Happy Birthday to Me!!!!

Well, I know that as an adult it is kind of odd that I love my birthday as much as I do, but I just can't help it!! I have always loved my birthday. I don't know why, maybe because my mom always made such a big deal of our birthdays, always going out of her way to make us feel so special, or maybe it was because everyone always decorated and had parties around my birthday, or maybe it's just because IT'S THE COOLEST DAY EVER!! Whatever the reason, I love my birthday!!! Fall is my most favorite season with the cooler weather, all of the beautiful colors on the trees, and pumpkins!!! I remember growing up my mom would always do Halloween theme parties for me. We would rent scary movies and bob for apples. And my mom always made me a brownie in a round pizza pan, then she would frost it orange and use candy corns to make a jack-o-lantern face. As I got older, the games and movies changed but it was still a fun party all the same. After I got married, somehow Craig has picked up on my enthusiasm and he still goes all out for my birthdays. Half of the fun of my birthday is the annual countdown which usually starts around October 1. For some reason I've always wanted to make a paper chain in orange and black to do the countdown but I have never remembered in time to do it. So this year, the party was just as wonderful! It all started with breakfast in bed from Craig and the girls (Tyler's contribution was sleeping in :)). Craig made his famous pancakes! I went to work at 7am, lots of fun!! I had class at 9, again, lots of fun!! I got back to work at 10:30 and when I walked in I had a beautiful bouquet of flowers (all fall colors) from Craig (picture included). I stood chatting and admiring my flowers for a few minutes then walked to my office and found that my sister had decorated my doorway and my whole desk with streamers and Happy Birthday signs and had a bouquet of balloons waiting for me (picture included). That was very fun!!! I worked til about 12:45 when my dad treated me to McDonalds for my birthday lunch. (On a side note here, I have to give my dad credit that he wanted to go somewhere else because neither of us are particularly fond of McDonalds, but I had to be in class in 15 minutes and so I ended up eating in the car anyways! So thank you Dad, it's the thought that counts!) So off to class I went with a cheeseburger in hand! After class I headed home with my stash of goodies from work only to pull in and notice that the miscellaneous items along the side of the garage had been moved around. I didn't think too much more of it. I came inside, Craig was gone with all of the kids. So, I sat down and started making more Prop 8 phone calls. I got to read for a few minutes and relax which was quite nice. While I was relaxing I got a very fun phone call from my nephew Ezra (he's only 2 so it was with the help of my sister). He sang Happy Birthday to Auntie! Craig told me we were going to dinner so we got the kids all ready and headed out the door. As we were leaving I realized that the cords that normally run in front of the front door for my fish aquarium were no longer there. My wonderful dad had come over during the day (while I was in class) and surprised me by putting in a new outlet on the wall beside my fish aquarium. (The wires came from the garage on the other side of the wall, hence the stuff in the garage being moved). So, I no longer have extension cords running in the walkway. (Thank you, Dad). Off we headed to the Olive Garden for dinner. We met my parents, my sister and her family, my cousin Christy and her family, and our good friends the Wrights, along with our adopted daughter Jaqueline (Sari's friend). We had lots of good food and fun visiting. Craig got me a bike for my birthday (I really wanted one). Sari got me a Willow Tree Angel holding a bushel of grain (for the Fall), Ashlie got me a Willow Tree Angel holding a cat (for Affection), and Tyler got me a new palm pilot. I'm pretty sure Craig had to help him out financially with that one because he doesn't earn an allowance. Along with the rest of my gifts I got a toddler seat for the back of my new bike for Tyler so we can go on rides, a triple plug for my new wall outlet, a beautiful Liz Lemon Swindle picture, and a very fun cupcake stand. And of course I can't forget to mention all of my birthday wishes via email and facebook!!! I don't think I've ever had so many people tell me happy birthday!!! I had lots of fun!!! I've decided that getting older isn't so bad. I think I've learned a few things along the way and I have certainly made lots of friends to share in the fun. Thank you everyone for making my birthday so fun!!!

Carving Pumpkins!!!

Tonight we did our annual pumpkin carving. We were supposed to do it last night but life happened and so it got postponed til tonight. The bad part about doing it tonight was that Craig had a meeting at work so he didn't get to participate. I'm sure he missed watching the kids faces as they attempted to do their own pumpkins but I'm sure he didn't miss the clean up :) Grandma & Papa came over to help and we all had a good time. Sari & Ashlie were able to do most of theirs by themselves so that was fun to watch them figure it all out and draw their own faces on the pumpkins. Tyler of course still needed some assistance but he was so cute. He would get the knife in and then just saw straight up and down for several minutes "carving" his pumpkin. They each designed their own pumpkins. Tyler chose a heart for a nose. After we got them all carved we all went out and got them lit on the porch and stood back to admire.

I got a 94%

For those of you who enjoy hearing me gloat I thought I would spread the word that I got a 94% on my Biology test I took last week. I was a little sad because I thought that I would of done a little better than that, but then I looked at the scores for the entire class and I was quite pleased to see that not only did I get the highest score on this particular test but I also have the highest overall grade in the class with a 96.2%. That made me happy :) Okay, enough gloating, I know I'm a big nerd cause I constantly have my face in my homework but I love learning. It is such a rewarding feeling to learn new stuff that I can share with my friends and family. For instance, today in lab we played CSI COS (COS is the name of the college I go to for those of you not in this area). We studied DNA fingerprinting. Pretty fun stuff to see how they actually can read the DNA!

Thanks to my good friend Amy I have been tagged!!! So my 6th picture in the 6th folder happened to be Ashlie's Dance Recital picture from this last June. So here is my princess Ashlie Ann!





8 Favorite TV Shows
1. It was House until last night there were two girls kissing on it :(
2. The Baby Story (If I'm at someones house with TLC)
3. CSI Miami (Craig does a great impression of Horacio)
4. Eleventh Hour
5. Criminal Minds
6. Judge Judy (It is so hilarious)
That's all I can think of, I really don't watch very much tv.

8 Favorite Restaurants
1. Mama Gina's (Now closed and I am so sad)
2. Panera (love the salads)
3. Olive Garden
4. Chili's (Love the shrimp fajitas)
5. Outback Steakhouse (best steamed broccoli ever)
6. Melina's (Mexican food in Blackfoot, Idaho)
7. Arctic Circle (only in Idaho cause they have fry sauce)
8. My mom's kitchen

8 Things that Happened Yesterday
1. Made Prop 8 phone calls
2. Met with Ashlie's teacher
3. Went to class
4. Tyler went to preschool happily
5. Was on hold for over 45 minutes on the phone
6. Went to the church and practiced with the pianist
7. Started the laundry
8. Made my bed

8 Things I'm Looking forward to
1. My birthday
2. Halloween
3. Top of the Line
4. Craft Saturday
5. Maybe Thanksgiving in AZ
6. Christmas
7. Hopefully family coming for New Years
8. bedtime

8 things on my Wish List
1. Prop 8 to pass
2. To be skinny
3. Bike with a seat for Tyler
4. Diamonds (shouldn't that be a standard???)
5. Maid
6. Potty trained son
7. A dog who cleans her own messes
8. My back to quit hurting

8 Friends I'm tagging
1. Tiff
2. Jen - sister
3. Aisha
4. Utah Chris
5. Margaret
6. Jenny
7. Emmylou
8. Becky

Tonight was our ward halloween party. We had lots and lots of fun. Sari dressed up as a doctor and she was the cutest doctor I've ever seen. Ashlie was a vampire princess (she came up with that on her own) and can anyone guess what Tyler was??? I know it is so hard to figure out, of course he was Thomas. If you recall we had a Thomas in our family last Halloween too! In fact, we were able to reuse the same costume, yeah!!! The kids had lots of fun bouncing in the bounce house, doing the cake walk, and running and playing with all of their friends. Then when it was dark everyone opened up the back of their family mobiles and the "Trunk or Treating" began. Jaqueline (our adopted daughter) even got to go with us :) We had a really fun time and hopefully no one wakes up tomorrow morning with a stomach ache from the candy :)

Dance Class!!

This is Ashlie's 4th year of dance and she still enjoys it. Twice a year we have viewing days where we can go and watch her dance and see what all of our money pays for. The rest of the time we aren't supposed to go and watch, so we just drop her off at the door and pick her back up an hour later. So it is nice to see that she really enjoys it and she is learning something. She loves to watch herself in the mirror and we used to wonder why she enjoyed that so much but after you go to "Viewing Week" you understand. She is still taking ballet, tap, and jazz.

The Laundry Room

So, I finally got my vinyl put up in the laundry room. What do you think??? I'm thinking now I need to get some of those way cool holiday lights that have the orange pumpkins that light up and string them around. Any thoughts on where to go from there?

I love Halloween!

So, I decided my flip flops on the back of my van were getting a little old. As fun as they were I was ready for a change. So what better time of year or holiday to change than my birthday??? So of course, I went with little birthday cakes in the descending sizes representing my family! Not!!! Of course I went with little jack-o-lanterns :)!!! Here they are, aren't they so cute. There is an up close shot and then farther away so you can get the whole affect. And for those of you who don't know, the other symbol is none other than the Yamaha symbol since Craig's motorcycle is a Yamaha! We have to make this family mobile a little more masculine for Craig!!!

The School Carnival

The girls had a school carnival a couple of weeks ago. At the carnival they had vendor booths set up so we took our vinyl stuff and set up. It worked out really well because the kids could all go and play at the carnival but they knew right where we were. And I figured out the fewer tickets I gave them the more often they checked in with me :) It was even better because there was a little playground area right beside where we were sitting that was relatively empty so Tyler and Ezra kept walking over to play on the toys. Tyler and Ezra generally are in combat with each other, something about that age, but we happened to snap this picture of the two of them walking to the toys together. I thought it was so sweet I wanted to stick it on here. Unfortunately, we were so busy having fun that we didn't take pictures of any of the other kids, but they all came home very happy and very tired :)

Tyler at the Pumpkin Patch with Grandma & Papa

On Saturday there was a big pumpkin patch in Reedley (about 20 miles away) that had a big train show going. Originally my parents were going to take all 6 grandkids and go but it didn't quite work out. So they ended up taking Tyler and my sister's little boy Ezra. Tyler had so much fun looking at all of the trains and train tracks. Everyone had a great time. Both boys were worn out because when my parents got them all buckled to come home before they left the driveway of the pumpkin patch both boys were already asleep.

Tyler at The Pumpkin Patch

On Friday the little preschool that Tyler goes to had a field trip to the pumpkin patch. He had so much fun. He played in the corn box (sand box filled with corn kernels), they had story time, got to go on a hayride, and then got to pick out a pumpkin. He had lots of fun running crazy and even went through the little maze they had set up. The first picture of the 3 little boys together was during the story time. Tyler's listened very well to the entire story but as soon as he said "The End" Tyler was gone, which happens to be the next picture showing Tyler running back to the corn box.

I'm still here!!!

I know it's been awhile since I've blogged. There are a couple of reasons. First, I am waiting on pictures from my sister so I can blog about our school carnival. Second, I've been going crazy with my school. I had two tests (one the final) and an oral presentation all due in my speech class this week. Third, I've discovered Facebook. So you can all go look me up on Facebook :) I am still alive, and I will resume my normal usage of blogger as soon as my tests are over :)