Girls night out

My good friend Carey is due with her third baby at the end of February. So instead of having a baby shower, since she is having her second girl, she has quite a bit of stuff, she wanted some close friends to go and have dinner and a girls night. Most of the girls that went are my good friends from our previous ward. There were 6 of us all together. We met up at 5:30 at Amber's house and of course we all brang a gift so she quickly opened them and then we all crammed into Katie's car and headed to P.F.Changs for dinner. Our reservations weren't until 8:45 p.m. so we thought we would show up a little earlier and see if there was a possibility that we could get in any sooner. When we arrived  we found out that we only had to wait an hour so we decided to do it and we went out shopping in all the little convinent shops along the town. I hadn't been to downtown Boise in years and it was a lot of fun. Out of us 6 there were three pregnant. Two of them, Carey and Katie, both due on the same day and then Anne who is only 17 wks. along. We had fun talking about husbands, kids, and whatever it was we felt like talking about.
We had such a fun time just hanging out and being care-free. I hadn't had that much fun in quite some time. It was so much fun.
Then we finally got in to P.F.Changs and ate. We ate like crazy. We all ordered a huge dish and then decided to pass them all around the table so we could all try them out. We had TONS of food and it was sooooo good. Then after we were done we sat around the table and just talked about whatever we talked about. We talked about babies in general. Two of the girls there are nurses and so we had some fun talk about babies in the NICU and what we have all experienced with our own babies. Somone asked me about our first baby Madalynn and so I started to talk about my whole experience and before I knew it I was in tears and all the other girls around me were too. I don't usually cry when I talk about it but for some reason I did.
So from 5:30 pm. -to almost 11 p.m. I felt like a kid again. It was so much fun. We laughed almost non-stop and I have a sore throat and a hoarse voice because of it. From now on we are going to have a girls night once a month.
I had some pictures taken but none of them worked out. So I have no pictures to show for it but maybe next time.
Thanks Katie, Amber, Carey, Brittany and Anne for a fun night! Let's do it again really soon!

9 Months

I really can't believe it! My baby is 9 months. He has grown up quite abit this last month. He is trying to crawl, rolls around, and throws this fit if he doesn't get picked up or whatever it is he wants. He is quite hilarious. He has two little teeth on the bottom and is cutting two more. His hair has gotten pretty long. I love the curls. He will wake up from his naps alittle sweaty and the hair on the sides of his head will be so curly. I love to run my fingers through it.

 We have enjoyed this little guy. He has been the peacemaker in our home. He loves his brothers, loves to eat anything but squash, beans and peas. He is sleeping a lot better at night and during the days we are mastering his nap schedule. It is hard to get out and do anything because I have really dedicated my time to help peserve his schedule. Sometimes it is really hard to go out in the evenings because he is in bed between 6:30-7 pm. But we have managed pretty well so far. Owen, we love you!

Flashback Friday

This picture was taken in July of 2002. I had been home from my mission for about 3 months and I had flown to Utah for the day to attend the wedding of Hna. Ashworth. She was my mission trainer. I flew in that day and two elders from my mission picked me up so we could all go together to the wedding. Elder Kincher and Elder Stevenson picked me up from the airport. I don't remember how I ended up here at Makai's sisters house but I remember hanging out with her for quite some time until the elders came back for me.
So here we are - Hna. Monica Makai and I sitting on her sister's couch listening to Chilean music and talking about whatever was going on at the time.We were both young, not married and anxious about the future. Monica was and still is one of my best friends. We continue to keep in touch and she just celebrated the birth of her sweet little baby girl. It has been so much fun to keep in touch with my good friends. These people have no idea the impact they had on my life.

So Monica, if you are reading this, you are such a great friend. Thanks for such a great time on the mission. I think we spent quite abit of time together while we were serving in La Granja. We werern't companions but we lived in the same little pension over our mamita's house. Remember hearing her doing her chantings every day? We had them timed. Remember Hna. Howcroft getting so mad at us and made us all listen to that hymn on cassatte? Remember just laughing our heads off? Do you remember visiting the witch with us?Do you remember having BBQ'S with the elders at the Stake Center on our p-days? Do you remember hanging out with the other sisters in their pension? Eating cheetos, and playing games? Do you remember Elder Jeppson calling Hna.Nez an Indian giver? Or were you gone by then? I can't remember. I could go on and on about our time there. It was a fun place. Thanks for the good times. Aaahhh the good old days! They were great weren't they?

Things I need to work on

Seems like no matter how mad I can sometimes get at these two, I can never stay that way for more than a couple of minutes. After cleaning the entire house from top to bottom, feeling good that I got it all done, I come down stairs to find the fridge open, milk all over my newly moped floor, raisins all over the carpet I just vacumed, and toys everywhere. Does it get more frustrating than that? The answer I have come to find out for myself is YES! I wasn't looking for that answer but I realized that this is all just a small part of the journey. What is a childhood without scars, temper tantrums, and messes to show for itself? It is a must, and last night I was reading Pres. Monson's talk a few conferences back when he explained that one day this will all be gone and you will look at those clean windows, clean floors and much smaller piles of laundry and wish it all back. Funny to believe that one day someone could miss it all. I have learned to sit back and enjoy the journey. I have made a few resolutions for the new year:

- work out 3 days a week

- scripture reading in privacy for 10 minutes every day

- become more personal in prayer

- spend more time with my children in meaningful activities and spend more one on one time with them

- advertise my photography buisness

- learn more about photography

-  more support for Lance in his proffession.

- learn to become more independent.

- stop complaining and look on the bright side

- learn to budget our money better

So that is just a few of the things I tend to work on. I do not like setting new goals, because I soon realize that I didn't accomplish much the year before on all the things I said I would. So here is to a new start, a new year and a new life.

This is how my week has felt.

Preschool burn out

I just finished my last day of having preschool at my home this week. There are 8 darling little kids and every 2 weeks we rotate between mother's of these children. My first 2 weeks were in December and since the last of those 2 weeks was busy, another mom took over for me in exchange that I take one of her weeks in January. Am I making sense? Well this was the week. What a busy week too!
I felt so overwhelmed with them in my home. I sometimes wonder if all the preperation, planning, and actual teaching ever gets through to them. I will cross my fingers and believe I did some good. Now I am done and next week it will be at Carey's home. Good luck Carey! You'll do great!
Now I an relax, take a break and wait to do it all over again in May. At least that is not for another 3 months. I am ok with that. I feel bad for admitting all of this but I couldn't really handle having that many small kids in my home at one time, running all over the place. I wanted to pull my hair out many times. Now I know how the old woman who lived in a shoe felt :)!

We went with a bunch of people on our cruise. This is just a very small few of the many that went with us. This was taken on the top of Catalina Island. This picture doesn't do it justice, but the view was amazing.

This was our boat ride over to the island. It was a small boat and you could definetly feel the boat move. But it only lasted for about 5 minutes. I was just amazed with the view.

Another view from the top of Catalina Island.

While we were in Mexico on our whale watching boat, I had to look at this for quite some time. I couldn't believe it. They did this for about 4 hours. I took this picture for my sister. She enjoys a good laugh. Everyone was just laughing. Seriously they did not seperate for the longest time, so I took a picture to see if my flash would cause them to stop and look, nope!

I loved almost everything about Mexico. One lady on the boat asked me to ask Martin (our fisherman firiend) if it ever snowed in Mexico. I wasn't going to ask that question, because, seriously it was obvious, look for yourself ~ pelican and seagull poop.

I am sure this home belongs to some poor, old fisherman. Imagine going home to that every night. I had to take a picture.

And last but not least our amazing towel friends that showed up in our room everynight.

Stay tuned for more. They are on their way!