Gettin' Ready

Friday night Jamon and I went to Heber to babysit my two nieces, Ashlyn (4yrs) and Addison (1 1/2 years). I have babysat Ashlyn before, but never Addison. I haven't even been able to spend that much time with Addison. We got there as the girls were finishing dinner. I was able to distract Addison while Mom and Dad left, by playing Disney Princesses with the girls.

It took Addison a good 30 min before she realized Mom and Dad were gone. When this happened I was ready to pick her up and comfort her, but, No, she wanted nothing to do with me and even cried harder when I tried. Jamon on the other hand was able to pick her up and entertain her and make her smile. Ashlyn, who is SUPER shy and scared of men, other than her Dad, even had fun with Jamon. It was a huge break through for Jamon.

The only thing I could come up with while laying nauseous on the couch was "talking pants." I told Ashlyn that my pj bottoms, which have "Merry" written all over them, said "Merry Christmas" and she took it very literally. She said "you have talking pants?" I said yes every time you touch them they talk. So every time she touched them I would say "Merry Christmas" and she would give me a good laugh. Even though most of the time it sounded fake, it made me feel funny.

So Jamon spent the whole night holding Addison and when it was time to get her ready for bed he chose not to change her diaper, which made her mad because I had to do it and she didn't want anything to do with me. We got through it and Jamon was able to put her asleep not only once but three times. She kept waking up when he would try and lay her down. So finally he just laid her on the couch next to him while I slept on the bean bag. Don't worry I put Ashlyn to bed before I fell asleep, so I was a little help.

Ashlyn

Jamon trying on Ashlyn's Hat

Watching a Movie with the girls

Putting Addison asleep. Good Job Jamon!

It was a good experience for Jamon. He had most of the responsibility that night, not by choice, but it was his and he did great. I was very impressed. It makes me even more excited for June 29th to arrive (this is the due date for a little one to arrive). We may not be ready yet, but we are Gettin' Ready!

Late halloween update

So I realize I should have posted this a month ago but I figure better late than never.

Halloween at Sirsi Dynix (where I work) was pretty relaxed and I have the pictures to prove it. But don't let my boss see them. :)

Everyone was encouraged to come dressed up and luckily Staci had a last second costume idea for me although admittedly it wasn't much of a costume.
That is an authentic Brazilian national soccer jersey, and by authentic I mean actually purchased in Brazil by my bro-in-law, Mark, while he was serving his mission there when Brazil won its last World Cup, coincidentally this was the same time that I was serving in Italy and had to witness Italy with a terrible performance in the WC that year; however, they did regroup and won it four years later in Germany, Forza Azzurri! But that is beside the point.

The fun times came when we went over to where another work station where some employees had set up rock band. The excuse was they decorated their work station with a rock star theme for the company decorating contest, they didn't win the decorating contest but if it was a popularity contest chances are they probably would have won.
So as you can see in these pictures I passed some time shredding the guitar and grooving on the bass. I didn't try the drums this time nor did I display my vocal skills. But it sure was fun. Our best song was "Livin' on a Pray" by Bon Jovi, we ended in the high 90s, pretty sweet for a band thrown together at the work place. :) A random fact, Jon Bon Jovi's last name is actually spelled Bongiovi but he changed the spelling to Bon Jovi, why you ask, because it's better I guess, but it is pronounced the same.


In this second picture we look like we're in a trance, which isn't too hard to believe considering we're playing plastic instruments and feel like we are actually rocking out. :)


Later on in the day, everyone's kids came around trick or treating thus creating enough of a distraction that I was able to take off early.

And today I just got back from a company provided Thanksgiving feast and we get all of next week off.

I love my job. (sometimes)

Fish Out of Water

Here is a picture I tried to take of some ducks in the water, which didn't work because it was to dark and I have yet to figure out how to use my attachable flash. As I took the picture a fish decided to jump out of the water. How many times do you catch a fish doing that in a picture? Anyway, I just thought it was cool.

HOT HOT HOT

This is what happens when you win second place at the Ward Chili Cook-off.

(yes, there was more than 2 entries)

Prize: Everyone will FINALLY know who we are and... a dinky candle.

(except that no one still knows who we are)

Back to School

If someone would've told me that I would be teaching my 5th year of Preschool (and even starting to get used to being called a teacher), even two years ago I wouldn't have believed them. Yet here I am. I think I'm still enjoying it. For the most part I do. I could do without the whining from moms all day or the crying when I make a child do something they should already know how to do, or the standing and peeing all over the floor, or the hands in the pants when there is poop in there, or the bus that shows up 30 min late. So I know what most of you are saying, this is what moms do everyday. Okay, I agree, try 12 kids doing anyone of these randomly throughout the day. What I can't do without: having them finally put a piece of food in their mouths (after a week and a half of school) by THEMSELVES, remembering how to walk in a line, peeing in the toilet, better yet pooping in the toilet, remembering my name, the faces they make, the funny things they say, and just how super cute they are just to look at. I wish I could post pictures just to show you what I mean.

(Jamon got up early to take my first day of school picture)

So here's to another year of stress and fun, most likely FUN!

Off to the Lake

Once again Jamon and I are off to the Lake. This time not for fishing, but for a little boating fun.

Boaters: Jamon, Me, Scotty West, Steve-o, Dave McMullin and two of his friends, and our driver, Dave's Dad.

First we did this...

Then we did this...

"The Torpedo"

Jamon and Steve-o really rode it like this

We did A LOT of this...

And then we did some of this...Wave Surfing

All because of this guy

Dave Mcmullin

Dave and Jamon danced on the Folk Dance Team together, lived together several times for years at a time, and have been friends the whole time. Dave was my home teacher. He put up the blinds in my apartment, got me addicted to several new TV shows and introduced me to the world of Hip Hop music. He has been a great friend to both of us at different times in our lives. We will miss him as he goes to PT School in the heat of Arizona.

Other pictures of our day...

Zion, Mountain Meadows, and...

So Staci has posted about the first half of our summer vacation in July so I thought I would finish up and post about the second half. On a side note, does it bother anyone else how tiny of a window it is to see your post while editing it, and how hard it is to arrange photos? It totally bugs.

This is a picture from the fishing trip that I really like.

On one day we drove to Enterprise, UT to visit Staci's grandma and afterwards we drove to St. George. On our way we stopped at the Mountain Meadows Massacre memorial for a couple minutes. That was such a tragic series of events, check my other blog for some ramblings on it. The picture below has the actual location where the massacre took place in the back ground.
We stayed in my grandma's house in St. George, which is available for family use (a great place to have available, the last time I stayed there was the night before we married). We woke up early and headed for Zion National Park (not Zion's National Park, thanks Tyson for correcting me, albeit in an insensitive and arrogant way :) jk).

I have been wanting to hike Angel's Landing for quite some time now and I finally made it down there to do it. It was a great hike, definitely worth doing, and starting early in the morning is a must for hiking in the summer. We got a little later start than we had hoped but still early enough so we were done a little after noon. We felt bad for the people just starting as we were finishing.



When we got to the top we actually had a couple minutes with nobody else up there with us. It was very nice to have a peaceful couple minutes up where the angels land with my very own angel....oh Staci I know you love it :-)
We found that the chipmunks are very friendly at the top, a little too friendly at times.
This was the closest I've been to a vulture this big so I had to take a picture of it.
This is a real pic, I wasn't photo shopped in.
And then we went down.

That was the highlight of the vacation, so much fun.

The following week we went back down to Cedar City for a couple birthdays and a baptism. After our nephew Tasin was baptized we had a picnic at the park and played around. It was fun playing in the park with my nieces and nephews.I played with a Transformer

Played soccer with Tason
And played tag on the toys, (having the Spiderman t-shirt on helped me climb on the toys much better. It was lot of fun. Oh and we couldn't touch the ground.

But they did wear me out very quickly, I was always so confused as a kid when people would tell me I had too much energy for them, I couldn't understand how, I guess I still don't know why but I do know that little kids have so much stinkin energy.

In the end we spent three weekends in a row in Cedar City/Enoch but all things must come to an end sometime.

(hint, I put the picture of the sunset to represent our summer vacation coming to a close)
I know I was inconsistent on having explanations to photos switching from being above the pictures and below the picture; but I couldn't do everything perfect otherwise there would be nothing for me to improve upon. :-)