Me me me!

Happy Birthday to me!

Here's to 29 years of life!

(Can you see why I want a girl??? I was so dang cute!)

STROLLER GIVEAWAY!

Want a nice, new, FREE stroller??? Ashley, I know you do! :)

Go to I Never Grew Up; they are doing a giveaway for a Bumbleride double stroller. If I had income like Exxon Mobile, I would get his stroller.


Hurry! Giveaway ends 7pm MST!

It's a sickness

***WARNING***

This post contains graphic information. If you have a weak stomach, just skip it alltogether.

Yuck. The 24 hour flu has come and gone for our family. And make that right AFTER I just finished all the laundry! {still not sure if that's a blessing or a curse... maybe both?}


It all started Tuesday morning, when I got the boys out of their rooms, and found Einstein's delicious-looking and smelling vomit on the floor. Sweet. I was so thrilled, considering that last night's dinner included, red sphagetti sauce, red strawberries, and blue blueberries. Thus, our carpet became those colors in uneven lumps and splotches by his bedside. Gotta love it.

Good to know that I just so happen to know a great carpet cleaner (go check out Phoenix Industries, you won't regret it!), so I wasn't too terribly worried. A little FYI, though; red stains eventually do come out, but with extreme difficulty!

Anyway, seeing as Einstein had already dumped the contents of his stomach onto our floor and he was acting fine, I figured that he was okay. No fever, no lethargy, no other signs of lingering sickness. So we go about our day, and I promptly file the event to the back of my mind. Until I get barfed on THREE TIMES by Curly! (If you've read the previous post, you will note that Curly just had a Birthday. This also notes the first time that he has ever been sick. The funny thing is that the same thing happened to Einstein on his 1st Birthday as well. I hope this doesn't become a weird family tradition!) Same gross red/pink tint and marvelous smell. Except it's on me now. What I've always wanted for Christmas; thanks Santa Claus!

So Curly gets to bed early, for obvious reasons. He had an upset tummy, and me being the genious I am deduced that he got sick from his brother. I'm a fast one, I am.

I figure, disaster averted, we are all okay now. Ahem, not so!

Bryan and I had a million things to finish up that night. He got home way late (almost midnight) from school, and we had some business follow-ups to attend to. I was tired, and all I wanted to do was go to bed! At around 1:45, I got my wish. Until I heard a baby crying in the boys' room... oh no, here we go!

Bry and I both go in there just in time to find Einstein throwing up again. We both rush over, and me being the supermom-I-laugh-in-the-face-of-germs girl that I am, decide the best decision to make -in .0000021 seconds- is to catch his barf in my hand while Bryan grabs a barf bowl. And boy, we needed that barf bowl! My poor little guy had a HARD night; we camped out in the bathroom for hours of joyous merrymaking barfing.

It was SO not a fun night.

Happy Birthday Curly!

A year ago, you looked like this.

All wrinkly and exhausted and severely put out that we decided to wake you up to be born. How rude of us!

Then you decided to grow up on us, little by little, so your Birthday would catch us by surprise:

(4 months, 1st solid food)


(6 1/2 months, like father like son!)


(9 months, you and Lincoln up to no good)


(11 months, cooing with mommy)


Today, you looked like this.

Messy from Birthday cake, eager for more and matting it all over your gorgeous curls.


I can NOT believe that you are 1 today!

Happy birthday, little man! We love that you snuck your way into our family. You were not expected, but it is apparent that heavenly Father had a different plan than we did. Loving and accepting you was not hard at all. We love that you are sooooo happy and good natured. We love that you are the quintessential Gerber baby, and everybody tells us how adorable you are. I must admit, that even though I'm severely biased, I totally agree. We love that you love your brother and totally idolize him! We love that you are so quick and smart and super easy-going and into EVERYTHING! {Okay, maybe we're not too happy about that one.}

We love you!!!

Happy 1st, baby-cakes!

Love, Dad & Mom & Einstein

Hello, I've missed you!

Those of you who have absolutey NO spare time know how difficult it is to find time to attend the Temple. Our desire is there, but it is SO hard to get ourselves to this wonderful place! Not being able to go *whenever I wanted* has always been a struggle for me. Ever since I was able to go, I made an effort to attend once a week. Then as it always does, life happened. After the mission, life got even busier. You know, the whole marriage and kids for eternity thing. Yeah, I jumped on the bandwagon! :)

Bryan and I have made a goal this year to attend the temple at least once a month. We both were temple workers, so it holds a very big place in our hearts. We wish we could live there! Anyway, since we've made this goal, it has been pretty easy to keep! The heavens have literally opened as far as who would babysit our kids gladly, (I know a lot of people would, but I also know how tiring Lincoln can be, especially with people he doesn't know very well. He gets shy around his grandparents for goodness sake!) and for an extended amount of time. Traffic isn't heavy. It's been awesome.

We were able to go to the temple last Friday (yeah, I'm a little slow to post this. Like I said; LIFE!). It was perfect! Oh Temple, how I've missed you! I am so glad that we were blessed to attend last week. There's nothing like a JAM-PACKED session. It was so cool. There was seriously NO EMPTY SEAT in the entire room. I love the feeling of peace and comfort you recieve, the inspiration, the answers to prayers, all of that yummy spiritual goodness. I'm excited to keep this goal alive! In fact, I challenge all of you to do the same! It is totally worth it. Really, if Bryan and I can go together (who has two day jobs and goes to school full time at night, and I have all day and night with kiddos/bills/keeping the fort down. Talk about a busy schedule these days!), you can go too. I DARE you! :)

Thank you

Brooke, for taking the time out of your day to give me some great advice. I'm so glad that we are friends and can relate to one another! You are wise beyond your years, and you really are a great mom! :) thankyouthankyouthankyou for our little cry-fest. It was great therapy.

For Anyone Interested

SVELTE

I've started a new blog all about my personal fitness goals. If you want to follow along and get fit with me this year, please feel free! Go here (or click above), and leave comments, get excited about taking care of yourself, and maybe I can inspire a few people while I get healthier.

Ummm... Christmas Cards???

Yeah, so you remember when I said our Christmas Cards would be New Years cards? Well, that's not happening either. So I'm going to stop beating myself up over it and just say that 2008 wasn't a stellar year anyway (for reals), so why send a card about it? I'll break it down:



January- Orion was born, best labor EVER. Seriously.
February- Fuzzy. PPD in a major way.
March- Still feeling out of whack. Our business partner skips out on us.
April- Taxes, BLECH! Business partner's wife thinks I did taxes wrong and accuses me of some not very nice things. (We went to a CPA specializing in partnerships, and I did them perfectly thankyouverymuch!)
May- Crap, still crazy with baby weirdness. I get called to nursery.
June- Crap. I feel normal now. Busy cleaning carpets, more crap.
July- Yet more crap. I think there was a Legoland trip in there somewhere.
August- I convince Bryan to go back to school, I found a school for him to go to, and we tour the campus. AWESOME.
September- Bryan starts school; LOVES it.
October- Lincoln turns 2.
November- Residual crap from being crapped on back in March. Oh, the drama! (Honestly, how much could one little family be crapped on in one year???)
December- Bryan turns 28, Christmas.

2009- Hopefully less crap, hopefully more fun stuff, and hopefully much less stress!



I did learn about hope and prayer and trust and faith a whole lot last year. I thought I knew about those things, but when Heavenly Father truly puts you through the refiners fire, you begin to realize what you are truly made of. Bryan and I have weathered the storm of 2008 together. We've been able to rely and lean on one another. There of course were times when we didn't rely on each other. Those times really seemed dismal. But we are getting through everything together, and we are just a little stronger now because of past experiences.



I didn't mean for this post to be a bummer, but that's honestly how 2008 was! We didn't want it to be, but that's life. So to lighten things up a bit, here's a cute family photo:

New year, New way of life

I'm losing 30 pounds.

There. I've said it, and written it for the world to see.

Now I am responsible for it.

In six months you will see a slimmer, healthier me.

If Bryan works at YMCA, why have I not taken advantage of their FREE membership, which includes a FREE Personal Trainer Program???

Because I am lazy, and that's that.

No. More. Excuses.

WEIGHT LOSS GOALS:

• drop 2 pant sizes
• get awesome Madonna-like toned arms
• lose 30 lbs in six months
• strengthen and tone down my core

I'm losing 30 pounds.

And if I end up losing 40, or even 50, poor me.

It's time to put myself on my list of priorities.

(And it would be cool if you supported me by NOT posting nice but enabling comments like "you are perfect the way you are" or "you don't need to lose weight", etc. Because I do. And I would like it to be gone { buh bye } this year. Thanks!)

In the classified's

WANTED:

New best friend to take the place of previous best friend (who is moving to Japan!)

Must be fun, outgoing, silly, and must like {love} my crazy kids.

Must live within a 2-7 mile radius of my home.

Must be able to make and share funny inside jokes, create a meaningful history, and not move away, dangit!

Must be willing to come run mundane errands, laugh a lot, cry some, have great conversation, and go dumpster diving when necessary (not kidding).

Must be willing to accept the occasional phone call at 2am.

Must be okay with my lazy habits, and overlook minor flaws.

Having a husband that gets along with my own is a plus.

Must be willing to go to Monster Jam (yes, so white trash, but awesome) every January.

Must be okay with coming over 'just because'.

Time and effort will be compensated through reciprocation.

I will be accepting applications as early as January 8, 2009.

(Pictures aren't in any order)

Remember how that waiter was totally hitting on us? lol, good times!

My best friend is moving to JAPAN! Her husband has (Navy) orders to be stationed in Misawa Japan. They will be leaving in a few days! I've known about this for quite some time, but I haven't really thought about it too much because it is just so hard! I really don't know what I will do without her around. I feel like I am at a great loss. I will miss her dearly.

Monster Jam rocks! I look mad, but really I was super cold! (Bryan took the picture, that's why he's missing)

So Sam, here's to our fun Vegas trips (remember the Walmart in Pahrump drained my car battery? HA!), ranting on and on about you-know-who, the laughs, the tears, the crazy in-laws, the loooong walks on Twin Oaks, the babies, the migraines, the husbands, "Just let yourself be loved", "I swear he wasn't gay", "I see my phone on the bottom of the dumpster!", the boys we've loved, the men we married, the women we've become. I'm so happy that you are having this amazing experience, and that you and Mikey-poo will grow so much closer together, even closer than you are now. The selfish part of me is very sad to see you go. You will be gone for a while! I don't want to make you cry. Well, maybe I do, because crying is okay. You know I'm gonna cry. If I cry over commercials these days, you know I'm gonna shed a few over you moving to the East!

Aren't those you-know-who's glasses? When you-know-who came to visit you? And conveniently 'left these sunglasses'? hahahahahahaha!

Hollywood trip; my first away from kids! Do you remember how mad Bryan was? He thought we would be gone for and hour or something? I was like HELLO! I need a break! Lincoln's all yours! I think I was preggo here with O and we didn't know yet. Ah, the memories!

Yeah, bad pic of your wedding. Oh well! And oh my, my dress was so TIGHT, I would only wear a corset while being almost 4 months pregnant for YOU, babe! :)

New Years Eve party 2005- was it here that we were avoiding Randy and Colin? Anyway, I remember it being a blast! Remember the Ice Skating?

And you can't forget our little daycare endeavor! Wow, that was interesting... but we survived!

O did not like you very much for a few days after this. But then again, he is my little drama king!

Going away party, the 'unzipped' version. LOL! What a fun night!

buh-donk-a-donk player piece

(And for everyone's enjoyment, I obviously can't set my camera to take pictures on a timer after 1 in the morning, it's just too much for my brain!)

There are so many memories that one little blog won't list everything. You know I love you, girl. You can not be replaced. Enjoy your 3 years in Japan, and you know I'm only a phone call away, even if it's at 2am!