Pretty cute boy

The weather was way nice today, so Stetson and I went outside to play and I got some pretty cute pictures of him. He loves the playground now that he's old enough to climb up on it and slide down (with adult supervision of course) and he LOVES it.

My Shepherd Will Supply My Need Gordon B Hinckley Tribute

I sang this song at stake conference today with a women's choir, and it was the best musical experience I've had in a long time. We got a babysitter and were able to go to last night's session too, and I'm so glad we did. I'll just share one of my favorite parts of Saturday night's session. Dennis Brown (Denver temple pres.)quoted one of the general authorities, I think Pres. Kimball, who said something along the lines of, if we really understood what the ordinances of the temple entailed, we would crawl thousands of miles on our hands and knees to get there (to the temple), and we only have to drive about 120 miles in a comfortable car. I love being reminded of how GREAT the temple is, and the amazing blessings that await me there. Pres. Monson said we can meet every temptation if we go to the temple, and our lives will be better for us --I loved that part. Anyway, it was a great conference, and I wanted to include this video--it was sang at President Hinckley's funeral and it is GORGEOUS, you have to listen to it.

I survived

Here we are before the insanity began...
Well I made it--here's some pictures for your viewing pleasure. It was 23 degrees when we pulled out of Rainbow this morning, and it wasn't any better by the time we got there, so I had on a beenie, gloves and a jacket over my shirt and sweat pants. By the half way mark I was burning up, so I took off my beenie, but I didn't want to take off my jacket because that's what my number was pinned to, but I did anyway because I was so hot. Anyway, if I ever do this again, I'll train better, for sure. Hope everyone has a great weekend!!

This was right before the finish line-- I was wanting to die right about here


My #1 fan

We went to Perkins afterwards to make up for all the calories we burned... :)

Incase you see:

"Woman colapses during Laramie 5K" in the headlines of the Laramie Boomerang, its probably talking about me. My neighbor, aka super runner girl, "recruited" me to run in a 5K tomorrow. I did a "practice run" this afternoon and let's just say, I should have started training months ago. Whoops.

week in review so far..

Last night Stetson was being a "stinker" as we like to call it. He wasn't eating his dinner, and when I took him out of his chair he kept whining, and I was trying to clean up dinner and Michael was doing some school work on the computer, so Michael put him on his shoulders to keep him happy and he stayed up there for about 10 minutes.

Here's some highlights of the week so far:
Tuesday night, my brother Todd flew to Laramie with this company he flies for, and so we went out to dinner with him and the other pilot he flies with, Mike. We went to Love Joys and then took them on a tour of the great city of Laramie. After that we took them back to the airport and got to see the airplane Todd flew-I wish so bad that I'd taken my camera, but I didn't. :(

.Wednesday I taught my first boot camp class. Holy cow, is all I have to say.

This morning we met our friends Reagan and Eva at the rec since I needed to get out of the house (as does Stetson) and I thought he'd really like the new toys, which he did. But I don't think he enjoyed it as much as he would have if he didn't wake up at 5:00 IN THE AM today. Shees. That kid is crazy. I don't know why he does that. We thought he'd fall back asleep after we brought him into bed with us, but no. He just wiggled around, took turns poking me and Michael in the eye and jibber jabbered. Needless to say, he was pretty happy when I took him to his crib at 11:45this morning for his nap (which isn't usually 'til 1pm) He totally reached for his crib and when I laid him down he smiled and "talked" to me. Pretty cute.

Well tonight I have variety express at 5:30. I'm running out of creative ideas of things to do...any ideas out there??

Blast from the past...

How lucky can I be to have such a precious baby boy?? I remember when they took this picture, they came in my room at the hospital to get him to take the picture, and after about 5-10 minutes, I thought they had taken enough time to take one picture, and I came out of that room looking for him like a mama cow when someone's trying to castrate her calf. (Can you tell I married a farmer?)

The first couple of weeks after we had Stetson, we'd be over at his family's house (they lived just down the road) and while everyone was doting over him, holding him, playing with him, I would have to remind myself that he was mine, and that I would actually get to take him home with me that night, and I would become almost overcome with joy. Is that crazy that I did that?


This was the night of our 1st wedding anniversary--my sweet dad so lovingly wrapped up our cake top after our reception and labeled it so we could keep tradition and eat it our 1st wedding anniversary, and I have to say it wasn't so bad. :) Notice the huge cold sore on my lip--this was one of 2 of the HUGEST, I mean HUGEST cold sores I've ever had. It doesn't look that bad here, but trust me, it was huge--evidence that having a baby (especially your first) is pretty stressful. :-) But wonderful and amazing. This was the house we brought Stetson home to, I miss it.


Here I am looking hotter than ever. This was the night we took Stetson's baby announcement picture. All his clothes he wore up to this point were Michael & Rachel's hand me downs from their boys. They showed up at the hospital the day after we had Stetson with a huge box of cute baby clothes from all their 4 boys (since we had NONE because we thought were were having a girl).


He loved his bath once I got the hang of it and figured out what I was doing. His first real bath, I was afraid of the water being too hot (didn't know the test the water on your wrist trick yet) and it was probably not warm enough, so he was pretty unhappy, but now he loves it.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE my baby boy and am so lucky to have him.

Snowmen and surveys

The weather was awesome yesterday, but it snowed again today (only some flurries, but still). ITS APRIL!!!!!! I don't think I ever want to live in Laramie again I've never had a longer winter.

Attached or Single: Attached

Best Friend: My Husband

Cake or Pie: cake ALL THE WAY with cream cheese frosting

Day of Choice: Fridays

Essential Item: too many to list...toothbrush, chapstick, my pick, I could go on and on

favorite color:yellow

Gummy Bears or Worms: Gummy Bears

Hometown: Santa Rosa, CA/Cowley, WY

Indulgences: long hot bubble baths

January or July: July

Kids: Stetson & Michael(oh whoops, Michael's my husband) jk

Life is incomplete without: My Family and the Olive Garden

Number of Siblings: 5

Oranges or Apples: apples probably

Phobias: spiders (black widows in particular)

Quote: “I’ve finally stopped running away from myself, who else is there better to be?” -Goldie Hawn

Reasons to Smile: Stetson, Michael, caramel popcorn, hot baths, sunny days, lots more

Season: Summer

Tag others: everyone who reads this

Unknown fact about me: I don't really like playing games, I know, what a loser

Vegetarian or Meat eater: Meat eater for sure

Worst Habit: inpatient

X-rays: dental, and for my hip one time

Your Favorite Food: spaghetti, caramel popcorn, Anything Michael's mom makes

Zodiac: taurus

What makes me me?

One of my blogging buddies had this at the headline of her last post and then talked about what makes her her, and at the end posed the question, "what makes me me?" So I've been thinking about it, and its a weird question for me, I guess its too broad, and I can't pin down one answer. I would be willing to bet, however, that most people don't "have themselves figured out." I think as human beings we get really good at putting on a front of self confidence (which is a good thing) but inside everyone has their setbacks and insecurities, obviously, which is why we're here, to become better.

I've always known I was blessed with musical ability, but I still was always envious of talents other people had. Sports never came easy to me, which was frustrating because I come from a family of pretty good athletes (5 brothers) so a lot of people probably expected it from me. School (especially math) never came easy for me. I learned a great lesson my senior year of high school though, when I tried out for our high school drill team. My WHOLE life I wanted to be a "dancer." Growing up, I was as girly as they come, and I wanted to do all those girl things, so I left my "comfort zone" and tried out and made it as an alternate. Lesson learned: you can do ANYTHING you want in life, so long as you are willing to work really, REALLY hard. Being able to dance in my high school drill team was SO worth it though. I've always liked performing, and dancing for football/basketball games and state competition did not disappoint. ANYWAY, I love hearing other people's experiences in learning new things that didn't "come easy." I love the stories of NBA players who didn't make the high school basketball team (Michael Jordan) but didn't let it stop them. Those that are "born with it" often times sell themselves short because they know how good they are, and they don't make a lot of effort.

Its a good thing that everyone isn't good at everything though, because how else would we learn to work, and experience feelings of such great satisfaction. When I went to BYU-Idaho, I learned for the first time how to work hard in school. In high school, I just "jumped through hoops" usually not putting that much effort forth. For some reason, as soon as I got to college I decided I wanted to do good in school. Don't get me wrong, I didn't graduage with honors, but I never worked so hard at something in my life, nor had I ever felt so satisfied or proud of myself, so its good that we have to work at some things, because thats how we grow the most.

I do know this though: Heavenly Father made each of us unique with special blessings that are meant to help others. I could ramble on forEVER about this, but its always been so obvious to me that we each have special "jobs" to carry out on this earth that NOONE can do as good as anyone else can. I know this woman that is probably the friendliest, most genuine person I've ever known, and I think Heavenly Father thought, "I'm going to send this person to earth to make others feel good about themselves (among milliions of other good things she's accomplished)".

When I was 11 or 12, I had an awesome primary teacher, truly sent from God. She came into my life when I was having serious family issues and needed some extra attention/love/care. She would give me hand me down clothes from her daughters and invite me over to make molasses sugar cookies. She took me to this super cute old fashioned restaraunt for my 12th bday, even though she was busy with her 4 kids of her own. She gave me a card once and on the inside, wrote: "God really knew what he was doing when he created you." People like her, that have a knack for making people feel good, used her gift to help me. I'm confident that she was given her talents to bless others lives, mine being a perfect example.

“I’ve finally stopped running away from myself, who else is there better to be?” -Goldie Hawn

Nebraska

Here's some pictures from our voyage to the hot spot of Nebraska, McCook. Michael's older brother, Christian and his family live there where Christian is an agriculture consultant. We got a grand tour of McCook (very cute little town, a lot like Wyoming towns I thought), went to the Rocket Inn, had delicious food prepared by Jill (Christian's wife) hung out, played card games, and just had a good time.

Happy 25th Birthday Shayla!! (4.10.83)

I just have to say a few things about this wonderful person whose 25th birthday we celebrate today. Shay and I didn’t become friends until high school, and lets just say, from then on, good times were had by all. Between Kade and his blood red hot dogs and regular excursions to China Town, Shayla made my life a little sweeter every day.
We decided to be roomies at BYU-I, where many more good times were “had by all” but lets just say she put up with me and has remained my friend throughout all my ridiculousness and that in and of itself is something.
25 cool things/fun memories about Shay on her 25th bday

1. Ridiculously smart (for real, she is)
2. Really good at any kind of game, you name it, she'll kick your trash (I’ve never beat her at ANYTHING)
3. Good vball player
4. Great mom
5. Great wife
6. Great friend
7. Great sister
8. Great aunt
9. Patient
10. Loving
11. Gentle
12. Great sense of humor
13. Good listener
14. Loves Tim McGraw
15. Gorgeous voice
Remember…
16. Eating cold hot chocolate at homecoming jnr year?
17. Climbing to castle rock (and the blood red hot dogs, of course)?
18. Foreign exchange students during vball during practice (remember the ones that were really bad??) and Shannon goofing off at every vball practice?
19. And we got roomed with one of them at regionals and she like drank coffee???!!
20. At jnr. prom during the royalty dance when that one guy stepped on a light and broke it and you could hear a really loud pop?
21. Getting caught on the roof…
22. Javid?
23. Peg Hansen?
24. Leader of the Pack? and We Are Family??? ha ha ha
25. Mr. Corbett?

Hope you have a great day, can't wait to see you and baby Jay (and Mark too I guess jk) hopefully in Wyoming some time!!

Confession

...So I'm sitting here in my living room watching kids cruise around on their scooters outside and all I want to do is go grab one and ride around myself. Does anyone besides me ever get urges to do "kid" things again?? Like swing, jump on tramps again, ride bikes reeeeally really fast??

Honest thoughts

Stetson has a doctor's appt. tomorrow morning @ 9am. I'm pretty much dreading it (not because its early in the am or anything) because he'll have to get shots and I HATE HATE HATE when he has to get shots. I remember the first time he ever had to get them, I was seriously in a state of depression just thinking about it. :( Oh and I won't even tell about when he was like 4 days old and they drained his poor tiny heels for 2 test tubes of blood to check his biliruben levels. :-( Shees louise.

ANYWAY, I've probably spent too much time on the computer tonight. I found 2 really fun blogs--Shana Peterson (Wallace now) and Laurel Peterson (Wicke) both Cowley natives. I laughed out loud when I read some stuff from Laurel's blog. Cowley folks just have a great sense of humor. :) The weather was pretty nice today, hopefully it will stay like this.

We're going for a road trip this weekend to McCook, Nebraska where Michael's bro, Christian and his wife and cutie pie little boy, Carson liveS. They're expecting baby numero dos (yes I'm bilingual) in September, so we're pretty psyched to go see them and their house they bought that we've never seen. I found a pretty sweet poem off of Laurel's blog that I'm sharing--whats funny is she probably doesn't even know who I am, but she does know who the "one-armed mayor" from Cowley is, and refers to him as such in her blog. Guess she never thought I'd read her blog. Well here's the peom, in trubute to not only moms, but dads who give their all raising their kids. I LOVE YOU DAD!! (I love my mom too but she doesn't know how to use her computer so she can't check my blog) :) p.s. I LOVE LOVE LOVED Elder Ballard's talk on motherhood during conference Sunday. I think we all needed that reminder that moms do work really hard and are appreciated, but oddly enough, my fave part of his talk was when he said (after he said how husbands need to validate their wives and express appreciation) wives need to give their husbands a good word and a (this is my fave) FRIENDLY SMILE. I LOVED that. I thought of how SIMPLE of a thing that is, but how much of a difference it makes, and I think of all the friendly smiles Michael has given me and how it just says a million words and says, "I love you, I appreciate you" among many other things. So I'm going to try and give Michael more "friendly smiles."
Okay here' the poem, there wasn't an author, otherwise I would have given credit where credit is due.


She doesn't know she is a hero.
Minute to minute of everyday life--
wiping runny noses
soothing broken hearts.
Putting the toys away
to take them out
and put them back again.
Peanut butter sandwiches
with the crusts cut off,
but he wanted corn dogs...
and apples with no peel.
She's tired today,
patiently explaining obedience--
again.
She doesn't feel like a hero,
more like a referee--
"Was she playing with it first?"
"Let's take turns."
"You can not tie people up without their permission."
She doesn't know she is a hero.
There are no awards
for outstanding service.
There's no spotlight or applause
and a few
with shallow hearts
tell her she is selling herself short
when she could do so much more...
What more is to be done than
creating a world of beauty and wonder
everyday
in a child's eyes?
She doesn't know,
but I watch her in amazement
as she invests all she is
in building a spirit
from the ground up
in partnership with God,
and I am grateful
that I recognize
a hero.

Scrapbooking

So there's this cool website where you can print off all your blogs in a "photo album" format, or "journal" format, and I was kind of set on doing that because I wasn't really into scrapbooking anymore, but my my passion for scrapbooking has been totally rekindled. I got this way cute scrapbooking kit from stampin' up from my cousin Dorine when Stetson was born and I finally used it in the last few days and I'm in love with Stampin' up now. Reagan Allred came over tonight and she let me use her stamps from stampin' up and I'm totally hooked now. I want all of it...the stamps, the ink pads, EVERYTHING. Its so fun, but pretty pricy, so good thing my bday is coming up...I have an excuse to buy a couple things for myself. Anyway, I told my favorite mother in-law that I'd post my new pages (didn't think I could make a page without ya' Jan, but I made it) so here they are.

Homemade pizza

We made homemade pizza Monday night and I thought I'd share the recipe. I got it from my cousin Lori and when I made it for the first time, I couldn't believe how easy it was, so I'm sharing it with you, hoping you'll share your good ones with me! Who isn't always looking for a good recipe?

PIZZA CRUST
~3/4 c. warm water
~1 pkg. yeast
~1 T oil
~1/2 t salt
~2 c. flour

Mix water and yeast until dissolved. Stir in oil and salt. Add flour. Knead 5-10 min. until smooth. Let rise until double. Roll out onto pizza pan. Spread thin layer of oil and sprinkle parmesan on dough. Bake @ 425 for 10 min. Put other toppings on (sauce, pepparoni then cheese) and finish baking 10 more minutes.

We usually just do pepparoni, but Monday we decided to branch out and used mushrooms, green onions, pineapples, fresh tomaotes and of course pepparoni and mozzarella. And trust me, if I can make this, so can all of you. :)