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 :)

My Husband Loves Me!

So, anyone who knows anything about me should know that I LOVE HALLOWEEN!!! I love the autumn time with all of the beautiful yellow, orange, and red leaves on the trees. I love the cooler weather and I love that my birthday is the day before Halloween!! So from the earliest moment possible I begin to decorate for Halloween. I've tried talking to Craig for the last few years about decorating one room in the house for Halloween year round and he has had a bit of a hard time with that. Especially because I wanted to decorate the front room which is the very first room you enter through the front door. So after much debate he finally agreed that I could have the laundry room. So my wonderful husband spent his entire afternoon painting the laundry room Halloween orange for me :) Of course I still have the decorations to put up but here are the pictures of probably the one and only laundry room you have ever seen painted Halloween orange! Isn't it so cool!!! I will post more pictures after I get it decorated!

Wow I'm Tired!

Well, we had our first Vinyl Open House today. We've done lots of craft shows and boutiques but today we actually did it at my house so it involved a lot of prep work I don't normally have to do. We set up our entire downstairs into a vinyl display. Actually it was a lot of fun and we had a good turn out. Overall we were very pleased with the turn out. We are in the process of creating a blog for our vinyl. You can check it out at quoteyourhome.blogspot.com. Keep in mind it is a work in progress :) Once my house was put back to normal and I sat down, I realized that my feet were killing me and I'm exhausted. Oh well, nothing like a hard day's work :)

Boys are so weird!!!

At our house we have a basket that houses all of the "lonely" socks and empty hangers for the laundry. So this morning I'm in the bathroom getting ready and I hear Tyler going crazy in my bedroom. I looked around the corner to see him throwing the socks and hangers all over my bedroom. I said to him, "Tyler, what are you doing?" He says, "I'm killing these socks!" What?!?! Not my sweet 3 year old little boy who loves Thomas the Train. I must of heard him wrong, so I ask again, "What are you doing?" To which he replies, "I'm killing these socks!" Yep, I heard correctly. So we haven't started the whole shooting and killing playtime at our house yet so I'm trying to figure out where he has gotten this from. I think little boys just have different wiring than little girls. So, I'm hoping my little monster who now growls at me when he isn't happy and kills socks will still grow up to be a decent person, lol! I just keep telling myself what a sweet little boy he is. Craig says I keep saying that just to try to convince myself, lol!! You gotta love 'em!

Tyler & Chocolate Cupcakes

Last Saturday Ashlie went to a friends house to play. While she was there she made some cupcakes and brought some home to share. Well, Tyler inhaled his cupcake and wanted more but there was only enough for 1 each. So, I offered to help Tyler make cupcakes. He helped pour stuff in the bowl and then he helped put the sprinkles on top. I didn't get a picture of any finished product but you can be assured it was very interesting. Included are pictures of him enjoying the finished product :) Later I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it have been easier to just give him my cupcake?" But then we wouldn't have this fun blog to post.

Tyler's Big Boy Bed

So, I decided that since my baby is now 3 he probably is getting a little big for his crib. He loves his crib and even though he can climb out if he wants to, he doesn't. So I put it off for awhile. But the time has come. So I have been searching far and wide and finally found a bed frame on Craigslist. I hit Lowes for some wood slats for the bottom and pulled a mattress off of Ashlie's bunkbed. Of course then we had to hit Target and get the Thomas Bedding. I wasn't sure how he would do once he actually saw me taking down the crib but he was so excited to see his new Thomas Bed. I checked on him 20 minutes after I laid him down and he was already fast asleep. When he woke up this morning he came into my room and says, "I woke up, all by myself!" He was very happy he could get out of bed by himself this morning. Such a big boy!!! The first picture is of him trying out the new bed, the second picture is of him sleeping after I put him to bed, and the third is of him this morning posing after he got out of bed all on his own.

Bed Frame on Craig's List $30
Thomas Bedding at Target $45
Wood Slates at Lowes $6.54
Mattress from Ashlie Free
Tyler sleeping in a big boy bed - Priceless

Ashlie's Baptism

So, the long anticipated weekend finally arrived :) Ashlie was very excited and just a little bit nervous about her baptism. Craig helped her practice so she knew just what to do and it went fine. I had envisioned a pretty poofy white dress but she wanted something long and straight. So that is what she got. She had lots of friends and family come to see her be baptized but she was sad that her Grandma & Grandpa and all of her aunts, uncles and cousins from the Dixon side couldn't come. She was happy that her uncle Chris & aunt Jenny came from San Jose though. She was also excited that one of her good friends from her primary class got baptized the same time as her. They decided to mix things up a little bit and we ended up doing the confirmation the same evening just after the baptism. Afterwards we had everyone over to our house for egg rolls and sticky rice. We made over 100 egg rolls. We had lots of fun and she had a good time. She got a little baptism journal from the primary and there was a place to write her feelings. She wrote that she got a warm feeling as she went into the water with her dad and she knew she was making the right choice. What a sweet girl. It has sort of become a tradition to get the kids their own set of scriptures for their baptism (instead of hand me downs). So Ashlie was very excited to go to church on Sunday in her beautiful white dress with her green scriptures and bright yellow case :)

Too cute to pass up!!!

A couple of days ago Tyler and I got home from our errands a little too late to put him down for a nap. So I just figured I would skip it for the day. If he goes down too late then he doesn't want to go to bed on time. He wanted to watch Polar Express so I put it on for him and he sat down on the couch. About 10 minutes later I looked over to see why he was being so quiet and this is what I saw!! Aren't they sweet when they are sleeping :) Needless to say he was eating his beloved "Spicy Hots" before he fell asleep!

For MaryAnn and all others that might be curious!

I did make the cake! It was really easy. Kind of a funny story. I was sick on Craig's actual birthday so I opted out of the homemade cake and bought an ice cream cake instead. I was feeling quite guilty so about a month later one day while Craig was at work the kids and I decided we would make him a birthday cake. I had a really cool football pan I was going to do for him, of course in Green Bay Packers colors. Well, Tyler found the Thomas pan, so instead of a manly football cake Craig got a blue Thomas cake for his birthday. So from that time forward any time there was mention of Tyler's birthday he announced he wanted a blue Thomas cake. If he could have taken the joke I would of made him the Green Bay Packers football but since he is only 3 I didn't think it would go over very well.

As for the spicy hots, several months ago Craig and Tyler were home alone. Craig was at the computer eating Flamin Hot Cheetos. Tyler wanted some and Craig told him no because they were hot. So Tyler, being the genious that he is, started blowing on them to cool them off. So Craig tried to explain they weren't heat hot but spicy hot. Of course how do you get that through to a 2 year old? You don't except by letting them figure it out on their own. So Craig gave Tyler a Flamin Hot Cheeto. Of course Tyler loved them and kept begging Craig for more "Spicy Hots". So anytime someone wants to get Tyler a surprise they either get him plain M&M's (he's a chocoholic) or "Spicy Hots"! Weird, I know :)

Tyler Sang!!!

Okay, so unless you are around Tyler quite a bit you probably wouldn't know this little tidbit of information, Tyler doesn't sing! Most children go around and sing little tunes or hum or whatever, but not Tyler. He has never really been into singing. Then about a month ago on one of our many trips to Idaho this summer Tyler was really cranky in the car and so to get him occupied I started singing some of our little preschool songs that him and I do together. He would actually get a few words in here or there and Craig and I were all excited. Since then he has kind of gone back into his non-singing mode again, until last night. It was soooo cute! We were doing Family Home Evening and I Am A Child of God was our opening song. Ashlie was playing the piano and the rest of us were singing and all of a sudden we hear this wee little voice getting some words in there. It was the cutest thing ever. Of course he was about a half phrase behind us most of the time, so sometimes he would skip a few words to sing the ending of a phrase right in beat with the rest of us. It was so cute I had to blog about it :)

Tyler's Birthday Party

We celebrated Tyler's birthday the day after. He didn't care and it worked better that way. We just had some friends over for dinner and cake with swimming. We were barely through dinner when Tyler decided he was ready for cake. So some people were still eating as we were singing and cutting cake, funny. He had a lot of fun and actually blew the candles out all by himself. Of course he got lots of Thomas trains and spicy hots for his birthday. (Does anyone recall spicy hots?) Of course he has been asking for a blue Thomas cake for well over a month so there was never any question as to what kind of cake he would be having. He loved it of course, so it was well worth the work :)