Ten Years Ago...

i've been tagged! i am so excited because i love reading random things about other people on their blogs so now it's my turn to try and think of interesting things. thanks lindsay! and i tag janae, ashley and kate (y0u just did one kind of like this so don't feel like you have to!)

Ten Years ago....

i was finishing up my freshman year at Catalina Foothills High School in tucson, az. i was 15 and anticipating driving and dating. i was planning on BYU for college but i had never even heard of cedar city, the place my family relocated to the next year.

5 things on my 'to do' list today

1. dr's appointment (YEAH)
2. tidy the house :(
3. get my haircut - i would get my haircut every other week if my hair grew fast enough. i love hair cuts!
4. find a swim suit for madison
5. grocery shopping!! i love to grocery shop! weird, i know, and i spend way to much. but i don't feel guilty like i do when i buy clothes or things like that. we ALL benefit from the good food i buy!

Snacks I enjoy:

whole wheat goldfish
navel oranges
white cheddar rice cakes
fruit snacks (madison and i share)
swedish fish
saltines and sliced cheese
Bush's baked beans (very random)
Haribo gummi bears - they have to be that brand, the ones in the gold package
red vines
ruby red grapefruit
a lot more sounds good right now too but we'll stop here


What would I do if I were suddenly a billionaire?

this is hard. i would pay off our student loans, build a house, put money away for kids college, buy a horse (more on that later), and definitely buy some new clothes. i would buy a time share in Puerto Penasco, Mexico, buy a brand new metallic midnight blue four runner (my dream car), and travel. i would love to go to all the continents once, except antarctica, see all 50 states, set money aside for regular family reunions so everyone can be there, and i want a pool. i just want to live comfortably, oh and donate a bunch to the church.

3 of my bad habits

1. i am an awful backseat driver - but only when dan is driving!
2. i take long showers, not just long, but LONG as in i think the water is getting cold
3. i love to read but i kind of "skim" books. enough to get the plot and enjoy the book but i don't love the details

5 Places I've lived:

1. mesa, az currently, tucson before that
2. lubbock, tx
3. rancho cucamunga, ca
4. medford, oregon
5. utah - provo and cedar city
6. washington - pullman and seattle


5 Jobs I've had:

1. babysitter
2. telemarketer
3. host supervisor at brick oven restaurant
4. nanny for three little girls who i love to death!
5. wife/mom - best job on earth! and hopefully i will never have another one!

5 things people don't know about me

1. my closet is color coded - i am kind of obsessive compulsive about it. i dont care if the clothes are inside out or long sleeve next to short sleeve, but the hangers all face the same way, and everything is organized by color
2. i love cookbooks. i could look through them for hours. i really like to cook also, but cookbooks are a weakness. but only if there are pictures, i have to see the finished product
3. i will have a horse one day. i have always wanted one- i was horse crazy when i was younger and have read the black stallion series a hundred times. living in Lehi around people with horses has convinced me. i WILL have a horse one day
4. i hate nuts, fish and eggs - all good, healthy food, but i can't stand any of it
5. MADISON IS GOING TO BE A BIG SISTER!!!! yep, i am pregnant and most people don't know that about me yet, till now. i am just 10 weeks along but went to the doctor today and everything looks great, heartbeat and all! i am due nov 5 and we are all soooo excited! our kids will be 20 months apart and i can't wait. i have been feeling terrible - hence the lack of blogging, but hopefully we are near the end of it. Yeah! two kids!! so weird.

Called To Serve

more good news!! my other brother, chris, just got his mission call today and is going to the JAPAN HIROSHIMA MISSION!! he leaves june 4th and is so excited. i figured he would go foreign but japan wasn't quite what i was thinking. he speaks german pretty well, so germany was an obvious choice or maybe south america since my dad, husband, and brother went there. but no, JAPAN!! crazy! and my mom pointed out that it's kind of ironic - he's in the air force and now he's going to hiroshima. i am so proud of him for standing up for what is right and for making choices that have always been aligned with following the gospel even when his friends weren't. what an example he is to me. i feel so lucky to have been blessed with such a wonderful family. chris - i am so proud of you and i know that you are going to be an amazing missionary! i love you!!

Call me AUNT Marie!!

i am thrilled to announce that my brother dallin and his wife kamber are going to have a baby. hooray!! which means i am going to be an aunt and madison is going to have a cousin! i am so excited for them and they are going to be the cutest parents. kamber has been pretty sick but hopefully in a week or so she will be officially out of the 1st trimester and feeling tons better. i feel for you kamber - i have been there and it does get much better! they are expecting their bundle of joy on Sept 30. its so much fun to find out when people are expecting but then you have to wait FOREVER for the baby to come.

dallin has been such a great brother. he still loves me despite all the quarrels, etc of our teenage years. he is such a sweet husband and he and kamber are absolutely perfect for each other. they have so much fun together and have already taught me so much. i am so glad that kamber is a part of our family and that she has made dallin the happiest he has ever been. i love you both so much and am so happy you will be parents soon. it is the greatest gift and blessing.

Madison's 1st Birthday Bash

madison turned 1 year old on feb 28 (this post is a little belated - i had to get the pictures from another camera). we had a bbq with family at our house followed with the standard cake, ice cream, and presents. we had a lot of fun and madison seemed to enjoy being the center of attention. she got many books for her birthday which was AWESOME because madison loves reading them and i don't think you can ever have too many. i am posting quite a few pics for my fam in utah that couldn't come down so sorry to everyone else! and the order is very random, oh well. i can't believe our little girl is already one. this year has flown by and it seems like just yesterday we were coming home from the hospital. she is the sweetest, talented, beautiful, stubborn, and hilarious one year old i have ever known. we love her so much and i am so glad to be her mom.

first bite of ice cream - homemade!

first bite of cake - chocolate with butter cream frosting!



madison did NOT like her birthday hat. we had to hold down her hands in order to hurry and snap the picture.

opening her presents with a little help

decorations, presents, cake and candles

the birthday cake that took me TWO hours to do! i know, i was crazy and it's not much to show for that amount time and effort but oh well. i think it turned out kind of cute. it's supposed to look like nash, my in-laws dog, who madison just LOVES to death. he's a golden doodle that weighs 80 lbs.



dan did an awesome job grilling all the hamburgers and hot dogs, although we did practice with the new grill the night before.

madison's aunts lindsay and stephanie, and uncle brett - my mother-in law was taking the pictures - thank you laura!

madison's LeBaron and Farnsworth great-grandparents, and my cousin brooke came too.

getting ready for cake and ice cream!

Weekend Roadtrip

this weekend we took a quick little road trip down to tucson, az. dan had a half day and was inbetween rotations so we thought it would be a great chance to get out of town and visit friends we hadn't seen in 8 months. we drove down friday afternon and dan took care of some business at U of A while i visited with a friend that has a little girl madison's age. it was so fun to see them play "together". lauren and madison wanted the same toys, same pacifyer, and same stuffed animals but they are too young to really grasp sharing or even fighting. they just grabbed whatever they wanted and turned around and walked away, till the other little girl caught up, took it, and vice versa. madison doesn't play with anyone that close to her age in mesa so it was fun to watch her interact with a child at her level.

after that i picked up dan and we went to visit the Wilcox's - the family i nannied for. i love that family and their 3 little girls (alma, lola, and nora). i can't believe how much they have grown since last july! (the bottom picture is last april and the top picture is from this weekend.) then we went to one of our favorite restaurants nestled in the base of the tucson foothills called el corral (delicious!!) and headed to my aunts house to play games with cousins and spend the night. it's great to have family spread out - it saves you the cost of a hotel! sat we stopped to see some friends from our old ward, a couple from med school who have a new baby, and an old friend from highschool. we also got to eat at our favorite sandwich place beyond bread and stopped for gelato at frost on our way out of town. we crammed in as many restaurants and people as we could in just about 24 hours before we headed back to mesa. madison was a trooper for getting in and out of her car seat so many times and it was fun for people to see her walking and starting to talk. thank you everyone who let us interrupt their busy schedules to visit! hopefully we will be back soon!

AMERICAN IDOL!!!

i have followed it religiously for several seasons now and i love it! some people just tune in for the auditions, which is the one part i HATE. half the people that audition for the judges are just trying to get on national tv by doing something stupid. i think it's a waste of time to watch those, except to start getting aquainted with those that make the top 24. this year is very exciting because there are two LDS contestants - David Archuleta (Murry, UT) and Brooke White (Mesa, AZ). both should make it into the top 12, but david is probably the favorite of the competition to date. my brother was actually an EFY counselor a couple years ago and the first week he was part of the talent show committee. he said that david archuleta auditioned and was the best talent show act of the summer. here we are two years later and i think he's the best one on AI. here are a couple of his performances, "Imagine" gave me goosebumps. and he is only 17!



this was his most recent performance - the category was 80's.

Sunday Afternoons

long gone is the dread for the slow, uneventful sunday i sometimes felt as a teen. and sometimes is probably an understatement. with our busy schedule (dan's, not mine!) i have begun to cherish sundays. i will admit i STRUGGLE to get to 8:30 church on time, but i love going in the morning-starting the day out right. part of it is that now i try to prepare, listen, and participate so i get much more out of it then we come home and can enjoy the whole rest of the day as a family. granted we have a few extra meeting here and there- choir for me when i happen to go and presidency meetings for dan - but the rest of the day we nap, play, eat and enjoy each other. madison doesn't usually nap at church so she is beyond tired when we got home and that's when she gets goofy. she laughs at everything! we always head over to my in-laws and we visit, eat, play games and then head over to dan's grandparent's house to visit with aunts/uncles/cousins. i am usually exhausted by the end of the day but i love all of it! the above pictures are from a couple weeks ago after church. thank goodness for sundays !!