don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me?

I KNOW I SAID I WASN'T GOING TO POST CHRISTMAS PICTURES!!! BUT GUESS WHAT???



that is a hot little number, HUH?

also, after hundreds and hundreds of e-mails (some hateful -- some concerned) I must clarify! I TOTALLY DON'T CARE ABOUT GARBAGE DISPOSERS/ALS! I WAS JUST KIDDING!!!! THE ONLY THING THAT I AM REALLY THAT OBSESSED ABOUT IS MATCHING HANGERS!!! PROMISE!!! SO STOP THE HATE MAIL!!!

haha.

don't you?

p.s. YOU ALL CLICKED ON THE PHOTO TO MAKE IT BIGGER ---- DIDN'T YOU???? shame on you.

do you know what I love?

that this is my blog and there is absolutely no pressure ever to do anything with it. like, for instance, post christmas pictures. because let's be honest that isn't going to happen anytime soon. ok probably not at all.

and because it's my blog I can rant and rave about the things that make me crazy.

like for example:

is that thing in your kitchen sink that grinds up your food a ......

garbage DISPOSAL?

don't google it.

and if you think it IS a disposal you are wrong. and if you call it a disposal in front of me I will correct you. (I CAN'T HELP IT. IT JUST HAPPENS)

google it now if you want.

OR PERHAPS I WILL JUST TELL YOU:

it is a DISPOSER. a garbage DISPOSER. disposal is the brand name for most (not all) disposers.

oh the things that drive me crazy. you would really think I had bigger fish to fry, eh?

today was a special day.

a baptism and confirmation...

and a blessing...

we are so blessed.

purple pajama pants

where ARE YOU?

I assumed you were in the huge D.I. pile on accident.

you were not.

I thought perhaps you had fallen behind the washer. or dryer.

you have not.

I wished that you accidentally got put away with the children's clothes.

not there either.

are you still in South Dakota? (come to Utah! it's warmer here! ((I am still wearing flip-flops... true story.))

OH..... WHAT HAVE I DONE?????

I miss you.

one more thing.

me -- obsessed? no... never.

have a great thanksgiving tomorrow!

6 feet!

ok... I know the picture is crappy. it was a stressful moment. I mean, come on, Gwyneth Paltrow and I are practically IDENTICAL -- I was sure he was going to make a move.

also... I am having one of those days. YOU KNOW... THOSE DAYS: the kind where only Juice Newton and cheetos can cheer you up.

selfish.

I put this clip on here for myself. (I plan on watching it everyday for the rest of my life.) oh, you can watch it too if you want. (you want, believe me: you want!)

COLDPLAY was beyond PHENOMENAL. hands down the best concert of my life. and yes this clip is from the Salt Lake City show -- last night -- in which we were in attendance. Andrew said it's the best birthday present he has ever gotten. I would have to agree.

if I could figure out how to download pictures from my cell phone I would be able to show you that at one point I was 6 feet from Chris Martin. 6 FEET. I am pretty sure he winked at me. holy dang smokes... IT WAS INCREDIBLE.

6 months of absolute delight.

the cutest little dancer EVER...

just had to capture those legs. OH HOW WE LOVE THOSE LEGS!!!!

you rock our world Paigers!!!

oh, what a Halloween.

Hannah Montana, Paigey Penguin, and Clone Trooper Rex showing their stuff... Halloween style.

It was a crazy day, to say the least... Clone Trooper Rex got tackled at recess and ended up with a broken collar bone. Yeah, that part wasn't (and still isn't) too fun.

Oh -- and a BIG BLOG thank-you to my new friend Kristin (old friend Smitty's wife) for taking care of Hannah Montana and getting her to school so that I could get Clone Trooper Rex to the doctor. THANK YOU KRISTIN!!!

p.s. Isn't that Hannah Montana wig out of control?

disappointed.

I bought chocolate covered cinnamon bears earlier today.

I saved them all day until the perfect moment to savor them.

I have just now partaken while watching David Cook on SNL.

AND THEY ARE TERRIBLE. Not even CINNAMONEY* at ALL.

Talk about a let down.

I bought 2 huge containers of them... now what? Can I return them ... "HI... UM.... THESE WERE NOT CINNAMONEY!"

Just to be clear: the cinnamon bears were a let down. NOT David.

Oh and just wait until you hear about our Halloween.

*Not a word but should be.

we were meant to be.

***a modern-day, true love story... seriously!***

disclaimer: if all things mushy and ooey-gooey aren't "your thing" then please by all means skip this post.

it all started on a cool, crisp September evening. it was a casual trip into Target. nothing in particular to buy... just browsing. isn't that how you're supposed to shop Target... just ewwww and awwww over the "fun-ness" and occasionally buy the "fun-ness" ? ...

at first glance, I wasn't so sure. "it's different! too different?"

then I saw the price tag. the CLEARANCE price tag. 50% off! oh my! $80 down to $40. oh my!!!

I consulted my partner in crime. (mother.) oh yes! she likes! the color is different.

I buy it. my heart flutters with excitement. i hope my new treasure looks lovely somewhere in my house. somewhere... there must be somewhere!

the days pass. the weeks go on. treasure still has no home. no where to look pretty. no where fitting for such a find.

sigh. I guess it's back to Target you go.

upon it's return, the Target lady says "wow! it's now marked down to $19.99!"

"WHAT?" panic. panic. panic. 75% off!?? I HAVE to HAVE it. at 75% off. HAVE TO.

"Can I buy it back?"

"NO." She says. "You have to wait for it to go back on the floor."

"Seriously lady?" (I thought. I should have said.)

Instead I walked away.

And stalked those 2 aisles of the store for the remainder of our Target visit.

no sign of my 75% off treasure.

but no worries, I will come back in the morning. first thing in the morning. never mind the 20 minute drive. I'll be back.

my first thing in the morning turned into 10:00. oh crep. fat chance treasure is still there... but I gotta try. I've GOT TO TRY.

I arrive at the aisle. no sign of my treasure. I casually skim the end caps of all surrounding aisles. no sign.

it's gone. someone else grabbed your 75% off beautiful self and they are happy and I am not!

I give it one last shot. one last thorough look. it is no where to be found... it is really, really not there.

as I exit the aisle, ready to accept my defeat, I see a Target boy headed my way.

and in a magical turn of events: GUESS WHAT HE IS HOLDING?

I proceed to watch him try to find a spot for the treasure. he can't find others (there are no others.) he is baffled as to where it belongs.

I want to shout "It's MINE!!! ALL MINE." and then of course, let out a wicked, evil laugh.

Instead, I play it cool. "Excuse me: Can I take a peak at that?"

"Oh! I like it!"

"I think I'll take it!"

He says "Really?" (It's too different for you Target boy? you don't like the color, do you?)

My heart is beating so fast I swear it's going to jump out of my chest.

Can you BELIEVE THAT TIMING? A moment sooner or a moment later and it would not have ended this way. See... we were MEANT to be.

Just at 75% off. Not 50% off.

Now back to the drawing board: where to put you? for 75% off, I am sure I will find the PERFECT spot.


this picture does NOT do the color justice... think vibrant yellowish/greenish (sort of a pea green? ewwwww... oh crep?!)

"why can't you be like THAT mommy?"

That's what Hailey said last night after seeing the Electrolux commercial featuring Kelly Ripa. I will tell you w h y n o t .... because my magical snapping fingers DON'T WORK! THEY DON'T! Do yours?

Oh... and I like food way too much... .... .... WAY too much.

my mom says she wants one for christmas...

do you want one too?

proof.

of the things I've said.

what was that?

I hate scrapbooking.

not scrapbookers.

dryer sheets are a marketing scheme.

you don't need them.  I repeat you don't need them.  

so anyway, I took Hailey in for a haircut yesterday.  I didn't have a chance to take her to someone WORTHY because school pictures are tomorrow (I procrastinated... again...)

so I took her to Sam's Salon or whatever the heck it's called (the Wal-Mart haircutting placey-thingy).... wait:  did you just gasp?  I thought I WAS the GASPER! 

I gave the cutter (stylist?  yeah right) what I thought were clear instructions.

A-line cut

as short as you can go in the back (to her hairline)

front obviously longer than the back (South Dak. hair-cutters had a hard-time with the "A-line" concept so I always stress this)  Front longer than the back!  Back shorter than the front!  NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND!!!  PLEASE!!!  PRETTY PLEASE???

slightly stacked in the back

absolutely NO layers in the front

Are YOU clear on this?  YOU could cut her hair with these excellent, precise instructions, couldn't you?

IMAGINE MY HORROR WHEN I GET BACK FROM CHANGING PAIGE AND WITNESS WHAT THE CUTTER HAS DONE

She got the front longer than the back part.  Oh yes she did.

But the STACK in the BACK.  OH GOSH:  HELLO ALICE FROM THE BRADY BUNCH!!!  It looks terrible.  The shortest "stack" is ONE INCH LONG.  I AM NOT EXAGGERATING.  ONE INCH.

I know it's just hair.  I know it will grow back.  But do you know what else I know:  goodbye Sam's salon... forever.  It just wasn't meant to be.

now go get rid of your dryer sheets.  I dare you.

perfect penguins.

just had to see if the costumes were going to fit.  they do.  

Paigers and Jaders .... we simply adore you.

1-10.

1. I hate scrapbooking.  wait.  no.  I mean I HATE scrapbooking.

2.  I love white T-shirts.  I want to get rid of everything in my closet but my white T-shirts.  SHOULD I?

3.  I no longer love vinyl lettering.  Or any decorations that have words in them.  Thanks Ash-tab for this realization.

4.  I don't know what kind of decorations I love.  Except mirrors and clocks.  I love mirrors and clocks.  And topiarys.

5.  I really love living in *undisclosed* Utah Valley location.

6.  Paige is the best thing that could have happened to our family.

7.  I don't want to ever move again.  Ever.  Would it be THAT BAD to rent forever?

8.  All my Halloween/Fall decor reminds me of how sick I was last year at this time.  Who wants to trade decorations with me?

9.  I love Twilight.  And I am thinking of doing a little PHOTOgraphy side business.

10.  Number 9 was a joke.

CYA!

   

my cutie girls

I owe you.

explanations. clarifications. details.

first off: "beef and eggs" is a smashing [junky!] t-shirt that my beloved insists on wearing all together too often. we were going to a dinner with the new colleagues and I assumed we should dress up. or at least look nice. long story short: I painted my toenails (meaning I got alllll ready) and he wore beef and eggs. nice.

ok now back to the whole we are moving to Utah thing!

Andrew was offered a position at U.V.U. (Utah Valley University) It was offered to us and seriously we had our house on the market less than a week later. We left for Utah 2 weeks later. We left all our belongings there... in hopes to help our cute house sell a little faster in this d_r_a_b market. It broke our hearts to leave our house and our SD friends behind.

On to Utah: YES WE ARE HOME!!! ... a deal 7 years in the making! ...

We are *roughing* it here... we only brought what we could fit in our 2 cars. (that's not much.) We found a cute rental in *UTAH VALLEY SOMEWHERE * (don't want too many specifics on here -- ya know) that will do us just fine until we find a house to buy. Ty and Hai started school and are loving it. Our house sold last week (WHAT A HUGE MAJOR BLESSING and RELIEF!) so Andrew and his Dad are in SD right now getting all our stuff.

What am I forgetting to tell you all? I am sure a lot :)

And now: the pictures....

couldn't leave SD without stopping at Mt. Rushmore!
... it was awesome.  you must ... go ... see ....


so happy to be back in Utah!

the cousins meet for the first time
first day of second grade

proof that we are roughing it...
first day of Kindergarten

so cute that they found each other after school and were holding hands...

and second day of Kindergarten (this is the outfit mom wanted on the first day... wasn't worth the battle though :)

the end.

I painted my toenails and you are wearing "beef and eggs"?!?!

I don't think so!

I know I know I know... I have a lot of catching up to do. just had to let you all know that I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. unless the earth is South Dak. and in that case I have.

Utah is lovely. it's great to be home.

more details and pictures later. soon. I hope.

3/3

boo YEAH!

oh... guess why?




yep. that's my house. FOR SALE. too many snakes!
ha... jk! ...




WE ARE MOVING TO UTAH!!!

I never would have thought.

that Tori Spelling and I have something in common.

but we do!!! we so do!!!

ok. you all know by now that I have a sweet new baby. along with a baby comes the FUN of feeding every 3 or so hours. so while feeding her I always hideout in my bedroom so that a) if anyone drops by unannounced I won't be embarrased. and b) so that I can watch tv while feeding the little (ok not so little... more info. on that later) peanut.

alright so you do the math: that is a lot of tv watching. seriously. I tried reading because I am sure that's much more productive... but I hate it. reading is like homework to me. so I dedicated myself to HGTV. UNTIL I COULDN'T STAND TO WATCH ONE MORE re-decorated/re-painted/re-furbished/re-EVERYTHINGED house...... so I went channel surfing. I ran into this little gem on the Oxygen channel: "Tori and Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood." Yes, it is a reality show following Tori Spelling, her husband Dean something (I think he might be famous?) and their son Liam.

I am hooked. It is basically hilarious. I mean, these people are for REAL and yet the whole time I keep thinking "these people can't be for real." ANYWAY........ in a recent episode, Liam starts swimming lessons. Everytime he put his little face in the water, Tori gasps. Huge annoying (but totally not on purpose!) gasps. She then follows the footage with the commentary that she is a huge gasper. If anything could possibly endanger her child -- she gasps. OH MY GOSH!!! THIS IS ME!!! I am a gasper. It is so embarrasing, but I seriously can't help it.

Take for example, just the other day on Hailey's last day of swimming lessons she was going off the low dive. Now keep in mind Hailey can't swim. This is her first year of lessons. She did great -- but is not even CLOSE to swimming. Every time her instructor had her try to swim to him she would sink. So -- I am a little paranoid that my child is going off the low dive with her only life saving device being the noodle they tied around her waist. Sure there was a lifeguard in the pool... but there are also roughly a million other children.... So just as she is going off the diving board for the 3rd or 4th time -- I express to my husband (again!) how nervous it makes me. And then it happened! Her noodle came off. GAAAAAAAASP!!!!!!! I am sure that people thought that I was having a heart attack. OK, so I sort of was!!! HELLO -- my little girl -- ON HER BIRTHDAY -- is going to DROWN!!!!!! I literally jumped of the bleachers and ran marathon style to the other end of the pool, gasping gasping gasping the whole way. I couldn't even get words out. Just huge gasps and me pointing at the deep end.

The funny thing: Hailey didn't panic. At all. She calmly grabbed the edge of her noodle and kicked her way to the side.

Now talk about feeling foolish. I should have taken a bow at that point -- don't you think? But I mean, seriously, it scared me half to death.

Do any of you do this? Are you an over-panicker and a gasper just like myself and Tori Spelling?

So I guess I should say: Tori Spelling (I KNOW you read my blog!!! come on -- I watch your show...) since we seem to have something in common, if you are ever in the area -- give me a call, let's do a playdate. We can totally gasp the day away.

firecrackas.

Tyler: matching shirts!!! LAME.

Paige: I am SO bored.

Hailey: just keep smiling. just keep smiling.

when is the 4th of July?

Tyler: "when is the 4th of July?"

Mom: the trying to contain laughter noise

Tyler: "oh."

2/3

this one's for you Nancy.

we are all adjusting to life with Paige here.  in fact, I can't really remember life before she arrived.  funny how that happens.  she is a great baby.  she doesn't cry much. . . her preferred "sound" is grunting.  it's kind of an odd sound.  I guess we are used to it but I get some strange looks when out and about with her.  she definitely goes with the flow -- which is a HUGE blessing because there is a lot of "flow" round here.  we are out and about much of the day running to school (Hai), soccer camp (Ty), swimming lessons(Hai & Ty), T-ball (Ty), etc etc etc. and for the most part little Paigers just sleeps the whole time peacefully in her car seat. (with the exception of an occasional grunt....)  it is something new to me because Hailey so didn't go with the flow.  she hated being in her car seat.  in fact, she hated just about everything.  it is so nice to have a SWEET, PERFECT little baby.

now here is where I am struggling.  it's this crazy little fraction: 2/3.  and if any of you know me, I mean really really know me, then you can guess what this little fraction relates to.  got it?  yes, it is about my crazy obsession with keeping a clean, organized house.  

you see, my house is multi-level.  3 levels to be exact.  and everyday I can get 2/3 of the levels clean.  the upper-upstairs (bedrooms/bathroom) always gets cleaned: beds made, bathroom shiny, everything picked up and in it's proper place (I even maintain the closets... I just have to.  OCD I know...)  upstairs (aka main level) -- also gets clean: although a little trickier b/c it is the kitchen level, I manage to stay on top of dishes and keep this level clean and put together (yes, even my cupboards are lovely... remember-- OCD here!)  NOW for the 1/3 that doesn't get done... the 1/3 that is weighin' me down: THE BASEMENT!!!  yikes.  ok, to be honest, our basement family room generally is clean -- this is where the kids have all their toys and they are little champs about cleaning up on a daily basis.  (see job charts on previous post).  the laundry room is ok... I do ALL laundry on Mondays so on Mondays it's a zoo in there.... but the rest of the week it's just fine.  the R*E*A*L problem is the EXTRA BEDROOM (insert evil howling noises).  it has gotten out of hand.  ever since little Paige joined us -- I have literally been throwing things in that room.  stuff that I don't want to deal with.  papers that need to be filed.  kids stuff for their save boxes.  stuff we are getting rid of.  JUST STUFF EVERYWHERE.  I should take a picture but I am too embarrased... it is just not like me to be so... MESSY!!!  I know the solution seems easy: just ignore the other 2/3 for a day and focus on the 1/3... BUT I JUST CAN'T RIGHT NOW.  I get too much satisfaction from pretty beds and a clean kitchen.  but let me tell you that 1/3 is seriously eating away at me... always in the back of my head... I mean, what if -- HEAVEN FORBID: someone were to SEE IT?  

so faithful blog readers, let's cut this girl some slack and give her a little peace of mind: promise me that if you should happen to swing by for a visit, you will not, under any circumstance, go to the 1/3 or, more specifically, the extra bedroom.  it has just got to be messy for now.

this is where we are headed.

yes, that is Hailey.

yes, this is exactly where Paige is headed... straight towards Squishydom.

don't get me wrong -- I like my babies squishy. Just wanted to warn the rest of you so that you aren't alarmed when you see CHUB ROLLS like you've never seen before. I mean -- LOOK at that leg!!!!! JUST LOOK AT IT!!! that's got to be some kind of record!

love you Hailey... and Paigey... and all your sweet little rolls...

Paigey Paigey...

ok... for those of you that knew "Squishy" as a baby -- aren't we looking at "Squishy II" here? we LOVE to kiss those cheeks Paigey Paigey!!!

oh, so cute!

THANKS STEPH!!!

to get your own:

www.thisnthatboutique.blogspot.com

giveaway!

my cutest sis-in-law is having a giveaway on her blog:

http://donswife.blogspot.com/

I have mentioned before how completely adorable Tori and her purses are.... she is so talented. Check it out for yourself:

http://www.apostrophy.etsy.com/

oh, and here are a couple of my favorites...

yes.

also, that was really nice of you, David Cook, to dedicate your performance to me, "AC."  how thoughtful.

introducing!

Paige
May 10, 2008
7 lbs. 7.5 oz.
19 inches
absolutely perfect