....come grow old with me, the best is yet to be

Well, we made it to 13 years.

We were sealed in the Mesa, Arizona LDS Temple 13 years ago.

I met Mike at the singles branch at my church. He was fresh meat.. like all good looking guys with girls drooling over fresh meat (or when the BYU kids come home for the summer). However, I wasn't interested. Neither was he. I thought he was rude, to be honest. I'm sure he thought I was bossy. I was the Relief Society President at that time... so I was bossy.

Until one night, he asked me to dance. He brought a date to this dance, though. He waited until she was in the bathroom, and we danced to a Garth Brooks song.

A few days later, he shows up at my door, with a yellow rose. He wanted to ask me out on a date. He considers this our first date. I don't. I consider a date something planned. It wasn't planned on my part! Might have been for him though.

Here we are at Mike's work Christmas party. This was a few weeks before he proposed to me. He proposed to me a few days after Christmas. I royally messed up his plans when he proposed. He picked a bad night to propose to me. I had the worst day at work, was wearing glasses of all days... he tried to get me to leave the house while his sister Tiffany was cooking dinner. The plan was to have a candlelight dinner for two, but again, I insisted on staying and talking to Tiffany while he ran to get something to drink. I also insisted on Tiffany eating with us. See, I mess everything up! After dinner, we went into his parent's formal living room, and he went somewhere. A dozen roses came before my eyes, and all of a sudden, I.knew. He knelt down before me, with tears in his eyes, and asked me to be his wife for time and all eternity. I said yes, of course.

This was our official engagement picture, but I really liked the one below more. Sometimes one always asks "why in the world did I do it that way?" or "what in the world was I thinking?"... well, this was one of them. My reception & how I did it was another... on & on & on.

Our song was "Keeper of the Stars". Mike was literally a cowboy when I met him. It seemed perfect for us. Then, apparently I told him cowboys stink, and I hate his boots & hat, and he.threw.them.away! As if! Well, as if he would know that in 13 years, I would think cowboy boots & cowboy hats are very hot... He's finally looking for a pair of cowboy boots again.

This was how we looked the morning before we left for the temple. He didn't say ONE word to me the entire morning. I was literally a little scared.... he must've been having second thoughts.

We came out looking like this.

A year and a half later, this little kid decided to join us.
Let's call her Katie, for the sake of the story.

When Katie was three, we decided it was time for a little brother or sister to join the family. Soon after, this little kid, whom we'll call Madison, joined us.

You can't see her, but she's in my belly! In BOTH pictures!

Pictures of us together is a rarity, and I guess that's why I hardly have any. Pictures of us as a family is even rarer.... I'm always the photographer. I think we need to start working on that! We did finally have a decent picture of us taken almost 2 years ago.

Thanks for a great 13 years sweetie! Through all the ups & downs life has given us, I'm glad you've been a rock for all of it.

After looking at all these pictures of my hair short...
I am thinking it's time to cut my hair short again!

... first time I tried to be a photographer, but in film

This is the last day of showing off pictures from the old age. Like 4 years ago "old age".

I took Mike's old Canon and tried to take some pictures of Katie in black & white film.

What cracked me up is Madison dressed herself up as well in a dress, {Katie had her baptism dress on}, and after I was done with Katie, she plopped herself down as Katie did and said
"Mommy, picture of me! Picture of MEEEE Momma!"

The lil' stinker....
of course, I obliged, but she got bored of her little session and ran off to play.

... look how they've grown!!

I can't get over how many changes one can take place in an 7 year old! It just amazed me to go back and see just how little & skinny she really was!!

This was the first day of school for Katie. This was in 2005 (almost FIVE years ago!). She was starting second grade here. I think. I always take a first day of school picture of my girls.

This picture just cracked me up & tore at my heart at the same time. Maddie must've been crying, and yet was tugging at her big sister's arm like "don't LEAVE me!"

Seeing the backdrop of our old house brought back so many wonderful memories. I loved our "Thomas Kincade" cottage.... truly beautiful.

....gone fishing

{{part three of my old pictures just discovered}}

One weekend Mike & I took the girls down to Lake Jacomo. The odd name Jacomo is from Jackson (JA) County (CO) Missouri (MO). Anyways, it's a manmade lake... HUGE! We took the girls to the place where we could feed the fish.

Madison feeding the fish. Imagine all these fish saying:

"FEED ME!! no, feed ME! No, it's MY turn to be fed!"

It was enough to freak someone out.. let's just leave it at that!

and this old picture of the girls & I. Gosh, my girls were so little then.

I had one of Mike & the girls actually fishing, but I guess the age of the film got to it b/c it was ALL fuzzy...

..... the preschool gradution

Several years ago, my Mom, Grandma & I went on a cruise. We had an enjoyable time. {well, until my grandma had a heart attack ON the cruise... then it wasn't so enjoyable} Mike & my dad held down the fort with the girls while I was gone. Papa Rod came over to get Maddie & Katie from school after his work was done.... and they had dinner with Mike. I think they had a good time. Until Katie got her eye jabbed by a flying pencil. And Mike was called to take her straight to the ER. That also happened to be the night Madison was graduating from preschool.

And I WASN'T THERE! Oh, the pain of not being there for my baby's preschool graduation!!

My mother in law made Madison beautiful that night {dressed her, did her hair, put a beautiful necklace on her}..... I'm so grateful for that.

Mike & Katie got to the graduation ceremony just in time.... and someone managed to snap pictures of this beautiful night, but I haven't seen them until now.

cue: Pomp & Circumstance
{that didn't sound right... what IS that song?}

still no smile

Congratulations... after ALL your hard work of coloring, cutting, learning how to stand in line, and being nice to each other, you have officially graduated from preschool

Ahh... food. Food always makes it better.

oh, and Katie's eye? Yeah, Mike decided to have NO ONE tell us about the eye injury while we were on the cruise. Didn't want to freak me out. Everything was OK though.

...what happens when you give a 5 year old a camera?

I have several old film things that need to be developed. I found out that at Sam's I can just take them in, have them put it all on a CD (and only pay $2.24!) instead of printing them all out! So I took three of them in. I was almost afraid of what was on the film b/c I had NO clue what was on it. It was things most likely taken by the girls.

The results were hilarious. I think all parents should give their kid the camera for the day and see what they capture. This week I will be showcasing some of these old pictures.

First off today, is this series of pictures by Madison. I know it was her because she was in the car with me picking up her sister from school.

First off.... let's start off with a self portrait.
They start young with these "hold out the camera and snap"

Then a picture of her Momma in the rearview mirror while waiting outside the school.

While waiting outside the school, let's snap a picture of the most beautiful house on the block of the street we live in. We lived three houses away from it. I loved this house. So did Maddie... apparently. There were three pictures of it on this film.

Let's take a drive through Independence.

Oh, let's snap a picture at the ugliest building in Independence, shall we?

and finally... our carpet.
Nothing says "a 5 year old took this picture" like a picture of carpet.

Stay tuned for more oldie pictures we found!!

...why I blog

Lately I've been thinking "why do I blog?"

Do I blog because I like to be on the computer?
Do I blog because I like to *cough* want to be like other cool people and show off my cool skills
(or lack of cool skills?)
Do I blog because I have an opinion and I feel like it needs to be heard?

No.... I don't feel like I know enough about one particular subject in order to
designate an entire blog ... wished I did though!
and I'm not very crafty...
..... and definitely can't think of things to decorate on a dime

But I do blog to journal the lives of my children and my family.
THIS is the reason for why I blog.

Last week I was bored. It was late at night. I decided to go back to the beginning of my blog and see how far we came along in three years.

I found out that I forgot the little things. The little things that in two to three years, I've ALREADY forgotten. I remember thinking "oh, I'll never forget this moment!" But I did.

I had forgotten about the temper tantrum Madison had when she didn't want to get dressed for school, and how I made her go to school in her jammies.

I had forgotten my baby's first day of school, and who shed the tears.


I had forgotten the incredible evening the girls & I had with my mom at the circus. The hilarious clowns who followed me around, and my girls' blue teeth.

I had forgotten about Katie's "If you Where...." poem. It was hilarious. I'm so glad I wrote it in my blog to capture her thoughts. And her bad spelling.

I had forgotten about our family's experience and how we felt changing schools... twice in one year. I forgot how Madison came home telling me about her new best friend who was just like me. They didn't talk much, let's put it that way.

I had forgotten about the time when I visited Katie at school and brought her Mr Goodcents. Her friend wasn't eating anything because she didn't have a lot of money, and whatever she brought for lunch, she ate for breakfast. I was SO proud of Katie.

I had forgotten when Katie won her Most Promising Dancer trophy. Her face was all splotched up for some reason ... but she was so happy.

I had forgotten the time I took a road trip by myself with the girls to St Louis for a Highland Dance competition. How Katie blew away all the big kids and won a big trophy for Best Dancer.

Point being, I forgot a lot of the little things. I don't want to forget. I want my family to one day read my blog (and hopefully it'll be made into a book by then for them!) and know that I strived to capture all the little things that I know we would forget. Things that get lost in our memories.

I can bet you have already forgotten a lot of things too about your family,
that you didn't think you'd ever forget.

Capture the moment! Before you know it, it'll be forgotten.
My oldest is now 12... it's already gone by too fast. WAY too fast.

... finally! A new bedspread!

Over 8 years ago, we bought a new bedroom set. I bought what I thought at the time was the most beautiful bedspread in the world. Purple & sage green was THE "in" thing at the time.

I bought it a week before Madison was born.
My bedroom set was delivered while I was in the hospital.

Flash forward 8 years. Eight LONG years.

We've desperately needed a new bedspread after 8 years. It has been drawn on by a pink marker, puked on, peed on (all by kids, mind you). It was an eyesore. Mike made the bed one day, and something TORE!! Hallelujah! Time for a new bedspread!

However... his style and my style are SO different!
This is what Mike suggested when we walked around Bass Pro Shop one day.

Ummm... yeah. NO! I don't know if he actually was kidding about that or not, or if he was serious, but no way in H-E-double hockey sticks are we getting camo bedding!

I've been wanting a deep chocolate brown bedding for awhile, so I can change up my pillows (burgandy! White! Turquoise! Pink?!!) and throws as the season changes.
Funny enough, Mike agreed with me.

So, announcing my new bedspead (well, it's a quilt and it doesn't keep me very warm at night. I'm always shivering). It came with a white sheet set, but I seem to like my burgandy sheet set better anyways with this. The cherry colored pillow were a steal at Target for only $12.99 a set!

Now it's off to find some decent pictures to go OVER our bed. I want the Eiffel Tower in Sepia. Mike hates Paris. See our problem? And why I'll never make it to Paris?

...lessons learned from lying

A few weeks ago, I caught Maddie in a lie.

Ooh, she got in trouble.
Problem was, she didn't think much of it.
So I had to think of a clever way to punish her.
Taking away the TV, computer time and other things doesn't seem to faze her.

So I did what the teachers back in the 1800's did.
Make their students write on a chalkboard "I will not......" over & over & over again.
Only she had a more modern way of doing it. On paper. By hand.

Not kidding you, but you would've thought I was sentencing her to die.
Oh.. the wails! The tears! The head was on the table. The sobs!
Teardrops fell on the paper.
I told her to use her best handwriting.
She did. She lived.
She also learned a very important lesson while writing "I will not lie" over & over & over again.

I asked her when she was done
"so, what did you learn?"

sniffing away, she said
"I learned it's wrong to lie"

Afterwards, Momma gave her a snack & a glass of milk and
hugged on her for a bit while she sniffed away. A nice talk reminded Maddie
why it's wrong to lie. Momma's know everything....

...my love for things Irish or Celtic

In honor of St Patrick's Day that is coming up this week, I decided to share one of my loves of things that are Celtic. Or Irish. Whatever you'd like to call it.

Celtic Thunder.

Yep, LOVE that group.

I've been listening to them for a few years now, and I love their music. Love their voices. The choice of songs they use... Love it ALL!

Maddie has a big crush on the kid Damian McGinty. She loves his "Puppy Love" song (and his deep blue eyes as well... the girl is smitten.) OK, he is pretty darn cute, I have to agree. Move over Zac Efron! This video was probably a year ago, so his voice is now deeper (as show in the current video's on YouTube The Celtic Thunder channel).

and I especially LOVE this song.. the words, the voice, the music ::sigh::

...Oh my GOSH!! I won!!

so last week I was browsing on the internet
and I don't remember where I saw it...
on twitter?
on another blog?
i don't know... but i entered
(eta .. i now remember where i was sent the address... by my friend MANDI! thanks mandi!}

and i just got an email
stating...

that

I WON!!

Man, this just makes my day!

I won
a 2 gb iPod shuffle
$25 giftcard to iTunes
a pair of Logitech speakers
a Brookstone cuddle blanket
and a Patagonia tote bag to carry it all in

if you want a chance to enter in the remaining two contest for GoodNights Bedtime Theater
then enter HERE.

.... Mommy + Maddie = lots of fun!

Mike went out of town this past weekend... and literally broke Maddie's heart. For some reason, she just needed Daddy's attention full on this weekend, but he had to go out of town. So, I tried to make the evening special for Madison (Katie was babysitting).

I told Madison we could play games (a favorite thing to do w/ the girls). She set up chinese checkers and then cards... SPEED!

Then, she made snacks for us. Oh... did she ever make snacks for us! Homemade cookies (already made)... leftover cake from Katie's YW night.... and some kind of pub mix from Sam's. Oh, and milk. That's probably the only thing that was healthy.

I took a few snapshots of her. She hammed it up, of course.

I'm probably the only one in the world who thinks this picture is cool...

and after playing our games, we settled down on the couch and watched the last 45 minutes of "Thoroughly Modern Millie" .... one of my FAVORITE movies from when I was a kid!
I really want this movie as a DVD!!

All in all, we snuggled, we laughed... and we had a great time.
More Mommy + Madison nights to come!