood why?

23. He always has a new toy of some kind.

24. He loves American Idol and Survivor

25. He is very smart.

26. He thinks he is hilarious.

27. He loves the gospel

28. He loves hanging out with my brothers.

29. He is good at playing sports.

30. But he won't admit that hes not as good as he used to be.

31. It's easy to tell how much he loves my mom.

32. It's easy to tell how much he loves his kids.

33. He hates losing at anything.

34. He gets extremely car sick if he's not the one driving.

35. I have never been in the same car as him where he is not the driver.

36. He is very even tempered.

37. He thinks he can dance...but I'm not so sure I agree. :)

38. He loves to sleep in.

39. He never judges other people.

40. He loves to play golf.

41. He is really loud when he talks on the phone.

42. He can still beat my brothers in arm wrestling.

43. He loves to eat snack foods.

44. He loves to take naps.

45. He gives really good advice.

46. He is the best dad ever!

Elfs

I saw this on Julia's blog and I had to do it!! I thought it was so funny! Check us out!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9623876845

Edit

This is for you Carole! I don't know how to go back and edit in a picture I forgot in my last post, so I'm just going to do a new one for this picture! I know Stevens aunt Carole checks out the blog and in my Thaksgiving post I some how forgot to put in this picture with Nana and Grandpa Jerry! I know she would like to see them, so here you go Carole! :)

Nana, Grandpa Jerry, cousin Erich, dad-in-law Lynn, and Steven all hanging out before the feasting!
Okay, that's it for the Thanksgiving weekend! :)

So very blessed....

I have lots to update from our Thanksgiving weekend! We've had a lot of fun the past few days...so here is a little recap.
We had Thanksgiving dinner with Steven's side of the family, so we went over to my parents house to visit with them for a while in the morning before we headed over to Stevens aunt Robins house for our Thanksgiving feast. (Love the fact that both our parents live in the same town as us so we can see both families for the holidays!

This is a picture of my cute mom with Turbo...just hanging out at their house that morning, watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Steven checking out the adds for all the Black Friday sales. He was doing his very best to not watch the Parade on TV, hes not much of a parade kind of guy :) I didn't get any pictures of my dad and brothers while we were there, they had been out fishing most of the morning...by the time they got back I forgot to get a few shots of them.

Charlee taking a nap on my parents floor, with his toy close by of course!

Here is a new "baby bump" shot of my growing belly. I think its funny how big my butt looks in this shot, I think it was a mixture of how I have my hands and the shirt I was wearing...or maybe its just my butt getting bigger? I'll go with the first thought ;)

One of Steven and I together, as you can see Steven was really into having his picture taken, lol!

We had to borrow my brothers truck that day for some tools and things Steven was getting. We forgot about the fact that Charlee can't fit into the cab with us so we had to use motorcycle tie downs to tie him up in the bed of it, he wasn't very thrilled, but Steven and I got a good laugh about it. And it got him home safely.

We are now over at Stevens aunt Robins house, this is my mom-in-law cutting the turkey, my mouth was pretty much watering at this point! We had soooo much good food!!

The tables that cousin Emma decorated so nicely...they were very festive. And that is Skylars face in the corner of the pic.

The other table...unfortunately I didn't get any shots of us gathered around the tabling eating all the good food! I'm still working on my picture taking skills ;)

My brother-in-law Devan some how climbed up to this built in wall shelf thing, so had to get a shot of him being goofy!

My sis-in-law Cassandra helping with the after dinner clean-up...always a fun time.

Robin, Emma Mae, Emma-Leigh, Devan (looking oh so happy), Thomas and Steven hanging out after dinner.

Another after dinner hangout picture, everyone resting after filling their belly's! It was a really good day with lots of good food and good company. I have so much to be Thankful for in my life, I am a very blessed girl!

My mom and I at the beginning of our traditional Black Friday shopping!! We didn't start till about 8am, so we weren't too crazy this year. We started out here in town got some good deals at Target and then headed down to Roseville to do our traditional meet up with my aunt Joanne and my cousins for lunch and some shopping at the Galleria!

Here is a group shot of all of us at the food court having lunch. It's always so fun to see all the girls since we don't get to very often.

We got a lot of shopping done that day, found some good deals and had a lot of fun! I got a really good start on my Christmas shopping and don't have much left to buy! yay!

Saturday we got the tree up and all the Christmas decorations!! I love this time of year and the warm feeling I get with all the lights everywhere! I am feeling the Christmas spirit! I know this is a very blurry shot, I am a horrible photographer and our camera isn't the greatest, but I wanted the flash off so you could see all the lights on the tree.

So here is another shot with the flash on so you can actually see the tree and the decorations around the piano. I'm still working on my decorating skills but I think it turned out pretty good.

Gotta get one of Charlee with his new sweater on, he has such short hair he gets so cold in the winter! He loves wearing his sweater!

These are my newest additions to my decorations, they are so simple, but I love them! I love how the light illuminates through the glass, so pretty!

Yes, another bad photographer shot, I was trying to get me in there by the tree so you could see how excited I am, but it's dark, oh well! haha, you can all use your imaginations.

The Game Of Life! Our newest game addiction, we played this several times over the weekend, don't know what it is, but we love this game!

Another shot of Charlee with is his new toys...let me tell you this dog gives us all kinds of entertainment!

Steven was trying to teach him to catch his toy in the air, as you can see he has some practicing to do. He is up high and his toy is already half-way down his back, lol! He did finally get it a few times though.

One last shot at the end of the day of my two boys. We had a really good Saturday, Steven got a lot of much needed yard and garage work done while I got the house cleaned and the decorations out. That night we did a few errands together had some dinner and then hung out with Stevens brother Thomas and his wife Cassandra for a while. All in all it was a great weekend!

We have lots going on over the next month, I'm gonna do my best to have my camera with me so I can keep you all updated with all the happenings! So check back often and happy holidays!!

I've been tagged...

So now that I have been tagged I guess I'm supposed to write 6 facts about myself. Here we go...

1. I love playing games with our families. I could seriously play for hours! But I have a very hard time doing the "every man for himself" while playing. And everyone knows this about me, so I'm always the one being guilted into helping someone else out. If ever do a move/play (depends on the game) that causes someone else to fall back I instantly feel bad! I just can't be mean! lol.

2. I love a clean house! But I hate the process of making it that way. There is nothing better then coming home from work or waking up in the morning and having the house "perfect." I usually spend the first few hours of my Saturday mornings cleaning the entire house, I always feel so satisfied after! Even though I know it's only a matter of time before it's starts to get messy. But, the good thing about not having kids yet is that the house will usually stay clean for most of the week. We all know this is soon to change though. :)

3. I can't go to bed at night without having the bed all neat and tucked in. I don't always get to make it in the morning because either Steven is still in it when I leave or I run out of time, but no matter what I have to have it all straightened out again before I can go to bed. I seriously get sleep anxiety if the bed's not fixed before I get in it. Steven thinks I'm crazy or maybe a little OCD about it. Oh, and I hate it when Steven is in bed before me, I like to be the first one in, don't ask me why, cause I have no idea?

4. After about 8:00pm my mind shuts off. If there are any projects to be done or anything that involves too much thinking I can't do it at night. I am not a night person. If Steven and I start talking about, lets say our finances after 8pm I can't do it, I just get really frustrated. Any hard thinking my day might require has to happen earlier in the day. But that doesn't mean I can't get into a good board game after 8, go figure?

5. When I'm getting ready for work in the morning I do everything in the exact same order everyday. If I do something out of order I'll forget something. I don't know why I'm like this, but I've been this way since high school. My hair stuff and make-up even the stuff I use in the shower gets put back in the same spot when I'm done using it everyday. That doesn't mean my bathroom counter is perfectly clean when I leave in the morning, it just means I set my hair straightener down in the same spot on the counter everyday and such. After writing this out I'm starting to think I'm a little weird...I have never thought of myself as having OCD tendencies, but I think I have a few. hmm...

6. Lets see one last fact, I love to crack up laughing, the kind of laughing that hurts your stomach and makes you cry. It's seriously one of the best feelings ever. I have certain people that when I'm with them this almost always happens, I love it!

Okay that's it, there are my 6 random facts. I'm going to tag everyone listed on my blog, I don't have very many of them yet, so all of you can do it! :)

It was a great day...

Time Out for Women and Girls was really great! There was awesome speakers and amazing music! The day just went by way too fast! I really hope they come again, I would go every chance I could! We left very early that morning to get a good spot in line so we could get a good seat, and what do you know, we were first in line! We had about an hour before they opened the doors so lucky for us Cassandra had Uno cards in her never-ending-bag-of-supplies! So we of course had to get a shot of us sitting there playing while we waited.

I didn't do very well with taking pictures but I did manage to remember to take my camera out once during the conference, so even though this shot makes me look huge it is the only one I have to show of us actually in the conference. This was during one of the 20 min. breaks, you can see the line of people behind us waiting to get autographs of the speakers and musical artists they had there. I didn't do the whole autograph thing, I'm not really into that, but I did get to give Hilary Weeks a hug! She is one of my all time favorites, so that was cool! Oh, we also had perfect seats! We were center stage third row back, and the only reason we were in the third row was because the first two were reserved for Time Out people. It was really cool!

Afterwards we went out to ice cream, and we had to take a picture because they were huge! But very yummy! All in all it was a great day, we had a lot of fun together!

That's all for now....

Time Out...

Tomorrow I'm going to Time Out for Women and Girls with my mother-in-law and my two sister-in-laws. It should be a really fun day! We went last year and I loved it! If any of you women out there have never been to a Time Out for Women you should try to go, it's really great! I'm going to try to remember to take my camera with me tomorrow so I can get some pictures, but I make no promises ;) Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Excited!

I'm so happy to have found so many of my cousins with blogs! I had been wanting to start a blog for a long time now, but didn't know anyone else who had one, so I'm glad I finally just did it. I knew there had to be other bloggers out there that I wanted to keep in better touch with. :) Now I just need to get my friends going...
Looking forward to staying in better touch with everyone!

The past two years....

It's crazy to me that we have been married for a year and a half now! So for those of you who we don't get to see very often, here are a few shots of the past couple of years and our family of two. I have loved this time with just Steven and I, and I am sure I'll have times when I'll miss it, but I am soooo looking forward to our family of three!
This was one of our engagement pictures taken almost exactly two years ago! (I just realized the date is still on the picture, oh well.)

Another engagement picture. Wasn't that orchard soooo beautiful! There is no color editing in this picture. Oh, and I have to add, our engagement pictures were taken by our lovely friend Ashley!

Our wedding day! It's still crazy to me that we have been married for 1.5 years! It really doesn't feel like this day was that long ago. This was taken on the top of the Oakland Temple, it was such a clear day you could see all the way to San Fran. behind us, that doesn't happen very often!

This is one from the reception with my girls. You can't tell from this picture, but the gym was decorated so beautiful! It was especially pretty when the main lights were off, so the only lighting was the white christmas lights and the lamp posts we had around the room.

This is one from our honeymoon, if I remember correctly this was the day after we got married when we were still in LA, I believe this was taken on Venice Beach.

Another honeymoon picture, we rented this little peddling cart thing to ride around the island with. It was a lot of fun, but our legs got a little tired at times when we were trying to go up some of the hills.

This was taken about 2 months after we got married. We were at the Oakland Temple, Steven was in one of his old missionary companions wedding.

This one is us at the beach in Oregon. We went in July of 2007 with my family on their annual trip to the Oregon coast. I believe this was at sunrise. This trip is always tons of fun!

And then finally, this was our 2007 Christmas card picture. Our first Christmas as a married couple, about a month after we moved into our house and about 2 weeks after we got Charlee. We had a lot going on at this time last year! I still can't believe this was taken almost a year ago!

So that's it, hopefully I didn't bore you with all of the pictures of just Steven and me. But it was fun for me to look back on the last couple of years and see how much has happened in such a short time!

p.s. if you click on the pictures you can see them in a larger view.

Baby bump

I have had a few requests for e-mailed pictures of my growing bump, so I decided to post the picture on here in hopes that it will get those people checking out my blog! My real hope is the more my family/friends check out my blog it will get them to want to start one of there own! hint hint... ;)

Anyway, so here I am, at the end of my 16th week. Sometimes when I look at myself I think I look "normal" for this stage of pregnancy, and then other times I feel like my belly looks bigger then it should be, and that scares me, as I'm still not quite half way yet. I want to keep my weight gain in the healthy range...guess I better not go over bored on my eating and make sure I get my evening walks in!

Slow start....

I realize that it's been about two weeks since I last posted, and in my last post I had said that I was going to post everyday or close to it. Obviously I haven't started out too well. But, my reasoning was because I really wanted to have some pictures to post the next time I wrote and I have been horrible out trying to take pictures! So I figured at least some of an update with our without pictures is better then none at all!
So, lets see, what's been going on? Mostly just enjoying the fall! I am loving this time of year when its not hot, but not freezing cold and a few rainy days thrown in every once in a while. But I know winter is going to be here before we know it.
This last Tueday for YW we went to the Pumpkin Farm, it had been a couple of years since I had been there, and going just made me that much more excited for this baby to come! I can't wait till Steven and I can take our kids there, I loved going there when I was a kid! So I have decided that we are going to carve pumpkins this year, which may seem kinda silly since we don't have kids yet, but I really want to and I want to have them to put on our front porch! :)
As far as baby news goes, I am 16 weeks and at this piont my due date is March 28th. We have the ultrasound scheduled for Oct. 29th, Im so excited! I can't wait to actually see the baby and find out whether or not we should be calling it a "he" or a "she"! I feel like my belly has grown a bunch lately, and I have to admit, I'm not feeling like the "cute" pregnant girl I was hoping to feel like, I just feel rather large. My dr. did say at my last appt. that I need to watch my weight, oops! :)
Well I can't think of anything more to write about at the moment, I don't even know if I have any readers yet, which makes me feel kinda funny, like I'm just telling all of this to "internet land" but hopefully I'll get some comments on here soon!

Happy Hump Day!

I am going to try to post everyday, or at least close to it. I want to also use this blog as a type of journal as to what our everyday life is like, so I can look back on it and remember the little things.
Today there is nothing too special going on, just work as usual. But, it is Wednesday, so that means Americas Next Top Model! I don't know why I love that show so much! But before that is dinner...if I could only think of what to make for dinner??

P.S. Not all my posts will be this boring...I'm just getting into the swing of things with this blogging business. And I really need to get used to taking my camera with me everywhere--that way I'll have pictures to post with most of my blogs.

New Beginings

I'm working on getting this blog going. I've been wanting to start it for some time now, for friends and family to see what's going on in our lives. And hopefully to get some of YOU guys starting your own blogs, I would love to know what's going on with all of you! But until then enjoy and leave me some comments!