Six Random Things...

Well, I've officially been tagged, so now you get to hear me ramble on about six random things that make up who I am. Let me think...

1. I actually love to read, which might come as a surprise to those of you who knew me in my high school days. I used to hate reading, for some reason, but something changed over the last few years or so and now I thoroughly enjoy it. I love getting lost in a good book or reading about something interesting. If anyone has any recommendations on some good reads, I'd love to hear it!

2. Well, following my first random fact, I usually love reading in my free time, but lately I haven't taken the time to do that, due to my second random fact: I love to write, which may also come as a surprise to some people. I've always loved writing and reading poetry but most recently I have expanded that and can't get enough. To what seems like no control of my own, I'm always thinking about different things that would make a good novel and stewing up random story plots in my mind. So lately, that has been what has occupied most of my free time.

3. Though I am horribly out of shape, and hate trying to get motivated to do it, I actually love working out...once I start. :) In the winter when we lived in Rexburg I did Tae Bo every single morning and started getting into good shape, but moving destroyed the habit. So, I have recently started up again and I am loving it! I love Tae Bo!

4. As much as I wouldn't want to admit this to my church leaders, I secretly love teaching in church. I know, it's crazy. I've never told anyone this, as it is a recent development. I look forward to my week to teach in young women's and when we moved here the two callings I was secretly hoping for was either in the young women's or a teacher in Relief Society.

5. I am the HUGEST organizational freak. I have been called OCD by my fellow co-workers in the past, so if you have ever worked with me you know. I like things done a certain way (my way) and I have certain patterns I go about when doing certain things. You should see my calendar...each day is filled with writing because I have to make "to do" lists so that I don't go crazy and feel somewhat like I have control of things. I like being able to cross something off the list once I've done it....weird, I know. It's hard for me to show someone else how to do something or accept help from someone because I like things done my way and I feel that by the time I have explained it to them, the way I want or need it done, I could have accomplished it myself. I know, it's awful and prideful and I need to work on that, but I've always been that way. Unfortunately, I think Sam has gotten that from me, due to the fact that most of the time he prefers organizing his toys over playing with them.

6. This last one might be a little weird, but that's why their random facts, right? My brother is a bit of a conspiracy theorist (he doesn't like that phrase, because they aren't just theories to him :) and I love to hear about all of them. Though they are far fetched and I don't know if I necessarily believe them all, I have an open mind and I love to hear them. I guess it just intrigues me!

Okay, now that I have taken the time for this I am now tagging Kadie, Nicole, Jillian/Steve (I refer to you guys as one because it's whoever updates your blog next), Katie, Erin, and Christa...you're all it!

I'm back!

Well, we're back safe and sound from Colorado! It was so good to go back home and be with family! Even though I was ready to be in our own beds (Sam was too) and see my husband again, it always feels so empty when I leave family again! And as soon as we flew down into the Denver area I had a smile on my face...I didn't realize until I was there how much I miss it and hope we end up back there some day!

Anyway, Sam did AMAZING on the plane! I was expecting to have to use benedril or something, but as soon as we took off, both on the way there and home, he was out and didn't wake up until the end of the flight! I had people telling me constantly how good of a baby he is! It was great!

John and Micha's wedding was so simple and beautiful and I loved it! They both were glowing and so happy and I am so happy for them! Micha is such a great addition to the family...and she looked beautiful! I loved the sealing because it made me think of mine and Dave's and helped me realize how incredibly blessed I am!


It was so good to see Cindi all big and prego too! She looked so cute! And I got to feel little Aaron kicking which was wonderful! (Those of you who are my sisters can picture me saying that last sentence in our trademark voice). It's hard to believe that the next time I see her she will have little Aaron by then! Crazy!

Unfortunately, the day I left was Jessica's prom, which I would have loved to be there for (to see her off and stuff, I mean). But I did get to go with her to get some things for it and when she got her nails done on Saturday morning. I had such a good time with her and with everyone!

This is Jessica tending to her sun burnt legs...I guess that's what you get for ditching class!




Other than the above things I mentioned, nothing too exciting went on while we were there...just a lot spending time together. It was also so good to see my brother again. It feels like it has been forever! And I loved hanging out with him and Leslie and their unbelievably ADORABLE girls. They were so cute!

It was funny because Ayla (Leslie and Brian's youngest - around Sam's age) kept trying to be a typical girl and hug Sam, and Sam was a typical boy - dodging all her hugs every chance he could. Here's a picture of her sneaking in a hug and a kiss. :)


Sam did learn some new words and things while we were there, which was so fun and wonderful, even though Dave was bummed he missed them. But Sam is doing new things every day that he's bound to miss something!

Speaking of Sam, he had his 15 month check up and shots yesterday and is doing extremely well! So far, he hasn't had a reaction to the shots at all. But then again, it has only been a little over 24 hours so we'll see... He is in the 75th% for height and head size and still only in the 20th% for weight. Which means he is growing, but not extremely fast. He is a tall skinny healthy boy! His new favorite thing to do while we are at the store is go up to every random person he sees and say "hi!" and then run away. He's definitely not shy.


That's it for now!

Ode to Old Friends

First off, I just want to say Amen to Chrissy's American Idol Blurb! Who is still voting for Jason Castro?!? Though it was definately Brooke's time to go (bless her heart), I would have rather seen him leave...and he wasn't even in the bottom two! I guess there are people I feel this way about every year, but it doesn't make it any easier. Whew...okay, I'm done venting on American Idol.

I don't really have much news to post other than I am leaving Saturday to Colorado with Sam...yay! I'm way excited, but I am sad to be leaving my husband here all alone. Oh, I'm sure he'll love it at first (who wouldn't), but he will miss his boy so much! And Sam will miss him too.

Lastly, I was going through some of our old wedding photos and I got caught reminiscing about "old times" and how life seemed so much simpler back then. It's crazy to me how we've all changed so much since then and all the new places we're at in our lives! I wanted to post a couple pictures...I love and miss you all!


I love the helmet hair, Cindi...





And lastly, a little disturbing one...

Sam and Grandpa!

Well, not much news to report here, other than Dave's dad from Colorado was here a few days this last week. Sam had so much fun with his Grandpa Meyers! We had a really good time having him here and were disappointed to see him go! Though we didn't do anything extremely exciting (our time consisted of shopping in Prescott, playing with Sam, political talk :), working...the usual), we really enjoyed visiting and spending time with him. Now I get to look forward to Sam and I's trip to Colorado in just a little over a week! Then I can see all our family! I'm really excited for Cindi's Bridal Shower and John and Micha's wedding. It should be a fun week!

I wanted to give a quick shout out to some sistas of mine...Happy birthday (yesterday) to Jennifer and happy birthday (today) to Micha! We love you guys! Oh, and I can't forget to CONGRATULATE Jillian and Steve! Dave and I are so excited for you guys! Now you finally get to experience the all encompassing horror and joy (mostly joy:) of being a parent!

Here are a few pictures...

This is Sam giving Grandpa a high five...


These are a couple of Sam and Grandpa when we went on a walk on Sunday...



And here's Sam...just looking cute...

Granola Bar

I just wanted to post a picture I think is cute. I couldn't find Sam this morning and so I went in the kitchen and found him chillin on the floor with a granola bar. He found one in the diaper bag and somehow figured out how to open it and he was sitting there eating it, piece by piece. He's so cute!

Bye Bye Zoe

Okay, so I spoke (or wrote) way too soon. To everyone who got excited about our puppy news, I'm sorry to report we actually do not have her anymore. I know it's crazy. This last 24 hours has been crazy. Zoe had been going insane in our backyard all by herself all day and just wouldn't stop howling and crying. We tried to play with her as much as we could but she just needed a lot more attention than we have been able to give. We would keep her inside if she wasn't going to grow up to be a big dog, but our house is too small for a big inside dog. We both felt so bad for her and just had a bad feeling about this whole thing all night and day because we didn't feel like we could really provide a home like she'd need, with kids and people to dote on her and play with her. It just didn't seem to be fitting and it didn't feel right.

So, just to see if we could find a family with kids that would enjoy her more than we would and give her the home she needs, Dave took her back in front of the grocery store and tried to see if any other families wanted her. We figured it has only been one day, and she wasn't completely used to us anyway, so what would one more change do? Plus, she just didn't seem happy. Anyway, if no one wanted her it would be fine and we would take her back here and do our best at it.

When Dave left for the next 20 minutes after that I just felt awful about the whole thing. She is such a sweet cute dog and I just felt so bad that we were trying to get rid of her but I also wanted her (and us for that matter) to be happy. So, of course, being the softy that I am, I was praying that whatever is supposed to happen would happen and that a great family would want her, and if not I was praying for everything to work out with us having her.

Well, not even a minute after that Dave called me and told me that a man came up to him and said that she was exactly what he has been looking for! He said he has two kids (7 and 10) who just had their black lab die and they wanted another one so badly and that Zoe looked just like their old one! So that was our answer. Dave gave her to him and that was that. I'm sure she will be so much happier with a family that will probably give her a lot more attention (and will probably keep her inside) and with kids that will actually be excited and play with her. Sam is just way too young for a dog now. He loved her but didn't quite know what to do with her. He would have rather watched Blue Clues than play with her all night.

I just feel so much better about the whole thing and I'm actually glad we took her in the first place, not only so this family could take her, but because it helped us realize we are not at all ready for a dog in our lives right now. We have been talking about getting one ever since we moved here and now we know that we wont even start thinking about it again until we have at least 2 kids, and they are old enough to play with her and love on her!
So anyway, this has been our dramatic day! Whew!

What Were We Thinking??

I know I always do this...I let everything build up and then blog about it all at once. So sorry about another lengthy post. I guess that's what happens when you're busy! Well, we finally gave in and did something I never really wanted to do...meet Zoe, the newest member of our family...Isn't she cute?


Dave called me yesterday and said there was someone in front of Basha's (the local grocery store) giving away free puppies. So we decided to take one....without any preparation or anything. This is not normal behavior for either of us. Especially with this big of a decision (well, it's big to us, anyway). So we are both having mixed feelings about it and hoping it's not going to be a nightmare.

She was very mellow when we first brought her home yesterday and slept most of the day, so I thought we got really lucky...but turns out she was just bummed out. Once she warmed up to us the lab in her took over (she is 3/4 black lab and 1/4 Australian Sheppard) and she started chewing on everything! Since she is going to be an outside dog anyway, we ended up having to put her outside.

Then there was last night...we only got 4 hours of sleep because she was CONSTANTLY whining and barking all night. We were up trying to figure out what to do - we didn't want to wake the neighbors, but if we put her in the garage she'd wake Sam, etc. etc. etc. So, we finally put her in the garage and then put fans in our room and Sam's room to drown out the noise. So that might be what we have to do for a while.

I'm going to Prescott tomorrow to get her shots and I'm going to buy her bed and everything and hopefully when she has that it will help. We are trying to train her, but it's hard because she is an outside dog and we can't be with her all the time. Maybe when dad comes on Thursday (Sam's grandpa Meyers is coming this week...yay!!!) he can give us some more pointers. He has already been such a huge help over the phone. If anyone has any suggestions AT ALL it would be greatly appreciated!!

Here are some more pictures of her...Sam was a little scared of her at first, which isn't like him. But he loves her now!




Well, other than the puppy, the only thing really going on in our lives is working on the yard. We (I should say, Dave) have been rototilling, raking, etc. to get the ground ready to lay down grass seed. It will be so nice when we have grass! We should have started this and had it down by last month, but oh well. I did get some flowers planted though! Here's a picture of our wonderful dirt yard and the extremely exciting flowers I planted...




Now onto Sam....you didn't really think I could go a whole post without reporting on him, did you? he has been so wonderful! He is at the funnest age. He does something new every single day. He is so smart and I am noticing more and more now how much attention to detail he is. One of his new favorite things to do is to organize things. He will take all of his diapers out of the basket, one by one, and then, one by one, he will put them all back, or he will either take them over to the kitchen table and put them on it. In his bath he doesn't even play much with his bath toys anymore - he takes them all out of the hanging container they are in, then he will put them all back in, one by one. But the cute thing is, he is so particular about it and organizes it so well so that every single toy first perfectly inside. It is so cute!

One thing he loves to do now, even more than ever before, is eat! He likes to put as many things in his mouth at once as he can. He stuffs his nilla wafers (or cheerios or beans or whatever he is eating at the time) in his mouth as fast as he can until he can't fit anymore and then he slowly sucks and chews until they are all gone. I think he does this so that he can play longer in between bites without having to interrupt what he is doing by taking more food. Who knows! It's so funny. He walks around looking like a chipmunk. Because of this, we are trying to not put so much of something in front of him at once. Sometimes when he does this, he even tries putting his binky in his mouth on top of that. So silly... Here are a few pictures, even though they don't really do it justice...most of the food was chewed by this point...




He is walking everywhere now and is a complete pro at it. When we are at church and I don't know where he is, I just scan the chapel for the top of a tiny blond head. He is always talking and is always mimicking us and trying to say what things are. He tries to say "Zoe" and "truck" and pretty much anything else we get him to say. He loves chattering and pointing! And singing is a new thing he discovered he likes doing. When mommy sings in "la la"s he copies me, but instead of pronouncing it "la la" he says "na na."

One of our new favorite things to do is to have Sam give us "zingling" kisses! It is the best thing! He loves giving us kisses...unless it's his bed time and he is really cranky...then he just angrily pushes our faces away....which is actually pretty darn cute too, even though it wouldn't be if he was older.

He also learned a new dance move or two. He used to only "head bang" when he danced but now he shakes it back and forth and shakes his whole body. He loves dancing so much and when he says "dancing" it sounds like he is saying "deetdeet." I know, it's not even close, but we know what it means and it's adorable. Here's a video of him laughing and "dancing" in his high chair. Okay nevermind...I tried posting a video. I don't know why it never lets me. You'll just have to take my word for it...he is cute.

We took him to Cabela's for the first time a couple weekends ago and, as we suspected, he loved it. He loved the fish and was pointing and talking to absolutely everything. We didn't have our normal camera, so I had to use the crappy one on my phone. Here he is looking at the fishies.





Okay, I will get off my Sam kick now. I can't help it...I am a happy proud mama and to those of you who think my blog is absolutely boring, I'm sorry....don't read it then. :)

Before I end, I wanted to post a picture from long ago that reminds me of a lot simpler times. I was looking through some old pictures and found it. It was on "24 night" with Steve and Jillian (she was taking the picture)...yes, I was 7 months pregnant and stuffing my face. We had so much fun. We miss you guys.... (*sniffle *sniffle)