James and THE DOG...

Well, we've been asked by some, "Where is a picture of James and Mandi?" We finally found one. Since James is typically tormenting Mandi and bitting her, it's really rare to see them both sitting still with each other. So here ya go.

TagEd- 8 Things

I'm joining the TagEd - Your it now! Here are the rules:
1) Post rules on your blog
2) Answer the six '8' items
3) Let each person know by leaving them a comment.

8 Favorite TV Shows:
1) The Office
2) CSI: Miami
3) Law and Order: SVU
4) Lost (but I am WAY behind on watching)
5) Painting with Bob Ross (I seriously work it into my schedule to watch! So relaxing and brilliant!)
6) Jay Leno
7) Still Standing
8) Two and a Half Men (it's pretty dirty but stinking hilarious!)
9) Nature shows (any of them really...)
10) Anything that keeps James entertained and not meddling for more than 10 minutes (Barney, Martha Speaks, Word Girl, Fetch with Ruff Ruffman, Cyberchase, etc.)

8 Things I did Yesterday:
1) Attended a baby shower for Andrew's cousin.
2) Attended a baby shower for another one of Andrew's cousins.
3) Bought a Dyson vacuum that I am in love with.
4) Went on a spending spree (make-up, a new rug, pens, a pencil holder...)
5) Read an awesome book I just bought called Your First Novel (yes, I AM a writer and I AM writing a novel... and it will be amazing!)
6) Had some AMAZING chicken and asparagus made by my wonderful husband for dinner.
7) Had a "girl's night" with my two sisters (pretty much we went to the ghetto mall VF and watched Melissa buy stuff , bought ice cream that we never ended up eating, and then fell asleep to King Kong. It sounds lame but was pretty fun).
8) Decorated some more for St. Patrick's Day.

8 Things I am Looking Forward To:
1) Warmer weather so James and I can party at the park all day.
2) Having another baby (whenever it decides it's finally ready to come--- no I am not pregnant... yet)
3) Finishing my knitting projects.
4) Winning Publisher's Clearing House (or other such something that will give me lots of money).
5) My trip to Disneyland with my family in March!
6) Publishing my book.
7) Finishing my Slim in 6 program without cheating.
8) Going to school as an English major and actually finishing it!

8 Favorite Restaurants:
1) Olive Garden
2) Johnny Carino's
3) Texas Roadhouse
4) Souper Salad
5) KFC (not a restaurant really but after working there in college I still crave the greasy, unhealthy food).
6) Noodles and Company
7) Panda Express (again not a restaurant but AMAZING)
8) Apollo Burger (to die for)

8 Things on my Wish List:
1) To get pregnant
2) To get out of debt completely
3) To get into a house
4) To get Andrew and I completely done with school
5) OK, I'll say it... a million dollars would be pretty sweet... this is a wish list
6) To be able to loose weight by thinking about it and in about a day or so...
7) My own office/craft room
8) A Honda Pilot or a Toyota Highlander.

8 People I Tag:
1) Holly
2) Savannah
3) Jonathan
4) Mariel
5) Melissa (seriously get a blog...)

Just One of Those Days

What a day! You know those days where nothing seems ok? When everything seems to fall to pieces and you feel completely helpless? I had one of those days today. In one sudden moment a happy Sunday turned... well... just BLAH. I found out today one of my major plans for my future had fallen through and things would not be progressing in my life as I had hoped they would. I don't exactly handle disappointment well and became rather emotional about it all... and my poor husband fell victim to that. We had a bit of a negative encounter before church today (which was sadly initiated by me and left me feeling a million times worse than I had been feeling in the first place). It was largely a miscommunication (on my part) and over something unimportant and since I was upset already I blew things way out of proportion. I felt bad about it just a few minutes after it had passed but was too proud (and annoyed) to admit fault and apologize.

Well, we went to church (we were attending my cousin's mission homecoming) and went to my Uncle's for the luncheon afterward. I was still feeling emotional and tired (which happens when you only had 5.5 hours of sleep the previous night) so we ditched out fairly early and went to my parents' house where James could play more easily, Andrew could change out of his church clothes and surf the internet, and I could catch a much needed nap. I slept for awhile and woke feeling as emotional as I had before I slept. We played games with my family (I lost horribly) and I went back to my cozy zone (curled on the couch with a comfy blanket). That was about the time I lost it (for the first time this evening). Trying to do so unnoticed by my family I started crying and couldn't stop. My family (mainly my mom, sisters, and James) tried to calm me. Embarrassed of being caught crying I forced myself to stop and pretend I was ok.

When I got home I lost it again. James kept blowing me kisses and trying to give me loves to make me feel better and my sweet husband (who I had been so wretched to earlier that day) kept trying to figure out ways to make me feel better. He cleaned the kitchen, did laundry, changed James' diaper, entertained James, offered to get me anything I could think of, even offered to give me a make-over (which I must admit would've been rather terrifying and humorous).

Like most hormonal females (yes, I was PMS-ing... alot) once I had got my dose of crying in I felt much better. I was still disappointed and still a bit sad but I had dumped my emotional garbage can and once again had space to handle the events of life.

This entry is mostly to publicly announce to Andrew that I was wrong. I know I was and I know I treated you horribly. I am SO sorry! It was also to let everyone know just how forgiving and wonderful my husband is and how wacky I can get. I really am a nice person but like anyone can have bad days. If you catch me on one of those days I am sorry! I try my hardest to not let my garbage rub off on anyone else.

Andrew- I love you more than anything and you mean the world to me. Thanks for keeping me laughing and for working so hard to support our family. XOXO!!!

A Day Out

Every January we have a warm up period in our weather here in Utah. Tempratures rise and our air gets more and more polluted. Yesterday was one of those warmer days and I decided to brave the horrible air quality outside and take James to the park. Since I had found some old bread the day before (while organizing our pantry) I decided to take him to Murray Park to play and feed the ducks. Since James ADORES his Uncle Robbie (who did not work yesterday and will soon be going on a mission for two years) he came too!

When we got to the park we didn't find too many ducks. We did, however, find gaggles of geese! James wasn't too sure about feeding them at first but rapidy caught on and started enjoying it. The initially cautious geese slowly gathered closer and closer until we were completely surrounded and there were even some geese eating out of our hands!

Once the bread ran out we headed for the park. On the way there we found a muskrat scurrying around on the grass. He froze as soon as we caught sight of him. He was HUGE!

The park was a riot. Since James was not walking before it started to cool off last fall, this was only his second or third trip to the park. He LOVED it! He kept squealing and giggling and running around. Thankfully everything was dry enough he didn't get completely soaked. He loved the slides (especially the big one he went down with Uncle Robbie over and over), the spinning cup thing (the last two pics in the slide show), running around at random, and attempting to make friends with the other kids at the park.

When I tried to get him to stop and have some picnic lunch he threw a fit. All I could get him to eat was apple juice, a few gummie fruit snacks, and a couple potato chips (talk about a meal of champs!)

All in all we were there for almost an hour and a half. James still was heartbroken when we left. Guess I'll have to watch the weather for more clear days when we can go to the park again!

PS- After all this excitement we ALL (yes, this includes Robbie and myself) went home and took a nap. Parks are tiring!

Random Family Pics

Everyone be very amazed. Getting a picture of Andrew is about as hard as photographing wild zebras in Utah and getting one with him facing the camera is even harder but I did it! This is my darling hubby with his hippy hair. Isn't he cute?

These next few pictures are of my biggest helper. James has decided he loves to clean with mommy (which means he steals all of my brooms, dusters, and mops and sits or stands directly in front of me so I can not get any cleaning done). We've found that the swiffer works best for him since it's small enough he can actually handle it. The mop and broom and still a bit to big. I'm sure that about the time he is actually able to really help cleaning he will have decided cleaning is no longer fun so I guess I should enjoy this while it lasts!

James is sure my buddy. I'm lucky to be able to be home with such a happy 1 year old every day. The conversations are usually one-sided (meaning either I am talking to James and he ignores me and keeps playing or he jabbers to me in some baby dialect I cannot understand). Luckily James is learning new words all the time. His current vocab list is: puppy (his favorite word), hi, mama, dada, baby, wawa (Aunt Laura), obbie (Uncle Robbie), Gama (Grandma), Gama (Grandpa- he hasn't quite figured out how to work in the p), mo (more- which is always doubled with a pointing finger and applies to anything he sees or wants), dit-do (thank you- he is very good at being grateful), bah (bonk- he says this anytime he falls or hits his head), no, and his latest word is bye which he loudly proclaims to anyone who puts on a jacket or coat or heads toward a door. My poor sister Melissa doesn't have a name easy enough for James to say so for the present she is nameless to James (Andrew is trying to convince James to call her Auntie Poop-poop... Melissa doesn't approve).

Christmas!

Christmas was awesome this year. Andrew and I were very grateful to have our own place to celebrate Christmas in this year (unlike last year when we were homeless). We spent Christmas Eve very busy (as usual). We started Christmas Eve off with going to my Damewood grandparent's house in Layton. Since Andrew had to work Christmas Eve we arrived in Layton around 3:00. We had a lovely time visiting my Dad's side of the family and we all got some fun presents. We then hurried to Andrew's parent's church where the Hillers werer meeting for their Christmas Eve get together. There we had still some more food and even more presents. James loved being able to run around the gym and play with his cousins! I was excited because I got to choose some pottery items that Andrew's mom had made that are now being proudly displayed in our home (and at Andrew's

desk at work). Thank you Holly! After the Hiller's party we went home and all had a lovely night's rest.

Christmas morning we wound up waking James up so we could do our own personal Christmas morning before we headed off to my parents to join in theirs. James was a little disgruntled at first but when he discovered he could touch the Christmas presents under the tree I had been telling him all season he couldn't he was pretty happy. He really liked the remote control truck he got and his new Little People toys. Andrew was excited with his gun safe and tools (sounds like the lamest Christmas imaginable to me though) and I was so happy to finally have some new and cute clothes and shoes!

Christmas at my parents was fun too. Still more presents, tons of great food, and more people to help me watch James. Although we usually go to Andrew's Hiller grandparent's house Christmas afternoon, Grandma Bonnie decided to cancel due to "bad" weather. When the weather wound up being far worse the day after Christmas when she had her get together she felt really bad. Andrew and I discovered first-hand just how bad the roads were the night of the 26th when we spun out of control on the freeway on our way home from Grandma Bonnie's. We covered all four lanes of traffic and spun around at least 4 or 5 times. Miraculously we didn't hit anything or anyone and were able to drive home moments after our "incident". Boy did it give us a scare though.

PICKLES!

James had his first pickle today. Since my crazy son likes to eat all sorts of things I hate (such as onions slices raw) I figured pickles would be one more thing to add to the list. Well, I was right. He loved them! They did, however, end up being a little more than he expected. He got the cutest bitter pucker! If you look from one picture to the next you can see his sour face form. I feed him pickles all the time now just to see him pucker!