Frustrating

So if you haven't noticed I have once again changed our blog layout. The one I was using before had serious probs. So for those of you interested in changing yours (lisa I would change yours since I don't this shabby tulips will be fixing the problem anytime soon) I did find a new site. It is matiekay.blogspot.com. She has some really cute templates especially for the holidays. Also it didn't erase all of my family and friends links. The only thing it deleated was my music player and my family picture and story. Those were easily fixed since I copied my family story into a word document and it was easy to repost the other sidebar items. So good luck to all and Melissa I can do yours for you if you still want or I can talk you through it. Emily, I know you should be able to do it since your husband is a computer savy guy. Here are the sites I have used for my blog.
Music: projectplaylist.com----just create a free account, pick your songs, get your code and add it to your sidebar

Blog Layout--- matiekay.blogspot.com-- really cute templates, and very easy to use.

Good Luck

My Helper!

One of Landon's favorite things to do is to empty the

dishwasher. I think it is because we lived at my mom's house too long while waiting for our house to be done. My mom is a clean freak for those of you that don't know her. Landon would throw a complete fit if he found out she emptied the dishwasher without him. He still loves to do it so I usually give him the silverware holder full of the kids sippy cup lids and all the kids forks and spoons and away he goes.

He is pretty anal about it to. No one can help

him and if he thinks that the container with the silverware in it is looking too full on one side he will even it out. I know and am fully aware he does exhibit some OCD qualities, but if used in the right way, for example helping me out we won't worry about it too much.

Kids Photo Shoot

So awhile ago I decided to take some much need pictures of my children. Time to update the great-grandma photo wall. I refuse to take my kids to have their pictures done. They are horrible for me so I dare not embarrass my self by taking them somewhere. One of Jared's old college roommates Rob, his wife Brooke takes some amazing pictures of her kids. I just love them. I secretly stalk her blog so I can look at the adorable pictures. Anyway, these are a few of my faves. I love photography but do not claim to even begin to know what I am doing. I think if I take 50 or so pictures at least a few of them should turn out right?
























The boys were telling each other knock knock jokes to get each other to laugh. What I got from it was a picture of them smiling.

























So I think my photo shoot turned out pretty well. This picture of the kids together really didn't turn out as well as I would have liked, but it does capture the moment. Landon giving his usual "i really don't want to do this scowl", Ethan looking at me and through his teeth saying "are we done yet?", and Mackenzie smiling really well for the treats grandma was holding for her behind me. FYI: the picture of the kids walking together at the top is actually one of them arguing about who would lead the way. The beauty of photos is that they don't have sound!

In 8 short years.......

Well yesterday Sept. 4 was our 8 year anniversary. We lived the high life by teaching piano lessons, working on our entertainment center we are building in our media niche, and going to mutual. Exciting stuff. What do ya do when your anniversary is in the middle of the week on mutual night where your young women's pres. has just had a baby. I think baby trumps anniversary. Anyway, I thought since I love to look at other peoples wedding pictures I thought I would post a few. Warning: Jared does have hair in our wedding pictures so I promise it really is him. Our kids always ask who it is in the pictures since they have only known Jared with a shaved head.

Jared and I met in Utah. We were in the same singles ward. He invited himself and all his roommates over for dinner. Not too long after that he saw he at one of the hypnotist shows in Provo. I was the one being hypnotized. I am pretty sure after that is when he just totally fell in love with me. We never really "dated" in fact we told everyone we were just friends up until we got engaged. Then we had to change it to "friends with a few benefits". Jared proposed on the temple grounds of Mt. Timponogos with a song he wrote and sang to me. Cheesy but sweet. We got engaged in July and got married in Sept. I loved this engagement picture of us. I wanted to use it but my mom said that we needed to use one where you could see my face. I happen to like "in the moment pictures" I think they are more telling than the regular old posed pictures.

We got married Sept. 4 1999 in the Mt. Timpanogos temple. It was labor day week-end so there were not many people there getting married which made the whole thing really nice since no one was in any real hurry to get us married and out of there. We got married early in the morning and we had an afternoon reception at the Alpine Art Center. That was the best decision I made. The center was so nice, already decorated with tons of art and sculptures, the food was really good, and they cleaned up and set up. We just showed up and then we just left. We were all done by 3 in the afternoon.

There aren't too many things I would change about the wedding. If I had to do over again, I wouldn't have really had a wedding/reception. I would have just gotten married had a really nice lunch with all our close friends and family and taken the money we didn't use and run. Instead we had 1 reception in Utah, 1 open house in Texas, and 1 open house in Bakersfield. All fun at the time but hindsight is always 20/20. The money would have been a lot more fun. The other thing I would change is my bouquet. I hated it. I wanted just the flowers I am not sure what the florist was thinking when she added the tulle into the bouquet. Oh well it was only in a few pictures anyway.

I loved my dress. I bought one dress with the skirt I liked, took the the top of that dress off, bought some really nice lace and had someone make the top. Although I would have liked to keep the dress thinking someone somewhere might be able to use it since a lot of people we knew who got married after I did were looking for dresses to borrow, my mom decided to give my sister's dress and my dress away to goodwill. I am sure someone had a very lucky day one day at the Bakersfield goodwill.

So in 8 years we have been through 7 moves, 3 years of undergrad, 4 years of dental school, had 3 children, and finally bought a home of our own. Here is to many more wonderful years to come with my amazing husband and beautiful children.

Music

So I love music and love listening to it and playing some of it on the piano(yes I am admitting that I am very very glad my mom made me take piano for all those years). I decided to add some music to our blog. I only added some of my favorite relaxing music rather than some of my favorite music which includes my chemical romance, guns n roses, green day, beastie boys etc, etc. I figured some people wouldn't care to much about listening to any of that stuff. I will listen to pretty much just about any kind of music. You have the option of turning the music off if you don't want to listen to it. "Feels Like Home" is Jared's and my song and therefore is one of my favorites. Let me know what your favorite songs are so I can add to the playlist. Enjoy!

School's Back In!!!!

So hallelujah school has started. Well actually it started about 2 weeks ago but things have been pretty hectic trying to get back into the swing of things. Ethan is finally in a full day of school as a first grader so we now have to be up and ready for school early. Ethan loves his class and school and is up and ready every morning ready to go. Sometimes he is up and ready too early. It has been wonderful for him to be there all day. It wears him out and gives him some good structure and it gives me enough time to run errands with only two kids. This was Ethan on the first day.

Landon decided to join in and since it is physically impossible for that kid to just smile nice for a picture this is what we got. At least it is better than the scowl we usually get.

Don't let the picture of the kids and I fool you either. I think I was more excited than Ethan for school to start but it was a rough and very early morning. Next year I will prepare myself a little bit better the night before.

So we are huge fans of the show So You Think You Can Dance. Although I am pretty sure my dad is an even bigger fan. He loves the show. I loved this season as much as the last if not more. When they announced the tour dates my family all said we are going no matter what. Well we are going. They are coming to LA the day before Thanksgiving. Not the best timing since we are going to have to fight LA traffic on one of the busiest travel days of the year but I say well worth it. All of Jared's family is coming out and they are all going to. I don't know how many of them actually watch the show but I am sure they will be hooked after going to the live show. When tickets went on sale I started buying like a mad woman. We bought as many as we could find in decent seats. I used one of my credit cards, one of my mom's and one of Jared's. Ticket buying tip if there is a limit to how many tickets you can buy, most of the time they go off the credit card number not your home address. I figured better to buy more than enough and sell them rather than try to find some more. Last year the show sold out in like 10 minutes so I figured we wouldn't have a problem selling them if needed. Anyway, the show is sold out again and we are going this time. I think I am more excited about this than I have been about going to anything in a long time. We heard the show was great last year and we can't wait for this year. We have great seats and it will be a great start to the holidays.