Back together at last!

I know I have been known to not post for a few months, but this time it wasn't my fault, I swear! My computer started getting blue screens the week before Thanksgiving and basically stopped working. It took two months, many phone calls to HP's customer service, 2 sets of system recovery CDs which revealed the problem wasn't a software problem, which Robbie and I already knew, and finally sending in the computer over Christmas break, I have finally been reunited with my lovely laptop. They replaced almost everything, except for the screen, webcam, and hard drives, so we have been getting to know each other again this last week. I couldn't post because I couldn't get to my pictures, and what is a post without pictures? Now that we are back together I have been able to upload all of the pictures we took over the holidays and get my photoshop album all organized and photos tagged, and thanks to free shipping at Snapfish I was able to get most of the pics printed so I can get the kids photo albums up to date. I have just a little over 2 months to get that done and Alex's first year scrapbook, another reason it was such a huge inconvenience to be without my computer. I am so happy to have it back. "They" always say not to buy the extended warranty, but Robbie and I have decided to extend the warranty since practically everything was replaced and would have cost us more than buying a new computer.

Rah! Rah! Rah! Go Cougars!

This year we decided to splurge and we bought All Sport Passes so that we could enjoy many of the sporting events BYU has to offer. We thought it would be a great way to spend time as a family and the boys loved it! The first few games we died of heat, but luckily none of the games were in the bitter cold. We got seats by my brother Brett, and occasionally my sister Melanie would come and visit us in our section.

Our seats were in the North end zone and we enjoyed seeing a lot of touch downs scored there.


Jared, Alex, and Aunt Melanie


Jared belting out the fight song.


Robbie and Alex


Alex loves his brother Jared so much!


We always had to sneak in lots of treats to keep Alex happy for the 3 - 4 hour games. If he wasn't eating he was flirting with whatever cute girls were sitting near us that week.


The whole fam enjoying the game!


Since a lot of the games were in the afternoon Alex would miss his nap. He would fall asleep in the last few minutes of the game sometimes and this time he fell asleep while sitting on Robbie's shoulders as we walked to our car.


Alex and Robbie


Jared and Uncle Brett


Jared singing the fight song the first home game of the season.


Alex finally caught on by the last home game and really started getting into it. He even joins in when the crowd cheers "First Down".

Jared loves, I mean LOVES, singing the Cougar Fight Song! He will break out in song daily. Over Thanksgiving he would run around Robbie's parents' house with his hand in the air, as if he were carrying a flag shouting the song. The good aunt Aimee is, she made Jared a fabulous flag for him to run around with.

However, after he saw a BYU quilt that Grandma and Grandpa have he noticed that the B-Y-U letters she had made with duct tape were not exactly the same font as the ones on the blanket and we had a meltdown. She did her best, but it was still not good enough for him. There was no consoling until Uncle Josh made him one on the computer.

Sittin' Pretty, Ready to Go

We went to the doctor today and we are over halfway to having our very own basketball team. That's right, another boy! Yes, I was hoping for a girl, everyone knows I did everything to have one, but apparently God wants us to have another boy right now. And it's probably a good thing, since Robbie still has two years of school left, and I wouldn't be able to properly spoil her like she should be. The next time we have a baby, Robbie will have a full time job and I will be able to pay for cute girl clothes and not dress her in her brothers' hand-me-downs.

So yeah, I have nothing to do to get ready. We have sizes of clothes for all seasons since Alex and Jared were on the opposite ends of the spectrum. No burp cloths or blankets need to be made, so I can just relax until he comes, right? Not! I have plenty to do, like Alex's first year scrapbook, or catch up on the kids' photo album, or do the scrapbook for Robbie and I that I have been trying to do for years. Oh, and we also have to get rid of a lot of stuff to make room for one more in our little apartment.

It will be interesting to see what he looks like, since Jared looks more like me and Alex looks more like Robbie. We just have one problem...coming up with another boy name. It is so hard for us, and it doesn't help that people seem to always be stealing good boy names for their girls. It will probably come down to another long last night in the hospital debating what the little guy's name should be.

So no one can get mad at me that there aren't enough good worthy young men for their daughters to marry, because I'm certainly doing my part. It made me think of a quote that was in the Visitor's Center on my mission about how sister missionaries were important because they would be raising up righteous young men, Elders, in the church. If anyone has this please send it to me. I tried to find it on lds.org, but couldn't.

Ultrasound pics to come...

Free Snapfish Scrapbook

My friend sent me the following email and it's true, so everyone enjoy it!

Oprah is giving coupons for a free snapfish scrapbook. You have to get the coupon by Friday and use it by Sunday. So hurry at take a look at it. I thought it was so exciting and that every one would like to take advantage of it! I hope this link works.

http://www.oprah.com/slideshow/oprahshow/20081029_tows_messyhouse/7

Halloween

We had a fun Halloween. Jared got to wear his costume to pre-school and he got some goodies there too. On Wednesday they got Halloween cupcakes. His had an eye ring on it and he is obsessed with it. He wears it all the time, except for when he sleeps because he doesn't want to lose it. He tells me, "I love my eye, Mommy". Jared sure was a cute monkey.


My friend Choka's daughter Zayaa goes to preschool with Jared and so we have started carpooling. Her husband Dan works in the same lab as Robbie, so she took the kids to see them after school in their costumes and Jared thought that we pretty fun. Here are our cute kids. (Alex and Ariuna were napping.)


Jared before we left for the ward Halloween party.


The only way we could Alex to take a picture was to give him his pumpking with some candy already in it.


The ward had chili and baked potatoes first, followed by trunk-or-treating. Robbie decided this is the way to go. We got the church at 6:30 and were done and leaving by 7:30. No one was cold or tired. It was great.


Alex loved it!! Don't touch his bucket though or you will get a terrific tantrum. He had to be the one carrying it. It was so cute when he asked for candy from the people next to our car and I heard him say "thank you" so clearly. He always says "gracias" with me when I tell him to say "thank you". Robbie, who took the kids around, said he had been doing really well with saying it.




When we got home Alex looked through his bucket for a piece of candy to eat and he pulled out a little box of Milk Duds and started "oohing" and "ahhing". He had never had them before but you couldn't tell from his excitement. I asked him if I could have one and he responded with an emphatic "Nnooo", his favorite word lately.


Jared dumped out his bucket of candy and couldn't believe how well he had made out.


I overestimated how many kids would be at the party and we were left with 2 huge bags of candy from Sam's Club that were still half full. I guess we won't be needing to steal from our kids stash like last year. ;)

Halloween Birthday Party

We got to go to a Halloween Birthday Party for my friends' little girl on Oct. 25. The boys were so excited to wear the monkey costumes.

Alex really enjoyed the punch and cupcake. What a surprise! He has such a sweet tooth.

My little monkey.

My other little monkey, Jared, enjoying his cupcake.

They had a pinata and Alex loved it! It was so cute to watch him. Every time he would hit it he would yell. I thought it was so cute. Alex was very excited about all of the suckers that came pouring out when the big kids finally broke it open. I helped him get some starbursts and jolly ranchers. ;)

Thanks for a fun party Ana and David!

Gettin' Ready for Halloween

Well, I don't get much into decorating for the holidays, but since Jared is getting older I think it is important to celebrate and have some family traditions. So we picked out some pumpkins from Wal-Mart (not as fun as going to the pumpkin patch like we did growing up in St. Louis. Do they even have that here in Utah?) and we carved them the Friday before Halloween. We saw on the Today show to attach a whisk to your drill to clean out your pumpkin and so Jared wanted us to try it. It worked out all right, but not as good as we saw on T.V. Jared didn't like touching the guts and was done after pulling out seeds once. I don't blame him. I had my dishwashing gloves on.





Here are our Jack-O-Lanterns. And let me tell you. There was a tantrum about the square eye. I made the first triangle eye and asked Jared what he wanted the second one to be. He said a square. I asked him twice if he was sure that he didn't want another triangle. He was sure he wanted a square until he saw it. He wanted me to fix it, which you can't. He threw a tantrum and ended up in time out. When he came out he came over to me and said, "Ok, mommy, say your sorry." I was like, excuse me, you need to apoligize to me. He said, "but you did a square." He really thought I was in the wrong. I told him I was sorry for the misunderstanding, but that we can't behave this way. He apologized and we hugged and kissed, but he was in no mood for pictures, so I took this picture a few days later.


For FHE we decorated sugar cookies. My mom always made these and Halloween just isn't Halloween without them. Jared decorated his first one, and ate it, and was ready to play Wii. He decided he wanted to decorate a few more after that though and was pleased with his creation.




His had noses and hats. I only put eyes and mouths on mine.


Alex eats his pumpkin cookies by eating all of the chocolate chips first and then he eats the cookie. I like having a chocolate chip in every bite, but to each his own.