Haley and the Dentist

Today was a rough day for Haley. She recently got braces and today she had to have four teeth pulled so they can get started on moving her teeth around. She knew this was going to happen but I don't think she really knew what to expect. On the way down to the Dentist she was pretty nervous but doing ok. When we were called back and they were getting her ready Dr. Tillmann thought it would be good for her to have a little bit of the laughing gas. He put some gas on her and then he pulled me aside and told me that this was going to be pretty painful for her. Apparently her teeth were embedded pretty deeply and it was going to be a bit rough. After he told me that I got so nervous for her. I was sitting there watching them give her shot after shot (ten in all!) and I was watching her breathing getting faster and I honestly wanted to cry. I hate watching my kids in pain. I would have done anything to have done that for her.

Haley is one tough little girl. Our dentist was so impressed. He told me that the shots that he gave her where enough to make him cry and Haley didn't shed a tear. She did so good! Dr. Tillmann is so awesome. The whole time he kept complimenting her and telling her how good she was doing and what a pretty girls she was, etc. He is such a flatterer. I remember I would go and get my braces adjusted and he would always compliment me too. There's a reason I have been going to him my whole life. :) Just kidding...

We are lucky to have such a great Dentist. I have to tell you though that when she was recovering afterwards she was cracking me up. She was saying weird things in a really loud voice with wads of gauze hanging out of her mouth and I seriously wanted to laugh so hard. I had the giggles really bad and it took everything out of me not to laugh my head off. It's like my mind knows that I need to behave myself but I can't. I did laugh a little, but I refrained from losing it completely.

It also didn't help that I was texting Jake about what was going on and I thought I wrote, "Reudi is going to give her some laughing gas," but instead auto correct change it to, "Russian is going to give her some laughing gas." Dang you, auto correct! That got me laughing too. Have I mentioned about the time that my friends little boy was in Primary Childrens Hospital and I wrote on her Facebook wall, "I'm so sorry that Ben is staying at Urinary's!" I was so embarrassed. Thankfully I deleted it before she saw it. I hate auto correct!

Anyways.... Jake is working so Haley gets to sleep with me and I just might let her stay home from school tomorrow. She deserves to be spoiled. Maybe getting these teeth out wasn't so bad after all?

Happy Valentines Day!

Today is one of my most favorite Holidays! I love Valentines Day. I haven't always been this way though. I really started to love it when I got married and had someone to enjoy it with.

I remember in Junior High and High School I really hated it. I would see all of these girls parade around with balloons, flowers, etc. and I would act like it was the last thing I would ever want. I really wouldn't have wanted the attention, but to have a boy give me something like that would have totally thrilled me. I remember my Sophomore year I came home from Young Women's on Valentines Night and my crush Ben had left me a teddy bear and some candy. To say I was excited was an understatement! I am a romantic at heart my friends. I love this kind of stuff.

I am debating on sharing this story with you or not but I will. Ok, so the first year that Jake and I were married we were totally broke and I had no idea what to do for him for Valentines Day. I was due any day with Haley and I was feeling discouraged by my largeness and bummed by our poorness. Is that a word? Anyways, my Mom told me of something that my Grandma did for my Grandpa once. She made him a very special Valentines cake. A naked lady cake is what it was. First I was shocked by this news, then I was intrigued. Hmmm, cake mixes are cheap... Jake likes naked ladies. Wait... that doesn't sound right. Let me rephrase that. Jake wouldn't mind glancing at a cake in the shape of a beautiful woman. (It definitely wasn't shaped after me since I was huge and pregnant, but we could pretend) .. I was all for it. Let's do it!

So my Mom and I whipped out a sexy naked lady cake for Jake. Mother Daughter bonding at it's finest. It wasn't bad, I promise. It was done in a tasteful way. Jake was shocked when I unveiled it, but we had a good laugh. I remember we ate the cake in bed while watching movies that night. By far one of my most memorable Valentines Days.

This Valentines Day was a bit of a dilemma. Jake is working twelve hour day shifts all week and we didn't go out the past weekend so I wasn't sure what to do. I called Jake at work last night and proposed a unique idea. I told him that I think we should just write each other a letter and then buy a treat to go with it. Easy. Simple. Sweet. He agreed and I was excited. I love writing letters and I love receiving them. Jake has a way with words, my friends. He is so good at writing love letters so when I get one I am thrilled.

This morning I walked into the kitchen and this is what I found: Hmmmm, unless he got everything for a dollar, I think he lied to me. I couldn't be mad though, especially after I read the letter he wrote me. It was very sweet and had me smiling. I bought Jake some of his favorite treats and wrote him a letter as well. I told Jake that I would have been totally happy with just the letter he wrote me. That means more to me that anything else. I also enjoyed writing a letter to him because it got me thinking of everything I love and appreciate about him. Today has been such a great day! We have had lots of family drop by Valentine treats and it made me really thankful to have such sweet, thoughtful people in our lives. I decided instead of giving the girls more candy I was going to go and buy one of those heart-shaped pizza's for dinner. It was a hit. They loved it. They are so easy to please. All in all it has been a really wonderful day. I am so thankful for all of the good people in my life that I love. Happy Valentines Everyone!

Inspiration

After I wrote my post last night I felt somewhat relieved. I needed to vent and get it off my chest. Later that night as I lay in bed I started to feel stupid. What do I have to complain about?! My life is really good. Of course I have my bad days, like everyone does, but I need to focus more on the positive in life. I have some friends that are going through some major trials in their lives and I have no reason to complain. Jake and I were talking about this last night and he mentioned that a day at work can be pretty good but one or two things can go wrong and it seems like the whole day is ruined. I let that happen to me yesterday. Instead of brushing off the bad and focusing on all of the good things that happened yesterday I focused only on the negative. Naturally I am a happy person and I usually am able to brush things off and move on. My downfall though is that I worry too much and if something is bothering me I have a hard time letting it go.

This morning as I was thinking about this a part of this quote come to my mind and I had to go and find it. It is from President Gordon B. Hinckley. It says, "Generally speaking, the most miserable people I know are those who are obsessed with themselves; the happiest people I know are those who lose themselves in the service of others...By and large, I have come to see that if we complain about life, it is because we are thinking only of ourselves."

Well... I am now feeling a bit humbled. The truth hurts, I tell ya! It's funny how things that you have read in the past come back to you when you need them. Needless to say, I needed this. Today is a new day and I am thankful for that.

Can I have a do over?

I am annoyed. Do you ever have days when it seems like everything that can go wrong does? Today was that day for me. I just wrote a huge paragraph of everything that went wrong and even I didn't want to read it so I deleted it. I will spare you the details. Let's just say that it was one of those days. I was running around all morning and afternoon and by the time I got home I put on my pajamas even though it was only two in the afternoon, and I sat on the couch and didn't move for an hour. The whole day wasn't terrible, but just enough to put me in a funk.

While sitting on the couch I stewed about everything that was bugging me. Then I decided to check Facebook on my phone and that actually made me more irritable. Does that ever happen to you? Maybe I am just a major snot but sometimes I really can't handle Facebook. I either leave feeling really happy and glad that I was able to connect with people, or I leave feeling worse. It's a weird thing. Sometimes I wish I could just walk away from it and never look back. I've tried to cut myself off of it cold turkey and when I do something big always happens and I think, "Why didn't I hear about this?" I come to find out it's all over Facebook and I look like a jerk for not knowing what was going on. It's a vicious cycle. Dang you Mark Zuckerburg.. I blame you.

I think it's time I make a list of some good things that happened today.

1. I started the morning with two of my favorite things: An egg mcmuffin and a Diet Coke. The Diet Coke was a good one too. It had a nice burn going down.

2. I saw an old friend at Walmart and it was fun to chat for a minute.

3. My Mom bought me lunch and we went shopping together.

4. I had a small piece of my Dad's German Chocolate birthday cake. Actually afterwards I felt guilty for eating it, but at the time I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

5. I made french toast, turkey bacon and hashbrowns for dinner. Breakfast for dinner always a good thing.

6. Jake and I had a good talk and were able to spend some good time together before he left to work.

7. I took a scalding hot bath. In my opinion a hot bath can fix anything.

Here's to hoping tomorrow is a better day.

Christmas, New Years and Karly's Baptism

The Holidays have come and gone. I have noticed that some years I can't wait for life to get back to normal after the Holiday's. This year I was actually a little sad to put everything away. I think it's because we had a really wonderful Christmas Season. Our kids stayed healthy all month long and that is a Christmas miracle in my opinion. It seems like every December someone in our family gets really sick. Last year every single one of us had strep throat right before Christmas. It was awful! I prayed every single night that we would all be healthy for the Holidays and my prayers were answered. Jake was off for two weeks and we had such a great time having him home with us. We relaxed but we also did some major projects around the house. I now have my own craft room downstairs, we de-junked the laundry/storage room, and Jake put in a new bathroom floor upstairs. We also made a huge trip to the dump, took down all of the Christmas decorations, and deep cleaned the whole house. It was awesome. I feel like a new woman! I also have something else newsworthy to report: I am all caught up on my laundry!!!! I have turned a new leaf and laundry is my friend. I used a lot of advice you guys gave me and it has really helped. Thank you!

Here are the girls on Christmas morning in their new Christmas dresses. We went over to my parents and had a delicious breakfast with the whole family before we skyped with Aaron. It was so great to talk to him! His year mark is coming up this month. Hooray! After we talked to Aaron we headed over to church and the meeting was so good. My parents ward has a really talented ward choir. They sang so beautiful and it was a beautiful meeting. I love that we were able to go to church on Christmas Day! The past two or three years we have had Jake's side of the family come over to our house for a New Year's Eve party. It is a tradition that I love and always want to keep. This year was really fun. We ate, played games and just enjoyed laughing and being together.

This is a picture that I will always cherish. We were playing a game called Seven Deadly Sins and this was part of Jamie's dare. I won't go into details but I must admit we all died laughing when she busted out in the splits. So funny! Thanks for the laugh, Jamie. :) And here is Jake with peanut butter on his face. Ah, good times..

Karly was baptized today! It was a really special day. She looked so beautiful and she was so excited to be baptized. They had all of the men that were baptizing their children to say a little something special about their son or daughter and Jake did a great job. He mentioned that Karly is the sweetest girl and once you get past her shy side she is so funny and brings so much joy to everyone. He is so right. We love our Honey's. (That's been her nickname since she was tiny ). She is such a wonderful daughter and we are so blessed to have her in our lives. After the baptism and confirmation we had lunch with everyone and everything went so well. It was a wonderful day!

Now here we are at the beginning of another year. For me 2011 was a really good year. There was some definite ups and downs but more ups so that's definitely what matters. The year started with me being released from my calling in the Young Women's. That was very bittersweet for me. Actually I have missed it more than I ever would have thought. I love working with the Youth. I must admit though that when I was released my stress level went down substantially. I didn't really notice how much time went towards my calling until it was gone. I have enjoyed having a simpler schedule and spending more time with my family.

I've enjoyed becoming more active and making lots of new friends at my Zumba classes. I've enjoyed having new friends come into my life and old friends continue to be a part of my life. I have been so blessed by Heavenly Father and I am so grateful for my blessings. I also accomplished some personal goals that I have been working on and I have many, many more goals for 2012. Here's hoping this year is as good as 2011 was!

Laundry

Today's topic is going to be laundry. I have been thinking about my relationship with Laundry and I've came up with a conclusion. I am terrible at Laundry. No really, I am. Now we don't look like homeless ragamuffins wearing dirty clothes because I am ok at washing the laundry, it's folding and putting away that I'm not so good at. Wait... I'm lying. The other day Karly came up to me before school and she was wearing a pink Valentine sock and a white sock. She doesn't even try to get them to match. I said, "Karly, where are your socks?" she replied with, "I can't find any." I then feel the Mommy guilt. I go through this rant in my head. "Man Emily, pull it together! How hard is it to keep your daughter's sock drawer full?" Apparently it's harder than I think.

Now I have a long history with laundry disasters. There was the time in high school that I washed and shrunk Jodie's really cute salmon colored gap sweater. She was so nice to even let me wear it in the first place seeing that every shirt she got back from me was stretched out in the chest area. :) I washed it and when I pulled it out of the dryer it looked like it was maybe a size 2T. Actually I think it would have been really cute on our dog Vivian. Though back then sweaters on dogs weren't as hip as they are now. Also there was a time that I washed some chap stick with every single new pair of garments I had just bought. Oh, that was an ugly day. I was engaged to Jake at the time and he saw how upset I was and he went out and bought me all new one's. Another reason why I married him.

I also have a memory of doing Laundry when I was at Snow College. Back then I had to haul my laundry down to the basement and it was a humiliating process for me. I thought it was just weird that my laundry was so far away from me, and I also thought it was embarrassing when you would come down and someone had taken out all of your wet laundry and piled it on top of the washer if you weren't there the second it was done. The nerve!

But the most embarrassing moment was when I was down in the laundry room and this really cute guy named Eric walked in. I may or may not have had a tiny crush on him. I tried to play it cool and I said, "Hey, how are you?" He replied with his adorable smile, "I'm good." And right when he looked at me as I was shoveling my clothes into a hamper out drops my pair of black, glittery underwear. Now why did I have black glittery underwear? I'm not sure about that. I have a vague memory of me and my friend Becky buying them to be funny. Satan panties is what they were.. Anyways, I snatched those panties up as fast as I could and booked it out of there.

So my friends, all of these examples must have something to do with my distaste for laundry. I have tried to buy fabric softeners that smell really good to try and entice me to enjoy the laundry process and that hasn't worked either. I can't wait until my girls are a little older than they will be in charge of their own laundry!

Now I feel like I need to put a couple of things out there so I don't sound like the worst mother of the year. There are a couple of things that I am good at. I make my bed every single day. I make dinner everyday and I always take a shower and get ready everyday. Ok, I feel better.

I'm not the worst homemaker out there, but I will admit my downfalls. Thankfully Jake is so helpful on his days off and we get back on top of it. I am lucky I have a sweet husband that will do stuff like that. Now if I was a smart girl I would go out and find some more black glittery panties and I bet Jake would do the laundry everyday for me. Muah ah ah ah!!

Random thoughts by yours truly

Well, hello there. Long time no see. I tell myself that I am going to write on my blog more often and it hasn't really happened. Maybe that should be one of my New Year's resolutions. I use to write pretty frequently and now it has become a bit of a pain to blog for two reasons. 1. My computer sucks. 2. My camera sucks. There you have it. I haven't got my camera fixed yet so it takes me forever to edit that stupid blue line out of every picture and then it takes my ancient computer forever to upload them. Secondly, my html code got all messed up mysteriously. Some stranger came on here and messed it all up just to frustrate me. Ok, so it was me. I've tried everything. I've google my problem and I hate to say this, but google has failed me so far. Anyways, it's all messed up so when I write a blog it types it up in one huge paragraph and I end up looking like I never took an English class. My apologies. Please bear with me. So... on to more important things. November has come and gone and it was a wonderful month. We had Thanksgiving with both families and both were equally enjoyable. Jake had to work on Thanksgiving (sniff, sniff) so the girls and I went to my family's house and it was a really nice day even though I missed my Jakey. My parents invited the missionaries over and it was fun talking to them and having them spend the afternoon with us. We missed our missionary Aaron so much! Man, the holidays are rough when you don't have your family all together. We do get to skype with him on Christmas and I am very excited. I miss my little brother! Anyways, back to Thanksgiving.. So, the day after Thanksgiving we had another Thanksgiving dinner with Jake's side of the family and it was awesome. So much good food and so much fun. I loved it.

Thanksgiving with the Filby's

Thanksgiving with the Youngdell's! Apparently Kolbe didn't want what Jake was offering. I love his face!

A few days after Thanksgiving my sweet Karly had her 8th birthday! This year she finally decided to have a friend party. She is a bit introverted and the thought of a party was enough to put her over the edge in years past. This year was the year. We had a Christmas themed party and we invited some of her friends and had a great time. We did the limbo, the hokey pokey, watched the Grinch cartoon while eating pizza, opened presents, played with presents, the end. It was great and she loved it. Karly is going to baptized early next month and I am in shock that she is old enough to be baptized.

Six days after Karly's birthday my little Ashwee had her 5th birthday. FIVE!!! My baby is five! Where has the time gone?! Ashley had a wonderful birthday. We didn't' do a friend party for her, but my Mom took her out and then we spent the rest of the day spoiling her. The picture below makes me laugh. Look at her tiny cupcake. Those are the cupcakes she wanted. Also, I cannot get her out of that swimsuit! She is obsessed with it. Did I mention it was Haley's?!

Hmmm, what else is new? Christmas festivities are in full swing and man are we busy. I love it though. I have been blasting Christmas music, making lots of treats and just enjoying the season. I have a new love I need to share with you guys. I was making my own Christmas soundtrack of songs and I came across The Lower Lights group and I am in love. I not only love their Christmas music but they also sing Christian music that I love. Now for me to say that I love Christian music is coming a long ways my friends. When I was little my Mom went through an LDS music phase and we listened to Janice Kapp Perry from sun up to sun down for a very long time. I don't know how long it lasted but when I think of my childhood Janice Kapp Perry is part of it. The Lower Lights are amazing. Go to Itunes and check it out. Come on, you know you are curious. My favorite songs are Secret Prayer, Jesus Savior Pilot me, Count your blessings and The Lord is my Shepherd. The Christmas CD is so good too. I forgot to add that I have a new love for Spanish music too. No, I don't speak or even understand Spanish. My love for Spanish music has come from my love of my Zumba class. I went a couple of years back and then I dropped it because I had Young Women's on the night I usually went to. Well this summer I was tired of just walking for exercise and I needed something new so I decided to head back to Zumba and I am so glad I did. I was nervous going by myself but I have met so many awesome women. I am not lying when I tell you that I am one of the few white girls in the class. It's true. :) I love all of the women that I have met. They are so friendly and so fun to hang with. I try to go a few times a week. It's a dang hard workout but it is so fun at the same time. If anyone wants to go with me they're welcome to. It's a blast!

I really need to go now. These cute little girls are upstairs running wild and it's bedtime. Toodles!