hopefully this works. I can't figure out how to put sound on my camera when I am filming, so you just have to enjoy his moves. Garrett is playing Guitar Hero and rocking out to the song "I wanna be Sedated". My friend came over one night while the rest of my family was gone, and we played guitar hero, and Garrett kept wanting "my turn, my turn". It was so cute. He didn't like getting booed though, so he would just quit. But we were cracking up.

I was thinking...

Just my thoughts on this whole recession thing. I put that on my never be thankful list, but that is not entirely true. I have been able to find some good things about it. Before the economy was going to pot, my husband decided it was time to go to school-not back to school, but finally start school, from scratch. We had been living a great life. We owned two homes, and a lot behind one of our homes. We both had good jobs, which payed the bills and allowed for extra expenditures. There seemed to not be a day that went by where I wouldn't blow 100 bucks just on stuff, because I could. And to be honest, I think I had a little addiction to shopping.
After Adam went back to school, life changed dramatically for us. We had to sell both of our homes, and are renters now. Adam is in school either all day, or most of the day, so that dramatically reduces his income, and then there is all the money out now for school expenditures. I work quite a bit, but mostly to provide insurance, so I don't have much left over in my paychecks. Needless to say, I am very careful in spending money now. And I have actually been grateful for this change because I had been getting very materialistic, wanting nice cars, home, things. But now I focus more on what is important in life, to reduce the bills we have, just buy food, and most important, to focus on family and getting ourselves prepared for what lies ahead. It has been a great blessing to get the greed out of my life and be humbled. Yes, it does get very difficult, as most of us are influenced someway by the recession, but we were able to downsize before the recession, and be a little more prepared for the hard times ahead. Something to really be thankful for.

5 things I am thankful for, and 5 I could do without.

I am thankful for...(in no particular order)
1. A wood stove
2. Preschool scholarships
3.Dane's healthy kidneys
4.Finding somewhere to play volleyball
5.The Ensign and the inspired words in there


Never will I be thankful for...
1.Barbie doll-like women who want to run everything and have people believe they are "the perfect mom" gag me!
2.A recession
3.The kids or "kid" breaking our Wii and the 60 bucks to get it fixed
4.Ants
5.Having to work and miss out on a lot of family stuff-although I am thankful to even have a job, just not thankful to have to work.

And on another note...
I have run out of books to read, since I haven't had any recommendations, so I have created a list of classics to read, you know the ones that we were forced to read in high school, that I wish I was actually into? I started thinking since I love to read now, it will make these books more enjoyable. I have stared with Wuthering Heights and it is pretty comically written. It is still hard for me to understand the language of the era, but I find it more enjoyable now. If anyone has a recommendation of a great classic book to add to my list, or just a great book in general, let me know. I would appreciate it. Happy reading.

One crazy weekend!

Garrett on the snowmobile. Yes Aaron, that is yours. I'm surprised this pic turned out since they were whizzing by me.
Emma, Natalie and their friends under the cover to avoid the rain.
Ad and I before the concert started and our ears started bleeding.

The last weekend in February was crazy! I had gotten the weekend off to go to a Brad Paisly/Dierks Bently concert up at the Rose Garden, so we had planned on sending the kids with my mom, going up to Portland, staying the night, spending some time in Portland on sat. going to the temple and ikea, or wherever else we faniced.
We got all packed up, dropped the kids off, and headed up to the hotel to meet Adam's bro Aaron and his wife Teanna, who we were going to the concert with and staying the night with. We met them at the hotel a couple hours before the concert, got something to eat at quiznos -worst meal i've had in a long time, and I love Quiznos-then caught the max to the rose garden, since we were only a couple blocks away, but too far to walk. We had a fun time, but the concert was extremely loud. The first performer and Dierks couldn't get their sound right, and it was blaring. During Dierks I couldn't even hear myself scream. Then Brad came out and put on a fun performance and his sound was a lot better. We had fun, but lost our hearing in the process. The concert got over at 11, so we crammed onto the max with all the other concertgoers, back to our hotel, with ears ringing and head pounding. We were so tired that we all just went to bed. Adam and I got up early on Sat. to head home. I had wanted to go to the Temple, but we had decided that we would head up to his uncles cabin with some friends to show them a piece of land that Adam's folks are trying to sell. So it was sort of a business venture. We had to get home, get all packed for a night in the snow, and get groceries to eat, then grab the kids and go. I felt like a chicken with it's head cut off trying to think of everything to pack in the short amount of time I had. We got up there before dark so the kids were able to play a little, then dinner and talking and to bed. The next morning was raining all day, but that didn't stop the kids. Adam was able to get a snowmobile working so the kids all got a couple rides. We had lunch, then packed back up and cleaned the cabin, and headed home. It was a very busy weekend, one I would not like to duplicate anytime soon, and maybe someday when I take the weekend off, I can use it to relax and not cram a bunch of stressfull things into one weekend. Note to self...

Emma turns 7!

Emma turned 7 on Feb 15, and my mom and sister had joint birthday party for her, my brother Ryan, and my Grandma (who came up from GP to visit). We had dinner and then dessert. Emma got a lot of presents and she made this funny face the whole time because she was embarrassed or something. I'm glad I caught it on film. It was fun to spend time with my family, everyone was able to make it, and especially my grandparents because we haven't seen them in awhile. The girls made bookmarks for Grandma and Ryan and cards. We all took family pics with the G's and that will be a nice keepsake. I also made this FABULOUS cake for Emma. My sister kept saying, "we are already making a cake." And I still insisted that I was making one for Emma. When they saw it, they realized why I wanted to make another cake. Emma is obsessed with horses, everything she brings home from the library is on horses and she constantly tells me about the horses she wants to get when she grows up, so I thought she would appreciate this cake. She did. I am bragging now because if you know me very well, I am very lazy, and don't go all out for things. My sister was very impressed. She's the suzy homemaker in the family.
I can't believe Emma is now a year away from being baptized. I am so excited for her. She has grown into a wonderful, helpful, obedient, smart, and fun girl and I am blessed to be her mom. Luckily she got most of her qualities from her dad. :)