All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth.

Okay, before you all freak out and ask me how I lost a tooth, I didn't lose a tooth. I have a rapid palatal expander that is widening the roof of my mouth. I started the Friday before Thanksgiving (with a surgery to re separate the bones since as an adult they are fused) and this is how much I've cranked it. I'm actually finished with the cranking part and I get my braces on at the end of January. Yay!! Although I look like I'm twelve and from Alabama the consensus is that I look more like my sister Anne. (Mostly because of the widening in my face.) What do you think?

Here's Anne



and me before.

Does anyone have a Singer?

I'm currently working on a sewing project that requires the use of a special foot. I've found someone with said foot but I can't find a machine that fits it. It's a Singer foot but must fit an older model. Does anyone have an older model Singer sewing machine that they'd be willing to let me come use? I'd love you tons. :)

Santa

Aiden apparently had a lot he needed to tell Santa. (I don't know what he said.)


Liam was not sure about him...


...and ultimately decided he didn't like Santa. :)

New Mom

Yesterday Aiden was having a tantrum because I wouldn't buy him a donut after we exercised. He told me that he wanted a new mom. I told him to go stand in front of the Rec Center and see if any of the moms would take him home with them. He contemplated that for a few seconds, started to get back out of the car but then looked at me with a smile and got back in the car. I guess he decided that I wasn't so bad after all. :)

Come What May, and Love It

"The way we react to adversity can be a major factor in how happy and successful we can be in life." -Elder Wirthlin


Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin passed away yesterday and I don't know if any of you had the chance to listen to or read the talk he gave in this last general conference but it was so good. It was from the Saturday afternoon session and I remember listening to it and feeling like I needed to absorb every last bit of what he said. It is such a helpful talk in dealing with adversity and that learning from our difficulties makes us stronger and happier in the long run. If you haven't read it I highly recommend it and I've even included a link to it here.
It's pretty funny too. :)

Put my turkey in the blender.

Last week I had some oral surgery done. Some bones in the top of my mouth had to be cut (It really sounds so much worse than it is) but as a result I'm not allowed to chew for six weeks. So please eat some turkey in honor of me tomorrow, I'll be sticking to the mashed potatoes. Happy Thanksgiving!

$1.67

I just bought gas and it was $1.67 a gallon. I thought that was blog worthy. When gas was around $4 it was nearly $120 to fill up my car, today it was around $40. My wallet breathed a sigh of relief.

I don't drink Dr. Pepper but...

I saw this on Yahoo! News, pretty funny.

Dr Pepper to deliver on its free-soda promise

LOS ANGELES – Dr Pepper is making good on its promise of free soda now that the release of Guns N' Roses' "Chinese Democracy" is a reality.

The soft-drink maker said in March that it would give a free soda to everyone in America if the album dropped in 2008. "Chinese Democracy," infamously delayed since recording began in 1994, goes on sale Sunday.

"We never thought this day would come," Tony Jacobs, Dr Pepper's vice president of marketing, said in a statement. "But now that it's here, all we can say is: The Dr Pepper's on us."

Beginning Sunday at 12:01 a.m., coupons for a free 20-ounce soda will be available for 24 hours on Dr Pepper's Web site. They'll be honored until Feb. 28.

Dr Pepper is owned by Dr Pepper Snapple Group, Inc.

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It's Official.

I'm no longer considered to be in my mid twenties. I'm twenty-seven and now officially in my late twenties. I have survived the big day (well I guess there is still an hour and half left but I think I can make it.) Let's face it, I wasn't exactly looking forward to this birthday. Twenty-six was not really what I expected it to be. If someone had told me where I would be when I was turning twenty-seven I would have told them that was crazy talk. Twenty-six wasn't all bad though. The first half was actually quite good. My little miracle baby was born in May when I was exactly 26 1/2 years old. Today he is exactly six months old. And thanks to the wonderful friends and family in my life I actually had a very nice birthday. (I'll have to blog more about the festivities once I have all the pictures :) I've felt so special. Thanks everyone. I guess I'll accept to being one step closer to thirty. :)

You can't change your birthday.

Yesterday Aiden got very upset with me when I told him that he couldn't change his birthday (he wanted his to be in November). He said it wasn't fair and I told him that no one can change their birthday, it's the day you were born, it's already happened so you can't change it. He wasn't convinced.

I'm outnumbered!

When I took on my new roll as a single mom, I had these visions of what it will be like when they are both sick. Two little ones throwing up at the same time while I try to catch it in bowls or aim them towards the toilet. How could I do it for both at the same time? I'm sure a lot of parents feel this way when they have three children. Well with winter settling in on us we have also begun the season of sickness. The week before Halloween Aiden was getting a bit of a cold. He went to bed feeling a little stuffy so I turned on the humidifier and rubbed a little Vicks on him and he went right to sleep. A little after midnight he started coughing that horrible barking cough and was crying because it hurt. Well this startled Liam so he woke up very upset as well. Aiden was having a difficult time breathing and was getting very upset. (This happens every year around this time ever since he was sick with RSV and pneumonia when he was two) Usually Travis would hold him and get him to calm down and then he would be able to breathe a little better. This time around I'm on my own and there are two, so I've got a baby screaming in one arm and Aiden freaking out in the other. Luckily Aiden calmed down when I put him in the tub so I could get Liam calmed down and back to sleep. Even when Aiden had calmed down though he was really struggling to breathe. With every breath his chest would sink in. I knew this was really bad for babies, but I wasn't sure if it was less serious for older children. So what do I do? I called my mom. She wasn't sure either but she came right over for a second opinion. She agreed with me that I should take him to the ER and she would stay with Liam. At the hospital they gave him some steroids and a breathing treatment. We had to stay the rest of the night until about seven in the morning, until his breathing had improved. It was serious and I was glad that I didn't let the fear of overreacting keep me from bringing him in. The crazy thing is that it's just they way he reacts to a cold and they said he could go to school the next day. It took a few days for Aiden to get over the grumpiness of a sleepless night but other than that he recovered so much faster than he usually does with this kind of thing. I think the breathing treatment made a huge difference. I must thank my mom for coming over in the middle of the night. I guess the job of mother never ends. :) I wouldn't trade it for the world though. Today Aiden has the stomach flu and Liam is teething or coming down with something. Either way, neither he nor I have gotten much sleep over those last three days. It's exhausting and never ending but like I said I wouldn't trade it for anything. It's the hardest and best job in the world. It offers the greatest rewards. I'm learning to cherish all of the little moments I have with my children, even the throwing up ones. :) They are only small for a short time. (And it's all about the attitude right?)

Oh, and I must tell the funniest story about Aiden. My dad recently had knee replacement surgery and had to stay in a rehab/care facility. Well that facility happens to be on the road to the hospital. When I was driving Aiden to the ER that night, as soon as I turned on to that road, he pipes up in his raspy, barely can speak voice, "I can't go to the old people one."

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! The festivities are over but I haven't finished blogging about all of them yet. :) First of all can I just say that the weather has been awesome. It is usually so cold for Halloween and to have temperatures in the seventies has been lovely. I'll warn you. This post is REALLY long and has LOTS of pictures. I just wanted to get everything Halloween in. Who wants to blog about Halloween in November? :)
(No, the dogs aren't mine. They are Emily and Josh's but I just thought they looked so cute in their costumes.)



Carving Pumpkins
We went to the pumpkin patch and I let Aiden pick out his own pumpkin. He, of course, picked a really big one. We carved them the other night and they turned out pretty cute. Aiden started out wanting his to be this pirate pattern we had, but after we figured out that it was too difficult he changed his to be the beginnings of a pirate with some added art of a Sharpie.


He wanted to see if this pumpkin was bigger than he was.


Extra concentration requires the tongue. :)




Can you see the pirate?




Making Cookies
Recently I've really enjoyed decorating sugar cookies for each of the holidays. I'll be honest, in the past I've just bought the kit made by the bakery at our local grocery store. This year I couldn't find it, so I decided to make them myself. They turned out really good too. I don't even like icing and I couldn't get enough of it. Aiden was a big helper too. It was fun.







Halloween Party
I had a good time just hanging out with old friends. There were some great costumes too.


Aiden and Jo being pirates. (That's really what they were going for)


Scott and Erika, I love this shirt.


Ang, Jo and princess Ali


Hayley as a Super Big Gulp. Great costume.


When Aiden saw my costume he told me I looked like a scary clown.


Kellie's awesome Rainbow Brite.


Angela the witch with Ali the angry pumpkin. (Still cute even when she's mad :)


Cutest Indian Jones ever!




City Halloween Party
I took Aiden and his cousin Meg to our city's Halloween party. They had a great time playing all of the games and winning prizes. Aiden's favorite prize was the vampire teeth.



Trick-Or-Treating
While Grandma and Grandpa held down the fort, we took the kids out to trick-or-treat.


Aiden LOVES his cousins, so we went around in their neighborhood.(Plus their neighborhood hands out good stuff :)



Wow, I think that might be my longest post ever. Now I'm caught up with all things Halloween. I should have put something really important at the end to see if anyone actually made it to this point. :)

Lil' Pumpkins

Ang and I have been enjoying doing a lot of Fall photo shoots. I have had the pumpkin idea in my head since Aiden was a baby, but Aiden was WAY too big to do this with him in October the year he was born. They turned out so cute. Thanks Ang for being such a good photo buddy. (and for being a good normal buddy as well :)


He really just wanted to eat the pumpkin.


This is how Liam really felt about the pumpkin.


Aiden decided that he needed to get a picture with the pumpkins too.


My little pumpkin.


Two little pumpkin friends. :)


Hmmm...I think I may have overused the word pumpkin in this post. Let's just say it one more time to make sure. Pumpkin. :)

Haunted Gingerbread House

A few weeks ago Aiden and I made this Halloween themed gingerbread house. It was pretty fun to get to do that more than once a year. Aiden thought it was awesome and he especially like licking the icing off the knives. I think our end result is neat-o even though we did have some issues with the roof staying on. (Those dang gum balls were a bit heavy.)

Bubble Brain

A few weeks ago I played this game with some friends. You have to fill in the thought bubble and then everyone guesses who said what. Well here is my own version of "Bubble Brain." What's your best thought?

I should be sleeping.

So I got tagged. I thought it could be fun so I started filling it out. I decided about half way through that it was kind of hard but I made it through. :) Just keep in mind that sometimes I try to be funny and I'm not very good at it. :)

8 TV shows I enjoy watching when I have time and would like to chill:

1. The Office
2. The Soup
3. So you think you can dance
4. Chuck
5. Project Runway
6. American Idol
7. America's next top model (They have cool photo shoots)
8. Saturday Night Live

8 Things that happened yesterday:

1. Relieved some aggression with kick boxing to some remixed 80's music (although some of that aggression may have been caused by the remixed 80's music.)
2. Took a shower (yes this is an accomplishment with two small children)
3. Went to the ATM to get cash to buy pumpkins, realized I had left my card at home so I had to drive all the way back home to get the card and then all the way back to the bank again. I'm an airhead.
4. Took Aiden to pick out some pumpkins at the pumpkin patch. (Which was actually just a parking lot full of pumpkins but we got some BIG ones)
5. Did a Halloween pumpkin photo shoot with Liam and Ali.
6. Made a new croc-pot recipe for dinner that was really easy, healthy and pretty good. Yay!
7. Met my neighbor for the first time. (I know it's pretty pathetic that I haven't met any of my neighbors until now, they've lived there since June)
8. Played HULK SMASH with Aiden, he won.

8 Things I am looking forward to:

1. The Halloween party at the Rec Center
2. Taking Aiden trick-or-treating
3. Visiting with more of my old roomies on Monday.
4. Aerobics class tomorrow.
5. That time in your life when nothing goes wrong. I know it's coming right?
6. The birth of my new niece.
7. Going back to school.
8. My next photo shoot.

8 Things I love about Fall:

1. The colors
2. Sweaters
3. Fall family pictures!
4. My Birthday
5. Halloween
6. Carving Pumpkins
7. Aiden's excitement over all things Halloween
8. Haunted Houses

8 Things on my wish list:

1. A new car that gets better gas mileage and doesn't scream soccer mom. :)
2. A cinnamon bun.
3. A new smile, (I entered the smile makeover contest on Good Things Utah but I guess mine wasn't bad enough)
4. A husband.
5. Another bathroom
6. The new Canon 5D (It does video! What every single mom needs :)
7. A fence
8. To have more patience.

8 people I am tagging:
(But I really don't blame you if you don't do it :)

1. Anne
2. Bonnie
3. Angela
4. Leslie
5. Erika B
6. Ashley
7. Angela
8. Hayley

Weekend Getaways!

I've had the luxury of getting a break from reality for two weekends in a row! First I went with the Bone clan to Midway for a nice little break. We stayed in this really nice condo and just enjoyed hanging out. It was nice and when it snowed it felt just like Christmas.

Last weekend I went on a girls/kids trip with Leslie to sunny St. George. We packed our four kids in her minivan and headed down to visit our old roomies Annaca and Aubree. We stayed at Annaca's mom's house which is awesome, it felt like we were staying at a resort. We had a nice time just being mellow. I enjoyed just hanging out and catching up. It's strange how with some people you can just pick up where you left off. Poor Travis (Annaca's husband) was in hiding most of the weekend with all of the girl talk. What a good sport. Thanks Annaca for a relaxing trip, sorry if we kind of crashed your break. Here are a few highlights from our trip.

We went to a splash park that Aiden LOVED. It was pretty neat. I guess there are a few around town and they are free for you to just come and hang out.

Typical boy.


Ruffle bums. Sadie and Bizzy had the cutest little suits with these ruffle bums. I was following them around trying to get pictures of their bums and I think the girls thought it was a little strange. :)



Sadie is the sweetest little girl. As we were getting ready to leave (and taking a few pictures together) she started doing all of her poses. I thought this one was particularly cute.


We went swimming of course since it's St. George, but it was still October so we did it in the hot tub. :)


Here's an unusual shot of Leslie, Annaca and me. Too bad we didn't think of taking one when Aubs was there. We had to have Sadie take it so it's from a child's perspective. Don't even ask me what Les is doing in this picture.:)