We Thank Thee Oh God for a Prophet

On a more somber note, as most of you know the prophet of the LDS church, Gordon B. Hinckley, passed away last night at 97 years old. Although we knew the time would be coming soon, we will certainly miss his sweetness, his wisdom, and his sense of humor. He is again with his beloved wife, Majorie. How fortunate we were to have him lead our church for nearly 13 years! We will remember him and his teachings.

The Trees are Messy!

We woke up this morning to SNOW! When Lucy woke up, Wade pointed outside our bedroom window and told her to look at the snow. She informed us that the trees are messy! We love the beautiful snow, though, although of course driving in it is no fun. Wade stayed home most of the morning, and we got to play outside. Lucy made a great little snowman and her first snow angel. I started taking pictures but the battery died on our camera before I got many outside! She was happy to enjoy the back yard again, though!

Tag, I'm it!

I’m finally getting around to answering my questions… I was tagged by Laura. :) Don't forget to check out the bottom of my post to see if I tagged you!

~10 years ago~

I was 17 years old and getting ready to graduate high school! I was able to go to Paris and London with my mom, dad, and brother Tim. We were able to see so many sites! I’m still amazed I ever had that much energy, although I do remember sleeping an entire day away the second we go to our hotel room (even though we “planned” to stay up as long as possible). I went to prom that year. I wish I could remember more…
~5 years ago~

I’d been married for 2-1/2 years! We lived in Ogden, Utah, and owed a money pit, literally. I could go on and on about that, but most of you know our nightmare stories. I feel like our marriage is golden since we were able to survive that together! I was just starting my new job as a medical transcriptionist (still in the same field)! Wade was in school at Weber State. We went to an all-inclusive resort in Mexico for our 2-year anniversary… oh, all the sand, sun, ocean, virgin strawberry daiquiris we could handle. When can I do that again?

~1 year ago~

We were beginning to consider buying a house in Washington. Lucy turned 1 year old, and we had a little party for her with a cake shaped like the Baby Einstein caterpillar (I was so proud of myself)! Lucy didn’t eat the cake, and she mostly just got mad when her fingers got all dirty. She still doesn’t like to have oowy gooey hands. We spent Christmas with our families in Utah.

~Yesterday~

Lucy and I met Kedra and Olivia at the mall to play. Lucy also went to the gym w/her daddy while I worked in the afternoon. Needless to say, she didn’t fight us much when it was time for bed! I did laundry, just like every other day.

~5 favorite snacks~

1—Maybe seems really strange, but I LOVE the soy beans you can buy frozen from Costco. Lucy and I eat those probably every day. They’re so easy to prepare and so yummy!
2—Obviously chocolate is among any woman’s favorite snack, or maybe it’s considered more of a “treat.” Either way, I’m no different.
3—Oranges are definitely a common snack around here, too. I love them! We just bout a HUGE box from Costco the other day, actually. I will be interested to see if we can eat them all before they go bad. Maybe I’ll go get one now.
4—I’m with my mom on the Yoplait Whips (yogurt). They melt in your mouth!
5—I could probably eat Good & Plenty every day and have no problem with it. Well, my body wouldn’t love it, but my mouth would!

~5 things to do with a million dollars~

1—Pay off our house.
2—Go back to Mexico!
3—Quit working so hard and smell the roses.
4—Create college funds for kids (hopefully a million will cover it by then)!
5—Hire someone to do my laundry.

~5 places to run away to~

1—A warm bath takes care of just about any problem.
2—Bed!
3—Somewhere warm. Mexico? I’m so cold right now!
4—To see Grandma and Grandpa with Lucy. They always make us happy!
5—Anywhere with Wade for any amount of time (well, any time less than a week… don’t think I could survive much longer away from Lucy).

~5 TV shows~

1—30 Rock
2—The Office
3—Medium
4—Psych
5—AVF (something we can watch as a family)

~5 things I hate doing~

1—Laundry, obviously
2—Junk mail (email and snail mail)!
3—I’m with my mom and SIL on this one. Spiders! Anything with spiders. I don’t like to look at them, I don’t like to think of them, I don’t like movies about them, I don’t like killing them. You get the idea.
4—Airplane rides by myself with a 2-year-old “lap” child to CT. I’ve definitely had better days, but it’s totally worth it! Fortunately, Lucy will no longer be a “lap” child after February.
5—Speaking in public!!!

~5 joys~

1—My sweet daughter!
2—Incredible husband! He’s full of surprises.
3—Getting to see my parents and in-laws with their grandchild.
4—Hmm… something not family related. I love that we can go anywhere and feel at home through our church.
5—Surprises! Like the one Wade did for me while we were gone in CT (see below)

~5 interesting things about me~
Wow, this will be a hard one.
1—I’ve never had the chickenpox, and couldn’t seem to get them even though I tried! (I even had a sleepover with my best friend when she had the chickenpox.) That’s not so original now that there’s a vaccine, but it used to be interesting.
2—I got pulled over when I was 16 for letting my little brother (15) drive the car on a very quiet road. Well, I guess technically he got pulled over, and then while the cop was walking up to the door I remember him taking off his seatbelt and trying to get me to switch spots with him. I of course knew better. I should have known better than to put the 15-year-old behind the wheel of a car. He’s a great driver now.
3—I used to be scared of toilets (even up until a few years ago). It wasn’t that I was scared using them, it’s that I was scared flushing them. The sound made my heart stop until it was over. I had an especially hard time with the loud supersonic toilets that flush at the speed of sound. Also, I still don’t like using the toilets that flush automatically… I need control over when that thing is going to flush.
4—I cried when my oldest brother left on his mission and I had to speak in church. And I cried a LOT. Everyone thought I was sad because he was leaving, which of course I was sad that he was leaving, but mostly it was because I was the last one to speak for the meeting and all I could think about was how freaked out I was. As mentioned before, I hate speaking in public! I now can manage not crying in front of everyone while waiting for my turn to talk, but it’s definitely not fun.
5—This is taking so long! What else… what else… I guess it might be interesting (in a gross kind of way) that I chew on my cheeks when I’m nervous. Some people bite their fingernails, I bite my cheeks. It’s an impossible habit to break, but I’ve been trying for years. Hopefully most of you have stopped reading by now. :)

Phew! That’s over with. That was kind of hard. I hope you all learned something new about me! Now I’m going to tag Kristen W, Kedra, Lisa D, Shelley, and Emily. Have fun with it! I’m ready to read about your interesting quirks!

Surprise!

PLAY ROOM BEFORE:

Lucy and I went to visit my parents in CT last week as they were not able to make it to our home during Christmas (my mom broke her leg/had surgery just days before they were due to fly out)! We had a LOT of fun visiting them and helping my mom adjust to her new method of moving about, or lack thereof. Lucy sure loves all of her grandparents! We'll post pictures from our trip soon. While we were away, Wade took on the task of re-doing our play room! I had no idea he was up to this, but he managed to paint, redo the baseboards, and put in a cabinet system all within the week I was gone (in addition to his normal work schedule)! Here are pictures from the project - it looks great!! He's due for some major R&R.

AFTER:

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! We had a wonderful New Years Eve w/my in-laws and celebrated at 10 p.m. (for Lucy). I was surprised how much she liked the poppers! She didn't want to do many herself, but she never wanted the celebration to end. Most of the rest of us made it until midnight with only an occassional snooze here and there. When did it get so hard to stay up past 10???

Snoqualmie Falls

Bob and Colleen (grandma and grandpa) called us last minute to come share New Years with us! We were SO happy to have them come visit us. On New Years Eve we decided to take advantage of the sunny day and head out to Snoqualmie Falls. It was beautiful, of course, and we got some great pics w/gma and gpa. :) Thanks for coming to share the New Year with us grandma and grandpa!!! We love you!