Really?! Dang that's a long time!

Then

Now


So 11 years ago yesterday (Sept. 6th) I got hitched to Aaron, and ever since then I ask myself "What the hell was I thinking?! Getting married at such a young age?!" Yes folks, I was 18 years old. So young, so stupid, so glad I did it! I wouldn't change my life for the world. 11 years later I have three beautiful daughters, a cat, grey hairs, and a minivan (that I hate). We have endured moving to Texas, a 14 month deployment to Iraq, the insane birth of Tiffany, and all the other fun ups and downs that a marriage brings.

Today instead of going out and spending alone mushy wushy time together - we decided to hang out with the girls and do family activities. Here is our day.


We went to Chandler Mall, and treated Elle to Build-a-bear for her good behavior and for reading so many books!!
Meet Pandie

Ashlee got to pick out some stuff for her Build-a-bear. She chose a sleeping bag and pajamas. She wants to take it with her when she goes and does her sleep study (another post on this issue).



Tiffany attacking some poor kid because she wanted to play with this alone! I was rather funny.

I got a blue tooth for my cell from him (hurray!) and I got him a ratchet screwdriver, a leveler, a transformer, Eternity cologne, and some shoes. This is him modeling off his new shoes:





I love Aaron so much. He is an amazing father, husband, and friend. I only wish he would put pajamas on Tiffany at night. I ask him every night to put them on her, I even get some out along with a diaper and hand them to him before I got to work. When he doesn't, this is what happens:


Needless to say, HE got the joy of cleaning a wet baby, a wet crib, and wet sheets!! Oh and she peeded on him when he got her out! Ha ha!! Happy Anniversary honey!! I sure love you!

P.S. No new cake stand purchases today.

All the other stuff

Okay - before I am inundated with anymore phone calls and text messages - I'm not pregnant. Let me repeat that in my megaphone to the crowd out front "EHM - I AM NOT PREGNANT".

So lets move on. I guess that the baby subject would be a good one to start with. Babies. I keep having dreams that I have twin boys. It is driving Aaron nuts because I have named them and I talk about them. He hates the names. So what -he can get over it. So I told him I would post the names and see what everyone else thinks. Now remember - I'm a tad odd, so just because you wouldn't use the names, you need to focus on whether or not you can see my kids with these names.

So if I ever have twin boys they will be named:

William and Waylon (yes like the old country singers)

If I ever have a girl and boy twin they will be named:

Johnny and June (yes like the old country singers)

If I ever have twin girls they will be named:

DaisyJo and Pernie (yes like their great grandmothers on Aaron's side).

Next up - the kidneys. Mine suck. I guess the reason I'm not getting preggers is because the big guy knows my body is not ready. I keep having horrific pains and they are filled with stones. At one point they were worried that they might be failing due to a high protein count and all the stress put on them from the last pregnancy. Right now I'm just waiting for all my blood work to come back with more answers.

Surgery - Tiffany needs surgery on her intestines. Here's how it works - when babies are still in that amazing spa called the womb the last thing that develops is their digestive tract. Hers apparently didn't quite develop all the way, that's what happens when you check out of the spa early - so we are back to having horrific and I mean horrific pooping problems. It sucks. So please keep her in your prayers as we head off on this next chapter of surgeries. Yes - it's plural. More than one to fix this issue. I'll post when I know when, where, and such so that you can send me See's Chocolates.

Paint - I want to paint my laundry room orange. I think it will match my 30 year old baby blue Lady Sears dryer really nice.

And finally lunch - I love the Easy Mac. You cook it in the microwave and 3 minutes later you have the perfect amount of Mac and Cheese to feed yourself and your destructive 15 month old. Have I mentioned that she is a climber. The other two didn't climb - so this is a very difficult issue for me. ARG - she climbs on the couch and breaks the blinds, she climbs on the chairs to get on top of the table. She climbs in the dishwasher when I'm loading it. I caught her trying to climb on the toilet the other day. The child needs to stop. And she has 12 more Sundays until she can go to nursery!! (Actually only 10 if you figure in General Conference and Stake Conference - but who's counting)

I think that is it. Oh wait - I have two new things I totally love. Spacebags and the Greenbags. I'm out of control when it comes to the vacuum and an empty Spacebag. I can't stop filling them. I need to be careful not to place a child or the cat inside. Tempting sometimes.

So that's all. It's all kinda boring to be honest. Oh yeah - totally bought two more cake plates - please don't tell Aaron. I'll post pics later. I really need to get into cake stand anonymous!

Short blog - Footlose is on TV

Okay, so here is the happenings of the Dorks. Where to start, where to start?!

Well, we celebrated Ashlee's 6th birthday. Hip Hip Hurray!!! I can't believe she is already six. I swear it was just yesterday that we were living in Texas, my water had broke on a Friday afternoon at the Wal-Mart (next to the eggs) and I went home, showered, and went to the hospital. ONLY to have her two days later. It's a long story. I'll publish a book about it someday. I'm just going to post pictures for the rest of the post - I love Footlose and MUST go dance along.

Ashlee wanted spaghetti for dinner. So put on my favorite apron - thanks Jodi (FYI - I have an obsession with aprons, I have way too may. At least two for every holiday, including MLK day - yeah that's right I have an MLK apron - you are sooo jealous)

Since I live in the land of the heat, I do most of my baking and cooking in the middle of the night. Since I was making homemade spaghetti and homemade meatballs, I decided to cook late. The girls wanted to stay up and help.....

They didn't last long.

Tiffany enjoying the spaghetti the next day.

YUMMY!

My other obsession is cake stands or cake plates. I have way to many of those. I have been banned from purchasing any more. Shhhhh don't tell Aaron, but I had to get this one, I couldn't refuse. It was calling my name. "Buy me, Buy me, a cute orange Halloween cake will look cute on me." Tiffany agreed, so I bought it.

FIREWORKS - Central Christian Church had fireworks over labor day. Aaron's buddy invited us, so we went.

Enjoying the free ice cream.

I couldn't stop playing with the fireworks setting on my camera. It was way too much fun.

The end.

P.S. I'll get to the food, kidneys, baby, surgery, paint, and lunch tomorrow.

Concert

A Free Concert in Honor of Christian and Stephanie Nielson
Donations will be accepted. Wednesday, Sept. 10th, 7:00 pm Mesa High School Auditorium(Silent Auction with slideshow held in foyer) Some of those that are performing include: Jordan Bluthe, Aaron Ballard, Michelle Baer, Debbie Conn, and Linsey & Tyler Maxson.

I'm also hoping that the old member of Twice Around (Christian's old high school group) will show up and sing some songs. (yeah, I had crushes on all of them - just like everyone else!!)

I am currently uploading all the bazillion pictures I have and I promise to post tonight after work, all the fun events that are going on in my life. Heres a little preview - - - food, kidneys, baby, surgery, paint, and lunch.

I know you are now going to check every hour to see if I updated . . . mwaa haa haa haaa!

Nei Nei Day

Okay - so I'm a day late, forgive me, it's been a looooong week.

It has been amazing to see the response of auctions due to Nei Nei Day. AMAZING!!! It seems so sad that something so tragic has to happen in order for the good to come out in people. If you have no clue who Nie Nie is, well, check out her blog here. Basically the low down is this, Christian and Stephanie Neilson were seriously hurt in a plane accident. The flight instructor unfortunately died the next day. In an overwhelming response to help out this amazing family with any expenses that may occur over the next several months or years, the blogging community has come together to help out by holding a silent auction on their different blog sites.

I wish I was creative and could whip up an amazing thing to auction off, so instead, I'm going to auction off my friend's amazing talent. You can bid on a candy cake from Tiff's Candy Cakes. It will be a three layer basic candy cakes. I love these things. They are great for birthdays, anniversaries, and other events. She will customize it with which ever colors or candies you wish to have. Sounds great huh?! In the comments section leave you bid amount and an email address to contact you. Please bid in whole dollar amounts and the auction will close on Monday, September 1st at 5pm. ALL proceeds will go to the Christian and Stephanie Nielson fund.

For a list of all the other auctions check out HERE or HERE.

Thanks!!!

P.S. If anyone out bids me on Matage Framing, I'm totally going to break into your house and steal the picture right off your wall. Punk.

What the heck?!

So this is what is on Nick Junior in the wee hours of the morning...I stumbled across it once and thought I was dreaming or accidentally took some form of drugs without knowing it....I thought Teletubbies was bad, but seriously? What is the purpose of this show? They even have a disclaimer in the morning about how it is to help develop preschool aged children.

Seriously?

An Update for Rachel

Okay, so it's been a while - I know, I know. You probably think that I've been hiding away reading all the Stephanie Meyer books - NOPE - in fact, I got so bored of the second one half way through that I never picked it up again and moved forward with my life. I know hate me. I also hate The Work and The Glory series. I know, I'm already on the welcoming committee to hell. I do love any books by Rachel Ann Nunes, so don't fret, I do read.

So what's new. Ahhh - so many things:

Our friends the Rachel and Dan came over and played some fun games with us. We got to playing this game:

and Aaron couldn't stop. He loves it. My kids love it too. They can't stop saying "Neverrrr trust a pirate." It has been so long since we had hung out with them, and it was a total BLAST! Thanks guys! Have your peeps call my peeps and we should do it again!

We had a swim party at my uncle's house and for some strange reason, he decided to get chickens, a duck, and a turkey. The older girls didn't care for them, but Tiffany LOVED them.

She kept barking at them. I love this stage when they recognize that something is an animal, and they bark at it. I can't wait for it to cool down a smidge more so that I can take her to the zoo.

Okay - who swims with a duck in the pool?!

While I'm on the Tiffany subject. I was in the other room folding laundry when I kept hearing her giggle. I went to peak on her in the living room and this is what I found:

She discovered how to open the diaper wipes lid and pull them out. Joy. She also learned that the diaper wipe case is a perfect stepping stool to get up on the couch.

Such innocence.

Aaron and Elle went camping and fishing with his brothers, nephews, and father a week ago. I sent up the camera, but Aaron said, and I quote "I didn't know you wanted me to take pictures with it". What?! Does he think that he is the Survivor Man on the Discover Channel and may need it use it to create a fire or scare off bears? OYE VEY! So here is a picture of what she would have looked like fishing:

Just add read hair, a few freckles, and some missing teeth.

While they were out camping. Ashlee, Tiffany, and I decided to do a girls night out. Rachel, Emma, and Briar joined us on our night on the town. We went to Build a Bear and had a blast and broke the bank. Ouch! Ashlee was in heaven. She got the High School Musical bear and named it Sharpay. Rachel "claimed" that she was helping Briar, but deep down, I think she is got it for herself. (Admit it Rach - you know you are sleeping with it).

Totally worth it at the end of the night!

AND THE BIG NEWS - - -

SCHOOL STARTED!!! Hip Hip Hur-freaking-ray!! Ahhh, the joys of school back in session. Although Tiffany really misses them, and cried by the door for "Lee Lee" it sure is nice to only tote one child to the store when grocery shopping. They just completed their first week, and so far they love it!

Shout out to Sis. Holladay. She had her kiddos hold up fingers for which grade they were in, so I stole the idea and have done it with my kiddos every year.

That's about it in our boring lives. Total side note and change of conversation, but can I tell you how much I love Hobby Lobby. We had one in Texas, and I have been in withdrawal ever since I moved. Now that one opened on Greenfield and Baseline, I'm there weekly. I know, I should get professional help, but I would rather spend the money at Hobby Lobby.

Also, FYI, if you have blogging questions - here is a great site to help you

http://tips-for-new-bloggers.blogspot.com/

They walk you step by step and help you out.

Okay - I'm off to go work on my Young Women's reports for my meeting tomorrow. I know, you are totally jealous, but I'm sorry, you just have to get over it. Thanks to the ever so caffeinated QT drink I've had tonight, I'm going to be up and rolling for hours. Yippee!!