Family Pics

Finally after 4 years we have updated our family picture. Thanks to my sister for taking them! They turned out great. We took them in my parents backyard during our visit for Thanksgiving. We had a great time hanging out with family and friends and eating good food. I had so much fun that I forgot to take picures. LOL.

Catch Up

It has been a long time since I have updated this so I will try to fit alot in one post so bare with me. And here we goooooooooooooooooooooooooo.......................

The summer went by way too fast, but we did some fun stuff. We spent a week visiting my mom and my sister. We did ALOT of swimming. We had an awesome trip to Morgan Hill, CA where Aaron helped his dad work on his uncle's bathroom and I traveled to different beaches and had LOADS of fun. I know it wasn't fair for Aaron to do all the work and me to relax everyday on the beach, but what's a girl to do. ;)

The only complaint I have is that I didn't get to go camping! I LOVE to camp and we didn't even go once. I blame it on my friend Kensi because if she lived here we totally would have gone with them.

Madison started 1st Grade and she loves it so far. She has a really good teacher and good friends in her class. She is getting straight A's and I hope she keeps it up. She has started Soccer again that our church has set up. She likes it for the most part except for when she has a stain on her shirt and I have to talk her into playing for 30 minutes. TRUE STORY. It was really embarrassing. She loves to sing so I've been trying to find a singing group or something that she can do after school. She lost a front tooth during a soccer game and then later that night she asked me "How do I know if the tooth fairy is real if I never get to see her, and while we're on the subject I'm pretty sure Santa doesn't exist and it's just you that buys everything." WHAT???!!!!! I don't remember when I started questioning Santa but it for sure wasn't 6! I halfway wanted to say "You're right Madison I buy everything so please take that into consideration when you make your Christmas list because little elves don't make everything, it isn't free, and no one magically delivers the gifts under the tree." But I restrained myself and said "Just because you can't see him doesn't mean he isn't real." Luckily she accepted that answer and hasn't brought it up since. Madison loves to sing, dance, draw, and play school. We love her alot.

Ashlyn..... Where do I begin. She is so Cute and so funny, but wow! Well let me just tell you about this sign I found in Ross once that said "I don't have an ATTITUDE I just have a personality you can't handle". I am currently embroidering a pillow with this on it for her bed. If there were a pageant titled Little Miss Attitude she would be Queen. If there were a land called Stubborn she would be President. If there were a ......Well you get the idea. She is so funny and frustrating all at once. One example: One day while leaving Church she got to the car opened the door and said with hands on her hips, "OKAY! I'm NOT getting in there until the air conditioning is on. It is TOO HOT!" I've decided she is just bored and needs to channel her Spunk into something worthwhile. Which is why she has been signed up for Gymnastics. She goes every wednesday. She loves to dance around, play dolls, and kiss Shelby. We love her alot too.

Shelby is so much fun! She reminds me alot of Madison and looks alot like her too. She is crawling and pulling herself up to things. Her favorite word is Dad. I think Aaron brainwashes them while I am not there so it is their first word. Her favorite thing to do is play the keyboard. Also she likes to sit on the floor and laugh as Ashlyn runs back and forth past her. It is pretty funny to watch. She shakes her head no. She has adorable dimples and THE cutest thighs and bum. I know that sounds weird but they are so chubby!!! I love them. I have people comment on them daily. I actually had a woman come up to me at the Aquarium in California and ask if she could squeeze her thighs. I'm not one to deny someone joy like that so I said of course. I had one lady tell me OHHH! she is so cute I could just bite her. Now that is not joy I will permit. Sorry lady. Madison described this feeling so well when she said "Mom,I love everyone so much I just want to hurt them." She is such a good baby that I've been convinced I want another one, but not for a couple years. We love her alot as well!

I will be better about blogging now that things have calmed down from the summer.

Trouble Trouble Trouble

The webster definition of trouble is

1 a : to agitate mentally or spiritually : worry, disturb b (1) archaic : mistreat, oppress (2) : to produce physical disorder in : afflict c : to put to exertion or inconvenience 2 : to put into confused motion

My definition of trouble is pretty much the same except a few more...

3a: mischevious, stubborn, adorable, little girl b:answers to the name Ashlyn

Roos N More

It is almost Madison's Birthday and this year instead of having big parties we decided to let the girls pick a fun place to go as a family. Ashlyn picked Chuck E Cheese which, even though it grosses me out, was still fun. Recently I saw that someone from our ward had gone to this zoo called Roos N More in Moapa, NV. So I asked Madison if she wanted to do that for her birthday. There is only a few times a month that they are open to the public so we had to go this weekend. First let me tell you that I have always wanted to hold a Capuchin monkey and FINALLY today I got to do that and more! It was so much fun! It is a smaller zoo, but so well kept. You get to go on an hour long tour which takes you to see all their animals and you get to hold and pet almost all of them. My favorite is still the monkeys, but it was still fun holding the baby kangaroos.

The Capuchin monkey climbed onto me and hugged me so tight and then started licking my neck!!! It was hilarious, but it was the sweetest monkey. All the kids and people were gathered around my stroller to look at it when it decided to take a nap on the top.

Ashlyn is 3!!!!

I can't believe Ashlyn is 3 already. Time goes by too fast. We had a fun day filled with fun activities we could do as a family. It was nice to not have a big birthday party and just spend time together. We just let her pick somewhere fun to go and she picked Chuck E. Cheese. Not my first choice, but it was actually really fun and only smelled like pee a little. ;) HAPPY BIRTHDAY PEACHES! WE LOVE YOU!

Shelby and other stuff

I haven't updated my blog for a while so I figured it was time. Shelby is getting bigger everyday and is so cute! She smiles alot and has just started giggling a little bit. Madison and Ashlyn are so good with her too and help me out a lot. We had a really good Easter this year too. We had an Easter egg hunt at home in our backyard and then just spent the rest of the weekend relaxing and watching Conference. This past weekend we traveled to Utah for my niece Gracie's baptism. It was a really good weekend full of good food and good family. Madison has been playing T-ball every Thursday now and it has been so fun to watch her. Today Aaron and I celebrated our birthday. It is so fun to share the same birthday. It makes the day extra special when I can share it with him. We decided to make our birthday dinner instead of going out to eat somewhere. We made baby back ribs that we smoked on our grill and they were SOOOOOO good and then I made a berry cheesecake for dessert. Overall it was a pretty good birthday. We also found out we have a little lizard family living in the backyard.

Corny Love Songs

So a few years ago Aaron started singing corny love songs to me. He would walk up and give me a big hug and then start singing some hilarious love song. It was so funny and so sweet at the same time. This one's for you Aaron.......

I don't know much
But I know I love you
And that may be
All I need to know

Maybe someday I will learn to play the piano and he can too and then we will be like these people.......
http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=RI-l0tK8Ok0

Andy got married!!!

I'm so happy for my brother! He got married on March 6th in Salt Lake City in an awesome old LDS church in the Avenues. It had beautiful stained glass windows. It was such a sweet ceremony. You could look at them and see how much they loved eachother. I still get emotional looking at the pictures. I had to steal these from my sister's blog because I left my camera in the trunk of my car. My camera is kind of hard to take pictures while holding a baby. I can't wait to get to know Lisa better. My kids already think she is the best Aunt.

Mystery Diagnosis

Shelby woke up from her nap yesterday and I noticed this on her arm. My first reaction was, "How did Ashlyn do this without me knowing?" then I realized Ashlyn was outside playing with Madison and didn't go back where the baby was sleeping at all. My next thought was "What weird disease, parasite, etc.... does she have that would make her wake up with bruises?" I blame this thought completely on my fascination with watching shows like Mystery Diagnosis and Monsters Inside Me. They have made me completely paranoid. Every headache I get now I instantly think I may have a ball of worms in my brain (true story! a guy had them in his). So after a few seconds I figured out the real cause. She had given herself a hicky! Ha Ha Ha!

The Thing I Realized this Saturday

I have gremlins living in my house that keep undoing everything I do.

It seems like everytime I clean a room I leave to the second room only to return to the first and find that the gremlins have messed it up again.

I HATE CLEANING.

I finally caught up on my laundry. I washed it, folded it, and put it in the basket so it could sit there for a week until I put it away. I left the basket in the Living Room and left to go check on the baby in my room. I returned and found that the gremlins had scattered the folded clothes all over the floor.

I HATE LAUNDRY.

I wiped the mirrors off in the bathrooms with windex. I left to the next chore and came back only to find that the gremlins had made toothpaste spots on the mirror.

I HATE TOOTHPASTE SPOTS.

I swept the floor in the Living Room. Minutes later.....The gremlins had spilled uncooked Top Ramen noodles all over the floor.

I HATE UNCOOKED TOP RAMEN NOODLES.

The list could go on, but you get the picture. Then as I was picking up dress up clothes off my bedroom floor I looked over and saw these...................................

and I realized that

I LOVE MY LITTLE GREMLINS!

Just One Question

What the HECK is this.........

What's for Dinner

I have been horrible when it comes to cooking dinner lately. I've been looking up recipes that don't take very long to make. I LOVE the Pillsbury website. They have some good recipes on there. Last night I made individual pizzas from their Grands Homestyle Biscuits. It was so easy and tasted pretty good. I think I would make these for lunch for my kids though instead of dinner, but I didn't get any complaints from hubby so that is good. My favorite part though was dessert which I came up with on my own. I'm sure there's a recipe out there just like it, but I didn't look it up so I count that as coming up with it on my own. lol I had some biscuits left over so I flattened them the same way as the pizza ones and put cinnamon and sugar on top before baking it. Then I made Marshmallow creme frosting to dip them in. It was so good! Here are the links to the recipes just in case anyone wants to try it.

http://www.pillsbury.com/Recipes/ShowRecipe.aspx?rid=21903 (pizzas)

http://www.recipes4cakes.com/frostings/marchcreme_recipe.htm (marshmallow creme frosting)

When animals attack

Well, my dad is always saying how cats are evil. I would get mad and always defend them, but now I believe him. Our black asnd white cat named Mooska (who happens to be Maddie's favorite) attacked her while she was sleeping on Saturday night. He usually cuddles with her and so when he jumped up on her bed she pulled him close to her and he spazzed! I really want to get rid of him, but she keeps bawling when I talk about it. Too bad she's old enough to know he isn't going on "vacation". lol

Student of the Month

Friday morning we got to go to Madison's school and watch her get her Student of the Month Certificate. She was so happy and we are so proud of her! Love ya Maddie! She got to eat pizza for lunch with the principal and she also got a certificate for a free hamburger or cheeseburger from Inn and Out. She said that it was the best day ever. Hope she keeps up the good work.

More Pics

I had a mini photshoot today with Miss Shelby. She was so cute and wide awake. It was alot of fun. Madison and Ashlyn kept giggling about her little butt. I think it is adorable!

She's Here!

Shelby Ann Graham was born January 17, 2010 at 2:53pm. She weighed 8lbs. 12.5oz. and was 19.5 inches long. So far she is a very good baby. We lucked out again.Madison is comforting Shelby while she gets her first bath. She didn't want her to scratch herself so she was holding her hands and saying "You're okay. You'll be fine!"

It's Time!

It's time to stop obsessively cleaning my house.

It's time to make sure my bags are packed.

It's time to not weigh this much!

and it's time to get this little monster out of my belly!(She's not really a monster, but at times I wonder. Like when she is pressing her foot on my rib so hard it feels like it will break.)

Finally I get to go in tomorrow and be induced! I'm really excited to get this over with and see this beautiful little baby girl. I know she will be beautiful because so far they have all looked like their dad. Wish me luck and the next post will have pictures of my sweet baby!!!!!