Indoor Fun VS. Outdoor Fun!

This past week has been nothing but rainy, overcast and cold and it was a rough week trying to find things to entertain two kids besides movies.
This day I banned movies all day and just tried to get creative. I have these long white strips of paper and I remembered when I was in Kindergarten that we did our footprints and handprints in paint, so I decided to try it. I put paint on plates and the three of us dipped our hands in it and made our handprints with it and at first I was just going to do it for something fun but after we were done I thought it would be really neat to put in my hope chest with our names by our handprints. Now, the footprints were a little more difficult and definately more messy but the girls had a blast. I was cleaning up paint off the tile and I had to put them straight in the tub, but it was easy cleanup and it kept us busy where as we couldn't go outside. After we did this we decided to make sugar cookie cutters with sprinkles, fruitloop necklaces, and read stories. I am very much an outdoors person so for a week of trying to find projects, I was running out of ideas.

Finally, the sun broke through and we had a beautiful sunny day which was much needed. The girls and I could have stayed at this park all day because it was such a nice day. Now that the holidays are over I am ready for some nice weather. When is spring going to be here for good? The thing with that is that it stays spring for about 2-3 weeks and then it gets HOT, but at this point I will take anything but dark dreary days.

Anyways, with that being said...we had fun even though we couldn't go outside for most of the week but it looks like we are going to have another week of stormy weather so if any of you have any ideas let me know!

7th year Anniversary!

Rodger and I just had our 7th year anniversary, Where does the time go! I had no idea when I married this man how much my life would change and it has been all for the good.
We got married February 1st, 2003 in the St. George LDS Temple which was such a blessing. We moved in those 7 years about 10 times ( 2 different areas just different houses) We spent our first 2 1/2 years in Washington State to be closer to Rodger's family which was really good because I felt like I could get a chance to get to know them more and his family was great, I was so glad for that opportunity to be there and meet some really good friends. After we had our first daughter in January of 2005 I was really missing my home town of St. George Utah so we moved back. Rodger worked as a trainer at a gym for a little bit but had always wanted to start up a gym of his own, so that was going to be our next venture....but before we got that going we welcomed another sweet spirit into our home June of 2007 and our girls have been such a blessing. That year we got our location purchased and opened Anytime Fitness in February of 2008, two years later we now have 740 members and counting. The gym is doing so good but our partnership has not so it has been a long bumpy 2 year long road, but Rodger and I have learned so much and we realized that if we can make it through this then we can make it through anything....it has strengthened us so much individually and as a couple. I am truly blessed with an amazing husband and two beautiful, healthy little girls. I am excited to see what life brings us next. I love you Rodger!!!

Tayler's the "BIG 5"

I can't believe I have a 5 year old, that time buzzed by so fast it's crazy. For Tayler's birthday she wanted a princess party so for her cake I tried to make a princess cake and it turned out okay but nothing what I wanted it to. Anyways, Tayler started out the morning opening her present from Rodger and I before he had to leave for work. We got her a Karaoke Machine because she loves loves loves to sing, she would probably do really good in a musical because there are sometimes when I ask her something that she sings me back the answer. Right now she is mostly just singing songs without words or else her own words so she got some CD's that will teach her some songs to sing, she was so excited. Then that night we invited her friends to Jumpin Jacks inflatable bounce house for a party, pizza, cake, and ice cream. They had a lot of fun...it was interesting keeping track of all the kiddos but we survived. Naomi didn't want to go at first because she was scared but eventually warmed up and when she finally went down the slide I didn't have my camera. After we let the kids bounce out most of there energy we went upstairs where they had pizza delivered for us and then we did cake, ice cream and presents. It never fails when we get the candles lit and we start singing Happy Birthday that someone turns off the lights so the pictures I got of her with her cake are all blury...I just need to have my camera set on night vision so I am prepared next time. Tayler made a hit on Barbies, I think she got 5 and she was stoked, she also got the movie "Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs" that as you can see she was way excited about. I love this little girl, she is so good and I am so proud of the big girl that she has grown up to be.

Well, that pretty much sums it up. Now that we have Christmas and Tayler's birthday out of the

way, I feel like I can settle back down into day to day stuff.

Vegas/Phoenix Trip!

We arrived in Vegas Thursday night and picked up my friend Sara's friends from Idaho Falls from the airport. Rodger and I didn't know any of them but we got along with them very well. Friday we ate some breakfast and split up with the guys and us girls went shopping and to the "M" spa and got a massage and a facial which was much needed. We spent 5 hours there because they had a hot tub with showers and stuff to get ready. We had tickets to the Blue man group which was a good show but not a great show for $100, then we ate dinner. Saturday morning we rented Harley's and headed to Phoenix (5 hours away) to go see the Supercross, which was fun but I wouldn't recommend the distance in January. We stopped at Hoover Dam and got to see the new bridge they are in the process of building which was really cool to see. We got there an hour late but we still got to see most of it. I love watching that kind of stuff as long as it's not Nascar, by the time that Supercross was over and we got some dinner it was 12:30 and our friends flight left the next day at 5:15 so we just went to bed and had to get up at 6 a.m and hit the road again and we were so TIRED!!! When we made it back to our hotel the girls jumped in the hot tub while the guys took the bikes back. It was so nice ( as much as I love my girls) having a vacation without them, and we had so much fun....Now back to the grind!!

Christmas 2009

I can't believe Christmas has already come and gone...we had a blast and now it is time to get geared up and ready for the new year.

Christmas Eve was really low key we spent most of the day just relaxing because we already had Santa's cookies made and the presents were all wrapped and from staying up until 5:30 a.m making sure everything was going to work so we didn't have to worry about it Christmas Eve, we were pretty exhausted....well Rodger and I were. Tayler and Naomi were both bouncing beans all day long full of excitment for Santa to come. We went to our friends house and went hot tubbing and had pizza and then we came home and opened up Christmas Jammies and was going to look at Christmas lights but Tayler wanted to get to bed so Santa could come which worked out really good because we were able to get Christmas all set up before mid-night.Tayler's teacher from school gave her a magic Santa key that had a poem attached to it saying "No Chimney, No Problem" it was his magic key that we hung on the outside of our door so santa could get in and then we had reindeer dust which was gold glitter that you put in the palm of your hand and threw it in the air so the reindeer would know they haven't been to our house yet, Tayler thought it was the greatest thing. I LOVE CHRISTMAS....I could not sleep that night because I was so excited for the girls to see what Santa had brought them. Tayler has been needing a new bike because she already out grew her little one so we were going to fix up Tayler's old bike for Naomi by repainting it and getting new decals for it, new tires and then when I got to the store and started pricing things out it would have costed around $45 and a brand new bike was $38 so we skipped fixing up the old one and got the girls each a bike with some shelves and bins for all there toys. They were so EXCITED! After we had our Christmas we went to my mom's house to have Christmas with her and we took the girls bikes so they could ride them around and not 5 minutes later Naomi wrecked and landed flat on her face and got a fat lip, we felt so bad, but she is tough. After this we had a third Christmas with my Dad and his wife....our girls got so spoiled and by the end of the day we were all exhausted. We had a great Christmas and are excited to see what the new year will bring.

Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Update!!!

Now that Christmas is about here, I felt like I should finally update my blog since it has been awhile. Thanksgiving was great this year...all my family went to Arizona this year and Rodger and I couldn't go because Costco wouldn't let me get work off so it ended up being just my little family, we had a blast!!! One of the members of our gym has a condo in Brian Head Resort and offered it to us so as soon as I got off work the night before Thanksgiving we drove an hour and spent the night there. Our room had a great view of the snow and the mountains and it was so pretty. We woke up and made breakfast and played in the snow, and then there was an indoor pool and jacuzzi hot tub that we played in for about an hour. Then we went back out and played in the snow once we dried off and we found a hill for Rodger to snowboard and I was his shuttle. I was going to go but the snow wasn't the greatest and I hadn't been snowboarding in 3 years so I was a little nervous to do it, but Rodger had fun and the girls and I video taped it and watch him crash a couple of times. Then we thought we would go back and make out Thanksgiving dinner which consisted of Ribs, potatoes with gravy and corn, but instead of doing that we thought we would just go make the mess at our house instead so we cleaned up the room and drove home and made our dinner about 6 p.m. It was definately a different Thanksgiving and it would have been nice to see family but we had a lot of fun. My camera died so the only pictures I got from it are on my new phone and I haven't figured out how to get the pictures off of it yet.

Recently I have quit my job at Costco which has been such a blessing. Rodger and I got to the point that we were always working and our girls didn't get to see us all together, it was either time with me..switch...then to the sitter...switch...then time with there Dad and so on and so on...I couldn't take it anymore, it was really hard to watch our kids cry when we left and have them constantly saying they don't want me to work anymore. So, Rodger and I decided that Costco was out of the picture...I have only been done there for three days and I couldn't feel better about our decision, and I love being a mom...it is my calling in life, and I'm done leaving it to someone else. Anyways, what better time to quit then right before Christmas. I am so excited this year and Tayler is stoked.

We went and saw santa the other day and Naomi loved him which was surprising because as you can see the year before she was scared to death of him. I love CHRISTMAS!!!

Halloween!

This was the day before Halloween...Rodger and I have been so busy this week that we didn't even get to carve our pumpkins until Friday. We didn't have any special kits so we just carved some faces out. Tayler took hers to Preschool on Tuesday and they decorated theirs with stickers and pins. This night was one of the first nights in a long time that just the four of us got together. I made Chinese for dinner and we went and bought a pumpkin cheescake. Yum! Yum! The girls had a blast.

Naomi was so proud of her pumpkin...She wanted to bring it to bed with her. Every time I put it outside she would go out there and bring it back into the house.

Here are our fairy princesses...Tayler had the purple one to begin with but Naomi loved it and it actually fit her better so I went to Big Lots and found Tayler's for $9, all the costumes were 30% off. I waited until Wednesday to buy costumes because I knew they would want to wear them everyday and I didn't want them to get ruined.

This is our wards Trunk-or-Treat....Rodger and I are on the activities commity so we were in charge of getting all the hot dogs, buns, etc. All my decorations fell down by the time I got this picture. Tayler loved being the one to sit up there and pass out the candy, she is such a good little helper. I can't believe Halloween has already come and gone....I love the holiday's seeing how excited my girls get about everything. After here we went Trick-or-Treating in Hurricane down this really neat neighborhood, they went all out on the scary stuff and decorations. Both my girls are scared of everything so they didn't go to quite a few of the houses but they still had fun.

Car Accident

I didn't get a good picture of the damage on my car as it was being towed away, from this picture nothing even looks wrong with my car, but I was in an accident on Tuesday the 13th that was not my fault. I had just taken a right at a light and was going straight and my left lane was stopped but the light ahead was green so I was just going through as I should be when this car darted out in front of me leaving me no time to do anything but hit my brakes. The left lane was signaling this kid to take a left not knowing what my lane was doing and I hit him putting a hole in my fender, the grill thing on the front broken, a dent on the passanger side, my head light was completely popped out, damage to the hood, and of course plenty of scratches. His car however you could not even tell it was hit...he was driving a 96 ford mustang, it was a young kid and as soon as he got out of the car he started to fan his face and started to cry. I had both my girls in the car and they didn't even know what happened and didn't understand why I was stopped so long. I felt fine when I left the accident and my car drove fine, but as soon as I got home I got dizzy and nauseous and my neck and back were hurting...I went to the Chiropractor and it wasn't anything serious which I didn't think it was because it wasn't a severe accident. The next morning my car wouldn't start so they had to tow it away...I had my phone on me and took this picture but I didn't take any of the car when I got home... Accidents happen and nobody was hurt thank goodness, but they are not fun!!!

Tayler Earned It!!!

Tayler saw this Ariel barbie doll in the store about a month and a half ago and wanted it so bad....she has this long laundry list of toys that she has to have. I told her if she saved her money that she could come back and buy it, so we went home and made her a chart for chores....She had to clean her room and make her bed everyday and on the 5th day she got a dollar and then we made a quarter, nickle, dime, and penny chart with bonus spots of 50 cents so when I asked her to do something for me or help me out with something she got to put the coin or coins in her piggy bank. Tayler has worked really hard for six weeks and saved enough money for her doll. We get to the store and of course she wants everything in sight and has $10.64 to work with so when she saw this repunzel doll she decided that that is what she wanted and it was $10, so we took it up to the counter and she pulled out her little purse and it came to $10.63 so she had just enough money with a penny to spare....I was so proud of her, she has worked really hard and it paid off and there is something about seeing your kid so happy that makes your day!!!

Photography Giveaway!

Photography a la Mode is doing a Fall Giveaway and you need to ENTER by the 30th of September so any of you who are interested better be quick because you are running out of time...Go to www.photographyalamode.blogspot.com