Watashi no Uchi Desu

Long Overdue

2012-01-25T23:32:00.003-05:00

I know it's been a while since I've posted, but we've been a busy bunch around here lately. I have some pictures to post of the boys having bubble time and some other stuff, but that will have to wait until I have the time to edit and post. So, for our first update, we are officially part of the Elwood Branch again and will be moving back to the Frankton area in the next couple of months. I am so not looking forward to the packing and unpacking again. I am so ready to be settled for a LONG time! I think we've moved about on average of once a year for too long and it is really getting old.

For the last few months we have been taking Andy to some specialists about some behavioral issues he's been having that have increased over the last year/year and a half and we got our first diagnosis today of ADHD. He starts his first medication tomorrow morning, Focalin XR. I'm really hoping the first time's the charm and that we don't have to be experimenting with meds too much. I've been a nervous wreck all evening about it and then did the horrible thing of reading a blog that was all about the bad side affects of this drug only. Yep, had to stop that after a couple of posts because it was making my anxiety of this a lot worse. I think he's a bit nervous too because he's had a hard time sleeping tonight. Along with the ADHD, he's been having some stomach issues and with Jared's Crohn's, we wanted to make sure that Andy wasn't having signs of this. The doctor had him get a stomach xray just to make sure there wasn't anything backing up to cause the pain and discomfort he's been feeling the last couple of months.

We received a phone call about an hour after the xray to say it came back okay and clear, so now we move forward on an IBS medication. I know this sounds bad, but I really wish there had been a back up of the bowels and gas causing it because this was the path that Jared started before we were married and I'd hate to see Andy go through all the same things that he's gone through over the last 8 years. He starts a medication for that tomorrow as well, so it's going to be a long few weeks of getting adjusted to new medications for him. I love him so much and I hate to see him go through these things. I know that through our faith he'll be comforted and healed.

On to Rhys, we have moved him over to a toddler bed because we just couldn't contain him in his crib anymore and I didn't want to have him break his neck or anything. This has been quite an adjustment with lots of missed and uncomfortable sleep for everyone. Here it is 11:30 and he's still awake and fighting it. Once he's asleep though, he will stay asleep throughout the night. He's starting to really take off on his speech and motor skills. He says quite a bit now and for the most part can tell you when he's hungry, thirsty, or wanting to play. The boys bought me a nice warm blanket for Christmas, just a fleece throw and Rhys has adopted this as his "blankie" and doesn't want to sleep with anything else. As long as he's happy that's all that matters. He is seriously the biggest ham that I've ever seen and he knows it. Him and Andy are such good pals and they play together all of the time. Andy and him love to do 'Ring Around the Rosie' and do it about every day a few times a day. They usually get Jared or I or both of us to participate too. We've been having a lot of dance parties lately too, thanks to Pandora being on our Blue Ray player we got for Christmas. It's been fun.

Jared is doing well in school and I am just busy doing school and keeping up with these boys. Life is never dull in this house. I will try to post pictures soon of things.

18 Months...First Day of Nursery

2012-01-04T23:20:00.000-05:00

This last Sunday was Rhys' first time to visit the nursery. He wouldn't turn 18 months officially until the next day, but they let him come and visit. To start our morning, he had his first doughnut with icing on it. If he didn't like doughnuts before, he does now. What a difference a little chocolate can make, huh? He kept yelling for another "doughney" after he finished this one. It was definitely time for a bath at that point though.

After his bath, I tried to get a decent picture of him and Andy together in their matching sweaters that Jammy and Pappy bought them, but it was a no go. I barely got pictures! Rhys was ready to leave and go bye bye out the door, but I wanted pictures so he kept throwing a fit and throwing himself against the wall, the door, and the floor. This was the best picture that I could get of him.

I wrestled him to get his coat on while Andy was brushing his teeth not even thinking about the fact that I needed a picture of them both in their sweaters, but I went ahead and took the picture anyway, sorry Jammy, I'll take another one soon, I promise! They are such best of friends! Andy got a dinosaur tent for Christmas from Jammy and Pappy and him and Rhys have been playing in that thing all week! They play together all of the time and are inseparable. Here's a little bit about what Rhys is doing now.

Rhys is our handful child, even more than what Andy ever was or is. He is a climber, he will climb his crib, bookshelves, anything that looks like a ladder, chairs, well, pretty much anything! He gets into the fireplace a lot and gets in the ashes and the charcoal. He makes a royal mess when he does that. His favorite toys are blocks, Mickey Mouse and his rocket ship, a roaring flashlight, and his new puppy he got at Build a Bear with his Christmas money. He is like a little parrot because he will mimic everything we say. Today he even repeated broccoli and kookaburra. He says about everything and never stops talking. What happens when he starts actually making sense of what he's saying? I'll be in so much trouble between him and Andy! Those two boys know how to talk! I wonder where they got that from? hmmm...He loves to do anything big brother is doing, which is frustrating at times for Andy, but he's been a real trooper and great helper with Rhys.

A lot of times at night when we put them to bed, we can hear them jabbering back and forth with each other and laughing and giggling. Andy can always make Rhys laugh, no matter what. Rhys is very ticklish and is a picky eater. He doesn't like pasta, chicken (certain types), or rice. But, his favorite foods are bananas, crackers, cookies, applesauce, yogurt, pizza, and "doughnies" just to name a few. He's a ham and will dance on cue if there's music, it doesn't matter what kind. If we bring the camera out, he'll do it even more. A lot of his dancing consists of bootie shaking, bouncing his head, and spinning around, but this week he's started to move his arms too. It's hard to believe that he's this old now, it's gone fast, a lot faster than it did with Andy.

My Little Lego Man

2012-01-02T18:51:00.003-05:00

Andy and his creation! Didn't he do great?!

Merry Christmas!!

2011-12-27T02:28:00.002-05:00

Our festivities started out on Christmas Eve as usual at Nana and Grandpa's house. The boys got to play with Marley and Ronin and have lots of fun. We couldn't make it to the Anderson side this year and we greatly missed them.

What a beautiful couple! We love Mamaw and Papaw! Here we are about to eat our traditional taco soup and cheese bread (one meal I look forward too ALL year!).

We were even treated by a visit from Ariel!! What a great surprise! (if you can't tell, that's really Marley under there!)

We ended our night with the tradition of opening our Christmas pajamas. The boys love their pajamas.

Santa visited!! He knew just what the boys wanted too, they were very happy!

This was not planned! Rhys went up and randomly hugged Andy and I actually caught it on tape. One of these days when they're at each other's throats, I will pull this sucker out and remind them that they really do love each other!

Andy trying out his new spy night vision goggles. He loved them.

Rhys and his puppy guitar, which he's barely even separated from since!

Santa visited Jammy and Pappy's house too!! (my parents)

The only other thing other than his guitar he's inseparable from; his wagon.

Isn't that just the cutest hat?! Why all the Mickey stuff? Well, Rhys absolutely LOVES Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, so he got a MMC Rocket Ship from Nana and Grandpa, a MMC in Space book, shirt, and socks from Santa at our house, and this hat and a singing plush Mickey at Jammy and Pappy's.

Andy now has a gun to go with his Halloween costume!! Pray that my tv stays in one piece!

After Jammy and Pappy's, oh wait, did I mention we went to church after our morning at home and then to the Heaths? I guess not. Well, we did. But, back to what I was saying, after Jammy and Pappy's, we went to Mom Mom's house (my grandma).

She is probably one of the most beautiful women on this earth and she'll fight you on that one. Try to complement her and she'll fight back with a comment about grey hair and wrinkles or something to that effect. I just hope one of these days I'm at least half of the woman she is!

The boys were all excited to see each other and had fun running around the house acting silly and playing spies. I guess being a spy is a big deal this year.

It wouldn't be Christmas without some honkey tonk/bluegrass/big band music to dance to. Each year we put this on and get to see our grandmother dance around the kitchen. She could dance circles around all of us!

We finally got the boys to settle down a bit by turning on a show. Whew, they wear us all out!

We ended the night with matching pajamas at Jammy and Pappy's house.

Merry Christmas and to all a good night!

Ward Christmas Party

2011-12-10T00:39:00.001-05:00

This was probably one of the most beautifully decorated Christmas parties that I've ever attended. This photo doesn't do enough justice for how beautiful it was!

The party was a Polar Express theme and it was amazing how much detail was put into it.

I fell in love with these lanterns and totally forgot to ask where they got them!

They boys had a lot of fun too!

Yep, Santa was there too, and from the looks of this picture, no one in it knows what was going on except for Rhys because just after this picture he had a meltdown because he was so scared of Santa!! Poor kid! You can tell in his eyes he wasn't too sure of everything. I think this picture is by far one of the funniest Christmas photos I've ever seen with a Santa!

Art Appreciate Day

2011-12-10T00:31:00.001-05:00

This is what we did the other day instead of school time. Andy and I decided to take a couple of vacation days since our Christmas break won't be as long. We did Art Appreciation Day. They boys had fun! I'll try to scan in some of the art work when I get a chance. They did a great job!

Kindergarten Picture

2011-12-07T07:16:00.001-05:00

I have put this off way too long! This was Andy's kindergarten picture from Eastside this year! Don't you just LOVE his smile in this one! haha!

Just If You're Curious

2011-12-01T01:00:00.001-05:00

Here's the link to where I'm logging in my training for the events I want to do next year. I have three up now and I'm on my third week of working out. It's going great! I'm only going to post this once because I don't want to make a huge deal of this, but here ya go:

Make Your Own Journey: Mile by Mile

Good Morning!!

2011-11-29T08:50:00.000-05:00

How did your morning start out, mine...like this:

Yep, he's stuck in the bucket!

Yep, he's pulled out and dumped out a bunch of stuff from the hall closet, this got a lot worse than this just after these two pictures were taken!

Little Booger

2011-11-25T22:40:00.000-05:00

I thought that I'd post a bit early for Rhys this time since I was way late. Well, first of all, this will mark his 17th month, which means in a month he will be going to Nursery at our church, yay for me!! I will finally be able to go back to my own classes!! It's probably been a good 6 months since I've been able to make it Sunday School or Relief Society, the only problem is that I'm going to have to train myself to sit still for 2 hours! He gets into EVERYTHING! He now climbs up onto the couch, footstool, into the toy box, up any toy or surface that looks doable, no matter the consequences. He likes to act silly and make lots of messes, hence the pics posted. He is talking like crazy and repeats just about everything we say. We figured out that when he's made, he's not yelling for Andy, that he's actually saying "want it" or some kind of version of that. He has quite an attitude and has really been showing it off. He will throw fits in his bed, which is the safest place to put him when he starts, and will bang on the walls, kick the walls, bang his head on the crib, roll around, and jump up and down. This usually correlates with nap time or being tired. We're hoping that once his molars all come in the rest of the way he'll settle down a bit. He's a handful, but he's OUR little booger!

'Tis the Season

2011-11-25T22:31:00.000-05:00

The Number Three

2011-11-15T12:53:00.000-05:00

No, this post has nothing to do with another kid on the way, I'll just put that out there right away! I am posting some thoughts out loud today with the hopes that I'll have it in cyberspace forever and possibly will stay on track with this idea to make it happen. I was looking online last night out of curiosity about couch to triathlon programs just to see what they are like. As most of you know, a couple of years ago I tried the couch to 5k program for like a week and that was that, so I wanted to see what else was out there with some of the sports that I love to do (biking, swimming, and used to be running and one day will be again). I found a free plan that is 22 weeks long, or 154 days and it looks amazing. The first day of workout on the plan for week one is 100 yards of swimming: 50 for warm up, 50 for cool down, that's it. Then the next day is like 20 minutes walking, and then the next day is 2 miles on the bike. So, I know as far as the biking, I am past the 2 mile part, but it is nice to think about, and then I am definitely past only 20 minutes of walking, so it doesn't look like that bad of a plan. I started looking to see the types of triathlons that are in the area in about 154 days from now and the closest date is in mid July, which would give me about 100 more days onto the plan! I could totally be ready for this by then. I would love to do this. One of my goals is to eventually do at least a mini and this would be a great break in event. The event would only be sprint distance, so I think that means like 3 miles of running, under 1000 for swimming, and then the biking was a reasonable distance too, so I really think I could do it.

The Big Brother

2011-11-13T08:49:00.001-05:00

It's been a while since I've posted on Andy and what he's been up to. As you all know, he's been doing homeschool and it is going very well! He is almost to the point that he could possibly read basic reading books on his own and can sound out single and double syllable words (some bigger words he's done, too). He is writing pretty well too, it's so fun to see him catch on to things. He has some new things he likes to do and he does them all of the time, such as writing and illustrating his own books, drawing and art crafts, science, and playing video games. He has so many things he's into and I actually had him give me a list of things that he wanted to learn about. That list included ancient Egypt, Mexico, science experiments, and lots of other very fun stuff! He is really thriving through this. In January, cross our fingers, he starts k12.com through Hoosier Academies and will be doing an online virtual school. Right now we are on a wait list, which from what the woman described, is typical procedure in getting in and those who are new have to be wait listed until class enrollment starts. I hope it doesn't mean there is a chance they he won't be able to go. He has really taken on an even bigger roll in helping with Rhys and playing with him. He is the only one in the house that can make him laugh on cue. It is amazing how much they get along right now and how much they love each other. They are truly best friends. I love that Andy is able to have this time at home to bond more with Rhys.

16 Months

2011-11-12T20:24:00.000-05:00

I'm a bit behind in posting about this kid. He is nuts! I'm serious! He climbs in, on, up, over, and whatever he can do to get to something! He is not scared of anything at all! The other day I found him halfway up Andy's bunk bed, in the toy box, up the safety gate, and whatever he sees that we wants he gets! He is very smart and can about figure everything out that he's very interested in. Andy and him are best buddies. He is always looking for Andy and things to do with him! They like to build, play dress up, chase each other, and all kinds of things. At night when they go to bed, they are supposed to be quiet and go right to sleep, ya right! I love that time of day with those tow because we hear giggling and talking for a good while before the silence of sleep. When Rhys is mad, he yells Andy's name at everything. He's really starting to talk and mimic a lot of words. He hates socks and shoes and constantly takes them off. This winter is going to be interesting when he has to actually keep them on! Music moves him, literally. He is constantly singing, dancing, clapping, and running; even Andy has a hard time keeping up with him sometimes.

I Love Email!

2011-11-10T10:10:00.000-05:00

Okay, so getting email usually consists of junk mail, but yesterday was different! I opened my inbox and found an email from an admin at ClickinMoms. Here is what it had to say:

Hi there!

We are pleased to announce that at least one of your images was chosen to be included in ClickinMom's next print publication, Laughter.

The book has already gone to print and we expect it to be ready to ship sometime in the next week or two. You will receive another email before then with a coupon code for you complimentary copy :)

I am so excited for you to see this book. It is AMAZING! Congratulations and thank you for sharing your work!

Many thanks,

Kendra

www.ClickinMoms.com

ps - We will announce the front and back cover winners soon!

Needless to say I am a bit giddy! This totally made my day and when the book comes in I will share a pic of what it looks like in the book!

A Spooktacular Time

2011-11-01T20:11:00.000-04:00

My little baby Batman who didn't want to keep his mask on. He still looked cute!

My "ultimate" Optimus Prime.

My little superheroes!

Most of the Anderson grandchildren.

Rhys having a great time at Aunt Debbie's house.

What a cutie little Iris is!! She just turned 2!! I can't believe how fast time flies!

Four generations of Anderson! One of these things is not like the other, can you see what it is? Yep, that's right, I'm outnumbered!!

Bobbing for apples...wait for it....

BAM! He's soaked!

But he got it!

Have you ever tried to play this game?

Not even half of the Davis grandchildren, who happen to all be boys! (and there's a 12th one on the way!)

This is how the rest of the pictures look! Trying to wrangle these kids is pointless!

The Davis family enjoying each other and the great outdoors at the barn.

I absolutely love this picture of my Mom and Rhys. I know she said he didn't like her hair in it and don't kill me for posting this pic Mom, but I just love it!

Our second "scarecrow" for the porch.

Jared did good for a while, but I think he got dressed way too early for the trick or treaters. He did get some stares!

The other real scarecrow.

We're all ready for our trick or treaters, which ended up being a handful and that's it. Oh well, it was fun spending the evening together as a family!

Other Work

2011-10-18T12:30:00.000-04:00

Here's a preview of some of my other recent work. This was the beautiful family that I took pictures of last night. I have a ton more pictures to edit and I can't wait to edit the rest of them!!

Brotherly Love

2011-10-17T04:55:00.000-04:00

Since Andy has been in home school, we've had a lot more times like these:

This isn't my best pic of the boys ever, but I had to post it because of Rhys' face!! Look at that face he's making!! They were having so much fun that day playing together and they continue to find ways to have fun with each other.

Yesterday we had quiet time which included BOTH of the boys drawing and coloring. It was interesting to see how Rhys did. At one point Andy was showing him how to do it. It was so cute!

Recent Work

2011-10-17T04:12:00.000-04:00

I realized that I haven't shared much of my work lately, this may be due to the fact that I haven't been shooting a lot lately. A couple of weeks ago I had the joy of shooting one of my friend's daughters, which once we got to talking, I realized I had actually shot all of her babies at this age! How funny that I didn't even realize this! But, as I was editing the pictures, I fell in love with them! I'm thinking about focusing my photography mostly on babies. I am really loving these shots!

Changes in Education

2011-10-10T12:31:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure that I have posted too much about this topic when it comes to Andy and education. We have had some behavioral issues with him over the last year and so we have reached out to a professional organization to help us learn how to help him cope with the emotions that he is having. There have been a lot of changes for him over the last year and a half and we believe this has affected his attitude toward a lot of things because he's not sure how to express his frustration, anger, or whatever other emotions he is having. We debated before the school year started whether or not to homeschool or send him in. We chose the latter because we felt that he needed the socialization and to have the same experiences that other children have had. As the school year has progressed, so has some of his outbursts at school, but after a really bad one of Friday and speaking with the principal about what has happened, Jared and I both felt it was necessary to pull him out of school and for me to teach him at home for more control over him and help him through this tough time. We talked to him about this and what he felt about doing this and he was very excited, so much so that he didn't even want to go back today to tell everyone bye. His attitude about all of this has confirmed to Jared and I that this was the right decision. I am very excited about this new turn for our family and what all we will be doing and learning. We plan to make at least one field trip a week. This week's is to Mounds State Park to use magnifying glasses to look at nature (science) and to do a hike (P.E.). We are working on reading through Hooked on Phonics - Kindergarten level, doing 1st grade math, using Sid the Science Kid for the next 11 weeks to guide us through science, learning gospel principles through daily devotionals, and various other things to help us through social studies. He will have weekly specials such as library, P.E., music, art, and field trips. This is really exciting for us to do this and I hope it continues to be fun for us all and that Heavenly Father will continue to inspire me on what to teach and helps me to be patient, too.

Snap To It

2011-09-26T20:09:00.000-04:00

Andy just snapped his fingers for the first time tonight!! This is so exciting for him and me!! He is so excited to be able to finally do this! I just had to put this up as a new milestone for him!

Preserving History

2011-09-18T08:04:00.000-04:00

I helped to coordinate a service project that an Eagle Scout planned for yesterday. We went to Sigler Cemetery in Frankton to clean up and help preserve the headstones. This was an amazing project and we had a great turnout. Between my ward and the Elwood Branch, we had roughly 50 people and cleaned 20 headstones! I would love to thank everyone who came out!

450: Little Man Walking

2011-09-16T19:45:00.000-04:00

I decided that a video could capture how Rhys walks a lot better than a photograph. So, here ya go! Oh, and by the way, I've hit 450 posts since I first started this blog, I can't believe I've had that much to say! haha! Who am I kidding, with the little guys I have and then Jared, I don't think there is EVER a dull moment in this house!

Playing Catch Up

2011-09-13T22:23:00.000-04:00

Okay, here's some things to catch up on. Rhys is now 14 months old, says cracker, diaper, Momma, Dadda, and Andy. I think he's trying to say some things, but can't really tell what it is. Most of the time he's yelling and not really talking. He is a LOUD baby! Did I mention he's walking almost all of the time now? Yeah, it's very weird to see him walking all over the place. He almost looks drunk when he's walking wonky all over the place.

Andy is enjoying school and making new friends. Tonight he went to his very first skating party for his school. I took him and then Lindsay and Marley came too. I am posting this video because it's the funniest of him crawling across the floor of the skating rink. You can see Marley in it too falling right in front of Andy. We had a lot of fun!

New Word Of Day

2011-08-23T22:21:00.000-04:00

No joke! The baby said graham cracker tonight! This is his first words other than Mama, Dada, and Andy! What does this say about our daily lives?! Well, all I know now is that I have a soon to be walking and talking baby laying in his crib in the other room! Life is about to change dramatically in the Heath house!

First Day of School

2011-08-22T20:51:00.000-04:00

Yep, it's finally here: the first day of school. He was so excited to go and he even picked his outfit and where he wanted me to take his pictures this morning. Jared and I took him to school and it was a madhouse, but very emotional!

Look how big he looks!

I had to get a similar picture taken of him that I had taken my first day of school. If I get to it, I will find that picture of me and do a side by side comparison.

They tagged him when he got to the school with his bus number, which I have to say was smart!

We got to school the school the same time as cousin Marley. Don't they look so cute!?!?!

Lining up to go to class!

Outside his classroom.

Andy's teacher helping him to his seat. After this he had no idea that we weren't even there!

We waited a little over an hour for him to come home! We were a nervous wreck! I hope it goes faster by the end of the week because I don't know if I can handle waiting that long again!

Getting off of the bus to Momma, Daddy, and Rhys, who was even more excited for Andy to get here.

When Andy got home, there was a BIG surprise for him. Jared and I found a loft bed online on Craigslist and set it up and rearranged his room while he was at school. Boy was he surprised!! All in all, he said he had a great day. He played cannons during recess, learned how to color the kindergarten way, and a lot of other stuff that he doesn't remember. I cried my eyes out AFTER we got into the car, I couldn't let him see me do that. Jared decided that I needed breakfast to calm me down, so we went to McDonalds with the baby.

Heaven Wraps

2011-08-18T01:43:00.000-04:00

Yes, the title of this post DOES describe just how yummy these are:

If you're wondering what they are, my SIL shared this recipe with us in a recent family gathering and we just had to do it. All you do is take jalapenos, bacon and cream cheese. Hollow out the peppers, fill with cream cheese, wrap in bacon and then broil. If you don't want to try it because you're afraid of it being too hot, it's not spicy at all! So, so yummy!

Little Heathens

2011-08-18T01:34:00.001-04:00

These pictures are what's left of us trying to take pictures of all of the Heath grandkids while Jared's brother was in town...As you can see it wasn't that successful in getting the perfect pose, but it was successful in showing their individual personalities!

Swim Time!

2011-08-02T02:15:00.000-04:00

The day before we left for Mackinaw, we had Andy's cousins over for a swim party for their birthdays because I had to miss their party and wasn't able to be there. I felt horrible that I had to miss their party, so we invited them over for a swim and to have some fun. Boy did they every have some fun! We actually had the pool to ourselves for almost the whole time we were out there! They all played with their water squirters and splashed and just had a good time!

Mackinaw Day 3

2011-08-02T02:03:00.001-04:00

Jer and the boys in the lake.

Me trying to get a halfway decent pic of me and the boys. This is a rarity for me as you can see. I didn't even realize until this picture that both of the boys were looking down and were both scowling. You would think they were twins as much as they look alike in this photo!

They boys enjoying the beach some more on our way out of town.

Rhys finally got used to the sand a bit, but still wouldn't come off of the blanket!

Andy playing with his bucket and shovel that Jammy got him in Florida. He enjoyed this trip so much! We will be forever grateful to Jer's family for bringing us along. What an enjoyable experience it truly was.

The bridge from a different angle. It was just so peaceful and beautiful!

The view from my blanket while the boys went off and had boy time together.

While I took a bit of me time on the beach, the boys took some time to feed the birds. Boy, did they get more than they bargained for!

When all of these birds started flying, I was half tempted in breaking into song from Mary Poppins, "Toppins" and Jer was thinking the same thing!

Jer's favorite place to get smoked fish. Last year he got White Fish, this year it was Salmon and he was very happy with his choice.

Mackinaw Day 2

2011-08-02T01:40:00.000-04:00

The second day of Mackinaw was nice and relaxing with Linds and the kids. We went to the beach for a while and to the water park and a little shopping. Took a few good pics of the Linds and her kids and then mine playing on the beach.

My Boys!

The kids on the beach, Rhys didn't like the beach so much as you can see below:

My Andy boy.

It almost like Rhys is asking for help or blaming Ronin!

Linds and I took some time for ourselves and went back to the beach at sunset. It was so nice to have our sister time and to just relax kid-free.

The water and sky came together so much that it reminded us of the Truman Show where he's in the boat, just before he ran into the "sky" with the boat.

Mackinaw Day 1

2011-07-28T09:13:00.000-04:00

We took of super early yesterday morning, can you tell how tired we are? The boys slept some of the way, but were up a lot of the trip!

Andy looking for the bridge.

We finally arrived about 11:30 and can I say we were more than ready to get out of the car!

The Old Mackinaw Lighthouse at sunset.

The bridge at sunset.

There were beautiful flowers and weeds all over the beach!

Last run of the ferry!

I noticed that the sun was setting and the boys were already in bed, but I hurried up and got Andy so we could play at the beach together and see the sun setting. He played in the sand and...

found some new friends to play with. What sweet little dogs they were. The older one was the great grandmother of the little one! So much fun! Made me want a dog really badly! One day.

We spend most of the day driving and shopping. Went out for pizza all together and then off to bed.

Let's Play

2011-07-23T18:02:00.000-04:00

Rhys had his first play date today. I think they had fun! They kept fighting over the yellow happy face for the butterfly puzzle!

Oreo Cookies Are Good!

2011-07-19T00:57:00.000-04:00

Trying his first oreo cookie!

I think he liked it!!

Yummy!

He was sad because he dropped the cookie and wanted it back!

He stopped for a second during all of the crying to look at me.

Okay, enough is enough! I want my cookie back! haha!

Gator Riding!

2011-07-17T23:50:00.000-04:00

My Grandma (Mom Mom) is an amazing woman!! She went to Florida with my Mom and all of her sisters for a mother/daughter outing. This video is of her riding on a gator! Crazy Lady!!

Little Miss Ruby Jane

2011-07-15T01:16:00.000-04:00

There will be a 4 Family Rummage Sale on 450 W (Dundee) this Friday and Saturday from 8-4. All proceeds go to 6 month old Ruby Jane who is in need of a liver transplant. If you are not able to make it, and would like to donate to this sweet little girl and her family, here is a link:

http://www.rubyjanetaylor.blogspot.com/

If you need any info or directions, please let me know! Thank you so much in advance!!

Messy Eaters

2011-07-09T02:19:00.000-04:00

How messy of an eater are you? I know of at least two boys who are pretty messy when they eat:

Andy was acting shy about the camera for some reason, but Rhys was more than ready for his next bite of food...it was a very serious matter!

He kept putting his feet up on the table. At one point he had crackers AND spaghetti on the bottom of his feet! Funny kid.

Only part of the mess he was making. Good thing we had towels down on the floor.

Who me? Nope, I didn't make the mess!

And the number one reason he will not be able to eat on his own in the jumper.

The 4th of July 2011

2011-07-05T01:44:00.000-04:00

We went to the Elwood fireworks tonight with my side of the family, I forgot to take pictures last night at the Swindell's, but it's a good thing because Rhys needed me through the whole thing over there! He screamed bloody murder through last night's, but when we came to Elwood, he didn't even get bothered by it. I don't know if he was past the shock of it all or was just too tired to care, but it was nice to be able to just watch. I took just a couple of snapshots and then just enjoyed myself. We sat in the back of the Cruiser and just had a good time.

We went back to Dundee afterwards and lit some fireworks of our own. It was a lot of fun, haven't done that for a couple of years because last year I was in the hospital with Rhys, so it was nice to be part of it all.

We got home around midnight and when we pulled in the the dumpster across the field from us was on fire, so I got to watch the firefighters put it out. I even had time to submit the pics to the paper, I hope they use them! I realized tonight that I really miss doing my journalism stuff, I had the adrenaline pumping and was so excited I practically ran back to the apartment to get them uploaded! Look at that red truck, look how close it is! I just hope there wasn't any damage to it. They got the fire put out fairly quickly. I'm just glad it wasn't an actual building! It was scary when we pulled in and saw all of the smoke coming up and just over the hill we saw a little bit of flames and then realized it was just a dumpster! Whew!

Party for One

2011-07-05T01:26:00.000-04:00

Here are picture of Rhys' birthday party we had on Saturday. We had a lot of family and friends come out and help celebrate. We sure missed those who couldn't make it out, but we had a lot of fun. We played a few games, but the one that was the most fun was the sack race. There were the little ones, the middles ones and then the old ones! haha! I laugh because the old ones really aren't that old! My Grandma even did it with her girls and she's 83! I think she has more energy than me most days. My Mom made all of the cupcakes and Rhys' little cake and I have to tell you, they couldn't have been more perfect! I have to get her recipe because Jared loved them! Rhys' didn't get too into the cake, he kept daintily pinching a little off at a time and then putting it in his mouth. He wouldn't even do it more when Jared put his had in the cake! Silly kid! It was a great day, but we were all so tired!

One Year

2011-07-02T11:10:00.001-04:00

I cannot believe that This little guy is a one year old now! A year ago at this time, I believe I was still preparing to meet him! It's gone so fast, but it's been an adventure. It's been a lot of fun seeing the differences between the two boys and their personalities. Andy was such a laid back baby, whereas Rhys is when he wants to be, but very high strung when he doesn't want to be. He knows what he wants and when he wants it and if he doesn't get either of those, well then we have a problem. This is going to be such a great trait when he gets older, but right now it's well, um, hmmm...to put it nicely, a struggle at times, but I wouldn't have it any other way. He's such a happy baby and smiles most of the time (ya know, like when he's not mad because I won't give him what he wants). He is one of the fastest crawlers I've ever seen, he has 4 1/2 teeth now (one just broke through), he's close to walking (has taken 4 steps on his own), laughs at his older brother until he's almost crying, very independent (feeding time is where he's the most because he wants to feed himself), inquisitive (you can see the wheels turning in his head), loves to look at books, is just starting to hug, is a Mama's boy, loves the Wonder Pets, enjoys being outside, loves to clap, and so much more. What a blessing the last year has been for all three of us! We love you bubba and hope you have a wonderful birthday!

Best Brothers

2011-06-30T00:42:00.000-04:00

Almost a year ago, these two sweet little guys became brothers. I cannot believe that a year has almost passed, but it has been such an amazing year. Andy has truly become the big brother. He protects Rhys, he plays with him, makes him laugh uncontrollably, calms him down, wants to help him, and us with him. Rhys couldn't ask for a better big brother. Rhys is totally obsessed with where Andy is at all times and you can tell that he looks up to his big brother, that is probably why he is such a fast crawler and is into everything because he wants to do everything just like his big brother does. They are best pals and can spend hours together in their room playing and having fun. I love these boys so much and I'm so grateful for their sweet spirits and the joy and love each one of them brings into my life. Last year at this very time I had no idea how much my life was going to change and how big my heart was going to become. I love you Andy and Rhys so very much.

P.S. I cannot believe how much each of them has changed in a year's time! If I could just turn the clock back for those precious moments again!

Naked Napper

2011-06-25T13:20:00.000-04:00

Rhys has discovered how to take his diaper off during nap time, I think this kid is going to be the rowdiest yet! I'm not gray headed yet, but I'm sure by the time we get through the terrible two's I will be! He climbs everything, gets into everything, takes his diapers off, takes his clothes off, crawls faster than any baby I've ever seen, and much, much more! He's got an attitude and he knows how to use it too! We are in trouble! A week from today he turns 1. I can't believe how fast it's going with him!

2011-06-11T22:45:00.000-04:00

Jared went this morning to help kill chickens at his cousins farm and in turn he was able to buy some of the chickens. He marinated one all day and grilled it tonight for dinner and it was so good!! Yum! The boys went outside and played while the food was cooking, it was so much fun, I don't know why we don't go outside more often, I'm going to make it more of a habit!

Texas Trip With Linds

2011-06-11T14:47:00.000-04:00

Sunset near the Mississippi River, there was so much flood still around that area, it was crazy!

The Mississippi River.

More flooding.

The bugs raining on us.

The aftermath!

The Tastee House, it didn't look too tasty to us! It's feature was "Lalepenio"

Sunrise in Texas.

More Sunrise.

A cute little town in East Texas.

Coming up one of the many, many hills in this area, isn't the sunrise amazing?!

We stopped here for breakfast and it was one of the most amazing breakfasts that we both have had anywhere! Yummy!

Waco, Texas is definitely bigger than what I had pictured!

This is where we had to stop before leaving Texas and this was my first experience and that place was so amazing! I couldn't believe it! I so want to go back!

Now this is what I call a port-a-pot!

This was one of the ranches that were on our way out of Texas, it was so neat!

They layer their roads crazy high!

On our way into Arkansas. This was just outside of our hotel, which was an amazing stay compared to the night before (yuck!) except for the idiot who pulled the fire alarm as a prank in the middle of the night! It was nuts!

Went with my SIL last week to help her move back to Indiana, it was quick and dirty, literally! We drove down Tuesday afternoon, got there Wednesday morning, got some rest and food, then started packing up the apartment that evening and all day Thursday, finished cleaning and packing on Thursday, then on Friday we took off for Indiana! Whew! Yes, we seriously packed up a WHOLE apartment in less than 24 hours and cleaned it spotless! Wow! I hate to brag, but it was amazing!! There was so much beauty along the drive, these pictures are just some of them that we saw. The funniest part about it was crossing over the Mississippi and then getting rained on by bugs, making us stop 3 times in less than an hour to clean off the windshield just so we could drive. The car we had going down there was a bit hard to drive for me, I couldn't quite get the hang of putting into gear, so yeah...I was pretty stupid, but it was fun! I got some great bonding time in with Linds, which we haven't done in like over 10 years! Ya know, like when we were single and in high school, so it was a good time, even though it was a bit rough on us 30 year olds physically! But there was some great music and conversation!

Marley's 6th Birthday

2011-06-11T12:38:00.000-04:00

Little cute Ronin!! He's gotten so big! He is so cute and I just want to squeeze him every time he talks! He LOVES "Unka Jawed" so much!

My slobbery kid! He's teething, so there's a constant stream of fluids coming out of his face!

The best of pals! I have many pictures of the two of them together and they get so excited when they see each other.

Grandpa Heath and Great Grandpa Heath talking together at the table!

All of the great grandparents sitting together.

We were excited to celebrate Marley's 6th birthday with her!! The kids all had fun playing and we were able to spend some time with Great Grandpa Heath who was visiting from TN. Happy Birthday Miss Marley, thanks for letting us share your party with you!

Sleepover Time!

2011-06-11T12:05:00.000-04:00

I'm getting caught up on photos for the last couple of weeks. This was a sleepover that Andy had with his cousin Marley a couple of weekends ago. They went swimming, watched movies, slept in the tent and all kinds of stuff! It was a blast! (and for all of us, not just the kids!) We love having Marley and Ronin around for the boys to play with!

11 Months Old

2011-06-08T21:42:00.000-04:00

I know, I'm almost a week late on this post, but I was in Texas with my SIL helping her move back to Indiana (*yay*) and it was a roller coaster of a trip! I had to post this before I got too far ahead. Rhys is definitely getting big! He is climbing up and out of everything and into everything, which is why he stays in his bouncy seat a lot (which if we let him he could knock over and crawl out of) because we just can't keep up with him all of the time. He is a fast little guy! He's getting so big! He now has 4 1/2 teeth in and I think there's a couple more trying to get in there too. He now says "Hi Daddy or Daddy" and also says "Andy" a lot. Can you tell who he's just so enamored with? He hardly ever says Momma. He can now shake his head no, although he doesn't really know what that means. Walking is probably our next big thing in this house, and I don't think we're too far off. He is definitely a STRONG and FEARLESS baby! I think we will definitely be visiting the ER with this kid a lot, I just have that gut feeling. He went swimming in the big pool with big brother yesterday and they both had a blast! Rhys was splashing and kicking the water and we were trying to keep up with that fish of a kid named Andy! It was fun, even though Rhys was done after about a half an hour/forty minutes. Definitely will be going back really soon! Thank goodness for a community pool that's free!! We have less than a month before Rhys' big party, can you believe it's almost been a year?! I sure can't!

Triple the Fun!!

2011-05-28T09:41:00.001-04:00

Today Marsh Supermarkets had triple coupons, so I definitely took advantage of that in TWO trips in TWO different towns! Here's what I got:

Trip 1: Spent $88.59, saved $211.24
Trip 2: Spent $6.37, saved $21.88, plus I picked up some stuff for Mom and she got 16 packs of Activia for FREE!! (If you're wondering, she saved about $35)

After I went and did all of this shopping and ran my other errands, I was reminded by Jared that I didn't buy formula! How could I forget that!?! Well, I went to the next two stores to take advantage of the deals that I had:

CVS: Spent $2, save $12.99...this was for formula!
Walgreens: Spent $5.26, saved $11.08

I would have to say over all, this was a very productive day in couponing with a total savings of about $292. YAY!

Saving Money

2011-05-23T19:14:00.000-04:00

We have decided to start couponing, not sure if I posted this or not last week, I'm too lazy to look (lol) but last week was a really great week, I saved us about $100, give or take, can't quite remember. This week the coupons were a little weaker, but we still got some amazing deals. I had to post them and share all of the deals we got. We will never run out of deoderant or pain reliever! haha! Here's how we did just from the coupons we had and ones we got this week. I didn't use all of them, I wasn't feeling a big shopping trip, but we still have a couple more free things we need to go pick up:

CVS: Spent $19.78, saved $13.28, got $11 in bucks, so it was like I spent $8.78 for 2 bottles of advil, a pack of gum, q-tips, and 2 deoderants!
Walgreens: Spent $7.87, saved $9.99, got $2.00 in register rewards, so it was like spending $5.87 on hair ties, batteries, and Huggies Little Swimmers.
Payless: Spent $30.49, saved $22.62
Marsh: Spent $8.51, saved $7.22

So in all I spent $53.65 on $119.76 worth of stuff!!

Flaming Marshmallows Anyone?

2011-05-22T22:10:00.000-04:00

Sounds like a band name doesn't it? But no, I'm not that lucky. Last night I was outside roasting marshmallows with some friends and Andy wanted me to roast another one and I was blowing his out because it caught on fire, and as I was doing so, the stick spun around in my hand causing the marshmallow to hit my face. It landed, still on fire, on my lips. Yep, I have a second degree burn on my lips and yes it is seriously one of the funniest stories that I've ever had happen to me.

This picture was taken just after it happened, nice huh?

Wilkins Temple Trip

2011-05-19T01:12:00.000-04:00

This post is almost two weeks old, but I had to finally put it up here. Jared and I were able to accompany our dearest friends, Kylie and Sean Wilkins to the temple when they were sealed for all time and eternity! What a beautiful day it was and we had so much fun. The spirit was strong throughout the whole day and it reminded Jared and I both of the promises we made to each other and to the Lord. They are such an amazing couple and they are such great examples in the gospel to us!

Me and Kylie outside the temple.

Sean, Kylie, Me, and Jared.

Sean and Jared.

Rusty Petty joined us and drove all of us down there. What a crazy time it was! See those three men? Yep, you can tell there's something they're cooking up and they all look guilty! haha!

All five of us in front of the temple.

Where we stood together about 7 1/2 years ago. My, how we've changed!

I had to take pictures of the flowers because they were so beautiful! They smelled so wonderful too!

Post-Easter Pics

2011-05-16T15:50:00.000-04:00

Forgot to post these pictures of the boys I took Easter morning. It was hard to get them to sit still, but they look so cute!

Little Running Man!

2011-05-04T02:25:00.000-04:00

Not the best picture of the boys or one that I've taken, but I had to include it in the set because of their facial expressions! Andy had his first running race tonight of the season. He did well with a time of 4:33, which is just barely under his last time last year, so he pretty much picked up where he left off.

Andy was listening to them give instructions to the older kids doing the longer race and he was trying to tell me that he was strong and can do the longer race. I loved it! Next year buddy you can, I promise!

The boys just after Andy raced. I couldn't get a good look from any of them! Oh well, it just shows their character!

While we were waiting on Andy, I decided to take a couple of pictures of Rhys. This is his new trick that he started this last week in that he can't keep his socks on anymore! He hates them! As soon as I put them on, he's taken them off. Just like his Momma!

Can you see his TWO teeth?! Yep, he now has two!

My little running man! He did an awesome job tonight. We just have to work on starting at the front of the pack instead of lining up behind everyone. Tried to talk to him about it, but it was to chaotic for him to listen. He got 3rd in his age and gender division.

10 Months

2011-05-01T02:55:00.001-04:00

I know I'm posting a day early, but I just had to get it out there! I can't believe he's going to be 10 months old on Monday! It's crazy! He's is such a character! We are really starting to see a change in him. He is understanding some basic phrases in our every day life and is especially familiar with our names now. If I mention Andy or Daddy at all, he gets the biggest smile on his face. His most favorite thing is to play with Andy, they laugh and laugh and laugh together. He is now starting to wave, which just started this week. He definitely knows what he wants and if he doesn't get it, then he throws a MAJOR fit! So, in reality, diaper changing isn't fun for any of us, holding him isn't that much fun, taking away things he wanted isn't fun, and you get the picture! He has two teeth officially as of this week and the top ones are starting to come down too along with another bottom tooth! He loves to stand and the other day when I was at the library doing homework, I was on the phone with Jared and he stood for at least 10 seconds without holding on to anything! It won't be long before he is walking! He loves the little squeeze toys the Easter Bunny brought and makes the silliest faces with them. I will try to get a picture of it soon on here. He is loving books and actually destroyed a new one he got a month ago from the doctor because he wanted it so much and looked at it so much. He loves, loves, loves music and is starting to "dance" to it. I can't wait until after Tuesday when school is done so I can start devoting my attention all to my boys. Andy starts his running club this week and I cannot wait! We're so excited!

My 30th Birthday Party

2011-04-30T02:38:00.000-04:00

Everyone was watching Jer cook the meat because the grill was smoking so badly. You can actually see it coming into the apartment in this picture!

My dear friend Kylie and my Mom Mom.

Jer cooking the meat. It was so yummy!

The boys didn't want anything to do with being inside, they all had to supervise the meat being cooked!

Look what I caught Andy and my niece Marley doing! I couldn't help but take a picture!

My nephew Ronin. Isn't he just the cutest thing!?! Well, since THIS guy anyway!

Rhys is getting started early!

Ronin, Marley, and Rhys all playing together in the doorway.

Andy showing off his DS. Seriously should've thought about this gift a little harder!

Kylie and my Sister in Law Lindsay.

Jer's grandparents, Mammaw and Pappaw.

Mom Mom again, isn't she just the most beautiful thing every?!

Linds and Ronin.

The drinks! We had root beer, orange cream, and cream soda.

I had to show this in color because everything was so pretty together.

Me blowing getting ready to blow out all of the candles on my yummy brownies (chocolate peanut butter truffle!) and a little shocked at how many there truly were!

Me doing the happy dance because I actually blew them all out!

My Mom made these brownies, aren't they awesome?! I had to take a picture of them before it was too late! There's still a couple in the fridge and they are BOTH mine! I already called it!

Pappy and Rhys.

My birthday flowers. Nothing more awesome than flowers in a jar!

I couldn't have had such a great time without all of my family and friends here! I'm so happy that Linds and the kids were able to make it and that both Jer and I's parents and grandparents came. Also, I was so excited to have Sean and Kylie with us tonight too. It was the most perfect way to start a new decade! Love you all and many, many, many thanks for all that you did and gave for tonight!

P.S. Just in case you're wondering. I got some amazing gifts of money, a hand sewn silk bag from China from my Momma, pearl jewelry from my Dad, and some awesome hand made lip gloss and bath salts from Linds (which will be another post at another time because her stuff is amazing and she's got an Etsy page I'll share). My money is already spoken for because the boys went in on a DS for me too so Andy and I can chat and have fun together and play video games (which is totally out of my character!).

Easter Weekend: A Few Pics

2011-04-30T00:46:00.000-04:00

My Apologies

2011-04-28T20:30:00.001-04:00

I am writing in regards of the most recent post that I made regarding my weight and perceptions from being overweight, whether or not they were true or not, and what I had planned to do to help myself achieve my goal of being healthy. Some words were said that unintentionally hurt others. I wanted to say I'm sorry, I know this apology doesn't erase the words said or feelings of those that were hurt have, but it was never my intention to hurt anyone. The reasoning behind the previous post was purely to show my perceptions that I have due to the poor choices in my life that have gotten me to this point. I know many of these perceptions are false and I guess that I didn't explain this properly. The post wasn't there to accuse or hurt anyone, just for me to be real to myself because many of you know the struggles that I have had with weight and the different paths I've taken to try to resolve the issue, but wanted to explain that many of those issues that are actually behind the weight haven't been dealt with and until those are dealt with, I will continue to struggle. I will continue to work on this on my own in my own personal life, but I won't be posting such personal things again. I might post some major successes I have along the journey and I thank you for your support. Again, I'm sorry for any feelings that were hurt from that post, it was not intentioned. Please forgive me.

NOTE: The previous post as mentioned has been removed.

The Next Ten

2011-04-28T01:26:00.001-04:00

I know, I have slacked a bit on putting my goals for the next decade up, but I thought a little bit tonight about some things after doing some reading for school and have come up with some things that I would like to add to my list. I am hoping to complete my 29 to 29, but I'm not sure that I will be getting the last 10 up here by Friday, but I would love to thought. These are the next ten that I thought of. Like I said in the last post of my goals, the last ones are going to be a lot of my personal wants and desires, and some that are more material than what they should be, but somethings on the list are something I've always wanted to do, like the next one.

11. Travel More: I have always wanted to travel. I've always dreamed of going to Japan, Hawaii, India, Greece, Alaska, and more. With kids, this is something that is very difficult to do, especially when you're unemployed and gas is as high as it is. This is more of a goal that I would like to have for when Jared and I are old and retired (if we ever get to retire and actually have money). I would, at least like to say that I've visited every state in the continental 48 states, but all 50 would be nice though. I think that I can say I've been to at least 13 states, so I have a long way to go, even if it is just passing through on the way to another state, I want to visit. Along with this, I want to be able to camp and hike and explore Mother Nature more. Jared and I bought a tent a few years back hoping we'd have the opportunity to camp more and I think this summer we're going to finally go more than we have in the past (IF the gas doesn't get too high!).

12. Make Good Memories: In all fairness to my previous goal, traveling isn't a necessity that I'm going to have to have in order to make good memories in my life. I have the most wonderful boys and as long as I do things here that are interactive, creative, fun, exploratory, and just something they could possibly remember that was simple, yet amazing in their eyes. How can I accomplish this? By spending time with them and doing things together. I am taking a break for a while from school again so that way I can do things with them again. I have missed doing this and I want to be there for them when they get off of the bus, interact with them, talk about their days. This is important to me more than anything.

13. Get Involved With The Community: I go back on the service goal a bit on this one, but I also have seen through my studies and my experience in living in this city that there is a lot of potential in all communities, just someone has to stand up for them. I want to be an advocate for education and for our kids. I don't really know how to go about doing this, but I will find a way. I plan to be involved with the schools at least while my kids are in school so I can help shape what their experiences are going to be like to benefit them the most.

14. Do something with my education. This can go with number 13 or it can be something totally different too, since you know I have a wide array of education, journalism, printing, graphic arts, photography, language learning, teaching, etc. I don't know at this time how I will be using my education, but I definitely want to use it in a way that benefits the community and many others. This could mean that I teach in the schools, or write for a newspaper, or take pictures for a foundation. I don't know, but I want to help others.

15. Read more. Let me emphasize, leisurely reading, NOT for a class. I am burned out from this semester in reading stuff for coursework, so I'm ready to go to the library and have fun picking out books for fun. What I think are fun books to look at, someone else might not think the same thing, so be patient with my literature shares if they aren't what you think are exciting, eventually we'll agree on something, right?

16. Find my creative outlet. My husband would totally be appreciative of this one. I have all kinds of things I love to do, sew, embroider, take pictures, paint, make things, but the one thing I don't have is something that I have to do in order to just feel out there if you know what I mean. I need something that at the end of the day I can say that this is the thing that helps me relax and be myself the most. Like I said, I love to do a lot of different things, but still haven't found that one thing that I'm totally passionate about, sewing is close, but not quite there.

17. Be more social. I used to be a social person. Really, I did. I have no idea what happened. I cringe when I think about having to call someone on the phone, reach out and talk to someone I don't know, talk to people at a group gathering, and so on. I never in a million years thought that I would be this way, ever. I've been so engrossed with my family that I just don't do it like I should. I have my good friends, like my cousins and my close friends from Elwood Branch, but other than them, I do not do well at making conversation and things with people I don't know well. Some of you may think opposite of this, but truly I don't see it that way. So my plan is to get over this weird hump of my life and be who I once was.

18. Laugh more. I don't know what happened to me on this one either. I have become somber. I try to laugh at Jer's jokes and take things in stride when he teases about something, but I just can't let loose sometimes! It's really frustrating because if any of you know my Dad, he's a hoot and can take and tell jokes as easily as anything he does, but I get the sense of humor from my Mom I think, she has a hard time getting jokes, so I think I'm a perfect mix. I can make jokes and things, but sometimes I don't take them as well. I want to allow myself to let loose and have fun and be myself again. I want to dance in the kitchen while making food or while cleaning house, I want to sing along to songs again, and I think my behavior this way might have something to do with Andy being worried about others laughing at him if he does let loose and sing in groups and things at school or church. I sure hope it's not because of me, but I really feel that I have something to do with it.

19. Develop my personal style. Anyone who remembers how I dressed my last couple of years of high school knows that I have never really had much of a personal style of dress. I like vintage jewelry and some clothing, but in the most recent years I have lost most style. I plan to lose weight and become healthier and as I do this, I plan to develop myself personally so that I am confident in what I'm wearing. I have friends who are so confident in their styles and it totally amazes me. I want to be that way and will try to do this in the next decade.

20. Make photo albums. I have to say, I'm horrible at printing out photographs. I just never do it. I don't know why, probably the money factor, but this is a goal over the next couple of years is to get better about printing out photographs and actually putting them into albums. I have about 5 years worth of photographs that I need to print out and get caught up on. I take a lot of pictures, so this could take some time, but it will be totally worth it in the end.

There are 9 more goals that I want to get to by Friday. I am in finals week, so I am unsure of how this will go. I'm sorry if these are very coherent due to lack of sleep and brain power, but I have enjoyed thinking about all of the things that I want to do in the next decade and I hope to accomplish something in all of them. Thanks for staying with me on this.

Information and updates for the Mormon Temple in Indianapolis, Indiana

2011-04-26T01:31:00.000-04:00

Information and updates for the Mormon Temple in Indianapolis, Indiana

For those of you who may be interested, the link above gives you information on the new temple being built in Indianapolis. The site has lots of information about temples and their purposes and how it will impact the area it will be located in. Please take the time to look at the site, there is a lot of good information on there!

My Busy Boys!

2011-04-24T01:29:00.000-04:00

Rhys finally let me take a picture of his first tooth! yay! He's been a busy boy though, he learned a new trick! He has now figured out how to start climbing over the sides of the pack n play and crib! I never had this problem with Andy and I am really unsure of what to do! I guess just be a vigilant as we can be and hope for the best! The kid can't even walk yet and he's starting to climb over the edge! He's really becoming a funny boy, the last couple of weeks he's really been showing us his personality! I'll have to share a video of something he was doing the other day, it was just plain crazy! He is definitely going to have a stronger personality than Andy, one that is way more aggressive and knows exactly what he wants and tells us exactly when he hasn't gotten it!

Andy is doing well. He's learning how to use Daddy's old computer to get ready for school next year. He does fairly well considering his reading skills are fairly low, well really not there (he can sound out words if he really thinks about them) and can navigate through the bookmarks we've put on his page. He has to wear headphones because the computer no longer has sound and is missing some buttons, but it's a good training computer for him. He amazes me more and more each day the knowledge that he has. Tonight we talked about Easter and the true meaning behind it and he actually explained it all very well to me (with a few minor adjustments from me) and Daddy. It was so neat to hear him actually tell it to us. He's so smart and remembers so much, I just wish I had a small amount of his brain power!

Jared and I have been busy finishing up this semester of school. I hope to really have everything done by Friday (my birthday!) so I can finally start spending time with my boys again. Andy has been acting out, and we had the thought that it might be due to me not being around, but it was confirmed tonight when I was talking to Jared and telling him that I should be done with all of my school work by Friday and Andy looked at me and said, "Does that mean that you'll be able to play with me again?" My heart just sank because I realized how much I truly sacraficed this semester to take these classes. They've fill the pool up here and the weather is getting warmer and they've added all of the swings back to the set, so that is all we're talking about these days! I'm ready to go hiking again at Mounds State Park with the boys, but that will have to wait until after the flooding goes down. I can't believe this is Andy's last summer before he starts school.

On Monday we go sign him up for kindergarten and he does his entry level testing. I am so excited to see how well he does. From the chart that I've seen, he knows pretty much all of the stuff he needs for school, so we'll see. I'm nervous sending him to a failing school system, but his elementary is the second best in the system, so I'm a bit more confident than what I normally would be. With the classes I've been taking, I really want to get involved with PTA and things like that to make sure these kids (especially mine) are getting the education they deserve. I won't get on my soap box right now, but there are way too many changes that need to be made. But enough of my rant, I just can't believe it's time for him to go. He attended Blast Off to Kindergarten at Frankton Elementary with his cousin Isaiah and had so much fun, he even saw two friends from church Max and Sam who were so excited to see him that they tackled him! What a funny group, too bad Andy won't be going to school with them next year. I'm confident that he'll find as equally awesome of friends. Tomorrow is Easter and I will be posting, I hope, some nice Family pictures of the four of us, I even got a new dress and everything to match my boys! (even Jer's tie will match!)

I Love Spring!

2011-04-15T16:16:00.000-04:00

And this is why.

Party For Two

2011-04-15T01:06:00.000-04:00

I definitely overestimated how many people would show for the Scentsy party that I hosted for a good friend of mine tonight, but I had to show how nice everything looked! Momma, aren't you proud? I can actually set a good table and make it look nice! You taught me well!

End of Top 10

2011-04-10T21:45:00.000-04:00

I have come to the end of the top ten things I want to do during my 30's, there will be more, remember? Most of those are going to be external things that I want to accomplish, but this will be all that I post today.

10. Get Organized (and stay organized): My Mom is probably going to read what I'm about to say and think, when was this? I used to be organized. Really, I was. When I lived on my own in my Junior year of college. I kept my room organized, my studies organized, well everything was organized (except for the dishes!). When Jared and I got married, I stayed somewhat organized personally, knowing what all was going on at all times, kept my studies and work space organized, bills, etc. As I became pregnant with Andy, this still didn't change too much with my callings and other responsibilities, but started to slide in our home. I started to get better when we moved to the Frankton house, but when we moved and had things scattered in the garage and attic space I digressed more and so did my mind. After Andy I couldn't keep anything straight, didn't know (and still don't) what is going on half of the time, and then I got pregnant again, had Rhys and seriously I feel like all organizational skills flew out the window and never came back! We have stuff in closets, outside storage, storage units a couple of miles away and just put about anywhere we can put it. I'm lost! I have no idea where the next box of clothes for Rhys is, in the patio storage or storage unit or if he even has summer clothes, I have size 3-6 month clothes still in his closet (now is in 12 mo) and size 4 clothes (now it 6-8) for Andy in there too! I can't handle the clutter all of the time, there's no where to put anything and I'm going crazy!

Enough of the rambling, let me tell you what my plan is. Purge, purge and purge some more! When we moved into this apartment, we purged a lot, but it still wasn't enough. I plan to purge a lot of my shoes, my "skinny" clothes (all of them!), books, decor I haven't used in ages, toys, furniture, and lots more! I am hoping to be able to purge enough stuff to take stuff from our patio storage and put it all into the storage unit and still have walking room in there. I'm serious, it must ALL go! I'm going to put it into my family's rummage the first weekend in May and if it doesn't sell, it's not coming back home with me, but to Goodwill or some other charity!

As far as my duties and responsibilities, I am getting myself personally on a schedule very nicely with my planner, but want to get into a daily routine which will be important for when Andy goes to school next year. Rhys and I will need to be on one anyway and I won't be doing school, so that will help a lot. I pretty much stay on top of things with callings and other things, so I don't have to worry about that. Bills, I have let Jer take over these for a while, but I'm a stickler about writing down bills with the dates that you pay them and when they're due and how much you paid. I will probably take this on again just because I want all aspects of our lives organized. This all will be hard with three unorganized boys in the house, but I MUST tackle this to get us out of the chaos. This is the end of my ramble for the night. Thanks for staying with me through this post if you have read to this part!

9 Months!

2011-04-06T20:59:00.000-04:00

I think you saw this pic in a post last week, but I haven't gotten to take many pictures this week and this is probably the most recent picture of him that I have. I am a few days late in posting this, but wanted to tell you the wonderful things that he is doing now that he is 9 months old! He has one tooth that has poked all the way through and three on the way, according to the doctor. He is officially cruising all along the furniture and talking our ears off. He no longer stays still for diaper changings, clothes changings, face wipings, feedings, etc. He is very active all of the time. He plays games with us now and the most recent one he loves is peek-a-boo. All I have to do is give him something that can hide his face and he's set, sometimes even playing it on his own. He loves music and responds well to it by jumping, wiggling, and kicking. Wonder Pets is his favorite show to watch. He has a nice attitude issue if I take him away from something he wanted or if I make him do something he doesn't want to do. He gives kisses and "hugs", explores Momma's face, beeps my nose, sits very well with his new book from the doctors office (it keeps him very occupied), and loves to be in the same room with his big brother so he can watch and play with him. Those two are very, very, very good buddies! I hope they stay that way. Rhys is growing right along where he should be and doing really well! He got to go into a swing the other day with me for the first time and had a blast with it. He laughed the whole time and I definitely will be doing it with him again.

One Year

2011-04-04T23:14:00.000-04:00

I can't end the day without making this post. One year ago today, the most amazing man in the world left us. He's missed as much today as he was a year ago. Those images of that night are still very fresh in my memory and will always be. I miss you Boppie!!!

How I Spent My Day

2011-04-03T21:42:00.000-04:00

As posted in the previous post, I spent the day listening to conference for our church, and this is how I was at one point today! Both boys wanted Momma at the same time, so here I was, sitting on the couch with both boys listening to conference. It was quite nice! Wish I would've gotten myself to look a bit nicer for this though! Oh well.

I Got Served...

2011-04-03T15:05:00.000-04:00

some humble pie. This weekend marks the 181st Annual General Conference of our church. This is the first time in about two years that I haven't been able to take notes during conference (due to two squirmy little guys), so I have been just focusing on the speakers comments and the way I feel. This has been probably the most humbling conferences I have listened to in a while, well at least since the last one (there's one every six months)! As I have listened to conference, I have decided to add a couple more goals to my 29 to 29 list and all deal with matters of the spiritual.

6. Fulfill all of my duties in the gospel.

As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we are given opportunities to serve within the gospel through what are called callings. These callings are given to the Bishop or Branch President, who is the leader of our local congregation, through inspiration and revelation. My current callings are as Personal Progress adviser to the Young Women's group and as a member of the Public Affairs Committee in our stake, which is a group of congregations all over this area, ours has 12 units reaching as far North as Marion, as far South as Noblesville, as far East Richmond and as far West as Elwood with the other 8 somewhere in the middle of all of that. Currently I cover our ward as a stake representative in public affairs to help the unit reach out the community by service or other gospel related acts that are considered non-missionary. I am also unofficially called to be a visiting teacher, which is a duty that is given through the Relief Society program to visit each month certain sisters in the ward, my list currently has 3 on the list and I have a partnership with one other sister. This is a way to assess the needs of the sister in the ward and to find ways to help them. All of our responsibilities in the ward and volunteer only, no on gets paid. Now that you have a background in this, let me tell you what it is I have been thinking about through this session of conference. As I have listened to the countless accounts given of saints who are selflessly working in the gospel and sacrificing to do so, I have thought to myself about what I am doing to sacrifice to live and serve in the gospel, and I have realized not as much as I should be. So, in keeping with the previous post, I am going to work harder in the gospel so that I might be able to help those in need and to do all the Lord wants me to do. I vow to be a better visiting teacher by seeing these sisters monthly and not just writing a note or making a phone call because if these sisters are anything like me, I welcome the presence of other women of the gospel into my home any time. I vow to do better in my other callings and to work very hard and be the best example of the gospel I can be to those around me and be willing to do the Lord's will.

7. Attending the temple.

I have noticed that there are a lot references to attending the temple. After this morning's session, I realized that I only attended the temple one time last year. This is unacceptable, if anything it should've been at least once a quarter. The temple is only at the most 3 hours away by car in Columbus, Ohio. Jared and I have decided to make it a new goal to attend the temple at least once a quarter. This isn't too bad of a goal to start with, but eventually I would like to be able to have it be a monthly event. We are going to get a temple in Indianapolis in about 3 years and so it will be a bit easier and who knows, maybe even a weekly event! There is a lot of work to be done in this gospel and I have to do it, I have been commanded to do it.

8. It's the little things that count.

There are many things I need to be doing daily to help improve my testimony of the gospel and to keep the spirit with me at all times, these seem like small things, but as the scriptures say, "By small and simple things, shall great things shall be brought to pass." These small things I am talking about doing are daily habits of personal prayers, reading the scriptures, teaching my children about the gospel, bringing wholesome things into our home to read, watch, and listen to, keeping a calm composure about myself, and have daily family prayer and scripture study. We are good at having nightly family prayer and scripture study, but we struggle at prayers before meal times and in the mornings. These are new goals that I want to achieve that we can honestly say that we do this all of the time. I want to be in the habit of this before my children get involved in sports, clubs, and extracurricular activities that will pull them away from the home so one day they might have this engrained in their own daily habits.

9. Family Home Evening

Family is very important in our church and fostering family unity and strength in the gospel is stressed a lot. One way of bringing our families together through the gospel is through weekly Family Home Evening. This is another goal I want to make, in that we as a family work harder to have this each week and that it be prayerfully planned to address the needs of our family and find ways to enrich our lives together in the gospel.

These are the goals so far that I have felt the most impressed to make. In the last post I talked about wanting to serve others more often and in this session of conference, I have again been feeling this desire more fully. The Lord is trying to tell me that I need to work harder at this, so I will listen. I know that this church is true, that I have a living prophet, President Thomas S. Monson to lead and guide me through these troubling times, I know that President Joseph Smith was a prophet and was guided by the Lord to restore the fullness of the gospel, I know that through mine and my families obedience to the gospel, we will be together for all time and eternity, I know the scriptures are true, I love this gospel and don't know what I would do without it, I would be lost without it. I am grateful for a strong priesthood holder in my home and two boys who are righteous and will become strong priesthood holders in the future. They have a great example to look up to. If you get a chance and are reading this by 4 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, please tune into the last session of General Conference, your life will be enriched and changed forever.

The Last 29 of 29

2011-04-01T02:03:00.000-04:00

I don't know if I've posted on here how I feel about turning the big 30 this year, but I'm having a hard time with it, mostly because there was so much more that I wanted to do with this last year or really even the last decade, than what I did. I've been focusing on all of the negative aspects of myself lately, i.e. I desparately need to lose weight, I desperately need to declutter our house, I have more pimples than I did as a teenager, I was too grumpy with my family, I didn't spend enough time doing this and wasted time doing that...etc. You get the point. So, I thought that maybe what I would do for my last 29 days of being 29 is to work on some specific goals to try and master in my 30's. Yep, I just said it, in my um, 30's. Oh gosh. It looks way worse on the screen than it sounds in my head! I know some of these goals are going to be very hard and take a lot of hard work, but I know that I can do them, I just have to get motivated. Here are a few goals that I'm going to start over the next 29 days:

1. Make wiser choices about what I'm bringing into my body.

I have been doing a lot of research lately about PCOS and have found some things that I can do on my own are pretty impressive. I thought really that this was kind of a fad diet until I really got into it, but being gluten-free is very important to someone who has PCOS. There is something about the proteins in the wheat that react poorly to the body chemistry of a PCOS woman. On top of this, there is the possibility that milk could very well be factored into this diet, or should I say life change because from what I've learned, the proteins in milk, cow's milk, are very similar to the same bad proteins in wheat. So you might be asking, what does this mean for you? Well, let me tell you. With a gluten-free diet, it means no processed foods, certain seasonings, no fried foods, no pre-packaged breads, and if I want to get really strict with it, I need to watch laundry soaps, body soaps, toothpastes, make-ups and so on. I don't think I will be that strict, but it does mean that I will be bringing in fresh foods like fruits, veggies, organic meats (without hormones or steroids which add to the PCOS too), rice, and legumes. I will have to cut out, if I go dairy free, cheeses, milks, anything with dairy protein in it or whey. This will be very similar to the diet that I had last summer with Rhys, when ironically I had felt the best I had ever felt even at the excess weight I was at. I should've known last summer with the way I felt that it was what I needed to do. This will not be an easy walk in the park, I have a lot of food cravings that are going to make it very difficult at first, I especially love chocolate, breads, baked goods, and diet coke. I have to get it in my mindset that I do not want diabetes, thyroid problems, excess weight and hair, have heart disease (all of which is related to PCOS women), and to be in ill health the rest of my life or to even shorten my life because of these choices that I am making. Jared is having some new health problems now related with blood pressure and tonight we actually found out from his parents that there is a hereditary heart malfunction having to do with one of the valves, which caused a major heart attack of his cousin who is in his 30's and it is known that several uncles and cousins have it as well, so I'm hoping he will be on track with this as well. Andy eats pretty much anything we put in front of him, so it won't be too difficult for him and Rhys will never know the difference.

2. Get up and move.

I want to get up and exercise. I have a desire to do it, but no motivation. I LOVE zumba. I LOVE to do the elliptical. I LOVED running when I was first married, which I did for about an hour a day. I want to show my boys that there is more to this life than tv, computers, and video games and the only way to do it is to get out and move. One thing we have already done as a family is to buy as state park admission card, which we plan to use a lot since we live 5 minutes from a state park. I want to be able to hike and camp without being out of breath for the wrong reasons. Saturday is going to be our first day to do this, I plan on taking the boys (all bundled up in the 50-something degree weather) and go hike an easy trail with them. I will strap that baby to my chest and go. I plan to do this a lot this summer and can't wait. I'll probably take my camera a lot too, so look out for (I hope) some amazing pictures. Another thing we've been talking about doing as a family is buy tennis rackets to play tennis, since it is right outside our door. I'm not good at it and if you ask anyone who was in PE with me in high school, they can vouch for this. My goal is to one day run the Indy Mini. One day, I know I will, I know I can do it.

3. De-clutter and organize.

Boy is this a broad one because it covers so much of our life, literally! When we moved to this new apartment, we got rid of a lot of stuff, I do mean a lot of stuff. I told myself how proud I was when I did it because I've always been one to keep stuff on sentimental value rather than actual need. When we got here, however, it was a different story. I feel as if I'm going to go crazy with all of the stuff we have. In about a month, when school is out and we have more time, I am going to purge, purge, and purge. We are getting rid of VHS tapes, a DVD rack, a vanity in our bedroom, toys, my "skinny" clothes, some of Jer's clothes, and basically anything at all we can get rid of. I would love to be able to have walking room in our storage unit. We won't be able to get rid of it totally because of the boys' clothes and a couple of appliances, but I'll totally be ready to have a lot less. One of the plans in doing this is to build Andy a loft bed to save on some room in their room. Right now it is a tight squeeze and I think this will be a great way of doing it, plus when Rhys is big enough for a toddler bed, we could either put him under Andy's bed or make him some kind of platform bed for even more storage.

4. Beautify our home.

One thing I would like to do when all of the clutter is gone is to finally decorate our home to what I want it to look like, well at least get the walls the way I want them anyway (yes, I know this will probably involve bringing more stuff into the house, but I'm fine with it being on my walls). I want this place to feel like home because I'm tired of it feeling like it's just a place to lay my head. Part of this isn't going to just be through physical characteristics of our home, but through music, reading, our attitudes with each other, and the overall happiness in the home. I think that once the first three on this list are successfully up and running, this will at least help in my role in beautifying the home and making it feel like heaven on earth.

5. Serve more.

I'll leave you with number 5 for now and this is to serve more. I've felt a real urgency to volunteer and help more lately. I don't know if it's my calling and I'm actually seeing the needs of my community, or really what it is, but I want to do more. I can honestly say that I've never been one who has usually reached out to help others, it's not a strong attribute of mine, but I feel that it needs to be. How else can I become like Christ if I don't serve? I couple of things that Jer and I have been looking at, just in the last couple of days (because of my calling) is cemetery clean up. There are some pioneer cemeteries in this area that are in dire need of being saved, or else that history will be lost. I want to find a way to get more involved with this, even after the big ward service project I'm helping cook up for the Fall. I want to help in the schools some how, to help students who are high risk achieve more and understand there's more to life than what they're experiencing. I want to be an advocate for our children and their future somehow by getting involved in fighting for proper curriculum and fair educational spending to allow for the best education possible, to be able to say I did all that I could. One way I saw that I could possibly get involved is that at Andy's elementary that he'll attend next year, there's a parent committee that does this very thing and I'm thinking of getting involved somehow. There's just so much that I want to do.

Well, there you have it, my first 5 that I want to do in the next decade. Stay tuned because there's more to come!

Oh Man, I'm Behind

2011-03-29T02:10:00.000-04:00

Everything is behind in our house, housework, homework, and now after reading some of my earlier posts on here, scrapbooking! Remember this post? Well, lets just say that those pictures are still sitting in the sleeves that I bought waiting to be put into an album. I decided this week that I have a new system that I'm going to do. I'm going to go through each year and make an album for that particular year. We didn't really take any pictures at all before kids, so that will be easy. It's going to be narrowing down each year on prints that will be hard. I'm going to look at the blog for each year and use that as a reference as to what might be more important than other things. I know that I probably won't get the boys' scrapbooks done, so I'm just going to put them into an album with notes beside them. I hope this works for us. Wish me luck! haha! I'm going to need it!

Just a quick update on us, Andy is doing well and almost all the way healed, the stitches are starting to come out now. Rhys has another cold and his lone tooth is growing in nicely, from what we can see, he's still having a hard time letting us look at it. Jer is still on the job hunt, but had a recent epiphany that he wouldn't mind becoming a phlebotomist, so he applied to a couple of places. I am busy doing homework (I'm the one that's way behind) and doing normal every day stuff along with calling responsibilities. I have a part time job opportunity coming up, hopefully, so keep us in your prayers for that one! The photo biz isn't going as well as I'd hoped, so I need to find other outlets in helping with bringing in income that are flexible.

Spring Into FHE

2011-03-25T03:39:00.000-04:00

Andy was so excited that he was able to get out some energy after being cooped up for a few days after the surgery. He was still really careful (because we were watching him so much), but still had a lot of fun playing Batman and looking for the bad guys and the bat signal!

Thought we'd try it out with both boys. They had fun, but the little thing was a little wobbly with some of the screws a little loose! Again, Rhys was unsure of everything.

Daddy and Rhys trying out the climbing toys!

Close up on Rhys!

"Look! The Bat Signal!!!"

My brave big boy going down the big curly slide! Once he got over his fears, we couldn't keep him off of it!

This picture just cracks me up! I didn't even mean to capture it like this, but somehow it turned out like he was terrified of this slide! To be perfectly honest, it was really slow, but he kept pretending it was part of the Batcave and that was a way out. I just happened to catching him yelling something about Joker coming and this is what I got!

We had a lot of fun for our FHE night at the park and so did the boys. With the weather changing from 70's as the high temps on this day to 30's to the high today, I'm glad we got out when we did! What fun we had as a family! We just recently purchased a park pass for the Indiana State Parks with some of our refund money, so we're going to try to make it a habit a couple of times a week to go over to Mounds State Park, which is like 5 minutes from where we live and go hiking and play together as a family. We thought this could be an inexpensive way to "get away" as a family this summer that didn't guzzle the gas or empty the wallet. Jared is excited about it because now he can go fishing at any park and get in with the pass. It's something I've dreamed about buying for years now, but never really could justify the cost, which is well under $40 for the whole entire year! Now that we're closer, it's stupid not to! I can't wait to start posting pictures from the parks now!

For The Record

2011-03-19T02:53:00.000-04:00

I wanted to quickly put that during tonight's middle of the night feeding for Rhys, I was checking his gums and guess what!?! He has officially broken through! Yay for Rhys! No wonder he was a grump all day yesterday!

2011-03-18T17:32:00.000-04:00

Just a day after surgery and my tough little guy and I were outside checking things out on a nice, warm day! He was able to wear shorts and sandals and a light jacket without freezing and I wore my sandals and no sweater/jacket! Oh, Spring, how I love thee!!! I love Spring because it's the season that leads up to my favorite season and that's Summer. It's so hard for me this year because this is the first year in about 4 that I won't be able to plant and cultivate any ground. It looks as if though, that we can do some stuff with our apartment grounds just outside our porch, so I am going to find out what it is I'm allowed to do and then do it! I don't do as well container gardening, so it's gonna be a bit rough on me. I might get some hanging edible plants like tomatoes and strawberries to hang off of the porch, but what I'm truly missing is what's happening right now to the ground when all of the Spring flowers start to poke up through the ground. That is truly my most favorite part of Spring. I want to drive to our last two houses just to see what might be poking up through the ground right now, but the new tenants might think that's a bit strange. The last house we were at I did some major transplanting, so I'm curious to see how much of it will be back and how much it's grown. I'm going to miss those plants this year!

Brave Boy

2011-03-16T21:32:00.000-04:00

Andy is modeling his "grandpa" pants for Jared and I. He was being so silly!

Rhys telling his big brother how much he loves him.

Andy had his surgery today and so well!! He got a little upset before he went back, but other than that he did amazing! He had received a balloon from Pappy beforehand and was able to take it back with him, which I really think helped him stay happy and calm. We had to wait longer in the pre-op room than we did for the operation and recovery combined I think. The doctor was running behind by an hour, so we got there at 11 and he didn't go to the OR until 1:30. We were out of the hospital and on our way home by about 5, so not too bad of a day. He was a lucky boy and had his very own fan club today. Of course Jared, myself and Rhys went, but he also had Pappy, Jammy, and Mom Mom with him. He had many prayers headed his way and you could tell it! Thanks for all of the support, love, faith and prayers today! We got home after everything and saw a nice surprise on our front door from the Reed (Travis and Rachel and kids) family; a balloon and chalk board tied to the door knob. We have the most amazing family! It's now about bed time around here (9:30 tonight) and we're all struggling to keep our eyes open and enjoying the silliness Andy is creating as a result of pain meds! Love that boy! He's a joy to us and it'd be so boring without him!

5 Years

2011-03-13T00:54:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday Andy!!!!

2011-03-13T00:07:00.000-05:00

After 10 hours of work, I finally finished Andy's superhero cake about an hour before everyone was supposed to arrive. We had a nice birthday party for him, a small one with just Mommy, Daddy, Rhys, Nana & Grandpa, and Jammy & Pappy. I feel so bad for him though because he's not feeling that well and had to take several breaks in between everything to "blow" his nose! He got a few cards in the mail with in the last week or so, so he had a nice amount of money adding up and got some more tonight along with a few toys and clothes and other things to help him go swimming this summer. He finally got his Nintendo DS tonight (thank goodness to stores who sell refurb models!) and a Scooby Doo game to go with it.

I thought I'd never get his cake done and it was a lot tougher than ones I'd done in the past because the fondant recipe I used this time around was a lot different than what I had used in the past. Needless to say, I'll never use this recipe again! It would've probably taken me at least 3 hours less than what it did because it kept getting too greasy or too dry when I used to counteract the two extremes. Even though it had it's lumps and bumps and cracks, Andy loved it though and that's all that mattered. I still can't believe my little preemie baby is now 5 years old and growing so big! I'll post a comparison to see the difference in his birthdays over the last 5 years!

Oh and by the way, just to show you where my mind was at tonight, I found a sack of stuff I forgot to give him today! It was found just on time too, a nice new pair of pajamas for bed and a book to read too! Now I'm off to bake cupcakes for my grandma's tomorrow!

Sick House

2011-03-11T02:06:00.000-05:00

I might have to take residence up at a family member's house or a local hotel in the next couple of nights to keep myself from getting really sick. Remember my post a couple of days ago about Rhys? Well, he's doing much better, but now Jared and Andy are really sick. The unfortunate thing is that Andy has his birthday tomorrow and we're supposed to be going to Chuck E Cheese. I don't think it's going to happen and that makes me so sad because we've been planning this for a couple of months now and I don't know when we'll be able to go because he has his surgery next week and we're going to have to wait a couple of weeks after that before he's even cleared to do certain things. Poor kid is getting gypped this year for his birthday. I'm still going to make him an awesome cake no matter what. He has requested a superhero cake with his name on it. So today, he and I went to the store to pick up some gel colors that I didn't already have for the fondant. I'm going to cover the cake in white fondant and write his name and age on the top of the cake with icing. The sides (circle cake) will have difference symbols of different superheroes like Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, etc. I just hope I can do all of those justice, hahaha get it, justice? (In case you don't have little ones or boys, there's the Justice League that has most of the famous superheroes associated with it, totally didn't mean to make a pun, it just happened!)

Turned Around To Find...

2011-03-10T00:42:00.000-05:00

The other day I was needing to do something really quickly, but didn't want to get Rhys' chair out, so I sat him down with Andy on the bean bag chair and this is what I turned around to find, Andy snuggling up with Rhys to watch Wonder Pets. I love these boys so much! Sorry about the blurriness of the pic, I only had a quick second to get a pic taken!

Poor Kid

2011-03-09T01:32:00.000-05:00

Well, I thought we were going to get out of the Winter season without too much sickness, really not much sickness at all, but it has struck hard this week. Rhys has been fussy and not feeling so well, which we mistakenly took for teething, for the last couple of weeks, but it all seemed to come to a head over the weekend. I took him to a med check clinic here in town and they said he just had a bad sinus infection. By late last night, he was coughing a high-pitched cough that made him turn purple without fail every time and was just completely miserable. The on call doctor told us to hold off until today for him to be seen and they requested a chest x-ray to check for pneumonia. Luckily everything came back okay and clear, but we'll have to watch him over the next couple of days. I'm just hoping that Andy doesn't get it because I don't know what they'll do if he's on meds next week for his surgery. But Rhys did have a couple of times today that he was acting like himself again, just briefly, but it was nice. In one instance he grabbed my glasses off my face and broke the nose piece off and the other instance was tonight when I was watching tv, he started to "dance" to the music in the commercials and when that stopped he looked down at me and gave me my first kiss on the cheek without me telling him to!! It was SO sweet! One thing that has been getting to me though with him lately is that he is loving my hair a lot more for some reason, so I'm constantly having him pull my hair or grab it. I'm afraid that by the time he's a year old I'll be totally bald!

This week is going to be a strange week for me and my little family. Andy turns 5 this week on Saturday. We're preparing for this physically (not quite there mentally for me, I just can't believe it), but he can't seem to make his mind up to what kind of cake he wants. One minute he's wanting Batman and the other minute is Superhero Squad and then tonight I saw some Toy Story 3 ideas too that I thought I'd mention! He's so like his Momma when it comes to making important decisions and to a soon to be 5 year old, the birthday cake is the most important part of a birthday! I'm thinking that if I do the latter, I might have to go buy the little action figures or just do fondant of the character symbols of Superhero Squad. Who knows, maybe I'll save myself the time this year (would be the very first time ever for him) and just have the cake made. Who knows. I'll keep ya'll posted!

Quick Update

2011-03-06T21:25:00.002-05:00

So, just really quickly before I forget. Andy read his first book tonight, mostly on his own! And, to add to this, we have another funny quote: (this is him talking about his candy that my Aunt gave him today) "No one better take my last two because I will be seriously angry about it." Where does he get this?! Too funny!

Rhys 8 Months

2011-03-05T11:15:00.000-05:00

These are some "test" shots that I took of Rhys the other day when I was making my backdrops. Isn't he just adorable?! I am late by 3 days in posting this, I hope you'll forgive me, but I've been really busy with school and such. He is 8 months old and is extremely active. I think I've mentioned before that he is crawling, but what I'm not sure that I've posted is that he is pulling himself up to stand now! Just the other day he was standing up next to the couch and love seat and he became brave and let go of the couch with one hand. In an instant he must have thought he was safe so he let go with his other hand and down he went! This kid is killing me! I can't believe he's so brave and moving as much as he does, Andy was still just cruising and crawling at one year!

Rhys is trying to get some teeth in we think, possibly it's just a cold, but we're taking him to the med check today to make sure there aren't any types of infections in his ears or whatever. He is becoming very vocal and reads us the right act whenever he chooses. He's good at yelling, which means I'm going to have a house full of loud talkers! He tries to climb on everything and into everything! He's getting more into the 9 to 12 months clothes and is close in a lot of ways to wearing 12 month clothes for good, which means I need to be getting into the storage unit to figure out where things are.

He's trying to play games with us now and tries to interact more from his perspective. He loves, and I mean LOVES his big brother. I think this is part of the reason he is moving as well as he is because he wants to follow Andy around. He loves his food and gets upset when we don't give it to him right away or at the pace he thinks he needs to be at. He finally got his nickname from Mom Mom this month, drum roll please........Smiley. This is because he smiles all of the time, well except when he wants his food. He is such a joy and his personality is really starting to come out each and every day.

Work To Avoid Work

2011-02-27T03:15:00.000-05:00

I am supposed to be working on homework. I am supposed to be getting caught up on all of the things I'm behind on, both scholarly and at home, but guess what? I'm not. I am working on my genealogy and it's paying off on the family history side. As I did research today, I found a lot of stuff out for my Dad that we didn't know, which is totally amazing. After he left this afternoon, I started working on some stuff for my Grandma Davis (Mom Mom) and couldn't stop myself! I found out that through her father, their line from what I can tell could have possibly been one of the original settlers in Maryland. The last person I found (without paying for a subscription for the international information) was born in 1695 in Maryland. I don't have anymore information past this. On my Grandpa Davis' (Boppie) side, through his mom, I hit the jackpot of information. Someone has done genealogy all the way back to 1180 in Germany for this side, it's crazy how much info is on there and I just followed the father's line on most of them, no telling the information that might be there on the mother's sides! I am loving this but I know I must take a break for a while before I can do this (school and dishes have to be done!).

So Sorry, Very Busy

2011-02-26T00:39:00.001-05:00

Just wanted to say really quickly that we are still alive and well. We have been incredibly busy lately. Andy went to the urologist this week and will be having his surgery on March 16th. It will be an outpatient procedure, but we'll be there at least half of the day. They said he'd be in pain for a couple of days (they're sending meds home with us) and then he just has to be careful for a couple of weeks, which means no bike riding or riding toys during this time. I hope his pain tolerance is higher than what it is on a daily basis for hangnails and small boo boos or else it's going to be a long recovery for all of us. Thank goodness I have Jer at home with me.

I still have yet to get a good pic of Rhys standing, and I know I definitely need one of him standing in his crib because it is so cute! He likes to peek over the railing at Andy as he's playing around. We're starting to deal with a little bit more spit up with him, but will be starting his acid blocker again at a higher dosage to see if it works. I sure hope it does, because we're tired of cleaning up spit up.

Jer is still looking for employment and chuggin' along with school work. He's been focusing on the cars lately since the cruiser decided to die on us and of course our "reliable" car is the buick. Funny story about the buick though. I entered a contest this last week on a popular CBS daily cooking show, and guess what? They called me back to have me take video, pictures, and interview about the car! I'm hoping it was all done correctly, I'm not quite sure what all they were looking for, but I hope it works! I hope we win! We could use a new car!

I'm still working on the photography business and doing school as well. I am getting more into my newest calling as a Stake Public Affairs Committee Member. It definitely is an interesting calling. In the past I've see others "do" the calling but never really do the calling if you know what I mean, so there really wasn't a lot of background in it. I'm really excited about it, I'm just hoping I do a good job with it. We are staying very busy with Andy's birthday coming up, the boys' doctors appointments, my business, school, church, job search, family, friends, and so on. Hope you're still hanging on and keeping up! Thanks for stopping by!

Better Late Than Never

2011-02-17T01:31:00.000-05:00

I forgot to post this picture the other day after I worked so hard to make it! This tells about how I spent my Valentine's Day in 2011. I just lounged around and spent time with the boys taking pictures. This was the first day that Rhys decided he was going to pull himself up completely by himself on something, which happened just as I was taking the pictures! He now does it all of the time and almost stood up completely on his own today (very, very wobbly, but he did it with Jer right behind him trying to climb up on his car seat). This little guy is probably going to be walking before he is even 10 months old, no joke! Back to V-day though, Andy and Rhys played a lot together with their gifts they gave each other and got from us, we bought Rhys a ball and Andy a new Batman coloring book and M&M toy fan. They each bought each other a stuffed animal, Andy picked out a puppy for Rhys and Rhys "picked out" a teddy bear for Andy. They both loved them! The boys surprised me with flowers and chocolate too, and trust me it was totally unexpected after Jer and I had decided we weren't going to get each other anything after our dinner out over the weekend! (I had to go and get him a chocolate bar a couple of days later to make up for it, I just couldn't stand it, good thing I had bought a card for him!) It was a great day for us as a family and we really enjoyed our time together.

Pulling Up

2011-02-12T23:32:00.001-05:00

This crazy kid can pull himself up now! Last night he pulled himself up to full standing position on a basket that Andy was sitting in! It's all downhill from here! First the crawling, next the cruising!

Funny Face

2011-02-11T01:36:00.000-05:00

Today I was looking up something really quickly on my computer and Andy says to me, "Momma, are there two of you?" When I looked up, this is what I saw! Never mind the blurry pictures though because I didn't even have time to focus! He's such a silly kid!

Snow Day 2011

2011-02-06T19:44:00.000-05:00

Today was a snow day and I don't think anyone had church in our Stake. So, we took advantage and had some fun as a family out in the snow! Jammy and Pappy even came to play! Jammy even helped Andy make a fortress wall.

I took this picture of Andy and it doesn't even look like the same kid!!! I couldn't believe this! He looks way older than he really is! I guess this is what he'll really look like in a few years! Boy, I'm in unbelief!

Andy wasn't really that into the sled, he barely even got in it and I hunted everywhere for one last night! Oh well, maybe next year when he and Rhys can both do it together.

Rhys seemed to have a good time outside, it was cold so he really didn't come out of his blanket a whole lot.

If I look like I'm dying in this picture, I was. Just before this we were running across the field of our courtyard to get to the other hill on the far end. I decided I'd run ahead and get to the bottom of the hill to take a pic of Jer pushing Andy down, but I didn't bother to check the ground before I started running and slipped and landed on my back. This last week with all of the snow, we had one day where we got a bunch of ice, like a couple of inches of ice and then the next day a few inches of snow. Little did I know that the snow was very soft and slid off of the ice very easily! Wow, did it hurt! Right now there's a couple of inches of snow, then 2-3 inches of hard ice, then about 4 inches of snow on top and we're supposed to get more snow tonight, tomorrow and last I heard on Wednesday too! I can't believe this weather. It's gonna get very cold too!

We tried to pull the boys in the sled, but with the blanket and how heavy Rhys was, Andy couldn't keep hold of him very well.

Just after his photo was taken, they both fell out of the sled! haha! I love my boys so much, they bring me so much joy!

POTD: Crazy Boys

2011-02-05T13:12:00.000-05:00

A picture says a thousand words, so I'm going to start my "picture of the day" instead of the "quote of the day" on this blog. It might be a group of pictures or just one. But here are today's. By the way, Andy has been working on his letters and words and figured out how to spell a couple of words on his own, like door! How fun!

Oh, and Rhys is on the move for real now! He is FAST, QUICK, and into EVERYTHING!

I am loving my new camera and taking awesome pics of my boys! I love them so much! I plan on taking a new picture of Jared now too just to see the difference.

Day 4 of J of L

2011-02-05T01:05:00.000-05:00

I had to share some of the images that I have taken today with my new camera! I am loving it! Today's theme was to photograph something they wear for the Joy of Love workshop I'm taking at Willette. I thought I'd share with you some of the pictures. I can't believe the difference!

Loving this Assignment!

2011-02-03T15:21:00.000-05:00

I'm doing the Joy of Love workshop and today's assignment is then and now. I decided to try to take a picture of Jared and I and I thought it turned out really nice for the first time every trying to set up a picture like this!

7 Months

2011-02-02T23:17:00.000-05:00

My baby is now 7 months old! I cannot believe it! He is changing so much now! Just to say a little about what he is doing now:
-Crawling, pretty quickly now and getting into everything. He has found the hallway now and tries to go down it if I or Jared walk out of the room for a second.
-Jibber-jabbering...all of the time
-Trying to sit up on his own, he's very close, he can do a lop-sided version holding himself up with one hand.
-Trying to get teeth in and chewing on EVERYTHING as seen in the photo above!
-Eating a very healthy amount of food each day and getting very excited over his food too!
-Laughing and smiling more, well actually all of the time (Mom Mom finally gave him his nickname: Smiley). When he's crying he's laughing too!
-Recently because of the snow, he's fascinated with watching everything outside.
-He's becoming a Momma's boy, big time.
-He is getting past the snuggle stage and is into the squirmy I don't want to lay down stage.

Just a quick note of something cute that I didn't get a picture of today but I wish I had. Andy and Rhys were both playing under the dining room table together. Andy had positioned all of the chairs around with coats and things on the back so it would be their castle or fortress or whatever and they were there for at least an hour or so. They had a lot of fun. Andy got really sad when I had to get Rhys out of there because he was frustrated and stuck and hungry. I can tell now that Andy is going to be teaching Rhys all of his profound 4 year old wisdom as quickly as he can, this could be good and bad. I love my boys so much!

FOR SALE: Camera and Lens

2011-02-02T13:29:00.000-05:00

I have a Canon Rebel XTi and a 18-55 Zoom Lens for sale. I'm asking $450 for it, let me know if you're interested.

If You're Interested...

2011-02-01T23:41:00.001-05:00

I'm participating in a workshop and will be posting my daily pictures for February at my photography blog: http://gingersnapphoto.blogspot.com/ I would love to hear what you think! Thanks!

YUM-O!

2011-01-31T21:52:00.000-05:00

So, for the product review I promised a while back! We decided to pick a Rachael Ray Bubble and Brown 3qt. Stoneware Baker from CSN Stores. I have to admit, this was probably one of the best buys that we've ever made! It's actually bigger and deeper than what you think. The first night we used it, we made enchiladas, well actually Jared made them. It was yummy! We absolutely LOVED this pan and everything baked up really nicely. We got it in green and it's so fun! I'm definitely going to buy more of these products from CSN stores! Thank you CSN for this opportunity to make cooking fun!

Movin' and a Shakin'

2011-01-24T20:52:00.000-05:00

Well, our little guy is starting to get moving! He can now crawl to wherever he wants to go and can sit up on his own. I can't believe how quickly time is moving! He's not even 7 months old and can do all of this! I think he's going to be walking before a year old, he's just wanting to be able to get into the action with his big brother! He just started the trying to craw phase in the last couple of weeks, but as of yesterday, we were able to see him actually crawl and he tucked his leg under him and sat up. I couldn't believe it! Wow. Look out world, here he comes!

I Asked For It And I Got It!

2011-01-22T03:14:00.001-05:00

So, you know that contest that I won a few days ago to Clickin Mom's (which by the way if you decide you want a membership, please say you heard about them from me!)? Well, I'm now obsessed. I've learned so much! I decided to post some of my seniors that I've shot over the last 4 years on a critiquing page, and I asked them to not hold back. Well, I got what I asked for and was ripped apart. I mean majorly ripped apart! It's actually a bit discouraging to me and now I'm re-thinking my relaunch date. I'm just so not sure of things right now. I just wish I knew what to do. One person said because of the lens that I use, I shouldn't even be charging right now and that I should take some time to focus on my style and practice more. I just don't know what to say, or do for that matter. I knew I needed work, but had no idea I was that bad! Sorry to vent, I am just heart broken right now.

I WON!!!

2011-01-17T08:44:00.001-05:00

I entered this contest last week at MCP Actions thinking I wouldn't have a shot, but guess what?!!!! I WON!!!! Do you know what this means? I'm going to learn a lot more from being a part of ClickIn Moms to better serve you!!! Get on over to MCP Actions and ClickIn Moms show them some love!

P.S. You might have noticed a change in the blog yet again, but I've decided to take down all pricing at this point since I haven't quite gotten all of the kinks worked out, I plan to have a lot more information up soon for you all to look at! Thanks again for being patient!

What Else I've Been Doing...

2011-01-17T03:59:00.001-05:00

I've been trying to get my business up and running again. I know I think I said last Fall that I didn't want to have my business anymore, but earlier this month I got a burst of creativity and decided that I really wanted to do it again, so I'm relaunching under a new name, Gingersnap Photography. I am obsessed right now with getting all of the details worked out, which is bad because I just finished the first week back in my education courses, if you know what I mean. I can't get on the computer anymore without looking for vendors for various products, designers, labs, etc. I think I have things all worked out and then I find something else I liked better.

It's definitely harder this time around than it was 4 years ago when I launched Kim Heath Photography. Once I get all of the details ironed out, you'll know right away and I apologize now for driving you crazy about everything if I start to ramble on and on about the business and "shop talk" (I just can't help it!). I'm almost down to the last few details and I'm working on pricing as well. I have a friend who is going to design my logo at an incredibly low price. I hope to have everything ready to go by the end of February. That being said, I need some help from you! On February 12th, I want to do a modeling shoot of some couples, really just two. If you're interested email me at kimberlyrheath@gmail.com letting me know. Keep in mind this is going to be an outdoor session, probably cold and possibly snowy. I'm willing to shoot in it if you are willing to pose for me. (Mom & Debbie, I know you'll both read this, if you guys are at all willing to do this, you are the first ones on the list!) Thanks guys!

P.S. In the mean time, if you have a chance, head over to Facebook and check out my page.

Product Review Coming Soon!!

2011-01-14T20:37:00.000-05:00

If you remember the giveaway that a did a while back with CSN stores, then you're going to love what's in store soon! They have asked me to review one of their products! While you're waiting, checkout their All Modern site where they have everything from modern duvet covers to kids and baby items! Keep checking back to see the awesome product I'm going to review!

Love Notes

2011-01-14T00:30:00.000-05:00

Andy came into the living room before bed tonight and asked me how to spell "I Love You" and so I told him and this was my gift for doing so. I love these little love notes! This one is my most favorite of all times that he's ever made for me! I can't believe how well he's starting to write! He's not even 5 yet and he's already writing this well! Am I crazy in thinking this is REALLY good for a 4 year old?

What I've Been Doing...

2011-01-09T02:10:00.000-05:00

Genealogy, I am doing it, my genealogy....Yeah, well I'm trying anyway. I have finally found some more people in the family, distant relatives who we can speak to on the Melchi side, my Dad's Mom's side and we're going to be sharing a ton of stuff on the family page on facebook. I have started doing my Mom's Mom's side as well, so I am keeping might busy with it. I just have to remember to pace myself with it, but it's very addicting! If ya want to see it more in detail, click on the pic and it should open it full size. We're stuck at Jacob Melchi at the top, and as far as we know, we know nothing about where he came from.

Watashi no Uchi Desu

Long Overdue

18 Months...First Day of Nursery

My Little Lego Man

Merry Christmas!!

Ward Christmas Party

Art Appreciate Day

Kindergarten Picture

Just If You're Curious

Good Morning!!

Little Booger

'Tis the Season

The Number Three

The Big Brother

16 Months

I Love Email!

A Spooktacular Time

Other Work

Brotherly Love

Recent Work

Changes in Education

Snap To It

Preserving History

450: Little Man Walking

Playing Catch Up

New Word Of Day

First Day of School

Heaven Wraps

Little Heathens

Swim Time!

Mackinaw Day 3

Mackinaw Day 2

Mackinaw Day 1

Let's Play

Oreo Cookies Are Good!

Gator Riding!

Little Miss Ruby Jane

There will be a 4 Family Rummage Sale on 450 W (Dundee) this Friday and Saturday from 8-4. All proceeds go to 6 month old Ruby Jane who is in need of a liver transplant. If you are not able to make it, and would like to donate to this sweet little girl and her family, here is a link:

http://www.rubyjanetaylor.blog​spot.com/

If you need any info or directions, please let me know! Thank you so much in advance!!

Messy Eaters

The 4th of July 2011

Party for One

One Year

Best Brothers

Naked Napper

Texas Trip With Linds

Marley's 6th Birthday

Sleepover Time!

11 Months Old

Triple the Fun!!

Saving Money

Flaming Marshmallows Anyone?

Wilkins Temple Trip

Post-Easter Pics

Little Running Man!

10 Months

My 30th Birthday Party

Easter Weekend: A Few Pics

My Apologies

The Next Ten

Information and updates for the Mormon Temple in Indianapolis, Indiana

My Busy Boys!

I Love Spring!

Party For Two

End of Top 10

9 Months!

One Year

How I Spent My Day

I Got Served...

The Last 29 of 29

Oh Man, I'm Behind

Spring Into FHE

For The Record

Brave Boy

5 Years

Happy Birthday Andy!!!!

Sick House

Turned Around To Find...

Poor Kid

http://www.rubyjanetaylor.blogspot.com/