My little walker

My little baby is a walker now. Here are some clips of her when she was learning to walk---I just figured out how to put them on the computer... It seems like such a long time ago....

Again--she pretty much walks now ( just shaky, not runnning yet), so these clips don't do justice. I just think it is fun to see the beginning stages.......

My Birthday

As all my bdays--this one was a success....We went to St. George, saw my brothers, played in the pool, went out to eat, and saw my favorite LES MIS at the Tuacon.



It wasn't professional, but I would call it semiprofessional. John Val John---when he sang was very very impressive. He tended to speak when he should sing and that about drove me insane. Overall---Javier was my favorite. I love it...Loved the outdoor element to it. They used the outdoors to help them. During fight scence they shot a cannon at us. Fireworks went off. I LOVE IT. I LOVED MY BDAY. Thanks everyone who made it possible....



Videos from Andy's bday---

Rear Ended---FIRST AND LAST????

Last Tuesday I sat at a red light waiting for the opportunity to turn right. All of a sudden I hear a big BANG and am flinging forward a bit. I look back and realize that I have been rear ended.

I look even further back to see if the person who hit me must have been charged into because there is absolutely no way anyone would hit a stopped car..but no.

I pull over and try to breathe, not knowing how to handle what is about to come. I have never been in an accident of any kind, even as a passenger...so I was a little on the scared side. I was thanking heaven above that ANDREA was not in the car with me ( as I really was feeling the whip lash).

The Man got out of his car, claimed complete responsiblity ( I'll say) and was actually reallly decent. We called the cops, filled out a report and surveryed the damage. I really think I held it together pretty well considering. I didn't break down until after the fact.

The trunk of the car is just popped up and won't go down, but the damage waws estimated at about 2000 dollars. Crazy. Thank heavens I won't be paying for it. I was so mad that this came on bday week when we were planning to make a trip to st. george. We actually have a nice rental car and it is all working out pretty good.

Overall, I am still a little razzled and my neck is pretty sore and it is hard to turn...but I am grateful it wasn't worse. I hope this is the first and last accident of my life.

My first Birthday Gift---early and all

Ok, so you all have very little time to get me the perfect gift for my bday...Actually, it is too late since my hubby already got me the perfect gift.

Along with the summer Olympics---For some reason Les Miserables has always been a part of my bday throughout the years. It is my number one favorite musical, and the first one I saw at the age of ten.

This year my hubby is taking me to Tuacon theatre in St. George to watch Les Mis. Mckay and his wife live there and they will be watching Andy so we can enjoy ourselves. It might be a bit before I post again because we will be gone...It is going to be so much fun!!!!

To Dad, Sara and WEE WIN--Thanks for bdays past of the Les Mis experience...So excited to finally go on that perfect Les Mis date!!

2008 Olympics

I love the Olympics!!! I love what they stand for...I love the athleticism... I love the honor in representing ones country...I love how a nation comes together and stands proud to honor those athletes and their country.

I think my love for them has to do with my family. We always watched the Olympics with a sort of pride for team USA. Growing up we weren't allowed to watch any tv or movies on sunday ( even the super bowl, we would record and watch it later)...but for some reason we were allowed to watch the Olympics.


When my fam watches we don't just watch...we cheer...and scream and go crazy. When USA wins, there is no watching...THERE IS STANDING AND SINGING THE ANTHEM WITH THEM WITH YOUR HAND OVER YOUR HEART.

There is somthing truly incredible about being a part of this. In fact, I almost stayed home from my mission because the Olympics were going on in my home town. I just couldn't beleive I would be missing that one chance ( if I stayed I would also be missing that one chance). No matter where you are in the world...you can watch the olympics and be brought together with people who are far away from you.,.


My Own Very Special Olympic Memory

Four years ago--I lived in a cramped apt with 5 other girls. We had no tv and I was devasted beyound belief that I could not watch the Olympics and be a part of it. I was also feeling old (all my roomies were 18 and I was turning 25 that year) and not wanting any bday celebration. To my complete surprise...my sweetheart and sister planned an OLYMPIC surprise party for me ( since everyone knew of my olympic obsessions).
The put a gold medal that said happy bday on me, had the olympic song playing and my sweetie who was just my friend at the time lent us his TV for the entire duration of the Olympics. It was the only channel on for 2 weeks.


So, for the next two weeks,I will be displaying different flag backgrounds and different ways of showing my pride for my country. GO USA!!

American Idol Auditions.....

THE REAL STORY OF THE IDOL

This is the entire side of center roped off--it was full of people!!


American Idol auditions is nothing like how they are on tv...in fact, I think the reason you don't know how they really are is because they actually want people to come and audition...So here is how the story goes.......




We show up at American Idol auditions at 6 in the morning to get bracelets (you have to show 2 forms of ID). Steve's sister Betsy agrees to watch Andy for us (downtown cause she is still breastfeeding) so that we can do this.


This girl sat by us and we thought she was pretty cute and sweet, but she didn't make it.



Everyone is divided up into 11 different sections between the 14,000 of us (LITERALLY). FYI---Randy, Paula, and Simon only ever audition about 70 or so in each city and never on the original day ( I already knew this, but this is for those of you who think it is like on tv...WRONG)




WE all sat around the arena and sang "Aint No Mountain High Enough". Kind of cool actually. They direct you when to sing together, when to clap when to stand...It was a little silly cause of course, we wouldn't do that on our own. All for the camera right? There are about 12 different tables at the bottom where they call eveveryone down from their section to sing...So, everyone is singing in front of everyone and practicing at the same time.

There are about 2 judges to a table...They tell you to prepare 3 songs, but everyone sings for just about 10 seconds. Since we were in section 8, we had a long time to wait and it was pretty tricky since my little baby needed to be taken care of and couldn't even be there.

We had arranged with our manager (who didn't even call us until 8 that morning SARA--(sara being my sis who wanted to pretend she was a part of the whole thing...more fun that way you know)) to sing together. We sang Faith.."Illusions never change...into something real" . We thought we would stand out more if we sang a duet instead of a solo...You know, appeal to the crazy side of things...

We sang for a nice lady who smiled at us, said "you guys are great." Then sheppard us forward to another judge. At that point WE THOUGHT WE MADE IT. Eveyrone else was either being told no or that they were moving on. So--we are so excited almost freaking out. They make us sing to another judge, a guy this time and he smiled as well. He said "you guys are great, but not what we are looking for right now."

--We kind of got the feeling that they only let a certain number of "couples" a certain number of "crazies" and a certain number of "actual real solo talent" through. Kind of like they filled their quote for Salt Lake for couples.

Anywho---we heard only about 70 out of 14,000 actually made it to the next round..

In sum
I am glad we did it...Glad to say I was part of it.
So many people so much craziness!! Would I do it again? Absolutetly---just to be my sister's dream crusher.!! We didn't really plan on making it, I mean what would I do with my baby if I did and Steve is going to medical school. It was more to be a part of it than anything
I think we met some awesome people who made it through and a few crazies...So we can't wait to cheer for them on TV...FUN FUN FUN AND CRAZY CRAZY CRAZY!!!

Breaking Dawn Party

There is so much to catch up on and so much to say....The final twilight book came out....

Like many things in my life---I like to go ALL out. We decided to attend the twilight party ( having Andy be babysat of course)

We wanted to go all out and dress up....But how do you dress up as vampires who just want to blend in???So we decided to dress up as vampires who go outside and sparkle...This pictures do not do it justice, it looks more like we have oily skin...but beleive me---we looked awesome.

To accent our pale features we wore black and darkened our tired eyes. We had so manyh sparkles...It itched so bad...I really wish the pics turned out with showing the sparkles. I am still cleaning them up....DAYS LATER>>>YIKES

There were several people who asked to take pics with us...I think people didn't know quite how to dress up. This one girl was dressed in a prom dress with a broken ankle ( clever).

I was not thrilled about waiting in line after we preordered and everything. Little dissapointed by the lack of enthusiasm. Needless to say...we stood out since no one in the thousands of people were really dressed up. We still had so much fun...

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER

This is going to make me way less POPULAR--but I was dissapointed. I lost many a sleep over reading this last book ( can't read until my baby goes to bed at night--first night I was reading until four am and up at 7).

Bella had a crappy attidude half of the time. There were about 6 people in our house reading their books all at the same time ( we had a rule of no talking to each other--crazy). Bella had this huge need for Jacob which almost made me put the book down and forget about it ( even before she was prego). Anywho...glad I read it...I was dissapointed on so many levels, but still love the book....I am glad she became a vampire..just still a little disspointed with Bellas attitude. She does not deserve Edward. He is too good for her and gives her whatever she wants. I, of course, cried with all the baby crap. Made me think of my perfect angel and the bonds of momma and daughter...You can't get it until it happens. I am ready to re-read it slower now for stuff I missed....Maybe I will like it more this time...

My ode to Scott

Scott Scott...you think you are hot...maybe, maybe not.
Is it all in your head? Didn't momma ever get you fed?
Scott Scott ...you doodoo pot. Please please don't be what you not.
You came into town, with never a frown.
You are wild and free with all the love for your family.
You stay in one place as if you are in a race
One day you will stay and always we will play
But until then..This is THE END

Scott Dear sweet Scott

With all the crazy things I have yet to blog about...this one is the most important on my list. Dear sweet brother in law Scott ( don't be fooled by the picture, he might not be that angelic) decided to come into town. This time, he stayed for more than a mere minute. This time he will be with us for a few days. We are so happy for this as Scott litterally walked in the house unannounced last time, got us all excited and then just left (was he trying to tell us something, or just trying to keep us wanting more?) We shall see. I will tell all as the week goes on...but here's is to the adventures we will face and here's to you SCOTT!!!

Chubby---me?

Where to start....I just need to vent and thought this might be an ok venue to do so. I am not looking for pity or for 'you are such a great person" comments...Just need to vent.

The other day my neice who had neve met me called me "Chubby". I have never really cared about what others thought of me and have pretty much always had a good self image. I was also never the skinnny binny one--never. Not in highschool. I was never the big girl either. I was happy with who I was and what I was doing and didn't care to be the skinny one.

Then, I grow up, get married--and HAVE A BABY. I am going to be honest. I gained 60 pounds durning my pregnancy. If you have read my blog before, you know how hard the pregnancy was on my body. It had never been the same since. When my old boss got down to her pre baby size in just a few months I asked her her secret. She said " Nothing...I don't have time to work out."

Ok, stab number one. Backtrack again ----I have always had a pet peeve with the skinnies. When an obviously skinny girl complains about being fat ( and I am obviously not smaller than her), I say "so what does that make me. A whale?"
The response is usually " I am fat--FOR ME." Ok again...

So now I am not the skinny girl or even the average girl, I am the chubby girl. I can't explain how those words have affected me and torn me down. I think about those chubby kids in highschool that you always hear are being made fun of and have new eyes for them. Can people really destroy other people?

The worst part is that I really feel like I have tried to do so much to get back to the other me ( I didn't mention I have not lost ANY of my baby weight) and that I don't really listen to anyone. I hear mom's say " boy, I know, losing that baby weight." Then I look at them and how thin they are and it bugs me even more.

I, am no longer going to be a victim. I am not going to use my diabetes as an excuse. I will continue to try my hardest. I am so grateful to have the most amamzing husband who is so understanding and loves me for me. Thanks Babe---I would be a wreck without you right now. Life will go on........