Why didn't I ask for today off?

Yup, I'm working the day after Christmas. My question is...why? No one has called, probably because they think that there is no one in HR on the Friday after Christmas. No one has emailed, but I did read some from the last couple of days from my girls (shout-out to Amie, Christine and Toni).

Well, I guess I can blog about Christmas as I sneak time on my laptop while at work. Boring!!! I did bring a certain movie to watch at lunch. Hello, Hello! You know which one ladies!!!!

Christmas was great. James surprised me with a super cool, super expensive gift that I wasn't expecting. No pictures though, my camera has been kidnapped, by kids. Anyhoo, he bought me the Cricut Expression. Cool, huh? I'm excited to spend my weekend getting to play around with my neat-o new gadget.

The kids loved their gifts. We enjoyed the heck out of Joey's Guitar Hero World Tour game. Party over here! How fun is that? And the coolest, my mom and dad got Joey a Wii Fit. It is the coolest thing ever!! We were breaking a sweat using it on Christmas. We did racing and skiing and yoga. It's the neatest thing ever. It made my mom and dad want to go out and get a Wii and Wii Fit for themselves. When I get home I'm going to find out my Wii Fit age.

Speaking of age, next week I'm going to hit the big 3-0. It's kind of funny to be 30in my ward. I'm stuck between age groups. Too old for the Crazy Christmas parties and Rock Band get-togethers. Too young for the Relief Society groups with grand kids. Though I do have to say the RS groups invite me to parties. Shout-out to them! I'm not saying I'm bitter, it's just a little weird to be considered too old at 30. In the younger groups I'm the same age as the husbands (since they all came home from missions and married younger girls *wink*). So 30 is crushing my ego. My mom says that it's worse for her that I'm turning 30...she's a women with a 30 year old kids. I see her point.

Well, on to next year my 30 year old booty goes. And what a booty it is...I better jump on that Wii Fit ASAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Turkey.....late.....but I posted....right?

Thanksgiving this year was pretty typical. Apparently where my MIL is from, Thanksgiving dinner is actually Thanksgiving breakfast, so I got up extremely early make my beloved green bean casserole for my 9:30 Turkey Dinner. Yup, 9:30.

After arriving at my MIL house, on that long trek, then quickly running back inside my house to check the cooking time of a 22lb turkey at 350 degrees, then sending James to the store because she forgot to buy mashed potatoes...we finally got to take a look at the bird.

Now, let me tell you why I had to look up online the cooking time for the turkey to ensure it was cooked. My MIL removed the little pop up thingy that pops up when the turkey is done. She didn't know that's what it was for and perhaps thought it was for injecting juices (or tequila) into the turkey. So, she's been removing these things every year for ever....

It that wasn't funny enough (well it was sure funny to James and I) she had her *cough, cough* friend Willow (Mauricio is his real name, don't you want to say Willow with that weird voice from the movie...Wiiilllooowww) wash off the turkey so she could put in the stuffing that no one in the family eats. It has olives, nuts, grapes, something unidentifiable and it's black. I'm not lying. So, James cuts open the breast of the turkey to check if it's cooked all the way through and finds the bag of giblets cooked inside the turkey!!!!! Willow took it out washed it off and put it back in. Too funny!!!

So...dinner at mom's was perfect, as usual. Our Thanksgiving evening always wraps up with us pouring over the ads scoping out Black Friday deals. So, I'll take to you Black Friday.

I was ran over by a wild cart at the Wal-Mart. Yup, and that was too seconds after a lady fell on me as I was grabbing $5 High School Musical barbies. I was crouching down to grab them because they were on the bottom of the flat and she behind me and reaching over me to grab one (out of my hand the weirdo) well, apparently someone pushed her from behind and she fell on me. I was telling her to back off, but she had a language barrier and I haven't learned any nice words in that language, so I couldn't let her know that I was closer to her than peanut butter is to jelly. *shiver*

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving, I hope you all did too. Dennyse....post yours!!!

Forever and a day...

Sorry for the long time between posts. My work banned Blogger, so I can't post from work anymore. When I get home, I don't want to think about it and I don't even want to haul out my laptop. One reason why.....Primary Program.

Wow, was that stressful!!!

But, it was so good. The kids were just absolutely amazing. They sang their little hearts out and I had many moved to tears. I love when little children really start to feel the spirit. It's just so amazing to watch. I had two beautiful sisters in complete tears during their parts. I just love them, such strong amazing spirits.

Let's see, ah...Halloween. I didn't even post about Halloween. *sigh*
It was so great. I just love Halloween. Pictures, well...I know I have some and hopefully will get them up here.

I just had to take a second, on my laptop, on a break, to let everyone know I am still alive and well. Just extra busy. I don't expect it to lighten up until after the first of the year. But, I promise I will attempt to post more.

Well, if anyone cares....anyone still read this? Mom and Amie? Are you there?

And on a final note...........TWILIGHT COMES OUT THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Tagged by Toni

I like the way that sounds. Tagged by Toni, Tagged by Toni, okay I need to stop.

8 TV Shows I love to watch:

- Project Runway
- Fringe
- Pushing Daisies
- Life
- Big Bang Theory
- Heroes
- The Office
- Ugly Betty

8 Favorite Restaurants:

- China Chili
- Japan Express
- Golden Corral (shout out the buffet!!)
- Garcia's
- Olive Garden
- Chili's
- Filiberto's
- Pei Wei

8 Things That Happened Yesterday:

- I went to a job fair
- I ate El Pollo Loco that I got for free
- I got my Pirate Hat for Halloween
- listened to my ipod (I do this everyday)
- Stalked the blogs
- Worried about money (I do this everyday)
- Talked to my counselors on the phone
- Watched Pushing Daisies with James

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To:

- Halloween
- Baby showers
- Babies (yeah all my preggo friends)
- The Primary Program being over
- The Twilight Movie
- Christmas
- My birthday
- Scrapping


8 Things On My WishList:

- Doing another musical
- painting my house
- A sewing machine
- Abby's tantrums stopping-hey, it says wishlist!
- Being able to send my kids to college
- Getting healthy
- Being debt free
- Getting my degree


8 Friends I'm Tagging:

Dennyse
Ronelle
Melody
Aimee
Tasha
Tammy
Tatum
Jenna

So much...

...has been going on!

I haven't posted in a bit, so this one will be a bit big. If I don't post it all, I'll never get around to doing it. So, no separate posts for me!!

On September 20th we had a combined birthday party for both Joey and Sophie. It was huge as usual. James has so many family members and we have so many friends that we always opt for Peter Piper because it is..
A: Cheaper. We used to spend like $800 on a birthday party at our house. Yikes it was horrible.
B: Cleaner. I don't have to clean up after or before. Mr. or Ms. Peter Piper does this for me.
C. Entertaining for my husband. James loves playing games. He usually finds a "broken" machine and plays his heart out until he has a stink load of tickets to get all the kids something.

So, here's a pic of Sophie donning her birthday hat:



My girls...Christine, Amie, Mom and Camille



More of my girls...Erin, Ronelle and Laura eating in the background (sorry Laura!!)



I never seem to get a ton of pictures during a party. I'll have to bug Camille about some of her's. She super-good at taking pictures during parties.

Finally, the cake. Joey wanted Star Wars figures on it and I made a little sign for Sophie. (It was really more Joey than Sophie's party. She's only 2, she won't mind. Just don't tell her when she gets older)



So, after all the birthday fun, we went out of town for a few days. My Grandpa Bud celebrated his 80th birthday on Sept. 27th. We decided it was high time we saw him again, since it isn't so easy for him to travel to us. Last time I saw him, Abby was a baby. So, it's been a few.

The Thursday before we hopped into the car and headed out. We stayed in Laughlin on Thursday night. Hello flashback to the 1980's. I never really realized that my family is a minority on the whole moral road. Yuck. But, for $19 dollars a night what do you expect? It draws the finest of people. The only good thing was the buffet in the morning. How I love buffets.

Friday we headed out through Vegas. We stopped at Circus Circus and the kids played games (again with the games, James was in heaven) and won some bears. They liked the juggler circus act. After that we headed for our final destination...St. George, Utah.

All of my pictures some how ended up fuzzy (James' thumb, but who's pointing fingers) but our reunion was nice. My dad's brother, Mike and his wife Sharon were there from California. Dad's sister, Denise and her son, Josh, and his girlfriend Casie(I never spell that right) also came. My brother, Camille and Johnathen. My mom and Dad. Dad's step-sister Heidi. Dad's other step-sister Karen and her husband (I won't attempt to spell his name, he's from Honduras) and their cutie-pie Tanner, were also there.

We had a grand time. On Saturday morning we went to "Swiss Days." We enjoyed a parade where Joey had a dream come true:




Johnathen's head looks tiny. I had to catch this during the parade.

After Swiss Days, we rested a bit before the birthday party. My Grandma Shirley ((not my Dad's mom, my Grandpa remarried after my grandmother passed away. My Grandpa Bud and Shirley were sealed, and her daughters were also sealed to my grandfather. *on a side note, she showed us an official church document and it had the 1st Pres. signatures. It had the signature of 2 prophets on it, President Kimball and President Hinckley, cool huh?)) had rented a ramada at a local park. We ate, looked at photos, played and had cake. It was really fun.

Here are Grandpa Bud and Grandma Shirley with Soph:


After the party, we said our goodbyes and headed off. Some went back to the hotel to swim, some went to the Temple. I just love the St. George Temple. Here are a couple shots.





We enjoyed the Visitor Center movies including "A Pioneer Miracle." It was wonderful and very spiritual. After that we went back to the hotel to relax before our trip home in the morning.

Sunday morning we decided to check out Zion National Park. I pulled this pic online. It was so beautiful. Apparently not beautiful enough to take pictures. I think taking care of a toddler was enough work. On another side note, we didn't have to pay to get in Sept. 28th was free at the National Parks in honor of Naturalized Citizens. Cool, huh? Thanks for saving me $25 bucks, Naturalized Citizens!!!



After Zion we headed back Vegas way. I had a horrible experience at a gas station involving at lost credit card, frantic searching, and eventual cancelling. That's all I'm going to say about that. Everything's okay, just so you know. But, ugh, that stank. We ate at another buffet in Vegas, at the New Orleans. OH MY HECK was it good!! *closes eyes imagines eating that food again, then opens Slim-Fast, sigh*

We got home really late on Sunday, and being nice, I let the kiddos sleep in Monday morning and skip school. Aren't I evil? We slept a ton on Monday before walking next door to celebrate Sophie's official 2nd Birthday.

I got her one of those cup-cake dogs from Wal-Mart. Don't yell at me Cake Wrecks!! She's 2, she loved it!!!!




I'm not going to post the one that made her look like she had a frosting Hitler-moustache. Disturbing.

Well, it was an exciting week! Tomorrow I get to go on my first out of town crop. I'm so excited! A weekend with just the girls! No worries, just scrapping!

It's Jello not Blood

I have to share this. I got an email yesterday from Amie. Unfortunately, I got it a bit late in the day, so she may have thought I fled the country because of what my Sophie did since it took me forever to reply. But anyhoo, the title of the email reads: "it's JELLO not BLOOD." A title such as this immediately sparked my imagination, so I opened it and read:

"Sophie learned some new things today.

First of all, cherry jello powder tastes goooood.

Second, it looks really pretty smeared all over the couch!

WE DO NOT PLAY WITH CHERRY JELLO POWDER!

And I learned not to leave 2 girls alone with a jello box in reach......"

And of course, Amie is an amazing scrapbooker and quick to take a pic ,so I got this attached:

Notice the tear drop, and the other tear drop stained red on her chest. Mind you, she smeared herself and clothing with mascara just a few hours before doing this.

Ah, toddlers.