Sweet Nothings

Ok, peeps! I'm going to try to get this blog post done before it's time to make dinner - that's in T minus 50 minutes. Then maybe I can stop feeling bad for promising to keep up with this blog and then living too boring a life to actually do it.

Nothing new and exciting has been happening lately but I scrolled through my pictures and found some fun, inconsequential things to share with you all.

So, here it goes!

Maddie and I watched "Grease" last week. Ok, so we watched the first 15 minutes of "Grease," right up until the Pink Ladies had a slumber party and sang a song making fun of Sandra Dee while she was in the bathroom puking after Frenchie tried to pierce her ear (P.S. this movie is awesome!!). After said 15 minutes, Maddie got a little restless as she is probably not quite old enough to appreciate the story line just yet so we went into the bathroom and turned her into our very own little Sandra Dee. She looked super cute all day long, even if her shirt is clearly modeled after Warhol's "Campbell's Soup" piece which came about in the late 1960s while "Grease" was set in the late 1950s (Fun facts!). And on a side note, I learned that Ben has never seen the movie "Grease." I can add that to the list of classics he never experienced such as "I Love Lucy," "Mr. Ed," "Get Smart"...I'm sure the list goes on and on!!! He has seen parts of "E.T." and "The Wizard of Oz" so I guess we can stay married for a little longer! Here's our sweet little Sandra Dee:

I am working nights now (no, I have not lost my marbles). I actually work for two different companies that do the exact same thing - non medical senior care. Right now I work with two different women who are in nursing homes but need around the clock care. Basically, I sit and chat with them, provide companionship, keep them comfortable, and eventually watch them sleep. So far it has worked out because I am definitely a night person so it is very easy for me to stay up all night long even if I'm just sitting in a dark, silent room (usually I take a couple books, my phone, and my journal to keep me busy). Also, I get home in the morning, get the kids off to school, and then have a quiet house to sleep in for a few hours. What I would like to eventually do, when the kids are older and Maddie can babysit and drive them to and from school, is get my CNA license or medical assisting degree so I can go work in a nursing home and get paid a bit more (who am I kidding? I'd probably get paid a lot more!). The reason I want to wait until the kids are older is because I know that the nursing home schedules are less flexible. Right now, I can work as much or as little as I want and if it can be worked out with the other employees, I can easily get the hours that I need to be home with my babies whenever they are home and awake. Anyway! Here is a pic I took of the sunrise on my way home from work the other day. Believe it or not it is more enjoyable for  me to see the sunrise by staying up all night then by getting up early so this is something I rarely have seen in my life!

Last weekend was General Conference. I know some people like to have big breakfasts and get all sorts of activity books together for their kids but...I'm just not that cool so we got donuts before the Saturday morning session and then between sessions that afternoon we packed up a picnic lunch and headed to the park. We ran into some friends from church there and, after having a little chat, took our lunch down by the Little Duck River to eat. Of course, it is impossible for Bubba and water to coexist without there being some rock throwing involved so we hung out on the banks for a bit and let the kids throw rocks.

PRACTICING HER SKIPPING SKILLS

SEARCHING FOR THE PERFECT ROCK

THERE WERE NO BIG ROCKS ON  THE SHORE SO BUBBA DECIDED TO BRAVE THE DEEPER WATER

BEN...JUST BECAUSE HE'S SO HANDSOME

 This week I learned that despite the arguments that sometimes arise over absolutely ridiculous things, Maddie and Bubba really do love each other. Their relationship reminds me of my own relationship with my brothers and we were all definitely the best of friends growing up! This picture, and the implication that comes from it - that these two will be best friends - makes my heart so happy!!

FRIENDS FOREVER

Here they are in another loving moment which are beginning to outnumber the not so loving moments!

Hayes has been making amazing (!) strides with his speech since he began preschool! I am typically right there next to him ready to interpret any conversation that he has with someone but the last month or so I haven't had to translate at all. Every one can understand him!!! He has really slowed down and is pronouncing almost all of his consonants now! I think the one constant exception is "L" which he always replaces with a "W" (I believe that is still a normal substitution for his age though). I'm so excited for him!!!!! He has also learned to write his name and is obsessed with the letter "H" - he writes it on everything! Here is an example of his name writing skills....Hayes, not Hores!

And, I'm all out of time! The only thing I had left was pics of our other babies (the animals) but I won't bore you with those today because I am starving to death!!

Love you all! XOXO

I'm not even interesting enough to think of a clever heading for this post so pretend like you just read the most perfect introductory title, then smile, and read on...

Sorry, ya'll; we are super boring over here! I keep thinking, "I have got to update our blog!" And then I even go a step further sometimes and try to think about what I could possibly have to say that would keep anyone's interest. Obviously, as is evident from my lack of a post in the last week, I have yet to think of something worthwhile. But, I do not want to drop the blog ball (again), so I am posting a couple little highlights (at least they are interesting to me) of our week. I figure something will keep your attention better than nothing so...here we go!

Our little Miss Abigail hit 55 lbs this week. I am just now starting to feel like, "Wow! This dog is big." As in, a little bit bigger than I'm used to/comfortable with. She is now the size of a full grown, female lab so I forget that she is only four months old! I have been working with her the past couple of weeks on a couple simple commands (sit and down) and she has finally learned them both. Give her a bite of anything edible or a belly rub and she will do anything!! She has learned so well that I don't even have to give the command; I just stand with my hands behind my back and she runs over to me, sits, lays down, and then rolls over onto her back to wait for her reward (the belly rub). She is such a sweet, funny girl.

There is a formula for figuring out how big a Bullmastiff will be when full grown. At six months of age they are sixty percent of their adult weight. So, by taking Abby's average weight gain per week and adding that to her current weight each week until October 28th and then figuring that that is 60 percent of her full grown weight...take one wild guess who did all the math on this one...we figure that she will be somewhere between 115 and 120 lbs full grown...I'm not sure yet how I feel about that! I guess we'll find out!

One of my favorite things is to find Bubba's selfies on my phone. This kid is a little egocentric (as all kids are) so he loves to take 300 pictures (literally) of himself at a time. Then I have the awesome task of deleting them all. Of course, there are some that are just way too cute to get rid of. Here is a sampling:

And finally, the last highlight comes courtesy of Ben. Those who know Ben well, know that he is quiet (unless you get him going about sports) and that you will never, ever hear him crack a joke. But, after 10 years of marriage he does still surprise me. I texted him today with a usual hint of sarcasm and, much to my enjoyment got a pretty sarcastic response. I love that after 10 years I am still discovering new facets of our relationship; this time, I discovered that Ben can make me laugh out loud. Here's how the exchange went:

Ok, maybe it's not side splitting hilarious. But, for Ben, this response is about as hilarious as it gets. And this little gem made my day so, to me, it was perfect.

That's all from the Friends! Hope you are all having a great (and much more exciting) week! xoxo

NEW DO'S

Mr. Hayes and I were feeling the need for a change; this Tennessee humidity does not agree with our hair. Here we are showing off our new do's.

Ok, that's a joke.

Here we are, really...

He looks like his daddy.

My silly boy.

Our gifts from God

STUDMUFFIN

CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF MADDIE CAKES

LOVE ME SOME BUBBA

SURPRISE!

I see that some of you diligent followers still check this blog for updates even though there has been nothing new in almost three years. THAT is dedication, and loyalty, and every other characteristic that great friends posses! There are a couple of reasons that I stopped blogging. 1. I was extremely busy with school and kids and...life! and I often got behind on posting so by the time I did post I had 6 months worth of stories and pics to put up which always took a good couple of hours. But, like I said, I was busy!! 2. I sort of lost interest in the whole blogging concept and I guess I thought that because I didn't care anymore, no one else really cared either (I'm not narcissistic, I swear). But, I see now that blogging is still the thing to do and since I am no longer in school I have a bit more free time. So, let's try this again, shall we?!

 As mentioned, it has been nearly three years since my last post. I will not take the next couple of hours to bring you up to speed on stories and pics from the last three years but, instead, will just plop you down in our life as it is now and go from there.

We are living in Manchester, Tennessee (and loving it!!!). We've been here since June 7th and have already made a few friends and settled right in. Because we are back in the south and so close to Alabama, Ben feels like he's back home. And because Tennessee is so green and woodsy, it reminds me of Oregon so I also feel like I'm back home. And doesn't it always feel great to be home?!






Ben graduated with his degree in civil engineering in May and was hired very quickly after by the Tennessee DOT where he does lots of project management work overseeing road and bridge projects. He really enjoys the guys he works with and is feeling super comfortable in his office's laid back atmosphere. He has been fishing once since we moved here (a drastic! change from Utah), but I know he is itching to go more!


 







I am not in school anymore and not taking care of kids all day because Bubba started preschool; the first day that I was home by myself I had a small identity crisis but...I got over that pretty quickly and now spend my mornings reading, playing the piano, working on stuff for my church callings, and various chores and projects. My main calling in church is writing the ward blog which is uh-mazing! And I also work part time doing non-medical, in home senior care which is also uh-mazing because I get to go hang out with elderly people which I love!









Madeline started third grade and has adjusted so incredibly well to her new school. She is bouncing out of bed at 6:30 every morning; today, she made her and Bubba's lunches before I even got up! She keeps her room spotless and makes her bed every morning (I don't even know the last time I made my bed). She is doing very well in her academics and has two little friends whom she does everything with! She has recently gained a fashion sense and loves to mix and match all sorts of colors and prints and jewelry and bows. It's so fun to see her grow and mature. She's going to be an amazing woman someday!!!

Our little Hayes isn't so little these days. He is still quite active but learning to follow rules better which is saving my sanity a bit. He absolutely loves school, loves people, loves books, loves to laugh and make others laugh, loves dogs, loves to cuddle at bedtime, loves chocolate, and loves to dress up in ties and penny loafers whenever he can. The last time I posted, Bubba wasn't talking yet but we found once he did start talking that he has a speech delay. At first, he omitted all consonant sounds which was ok when he was only saying one word at a time but as he started putting sentences together it became a problem. He has been in speech therapy for the last year and has made great improvements! He is not caught up with the other kids his age but is more understandable by strangers than ever before. He is still in the speech program through his preschool and we are hoping that he will be ready for kindergarten next year!







 For those of you who love animals like we do, I'll give you an update on the pets too. And if you don't love animals then...you have no heart...Kidding! But you will either have to suffer through or skip over this part.

Beau is our oldest. He is a pug and will turn three this month. He is very, very cuddly with his mama (that's me), loves to greet people by jumping up on them so they can reach is head to scratch it without having to bend down (he's thoughtful like that), is a grumpy Gus in the mornings and usually stays in bed long after everyone else in the house has gotten up, and is happiest when he runs away from home to explore the surrounding neighborhoods. He's playful, and naughty, and funny, and loud because he is always struggling to breathe (it's a pug thing).

Johnny is our feline grandson (Maddie's son). He just turned one in July and is the quietest member of the family. He has been declawed but has honed his hunting instincts since we moved here by catching, playing with, and then eating flies, moths, spiders, and beetles all night long. He is also very cuddly...when he wants to be and although he loves Beau, he is slightly less fond of Abby. 

Which brings us to the last member of the pack, little miss Abigail. We adopted Abby during our move. And when I say during, I mean during! We drove from Utah to Arkansas and then stayed there for a few days before heading to Tennesee for good. While in Arkansas we met Abby who we just could not pass up. She was so incredibly sweet!!! She was 5 1/2 weeks old and weighed 9 lbs back at the begining of June and now, at 4 months old, she weighs 48 lbs. She is a big, floppy eared, gangly, awkward Bullmastiff puppy and is still just as sweet as the day we met her. She loves, loves to be outside but with the cooler time of year around the corner we are working on potty training so she can be in the house more often.









 That's about it for this update. Stay tuned for more!! XOXO

SUMMER 2010

Wow! Look at me! I’m blogging! Truth be told, I’ve been INCREDIBLY bored all weekend! My house is clean (or clean enough anyway), I have very little homework to get done (and very little motivation to do it), and there is next to nothing on tv so…here I am. Blogging. Yay! Looks like I have quite a bit of time to catch up on (as usual) so I’ll just dive right in! Maddie finished up her softball season in June and to her extreme delight she earned a medal. Here she is at her last game posing in all her softball glory and showing off her hard earned medal.









Our little Bubba had a pretty rough August! He was sick 3 different times that month! Mostly, he just had fevers and mild colds. There was one night that we were up together until about 1:30 in the morning. He always sleeps about 12 hours at night so he slept in until 1:30 the next afternoon. I really missed my little buddy, but I let him sleep as much as he wanted and when he finally did wake up he was very happy!



All that sickness made me a little nervous for this winter! At his one year check up his doctor commented on how easy his first winter was in comparison to our expectation for his first flu season but, he said, the immunities that he had built up from the pregnancy and from being around us, are going to wear off at this point so he will be left with only his own immune system to rely on. With that in mind, August got me really worried for him but, luckily, he has been perfectly healthy every since! Here’s hoping for a uneventful winter!

Here are a few other random pictures of our little family this summer.























































































Our little Maddie cakes started kindergarten (tear) this August but her school offered a summer school program for new students. The goal was to get the new students acclimated to the curriculum and introduced to the school. Since Maddie is so painfully shy and nervous in new situations we figured it would be helpful to her to get to know her new classroom and a few of her fellow students during the summer when there were few other people around. We hoped that this would help her feel more comfortable for the start of the school year and it seems to have worked. By the second day of the regular school year she was begging me not to walk her into her classroom. Here are a few pictures of her on her first day of summer school. She’s dramatically posing, as usual.











The first grading period of the school year just ended for Maddie so she is enjoying a few days off. She just told me today, though, that she is excited to get back to school tomorrow. She is loving kindergarten and is learning SO much! WAY more than I learned in kindergarten! She’s been in school for 6 weeks now and she is already reading on her own! And to Ben’s delight (my chagrin) her favorite subject is math. She opens her homework folder everyday whispering, “Please be math, please be math…” Here are a few pictures of her on her first day of the school year.













Also this summer was Bubba’s first haircut (or, first two haircuts). The first one was a little hard for me so I had her cut off VERY little. In fact, when I told her how much I wanted off she replied, “Ok. I’ll PRETEND to cut your son’s hair.” Luckily, she’s my friend so it was a funny comment but she was right. Just a week or so later his hair was once again very long! We had a few questioning looks and a couple inquiries about his gender before I finally decided that it would be ok to chop off more than a centimeter. Luckily, his little curls survived the cut and now it is once again a constantly crazy mess! Here are a few pictures of his first hair cut…or pretend hair cut.







August is a pretty big month for us since both kid’s birthdays fall in the third week (Maddie on the 19th and Hayes on the 21st). This year we had three celebrations. One for Maddie on her birthday, one for Hayes on his birthday, and one in September when we could get some extra family over and extra money saved up for presents!

I can’t believe Maddie turned 6 this year! She is growing to be such a sweet, smart, cute(!), dramatic(!) little girl. She loves her brother and he absolutely adores her! We have found that she’s not a big fan of dogs (although we have two), she loves to write in her journal, and she rides her bike as much as she can (now without training wheels). Here are some pictures of Maddie’s 6th birthday!






























Even more shocking to me is that our little Hayes is already 1! The last year has flown by but we can’t imagine life without our crazy little bubs. Hayes is all boy! He loves to run (or stumble around quickly), climb, yell, and throw everything! He has absolutely no stranger or separation anxiety and spends his days running circles through the house, often changing his course before he reaches his destination because he thinks of something else to get into before he can fulfill his original thought. He is mostly in a diaper because all that running around makes for one sweaty boy! For the past couple months I’ve been working with him on learning some sign language and so far he can sign “eat”, “drink”, “milk”, “night, night”, “please”, “more”, “all done”, and “banana”. It’s so fun to be able to communicate with him! Here are some pictures from Bubba’s 1st birthday last month.



















































And here are the pictures from their joint birthday party a few weeks later.






















Another fun thing we did this summer was paint our apartment! We asked the apartment manager and she said that as long as we paint it back to white before we leave there would be no problem with us painting. We plan on being in this apartment for the next three years so I figured that was worth it. I did most of the painting myself but Ben did pitch in and help in the end since he saw that I was going to be up all night. In the end, we were both up all night! We finally headed to be around 4 am (after about 16 hours of painting) but we were glad to get it all done in 1 shot! We painted most of the living room a beige color. The smallest wall in the living room we painted a dark red, and the kitchen is painted dark brown. We love it! It makes it feel a bit more cozy in here, and definitely makes our apartment our own.









Okay, that’s all the pics for this update but I’ll end with a little word about what Ben and I have been up to. School! Of course, fall semester is upon us again so Ben and I are busy, busy, busy with classes. Ben is really enjoying this semester. He usually has one class that really stresses him out but it seems that he escaped that this semester. He says he has less homework but I haven’t noticed any less studying than any other semester. My classes are also going well. Taking three classes with two kids isn’t as crazy as I thought it would be and it has encouraged me to consider taking a full load next fall when Maddie starts going to school all day instead of half the day. That way I could graduate a semester earlier than planned. Wouldn’t that be nice?!?

Other than school, life is pretty mundane and routine around here. We are excited for the upcoming holidays (Maddie is planning on being a ballerina for Halloween)! So…that’s all for today. Talk to you in about 3 months or so (I’ve obviously given up all hope of regularly keeping up with this blog)!