SO tired!

Have you ever been so tired you felt like you could just cuddle up in a laundry basket and go to sleep? Brooklyn has!

Easter Egg Hunts

We had a fun Easter weekend with the annual Creer egg hunt on Saturday and then another egg hunt and an amazing dinner at Uncle Mark and Aunt Terri's house. Here is a little collage of the egg hunt pictures...


ps Please excuse the growing belly of mine. It's HUGE!

Easter Eggs!

We decorated Easter Eggs for family night this week but Tim and Brooklyn had more fun with the camera than they did with the eggs!

Notice Brooklyn posing with two eggs, and then just one with a pretty sad face...she dropped one and it was done for!

It's about time...

We have been home from our cruise for about a week now so I guess I'll take the time to blog about it. This may be long, but we had quite the adventures that I want to share...

We left on Saturday afternoon after Brooklyn went to Abbi's bday party. (It was so cute by the way...they decorated crowns that turned out so cute and the girls loved them!) We drove down to Hurricane and stayed the night there, went to church the next morning, and got back to my mom's house in time for Tallan to start throwing up. I was totally hesitant to leave a sick kid with my mom and sister, but my mom talked me into it anyway. We said a tearful goodbye to the kids, and Tim and I headed down to San Diego. What a peaceful drive that was without kids! Well, until about an hour from San Diego when I started to not feel so good myself. We got to Tim's aunt's house JUST in time! I almost didn't make it to the bathroom and pretty much stayed there most of the night. Yuck! We boarded the ship the next afternoon and set sail. I still wasn't feeling very good so I didn't eat anything that first night and poor Tim...I fell asleep right after dinner and even though he tried to wake me up, I was completely out!

The next morning we woke up and went to have breakfast and not long after that, the captain got on to make an announcement that a passenger had gotten so sick throughout the night that he had made the decision to turn the ship around. We had been heading two hours back towards San Diego to meet the US Coastguard where they had to do a helicopter rescue of the sick passenger. It was just like the movies! They lowered a guy down on a rope and he helped the passenger get into the rescue basket thing so they could raise it up into the helicopter. They were pulling the basket in when it slipped and swung out a little bit, but he got safely in. We found out later that he had a heart attack, but was going to recover. His wife had to stay onboard though until the next day when we arrived in Cabo San Lucas so she could fly to San Diego where he was in the hospital.

Well, because of our delay at sea we only had about 4 hours when we got to Cabo. We walked around the port, went to get some ice cream and a coke, and then Tim paid some locals to take us out in their glass bottom boat. It was pretty ghetto and I was scared to death at one point if you can't tell by the pictures. It was very pretty, but we were in this tiny little boat in the big ocean and it did not feel very good to be rocked around like we were! At least I didn't go into labor though! I wasn't very impressed with that part of Cabo though. A lot of poverty and a lot of very young kids trying to sell us stuff every few feet. So sad!

We were back at sea and heading north again to Ensenada. While there, we went on a safer tour to La Bufadora. It is one of 3 natural blowholes in the world and it was pretty amazing. We had a really good tour guide who gave us a lot of history and stats about the town. It was very interesting and very depressing at the same time. It was so hard to see rows and rows and graffiti covered shacks that were government housing and then across the street see this beautiful building all landscaped and kept very nice that was the government offices. Our guide told us too that minimum wage there is $5/day and that was what those people were supposed to live off of. They work 48 hour weeks and don't get any health care. I still don't agree with illegal immigration, but it definitely makes a lot more sense as to why they do it. We spent a couple of hours walking around the flea markets, bargaining with the Indians, to get some fun little things for the kids.

We left Ensenada and were back at sea heading for San Diego. We were both very anxious to get home at this point because we missed our kids like crazy and were sick of being on the boat. Because of our delay, we were only off of the boat for about 10 hours total the whole week! While they do a lot to keep us entertained: bingo, blackjack (we won $150! Yeah!), shows, dance lessons, etc, there is only so much you can do of those things. We met some interesting people and enjoyed reading our books and getting some sun in the warm weather.

Next time, we are going to recruit some friends to come with us, bring our kids, and go on a cruise with more ports instead of so many days at sea. A HUGE thanks to Val who took care of the kids all week, even though they all got the flu and John had to be in Denver all week for work. We owe you!

Real Cute Kids

This is our attempt at trying to get all 8 grandkids to look at the camera at once (even though most of the pictures only have 7 of them)...pretty funny huh!

Fun times in Hurricane

We decided to get away for the long weekend and go see some family in the warm weather. We always have so much fun in Hurricane: shopping, golfing, swimming, hiking, bike riding, playing games, watching old family videos, and of course lots of eating. We are so grateful for our family!

A beautiful day for playing outside

Swimming!

Watching movies

Happy bday to me!

My two favorite kids!

Enough is Enough...

Are you sick of reading my complaints about the snow? Well, if you are, imagine how sick I am of driving in it, walking through it, and looking at it out my window! Last night we had the most violent snowstorm I have ever seen. We had 70 mph winds here in Lehi and woke up to 6 inches of new snow on the driveway. We had a complete white-out and couldn't even see our neighbor's houses from inside ours. So many roads were closed and people were stranded that kids had to end up sleeping over at their schools with teachers since parents couldn't get to them and school buses couldn't get them out. They had to open up churches all around so that stranded motorists had a warm place to go. Sad! Anyway, click on this link for a video of what it looked like in our neighborhood...(it's a really long video so fast forward to the parts where it shows the roads with the wind and snow)


http://www.kutv.com/content/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=426cbcce-d0d2-44eb-8e57-4d2d6837e8ec&rss=991&articleID=33239

Shannyn tagged me!

Although it doesn't excite me quite as much as it did Sarah, it's kind of fun to be tagged!

A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning
B. Each player answers the questions about themselves
C. At the end of the post, the player tags people and puts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they are tagged


10 years ago I was: about to turn 17! I'm getting kinda old!


5 Things on my To-Do List Today (since it's already 8pm, I won't list everything I've already done today that was on my list):
1) finish up some long overdue vinyl orders
2) fold about 5 loads of laundry
3) grocery shopping
4) Catch up on my Lost season 3 DVDs
5) eventually get to sleep


5 Things I would do if I Became a Billionaire:
1) pay off my house and timeshare
2) buy Warren and Melissa's house so they can move back to Utah
3) set up college/mission/wedding funds for our kids
4) let Tim retire so we can travel the world with our family
5) pay someone to get me into shape


3 of my bad habits:
1) procrastination
2) being inpatient with my kids
3) REALLY bad eating habits


5 Places I've Lived:
1) Danville, CA
2) Logan, UT
3) Foothill Ranch, CA
4) Orem, UT
5) Lehi, UT


5 Jobs I've Had:
1) Whole Grain Bakery (I could really use some cookies right now...yum! Jenn, maybe you could bring me some this weekend?)
2) nanny
3) Convergys
4) Old Navy, Linens N Things, and Fuddruckers (all at the same time)
5) MATC


Something most people don't know about me: I'm addicted to laminating things. I laminate EVERYTHING lately. I've even laminated pages from The Friend for FHE. I've been laminating FHE packets, file folder games, and Primary talks among other things. Even Tim thinks it's fun though!


Melissa and Taylor, I tag you now!

Let it Snow!

Just had to share some pictures of the storm we got last night and this morning. The view from Brooklyn's room...I didn't want to go outside!

Out the front door...Tim is such a good little shoveler. Poor guy spent about an hour out there and look how much snow there is! It was still snowing too, so...

...by the time we had to leave for church less than 3 hours later, you couldn't even see Tim's hard work. Luckily our neighbor has a really cool snow blower and came through so we could get out of our driveway. I really want one of those! It was so cool!

When we got home from church it has finally stopped snowing and had warmed up enough to start melting a little so this is what the view from our front door looked like:

Brooklyn's snow bunny from yesterday is completely covered and their snow cave is barely there anymore!
The BIG storm is supposed to arrive this evening sometime. I just have to think positive. While I'm sure it will take me at least twice as long to get to work in the morning, at least we will for sure have water in the lake this summer to take the boat out!

Might as well play in it...

We have been getting SO much snow this year that today Tim and Brooklyn decided to make the best of it while Tallan and I stayed inside nice and warm as usual. Look how talented they are though!
The snow cave from all the snow piled up on the edge of our driveway from shoveling.

Brooklyn and her snow bunny pal. I don't know where she got the idea, but she has been begging to make a snow bunny for weeks now.

I know it looks like fun, but we are so ready for Spring and the warm weather!

I'm not responsible...

So, I have heard several times that each time you are pregnant, you lose brain cells and I'm living proof of that. Saturday night we had NAI's Black Tie Winter Gala that we go to every January. It wasn't so bad this time, and I'll tell you why later. Anyway, one of Tim's co-workers wives came up to me and this is our conversation:

Her: "When are you due"
Me: (not sure if I heard her right because it was pretty loud) "what?!"
Her: "Wait, are you pregnant?" (she was very hesitant to ask at that point)
Me: "oh yeah, I'm due in May"
Her: "me too! I'm due the 27th and we're having a boy."
Me: "Oh, congratulations! I'm due the 8th, and we're having a boy too!"

---About an hour or so goes by---

Her: "So do you guys have a name picked out for your little boy?"
Me: "Wait, I know I told you I'm having a boy, but really I'm having a girl"
Her: (laughing)"Well, you aren't responsible for anything you say while you are pregnant. So you're having a girl then?"
Me: "Ummm, I think so...wait, I don't remember...ummm, well, we bought girl bedding already so yes, I'm having a girl."
Her: (she is looking at me like I'm the craziest person she has ever met and can't say anything because she is laughing so hard)
Me: (I am laughing so hard I'm almost crying but I seriously can't remember for the life of me what I am having!)


My head is a little more clear today and I am positive that I am, in fact, having a girl!

Now the reason why this year wasn't as bad as the past 3...Tim was one of 3 people nominated from his whole company, statewide, for "Breakout Agent of the Year 2007"! Basically, that's most improved agent. He didn't win but I don't even care. I'm so proud of him for being nominated! The winner did get a trip to Maui for a week, but we couldn't have gone anyway because the trip was planned for 3 weeks before I'm due. But, next year he better win an award so we can go on the trip! Congratulations, though Tim! I love you and am SO proud of you!

(sorry no pictures of Tim in his tux and me in my formal maternity dress)

That's Vinyl has a new home!

I have started a "vinyl" blog so I can be updated and adding at my convenience. The blog is www.thatsvinyl.blogspot.com . It is still in the works, but spread the word and check back often! Thanks!

Another chance...

So yesterday at 5:15 the buyer of my business called and said she wouldn't be there at 7 (less than 2 hours later) to pick everything up after all. She said she wasn't going to buy it unless I sold it to her for almost HALF of what I was asking.

So, of course I still have it and unless I find another buyer in the next week or so, I will just plan on keeping it. Pretty lame though on her part! Especially because I have spent the past few days doing nothing BUT vinyl orders for everyone who thought I wasn't going to have it anymore. At least everyone had about a week to get whatever they wanted at half off though!

Last Chance for Vinyl...

I have a buyer for my vinyl business and I have less than a week to get any orders done before they come pick it up. Let me know if there is anything you want asap. I am doing all orders from now on at 50% off! Email me or order through my website: www.thatsvinyl.com.

Thanks!

Business for Sale!

As much fun as I have doing my vinyl lettering business, I just don't have the time to run it efficiently anymore so I've decided to sell it.

Here is a link to my craigslist post with all the info:

http://provo.craigslist.org/bfs/532828146.html.

Please pass the word along to anyone who might be interested.

Thanks!

Going Digital

So I got Photoshop for Christmas and one of my goals for the new year is to learn how to use it and keep up with my digital scrapbooking as the months go on. I should have probably set a more realistic goal, but I'm always up for a challenge. First I have to learn how to use Photoshop, but here's what I've done so far...

If anyone has any good tips or techniques to share, I'm open to anything! Thanks!