Food Storage Soup

I thought I would be domestic, smart, whatever I thought I was going to be and use some of my food storage to make soup for dinner. I am laughing as I write this. I had NO idea beans expand the amount that they do. I used three different dried beans, 1 lb ground beef, dried onion, garlic, salt, pepper, dried carrots, etc.... I ended up with a huge crock pot and a huge stock pot full and I am not sure it is done expanding. So needless to say we will be eating beans for weeks in a creative way. Poor Kevin!

Her Papa....

Olivia has a double ear infection with a high fever so she is once again sleeping on a mat on the floor next to me. We had gone to bed and at about 11:10 PM I feel my little Livey climbing up onto my bed so I roll over and she puts the phone in my face and says:

Olivia "I need to talk to my Papa!"
Mom "Papa is asleep we can't call him."
Olivia, crying "Please I need my Papa!"

Needless to say we called my dad and he sang a couple of songs to her on the phone. She then said:

Olivia "I love my Grammy"

We hung up with Olivia not saying anything to my dad and she said:

Olivia "I need to talk to my Papa again."

We finally calmed down enough and went to bed.

A Poem of Friendship

This is part of an email my cousin Megan sent me today... it is a poem that said "none of that sissy crap!" I happened to really like the poem so I thought I would share.

1. When you are sad --I will jump on the person who made you sad like a spider monkey jacked up on Mountain Dew!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2. When you are blue -- I will try to dislodge whatever is choking you.

3. When you smile -- I will know you are plotting something that I must be involved in.

4. When you're scared -- we will high tail it out of here.

5. When you are worried -- I will tell you horrible stories about how much worse it could be until you quit whining, ya big baby!!!!

6. When you are confused -- I will use little words.

7. When you are sick --Stay away from me until you are well again. I don't want whatever you have.

8. When you fall -- I'll pick you up and dust you off--

After I laugh my butt off!!

9. This is my oath...I pledge it to the end. 'Why?' you may ask -- because you are my FRIEND!

Little Star

Twinkle twinkle little star turned into......

Mom: "Oh, this is hot" (my hot chocolate)

Olivia: (singing) "Twinkle Twinkle Mommy's hot!"

What can I say.... I thought it was SO funny!

Church not at it's finest

I am not usually annoyed on Sundays. I love sleeping in with Kevin. I love the whole morning we have to get ready for church and spend time together doing nothing. However yesterday was not the best day. It started out OK.

The night before Olivia threw up. It was mostly mucus because she has been congested for a month now, off and on. So I was concerned about her when we went to bed. I wanted her to sleep in our room so I could monitor her breathing. She was weesing and having a hard time breathing. Needless to say I did not have the most sound sleep.

I was exciting because Elder Oaks was speaking to us for our stake conference. I was especially excited because we have decided that when we have a son we want to name him after Elder Oaks. After hearing him speak we KNOW we want to name him after him. He was so funny. I loved it.

However, we sat behind the rudest people. This old man his wife and a pregnant lady. Olivia is 2 for HEAVEN SAKES! She is a normal 2 year old. Sitting perfectly quiet for 2 hours is hard. Any little noise she made, cough, giggle, singing anything they would turn around and give us the nastiest crusties. I was so annoyed. It made me try harder to keep her quiet. We finally got up and left and sat outside. I wanted to say to the pregnant lady, "Don't worry you are just hormonal!" and to the old man, "You must have forgotten how it is to have a 2 year old or you might just have been a jerk then too!" Kevin told me I would be stooping to their level. However I could not help but give the stupid pregnant lady dirty looks back. I SUNK, sunk to her level.... OH WELL!

Kevin's Birthday

We Love being together...

Go Daddy Go....

Olivia was so happy being on their lap

The $30 cake from Baskin Robbins.... it was what he wanted!

Love Monkeys.... what better gift!

The world's best helper...

Kevin will never open his own presents again...

Daddy and Livy woke up to a party...

We celebrated Kevin's birthday by waking up to a decorated house. Olivia wanted to give her daddy balloons for his birthday. We went shopping for his presents and she kept saying that she wanted to get balloons for daddy... so we did. We started out by having pancakes for breakfast. Then Kevin went to work. We met daddy at Applebee's for lunch. He had steak and shrimp sooooo yummy. We waited for him to get home. Kevin wanted to go to a session at the temple for his birthday so we got a babysitter and we planned on doing that. However Olivia thought that it was her birthday too and she was devastated when we left. We both felt so bad we did initatories so we could come home faster and celebrate the rest of his birthday with her. She was SO happy when we finally got home. We decided that we would celebrate birthdays in the future at home with the family and we would go out on the weekend to celebrate with just us. We had a great night!

A tribute to my Kevin...

Kevin turned 37 years old. He is a wonderful dad, husband, friend and person. He makes everyone he comes in contact with a better person. People often think he is shy and quiet however they have not taken the time to get to know him. It always makes me laugh inside when people say that. My sister Kim says "if you want to laugh sit close to Kevin he always has a witty comment." A little not so known fact about Kevin..... his friends in Salt Lake told me he has a dance.... a funny dance that he is know for. He has only done it for me once but it is SO worth seeing. So any of you lucky folks who actually get to know him, he just may cut loose and show you.

Babysitting made fun...

It was supposed to be babysitting however it turned into a play date with her good friend Sophie...We are glad we know her.

The Children's Museum

Playing in the balls was SO fun!

I enjoyed the break and coloring...

She is her daddy's girl...

We need a cozy coupe

We spent a lot of time in the water

A lot of time

The Birds Nest

Ride um horsey or swan

Our Happy Girl!

Lotion makes her happy!

Not only do we pray together we sleep together...

We spent over a week in California over Christmas and little Livy got used to company at night. Needless to say ever since we came back from California she is afraid of the dark and needs to sleep in the same room as us. Unfortunately or fortunately we only have a queen size bed and three people is one to many. So she has found a bed on the floor on a mat next to me. She loves it! In fact there was a couple days that we got rid of it and she cried, "My bed, make my bed.... PLEASE." I know I should hold out and be strong, but I got used to her sleeping with us too and I miss her when she is not there. PATHETIC...

"My pink cheese!"

Olivia has decided that she likes the Garlic and Herb Light Laughing Cow cheese. She calls it "My pink cheese!" She was asking for a piece of cheese which I assumed was a piece of string cheese. When I pulled it out she said "NO, my pink cheese!" I had no idea she knew it was in there. Granted I am sure she only likes it because the package is pink. I said to here, "Livy you are not going to like this cheese." She replied, "I like my pink cheese."

Fun in the tent!

CHI.....

I am now the proud owner of a CHI. I have wanted one for a long time but never felt like spending over $100 for a hair product. Luckily I have a husband who loves me and didn't know what to get me for Christmas and I have a sister who finds the bargains!

Pictures at the Park

A picture with Grandma and Papa..... a lot of personality in this picture!

She was SO happy to be able to play on the bridge and not have to sit still.

Just sitting around waiting to take the next set of pictures.

As you can see taking pictures that day was NOT smooth sailing! To her credit she was starting to get sick.

It is not often that everyone can be together to get a family picture. I think it turned out pretty good considering how many people we had and babies. It is not great of everyone but pretty close.

Christmas at Grandma and Papa's

Aunt Melissa with quiet possibly the prettiest boy in the entire world. He is the best natured, most wonderful, huge baby!

You can see Pretty Gracie gets her smile from her mommy!

Our sweet Katie had a bit of an addiction this year, It was called "GRANDMA." She loved her Grandma Pammy. My mom was thrilled to finally have a grandchild that loves her.

The BEST Christmas gift this year goes to Chad.... his new wig from Jack, Josh and Kade. They must really love you!

Livey with her Aunt Lela....

Olivia, Kate and John enjoying Gracie's new Christmas present. Isn't that how it always is, someones toy is always more fun!

The two original men of the family.... Dad, where do you get those hats?

Uncle Tom's true self coming out with Gracie.

Aunt Kimmie Christmas favorite!

The boys anxious to get out of Grandma and Grandpa's room to open their presents..... They are just so serious.

This is a Christmas favorite......

I believe my brother-in-law Wes's comment was "Oh my gosh, your are so LAME!" We were sitting at breakfast and he had been talking to us for a little while when he finally realized that we were matching. I do believe Wes and Melissa have matching pajamas to ours, thanks to Mom and Dad. I also heard that Wes's are still in the original package two years later. We are lame...!

Who could want anything more then WUBZY! The cartoon of choice, however the doll scares her a bit.

A lot of people in a very small space... but who can complain when there are gifts in ever corner!

Christmas Eve at Uncle Chad and Aunt Lela's house

Here we all are... Some happy, some not! It was getting late and there were some who needed sleep. However we had so much fun playing some traditional games on Christmas Eve and eating some extremely delicious food that was not traditional and should be from now on. We shared Christmas memories thanks to my dad.

It has been so long since we have all been together. It was great to be together and be able to make memories that we can cherish for a life time. This is just my parents and siblings plus one baby.... Olivia's BABY GRACIE! She loves her cousins, especially the one who is the most like her beloved baby dolls.