The Quote

I love this quote...it's from Elder Hales

"The greatest faith we have will be within our homes as we remain strong in the trials and tribulations of parenthood"

Also a really good one

Joseph Smith "...let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed" (D&C 123:15,17)

I love re-reading the Ensign and highlighting all the things I love or that stand out to me.

We had a great start to the weekend. I know...a little late...but whatever, this is my blog...lol



This is a picture Tanner took of his light in his room. Random...I kow.




What's a BBQ without s'mores...mmmmmm




Matt enjoying his hot dog...lol




Tanner LOVES the water

We had a BBQ and just spent time running through the sprinkler and spending time together. Tanner and I made Peanut Butter cookies that were very yummy. They are my fave!

My computer is acting slow so I'll have to post pictures later.

Sorry for the randomness...

I QUIT!

Is it possible to quit life? I feel like quitting and giving up today. Give me a few days and hopefully I'll get over it : )

Bobbi has this really fun thing on her blog. So I decided I wanted to do it. So on Monday's I'm going to try to be faithful about posting "My Life in Photographs".

Favorite brand of toothpaste:

My favorite brand of toothpaste is Crest...and more specifically the gel. I don't enjoy the paste as much but the paste is usually what's on sale.



Your favorite color:

My favorite color(s) Purple and yellow...hands down. I use to love the color peach when I was younger but then I decided it wasn't a "cool" color. I mean, who LOVES peach? Not many people. So I decided I wanted a new favorite color. I realize that this makes me a bit of a follower but that's me. So I chose a blend of my 2 other favorite colors, blue and red...hence purple became my new favorite color. When you have a favorite color, I think you have to have a color that compliments it and I remember my best friend in High School had a boyfriend that had a dark purple Sunfire with bright yellow rims and I thought, yeah, that can go together. So that's how I chose my 2 favorite colors. I know, kind of a lame story, but whatever!








(A flower at my Mom's)

What camera you use

Nothing fancy. It's a Cannon PowerShot A560. Although I like to think I would like to have a fancy camera, I don't think I would use it as much. Plus there are lots of self taught photographers in my life that do a terrific job. I just want snap shots of our life and I'm happy with that.




Favorite board game:

My favorite 2 games, although I'm not sure you can consider them board games, are Scattegories and Taboo. I LOVE playing those games. Scattegories is actually the first game that I played with Matt and it was that night I knew we were going to get married. So it has a place in my heart.








And lastly for today

Your favorite book:

Tiny Dancer. This book moved me in a way I have not been before. I love this book. Other than my Scriptures, this is my favorite book I've read.





By The Way: You HAVE to check out THESE super adorable pictures of my nephew. This makes my heart happy

Challenge

Over at busybeelauren.blogspot.com she's having a fun little challenge. Find an old photo and tell the story behind it. I have A LOT of pictures that I love but not many of them have a story behind them. I usually take pictures just to capture a moment of Tanner or because he looks so darn cute. This one has a bit of a story, though.

I am not normally a spontaneous person if it involves travel or spending money. Matt had wanted to go to Elbow Falls for a long time. So one day I said "let's drive out to Elbow Falls". He thought I was kidding but then I suggested a little Sunday picnic after church and we drove out. It was a perfect day and we had a blast! The picture says a thousand things.

First off, looks as though we are in the water. We're not. We were on a rock landing in the water.

Second, our faces speak small volumes of how great a time we had

Third, I basically have a death grip on Tanner because I was so nervous that I would slip if he moved around too much. Rocks are very slippery when wet, and I was a bit nervous, but it was fine.

Lastly, I really like the outfit both Tanner and I have on. We quite often as a family match on Sundays. Well, either Matt and I or Tanner and I or Matt and Tanner. It's kind of funny because I know some families that plan to have their kids in similar outfits but not me. My sisters and I use to ALWAYS be put in matchy matchy outfits as kids. Megan and I got the exact same dress/skirt and blouse and Amy and Melany got different version/style of that same dress. I remember these pink dresses...do you remember them Megan??? My Mom made them and we wore them a lot. Everyone thought we were so cute in matching dresses but we didn't always feel that way. How do you choose your own identity and/or style when you're always dressed the same or similar as your siblings. Sometimes it was fun...the first time we had matching dressed/p.j's we thought it was so great. But it gets kind of boring after a while. Anyways, I don't purposely dress my family in matching things.

This was a fun picture to go down "memory lane" to. I remember this day so clearly and there are quite a few pictures in this batch that I could have chosen that have great stories but I decided on this one. So enjoy!

Look how they've grown

I took these pictures, coincidentally 1 year apart. They both have grown soooo much...Megan, this is the first time you've seen the second one. If you want a copy, let me know. I'll send it with Mom next week ; )

My 5 for Friday:

5 things I'm looking forward to this weekend/next week

1. No pictures until next week of this one, but 2 of my very dear best friends are dancing tonight and tomorrow and I am so stinkin' pumped to see them. I am slightly envious because I really hoped I could do this with them. Maybe next year.




2. Having Tanner's ear checked. He has a lot of drainage and crustiness and I'm looking forward to getting it resolved. Little things....




3. Going on my monthly Temple date with Matt then...





4. On a real date with Matt.





5. Tanner going on his yearly visit to see Grandma/Aunties/Uncle/Cousin. We all look forward to this time of the year and it's especially special this year because my Mom is having Knee replacement surgery at the end of July (hopefully earlier...she's in A LOT of pain, constantly) so she only has this month and part of next to spend time with Tanner. They always do really fun things and we all appreciate each other much more after this time away from each other. He'll be back in time for Father's day with Matt so that will be perfect.

Have a terrific weekend!

Adorable!

So over HERE at BAKERELLA are the instructions to do these cute cake pops. I might really even try them. I've know about this blog for a couple of years but have just recently been back to visit it. Check it out.

Life is Grand

Today is going to be a perfect day...I can just feel it! Tanner has calmed down about 10 notches and is behaving much better.

I ran the 5k that I'm going to be running on Canada day. It was harder than I thought. I did much better than I thought I would. I thought I'd come in at around 45 minutes...nope, 38:35. I'm pretty happy with it. There's still a few more weeks to train for it so I'm going to kick my butt into high gear and practice it more.

I hope everyone has a terrific day! I know I will ; )

The sun will come out tomorrow....

I think my title says it all...don't you?

Tanner has been quite the button pusher lately. He went through the same thing last year at the end of school...just blatantly dis-obedient and getting into EVERYTHING he knows he shouldn't, throwing major tantrums and talking back WAY more than normal.

I am looking forward to the summer, but I hate this stupid period of "the end of the school year". It's just so frustrating. I have the best Mom in the world and when I called her yesterday in tears she never said anything like I thought she would. She gave me some really good suggestions and told me that I should ask Tanner why he does what he does.

Example: we have a rule that when we bake together, no one is allowed to lick the spoon and/or bowl until the batter is out of the bowl (I ALWAYS make 1 or 2 raw cookie dough balls at the end as a treat). So I reminded him of that rule before we started making cookies. 10 seconds after I had the ingredients in the bowl, he licked the spoon! So after I told him he couldn't help anymore because he broke the rule, the cried and threw a tantrum. Then he came to me and said sorry expecting to help again. I told him I was glad he was sorry but he broke the rule and that he couldn't help anymore. Or the fact that he yelled at me at the Dr's office because he didn't want to stay in the room with me.

It's just slightly frustrating. Anyways, he'll get more one on one time with us in the summer and be able to play with his friends more so that will help.

We had a fantastic weekend last weekend. Tanner and I went to Shelby's musical performance and it was really cute. She did great as did everyone else. Then on Saturday we went to see 2 girls in our ward clog. It was such an amazing show and they both did very well. We love going to things like that and this weekend, we get to see Sharon and Susanne clog! I was hoping to do the class with them, but my schedule changed and I couldn't do it. Maybe next year.

We finally planted our garden. Okay, I didn't do any of it...Matt did it all while I was working. But I'm so glad it's finally in.

Anyways, I think that's all for now.

My life in music

I saw this on Bobbi's blog...she was tagged by Tiffany. I thought it would be fun to do something random today. Here are the guidelines

1. Open your music library.

2. Put it on shuffle.

3. Press play.

4. For the first question, type the song that’s playing.

5. When you go to a new question, press the Next button.

6. Tag other people to do it too







1. Opening Credits: Hoedown Throwdown (Miley Cyrus)

2. Waking Up: Not ready to make nice (Dixie Chicks) SOOO true today!

3. First Day at School: Identified (Vanessa Hudgens)

4. Falling in Love: Walking on Broken Glass (Annie Lennox)

5. Losing Virginity: Suddenly (Ashley Tisdale)

6. Fight Song: The Chronicles of Narnia Main Theme

7. Breaking Up:Fifteen (Taylor Swift)

8. Prom: Invisible (Ashlee Simpson)

9. Life: It's not unusual (Tom Jones)

10. Mental Breakdown: Sealion (Feist)

11. Driving: Days like that (Sugar Jones)

12. Flashback: Barbecue Stain (Tim Mcgraw)

13. Getting Back Together: Aint that a shame (Fats Domino)

14. Wedding Night : Now or Never (High School Musical) LOL!!!

15. Birth of Child: Right to be Wrong (Joss Stone)

16. Final Battle: All I want to do is be with you (High School Musical)

17. Death Scene: New World (Toby Mac)

18. Funeral Song: Battle of New Orleans (Johnny Horton)

There's a lot of them that are so true and I could see my life being shown to that particular song.

I tag Marni and Jenn E

5 for Friday

I can't believe how quickly this week passed by. This one today is a little more personal.

5 things I'm trying to improve on or be better at

1. Being more patient with my life

2. Going to bed at a decent hour. I've had a few headaches this week and I recently discovered that lack of sleep is the main factor in my headaches.

3. Manage my house (ie cleaning and laundry etc). This has become a little more difficult lately since I work and work and then work some more. It's not like we have a huge house that takes a lot of time to clean. I just need to be better at tidying up so that it doesn't get so out of control.

4. Figure out how to maximize my time with Tanner and be the best possible Mom to him so he can be spiritually strong and feel the peace of the comforter.

5. Manage our money better this month. I think we went a tad bit crazy last month because it was the first month we both got good wages and we ate out way more than we needed to...plus our income tax return came. We did get a fridge with part of that money. Ours keeps freezing our fruits and veggies and that's a money waster too. We came up with a budget and we are hoping to stick to it a little better than just spending money on dumb things like slurpees and candy.

I'm trying to focus on improving my life and myself lately and I'm feeling positive and optimistic. I think we can all get down on ourselves and we beat ourselves up way to easily. There are lots of serious things in life but we don't need to always be so serious about everything. At least that's what I'm trying to remember.

I think we're finally going to plant our garden tomorrow. I really hope so. I'm getting kind of anxious about it.

Well, enjoy the weekend!

Bet on it

The title has nothing to do with my post....it's just a HSM song I'm currently listening to.

Kristi is clearly inspiring to me because I've referred to her a couple of time on my blog lately. She did this 21 in 10 post and it inspired me to write my own "21 things to accomplish in 10 years". So here it goes.

1. Buy a house. If Matt gets the job full time permanently in the fall, we will be looking in about a year for a house. We are cautiously optimistic.

2. Go to New York. I use to want to go there because I thought it was so great, but now I just want to go just to say I've gone. It's lame...I know. I think New York has become slightly over rated and it's not a place where you just dream about going anymore. Lots of people have gone that I know and I think I want to be a follower in that sense.

3. Adopt or naturally have another baby. We would love to add to our family but we know and trust in the Lord that it will be in His time.

4. Read the Bible all the through. I am in Deuteronomy 11 so I'm getting there. It's taken me a long time but I am actually really, really enjoying the things I'm learning. I wish I had the time I use to before I worked to study daily but I have to learn to take what I can get.

5. Go to Nauvoo. When Tanner is 12, we are hoping to go.

6. Make the perfect loaf of White Chocolate bread. This is a delicious, yummy bread that the family I use to Nanny for gave me when they got it from their vacation in Punta Cana. I will not talk about it anymore, but I would like to perfect it.

7. Be more inspiring and not so outwardly superficial. I read other people's blogs and am totally inspired but quotes/stories and I think sometimes I seem a little shallow to people, but I'm really not. I want to work on my outward persona and be a better person.

8. Show my love to people as deeply as I feel it.

9. Be as equally of a good friend to my friends as they are to me. I have the greatest friends and I feel like sometimes they are much better friends to me than I am to them.

10. Be a way better wife. I'm not a very good wife...I know I'm not...I don't need flattery here. I think some people are really good at being a wife but have a hard time being a Mom or a sister or a friend. I don't feel like I'm a terrible Mom. I believe in my capabilities in that capacity, but not so much as a wife. I know I'm not perfect and there's always room for improvement. I'm learning as I go.

11. Travel with my friends to anywhere for a girls weekend getaway.

12. Have a "real" honeymoon with Matt. We never went on a honeymoon. A year after we were married we went to Alabama to visit a family on his mission. We've never gone anywhere...just the 2 of us.

13. Take Tanner to Disneyland. After 8 is the magic age...so I've been told.

14. Read Pride and Prejudice. It's on my shelf to take on my trip to Salt Lake this summer.

15. Meet the Prophet. I've met President Hinckley and I would love to meet President Monson.

16. Go to a super fancy restaurant. I think this would be a once in a lifetime experience.

17. Eat at a real Japanese or Chinese restaurant. I'm too chicken to go because I don't know what I would/should order. If any of you have gone, I'll take you just so you can come with me...let me know

18. Eat a lobster.

19. Swim in the Ocean

20. Eat a Peach right off a Peach tree

21. Love deeper