Pictures of us

Outside of the Portland Temple.
My HOT honey!
Our Celebration in Vegas!

And my new haircut!

Happy Anniversary Randy!

Seven years ago I married the man of my dreams in the Portland, Oregon Temple. It doesn't seem like seven years ago. It still feels like yesterday, but at the same time like we have been married much long than that.

The day before our wedding, my Grandmother went through the temple for the first time, at the age of 73. It was such a great experience to go through with my Grandma. That day couldn't be over fast enough for me though. I was anxious for our wedding. Randy and I stayed up until after midnight chatting and looking forward to our wedding day.

I got pretty much no sleep, between sleeping with my noisy family, and the excitement, and anticipation of the next day. That morning as soon as it was acceptable to get up, I was up and getting ready. And I didn't let Randy see me until it was time to go to the temple. We got to the temple and got ready and then we were married at 12:00PM August 20, 1999. Such an amazing day. One that would change my life forever. I remember the Sealer telling us that we would love each other so much more than we did that day as each year, month, or day passed. I couldn't imagine that. I understand it now. I love you Randy more than ever. You push me to be better. You are my everything. I feel like I am living a Fairy Tale with my Knight in Shining Armor. You make me feel like a Princess, without you, I am not complete. You are my eternal sweetheart, the love of my life.

Okay, enough of being mushy!

We celebrated yesterday, and we also celebrated when we went to Las Vegas the end of June. We called that our Anniversary Trip/Gifts to each other. We went to dinner yesterday, and we got pedicures together, and shopping, and Randy took me to get my haircut, and he gave me two dozen long stem red roses. GORGEOUS! We had a fun time, and then we came home put the kiddos to bed, and we watched movies. It was a great night! Amazing how just having some quiet time together helps to reconnect and feel like you did seven years ago.

The rest of Camp.

Little Man Roasting his Marshmallow. trying to get perfection. Me I like them black!
Daddy helping Little Princess roast a marshmallow, she was having fun!
Finally a picture without the hands going everywhere, and he held still! A miracle!
I thought this was just a cool picture!


The little Princess and me.

More Camping Pictures.

My cute family.
They were having fun!
Watching the barge go by. Don't they look sweet?

She just looked so cute!

Trying to skip rocks!
My son was moving all over so here you go!!

Camping!

Last weekend we had our first camping trip of the year. We went with some great families from our ward including my friend Allison. We got up there before anyone so we got things set up and I decided I would practice my photography. Pretty area, natural lighting, so no need for the flash and the kids LOVE having their pictures taken.

We camped right on the river. It was really cool because we had barges go by and the train was across the river going by and the kids were all so excited to see it! They threw rocks in the river, and tried to learn how to skip them. Something I still can't do. So I just throw multiple rocks and pretend.

The kids roasted marshmallows, and enjoyed the campfire. We had such a great time camping, and spending time with our friend and our little family!

The Gross Stuff

Sometimes being the Mom you get pretty flowers from your children. You get all the nice sweet things, and it just seems like everything is perfect.

And then somedays your kids just tell you gross stuff and do gross stuff and you are like GROSS!! Today was a gross day. Thankfully I didn't have to deal with all of it.

My good friend Tiffany watched my kids today while I went to a meeting. I don't think I have ever mentioned that my daughter has a really bad gag reflex, she throws up easily. She gets car sick, and the sight of blood, poo, or anything nasty makes her gag. Even her own poo!! Tiffany's little boy who is almost two pooped in his undies today, (they are getting the potty training down!) My little girl was walking past and saw the poo and started gagging, and said I throw up, and promptly did so on top of the poo. So Tiffany had a big pile of nastiness to clean up! That just had to suck, and I felt bad but was so glad I wasn't the one having to do it.

Then tonight my son has been eating a lot of watermelon and fruit. So tonight my son was in the bathroom doing his business. Then he starts yelling Mom, Dad my poop there is red coming out of it. There is RED!!!! So I run up there worried there is something wrong. Nope the poo has watermelon pieces in it. Totally nasty, I know.

The things kids do.. They crack me up, even when it is pretty nasty!

2996

In honor of 9/11 I am participating in a tribute to one of the 2996 people that were killed on that horrible day. This September marks the 5th Anniversary of a horrific tragedy.

If you are interested in participating please go to the link and sign up. They have 61% of the people someone to honor them. I hope that they can get all of them signed up with a blogger and that 9/11 will be a truly memorable day.

Too often I think people forget what happened that day and the impact it had on our nation. What a great way for us to remember.

Kiss My Bum!

Little Princess came down the stairs crying with her cute bum showing, she has my lack of butt so it happens! OWWW!! Brother hit me. OWWW Mommy, make it better. (She says it so cute though!!)

I ask Little Princess where the owie is, after I had pulled her pants up. She pulls the back of her pants down and said my Bum. Mommy Kiss my Bum. So I did. She hugged me and said oh, it's all better, and off she went. The things us Mom's do for our kids!

My First Photo Shoot.

I keep thinking my kids need some new pictures, so I thought of going to Sears, but I always spend way too much! So I remembered these pages I bookmarked like two plus years ago thanks to Alissa and TwoPeas. So I decided I could take my kids pictures.

They aren't perfect, but I think for my first try they aren't too bad. For some reason, and if you know why, my camera on some of them focused more on the background,

how do I fix that?

Push Ups, They'll Lift You Up!

About a month ago I decided I should start doing GUY push-ups. And then I got a crazy idea that I should do 100. I am not there yet, had I not had my surgery I would be!! I am between 60-75 depends on the day and what else I have done. But I have found a glorious benefit from doing my push-ups. It will lift your boobs! And it will firm them too!!

After nursing two angels things weren't quite what they used to be. Stretch marks on my chest and after being engorged and everything else that comes with it they seem to have headed a little south. Not what you really want especially when you are 26!!

So since doing my push-ups I have noticed things are slowly lifting up! They seem to be a little perkier and a little more normal. Maybe it is because I have not nursed a child for two years, but I like to think all my hard work is paying off. So if the girls are sagging and you want to help them, do some push-ups, it just might work!

Hug Your Mom!

Hug your Mom, let her know how much you love her! Let her know how much she means to you and that you are grateful to have such a wonderful person in your life.

Yesterday I went with my parents to a funeral of a dear friend of theirs. My Mom was playing her violin and I was accompanying her. The woman who died, Pat was one of my Mom's dearest friends, she introduced my parents. Without her, I might not be! My Mom met her back in 1970, you know like 36 years ago. They both worked at a bank, and became great friends. My Mom has always talked about her friend Pat and all of the fun she has had with her and the great memories. I met her as a little girl, but had not seen her since I was 10, so I knew of her, but didn't really know her.

My heart ached for my Mom when she called and told me her friend lost her battle with cancer on Wednesday. I have lost a few friends and I know how bad it hurts and I wanted to be there for my Mom the way she had been there for me. When she told me she was playing the violin I knew I needed to be there for my Mom. We bought new music and had it ready to perform in less than 48 hours, and I have to say with our Heavenly Father's guidance we did a great job. My Mom did an outstanding job, I was impressed by her strength.

I knew Pat had children, but when I saw them and talked to them, and realized they were my age, I hadn't seen them since I was 10, so your perspective changes. My heart broke for them. They no longer had their Mother here on Earth with them. I still need my Mom and I am 26 years old, married with children. As I looked at her 5 kids with their little families and saw the grandchildren crying for Grandma my heart ached. I wished I could help them, to ease the hurt and the pain. I felt a little guilty being their with my own Mother when they had just lost theirs. I think of all of the times when I look to my Mom for guidance to know what to do with my children, with the dinner I ruined, or just for someone to talk to when I have been around little kids all day and my husband is working. I realized how true in Mosiah 18:9 Yea, and are willing to mourn with those that mourn; yea, and comfort those that stand in need of comfort..
So for someone I personally did not know well, I felt for the family, for my Mom and my Dad. I wanted to help them to comfort them. But what do you say to someone who has lost their Mother? You hug them, you tell them you are sorry, but I can't change it.

So today Hug your MOM! If you are a long way from her let her know how much she means. You never know how long you will have your Mother. For Pat she was diagnosed with cancer in February and in five months it took her life. Life is short and it can change in an instant. Hug your Mom! You'll never regret it!

Me, a Violinist?

Yesterday in Sacrament Meeting we had a musical number, a violin duet. My Mom played her violin in her ward, but we weren't able to go. So yesterday I sat there listening to these two women play, thinking about my wonderful mother. Realizing what a beautiful talent it is to play such a gorgeous instrument. And wishing I hadn't quit playing so long ago.

I started playing the violin shortly before my 10th birthday, and I played until I was 12 and then I have touched maybe 10 times, tops in the past 14 years. Awful I know. At the time my Mom was concert master and seriously a phenomenal violinist, and I played the piano really well. The piano in my opinion was way easier to master than the violin. So I quit all lessons at that time and worked on sports and other stuff. Besides my Mom was so great and I was just learning and the piano seemed to be easier. I was first chair in my orchestra the little thing it was but I was not my Mom, so I quit.

Earlier in the Spring my Mom was going to symphony practice and was telling me I really should play again and start going with her. I laughed and said Mom I don't think they would let me play in your symphony, remember I haven't really played it in 12 years. And I am not that good. But since she said that to me I keep thinking about it. Could I? How hard would it really be? And then yesterday I thought man, I really wish I could play better. But I don't have my violin anymore, my cousin does. (Technically it wasn't mine it was my Great Grandpa's but whatever!)

We went to my parents for dinner tonight and I sat down playing on the piano and I saw my Mom's violin case sitting there. I LOVE her violin, it has such a rich sound that just radiates when she plays. I looked at it and thought I can play. I read music and I know how to do this so I am going to do it! I slowly got out the violin and wound the bow and got everything situated and thought man this sure seems a lot smaller than I remember. I played on a full size from the time I was 10, so now that I am a foot plus taller it doesn't seem as big or cumbersome. I pulled out one of my old books and thought yep I can read this and I can play this no problem. I didn't try to tune it, she had played yesterday so I figured it wouldn't be too far out of tune and I didn't want anyone to hear me messing around with it before I started to play. I was sure that since I had some simple music out that when I played it would sound beautiful, maybe even like my Mom since it was on her violin. Guess what? I WAS WRONG! It didn't sound beautiful, it didn't sound pretty, it didn't even sound very nice. It was AWFUL! Seriously AWFUL.

My Mom came in and was like ohh.. That is my violin making that noise. I thought you had your sisters little one (it is like a 1/10th size), not mine! But slowly as I practiced it started to sound a little better. Not a lot but a little. But it felt good to play. Even though even Twinkle Twinkle sounded pretty bad, there is a part of me that comes alive with music. Different from the piano and it is something I have missed for a long time. My Mom sees it in me. She thinks with some practice and hard work I can get my butt in gear and start playing with her in about a year. That sounds good to me. I think I can handle that. Once fall hits and things slow down I think I am going to buckle down and do this for me. Start working on playing it and get the sound and the quality back. Wake up that part of me that has been dormant and I will become once again a violinist!

Happy News!

My little man passed swimming lessons this week and is on to level 1! Woo Hoo! The first of July he was still using his floatie to help him swim. Now he is swimming all over, going down the slide and off of the diving board. I am so proud of him. He is quite proud of himself also. He has made a great improvement in the past few weeks.

Because I think Blogger hates me.

Here are the rest of the pictures. I know it is a lot, but I want to share. Especially for any other lab enthusiast!
Izzy has the black nose, and is blonder, and Sage has the brown nose with some red highlights on her.

Fun at the River!

Yesterday we decided it was a good day to take the dogs to the river. It was there first trip to the river ever. We thought they would enjoy, since they are water dogs. It was so much fun!

Our dogs, are awesome strong swimmers! It was great to see them in action. Sage she is 16 months is such a strong swimmer. Her and Izzy who is 6 1/2 months raced out to retrieve the toys and almost every time Sage won. Izzy will get there. This was Izzy's first time swimming ever. Sage gave me a heart attack once when she was on top of Izzy and had pushed her totally under. I was like oh no, don't let her drown!! She didn't and was just fine. Randy kept telling me they are dogs, this is their instinct quit worrying!! But they are part of the family!

As time went they got more adventurous with Izzy swimming out towards a duck, yeah girl like you are going to catch it! Don't think it will hear your splashing and swimming towards it?

It was exciting to see them doing what they are bred for. We look forward to doing more with them and getting them trained for competitions.

The kids had never been down to just hang out at the river so that was fun to see them. I finally feel like we can trust them to not just go running in. Little man got more and more adventurous and got soaked up to his chest once. He also lost his flip flop. After crying and searching it finally floated up to the top so we found it. The world was right once again. Little Miss enjoyed throwing rocks into the water and just watching it all.

It was a fun family activity and something we will be doing lots more. A great work out for the dogs and a great time to just hang out! One thing great is it can be a year round thing. With labs they say as long as the ice isn't too hard to break they can be in the water, so since our river doesn't freeze here looks like a fun year round activity!

Look at Me, I'm Helping!!

Look at Me Mommy, I'm helping Little Princess!! (Okay he said her name but you get the point.) This was yesterday, and since I was tired, and still not feeling 100% from my surgery I said, huh, where's the camera? I think this is blog worthy.

I was quite proud of myself, you see remember my commitment I had for myself? Yeah the no yelling thing. I did really really good until we moved into our house. And then slowly, I started slipping, and was shorter than normal, and then I started yelling some. Normally it is the STOP IT! DON'T DO THAT! I said NO!
Yeah, I know I win Mom of the Year. So I am trying once again to do better. Hopefully I will be more successful. This Mom stuff is hard!

So when I didn't yell, get upset, or frustrated and I reached for the camera I thought, hey, this is progress.

So Little Man helped Little Princess climb on top of the fireplace and they say there for quite a while just chilling and watching TV. And as you can see Little Man was doing some crazy posing.

You know what is really amazing to me though, and I am learning.. Slowly learning. I ignored a lot of it, let them do their thing. And today they haven't even given it a second thought. Woo Hoo, ignoring some stuff does work!!

Oooopps, I think I spoke to soon. Just as I am finishing this what do I see? My kids climbing up there again.. Oh well they are little monkeys, and really does it matter? Probably not, I would have done it if I was a kid, so who can blame them!

Edit: The adventure is getting even better. Did you know that a dog bed makes a great landing spot for children jumping off of fireplace? Well it does, and it allows them to be wild and crazy and not break a thing. Great eh?

A fun game!

Reply and fill in the blanks for me, leave them in my comment section okay! Then repost on your blog (um..with YOUR name) and I'll do the same :p

Dear Lee,
I _____ you. You have a nice ______. You make me _______. You should _______. Someday I will ______. You + me = ________. If I saw you now I'd __________. I would build a _______ just for you. If I could sing you any song it would be _________. We could __________ under the stars.
Love, _______________
(P.S. ______________.)

9

Oh yeah, this was surgery number 9, in almost 7 years of marriage. So the next one is my tithing one. I think I am done.

Surgery

I had surgery early this AM. And I am pretty drugged on percocet, so I won't be blogging much, I am not sure what would come out of my mouth, or if it would make much sense. So I am taking a little break. Going to get some rest and take care of my body.

EDITED TO ADD:

After much personal debate I decided to tell what I had done.
I had a tubal and an ablation done. My dr's have great hopes of it helping my lupus.

Also thank you for the well wishes. They are greatly appreciated.

The Rest of the Vegas Pictures

The New York New York. The rollercoaster we rode is on top the red you can see.
At our hotel
At the Venetian
In front of one of the fountains at Caesar's Palace
Us on the Eiffel Tower
Fountains at the Bellagio from the Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel Tower

As you can see we have perfected the "prom pose" we realized after a while we should change it up, but it was too late. I took 200 photos so I wanted to shaer a few of them. Enjoy!

Las Vegas Pictures!

Me and Michael Jordan! *sigh*
At the Excalibur Dinner Show


Me getting my pedicure!
Randy getting his pedicure!

Sirens of TI the Explosion

Treasure Island

Viva Las Vegas!

Oh my goodness! I am tired, but I had SO much fun!! I know you are dying to hear all about it, so sit back and get comfy this is going to be a long one!

We got to Vegas Thursday night and we had tickets to Mystere at Treasure Island. We were staying at the Tropicana, and checked in and I had mapquested the distance from the Tropicana to TI and it was under a mile that it came back at. Guess what, they were WRONG! 2.5 miles is more like it. So we booked it down the strip and got to TI with time to spare. We were on the third row in the theatre for Mystere. It was wonderful! I had no idea what to expect, and I am not sure I could even describe it. But I think Randy did it best as 'visually assaulting'. I think that nails it. It was great, and I want to see another show next time we go! After that we were off to explore and make our way back to our hotel.

The Tropicana is an older hotel, it had something in our room that I didn't know even existed in hotels. Do you see it? The ceiling had a mirror on it. And the wall behind the bed, and the wall next to it. I was SHOCKED! Seriously. I had no idea that they even put those in hotels. Classy eh?

Friday we had to go to a timeshare thingy, we got our classy hotel for free just for going to the two hour presentation. It was alright.. We went we said NO, they kicked us out and we were on our merry way.

We met some of my friends for lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. Had a great visit with them and then we were off to see more. We went and checked out the Excalibur, and then to Mandalay Bay. We went through the shark reef there. We saw lots of cool fish, sharks, sea life of all sorts and the cool crocodile, (I think.)
We got done with that and walked some more. Seriously we walked so much, my feet are tired! We ate dinner with some friends of ours, actually they came and picked us up and took us to their house. So we got to see out in Henderson area, it was nice to see other areas of Vegas besides the Strip. It was great to catch up and see the kids and see some great friends we have really missed! We are hoping to get back their and visit them again within the next year. Maybe even take the kids and stay with them for a week! That would be fun!

Then back to the Strip, we went to Paris, and went up the Eiffel Tower, it was really high up, but gorgeous! I am afraid of heights, so it was a little freaky, and then there was the distant lightning that was up there, but it was so awesome. I loved seeing all of the lights at night. It was amazing to see the view, so worth the anxiety over being up there so high. We were able to see the fountains at Bellagio and get some awesome pictures from up so high.

We watched the Sirens of Treasure Island.. It was interesting. We went through some more hotels and casinos and made it back to our hotel around 1:30 AM. It was quite the sight. So much to take in, and I was just so amazed to see all of the gambling. My very first time ever seeing a slot machines in real life. Not on TV or anything. Just totally interesting to me. Also people smoking and drinking everywhere, I am naive I have never seen it like that. I was shocked to see people lighting up in the malls and stuff. WOW!

Saturday we slept in. It was desperately needed, we were so tired!! Our feet we tired and sore so we thought we needed to do something relaxing. And have I mentioned I have THE BEST HUSBAND ever? We went and got wonderful pedicures together. Ahhh.. They were blissful! And my feet felt so much better after we were done. Then we went to a Magic Show.. Entertaining, but we saw the Tiger that had magically disappeared at the end. Good job Dirk! After that we went to check out more of the Excalibur and then we decided we had had enough of the heat and would chill by the pool for a while. It was very refreshing. After that we got ready for dinner. We went back to the Excalibur and saw the Tournament of Kings. Great dinner show, we were thoroughly entertained. It was so fun to watch and we felt so involved, I highly recommend going there! We explored a little more of the Excalibur, and my sweet honey got me a nice pair of pearl earrings! Thanks babe, you spoil me!

Then off to New York, New York. We went on the rollercoaster there. Let me tell you, it was so very very fun! We had heard mixed reviews on it, and I wasn't sure I wanted to be that high up, going that fast. Okay I did, but I knew I was going to be scared. I for some strange reason enjoy being scared beyond all reason, it is fun for me. We went on it twice, I loved it!

Finally we made it to the Venetian, GORGEOUS! I also got to get my picture taken with one of my all time favorite athletes, Michael Jordan. Basketball star of the world, right up there with my brother. Yes, I am ranking him with my brother. Pretty cool huh? I was one of the biggest Jordan/Bulls fans there was back in the day, I still like the Chicago Bulls!! Basketball.. One of my loves. Seriously I am so excited to have my picture with Jordan, even if it wax, it looks pretty darn cool!

Anyway, the Venetian was just awesome. I loved all of it. Gorgeous. Then off to see the Mirage and then Caesar's Palace. So much to see and to explore. I loved Caesar's Palace.. Well I really loved the mall there. It is open until midnight, how cool is that? I mean I wish my mall was open that late instead of a measly 9:00PM, I could go shopping so easily after the kids were in bed if that were the case. We enjoyed browsing, and finally getting through all of Caesar's Palace. It took a while. Seriously how big do these buildings need to be? You can just walk yourself to death.

We made our way back to the hotel, slowly. Dinking around and seeing all sorts of great stuff and taking it all in. And then after a good nights rest it was time to go home. We had a great time! We saw a did a lot, but feel like we only touched the top of the ice berg! Hopefully we will get to go back within the next year! It was so fun!

Blogger is having issues so I am going to have to post the rest of the pictures separately. Sorry.