New hair and lovin' it.

This whole blog thing. I love it and I hate it. Mostly love it because it's fun, hate it because it makes me feel underaccomplished. I make myself feel so neglectful that I haven't published in a week. But I won't won't won't feel that way anymore. Release the stress---- there it goes. mm. Now I can finally eat my junk food again. Nothing beats a bowl of popcorn and a Mountain Dew. Well, maybe two bowls of popcorn. They're mini-bags, ok?? Geez.

So someone told me today that I don't look old enough to have two kids. THANK YOU. People that say that should win the lottery. Either that, or they have moms and know how much it means for a woman to hear she looks young. Can't believe I'm at the age where I actually start worrying about that!!

The girls and I are going to Florida next week. Jake will join us on Friday, and his sister will be married in the Orlando temple on Saturday. We're excited. I LOVE Florida. Except there is nothing worse than going to a warm location in the dead of winter. I mean, really. Pluck me from 10 degree weather and put me on the beach and I MIGHT shave my legs, definitely don't have a tan, and look sickly next to every single other Floridian. Half of Jake's family are Floridians. I am going to have to burn the heck out of my skin leading up to the day of the wedding- red is better than white.

Sidenote, went blonde again and plan to continue in that direction. Keeping the brounette brain, just changing the hair. Ha ha ha just kiddin. I shriek at the thought of posting a huge blaring photo of my face, but hey, everyone knows what I look like already, so whatever. Just focus on the hair.

Funny babies

I was laughing so hard I had tears. TEARS!!! Thanks to my sister Hannah for sending this to me.

Gideon leaves!

I had to throw this one in of Ruby... maybe it's just me, but that chunk of chocolate muffin on her bottom lip looks like the most delicious thing in the world. Yummy.

Below is a sequence of kissing scenes starring our missionary, Gideon, and his two lovely and very precocious neices.

Below is my brother, Gideon, who went into the MTC to serve an LDS mission. He will be gone for two years! Going to miss ya Gid. Doesn't he look so tough? He was nervous I think.

We are absolute idiots, really. I think we look like we're going to prom together. He's going to come back all grown up. I will miss listening to Nickel Creek over and over and over with my bro. He's the only one I know (besides Jared) that can actually sing Chris Thile's mandolin solos. Amazing.

From left to right: Sean, Hannah, Baby Kayla, Gideon, Me, Jared, and my cousin Camille. 'Bout 20 degrees out.

Let's try this again

Our house is under contract again! Another offer came through this weekend after the home was only back on the market for a couple of weeks. The offer is even better than the previous one was, so we are really happy. We love the house, but it's too expensive at this point, so it's a relief to have it sold. We are set to move on February 19. I am SO SICK of moving. Not really sick of moving, as much as sick of unpacking. It's horrible. The worst part of unpacking is all the hodgepodge containers that the odds and ends get thrown into and then you can't find anything- like the toilet plunger, nightstand lamp, things like that.

So that's the news for now. I am getting so excited for our trip to Florida in February! I am dying for Spring... I can almost smell it coming.

Jobs and goals

I guess I just needed a blast from the past, little Ruby. This picture was taken around this time last year. Jake's mom is a really great photographer, I don't know what I would do without her.

So. I got an at-home job doing email customer support for H&R Block. It's temporary, just until April, but it's really great money and I can work while the kids are screaming and running around! I will be working really early in the morning, but Jake got a later shift at work, starting at 1pm, so he will be running the house in the mornings while I am upstairs on the computer (this is what I normally try to have happen, but now I officially have to be on the computer, so to me it's more money and a grand excuse). I think I overheard him say something to Grace like, "Gracie, we are going to make pancakes every day and go to Toys R Us!!" Ya.. we'll see how long that lasts!!

Well, we have lived in our new house for a week. It's a lot nicer than the one we lived in before, but we are selling this one still. We'll see what kind of offers we get and go from there. Now that we only own one house, things are a lot simpler.

My brother Gideon left to go home for 2 weeks before his mission! I already miss ya, Gid! He'll be going to the MTC on Jan 24th and to Atlanta sometime after that.

I am going to start a goal list for 2007. I will try my best to achieve all of them. I think I'll start it on the right-hand column. Here goes nothin'.

New Year's Eve

We got some money for Christmas, so we thought we would have an exciting New Year's Eve by booking a room at the Hilton in Salt Lake and watching the fireworks out the 10th story window at midnight... and watch CABLE TV for a night! I envisioned Jake and I, with arms around eachother and city lights on our faces, gazing out the window at the early hours of 2007... glancing back at our beautiful girls sleeping peacefully on the bed next to ours. What really happened is that Ruby started doing a whine/cry (which is ETERNAL and never stops) around 11 p.m... Gracie and Daddy fell asleep around then and moody Ruby and I rang in the New Year together, watching CNN and listening to the fireworks. It was a lovely night. Until 4:30 a.m. when Ruby woke up again (I blame it on teeth, sinus infection, earache, tummy ache... who really knows?). After finally going back to sleep, Jake with Ruby in one bed and Me with Grace in the other queen bed, at promptly 7:30 a.m. sharp, Grace peed the bed and everyone laying in it. Which was me and her. The whining again commenced and the whole family was up by then. A LOVELY morning!!!

I am being sarcastic, but really, we had a great time. It was so nice to be 'away', and we really do have so many things to be grateful for.

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS: 1. Be a better wife and mother (the specifics of which I will keep confidential :) 2. Help achieve our financial goals for 2007. And last but not least... 3. For heaven's sake, keep blogging!!!!!

Christmas 2006

"New Gasses"
Sugar. The best present.


Jake woke up Grace on Christmas morning and she very literally told him groggily, "Daddy, I'm still tired!"

"I recall last night somebody saying something about Santa, but WOW."

Now those are some sexy legs.

Just a little bit of baby fat, no biggie.

Gorgeous Grace.

New gasses, kitty, sweater, what else does a girl need?

Gracie and I in the kitchen cooking some pumpkin chocolate chip bread.

I hope with all my heart that everyone had a great Christmas! All of our love to you.

Joy to the World

I love this picture, and I'm sure we all needed a laugh. The new house contract fell through, we are dissapointed but saw it coming since the buyer's condo was not selling. They will probably make a fresh offer after the new year if they can get their condo under contract. Meanwhile, our house is back on the market and we lowered the price $5k, so we'll see where that goes. We are still set to go to close on January 12th on the house we currently live in.

Happy holidays to everyone!! We have made this our year of setting goals and we will put our goals under the tree as gifts to ourselves (I know, cheesy). Writing goals down will make them 100% more achievable. As a sidenote, I don't know about anyone else, but my feet and legs haven't been warm since September. Maybe I should make "getting warm" one of my goals...I just can't handle the cold, and for the past few years I have been either pregnant or nursing during the winter and have been MUCH warmer. But this year I am back to my old self and my old self is COLD. And I can't sit by the heater all day, I've got other things to do... like watch that the heating bill doesn't skyrocket. Kisses and hugs to everyone, we do miss or family and friends that can't be near us.

Good News

Both houses are now under contract! For those who didn't know, we were selling the home we live in as well as the spec home. We are so relieved to have them both under contract! Nothing is completely certain until we sign the closing documents, but it's nice to be closer than ever and we're welcoming any back-up offers. We are set to close on the home we live in on January 15th. So we will move on or before then. We don't really know where, probably an apartment until we can get things figured out... like where we want to live, etc.

This life of ours is crazy.

Jake passed his series 7 (Stock broker) test on Friday, and we're really happy about that... now he has to study for his series 63 (State Broker test). He should be taking that in the next 6 weeks.
Well, that's all the news for now. As a sidenote, we are freezing our behinds off in Utah. Inversion has come and hasn't gone away. Inversion is when the air is super cold and hangs in the valley and is exacerbated by the moisture from the lake... basically, really cold, unhealthy air for weeks on end. No snow, no wind, no rain, just cold. It's a party I tell you.

Just some thoughts

I had gone to bed at 12:30 a.m. last night. At 4:30 a.m. my brainfog finally allowed me to spring half an eyelid open. I heard my baby crying from her crib in the next room. My body was like lead, seriously, and the bad attitude came FLOODING toward me. Couldn't escape it. She's 21 months old, do the math, that's almost TWO. And she keeps waking up. Why? WHY? So I turned my feet toward the floor, let my down comforter fall from my shoulder and shivered. So I had to get these legs to lift my body up to walk. There, I did it.. I am running on momentum only. If I stopped walking I would probably just fall back in bed.

Why do kids wake up? Why can't I get ONE full night's sleep without someone wetting the bed, needing a drink, needing to go potty, coming into our bed.. just one night and I would be good for another year! By this time I am opening my bedroom door. I struggle into the dark hallway and my eyes are literally glued shut with sleep. It's the best I can do, so I will just have to remember the distance to open the girl's bedroom door. My hand pushed it open and the crying was razoring my ears. It was so dark and so cold and I was SO TIRED.

In the moment before I bent down to pick up Ruby I thought about those long sleepful nights when I was pregnant with Grace. No school, just full time work and that feeling that one gets when waking up at noon. AHHH. Then the peaceful breakfast that follows. A little email, a little news, orange juice, cereal, toast, donut, whatever happened to be there.. and we used to have to much food because we were married and both working and man were we rich back then.

My mind starts to focus back to the problem at hand. I think maybe I can just back out of the room and she will stop crying, go back to sleep, and I can snuggle back in my covers. No such luck. I reach down to pick her up, glancing over my shoulder at Grace to make sure Ruby's cries aren't waking her....... What? Ruby is burning up! She has a fever, my baby girl has a fever!!! Poor thing! I better rub my eyes so I can wake up and fix her a cup of juice!! Let's get her out of her hot jammies and a cold cloth for her forehead! Let me just run to the bathroom to get the Tylenol! She might need me to stay up all night which would be completely fine! And that's how it is being a mother.