My Dreams Come True

Winter Break is over

2012-01-06T13:19:00.000-07:00

Emilee returned to school on Wednesday, she was so excited. Every day during break she would wake up and ask me if it was "school day" (except on Christmas). While she was in school on Wednesday it was time for mommy to play. I took the time to clean and organize her room. It was so nice to get rid of some toys that she had out grown, and to put all of the Christmas toys away.

Spring?

2012-01-02T15:36:00.000-07:00

Does it feel like the beginning of Spring to anyone else today? Will Emilee ever get to build a Snowman? I keep waiting for the winter and snow, yet it never comes. Some years come and go without me even noticing the passing. This year already feels like a new beginning. Nothing big or exciting happening in my life, everything is just the same except for the feeling of something new in the air. Maybe it's because of the new goals that I am excited to work towards, or maybe its the feeling of accomplishment for keeping most of the goals from last year. Here's to looking forward to the surprises and challenges that the coming year will bring.

Happy New Year!

Holiday Season

2011-12-15T15:58:00.001-07:00

The last few weeks we have been busy with the Christmas Season. I have to say that I love having family traditions and starting new ones. Candy Chains is a tradition that I have had since I was little, Emilee loves having a candy chain. Every morning she wants her piece of chocolate, and she loves watching as the chain gets smaller each day. In our home we also have an advent calendar that we fill with activities to do throughout the season. I am so thankful for the traditions that we have and the joy those traditions bring us. I hope that this season brings you close to those you love.

A day in the Mountains

2011-10-19T16:20:00.000-06:00

I will be the first to admit that yesterday did not start well in our home. Thankfully things got a lot better and we ended up having a great day. We spent the afternoon enjoying the great weather in the mountains and being together as a family.

Family Vacation

2011-10-10T10:03:00.000-06:00

In September we went to Disneyland with Adams family. I really love going to Disneyland with my family, it was fun to share the experience with the rest of the family. Emilee had fun playing with her cousins, especially in the morning during breakfast.
This year Emilee was big enough to go on almost every ride, she loved the bigger rides. I was worried about her going on Tower of Terror, she was more scared of how dirty everything looked instead of the ride. She even wanted to keep going on the ride, I was proud of how brave she was. The only ride we have found so far that Emilee does not like is the Matterhorn. She hated the ride last year, this year we got her to go on it one more time and she still hates it. Last year she hated how jerky it was and the monster, this year she hated the monster.

Adam saved up some extra money so we could take Emilee to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. Emilee loved the whole experience. She loved dressing up like a princess, having her hair done, and having her picture taken. Her Fairy Godmother in training made a huge impression on her. She loves doing my hair, even more now and she loves giving me fairy wishes with her wand.

We went to the beach one day. Emilee didn't spend a lot of time in the water this year. She had more fun playing in the sand with her cousins. It was nice to have a relaxing day on the beach and playing in the water. Watching Emilee play with her cousins reminded me of my vacations with my cousins.

We also went to an Angels game, it was nice to go to the game. Emilee had so much fun at the game she wants to go back to a baseball game. It was sad that the game went by so fast, and that they lost.
It was a fun vacation, and I am thankful that we were able to go on vacation. I know that Adam worked really hard and gave up most of his summer so that we could go. On the way home Emilee told Adam that she didn't want him to go back to work. We should stay on vacation forever go to Disneyland and Paris. I love that daughter of mine. I am glad she had fun being on vacation with us.

At least 3 blessings for today......

2011-08-29T22:09:00.000-06:00

1st Blessing: My pulse rate is normal, and I don't have high blood pressure.

2nd Blessing: My blood didn't object too much and left my body somewhat freely.

3rd Blessing: Emilee's car seat is worth every penny we spent on it.

My morning started like any morning I was awakened by the sun coming through my window and by Dory, she was thirsty. I made sure Emilee was awake so I could feed her and get her ready for preschool. Adam woke up and got ready we had a visitor coming. We decided recently to add to our life insurance policies, which meant a nurse was coming to fill out paper work, check our blood pressure, take our blood (my favorite part, not) and whatever else needed to be checked. I was worried about having my blood drawn, I have had some okay experiences and horrible experiences. Today was a pleasant surprise and she was good at getting my blood to come out. After having a good experience with the nurse, everything pointed to having a great day. Then we had to go buy toilet paper and I wanted to go to Hobby Lobby, that's when things turned.

I couldn't find my wedding ring when we were walking out the door. We ended up searching the house tearing the front room apart trying to find that ring. Thankfully we found the ring after about 20 minutes of looking and lots of stress. We should of stayed home, but we needed toilet paper and I wanted to finish a project. We were driving down state street traffic had stopped, so we stopped. Unfortunately, the lady behind us didn't stop. She hit us, which pushed us into the car in front of us. It was such a weird feeling getting hit, time slowed down as I jerked forward. I am so thankful for Emilee's car seat, she is safe and not in too much pain. I wish that I could say that I wasn't in pain, I'm sure Adam wishes the same thing. So our car, the only one we have that works, is no longer in great shape. The bumpers and trunk took most of the damage. Now comes the privilege of trying to get the car fixed and working with insurance companies. We never ended up buying the toilet paper.

School time again.....

2011-08-25T21:45:00.000-06:00

The air is cooler in the morning, and it's getting darker earlier at night. That can only mean one thing, school must be starting. Emilee started her last year of Pre-School yesterday. It made me sad to sit and think that next year I will be sending her to kindergarten. She had been looking forward to school for a couple of weeks, and was excited that it was finally time for her to go.

Pictures with cousins

2011-08-09T15:20:00.000-06:00

In July Grandma Yorgason bought some cute dresses for the little girls, and wanted pictures of all the grandchildren. The pictures turned out so cute.

Recovery

2011-07-22T12:53:00.000-06:00

This month had brought a lot of sadness for us. My Grandpa died on the first Wednesday of the month. I went through a lot of emotions and many tears. The funeral was the following Tuesday, it was a great service. It was nice to hear stories about Grandpa. The music tugged at my heart strings and made the tears come. After such an emotional week I was ready to relax, and get back to normal.

Unfortunately that was not to happen. The day after my Grandpa's funeral, which also happened to be a Wednesday, Adam received a phone call from his mother. His sweet Grandma had passed away, just a week after my Grandpa. So instead of things going back to normal, the tears returned. The funeral was on Monday, it was also a wonderful service. They had the great grandchildren sing I am a Child of God at the graveside service and release white balloons, it was cute and sweet.

We have made it through the past 2 weeks, and are now trying to return to a normal routine. Even though the past 2 weeks stood still for us emotionally, everything else kept moving. We will now have to find our new normal routine.

Grandpa

2011-07-07T17:48:00.002-06:00

Last night we had to say goodbye to Grandpa Collins. When you lose someone it's amazing the things that you feel, don't feel, and the things you think about. I'm not one that cries a lot, I cried last night when I got the phone call. I know that my Grandpa loves me, and he loves his whole family.

I will miss his sense of humor, and hearing him call me by my nickname. When I close my eyes I can see him in the kitchen for our birthdays sitting at the end of the table talking. His mind was amazing and always going, he loved fixing things, and was great at it. Grandpa had an amazing green thumb, he made taking care of plants look easy. He would always bring us extra tomatoes from his garden. He always brought our dogs a treat when he came to visit. The dogs knew when he was coming and would meet him at the door, just like little kids.

I love my Grandpa Collins, and I am so thankful that I am blessed to have him as my Grandpa. Even though he is no longer with us, I know that one day we will all be together as a family.

Ice Cream

2011-07-01T14:42:00.000-06:00

Emilee and I went for a walk this morning. I wish we had left a little earlier, by the time we left it was already hot. When we got back we decided to relax and make ice cream. I should say that Emilee made ice cream, we found this tutorial for Ice Cream in a bag and decided to try. Emilee enjoyed eating her ice cream, and was kind enough to share with me. We will be making this again throughout the summer. To answer your question, Yes even a Princess will work for Ice Cream.

Swim Lessons

2011-06-22T08:25:00.001-06:00

I can't believe that June is almost over, the summer disappears too fast. Emilee loved swim lessons, she loves being in the water. Adam helped her learn to open her eyes under the water, and helped get her comfortable with floating on her back. She remembered the slides from last year and kept asking about them everyday, she was excited when she finally got to go down the them. The day swim lessons ended she was already asking for more lessons.

Preschool Graduation

2011-05-28T12:00:00.000-06:00

I can't believe it, the school year is done. Emilee had her Preschool Graduation last night, they did such a great job. The kids sang songs they had learned about all of the colors. Emilee has really enjoyed Preschool this year, I am so glad that we put her in school. Miss Janae is a wonderful teacher, Emilee loved her. They did so many fun things and learned while having fun.

The four kids (including Emilee) on the end are Emilee's Class

Such cute Graduates

Receiving her Diploma

She's too cute

Rain=Puddles and slimy things

2011-05-19T13:17:00.000-06:00

For the most part I love the fact that we have had so much rain, it has kept the temperatures down and everything looks so green. I hate having to drive my husband to work in the rain storms, its really hard to see when it's dark and raining.

Yesterday we decided to go for a walk in the rain, we were tired of being indoors. We grabbed our jackets, umbrellas and off we went. We had lots of fun on our walk in the rain. We found some worms swimming in a puddle, and we decided to save a couple of them. When I say we saved, I really mean Adam is the one who touched them and put them in the grass. Emilee liked looking, but would not get close. On our walk Emilee had fun seeing how big of a splash she could get. It was a lot of fun to watch her jumping in puddles, she came home with very wet legs.

Our Easter Weekend

2011-04-25T16:51:00.002-06:00

We have spent today relaxing and recovering. This weekend was a lot of fun, and extremely full of activities. before the weekend even started Emilee had an Easter Egg hunt at school and celebrated Bailee's birthday. I personally enjoyed being with family, and teaching the little kids in my primary class about Easter. Surprising enough even though we kept busy it was relaxing.

On Saturday we were invited to my Family's Neighborhood Easter Egg Hunt. When we got there we found out this is the last year they will be holding the Easter Egg hunt. They have been doing the egg hunt for 17 years. When I found that out I felt really old. Emilee was nervous at first, thankfully Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Brittany helped her out. Emilee had a lot of fun. Later that night we dyed eggs, Emilee wanted lots of pink and purple eggs.

Sunday was Easter, unfortunately Adam had to work. We woke up and got ready for church, Emilee kept asking if the Easter Bunny came. While I was getting her ready I reminded her why we celebrate Easter. She was so excited to come down stairs and see if her Easter basket was full. She had fun taking everything out of her basket one at a time for me to take pictures. The Easter Bunny even left her a present at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Later that night, Adam was able to join us and we had a wonderful Easter Dinner with my family. Russell and Amber weren't able to stay for dinner, but it was nice seeing them for a few minutes. Dinner was so good, Emilee loved the Ham and sitting with her cousins. Adam proved that he is still good with babies, he can calm down most babies. After dinner we had our Easter Egg hunt. The first few years Emilee, Matthew and Lillian were so young we had to walk them around and it took forever. This year they couldn't wait. At one point when we were finishing hiding eggs Matthew and Emilee started knocking on the door saying they needed candy. It was so much fun to watch them search the back yard for eggs. Next year we will have to hold them back a few minutes while the two babies go search. The rest of the night was spent talking and enjoying some yummy cake. I love the holidays and being able to spend time with family.

Quilt

2011-04-14T11:53:00.000-06:00

Years and years ago I took a sewing class, in that class I started making a quilt. I found a pattern that I thought would be nice and bought all of the material for it. I never even finished cutting out the pieces before the class ended, so I copied the pattern thinking I would finish it. I lost the pattern, so I gave the material to my mom to do with as she wanted. A couple of weeks ago my mom told me she needed to get me a gift, I was helping her with a project. I told her she didn't have to, well she showed up at my door with the gift.

It was a quilt, she took my material and made me a quilt. I was so surprised, it was a wonderful gift. I have already put it to great use. When I was having pain in my teeth and couldn't sleep at night I would come down and wrap up in it. Such a great comfort, thank you Mom for my wonderful quilt.

Mysterious Balloon

2011-04-04T10:40:00.001-06:00

Do you see the Pink Happy Birthday Balloon in the picture? We bought that balloon to celebrate Emilee's birthday, we bought it on Feb. 23. In this picture it is tied down to a balloon weight, important thing to know is that it is fully afloat. How long can normal latex balloons stay afloat? The other balloons we bought at the same time and same place were on the floor the next day. Skip ahead 5 WEEKS!

The balloon is barely losing air, I took this picture on March 30. I was really excited to see how long this balloon would last, it has disappeared. Dory (our cat) was playing with the string and carrying the balloon places, the last place I saw it was on our kitchen table. My theory is Adam was cleaning and he had the door open, Dory kept going in and out. I think she must have carried it outside and it was lost. I am sad not to know how much longer the balloon would of stayed afloat, and I am amazed that it lasted for 5 weeks.

Just Sweet

2011-03-28T09:44:00.000-06:00

Sometimes I reflect on my life and think about the things I could of done differently. One of the things I wouldn't change is staying home with Emilee, even though its hard at times. Yesterday in Church the lady giving the talk was telling a little about herself and said how she worked. Emilee looked at me and asked/told me that I didn't work. I told her no I don't work. She looked up at me and said you stay home with me, I said yes. She reached over and gave me a hug and said Thank you and I love you. That moment right there reaffirmed that I made the right decision. I love the sweet little moments that Emilee gives me.

The Dentist

2011-03-25T10:47:00.000-06:00

For about a month I have had the feeling I should go to the Dentist. I would ignore that feeling, and justify it with one or all of the following: We need to find a new dentist, We don't have the money, I don't like the Dentist, and the pain went away. Two weeks ago the pain decided to stay, and to increase. One night it was so bad that I did not sleep, I cried. Adam being a caring husband called my parents to find out who their Dentist is (they like him) and made me an appointment.
I was scared. I spent a good portion of my life going through orthodontics and even though I had good results, it made me hate the smell and sounds of the Dentist Office. As I opened the door to the office I noticed something, or the lack of something...it didn't have the dentist smell. That put me at ease, then everyone was so nice including the Dentist. Even though he was nice he did not have good news. I would need at least one root canal, a 98 percent chance for a second and a third tooth needed a filling. I Promise I do take good care of my teeth. I finished with the 2 root canals this week, and now know that we have found our new Dentist. I didn't feel a thing while he was working on my teeth, and I only felt slight discomfort for a few days after. Adam has been great taking care of the house, Emilee and me. I appreciate how patient Adam has been, especially when I was in major pain and scared. I am also very happy not to be in pain anymore.

What we did today!

2011-03-11T19:12:00.000-07:00

Today was a fun day, Emilee had some pictures taken of her. We got a phone call earlier this week from Russell asking us if we would be willing to help his sister-in-law Brenna. We said yes. Brenna works for the local United Way, they were taking pictures to use in their promotional materials and had someone cancel. They wanted to know if they could take pictures of Emilee. Emilee was so excited as we drove down there. She did not want us to be late to have her picture taken. It was interesting to watch everything that was going on. I can't imagine being in charge of everything that was happening. Everyone was so nice, kind and patient. They had about 7 kids there and they were all so cute. Emilee had fun today, even though at times it was hard to tell. Thank you Brenna for letting Emilee participate. Here are some pictures we took of her when we got home. The posing is all her.

Library Cart

2011-03-05T10:37:00.000-07:00

Adam and Erik were so kind and made another project for the house. They made this way cute library cart.

I am so thrilled, it's a perfect solution. We've had to store Emilee's books on a shelf in her closet, it makes it really hard for her to get to her books, and they took up precious space. The Library Cart is narrow enough that it fits right in the closet or at the foot of her bed. It has cleared up the shelving space in our closet, and it makes it easier for Emilee to get to her books. Right now it's painted a solid white, it's waiting for me to chose a stencil so I can paint it.

Adam and Erik actually made two of these way cute carts, they are going to sell the extra one. If you would be interested in one let them know. Trust me it is so worth it, Emilee loves her cart. The cart has made it much easier for her to use her books, she has been reading so much more the last couple of days.

Through Emilee's Eyes: Pet Store

2011-02-28T10:00:00.001-07:00

Emilee got this cute camera for her birthday and loves using it. I've decided that every once in a while we will post Through Emilee's Eyes. It will be pictures Emilee has taken with her camera. Looking through her pictures, I can tell you, it will be fun and a surprise.

Through Emilee's Eyes: Pet Store

Twins

2011-02-25T17:17:00.001-07:00

That's right twins! Emilee is excited, it's too soon to tell if they are girls, boys or one of each. I have to admit that we were really surprised, I didn't think it was ever going to happen.

Okay everyone catch your breath, and take a moment to relax. To my family who right now might be a bit mad that I didn't tell you guys, ask yourself have I ever been able to keep a secret this big. The answer would be NO. Plus would I really want to tell you through a blog with the whole world and not tell you first. We really do have twins, just the babies would be FISH. We have had a fish who looks like she is constantly getting pregnant, we have never been able to catch when she has them. One day she's fat the next she's not. This has been going on for months and months, it's a vicious cycle. Last night I was talking to Adam and glancing at the fish tank, next thing I know I see something small moving. I thought it was a piece of food at first, but it kept moving so I got down to look. I was so surprised to see a baby fish. We pulled the baby out and searched for others, we moved everything and couldn't find any. So we pulled the mommy out, just in case. I woke up this morning and noticed Mommy didn't have anymore, I was thankful we found one. When I was showing Emilee the baby I noticed another one swimming in the plant where we found the first. I pulled it out of the tank, so now we have two babies. Have to admit I wish I could of seen your face as you first started reading the post.

There is a baby fish on each end of the tank.

Comfy and Cozy

2011-02-24T14:02:00.000-07:00

Emilee's birthday is coming up, and I decided that I wanted to make something for her. I decided to make a canvas using words that describe her. I bought a canvas, painted it added some glitter and then got scared. I always get nervous before a project, because I'm never sure if what I see in my head is really going to happen. A few minutes later I started writing down words, and asked Adam to write down words. I pulled out my cricut and started cutting. I really liked the way it turned out, and hopefully Emilee will enjoy it as she gets older. Comfy and Cozy are our favorite words. Emilee is always saying comfy and cozy, when we hear those words they make us feel like she is truly happy.

What a day!

2011-02-15T11:13:00.000-07:00

We had so much fun yesterday, celebrating Valentines Day. Adam had the day off, which was enough for me, it's always nice to have him home on a holiday. We woke up early, we had a few errands to run. When we finished with the errands, Adam took us to breakfast. It was nice to eat breakfast as a family. Adam then told me we could go "window shopping" anywhere I wanted. Of course, I didn't have anywhere that I wanted to go. Adam made the decision to go buy a cookie for Emilee and cupcakes for us. It was a nice treat, we also visited Adams mom at work. Right before we left we fed the ducks, the rest of Emilees pancakes. She had so much fun feeding them, she wanted to feed them our cupcakes. My Mom, Dad, and Brittany decided they would babysit Emilee for a couple of hours. Adam and I were able to enjoy dinner by ourselves, which Adam cooked. I enjoyed having the night off. We still had a little while to play, so we went and got ice cream. We really had a fun day.

Emilee had a great time being babysat. She made cookies with them, and decided she could do the sprinkles all by herself. Grandpa ended up with a cookie with lots of sprinkles. Mommy and Daddy ended up with some cookies that some of the frosting had been licked. She was trying to stop the frosting from going off the edges (by licking). She did Brittany's and Grandmas hair, watched a movie, and threw her own party. Valentines Day isn't even over for Emilee she gets to have a party at school today.

Camp Out

2011-02-12T15:53:00.000-07:00

We decided to brave the cold weather and go camping Thursday Night. Emilee has really wanted to go camping so I figured why not. I know I must of gone crazy for a brief moment. Now that everyone is in complete shock, I just want to let you know that we had a lot of fun. We decided to buy Emilee her first sleeping bag, she loved it. We ate hot dogs, had carrots and ranch, chips and dip, and watched movies. How in the world did we watch movies?

ssssshhhhh..........Let me tell you a secret, we camped in our front room. Emilee really was excited and had tons of fun. She was so excited that she wouldn't sleep, after trying to get her to calm down we decided to try putting her in our bed. She feel asleep in seconds. Which I was thankful for it saved me from sleeping on the floor.

Emilee and her new sleeping bag.

Our wonderful tent. I think Adam did a great job making a tent for us to sleep under. Emilee was so sad when we took the tent down the next day.

Today

2011-02-09T15:04:00.000-07:00

Do you ever have one of those days where you feel totally at peace? Today is one of those days for me. Even though my home isn't completely clean and I have tons of unfinished projects I feel peaceful inside and out. My wish is that sometime soon everyone of you will have a day where you feel like I do right now.

What a workout

2011-01-29T08:29:00.000-07:00

Every once in awhile kids will do the craziest things. Emilee is a little monkey at times. Emilee decided to climb onto her daddy's arm and not let go. She thought it was the funniest thing, it really worked out Adams arm.

Naptime

2011-01-25T11:03:00.001-07:00

I was able to take a nap this morning, thanks to Emilee. We had to wake up early this morning to take Adam to work, no big deal. I usually just come home and start my day while Emilee goes back to bed. That is exactly what I did today. I came home and took a short shower and did some things around the house until Emilee woke up. We had breakfast, and then I realized I wasn't able to keep my eyes open. I figure I was so tired because my body is recovering from being sick. Since I could tell my eyes weren't going to stay open I decided to do something I never do. I let Emilee choose a movie, and told her that I was going to lay on the couch (that way I was in the same room) and take a small nap. I also told her if she needed anything she could wake me up. Emilee made sure I was covered in a blanket, she sang me a song, and then let me sleep. A few times while I was asleep I could feel her rubbing my face. She took really good care of me, and didn't get into any type of trouble while I was napping. It was a great small nap.

Book Shelf

2011-01-18T14:25:00.000-07:00

I love the bookshelf that Adam and Erik built for my kitchen. It has left the space feeling more open, and it fits all of my cookbooks. It's only partially done right now, Adam still needs to stain it. My cookbooks and Adams school books look great all organized.

Before

After with all of the books

New Hobbies

2011-01-12T10:49:00.000-07:00

Tom boy or Princess? Why choose, Emilee has decided to do everything, her latest interest proves this point. We were shopping at Target and lucked into a lot of their toys being 50 percent off. We decided to look at the toys and see if there was anything we wanted to get her for her birthday. Instead Emilee found 2 toys that she really wanted that were cheap enough I didn't care if we gave them to her right away. She loves playing with both toys.

Playing with her new mixer

Learning how to use her new tools

Pop

2011-01-08T18:16:00.000-07:00

For some reason when I get sad, depressed, mad, upset, any feelings that fall into that area I want to eat. Right now I want to eat, but I've chosen to write instead. I've decided that I don't like the rule of 3's, have you ever noticed things really do seem to happen in 3's. In December Adams Grandma Lucy passed away, then My Aunt Darlene got really sick, and now Pop isn't doing well. I've had a flood of memories come rushing to me the past few hours.

I remember going to the beach with my family we all loved the beach. Even I love the beach even though the sun does not love me. We would go with everyone, it was so much fun to play with the cousins. I remember Pop helping me jump the waves when I was little. I somewhat remember the Caravan, I was really little at the time. Pop and Grandma spending the Holidays with us when they lived here. I remember the day I got married and I was blessed to be sealed by Pop. I am thankful that he was able to come and visit us the last few years. I could keep rambling through memories, but I won't make you suffer. Life is precious, we need to remember to enjoy the everyday moments. Sometimes it's hard to enjoy everyday, it might have been a bad day, or just a normal day with chores and errands. You never know what moments will leave an imprint on your heart or the hearts of those around you.

Pop we all love you and wish we could be there. Since we are far away we will keep you in our prayers and our thoughts.

Clean Carpets=.....

2011-01-06T20:28:00.000-07:00

I live in a house full of accident prone people, Adam would say its mainly Emilee and I. We cleaned our carpets this week and they looked wonderful. Today we were hanging our pictures when tragedy occurred red kool-aid was spilt all over the carpets. I really couldn't yell at anyone because it was my fault. I was determining if I liked how the pictures looked on the wall. I wasn't paying attention and backed right into the table with the cup full of kool-aid. Luckily we still have my parents carpet cleaner and were able to clean the carpet again.

Time to Change

2011-01-05T20:43:00.000-07:00

The last two days we have spent the time rearranging our family room. We haven't changed the furniture since right after Emilee was born, it was definitely time to change. The room felt way different last night, and we weren't sure if we liked it. As of right now I love it, as Emilee would say it feels warm and cozy. It just proves that sometimes change is good. Tomorrow we will work on replacing the pictures, that way they will look right with the new arrangement.

Tell me About yourself....

2011-01-04T09:29:00.000-07:00

Remember when you would go into job interviews and they would ask "tell me about yourself", or when you move into a new ward and they want you to "tell about yourself", you even have to "tell about yourself" when you meet new people. I'm about to tell you a secret.... I dread that question or any question like it! Why? because I am very self conscious and shy, so I never know what to say, and I always wonder after if I said the right things.

If I don't like the question so much why am I talking about it? It's because the last two weeks in December I was trying to decide my goals for the New Year, and I kept asking myself about that question. The first little bit I was worried sick about how I was answering myself, crazy I know. Little by little I answered the question, and was able to make goals on areas I really wanted to improve on. I personally think Heavenly Father made me ask myself that question, because he knew I would have to think. He also knew that while I was thinking I would realize I am not a nobody (something I've been struggling with).

I have decided that once a week, every 2 weeks or once a month, I will let you in and tell you some things about me. You may find them boring, funny or interesting. If you are perfectly happy with how much you know about me don't read on.

I was born with very little, to no hair. I have always heard about how bald I was and how long it took for me to get hair, not to worry though. I have a lot of hair and it's very thick. I believe that I had very little hair for so long because it was so thick that it had to work harder to reach the surface.

No Hair

Lots of hair

I am a lefty, and proud of it. Even though in school I had a teacher who wouldn't let me cut with my left hand. She kept trying to force right handed scissors on me and then would get mad if I used my left hand. I believe she thought she was fixing me, she wasn't. Thanks to her that motor skill was never fully developed. I still struggle with cutting. Even though I struggle with cutting I write really well. I have been told by lots of people how well I write for being left handed. Even though in school I did get in trouble for my cursive letters leaning in the wrong direction. One time I was filling out some paper work for a customer and he noticed I was left handed. He asked me how I learned to write so well, he wanted me to show his daughter how I was holding the pencil and writing. She was also left handed, but had the habit of bending her wrist when she wrote. Plus even if I'm not great, most of the greats are left handed.

I HATE Spiders and snakes. I hate them so much that when I go to the zoo and we visit the building with the reptiles and insects I walk directly down the middle that way I am not to close to the cages. If there is a spider in the house Adam has to kill it, before I got married my siblings or parents had to kill it. I have killed a few if I have a vacuum to suck it up and it's about to "attack". I have also killed a couple with Adams huge boots, he hates when I do that because I leave the boot on it. So when he picks up his boot there is a nice surprise he has to clean up. Why am I so scared, I blame it on a dream I had as a child. It was one of the dreams where it was real. I was lying in my bed, and spiders started to crawl on me and they kept coming big ones, little ones all sorts. I knew they were coming to kill me. I was so scared I couldn't move or scream. I tried to scream but nothing came out of my mouth, so all I could do was wait. Eventually the dream ended and to this day I know that spiders want to kill me. To this day I still think that dream happened when I was awake and that it was very real. My brain reminds me if it was real where did all of the spiders go. I also have had the pleasure of a spider walking across me when I was sitting there minding my own business. When I noticed that evil spider I jumped up, it didn't fall of so I flicked at it, thinking it would come off. No the legs fell off one by one as I jumped up and down flicking at it. My family had a great time laughing at me. I hate spiders. I hate snakes because they are evil looking and to me scary.

I know that was a lot of me, it was strange to tell that much about me all at once. Like I said I will share more secrets about me, in future posts. I hope you weren't bored.

Beginning of a New Year

2011-01-01T16:23:00.000-07:00

Last night was a lot of fun. We had yummy snacks, Emilee liked the chips and dip, and the little smokies. Emilee went to bed around her normal time, no reason to keep a 3 year old up (she would be ornery today if we did). Adam and I watched episodes of Grey's Anatomy the rest of the night. I was totally amazed, we stayed up until midnight. I really did believe that we would end up in bed around 10.

I have no idea why, but I am totally excited for the New Year. I woke up this morning and felt full of hope. I don't know what this New Year will hold for me or my family, but I feel like it's going to be good. I know what I would love to have happen, but I have no idea what will happen and nothing ever happens as I want it to. So I am looking forward the the surprises, and changes that this year will hopefully be full of. Lets hope I still feel this way in 3,6, or even 11 1/2 months from now.

New Year

2010-12-31T07:56:00.000-07:00

Tonight is the end of a year, I don't know if I am excited or sad that this year is over. Nothing really went the way I hoped it would. I have made my goals for the New Year, I am working on a plan so that way it might be easier to keep them.

We are going to be very laid back and boring tonight, no partying for us. Adam has to work all weekend so we are staying home. We also want to Emilee to be in bed on time. We will have very few snacks, watch some movies and relax. We might even go to bed early, don't tell anyone. I hope that all of you have a wonderful night celebrating.

Clean Up

2010-12-29T06:10:00.000-07:00

We have decided to get back to normal life at our house. The truth is I really want to clean to carpets, and I can't do it with the Christmas tree up. So last night we took down the tree. All of us were sad to take it down, Emilee really wanted me to leave it up until next Christmas. Even though Emilee was sad, I think Dory is going to miss it the most. It's her favorite hiding/napping spot.

Time to analyze

2010-12-28T09:05:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year when we sit back and reflect on our lives, especially the things we want to change. It's time to make new year resolutions. Even though keeping most goals are hard, I think they are a great idea. I am a person who makes goals every year. I think it's a wonderful idea to look at ourselves and see what we want to change and find a way to change it. I totally understand that there are things in our lives that we might not be able to change, but I know that there is a lot that we can. I find that trying to keep goals is a great way to grow. It's a wonderful feeling when you realize that you have made a change and completed a goal, even if you make the same goal year after year imagine how great that feeling will be when you complete it. So off I go to think about the goals I want to make.

Christmas

2010-12-26T09:45:00.004-07:00

Christmas was wonderful this year. On Christmas Eve, we made cookies for Santa, left food for the Reindeer, Emilee opened pajamas and her book, we read her book, had yummy soup, watched some Christmas Movies, watched the Nativity and Mr. Krugers Christmas, and finally went to bed. We really did have a lot of fun that day. Emilee was so funny, she told me weeks ago that she wanted to give Santa pie. She was very specific, he could not have the whole pie, or even a big piece. He could only have a small piece of pie.

I slept in until 7:45 Christmas Morning, Emilee woke up within minutes of me waking up. I decided to straighten her hair, it was all in tangles. When we finished, Emilee went in and woke up Adam. It was fun to watch her on Christmas morning. She got a couple of puzzles, 2 Barbie's, and some more little things. Adam got a fish tank from Santa, a movie from Me, and 2 fish tank decorations from Emilee. I received a cookbook from Adam, a book from Emilee, and a cricut cartridge from Santa. Emilee also got a book from her teacher Miss Janae. Emilee made us a cute gingerbread ornament in school. It was a nice small morning. We also received a gift from some Christmas Angels (thank you).

Later that morning we left to visit family. We went to visit with Adams family first. We opened our gifts, they spoiled us, and ate breakfast with them. It was nice to be together with the whole family. Then we went to visit with my family. We got there in time to see Christy, Robert, Matthew and Lillian. Emilee had fun playing with them, and was sad to see them leave. We opened our gifts from the family, and they also spoiled us. We ate dinner with my family, we did miss Curtis and Christys family. We had a great time, and loved spending time with everyone. That's one of the best parts of Christmas, seeing and talking to family. Thank you everyone for your kind and thoughtful gifts. We love all of our Family. We had a great Christmas.

One More Sleep Til' Christmas

2010-12-24T08:36:00.001-07:00

Thanks to my younger siblings this song sorta became a tradition at my house on Christmas Eve. We would always watch this movie last just for the song.

I hope everyone enjoys today whether you are busy getting ready, relaxing, or going to parties. I am very thankful that Adam has the holiday weekend off. Today will be a fun, relaxing day (once he finishes his homework). We are going to make cookies, enjoy some soup, and watch movies. Later tonight we will read stories and open pajamas before going to sleep.

I want everyone to have a Merry Christmas. I will enjoy spending time with all of my family that is close by. Everyone that is too far to visit, you will be missed and you will have a special place in my heart.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Getting Ready

2010-12-23T11:14:00.000-07:00

Today is going to be a cleaning day. I am doing laundry, picking up Emilees room, doing dishes, basically making sure everything looks wonderful. Adam has tomorrow off, it's been at least 4 years since he's had Christmas Eve off. All I want to do tomorrow is relax and completely enjoy the day. So today we are cleaning. What's crazy is the fact that I am looking forward to cleaning.

Yorgason Christmas Party

2010-12-21T07:10:00.000-07:00

Sunday was the Yorgason Christmas party, we had fun. There was a great dinner, we were in charge of bringing the rice. Adam was the one that made the rice, he did a great job. We also played a lot of fun games. It was nice to talk and to laugh with everyone.

Collins Party

2010-12-19T16:41:00.000-07:00

Last night was the Collins Christmas Party, I had a lot of fun. Emilee seemed to really enjoy playing with her cousins. We had a nice dinner, and lots of treats to snack on. Santa Claus came, and gave the kids stockings, Aunt Brittany played a cute elf. The kids played pin the nose on the reindeer, made reindeer food, and colored some Christmas pages. While the kids were playing, the grown ups were able to play some games. It was great to be together as a family, enjoying each others company.

Lillian

Matthew

Emilee

Santas Reindeer

2010-12-17T09:17:00.002-07:00

Santa was very kind, he let two of his reindeer leave the North Pole and visit Thanksgiving Point this year. Don't worry the reindeer are going back to the North Pole before Christmas Eve, so they can help Santa. Last night after we picked Adam up from work we visited the Reindeer. Even though it was a colder night, it was fun to see the reindeer and to learn some facts about them, like they have six stomachs.

Christmas Trees....sorta of

2010-12-16T08:09:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was a messy, glittery, sticky, and fun day at our house. It started by Emilee and I painting. Emilee needed to finish painting her ornament, and I wanted to paint a canvas. I saw the idea for a Christmas Tree made with hand prints at My Garden of Eden and new I wanted to make one. I loved the idea, yet knew that I wanted to make it a little different. Here's what my thought process came up with, I'm not sure if I'm going to add a star at the top.

Made with Emilee cute little hand

Kayloni gave us a cute idea for an activity, Star Trees. What's a star tree? It's a Christmas Tree made with Fruity Pebbles treats cut into star shapes. I was so prepared I had everything......except different sizes of a star cookie cutter. So I improvised with what I had, snowmen. Our tree might not look like a tree, but it was a lot of fun making a Snowman Tree.

Building the tree

Our Tree

Snowmen treats

We also made a small gift for Miss Janae. I saw the idea for Reindeer noses here, and decided that was what we were going to make. I decided not to use the cute labels she provided, I didn't want to use our ink. So I decided to use a reindeer stamp that I had. I also made my label a little bigger, oh well. I still think it turned out cute.

All of us might be covered in glitter until the New Year, but we really did have a fun day.

Candy Canes and Snowmen

2010-12-14T10:14:00.000-07:00

Life is finally returning to normal around our house. Adam gets to go back to work tomorrow, I don't think he's too thrilled. I took advantage yesterday of him being home, we went shopping. I went shopping with my mom first thing in the morning. We went to the American Craft outlet sale, so many things to choose from. I was proud of myself, I only went 5 dollars over my limit. I came home and showed Adam my purchases, he's such a good audience, then we went shopping. It was a long day, but.......We Finished Our Christmas Shopping!! Last night our activity was making candy cane reindeer. Emilee was in charge of the noses. I was a little worried after the first 3 that all the reindeer were going to have green noses, she soon realized there were different colors. I think her reindeer turned out cute.

We had an activity earlier this week where we made a snowman garland. The garland was an activity where Emilee was able to help with the whole project. I'm not sure if her favorite part was punching the shapes out of the foam, or putting the hats and scarfs on the snowmen. The garland is a lot cuter than I thought it would be, based on the package.

More advent activities

2010-12-08T11:31:00.000-07:00

A couple of nights ago we made some hot chocolate and went for a drive. We were looking for Christmas lights, but had more fun being together as a family. We sang Christmas Carols, talked, and laughed together.

Emilee was able to color a poster of Sleeping Beauty dressed for the Holidays. She was kind to share, and let her Mommy and Daddy color parts of it. When she was done we put the poster on her door.

Today she got a small gift, a package of Princess magnets.

We still have a lot more fun days ahead of us. Emilee loves all the little things we are doing, but I think she loves opening the doors to the advent calendar just as much.

Letter to Santa

2010-12-05T09:38:00.001-07:00

We are getting ready to write Santa a letter from Emilee. This year it is going to be a very short and easy letter, she has only been asking for two dolls. Emilee being so sure that if she is good, Santa will bring her what she wants, reminds me of how innocent she is. I can't help but have a flashback of another little girls Christmas letter, which it the complete opposite of my sweet Emilee. As I got older, I always found her letter funny.

Christmas Tree

2010-12-04T07:23:00.001-07:00

Our activity last night was to watch movies and eat popcorn. We bought a tin of popcorn with Santa on the front, Emilee loved most of it. Emilee does not like caramel, which I think is funny. We've noticed she doesn't like it in candy or cookies, last night we noticed she won't eat the caramel popcorn. I have a plan, I am going to make caramel brownies, ~~hopefully before next December~~, we will see if she likes caramel that way. We also visited my family last night, it was fun to visit with them. As we were leaving Brittany showed me her new boots, oh how I wish our feet were the same size. We ended up coming home at the same time as Erik and Kayloni, it was fun to talk to them for awhile. Emilee had fun showing them her room all decorated, and everything else in the house.

Our Christmas Tree

Our Bright Christmas Tree

Decorating

2010-12-02T21:29:00.000-07:00

Todays activity was decorating Emilee's room. She had so much fun, we bought a Christmas tree, lights, window clings and cut out snowflakes. It was a great activity, we enjoyed every minute of it. Her room looks very festive.

Cute Window Cling

End of the day

Festival of Trees

2010-12-01T20:15:00.000-07:00

For our first activity of the season we went to the Festival of Trees. We had a lot of fun today, it's always fun to see how much people put into trees. Emilee told us she wanted to see Santa, so we stood in line and talked to her about not being scared. She kept watching him and telling us what she was going to say. The moment arrived and she is still scared of Santa, maybe next time.

Princess tree and toys

Snowball fight

Silver and Gold

2010-11-30T23:02:00.001-07:00

Today while I was working on our countdown chains that is the song that kept playing over and over and over in my mind. I have great news I finished the countdown chains, and thank you to everybody who gave me some great ideas for the advent calendar. First are the chains that my Mom would make for us as kids, I now make them for my family. It's fun to get a small piece of chocolate everyday. This year we each picked the chocolate we wanted in our chains. We have Hershey miniature candy bars, Hugs, and Reese's Bells. Guess who gets which treat. Then we have our advent calendar, the type where you open a door everyday. I have plenty of activities to fill the 24 doors. I am excited for tomorrow when it all begins, we will be busy.

Candy Countdown Chains

Advent Calendar

Family Pictures

2010-11-29T10:39:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we decided to take family pictures. We picked Brittany up and went to a park. It was a lot of fun, even though some of the pictures required walking on ice. Brittany and Emilee even made a new friend. Thanks Brittany for taking the pictures, here are a couple for your viewing pleasure.

It Feels Like Christmas

2010-11-26T04:59:00.000-07:00

The Christmas Season has begun once again. Lets remember to take the time to enjoy the season, and to show love to those around us.

Thanksgiving

2010-11-24T09:06:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday we enjoyed a wonderful dinner with Adams family. It was nice to relax and talk with everyone. I am looking forward to tomorrow, even though Adam has to work. It will be fun to watch the parade with my family, and to enjoy dinner with them. I hope everyone enjoys their Thanksgiving this year, I know that I will.

Emilee wearing her Preschool craft! How Cute!

I hate being Sick

2010-11-18T11:20:00.000-07:00

I should of realized I was going to get sick, way before I did. Everything was pointing towards a cold. First I decided we should get flu shots, to protect ourselves. Then Emilee got a runny nose, and I have a lot to get done this weekend. Last but most important a major holiday was just around the corner. As far back as I can remember I am somehow sick either on Christmas or Thanksgiving. Sometimes it's horrible (laying on the couch, not eating horrible) or just small ( just annoying to be sick). Tuesday night I went to bed not feeling right, wake up Wednesday not being able to breath. Hopefully it doesn't last very long, only a couple of days. Emilee and Adam have been great through this. Emilee was so kind to me yesterday, always asking if I was okay and getting me things. Adam came home early to take care of me and the house. Thanks to him coming home I was able to sleep as soon as he came home for a couple of hours. He took care of Emilee and dinner, after dinner I went to bed early. He is so sweet and thoughtful, he is helping in every way he can. Thank you Adam and Emilee for taking care of me.

I have to say that even though Emilee and Adam have made being sick easier, it's still much better to be sick as a kid instead of as a grownup. As a kid you have a mom who makes sure you take the right medicine and brings you food. You can stay in bed all day and not worry about anything, and it doesn't matter if the medicine you takes knocks you out for hours. As a grownup I won't take medicine if I'm home alone with Emilee, because I will sleep forever, no matter the medicine. Even though I don't have to do anything, Adam won't let me. I still worry about all the things that need to be done. Thank you to Mom who made being sick as a kid, easy.

I Need Your Help

2010-11-13T16:00:00.000-07:00

For what you ask?! I am working on our Christmas Advent calender, and am drawing a blank. I need your amazing ideas. I already have a count down chain, where Emilee gets a piece of Candy a day, so I don't need to fill it with treats, and I don't want to give her a lot of little gifts. I would like your ideas on things to do.
Here are some of the ideas I have: Temple square, Festival of Trees, going to a movie, painting ornaments, driving to look at lights, writing a letter to Santa, and making cookies for Santa. I know you are all amazing and have great ideas, please help me jump start my brain.

Too Soon?

2010-11-08T17:36:00.000-07:00

It's no secret that I love Christmas, but I also know that the beginning of November is too soon. Now that I am a Mom and have to worry about all the small things that are involved in getting ready for Christmas, it's easy to be overwhelmed. This year I've decided to try and get some of the small things done now, even though it's early. Today I decided to pull the Christmas movies out of Emilee's closet and organize them into a case, that way there will be less bulk and easy to get to, when the time comes. Emilee decided to help me, which was lots of fun. Unfortunately when we were done she wanted to watch the Christmas movies. I couldn't resist, I let her pick one to watch. She decided to watch How the Grinch stole Christmas, the cartoon, and she was thrilled.

Watching How the Grinch stole Christmas

Here's a little secret, I was excited to watch the movie with her.

Our Halloween

2010-11-02T11:15:00.000-06:00

This year was a busy Halloween, but so much fun. I loved all of the activities that we participated in. We had Emilee's preschool parade on Thursday, on Friday was the Yorgason party, on Saturday was the ward carnival, trunk or treat, trick or treating with the Yorgason cousins, then the Collins party, and trick or treating with the Collins cousins. By Sunday we were exhausted, I even got to sleep in that day.

Preschool Parade

2010-10-29T09:15:00.000-06:00

Emilee's preschool had so much fun this week. First they went to the pumpkin patch and then they had a Halloween party. All of the kids were able to dress up in their costumes, and bring a treat. Emilee chose to take suckers with faces on them. The last 15 minutes of Preschool the parents were invited to watch a parade. The class walked around the cul-de-sac. Emilee loved being in the parade, she even does the beauty queen wave.

First Field Trip

2010-10-27T15:30:00.000-06:00

Emilee's Preschool Class

Yesterday Emilee went on her first field trip! She was so excited, they went to a pumpkin patch. It's been set up perfectly for the preschool age group. They saw goats, bunnies, peacocks, turkeys, chickens, roosters, ducks, and eggs they had laid. Emilee liked looking at the animals, her favorite part was the toys. They had things the kids could climb on, a swing set, and a slide that was inside of "pumpkin mountain". There was a spook alley, that was blow up decorations and lots of lights, not scary at all. At the very end the kids were able to chose a pumpkin to take home. Emilee had so much fun that she wants to go again.

Top of Pumpkin Mountain

Going back to school

Emilee and her pumpkin.

Halloween Decor

2010-10-26T08:23:00.000-06:00

The view of our front window, all ready for Halloween.

Halloween Bottles how to

2010-10-25T09:41:00.000-06:00

I really hope that this makes sense, and that I am able to remember everything. First you find some bottles, I don't think the size matters. I wish I had taken pictures for each step, but I didn't even think about it.

For the bottles.
1. We spray painted the bottles with a gray primer, while still wet we sprinkled sand on top of the primer. It really helps to spray in smaller sections, basically a side at a time. Let dry.
2. We then spray painted with the black, while still wet we sprinkled a spice mix on top. I'm not sure what the spices were, it was old spices that were on hand. I think there was all spice, maybe cloves and nutmeg. I think you could use anything that had a brownish or orange color, and smelled good. Let that dry.
3. When that step dried we lightly misted over the top with the black spray paint again.

For the labels:
1. We had a piece of card stock with the phrases printed on them. The phrases were Eye of newt, Swamp water, and witches brew. There was enough room above the phrases to stamp an image. You could use any image, we used a stamp set from Stampin up.
2. We tore around the image to fit on our bottles.
3. To turn brown we used a tea bag. We would dip the tea bag in the tea and rub it on the label. We did it a couple of times to get the color we wanted. The tea bag came apart and left some of the tea on the label which just added to it.
4. While slightly damp we used a glue stick and glued it to the bottles. It helps to be slightly damp, just makes it form to the bottle better.

Finishing :
1. We had strips of cheese cloth that we let soak in the tea.
2. Remove the cheese cloth, ring it out. Then we stamped it with a black ink pad. Then we rubbed it together to mix the ink through the cloth.
3. We snipped it with scissors and then pulled on it a little, just to make it look old and torn.
4. Tie the cheese cloth on, tie on some twine, unravel the twine to get the look you want.

That is everything, I hope. It was a messy activity, but I really do love the bottles and the way they look. I hope that it works for you and that you love the result.

Halloween Bottles

2010-10-20T14:34:00.000-06:00

I went to a girls night out a couple of weeks ago. They said that we needed to bring our own bottles, because we were making grunge bottles. Not sure what the bottles looked like, I went to the D.I. and found some bottles for cheap. I was a little nervous when I saw how different my bottles where. After we had finished the bottles, I loved how they looked, I'm glad I used these bottles. Thank you Krystal for inviting me, I had a lot of fun making these bottles. They are a great Halloween decor item.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

2010-10-19T06:33:00.002-06:00

A couple of weeks ago I wanted to make Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes, but didn't have a recipe. I thought I would have to search online, I ended up not needing to. The Main St Magazine that comes in the mail, just happened to have a recipe for the cupcakes. I made the cupcakes yesterday, and I thought they were good, so did the people I shared them with. So here's the recipe, thanks to Valerie Kukahiko who provided the recipe.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

1 cup butter, softened 1 teaspoon baking powder

1 15 oz. can pumpkin puree 1/2 teaspoon salt

4 eggs, lightly beaten 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 cups flour 1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 cup sugar 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 cup brown sugar 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon baking soda 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pans with 24 paper liners

and set aside.

In a medium bowl, mix together butter, pumpkin and eggs until well

combined. Mix in flour and sugars. Add remaining ingredients and

mix well. Divide batter evenly among cupcake liners. Bake until tops

spring back when touched and a cake tester comes out clean, about

20-25 minutes. Transfer to wire rack and let cool completely.

Sticks

2010-10-18T08:20:00.001-06:00

After setting up Halloween, I noticed that I had a vase and a jar that needed something. I thought for a little bit and then decided to go to the yard to pick up sticks.

I spray painted the sticks with a black satin. I placed them in the jar, added a couple of spiders, I love the final result. It fits in perfectly with the decor we have in the window.

When I put the other sticks in the vase, they looked good, but not great.

I went to the internet for ideas. I found this idea, I can't remember where, and knew that was what my sticks needed. So I grabbed the hot glue gun, the sticks, and some candy corn. I love the way the sticks now look on my shelf. Who knew that a couple of sticks, and candy corn could look so great.

Adams Creativity

2010-10-16T15:11:00.004-06:00

Adam loves Halloween, it's one of his favorite holidays. Last year Adam got the idea to make a wreath for the front door. He didn't have a lot of time and didn't finish last year. This year he was able to finish, and I think he did a great job.

Just For Fun

2010-10-13T10:51:00.003-06:00

The other day I decided to curl Emilee's hair. When we finished we decided to have some fun outside taking pictures. Lately when you take pictures of Emilee, you never know if it will turn into a "photo shoot". She loves having pictures taken of her, if she can control what she is doing. She might jump up and down, she might make funny faces, she might lay down, you just never know. It's okay because you also never know what kind of great pictures you'll end up with. Here are a few of the pictures we got the other day.

Beach

2010-09-19T16:13:00.004-06:00

Today we took Emilee to the Beach for the first time. We spent the morning there, it was a lot of fun. We saw some dolphins, we tried to show them to Emilee but she kept missing them. At first she freaked out about the sand. She did not like getting dirty, when we got to the water she was scared for a brief moment. She ran away from the water at first, and then we couldn't get her out of the water. She had so much fun, it was a little cold so we only stayed for a few hours.

Sweet dreams

2010-09-17T19:46:00.003-06:00

While I am sleeping in this..............

I will be Dreaming of this.............

While Emilee is Sleeping in this.................

She will be Dreaming of this..............

Cleaning Fun

2010-09-15T18:09:00.001-06:00

Here is some of the fun we had yesterday cleaning.

All Grown Up

2010-09-11T18:44:00.006-06:00

Emilee is now going to Preschool, and she loves it. She has a great teacher, Miss Janae, that she also loves. It was hard watching her go to school, and not even caring that I was leaving. It's also nice to have 2 hours a day twice a week to myself. I'm so proud of her for loving school, hopefully she will always love school!!! Here are some pictures of Emilee on her first day.

Just a nice picture

2010-09-01T21:14:00.002-06:00

This is one of the pictures I took at my family's stake carnival. It was just a sweet picture, I feel in love with it.

Adams Birthday

2010-08-24T14:27:00.004-06:00

Adam had to work on his birthday, so all he wanted was just to relax. I kept asking him over and over, but that is what he wanted. Emilee bought him a transformer (she picked it out all by herself) and a birthday card. Since we didn't have a lot of money to spend, I made him the cake of his choice. When he got home from work we had dinner, opened the gift from Emilee, then had cake and ice cream. We want to say THANK YOU to everyone who called him on his birthday, and THANK YOU to those that stopped by. It really made him feel even better that people remembered his birthday.

Adam thank you for being such a great father and husband. We love you and enjoy celebrating your birthday, we like to make you happy. Even though there have been ups and downs in life you always try your hardest and you don't give up. You do everything you can to make make our lives better. You are always willing to help, even when you don't want to, no matter who needs the help. Thank you for being you!!! I love You!!!! Happy Birthday here's to an even better year.

Adam and Emilee opening his Gift

Adams Birthday cake, my gift to him.

Adam about to blow out his candles

Doesn't his cake look Yummy

It's Bedtime

2010-08-13T20:35:00.004-06:00

Lately in our house when we say It's Bedtime the response is "no, I'm not sleepy". It's become such a battle that some nights end in tears, on both sides. By the time all is said and done, I'm more tired than she is. Whats really bad it's not just at night it's also if I decide she needs a nap for the day. What to do, what to do? We will just keep up with the night time routine, and eventually we will get her to look like the picture below without the battle.

No Longer a Toddler

2010-08-10T10:57:00.003-06:00

I feel like it's official that Emilee is no longer a toddler. I know that she is only 3, but she is acting so much older. Here is a few of the ways I've noticed She loves to dress herself, wants privacy when going potty, likes doing her own hair, questions everything, makes up her own mind, paints her fingernails, and now paints my fingernails. It's exciting to see her grow up, yet I'm sad at the same time.

Twirling

2010-08-03T21:03:00.003-06:00

Remember as a kid when you would just spin around in circles and how much fun it was. I remember when I was twirling I wouldn't be thinking, I would just watch the world spin past, enjoying the feeling it gave me. As an adult it's hard to remember why I liked to spin so much, and wonder sometimes why kids like it so much. When Emilee had me take a picture of her twirling I wasn't sure what the picture would look like. I love this picture, it reminds me of how fun it was to be a child twirling.

August Family Party

2010-08-02T12:28:00.003-06:00

Yesterday was the monthly get together for the Collins family. It was so much fun, even when it rained. Brittany and Dad took the time to get Chance (the horse) ready for the kids to ride. Brittany was patient with the kids, even when they didn't want to ride at first. Emilee had fun riding but was scared at the same time. Christy got on and rode with her kids, Matthew was so scared. We tried to convince him he was like Woody, it still didn't work. Lily was a natural, she loved it, she even said yee haw. Robert even got on and went for a ride. Thank you Brittany and Dad. Mom set up the pool and slide for the kids to play in, she even had sand for them. We tried to keep the kids out of the water until dinner, grownups lost and kids won. Russell helped Dad cook the hamburgers and hot dogs. After dinner we did cake for Adams birthday, then we all sat around and talked. It's nice that we have these monthly dinners, to be together as a family and create memories.

Everyday Miracles

2010-08-02T09:06:00.005-06:00

I decided to start another blog called Everyday Miracles (just click to visit). The reasoning behind my decision is posted over at the new blog. I would really love if you would visit the new blog everyonce in awhile.

Swim Lessons

2010-07-20T14:53:00.003-06:00

We decided to put Emilee in swim lessons this year for a couple of reasons, she loves the water, and it would give us something fun to do for a couple of weeks. Knowing that Emilee loves the water, we assumed the first day would be a piece of cake, well you should never assume. Emilee was signed up for Preschool level 1, we thought that was the basic. Everything was going okay, until she met her teacher. She flipped out because she had a male teacher, who knew that would be so traumatic. We could not get her back in the pool. Thank heavens for Kim, she came along and took Emilee into the pool. While watching what the classes were teaching we realized there was a level lower than Preschool level 1, it was just preschool. Adam and I decided to make the change and have Emilee in that class. Everything went much smoother from that time on. Emilee loves the water, and looked forward to her class everyday. She blew bubbles, jumped of the edge, went underwater, floated on her back and tummy, kicked her legs, she loved her lessons. At times she was more excited to play than listen. On the last day I was ready to take pictures of Emilee doing the tests to pass the class, little did I know it was slide day. The teachers had been watching them for the last couple of days to see if they could pass. The last day was a total play day. They took the kids to the big water slides and let them go down. They did the younger kids for the first minutes and the older kids for the last minutes. Emilee had so much fun going down the slides, she went as many times as she could, which ended up being 3 times. She passed her class, on the back of her certificate they wrote that "she is soo ready for the next level". Emilee is definitely not scared of the water.

10 Years

2010-07-19T16:04:00.003-06:00

Earlier this month Adam and I celebrated our 10th anniversary. It's amazing to think how fast the time has gone. We celebrated by going to dinner, thanks to Kayloni for babysitting, we were able to go by ourselves. Adam was kind and took me to Red Lobster, which was yummy. Then we wandered around the mall, and a couple other stores. Adam bought me a pair of earrings and I bought Adam a few movies. It was nice to have the evening to ourselves.
I am thankful for Adam and everything that he has done for Emilee and I. We have had our share of ups and downs. Adam has been strong and steady through it all. I love him with all of my heart, I am glad that 10 years ago I married him. Adam thank you for being wonderful.

July 5th

2010-07-18T08:24:00.003-06:00

We celebrated the 4th with Adams family on the 5th this year. It worked out well for us, that way we were able to celebrate with both families. We had a BBQ where everyone had to bring something they hadn't made before. It was fun to try new things, and everything was really good. We played some games, they were minute to win it type of games. It was fun to play or to watch everyone else try to win. They also had some games for the kids to play. After the games we watched more fireworks. It was a fun evening and it was nice to spend time with the family that could be there.

4th of July

2010-07-17T15:08:00.004-06:00

We had so much fun on the 4th this year. Adam actually had the day off, it's nice when he can spend the holiday with us. The whole family gets together the 1st Sunday of every month for a dinner and to celebrate whose ever birthday is in that month. The first Sunday just happened to fall on the 4th and Christy was nice enough to host the dinner at her house. After dinner we went for a walk as a family, to kill time before it got dark. We ended at a park, where the "grownups" acted more like kids than the kids did. We went down slides, had jumping off swing contests, and a few of us even rode in a little kid car. It was so much fun, it was the "grownups" that didn't want to leave the park when it was time to go, the kids were more than ready to go. As we arrived back at the house, it was dark enough for fireworks. It was so much fun to be together as a family on the holiday.

Delish

2010-07-01T13:16:00.002-06:00

I love to try new recipes, and sometimes they turn out wonderful and others not so great. I decided that it would be fun to share the recipes I find, that we like, with you. In June we tried a few recipes and we really liked these two.

The first one is for Stuffed pita, but we also tried it in a wrap and we love it. It's easy, light, and filling. I really love this site, it's easy to spend awhile searching through all the past recipes.

The second one is for a dessert, of course. This one was great for the summer, its a Pudding Dessert. I didn't use the shaved candy bars, because I didn't have any on hand. I did like the crust, but I think next time I might try something different, just for fun. Hope you enjoy, like we have.

June......

2010-06-28T18:07:00.003-06:00

I can't believe that the month is almost gone, so much to do so little time. It doesn't feel like we've done a ton, it's just gone by to fast.

Christy, Robert, Russell, and Amber moved into their new homes the beginning of this month. It was exciting to see all that they had accomplished. I know that they are enjoying being in their homes. Christy and Robert even got a new kitten to celebrate. Russell and Amber were finally able to bring Trapper into their home.

Then we had a birthday celebration with my family on the first Sunday to celebrate all the June birthdays. This month you have Christy, Amber, and My Birthday. So my Mom cooked the meal and then the husbands were in charge of the cake and ice cream. It was fun to see the guys work together.

We went to Pirate Island with Adams family. It was really fun to have everyone there, it has been awhile since we were all together. The kids loved to listen to the music, they were doing Karaoke that night. They also had fun playing together on the pirate ship. The family remembered it was my birthday the next day, so they tried to have the pirates sing to me. But because of the Karaoke they weren't able to. It was a fun night to spend with the family.

Adam was so kind to me this year for my birthday, he totally surprised me. He arranged to have Emilee go to Ryan and Kristienas to spend the night. While he whisked me away to Salt Lake for a night. The day of my birthday we went shopping and Emilee picked out a Cricut cartridge for me to have. We went to lunch and then we went to the Sweet Tooth Fairy for a cupcake. To my surprise (and a nice coincidence) they had made my favorite cupcake that day, Key Lime. Adam actually bought four of them, I was able to have one a day for the next few days yummy. After we dropped Emilee off, which was hard, we went shopping a little more, bought a new shirt, then we went to dinner. It was nice going to dinner and being just the two of us. I didn't have to worry if Emilee was eating, or unhappy, so nice. That was how wonderful my birthday was. So Nice.

Adam had to work this year for fathers day, which was sad. So I made him the dinner of his choice, which was Manicotti. I decided to go all out for his dinner, we had an appetiser, a salad, garlic bread, Manicotti and dessert. After dinner he opened his presents, I gave him a LED flashlight that he had wanted, and the batteries to go with it. Emilee gave him a little lego set, and some tools. He seemed excited for his gifts. We went to visit both of our Dads, it was nice to spend some time with them even though it wasn't a lot of time. We love to visit family and to just spend time with them.

This Sunday we went to visit Russell and Amber, they had cooked dinner for the Family. It was nice of them to cook us dinner in their home. It was fun to spend the time with the family.

Princess Party

2010-05-30T10:43:00.004-06:00

Kristiena, Ryan and Maylee had a princess party for the 3 little girl cousins. Emilee was so excited to go to a party. She was excited to tell me all about the party when I picked her up, she had so much fun!! Thank you Kristiena and Ryan for throwing such a fun party!!!

You Decide

2010-05-27T09:52:00.008-06:00

When Babies are born a lot of people wonder which parent the baby looks like. We never decided who Emilee looked like when she was born, but as she has gotten older people still wonder who she looks like......so you decide.

This is a recent picture of Emilee, shes 3 years old.

This is a picture of Emilee in her blessing dress, she was about a month old at the time.

This is a picture of me (Jenny) when I was about 3 years old.

This is me (Jenny) when I was 2 weeks old.

This is a picture of Adam, he is 2 to 3 (he thinks).

This is one of Adams baby pictures.

Now that you have seen a very limited sampling of us as children, you can decide who you think Emilee looks like. Based on what we have seen as Emilee has grown up we have already made up our minds. It will be interesting to know what (who) everyone else sees when they look at Emilee.

Our Reward

2010-05-13T10:54:00.004-06:00

We decided to use our Disney Movie Rewards Points, to get a fun reward for Emilee. We received the Disney Princess Scooter and Emilee loves it. We also received 3 movies and a C.D., it is a wonderful program.

Curtis Graduation

2010-05-13T10:09:00.004-06:00

Curtis graduated from USU (Utah State University) last Saturday. We decided to go to Logan to support him during this time of celebration. We arrived while the rest of the family was in the first Ceremony, the one for all of the graduates. While they were in the ceremony we went to the zoo and the park. All of the animals were awake, it was early in the day, Emilee even made a friend. Emilee loved playing on the swings and the slide. After the ceremony we met the family at Aggie ice cream. It was nice to eat ice cream with the family, relaxing and talking. Unfortunately I was not prepared and my battery died right before the second ceremony, the one for the specific programs. So I have pictures of us waiting, but none of the actually event. We are so proud of Curtis for getting his degree. We had fun celebrating with him and the family. It was a nice way to spend a Saturday. Congratulations Curtis!!!!

Hair Clips Organizer

2010-05-13T09:35:00.006-06:00

I've been trying to solve the problem of Emilees hair accessories for awhile now. Her bows, flowers, clips, etc. have been all over the house. I can never find what I am looking for at the time, and they end up damaged. I decided to search for a solution. I found a lot that I thought would be cute then I came upon this idea and loved it. I knew that it would be easy and cheap, I only had to buy the canvas, I had everything else. I love the way it turned out, it's cute and fun. This is what it looked like when I finished.

This is what it looks like with the bows that I can find at the moment. Now comes the fun part of finding all of the accessories that are lost. I also have the desire to buy more bows now that I have a place to store them (all in good time).

Easter

2010-04-07T07:42:00.006-06:00

Emilee and I were sad that Adam had to work on Easter and couldn't share the day with us this year. We still had a really nice day, not only was it Easter it was General Conference. Emilee and I woke up early and went to my parents home to enjoy the family favorite tradition of homemade Cinnamon Rolls while watching the first Sunday session of Conference. It was nice the whole family was together, except Adam. Emilee enjoyed having her cousins to play with.

After the first session we had our Family Easter egg hunt for the kids. They had so much fun finding all of the eggs their Aunts and Uncles hid for them. When the Easter egg hunt was over, we listened to the second session of Conference. Russell, Amber, Christy, and Robert had to leave after the second session to spend time with the rest of their families.

Brittany, Curtis, and Emilee went outside to play. Curtis had some chalk in his car, so they created art on the sidewalk. Emilee had tons of fun playing outside with her Aunt and Uncle. We enjoyed a nice Easter Dinner, Thanks Mom and Dad, then just relaxed and enjoyed each others company. Adam was finally able to join us after dinner, it was nice having him there. We went to his parents house a little later to spend some time with his family. Everyone was there when we arrived. We sat down and watched family videos for a couple of hours while the kids played together. It was a wonderful Easter.

It's been a day

2010-02-13T14:29:00.002-07:00

Today is one of those days that I am so glad that Adam is home. Early this morning Emilee decided to crawl into bed with us, no big deal. A few minutes later you start to hear her cough, and then came the gagging sound. I'm not one who is good with vomit, I will usually be the one who joins in because of the smell. This time smelled horrible, luckily Adam ran to the bathroom with Emilee, while I stripped the bed. After cleaning up the bed, and cleaning Emilee it was pointless to go to bed, so we started our day. Adam has been building a bookshelf, and while cutting the wood he broke the saw blade. Once again, no big deal we went to Home Depot to buy some replacement blades, and picked up some lunch. After lunch Adam went to work on the bookcase again, and I went to make us a treat. I reminded Adam to be careful and not cut himself, well I should of known better and warned myself. I needed to open a package and decided to open it with a knife,which is normal for me. There is a reason my family doesn't let me use knives, I was watching Adam and Emilee, then I felt it. It was that horrible feeling you get when you cut yourself, it's hard to describe. I instantly grabbed my finger and stuck it in my mouth, that for some reason is what I always do first when I cut my finger. Then I fell on the floor in pain, I don't know why. Adam told me to get up so he could look at it, then decided upon seeing the cut I needed to see a Dr. We threw Emilee in the car with no shoes and raced to Urgent Care, they were busy so we waited awhile and then decided to go to the E.R. They were able to see me pretty quickly, and they were all so nice. Adam called Annie who came and picked up Emilee to watch her. Thank You Annie and Drew, for taking time out of your day to help us. I had the option of getting stitches or having them use sterile strips. I went with the strips, no needles involved. They bandaged up my finger and told me how to take care of it. It was a crazy day, I am so thankful Adam was home and can handle these situations.

Month of Love

2010-02-01T07:58:00.002-07:00

As I sat reflecting on February, I realized for me it truly is a month of Love. There are other events that happen in different months that I am also thankful for, yet February is full of special events. The beginning of the month my family gets to celebrate my moms birthday, and who doesn't love their mom. If it wasn't for her (and my dad) there would be no me. In the middle of the month (not Valentines day) my wonderful husband proposed to me, I can't believe its already been 10 years, wow I'm old. Then of course there is Valentines to help us remember to show the people in our lives that we love them. I personally feel it's not just a day for lovers, even though it may seem like it. And then last but definitely not least my wonderful daughter was born this month. She can't help but teach everyone around her about love, especially me.

Christmas Wish

2009-12-23T08:35:00.002-07:00

My wish is that everyone is able to sit back and truly enjoy Christmas Day. Enjoy being with your loved ones, and remember why we celebrate Christmas. Merry Christmas.

2009-12-23T08:29:00.002-07:00

We had a surprise guest show up at the Collins Christmas party. Emilee was so excited to see Santa.

Temple Square

2009-12-23T08:24:00.003-07:00

We had so much fun walking around and looking at the lights this year, even though it was only 9 degrees the night we went.

Festival of Trees

2009-12-11T16:21:00.005-07:00

Every year we try to go as a family to the Festival of Trees, an event to help Primary Children's Hospital. We love to walk around and look at all of the amazing trees, wreaths, and gingerbread houses that people donate. Emilee got a little tired towards the middle, so we sat down and ate a treat. We bought some of the scones they sell there. The scone helped Emilee make it through the rest of the trees. She really loved the ones with all of the babies.

Elves Scavenger Hunt

2009-12-11T12:00:00.003-07:00

We decided to go to Gardner Village and look at the elves this year. Before we went I found that they were having a scavenger hunt for the little kids. I printed off a list of the elves we needed to find, and off we went. It was so much fun to look for the elves while we were shopping, Emilee really enjoyed seeing Santa's Elves. Once we found them all, we took the list to the Candy store. Emilee was able to choose a candy stick, and of course she went for peppermint, it was pink.

Halloween Weekend

2009-11-02T11:15:00.002-07:00

Halloween was fun this year, Emilee started to understand what was going on. On Friday night we carved pumpkins. I was the lucky one that helped Emilee. I cleaned out her pumpkin, and I carved the face. The things we do for our kids, I hate cleaning pumpkins, yet I did it for Emilee. I haven't cleaned a pumpkin in about 15 years. Unfortunately Emilee wasn't feeling well, so we decided to start early on Halloween. We went to Grandma and Grandpa Yorgasons house first, and trick or treated with Maylee and Ryan. While we were there we got to see Sam, but we didn't want to hold him, we didn't want to run the risk of getting him sick. Then we went to Grandma and Grandpa Collins house. We arrived at the same time the pizza arrived, so we all ate pizza before we went out trick or treating. Then we took Emilee, Matthew, and Lily trick or treating. Emilee started to wear down and we had to carry her most of the way. Matthew enjoyed it so much, he was running as fast as he could to the doors. After trick or treating we came home and watched a movie. As we watched the movie we ate all the yummy treats that everyone brought. We had such a fun weekend.