25 things about me

So I got tagged and thought I would share a few things about myself, but since I don't post a whole lot of anything on facebook I thought I would just blog my answers.

SO,

1. I absolutely love my hair with red in it, but probably wont do it again, because is washes out quickly
2. I love to throw things away, and will finish things just to do so
3. I am the youngest of 7 kids, therefore putting my immediate family over 30
4. I really enjoy running and it makes me feel good afterwards
5. I have to take a shower and get ready everyday so that I feel like a person and not a slacker
6. I really love to read and will read almost anything
7. I also love movies and will watch almost anything
8. I am a scrapbooker
9. I do not really like to shop, but when I get out and find something that works, I love it
10. I wear a lot of accessories and have a lot of shoes, because well they always fit, clothes do not always fit
11. I love to clean, and I love the look of a clean toilet
12. I enjoy doing laundry, but do not like to fold it. Brandon tells me that is because all I have to do is change everything to washer and dryer, and then the work begins
13. I have been married for almost 4 1/2 years
14. Before Brandon and I moved we lived below a 55 year old toy freak, who lived next to smokers, which caused him to have "breathing problems", who lived above a family that cooked curry everyday and it seeped through the walls (get all that)
15. the first car I drove was a manual Chevy, Nova that I got when my brother left on his mission that had a super man sticker on the steering wheel and a smartie in the radio nob to keep the station in.
16. I have been pulled over twice in the past 4 months and now whenever I see a cop car think, will it be me, and what will it be this time?
17. I broke my arm at 5 while riding my TRAINING Wheel bike and landing on grass, went to tell my mom and she told me to go home and tell my dad. ( my mom likes to tell her story, but I think mine is better)
18. I have had stitches or/and have a scar from all of my brothers, which include things like, baseballs, boomerangs, pickle jars, and toe nails
19. I do NOT like sea food and feel sick if they still have the eyes on them where they can look at me
20. I really like to exercise
21. I love music and will listen to just about anything
22. I have a beautiful daughter that just turned one and is fun, so I think she is a keeper
23. I love to sleep, but don't always get as much as I should
24. We recently went to visit my sister and her family in Australia and had a great time
and last but not least
25. I enjoy a good party game, and for the most part like to learn new games.


So I tag who ever feels like do this, have fun
RULES: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

Looking, Searching, and Praying

So Monday started as any other day, I got up went to the gym came home, Brandon got ready and headed off to work. Claire and I played, had naps, and were just waiting for daddy to come home. Well a little after 4:00 I saw him pull up, thinking it was a little strange, because he doesn't usually get home until after 5:00.

Well Monday didn't end like any other day. Brandon was let got from his job. The company he was working for has done some major down sizing starting with closing his branch he was managing while we were in Australia. The day he was let go, many others were as well. As well as more going on since then.

I tell you this simply because we are in need of work and need your help. If you hear of anything we would love to hear about it. Brandon is trying anything right now, well we need insurance and pay to get the bills paid. Please if you hear anything, we would be very grateful.

We never thought this would happen to us, but no one ever really does, we feel blessed with everything we have, and feel like we are being watched over in this time. This may be a great blessing in the future for us at a different company. For now we are Looking, Searching and Praying that it will be sooner rather than later.

15 Months

Well our little Claire is 15 months we headed into the doctors yesterday, for a check-up and some shots. Claire did better with the shots, and she got to choose from the toy drawer after wards. She got a fish that squeaks, and soon as she figured out it made noise she was all smiles again. I for some reason don't have any recent pictures of Claire so I will post one of my favorites from her one year old shoot.

Claire is still tall and skinny (even though she seems to eat all day, I call her my bottomless pit)
31 inches 85 %
21 lbs 2 oz 15 %

She is growing great and doing all that she needs to be doing, except for one thing: I will get to that later!
Some things I would like to share about Claire:
-She loves to laugh and giggle and loves to get us to do the same. She will start to laugh and then make sure we are laughing and then keep doing it.
-She loves to talk (well jabber with a few words mixed in) I barely get a word in.
-Her favorite word is No, No and to shake her head. And she knows what it means, and says it will great power.
-She can say Hiiiiii, uh-oh (and knows right when to use it), eyes, no, uh-huh, baby, light, momma, daddy, oh-no (usually coupled with oh-no momma), sometimes we think we hear thank you and welcome. Also when my niece (her cousin) Chelsea is a round she says something that sounds like Chelzee. But will only say it once.
-When she plays with phones her conversations go something like this: Hiiiii (or ello) uh-huh, uh-huh, pause, uh-huh, uh-huh, then hands the phone to me with a huge grin.
-she loves to push and pull things around.
-we have started to be able to do cute do's with her growing hair
-she loves to give loves, but only usually will give them to me when I ask
-she loves David Archuleta and dances when she hears his music (she loves to dance in generally)
-she loves books, but wont let me read them, we just get to look at the pictures at warp speed
-when you tell her to be soft, she turns to you and will rub her hands on your cheeks very softly
-she is very sweet but has a temper and one of the things she throws fits about is the one thing we are trying really hard to get her to do, WALKING.

Claire is NOT walking and we talked for a while about that at her appointment yesterday. She is very active and will do anything to get to where she wants to be, she has even started to climb on things, but will not walk to it. Her doctor game in as she was roaming around the room waiting and when Claire saw her doctor she crawled right over to her and climbed up to try to get into her arms, the pediatrician was great enough to get down on her level and let her do just that. Dr. O said that she was doing great and would most likely be walking sooner rather than later. We talked about whether having been born early and having her heart surgery might have something to do with it as well, but seems fine and will walk when she is ready.

Claire and her walking is absolutely been a crazy experience, she has been set on a chair more for the way she acts when we try to get her to walk then anything. She went crazy and started screaming when she was put down by Brandon and he walked her into her room and she stayed there for a minute. He went and got her and she wanted me, we she came to me Brandon was standing next to me and she started to push and hit and pinch him, back on a chair. Needless to say she was not daddies friend for the rest of the day.

She can walk I have seen her walk to me and to Brandon from being placed on her feet, she just choses not to. Time will tell what will happen. I love this age it is getting more and more fun.

Thanksgiving Week

Because of the outcome of the game on Saturday I just couldn't bring myself to post any pictures of the week we just had, a little to devastated by it all. (in reality I had the camera with me the whole weekend and didn't touch it once.)

So our fun week started Sunday after church and right after Claire's nap with the poor girl throwing up and not keeping anything down. We stayed home and tried to keep her comfy. She was fine by the next morning.

Wednesday we were givin' some blood to start out the giving spirit. I went to bed Tuesday night went to the gym Wednesday morning and ran two miles, walked quickly down the stairs, past the weight room and straight into the bathroom and into a stall to start the vomiting on my end. Don't worry I went past the weight room back up the stairs, back onto the track and ran other mile, ran down the stairs in the weight room and straight to the bathroom into the stall and decided maybe I should just go home and not finishing the pattern in the last 3 miles as I started in the first 3. Needless to say I was not giving blood that night, and was keeping my fingers crossed so I could eat our Thanksgiving feast the next day.

Sure enough I was great the next day a little dizzy from the lack of food I had the previous day, but made it up quickly.

Spent some great and much needed time with the family, eating talking, playing games, looking through the adds, looking online, talking to my sister and her husband in Australia, and then headed to the mall. The mall opened at 9:00 Thursday night, so some of the girls headed there. Then Toy R Us opened at midnight the BOYS went there, are you shocked because we were. We told them it might be crazy. And they thought the would be back by 1:00, we chuckled and they got back after 2:00. Then the ladies all spread out for Black Friday Madness. Kohl's, Wal-mart, Target, Bath and Body Works, Shoe Carnival, and more Kohl's. After everything was done at 6:30 in the morning we headed into IHOP for some much needed refueling. And then headed to various homes to sleep, mind you I got roped into playing two games a Phase Ten.

I got a call Friday after everything was done from Brandon telling me he was not doing so hot. So I headed over to grab Claire and let Brandon sleep.

Saturday we headed over to my sister, Dera's to watch the BYU vs. Utah game. Just so you know, I graduated from the U, so I support the team, but don't really know that much about football. I do talk a little trash to those BYU fans, because I know enough about football to know that when the score changes on the bottom of the screen someone did something great. (okay, okay, okay, I know more than that). After the game that really was exciting in the end, but a little disappointing, (depending on who you talk to), some of the ladies went and saw New Moon, and I have to say it was pretty good.

So all in all a great weekend minus the 24 hour bug that went around our small family, and the gym (he he he, just kidding I think I stayed away from most everyone) we had a great Thanksgiving week. Hope all yours were as great as ours was!

Seeing Red

S0 I decided to go for a change in color. I did red once and is washed out quick, this may do the same, but it is a fun change. Aren't we all in need of a change sometimes!

Happy Halloween

So the night before Halloween, I headed in to check on Claire. Her room as laminate flooring and can get cold, so I head in to make sure she is not freezing. Well Brandon had told me she had done this same thing to him a few days before and said he just laid her back down. She sat up in her bed when she heard me open the door and walk in, but she was still alseep, yup you heard right, still asleep. I headed for the camera. she of course was playing with her blanket, total habit for her.

After she had enough sitting, she just laid back down.

Now on To Halloween day, Claire was an adorable little Ladybug

We went to Great Gram and Gramps house to start out our night to show off and then headed to Grandma and Grandpa Carlson's to show them and Auntie Shan how cute those ladybugs really are. After showing off we headed to Grandma Vonnie's and Grandpa's for our fun Halloween party. We played a spoon game, where we had to get candy corn from a bowl to a cup on a spoon. Seeing as Claire is being a little bit sassy about learning to walk, I helped her out. I would hold her hand and the spoon and then help her dump it out. After she figured the game out...
she wanted to do it herself, so she would grab as many as her little hands could and then we would walk to the other side and she would dump them in. (she didn't even try to eat them, surprise, surprise)
Then of course we headed out to do some trick-or-treating. Here is the group that went out to "get candy, get candy, get candy" (Jerry Seinfeld stand-up act)
After that we played games and ate until after midnight. HAPPY HALLOWEEN ALL!!!

When the Dads are away the Kids will play!

I have 3 friends I grew up with that have babies all about the same age as Claire. They were all born with in a year of each other. Sadly two of the four of us live out of the state and the third will be moving soon with her husband that just joined the army. Therefore we had to get together and play and talk. Xander havin' a great time!

The gang
Don't worry we will make a mess
Look I can crawl YAHOO!!
Benjamin
Allie and Benjamin


Thanks for coming over and playing whenever you are in town come on over again.