Dear Diary....

I haven't been very good at taking pictures this month...I looked in my camera and the only pics I have taken were for work. I will do better. But I wanted to update everyone on what we've been up to. Utah can't seem to get ready for spring. I really don't mind cold weather and snow during the winter...but the end of March, come on. It has been depressing for me and it's been a hard couple of weeks. I thought this picture would lift my spirits but it just makes me want to go on a trip somewhere warm. Someday :) So this month, we have just been hanging out, trying to entertain kids while I work a minimum of 4 hours a day in my home office. I love my job and it's pretty much a necessity right now since the banking world isn't the best at the moment. But it's a hard balance, only work at home mommies can understand. I have suffered from OCD and anxiety my whole life and stress just takes it to a whole new level. So to most people, I have it together but I just blame it on my OCD for making it look that way! Anyway, maybe venting these thought will make the weather warm up, or make the next 7 days pass fast until I can head south with my girlfriends for a 3 day getaway. I will do better at taking pictures, since my little men are growing up faster than I can believe. Colty is talking my ear off all day and Troy is growing into a little explorer, engineer, and entertainer all in one. Life is good. Happiness is a choice that I must make daily. These are things that I have to tell myself everyday. I am so blessed. I know these times are crazy but things will calm down.....eventually....someday. So there you have it, my downer post. Kev things blogs are fake since they only show every one's happy times, so Kev, this one is for you :)

Night at the Cabin

We went up to Jenna's families cabin on Saturday night for a little getaway. The weather was great, the snow was fresh and we had a blast. My highlights were getting to sleep in AND have a 2 hour nap in the same day. I loved the dark bedrooms! We got to snowmobile, sled and just relax. All 3 boys were great, it was amazing how much fun they had with no TV and only a few of Maddox's baby toys :) Thanks, Brett & Jenna for the fun memories!

Can you even tell this is me??? This wasn't even the best view from the top!

Buddies Maddox and Colt

Boy cousins are the best!

Brett's new sled that he build to pull up the luggage from the car...Troy loved riding in it!

Jenna & Maddox

This kid will not get off the 4 wheeler and snowmobile. He is going to do something with speed when he grows up!

View from the loft of the cabin. So pretty.

Cowboys, Dogs & Stickers

Here is what we have been up to lately:

Cowboys: I recently did Colt's "big boy room" in a Cowboy theme....I have been collecting things on my Texas trips and "here and there". I was so excited to finally do it! He loves his new bed and after 2 weeks, he can finally go to sleep by himself and not need us to lay with him to fall asleep. They are excited to have bunk beds in their room at Cookie and Papa's new house so that can be their time where they share a room.

Dogs: I think I like life better with 2 dogs. It took Bronco a couple days to stop barking at Jack (Jack just ignored Bronco through all of this) Now, they are the best of friends and it has been the BEST thing for Bronco to have a old man friend to help calm him down. Colt is attached to Bronco and Troy is attached to Jack and they call them "their" dogs. But everyone knows that they are really MINE! They play a little durring the day, but mostly they just sleep out in the sun!

Stickers: I have been working A LOT lately, and it is always a struggle to balance my time in the office and with the boys. They are always getting into my supplies and this time I just let them. First Troy put his name on his tummy with stickers and then he did Colt's. You can tell their mommy is a scrapbooker!

With everything going on in the world, and our economy, all that really matters is family and I am realizing that more and more everyday. I am so blessed.

Rain, Rain, Come on over!!!

I was getting very sick of Troy complaining that his toes hurt from his shoes (the boy won't stop growing!!!) so I spent an hour last night shopping for little boy shoes online. I had great success and got 5 pairs of shoes for them....and I splurged on some rain boots. Come on, aren't these the cutest things you have ever seen! My boys wear their snow boots everywhere cause they are the only shoes that they can put on by themselves...so I figured rain boots will probably serve the same purpose. And since Colt is obsessed with Tommy Train, I thought these were perfect. I probably paid too much for them but I will have them forever as a sentiment of my days where everything was Tommy the Train (as Colt calls him) or TT (what Troy used to call him). I can't believe my boys are growing up so fast and they probably won't like TT much longer.

I had a harder time finding boots in Troy's size so the selection wasn't as great. But I settled on some cute fireman boots. Not as cool as Tommy Train but I think they will still be fun. I know there are way more serious issues in my life that I should be spending time on besides rain boots. Oh well, I can deal with that tomorrow!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Colty!

Colt, Tommy & Nathan

August 2007 (6 months old)

2 years later....

Nathan, Kaleb, Colt & Tommy

We had a great time at a joint 2nd birthday party for the boys. Colt, Nathan and Tommy were all in the womb together when their mommies were friends. It was so fun to be pregnant with friends and have baby boys all together. Then Kaleb moved into the neighborhood later and joined the group. All 4 boys were born within about 3 weeks. We are going to make it a yearly tradition to do a birthday lunch. The boys loved the Thomas the Train theme, especially Colt who is very much obsessed with "Tommy Train". Happy Birthday boys!

Jack is Back!

Fat, fat Jack

Can you believe it? Well I still can't either! Someone called me at 9pm tonight saying they thought they might have my dog, who went missing the begining of October. They found him wandering around on Main Street and he ran right up to this man. I didn't get my hopes up, but drove 15 minutes to the next town to see if it was him. When I first got there and saw how big he was, I instantly said it wasn't him. But I sat down to play with him and he attacked me with kisses and almost knocked me over. The guy said, "Wow, he hasn't responded to anyone like this". Then I looked closer and realized that my Jack was in there, he was just REALLY FAT!!!! I think he must have hit his grown spurt (he was still in puppy size 4 months ago), must have been fed really well and didn't get a lot of excercise. Still not 100% sure, I took him home since they said he was going to the pound in the morning if I didn't take him. On the way home, he sat in my lap the whole time. When we pulled in the culda-sac, he was greeting by both neighbors and lots of kids in pj's and he was totally home. He took off with his BFF Molly Knudsen (who he was with when he went missing) and I knew it was him. He got a bath, snuggled a lot and is snorring in his room, fast asleep. Bronco, the new pug, is still yelping in the bathroom across the house, not liking Jack at all. Hopefully a day of playing outside tomorrow will create a new friendship. Oh, and the best part is, whoever stole my dogs for 4 months just recently got him fixed. I hope that dog stealer feels like crap. Ugh. On the way home, Troy said, "Mom, I guess prayers really do work." since he had prayed for months after Jack left. What a miracle!!!

Mommy's Days Out!

Well I know everyone knows that I love my job and think it's the best set up in the world, but now you can actually see what I do! For those who don't know, I work for a scrapbook company from home about 20 hours a week. I make page samples for catalogs, advertisments, TV segments, basically anything they need me to make with their product. And the best part is that I get to travel about 6 times a year with them. I just got back from a trade show where we debut our new products, basically set up a little "store", and store owners come and place orders for the next 6 months. Big chains like Joanns, Micheals, Hobby Lobby, and other big box retailers place orders along with small independant scrapbook stores. It is so fun to travel with friends/co-workers and to just get a little break from day to day mommy world. I just love staying in the best hotels, eating at the best restaurants, and being around scrapbooking all day! Now that's the life!

Founder of the company, Nancy. I met Nancy 6 years ago and she gave me a job 5 years ago. She is the best, like family to me, Kev & the boys :)

The girls....in our cute aprons. We had different ones for every day. They all matched our scrapbook paper.




What I get to do all day...Everyday of the show, I do a different project for store owners to do that features our new product. In the months before the show, I do all of the page layouts for the catalog & booth, and plan the hand on projects and get everything ready for it. It really is a lot of work!



What the booth looks like, this is probably 1/5th of the whole booth. It's huge! I go early and set up and stay late and take down. We make it fun though :)

My girl, Michelle. The two of us are trouble, big time! Her husband is in US Sales and we drive him crazy when we are together :) But he is too nice to ever admit it!

It was a long 6 days of a lot of work but sooo much fun. And I can't wait for the next one in Orlando in July!

Super Monkey's California Adventure

Before I left for my trip to Anaheim for work, Troy asked me to take his Super Monkey and take pictures of him wherever he was. (He got the idea from a TV commercial I think...) So Super Monkey headed in my bag and off he went! It was a lot of fun to have a little reminder of Troy with me all of the time. I hope you can see the pictures alright...he had some pretty crazy adventures with Aubrey and my co-workers. My favorite is of him with the churro man at Disneyland :)

New Camera!

I finally got a chance to play around with my new camera today. It was so nice outside that I let the boys play while I sat on my lawn chair with my Diet Coke and relaxed....and took about 150 pictures! These are the best ones...

And this is a shout out to my brother to thank him for our late Christmas gift. Hot sauce and pralines delivered from my favorite Mexican spot in Dallas! I keep a stash of this hot sauce in my food storage for any kind of emergency! It is the best!

Christmas!

We had a great Christmas at home with my parents & my sister and her family. It was a LOT of work, but was well worth it. Here are the highlights:

Papa snapping an awesome family picture on our front porch...something that is hard to do usually!
Bronco lovin his Christmas gifts, a Santa chew toy and a stocking full of his favorite bones.

Christmas Jammies from Mommy

Bath time Christmas Eve with Christmas Towels from my Nana

Kristin, Sabrina & Darren at dinner

Troy, Me & Cookie (my mom)

Darren, Troy & Me

Cookie, Kev, Colt & Kristin

Me & Cookie at lunch on Christmas Eve

Papa, Colt & Troy

Favorite gifts:

Kev-His 4 Wii games

Erin- camera & temple picture

Troy- "all of them" (all of his cars & tracks)

Colt-Thomas the Train toothbrush that plays music in his stocking

The best gift of all was my parents making an offer on a house in Cottonwood Heights! We are soo excited for them to move to Utah in February and we will find out today if they accepted the offer. Oh, and the best part is the house has an amazing view and a POOL!!! Bring on the summer tan, baby! I hope you all have had an amazing Christmas! Here's to the New Year of 2009!