All Grown Up!

so brad and i have been married almost 6 years and we finally found a "grown-up" bathroom theme that we agree on and like! so we painted and found cheap shelves and baskets on sale! and voila! a real grown up bathroom!

Here comes Santa Clause right down Santa Clause Lane!!!

At our ward Christmas Party there was a special visitor! sarahbeth and tj were so excited to see Jolly Old Saint Nick! Tj was so excited that sarahbeth was trying to hold him back, which turned out to be a pretty cute picture!

we've been elfed!

hey everyone! hope your christmas season is starting off on the right foot! check this out for some fun laughs! http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1195577992

Happy Holidays

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, my mom, sister, her husband and son came out and we went down to the riverwalk to try our hand at a few big family pictures. Let me just say it was REALLY REALLY COLD! It was hard to get everyone to cooperate too... as you can tell!

Happy Birthday TJ!

I can't believe my boy is two! (well technically not until friday, but seeing how his birthday is the day after Thanksgiving, we are celebrating the week before) TJ's Ultrasound Picture in Aufust of 2005 A few Hospital pics of TJ when he was born... man i miss that hospital! November 23rd, 2205 8 lbs 11 oz 20 1/2 inches long A cute on of TJ in April of 2006 (5 months old) 10 Months old and my Aunt's wedding Here is The BIRTHDAY BOY! a big 2!! I planned a fun birthday party for this year with a dump truck theme. I made a couple of chocolate cakes with chocolate chips baked in, then frosted and cut them up into "bricks". Then piled them in a dump wagon layered with chocolate pudding and crushed oreos... sprinkled with gummy worms! TJ had fun with Sarahbeth and Ali while playing with his new spiderman motorcycle!!! he loves it! brad hopes it will help him lean towards the masculine side... (he loves to play dress up with his sister... what can i say????)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just love this season! The smells, the colors and decorations.... the food! this thanksgiving my mom, sister, and nephew ashton are coming to our house from az! sarahbeth and tj made some turkey letters to send him to show how excited they are for him to come next week! they also made a little video to say happy thanksgiving everyone! enjoy!

To Cloth Or Not To Cloth...

So my friend jen and i have been talking about using cloth diapers. I've been looking a lot on line at sites like drybees.com and links from there. I know Shanda uses them and likes them, but i'm wondering what anyone else thinks.

halloween slide show!

Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween Everyone! I hope everyone's was as fun as ours! This year for halloween, our friend Jamison wanted to be a Jedi, Luke Skywalker, so we thought it would be fun to have sarahbeth be princess Leai and tj be Darth Vadar! So Annalie showed me how to make a wig and then we had a day of making costumes at her house. so this is my very first homemade halloween costume!!! aren't you proud of me!?! anyways, there are a lot of pictures because i couldn't decide on which ones to put up. hope you enjoy!!!!!!!!! Sarahbeth skinned her knee just before getting dressed, here she's showing us! This is the only one I could get of tj with the mask on, he doesn't stand still for nothin'! Ahh, the "family" is complete! tj, jamison, and sarahbeth, oops, i mean good ole' dv, luke and leai! okay, i can't seem to load anymore pics on this entry... stay tuned! p.s. see slide show above for more halloween fun!

Back pain!

I forgot how horrible the back pain is that i get with being pregnant! i get stuck and can't do anything and then become the movie mom (my kids don't seem to mind that part though) but i don't like it so much! just venting... nothing really important.

Precious moments

Yesterday after church we were just having some family fun... tj and brad got started in a tickling war... i love tj's laugh! it's one of my favorite sounds! brad would tickle him and then tj would say "Stop dad!" to catch his breath, then a moment later says "Again!" for more fun. when i pulled the camera out though, his first word was "cheese!" what a ham!

Here's another one with some more great laughs, i just couldn't resist! Enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

Our Church playgroup put on a halloween party for the kids yesterday complete with cookie decorating, a candy hunt in a "haunted hallway" (lights off in the overflow :-) and even musical chairs! For the actual halloween night, sarahbeth and tj will be princess leia and darth vadar with our friends the neves... Jamison will be the jedi luke skywalker... however annalie and i have yet to finish their costumes, so we improvised and pulled out the dress up clothes. TJ is an eight legged creature...aka a spider! Sarahbeth and Jamison getting ready for the halloween party! Sarahbeth was a devil girl, and Jamison was a victim of some kind of fight while his sister natalie dressed up in some scrubs and was a dr!

With all the cookies and candy, amy (another good friend) braved musical chairs with all the kids... 4 and under. after some of the older ones got the hang of it, it seemed to go ok, kinda crazy but in the end everyone was a winner!!! hooray!

All is Well!

Just wanted to let everyone who was worried and concerened for us that we DID find a new belgian waffle maker! ahhh, what a relief, i knew there were many who were biting their nails. But have no fear! all is well!

Tragedy Strikes!

So yesterday morning, I was making waffles for breakfast, and had three more to go when suddenly a loud pop from the back of the waffle maker makes me jump! and the little light goes off... so i figure maybe we blew a fuse, so i switch over to the other side of the kitchen and plug in the maker... a louder pop followed by sparks occur and i quickly unplugged it! so alas, we are now without a belgian waffle maker... amazingly it has lasted us almost 6 years! WOW... now that we've been married for a while, things are starting to go out... first my back, (pregnancy will do it every time:-) now the waffle maker. how long do microwaves last????

Calendar Time!

Usually, every morning, sarahbeth, tj and i do calendar time. it's a big poster board that folds in 2 places and we do the shape of the day on the bottom left, the color of the day on the top left, the weather on the top right, and the actual calendar in the middle. everything is velcroed on the board somehow so we can reuse and not lose! the kids love it, above the calendar it sais: today is _(weekday)_, _(month)_ _(date)_ 2007, Yesterday was Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007, and Tomorrow is ect... the kids have fun with the shapes and colors, and figuring out the weather each day, and then they especially love going over what the next few days hold in store for them!

our little artist

Yesterday at our friend's house, sarahbeth drew bart simpson... all by herself! sure it's not the greatest, but she's three and we are definately impressed by our little artist!

sheeps and spiders! oh my!

sarahbeth loves to draw on the chalkboard in the office, and since her first real drawing last december, she has come a long way. she loves to draw mice, flowers, her abc's, and today, she drew spiders and sheep!

a day at the park

So yesterday sarahbeth, tj and i spent the day with our friends, the neve's. they are soooo lucky, the have a yellow slide, (the words from sarahbeth) actually their apartment complex just finished building a brand new little playground that we got to play at with them. the first thing tj did was climb to the tallest slide and try and go down it, you know, the kind that is really really high and curves a ton. one of his little feet got stuck some where near the top though and he ended up upside down and bit the dirt at the bottom. it was a while before he went down ANY of the slides after that. but, over all the kids had sooooooooooo much fun, it was hard convincing them to go back inside.

Sarahbeth the raconteur

This is Sarahbeth regaling us with her new favorite story. While this story may sound familiar, you will come to find that this particular version has found a way to capture the essential elements of the story and draw them out for an extended period. She is a natural at building suspense for her audience.

EVIL MUTANT SQUIRREL ATTACK OF DEATH!

Great story! True story written by a friend of a friend, a man who works for a newspaper in Kansas. The Squirrel of DeathI never dreamed slowly cruising on my motorcycle through a residential neighborhood could be so incredibly dangerous! Little did I suspect. I was on Brice Street - a very nice neighborhood with perfect lawns and slow traffic. As I passed an oncoming car, a brown furry missile shot out from under it and tumbled to a stop immediately in front of me. It was a squirrel, and must have been trying to run across the road when it encountered the car. I really was not going very fast, but there was no time to brake or avoid it -- it was that close. I hate to run over animals, and I really hate it on a motorcycle, but a squirrel should pose no danger to me. I barely had time to brace for the impact. Animal lovers, never fear. Squirrels, I discovered, can take care of themselves! Inches before impact, the squirrel flipped to his feet. He was standing on his hind legs and facing my oncoming Valkyrie with steadfast resolve in his beady little eyes. His mouth opened, and at the last possible second, he screamed and leapt! I am pretty sure the scream was squirrel for, "Banzai!" or maybe, "Die you gravy-sucking, heathen scum!" The leap was nothing short of spectacular... He shot straight up, flew over my windshield, and impacted me squarely in the chest. Instantly, he set upon me. If I did not know better, I would have sworn he brought 20 of his little buddies along for the attack. Snarling, hissing, and tearing at my clothes, he was a frenzy of activity. As I was dressed only in a light T-shirt, summer riding gloves, and jeans this was a bit of a cause for concern. This furry little tornado was doing some damage! Picture a large man on a huge black and chrome cruiser, dressed in jeans, a T-shirt, and leather gloves, puttering at maybe 25 mph down a quiet residential street, and in the fight of his life with a squirrel. And losing. I grabbed for him with my left hand. After a few misses, I finally managed to snag his tail. With all my strength, I flung the evil rodent off to the left of the bike, almost running into the right curb as I recoiled from the throw. That should have done it. The matter should have ended right there. It really should have. The squirrel could have sailed into one of the pristinely kept yards and gone on about his business, and I could have headed home. No one would have been the wiser. But this was no ordinary squirrel This was not even an ordinary angry squirrel. This was an EVIL MUTANT ATTACK SQUIRREL OF DEATH! Somehow he caught my gloved finger with one of his little hands and, with the force of the throw, swung around and with a resounding thump and an amazing impact, he landed squarely on my BACK and resumed his rather antisocial and extremely distracting activities. He also managed to take my left glove with him! The situation was not improved. Not improved at all. His attacks were continuing, and now I could not reach him. I was startled, to say the least. The combination of the force of the throw, only having one hand (the throttle hand) on the handlebars, and my jerking back unfortunately put a healthy twist through my right hand and into the throttle. A healthy twist on the throttle of a Valkyrie can only have one result. TORQUE. This is what the Valkyrie is made for, and she is very, very good at it. The engine roared and the front wheel left the pavement. The squirrel screamed in anger.The Valkyrie screamed in ecstasy.I screamed in .. well. I just plain screamed. Now picture a large man on a huge black and chrome cruiser, dressed in jeans, a slightly squirrel-torn T-shirt, wearing only one leather glove, and roaring at maybe 50 mph and rapidly accelerating down a quiet residential street on one wheel, with a demonic squirrel of death on his back. The man and the squirrel are both screaming bloody murder. With the sudden acceleration I was forced to put my other hand back on the handlebars and try to get control of the bike.This was leaving the mutant squirrel to his own devices, but I really did not want to crash into somebody's tree, house, or parked car. Also, I had not yet figured out how to release the throttle.. my brain was just simply overloaded. I did manage to mash the back brake, but it had little effect against the massive power of the big cruiser. About this time the squirrel decided that I was not paying sufficient attention to this very serious battle (maybe he was an evil mutant NAZI attack squirrel of death), and he came around my neck and got INSIDE my full-face helmet with me. As the faceplate closed part way, he began hissing in my face. I am quite sure my screaming changed intensity. It had little effect on the squirrel, however. The RPMs on the Dragon maxed out (since I was not bothering with shifting at the moment), so her front end started to drop. Now picture a large man on a huge black and chrome cruiser, dressed in jeans, a very raggedly torn T-shirt, wearing only one leather glove, roaring at probably 80 mph, still on one wheel, with a large puffy squirrel's tail sticking out of the mostly closed full-face helmet. By now, the screams are probably getting a little hoarse. Finally I got the upper hand ... I managed to grab his tail again, pulled him out of my helmet, and slung him to the left as hard as I could. This time it worked ... sort-of. Spectacularly sort-of ...so to speak.Picture a new scene. You are a cop.You and your partner have pulled off on a quiet residential street and parked with your windows down to do some paperwork. Suddenly a large man on a huge black and chrome cruiser, dressed in jeans, a torn T-shirt flapping in the breeze, and wearing only one leather glove, moving at probably 80 mph on one wheel, and screaming bloody murder roars by, and with all his strength throws a live squirrel grenade directly into your police car. I heard screams. They weren't mine... I managed to get the big motorcycle under control and dropped the front wheel to the ground. I then used maximum braking and skidded to a stop in a cloud of tire smoke at the stop sign of a busy cross street. I would have returned to 'fess up (and to get my glove back). I really would have. Really...Except for two things. First, the cops did not seem interested or the slightest bit concerned about me at the moment. When I looked back, the doors on both sides of the patrol car were flung wide open. The cop from the passenger side was on his back, doing a crab walk into somebody's front yard, quickly moving away from the car. The cop who had been in the driver's seat was standing in the street, aiming a riot shotgun at his own police car. So, the cops were not interested in me. They often insist to "let the professionals handle it" anyway. That was one thing. The other?Well, I could clearly see shredded and flying pieces of foam and upholstery from the back seat. But I could also swear I saw the squirrel in the back window, shaking his little fist at me.That is one dangerous squirrel.And now he has a patrol car.A somewhat shredded patrol car .. but it was all his.I took a deep breath, turned on my turn-signal, made a gentle right turn off of Brice Street , and sedately left the neighborhood.I decided it was best to just buy myself a new pair of gloves. And a whole lot of Band-Aids

the after shots

I Lost It!!!

okay so the story goes that back in September i went to my aunts wedding weighing in right around 190 pounds (YIKES!) then i got to see the pictures in October, (double YIKES!)

i thought "wow, that cannot be me! do i really look like that????!!!!" and then i thought Something HAS to change, NOW! and so i cut out all juices and sodas and drank only water and 1 glass of skim milk per day. after i saw some results from that, i began to write down everything i ate, and after a couple of days realized that i was eating WAY too much. so i concsiously began to watch and plan what i ate. after that i lost some more weight, so i decided to exercise... oh no! i began with an exercise ball that came with a "map" of exercises to do with it. i also set up goals for myself if i exercised 5 days a week. for my two week goal, i got an exercise ball work out dvd (denise austin hit the core complete workout) (wonderful by the way :-) ) my 6 week goal was something that i can't remember, and then my 12 week goal was a pedicure. anyways, it worked... imagine that. And, as of mid may i now weigh 160 lbs and i just bought 2 pairs of size 10 pants!!! woo hoo! take a look and see!!!

well hello there!

hey everyone... so we're a little new to the blog thing... i've been a myspace addict for a little over a year now, and a facebook visitor for a couple months, but i always love visiting friends' pages on blogger. so here we are, brad, noel (pretty much i'll be the one maintaining) sarahbeth (3 years old and 1 month!) and tj (19 months old). hopefully we can get everything on here in a timely matter!