Birthday

I just want to say a very heart felt THANK YOU to Natalie. You are so awesome to take my kids for me, and even pick Xander up from school! My pedicure was great, and a nice way to start my birthday :)

Today is my 27th birthday! I started the day with the above mentioned pedicure, then I went to the mall and got a few new shirts :) Then I got my kids and met up with Pat and his sister Lana for lunch! THANK YOU Lana for lunch! It was great :) After getting home and putting Mara down for a nap, Xander and I watched the live-action Peter Pan!! Pat got me this movie for a late christmas present. I love the music to it. (listen to "I do believe in fairies" in my playlist) They use the music from the movie in the Disneyland commercials!! And my sister Karri even made the music into a ring tone, so I have it on my phone!!! I LOVE IT!!!! Now I am just waiting for my mom to come home, so Pat and I can go to dinner and a movie!! (we are seeing "Definetly, Maybe")

Birthday's are fun. I was just going to hang out at home and do nothing today, but Natalie surprised me with watching my kids, and the day has just snowballed!! It is nice to know that I am loved and have great friends and family that can help make my day special :)

ZzZzZzZz...

I am very grateful for good sleepers. Both Xander and Mara sleep through the night, which is heavenly!! Xander only started sleeping all night long regularly when we got him a twin bed last spring. It is a very rare occasion that he wakes up at night. We were able to teach Mara at a young age to sleep all night, but she will wake every so often, and when she does it takes awhile for her to go back to sleep. We usually just turn down the room moniter and go back to sleep ourselves. But last night was different. She woke up around 1:30 and just called out "mom" alot. So of course I just laid in bed, waiting. We try not to get her out of bed unless nessecary, because she definetly won't go back to sleep! So after a few minutes, she began to cry. And the great husband that I have, got up to check on her :) It ended up that she had wet out of her pj's and needed a change of diaper and clothes. When Pat went to put her back to bed, he noticed that her sheets were wet too. So then we had to change her sheets!! And through all this, Xander didn't even move!! He is amazing! He is able to ignore her during the night, or he just sleeps really hard! LOL Mara was able to go back to sleep, but it didn't last long. She woke up at 4:30 needing a drink of water. Pat had forgotten to put her cup back in her bed after changing the sheets. At least that second waking didn't last too long. So I am a little tired today, I am used to getting more sleep because my kids are great sleepers :) At least Mara slept in until 8:30!! (8:00 is the usually waking time for both kids) I just hope that they will always sleep well! :)

Early and Late Birthdays

Last night we had a birthday celebration for me and Pat. Pat's bday is on the 5th and mine is on the 20th, so we always celebrate them together with my family. We both got mainly cash (which is awesome!) But I did get a few items :)

Here is our family effort at blowing out the candles :)

My mom gave me this awesome card from Hallmark that playes "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" from Mary Poppins!!! (It is one of my most favorite movies) And Mara was dancing on my lap to the music :)

My mom also got me this wall hanging that says:

"I believe stars in the sky are openings where our loved ones shine down to let us know they are happy"

We saw this when we were at Swiss Days in September, and it made me cry because I thought of my dad.

Then Pat gave me this sweet Precious Moments figure from Disneyland. (Thanks again Karri for picking it up for us!!) I love it so much!! It has the theme on it "Where Dreams Come True". Oh how I love Disney :)

So happy late bday to Pat, and happy early bday to me :)

Happy Valentine's Day!!

These are my attempts at doing cute Valentine's pictures. Mara doesn't sit still very well, so after each picture, she would run away!!! At least I was able to get some good ones. (The one in our title is my favorite)

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!!!!!

New Windows!!!! Yipee!!!!

We have been living with my mom for 3 years now. This house is a little over 30 years old, and still has the original windows in the basement (where we sleep). The basement has always been cold, but whenever it is cold outside there is a breeze that comes through the windows. Our bed is directly under our window, and I can always feel the cold air on my face when I am going to sleep. In the kids room, Mara's crib is under their window, and my mom is always so worried about her being cold, enough that she bought some new pjs for her. So finally after talking with my mom, we got new windows!!!
Our room
Goodbye old, single pane, drafty windows!!
Kids room

Our room
Hello, beautiful nice and warm windows!!

Kids room

I am so excited to go to sleep tonight and actually be warm!!! This is going to be great! We didn't only replace the windows for the bedrooms, but all 6 windows in the basement. :)
THANKS AGAIN MOM!!!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!

Happy Birthday :)

Today is Pat's Birthday!!! He is the big 27!! Which means that I will be 27 in a few weeks :) The majority of his presents are pre-order items, or are in the mail, so there really wasn't much for him to open up this morning. But we got out the 3 items and took some pictures.

I'm glad that Mara looks cute, even with bed-head!


We got Pat this cool Star Wars Mighty Mug toy. He has a Darth Vader collection, to see a better picture of it you can go to his blog http://www.jeditolmantoys.blogspot.com/


Xander helped me pick out this shirt for him. He loves Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas!


I love this picture. It looks like Mara is trying to get away, but she is actually saying "cheese"


Pat, showing off his way cool shirt!!

I love you, honey!! You are my one and only. My Soul Mate. You can always make me smile and laugh. I know that the next 2 years are going to be rough, but you can do it! School will be over before you know it, and you will have the career that you have worked so hard for. Just remember that I love you and support you with all that you do.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!

Craft project...

So I was looking at a website that you can buy things that are handmade. I was going to buy some hair clips for Mara, but after looking at them, I decided that I could make them myself. So I bought some ribbon at Robert's Craft and got some clips at Sally's Beauty Supply and went to work. They are way cute!! And I have enough ribbon to make baby gifts too! Now if I could only get Mara to keep them in her hair all day!

President Gordon B. Hinckley 1910-2008

SALT LAKE CITY 27 January 2008 President Gordon B. Hinckley, who led The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints through twelve years of global expansion, has died at the age of 97.
President Hinckley was the 15th president in the 177-year history of the Church and had served as its president since 12 March 1995.
The Church president died at his apartment in downtown Salt Lake City at 7:00 p.m. Sunday night from cause’s incident to age. Member of his family were at his bedside. A successor is not expected to be formally chosen by the Church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles until after President Hinckley’s funeral within the next few days.

(I don't normally post current events, but this one really hit home. I love Pres. Hinckley and am sadded by his passing. He will be sorely missed)

The Giver

For our ward's book club, we are reading The Giver by Lois Lowery. The book is only 179 pages long, but is the most beautiful book I have ever read. When I was finishing this book, I was crying so much that I had a hard time reading. After I was done, I cryed for 5 minutes in the bathroom. I don't know how much I want to explain the book, so as not to ruin it for anyone who has not read it. So here is what the back of the book says:

Jonas's world is perfect. Everything is under control. There is no war or fear or pain. There are no choices. Every person is assigned a role in the Community. When Jonas turns twelve, he is singled out to receive special training from The Giver. The Giver alone holds the memories of the true pain and pleasure of life. Now it's time for Jonas to receive the truth. There is no turning back.

The book is simply written and is a quick read, hence the 179 pages. I recommend this book to everyone. I just can't explain how beautiful it is. The only other time I have cried while reading a book was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I cried even harder when I explained the book to Pat last night. So pretty much I think that everyone needs to read The Giver.

The Many Faces of Mara

Mara is so funny! I will find her doing the weirdest things. She has started to take off her pants at any given moment during the day. I have also found her with her boots on often. And then I found her like this:

You know the little plastic seal that you take off of a gallon of milk. I had left one on the counter and she decided that it was a pair of glasses. She walked around like this for at least 5 minutes:

She will often go through the diaper bag and find her sunglasses. And she wanted to wear them around. She also likes to carry around her purse :)

This picture is from before Christmas and I just found it. She likes to play with the Mr. Potato Head parts. And usually will only try to put on the glasses, but this day she put the ears in her ears and put the pants from Mr. Incredible on her head like a hat!

I love my little girl so much. She is such a special spirit. She is so very busy and is always moving. She makes me tired just watching her run around. She usually doesn't sit still for very long. But tonight was different. She didn't get a nap today because our church schedule has changed to 11-2. Then after church we went to my In-Laws. She was fairly happy all day, and enjoyed playing with her cousins. But tonight, around 6, she started losing it. So I gave her something small to eat while she sat on my lap. She stayed on my lap for at least 15 minutes, because she was so tired. So I put her in her pj's and headed downstairs. She really likes me to sing "Rock-a-bye Baby", so we sat in the dark and I sang to her. It was so nice to have her lie in my arms. I don't get that very often (except for at 5:30 am, Saturday morning). It makes me miss when she was a baby. I could hold her for hours and just watch her. Now she is so big, running around all the time, saying new things everyday. It just amazes me how much things can change. I feel like it was yesterday that she was born. Not to mention, Xander is 4!! I will go off on that another day :)