Not Suitable For Adults

I personally don't think this would be the most comfortable spot for someone to watch TV, but these two seem perfectly content.

Show and Tell

I'm up late editing pictures and maybe it's weird of me, but this one was in my "no way am I including that" pile but now I love it!


I just love the expressions on the kids' faces who are near the baby. So funny! Everything isn't perfect during a shoot, and this picture to me shows the truth. I think it's awesome.

Potpourri For $200

- Jossy has been extremely difficult this week. After several days of me just about losing it, I took her to the doctor to find out that besides a cold she also has a little ear infection and is teething pretty badly. Nice.

- We almost made it 2 years with her never being on antibiotics.

- 22 months is too early to give up naps, despite what she thinks!!

- My throat is killing me.

- I had my first extended family shoot yesterday with 12 adults and 10 kids. Nothing like the education of experience!

- I forgot about Matty's primary activity Friday. He was near tears for having missed it, and I felt horrible.

- We took the kids to a city egg hunt yesterday and got pictures taken with the Easter Bunny. I somehow stupidly erased all the ones with the bunny. Not happy with myself!

- I still need to plan for Matty's birthday next week and do some shopping. His birthday is on Easter and Conference Sunday this year. That should be interesting.

- Dan found a way to hook his phone to the desktop so I can use the Internet on my computer. Still only have access nights and weekends for now, though.

- I'm so behind on blogging it's overwhelming.

- I love Conference, but it's always a bit stressful trying to come up with quiet activities for the kids to do so we can all actually hear it.

- My first week of eating right and exercising on my elliptical culminated in a 6 lb loss!! Wahoo!

-I've been sick all week. Did I mention my throat is killing me?

-I don't expect good numbers this week since I've been sick. Just praying not to gain really.

- I finally registered Matty for kindergarten . . . about a month after everyone else did.

- I can't help but think the Easter Bunny is lazy. I was out shopping for him last night and thought "Why can't he do his own dumb job?!"

- I'm excited for our upcoming family vacation to Las Vegas for Spring Break to see some friends.

- I'm not excited about the drive. We've never driven more than 4 hours with the kids.

- I still haven't finished my taxes.

- I'm ready to shoot the next deer who eats my growing tulips.

- I'm on to my second fertilizer that's supposed to keep the deer away.

- After that, maybe we'll be getting a hunting dog.

- I love the sunny weather lately. Feels so good to sit outside and read a book while the kids play.

- It's Dan's day to sleep in. It's now 11 and he's still asleep. Wish it were my day.

The Missing Blogger

The few of you who actually read my blog regularly may have noticed I've been a little MIA lately. The thing is we've lost our Internet connection at home so the only access I have is on Dan's phone at the end of the day. Who wants to blog typing on a phone??? (I'm at the library using their access right now just so I could get some things done.) Anyway, thought I'd let those few faithful followers know I'm not dead. :) Hoping to get access back sometime this week! There's always too many pictures to share to get this far behind!

Mommy's New Toy

Wednesday
7:50 PM

3 hours later. . . .

(pardon Dan sticking his tongue out at me)

What a pain to put together!!! Some parts had to be hammered in because even with grease, the fit was way too tight! Sheesh!

But yes, I finally got my elliptical!! YIPEEEEEE!! I've seriously wanted one for years but we didn't have the space. I have a bad knee (whole long, complicated story) so riding an elliptical is one of the few things I can do without making things worse. I told myself I'd buy one as soon as we got into a house. Once we were in, I decided to wait for the government home buyers credit, and once I got that I decided to wait for the Black Friday sales. After not being impressed with those, I thought I'd wait til January when fitness equipment goes on sale. Once again, not steller deals. So I continued to wait and research, test them out, look at classified ads, wait some more, and research more before finally picking one at Walmart only to have the Jeep's fuel line break the same day we were going to pick it up! After paying $500 for the Jeep repairs (don't get me started) I thought maybe the elliptical just shouldn't happen. Once we got the car back, it took me a couple weeks to get over my hesitancy and just buy one already. Of course by then, every Walmart within 100 miles was out of the one I wanted. So I went out Wednesday and got a better, more expensive one at Costco, partly because of their return policy. Plus I love that it folds up so the kids can't play on it when I'm not watching.

So far, it's a great machine and thoroughly smoked me during my first workout last night. (Not hard to do when you haven't worked out like that in years!) We'll see how things go from here!

Party Time

This weekend my sister Ardice and I threw a party for our sister Dawn in honor of her 20th anniversary of turning 20!! We made the theme black and white and asked everyone to dress in those colors.

We had fun making the birthday girl wear a tiara and feather boa.
Incidentally, the boa kept shedding feathers everywhere and it wasn't long before it looked like a chicken had been running free in there.

Just before the party, I overheard my mom telling my dad he was supposed to dress in black and white. So my dad took it to the extreme. It was hilarious to see him come down stairs so dressed up! He and Dawn looked like the prom king and queen!

Jossy trying to figure out the shout horn.

I love this look of excitement as everyone sang to her!

Seriously can't believe the smoke alarm didn't go off.

Dan and Jossy kept themselves entertained for a while by making faces.

Myself and 2 of my 3 sisters (plus Jossy making more faces.)

We had a huge turnout and, most importantly, Dawn had a great time!

The Best Part About Throwing a Birthday Party

LEFTOVER CAKE!!!

Photography Site

There's a new button on my sidebar as of today. It looks like this:

It will take you to my new photography site! I finally got around to creating it about a month ago but have just been a little too chicken to let many people know about it for numerous reasons. But I know I need to get over my fears and share it.

So there you go!

Pretty in White

Here are just a few of the pictures I took of my niece in her blessing dress after the blessing was over. It's the same dress her big sister wore which was originally worn by their mom (my sister) with a few updates.

Blessing Day

My newest niece was blessed this weekend. I have definitely decided I take WAY too many pictures because I always find it so hard to narrow down what to share!!

Love this one of Matty and his cousin
Jossy wasn't sure how to help the crying baby. . .
. . . so she wiped Liv's mouth with some ribbon. I don't know why it didn't work. It always makes me feel better.
Dan and I content to be aunt and uncle right now and not the ones who have to be sleep deprived. :)

Just some cute ones of my girl. The one of the left makes us laugh. We have no clue what she was doing there.

If you don't hear from me for a week, you can be assured it's because I'm dead since my mom is going to KILL ME when she sees I've posted pictures of her on my blog. (Sincerely sorry, Mom, but these are too cute not to share!)

Jossy and her grandma laughing over giving each other kisses.

More of baby Liv coming in the next post!

My Guilt is Swept Away

After growing up with a somewhat unusual name and an even more unusual spelling, I decided some time ago that there were 2 requirements for my kids names: they had to mean something and I had to be able to find them on souvenirs like those tiny license plates or a mug. My name means "maiden" or something dull like that, and I never have and never will find my name on something in the store unless it's special ordered.

Well Matthew means "gift of God" which is exactly how we felt about him after trying so long to conceive. Jocelyn means "playful, joyful" which is definitely her. Obviously Matthew is easy to find on silly souvenirs, but when I picked Jocelyn's name I was a little more concerned. We chose the most common spelling just to have better odds, and I felt like since it was in the top 100 baby names, I had a good chance of finding it. I've searched a lot for her name on items, but never found anything . . . until yesterday.

I found these cute little tags in a party store and immediately had to buy them.

I feel much better now. :)

Thousand Word Thursday

Just to clarify, I wasn't the one who took this. It was my sister-in-law Angela when they were visiting in December. Don't want to take credit for her talent. :)