Valentine's Day (Belated)

Every year for Valentine's Day we leave something on the porch for the boys. This year it was a huge box of Mike and Ikes. They were amazed that so much candy was all theirs (until we took it away). Lincoln couldn't say Mike and Ikes to save his life it was so funny what he would call them, I can't even remember half of them. It changed every time.

Tagged!

To be honest with you I didn't even know what a tag was-Thanks Kenzie for explaining.

10 YEARS AGO

I was at USU as a sophomore. My roommates and I were the ultimate sophomores!!!! We had so much fun. Not that I would ever go back and do it again, but it was a really fun time of life.

THINGS ON MY TO DO LIST:

I am feeling really ambitious at this point in my life. Well, ambitious in the long term, not so much the short term (as Josh would attest to each time we have waffles for dinner). I have a few books that I have been writing that I would love to finish, I want to take some more classes at USU, I have my degree but I love to learn, I have a list of ever classic book written before 1960 children,youth and adult, I would like to finish it before I die. I would love to design my own clothing line. Lots to do huh?

SNACKS I ENJOY

White cake from Lee's Market Place (their frosting is the best). Chocolate covered gummy bears from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, warm chocolate chip cookies with milk, Fanta orange (I actually got addicted to Sunkist just after I had Hunter, I was going through a case every few days. One day I was saying to Josh how amazing it was it didn't have caffine because in craved it so much-we checked...it does), so I stick to Fanta now. Poor Hunter must have been so hopped up on caffine!

WHAT WOULD I DO IF I WERE SUDDENLY A BILLIONAIRE?

I would start my own clothing company and book publishing company! I would hire a cook and not allow her to ever make waffles for dinner. I would pay off house, cars etc. I think I would just start a million companies that I have ideas for. I would also build my mother-in-law a beautiful house as well as the rest of our siblings. Travel the world. I'd be broke in about a month!

BAD HABITS

Blogging, my recent addiction. I bite my tongue when I am concentrating. When I get excited I talk too fast, and I am a bit of a perfectionist with things (especially if I am in charge of it.)

PLACES I HAVE LIVED

West Valley City, Logan, Pullman and Spokane Washington, Hayden Lake Idaho, Pendleton Oregon, Washington D.C., Cincinnati Ohio, Layton Utah, Houston Texas and Nibley Utah.

JOBS I HAVE HAD

Lonnie's Dry Cleaner, Mr. Bulkey's Treats and Gifts (this was a bulk candy store with a horrible name!), Gates Rubber (Temp job), Kelly Services in the office, Gap, Michaels, and Springlite (this was a prosthetic limb factory!), intern for Senator Bennett and legal secretary.

THINGS PEOPLE DON'T KNOW ABOUT ME

Well, now everyone knows that I am an aspiring writer! I have been a closet writer for a long time. Not many people know I am an avid reader. I think I am pretty much an open book! Oh, I was the prom queen in high school (impressive huh? :)

I TAG SABRA!

A Tribute to my Valentine

This is a perfect picture of Josh's positive attitude-smiling through a rain storm. I have seldom heard Josh complain. I have often heard him say positive things when I couldn't think of anything positive about a situation. He is someone that everyone wants to be around, especially me!

Josh always puts our family first. He works so hard for us. We all wait all day for him to come home from work. Our garage door squeaks so any time it is opened the boys all yell "Daddy!" A lot of the time he wakes up very early and goes to bed late to try and get everything done that is expected of him. He constantly amazes me.

Josh is a man of faith. He inspires me to be a better person. Josh gives everyone the benefit of the doubt and is completely non-judgemental. I think he is the most Christ-like person I know.

This is right after he completed the Logan Marathon. I some times am amazed at all Josh accomplishes. He is always pushing himself and trying to be better. He inspires me.

Josh is so funny! I remember the moment on our honeymoon when I realized what a ham he is. His sense of humor so fun! He keeps me laughing.

I love Josh's blue eyes. Since I buy most of his clothes I think he might get a little sick of how much blue I buy. I just love how his eyes sparkle. I have always told him he has smiling eyes. I love that about him. I am always thinking how handsome he is!

Josh and I both love to be doing things. Winter is hard because there isn't that much to do, but as soon as it turns warm we do so many fun things. I love this about him. We spend the spring, summer and fall doing anything we can think of. We have had some fun adventures together.

Our boys love their Daddy. He always has time to play with them and thinks up fun things to do. Here was one of his cowboy days and Hunter wanted to dress up too. Once I found all of the boys laughing in Palmer's bedroom. Daddy had taken stuffed monkeys and attached their arms to the ceiling fan and turned it on. He is so fun!

Josh loves sports. Here he is with Lincoln at a Jazz game. Since I married Josh I have also become a sports fan. I have adopted all of his teams and I love to go to sporting events with him because he gets so into it! He even puts up with the fact I rarely pay attention (unless it is the Aggies of course).

Josh is a good sport. I am always planning elaborate parties and he is so good to go along with everything. He is so good to help me and be patient especially in those crazy hours leading up to an event. This is Hunter's first birthday. We had a huge Luau!

Here Josh is with some of his friends. Everyone who knows Josh loves him (aren't I a bragger!), but it is true. Random people always come up and tell me how much the respect him.

Another fun time together. We went in speed boats. Although this wasn't on the boat itself it represents something I love about Josh. He loves adventure. I am a pretty follow the rules kind of gal, Josh is always pushing limits (not in a bad way). He was a wild man on the speed boat and the 18 year old guides loved it!

Josh is the funnest person to be with. I always say he makes everything fun. We have had some fun experiences in the past almost 6 years. This is in Cancun, Mexico.

We went to a rodeo once in Taylor Arizona, Josh loved the entire cowboy thing. For Halloween that year we were all cowboys (girl in my case). Josh enjoyed it so much every once in a while I will find him walking around in his cowboy duds. This is right before the Cache Valley rodeo.

This is from Josh's birthday last year. Sad to say we couldn't take pictures this year-it is a long story!

Josh I love you so much!

Funny Little Lincoln

Tonight Lincoln was asked to say the dinner prayer. He has gotten pretty good at it. In fact sometimes they can be a little long. Tonight he blessed the sandwiches we were having for dinner (we were having spagetti), then he asked for the hot chocolate to be blessed (as you guessed we weren't having that either). Lastly he blessed Daddy's soccer shirt (he was wearing a Real T-shirt) because it was dirty. Usually I am okay to not laugh at prayers, Josh and I were both almost in tears!

Winter Wonderland

It has been so cold and snowy that we couldn't even take our Christmas garland down because it has either been covered in snow or frozen to the railing.

We have had the most amazing snow in Cache Valley this year. I have to say I am not usually a huge fan of snow other than in December, but we have had many days of heavy snow falls and it is beautiful to sit and watch out the window.

Good Things to Come

I have been dreaming of summer lately. It is amazing how much snow we have gotten this year. It seems to snow every day. I was looking through our pictures of summer time and all of the fun things that we did. This picture stood out to me and I thought it was too good to pass up. As I am now a blog junkie I thought I would share it. This is at swimming lessons last summer. May it remind you all of good things to come!

Babysitting

Our family is lucky enough to be in a group of friends that trade babysitting a few times a month. When it was our time I was a little worried because most of the kids are older girls. My friend Kristen came up to Logan for the weekend and had the great idea to make valentines cards for the kid's parents. It ended up being a lot of fun!

We also decorated Valentine cookies. Tasty!

Madeline and Palmer

Lincoln put some much stuff on his cookie that it just all started rolling off when he'd put something new on it. After all that he didn't even eat it. It was definitely a work of art!

Our boy dress ups didn't phase them one bit. They were awesome!

A Child's Prayer

Lately Hunter has decided that he wants a turn to pray like the other boys. It is the sweetest thing in the world when he folds his chubby little arms and shuts his eyes (for the most part), and repeats what we tell him to say. He doesn't talk a lot so usually he will say one or two words of the sentence that we whisper to him. It is so cute that I call on him a lot. I also love that our boys all love to pray. At meal times we have a hard time picking whose turn it is because they are all so enthusiastic about the whole thing. I hope it lasts!

House for Sale!

Formal living room

Kitchen

Upstairs Bathroom

Dining area

Master Bathroom

Master Bathroom

Master Bedroom

bedroom

bedroom

Bedroom/Craft Room

Bedroom/Craft Room

Bonus Room

Bedroom/Toy Room

Bedroom/Toy Room

Bedroom/office

Downstairs rec room

Downstairs rec room

Downstairs bathroom

Our house is officially for sale. We have loved living in this house and will be sad to leave Cache Valley. If anyone knows someone that is moving to the valley please pass this along.

The big 30

I have just turned 30 years old. It wasn't as traumatic as I had expected. Strangely enough I felt a sense of pride that I had come this far and done all I have in my life. I am so proud of my 3 boys and my husband, we have a good life. I love my Dad's expression in this picture!

My Princess Cake

My sweet husband Josh understands my love for all things feminine. For my birthday he got me a princess cake. It was a nice change from the usual cakes we buy for birthdays. I thought it was funny, what a cute guy. I am sure the lady in the bakery thought it was for his daughter.

I just thought I would let all of you know that Lincoln is now off oxygen and doing really well. Thank you so much for your concern! We love you all!

Happy to be Home!

Lincoln is home from the hospital! We are so excited. He is so excited as are Palmer and Hunter who really missed him. The only down side to this is that he has to be on oxygen still. We don't know how long this will be, but I think it is worth it to be home from the hospital.

Lincoln hospital update

For all of you who have been so sweet and worried about Lincoln, I thought that I would give you a little update on his condition. We are now going on day 3 of the hospital with no end in sight. He seems to feel better in a lot of ways, but he still will not eat and his oxygen levels are the worst today that they have been. It doesn't look like we are going home today. He is getting super bored and they will not let him have visitors because this is so contageous (they told me this as I was snuggling him). They also keep giving him some sort of medicine that makes him bounce off the walls, this is hard to do considering he has about 6 tubes coming out of him. We are hoping that he can come home tomorrow. We love you all, thanks for your thoughts and prayers!

Lincoln in the hospital

Poor Lincoln! What started out as a really bad cold has ended up RSV and Pneumonia. Lincoln is now in the hospital. It has been a very hard thing for him to be there. He has gotten so bored (as have we), and will rip the tubes out of his nose. It is heartbreaking! He will remain in the hospital until his oxygen levels are up. We hope this ends soon.

Three Sick Boys

Our poor boys have been so sick lately. Especially Lincoln. He has severe bronchitis. The poor things have been coughing so hard lately. It is so hard to stand by and feel helpless! They have been so cute in comforting to each other, which is so sweet. Hunter doesn't feel well at all and he keeps giving Palmer and Hunter hugs each time they have a coughing fit. Life gets so much crazier with sick kids! It is truly like there is not enough time in the day. Lincoln has to be on a nebulizer among other things so I spend a lot of time with him. Palmer was patiently waiting for his cereal (not so patient at first and I told him it wasn't his turn because I was busy), a few minutes later Palmer looked at me so cute and said "Mom are you still busy?" Even when they are sick they are so cute!