Sami's dance moves

I came across this video of Sami the other day. She is about 2 1/2 years old and showing off some of her dance moves. It's kind of short but I thought it was pretty entertaining.

Let it snow

Well, as you can see we've had a little bit o' weather. Lot's of it. Portland has been basically shut down for almost 2 weeks. They just can't handle the snow here, it's kind of amusing. Although it hasn't been very amusing that UPS has been out of business also. They are currently holding my xbox 360 hostage. For almost 2 weeks! I'm going through withdrawls. So UPS is on my bad list. (Sorry Ian) Anyhow, look forward to a Christmas post soon! Merry Christmahanakwanzica!

I really enjoyed my neighbors driver and passenger snowmen.

Sadly, we took a trip from Aarons' apartment back to mine, and what usually took 2 hours- took us 7. People were getting stuck, sliding off roads, and basically it was just a catastrophe. We had chains so we were fine, we were just worried about idiots around us.

Let's say thanks!

As many of you know, supporting our troops is quite personal, and very important to me. With 6 brothers serving in the Army or the Army National guard, you can see why. I love that Xerox has their "Let's say thanks" program. I'm not sure how many years they've done it, but I remember doing it last year. So in case you haven't heard about it, here goes: Xerox gives you tons of choices of postcard designs. These are patriotic post cards created by children all over the nation. You can then choose from several prepared messages of thanks to the troops, or write your own. Then Xerox prints these postcards and sends them to service men and women all over the world. All at no cost to us. Such a neat program and takes less than 5 mins! God bless our troops. http://www.letssaythanks.com/

Snow day.

We got several inches of snow in Eugene the other day. Aaron got the day free from work because of it. So we got the kids all bundled up and went and played! It was so cold. We are supposed to get more snow for the rest of the week. Which is making me look forward to Arizona even more, and if the snow wasn't enough, we're in the 20's. Brrrrrr. (snot icicles)

I am getting pretty excited for Christmas, the girls are so cute about it this year, they are really into it. Sami and Aaron went and cut down a tree. It's so nice to have a real one, and it was only 15$.

Christmas programs!

The girls had their christmas programs at school last week. They say several songs, then got to meet Santa, and have cookies and punch. They had a great time and they did a good job singing.

Happy birthday to me!

Well here is my poor gender confused boy, Beckham. He really needs a brother to show him some manly things. Aaron is obviously not getting the job done! Here he is modeling an apron and pink snowboots. Very fashionable. There's also a pic of me and the kids at my birthday party. Ice cream pie courtesy of Heather and Drennan. Thanks!

Sorry, Katie has no shirt on! Beckham has already got ice cream on his face.

Halloween!

So I have tried at least 3 times to put these pictures up, and it finally worked! Sami and Katie were princesses, and little Beckham was a bear. I made the girls dresses (with much help from both Heathers! A big thank you!) and barely finished Katie's at 4:45 on Hallowee. Just in time to go trick or treating. We only went to the ward trunk or treat. That was plenty for the kids, they had a lot of fun, and I am enjoying their candy. Ok, the pictures are all weird but I don't feel like messing with them any longer.

Kids love to embarass us.

Ok, so I just wanted to share a few of our families most embarassing moments.
We'll start out with Sami. Aaron took her to the grocery store. The cashier there wear's an eye patch. Well as Aaron is going through the checkout process, Sami notices the guy, and says "Look Dad, he's a pirate!" When Katie was first potty training,we'd (obviously) praise her when she was succesful. This became apparent one afternoon when we took a trip to the Tillamook factory (yummy!). I took Katie to the bathroom, and then went to take my turn. As I was peeing- yup, I just said that- Katie says, "You're peeing, I'm so proud of you. Are you going poo-poo too? Good Job!" Well, I won't confirm wether or not I was, but I'm pretty sure I heard a snicker from a different stall. I try not to ever go with the kids at stores anymore, cause they always ask unwanted questions in their most loud voices possible. Sami recently said,"Wow, that guy is really big! Why can't he walk on his own?" about a rather large man who was using the special hot rod wheelchair carts at the grocery store.I suddenly had to find something on aisle 12,the other side of the store. Katie once called me on a fart. (Hey it happens to us all sometimes!) We were at Target, in the girls clothes. I let out a little, eensy, weensy, harmless toot...Anyway, and she laughed and said, "You tooted!" There were other people around, of course, and I again, had something urgent to do in some other part of the store. That'll be it for now, but make sure to share an embarassing kid moment. And if you don't have kids, just share a plain, old embarassing moment. I love laughing at others' misfortunes!

Pumpkin patch!

Well, it's that time of year! We took the kids out to a pumpkin patch today and they had a blast. The patch we went to has a train you ride out to the pumpkins and a ferry boat you ride back in. The kids had a lot of fun picking pumpkins out. The black and white pic of the girls and I was for their school field trip to a pumpkin patch last week. Credit goes to Heather Taylor for her mad photo skills. Yeah I love halloween! All I can say is that I have some serious sowing to get done or my kids are trick-or-treating in the nude! Which would also be adorable, but chilly.



So I am preparing myself mentally for single motherhood.....haha scared you huh? Aaron's rotation is in Eugene, Or, which is about 2 hours south of us. So he will go down for the week, and come home on the weekends. Sigh. So for those of you who live here, please take pity on me and talk to me,(I know I am not very fun, but service with a smile right?) Actually, if you are here for school most of you are in the same boat, so we need to stick together. So that is from nov-feb and then it's off to Arizona, and I couldn't be more excited!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well, I am off to play a very important video game...saving the world and such!

The great makeup incident of 08'

It all started around 10:00 in the morning on Sat. Oct. 18th. The perpetrator (refered to as the perp henceforth) Katie, was last seen sitting in her elmo chair watching a movie. The victim (none other than myself) was suffering pains from what she believes to be an ulcer. (That's a whole different post.) She set the 3 kids up with a movie and random snacks. She closed her laptop, pushed in all the chairs, to keep a certain 15 month old off the table. She believed (haha, and she should know better) that things were relatively under control. (haha again) She went upstairs and laid on the bed to cry herself to sleep. Just kidding about the sleep, she was just laying down with the door open, so she could hear the kids. Things were proceeding smoothly(or so she thought) until around 10:30 when she heard Samantha (the witness) telling someone they would be in trouble for making a mess. She jumped up and headed downstairs with a sense of impending doom. She rounded the corner at the bottom of the stairs, to see Beckham (also a perp) standing on a chair, at the kitchen table. As the victim got closer she noticed that Katie and Beck, perp 1 and perp 2, were both covered in makeup. And as if that wasn't bad enough, the kitchen table, her laptop, and some material for perp 1's halloween costume, were also covered in it. Perp 1 was found guilty of pulling out a chair and accessing the victims makeup stash. She put her face on and then got down. Perp 2 then climbed up the chair, put his face on and then proceeded to eat, and/or spill the rest. Perp 2 was tried in juvenile court because of his age. Perp 1 was held fully responsible, since she had a record. In fact, she was witnesses the day prior, applying the very same makeup! Society is headed down the crapper. Ok, anyhow, that was my sad saturday. Entirely my fault? (Aaron says so, and I think he has a point...) Yes, I should have moved my makeup, especially since she got into the day before. Ah, oh well. I had some extra material so I think we should be fine. I didn't get pics of the kids, since I wasn't ready to laugh at it yet. I did take one of the table (aka the scene of the crime). Well, sorry to write this exhaustingly long tale, with an annoyingly large amount of parenthesis, and very incorrect sentence structure. So ladies, if you aren't already smarter than me, put your makeup up!

Halloween candy.

Look at them, taunting me. Asking me, "please eat me!" That's what the yellow piece of corn said anyway. But seriously, I love candy corn, and all it's brother and sister candies. My favorites are the large yellow ones. That mix is so hard to find!! Well, here in liberal Oregon anyway. (I'm not sure what being liberal has to do with the candy, but anyways) I don't really like the dark chocolate ones, and no I'm not rascist. They just don't taste as good. So here's a survey: What is your favorite halloween candy? My least favorite would be those orange and black wrapped taffy. Gross! I would never buy them so I can't take a picture of them. You know what I'm talking about!

My brother is safe at home!

For anyone interested here is a link to a short video of my brothers' homecoming at Salt lake city airport last night! I am so excited he is home safe, and oh so proud! I'll stop myself here before I get carried away. If you check it out, be sure to have a kleenex handy!

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=4494703

Dress up!

So the kids love dressing up lately. The girls are really into princess, and fairy type stuff. Beckham really wanted to be a dog like the girls, so I let him. It is obviously a pink dog, but oh well. We are going to invest in some boy dress up clothes soon. Even though he looks really good in heels! As a side note: Has anyone hurt or broken their tailbone before? I did in Feb. and am still in constant pain daily. I'm getting it x-rayed monday I think, but I'm wondering what other peoples' experience has been! Any suggestions, advice or whatnot would be appreciated. I would like to not be on drugs for the rest of my life!

Brent is coming home!

So most of you know I have 6 of the bravest brothers in the world! (Troy, the 7th brother is as brave as a 13year old can be!) They are all in the Army, or Army National Guard. Brent, the second oldest son, has been serving in Iraq for 18+ months. He has a 3 year old daughter, and an almost 2 year old son. He has finally left Iraq! He is currently in Kuwait! And will hopefully be home by next weekend. I am so excited for my dear sis-in-law Jennie, and their two children! I am so grateful to them for their sacrifices, and courage. I am thankful to all our military, and their families! I couldn't ask for better examples to my own children of sacrificing for this beautiful, wonderful country that we are so blessed to be living in. I am grateful for a mother who instilled in us a love for this country, that was set apart for us by God, where the gospel would be able to be brought forth. A love for those who sacrificed much early in our countries history and were aided by God, in establishing it. Also, she encouraged a will to serve to keep our country safe, and strong. Despite your views on the war, I have spoken with, and heard both of my brothers' personal experience, stories, and seen their pictures and videos. I believe the work our soldiers have been doing is good work, that has brought about much needed change for those in Iraq. I've seen videos of smiling Iraqi children recieving school supplies they probably couldn't even have dreamed of before. Clothes, shoes, medical supplies, and a breath of fresh air, and change. (Not that I want to sound like Obama...) Anyways, to cut my sermon short, (this is a topic I obviously get worked up about!) I couldn't be more proud of my brothers, and the military personnel around the world. Job well done. Hooah

Depressing post!

O.k so this might seem a little weird. We've been thinking and talking a lot about our will lately.

We don't have much monetary stuffs, but obviously our children are the main concern. We've thought through a lot of options, and have asked my wonderful, funny, caring, beautiful, smart, and awesome, brother and sister, Derek and Janel, (you guys can split those attributes up however you want) to take over raising the kiddos if something should happen to us. Wow, that was a super-duper run-on sentence. So seriously, I thought of posting this here since a lot of family read this, and as a backup until we actually finish the paperwork involved. I haven't had any dark premonitions or anything, it's just been on my mind. So, all our worldly possesions also go to them to use as they see fit. I guess the 360 could go to Troy and Trav since Derek already has one! It feels good to have a plan just in case! As a side note, I thought Palin did well last night! M&P FTW!

A B C

A- Attached or single: Attached!
B- Best friend: A-dog and that's mostly one-sided..
C- Cake or pie: hmm tough one. pumpkin pie and cheesecake.
D- Day: Saturday
E- Essential Item: Chapstick, followed closely by underwear.
F- Favorite Color: Orange
G- Gummi bears or worms: sour worms!
H- Home town: Ogden, Utah
I- Indulgences: Creamy salsa and gobstoppers, and now candy pumpkins
J- January or July: July!
K- Kids: Sami, Katie and Beckham
L- Life is incomplete without: A trip to the gym
M- Marriage date: July 14, 2001
N- Number of siblings: 7 brothers
O- Oranges of Apples: apples (with caramel dip)
P- Phobias or Fears: Going on a cruise and drowning or being eaten by a shark. ( i'm a psycho)
Q- Quote: To get others to like you, you have to like yourself.
R- Reason to smile: It's almost time to move back to Arizona!
S- Season: Summer
T- Tag: Jordan, Mary Taylor, Kim, and Laura Lambson
U- Unknown fact about me: I always carry a weapon on my person
V- Vegetarian or Oppressor of animals: Oppressor of animals FTW! Haha I guess whoever made this is from PETA? I love meat and that surely means I love oppressing poor, defenseless animals. Did I mention I like hunting too?
W- Worst habit: Constantly snacking! Aaargh
X- Rays or Ultrasounds: So, would I rather see an ultrasound of my baby, or get an x-ray of something broken? I'm going with an ultrasound.
Y-Your favorite food: Is beef jerky a food? If not then teriyaki chicken.
Z- Zodiac sign: Scorpio

My quirks.

Ok so this is a tag where you post some of your quirks.

1. I have to have a blanket at night. I will make the room cold enough to justify it. If it is warm I will only cover half my body and have my feet sticking out.

2. I am disgusted by gum. Especially if I see your gum. i.e you playing with it or setting it on your plate etc. I will throw up in my mouth.

3. I can't stand having my fingernails, or toenails, filed. This will also make me throw up. Very strange, but true. This made going through nails in beauty school really interesting. Just thinking about it is giving me goosebumps.

4. I am obsessive about my alone time. (the innocent type) I will stay up till 3 in the morning just so I can relax. Or maybe I'm an insomniac, I think it's a little of both. I just have to have several hours to myself and I appreciate that more than sleep.

5. Just say no....to Obama! Haha I guess that's not one of my quirks. But seriously folks.

6. I can't stand hair in my bathtub or bathroom. This is ironic considering my profession.But there's a difference between me cutting it off you and it falling off you... I don't care what body hair, or whose it is. I'd better not see it!

7. I can't stand to eat leftovers. I'm not sure what it is. I'm not a germ-a-phobe, so it's not that I'm worried that it grew something over night, I just...I don't even know how to explain it. I guess if it's a leftover piece of cheesecake then I can handle it.

O.k I think that is enough for now. Hopefully some of you will still be my friends after I have mortally offended you. (see #2 or #5) I tag Sheri, Janel, Derek, and everyone else who wants to. This one is fun.

I love Beckham also.

I think Hammy felt left out of that last post, so I thought I'd post a picture of him too. He is still having ear infections and issues, so we are heading back to the e.n.t. specialist next week. We might end up with new tubes or another surgery, we'll see.










Here's the girls showing off their powdered donut dessert. See how good I am at sharing? They caught me getting into my not-so-secret stash and well, I had no choice but to share. Alright that's the not so exciting update from me! Also, since I ended up adding a picture of the girls, Beckham is still left out....

Did you miss me? Probably not....

O.k so it's been a while.(this is becoming a habit.) Well, let's just say that we moved and then my internet connection and phone line were busy having an affair with some other apartment or something. But, I forgave them, and we are all happy now. Although, I wonder sometimes while I'm online, if it was wishing I was someone else....So we are back in "charming" Forest Grove, Or. (I can't say that Tricia didn't warn me) The rainy depressing season is here, and I'm, well, depressed. I am counting down the hours till we move back to Arizona in February. While some of you may be counting the hours you have left without me. The girls started school 2 weeks ago and love it! Sami goes on mon, weds, fri and Katie goes on tues, and thurs. Here are pictures of their first days! (not to be confused with first times.)

Tagged!

O.k it's been awhile since I was tagged. I think people had given up on me for a while. So here it is!

Ten years ago I was...
16! Ah to be young again! I was probably hopefully maybe going on dates... We were living in Chandler, Arizona, and I was a sophmore in high school. I would have been attending classes faithfully every day, not enjoying pancakes at IHOP instead. I would also be charging my friends for the ice cream they were eating at my awesome tasty job-Baskin Robbins. (I made that pink shirt and visor look good) I would also have been injuring my ankle in volleyball at school.

5 things on my to-do list:
1. Get packed to move.
2. Enjoy a nice get-a-way to the anniversary inn in Logan Ut. (thanks to Jennie)
3. Get packed to move.
4. Enjoy my concealed carry permit class! (Merry christmas to me!)
5. Give poor Aaron a haircut and do my color.

A snack I enjoy...
Do I have to limit it to one? Recently I am really loving sour skittles and beef jerkey. Weird combination I know. And no, I am not pregnant. At least I don't think I am......

Things I would do if I were a millionaire:
Pay off Aarons' school debt. (ouch!)
Buy myself a nice new fancy minivan! (aaron can keep his old car...)
I would love to adopt some children from foreign countries. (then I could quit going through that painful process)
Help out family and friends!

Places I have lived:
Clearfield, Utah
Little Rock, Arkansas (for like 3 months)
Ogden, Utah
Sacramento, California
Some little town in northern California
Ogden, Utah
Chandler, Arizona
Gilbert, Arizona
Forest Grove, Oregon
Ogden, Utah
Clearfield,Utah

And now to tag some others: Becca, Mckenna, and Amelia. Two have new babies so I'll understand if you are otherwise engaged, but Becca no excuses...

All dressed up.

Here are the girls wearing new outfits and some dress up jewelery they got for b-day presents from their cousin Mikey. They also got little hair pieces. Way cute!

Travis' enlistment

So my brother Travis enlisted in the Utah National Guard yesterday. He is in the 141st Military intelligence unit. This is the same as my older brother Brent's unit. In fact, Brent is in Iraq and he did Trav's enlistment via camera over the internet. Brent says an oath and Trav repeats it. Since this is the 6th brother from my family enlisting there were reporters there. So that was

kind of funny. So thanks to Trav for his service!

In the first picture you can see Brent on the t.v on the left, and Trav is on the right. It was pretty cool.

Sami is getting on camera so that she can talk to uncle Brent!

Happy birthday Sami!

Sami is 4 years old today! Wow, that went by fast. To celebrate we went with Jennie, Meggie, Lincoln and Troy (mom, dad and katie too) to Kangaroo Zoo. It has a bunch of the bouncy blow up toys, and slides and such. The kids, and myself too, had a great time! They didn't want to go home. For some presents Sami got: A fairy wand and crown, a guitar, a barbie doll, and a barbie movie. She is very excited about them all.

Sami loves fireworks and enjoyed playing with sparklers yesterday.

Sami is my sensitve child. Katie is totally the boss of her, and one word from her, can send Sami into deep despair, or hysterics. This is rather unfortunate. But she also is very motherly. She always makes sure Beckham is taken care of. If he cries she always has an idea of what the reason is. She'll say, "He just needs some milk mom." Or something to that effect. She loves cheese, and yogurt, and sunflower seeds. She loves to dance and listen to music. She also plays a pretty wicked air guitar, and head bangs quite well. She is so fun, and is learning so much. She is excited to go back to school in a month, and talks about it a lot. She's my Samster the Hamster and I love her!

Haircuts!

So I figured it was time to chop Katie's hair. She hates getting it washed, won't let me comb it, or style it. It's always in her eyes, she gets food in it, and generally looks like a rag-a-muffin. So today I cut it. It took forever to get it right, and she did so good sitting still. I also cut my brother Travis' hair. He is enlisting in the national guard next week, so he decided to get cleaned up. So here are some before and after shots. I know they are mostly crappy, but my camera is on it's last legs and you get the point.



Well, I hope you enjoyed yet another post by crazy me! I am really on a roll, I am wasting tons of my (and yours) time!

My little Becky

Here's Becky, or Beckham as a crossdresser. He was naked and cold, and it was too tempting to grab Katie's dress and put it on him. He had a run in with the corner of a dresser. Ouch!

Proud Army Sister!

O.k I want to give a shout out (yes I just said that) to all the awesome men and women serving in our military. (even the coast guard!) Especially to my favorite military personel, my brothers. As many of you are aware, I have 5 of 7 brothers currently serving in the army or amry national guard. My 6th brother, Travis, will be joining in a week or so. I can't even express how proud and thankful I am to these great men. Two of my brothers have served in Irag, with one still being there. To see my brothers leaving their wives and children behind for Iraq, or for their various training and drill and such, is so inspiring and heartbreaking at the same time. To miss your childs first steps, first words, moving young families across the country away from any and all family. I can't imagine these sacrifices. Whether you agree with the war or our nations' leaders' and their policies, there is no doubt that our military personel are sacrificing greatly for us, wherever they are. I love running into soldiers at the store and such. I am sure they think I'm crazy when I come up and start asking them questions. I try to use as much of the cool lingo that I've picked up as possible. The soldiers are great and all, but let's not forget who made them possible. That would be the mothers' and fathers and spouses. My parents and my sis-in-laws are also heros to me. They sacrifice much in supporting their soldiers. I just wanted to say thank you to my brothers, their wives, and their children for their willingness to serve. I am proud of them, and humbled by their examples. My greatest wish is to join and serve with them, but that isn't possible for me at this time. So, I am a crazy, rambling person, and if you see a soldier- Thank them! Hooah!

Happy Birthday to Beckham!

O.k so it was Beck's first b-day yesterday! He is such a big boy. He is close to walking full-time and is slowing getting his molars. (oh fun) He can say a few words. I know you don't believe me but he says: momma and dadda, hello, cracker, quack, and ear. Now, cracker and quack sound pretty similar but he uses them in the correct situation. He loves talking on the phone, following his big sisters around, and eating! He is such a happy little guy, with a huge smile.

He is always getting into something, and has recently been throwing tantrums when he doesn't get his way. Which is cute, for now. I can't believe he is already one year! It went by so fast. He loves eating pretty much anything, especially if it is what I am eating. He loves peppered beef jerky. Crazy I know!

He is such a boy. I can't believe how different he is from the girls. Very mischevious. Not that the girls aren't, but he is just on a different level. He heads for exactly where he shouldn't be the second he gets a chance. He is always climbing on or under things and getting stuck. He is a master at getting through all my barricades. Such a cute little rascal! I love my little Hammy!