What is with our world?

Today when I was checking my email I looked on the homepage for Yahoo (which I hardly ever do, but Russ ALWAYS does) and saw a list of today's top searches. Here they are with my reaction following:
1. Prince Harry - really? Why?
2. Carly Simon - I think she is a musician, but I am not sure why everyone is looking her up.
3. McSkillet Burrito - Is this for real? Do they know they can't eat it by looking it up on the Internet?
4. Boyd Coddington - Who?
5. Airstream Trailers - Whatever.
6. Leap Day - this makes sense.
7. Boy George - Seriously?
8. Kwame Kilpatric - Who is this?
9. Lasagna recipes - that's funny, I am making Lasagna tonight. But I already have the recipe.
10. Hepatitis C - I hope that not everyone looking this up has Hepatitis C.
This post may reveal how little I know about what is going on in our world today, but from the looks of it I am proud of that. This list does not include the celebrities that were looked up, there is a whole other list for that. While I was reading during my plasma donation yesterday in a book called Tuesdays With Morrey, there was a paragraph that I really loved.

"people scooped up these tabloids, devoured their gossip, and on a previous trip to England, I had always done the same. But now, for some reason, I found myself thinking about Morrie whenever I read something silly or mindless. I kept picturing him there, in his house with the Japanese maple and the hard wood floors, counting his breath, squeezing out every moment with his loved ones, while I spent so many hours on things that meant absolutely nothing to me personally: movie stars, supermodels... Why did we bother with all the distractions we did? Back home the O.J. Simpson trial was in full swing, and there were people who surrendered their entire lunch hours watching it, then taping the rest so they could watch more at night. They didn't know O.J. Simpson. They didn't know anyone involved in the case. Yet they gave up days and weeks of their lives , addicted to someone else's drama.
I remembers what Morrie said during our visit: "the culture we have does not make people feel good about themselves. And you have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn't work, don't buy it."

Well ladies and gents, I am not buying it. I have already cut out pretty much all TV. I quit Oprah a long time ago. I don't read gossip magazines, or any magazines that aren't about crafts and decorating. I don't want to waist any of my precious time on things that really don't mean anything to me. But, I do love blogs because I get to keep in touch with and "talk" to people that do mean so much to me.

She works hard for the money

Russ and I are going to be doing this -

So that in a few months we can do this -
Russ is really excited about this, it has always been a dream of his to work with Shamu. William will love this so much so I am pretty excited that we will be going on this family vacation. I also hope to earn enough to get me this -
Or something like it, here's hoping.

Well, today I went to donate for the first time and it was fine. I read a book the whole time and it was not that uncomfortable but when I got up to get paid I almost passed out and had to sit on the floor and then lay on the couch. It was embarrassing but it won't stop me from returning. I really want a new camera. If it happens again though, I may have to call it quits.

Little Miss Gracie

This little girl is crawling all over the place. She is pulling herself along the floor with one arm. Some of you may call that an army crawl but this is actually crawling and when she is up on her hands and knees, that is called creeping.
This is her sleeping like an angel the other day.


This is her bending over backwards and this is what she does when you lay her down to change her diaper. This makes changing her really fun.

When I went in to get her when she woke up yesterday this is what I found. She is just too cute.


She got her booster flu shot yesterday and didn't cry! She didn't even wimper!

William

Dear William,
you are turning into such a big boy. Now that I am the primary choraster I get to see you in primary and you are so cute. You love your teacher and act so grown up. I also love watching you with your preschool buddies. This is you guys yesterday before we ate the cake that we made.

You are always trying to make everyone laugh. This is one of the awesome funny faces that you make.

And this next picture reminds me of a picture we took of your father when he combed his hair and came in the room with Aunt Connie, Lauren, and myself and Lauren said, "well hello Mr. Darcy." He you are, Mr. Darcy Jr.



You have just reached the age where you ask A LOT of questions. This gets really hard to handle, but you have gottan to the point where you will stop if I tell you it is too many questions.
You love your little sister so much and are so good to her and this makes me so happy. You take a nap in my bed so sometimes I lay down with you and you always ask me to "scratch you". That means scratch your head and play with your hair. You also ask me to scratch your back and this has to be done under your shirt. Sometimes you will rub my arm or play with my hair. I love you so much.
Mom

Pitter Patter

That is what my heart is doing right now. I am in love with a room (I know that I am crazy, but I can't help it, at least I recognize it). So - my last post was about my dream house and I talked about how it was perfect, but lacking color. Well, my awesome friend Tia found it the perfect room, and I mean perfect. I don't think I would change anything. Maybe the wall color, but I may just keep it too. Here is the link to Heather Bailey's craft room.
So hopefully in 3 to 4 years from now I will be posting pictures of my gorgeous craft room. Forget Martha Stewart's bland craft room. Thanks Tia.
p.s. I promise not all post will be about craft rooms.

Dream House

I really like the movie Practical Magic. Russ asked me why once and I thought about it. I think it is for two reasons. One - it is about sisters, I usually like those. Two - I love the house in it. Apparently it was built on a island off of Washington and torn down after filming, what?! These are the only pics I could find of it and they make it seem really dark inside, but I remember it being more light inside, at least during the day. Now, the house is way too big, I don't want a big house and it needs more color inside. But, other than that I love it. It is perfect.




Look at this garden, I love it. And there is a greenhouse, but the picture wasn't very good so I am not posting it. I'll take a house by the sea please.

Now for the inside

Is there any way to disguise a gas stove to look like a wood burning stove? I'll have to look into that.

Dinning room/craft room, I like it.This is so cool, but I need more color.

So there you have it, my dream home. Think I can pull this off in Arizona? Dream big, right?

My Funny Valentine

So I finished the last post and decided that I wanted to post (late) about my forever valentine. Why I chose one guy to my only valentine for the rest of my life, and then some.
The first thing I noticed about Russ was his laugh. Not just the sound of it, but how often it happend. He laugh at everything, sincerly. It was very infectios and still is (unless I am in a really bad mood). He has this way of putting everyone at ease. Everyone loves Russ.
Now if I am going to be honest that wasn't the first thing that I noticed, the first thing was his hair and beard. He had a mop of curly hair and sweet beard. If you know me, you know this was a definate plus.
Now, I wouldn't call it love at first site, becuase I didn't fall in love right then and there. But I was interested and that interest only grew every time I saw him and elivated very quickly. I love so many things about his. The things I listed above along with - the great father he is, how smart he is (even if it makes me look stupid), how kind he is (he never talks bad about people), how funny and easily amused he is, how honest and obedient he is, and most of all how much he loves me. He is so good to me and will always take care of me.

Valentines day

So valentines day was pretty low key here. William had a party with his preschool and that was fun. I was kicking myself for doing more fun things for my family or putting up any decorations. I don't know where the time went, it just did not make it on my list of things to do. Anyhow, Russ and I got to spend an enjoyable evening with a couple of friends while some other friends babysat (thanks Chris and Britt). It was such a nice dinner party. The food was great, the company better, and the game was fun. Here are some pictures. I wish I had got more pictures of people, but the food and table was just so pretty.




The pictures do not do it justice. The table was gorgeous. It felt so nice to be eating in such a lovely atmosphere.

Thundercats, HO!

"Sword of Omens, give me sight beyond sight."

Dear Gracie

Dear Gracie,
I can not believe how fast you are growing up. It seems so much faster than William. You are such a fun baby. You make EVERYONE smile. Right now when you get excited you kick your legs a lot, which turns into jumping when you are in your saucer, or scooting when you are on your tummy. You squeal and get so excited to see William, Dad, or I. You cry most the time when you see someone leave the room or see us putting on our jackets. You roll all over the place. Your two bottom teeth have broken through and that wasn't fun a couple of days ago, but now you are fine. You are not crazy about solid food but you eat them much better now. You love sweet potatoes so we usually feed you them with something else every other bite. You sleep well, you only wake up to eat 3 times a night between 7 p.m.-7 a.m. (your Dad thinks this is too much). The past couple of nights you have woken up at a random time and not wanted to eat and not wanting to sleep (hence me typing this a 1:30 after being up with you and not being able to go back to sleep). Hopefully this is a trend that will not last. Luckily your brother sleeps through it all. You growl a lot and it is so dang cute. I can not get enough of you sticking your tounge out when you are happy. You are my sunshine, and since we are couped up inside all day because of the snow, this means a lot to me. Even though sometimes I have thought to myself, "what were you thinking having 2 kids, you can't do 2 kids!", I am so happy I did. Nothing else I could have done could make me as happy as you and William. I love you so much.
Mom

p.s. This is the face you make when you see the camera. Esspecially if you think you can get it.

Birthday Cake

While we were in the valley my mom made me a birthday, well pie really. It is my favorite, Cherry Cheese cake. Anyway we made the mistake of getting this out and telling William it was for my birthday before Russ was home. I wanted to wait for him to blow out the candles. Well, he got stuck in traffic so William had to wait a long time and I had to hear about it a lot. He was very sweet telling me "Happy Birfday" over and over. I was even putting Gracie to sleep sitting on the floor and he came in the room came over to me, put his hand on my arm and wispered, "is it your birfday?" When I said yes he said, "Oh happy birfday Mommy."


This was totally unprompted!



What handsom boys I have.
Feels great to be 24!

Music to my ears

I used to be sort of a music buff, but in the past couple of years checking out new music has moved down on the list of things to do. Luckily I have great family. Between my sister, Connie and Russ' brother Brett and his wife Natasha giving us some mixed Cd's, I have been listening to some sweet new tunes (at least they are new to me). Here are some of my favorites:

Julian Velard

If you go here you can listen to his tunes. I really like Jimmey Dean and Steve McQueen. His voice is super sexy, I love it.

Fiest

Okay, this chick is awesome. I LOVE the song Inside and Out. The first time we listened to it, when is came to the chorus Russ says, "oooh yeah, I like this song." Then later in the song he says, "seriously this is jammin." We listen to it all the time. I am sure it would be quite amusing to be next to me at the stop light when I am listening to this. Look it up, cause I didn't get a link.

and

The Shins

Now I have some of the Shins on my ipod and like them, but I love the song Australia. Now I can only understand what they are saying 40% of the time, but Shins songs are all nonsense anyway, right? If you go here you can watch the video. But, I think you should just listen to it with your eyes closed and picture me dancing.

Why doesn't my spell check work? I can't function without spell check!

How cute is this?

I was not there to witness this, not even told about it. I just sat down to my computer to unload all the pictures off the camera and decided to watch it. I am glad I did. So...I don't know why this video isn't working. If any of you have any ideas, let me know, cause it is kind of making me mad.

Valley Trip

Russ and I have a goal to go to the temple once a month. This means that we go to the valley once a month. We just got back late last night from a four day trip. Russ didn't have school after Tuesday so we packed up and went. This is William taking a nap on my bed (that is where he naps since he and Gracie are not always napping at the same time, we don't need them waking eachother up).

This was taken the day before we left. Actually it was on my birthday. That night Russ took me out to eat at Olive Garden and then we went to see Juno. That was very nice of Russ because we never go see movies and he really wanted to see Cloverfield. It was sooo nice just to go out and be with him.

When we got to the valley we stayed with Russ parents and they watched our kido's while we went to the temple, which was unbelievably refreshing as always. Then we headed out to our parents house.
Gracie with Grandpa

Gracie with brother

Gracie with grahm cracker

Man, she is so cute!
William and his caterpillar.

There is more to this trip, but it will have to wait for another post. I am tired.

Congrats to the angry little elf

Alexis is getting married!And I am so happy for her. Not so angry anymore, just don't touch her eye.

Because sharing is caring

So someone shared with me and now I will share with you. For those who have not already heard there is an online make-up store that sells almost everything for a dollar.

That is right, everything that is pictured here is one dollar. And shipping is only 6.95 no matter how much you get. And right now if you order a certian product you can get shipping for $1.00 using the coupon code EGCLECN. Even if you don't use the coupon just order with some friends and split the shipping. That is what I did. By the way, friends, what did you think of the make-up? I like it. Okay lets be honest I love it because it is only a dollar and I think it is just as good as the stuff that I get in the grocery store. Now, if you usually use something like MAC it will probably not live up to your expectations, but otherwise I say go for it. And let me know if you are getting some becuase they just came out with this and I want to give it a try.
They have also come out with mineral make-up, but that is $5.00. I would also like to check that out. You should visit the site every once in awhile because they will have coupons like buy one get one 50% off. Could this get any cheaper? Anyway, you can find it all here.

What Happens

This is what happens when William gets a peanutbutter and Jelly sandwhich.

This is what happens when you decide that he doen't need a nap and take him to the store and then let him come home and watch a movie.

This is what happens when William and Gracie play together.


And this is what happens when I tell him how to pose.


This is what happens when William gets on our bed.


This is what happens when you let Williams hair grow out. (I LOVE IT!)

And this is what happens when it snows and the wind blows all day.

You get a ridge of snow framing your door when you open it...

and snow this deep on your "porch". I realize that this picture does not show how deep it is but the only way to realy show it would be for me to stick my leg in it and I didn't want to. It is to my knees. And, yes, I know I look silly in this picture.