Thanksgiving in Utah

So we made another trek out to Utah. It was great as usual. We saw many friends and family and enjoyed spending time with the cousins. Once again, Sterling only came for a few days and then flew home. The kids and I were lucky enough to stay for an extra two weeks after Sterling left. Thanks to his wonderful sister, Theresa, the kids and I were able to stay longer and I had help driving home with the kids. So Thank You Theresa!!
Besides visiting family, we were able to see the Ogden Temple, the lights at Temple Square, and my favorite, alot of snow and cold weather!! I have really been tired of the warm weather here in Tucson, if you could believe that. I was so excited to be able to see the snow and even have a turn at shoveling the sidewalks. Everyone in Utah who knew I was craving the snow blamed me that they had to deal with it all. Whatever, the blame was worth it.
Okay, so now a bit of analyzing of the photos. This first one is of the kids at the Ogden temple. Then you have a picture I took at Temple Square and a picture of the snow in my parent's front yard. The two final pictures kind of go together. Once day my sister and I were tending the kids and needed a little "quiet time" so we put on a movie. The kids decided to gather in the chair and watch the movie together. A few days later the cousins were in school and Brooklyn wanted to watch tv Pooh. So the final picture is how I found her. I guess when you can't have your friends (as she calls her cousins) to hang out with, the next best things are stuffed animals!!

Anyway, we had a great trip and look forward to seeing the other side of the family here shortly!!

End of October Festivities

This Halloween was a lot of fun for us. We began the week with a Halloween Party where we all played lots of games against other families. It was lots of fun. Saturday we woke up early and went with Richie, Angie, and Mylie to a corn maze and pumpkin patch which was nearly two hours away. In the corn maze there were trivia questions that you had to answer, with the correct answer you would be directed in the right direction. It was really exciting. After about an hour or so we found our way out and headed for the hay ride. It was my first time ever doing a hay ride. Brooklyn really liked the tractor that pulled us. The tractor took us to a pumpkin patch where many people cut their own pumpkins to purchase. However, we are cheap and just went for the ride. After we got home we rested for about two hours we took our exhausted children trick-or-treating and then off to another party at Valerie and Matt's place. It was a fun Halloween for us this year with Brooklyn getting older and knowing more of what is going on. Trevor just slept for a good part of trick-or-treating but he still looked quite cute. Anyway, enough rambling from me. Here are the pictures of the kids in their free, homemade, Piglet and Pooh costumes!! Also, Angie is starting to do photography and took some family pictures for us at the corn maze. Take a look at them at http://angiewhitakerphotography.blogspot.com/ she did a really good job!!

New Tricks

Here are a couple pictures of the kids at the park. I have learned that Brooklyn's favorite things are the dirt and the slides. Trevor's favorite things are trying to be a big kid and swinging; he just laughs pretty much the entire time.

This is how I found Trevor today when I was doing the dishes!! Fun times!!
He is learning all too quickly how to climb and pull himself up to things.

I'm A Proud Momma!!

Brooklyn has just amazed me more and more everyday. Just to elaborate a bit, the other day Sterling and I were just talking and Brooklyn was playing with her little magna doodle. A couple minutes later I started to clean up the toys, picked up the magna doodle and this is what I found:

Whenever I have a piece of paper or if she decides to play with her magna doodle, she has always asked me to draw bears for her. Lately she has been wanting me to fill the entire magna doodle with as many bears as will fit. Well, as you can see, she has learned how to draw HER OWN bear!! Isn't this just absolutely amazing?? I mean, she's got the eyes on all of them and even a mouth or nose on others. Crazy!!

A couple weeks ago Trevor could only scoot himself in reverse. He actually was getting himself stuck between chairs and under the couch because he would just scoot back until something got in his way. So, we just had to take a picture of him getting himself stuck. But within the last week or so he has been able to sit up by himself and he can now get wherever he wants while going in the correct direction. The best part, is he is really getting into things. When I say no, he just looks at me with his cute mischeivious smile. I love it. Of course he has his second mom making sure he doesn't get into the movies, books, or shoes!! She is so funny!!

Here's to Four Years Today!!

On Saturday, Sept. 26th, it was four years ago that Sterling asked me out on our first date. If you hear his side of the story he would say that he asked me if I would like to go with him on Wednesday night to Panda Express, if you ask him he would say that I said "no". Not true, my response was "you don't have to." There is more of a story behind why I said this, but that is all besides the point. Anyway, it came to Wednesday and I realized that I had an hour shift to work on Wednesday night... what to do. Well, I really wanted to go out with Sterling and so I decided to ditch out on work and go on the date (thankfully it was worth it!!) Wednesday night came, he picked me up, we went to dinner, and came back to our apartment complex's game lounge. He offered me an ice cream sandwich and I turned it down (thinking someone else had left it there), then we played a bit of foosball, which he soon learned that I hate it when people just let me win, therefore he decided to just kick my butt, afterwards we started to watch Pirates of the Carribbean, which only lasted MAYBE 45 min until the DVD decided to quite working. Well, we had nothing left so although it was only 9:00 pm, Sterling walked me to the bottom of the stairs to my apartment where I decided to ditch the doorstep scene and run up the stairs. Most guys would probably think that I just wasn't worth the effort after I supposedly said "no", turned down his offer of ice cream sandwich, and ran away without even a handshake.
Well, thankfully Sterling kept pursuing and soon enough we were married. Here we are now with over three years of marriage and two amazing kids. I am very glad that Sterling kept pursuing to date me although he had no signs whatsoever that I was interested in him for a while. I am so lucky to have him as my husband, he is my very best friend and I just couldn't imagine living life without him in it. He will never have any idea how much he really does for me and how much I love him for all he does!! Anyway, it has just been a fun time reflecting on all that has come about since that first date and thought I would share my version of our first date with you all. Love you Sterling and thanks for being so wonderful to me.

The New Apartment

This video is of our new apartment (that is, if I can get it to work). I did have a better one that had music to it but I couldn't get that one to work. Therefore you get to listen to me talk and my kids fussing!!

Why Wendy is cooler then I am

I had an interesting thought the other day after my wife came home from visiting someone. I could tell something was wrong and then she went into this story to explain of how she was feeling. Let me start that if I had experienced what she did, we would be $250 poorer, but that is why Wendy is cooler then I am. On Tuesday we went to wash our cars, then we all went shopping at wal-mart. After shopping we piled all the groceries into the Durango and myself and the kids went home and unloaded the car while Wendy took the Kia and got gas and dropped off an invitation. On her way to drop off her invitation she was making a left turn. About 20 yards after doing so the police lights came on she pulled over to the side of the road. Apparently she ran a red light without knowing it. She was trying to figure out where she was and according to the police ran a red light. So my wife decided that it would be in her best interest to get out of the ticket, therefore she began to cry uncontrollably when the policeman came to talk to her. Well needless to say she got out of the ticket and even had the policeman respond to her and say "I want you to know we are not bad people and we are just here to protect you." Had I ran the red-light no cop would have let me off that easy, but that is why Wendy is cooler then me (or she's a woman and can get away with anything.) Love ya Wife. Keep on crying if it keeps us a little richer!

P.S. On Wendy's behalf this was her first time ever being pulled over in her entire life. Kudos to you wifey. Way to go 24 years, 11 months and 2 days without ever being pulled over.

We have moved!!

Hooray!! We are finally out of our "crap hole" as I like to call it, and into our new place!! We were so excited and couldn't wait to move. Thanks to good friends and a wonderful mother-in-law, we were able to load and unload our truck in two hours on Saturday morning, and be completely unpacked and put away by Saturday night (all but pictures of course).

It is so wonderful to have:

1. quiet but more importantly WORKING a/c's (that's right, we have two of them, one for each side of the apartment, we can now control the a/c in our room to be cooler or warmer than the rest of the apartment
2. a washer and dryer (Is it sad that our highlight is to do laundry now?)
3. a dumpster across the street (Brooklyn now watches me from the apartment while I take out our trash)
4. a parking spot that in right by our door (I can now unload the groceries while the kids are in the apartment instead of hauling two kids and a stroller full of groceries from the car to the apartment!)
5. tons of space
6. a dishwasher that is no longer ruining my dishes
7. a bedroom for the kids where there toys actually fit in their room (because of this, Brooklyn actually plays in her room and absolutely loves it)
8. we finally feel like we have enough living room, kitchen, and dining room space that we can have people over
9. a kitchen where I can cook and watch the kids play at the same time
10. the list can go on and on and on about how wonderful this place is, but I will end with this, I HAVE FINALLY BEEN ABLE TO SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT!! That's right, I was waking up nearly every half our at our other place because the blasted a/c would make an awful noise every time it kicked on during the night. I had to get out of bed and switch it off and then back on again so that the noise would go away. Trevor has been sleeping through the night since about June, so it has really been frustrating that I haven't been. But finally, I know what it is like to actually have a good nights rest!!!

Soon enough I am going to attempt to video our apartment (due to requests) and post it to the blog, if that doesn't work then you will just have to deal with pictures!!

Our Two Year Old

So yesterday was Brooklyn's 2nd Birthday. We have been talking about it for a while so I think she knew what was coming. When yesterday came, she was very excited. Last week Sterling and I asked Brooklyn what she wanted for her birthday, her response was "nunch." I then asked what else she wanted for her birthday and she responed "ninner." So there you have it, all she wanted for her birhday was to have lunch and dinner, as if she doesn't get that everyday anyway. So for her birthday we went to our new apartment that we haven't moved into yet and had a little picnic, opened presents, and just let her play with her new kitchen set. She had a blast. When it got late, we came back home and had cake and ice cream. When I was growing up my mom would make us special cakes such as a witch or cat or something. So I decided that since Brooklyn loves My Friends Tigger and Pooh, I would make her a Winnie the Pooh cake. Upon her requests we even had pooh hold a honey pot. She was so happy yesterday as we let her pretty much be the boss of the day and do about anything she wanted. She new it was her special day. She loved it whenever someone sang Happy Birthday to her, she just got a big smile on her face. So, I sang it to her several times yesterday with several different versions. Anyway, we are proud of our little girl and amazed at how she is getting so smart and learning so much everyday. She just needs to grow a little as she still wears her clothes she got for her birthday last year!! I guess that is good for us though! Well, Happy Birthday Brooklyn Mae, we sure do love you!!

Trip to Utah

So the kids and I were so lucky to be able to go to Utah for two weeks. Sterling is such a wonderful husband that he volunteered to drive the kids and I to Utah, and then fly back to Tucson the next day. And it just worked out that on the way home, Sterling's mom was going to be in SL from Dallas for a family reunion the weekend I was to go home. So she was so nice to help me drive home to Tucson with the kids then she flew back home. I very much appreciate the both of them for taking time out to help the kids and I get to and from Utah!! It was so much fun to see all the cousins and watch Brooklyn interact with them. Of course it was fun to see the aunts, uncles and grandparents as well! The kids were so lucky to see all five living great-grandparents and have pictures with them all. Besides seeing the great-grandparents, great-aunts and uncles, we were able to go to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house, I was able to go to the temple a couple of times each time with a different sister, Brooklyn went swimming, and pretty much the kids just played and played until they were exhausted. I just loved seeing my family and watching Brooklyn get to know her extended family. Trevor also enjoyed the visit and I am sure he just can't wait to get up and play with all the kids. Well, this last thing then I will be done, the kids would be outside just playing and being normal kids, and where was my daughter? She of course would find my mom or dad and help them with the yard work they were doing instead of play with the kids. What a silly girl! Stay tuned for some pictures of our trip to Dallas during the 4th!!