Scrabble: Part 2

See, what Stac has failed to mention is the part where almost as fast as I said something about it being an insect (No, I don't know how/where I came up with that) I corrected myself with the correct definition of the word. Sorry, sheesh!



Someone ask Stac what the score of Scrabble ended up being when we decided we were done with it.........................

Scrabble

Part of our conversation while playing scrabble tonight.

S: I could spell zygote.

N: Oh yeah, isn't a zygote a baby insect?

S: umm...not quite but close honey.

On my mind

I have a lot of things on my mind today. I am just in one of those moods. What better way to get it all out than to blog? Here are some things that I have been thinking about.

1. My Parents.

Today is their 31st wedding anniversary. I talked to my dad today and asked him what he got for my mom. He told me he got her an innertube and new tire for her wheel barrow. I laughed. I wonder what it would be like to be married for 31 years. That is a really long time. I guess when you have been married that long, it is ok to give the person a wheel barrow tire because you know that is what will make them happy. It makes me happy that my parents are happy together still. I want to be like that when I have been married that long. I have always looked up to my parents. I don't remember very many times when I saw my mom and dad fight. I know they did and maybe they just fought in their bedroom so that we didn't have to see that. That was always reassuring. My parents have been and are still affectionate towards each other and I appreciate that. President David O. Mckay once said, "The best thing a father can do for his children is to let them see that he loves their mother." I agree and I feel so blessed to have seen that with my parents. Thanks mom and dad for being the best parents you knew how to be and for loving each other. I love you both. Congratulations on making it 31 years.

2. My little guy Gussy

I am SO in love with this boy!! I have always loved him but lately I have really fallen in love with him. I love his smell, I love his messy hair, I love his squishy legs, I love his slobbery loves, I love love love everything about this boy! It is amazing to me that we are sent these perfect little spirits and they rely on us for everything. They trust us and love us and we are responsible for teaching and raising them. The more I think about it, the more I realize the seriousness of our role as parents.

3. I am missing Zoee

Zoee is visiting my mom and dad in Utah. I miss her more this trip than I ever have. I miss her running around. I miss her willingness to help. I miss the funny things she says. I miss her laugh and her sweet kisses. I have felt so blessed lately to have two healthy beautiful children and I am forever grateful for both of them. I can't wait to see Zoee again and hold her and squeeze her. I am ok with her being up there because I know she is having fun. I know she is having the time of her life and that makes it ok that I miss her. She is happiest when she is there and that makes me happy. I do miss her like crazy though.

4. The world coming to an end.

I think I might be a little more nervous about the world coming to an end than I should be. I guess it's true what they say that if we are prepared we shall not fear. Well, I am not prepared so I am scared. I can't say that I am ready or that I am ok with it. I am scared. I am scared that things are getting so expensive that we soon won't be able to make it. I am scared that we will run out of food and the food that is left will be too hard to get. I guess there is a solution to this worry. Get prepared. The leaders of the church have been telling us for years to do it and they aren't saying so much about it now. Now is the time that we should have been preparing for . I am just a little bit nervous.

5. My calling

I know I will be released from my calling soon. It is bitter sweet. I don't think I am ready to be done with it. I was just starting to feel comfortable and ok with it. I guess that is when the Lord decides to shake things up a bit. It is all about learning and growing but I was fine where I was at. I want to stay!

6. Humbled.

My sister in law told me about a blog of one of her friends. This person has suffered a serious loss and as I was reading it, I realized how blessed I am and how much I take things for granted. I need to stop worrying so much. I need to spend more time enjoying the little things. I need to stop saying, "if only we had this" or "if only I could do this." That is a wast of time.

7. Helpless.

My older brother is going to be a dad soon. I do not have the best relationship with him due to things that have happened in the past. I am a stubborn one and have held a grudge against him for quite some time. I want to help the baby. I want to do something for this new nephew of mine but I don't know what to do. I tried to contact my brother to ask him but that didn't go so well. It took a lot to lower my pride and contact him and when I didn't get the response I thought I should I felt sad and helpless. Mostly for the baby.

So I have some pretty deep things on my mind. Most of my thinking is good, like my kids and my parents and who will DeAnna pick on the Bachelorette. Life is sometimes tricky but luckily we have a lot of good to get us by.

I've decided...

...that one of the best things in the world is being able to look into your kids eyes and continuously appreciate what a huge blessing they are in your life, how beautiful [you think] they are (cause we all know that there are people out the whose kids are just flat out ugly, yet they swear they're the cutest little things in the world. Nope, sorry to say it, but not every kid in the world is as adorable their parents think they are. anywho,) and how much fun it can be just to have them around and watch them learn and grow and all the mushy stuff that comes with it. Early mornings suck, spit-up and barf sucks, poopy diapers suck, constant house chaos due to refusal to put one thing away before another one is gotten out sucks, tripping, stubbing toes and nearly falling down stairs due to said chaos being left on the stairs sucks, never ending laundry sucks, the idea that we'll never get to be fully rested/sleep in like we'd like to for at least 10-12 years down the road sucks (and that timer gets reset with every new kid that comes along,) and being able to do nothing while they're sick sucks. Sometimes having kids sucks.

But here's what I started to say before that. For every spit-up, puke, poop, tantrum, slober, laundry load, stain, fall, toy trip, and fight, are the best moments and helps a parent realize what life really is about. I love love love it when I can just lay down and hold Gus on my chest and kiss him till I'm sure he's sick and tired of it. Or having Zoee be so excited when I come home from work and run to give me a hug or sit on my lap while I drive to go park the car. Their eyes say it all. I love my kids.

Oh yeah, I love this lady too. And she loves the kids too. I couldn't have done it without her! Love you Stac!!

Cutest bum in the world!

I was letting Gus air out the other day and I just couldn't get enough of his little bum! It is adorable!

I was snapping pictures when I noticed the sheet under him start to change color...good thing it was on Nate's side of the bed!

Dejunking

I was in the throwing away mood a few weeks ago and decided to clean out some of Zoee's old clothes. I haven't really made that big of a dent in what she has stored in her closet but I have to start somewhere!

Some of her baby shoes!
l



She has so much stuff. I have about 7 bins in her closet full of clothes for the first 2 years. It's crazy. I am ebaying some of it and I posted some of it on Craiglist. It will be good to get rid of some of it and make a little extra money. That girl just had way too much stuff!!

Our version of camping

We went camping last week up at Mt. Charleston with Nate's family. We went last year but ended up coming home early because it was SO cold. This year was much better. It was really nice during the days and the nights weren't too bad. The kids did great and we had a really fun time. GREAT campfire conversation this time!





All the kids-minus Zoee and Ellie. They were sleeping.

Jer looking really good!! She wouldn't let us get a picture of her from the front but she looked sexy.

Doug and Greg making that delicious dinner!

Both kids wanted to be held. Zoee wanted to be zipped up in my jacket. Gus just wanted to pull Zoee's hair.

Nate and Zoee sitting around the campfire.


It was a good time. I left feeling very thankful for my parents and had a new appreciation for them and for all they did for us so we would have a good childhood growing up. I thought many times how camping as a kid used to be so fun and I realized how much stress and work it is on the parents. My parents used to take us camping all the time and to do lots of fun stuff outside and I appreciate it more now because it is HARD work!!

Some days I am tired of being a mom. Lets be honest.

I am tired of the throw up. I am tired of the poopy diapers. I am tired of the whining. I am tired of the drool. I am tired of having a 3 year old shadow and a baby attached to my hip. I am tired of the errand running. I am tired of the fits. I am tired of having everything I say repeated by my little shadow. I am tired of a messy house. I am tired of the Disney channel. I am tired of doing the dishes. I am tired of the constant crying. I am just tired.

Today is one of those days.

Happy Anniversary

One more year down...many more to come.



Nate realizing he is stuck with me.
I am glad you are mine forever.
I love you.

What's been going on?

So here is the post I promised a few days ago. Sorry it has taken me so long. My mom made me promise I would post pictures tonight so I have to do it before I go to bed.

First off is some pictures of Gus the first time he tried cereal. It was cute and he did much better than I thought he would. Since introducing cereal, we have started him on carrots and will try peas tomorrow. I like this stage of the baby raising. It is fun to try new things and see what they like and don't like. So far so good on the carrots. We will see how he like peas.

This is getting ready for his first bite...look how excited he is!

First bite. He is not sure what to do now.




Ok, so my parents came down for Zoee's birthday. We had a really great time. I seriously love when she gets to spend time with them because she is so happy. It was so good to have them here. Crazy enough, we could not find our camera the entire weekend. We looked every where for it but could not find it so we didn't get any pictures of the weekend or the birthday party. My parents got some good ones on their camera so I will post them when they email them to me. (hurry Dad) She loves the color green and kept saying she wanted a green party so we had an entire green birthday complete with green presents, green balloons, green streamers, a green cake...inside and out and even green silly string. She got some new clothes, a swim toy, a kids digital camera, some markers and a Leap Frog learning game thing. She loves to play with our camera and I hate to let her because I don't want it to get broken so my parents got her one of her very own. It is so cute and she loves taking pictures with it. I will have to post some of those later. She loves the Leap Frog and it keeps her entertained for awhile which is nice when I need to get things done. We had a Garrard party the week before for all the cousins born in May. That was a fun party too. She got some coloring and painting books from Sarah and Erin and a train set from Grandma and Grandpa Garrard. She LOVES the train set and plays with it for hours. This girl loves trains and she was super excited when she got her own track.



So that is pretty much it for the birthday celebrations. Fun. Glad it's over for our family now for a year.

Next thing I was going to post about is our recent decision to start looking for houses. We felt like it was a good time to start looking since Nate now has a stable income (no more tips! Yay!) and the housing market seems to be good right now for buyers. We have spent a few afternoons with a realtor looking at some houses but in the end of it all we feel like it is probably not the best time for us to buy. We want to get some money saved so we can have a down payment and we want to get the little debt that we have paid off to free up some more monthly money. We did find a house that we totally loved and I wanted it so bad but it already had an accepted offer on it and in order for us to get it, we would have had to offer about 20,000 more than what they were asking and we didn't think we could have done that so we didn't. I was bumbed for a day or so but I got over it. I know that when it is time for us to buy, we will find a house that will be the best for our family.

Hmmm, lets see what else is going on...Nate is still doing great at work. He seems to be less stressed during this part of the training than during the academy. It is nice because he works 4 tens so he has Fridays off to be with us. It is good.

I had a first today. Today was my first day ever getting pulled over in Las Vegas. I had just left Sarah and Tyler's house after lunch and was heading home. I had Gus with me and I was listening to my music pretty loud and singing as I drove down the road. Something about warm weather and loud music makes me want to drive fast. I never listen to music in the car but today I did and even though it was church music I was singing at the top of my lungs and must have not noticed that I was going 50 in a 35. I should have known because there are always cops sitting in the same spot and I usually go the speed limit because I know they sit there. Well, he pulled me over and asked me for all my stuff. I knew I didn't have my drivers license. I told him I didn't have it and he asked me why. I told him I had just come from church and I said "who takes their wallet to church?" Probably not the best thing to say. He asked me for my insurance and registration. I gave him the only insurance card I had in my car which expired in Janurary. I felt so stupid. Not only did I not have my ID but I didn't have a current insurance card. My registration was ok but that was it. I told him I was so sorry for speeding and he was joking around with me. I told him that my husband would be driving by any minute and was going to kill me when he saw me pulled over. (Nate had driven seperate) I told him I normally don't speed because my dad and husband are cops and I know it is wrong to speed. That caught his attention and he asked where they worked. I told him just as I could see Nate coming up the road. He motioned for Nate to pull over and get out of the car. He asked Nate if he worked for North town and Nate said yes, that he worked in corrections. The nice officer told me to slow down and be safe. He let me go. Geez, that was a close one. I still feel really bad that I didn't have any of my stuff with me. I need to be a better law abiding citizen.

So that pretty much sums things up for our little family. Here are a few more pictures for Greema and Popits.