Our Daily Walk

The Great 2011 Update: September

2012-01-29T21:34:00.000-08:00

In September,

We visited Cody's sister, Brittany, and her family.

The only pictures we took were when we visited the water park by their house.

Preslie hates spraying water

And it was real sunny

I found another picture - Chloe, Mya, and Madi checking out the coy pond

We fed the ducks by the Garden Grove library

Amy came to visit:

We went to the Orange County Swap Meet

We accidentally walked right in to a Japanese cultural fest. You had to have tickets to get it...that you paid for...We were honestly the only white people there and we didn't buy tickets. Woops.

These guys were screaming at the top of their lungs, "Ramen!!! Ramen!!!" We could not stop laughing.

We went to the beach where they were having a 9/11 memorial

And Downtown Disney

Cody flew to OK for his Grandpa's funeral

All the kids, except Cory, got to be there. I wish we all could've gone to say goodbye and be with the family. I heard it was a very special time together.

While he was gone, I took the girls to a park in Garden Grove my mom kept telling me about.

We were there most of the day and by the time we left, the girls were in definite need of a bath

But before we left, we found a bunch of bunnies!

That's it for September. Next is October, and it only gets busier from there!

Project 52: Week 2

2012-01-16T16:15:00.000-08:00

All changes (which are few...) are in bold. I feel like I'm really doing great in some areas, and in others, I totally forgot things were on my list!

My 2012 Project 52.

1.Have 72 Hour kits for all 4 of us

2. Take a Zumba class

3. Go to an Angel's game

4. Go to Disneyland once a week until our passes run out (5/52)

5. Read as much of the Standard Works as possible

6. Treadmill 3x a week (4/156)

7. Have someone over for dinner once a month (3/12)

8. 100% Visiting Teaching for 6 months

9. Go to the temple once a month

10. Blog once a week (6/52)

11. Journal once a week (0/52)

12. See Wicked

13. Send birthday cards to all immediate family - in time for their birthday! (1/12)

14. Be with my girls more - don't say "hold on" as much

15. Graduate with my BS in Communications

16. Read 12 books outside of school

17. Train Axel

18. Play church songs on the piano after the girls go to bed

19. Do 1 craft a month (0/12)

20. Clean throughout the day - clean as I go - clean up activity after it's over

21. Learn to use Cody's D60

22. Have a GNO (Girls-Night-Out) every other month sans kids - even if it means paying for a babysitter (0/6)

23. Finish our house (Not happening anymore)

24. Read two doctrinal books - Miracle of Forgiveness and...something else to be decided.

25. Wash and Vacuum my car every other month (0/6)

26. Clean out my purse once a week (0/52)

27. Re-memorize the Articles of Faith

28. Go on an out-of-the-house date once a month (2/12)

29. Deep clean the fridge once a month (0/12)

30. Go to Medieval Times (Anyone want to come with me?? It could be one of my GNO activities!)

31. Go to the beach every other month (0/6)

32. Go on individual dates with the girls

33. Get toned - do Insanity with Cody

34. Mop every Monday

35. Do 1 thing romantic for Cody every week

36. Potty train Preslie

37. Night potty train Chloe

38. Read the Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe series

39. Sing like a BBW during karaoke (Another GNO activity?)

40. Double our savings

41. Start and keep a budget for 3 months

42. Read scriptures for 30 minutes daily - but at least read 1 vs a day

43. Get rid of clothes and shoes I haven't worn in the last 6 months.....ok maybe clothes and shoes I haven't worn in the last year.

44. Buy myself flowers from a farmers market just because

45. Build a pergola in the backyard (Not happening anymore)

46. Learn how to edit in photoshop

47. Plant a garden

48. Go to and be in the audience of a TV show...or be in one!

49. Complete all the "Baby Steps" from flylady

50. Go to a women's self-defense class and buy a rape whistle
51. Write to Cory once a month (0/12)

52. Get my hair cut and colored 4 times (0/4)

The Great 2011 Update: August

2012-01-16T11:51:00.000-08:00

August:

I had a Bachelorette Finale Party

The Winner...You can see Ben's frame has been laid down to rest. RIP, Ben. May you find love this season, somewhere in all the crazies.

We all got long-stemmed roses and ring pops, so we could be just like Ashley. And yes, I drove to approximately 12 different stores and gas stations to find those dang ring pops. I'm pretty sure I did a fantastic little dance when I finally found them. I'd love to see that surveillance tape footage.

We re-did the music room

It took a LOT of sanding.

Which Cody did entirely by himself.

But he got a new electric sander out of it.

Cody sanded all the bead-board on the bottom so we could repaint it. It was very, very dusty. (His ring isn't supposed to look like that...)

Before: We have the furniture all pushed together so we could paint..I promise it's not like this for real

Cody repainted the ceiling because the room smelled smoky and the ceiling wasn't very white anymore

After:

(I scored that globe for $7 at Goodwill. It's super old and fabulous)

Noah came for a super surprise visit and we took a trip to Home Depot

We tried to cool down from the over 100 degree temps in our house by going to the mall

No, I don't pay for the "rides." Chloe and Preslie are content to just climb on them and get off, and I'm not going to spend $1.25 to have it spin in a circle. However, that other little girl's mom is, so we took advantage of her kindness.

We did a loootttt of swimming (post here)

Played with Play-Doh

And sang and danced so I couldn't get a non-blurry picture

We went to Lake Arrowhead

Preslie got motion sickness on the way there and threw up when we were having our picnic in the bed of Cody's truck, which is why she's only in her diaper. Luckily we brought her swimming suit, so she wore that the rest of the trip

She loved the cheetos after she was done being sick, though!

Trying to be the complete opposite of the real deal -

Yeah...that should've been it's own post...

We did fun activities for FHE, like "Activity ABC's"

P is for Pushup

M is for Muscles

We ate sushi, ice cream, and celebrated birthdays

We repainted the office

I haven't decorated this room at all, but eventually it'll be my craft room/guest room.

We sang songs and played the piano

August was obviously busy and obviously fantastic. Next up, September!

Project 52 Week 1 Update

2012-01-09T10:10:00.000-08:00

(Karen I copied this image cause when I try to upload it from that link under yours it doesn't work. However, I am computer-retarded and I might be doing it wrong.)

This has been a fantastic week. I know that a lot of my things haven't been crossed off, but I've been doing great!

We had two families (well, one family and one boyfriend/girlfriend couple) over for dinner, so technically I could count #7 (have someone over for dinner once a month) done for January and February...and we're having the missionaries over on Wednesday, so does that count for March?

I was on the treadmill 3x this week

I finished the Book of Mormon today! (That was my goal for last year, so I failed...But I finished so that's fantastic and I'm happy. Tomorrow I start on the entire Standard Works starting with The Pearl of Great Price. If anyone else wants to check that out, go here for a great blog to follow along with.)

I've definitely blogged more than once this week.

And I sent out all the birthday cards for January.

I'm not going through any more of my list, but I'd say that's a win for week 1.

Gooooooo Weeks 2-52! Woohoo!

The Great 2011 Update

2012-01-09T10:00:00.000-08:00

July:

We watched fireworks for the 4th. We weren't impressed with the ones that Disney did, but Chloe obviously had a good time.

We painted (and decorated) our hallway and entryway (and all the trim and the doors and on and on and on)

(before hallway)

after:

(this is the entryway after...we forgot to take before shots, but it was very, very blue)

the Walk Family Rules sign that I love

Chloe took pictures:

Love the smudged lens

This was our backyard pre-lawnmower. But I love that you can see Chloe's shadow taking pictures

The temple. Complete with the flower gardens all around. We're sidewalk chalk masters over here.

And she took more pictures...

Be grateful this is the only one you're seeing. She took 50 pictures of movies. No, I'm not kidding.

We went to the Orange County Fair

We ate our first-ever-bought-item-from-a-farmers-market...Strawberries

Next Up...August.

Resolutions

2012-01-04T22:52:00.000-08:00

I love resolutions.

I love goals.

I love coming up with things that will make me better.

Having a new year means all of the things I love.

I don't know why I feel like I can't make new goals during the year, but it's definitely not the same in July as it is in January.

Last week I read a quote by Mark Twain, "Habit is habit, and not to be flung out of the window by any man, but coaxed downstairs a step at a time."

Some of the things on my Project 52 list are very difficult for me. Things I don't necessarily want to do. Things I'm not used to doing. That's why I'm not jumping out the window. Just walking down the stairs.

Today I was on the treadmill. Yes, that's on my list. When I'm on the treadmill I like to read the Ensign. It makes it go a lot faster for me. Which is fantastic because I'm not a huge fan of being on the treadmill. (Remember, I'm not jumping out the window.)

I read an article by Elder Christofferson called, "Recognizing God's Hand in Our Daily Blessings." I loved it all, but because I'm on such a resolutions kick right now, my favorite part was,

"To deal with something big, we may need to work at it in small, daily bites. Sometimes all we can handle is one day - or even just parts of one day - at a time...The Spirit can guide us when to look ahead and when we should deal just with this one day, with this one moment."

I love thinking about resolutions in a daily sense more than an all year thing. It can be really hard to think, I am going to spend 30 minutes on the treadmill 3 times a week this year. 234 hours on a treadmill.

Fan-freaking-tastic.

Or.

I will just get on it today.

"You can achieve what you believe you can. Trust and believe and have faith."

-Thomas S. Monson

Project 52

2012-01-03T22:04:00.000-08:00

When we moved to Anaheim this past July I noticed on a lot of my friend's blogs here that they had something called "Project 52." Project 52 is something my friend, Karen, came up with to list 52 goals for the year. She explains it better and more in-depth here.

Last year, in July, everyone was in the middle of their 2011 Project 52. I was jealous. I wanted to join. Making lists is kind of on my top 10 of my favorite things to do, so yeah. Making a list of 52 things that would make me more awesome? I want in on that.

But because it was July, I passed. I put it off because I...don't know why. I just did.

But now the time has come. And instead of 52, I had 55. But because this is a very public blog, I've narrowed it down to 52 and kept the other 3 for myself :)

And, with no further explanation, here it is.

My 2012 Project 52.

1.Have 72 Hour kits for all 4 of us

2. Take a Zumba class

3. Go to an Angel's game

4. Go to Disneyland once a week until our passes run out

5. Read as much of the Standard Works as possible

6. Treadmill 3x a week

7. Have someone over for dinner once a month (1/12) -Yeah I've already completed that one for Jan! Go me!

8. 100% Visiting Teaching for 6 months

9. Go to the temple once a month

10. Blog once a week (please stop laughing)

11. Journal once a week

12. See Wicked

13. Send birthday cards to all immediate family - in time for their birthday!

14. Be with my girls more - don't say "hold on" as much

15. Graduate with my BS in Communications

16. Read 12 books outside of school

17. Train Axel

18. Play church songs on the piano after the girls go to bed

19. Do 1 craft a month

20. Clean throughout the day - clean as I go - clean up activity after it's over

21. Learn to use Cody's D60

22. Have a GNO (Girls-Night-Out) every other month sans kids - even if it means paying for a babysitter

23. Finish our house

24. Read two doctrinal books - Miracle of Forgiveness and...something else to be decided.

25. Wash and Vacuum my car every other month

26. Clean out my purse once a week

27. Re-memorize the Articles of Faith

28. Go on an out-of-the-house date once a month

29. Deep clean the fridge once a month

30. Go to Medieval Times (Anyone want to come with me?? It could be one of my GNO activities!)

31. Go to the beach every other month

32. Go on individual dates with the girls

33. Get toned - do Insanity with Cody

34. Mop every Monday

35. Do 1 thing romantic for Cody every week

36. Potty train Preslie

37. Night potty train Chloe

38. Read the Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe series

39. Sing like a BBW during karaoke (Another GNO activity?)

40. Double our savings

41. Start and keep a budget for 3 months

42. Read scriptures for 30 minutes daily - but at least read 1 vs a day

43. Get rid of clothes and shoes I haven't worn in the last 6 months.....ok maybe clothes and shoes I haven't worn in the last year.

44. Buy myself flowers from a farmers market just because

45. Build a pergola in the backyard

46. Learn how to edit in photoshop

47. Plant a garden

48. Go to and be in the audience of a TV show...or be in one!

49. Complete all the "Baby Steps" from flylady

50. Go to a women's self-defense class and buy a rape whistle
51. Write to Cory once a month

52. Get my hair cut and colored 4 times

What's on your list this year?

Happy Birthday, Preslie Pie!

2011-12-21T22:32:00.001-08:00

Preslie is a joy and a blessing in our lives and we are so happy she is apart of our family!

Preslie is currently...
-Very into roaring. She does it all the time. (Including during the passing of the Sacrament)
- Can count to 13.
- Loves to sleep and asks to go to bed multiple times a day.
- Loves to sing and has sung (only once, but still) up to 2 hours at time. Her faves are ABC's, I am a Child of God and Itsy Bitsy Spider
- Loves to "lead" music (I think she gets that from me...I was leading "It's a Small World" at Disneyland during the ride...)
- Loves to take baths
- Loves her binky
- Everytime she takes her shirt off she balks like a chicken. I am not joking. Every single time! We have no idea why she does that or what started it, but she loves to be a chicken when her shirt comes off.
- Hates Disneyland...but she's getting better at liking it
- Loves Baby Signing Time and can sign like a champion
- Has a mullet that will probably never grow out.
- Loves healthy food and will (on most days) pick fruit over junk
- Loves Chloe and does everything she does
- Is sometimes a bully and hits, pinches and pushes
- Loves to say prayers and look at pictures of Jesus
- Is extremely polite and always says "Excuse me" at the right times and "Thank you" and "You're welcome!" (She sometimes get those mixed up.) She says please about 75% of the time.
- Loves the color purple and although she is getting better at naming her colors, she used to always say everything was purple
- Nicknames include
*Preslie Pie
*Pie
*Pie-Pie
*Pres
*Monster Girl
*Monkey Baby
*Pres-A-Potamus
*Pressie (This is really what Chloe calls her when she's trying to say Preslie but just can't say it all the way)

Today I asked Cody to bring me a hairbrush and while I was waiting I went into my room to say my morning prayers. He sent Preslie in with it. She came in and saw me praying and came over to the bed, stroked my back and whispered, "Here you go." And walked out. She's so, so sweet.

She also loves opening and closing doors and could do that all day. She loves saying goodbye whenever she shuts the door and hello when she opens it, and now will say, "Bye-bye! -blow a kiss - I love you!" Every time she shuts the door. It's so adorable! The other day whenever she would shut the door Chloe would get upset and say, "But you didn't give me a hug and a kiss!" and Preslie would say, "Oh!" and come back and they'd hug and kiss and then they'd go through it again. When she would try to leave again Chloe would say, "Preslie! Say, 'Goodbye, friends!'" hahaha funny girls!

Preslie now weighs 22 lbs (10-25%) and is 32 inches tall (10-25%). (Chloe weighs 29 lbs (50%) and is 36 3/4 inches tall (50%).)

We absolutely adore Preslie and are so happy we've had two fantastic years with her! We can't wait for many, many more!!! Happy Birthday, Preslie!

(We'll have a photo shoot tomorrow and I'll add pictures then)

San Francisco

2011-12-17T11:34:00.000-08:00

Last weekend Cody was working in San Francisco. I've never been there before, so he asked me if I wanted to tag along. Tami said she'd watch the girls (aaallllllllllll weekend + Friday and Monday for traveling days) and two of my friends here said they'd watch them on Monday after Tami had to work. (Thank you Amber and Trena!!!)

My weekend was FAN.TAS.TIC. Seriously. I don't remember having that much fun in a long time.

Cody was working all day Saturday and Sunday, so I got to sleep in, watch whatever I wanted on tv (which is a huge deal because usually I have to watch either Sesame Street or Walking Dead...terrible zombie show that Cody loves. Anyway.), and go shopping for hours at a time without having to stop to take naps, tell anyone to stay close to me, or reprimand little people for screaming.

Friday night we went all through China town and walked through all the little stores. It was way fun, but pretty much all those stores are exactly the same, so we went back to the hotel after a bit. Cody is a "diamond member" (super fancy schmancy) :) so we got to go to the "Executive Club" and they have drinks and breakfast and food there occasionally during happy hour. It was great for breakfast so I didn't have to go find anywhere and could just go there whenever I wanted.

Saturday morning I slept in...till 6. Luckily I fell asleep again until 8:30 when I freaked out because I thought breakfast would be gone. :) It wasn't. After breakfast I hung out and watched a movie and by 11 I was on the streets ready for shopping!

I almost got some of this hot chocolate, but when I went to buy it they had run out of the homemade whip cream...So sad.

I wanted to buy those flowers (with the purple one in the middle) so so so bad. But I didn't need them and I had no where to put them in the hotel, so I just stood there and looked at them and smelled them for 10 minutes straight.

Next to this shop was this fabulous little shop that was serving samples of cheese with honey and white truffles drizzled on top of it. It was one of the best things I've EVER tasted. The guy realized I was hooked and started telling me all the things I could put it on, and I was definitely drooling all over myself. Then I was devistated when he told me I could have my very own 1 oz. container for only $18! ...I left very, very sad. Maybe someday I won't be so cheap!

The beautiful Bay Bridge!!

I'll be back for San Fran part 2 when blogger starts working again :)

Popsicle Girls

2011-11-13T18:30:00.000-08:00

We moved to Anaheim the very end of June. Here is a picture of our apartment in Rancho Penasquitos, where we called home for about 6 months at the beginning of this year.

This is the clubhouse of our condo/apartment. (They are technically condo's, but used to be apartments, and because we were always used to living in apartments, that's what we called it)

That is my 4Runner, our moving truck (that Cody's company paid for. woohoo for movers!) and Cody's car in front. I would park there because it is the closest to our apartment, but it's still pretty far away. Especially when you have 2 kids and 10 bags of groceries.

Usually it doesn't have stuff everywhere...That's from the movers just doing their job. You can see me on our balcony.

We totally loved our apartment and the landscaping and the area. San Diego was so good to us and when we got all our stuff packed and gave our manager the keys, I cried and cried and cried. I literally stood on the curb and cried my eyes out. I was really sad. I remember Cody telling me that everything would be fine and that our ward here would be just as good as our ward there (Our ward was aaaamazing) and I just kept saying, "No one is as good as these people! They are just so wonderful to us!!

***Be right back...I just spotted a cricket in our house. What do I do now?!?!

Don't worry. I got him.***

When we got to our house in Anaheim, we had a LOT of boxes to go through. So many, that Cody made some box houses for the girls. They loved playing in them!

Preslie was sleeping.

Another thing they loved about living here, was all the popsicles we got to eat. We didn't have air conditioning in San Diego, but it never got hot enough to need it. That is definitely not true here, where we are also lacking in the a/c department.

This is how we deal with it.

Something else very exciting about having our own place? We can sidewalk chalk to our hearts content. Which is a lot.

See the blue by her mouth? It's chalk.

Taking a break to get an Eskimo Kiss

Showing Daddy her messy, chalky feet

I totally love this picture of her

Showing off all her precious chalk

...Preslie slept through this one too. I promise we love them the same.

5 Years, Almost.

2011-11-06T21:00:00.000-08:00

This Tuesday will mark the 5th anniversary of my sister and her husband's death.

I've learned so much these past 5 years from what happened to them, but sometimes, it just really sucks.

Sometimes, most of the time, I just really miss her. I miss them. I miss how much they loved me and Cody. I hate that I didn't realize that for so long.

It just sucks.

It seems like basically everyone I know right now is pregnant, so I was looking at baby names recently, trying to pick names for my family and friend's kids. :) I looked up Steve and Catheryn and do you know what they mean?

Catheryn means "Pure." Steve means "The Crowned."

I don't know why I think that is so awesome, but I do. What better meanings could you have?

I just watched the music video of Hilary Week's song, Beautiful Heartbreak. It was a beautiful song with a beautiful meaning. We all have trials. We all have to go through them. We should try to come out from the trials having learned something, and having turned it into a beautiful heartbreak instead of wishing it away.

Sometimes I still want to wish it away. Right now is one of those times.

And then I remember how loving our Savior is. How could I wish away anything He has done? Because of their death, I am so much closer to Him now. I guess that's the beginning of the beautiful part of it.

And just because...(This is my brother, Dan - not Steve, Catheryn's husband)

I miss you, guys. A lot.

Where Have I Been?

2011-11-06T09:02:00.000-08:00

I know, it's been a long time. I did post in September...but only once so it doesn't really count. Honestly, I've been busy. Really, really busy. I kind of hate when people say they're so busy because it makes me feel like they're trying to be better than me (is that just me or does everyone feel like that?). So I promise I'm not trying to act better than anyone, I just really have been busy.

I started going back to school this semester (which started September 12 and ends December 17). In order to get my degree without having to do an internship, I have to finish by fall 2012. I don't want to do an internship because that would be impossible, and because I took extra classes when I was in school so I wouldn't have to do an internship. So basically I have to be going to school pretty much full time until December 17, 2012 so I can get my bachelor's degree.

What do I want to do with my degree?
Frame it.

Because I have been so busy with school, my calling (Primary Chorister, which I love), my kids and family (I am a married/single mom, but I think everyone knew that already) and lots of visitors and parties, blogging has definitely been on the backburner. I also had over 1000+ blogs in my google reader, and I always read the blogs of people I knew personally, but all the craft and other blogs I look at, I'm getting a little sick of. So that would make me sick of blogging in general and I just didn't want to do it. But because we've done so many awesome things lately, I think I should ~~try to~~ make a comeback.

That being said, I'm not promising to blog everyday, because I definitely can't do that. As soon as the girls go down for naps, I do homework and as soon as they go to bed, I do homework. So I'm hoping for more of a once a week blogging routine.

Here We Go.

Maybe She'll be an Artist

2011-09-15T14:02:00.000-07:00

Cody and I have been painting a lot since we've moved in. We've painted the entryway, hallway, living room, music room and office so far. We still have the kitchen, dining room, two bathrooms, master bedroom and girl's bedrooms left. The last room we painted was the office. I wanted it to be a bright, airy and creative space, so we picked a bluish grey color. We spent all night painting it and the trim and had just one more coat of white paint on the trim to go the next morning.

Fast Forward to the next morning.

The girls wake up and I ask Cody if he would get them because I wanted to sleep. He gets up, walks into their room and shouts, "What did you do!? Stacey, get in here!"

(A little background info. Chloe learned how to get out of her room. That night we closed and locked the hallway door and the bathroom door, but didn't lock the office because we wouldn't be able to get in. We also picked up all the paint supplies except the paint trays because we knew by morning the paint would be dry. .....It was, except when you stick your hands in it and stir it up, you get all the wet paint underneath all over you.)

When I went in their room, this is what I found.

Can you tell she knows she's in trouble?

Chloe loves getting in Preslie's crib (which she is not allowed to do) so Preslie was also painted.

And in the office...

Chloe had so much paint in her hair that Cody told her we might have to cut it off. She said, "Like Tangled?" And started screaming hysterically, holding her hands over her hair. Luckily we didn't have to cut it, but it took awhile to get out!

We turned the doorknob around and now when she sleeps, she sleeps as a prisoner, locked in her own room. I think we're all safer that way.

S is for Swimming

2011-08-21T16:59:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago Chloe and Preslie got a package in the mail from their Aunt Amy. It was a pool!!! I don't know who was more excited, me or them. It has been HOT here and I was just about to buy one when she said she was sending us one and we have loved it SO much. Want me to prove it??

These pictures were all taken during the same swimming adventure because our live-in photographer (Cody, not Chloe) has been very, VERY busy lately. But I promise we go swimming ALL the time.

This is Chloe's favorite "water" game. She plays it mostly in the bath tub, but obviously in the pool works, too. It's called, "Preslie let's put our bum-bums together!" Guess what the objective is...

Splashing is the best!

I love this picture! She is looking at me because I kept telling her not to drink the water, but she obviously wasn't listening. Such a sneaky girl!

Here comes the real fun!

Preslie doesn't LOVE the pool as much as Chloe, but she could spend forever playing this game - Holding hands, walking around me, up the step and jumping off. It's the best

The octopus was intertained the entire time. So much so his eyes were popping out of his head.

We love our pool! Thanks, Aunt Amy! You're the best!

Spoons, Forks and Knives...or just Forks

2011-08-19T23:34:00.000-07:00

I have a relationship with my friend, Sarah, that is unlike any other relationship I've ever had. She and I were inseparable in high school. We were best friends through and through, and when I lived in Illinois last year when Cody was away for work, we picked up right where we left off.

In high school Sarah and I would go to St. Louis all the time, stay up until 4 am quoting lame movies like Bring it On (that we would watch every day while in St. Louis), laugh for hours about basically nothing, play Girl Talk in the middle of our Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen Extravaganzas, buy DQ cakes and eat half of it, as well as a whole pizza from Monicals, and "assorted silverware*" our friend's lawn.

Like I said, we have a relationship unlike any other, and I think it's because no one else is as awesome as we are. :)

While watching "New Moon," (the second of the twilight movies), I realized Sarah and I were not done with our adventures. Just because we live over 1,500 miles away from each other, that doesn't snuff out the chance of another amazing adventure. Oh no.

We're going to Forks.

Forks, Washington. Where Twilight takes place. We need Forks, just as much as Forks needs us. (For like a week...not for forever)

So to tell Sarah of my brilliant plan, and because it was her birthday, I made her this shirt.

I can't wait till our next adventure!

*Assorted Silverwaring someone's lawn is what we called it when we didn't just fork Jacob Rainey's lawn, but in fact, buy two 500 piece sets of assorted silverware from Sam's Club and stick it all in his lawn. Spoons, forks, knives and all.

Finding Christ in the Crayons

2011-08-18T22:17:00.000-07:00

Chloe loves to color, but lately when she asks for crayons she's more interested in ripping the paper off of them than actually coloring anything. I let her because as long as she throws away the paper it doesn't bother me to have naked crayons. Today she ripped it all up, and then just left her paper there. I asked her to pick it up and she didn't. We needed to go to the store, so I told her I was setting the timer and she needed to have all the paper picked up before it went off, or she couldn't go to the store (which is a lie because I had to go, and if I had to go, she had to go...but she believed me. I know, I need to not tell them things that aren't true. That's not the point of this story. And I usually don't do that.).

I gave her 3 minutes and told her she made the mess so she needed to pick it up by herself and I wasn't going to help her. She quickly began picking up the paper and getting big handfuls and throwing them away. She was happy to pick it up when it was more made into a game than just me nagging her to clean. Seconds before the timer went off she looked at me with her big, blue eyes and said, "I'm done!" I went over to check it out, and realized there were still pieces on the floor. But instead of getting upset or telling her she didn't do it right, I told her she did a good job and I'd help her with the rest.

When I was cleaning it up I thought that's kind of what the Savior does for us. It's up to us to do our part and do our best before the timer goes off. But sometimes there are small pieces we just can't pick up by ourseves. We need His help. And instead of saying, "You aren't good enough; you didn't do well enough, you can't come," He just says, "Come, and let me help you."

image found here

I am far from having only a few pieces left to pick up in my life. I need a lot of work still, and I'm glad that not only does the Savior help us in the end, but He helps us all along the way when we come to Him.

I'm so thankful for my girls and the everyday experiences we share that help me remember the Savior, bring His spirit in our home, and make me so grateful to be their mom.

Strawberries

2011-08-17T17:35:00.000-07:00

I love, love, love Farmer's Markets. I loved them more when I didn't have a giant "I don't believe in turning" stroller to push around, but I still love them. I've gone to a ton...but never bought anything. I have dreams about carrying a big tote bag full of sunflowers and fresh fruit and veggies spilling out the top, but I never took the plunge and actually got anything.

Until a few weeks ago. The girls and I went to the Irvine Farmer's Market. It was fantastic, except for the stroller that hates me. And apparently a lot of other people and stands that it crashed into.

This time we left with our bellies full from free samples (I always feel bad taking a free sample and not buying anything...but I'm obviously getting over it.), and a full box of strawberries.

I bought them for my Bachelorette party, but that was 2 days away and I was worried they wouldn't last that long, so when we got home (and in the parking lot of the Farmer's Market) I let the girls have some. (Sorry for the no-shirt pictures. I didn't want strawberry juice all over their clothes)

Really, I just let them eat as many as they wanted. They loved it!

Silly Preslie Potato...I mean Preslie Pie

2011-08-16T21:10:00.000-07:00

Preslie loves Mr. Potato Head. Well, she loves his glasses. Anytime Chloe gets him out to play, Preslie takes off with his yellow glasses and they always end up on her face. One morning I calling for her and realized she was outside, in her pajamas and Mr. Potato Head glasses.

Yeah I dont' know what's on her shirt....I'm guessing her breakfast.

OC Fair

2011-08-15T23:05:00.000-07:00

The Orange County Fair is going on right now! The first day it was open we were looking at the OC Fair website and it said that day, from 12-1 pm you could get in for free with free parking! We were so excited and were super excited to go.

Growing up in Nowhere, Illinois, I know nothing about traffic.

Now I do.

Apparently all of Orange County also saw the website and was trying to get free admission and parking. At 12:55 I told Cody, "I wish they had just had free admission from 12-2 so we could still get in for free!"

At 1:55 when we had gone about 100 yards, I realized that wouldn't really matter.....

ALL of the parking lots were full (which they didn't tell us...They kept saying -Parking, this way!! - but the illusive empty parking lot was never found.) and when we realized we could park in a "nearby" neighborhood and walk there, beating down crowds with our giant double stroller that doesn't believe in turning, we decided to call it a day.

Oh yeah, this was also on our 5 year anniversary, so it was supposed to be awesome. (We went to Laguna Beach instead, and then went to Olive Garden for dinner...which Cody didn't really eat and then we went home and he threw up a lot. I promise our anniversary was cool -just not really how we all envisioned)
Anyway. We DID end up going to the fair, just not on opening day. We had a great time, and so did the girls!

Preslie absolutely loved the goats. We spent more time looking at them than any other animal. We had to keep telling her to be really careful because they bite! Luckily no one was injured.

Preslie is "baa-ing" like a goat and Chloe is neighing like a horse. I think she forgot what animal we were looking at :)

Crazy insane llama

We tried to get Chloe to do this with Preslie, but she didn't want to. So here I'm holding Preslie up and being a bull at the same time, which is why my head is crooked.

Eating funnel cake! Yum!! (Sorry those are sideways)

Cody found this after I bought my funnel cake, but he was nice enough to share!!! Two flat waffle cone, dipped in chocolate with twist ice cream sandwiched in between! YUM!

We had a great time!

"California......Here we Coooooooooome"

2011-08-02T18:45:00.000-07:00

I know we already lived in California, so we're not really coming here....but my parents were. So it fits.

In early June my parents flew out to Orange County to start going through my dad's dad's (my grandpa) old house. My dad was actually raised in this house and my grandparents lived in it until 2008 when my grandpa passed away and my grandma went to live in a nursing home.

*FYI-Cody was working in San Diego and was transferred to the "Bakersfield Area." Meaning, live where you want, but mostly you'll be working around Bakersfield so you probably want to live around there. We went to Santa Clarita in May (I think) and loved it, but didn't want to still live in an apartment. So we decided instead to live in my grandparents house because no one was living in it, and it was a lot larger than an apartment! It is farther out of the way for him to work, which means he doesn't get to be with us very often, but we get a bigger place and are saving some money to someday own our own home.*

Because the house had been vacant for so long (2 1/2 years), it needed some work. Ok, quite a bit of work. I'm still trying to convince all the bugs that we are, in fact, living here and are not leaving, so they need to get out of my house! We worked pretty much everyday for 9ish hours. Cleaning, de-junkifying, and getting the house ready to live in. We didn't actually take pictures of the house while we were working on it, but we did take pictures of the (short amount of) times we were able to get away. We said that we'd take a day off for going to the beach and maybe Disneyland, but there just wasn't any time. Fixing up a house in one week is a big job!!!

Chloe loved seeing the Bubba Gump Shrimp, but wouldn't take her eyes off him to take a picture. I don't think she trusted him! She only turned away when her Beema came over to help her out.

Chloe's first piece of gum that she didn't swallow! She finally figured it out and has LOVED gum ever since. She asks for it all the time!

She loves Mickey Mouse!

And Princesses...

Surprise, surprise :)

Yes, I'm in my pajamas. Also, yes, I'm holding a monkey's bum open. I was just a little shocked that that is where the zipper was. ...I don't really know why, I just was.

Chloe's frothy milk mustache!

She also loved hanging out with Papa

(I just realized all of these pictures are of Chloe and not Preslie. She was there, too. She was just sleeping pretty much everytime we went to do something, so my dad would stay in the hotel with her)

These are all taken by Chloe:

Not taken by Chloe:

I thought she'd hate this frog hat, but she loved it!

Even though it was a LOT of work, we had fun! Not wishing to do it all again...but maybe just all the fun parts :)

Utah Part 3

2011-07-29T15:23:00.000-07:00

Our last day in Utah we hung out at Seth and Katie's house and went to church with Amy and my mom. After church we decided to go to the park and have a picnic. After eating our yummy fried chicken, potato salad and corndogs for the girls (because we're sinners and bought food on Sunday), we got to play at the playground! It was really fun and I think everyone had a really great time. It was just nice to be able to hang out and relax and just be together. (I have more pictures that my mom sent me, but because they're in a Kodak gallery and I have no idea how to get them off without buying them, waiting for them to be shipped to me, and scanning them in, you don't get to see those. Bummer, dude.)

Chloe the photographer

Chloe and Beema

Having fun at the playground! (Sidenote...When we moved here a lot of the girl's clothes went missing. I have no idea where this shirt is. Or her cute polka dot multicolored shirt. Or Preslie's brown shirt that is just like this pink tank Chloe's wearing, but brown...Where have all their clothes gone?!?!)

Preslie was trying to get the camera, and Cody is just being sexy with his beard. (PS I'm not joking about the last part...I really did like it and was sad when he shaved it off into a Hitler mustache...which lasted about 5 minutes)

This is the only non-blurry picture I have of Hallie! She was NOT feeling it in the wood chips! But I promise she had fun the rest of the time.

Wooohoo for Utah!

Preslie's Teeth

2011-07-27T11:13:00.000-07:00

Preslie and I are playing a game counting her teeth. I ask her how many teeth she has, she counts (each time to 15) and then I tickle her because that is just so many teeth to have. It's pretty fun. We both love it. I think my favorite part is her counting. It goes like this --

"One, two, tee, gagoo, gagee, abooganenoo, eeeight, niney, ten, hot dog, dog, tirty, fourtee, fifteeeeeen!"

It makes me so happy.

Then I counted her teeth to see how many she really has, and guess what. She knew all along! She really does have 15 teeth!

Utah Part 2

2011-07-25T10:58:00.000-07:00

Later that night, we went to Orem for my Grandma's big birthday party. I wish we had taken pictures of all the food and decorations because everything looked amazing! I was so impressed with everything. All the grandkids and great grandkids put on a little show and there was a little carnival area for kids to play some games.

Chloe liked playing the games, until we found one game with a not-so-nice girl in charge of it. I'm pretty sure she was about 14 and on a definite power trip. She was not being nice to Chloe or Preslie, so we stopped playing. All the other ones were fun, though! And had nice kids running them.

I was so happy that Alyssa came! I was SO hoping that little Warren would want to be born that weekend so we could be there and meet him, but he took his sweet time and didn't come until we were long gone! I guess we'll just have to go back and hang out with them again!!!

There was a photo area set up, so we took some pictures infront of it. Cody and the girls and I took some with the little props that were there, but not with our camera and I don't know where those pictures are. Someday I'll post them if I can find them!

Chloe LOVED all the yummy food! And I really mean, YUMMY!

I was so happy Amy Jo and her family came, too!!! I miss hanging out with her so much!

Our kids all together! We tried for a long time to get a good picture with all of them looking at the camera at the same time, but it never worked. Then Gage decided he wanted to be the main part of the picture, so he walked right up to Cody and smiled :)

(I made Chloe and Preslie's shirts. It only took like 10 hours of straight sewing...and the fabric I got is not stretchable at ALL so the girls wore those shirts that night and Chloe wore it once more after that and they are now too small. :( Oh well, at least they went with the "Red, White and Blue" theme that night!!)

Such a cute boy!!!!!

We had a great time at the party and it really was amazing! All the people planning and working on it for SO long did a fabulous job!!! Happy Birthday, G!

Utah Part 1

2011-07-21T09:26:00.000-07:00

This year, on June 3, my grandma turned 80! My mom and aunts got together and threw her a great big party. When I was a senior in high school I moved to Utah and moved in with my grandparents. (I'm pretty sure everyone already knew that, right?) (PS don't let me forget to post the story about me telling someone -the father of a boy I was "dating"- why I moved to Utah and how he didn't believe me and hated me and yelled at me. And his wife. It was great.) Anyway. I really felt like we owed it to my grandma to go to her party since she put up with me for a year of my life. So we did!

We made the drive Friday morning. June 3rd is also my little brother's birthday, and he was having a party that night so we wanted to make it for that. We left San Diego around 6:45 and got to the party around 7. It was great! I don't have any pictures of that, but it involved me changing in the bushes, lots of fabulous food and fun people. It was a great party!

The next day my nephew was celebrating his 5th birthday. (His birthday is actually in December, but his parents decided December is too busy and cold, so they celebrate 6 months early when it can be fun outside!!) We had so much fun. April went all out on a superhero party and everything was awesome! They had a bounce house and we had a great time talking to everyone. All my cousins (with the except of 2 or 3) were there for my grandma's party and a lot of them made it to Aidan's party, too! It was fun being with everyone.

Chloe loved playing with all of Aidan's tools!

She also LOVED that Amy would give her free reign of her camera! She actually is a pretty good photographer for a 2 year old! I'll have to post some of her pictures sometime.

On the bounce house with Uncle Seth

Preslie was a little nervous about going down the slide!!!

Sisters! -Minus Brooke who was so sick in the hospital!! (Or maybe home by now?)

The Night We Had Pirates Over for Dinner

2011-07-18T12:22:00.000-07:00

Pirates of the Caribbean 4 came out in May this year. To celebrate it, I decided to do a pirate dinner!

*I really don't care very much about the Pirates movies. I like them, but haven't even seen the 4th one and I can't remember the 3rd on at all. I liked them when I saw them, but it's not a movie I have to see over and over again.*
So I decided I had $20 to spend on all the food and decorations or whatever else we were going to do. First I went to the library to see if we could even get a Pirates movie to watch that night. I got the second one and our library rents out movies for free! So I was happy to find it there. Then the girls and I headed to Party City to see what kinds of pirate things they had. They had the actual Pirates of the Caribbean stuff, but I just wanted to be more generic, so I was glad they had regular pirate stuff, too. When I walked out to dinner with all our pirate gear, Cody looked so excited. I think that was my favorite part :)

Cool dude poses with angry pirate faces. Notice the earrings? The hats, earrings and eye patches all came together in a pack of 4. Totally perfect for us!

Preslie trying to do a "cool dude" (which is a thumbs up)

I bought a rotisserie chicken from the store so it was super easy! I had looked online for dinner ideas and one said chicken legs that you could call Parrot Legs, but since we had a whole chicken it was called -Parrot Legs and other Parrot Parts. :) I had little "flags" in each food so we'd know what it was. (Which was really just cut up post it notes stuck onto toothpicks.

We also had cannon balls - watermelon balls....or really pieces since I don't have a melon baller, pirate's teeth - corn, and frosty ale - root beer. We also didn't use silverware cause pirates don't care about that stuff, they just want their food! It was HILARIOUS watching everyone (Ok, really just me, Cody and Chloe) not use silverware. (Preslie -at that time- never used silverware!) Especially with the corn. And the chicken was so greasy our fingers were gross!

This was the invitation I had waiting for Cody. I found a website you can put in whatever you want and it turns it into pirate lingo. Then I burned the edges and drew a skull on the bottom....but I went a little burning crazy and the skull caught on fire so I doused it in water. ....So the skull is missing. It was in the bottom right corner.

She didn't love the eye patch...

Yeah, she was scared...

After dinner and after the girls went to bed we got out our "pirates booty" (one of the pirates hats filled with candy - Hershey's "gold" nuggets, lifesavers -cause even pirates should wear lifesavers if they're thrown in the ocean!, and ring pops) and watched our movie. ...Well, about half of it. We got sick of it and turned it off. But it was so fun! I think we all loved it. We'll have to have a pirate night again soon!!

PS I got a lot of these ideas at the dating diva's website. They have a lot of great ideas over there!!

Where We've Been

2011-07-16T13:41:00.000-07:00

These past few months have been busy. And by busy, I mean seriously insanely busy. In June my parents came out to California to help us clean out my grandparents old house - the one we are now living in. No one has lived here for 2 1/2 years, so it was pretty bad. Full of stuff and just plain filthy. For 7 days we cleaned for about 9 hours a day. We were planning on going to the beach and Downtown Disney with them.....yeah, those things didn't happen. We were too exhausted from cleaning. Then my parents left and we went back to San Diego. I continued cleaning our apartment to get ready to move. I'm sure you all know how that goes. We had movers so we luckily didn't have to pack anything, but I still had to organize and go through everything and pack the things I didn't want the movers to pack. I also spoke in Sacrament, sang in Sacrament (different Sunday's), planned a few RS activities, and made posters and fliers for them. Oh, and attended. Cody was gone for 2 weeks, so that was fun too. Then we moved. The packers came, packed us, we cleaned and had our walk through all in the same day. It was a pretty long day. Luckily we have the best ward EVER and had volunteers take the girls all day and come help us clean. They were amazing and I still need to send thank you cards.

Then we moved here. We stayed in a hotel the first night, and moved in the next morning. We unpacked quickly - before the week had ended (so 4 days), which was nice...but we still haven't hung up pictures or anything because we're painting everything. We have now painted the entryway and the hallway (I'm supposed to be doing the trim in the hallway right now) and only have the bathrooms, our room, the girls room, the office, the living room, the dining room, and the kitchen left! Oh, and the den. I forgot. Woohoo! :)

So. I'm tired. We can really only paint after the girls go to bed because they'll get in it and we don't want to have to redo anything. They have been going to sleep later because it stays light so long and they can't figure out yet that just because it's light outside it's still night time!

Also in July we celebrated 4th of July with Austin, Sara, and Dirk and Tami. We had a lot of fun swimming and hanging out with them! Then the next day we went to Ramona to visit Seth and Brittany who had come up with their girls. (I tried uploading some pictures Brittany sent me, but they weren't working) It was fun to be with them and Chloe LOVED playing with Madi and Mya. We went to the beach the first day and some really random, weird homeless man started following Preslie and me around telling me that "her feet were made to walk on sand...she's going to be one of those people in New York that is a bridge to the world (?? I said 'thank you' to him when he said that, thinking it's good for people to be a bridge to the world...he was like-NO it's NOT a good thing. Ok....)...she's got the JUICE" ....Yeah it was interesting. When I told him I had to get back he said, "We all do. We all have to get back. JESUS CHRIST." (I am pretty sure he meant we all have to return to Christ someday..not just saying His name....)

That night Preslie got sick and was throwing up all night and the next day. We thought it was from the heat but that Friday Chloe and I were also sick and she was throwing up too. Luckily I missed that part. It was pretty awful. Cody somehow missed it for a week, but was throwing up yesterday and is sick today. What a bummer. Today was his first day of work here, so he had to call in sick on his very first day! Good thing they're understanding.

Sorry this is sideways...This was 2 days before our wedding at the LA Temple where I took out my endowment

Yesterday was our 5th wedding anniversary. I know that absolutely deserves its own blog post...but lets be real here. I'm almost falling asleep right now. I don't know when I will blog again!

However. These last 5 years have been totally amazing. Not everyday, not every minute, but in general, totally amazing.

I can't say enough how big of a blessing Cody is in my life. And the lives of my girls. And I'm so glad that we get to be together forever! (Yesterday we celebrated by trying to go to the OCFair...We tried to get to the fair between 12-1 to get in free (and free parking), but instead sat in traffic for 2 hours with the rest of orange county trying to go to the fair. When we finally found a parking spot (on the street because all the other 4 fair parking lots were full), we decided it wasn't worth it with the huge, basically unpushable stroller we have because it'd be so packed. So we left. We then went to Laguna

Chloe's Adventures

2011-06-23T12:38:00.000-07:00

One normal (or so I thought) nap time (awhile ago), the girls had been sleeping (or so I thought) for a very long time. So I decided to go in and wake them up. I opened the door to see Chloe, covered head to toe, in mod podge.

I promise I'm not a bad mom. Yes, I left a bottle of mod podge in their room, but all my craft stuff is in their closet, so it wasn't like I did it on purpose to tempt Chloe with it..Like the little bottle was saying, "Come on, Chloe. I'm just like lotion. I'm amazing. Just try me. Please."

Plus the bottle had NEVER been opened. It was totally shut and sealed.

Never underestimate the dedication of a 2 year old.

My entire, brand new bottle of mod podge was gone. Dumped on the carpet. And the other 1% of the bottle was lathered all over Chloe. She had no pants on, so it was rubbed all over her legs, arms, and face. I didn't see it on her face at first, though, because it had already dried... Oh yeah, and she covered her closet mirror with it.

Luckily our carpet is the same color as the mod podge so you can't see it, but you can definitely feel it! That carpet is CRUSTY crusty now. Yuck. I have tried everything and it won't ever go back to being soft. Luckily we're moving out on Monday and we won't have our walk through with bare feet, so hopefully no one will notice and I'm sure it'll come out when the managers get the carpets cleaned.

Yeah, you should probably click on that to get the full effect.

Luckily mod podge comes right off in water. Under the fingernails takes a little bit of work, but it comes off. Don't worry.

The next day, during naptime, I thought the girls were sleeping again. Then I heard Chloe scream suddenly and went in her room. She was still screaming, and I thought she said she had hurt her toe and was pointing towards the wall. I thought she meant she had stubbed her toe (she had just learned how to climb out of her bed) somehow and was talking to her about it. Then she said, no, and pointed to the outlet. She was saying she burnt her clothes. She showed me her little fingers and they were black. I looked at the outlet cover and it was black. There was one tiny hole of the outlet open and she said she had stuck something in it. She found it on the floor and showed it to me. It was a sewing pin. (Again, I promise I'm not terrible. My craft stuff is in their room!) It was black and half of it was gone. She had stuck it in the outlet and it had sparked!! We had a LONG talk about that one. She totally could've electrocuted herself or started a fire or lots of terrible things.

But I should go...It's naptime and Chloe's crying...I wonder what happened this time.

San Diego Zoo

2011-05-28T22:29:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, our family and my friend, Tiffany and her adorable baby Grant went to the San Diego Zoo! I kept telling Cody we had to go before we moved because it's only the best zoo in the world! :) Tiffany's family has season passes, and guest passes! So Cody and I both got in free, and the girls were already free! Woohoo! An entire day at the zoo was totally worth the $4.00 we spent on a pretzel for the girls :) Tiffany's husband, Cameron, couldn't come because he was working at the temple that morning, but it was so fun to hang out with her and Grant! They've gone there a lot so she was telling us the ins and outs of everything and what's cool to see and what's not. It was great!

(I know this picture is blurry but it's the closest we had to him looking at us) The Koala's were SO cute. They're only awake for about an hour each day, but there were probably 6 koalas and only 1 was sleeping! We were so lucky to see so many awake and active. This one kept looking at us...maybe because I was yelling and hitting the railing...

The meerkats would just stand and stare at you. They were so cool!!! Preslie kept saying "Hi!" over and over to them.

We love the giraffes! See the baby in the back? So, so sweet.

See the dog on the left side? When they bring in a baby wild cat (like a cheeta or a jaguar) they always put them with a domesticated puppy so they can grow up together. They become BFF's and whenever the cat has a show to do, the dog does it too and the dog sets the tone for the cat. So if the dog is totally relaxed and chill, so is the cat! Cool, huh?

This bird was so funny! He had the funniest walk!

SO, so pretty!!!

Preslie missed the awesome view

I think there's only like 2 zoos that have pandas so it is really special to be able to see them! We had to wait in line and everything! They have them in their own special area that you can't just walk by and see. It was so cool! We had such a great day there! I hope we can go back someday!

Chloe's Prayer

2011-05-16T22:16:00.000-07:00

Chloe loves praying, but we always really say it and she just repeats what we say. Tonight at dinner she said she wanted to say it, so we told her to really say it herself. This was her prayer.

"Dear Heavenly Father, Thank for this day. Thank for our blessings. Thank for the food."

Longest pause ever. Like 60 seconds.

Cody said, "All you all done? If you're all done, say 'In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.'"

Chloe: "Thank for our blessings. Thank for the food."

Long pause. Like 15 seconds.

Cody said, "Are you all done?"

Chloe: "Name Jesus Christ, Amen!"

She was so proud.

It was adorable!

Mother's Day

2011-05-16T15:05:00.000-07:00

I had the most fabulous Mother's Day this year.

Cody let me sleep in. As long as I wanted. Apparently I only wanted to sleep until 8...but that is TWO hours longer than I usually get to sleep, so I was thrilled. Then he made me breakfast. The best french toast ever - YUM it was awesome. He cleaned the whole house. (Like seriously. That night our house was a disaster and I started helping clean because it makes me sad to not help and just watch him do everything...But he pushed me onto the couch and threw me the remote. I obliged him.)
We had a great day at church - he took Preslie to priesthood so I got to listen! Woohoo!
After church we went to his parents house and had a super yummy dinner that Dirk and Cody (and Tami :) ) made, and we got to talk to Cory! That was exciting.

I wish we had taken pictures of that day, but we didn't. I was a little bit bummed about that. I'll have to take pictures of the girls later and come back and add to this. But the girls made me a card and Cody got me Boy Meets World Season 3 on DVD, a rotary cutting mat, and a new camera!!! I was SO happy about all my gifts and LOVE them all!!! I'm a little scared about ever getting the camera out, though because I don't want Preslie to throw it away again!!!

Thank you, Cody for giving me the best Mother's day ever. You're the BEST!

I hope you all had a fabulous Mothering Day! I have the best mom and mother-in-law and I'm so glad I was blessed with so many wonderful women in my life!

Easter Do-Over

2011-05-11T13:52:00.001-07:00

Because the girls were sick over Easter, we didn't get to go to church and show off their adorable Easter dresses. I had gotten them a few weeks before at JCPenny. I went there in search of some cute polkadot dresses I had seen online, but when I showed them to Cody he didn't like them very much. So I set out, with Chloe's help, to find something else. I would pick out a dress and show it to her, and she would say if she liked it or not. At first she would point to each dress I had and say, "I like this one, this one, this one, and this one." Then she got more picky and started to tell me she didn't like certain ones she picked out. Cody found the dress we eventually got the girls, and when I showed it to Chloe she said she didn't like it at all. I would try to trick her and show her a different one and then the dress we picked, but she still said she didn't like it.

I felt so bad for decided I was going to get it anyway, because she found another dress that was really pretty, but it just didn't go with Preslie's dress. I didn't care if they matched exactly, but I at least wanted the dresses to go together! Then she found a top that was hot pink, with a fake necklace on it, with leopard print tulle on the bottom half with words on the top (something like sassy or flirty or something) and she said that was her favorite and that she wanted that for her Easter dress.

I then realized Chloe has no taste.

So we got the dresses Cody found, and I'm so glad because they're adorable!

Anyway. We didn't go to church on Easter, but the week after we went to Huntington Beach where Austin and Sara blessed baby Rowen. Chloe LOVES Rowen and asks about him all the time. Anytime she sees pictures of babies she asks if it's baby Rowen. It's so cute.

We had a VERY long day - their church started at 9 am, so we left San Diego at 7, went to Austin and Sara's sacrament meeting, went to our old ward's sacrament meeting (Chloe got to go to nursery there, so that was great!), and then went to Austin and Sara's house for a fun pizza party. Poor Chloe and Preslie were just exhausted, so Preslie stole Rowen's bed, and Chloe fell asleep sitting up on the couch with no binky :) Dirk and Tami were already sleeping (they had to wake up at like 4 or 5 am!) so we got a pillow and made Chloe a bed on her grandma :) She slept there until we went home later that day.

Easter Weekend

2011-05-03T15:53:00.000-07:00

*Warning - Picture Overload!*

I luhve Easter. Last year I was so sad we didn't have church on Easter because it was General Conference weekend. Which I also love. I just love going to church on Easter Sunday and celebrating the Resurrection of the Savior.

This year was no different. I was so looking forward to a weekend of fun with Cody's family (Brittany, Seth, and their girls were coming up from AZ and Austin, Sara and Rowen were coming down from Orange County), and going to church on Easter Sunday.

Unfortunately, on Wednesday Preslie was sick. She was throwing up all day. I was hoping it was just a 24 hour thing, but it wasn't. Thursday was the same, and she kept throwing up all night Thursday night, which woke up Chloe. Needless to say, I was up half the night.

Thursday night was when everyone was meeting at Dirk and Tami's, but we were just planning on going after Cody got off work on Friday. But because Preslie was still sick I didn't know if we'd even be able to go then. Luckily she seemed totally fine on Friday. She didn't throw up at all (except for the last time that was officially on Friday at 1 am) and we decided to head down on Friday evening.

Saturday we had a Easter Egg hunt and the girls loved it!

Headed down for the hunt!

Pres saying Cheese!

The egg hunt was to the left of this - on the playground equipment that Dirk and Tami have. Preslie decided she didn't want to hunt anymore and just kept walking down the driveway!

See Ya Later!

She was so excited to find them!

Papa helping Preslie find eggs

It was just so bright!

Madi and Mya had so much fun finding eggs, too! Mya was loving the candy inside :)

Peek-A-Boo!

There was lots of playing after we found the eggs!

Chloe was shaking her head so her pigtails would hit her face. I remember doing that when I was little :)

Unfortunately, later that day Chloe also got sick and was throwing up, so we went home that night. The next morning we had Easter at our house and everyone was finally better! No more throwing up for a long, long time I hope!

Before we went in to get our Easter Baskets, we were talking about the true meaning of Easter. We talked about Christ and the Resurrection and then we talked about how we get Easter baskets and give each other gifts to celebrate the Resurrection. The girls baskets were in their room and the door was shut. Before we went in to find their baskets, Chloe said, "Is Jesus in there?"

What a sweet girl.

Yeah! The Easter Bunny Came!

Checking out their loot!

Tami got the girls these toys that shoot our a little ping pong ball (Preslie is holding the ball above). Chloe didn't get it at first because I had put an Easter egg in her toy instead of the ball. She kept putting the egg in it to shoot out instead of the ball! (I made the sheep in the back for both girls. I got the idea from here and embroidered their names on them so there wouldn't be any fighting.)

Playing Hungry Hungry Hippos! Chloe LOVES this game and Pres LOVES to eat the balls! Win/Win! :)

Happy Easter!!!

Back To School

2011-04-26T22:27:00.000-07:00

When I started college in 2006 I never thought I'd leave without a degree.

And I didn't.

Just not the degree I wanted.

I graduated in 2009 with my General Associates Degree. I only had 2 more semesters (going full time) until I would've graduated with my BS in Communications, but because of our precious little Preslie Pie surprise (does that sound like a diner menu item?), I knew I wouldn't be able to finish on time with Cody like we had planned. So I was happy (ok, not really. I actually was pretty bummed..) to finish with my associates. I was truly happy to at least finish with something.

After I graduated, I told myself I'd get my Bachelors by the time I was 25.

That's (eeeeeek) 6 months from now. Ok, really 6 months and 3 weeks. So almost 7 months. Which doesn't really make me feel that much better. (Mostly because I'm afraid of getting older. Not so much because I haven't started at ALL to work on my degree goal.)

But yeah, I haven't started yet.

Today I called the nice girl at BYU-I and asked if I could still get my degree in communications from them online. I knew I'd have to do it online since I don't live in Rexburg anymore, but I was worried they wouldn't offer the classes I need to finish, since most of the online classes offered are more general. I didn't want to have to transfer to a non-church school since I've taken so many religion classes and...I just love BYU-I. Honestly, I don't even want to get my degree from BYU. I love BYU-I!!!

She told me I absolutely could get my degree in communications online and I'm SO excited! I really didn't want another general studies degree when I've studied so hard in one area that I love. I want people to know I love it! I feel like when I say I have a general associates degree it's like saying I don't know what I like and I have no interests and I'm totally vanilla.

I'm totally not vanilla.

I haven't x'd off the BYU-I web page that has all the classes listed because it makes me so excited looking at it. I'm sure when I'm actually in the thick of things, I won't be so excited...But right now, I love it! If you really know me, you know I LOVE all things school supplies and paper and pencils and new and smelling like school and it's just so wonderful and exciting and I can't wait to get started.

I would say I'll for sure get my degree by the time I'm 30, but I'm not ever turning 30, so that would be a lame goal.

Easter Egg Hunt

2011-04-24T22:03:00.000-07:00

I've been searching for Easter egg hunts around here. When I was little I loved going to the hunts with Dan and my mom and meeting the Easter Bunny and getting as many eggs as possible. They mostly had gift certificates inside for free french fries at McDonalds. I don't remember there being much candy, but it didn't really matter because it was just fun. It was always at a huge park so even though there were a ton of kids, you were able to get enough eggs because they were so spread out.

Last Saturday Cody and I took the girls to an Easter egg hunt put on by a local church in the area.

They had the hunts divided by age. Chloe and Preslie fell into the 0-4 range...and so did about 200 other kids. And all their parents.

The eggs were spread out in a small grass area - just dumped on the ground. Not much of a hunt I guess. Since most of the kids were so little their parents helped them. I helped Preslie and I thought Cody was helping Chloe, but he was taking pictures. And since Chloe is deathly afraid of strangers, she didn't really get in on the action. She just walked around behind everyone.

Luckily, ~~I grabbed a bunch of eggs for Preslie~~ Preslie found quite a few eggs, so she was happy to share with Chloe.

It was super hot, so we found some shade and the girls examined their eggs and candy. They also had free lemonade, hot dogs and face painting. And the church was giving out an iPad in a raffle if you filled out a little sheet about yourself - I'm guessing so they could contact you later about their church and try to get you to come. I bet our missionaries would have 100% tracting success if they gave out iPads at every door.

We didn't fill out a sheet about ourselves.

However. While Cody was taking pictures, a guy approached him and asked if he was a photographer. Cody said yes and the guy gave him a business card. He said he was a DJ and needed a photographer to do weddings with him. He asked if we went to that church and proudly announced that the pastor had married him and his wife. I proudly announced that we were LDS (I said LDS and not Mormon as instructed in Conference) and he quickly left us alone.

Chloe eating her candy

Preslie Pie found a cup to play with

Chloe lovvved her hot dog! She's never had one with a bun and ketchup before. She usually only has a plain hot dog. She ate almost the whole thing!

After we ate, we went to the playground. Unfortunately it was SO hot we didn't get to stay very long. Fortunately, Chloe remembered to tell me when she had to go potty! (After I took her and she fought me the whole time telling me she didn't have to go...so we went back to the playground and as soon as we got there she said-I'm pooping! So we ran back.) Woohoo!

PS I have no pictures of that. I do have lots of pictures of Preslie on the playground because most of the time while she was playing, Chloe and I were in the bathroom.

Happy Easter!

Now Accepting Applicants:

2011-04-01T14:56:00.000-07:00

I am now accepting applications for girl friends for myself.

Requirements:
   You must live in Southern California
   You must like texting
   You must like shopping and want to go with me often. Even if it's not to buy anything. Just to wander around. And you must be ok with my screaming toddlers. Applicants preferred if you plan ahead and pack snacks and toys to entertain children.
   You must be ok with the random, crazy things I say sometimes. And you need to think I'm funny.
   You must be ok with (and like) the random, crazy movies and tv shows I like to watch, and not judge me based on them. (For example, all high school movies and shows. High School Musical, Bring It On, Boy Meets World, etc.)
   You must like girls nights
   You must like crafting while gossiping about celebrities
   You must like chocolate, or at least not judge me while I eat a lot of it
   You must be willing to watch my kids if I have an emergency, and I'll be willing to watch yours if you have kids, and if you have an emergency. Also, if you do have kids, I need to like them. You can attach a resume for them as well.
   Preferred if you have a guy friend/neighbor/boyfriend/husband that will be friends with Cody. You can also attach a resume for him. However, applicants will not be rejected if a Man Resume is not attached.

Please apply as quickly as possible. I'm in need of a girl night.

That Dreaded Number

2011-03-28T13:47:00.000-07:00

I know there are some of you out there that read my blog that are over thirty. I, in no way, think of you as "old." I don't want you to be offended by this post, because obviously, to me, you're not old and I don't think of you as old. Unless, of course, you really are old, and in that case, it's not me being judgmental, it's just a fact. And you can't argue with fact.

With that said, I don't want to turn 30. I've been thinking about it a lot lately, and I just can't handle it. I think I even told Cody the other day, "I'd rather die than turn 30."

Dramatic?

Yes.

True?

No. (Not to get all technical about how dying really would be wonderful and on and on. Because then it would be true. But no, I don't want to die. Stop freaking out.)

I don't know why I feel like 30 is old, and I know people say that as you get older you can't believe that when you were 16 you felt like 25 was so old, or when you turn 30 you realize 50 isn't old...But I'm 24 and almost 1/2, and to me, 30 is old.

The 30-year-olds that I know don't seem old. While they're talking I don't look at them and pretend to be paying attention while I'm really thinking, "You're 30, you're 30, you're 30..." But for some reason, I just can't handle it.

I was out visiting teaching yesterday and in talking to my companion I learned she is 29. I always thought she was my same age. But she's not. She's 29. She's about to take the plunge. And I felt a little bit sorry for her. Ok, a lot sorry. Just because soon she'll have to say, I'm 30.

I want to lay my head down on my desk in defeat....And honestly, I wrote that because I just did. I feel like Rachel did on Friends in the episode about her 30th birthday. Remember? How sad she was? Except I'm feeling that way 5 1/2 years too early.

I just can't turn 30. I can't. I don't want to. When I'm that dreaded age, Chloe will be 9. Preslie will be 8. I got married when I was 19...Chloe could too, I guess....That means I could be planning a wedding for my daughter when I'm 40.

Oh, I can't handle it. Be still my heart.

I don't want anyone to think I'd give up what good things, and bad things, will come in the future, because I wouldn't. I would never give up my girls, or my husband, or any of the things we have gone through together. So I can't say I want to be 18 forever or 20 forever, because then I wouldn't have some of those things. I don't hate life. I honestly, am a very happy person. I just don't want to be 30. Even when I turn _ _...can we just say I'm still 24 1/2? Maybe I'll rethink things when I'm 31.

Maybe.

Addicted

2011-03-22T17:25:00.000-07:00

Last night Cody and I watched Confessions of a Shopaholic.

Don't watch it. It'll waste your life.

But it was cute, I guess, and there wasn't anything dirty or any bad bad words. And regular bad words were very sparse.

Anyway. The girl is addicted to shopping. Obviously.

And it made me want to go shopping. Really, really badly. I started thinking about all the little shops in Rexburg that I loved but never would shop at (because we had no money), and the whole time when I lived there, I'd think, "Someday, when we have more money, I'll be able to shop and have all the things I could want."

Yeah. About that.

Now we live in Southern California, where clothing shops are not necessarily cheap (I haven't found any at least..I'm talking boutique-type places here), but are ALL over the place. And I find myself wishing to take a trip back to the Burg.

Shopping, at least, clothes shopping for myself, isn't really happening because if I actually try to look at anything, and slow the cart down to browse, Preslie starts the back-arching, mild screaming, which escalates to her fully standing up in the front of the cart, screaming her head off. She hasn't fallen out, yet. Luckily.

I also have a problem with shopping because of the fact that if I do have the luck to find something in between screaming children and dropped fruit snacks, I can't ever try anything on because a cart/stroller doesn't fit in a dressing room and I
1.Don't want to leave my babies out in the dressing room hallway to get kidnapped while I decide if I look cute in some outfit while the horrible lighting is making me doubt myself, my clothing, my hair, my makeup and basically my entire existence...
And 2. I dont' want to get dressed with my babies out in the dressing room hallway and leave the door open, allowing fellow shoppers to also question and doubt me. And probably laugh and point and run away screaming.

And a third reason I can't go shopping, is because I can't spend money. When I turned 19, I found this sweater. It was so cute. I wanted it so badly, but it was $15. And I was living on my own, working and trying to save money and $15 was SO MUCH MONEY. Honestly, it still is. Yeah, I can afford a $15 sweater now, but I haven't gotten over my mindset of that being a ton of money. Also, that night (when I was 19 and didn't buy the sweater that I have thought about a lot since then and definitely should've bought), I got booted at my friend, Polly's apartment. I was there after midnight and she said it would be fine and no one ever got booted. I did. I called the guy and when he got there to un-boot me I was crying and crying and Polly and her roommates were all down in the parking lot with me and we told him it was my birthday and Polly shouted, "She didn't even buy the sweater!" But I had to pay the $50 anyway. Good thing I didn't buy the sweater I guess. Happy birthday to me.

Anyway. The whole point of this is not to feel sorry for me, because I do that enough for myself. Just kidding. But seriously.

I still have problems with spending money on myself. Honestly, $15 is a lot of money in my mind. Well, it is when I want to use it on myself. But when Cody wants something or the girls need something that is more on the expensive side, I have no problems getting it for them!

So maybe in a way I'm hoping Cody will read this and think, "Yeah, my wife is pretty awesome. Maybe I'll buy her ever pair of shoes she wants."

And in that hope, here they are. (PS These are not the ONLY shoes I want. These are only from 2 websites. I just didn't have time for more. You're welcome.) And if you have an extra money you'd like to donate to the "Buy Shoes and Clothes for Stacey Fund," Please feel free to donate it to the people in Japan who have been devastated by the tsunami and earthquake. (Not joking) But if there's extra after that, feel free to send it my way :)

found here

Also, I couldn't copy the pictures from the sites, but I really wanted these and these

They're all under $50 because I can't handle window shopping for things that I really wouldn't ever buy. So enjoy, partake, but please don't buy them for yourself and tell me. Cause I'll be pretty dang jealous.

Lets Go Fly a Kite!

2011-03-17T12:20:00.000-07:00

Last Friday was our 5th Engagement Anniversary.

I like celebrating. So we celebrate things that don't really matter or exist and most people forget about. I don't forget dates. (For example. My first kiss was Dec 12, 1999. Why do I know this date? I have NO idea. But I will probably never forget it. Also, don't judge on the date. Yeah, I was 12. Moving on.)

So, on March 11, I told Cody we needed to do something fun and new and exciting to celebrate. It also needed to be kid friendly since we didn't really want to get a babysitter. I first thought bowling would be fun, but we decided it'd be too stressful with Preslie running all around. So instead, we got a kite!

We didn't really think it was going to work since there was no wind. Look at that flag. It didn't move once.

Chloe was very involved in putting the flag together

It was pretty funny at first, trying to explain to Chloe how to fly a kite. Cody gave her the string and said, Ok, now run! So she threw the string on the ground and started running away. Kids are so funny!

This was right after she dropped the kite and started running. She was so confused why we were laughing so hard!

LOVE this picture!

Chloe LOVED flying the kite and asks almost every day if she can go fly her kite with daddy again.

After we decided the wind wasn't going to pick up, we went to the playground to play. This is one of the best playgrounds around here. We love it SO much! It's pretty big and there's a lot of things to play on so even when there are a lot of kids everyone is spread out pretty good.

After kite flying and playground playing, we went back to our roots with some Taco Bell. Unfortunately, there were a bunch of loud and super stinky (they were all smoking) teenagers there. When I walked in, one of them even asked me if I wanted a cigarette. When I said no, thank you, he asked, "Does the baby want one?" I didn't say anything, but I wanted to kick him.

Cody tried to get Chloe to eat it. She isn't a huge fan. He even said, "I never thought I'd have to make my kids eat Taco Bell."

Preslie liked her burrito!!

After Taco Bell we went home and had some ice cream! (well, the girls did. Cody and I passed on that part)

They definitely loved it!!!

It was such a fun night!

Pretty Lucky Afterall

2011-03-16T09:46:00.000-07:00

I saw a super cute idea for St. Patrick Day shirts here. I decided to try it out. I thought Preslie and Chloe would be adorable in their matching shirts for St. Patrick's Day!

Yesterday I went to Michael's and bought this.

Yeah, there's a link there. But don't buy it.
I got all my stuff ready, ironed the freezer paper on the shirt, opened my glue, and nothing. It wouldn't come out. When it did come out, it was hard by the time it touched the fabric. Yeah, it says easy flow. It also says it works on fabric. In fact, that's the first medium it says to use it on! Well, don't. It started to come out a little bit more, so I started squeezing. Super hard. I bent the tube in half and squeezed. And then the bottom blew out. ALL over my shirt. I tried using a paintbrush to move the glue around, but it was hard on the shirt. It stuck to my paintbrush more than the shirt. It was a mess. I was so sad and told Cody I was about to start crying because I had just ruined everything.

He's concentrating. Super hard.

Cody got down with me and started helping me. It took awhile, but he finally got the glue spread out enough to cover the whole thing.

Dumping the glue out of the bottom instead of using it through the top

Even more spreading. That glue really is ridiculous. Don't ever get it.

Finished product!!!!

So yeah, maybe it is a little wonky, but that was because the image I used was a little wonky. It didn't look weird when I printed it of...but it does when it's giant in glitter. Oh well. Chloe won't know the difference.

Thank you, Cody for all your help! You are a wonderful husband!!!

Growing Up

2011-03-10T09:50:00.000-08:00

Remember these?

Well that dress has now been passed on. Cody took these pictures of Preslie last Sunday.

She still sticks her tongue out!!

Love that dress and headband!

And Yes, we did take pictures of Chloe, too.

2 Going on 20

2011-03-07T11:56:00.000-08:00

Ok, maybe not 20...But definitely 16.

This morning during Preslie's nap, I asked Chloe if we should curl her hair. When we were done I asked if she wanted to do makeup. What girl would say no?

Her pretty princess hair

I kind of can't stop looking at her. Like this little girl has become a young woman within minutes and I don't know what happened. I know it will all wash off tonight and she will once again be my little baby (even though she tells me I can't call her that anymore because she's a "Big Girl."), but it's weird looking into the future like this. Of course, as soon as she opens her mouth and says, "Sum mo fut nacks, pease!" I remember. She is my little girl and will always be my baby!!! No amount of makeup will change that!

ps I know this is a bad picture with the lighting and the big shadow...But look at those eyes! What a pretty girl!

Because No One's Life is Perfect...

2011-03-03T14:59:00.000-08:00

It's just been one of those days....

And I never knew my mascara was so *un*waterproof.

Day 7: Favorite movies

2011-03-02T14:05:00.000-08:00

I love movies. A lot. So instead of listing some of my favorite movies, I'm going to have some quotes. And you can try and tell me where they came from. Ready? Go.

1. -"What's the problem?"
-"It's my reputation."
-"No. No. Don't be silly. Nonsense."
-"It's all right, Captain. We always knew you were a whoopsie."

2. "Who was at the door?"
"Stray dog."

3. (I know it's the same as 2...but so many good quotes!)
"What should I do?"
"Get in the car and run him over"

4. "I carried a watermellon.........carried a watermellon???"

5. "Remember, when you go out not to put too much makeup otherwise the boys will get the wrong idea and you know how they are... They're only after one thing."
"What's that?"
"I dont' know. No one will tell me!"

6. "Hey, you're the girl from the beach."
"My friends call me Kelly for short."

7. "If Troy can tell his secret, then I'm coming clean. I play the cello!"
" Awesome! What is it? A saw?"
"No dude, it's like a giant violin!"

8."Say you'll share with me one love, one lifetime. Lead me, save me from my solitude. Say you'll want me with you here beside you. Anywhere you go, let me go too. Christine, that's all I ask of..."

9. "Jump in after her!"
"I don't swim."
"I only dog paddle."
"AGGH!"

10."You took my chip."
"Roxy, did you eat this man's chips?"
"No."
"You sure?"
"I didn't eat his chips. I didn't eat your chips."
"She didn't eat your chips."

11." Why, it's my..."
"Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!"
"Duh, duh, duh... Happy Birthday!"
"No, no, no, no!"

12. "This is the cottage from your story!"

"Yes."
"The young woman is you!"
"Yes."

"But then... No."
"Yes. Aunt Trunchbull."

13."I would rather die a thousand deaths than see my mother's dress on that spoiled, selfish cow!"

14."An unhappy alternative lies before you, Elizabeth. Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr Collins, and I will never see you again if you do."

There you go! Lets see who can name them all!!

Day 6: A picture of something that makes you happy

2011-03-02T06:00:00.000-08:00

Day 5: A song to match your mood

2011-03-01T06:00:00.000-08:00

Like the sunlight falls on me
Light from heaven lets me see.
And when the mists arise to blind my eyes,
Then the truth shines upon me and I see fear is a lie

(Chorus)
Fear is like the clouds that veil the earth from the sun.
Faith is like the morning rays that break when night is done.
And though the fear inside me says that all my hope is gone
Faith in heaven lifts me up and shouts I've just begun

And then I sing a song of praise
For the hope within me raised.
From the heights above - faith and hope are mine.
The clouds that covered me and kept me down are far behind.

---repeat chorus---

Believing leads to truth and light.
Fear can turn the day to night.
Even in the dark the way is clear.
Always follow faith and never fear.

I thought about posting "Where Can I Turn for Peace" as the song that matches my mood...but I decided I need to stop looking for peace and start using faith to move on in my life. I mean, having peace is needed, yes, but I need to stop just sitting around waiting for it. I need to be faithful in moving forward. I need to play an active role in my life in being happy; being at peace. So, with that said, I chose "Forward with Faith" by Jon Schmidt. He's pretty awesome. :)

Day 4: Your parents

2011-02-28T11:20:00.000-08:00

I know I'm supposed to be way ahead of Day 4...But I'm not. I'll make up for it though.

My parents are amazing people. I could get really emotional and crying and oh yeah they are the best people in the world (which they are), but I think I'll just talk about them.

My dad is an amazing cook. He makes the best food in his giant dutch oven. And he makes the best food out of this giant dutch oven. Not only yummy, but in huge quantities.

Like maybe not feed an entire army quantities, but pretty close. He's also extremely smart. When I was in 8th grade I was talking to Kevin Tiedemann about whose dad was smarter, and he asked if my dad knew about nuclear something or other. I told him I didn't know, but I'd ask my dad. So one day I asked my dad and he just went all out on the subject, talking all about it. I didn't stop him to say, "I really didn't want to know about it...Just wanted to know if YOU knew about it." I later told Kevin, yes, my dad definitely knows all about that.

My friend, Michelle, and I went camping with my dad in Turkey Run when we were probably in 8th grade. It was raining a LOT there and we were trying to build a fire. My dad asked us where we could find dry wood for the fire since it was raining so much and of course we didn't know. He told us, inside the wet wood! He cut the outside off of all our wood in our woodpile to reveal dry wood, ready for our fire. He also cut his finger while he was chopping wood and Michelle and I were freaking out telling him he at least needed a band aide or something on it. He just ignored our attempts at nursing his hand and kept chopping wood. He's pretty tough, too.

My mom is also amazing. She is kind and thoughtful. She really loves. You know? Like some people are kind and thoughtful but my mom puts her whole heart into it. Into caring for others and being there. Especially for her kids and grand kids.

When Chloe broke her finger, she told me she was trying to figure out how she could get out here to be with Chloe. Even though it really turned out to not be a huge deal. She really loves all of her kids-in-law, too, just like they're her own kids. She has taught me how to be a great mom. So many times when I lived in IL with them last year people would say, "Stacey, you are just like your mom." We talk alike, we laugh alike, we are alike!! My mom has always been there for me anytime I need someone to talk to, ask advice from or have a question about anything.

There were a lot of times growing up I'd go into my mom's room when she was saying her prayers. It was such an example to me of the kind of person I wanted to be someday. She is so strong in the gospel and her love for the Savior is apparent to everyone. But make no mistake, she's also a huge party girl. :) She travels to basically everywhere tropical and warm and always has the time of her life there and makes it wonderful and fabulous for everyone else, too (which is usually just my dad because they never let us tag along) :)!!!

I am always in awe of my parents and all that they know and do. They are some of the best people I know! (And Happy Anniversary last week!!! 37 Years is quite the accomplishment!!!)

Chloe's Favorite Thing About Yesterday....

2011-02-23T08:25:00.000-08:00

Day 4: Your parents

2011-02-19T20:34:00.000-08:00

I really want to talk about my parents. They're wonderful and fabulous and I love them. A lot.

But right now my head kind of feels like it's going to explode...Mainly because I have the worst cold in the history of colds. Believe me, I know. :)

So Day 4 will have to wait until Day 5. Sorry, Mom and Dad.

But I don't think they'll notice, anyway...Cause they're just getting back from a faaaabulous vacation to St. Thomas.

Luckies.

Day 3: Your first love

2011-02-18T20:39:00.000-08:00

warning: you might get sick reading this, because it is pretty lovey-dovey. But, I don't care. I like it that way.

I've been thinking about this one a lot lately...Well, at least since I first saw this challenge. And I thought about taking it in a different way, like how much I love chocolate or something...But no. I'm facing it head on.

I was a pretty flirty girl growing up. I had a lot of guy friends and don't feel like I was lacking in the dating department. But my attitude towards all my boyfriends growing up was, "I know we would never get married. So I am not getting too close to you."

I kept that attitude up for a long time. When I was 16 I was dating this boy, Spencer, and we liked each other for a lonnnnnnnng time before we started "going out." But after awhile, he told me I was working too much (I did work a lot in high school...but I LOVED my job) and I had to pick between him and my job. I was like seriously? I'm 16. I have an amazing job, working with people that I love (That included Spencer. Yeah, we also worked together...So I still didn't understand the problem), and I definitely don't see us being together forever. So, see ya.

The first boy I thought I ever loved was Thomas. I know, no big surprise to anyone. We met when I was 5 in my primary class. He and another boy called me Stacey Sprinkler and apparently I got really mad and wouldn't talk to them. We were always in the same stake and were kinda friends but didn't ever really cross paths again until I was like 14 and we were going to the stake dances. We were in the same group of friends (he really didn't like Spencer), and we knew everything about each other. We would play games like Taboo or Outburst with our friends and we'd always be on the same team because we could finish each others sentences so we'd always win. One night I had a really bad night at work and I called him on my drive home. We talked ALL night long. Honestly. It was like 7 hours and 45 minutes or something. My cell phone ran out of battery twice. I had to use our house phone while it charged up again. Yeah, I got in trouble for that. He was my best friend. I totally thought I loved him, and I think I probably did. He was moving out to Utah to go to school (he was a year ahead of me) and I was thinking about moving to Utah to finish high school. One of my friends threw him a going away party and when I got there we just went in a car to talk about me going out there, too. He told me, "Stacey, if you move to Utah, you'll get married when I'm on my mission." I told him, no, I would only be a sophomore in college when he got back and I'd never be married by then. I told him I really wanted to go and I had basically made up my mind and he couldn't change it. I was going whether he liked it or not. Then I moved to Utah. Ten minutes away from each other and we never spoke anymore. I don't think there are any hard feelings there. Definitely none for me. It just wasn't really love. You know?

In Utah I made a lot more guy friends, went on a lot of dates, and three days after I graduated high school, I met Cody.

Cody came into my life really fast. Really, really unexpected, at a time that I was "living it up." (Remember, Amy Jo??) :) But it was absolutely perfect. He healed parts of me that were broken, and would've remained broken forever if he hadn't said something. He drove across two towns to come kill spiders at my house. He was with me for a short time, at a time when I was trying SO hard to not fall in love with him. He was moving back to California in 3 months after we met. Hi, 3 months. But I couldn't help it. One night we were taking a walk and these sprinklers started going off. We started running around in them and I was running in circles and he just kept turning the sprinkler so it was hitting me non stop. I wanted to be with Cody all day, every day. When he moved away, I drove to Alyssa's house, knocked on the door, and cried. And cried, and cried. When she opened it, she just held me while I cried and cried. My dad even called me that night just because he knew I was going to be so sad and he was worried about me. Sweet, huh. I didn't know what was going to happen between us, but I knew I loved him. For real love. In October, two months after he moved away, I went to visit him in California. One night I dropped a bomb. I asked him what he thought was going to happen between us. He said he didn't want to say because who knows what would happen? I told him I knew the future was unexpected. I just wanted to know what he wanted to happen between us. He looked at me and told me he wanted to be with me. He wanted to be with me forever. So sweet, right? I told Alyssa all about it when I came home and told her how I loved how he said he wanted to be with me forever. Not just, "I want to marry you." Because being together forever is different than just being married.

I feel like Cody was made for me. He calms me down when I'm freaking out. He takes over when I can't handle the girls anymore. He is my match in every way. It was the best decision I ever made to marry him, and I hope he thinks it was the best decision he ever made to marry me. :) I want to be with him forever and I hope we can be worthy of that blessing. So in short, Cody is my first love. Definitely Cody.

One More for Valentine's Day

2011-02-17T15:42:00.000-08:00

This year I didn't think much about Valentine's Day. I had asked Cody if we were going to be giving gifts and he said no, in a way that was like-why would we even do that? Which I was totally ok with because I couldn't really think of anything cool anyway.

I decided he needed to have SOMETHING, so I ordered some pictures of our family and some of just me, 4x6 and wallet size, for him to take with him when he goes on business trips. I also got him some licorice. I thought about making him a big basket of goodies, but Valentine's Day is like right after resolution time...(Also, Girl Scout Cookie time is right after resolution time. Why would they do this? Why don't they do it in like August? Every time I go to the store I have to exit as far away from the girl scouts as possible because I may or may not have been very tempted to spend $20-50 on cookies. Who does that?!?!)

Anyway.

On Valentine's Day I was getting ready for the day when I decided to use the full-body mirror to do my makeup in instead of the regular mirror. I never do that. When I took it off, I saw a heart taped on the back of it!!! I looked at it and realized, Cody had made me a Valentine's Scavenger Hunt! I was SO excited, but I didn't think that was the first clue, so I decided to wait and ask him about it. He was already at work, so I texted him and he called me about 5 minutes later, wanting to know if I had done anything and kinda freaking out that I ruined the surprise. After I told him I hadn't done anything and hadn't gone looking for any more clues, he told me where the first clue was. I was SO excited!!!

On the back on this super sweet, very wonderful letter to me was my first clue.

I could not stop laughing when I read this! Yes, I am glad no one farted at our wedding :)

That clue led me here, a picture of the San Diego Temple.

See the clue on the back??

A couple weeks ago we made some new art for our apartment. Like the green birds?

Another clue!!!

Here's the clue I found first on the back of the mirror

Cody's beloved RC car :)

Ok, so apparently I didn't take a picture of what this clue said, but it led me to the clock in the kitchen...which doesn't work. (Which was part of the clue.)

My favorite book is The Giver! I know it's like 4th grade reading level...But I love it.

I couldn't find this clue for a long time...I actually thought he didn't remember my favorite book and started looking in all the Harry Potter books. He told me to just keep looking and then I found it lodged in the pages!

On the back of the clue...

I ran to his bottom drawer, and guess what I found!!! Oh, Hello, Mrs. See. Nice to finally be with you again. Not only was it See's, but when I opened it, it was my three favorite kinds. Over and over and over. So I wouldn't have to deal with the biting in and discovering you don't like it. I got chocolate buttercream, the thin caramels, and bordeaux. YUMMMM.

Yeah, there might be some missing. I won't tell you what time it was when I took this picture. Don't judge.

What a perfect Valentine's day surprise. It was WONDERFUL and I loved every second. I love you, Cody! You're the best husband EVER!!!

Day 2: Meaning behind your blog name

2011-02-17T13:27:00.000-08:00

I've actually talked about this before, since I just changed it. So...I will just copy part of that post.

We moved away from Rexburg in April, 2010. Since then I've been trying to think of a new name for our blog. It's a long process trying to think of a perfect name!

Yesterday I stumbled across this quote:

"‎The things we hope in sustain us during our daily walk. They uphold us through trials, temptations, and sorrow. Everyone has experienced discouragement and difficulty. Indeed, there are times when the darkness may seem unbearable. It is in these times that the divine principles of the restored gospel we hope in can uphold us and carry us until, once again, we walk in the light." -President Uchtdorf

It came to me - Our Daily Walk!

There ya go :)

2011-02-16T20:24:00.001-08:00

Day 1: Introduce, recent picture of yourself, 15 interesting facts

My name is Stacey.

Hi, Stacey.

I look like this.

Really. I usually have a child attached to me in one way or another.

And I love it.

I've been thinking about these 15 interesting facts all day...Ok, really like twice today for like 5 minutes each time. But. It's hard to come up with 15 things that are interesting about me. Some of the things I list might not be so interesting. Sorry.

1. I love previews before movies. I don't care if I don't get to watch them, but if I'm by myself, watching a dvd, I'll go to the set up part and watch all the previews. And I especially love it if the movie I'm about to watch has a preview. It helps me get excited to watch the movie.

2. I hate when people touch my nose. I'm becoming more ok with it now because Chloe does it a lot, and I know she's not doing it meanly...and I don't want to yell at her to stop. That would be traumatizing for both of us. When I was growing up, I remember my brother, Noah (he doesn't remember this), saying to me, "Stacey, don't you hate it when people do this?" And squeezing my nose. Not only squeezing it, but like sliding his fingers down it. While I had a cold. It wasn't fun. So now, I can't handle people touching my nose. Cody tries to do it sometimes - like holding it closed- and I kinda freak out like I can't breathe. It's interesting.

3. I was Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz in 7th grade. I know a lot of people were Dorothy growing up in their school plays. But like, I WAS Dorothy. I rocked the house.

4. I am almost constantly afraid of something terrible happening to me or my girls. Things like that are on my mind most of the day. It's hard for me to stop thinking about them. I have to sing to myself or think of things like the first time I saw Cody inside the temple right before we got married. But I also think that if something terrible happened to me, I'd totally fight back. Awhile ago there was this guy on the news that was going around and grabbing women, they called him "The Groper." Gross, I know. Anyway, I always thought to myself that if he did that to me I'd totally go after him. Then sometimes I think about how I'd totally end up on Oprah, telling my story about how I'm such a strong woman and we all need to stand up to the sicko-weirdo-horribleo- people out there.

5. I love country music. But I usually only listen to it in the summer, in my car, with the windows down. I feel like it's the kind of music that you need to pretend you really are in the country, in a little sundress, driving to the creek to go swimming. Or something like that.

6. The first time I went fishing, I caught a fish. After like 10 minutes. The second time I went fishing, I caught my finger on my hook. No fish that day.

7. I love American Idol, but only the auditions. I will watch into Hollywood week, but after that it gets boring and I never watch it anymore.

8. I met David Archulleta in a church parking lot. He was in a car with his aunt, pretending like he wasn't who he is. But I knew. I might not watch American Idol, but I'm up on who is who.

9. I used to LOVE celebrities and everything that came with them. I wanted to be a host on Entertainment Tonight. Not lying. Then I had kids, and realized caring about celebrities was probably one of the dumbest things ever. The other day, Cody and I saw this thing on tv talking about some guy "being spotted walking in the street wearing blue sunglasses." Seriously?! Seriously?!!? Come on. People MUST have better lives than this.

10. I only have 8 classes left to get my bachelors in Communications. I had a minor in psychology and was one semester away from graduating. Then I found out I was having baby girl #2 and graduated with my general associates degree. Not shabby, but I still want to get my bachelors. When I was 22 I made a goal that I'd have my bachelors by the time I was 25...Now I'm 24 and it seems like 25 isn't too far away....I might need to make another goal.

11. Seriously? I'm only at 11?

12. When I grow up, I want to be one of those women that people say, "Stacey? She's SO nice. She's SO nice to EVERYONE." I love ladies like that.

13. I'm basically intimidated by everyone. I don't really believe in self-esteem, but I feel like I'm probably lowest on the totem pole as far as "things" go. Like, I don't really have a "thing." I don't sew really well, I don't bake really well, I don't craft really well....I don't have a "thing." I wish I had a thing, but I don't know what that is. And I feel like EVERYONE else has a thing. And when I hear that someone is intimidated by me (which I actually don't know if that's ever happened) I kinda think they're lying because how would that be possible?

14. K, I had totally written a whole thing about if I ever were on a show like American Idol I'd play up the whole, "I'm doing this for my sister who passed away and it was terrible and heartbreaking and tragic" angle because it was. And I think doing that is totally ok to get on a tv show like that. To win a recording contract? Yeah, I think it's ok. Anyway. It was more than that, but then it somehow got erased. I'm sure you're glad. :)

15. Sometimes when Cody and I go out on dates I say, "Lets pretend like this is our first date. So...tell me about your family." And he says, "Nooooooo." I think it's hilarious.

I don't believe anyone will read this far. But if you did, congratulations. You win the prize.

Valentine's Day Date

2011-02-15T21:23:00.000-08:00

For Valentine's Day this year, Cody and I went out of Friday to beat the holiday crowds. Tami babysat for us; (again! Thanks, Tami!) I LOVE living by family! It's a lifesaver! We spent all day Friday trying to decide where to go and finally decided on Prado. It's in Balboa Park and was perfect. It was not crowded, we got to sit on the heated patio, it was so romantic and so, so yummy and the company was fabulous. :)

Cody and me before dinner

Our Appetizer - Grilled Skewers Trio - Beef and Chipotle Honey (top left), Chicken and Cashew Curry (bottom middle) and Shrimp and Mango Ginger (top right)

OH my YUM! It was SO good. The beef, honestly, melted. I've said that before about beef, but I don't think I ever really knew what it meant until I ate this. All three were amaaaazing.

Our Entree - Pan Roasted Sea Bass -See the slice of bacon on top? Ohhh baby. It also had cauliflower, forest mushrooms, sea beans and red wine jus. (I don't really know what red wine jus means...but I didn't even realize there was wine in this until just now when I looked up the menu to write about it. Promise. I don't break commandments on purpose.)

Cody and I decided to share an entree, and the awesome thing about Prado is that they split it for you (so you don't have to have the whole awkward "Can we have an extra plate?" thing going on), and they charge $3 extra, but they give both the same size of side portions. So we only really split the sea bass. We both had the same amount (which was a pretty good size) of veggies, and apparently, red wine.

After dinner. We were full and happy :) PS Cody looks so so cute in this picture. I love it!

Again, amazing. Seriously, amazing. I haven't ever had sea bass before, I'm a salmon girl, and it actually tasted a lot like salmon. It was just really yummy. And even though we split it, we were both stuffed by the time we were done. Yum. Cody, lets go back. Tomorrow. :)

After dinner we walked around Balboa Park. The park has tons of gardens and museums and even the San Diego Zoo is there. It's super big and super awesome.

Walking around after dinner

K, Seriously, is this not amazing? SO beautiful

If I hadn't gotten married in one of the prettiest, most amazing places in all the land, I would've wanted to get married here. Well, I didn't see what was inside, so I really don't know if that last statement is true. However. Wouldn't it be awesome to open those doors to reveal you as a bride? If it was me, I'd do this (look at said picture) when they opened the door. :)

After we had walked around for an hour or more, we decided we were ready for dessert. I wanted to go to a place that had been featured on The Food Network, called Extraordinary Desserts. It was on "The Best Thing I Ever Ate." Love that show. This was the cake that was featured. It was the Dulce de Leche and was probably one of the top 10 moments in my life.

See my hands in the background? Patiently waiting to dig in???

Yeah, that's gold leaf on the roses. No big.
And about 2 minutes later.....

Oh yum. We definitely liked that. :)

I'm not done with Valentine's Day posts, so don't worry your pretty little head. (Who says that?!?)

I had SO much fun with my Valentine. It couldn't have come at a more perfect time and it is now a perfect memory. I love you, Cody! Happy Valentine's Day!

30 Day Challenge

2011-02-15T05:00:00.000-08:00

So I've seen a lot of these 30 day challenges out in blogland recently. Remember when I tried to blog every day for a month? I did well for about 2 weeks and then didn't really have anything left to say. So I thought I would try this instead. This way I'll at least have an idea of what to say, even if I don't really have anything else going on. I've seen a lot of different versions, but decided I like this one best.

Day 0: The 30 Day Challenge Explanation and Description
Day 1: Introduce, recent picture of yourself, 15 interesting facts
Day 2: Meaning behind your blog name
Day 3: Your first love
Day 4: Your parents
Day 5: A song to match your mood
Day 6: A picture of something that makes you happy
Day 7: Favorite movies
Day 8: A place you've traveled to
Day 9: A favorite picture of your best friend
Day 10: Something you're afraid of
Day 11: Favorite tv shows
Day 12: Something you don't leave the house without
Day 13: Goals
Day 14: A picture of you last year - how have you changed?
Day 15: Bible verse
Day 16: Dream house
Day 17: Something you're looking forward to
Day 18: Favorite Place to Eat
Day 19: Something you miss
Day 20: Nicknames
Day 21: Favorite Picture of yourself ALL TIME Why?
Day 22: What's in your purse?
Day 23: Favorite Movie
Day 24: Something you've learned
Day 25: Put your iPod on shuffle, first 10 songs
Day 26: Your Dream Wedding
Day 27: Original Photo of the city you live in
Day 28: Something that stresses you out
Day 29: 3 Wishes
Day 30: a picture of yourself this day and 5 good things that happened since you started the challenge

Come What May...

2011-02-14T22:36:00.001-08:00

Today is a wonderful day. I personally think we should celebrate love every day. We don't need a "valentine" or a "special someone," although that is nice. I just think we should celebrate love. There's nothing better. What if, everyday, everyone was just a little more loving? A little more patient, a little more willing to go out of their way to write a nice note, to give a little gift or to say a few sweet words. I can't wait for the world to be like that. Someday.

It's been hard lately. Life. Life has been hard. Often times I see people and think, "They are perfect. Perfect hair, perfect clothes, perfect family, perfect kids. Why can't I be like them?"

"In the quiet heart is hidden sorrow that the eye can't see."

I think of that a lot. A lot, a lot.

"I won’t even begin to try and enumerate the myriad things that may come our way – or what may

have already caused a deep wound in your heart. You know the landscape of your own heart – with all

its peaks and valleys – and maybe some of the valleys are also known only to the Lord, never having

been whispered to another earthly soul. I am certain the Savior knows

however, that while it may be a small moment to Him, some days on this earth seem to last for eternity,

and some moments are so painful our hearts threaten to literally break. I am certain because He has

comforted me in those quiet, painful moments that only He and I know about."

-Amy Springer

Sometimes life is hard. Sometimes its hard to remember the eternal picture. But it is there.

I can do hard things.

One more quote from Amy.

"I have always remembered a talk given by Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone while I was a student

at BYU. He said, “There is a verse that all of you have heard: Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty

Dumpty had a great fall; All the king's horses And all the king's men Couldn't put Humpty together

again. But the king could, and the king can, and the king will if we will but come unto him.” Whatever

it is that has pushed us off the wall of hope into a broken state of despair or heartache – The King knows

exactly how to succor and heal each one of us. He is the “God of all comfort” because, after all, He is

also the “Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief.”"

I am grateful for that.

Come what may...and love it.

Our Beautiful Girls

2011-02-14T15:05:00.000-08:00

Last week, while I was busy doing something, Cody was watching the girls as they were playing outside on the patio. Here's what they were up to.

This is my favorite!

Lots of baby feet :)

Silly face time!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T10:18:00.001-08:00

I have the BEST Valentine ever.

And later, I will post about how wonderful my Valentine is and what he did to make my Valentine's Day so terrifically special. I want to take pictures of it, and my camera is in my car.

And I will also post about how fabulous our Valentine's Day Date was. Because it was. Fabulous.

But those pictures are with Cody, on his camera. So that'll also have to wait.

So until then, here are pictures from our Family Home Evening last week, when we all went to the temple. Chloe talked (and continues to talk) about it constantly, so we decided we needed to go there and see it for real.

See, Dad?! See, see?!

SO excited to see the temple! The best day EVER!

Chloe was in awe the whole time. She was just so excited and asks at least once a day now to go see the temple again.

I'm so grateful for the blessings of the temple, especially on Valentine's Day when we celebrate the people we love! I LOVE my family, and I can't imagine my life without them! I'm so glad Cody and I were married here and get to teach our girls about the blessings that come from being worthy to enter the temple. I love you, Cody! Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!