10 Days and Counting....

Lots of exciting things are happening around our house right now...all leading up to the craziest week of the year.

The house is almost all ready, clothes and car seat are ready to go....and now all we need is the baby! We keep hoping she will come early so that everything won't be so crazy but she seems to be pretty comfortable right where she's at! It seems like she is taking so long to get here, according to Aubri, "man, you have been pregnant forever!" I guess that just means she is getting bigger and stronger in preparation for her big debut! We are sure excited to see her!!!!

And, on that very same due date, Spencer and Jenny start their first day of school. Spencer is going to be in first grade and Jenny is entering the big world of Kindergarten. They get to start it all at a brand new school this year and I have to admit, if I was a kid I would just be excited for the new playground...it is pretty cool! Grandma was a big help and took the kids school shopping today in Idaho Falls so after today they will be already for school, hooray!!! We are ALL very excited for school to start!!!!

We will keep you updated on everything that happens during the next few weeks and hopefully we will have some fun pictures to post soon!!!!

The End of Summer...

We have had a very fun summer...even though we haven't gone anywhere we sure have had a lot of visitors.

Mom and Len came up in July to run a half marathon. We were so proud of them, they made great time and they made it all the way through! We had lots of fun and ate great food and Len taught Derek how to make some excellent steaks...It really pays to have a chef in the family!

DJ and stepbrother Nick came up too. It was fun to see them and I think that the kids just about drove them nuts! We made yummy s'mores with Reeses on them(totally Aubri's idea) and they were excellent!

Aubri, Shawn and their kids have been up here a lot. The kids had lots of fun playing in the swimming pool, messing up the house, fighting, and thinking Aubri kidnapped us by taking us on a ride "out of town.." Jenny was pretty freaked out! But out of all of that I think the kids are getting used to each other and now they play together pretty great!!! Spencer and Jenny are looking forward to them coming up again soon, particularly because they are holding their tooth brushes for ransom!

Cari, Bekka and mom came up for a wedding. It was lots of fun to see them too. Bekka is getting so big and she is such a cute girl, just like her mom. And also, just like her mom, she has quite a temper ;) It's great to see everyone have kids like them!

We had lots of fun at the fair. Derek was a great daddy and took the kids on all the rides that they wanted so finally got their full share of the rides this year. The kids got their cotton candy and made it last for 2 days so that they could savor it. I got my caramel apple covered in peanuts so I was pretty happy too! And Derek ended the night with a big Mtn Dew!

Where are you Spring?

So I think that spring is bypassing us this year. We woke up this morning to the sound of snow plows and to everything covered in white...the killer here is that it is April! Oh well, I guess that it will put more water in the lake for boating this year (crossing my fingers here!!!!)

We had a great Easter. It was so nice that it fell on conference. Every year Derek does his annual egg hunt. We had to be a little bit more careful this year because last year we lost a real egg in the house somewhere. Anyway, so we were sleeping so soundly and all the sudden we heard Jenny shouting, "mom, I found an egg." As she was coming up to our room she said "oh, I found another one!" She was so excited that she was jumping up and down and squealing. I love the excitement of kids on holidays! And the good news was that the kids really didn't get a sugar high...so it was a very pleasant day!

42" of Pure Bliss!!!

So Derek bought me a very awesomely huge present....i have to explain this part first though. This year when we got our tax return we had all of these big plans to save the money, but like every year this didn't happen. After all, we did work very hard for this money, right? New tires for the car, a new alternator for the truck, and catching up on a few bills. Those were all things that were needed and I was very proud of us for being able to put it toward all that important stuff. So now, on to the story....

Derek's friend came up to me a couple of weeks ago and asked if he could go on another weekend fishing trip to Flaming Gorge. Seriously, I thought, didn't he just go on one. This fishing thing is crazy, I mean seriously. Anyway so I think that Derek has been trying to work out a plot to butter me up for this one because he really wants to go. So last weekend he said that he was going to take me to Idaho Falls and let me just buy stuff. How cool is that, he knew that I couldn't resist. And while it was a super great idea, what he didn't know is that I had other plans!!!

So on to my evil scheme! We have been staring at this 20" tv for six and half years. You have to squint to see the people on it. I noticed that Radio Shack was having a sale on 32" tv's this past weekend so I was like, that is super cool. So I asked Derek if we could go and just check it out. Well it was a really nice tv and the picture was so much bigger, but what we didn't realize is that Radio Shack is out to get us. Right next to the 32" there was this mother of a 42" that was just plain awesome. Well that just killed our enthusiasm for the tv that was "on sale." That tv just looked so sad next to the huge awesome one. So we left and drove around town and then we were like, well this is stupid, why sit here and be sad about it. So we gave into the temptation, went back, and bought the huge tv. And as an added bonus, we got a blu-ray player on sale too. (Those salesman are tricky). So we went to put this awesome tv in the car and the box was so huge that we couldn't fit it all the way inside the trunk. So Derek was like I am going to go home and get my truck and I was like no, because seriously this is like too good to be true. So we drove home at like 20 mph so the box wouldn't fall out and kill our awesome toy. So we finally got home (luckily it was like 2 miles or I would have really had a heart attack) and we set it up. And man, that picture is huge. We had to sit back all the way on the couch and we still got dizzy. But it is so freakin' cool!!! We ended up watching the TV like all day long. So much for our IF plans....but we sure enjoyed it!!!

And I have to say that my favorite part so far was watching Captain Jack. Seriously I was just expecting Johnny Depp to walk right out of my tv. If anyone wants to relive that experience with me you are more than welcome to come over ;)

So now the ending to this long winded story... it turned out very well for Derek. I told him that he could go fishing whenever he wanted and he was so excited. His evil plot worked, but now he has a hard time leaving the house ;) And this is how our tax return money dwindled to zero! Maybe next year....

A Hint for Derek.......

Well, the purpose of this post is to remind Derek of something, so here it goes...

Honey-

As you know my favorite holiday is Valentine's day and I thought that I would get a jump on it and remind you EXTRA early! Last year your bright romantic idea was ice fishing, well this year, now you have three weeks to come up with something else. I figure if I give you three weeks in advance we can plan that in to your busy fishing schedule ;) You know that I love you and your ice fishing hut, but that just won't cut it this year.

I know that you are thinking, well that was kind of rude and what the heck should I do, so I figure I will give you some little hints! First of all, I am only rude because I love you :) Second of all, I do work for a jewelry store and my list is a mile long. But besides that, I just want a relaxing romantic evening with just YOU! You are an excellent cook, and despite your really corny lines, you are great company! I can't imagine anything better than that (of course a box of chocolates would be an excellent addition)......so I hope that I helped you out a bit!

I hope that you know that you are the absolute BEST husband in the whole wide world and that I do love you very much, despite your addiction :) Thanks for being you!

Love,

ME XXXOOO

It's Almost Christmas!!!

Everything is very exciting in our house right now!!!!

The kids are bouncing off the walls and are so excited for Santa to come. They are finally old enough to realize what all the excitement is for!!!! Every day Jenny asks me if it is Christmas and I have to tell her how many days are left. Today I realized that you can almost count the days on your fingers. It has come so fast this year! Derek seems to think that last year was our last year for sleeping in, but we will see how it goes. I still have hope :)

Me and Derek have finally made all of the visits to Santa aka online shopping and are ready to go! We feel very lucky that we were able to get it done so fast! Usually we are shopping the day before Christmas! Now hopefully the airports will not close down with all of these huge storms :)

We have decorated the Christmas tree and have made cookies and cakes. We are going to give fudge making and gingerbread houses a try this weekend. We will see how it turns out!!!

But most importantly, we have a secret mission this Christmas. I am so excited and I hope that the kids will really see what the true meaning of Christmas is. Not only is Christmas about fun with presents and Santa, it is also a time for giving and for spreading love to others. We are so thankful for our Savior and for all that He did for us. He is such a wonderful example to follow. There are so many people in need this Christmas and every little bit that you can do helps them so much. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and that you challenge yourself to see what you can do to follow the example of our Savior.

We love you all! Merry Christmas!!!

My Favorite Show!!!

So I just have to say that I REALLY look forward to Wednesday nights because that is when my favorite new show, Glee, comes on. Seriously I would have loved to be in a glee club but given that we did live in Star Valley and that I can't sing, it wasn't really possible. It is so fun to watch such a high energy show and after it is over I just want to watch it again! I have even gotten Derek hooked on it, which is amazing, because he doesn't even like shows like that. He is all CSI and stuff. So everyone who hasn't watched it, I seriously recommend it. My favorite part tonight was the girl who had a huge crush on her teacher and sang him love songs. Too Funny. I don't know why they do hire hot teachers because it does make it kind of distracting to learn. I know that I had a crush on a couple of teachers and I didn't get much done :) Yeah, so I can't believe I just admitted that. Anyway, so seriously Wednesday nights at 8 on Fox. Try it, I think you will like it!!!

Halloween 2009!!!!

So we had a lot of fun this year for Halloween!!! On Monday night for FHE we carved our pumpkins. The kids were so excited! They were running up and down the aisles at the store and showing everyone the pumpkins that we had in the cart! They have never really gotten into Halloween before until this year so every bit of it was so fun for them!

They both got to pick which faces they wanted on their pumpkins...can you guess which one is for which kid?

So finally the big night arrived...they were so excited!

Derek took them out trick-or-treating. They had so much fun with daddy! They came home and were all smiles and they had a TON of candy!

Then we ate our spooky dinner in our new orange kitchen...the color really fit in well with the theme by the way...it kind of made it extra spooky! We had bloody eyeballs, witches brooms, jack-o-lantern pizza, and a creepy crawly dessert. Jenny didn't want to eat the eyeballs until she realized that they were actually meatballs and I think that she was kind of grossed out!

And the best part about Halloween....the kids conked right out at bed time!!! You gotta love trick-or-treating!!!!

Sweet!!!

So we sold all of the stuff that we wanted to! Thanks to all those who bought it!!!! We are very excited to move into our new house and it is agonizing just knowing that it is sitting there with out us in it!!! I will post some pictures when we take some :)

Stuff We Don't Need!!!

So we are moving in a few weeks and there are some things that we can't take with us. So, here they are...

*Treadclimber/ Treadmill (it does both) $150

*Chest Freezer (can be used outside, some of the newer ones can't) $200

*Year-old front load washer, and regular Amana Dryer $800 for both or
$550 for washer/ $250 for dryer (we paid over $1200 for them all together)

The prices can be negotiable so please let us know!!!

The World's Dumbest Mouse Part 2!!!!

So we finally caught the blasted mouse. Hooray!!!

Last night after we set all the traps we stayed up so we could see if we could catch him. Derek tied fishing line on to the traps and stuck them down in the mouse's favorite hangout spots. About 10:30, his official hyper time, we heard him creeping toward the vent. We heard him jump...silence...more silence...and then we heard him jump again. We were really frustrated now because it really did seem like we had the same mouse that was on the Mouse Hunt movie. So finally he did his little running leap again and he landed on the top of the vent. We were startled and pushed him back down the vent...hello...how hard was it for us to lift the vent up and throw it outside. So anyway, this next time we were ready . We had a box on standby and peanut butter all over the vent. We were so excited because we knew we had really out smarted him this time.

Three hours later... we still had not even heard the mouse. So all pissed off, we went to bed hoping that the little bugger would be caught when we woke up. Well, he wasn't and he visited me in the bathroom again...I think that he had a bathroom fetish. So, when Derek got home tonight we were really bound a determined for sure to catch the thing so we really pulled out all the stops. We took out the vents, surrounded it with sticky traps loaded with chocolate chips and peanut butter. For kicks, we blasted the heat too. Well, we waited and waited, and no mouse showed up. All we got for that one was sweating to death.

So then we started a second vent the same way. Well, I went to get a movie and when I came back, Derek was still watching the traps. I went to check on the one in the bathroom and ta daaa instead of the two traps that were there, there was only one. The little terd had taken one down into the vent with him!!!! Well Derek really was not happy then, so he thundered down stairs to the basement and started wiggling all of the heat pipe stuff until he heard him. When he found him, he got out his tools and started to take the piping down. He got it off, shook it out and ta daaaa again...no mouse or trap. Well this really did not go over well and I had to take the kids upstairs :) Let's just say this mouse was definitely going to be sorry when Derek got to him :) So we took more pipe off, and finally in the one connecting directly to the heater, shake shake shake and poof....out popped the mouse and the trap. Seeing Derek let out a little squeak and jump back really made my night!!! So we hurried and put him in an old bucket and put the lid on, and tomorrow...the little guy is going for his last ride in a garbage truck. So we got him hooray!!!! No more late night watching and now we can run the heat and not freeze!!!!!!!!!!

Tonight our house is much more peaceful :)

The World's Dumbest Mouse!!!

So on Sunday night me and Derek were enjoying our Sunday night ritual, watching the Food Network and snacking, and we heard this weird ruffling noise. The kids were both asleep and all of the windows were shut, so we couldn't figure out what the noise was. We turned off the T.V. and sat down on the floor and listened. Derek went in the hall and I was in the living room. All of the sudden there was this loud scratching noise and thud in the heat vent. I yelled at Derek to come in the room and then the noise wouldn't stop. So I all run into the bathroom because being startled makes me have to pee, and all of the sudden Derek screamed like a girl and I heard many choice cuss words! He was totally freaking out. I was scared to go out of the bathroom becuase I thought that he had let out what ever was in the vent. So I yelled at him and he wouldn't answer, he was still freaking out, so I went out really slowly to make sure he wasn't being attacked or anything. He was standing back by the couch and looking scared to death. So apparently Derek had leaned over the heat vent, with his ear right to the vent, and the noise kept getting closer and closer to his ear until he thought it had jumped out at him. I have never seen him so terrified! So of course, I busted up laughing. He went outside to get his flashlight and he came back to look in the vent, I was still laughing by the way. So he looked in the vent and saw this mouse, it's no bigger than a quarter. So the vents are pretty steep and he would try to take a running leap at the top and then he would fall back down.

Then my weird anxiety attacks started kicking in, so I ran around shutting all of the vents and put books on them so that the stupid thing wouldn't get out. Derek kept making fun of me and laughing at me now, but I kept imagining that stupid mouse on Mouse Hunt that totally killed that house and I didn't want any of that. And then, to top it off, Derek started talking to the stupid mouse and telling me that he was so cute. I told him that he'd better stop making friends with the mouse and better start making plans to get rid of it. So with firm resolve, we decided to buy as many traps as we could the next day.

So this morning, I got up to get ready for work and the stupid thing came up to the bathroom vent to greet me. I greated him with a scream and words that Jenny didn't hear, thankfully, becuase she was asleep. But I was still feeling confident because the vent was shut and i'm thinking geeze this mouse is so stupid thinking that he can jump at this thing and it will open. Well no sooner than I thought it, the mouse took another running leap and landed on the vent thing and opened it up so now he was looking at me inside of the blower thing. I screamed and swore and threw water down the vent and then I tried to open it to let the stupid thing back down. Well I shut the vent so he was still staring at me and I really freaked out. I finally managed to get the stupid thing back down the vent and I almost squished him, but not quite. Grrrrr.....Then I realized I should have just torn open the screen and thrown the vent out the window.

So then I found the heaviest books that I could and put them on the vent, and the stupid thing was still jumping up. So I hurried up out of the bathroom and stuffed a towel under the door and shut it. I wrote a caution note on the door for Derek and left the house. Well, Derek comes home and loves the warning sign. He thought I was crazy. He bought some sticky traps and he put them in the vents and we waited for the mouse to wake up for his nightly romp so now we can hear the stupid thing running back and forth through all of the vents. He is still jumping and not landing in the sticky stuff but we will get him. But mark my words, this mouse is going down....

Our Wild Vacation!!!

So I have realized that I am not really great about this whole blogging thing. I forget that we have one! So sorry about that...but here's another post finally!!! Yay!!!

So last week Derek came to me and said that his boss had given him a few days off this week because he hadn't had any for a long time. So we decided to take the kids on a camping trip. They had been camping over night before, but never for two and a half days. So we were all excited and packed up the truck aka "The Beast," hooked on the boat, and off we were to the wonderful land of Kemmerer.

The first of the ride was great...we made it to Kemmerer in good time and only went through one tank of gas(mind you that we had only went about 100 miles) and we stopped at a gas station for worms. When we got out of the gas station, we noticed that there was a heck of a mess of black liquid underneath it. So Derek, all the mighty believer in that he can fix anthing, looked it over and decided that the brakes were leaking and were going to go out. So after the diagnosis, he hops back in the truck and starts heading out to go to the campground, meanwhile, I am freaking out in the seat next to him, especially when he starts pointing out the squishy brakes. Then to make things even better, the truck started chugging everytime he went to slow down. I can just imagine the people driving down the highway on the other side laughing at this huge old ugly truck that was squirting out oil going down the highway. So, about an hour later, and on his last nerve, we found the campground.

So after parking the Beast and educating it and the kids on profanities, we set up camp. Despite the rough ride up there, it was a beautiful spot. Amid all the deserty landscape and sage brush, there was this awesomely blue lake. We even lucked out and found a camping spot by a light post (Spencer is really afraid of the dark, so this was a big plus) and right across from a bathroom that had lights and running water...yay!!!! We did the dinner thing and then we went to bed. Since it was about 36 degrees that night, we finally figured out how to get the kids warmed up by about 3 am and then we went to sleep. (Oh yeah, and after Derek tinkered around with the Beast for a few more minutes).

The next morning we hauled the boat down to the dock and were praying that the Beast would stop when Derek backed the boat into the water! It did! So we took off for our days adventure. We rigged up the fishing poles and lathered on the sunscreen and started to relax. We found out that Spencer can cast out his pole farther than me now (he has a very proud daddy by the way) and that all the little lake bugs are attracted to sunscreen. So after a day fighting off bugs, catching seaweed and having fun(we really did have fun) we headed back to camp. It was then that we realized that the Beast was still leaving his mark everywhere we went. Nice big black oil stains. It was then too that we started joking about trading him in for the cash for clunkers sale and wondering if the car dealerships in Kemmerer were doing it, if we could even make it to Kemmerer. I guess that scared the Beast enough becuase as soon as we got back to camp, he showed Derek where his leak was. Some oil line thingy by the engine had craked and oil was spewing out of the line. So good old Mr. Fix himeself, with no tools or parts but the ones he had on him, fixed the leak and stopped the oil. I was so proud of him! I always thought he was weird because he could jimmy rig just about anything to fix it, and this time it really paid off. He even fixed a small gas leak with weather stripping glue stuff. So now I can't really joke about the mr. fix it thing because he is my Mr. wonderful!!!!!!! I think he is pretty dang proud of himself too!!!!

That night, we had a wonderful dinner, had some neighbors join us at the camp ground, and we slept great too. The next morning we went to the lake again and hung out in the sun. That night, we headed home. On the way home, the Beast purred like a kitten and only smoked for a minute or too!

So all in all, we had a lot of fun and we still didn't catch any fish, but we caught a lot of good memories from the trip! :) (awwwwwwwwwwww)! One of our favorite memories was watching the other boat guys go up to their trucks where the oil stains were from our truck, the day before, and walk all around their trucks and look underneath it to make sure it wasn't from them. I told you the Beast sure knows how to leave his mark. We were actually pretty proud of him!!!

We also learned a few lessons #1 Do not give up on a smoking old truck (they really do react to a threat) #2 SPF 50 suscreen might not always be SPF 50 #3 fixing a simple gas leak on a truck can cut the gas you use in half and save you money and #4 every trip has it's up and downs but at least we are together as a family having fun!!!!!

My Super Awsome Husband!

Just so all of you know, Derek, the biggest fishing nut in the universe has finally decided to include me in his adventures. I finally earned the right to have my very own fishing pole. And not just any fishing pole, a brand-new-homemade fishing pole courtesy of my awesome husband. It's pretty cool. He has quite the artistic gift. He was so proud of it that he had to sleep with it the first night that he got it all made. I wouldn't let him put it in the bed so he put it right next the bed and he just layed there looking at it. He calls it his "other girlfriend" so i'm thinking of naming it Jezebell.

Anyway, I think that he is just trying to butter me and make fishing look awsome and fun, but secretly, I really like the pole and fishing, just don't let him know! I will put some pictures of my super awesome rod on as soon as I take some! I love you honey!

ICE FISHING FOR VALENTINES!!! REVAMPED

Ok, so I bet alot of you are wondering what exactly I did for my sweetheart for valentines. She had to work so we did not have the ability of going out of town. So while she was at work I went grocery shopping. Oh the fun times you can have when you are chasing the kids around the store. After getting everything on the list it was my time to get my list out of the way. First was the rib eye steak yes expensive but I knew how much Kirstin likes steak so this was the way I bought flowers for her. Now it did not last as long as flowers but it tasted sooo much better. Kirstin let me get the shrimp and cocktail sauce too I was in heaven and the day was not over yet.

We got stuffed animals for the kids. It was a good dinner. We left the cold outside and kept the fire going. I am sad to say that no fish were harmed during this valentines day. Tomarrow is a different story Kirstin is home so I can go fishing. Watch out 4 lbs rainbow here I come.

ICE FISHING FOR VALENTINES

Well I will catch you all up on what is going on in our life. Last weekend Kirstin went to SLC with her mom, she had a good time. I went sleding with Adam Erica and Marcello. We had a good time as long as the sled was running. When it wasn't it was very frustrating especially when you are 20 miles away from the vehicle. Adam did really good at not trying to kill the sled there on the spot. We got back and we saw some really neat scenery. I was able to get the sled running better I just have one more thing to do. Then watch out mtn's here I come.

HOLY CRAP VALENTINES IS COMING. What should I do well I could do flowers, but then again that is just predictable. Although Kirstin does not get flowers very often. She would like me to buy them more. I just think that it is a waste of time to spend your money on something that is going to die in a couple of days. I guess it only comes once a year. I KNOW WHAT TO DO, TAKE HER ICE FISHING. Just me and her out there in the cold oh so romantic.

Wait I can feel the glair from all of you. Anyway if any of you romantics have an idea write me a comment.

Merry Christmas.

Ok, we took lots of pics but I picked some of the best ones just to save time. It gets the point accross. The kids were wonderfull. They let us sleep in until 9:30 it was great. We have learned that the kids are a whole lot better if we let them sleep. We did the whole 6:00 thing before it ended up in cranky kids. Next year will be different because I think this year they relized who Santa is. With everything being said here are the pics.

The kids are tucked in to there bed. Ahhh so quiet

There new pajama's. Yes they are characters.

Spencer was speachless. The new bike from Santa

Its George Jennifer was happy.

Need I say anything.

The Pirate ship. Oh the adventure. He shot people with the cannon all day long.

The smile says it all. He wanted a train

This was in the box for Kirstins present to throw her off. Did I say she wrapped it herself. I did not do that to her if you are thinking.

She got over the pins very easily after seeing this.

Yes it was chaos but it was worth it. I was sporting the mt dew pants.

My gifts for Kirstin. Merry Christmas

So we still have not gotten our christmas gifts yet, but believe me Kirstin has this whole gift thing figured out. She has a list on the computer of Spencer and Jenny's gifts that she wants to give them. Oh did I mention that the list is in christmas colors red and green. She likes to get into the christmas season.

So this is my christmas list for Kirstin all thoughts from me.

silver fishing pole made by yours truely

good snow pants for ice fishing with yours truely

parts for the other snowmobile to go with yours truely

a swim suite to go swimming in granite after snowmobiling to it with yours truely

oh and don't forget the fishing jigs and tackle box.

Now before all of you start telling me that I am a shovenistic pig and a selfish husband who has no morals. I am doing this as a joke for Kirstin. She knows that her gift or gifts will be well thought out. The only question I have is should I get her something for the kitchen or not?

Oh Hi hun you are reading this huh just remember I love you.

Welcome to my life. And yes I did sleep in my own bed after this blog. OH and Kirstin was in it too. Sorry Jack mabe another time.

Too all of you who do not know Jack is our huge puppy.

He is much bigger than this but this was so cute I had to put it in. He is almost 100lbs now.

Directions

Ok Kirstin is looking over my shoulder right now because she is scared everytime I write on this blog. Anyway I emailed a few of you to let you know of the blog. So thank you for getting on and seeing our sanity at work. I put on a clip from Jib Jab and if you want to here what he is saying just go to the top of the playlist and click on the pause button for the music. We have the music start when you get in just to add a little bit of flare to the site. Feel free to leave a comment and we will update this as much as we can as the kids will allow anyway.